#also every time he says something critical or defensive about humanity i wonder if i accidentally started watching good omens instead
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New RW//BY ep and my thoughts. As always, there's spoilers and criticism beneath the keep reading
Praise
The cat taking pictures of itself is cute.
The music that plays when they reach the edge of the garden's acre and see the falling leaves is pretty. Actually I kind of just liked the whole look of the leaves too. It was a good little moment.
I've said this already but the voice acting of the cat is so good. Every line that's delivered - even the annoying ones - are very well delivered. The voice actor makes the role fun and interesting, and turns what could have been an incredibly annoying character into one that I wouldn't mind sticking around somehow.
I liked that Ruby brightened up some when they got to the garden acre - they were accomplishing something and the environment was pretty and probably wonderous to a former fairy tale enthusiast like Ruby - and I love the way she was animated to slowly drop back into an expression of sadness when the Cat said that thing about Salem having the Relics and asked how they were even going to stop her (the "now that Alyx is gone" is noted for future reference.) This is how you do a tone change. Ruby has been mostly quiet and uncertain while putting on some brighter tones to try and coax the cat into helping, frustrated by the cats questions, but then has a short lived small moment where she looks like she might be okay, before she's reminded of the horrible situation she and the world are in and that soft moment ends as her face changes in a believable way into the defeated expression she's often fallen into over the past four episodes. Well done there.
Also, more slight creepiness - or more like, different morality-ness? - from the Cat with their joking, non caring tone when they talk about Salem. The Cat seems to have some semblance of morality at least in regards to how their own world is run (they stopped the Red Prince from trying to kill Team RW//BY,) but they're disconnected from the world of Remnant and viewing it all like a fun story. It's nice (and again adds elements of the Coraline cat in an appealing way.)
Ruby immediately blaming herself for the Cat vanishing again was good! A good way to show Ruby blaming herself for too much and putting pressure on herself without having to draw special attention to it.
Also, I like the environment of this garden acre, it's dark and eerie but the splashes of color stand out and add interest. It's by far my favorite environment the girls have been in this season.
Ruby's anxiety and hesitance when it comes to the caterpillar is a good touch as well. That makes logical sense for her character especially at this moment in time. And I like to see her acting a little bit more frustrated. Maybe she shouldn't be so quick to snap at potential allies, but it's just good to see a range of motion and her defensiveness actually makes a lot of sense to me considering that he just called out her hesitance. Maybe I'm reading into it, but Ruby has often said "trust" and "we shouldn't be divided" while not always practicing what she preaches and is also neck deep in denial about her own struggles and eager to just move on from them, having it called out (however unintentionally) that she's being suspicious and acting like this might be a trap would logically trigger a defensive response.
Also, Ruby is learning from her past mistake of describing them as 'humans,' and instead describes them as huntresses. Good touch there.
While I have criticisms about Ruby 'confronting herself' in the caterpillar's fog, I will say that I enjoy some aspects of it... One of the things I enjoy is for silly reasons. But for one, I like that Ruby's shadow-self - meant to look like the one that just said 'nope' when Jaune said he wasn't a good leader because he had to be one now as team leader just like her and it was that easy - is basically looming over her. I like that the shadow-Ruby is actually asking her about her job rather than just being like 'yeah your life could be easier' like with Weiss, Blake, and Yang - thus letting at least Ruby be sort of confronted with the question "are you a good huntress." I even kind of like the shadow-Ruby's petulant tone when she says "that doesn't seem fair, none of this seems fair," because yeah nothing is fair in war and Ruby is young and she didn't expect 'being a hero' to come with actual problems or at least never expected she'd struggle with them. Like I said, I have problems with it, but there's a good idea here. And the silly reason I have for liking this is... Shadow-Ruby acts like TORCHWICK. Torchwick was Ruby's first villain and her early foil in a lot of ways as the cynical bad guy with the viewpoint of "the real world doesn't care about spirit" and "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" that contrasted Ruby's optimistic good guy with the viewpoint of "I don't care what you say, we will stop them, and I will stop you, BET ON THAT." I've been saying since volume eight that Ruby seems to be taking on some Torchwick-like look-feel-mannerisms as well as sometimes acting selfish and getting a pessimistic outlook, and this is just the whole package. Shadow-Ruby in a brightly-bitter tone with an angry smile fixed on her face saying life isn't fair and she can just ditch it if she wants, and the real Ruby sitting on the floor in a defeated slump saying she doesn't know what to do and seeming to consider the offer because it's all too much and the real world is cold so she's no longer determined to be the hero of Vale... It's just good, okay? XD
My liking for the cat increases, he gives up bits of his heart to make people better?
Please let me actually get some answers for how this works, why the cat is so important, etc.
Criticism
I'm already so sick of the 'miniature wby' bit. Every time they try to write WiLd aNd WaCkY things that are just so quirky, it's something that's both uninspired, badly done, and something that the characters don't seem to express real emotions towards. Like, you'd think one member of wby would be freaking out because of the vulnerability that being so small leaves them with, or that this might result in characters who are meant to be independent talking about how uncomfortable they feel having to completely rely on their teammate, and that Ruby would be trying to reassure her friends that she'll keep them safe only to realize that she's missing Crescent Rose still and saying 'somehow' thus continuing to establish Ruby a) pretending everything is fine, b) carrying the responsibility of her team quite literally on her shoulders, and c) feeling defeated and unable to do the thing she keeps telling herself she has to do. Instead we get the characters more or less ignoring the situation.
I still like the Cat (it's one of the best parts of the season so far,) but some of the dialogue is annoying. I find that it's very common for people to write 'nonsense characters' badly. And immediately I'm wondering at the cat's motivations - he willingly helped Ruby and co escape from the Red Prince, but he starts the episode refusing to help. Is this going to be explained or is this just going to be another wild and wacky thing that Team RW//BY are going to treat as an annoying inconvenience that will just end up killing time? Who knows.
Ruby: "We don't know her (Alyx) personally, just-" Weiss: "She wrote a book, about her entire adventure in the Ever After." First off, damn Weiss let Ruby talk. Second off, all of their talk so far leads me to think that this Ever After fairytale is more similar to Alice in Wonderland than to something like Grimm's fairy tales, and they're now acting like Alyx is the for sure author, but this whole time they've been acting like Alyx is just a character. If Alyx is the author, she probably has like?? A documented life?? Yet we haven't heard anyone talk about it at all. Maybe the line could be "she must've told someone about her journey and they wrote it in a book." Idk, I just feel like the way they talk about (and sometimes don't talk at all about) this the-book-you-loved-as-a-kid-is-real-and-you're-in-it plot is very weird.
"It's kind of a childhood favorite of... Everyone's, where we're from." Never have I ever heard of a book that everyone in a large group consisting of different classes and upbringings considers a childhood favorite unless it's a freaking fan club for the book. Maybe this also shouldn't annoy me, but seriously, it's so lazy for them to just be like 'oh yeah this story that everyone knows and loves no matter who they are or where they come from-' No, it would be so much more interesting if Weiss didn't know this book, because she was a no-nonsense kid growing up in a strict family under the careful watch of a controlling father.
Blake: "From one cat to another-" Blake is not a cat. This whole season with its 'the mice are treating Blake like a cat and she doesn't mind,' 'Ruby and co aren't uncomfortable at all with Little referring to Blake as their cat friend or screaming at the sight/mention of her,' and 'Ruby refers to Blake as not human while Blake herself refers to herself as a cat' stuff... One, it's uncomfortable because of the Faunus/faunus-discrimination being an allegory for people of color and racism, but two, it's also reminding me of the various ways that Penny seemed to get dehumanized before being forcibly turned into a flesh-person. I've already gotten some spoilers for this ep so I know that Blake is offered to change her race to the stand-in-for-white 'Human' and doesn't take it, but at the same time, the writers are seemingly going out of their way to 'Other' Blake from the rest of her team and from Humanity itself.
Before watching this, I saw gifs of the "are we sure they're not called the Constantly Annoying Cat?" "Got 'em, totally roasted" moment, but I didn't think that Barb's voice acting would be so bad for it?!?!? I'm screaming (in the non-literal comedic sense of the term) why does it send like Yang is making fun of Weiss while the animation is acting like Yang thinks it's cute and funny? XD
If I was Blake, I would be absolutely exasperated by the constant attitudes and unhelpfulness of Yang and Weiss. The way that she is repeatedly playing peacekeeper and trying to coax Yang and Weiss into controlling themselves is giving me secondhand frustration, especially because I know Blake of the early seasons would actively be telling them they're being unhelpful instead of
Ruby: "Ever seen a scroll before?" *Pulls out a fully functional scroll* Guys...... Why did nobody....... Try to call each other... ON THEIR SCROLLS? XD Here I was being like "even though they haven't actually established it, maybe the scrolls aren't working on the Ever After or Ruby's scroll broke and that's why she didn't try to contact anyone and why Weiss and Blake didn't try to call Ruby (Yang makes sense she thought she was dead and alone.)" But noooo. XD
The lampshading of things like bad voice acting is.... Technically a choice. I know this whole section is probably meant at a jab at critics (RW//BY writers and staff have complained about complaining before,) but I just don't see the point of it.
The cat: *Seemed to have just finished having the girls recite the history of Remnant and their entire journey as training/new hunters, while at the very least heavily implied to have been asking so many questions about everything that even Blake was acting like a tired out parent that secretly hates their kid at a birthday party.* The cat: *Apparently hadn't figured out that Remnant wasn't split into different categories designed around the inhabitants that all had a specific role in life they were meant to carry out.* How could they have possibly avoided figuring that out? XD
Confession: I don't like this "Rubes" thing. Whenever a familiarity is inserted into a story when it has not been a thing before, the audience is just expected to roll with it instead of it feeling kind of off. It's like discovering best friends have a secret handshake you've never seen before in a show. Hearing Yang call Ruby something she's never called Ruby in the show before as far as I can remember just makes me feel like there's an even bigger disconnect between the two right now, not closeness.
Also, the delivery of Blake saying "maybe we shouldn't worry about home right now? We've got enough problems to-" Is the closest Blake has given to actually sounding like she's scolding, and it's directed at Ruby?? Look, I've been the first to say that Ruby needs somebody giving her hard truths and calling her out, but when Blake has been treating Weiss and Yang's bad attitudes and complete lack of helpfulness like a weak willed mom trying to spoil her kids into behaving throughout this season, it seems unfair that Ruby - one of the only ones trying to get them anywhere - is the one that gets told "we've got enough to worry about without you being sad about SALEM GETTING CLOSER TO DESTROYING THE WORLD."
Also, this moment where Ruby is feeling the weight of the circumstances gets cut off yet again by the cat going missing and the 'cute' little anime-style animations. Yet again.
"What are you?" "I'm getting really tired of that question." Me too, Ruby. Writers, please learn some subtlety after ten years.
They don't know the caterpillar. Cool, okay, so this person wasn't in the book. So far, the girls have been more or less following in Alyx's footsteps and they seemed to believe that the world itself was going through a loop playing out the events of the story over and over despite the minor modifications. We should now be getting (or should have already gotten) a conversation between the girls about how they're not on track in the story anymore so they don't know what to anticipate, they should say something about how this changes how they thought the strange and dangerous world they're now stuck in worked... Even a brief whispered conversation similar to Susan and Peter talking about whether or not to trust Mr. Beaver in the first Narnia movie. But no. It's just shuffled off to the side.
Blake passionately uplifting Hunters (who we have seen corruption in the rankings of) as heroes by definition point blank period, who help protect those who can't protect themselves is a choice. Considering that we've seen 1. Potential future badge carrying law enforcement officer who is wildly anti-Faunus and also shows signs of misogyny in Cardin, 2. The training class of huntsman infiltrated by four secretly evil Salem agents who murdered people and caused a massive attack. 3. A hunter academy headmaster who sold out his kingdom and fellow hunters to their deaths to Salem out of cowardice. 4. Qrow's various friends he describes as less than savory. 5. Dee and Dudley, Hunter graduates trying to shake down young passengers for money. 6. Another hunter academy headmaster going absolutely off the rails shooting children and threatening to bomb people. 7. His most loyal followers like the Ace Ops and freaking Winter only drawing the line at 'bombing people sounds bad' and willingly working with him throughout the majority of season eight despite him starting that season by murdering a politician that stands in his way. Like, these were all either people training to be or already being law enforcement officers under the banner of 'being a Hunter.' It seems wildly naive for any of them but especially the only Faunus in their ranks to get asked "what is a hunter" and to be like "It's a good hero who protects people." ??? No, it's not. It just means 'badge carrying law enforcement officer who sometimes act apart from the military.'
As much as I like Ruby's hesitance and anxiety, their fright at the caterpillar seems extreme and to be honest, very unfounded. They were like "hey can you help us?" And it was like "Oh yeah sure, can you answer a couple questions about who you are first? Let's go into my room that has bookshelves in it." And they were like
Weiss and Blake and Yang's moments are... Let's talk about it. So it seems clear that these versions are born out of insecurities that the girls have in their own heads and hearts, and the Caterpillar (who didn't even know what they were at the start of this) is just drawing them out, not puppeteering them himself.
Yang is offered to be 'whole' again, to go back to a time before she lost her arm and became disabled. Yang answers that her losses and failures have shaped her into who she is and have shown her how she needs to grow and that "if there's something I'm missing, it's not because I lost it, it's because I haven't found it yet." I actually don't mind that last line, but not only do I find this speech to be kind of old news considering that it's been seasons since Yang has come to grips with being disabled, but the rest of her speech about growing from her failures... Feels untrue. For the past two seasons but especially during the course of season nine, Yang has been guns blazing, exasperated and careless, letting her temper get the best of her, going red eyes at minor annoyances, laughing off serious situations, etc. And showing her in front of her old cheerful self - displaying the same flaws but now more 'done vibes' than 'bright vibes' - doesn't convince me of her growth and in fact makes me cringe at how much Yang lacks self awareness now. In volume five, she was more calm and levelheaded, more secure in herself, more responsible and grown up, but then she backslid so far that the only thing I'm convinced of is that the writers probably aren't going to progress her character or address her flaws at least for the rest of the season.
Blake is offered to be "human" or to just be a cat, to no longer be a racial minority (let's remember that "human" is in this allegory "white person" and "cat" is literally still a non-person animal, making this phrasing problematic at best.) Blake says that her life, her family, friends, and culture define her and that giving that away would be a betrayal. These lines sound great on paper, but I'm very aware of how badly done "faunus culture" has been in this show, I'm very aware of the fact that she hasn't mentioned her family since I think when she left them in volume five, and I'm very aware of the fact that Blake has barely had more than one conversation with Weiss and Ruby since volume one. Again, none of this is convincing to me. The writers have been neglecting Blake's development as anything but a love interest since volume five ended and were quick to disregard Blake's story arc concerning the White Fang rather than trying to fix it, leaving behind her closest confidant since volume one in the process as well as the girl she worked to save, and it's left this whole thing feeling remarkably shallow and meaningless.
Weiss is told that she can shed her family name and instead just be a nobody with no baggage. Funnily enough while Blake being a racial minority is countered with "don't you want a simple life instead" it's white rich princess Weiss with a semblance gotten through her special Schnee blood that was raised to look down on Faunus as trash while she was a celebrity in a mansion about the size of Blake's entire hometown that gets told that she can just be free. Weiss says that she's the granddaughter of a hero (capitalistic more or less king billionaire who gave Vacuo hell for its resources) and the child of a villain, a citizen of a fallen kingdom and an heir to nothing (both incredibly recent developments that we're apparently not going to see her actually struggle with much,) and that she won't be defined by her name because she'll be the one to define it. So this goal is unconvincing and not emotional at all for me because I don't remember hearing anything about this determination to leave a new legacy for her name since volume 2 and the last thing I knew, she wanted to be CEO heiress and was sad and angry and upset with her father and with Whitley for taking that away from her. We haven't heard any concrete plans for her future that involve trying to fix the system her family has benefitted from for ages - long before Jacques btw- and in fact what we've heard is open praise and admiration for her grandfather. She's no longer heir to anything and in fact her family has just lost everything anyway, but she's still saying the same thing with the same convictions that she said in volume two. It's nothing new and it isn't anything we've seen her make real strides towards accomplishing.
What it feels like to me is that the writers are telling us 'these three have one hundred percent completed their personal growth arcs, the only thing we need now is to see where they wind up.' I hope not, but so far, the lack of real character development for WBY this volume - and for the past three volumes tbh - is very disappointing especially when I can see ways that they all still need to improve.
On top of all that, the 'I am a huntress' is irritating to me. I wish that this had been a 'WHO are you' conversation rather than treating their JOB as a part of their identity. I've already talked about how describing Hunter as a point blank across the board good thing is bad, but it's also bad that the writing is acting like who they are is dependent on what they do. Everyone is saying this scene was a call back to Mountain Glenn and it was clearly meant to be that, but do you know what Mountain Glenn included?
Being a hunter is not about their identity or who they are, it's just an occupation that they chose to do and can choose to not do. And also, it's worth noting that the Caterpillar asked them 'are you a good huntress?' And Blake, Yang, and Weiss basically were just like "well I know who I am," and the questions posed were like "don't you wish your life wasn't hard?" How does that actually answer the question of whether or not they're good at their job? The description of a hunter they gave the caterpillar to work with was 'a hero who protects those who can't protect themselves' so why is it that their self-reflections meant to pose important questions about their role didn't include things like "would you say you're a hero" or "You're not acting like a hero" or "Do you really want to protect lesser creatures" or so on and so forth. Instead, they skip over "are you a good huntress" and it isn't relevant to the conversation, because instead the conversation for Weiss, Blake, and Yang is "what if you didn't have to have a hard life." It's honestly incredibly disappointing.
Now onto my complaint about Ruby's own confronting her shadow-self. The problem for me is the framing, there's no acknowledgement that Ruby chose what she did, that the pressure put on Ruby primarily comes from either herself or her friends deciding she alone could make choices in this war and has to lead and has to be involved. No one made her! From the get-go everything but 'being team leader' was something she wanted, something that she did. If they had established Ruby's eyes as the key to beating Salem (something that's likely but is at this point unexplored as a possibility within the show) and had people like Ozpin and Qrow putting her into the position in the war despite her hesitancy then it would make sense for there to be this moment where Ruby's shadow-self is like "everything all depends on you," "the whole world needs you to keep fighting, forever and ever." Because no, actually, the war - though it likely will be won by Ruby eventually - doesn't hang on her shoulders right now, she's just been actively trying to put it on her shoulders. Ruby hasn't been unwillingly drawn into everything, she pushed her way into things. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing for the show (if it's acknowledged,) but if there's a Chosen One in this story, it's Oz. Ruby doesn't have to be here, so it seems really weird as a choice. Another thing I find frustrating is the Summer Rose shit. Ruby probably can barely remember Summer at all. Once again, they're building Summer up to be this gigantic deal to Ruby, when it feels very shallow.
Also one last thing
Weird that they treated this like the worst thing in the world, after an episode where nobody blinked when the Red Prince was out beheading people. What the shadow-versions were offering was bad, don't get me wrong (though whether this was a test they had to pass or a legitimate offer was something I'm confused about,) but also the Caterpillar didn't seem to know anything about them and all that seemed to be pulled from their heads, and the caterpillar only seemed to be doing it to get what answers they seemed to need to help them??? Maybe there's something I missed here, or some theory about why the Caterpillar was meant to be seen as the bad guy in this situation. Either way, hope we never see that thing ever again, he was a confusing 'bad guy' and a pointless 'good guy.'
Soooo yeah.
That was quite a... Kind of pointless episode tbh, but at least we got some good out of it. 3/10.
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Dirty Fighter (Fighter Archetype; Orc)
(art by David Thor Fjalarsson on Artstation)
It’s been a long time since we touched on a racial archetype from Advanced Race Guide, but here once again we find ourselves, having apparently missed one. I blame the unreliability of the human brain and the sheer vastness of Pathfinder 1st edition.
In any case, we’ve all seen fighters as a class. Strong, skilled, and able to specialize in all manner of forms of combat, which can include fighting dirty. In particular, certain orc clans scoff at the idea of fighting fair, seeking only victory, making this archetype a natural association with those clans.
However, like most racial archetypes, these dirty fighters are one GM hand-wave away from being made available to all characters.
Also, notably this is not the only archetype for fighters that specializes in such dirty tactics. The cad archetype, is specialized in both dirty tricks and other underhanded combat maneuvers such as tripping or disarming foes, though their speciality let them perform dirty tricks as part of certain attacks that got past their foe’s defenses.
As we will soon see, the dirty fighter is more about blending dirty tricks directly into their combat style.
There is nothing less dignified to someone who fights dirty than being immediately punished for their underhanded tactics, so they train to better dodge such retaliatory strikes, useful for those combat maneuvers they haven quite mastered yet.
They do, however, become quite masterful at dirty tricks in particular, using those tactics and countering them with practiced ease.
Normally such a dirty trick is something you do other than directly attacking, but these warriors learn how to fluidly blend the two, substituting a swing with all manner of underhanded tricks when attacking repeatedly.
The more powerful can perform tricks that leave foes debilitated in multiple ways.
Interested in specializing specifically in the dirty trick maneuver to gain the advantage? This archetype might be for you. I’d recommend a build that can open with a dirty trick or other combat maneuver, potentially taking advantage of their sidestep ability, and then hammering debilitated foes repeatedly while peppering in new dirty tricks every now and again to make sure your foe never fights you at full strength. Feats that take advantage of negative conditions are also a good idea as well.
The cad archetype in comparison to this has some more emphasis on improvised weapons, as well as rewarding critical hits with the dirty tricks, whereas this one is more about using dirty tricks directly. With that in mind, one can argue that there is plenty of difference between the two, the dirty fighter treating such maneuvers as a first resort and fluid part of their combat style.
Most never return when kidnapped by the xill, but there are those that do, and worse, there are those who come back changed, seeing the xill tactics as a superior form of combat. This burgeoning “xill style” is not officially recognized, but while most cannot replicate the planewalking and paralysis without the help of magic or poison, they aren’t afraid to use every nasty trick to inhibit foes.
They say that across the sea, warriors worship a different god of war, one that laughs at honor and only values victory. As a result, they fight very differently than combatants the party is used to. However, it seems there is a link between the two war gods that nobody has realized, and that the clergies of both have tried to hide.
Being a half-elf can sometimes be a rough life indeed, especially when one is estranged from one’s own community. As such, Byrfard grew up hard and mean, learning to fight smart and dirty to survive. Still, a part of him wonders what he might have been in a gentler place, a curiosity that led to him joining an expedition to the realm of time itself. However, that same obsession is just one of many that might jeopardize everything.
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it took me too long to watch more doctor who and experience the legend that is david tennant as the doctor
#also every time he says something critical or defensive about humanity i wonder if i accidentally started watching good omens instead#david tennant#doctor who
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Dream SMP Reacting to a Witch!Hybrid
Pronouns: they/them
Includes: Dream, Quackity, Wilbur, qnd Tommy (PLATONIC)
Warnings: Meantion of drugs, swearing
A/N: This is based off of the canon characters and is set in the time of the Pogtopia/Manburg war!!! I might write a second part if this goes well. Also, this is the first thing I have written for this fandom, so I hope I get the character personalities correct. This is not beta read, so please don't attack me on my poor grammar skills. 😅
I hope you all enjoy!!! 💙
Dream
He was mining when he first met you
Dream heard a malicious cackle on the dark side of the cave and slowly drew his sword
He decided to charge towards the strange noise and was quickly met with an invisible body under him
He furrowed his brows and felt the body shuffle out from under him
"BEGONE STRANGE MAN"
"... excuse me?"
After a moment, Y/N's potion has worn off
"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-"
Dream chuckled and put away his sword, deciding the person in front of him wasn't a threat
After Y/n calmed down, the two had a talk, explaining the situation
Turns out, you had thought of a joke while mining for redstone (hence the laughter)
"So where is your hat and huge nose? You are really attractive for a witch."
"Luckily, I got my attributes from my father. What was that last part?."
"Wait, what about your hat?"
"I haven't done laundry in a few days.... hold up did you just say I was attractive?"
Ever since then Dream has had you by his side partly because he is a little clingy creating potions for him and the rest of the dream team
"How do you feel about cursing children?"
"I'm not that kind of witch, Dream."
"But what if he was being a little blonde bitch?"
"DREAMWASTAKEN I SWEAR TO GOD-"
Loves bringing you stuff to use for your projects
Need blaze rods for a new brewing stand? Done.
Need lapis lazuli so you have a chance for better communication? Done.
Anything you want? Done.
He will literally go to the nether for a few hours and come back with his arms full of whatever you need
And if you don't need anything or just need to take a break, he'll spend the day taking you anywhere that he think you would be happiest
He has you make him a lot of potions, bragging to everyone on the server how much better at creating potions you are
"Y/n's potions last longer, are more effective, prettier-"
"Are you sure? I think-"
"Tell me what you think, I fuckin dare you >:( ."
Overall, he is your #1 supporter
Quackity
The day had been long, dealing with Schlatt definitely tires a guy out after 5 minutes
On his walk on the outskirts of the Manburg wall, he spotted a suspicious row of blaze powder leading to the woods
Dawning his armor and a sword, he followed the trail to a small hut
He could see the outline of someone in the hut nervously pacing around
Deciding what he thought was the best possible option, he knocked on the door of the hut
There was immediately the sound of glass bottles falling on the floor and muffled words
Soon, the door swung open to reveal a disheveled being with a nervous grin
And Quackity went from tough to awkward
"C-Can I help you with something?"
"Uh, do you waNT SOME DRUGS?"
"ExCuSe Me?!"
Everything was going to shit
After a moment of awkward staring, a glass bottle tumbled off the brewing stand
Upon focusing on what was going on behind the two people trying and failing to act normal, they both saw that every brewing stand was on fire
"ARE YOU ACTUALLY MAKING DRUGS?!"
"NO I'M JUST REALLY BAD AT THIS POTION."
Finally putting the fire out together, the two looked at their now soot stained clothes
The witch hybrid ran a hand through their hair and sighed
"Well this is completely ruined."
Quackity frowned a little hesitant to offer his help
"If you need to you could borrow some brewing stands-"
"Really? *-* "
On the walk back to Manburg, you explained who you were
Quackity was still a little confused
"Wait but what potion were you even brewing?"
"Fire resistance."
He immediately burst out laughing, which ended up with you slapping his arm repeatedly
Eventually, you two became the definition of the "friends to lovers" trope
You often helped him de-stress after stressful days in office with Schlatt
He'd try whatever you recommended
"I'd suggest putting quartz on your nightstand."
"Cool!"
Later that night, you forgot something at his house
Once you walked into his house, you could see stacks of quartz next to his bed.
He really trusted any advice you could give him
And on days where people would criticize you for being part witch?
Big Q will attack anyone
Even if he knows he will lose
And at random parts of the day he'll just tell you oddly inspirational thoughts
"You are a bad bitch, dare I say a bad witch. Own that shit."
"That is oddly motivational, thank you. :) "
Wilbur
The former president was strolling along the side of a river, trying to form a coherent plan of action
Upon noticing a person trudging out of the water fumbling with glass bottles, Wilbur jogged over to them and put a careful hand on their shoulder
"Are you okay?"
The person moved the soggy hat out of their face and smiled
"Yeah, I just fell in the water while trying to fill up some of the bottles, but thanks for checking on me!"
He hummed in response, wondering why he was already so interested in the being before him
"Well I should probably get going, but thank you!"
"Wait! What's you name?"
"It's Y/n, and you are..?"
"Wilbur Soot, it was an honor meeting you, Y/n."
This man spent the rest of the night thinking about you and who the hell you were
He didn't know much about the mysterious person, but he did know that they were one of the most alluring people he had met in a long time
It was weeks since he saw you, Wilbur nearly gave up searching
That was until you walked into him on a rainy day
The brunette immediately went in defensive position and pulled the stranger to his chest, despite the dampened clothes
"Um, Mr. Soot?"
He looked down to see you and his face lit up
"Y/n! It's a pleasure to see you again."
He took a small step back and kissed your hand
No one can convince me that Wilbur "Gentleman" Soot does not flirt by giving hand kisses
The two went into Pogtopia and Wilbur almost immediately wrapped his coat around you
"What were you doing out there? The rain is coming down so hard you must not have been able to see well."
"I was going to ask if I could borrow a few golden carrots for a potion I'm making."
Wilbur nodded and walked towards the stared and whisper shouted down
"TOMMY BRING ME SOME GOLDEN CARROTS!"
"BUT WILBUR, I-"
"PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME LOOK BAD IN FRONT OF THE STUNNING WITCH!"
The boy at the bottom of the stairs grumbled and the tall man sat next to you once more
After a few minutes of Wilbur fawning over everything you did, a blonde male walked up the steps and glared at Wilbur as he handed you the carrots
"Simp..."
Wilbur dramatically gasped as you chuckled next to him
You eventually started coming over to Pogtopia practically every day
Most of the time it was to see Wilbur, but the rest of your time was spent creating potions for the war
As the nation grew, you were brought out of your shell more with Wilbur introducing you to everyone
He didn't want you to feel uncomfortable in a new place
You often walked along the same riverbank where you met
You have definitely pushed each other off a few times
He keeps small things that you enjoy on him at all times
He keeps a tiny bottle of sand from the river you met at, a piece of your old robe, and so much more in his pockets
Whenever he feels like he's in a dark place or justneeds to ground himself he takes out one of the items and just holds it close.
Mans is so in love
Tommy
He met you in the nether while you were farming netherwart
The blonde was thrilled to find a new fortress and decided to raid it before reinforcements came
Seeing a sleeping figure next to a bed of sould sand, he took a few congident steps forward
Once close enough, he poked you with the stick
"You good?"
"I was good when I was asleep."
"AYE I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD SO-"
After arguing for what felt like hours, you both stormed off to find both exits being blocked by wither skeletons
Tommy had gotten beaten up pretty bad after the fight so you took him back to your hut to get all patched up
"I didn't even need your help. I'm tougher than I look."
"You legitimately passed out twice on the way here."
"HOW DARE YOU, I WAS RESTING MY EYES!"
After a few hours of healing and a ton of laighter, you two became the most chaotic duo in the smp
This british raccoon child would often steal small potions to pull pranks
But unless they were really important and you needed them back, you'd always join in on the pranks
He tried to get you to make a potion using the 'Tubbo Bath Water' one time
It did not end well
At the point in your friendship where you revealed you were a hybrid, Tommy was so confused
"That makes no sense, witches are still humans, right?"
"Yeah..?"
"So how does that make you a hybrid?"
👁👄👁
"Listen here you little shit-"
He likes to show you off to anyone that can listen
"You think you're special? HA! I have a best friend that is part witch and they will kick your ass. >:)"
He is really interested in everything you do but will never ask
But if you tell him about what you're doing unprovoked?
Tommy would get so happy
He is so excited to learn what you have to teach and would be one of the best friends ever
#dream smp x reader#tommyinnit & reader#wilbur x y/n#wilbur x reader#wilbur x you#wilbur soot x reader#wilbur soot x y/n#wilbur soot x you#quackity x you#quackity x y/n#quackity x reader#dream x you#dream x reader#dream x y/n
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So! What about the god ok switch-a-roo? The pillarmen are now human and their s/os are pillarmen!
I interpreted this request as body swapping (similar to what we see in a much later part of JoJo) and I hope this is what you meant, my dear Anon! 🙏❤🥰
If not and you meant for me to write this in another way, I am SO sorry I misinterpreted the request and I sincerely hope you still enjoy this nonetheless! 😅😇
Body swapping with the Pillarmen! 😱 🔁
(Under the cut for length!)
Kars:
• Ending up in your body will piss Kars off more than anything really.
• Don't get him wrong, he loves you with all his heart; it's just that he's a man who is rather comfortable in his superiority and status over your race.
• He had worked VERY hard to get himself where he wanted to be afterall...
• Suddenly being reduced to a mere Human is enough to make his (er... your) stomach turn.
• Kars' new "limitations" in your body however didn't stop him from working out how this happened and, more importantly, how to UNDO it ASAP.
• When you happen to come to in Kars' body, the feeling is unsettling and strange to say the least.
• Piloting not only a Pillarmans body but Ultimate lifeform's as well will take you some getting used to for sure.
• For one thing, you'll come to find his hair gets in the way of EVERYTHING.
• If the wind blows or if you happen to turn sharply it's suddenly in your (well... his, but you get the idea) mouth or sticking in your eyes or just plain in your face!
• You can't understand how he stands it at all!
• There's no time for you to ask him to teach you how to wrap it up like he does either to remedy the issue so you have to grin and bear it.
• On the other hand, even the slightest jump in your emotions makes his arm blades spring forth!
• You almost ended up accidentally stabbing Kars (while he was in your body) as a result of getting worked up over the whole matter.
• Kars could only watch you floundering about in his body, frowning and shaking your human head as he told you repeatedly to keep calm and they'll stay put.
• As if you could keep level-headed at all in this situation as it was.
• On the upside ot things however... you learn some interesting things about Kars.
• "...Wait." you paused, peering down at the muscular legs beneath you; your eyes bore into Kars' boots with a critical gaze. There was something cushy sitting just below the heel on the inside.
• "Do you... have cloth wedged into your boots?" A sangria eyebrow raised, ruby eyes falling onto Kars.
• You watched as the features of your own face shifted dramatically, mouth falling open, scandalized. "I--" he began, but your voice fell short as he couldn't find anything to say in defense.
• "Do you do this to make yourself look taller?" A wheeze rose up in the Pillarman's chest, rich barking laughter ringing out as you doubled over in laughter.
• You suddenly came to the realization that you had never once seen Kars without his boots off, the pumps at the very bottom of the boots gave him a little boost as it was but on the inside it quite literally felt like you were wearing a pair of high heels.
• You were starting to wonder just how tall Kars really was. Hell, you were starting to wonder if he even passed Santana in height without these boots on!
• Your laughter fell short as a familiar, much smaller, hand reached up and grabbed your new body by the scarf. You were hauled down to meet the burning and intense gaze of your own eyes, Kars snarling right up into his own face.
• Jeeze, had your face always looked that red when you got angry before?
• "If you speak of this to ANYONE, I will spill each and every one of your own secrets to the others," he growled lowly, giving your voice an uncharacteristically harsh and grating tone. "Am I clear?"
• It took all you had inside not to call him "shortie" once things were finally back to the way they were and you both settled back into your own bodies.
• Despite your curiosity, your question on his exact height would never get answered.
• Kars knew how to put those arm blades to use better than you of course...
Esidisi:
• Oh boy... you have to be VERY careful piloting this one.
• And I mean the absolute definition of careful!
• When your consciousness ends up transfered into Esidisi's body, its no surprise that you feel very warm and fuzzy on the inside.
• It's almost a feeling akin to when you sit just a little too long in a bath that's a little too hot.
• Strangely, it was actually kind of a comforting feeling amongst this whole ordeal.
• However, if you're not careful with your emotions (warm and fuzzy feeling or not) than you might just accidentally end up burning a hole right through the Earth!
• Or worse... end up spraying scalding hot blood and flaying fleshy veins dripping with the stuff in all directions.
• Your core temperature has to constantly be monitored or you'll pay the price.
• It seems like even if you unfocus for one singular second, the Pillarman's entire body starts to smolder like a cake burning in an oven!
• Esidisi, on the other hand, is actually quite enjoying being in your body.
• He's having a much better time than you are for sure. In fact, he's laughing like this is nothing more than a game to him!
• You'll have to keep your eyes on him because he can't keep his (or rather, your) hands off your body.
• "Esidisi!" You barked, the Pillarman's voice was like the clap of thunder as it raised in octave; clearing the air with its power and inevitably startling you (again) even though you were the one wielding it. "Get your hands out of there, right now!"
• Your command was met with laughter, you watched as a wide grin stretched across your own face as Esidisi pried your hands off of your behind (for the 3rd time) and tucked them neatly into your pockets as he continued to giggle to himself.
• "I wasn't doing anything~" he purred, making your voice sound uncannily like a bad child playing innocent, acting wasn't just caught squeezing your cake.
• He was being to curious for his own good.
• That and the fact that he's taking enjoyment out of little ordinary Human things while piloting your body
• Things like feeling actual pain when skin is pinched or when hair is pulled seemed like it could entertain him for hours on end.
• If you don't keep a close eye on him and his shenanigans, you might just end up getting your body back all banged and bruised up if he goes too far with his fun.
• Fair enough, as he might just get his back half-burned into the ground or covered in blood...
Wamuu:
• Wamuu straight up does NOT have a good time dealing with suddenly being Human.
• The fact that it's your body he's in doesn't help that any either.
• 12/10 would NOT do again. 0 STARS!
• Wamuu, always a composed and calculating Warrior and tactician, was now in full panic mode.
• All his life he carried himself with pride, building his little ego off all his strengths and victories because of his status and his incredible unmatchable power.
• Now, with all of that ripped away from him, the Warrior felt too vulnerable and naked for his liking in this Human form.
• "Ow! OW!!!" Wamuu cried, eyes wide as your hands flew to your back. "Why does it hurt there? Do you always have pain like this?" Came the question, it was more than strange (and a little unsettling) to hear your own voice asking you that so desperately.
• "You get used to it." You replied, the deepness of the Pillarman's voice sending deep vibrations through the hardened chest as you spoke.
• "Why-- Why does this body feel so sluggish? I feel so inexplicably weary..." "I know. You get used to that too." "WHY IS EVERYTHING SORE?! WHY IS EVERYTHING CREAKING?!" "It's fine. That's normal."
• On the other hand, your mind suddenly being swapped into Wamuu's body isn't quite as bad as being in the others but... there are still some things to get used to.
• For one thing, it was hard to get used to simply walking around in it.
• Wamuu was so immensely big, muscular and heavy that you felt as if you were shaking the Earth with each step, causing you to lumber and stumble around with no grace to speak of.
• For another, a wirlwind just seemed to follow you wherever you went. It was honestly harder to control than it looked!
• When you wanted it to move one way, it went another. Wind blew up, wind blew down.
• You found yourself standing around, massive hands flying to the loincloth in an attempt to keep it from flinging up and showing too much.
• You wanted to spare least a shred of Wamuu's lost dignity while he wasn't piloting his own body after all.
• His horn is an entirely different matter.
• At one point the breeze blew too strong and the Pillarmen's signature headpiece suddenly flew right off his head and then... out sprang the horn.
• It shot 18 feet into the air, skewering two trees and drilling right through them like an overcharged power drill; a terrifying whir filling the air as chunks of wood flayed in every direction.
• The entire time you screamed in terror (you had no idea Wamuu's voice could go so high until that moment), slicing through an entire plot of trees as Wamuu yelled for you to put it away before it went for something breathing... like your own body that he was currently inhabiting.
• In the end, the relief you both feel to be back in your own bodies once the entire mess is fixed is immeasurable.
• You also both agree to never speak of the experience again for as long as you live.
Santana:
• Much like Kars, Santana is more unimpressed about the whole thing rather than upset or worried.
• Apart from you of course, Santana just barely tolerated Humans (or Primitives as he liked to call them) as it was.
• He often spoke about how fragile and flawed your kind was, honestly the defenselessness of a Human was laughable in his eyes.
• Therefore, he absolutely does NOT like suddenly being reduced to one, even if it is your body.
• The entire time he's practically pouting, the very definition of apathetic, grumbling to himself and following close behind as you tried to chase down the person responsible for the swap.
• "This form is... limiting." Came the low growl, each word sounding so very unlike you despite the fact it was your voice he was using. Santana practically spat as he kept talking, "Flawed. Primal. Defenseless."
• You were handling things admittedly better than Santana but it was still more than overwhelming.
• For one thing, you'll come to find that Santana's senses are extremely heightened.
• You never realized how very unbelieveably strong a sense of smell, taste and hearing could be until now.
• You could smell animals that had passed through the area nearly a fortnight ago just by putting your nose to the air. You could hear the thumping of your own heart from where it sat back in your own chest as Santana followed close at your heels.
• For another thing... Santana's body felt... odd.
• It was a strange and indescribable feeling; it was best put as you felt like a substance that constantly balanced between solid and liquid.
• How on Earth could he stand being a living mass of puddy and sharp deadly bones all the time?!
• As Santana kept grumbling about how very imperfect his new form was, your only hope was to give him that huge bag of gummy bears you had been saving in your bag for later to snack on.
• It would give you a moment of silence to think straight. However, if Santana was himself that would've been a good idea but in this case... not so much.
• "What's wrong?" You questioned, the Pillarman's gravely voice holding a different tone than you were used to as you used it, studying him.
• Santana had suddenly stopped following and was now slumped over, clutching at your stomach. A low whine surfaced, almost a sob, as he spoke through clenched teeth.
• "Do.... not.... feel..... good." Came the whimper. You came rushing to his side, your temorary body dwarfing your real one as you pulled Santana close to see if he had somehow gotten hurt.
• "What--" the question fell short as you spied the now very empty bag of gummy bears laying nearby.
• That bag had been huge, filled to the brim with bright and colourful gushy candy... and Santana had eaten ALL of them.
• It was that day that Santana found out that a Humans biggest flaw was that too much sugar made them sick.
• Good luck with enjoying getting your body back when the time comes as you now suspected you would spend your time kneeled over a bucket with a hot water bottle instead of celebrating...
#funnybunny#pillarmen#pillarmen headcanons#kars#esidisi#wamuu#santana#kars x reader#esidisi x reader#wamuu x reader#santana x reader#anon ask#my writing
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The Brothers Reacting to a Tattooed MC (SFW)
Aw, you’re so sweet Anon! This is a lovely ask! I’m so sorry that you’re family weren’t receptive to your new tattoo. That’s terrible, and I hope this makes you feel a bit better!
So, I’m assuming you meant an MC with a large tattoo on their back? If not, feel free to tell me and I’ll make a new hc! This hc has a reader with a large back tattoo and/or multiple tattoos. Since this has all 7 brothers, each one will be shorter than my usual hcs. (Also, I’m posting a rules page soon, so stay tuned!)
This is SFW, with a GN! Reader. Reblogs, likes, and comments are greatly appreciated!
The Brothers Reacting to a Tattooed MC (SFW)
Lucifer:
To be honest, it doesn’t really make a difference to him.
He didn’t fall in love with you for your physical looks, so it doesn’t really affect him much.
That doesn’t mean he won’t find it lovely though.
He admires the time you had invested in this, along with the fact you felt so strongly about a particular subject/object, that you had it permanently inked on your body.
If you feel self-conscious about it, he won’t stare, but his eyes stray to it from time to time, admiring the details of it.
But if not, congratulations! You have the avatar of pride enamored with your tattoo(s).
If you’re ever stressed, he’ll sit you in his lap and trace over your tattoo(s), attempting to calm your nerves.
All the while whispering words of affirmation.
Any time you’re feeling insecure of your tattoo(s), Lucifer’ll make sure to praise you, something rare from him.
“My love, your tattoo(s) is/are a part of you, and it’s/they’re a stunning piece of art. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise, it’s a testament of your conviction. Be proud of yourself, and never feel ashamed of your tattoo(s).”
Mammon:
Now, I hc that Mammon has tattoos other than his demon markings
So he probably wouldn’t be caught off guard, as he’s used to seeing humans and demons with full body tattoos, or tattoos that take up a large area on their body.
However, that doesn’t mean he won’t react
As soon as he sees it, he’s swooning
If you’re ok with it, he’ll be bragging to whoever would listen about how strong you were, and how awesome you looked.
Definitely the type to get a matching tattoo with you if you ever want to get another.
If your tattoo(s) are of a crow or feathered wings, he swears he falls deeper in love with you.
Well, if that’s even possible
Any crow/avian wing tattoos, would make him just melt, knowing you have his symbolic animal tattooed on yourself.
If you ever show any insecurity about your tattoo(s), you bet he’ll do his best to soothe them.
The moment he picks up on your insecurities, he ramps up the affection and love he shows for your ink.
“Ya ain’t serious, right? Yer stunning, better than any other piece a’ art! There ain’t no way I’m lettin’ anyone tell ya yer not tha most beautiful person in all three realms.”
Leviathan:
He’s awestruck when you show him your tattoo(s).
You’re like his favorite action anime protagonist!
Levi is just in disbelief at the fact he has such a badass partner.
He adores any type of tattoos, but one as large and powerful as this?
Oh he has heart eyes-
Especially if you had a scaly/reptilian one, it’d make him nearly faint in delight
We all know he loves reptiles -gestures to Henry-
A reptiles had always been seen as symbols of reality and power, and he admires you greatly for having one tattooed on you.
Whenever he cosplays, he’ll ask if you’d like to cosplay with him as a tattooed character.
He’ll fawn over how incredible you look, bragging on his Devilgram about how kickass his lover is.
Your cosplays together always end up with thousands of likes and comments, fans adoring how much of a power couple the both of you are.
You notice, that after you show him your tattoo, that he starts playing with tattooed characters.
Upon asked why, he responded with,
“W-well...you’re really cool, and tattooed characters remind me of you. Badass and someone who deserves respected. Even when you’re not physically with me, playing with a tattooed character makes it feel like you’re playing with me.”
Satan:
He’s intrigued and fascinated immediately
What’s the symbolism behind it?
What motivated you to get it done?
He’ll try and memorize every detail, wanting to remember how it looks against your skin.
But if you’re uncomfortable with the origins of the tattoo(s) or don’t want to talk about it, he won’t pry.
If you want, he’ll give you essays upon essays of knowledge on it’s spiritual meaning, and what past cultures had those marks for.
He’ll be sure to have some questions for you as well.
‘some’. By some, he means dozens, maybe hundreds of questions
He’d absolutely write poetry about how your tattoo(s) crawl across your skin, painting a masterpiece.
Any time insecurities pop up about it, he’ll be sure to dispel them immediately.
“My love, your tattoo(s) are a wonderful part of you. They’re/It’s a part of you, and I love you wholeheartedly. With or without the tattoo(s), I fell in love for you for your personality and intelligence. That will never change, so don’t think you’re less-than because of your tattoo(s).”
Asmodeus:
Oh you bet he’s going to fawn over it.
As soon as he finds out, expect to be showered in praise and words of adoration.
Complimenting how well it matches your color palate, outfit aesthetic, hair color, etc.
Immediately takes you out for clothes that show it off, and compliment the style of it.
How could he not want to show off such pretty mark(s) on his lover!
Absolutely supports you all the way, and would love to throw in his two cents if you ever decide to get another tattoo.
If you’re up for it, he’ll get you a page in Majolish, maybe even the front cover!
For sure, wears clothing to match your tattoo(s), and does his nails a similar style.
He’d even commission designers for special pieces, that mimic the design of your tattoo, and expose it, showing the world your beauty.
Definitely the type to take selfies with you and make aesthetic boards of you including your tattoo.
He adores you, and every part of you, no matter what.
“Darling you are more beautiful than anyone who criticizes you! All those haters of yours are just jealous, hon!”
Beelzebub:
In S3, he has one while in the human world, so he’d probably find it pretty cool that you have one(+).
I hc Beel to doesn’t care much about physical looks, so he probably wouldn’t pay it/them any special attention.
Why would he think of you differently because of it?
He’s fairly curious though.
Doesn’t it hurt? How long did it take for you to get it done?
Either way, he sees it/them as a nice mark on your skin, but not something he’d make a fuss about.
Another one of the boys who would get a matching tattoo with you, after all, he doesn’t mind tattoos, so if you wanted to get a matching one, he wouldn’t say no.
One of the types to absentmindedly stare at your tattoo, unaware that he’s staring.
If it’s of food, he may or may not drool at the sight of it, so you may not want to let it near his mouth, lest he accidentally bite you.
He’s more perceptive to people’s emotions than others give him credit for, and does his best to comfort you.
Any time you’re slighted for your tattoo(s), he’ll leap to your defense asap.
“A tattoo doesn’t define a person. Having your skin inked doesn’t make you less than anyone else. Whether you have one or not, it doesn’t give people the right to judge you based on that.”
Belphegor:
Honestly? He’s pretty neutral on this
He doesn’t really care if you do or don’t have a tattoo, and won’t pay it any special attention unless you ask.
He loves you because of your personality, your physical appearance had nothing to do with it.
Your determination, patience, and tenderness are traits that attracted him to you.
But if you have a tattoo of anything cow related...
He may feel a bit smug
His lover has his symbolic animal tattooed on themself, how could he not be?
It practically screams that they’re taken, and taken by him.
Now he doesn’t have to worry about other demons trying to take you from him.
Sometimes, if you’re cuddling, he’ll trace your tattoo(s), a way to soothe you, on the chance you’re stressed/anxious.
Tbh, it calms him down as well.
Knowing that you’re physically there, keeps his anxieties about you leaving at bay.
Probably the brother that is most angry when someone insults your appearance.
“Y/n, others have no right to judge you based on your physical appearance. It’s your body, and no one else should control how you make yourself look.”
#my writing#obey me#obey me x reader#obey me scenario#obey me headcanon#obey me lucifer#obey me satan#obey me mammon#mammon x reader#satan x reader#lucifer x reader#obey me asmodeus#asmodeus x reader#obey me leviathan#leviathan x reader#belphegor x reader#obey me belphegor#obey me beelzebub#beelzebub x reader
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Afterglow
Pairing: Portgas D. Ace x Y/N
Summary: Without Ace, your nights are back to being long, dark, and empty. But when you finally reunite, Ace refuses to just be your Daylight.
Daylight - Part 1 | Afterglow - Part 2
Word Count: 4.3k (my hands slipped, I’m so sorry)
Loosely based on: Taylor Swift’s Lover album (but mostly about the songs Daylight and Afterglow)
A/N: I really think Whitebeard is a great father, yk? So I see him as someone who you can always seek and rely on. He looks tough (and he’s actually tough), but he’s soft too! And Ace too, in that respect is similar to WB. I really believe he’ll be such a good boyfriend 🥺 Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this so much! Thank you to everyone who read this, I love yall 🥰
<Teach doesn’t exist to me, I hate him, so I guess this is noncanon? Also, there’s this tiny spoiler, just a warning.>
Sailing by yourself in a boat for one reminds you how vast the sea actually is. With the rowdy Whitebeard pirates, sometimes the sea, no, the world, seems a lot smaller, a lot more manageable, but alone, it feels so massive it’s almost frightening.
It’s easy to get lost, except there’s no such concept like that for someone like you who doesn’t have a destination to go to in mind. Quite simply, you’re wandering, but not lost.
You drift from one island to another. Your initial intention is to get as far away as possible from the crew. Now that that’s achieved, you’re unsure of what to do next.
You allow yourself to observe and to experience some sort of normalcy at the islands you dock at. It’s a good thing that you don’t really stand out so no one suspects you’re a wanted pirate.
Walking down the streets of random towns, you’re reminded of how lonely being a Celestial Dragon was. No one wants to interact with a World Noble, afraid of the consequences if they’re angered. Things changed drastically when you became a pirate though. People don’t shy away that much with pirates in certain places. They interact with you, albeit hesitantly sometimes. Nevertheless, you felt so free and happy.
Now, you’re still a pirate, as marked by Whitebeard’s infamous tattoo. But with the unsuspecting townspeople and the lack of the presence of a crew, you don’t feel like one. Somehow it makes you feel empty.
The void is immeasurable. Despite it being unbounded, you’re sure that a single person can fill that emptiness: Portgas D. Ace.
But there are oceans separating you from Ace— a distance that you put. With the space between you, there’s silence in your voyage, however, it’s quite mystifying how every island you reach seems to scream his name.
There’s an island where you’ve docked at that’s snowing all year long. It brought back memories of when you were fairly new to the Whitebeard Pirates and had landed on a similar island. Back then you’ve worn a coat as you disembarked Moby Dick, however, the cold continued to seep through your layers of clothing. You couldn’t handle extreme temperatures that well but you didn’t want to make a big deal out of it so you continued to walk alongside the crew to scout the area. The thing was you may have been terrible at hiding it because Ace noticed the way your body was shivering and your teeth chattering. You were only acquaintances back then but he went to your side and striked a conversation with you. You didn’t understand why you became comfortable when he approached you all of a sudden, but then later that night you realized that he used his devil fruit abilities to warm you up.
At one island with a bustling town, there’s this restaurant that serves a variety of meat. You’re reminded of Ace and his bottomless pit of a stomach, and of his narcoleptic episodes while eating. He has a tendency of eating and then running, and the first few times he did it with you had you reeling. When you’ve finally realized that he’s never going to change, you start to keep a pouch of gold coins with you, reserved for paying for the food he eats. You leave it on the table just as Ace pulls you to run, and he has no idea about it. Owners or servers at the restaurants would still follow you out, but not to berate the both of you for not paying but to return the extra gold coins because you pay too much. Like usual though, Ace pretends not to hear them and they never got to catch up with you and Ace.
On another island, there’s a huge wild boar thrice the size of a human. It reminded you of the time you got so excited to explore an island that you speedily ran towards the forest alone, only to be met by a wild boar. The size of the boar stunned you and its glare kept you frozen in fear. A loud scream escaped your lips when it lunged at you, except the impact never came. When you’ve gathered your bearings, the wild boar was dead and… cooked, courtesy of Ace’s devil fruit abilities. He saved you, but he played it off as if he had his eyes on the wild boar since the beginning “to hunt it down.”
The current island you’re at is in famine. As soon as you docked at their port, a group of men has drawn their swords at you. For a moment, you thought they were bounty hunters so you grabbed your daggers and took a defensive stance. However, from the way they keep looking back and forth to you and your boat, and from hearing the faint sound of their stomach grumbling, you can tell they aren’t. Behind some trees, you can see the heads of some children peeking with worried yet hopeful looks on their faces.
Slowly, you raise your hands up in surrender, dropping your daggers in the process. You can’t turn your back on them — figuratively and literally — so you walk backwards towards your boat. The men look at you curiously but they don’t ever lower their swords.
In a quick motion, you grab a bag containing all of your food supply and throw it at them. One of the men catches it. “You can have them. It isn’t much, but that’s all I have.”
The man who was able to catch the bag carefully opens it and sees food. He almost cries at the sight of it. The rest of the men lowers the sword after you offer no sign of aggression. They start calling the other citizens of the area afterwards.
The children are the first to come running towards the men — all of them conveying excitement. You couldn’t tell how long they haven’t eaten but judging from how thin they are, it has got to be quite some time.
A small girl stumbles and falls near you and you quickly come to her aid. There isn’t much damage, just a scraped knee so you carefully patched her up.
“Thank you,” she gives you a toothy smile and then starts heading to the men who are distributing the food.
She comes back a moment later, arms outstretched to hand an apple to you. “For you,” she says.
Something blossoms in your heart because of her sweetness. “Thank you, but it’s fine, you can have it,”
She doesn’t object but then she hugs you tightly. “Thank you so much.”
Surprisingly, even on an island like this, you’re reminded of Ace. You remember his story about coming to Wano and meeting a child named “Tama” who seemed to be as charming as the child you helped and is under the same fortune.
Now that your mind has drifted to thoughts of Ace, you didn’t want to think of anything else. Even as the people gather around you to offer their thanks, and even as they usher you to a bonfire to celebrate for the food to eat, the thoughts of him linger in your head.
And just like in all the previous islands you came to, you wish he’s here with you too.
There’s longing in your heart, but there’s also something else— something pleasant that you can’t quite describe— and you attribute it to the gratitude of the people.
The mother of the child you helped, Sito, offers their spare room for you to take and you graciously accept. Soft snores almost immediately fill your ears after a few minutes of them bidding you good night.
The longer you stay awake, however, the pleasant feeling you felt a while ago starts to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
You’ve always criticized yourself for not being able to do more when you were still a Celestial Dragon but now that you did something good, you start to feel selfish for doing it because it makes you feel better about yourself.
It’s at times like this that you seek Pops. There’s a sudden urge to hear his voice and his thoughts. So you grab your Den Den Mushi, but you hesitate.
You’ve lost track of the days since you left Moby Dick. And in that time frame, you never once called Pops. Although you didn’t really promise to call, maybe he was expecting you to, especially since you know he wouldn’t do it first.
You sigh. Maybe this call is long overdue after all.
You step outside the house and start to contact Pops using the Den Den Mushi. It only rings once and then it’s answered, almost as if Pops was waiting by the Den Den Mushi. The thought brings a smile to your face. “Pops—”
“Why on earth are you only calling now?!” His angry tone welcomes you.
“I’m so—”
“Is that Y/N?!” Marco interrupts. Ah, how could you have forgotten? It’s at this time that Marco reports to Pops. “We’re so worried about you -yoi!”
You can hear sounds of struggling on the line and then there’s a loud smack followed by an even louder crash. There’s a moment of silence which makes you wonder what’s going on in the ship.
“Why didn’t you call earlier?!” Pops’ voice booms. “If you’re going to leave a Den Den Mushi, I’m going to expect your reports but I received none of that.”
“I’m sorry Pops. I have no excuse,” you sheepishly say.
“Everyone’s worried about you,” he pauses but then his voice rings louder once again, “Some are even outside my room trying to listen in on our conversation. But if they know better, they should leave us alone.” The sound of rushing footsteps could be heard in the background as Pops finishes his sentence.
You chuckle, imagining the crew eavesdropping. “How are you Pops?”
“I’m doing fine.”
“How’s everyone? How’s… uhm… Ace?”
“Everyone’s just missing you. You didn’t say goodbye after all,” he says. “I put Ace on a mission because he won’t stop pestering me about you. He won’t come back in a couple of days.”
“Oh.”
“He misses you a lot,” he sighs. “He strides to me everyday to demand your whereabouts. Each time I wouldn’t tell him but he never learns. Vista says he’s on his 56th attempt the other day.”
The brief image of Ace that your mind comes up with brings a small smile to your face.
“When are you coming back?” Whitebeard breaks your reverie.
“Ah, I’m not sure yet… It might take a while.”
He hums. “So how are you? Have you been eating well?”
“I’m doing fine, Pops. No one’s been coming after me yet so everything’s going well,” you respond. “But… Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“There’s this island with people who haven’t eaten in so long so I gave them everything I have.” There’s a loud growl coming from Pops so you immediately continue your speech before he could scold you for doing such a thing. “I feel really good about what I did as they thanked me. But then the longer I thought about it, I started feeling ashamed because... wasn’t it selfish since I did it to make me feel better about myself? Then I started to wonder if it was wrong to do good things just because I wanted to be absolved of my parents’ sins. Was I wrong in doing this, Pops?”
“No, you did the right thing.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you’re not an inherently bad person for getting paid in gratitude.”
“But…”
“Making yourself happy by making other people happy is how it’s meant to work. If one of your key motives to doing good things is to feel good, then you’re still doing something good and there’s nothing shameful about that.”
Hearing his words puts you at ease. You’re glad you called him. “Thank you, Pops. I’m sorry for worrying everyone there and for disrupting Marco’s report. I promise I’ll call more often from now on.”
“It’s fine. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself too. Where will you be headed next?”
“I’m not sure. I’m just going where the sea leads me.”
“Be careful.”
“You too, Pops,” and with that, you bid your goodbye and hang up.
By morning, you start preparing your things to leave. You didn’t want to stay for too long because you didn’t want to consume even a portion of the small amount of food they have.
Sito offers you to stay another night, worried that it would be uncomfortable to sleep on a boat. “You can stay one more day. There’s still enough food for us to share.”
“Oh no, I don’t want to impose,” you decline. “But do you mind if I ask what happened here?”
There’s sadness in her eyes, it was easy to tell the memory pained her, but she tells you everything anyway. “This island is one of the few lawless areas in the world, hence, it’s a place where pirates would dock at. A group of men once docked here and kidnapped the leaders of our town. They were sold off to be slaves, because apparently the Nobles like to enslave people of power…” Her words start to fade on you upon the mention of the World Nobles.
Anger flares up in your system immediately. How low can the Celestial Dragons go? It’s sickening to think that you share the same blood as them. It’s because of this revelation that something becomes clear in your mind.
Ever since leaving Moby Dick, you’re just wandering aimlessly. But after hearing Sito talk about this island, you’re finally sure of what your destination should be.
Sabaody Archipelago.
Specifically, the Human Auctioning House.
From the sudden fury that overwhelms you, not even the fear of being within arm’s reach of the Marines, and possibly dying, could stop you from going there.
It’s reckless and foolish, but isn’t this the reason you left Moby Dick that night— to face your nightmares instead of running away from them?
You listen politely as Sito explains everything else but her words enter and leave your ears without you having to comprehend them. Fortunately, she doesn’t notice your inattentiveness, probably because she wants to pour her frustrations out to a stranger.
You offer your sympathies to her and promise her you’d come back with your crew and help them some more. It’s a simple promise yet for someone who hasn’t been offered help for so long, it means a lot, enough to even bring tears to her eyes. And just like that, you leave.
There are two more islands to stop at before you reach Sabaody Archipelago. You gather provisions on one island and buy explosives on the other.
The only thing you’re sure you can actually do alone is to blow up the Human Auctioning House. Facing the World Nobles is for another time, unfortunately. As for the Marines, well… You’d worry about that if they indeed come. You know you’d be able to handle them as long as they don’t send an Admiral after you.
The thing that worries you the most, however, is Pops’ reaction once you let him know of your plan. While you can always just not tell him, it feels wrong, and you promised you’d report to him, after all. And it’s hard for you to admit, but you secretly want to be saved in case your plan goes askew. That, and well, you still want to make up with Ace, may it be just strictly as friends, but preferably as lovers.
You decide to call once you’re about to set sail towards Sabaody Archipelago. You’re sitting in the middle of your boat, still anchored at the port when you told Pops your plan. And as expected, he’s mad.
He demands you to go back to the crew immediately. “Captain’s orders,” he says. But after a few moments, he retracts his words and says, “Your father’s orders.” You feel the weight of his words when he said that and you almost concede. But the faces of the slaves your family had flashes into your mind and it solidifies your decision.
Interestingly, despite the weeks you have spent away from the crew, their ship is nearer to you than anticipated. As confirmed by Pops himself when he angrily said, “Enough! I’m sending Ace to get you! Two or three days is enough for him to catch up with you.”
But quite frankly, that’s also enough time to execute your plan. And if the odds are in your favor, then Ace might just come in time for your escape.
Arriving at Sabaody Archipelago, you keep your face hidden underneath the hood of your cloak. It’s normal for pirates to walk around the place without having to hide their identities, but it’s a luxury you can’t afford. If someone catches wind that you’re here and reports it, the Cipher Pol just might come and capture you before you can even execute your plan. That just won’t do. So on the first day of your arrival, you only scout the area of the Human Auctioning House and retreat back to the inn you stay at.
You carry out your plan on the next day. You place a bomb where the side of the stage is supposed to be. It’s a distraction so people inside would leave the premises. The plan is to find the keys and free the slaves while the people are panicking from the explosion. Then eliminate the head of the place, Mr. Disco, and finally blow the place apart. It sounds simple but with you having to do all the work, you know it isn’t.
Now that you’re here, your nerves are spiking up. Arriving at the entrance of the building, you take a deep breath, your hand automatically reaching for the bracelet that Ace made you. It instantly calms you down.
It baffles you how fate works because on the very day you decide to free the slaves that are being sold off at the Human Auctioning House, Ace’s brother, Luffy — along with his crew — is at the same place to rescue their friend who was kidnapped.
Somehow even on a dangerous mission like this, there’s still something or someone who’d remind you of Ace. It makes you wonder: has he really embedded himself too deep into your life that there’s no escaping the thoughts of him? Not that you mind; the thoughts of him bring you peace, after all. But still, it’s fascinating that even in both mundane and dangerous settings, he makes himself known to you.
Upon entering the Human Auctioning House, everything happens so fast and unexpected. And quite frankly, a lot happened that wasn’t part of the plan.
Aside from finding the Straw Hat Pirates, you got yourself injured when you used your body to shield their fish man friend, Hatchi, from Saint Charlos’ gunshot. Then you confronted Saint Shalria personally despite you not planning to get involved with the Celestial Dragons. As for the slaves, it was the Dark King, Silvers Rayleigh, who actually freed them. The only things that you personally executed from your plan were Mr. Disco’s elimination and the bombing of the Human Auctioning House.
Escape is easy once the building starts to explode because the Marines would have to lessen the forces who're chasing after the pirates in order for them to successfully put out the fire. Without any Admiral on the scene yet, it’s not hard to slip away from them and/or fight them.
Even with the gunshot wound on your arm, you’re able to take down each and every one of the Marines who are chasing you. But halfway through your journey back to the grove where you left your boat at, you lose your adrenaline.
You start to feel the sharp and stinging sensation on your arm once again, yet, you couldn’t help but smile. You have gotten out alive. The slaves have been freed. With both Mr. Disco and the building gone, the Human Auctioning House will no longer be operational, or at least not yet until someone steps up. But that won’t be after a long time.
It’s a wonderful day.
You look up at the afterglow of the sunset with a serene smile. You have a feeling your nights are going to feel shorter now and less frightening than they were before.
Your peaceful moment is cut off by someone rather abruptly. You jump in surprise as someone wraps their arms around you from behind all of a sudden. “I finally caught up with you.”
Your breath hitches at the sound of the voice. “Ace? What are you doing here?”
He doesn’t answer your question, but he mumbles, “I’m sorry if I only came now. Pops wouldn’t tell me where you were, but I came as soon as I could.” Then he tightens his hug. “I was so scared, I thought I’d lose you…”
“Ace, I’m sorry about—”
“Hey, it’s on me, okay?” He interrupts. “I blew things out of proportion, and now you’re blue.”
You pull away from his hug to face him.
“Y-your arm! You’re bl-bleeding,” he stutters after seeing your injury.
But you pay no mind to that. “Ace… I’m really sorry about us—”
“Ssshhh, baby…” he rubs his hand on your back.
He looks at your figure carefully, focused on looking for any more bruises or wounds. When he doesn’t find anything more, he gently holds you by your waist. “Don’t blame yourself, I’m the one who burned us down, but… it’s not what I meant.
“It was all in my head, okay? It’s just that the Celestial Dragons are all grouped in my head as scums and that they’re inexcusable because… my brother was killed by a Celestial Dragon.”
A wave of guilt flows through your body, enough to weaken your knees. Before you could fall, however, Ace catches you and brings you to his chest. But this doesn’t stop you from sobbing on his chest. “I didn’t know, Ace. I’m so sorry.”
“No, that’s the thing, baby. It isn’t your fault. It wasn’t you who pulled the trigger. And… I have to admit I failed to see that at first,” he says as he hugs you tighter. “I shouldn’t have stood there frozen after you told me your story. I’m supposed to be the one who understands you...
“I’m not trying to make excuses and I’m not trying to make this about me but it’s just that… for so long I thought that I inherited the bad blood of my father, and I spent my lifetime failing to see that his sins aren’t my sins,” his voice cracks as he cries. “So when I found out about you… My mind automatically held you liable for the sins of the Nobles…
“But I talked to Pops and he straightened me up. I understand now. Our parents’ sins aren’t ours. It never was ours to begin with. So I’m sorry for blaming you for something you didn’t do…”
Ace stares at your crying form. He cups your face and sincerely says, “It’s so excruciating to see you low,” as he wipes the tears on your eyes. “I’m sorry if I hurt you…”
“It’s fine Ace, I forgive you. But…” You look directly into his eyes. “I’m at fault too,” you confess. “I was the one who left... I was so used to living like an island and isolating myself that it didn’t occur to me that I was punishing you with silence… I should’ve waited patiently for you but I ran away…”
Ace rubs your back gently and presses his forehead against yours, “I forgive you too.”
You smile in relief.
After a couple of minutes in silence, Ace tilts his head. “Y/N?”
“Hm?”
“Remember when you said that you saw daylight after sleeping in a long, dark night?”
You give him a curious look but nodded anyway.
“Beside wishing that I was there for you sooner, it had me thinking...”
“What?”
“Uhm… The world is terrible and cruel, and no one can ever really stop the dark nights from coming.”
You frown. You don’t really understand what Ace is trying to say.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is,” he rubs his neck while his cheeks starts to blush, “if you ever have to go through those dark nights, I wouldn’t want you to wait for daylight.
“I want to be there with you on those nights until they’re over. I don’t want to leave you when things get rough and only show up when you’re better. I know you see me as your daylight but I don’t want to be just that.”
His words warm your heart, and makes it skip a beat. “You know, Ace, there are remnants of light that linger in the sky even when the sun has long gone down and the night starts. It’s the afterglow,” you mumble.
“Yeah, but that goes away too after a while,” he frowns.
“Well, lucky for you the moon reflects the sun’s light during the night, huh?”
He grins. “Yeah, yeah. I like that. I want to be your source of light, may it be the daylight, moonlight, or the afterglow.”
A moment of silence engulfs the both of you. Under the soft afterglow of the sunset with your arms wrapped around each other, you feel at peace.
Once upon a time, you used to believe love is black and white— that it’s straightforward. It was either you love Ace or you don’t, there were no gray areas. No matter what he feels, says, or does, your love for him never ceases.
But then some other days you believed that love is burning red— that it’s full of passion, lust, and romance, much like the nights you spent entangled in the sheets with Ace.
However, right now in Ace’s arms, all you could ever think about is that love is golden. It was warmth and comfort, like what daylight brings. It was contentment and serenity too, much like the feeling of lightness one gets when seeing the afterglow of the sunset. Either way, it’s Ace who makes you feel those.
No matter what color love actually is though, for you it’s always embodied by Ace.
#one piece imagines#one piece scenario#one piece x reader#ace x reader#portgas d ace x reader#portgas d. ace x reader#one piece x you#one piece x y/n#portgas d ace x you#portgas d ace x y/n#portgas d. ace x you#portgas d. ace x y/n#portgas d ace#portgas d. ace#one piece imagine#one piece angst#one piece fluff#one piece fanfic#one piece#ace imagine
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Tf2 headcanons? Aw yeah! So let's say a new merc joins the team. They're a total asshole: Cocky, sarcastic, overconfident, refuse help. But both Spy and Scout see right through that, it's a defense mechanism. How do they go about making this person comfortable enough to not be an asshole?
*chanting* HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMF
Okay, jokes aside, this is one of my favorite tropes. Maybe I’m too naïve to believe that some people are just mean to be mean, or maybe it’s a sort of comfort to know that even the worst people can be understood, but either way, WOOOOOOOOO!
*****************
An Ass For An Ass
Headcanons
Scout:
To be honest, Scout’s threshold for asshole-ery is pretty high. Growing up with eight brothers will do that to you.
But when the new recruit came around, something immediately rubbed him the wrong way.
Recruit always stole his thunder with the crass jokes and over-the-top displays. Every battle turned into a competition, which messed with Scout’s system of fighting. He never had to focus much on his own team before, and now he had to worry about keeping his own reputation upheld while trying not to get stabbed, shot, or blown up.
Recruit also kept hitting on Miss Pauling - even after reminding them again and again that she was lesbian, and was not and never will be into dudes.
“Come on…you just haven’t been with a real man yet…”
“No, no, I’ve been with a lot of men. Real men. I just wasn’t into any of them. After a while, it was kind of obvious.”
But what really pissed a lot of people off was Recruit’s fighting style.
They were an absolute monster on the field - that’s why they were chosen - but every interaction was treated as some sort of survival scenario.
One would think that would be a good thing, but Recruit was ridiculous.
No matter what the situation was, he was fine, he was okay, he could take it, he could fix it.
He could be killed only inches away from a Medic because he would never yell for one. Sometimes Recruit would even show visible anger at being healed. It got to the point where Medic didn’t heal him at all, and just allowed him to die as to not waste time he could give too more grateful patients.
Missions were even worse.
He followed orders to a T, but Pauling had to beg him to leave a failed mission, or to leave without completely destroying the site.
Everyone just took it as Recruit showing off, or having something to prove as a rookie.
It was annoying, but ultimately harmless in most circumstances.
However, it all came to a head when Recruit tried disengage a sentry by himself and was severely injured.
Both Engineer and Medic, who had had to fix most of Recruit’s past and current recklessness, ripped him a new one, one chewing out after the other.
“What we’re you thinkin’, son?! One crossed wire and you woulda blown the whole base!”
“Zhe only reason you are allowed in my lab at all is because it’s in my contract. Personally, I vould have rather left nature to it…”
Since then, Recruit did exactly as he was told, and nothing else. And most of the team liked it that way.
But Scout recognized some warning signs immediately. Fatigue, near silence except for missions, self-isolation, snapping when people got too close…it all paved the way for a pretty nasty (and, for Scout, very familiar) result.
One night, Recruit was sitting on the balcony, and Scout came out with two bottles - a beer for Recruit and a root beer for himself.
(Scout can only drink on the weekends because one, unlike most, he can’t go to work hung over because his job requires a lot of movement, and two, he has no restraint and can’t stop once he starts.)
“What do you want?”
Scout shrugged. “Depends.”
“On what?!”
“What are ya willin’ to tell me?”
Recruit just looked at the beer and sneered.
“Can’t we just skip this?” Scout said. “Maybe get to the part where you tell me what kinda Sally Sob Story we’re dealin’ with here?”
Recruit looked away.
“Aw, c’mon, don’t tell me you don’t got one. ‘Cause you do. I can see it a mile away. So what happened? Pop leave? Somebody died? Lotta brothers and sisters? Ma had a few too many and smacked ya around?”
Recruit didn’t turn around, but Scout could tell he was crying. He had hit a sore spot. Hard.
“Hey, pal, listen…”
Scout trailed off, then slowly began again.
“…the only reason I know is ‘cause I’ve been through it, ‘kay? Outta everybody I knew, I only trusted me. And that was great when I did a good job, ‘cause I knew I put me there.”
Scout opened his bottle of root beer and took a long swig.
“But when I screwed somethin’ up, it’s like everybody I ever knew just let me down. The one thing I could count on was gone.”
Recruit looked at Scout with tears in his eyes.
“But ya can’t do everything by yourself,” Scout continued. “Believe me. I learned that the hard way.”
Scout laughed, but it was mostly to clear the air. He didn’t get serious very often.
Recruit hadn’t touched his beer, but was leaned over the balcony with his head in his hands.
Scout sighed and looked up at the stars.
“But here’s somethin’ that nobody told me - it gets easier, y’know that? You just gotta relax and cut yourself some slack.”
Recruit shifted uncomfortably. “But the Administrator said…”
“Yeah yeah yeah, I know what she said. Gave ya that whole speech about how bein’ part of the team means discipline and focus and whatever. It’s all bull crap. She don’t know the first thing about bein’ on the field. If she did, why’d she hire us?”
“Sh-she said my perseverance was an asset to the team.”
“Perseverance, my ass. You know what would be an asset to the team? Stayin’ alive for more than fifteen minutes!”
Recruit looked at his feet. He had blinked away his tears, but he still looked on the verge of falling apart.
Scout put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it a little.
“You’re a great fighter, Recruit. You’re one of the best…that’s why you’re here. You got nothin’ to prove to nobody. Not to me, not to the team, not to the Administrator…not even to yourself. You’ve made it, kid. You’ve made it.”
Scout slid his hand off Recruit and started to walk away.
“Hey.”
Scout turned to see Recruit in the process of opening his beer.
“Thanks.”
Scout smiled. “No problem, pal. Plenty more under Demo’s mattress.”
“No, I mean…for that. I needed that tonight.”
“Oh…yeah! Sure. Don’t worry about it.”
Scout went back inside and to his room - but not before checking the cameras on the balcony a few times. Just in case.
Over the next few months, Scout kept helping Recruit break some old bad habits.
Recruit learned to take criticism without getting angry, to leave tanked missions, and to take care of himself.
He still occasionally flirted with Miss Pauling, but it was now more of an inside joke than anything.
Recruit still isn’t perfect - he still cringes a little when he’s healed, and falls back into survival mode when times are stressful - but he is now a much happier, much healthier person.
Spy:
Spy’s asshole wasn’t a merc, per se.
They were more of an informant, usually giving out important facts about locations, missions, and a target’s history.
Sometimes they would even use the Administrator’s PA system to announce new rules and reminders.
This would be perfectly fine - after all, you get kind of tired of hearing the Administrator all the time - except for the fact that Informant was the most sarcastic, most nasally, most apathetic, most matter-of-fact person on earth.
Even outside of a work setting, which was rare because they stayed in their office most of the time, Informant would go out of their way to be as condescending as possible.
Especially to whoever they considered to be in the “less intelligent” category: Heavy, Pyro, Scout, Demo, and Soldier.
To all the “others,” he turned every briefing into a contest to see who knew more at any given time…which, of course, usually meant he won.
“Now, does anyone know where his address is? Come on, any takers? Yeah, I thought so.”
Unlike Recruit, which would only warrant a few grumbles here and there from the team, Informant was the subject of a lot of hissed complaints and terrible rants from even the calmest of members.
Informant was the only one who could get under Heavy’s skin - a personal pet peeve of his was being considered less intelligent or less of a human being because English wasn’t his first language, which Informant chose to remind him of constantly.
It began with a few simple jabs at his grammar or word structure, but once Informant figured out that Heavy wouldn’t hurt a fly outside of battle, the taunts grew more and more daring.
Heavy would usually ignore Informant, which would only exacerbate their need to be noticed. This led to some pretty nasty interactions - from spouting the statistics of Russia’s average intelligence to even saying Heavy was a disgrace to his country by being a literature major.
“How’s that Russian literature major treating you? You know - in America.”
Sniper and Medic had tried to set Informant straight, but Heavy refused to accept any help. This was something that was his to bear, and his alone. He knew that they both took their own helping of harassment.
But one day, Informant went a little to far.
He did the one thing you should never do: insult Heavy’s family.
“You mother and sisters can’t do anything more than wait for you. No wonder you’re the only source of income.”
Before he knew it, Informant was against a wall, struggling to breathe, blood running into his eyes.
Heavy walked away after the incident, and told Medic about it, but he refused to heal him. Informant had called Medic a Nazi on more than one occasion.
This, finally, is where Spy comes in.
Spy was walking by Informant’s office, when he heard a strange sound - barely suppressed hiccups and sobs.
Despite his aversion to displays of emotion, the promise of seeing one of his greatest enemies as their lowest was too amusing to resist.
He knocked lightly on the door, then slowly opened it - always the master of drama.
Informant was under their desk, bloodied and bruised, sobbing into their knees.
Spy entered noiselessly, sitting in Informant’s office chair and lighting a cigarette.
It was only when Spy made a dramatic exhale of the smoke that Informant looked up, tears streaking their face.
They stared at each other for a moment, and then Spy finally spoke.
“Oh, how the mighty fall. Flown too close to the sun, have we?”
Informant couldn’t do much more than snivel and retreat farther below the desk.
“Who did it?” Spy asked. “I want to give them my regards…and maybe a bottle of wine.”
“H-Heavy…”
“Oh? Well, if anyone can bring him to blows, it’s you.”
Spy put his feet on the desk and continued to blow smoke out of his nose, thinking.
“It’s strange,” he said. “Most offices have at least a few pictures of family. A trip to the beach, perhaps the zoo…?”
He took a quick glance around.
“No children. No army mates. No graduation photos or a large catch at a local lake. The only personal item you have is this…”
Spy picked up a Rubik’s Cube. The plastic still around it crinkled.
“Unused.”
Informant looked at the floor.
“I like to keep my personal and professional life separate.”
Spy pursed his lips and squinted.
“How noble of you. But I don’t think that’s the case. You know what I think, Informant?”
Spy took his feet of the desk and bent down, looking Informant in the eyes.
“I don’t think you have a life.”
Informant’s eyes went wide for a moment, then his face immediately crumpled. Bullseye.
Spy smirked and got up from the chair, starting to leave.
Informant’s sniffling turned into sobbing, and before Spy could put his hand on the doorknob, muffled wailing filled the office.
Spy closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. He was trying not to remember something. But the imagery was too strong.
He remembered hiding under a table, like Informant was. People screaming and cursing at each other in French. His knees all scarred and his nose runny from a cold that should have resolved weeks ago. Waltz music coming from next door, trying to drown out the fighting. Glass breaking. Biting his knuckles so he wouldn’t whimper or cry.
Spy’s hand closed into fist. He took a deep breath, and turned to face Informant again.
“But to be fair…”
He walked towards the desk, putting his hand in his suit pocket. He got on his knees and pulled out a pink handkerchief.
“…I don’t have one either.”
He offered the handkerchief to Informant, who put it to his face, still staring at Spy through red eyes.
The pair were silent for a moment, with Spy putting out his cigarette and lighting a new one while Informant cleaned themselves up.
“But the difference between you and I,” Spy said, his voice wavering a bit, “is that I am a Spy. If my information got into the wrong hands, it could be the end of me and my team.”
He tapped his cigarette on a nearby trash can, letting the ashes fall into it.
“But what are you hiding from?”
Informant took a shaky inhale, the handkerchief still covering his nose and mouth.
“W-what?”
“Why do you feel the need to be, as Scout puts it, a tier five jerkazoid?”
Informant sniffled. “I…I didn’t think I took it that far.”
“Took what that far?”
“I just…snrk…I thought that’s what I had to do to get them to take me seriously.”
Informant laughed, but their heart wasn’t in it.
“I’m five foot four with red hair and freckles. I look more like someone’s Andy doll than a contract killer. I thought maybe if I knew everything…I’d be worth it.”
They shrugged.
“At best, they’d be impressed. At worst, they would never get close enough to me to know the truth: the only reason why I’m here is because I can rattle off a few names and that I had good grades in school because I had nothing better to do.”
Spy’s chest ached. He didn’t know why, but it was a strange feeling to him.
“Mon ami…”
He cleared his throat.
“If half of the team is any indication, you don’t need to be Nikola Tesla to be hired. Hell, the fact you can read is an anomaly in itself. But there is something you must understand…”
Spy cleared his throat again. His voice had gotten quite unstable all of a sudden.
“Intelligence is measured in different ways. Scout could never read even the simplest of children’s books, but his physical intelligence - reflexes, spatial awareness, aim - is phenomenal. Medic would have to put my spine back together if I even attempted to do what he does on the field.”
Informant snickered at the joke, or perhaps the image it conjured.
“And me,” Spy continued. “I can speak almost any language, adjust to any social setting, charm anyone, fool anyone…kill anyone. Just like you, I can remember, and I use the information I absorb mostly to show how superior I am to all my lowly colleagues.”
Spy furrowed his brow and looked away.
“But I know less about myself than even my enemies. I have hidden it so deep within my mind that I can hardly remember…or perhaps would rather not remember…who I was before this mask of mine.”
Informant hesitated. “I…I’m sorry, Spy.”
Spy sneered and puffed a few smoke rings.
“I don’t want your sympathy. I want you to have some self-respect - and respect for my teammates. Because next time you are beaten within an inch of your life, you might catch me in a less generous mood.”
With that, Spy got up, reached into his suit pocket and presented a small MediKit, which he tossed to Informant.
“I’d suggest freshening up before going to any more briefings.”
Informant nodded, and set to work healing himself.
Spy started to leave, then stuck his head back in.
“And hang a few posters, would you? Your office looks like a prison cell.”
Finally, the Frenchman took his leave, adjusting his suit and nodding solemnly to the team members he happened to pass - or scowling at them, depending.
He glanced over the security feed, and once he was satisfied, made his way to his smoking room.
Spy closed the heavy oak door, poured himself a small glass of scotch, and sat down in his chair next to the fireplace.
He put a magazine on his knee and began to flip through the pages, but his gaze soon started to wander.
He closed the magazine, tossed it into the fire, leaned into his hand, and wept.
…So what became of Informant?
Well, after a reluctant heal from Medic and a few well-deserved apologies, Informant began to try and break the cycle of self-sabotage.
The process took a lot longer than Recruit’s did - especially since Informant’s transgressions were a lot more egregious - but, little by little, they began to heal.
A lot of the time, the other mercs would have to tell them to tone it down a bit, or to cut him off completely if necessary.
Informant still almost has a panic attack if he doesn’t have the right papers, and his office is still pretty bare, but he took Spy’s advice - a few AC/DC posters hang on the leftmost wall.
As for Spy, well…he needs to have a talk with Medic.
******************
I am so sorry…this is all so messy and weird. One is so much longer than the other, and I’m not even sure half the dialogue sounds right.
The two headcanons were just typed out at different times, the first where I had less motivation and the second when I had more motivation. This wasn’t on purpose, it just happened.
I hope you still like it, though!
#tf2#tf2 fandom#tf2 ask blog#tf2 headcanon#tf2 headcanons#tf2 spy#tf2 scout#scout tf2#spy tf2#tf2 mercs#headcanon requests#incorrect tf2 quotes#humor#funny post#funny content#just for laughs#funny#send asks#dank humor#ask blog
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Theories on the Infinity Train's purpose
So something I have been wondering for a long time is: Why?
The Train chooses people who want to escape from their problems. It lets them leave once they've worked through them. But... is it really benevolent to put people on a train where there are many roads to danger, especially when they are ripped away from their lives for who knows how long with no context, and they can get killed by random cockroaches?
When Book 2 aired, I assumed that One One always gave people an introduction and had been creating cars full of safe, non-volatile denizens for the humans to interact with, everything being catered to their needs. But it doesn't explain the presence of the cockroaches, or why One One allows people to hold each other back, like the Apex.
Then when Book 4 came out... One is a very different story. Not only is he seemingly indifferent to whether his passengers succeed or fail, he also gave no introductions, and it took coaxing from Amelia for him to even let passengers keep their items. His denizens also seemed EXTREMELY volatile compared to the other seasons, with pretty much everyone being prepared to kill any passengers that cross them, and fail to solve the puzzle. I think basically every train car the boys go through will kill them if they fuck up or take too long!!!
But that's not to say One was malicious by any means. He listened to constructive criticism from Amelia, for example, and allowed passengers to individuate. The train also had denizens that pushed the boys towards resolving their issues.... by force.
So, what exactly is going on here? If the train truly wants to help its passengers then why is it so cruel and unreasonable?
Here are some possibilities:
1. The train could be simply granting the desires of its passengers. Everyone who got on the train WANTED to get away from their life, and wanted things to get better. Perhaps the Creator decided that making things dangerous would be the best way to give people a differe perspective on their lives, and the Conductor - as a robot - is simply finding the most efficient methods to grant those wishes. This would explain One's indifference to an extent - this is a fate passengers chose for themselves. Further evidence is how each projected train is "personalised", made to bait the passenger, before they get on the real thing.
2. The train is designed to CONTAIN its passengers. Think about it - they either sort out their problems, or DIE TRYING. Or they can stay on the train forever if they play it safe. Did the Creator decide it is better for people to die if they can't or won't figure their stuff out? Is the train protecting the world from them?
I had a theory, until recently, that the Infinity Train was on Earth in the future, and it was designed to make people less volatile or unstable so that humanity would not be doomed to self destruct. I feel like this was debunked after it was described as a pocket dimension. However, the Creator could have another motivation behind fixing people. It would explain why there is a natural defense mechanism outside of the train too. No escape, no building a new society outside or anything.
3. Are One and the Infinity Train INCIDENTAL to being pulled into the dimension? Would people have ended up there anyway, if they were chosen, even if the train didn't exist?
We don't see exactly what happened to our passengers when they were first pulled into processing. Were they even on the train at all when they teleported in? Do they spawn at the conductor's carriage?
One thing I'll point out is One definitely doesn't control who gets pulled onto the train. He builds the carriages and gives people numbers, but this system is fairly automatic - it still happened when Amelia was in charge, and there's no way she'd be looking on Earth to choose who gets pulled on! So is One making the cars to help people actually an act of pity and compassion for the people stuck on the train? What if they had no method to solve their problems, and get off, before he decided to put the pressure on? What if they all used to stagnate or get killed by roaches?
Anyway let me know what you think.
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Since “Christian pop” has been a thing there has been criticism of songs where “you can’t tell if they’re talking about God or a girl,” which is in reference to vague, insubstantial lyrics where the speaker references longing for closeness to, and happiness in the presence of, an unspecified entity, “You.” Which is a very common variety of song, unfortunately.
However, I question the idea that this song’s more meaningful counterpart is one that references things that only make sense in the context of a relationship with God. The problem isn’t non-specificity.
After all, if you’re going to create good and meaningful art that expresses your relationship to God, from a Christian perspective it makes sense that the things you express could also be applicable to human relationships. Human relationships are living metaphors for God’s love.
The critics misidentify the problem as “you might as well be talking about a romantic partner” when the emptiness of such songs comes from the fact that the speaker seems to be in, or expect to be in, the “crush/honeymoon” phase of their relationship with God, and fails to explore that relationship on a deeper level than “God makes me happy all the time.”
Which is perfectly predictable. At least in my experience, Christians often conceptualize “love” as something that can be perfected. The Christian “relationship with god” in many traditions is supposed to be something that is “challenged” by periods of doubt and by “struggles” that eventually get resolved. There’s a very simplistic narrative structure to the Difficulties your faith is supposed to encounter.
This is especially acute among Protestants, I’d imagine, which emphasize a familiar, buddy-buddy intimacy with God. The default state of a Christian’s relationship with God isn’t “supposed to” involve doubt, mystery, fragmentation. If you catch yourself wondering “Is God really listening to me?” that’s a “challenge” that’s supposed to reach clear resolution.
The Christian music industry doesn’t want that struggle and challenge without that resolution. It’s kind of ironic, since the Psalms, which are in the Bible, include songs that end on lines like “The darkness is my only friend.” (I think that’s Psalm 88?)
This is why you have so many songs that are about this heady honeymoon-phase love being applied to God. And people correctly identify them as better describing a crush than God, but Christian artists really, really struggle to describe deep, meaningful love in a way that it’s acceptable to talk about God on a Christian radio station. Humans struggle to love each other. We love each other in ways that are misshapen and incomplete, and we keep doing it, we keep going.
We keep saying to God, “You’re like this idealized person that makes me happy all the time” because we can’t say to God, “You’re like my best friend who I understand less and less with every passing year and who I don’t know how to explain myself to anymore. You’re like my dad who told me that he wanted to be the person I needed but that I don’t know how to need without turning inward in self defense. You’re like the lover I hurt but couldn’t be anything better for at the time.” You can’t say to God, “I might be trying to love you my entire life but I might not ever get it right.”
Because like, you can’t put in a Christian song that you screamed “Fuck you” at God and later said you were sorry even though you really weren’t and you’re still chewing on resentment. Which is why non-Christian songs that talk honestly about faith, though rare, are such a fuckin’ vibe.
(If you ask me, “Shape of You” is a pretty good description of how a lot of Christians seem to relate to Christianity. Think about it.)
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I love your story with LW and JC raising LS! Do you plan on writing more?
Delight in Misery (ao3) - part 1, part 2
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“So, I have a problem,” Jiang Cheng said, bursting into the room.
Sometimes Lan Wangji wondered if Jiang Cheng had ever heard of any other way to enter a room. Through the window, perhaps, since clearly walking wasn’t seen as a valid alternative.
“Just one?” he asked, not looking up from where he was repositioning A-Yuan’s hand on the guqin.
“No, I – hey!”
A-Yuan giggled, and that made Jin Ling, currently nestled in blankets next to the guqin, giggle as well, and predictably, Jiang Cheng forgot all else in front of such adorableness, immediately crouching down to make faces at Jin Ling.
“Your problem?” Lan Wangji prompted after a few moments.
“Ah..? Oh! Yes. Remember how I got into a fight with – what’s his name, that idiot?”
Lan Wangji pointedly remained silent. Jiang Cheng got into any number of fights, given his temper, and those were only the ones he told Lan Wangji about – and he wasn’t always reliable on that score, either.
The doctor that came to visit every week was not given to gossip, as Jiang Cheng had promised, but his assistant who waited outside the door, never entering, sometimes said things.
Disturbing things, sometimes.
Lan Wangji had not yet found a way to ask Jiang Cheng if he really did capture and torture demonic cultivators to death – mostly because he didn’t know what he’d do if the answer was ‘yes’.
He knew Jiang Cheng believed that Wei Wuxian had been corrupted by demonic cultivation into something unrecognizable, that he believed it was his own fault for not having stopped him sooner, that he thought it was his responsibility to stop demonic cultivators before other innocent people suffered the way he had because of Wei Wuxian; he knew that Jiang Cheng both longed and feared any success in finding Wei Wuxian’s spirit, wanting desperately to have any hint of him again and yet terrified by the possibility that it had been Wei Wuxian, in the end, that had destroyed him utterly. There were many flaws in his thinking, but without that defense mechanism, Jiang Cheng’s psyche would collapse.
When Jiang Cheng was a little steadier, he’d bring it up, Lan Wangji promised himself. When things were a little calmer.
Soon.
“Right, right, I fight with too many to count,” Jiang Cheng said, grimacing. The expression made Jin Ling giggle again, as if it had been made to amuse him, and that lifted Jiang Cheng’s mood a little. “The one who called me a filthy cutsleeve that shouldn’t be allowed around children.”
Lan Wangji remembered. Even if Jiang Cheng hadn’t told him, A-Yuan would have: he’d been full of excitement at how Jiang Cheng had foregone even whipping the man with Zidian and just punched him full in the face with a fist full of purple sparks. And then there’d been some kicking, according to A-Yuan, and a great deal of shouting about how people who abused children were people who abused children and that being a monster had nothing at all to do with anyone’s preferences in bed.
That poor man – he might have escaped with fewer broken bones if his timing hadn’t been so bad. That confrontation had taken place just after Lan Wangji had finally confessed aloud that his feelings about Wei Wuxian were, in fact, of a romantic nature. Amusingly enough, Jiang Cheng had not guessed it – he’d spluttered and waved his hands and said really?! at least six times – which in retrospect was in line with his general level of obliviousness. After he’d finally realized Lan Wangji was serious, though, he’d responded well enough: he hadn’t said a word about cutsleeves or anything like that, not a single word. Instead, he’d immediately leapt into criticizing Lan Wangji’s poor taste in men, claiming that actually living with Wei Wuxian would have driven him mad within weeks.
He hadn’t said that Lan Wangji could do better, though. They both knew that that was impossible.
“I remember.”
“Well, all sorts of rumors got started after that – no, don’t look at me like that, I told you that I don’t care one way or another! I don’t even want a wife right now; could I even handle having a wife the way I am now, more nightmares than sleep and no ability to control my temper?”
Lan Wangji shrugged and continued to strum the guqin in a repetitive motion, demonstrating to A-Yuan. Jiang Cheng would remember to get to the point eventually.
“Anyway. Rumors. People have started – asking.”
Lan Wangji’s hands paused. “You’ve been propositioned?”
“No! Well, I mean, yes, but dealing with propositions from men is the same as from women; you just glare until they go away –”
Sometimes Lan Wangji felt certain that Jiang Cheng would never find a wife.
After all, one would have to put up with him long enough to find the tolerable parts buried deep (deep) under all the prickliness and bad temper, and that was a task fit only for the inhumanly patient.
“– and anyway, no, I meant…someone asked me for help.”
Lan Wangji finally turned his head to look at him. “Help?”
Jiang Cheng sat down next to him. “Jin Guangshan’s bastard, the new one – Mo Xuanyu. He came to me during one of the conferences recently. He’s…he’s not fit for Lanling.”
Lan Wangji frowned.
“He’s getting bullied at Koi Tower, and pretty badly, too,” Jiang Cheng said. “He gave me some examples. Nothing truly intolerable in isolation, but when you put it all together…He’s very weak. Sensitive.”
“And he approached you?”
“I know,” Jiang Cheng said, long-suffering. “What’s the point of being infamously bad-tempered if people still approach you to ask for things…? He said that he trusts me because he thinks I’m, you know, like him.”
“A cutsleeve?”
“Exactly. It’s not looked on favorably in Lanling, to say the least.” He sighed. “Sometimes I wish we were all like Qinghe. I’m pretty sure if Nie Huaisang announced that he was marrying a sentient rosebush, Chifeng-zun’s primary concern would be how good its saber skills were.”
Lan Wangji felt a similar pang. His own sect elders, at Gusu, were not especially favorable to the idea either – Lan Xichen had long ago warned him that he would need to keep his inclinations to himself and that, if he ever found a partner, it would be best if the two of them could maintain low profile, pretending as much as possible to be merely brothers or close friends.
He’d thought that had all sounded quite reasonable, right up until he met Wei Wuxian, and little by little the idea of denying the way he felt had become utterly repulsive to him.
“Anyway, I feel like I should do something? But I can’t interfere with anything in Lanling, you know that.”
Lan Wangji knew. Matters between the Jiang sect and the Jin sect remained highly precarious. Jiang Cheng’s agreement not to marry or have children had maintained the alliance between them, but there was always the looming pressure that they could one day revoke the agreement and reclaim Jin Ling – perhaps even going so far as to bar them from seeing him again.
It was one of Jiang Cheng’s many nightmares.
“I can’t not do something,” Jiang Cheng was saying, waving his hands, and that was sign enough that whatever Mo Xuanyu had told him had made an impact. Normally if something touched on Jiang Cheng’s bottom line – Lanling and its threats – he stopped thinking about it immediately. “If this isn’t stopped, it’ll only get worse and worse, and the kid’s unstable as it is…I wouldn’t be surprised if he killed himself. Maybe not immediately, maybe not for years and years, but – one day.”
The Lan sect prioritized the preservation of human life over all else.
Lan Wangji considered his options.
“But then we get back to the fact that it’s Lanling. It’d be one thing if he were a nobody, but he’s Jin Guangshan’s son – I probably wouldn’t even be able to get near him, usually –”
“Brother could.”
Jiang Cheng twisted to look at him. “What?”
“Brother could,” Lan Wangji said. “He is sworn brothers with Lianfeng-zun; he has an entry token into Lanling and is familiar with much of Koi Tower.”
Jiang Cheng blinked. “And this helps me…how? I don’t think even Zewu-jun, however kind, would make trouble over a second-hand story that’s not even objectively that bad.”
“He would believe me.”
Jiang Cheng went quiet for a moment, and there was nothing but the innocent plinking of A-Yuan’s fingers on the guqin.
“This had better not be one of your attempts at self-sacrifice,” he finally said. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to – especially for Mo Xuanyu, of all people, you don’t even know him – ”
“I am ready,” Lan Wangji said, and Jiang Cheng looked abruptly stricken. Lan Wangji didn’t understand why until he saw the way Jiang Cheng’s eyes flickered towards A-Yuan, then away, and then back again – as if he were simultaneously trying to memorize his features and also distance himself. “To speak with him only. I will not return to the Cloud Recesses at this time.”
Jiang Cheng gave a guilty start. “Really? You know you don’t have to –”
“I have decided,” Lan Wangji said simply.
Jiang Cheng rubbed his nose. “Well, good,” he said, not looking at Lan Wangji. “It’s better for A-Yuan to get a good grounding in the basics in one place before you move him around. You can always reconsider later, when he’s older.”
Lan Wangji hummed in agreement and looked back down at the guqin. “You may choose how to tell him.”
“Wait, what? Me?” Jiang Cheng asked, looking appropriately horrified by the idea. “Are you crazy? You remember that I have only the most passing familiarity with tact, right?”
“It will probably be better that way,” Lan Wangji said, and even mostly believed it. A letter would be too impersonal, a passed-along message almost certain to get garbled – he had never been eloquent in his terseness.
Jiang Cheng, however tactless, would at least be able to offer some context.
Besides, Jiang Cheng’s inevitable rant about the Lan sect’s mistreatment of Lan Wangji would likely take up several minutes, giving Lan Xichen time to recover from the shock and for his mixed emotions to settle into joy at finding Lan Wangji again. He had made his brother suffer, he knew, and he would have to explain himself and account for that – but enough time had passed, time spent here in the room where his beloved had lived, where they might have lived together if the world had been different, that Lan Wangji felt that he could do it without fear.
He was fairly sure Lan Xichen would respect his request not to share his location with the rest of the sect, and accept his refusal to return – and if he didn’t, well, possession was nine-tenths of the law. It would be very difficult for them to force him to return through anything other than emotional pressure.
A-Yuan broke a string and yelped, making Jin Ling start fussing, and Jiang Cheng immediately panicked, all other thoughts forgotten, and even as he unfolded himself to go over and make peace, Lan Wangji thought to himself that there was enough here to make resisting that pressure worthwhile.
Besides – if it came right down to it, Lan Wangji suspected he would look quite well in purple.
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Welcome to the Heart Pirates, Nami-ya chapter 19: Lying Hearts
“How can anyone stand to live in a city like this?” Nami grumbled as the light glinted off of yet another painfully white building. True, the setting sun had lessened the glare slightly, but after an entire afternoon of it, she was developing quite the headache, even with the sunglasses.
Law shrugged and continued walking at a leisurely pace, still unaffected. “I’m sure if you’re born somewhere like this it’s easier, but people can learn to tolerate almost anything given enough time, I suppose.”
“Do you think you’d be able to learn to tolerate bread?”
“I said almost. I’d sooner die of starvation.”
She shook her head with a chuckle but kept pace, following his lead. Instead of heading straight back to the submarine, Law had insisted on a few detours through Atifakuto—partially in case anyone had grown suspicious and decided to follow them, but also to scope out potential escape routes under the guise of sightseeing. Nami, for her part, had been exceedingly helpful in this, mapping out in her head which stairways lead where and pointing out various places to hide. If Law found her compliance suspicious, he didn’t say anything; it was in their best interest to work together, especially with some potentially valuable goods on the line, so her behavior was easily rationalized.
For her, however, there was more than artifacts or even belli at stake. This heist had to go well. She needed Law to trust her enough to open up about why he was so obsessed with Amber Lead. Perhaps if he could do that, she wouldn’t even have to sneak into his quarters to take a look at the ledgers. She could just ask and he’d let her in like a rational human being.
Of course, in order for either of their plans to succeed they needed to know where the vase was. Luckily, the rest of the Hearts hadn’t been sitting idle on the submarine. They’d been investigating every possible gallery, art collector, museum, and auction house their prize could possibly be at. The second they had a lead, they’d call on the mini Den Den Mushi.
Until then, though, Law and Nami were forced to meander about the city, planning and killing time.
“So, while we wait for some intel, what else are you going to buy me?” she asked as they wandered the fourth level. They’d passed quite a few shops, and while most had stocked dull business suits similar to the last store, Nami felt her bags were tragically light. They were in a beautiful-if-blinding city, and she was walking away with only one outfit? What a travesty.
Snorting dismissively, Law glanced down at her with a clear look of are you kidding me? on his face. “Nothing. I told you I was only getting you one outfit. I’m your captain, not your sugar daddy.”
“You know, for a man who wants this little job to go well, you’re not putting in nearly the effort you should,” she quipped, a sly smile on her lips, eyelashes fluttering prettily. “I’m supposed to look professional and put together if I’m gonna pull off being your lovely assistant. That means I need matching shoes and accessories. Maybe a cute leather purse or briefcase to really sell it.”
“If you want those so badly then buy them yourself. Or,” he smirked, halting his pace to turn around and catch her chin between his fingers, tilting her head up towards him as he stepped in close enough so she could feel his body heat, “you earn them by doing certain favors for daddy.”
Her cheeks only pinkened a little at his innuendos while she stuck out her tongue and shoved him away. Last night’s dream wasn’t quite as close to the forefront of her mind anymore, but that didn’t mean his smirk didn’t do things to her she’d rather ignore. “Pass. You should know by now that it takes more than clothes for me to play nice.”
“Mmm, I do. That’s what makes it so much fun,” he purred, gold eyes glinting in wicked amusement. One gloved hand was shoved into his pocket while his free arm slung itself casually over her shoulder as he continued stalking along the fastidiously clean road. “But since you’re currently insisting on being a strong, independent woman who doesn’t need a man to provide for her, you can instead borrow some shoes from Ikkaku, and she might still have a pair of glasses or something from the time she pretended to be a receptionist at a Naval base.”
Brown eyes widened at his statement. Not because he was suggesting that she borrow clothes or anything, but the bombshell he’d just casually dropped in light of her recent discovery.
“Was this for one of your plans?” she asked, shoulders stiffening.
He shrugged like it was no big deal, though he did give her a curious glance at the way she tensed beneath him. “Yeah. We needed someone on the inside, and they’d put out an advertisement for an attractive female in her early twenties. It’s not like Uni or Penguin could do it.”
“But…holy shit, Law, are you serious?” she hissed, dragging him over to an unoccupied part of the street behind a solitary gated tree so she could scold him in private. There weren’t too many people about, but the last thing they need was to get unwanted attention because they’d caused a scene, even if Law totally deserved to get chewed out at the top of her lungs for being such an asshole. “Ikkaku has Marine brothers who want her dead and you sent her into the lion’s den? What the fuck?!”
Caught off-guard by her anger, Law’s eyebrows shot up briefly before furrowing. “She told you about them?”
Damn. In her shock and anger on her friend’s behalf, she’d forgotten that this was a subject she wasn’t technically supposed to know. But instead of admitting guilt, she doubled down and threw on her best poker face.
“Yeah. She told me,” she lied easily. Too easily. It came as naturally as it had back in the days she’d been working under Arlong, getting close to pirates by lying through her teeth and then robbing them blind. How many crews and captains had she deceived before Luffy? Nami had honestly lost count, but once she’d joined up with the Straw Hats, lying to a supposed ally hadn’t been quite as instinctual.
But this isn’t Luffy, and Law’s keeping way more secrets than I am, she rationalized. It’s just a little white lie anyway. He’d be way more pissed at Shachi and Penguin for telling me. I’m looking after those guys.
Law’s expression hardened, and for a moment she wondered if he’d seen through her bluff. She didn’t think she’d gotten too rusty in the lying department, but Law was smart and distrusting in general, so she couldn’t quite tell. Trepidation hung heavy in the air as she waited for him to speak, mind going a mile a minute coming up with new lies and explanations to appease him. Worse came to worst, she could throw the guys under the bus, even if she didn’t really want to, but they were his best friends, so Law would doubtlessly be more forgiving towards them, right?
Thankfully, it seemed his anger came from a completely different place, as he snarled quietly through clenched teeth, “Nami-ya, I am, as you have pointed out rather frequently in the past, a control freak. Do you really think I would devise a plan that required sending my top mechanic into a Marine base if there was even a chance she could be recognized? Especially by her utter shit of a brother?”
She flinched at the vitriol in his voice. It seemed she’d touched a nerve, and unless she wanted to lose all the progress she’d worked for, she knew it was best to back down. “Sorry. You’re right.”
“I’ll accept your apology if you tell me what prompted her to tell you,” he stated, crossing his arms. “It’s not information she makes widely known, even to those who are permanent members of my crew.”
Well. At least this was easy enough to justify, and she’d be doing both Law and Ikkaku a favor, right? Sure, the guys would obviously tell him later, but being the first to warn him might earn her a few more crumbs of trust. “There was an article in the paper about Marine reinforcements coming to the Grand Line. Ushi was interviewed. He seemed pretty intent on taking down the Heart Pirates.”
Law froze, his frown deepening into a dark sneer. The tic in his jaw and the way his fists clenched reminded her of his reaction to Ikkaku having been attacked on Grimm. “That fucker will stay away from Ikkaku if he’s got any brains in him.”
“You’re pretty protective of her,” she said. Sure, he’d perhaps phrased his defense in a way that implied his priority was the plan, it was clear from the hiss in his voice that Ikkaku’s safety had been genuinely considered.
The brim of his hat hid his eyes as he stated, “I’m protective of all my crew. She’s just…it’s hard to find submarine engineers, let alone ones as skilled as her. Ikkaku’s hard to replace.”
Well that stinks to high heaven of bullshit, she thought. Sure, the Surgeon of Death had a rightly-earned cruel reputation, but he’d shown time and again his crew meant a lot to him. Stepping in close, she used her finger to lift his hat enough to see his expression unobstructed. “Is that why you let her sass you? Because if she walked you’d be dead in the water?”
The gold orbs glared down at her, though the held no heat. “Everyone on the crew is a vital component. Like gears in a well-oiled machine. You’ve gotta take care of them to make sure they don’t break.”
When Nami merely raised a disbelieving eyebrow, he sighed, body deflating slightly. “Look, Nami-ya, everyone on my crew, we’ve all got shit in our pasts. Some have overcome it. Some still carry the scars. Ikkaku…hers is one of the few that’s actively still trying to get her. So yeah, maybe I’m a bit more protective, but it’s for a damn good reason.”
Ok, now that was a fair point. “I’m surprised you haven’t just killed him.”
“Oh, I want to,” he snarled. “No brother should try to hurt their siblings. They’re supposed to look after them. The only reason Ushi-ya still draws breath is because Ikkaku begged me to spare his pathetic life.”
It suddenly dawned on Nami that, despite his criticizing Luffy for not being more bloodthirsty, Law was…surprisingly merciful in his own ways, too. He didn’t murder Ikkaku’s brother, despite having clear reason to, just because she asked. He rescued Jean Bart from a life of slavery despite not knowing him. And while she didn’t fully understand the Ope Ope no Mi’s powers, she wondered if his cuts didn’t draw blood because he didn’t want them to?
She wasn’t sure if he had a complexity addiction or if he genuinely wanted to minimize bloodshed, but once again another side of the incredibly fascinating man had been revealed.
Taking a deep breath to calm his anger, he gave Nami a sadistic smile. “Doesn’t mean I let him off the hook with a sternly-worded warning, though. Wanna know what I did to him the last time we met?”
Nami turned a bit green as she remembered Jinzo’s still-beating heart in his hands. Complex and caring towards his crew or not, he was still a twisted bastard. “Fuck no!”
Briefly he pouted at not getting to regale her with the gory details before shrugging. “Pity. It was quite the eventful evening. In fact, it was also the night of mine and Drake-ya’s first kiss.”
“How the hell are those two things connected?!”
“Well, I had to distract him somehow. He was guarding my poor mechanic like a dragon would a virtuous princess.”
Before she could demand more details, or even snort at the idea of Ikkaku being virtuous, the sound of the mini Den Den Mushi reached their ears, interrupting the conversation.
Looking around to make sure there weren’t any eavesdroppers, Law pulled out the little snail phone and clicked down on the top. “Guessing you’ve got something for me?”
“I do,” the snail answered, and Nami recognized the faint accent that indicated they were speaking to Cousteau. “Only one place that specializes in North Blue history. Jubilee & Atlas Antiques. It’s an auction house and gallery on the fifth level, a block away from the Elevate Deliverer Restoration Church.”
“Well that’s a needlessly long name,” he quipped, rolling his eyes. Mentally, Nami had to agree, though it also sounded vaguely familiar. “At least that makes it easier to find. Anything else I should know? Other landmarks, nearby guard stations, that sort of thing?”
There was a moment of hesitation before Cousteau replied, “No station, though there would probably be at least a few guards wandering around at night. It’s, uh, right by a fountain. Blessings from the White City.”
Nami’s eyes widened a little. Oh. Now she remembered. That had been the church with the huge stained-glass windows. The one in her book, by the tribute to Flevance.
“…I see.”
The little snail chewed its lip, clearly concerned. “Captain, if you want, I can do all the surveillance—”
“It’s fine,” he cut in, tone sharp before smoothing out, “I saw it earlier. In fact, I’m glad it’s so close. Nami-ya and I will check out the gallery. We’re nearby and I’d rather see it with my own eyes to get the lay of the land. Unless anyone else has a better lead, you and the others can head back to the ship.”
“Understood, sir. Anything else you need?” he asked, sounding relieved.
“Just tell Clione I might have a job for him later on, so don’t make any evening plans.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
The call ended, and Nami peered up at Law, expecting signs of the same darkness that had crossed his face when they’d visited the fountain earlier. Instead, his face was totally blank, staring down at the tiny snail, expressionless.
Somehow, that was far, far more unnerving.
“Law?” she asked, touching his arm hesitantly.
As if awoken from a trance he shook his head before smirking down at her. “Well, hope you don’t mind one last detour before heading back to the ship? I know it’s more stairs but look on the bright side; at this rate, the definition of your calf muscles will be a thing of beauty.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond, turning on his heels and heading towards the direction of the stairs to the next level. Frowning, she began to doubt whether or not this was all a good idea. She didn’t know exactly what his deal was, but she really felt like he was too close to this. But she had the feeling trying to talk him out of it would be an exercise in futility, and would set her back far more than any lie she might spin.
Oh well, she sighed internally, jogging to catch up, so long as he doesn’t do anything stupid. He’s sensible enough to keep a cool head, no matter what his problem is. It’ll be fine.
While it wasn’t far, it took longer than either of them would have expected to actually find Jubilee & Atlas Antiques. Mainly because it was a surprisingly nondescript building compared to the opulent churches and museums nearby. Honestly, based on the exterior, one could easily have passed it by. Like everything else the building was pristinely white, the windows boasting small arches over them and flower boxes containing white impatiens. Really, the most impressive thing about it was the marble plaque out front boasting the company’s name in gold leaf.
But the two pirates didn’t really care about the appearance; it was what was inside that counted. That, and the information board out front, which stated in bold, black letters that there would be a showing and auction of North Blue artworks at 8pm that evening.
“Why don’t you just Scan the place, grab the vase, and walk away? Seems like that would be easy compared to putting on this charade?” Nami asked, eyeing the building. It was hardly Harpin’s mansion; it would take almost no effort for Law to use his powers to steal every item of value inside it, replacing artifacts, paintings, and money with pebbles and potted plants with a mere flick of his fingers, then teleporting them away to safety.
Really, if he weren’t such an ass, Trafalgar Law would be a thief’s dream partner.
Of course, he was an ass, so he gave her a look that implied he considered her question to be phenomenally stupid. “Because there’s no guarantee that the vase is even in there—for all I know it’s being kept in a secondary location until the actual event for security or health reasons. It is a relic from a city that suffered a notorious death toll both before and after the World Government had quarantined it,” he explained lowly. “On top of that, my Room would draw too much attention, so if it’s not in there, we’ll have blown our whole cover and probably the operation.”
Though disappointed that they couldn’t just whisk it away with his powers, she conceded that he had a point. Versatile and useful as they were, the Ope Ope no Mi’s abilities did have their drawbacks. Actually infiltrating the auction house was a safer move.
Yet for a moment, she saw Law glare at the building, as if he were equally frustrated that they couldn’t just grab their prize and go. Perhaps even a great mastermind like him sometimes wished to take the direct path. “At least we can be sure it’ll be presented at this auction,” he reassured, almost as much to himself as her as his hand rested on Nami’s lower back while he escorted her away. “Makes it easier to come up with a plan and contingencies when I actually know the target. My crew did good.”
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger in thought. She supposed he was right, and the pride in his voice when he mentioned the Hearts’ contribution…well, she knew better than to argue with that. Seemed the lesson he learned on the last island was sticking. “Still too bad we don’t have blueprints like Harpin’s house, though.”
“It can’t be helped. That was a job I’d been planning for months. This is more…spontaneous. Why? Scared and looking to back out?” he asked, glancing down at her with a challenging grin.
Nami scoffed. She was a thief that specialized in robbing pirates. Sure, she was a scaredy-cat, but when treasure of some kind was at stake, there were few risks she wouldn’t take. “Not a chance. Just pointing out that we’re going in more blind than last time.”
“Maybe, but at least our prize will be out in the open and not in the home of a former Marine with tentacles. Hell, we might even get it legally.”
“Law,” she started, brow furrowing. She wasn’t scared, but she did have a reasonable concern, especially with how intent he seemed on this one item. “What are we going to do if we don’t win the vase?”
The pair stopped by the Flevance fountain, Law taking a long moment to stare solemnly at the beautiful white angels. Without a word he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small coin, pressing it to his lips before flipping it into the water.
When he turned back to her, his gold eyes were as hard as the statues’ and twice as cold.
“Simple; we take it from whoever did.”
XXX
Hidden in a small cove on an unpopulated section of Atifakuto’s coast, the sight of the Polar Tang’s sunny yellow hull was a welcome relief after a whole day of the city’s stark white walls. Law seemed to agree as his tense posture relaxed into a comfortable slouch, even giving a few of the guys a small grin when they called out to them. To Nami, of course, the submarine was still far from the Sunny and thus would never be home, but she couldn’t help but smile at Law’s reaction. The Dark Doctor really did have some softness deep down.
Of course, that didn’t last long, as the moment they were within the safety of the cargo bay he was once more all business. “Dinner is in an hour. Rest up, brush up on your notes, do whatever you need to prepare for the auction tonight; I’ve got a few more dominoes to put in place,” Law stated. He’d been silent for most of the walk back, though Nami attributed that to him mentally filing through all the information they now had and formulating his plan. Much as she missed and loved Luffy, having a captain who didn’t just go rushing in like an idiot was a nice change of pace.
That didn’t mean she appreciated his tone, though. “Say please,” she quipped, hip jutting out. She might have decided to be more compliant for the sake of gaining his trust, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him boss her around.
Besides, if she were too accommodating, he’d probably grow suspicious and then she’d be right back at square one.
He scowled but apparently decided it would be a waste of time to argue. They were on a tight schedule, after all, so her attitude would have to be tolerated. For now. “Please,” he grumbled before marching off, beckoning Clione to follow him. The biologist glanced between the two, bewildered, but smartly said nothing before chasing after his captain.
Flashing a self-satisfied grin at Law’s retreating back, Nami practically skipped to her quarters. Even though they weren’t as prepared as she’d like, so far, things were going well. Perhaps they couldn’t just use Law’s powers to swipe the vase, but by obtaining it through legal means, they wouldn’t have the authorities after them, which would be nice. Besides, it wasn’t her money that would be spent at the auction.
Her research of the North Blue had taught her a few things, including just how valuable things from Flevance were. After all, things made from the white ore had been in high-demand during the city’s heyday; now that it was in ruins, any remaining artifacts would surely triple in price. And, admittedly, if that fountain had been anything to go by, the vase could very well be extremely beautiful. Something any art collector or historian might want for themselves.
Once more, she wondered why the hell Law wanted it. He collected coins, not art, so she doubted it would be something he wanted just for the heck of it. What was his obsession with Flevance—
That train of thought was derailed when Nami walked into her room. She blinked then rubbed her eyes, certain her vision was still messed up from the sun, because Ikkaku was still sitting at her desk, working on some little device, practically in the same position as that morning. Really, the only difference was the lack of towel around her head, though her curly hair was a tangled bird’s nest.
“Have you even moved today?” Nami exclaimed loudly, flabbergasted.
The mechanic jumped a few inches out of her chair, a pen cartwheeling through the air before falling back onto the surface of the desk with a clatter. Apparently since she’d had the room to herself, she hadn’t felt the need to put the earplugs back in, leaving her vulnerable to Nami’s loud voice. “Damn, girl, you scared me,” Ikkaku said with a breathy laugh. She glanced around, noticing the time on the clock and the fact that her hair had dried completely. “Guess I was in the zone.”
“You haven’t been working all day, have you?” Nami asked, plopping her shopping bag on her bed. “At least tell me you had lunch.”
“Sounding an awful lot like Law there,” she teased, pushing away from her desk to stretch. There was an audible pop from her back, and her dark eyes closed in relief. “Like me, too. The boys and I are always bugging a certain workaholic captain to eat something and not subsist solely on coffee and aspirin. But to answer your question, yes, I did have lunch.” She pointed at an empty plate that had been shoved into the far corner of the desk, a few grains of rice stuck to the surface. “Bepo brought me some onigiri.”
“Good. If you didn’t, I’d be dragging you into the galley and force-feeding you a sandwich, then charging you a cooking and inconvenience fee.”
Snorting, Ikkaku cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders, further releasing the tension sitting hunched over in one spot for hours had built up. “Dinner’s soon enough; even if I hadn’t eaten, I could have waited. And good luck making a sandwich with no bread on board.” Despite her dismissal tone, though, she gave a wry grin. “But thanks for caring, I guess, even if it does come with a price tag.”
“What are friends for?” Nami shrugged with a smile that was a little forced. It was such an alien feeling, this sudden awkwardness. Since first arriving on the Tang, she and Ikkaku had gotten on like a house on fire. It was almost inevitable, being the two women on the ship surrounded by men dealing with that insanity together. Hell, even if that hadn’t been the case, Ikkaku had practically sacrificed herself for her back at the club on Grimm. A companion like that was more than she’d even dared to dream of before she’d met Luffy.
Was it really right for Nami to act like she didn’t know about her brother? Should she just tell her that the guys told her about Ushi? Really, what was the point of keeping it a secret? It wasn’t that Nami thought she’d slip up and spill the beans—lying was her specialty, after all—but Ikkaku wasn’t some mark or stranger. She was her friend.
Hell, even if they were on opposite crews, she’d even dare to call her nakama.
The issue resolved itself, however, when the other woman’s expression turned a little melancholy. Ikkaku sighed as she rested her cheek on her fist, her other hand idly playing with the pen. “Heh. Funny, I used to ask myself that question a lot when I was younger. I didn’t really have friends back on my home island. I lived with my Gramps in a lighthouse, so besides the occasional trip to town, it was a pretty isolated life.”
“What about your brothers?” Nami asked, masking her interest by taking her purchases out of the bag so they wouldn’t wrinkle before the auction. A swell of relief surged through her. If Ikkaku talked about Ushi herself, the whole charade of pretending not to know about him wouldn’t even be necessary! She just had to carefully press for the right crumbs of information, maybe even offer up a couple tidbits about her own life in exchange. No big deal. Tit for tat, right? “Nojiko was my best friend growing up. Hell, probably my only friend until Luffy came along.”
A dark look crossed Ikkaku’s face. “Yeah, well, Nojiko on her worst day was probably a way better sibling than all of them combined.”
“I don’t think you’ve talked about them much. I basically just know that they exist and said you wouldn’t really make it as an engineer because you’re a girl.”
A long sigh escaped her lips. “That’s…the nice version. Didn’t want to unload my shitty childhood on you, especially since yours sounded worse. I mean, my island was never taken over by pirates, and I didn’t work for the guy who murdered my mom.”
Well, that was certainly true, but then again, people with healthy, normal childhoods seldom became pirates. Or at least, those that did rarely lasted long on such cutthroat seas. Nami should have realized there was more to the mechanic’s past than some run-of-the-mill misogyny. “Maybe, but I don’t mind. We’ve all gone through some rough shit, right? We wouldn’t be in this line of work otherwise.”
“True. I just…I guess I just like to pretend he doesn’t exist most of the time.”
“He?” she asked as if she didn’t already know.
Ikkaku’s calloused hand dropped the pen to instead clench into a tight fist, and there was a haunted look in her dark eyes as she stared off into space. “Ushi. He’s the oldest. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t afraid of him. Spent our childhood making our other brothers use me as a punching bag. When he wasn’t doing that, he gave me almost hourly reminders that I was a burden on the family, that no one really loved me, that I’d never amount to anything.” There was a hitch in her breath and a pause, and Nami noticed her close her eyes tightly for a moment. As if she were fighting back tears. It was a look she’d never expected to see on the tough, vibrant woman’s face. “Then, when I was seven, he tried to kill me.”
“What?!” Nami exclaimed, dropping her blazer to the floor in shock.
“Yeah. Joras had a huge fucking forest, and he led me into it to look for mushrooms or some shit. Can’t remember. Next thing I know, he’s shoved me into a pit, and by the time I’d climbed out, he was long gone and it was night. I think…I think it was supposed to be my grave, ‘cause it was really fucking deep. Or at least it seemed that way. Maybe I’m misremembering.”
Somehow, Nami doubted that. Sure, memories could get warped with age and fear, but some details remained solid for the rest of a person’s life. “But, you got out, right? And I’m sure your parents must have been worried sick!” She could almost picture it. A young Ikkaku, sticks and leaves caught in her messy curls, knees and elbows scraped, face covered in dirt and tears, frightened but once more able to smile when she was finally found, her mother and father scooping her into their arms, scolding her for worrying them but just so relieved she was safe…
At least, that’s what Bellemere or Mister Genzo would have done if Nami had gone missing.
From the bitter laugh that escaped her throat, Ikkaku hadn’t been so fortunate. “I spent three days wandering around those fucking woods, scared and cold and wondering if I was gonna die out there. My parents didn’t even notice I was gone.” After a long moment of silence, her fist unclenched and some of the tension eased out of her shoulders. “Gramps found me, though. When I didn’t come home after two days and a storm rolled in, my brothers Nausagi and Fukuro ran two miles to the lighthouse to tell him what Ushi had done. Maybe they realized he’d gone too far. Or they were scared I’d come back as a vengeful zombie. Either way, Gramps rescued me and demanded custody. Mama and Pops were glad to hand me over. One less mouth to feed, and I wouldn’t be causing their Future Marine Hero any more trouble.”
“That’s…that’s horrible.” And yet Nami could tell she was getting the abridged version of the story. “Tell me your grandfather was a better guardian.”
Despite the childhood trauma she’d just confessed to, Ikkaku merely shrugged, a small grin tugging at the corner of her lips. “Yeah. He was. Gramps was crazy, but he loved me and taught me how to fight. Told me to never lose my smile, ‘cause that’s my best protection against a world that’ll try to break me.”
“Bellemere said something similar to me and Nojiko. ‘Whatever happens, never lose your ability to laugh. If you can survive, happy times, lots of ‘em, will come your way’.”
“Smart lady.” She tried to casually run her fingers through her hair, only to find them caught in the tangled knots. She let out a light chuckle at her predicament and added, “I think she and Gramps would have gotten along pretty well. Well, assuming she liked salty former smugglers who had the gumption to threaten Law with a shot gun. Not that he didn’t deserve it a little.”
Nami had to smile at that, and she could only imagine what he’d said that had nearly gotten him shot. It was definitely something snarky, a shit-eating grin on his face while he provoked a protective grandfather just because he could.
Noticing Ikkaku’s hair situation, she abandoned her suit to instead pick up a wide-toothed comb. “Well, I’m not sure about Bellmere, but I’d certainly love to meet him.”
“Of course you would.” Leaning back in the chair, she allowed Nami to carefully put her thick curls to rights. “How was shopping? Boss show you the blinding sights of the city?”
“It was…enlightening,” she said cautiously. There was still so much to sort out, and every time she thought she had an answer to one of her questions, four more popped up in its place.
Grabbing the pen she’d been playing with earlier, Ikkaku handed it to her over her shoulder. “Here; I made you something, since I doubt you’ll be able to bring your Clima-Tact with you. Kinda why I was so focused—I wanted it to be ready by tonight.”
Curious, Nami inspected the item. It was a plain black ballpoint pen maybe a bit longer than her hand. There was an almost unnoticeable jolly roger engraved into the middle, and she ran her thumb over it idly. “You spent the whole afternoon making me a pen? I could have just as easily brought my stylus.”
“Oh, but a stylus is only good for writing. This is so much more useful. ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’, right? Click the top.”
She did so, and instead of an ink-filled nub, a small syringe, similar to an epi-pen, popped out. Her eyes widened in realization as Ikkaku explained, “Inside’s a powerful tranquilizer. Should knock any fool out in minutes if injected into the bloodstream. Takes longer if it’s ingested. It’s non-lethal to humans, so it should be safe to use on anyone you’re looking to knock out. Assuming they aren’t really Fishmen in disguise.”
“Why? Does it react differently for them?”
She grimaced. “Yeah. Severe allergic reaction. Anaphylactic shock typically. So, unless you want that on your conscience, humans only.”
Tucking the pen away for later, Nami nodded in understanding and went back to combing her hair. “Gotcha. Doubt it’ll be a problem, though. Jean Bart said this place is pretty humans-only.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s impossible for someone to have that kind of bloodline. If it’s diluted through a few generations, a lot of the time you can hide it and pass for human.”
“Hmmm, hadn’t thought of that.”
There was a moment where Nami could tell she was mulling something over. Even faced away from her, Ikkaku wasn’t hard to read, and it was only a matter of time before she voiced whatever question was on her mind.
While she waited, the ginger took the time to appreciate the texture of Ikkaku’s hair, combing out each curl individually so it wouldn’t frizz. The thick, black locks were coarser than her own, yet surprisingly soft despite her hard life at sea. Hair maintenance was extremely difficult living on the ocean, the salt and fluctuating weather of the Grand Line wreaking havoc on Nami’s much finer strands. And while Ikkaku was far more feminine than one would expect upon first meeting her, in the time they’d roomed together, she didn’t seem to put much more extensive care into her shiny locks than some leave-in conditioner.
Guess she’s just got some good genetics, Nami thought appreciatively. Either that or she’s hiding some amazing shampoo formula, and damn if she is I’ll never forgive her!
When Ikkaku at last broke her silence, the hesitation in her voice was palpable. “Hey, it was a Fishman who held you prisoner all those years, right? You ever…blame all Fishmen for what he did?”
It was an unexpected question, but a fair one, Nami supposed. Arlong had committed a crime so heinous she knew she’d never forgive him, and she knew there were plenty of people, especially ones who spent years abused by such a monster, who would project that hatred onto an entire race. But why even ask?
“I…not really. I mean, I can’t say I never lumped them all together in my head, since Arlong and his crew were my only baseline for Fishmen for a long time.” She bit her lip, thinking. “But that was when I was a kid. My view of things was a lot more black-and-white, mostly because I was bitter at my situation. As I got older, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was stupid to think all Fishmen were like him. He was the one who hurt me, so he’s the only one who should get my hate.”
“So, you don’t hate them all?”
She shook her head. “Nah. Hell, I was even able to forgive a member of his crew. I’m sure you heard about how Luffy punched a Celestial Dragon?”
Ikkaku craned her neck up to look at her, dark eyes widening in shocked understanding. “Yeah? You saying the Fishman he defended—”
“One of Arlong’s crew. Hatchi. Like all of them, he hurt me too, but it was on his captain’s orders, and he clearly regretted it.” Well, it had been a bit more complex than that. Hell, when they’d first encountered him again, she’d nearly gone back on her promise to Camie to rescue him. Even if he hadn’t abused her like the others, he’d still been complacent in it. Still destroyed villagers homes, held her hostage, attacked the Navy ships that tried to come to the rescue. He hadn’t been blameless in the least. She would have had every right to demand that he be left to be killed or enslaved. That it was karma come to bite him in the ass.
Yet what had swayed her, apart from Camie’s determination to save him, was her own friends’ reactions to seeing him again. Those who knew her past had immediately been ready to turn the ship around and leave Hatchi to his fate. Of course she’d expected Sanji to be her knight in shining armor and want nothing to do with someone who had abused a lady, even by proxy. Zoro and Usopp had been a bit more surprising, though perhaps it shouldn’t have been. They knew what she’d been put through. Had fought and bled for her. Despite their sometimes heated disagreements, Nami knew she could count on them to always have her back.
The one who shocked her the most was Luffy. He might have flip-flopped between reason and his stomach, but the fact was, her loving, forgiving captain had actually held a grudge on her behalf. Hatchi and Arlong hadn’t done anything to him personally, but his nakama had suffered, and that wasn’t something he’d easily set aside. That genuine show of solidarity and loyalty to her had melted what ice had still been around her heart, which allowed her to truly forgive the octopus Fishman.
Yes, Hatchi had hurt her, but her hatred was solely reserved for Arlong, not his underlings who genuinely felt remorse.
“I’m not a saint or anything but hating Hatchi…it seemed pointless. He wasn’t the one who killed my mother. And blaming all Fishmen for the actions of one seemed pretty shitty. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t kill Arlong if I had the chance, though.”
Nami could practically feel the tension drain from Ikkaku’s shoulders, and she couldn’t hide her smile before she looked away. “That’s good to know. That asshole deserves it, from what you’ve told me. He and my brother should meet, then get sacrificed to some kind of horrible sea monster. Plenty of hungry Sea Kings out there to feed.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer pair of guys,” Nami giggled as she ran the comb through the last strand of hair. “Though, that might be cruel to the Sea King. Poor thing deserves a better meal than shit like them.”
“True. We’ll just have to think of something else then. We can ask Law; he’s always got great suggestions.”
A shudder ran down her spine, though she had to admit, it wasn’t as horrified as she’d like. She justified it with the fact that Arlong was scum who deserved whatever painful death the likes of Law might propose. So did Ushi, from the sounds of things. Though, Law had said Ikkaku had begged him not to kill her brother. Why? Did she still care about Ushi due to their familial ties? Or was there something else?
Maybe she just doesn’t want her brother’s death on her conscience, Nami thought, putting the comb away and proceeding to raid the closet for shoes. I just hope that doesn’t come back to bite her someday.
XXX
Dinner on the Tang was certainly livelier and noisier than breakfast. Mainly because the crew didn’t have to walk on eggshells while waiting for Law to get his caffeine hit. Most of the time about a dozen different conversations could be heard, utensils clattered against plates, insults were tossed about, and laughter filled the air. But at the moment, the whole galley was silent save for Nami, who was telling the Heart Pirates—save for a few who’d been sent out on last-minute errands—all about her crew’s wild adventure on Skypiea.
“…so, after Luffy beat the crap out of him, Enel flew off to the moon in his gold airship, and we escaped the island with the help of an octopus balloon, our ship loaded with treasure!”
There was a pregnant pause as the Hearts stared at her in a mix of awe and disbelief. She’d had their undivided attention ever since Law announced that the Straw Hats had found Noland’s lost city of gold, all but demanding she tell the tale and not skimp on the details.
Naturally, those details made the story even more bizarre, practically unbelievable, but she gave them what they asked for, so they couldn’t complain. Even Law’s jaw had dropped once or twice in incredulity. Mostly at the part where Luffy’d been eaten by a giant snake and thus been hidden from Enel’s senses.
Finally, a few of the crew managed to find their voices.
“An orangutan nearly wrecked your ship with singing?” Shachi asked, face utterly baffled.
Penguin grabbed his hat and smacked him over the head with it. “That’s what you’re stuck on? That’s from way back in the beginning of the story!”
The ginger punched him in the shoulder in retaliation, which quickly devolved into a childish slap fight. “Well it’s weird, ok?”
“Weirder than Straw Hat punching Kami or the knock-up stream business or the ship that flew to the moon?”
“Yeah! You ever met an orangutan that could sing?!”
“No, but that’s not the point!”
“You met Monte Blac Cricket?” Ermine interrupted, eyes so wide the whites could be seen even under the rim of their hat, though their mouth quickly split into a smile. “Holy shit, I’d wondered what had happened to him!”
“Wasn’t he your friend or something?” Seiuchi asked through a mouth full of rice.
They shook their head, looking a little wistful, a faint blush rising to their cheeks. “Just a neighbor. The people of Lvneel were dicks to his family and anyone who associated with them didn’t get treated much better. But I always thought there had to be some truth to Noland’s story.”
“Because a city of gold is so fantastical it’s gotta be real?” Nami asked, amused. She’d half-expected everyone to laugh at her like the people on Jaya when she’d asked about Sky Island—she’d even glossed over that part, finding no reason to recap such a blow to her pride. Yet instead, they’d been respectful, even entranced by her tale. It seemed to help that she’d been able to fill in a few blanks with what she remembered from Noland’s ledger, thus adding credibility to the man himself instead of just imagining the lying fool the king’s slander had reduced him to.
Usopp would probably love these guys, she thought fondly. Not that they’d likely believe his fantastical lies, but they’d probably at least let him spin his yarns to his heart’s content.
“Because you don’t tell a king about a city of gold unless you’ve got something to show for it,” Uni interjected wisely, ladling some more curry onto her plate. He paused to smile at her with his eyes, the bottom half of his face still distinctly covered by his bandana despite it being dinnertime. This close, Nami couldn’t help but try to subtly look for signs of scarring, and in fact could spot a line of slightly-paler skin peeking out just over the edge. “That, and history’s rarely all that accurate. Full of lies and twisted to suit a certain narrative.”
“That’s the World Government way. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of it tonight,” Law stated, leaning back in his chair as he munched on some onigiri. The bulge in his cheek might have been comical, but the glint in his eye was humorless. “Can’t wait to hear the dumbass assumptions people make about us Northerners.”
Murmurs of agreement echoed throughout the room, though an angry tic formed on Nami’s forehead.
“Are you saying the stuff you had me study is going to be a load of crap?” she demanded, pointing her finger accusingly. Of course she knew history was skewed at best, but she’d spent days cramming! Had weird sexual dreams about him because of it!
Yes she was blaming the book for that and no one could stop her.
He shrugged and took another bite of rice, unbothered by her irritation. “It’s the information you’ll need to be able to regurgitate if anyone asks you about the North.”
“Yeah,” Penguin chimed in, nodding sagely. He and Shachi had finally been pulled apart by Jean Bart and had resumed eating like nothing had happened. “These people aren’t interested in the truth. They just want to feel superior to the ‘uneducated masses’.”
“Buncha pretentious pricks,” Shachi sniggered, balancing a spoon on his upper lip. “Bet they’d have a fucking fit if they found out El Dorodo’s not only real, but in the fucking sky!”
“I mean, can’t say I’d blame them,” Jude grumbled, playing a bit with his food like a grumpy child. “I figured we’d be the ones to find it, but this whole time we’ve been sailing around in a submarine for nothing!”
“You got something to say about my ship?” Ikkaku snapped, glaring at her crewmate. Behind her, Crozier, Cousteau, and Ermine made slashing motions across their throats, silently reminding him that disparaging the Polar Tang in any way in front of its chief engineer was a sure death sentence.
Before he could say anything, Uni thwapped him on the forehead with the spoon, apparently taking just as much offense. “How can you say it’s been for nothing—we’ve found tons of cool shit down here! May not have been El Dorado, but there have been some amazing sunken cities. And fish! We’ve discovered more aquatic animals than any other ocean explorer,” he pointed out excitedly, Cousteau nodding in agreement. “I mean, we’ve seen deep-sea fish not recorded in any book! Extracted hallucinogenic venom from puffer fish! Taken samples of bioluminescent plankton! We’ve seen octopi punch fish!”
“You ever figure out why they do that?” Shachi asked, cocking his head.
“Best I can figure? Spite.”
As weird as this little tangent was, Nami found herself giggling a bit at how excited Uni was. She didn’t know him too well, given how he was one of the quieter, more reserved members of the crew, but it was endearing to see him so animated and giddy as he discussed marine life.
“Plus, it’s cool to study navigational currents and everything, and underwater topography. The maps I can make from that kind of intel are really good,” Bepo added, twiddling his claws a bit beside her.
“Right! And if that’s still not enough to convince you, who needs a city of gold when you can get your hands on more sunken treasure than most pirates see in their lifetimes?” Uni asked, puffing out his chest.
She couldn’t help it—Nami’s eyes lit up with belli signs at the thought of how many sunken ships the submarine probably came across, all that gold theirs for the taking. Most treasure was basically lost once it hit the bottom of the ocean, but the Hearts’ ship and diving equipment turned the ocean floor into their personal piggy bank.
It seemed Jude had the same thought. “You’re right, you’re right,” he conceded, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, it’s a great ship, and we’ve definitely found more than a city’s worth of loot—and yes the fish are cool Uni put the spoon away—but it’s still annoying to find out that we’ve been searching the wrong place this whole time.”
“Eh, happens to every pirate crew,” Jean Bart said, sipping his drink. “You find a treasure map only to discover the gold’s already dug up. Same with legends of lost cities. The fact that the Straw Hats actually found El Dorado and came away with a profit just means they’ve got the Devil’s luck on their side.”
“Or the favor of some god. Probably not that Enel guy, though,” Shachi said with a smirk. “And hopefully nothing from Joras, either.”
There was a murmur of agreement among the crew at that, though Ikkaku looked more uncomfortable than amused. Nami wasn’t the only one to catch that, though, as Uni reproachfully smacked the side of his head with the spoon.
“Dude. Don’t joke about the eldritch horror gods, yeah?”
“Sorry,” the ginger said, blushing slightly as he wiped away the curry splattered across his face.
“Eldritch horror gods?” Nami asked, recoiling at the thought. What the fuck?! Joras sounded vaguely familiar and given the context she guessed it had to be someplace in the North Blue, but she sure as hell didn’t recall reading anything about that! Was this something related to Northern culture, or were the guys just fucking with her?
“Nothing to worry your pretty little head over, Nami-ya,” Law stated with a smirk, though she didn’t miss the glare he sent Shachi’s way. “We’ve been sailing under the ocean for over five years and I’ve yet to see a sleeping god who can turn you mad with terror.”
“No, just an underwater ruin or two that talks about him,” Ikkaku muttered, picking at her food.
Underwater ruins with tales of sleeping gods? Sounds like something Robin would be interested in, Nami thought, nervous sweat running down her neck. Not that she’d be able to blame her. Sure, the archeologist was macabre as hell, but Nami could appreciate her thirst for knowledge, creepy or not. Who knew what history and cultures had been lost to the seas? Maybe there were even Poneglyphs down at the bottom of the ocean!
Damn. Robin and Law would probably get along great. She wasn’t sure if she was frightened or comforted by this thought.
Uni seemed to notice her unease and patted her shoulder. “We’ve seen some strange stuff down there, but nothing more dangerous than Sea Kings. Which, I mean, aren’t exactly friendly guppies, but they’ll leave us be. The Tang’s Seastone coating and electrical defenses ensure that.”
Though she still found the whole concept horrifying, she was appreciated how hard Uni was trying to keep the peace and not make things needlessly frightening for her. The whole crew had a morbid sense of humor, but while she’d mostly adapted, she still found this whole conversation creepy. It made her feel a little guilty for wanting to pry into his business. Yeah, it was annoying to know the crew was hiding stuff from her, but Uni deserved a little privacy, right?
“Yeah, and if there were anything more, Uni’s fish buddies would warn us ahead of time!” Malamute added.
“Fish buddies?” Nami asked, eyebrows lifting to her hairline in surprise. So much for respecting his privacy. “Wait, can you talk to fish?”
The man in question stiffened beside her. “I, uh, I can understand fish a little,” he said, looking nervous. His large hands twisted the napkin in his lap, and he refused to look at her. “It’s a Haki thing.”
“Haki can do that?” she asked, surprised.
“Observation Haki can do a lot of things, and Uni’s the best at it on the ship,” Law cut in harshly, glare brokering no argument. “It’s a skill that’s saved our asses plenty of times.”
Nami blanched at his defensive tone. “Hey, I’ll take your word for it, but you don’t have to act like I insulted his mother or something.”
“It’s ok, Law,” Uni said, shrugging a bit, though his face seemed to sink a little further into his bandana. “I know she didn’t mean anything by it. It’s a fair question, and it is a weird talent.”
“It’s not weird. It’s fucking useful as hell and I won’t hear anyone belittling my crew.”
“I’d never belittle him—” Nami snapped, starting to stand up to give Law a piece of her mind before Bepo’s heavy paws fell on her shoulders, gently but firmly keeping her seated.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized softly. “Law doesn’t mean you. It’s just…the last person outside the crew that found out, he was extremely cruel about it. Beat Uni to a pulp and even threatened to sell him as a freak show attraction before Captain found them.”
“Oh my god,” she replied, anger cooling quickly as she covered her mouth in horror, imagining Uni bruised and bloody on the ground at the hands of some bastard. Well, that would sure as hell explain why Law had taken such offense. If such a thing had happened to Chopper because he could speak to animals, she’d likely be just as pissed. From the scowls on the rest of the Hearts’ faces, the whole crew felt similar. Her gaze flicked to the fuming captain. “I’m guessing he ended up on your operating table?”
“I wish,” he growled, gold eyes glinting in fury as he crossed his arms. “Marines showed up before I could cut out his heart. Must have been his lucky day, but luck won’t be enough to save him if I ever run into Hyena-ya again.”
“Hyena?” she asked, the name not ringing any bells.
“Bellamy the Hyena,” Bepo explained, snout wrinkling in distaste. “He’s also from the North.”
Oh. My. God, Nami thought, wondering if the world was really so small. “You said Bellamy, right? Blonde hair? Spring powers? Asshole with a stupid grin?”
Law cocked an eyebrow in mild surprise. “Seems you’ve encountered him before.”
She ground her teeth as she remembered the way he’d mocked Luffy’s dreams in the bar. “Yeah. On Jaya. His crew laughed at me for asking about Sky Island and his first mate tried to buy me. Later he stole Cricket’s gold, so Luffy went after him. I didn’t see the fight but given what an ass that guy was…yeah, Luffy wiped that stupid smile off his face.”
Once more the room fell silent, but quickly broke out into thunderous applause.
“Hah! I would have paid good money to see that!” Ikkaku laughed, spirits lifted.
“If he hurt Cricket, I’m glad he got the beating he deserved,” Ermine said with a grin.
Uni smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling happily. “When you see Straw Hat again, shake his hand for me! That guy’s a dick.”
Even Law was put in a better mood, though there was still a malicious edge to his smirk. “Good on Mugiwara-ya. Still wouldn’t mind doing some permanent damage to the fucker myself, though. Bad enough he insulted my crew, but that bastard should pick his idols more carefully.”
Nami’s brow furrowed at that. His idols? The hell did that mean?
She didn’t have time to vocalizing that question, though. Sweat ran down her neck when said smirk then took a more lecherous edge as he rested his chin on his fist, eyes glinting with mischief. “But Sarquiss-ya tried to buy you? I might have prioritize kicking his ass, then. I’m the only one who gets to be your sugar daddy.”
“Oh shut up! You didn’t even buy me new shoes!”
“You got her a suit but no shoes? For shame, Boss,” Ikkaku giggled, getting up to help Seiuchi and Jude clear the tables. “I thought you were supposed to be a ladies’ man.”
“I’m a cruel bastard who doesn’t do something for nothing. She can borrow yours.”
Sauntering over, she playfully poked him in the forehead. “Says who?”
Law snorted and childishly poked her right back. “Me. Your captain. The guy who pays your salary.”
“You pay me to keep the submarine running and sass you when you’re being an idiot.”
“I don’t pay you for that.”
“Mmmm, you’re right; that’s a service I provide for free.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say those two were siblings,” Nami chuckled under her breath.
“Right? When I was first recruited I was convinced they were secretly related,” Uni agreed.
Bepo gave them both a smile and said quietly, “I think it’s good for them. Especially Law. I think he secretly likes having a little sister again.”
Brown eyes widened at that little tidbit. Law had a sister? What happened to her? Bepo had stated the past tense, so there was either some kind of falling out or…
…oh no, she thought, turning to watch Law continue to bicker good-naturedly with Ikkaku, his expression annoyed but the glimmer in his eyes belying that he was enjoying himself. Another piece of the puzzle that was the Surgeon of Death had fallen into her lap, but it wasn’t a particularly happy one. Sure, people died or were killed all the time, but Nami couldn’t imagine what she’d be like if she’d lost Nojiko. And depending on how young they’d been or how she’d died, that could really fuck with a guy.
“Nami-ya.”
Her attention was yanked from her musing as Law called her name. He was on his feet, plate clean and smirk dangerous as he regarded her. Nami wondered whether this would be the last time she’d see him in a genuinely good mood for the rest of the evening. “It’s seven o’clock. Time to get ready to watch history be defiled by pretentious morons. And for your obnoxious thunder god’s sake, make sure you’re wearing shoes you can actually run in.”
( @ninhaoma-ya, @awesomi, @vannahfanfics)
#Fic: Welcome to the Heart Pirates#lawna#trafalgar law x nami#Trafalgar D. Water Law#lawnami#op fanfiction#op fanfic#heart pirates#heart pirate nami#ikkaku one piece#one piece ikkaku#uni one piece#law x nami#cat burglar nami#one piece nami#nami
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silence and noise (nesta x cassian)
Hey everyone! I’ve been wanting to publish something of these two for a long time but never actually found the courage untile now. I apologize for any mistakes you may find. Please read it and let me know what you think, even criticism is well accepted as long as it helps me grow and get better in what I love to do. I hope you are all well, God bless you and enjoy.
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read on ao3
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The walls became narrower and narrower. It was a dark room, the darkness solid enough to climb all the way up over her legs, torso, arms, and chest. Yes, the darkness tightened her chest, overbearing.
"Surrender" whispered in her ear with her muffled voice. But Nesta could not respond.
She continued to drown. And drown.
"Nesta" she called her.
Her name sounded like a hiss. "Nesta", another voice was added. And another one.
She closed her eyes, trying to drive away the noise but with no result. She could not send the darkness away, she could not silence the voices.
She tried and tried again every night. But it was all useless.
So, she surrendered.
-------
She woke up reeling, her hands clasped to her heart as if this would be enough to calm its tumult.
It was still late at night, barely a ray of moonlight came in through the window.
Nesta closed her eyes, inhaled deeply for a few seconds and then let her breath go.
The process had to be repeated for a good half an hour before it took effect. When her heart finally calmed down, the woman decided to get out of bed and head for the kitchen.
This wasn't the first time she had a nightmare, nor was it the first time this particular scenario had tormented her like this. She did not understand its meaning, and most of the time she preferred to forget rather than think about it.
Cassian's small house was cozy. A medium-sized cottage, clearly not intended to be shared with several people. The bare walls showed signs of aged paint. Everything was reminiscent of the past, a small casket suspended in time.
Sometimes, Nesta felt she could get used to that simple life. She had been living there for a few months now. She was not happy, yet she could not say she was sad. Somehow, staying away from Velaris made it easier for her to ignore some of her demons.
The male who lived with her tried every day to knock down her walls, never discouraged by how his fire went out once it fell on the stone fortress she had built. Cassian burned with a living fire. It was very different from the chilling one that consumed Nesta.
He was as welcoming as the four walls that housed her, and like the latter, she felt as if he were surrounding her.
He was in everything she did, in everything she thought, in the few times she opened her mouth. He flowed in her veins like her blood, and while everything seemed to her as a fruit of her own mind, he was an undeniable reality for her. Maybe that was the reason why sometimes she found it hard to face. Reality had the bad habit to make her suffocate, and the only solution , the only way she could breathe again was by ignoring it completely. And yet, the darkness followed her around. Sometimes quietly, not making a sound. Other times louder and louder, inviting her to welcome her embrace. This were the times where she had to fight with all of her fragile strength, and also the moments when she thought most of giving up. Cassian saw it all. Like her darkness, sometimes he stood by her silently. Other times, he made noise. He provoked her, sometimes screamed at her, sometimes teased her. As if he wanted his light to overcome her.
For this reason, she was not surprised when she entered the kitchen and found him sitting in a chair, silent.
His arms were resting on the table. His head tilted, his defeated gaze pointed at the wood as if it could reveal some hidden truth to him.
She knew that he had heard her footsteps and felt her closeness, yet he did not look up.
"Can't you sleep either?" he only asked her in a soft voice.
Nesta answered with a small sound of assent.
He looked up at her, who stood in front of the door.
He pointed a chair at her with his hand, inviting her to sit down.
"I will prepare a herbal tea," he said, and he stood up without waiting for her answer.
The woman had the impression that he was not doing it to do her a favor, but rather to have something to do, a goal although small.
For once, she did not stop him.
She was too tired even to fight, she realized. And from the way his shoulders were curved, she knew that the same was true for him.
Neither of them could sleep well at night.
Sometimes Nesta would hear him fidgeting in his bed, whispering words in a language she did not know, but which seemed familiar to her because of the desperation with which they were pronounced. Other times, on those nights when all she could do was stare at the ceiling hoping that it would collapse on her, she would hear him get out of bed and wander around the house like a ghost, looking for something.
Those were the times when Nesta felt a strange instinct making room inside her, to move the blankets and go to him, just to make him aware of her presence. She would not tell him anything, she would just show herself to him. She would show herself.
What would have changed? How would it have helped him? She did not know.
But when, at the beginning of her alcohol detoxification, she had found herself hugging the toilet and throwing up whatever was still in her stomach, he was there.
He never went into the bathroom with her, knowing that she did not want to be seen in that painful state.
He remained outside the closed door, invisible to her eyes but present.
He wouldn't leave until her pulse calmed down. When her ears would ring from the pain, from the voices who did not shut up inside her head, she would find herself concentrating on his heartbeat. It marveled her how fast it was, a continuous sound, that managed to distract her mind. There were times when that heartbeat lulled her to sleep, so she often fell asleep on that cold floor, but miraculously woke up on the warm bed.
Cassian was as attracted to her coldness as she was to his warmth. And while neither of them ever wanted to admit that somehow their souls were always searching each other in the dark, they both welcomed the crumbs that the other left them.
Cassian put a steaming cup of tea in front of her. She whispered a "thank you" and drank. For a long moment, neither of them said a word.
"Is it to your liking?" asked the male in front of her.
She looked at him. Seeing him so tired made her heart ache a little bit, but her face remained unreadable when she replied "I will be satisfied", her tone the personification of superiority.
He laughed slightly.
"What would I do without your sweet words, darling?"
"It doesn't concern me," she replied, and then "don't call me that".
"Admit it, you actually love it when I call you that". He came slightly closer when he said those words. She didn’t know if the teasing was just a device to get his own mind off whatever was keeping him from rest, from peace.
Nesta puffed annoyed, hoping this would hide the slight redness that had risen to her cheeks due to the proximity. Even after months, she couldn’t stop herself. Mostly so when she felt this vulnerable.
"I would say that you say these things to sleep better at night but clearly, this is not the case".
Cassian burst out laughing, throwing his head back. The sound sent a vibration inside her, and she chilled a little.
He looked at her with his eyes wide open. "Did I really just hear a joke from Nesta Archeron?"
"Please don't let anyone hear you. I have a reputation"
Cassian whistled, "I don't think people could be less terrified of you even if you were to pursue a career as a court jester, sweetheart."
Nesta smiled a little. When he described her that way, he did so with admiration and respect. Almost as if she were a dreaded general like him.
It made her wonder if he saw her that way, as an equal. It wasn’t a thing men did when confronted to her. She knew she didn’t meet the expectations of human society, that as a woman she wasn’t meant to be proud and strong-willed. Ever since she was a kid, she had hoped inside of her that she could change the rules somehow. Be just as the heroines in her precious books, and make a man fall in love with her just by existing. But she had learnt the hard way that somehow dreams were just meant to be that. Thomas had proved it to her. And yet, Cassian was everything she never expected a man to be. Especially towards a woman. He was teasing and provoking, sure. But he could also be gentle and respectful. He never forced himself on her, defying her most profound fears. Instead, he waited patiently for her to give him what she wanted, even if she knew her drops left him unsatisfied.
"You are not terrified of me, though," she reminded him.
He sneered, "Oh no, the truth is danger has an annoying tendency to attract me."
She laid her arms on the table and leaned a little towards him. She couldn't help but notice the way his jaw tightened, and his eyes fell for a brief moment on her lips.
A thrill of energy burst inside her, enjoying the distraction that this conversation was giving her.
"Are you saying I'm dangerous, General?"
"Terribly."
In response, she smiled.
They continued to observe each other, two tired souls awakened by the same desire. It would have been so easy to abandon herself in his arms, allowing him to hold her tight to himself until he suffocated her.
But this would have given him a power that Nesta was not ready to give away.
She didn't know if she would ever be.
She desired him. And yet, the idea of lowering her defenses for a time, even just to have sex, terrified her.
And she was sure that no matter what she repeated to herself, sleeping with him would please her heart as much as her body.
And she could not allow it.
In Cassian's eyes seemed to burn the same battle.
Their faces were a few inches away. She could see the way he looked at her.
If only she had come a little bit closer, just a little bit -
"What nightmare won't let you sleep?" he suddenly asked her.
She violently withdrew, as if someone had slapped her in the face.
She had forgotten her dream.
"What do you care?" she asked him abruptly.
How dare he bring her back to reality like that? But as she demanded it to herself, with rage, she also gave herself the answer: he is as real as a forest fire can be. She could pretend he was not there, but that wouldn’t stop him from getting closer and closer, until she could feel her skin burn, she could feel herself be marked by him. There was no way to stop it. And again, the only solution was to run away. To build a tower that was so high, so hard, that all his fire could was to accept the defeat.
He shrugged "Simple curiosity."
But from the way he kept staring at her, Nesta knew it was much more than that.
"What is it? Are you anxious to tell your beloved High Lady that her devastated sister can't sleep at night?" she spat poisonously.
Cassian stiffened.
Feyre was a delicate subject between them. His loyalty to her sister made her angry. No one seemed to notice the faults of the young fae, or rather they decided to justify them without too much thought.
"She cares about you," he replied, just as she expected.
She snorted. "Sure, because my little sister is so good and dear, isn't she? She is doing all of this for me, not to get rid of a dead weight."
Cassian stood up and stood in front of her. His fists were clenched.
"Don't talk like that" he imposed.
She remembered his face in battle, his eyes lit up with rage, his body alive and full of a force capable of destroying everything around him.
She remembered his words
I have no regret but this.
No. Nesta repelled those thoughts with all her strength, closing herself in her coldness.
She watched him recognize her defense mechanism instantly. Cassian's face changed.
"I think I'll go to bed now," she announced, before she could turn around and climb the stairs ignoring the male who called for her blood like a siren, he grasped her hand. They both seemed to paralyze at the gesture. They were brought back in time, at a terrible night who had scarred them deeper than they could admit. Nesta looked at him in the eyes, daring him to plead her as he did when she broke his heart. But he didn’t. Instead, he let go gently, and with a tired tone he asserted ”I wish I could hate you.”
It was a punch she didn’t expect, but she knew she deserved. She did not know what hurt more: the fact that he had tried to feel like that towards her, or his impossibility of him to do so despite everything, despite her. She climbed the stairs with fury.
She reached the door to her room quickly, anxious to get rid of that annoying feeling that had been insidious in her belly. That desire to scream, to destroy something, to fight.
She closed her eyes as soon as she was in her room.
She breathed deeply, then let her breath go, trying to catch her control again. For a moment, there was only the dark inside her room. No sound was made by either of them, as if scared of the consequence it could cause. If only a few words could make her burn and get cold at once, what would happen if they were to sit down and actually have a discussion about every single thing they felt? Before she could go back to bed, though, she heard his voice faintly whisper "you are not a dead weight".
She stopped in front of her bed for a moment. And, before she could stop it, before she could go back to pretend that nothing could ever touch her, a quiet tear slid on her cheek.
#nesta archeron#cassian#nessian#nesta x cassian#nesta and cassian#acotar#nessian fan fiction#nessian one shot#acotar fan fiction#acotar one shot#nessian fic#nessian fanfic#nessian fanfiction
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ship requests
“Hey 👋 . Can I get a male HP ship (from both eras if possible) pls . Thank u so much ! . So I m a Gryffindor (with a bit of Slytherin ) . In my free time , I would love to read fantasy or sci-fic novels or facts maybe , listen to music , research about anything I want to , do something my parents denied me off maybe . If my friends are available , I'll also go downstairs with them and play . I m not as such interested in sport but I love to play cricket and badminton . My hobbies are dancing , horseriding , reading , researching , cyber and swordfighting (I haven't done it yet tho). I love the trope of fake relationship or enemies to lovers
Next is my personality . Well , I can be shy if I m not comfortable with the person , but if I am then I am very talkative . I don't trust ppl at the beginning until they prove themselves . I m very reliable and trustworthy but I tend to hide my emotions . I like my privacy, I don't even share that with my bestie sometimes . I come off as a rebel and I can get annoyed very easily . I love to organise a room . Everyone comes to me for advice . I also have a very good sense of humour which comes out in front of ppl I'm comfortable (they say I never used to fail to surprise them with my hidden qualities) . I m also quite modest . I m a risk-taker and I always stand up to my friends , I also have their back sometimes . I can also be a bully to my enemies or my friend's enemies but only if they start it first . Idk what is it , but ppl tell me I carry a powerful aura and many boys get attracted to me . Also , the popular ones used to attract to me a lot because I could be seen as a quiet nerdy girl . I come off as very unique at first meeting . I m practical with my decisions but as said , I hide my emotions or else the emotions would have led me. I m also a human lie detector , or that's what my family tells me . The thing that stands out in me isy dressing style . I am very curious. I m also very much mysterious . I m loyal to a fault . Now my flaws are that sometimes I don't believe my friends at all and it hurts them since they ask me to be honest and I tell them the truth . I can be blunt and cold without realising it but I don't mean to . I am an extrovert so keeping me from doing something can make me insecure . I m sensitive to criticism . I can be super suspicious, like a looott . I hate when ppl try to control me, even my parents so I end up going against them or I follow their instructions half-heartedly . I can be very very stubborn . I also get many intuitions but I ignore them . I hate when ppl are unreliable , everyone's lazy but atleast they should do their work after some rest . I also hate arrogant boastful PPL . I hate when someone disrespects me and I immediately cut them off from my life . I hate lame excuses given by the ppl whom I expect something to do and they didn't. I am very patient but once they cross their lines , they wish they hadn't . I guess this is too much ? (Lol sorry but excited ) Thank u so much for ur time dear 💗”
a/n: Hi! Thank you for so many details!! It’s lovely. You also asked for TMR ship, so I’ve decided to do a HP form one era and one for TMR. Hopefully, you are okay with that:)
p.s.: sorry for being a Draco slaughter. i’m also doing all the other requests, thank you for them!! they are going to be trade in a day or two. sending love <3
Harry Potter:
I ship you with Fred Weasley
(so badly, you’re a perfect match)
First of all... being stubborn and taking risks is something that you probable have in common, which is going to create a perfect enemies to lovers dynamic. Maybe academic/prancing rivalry?
You constantly mocking each other, but not meaning any harm or anything, even though others might think that you hate one another
Him always helping you to break the rules if needed, but still making sure that everything is alright, and everyone is safe. And you would keep an eye on him back, supporting him when he doesn’t know what to do
He would be surprised when you started to open up, and crack jokes, but would love them so badly. And he definitely is very grateful whenever (and if) you chose to tell him something private, and wouldn’t tell anyone else even if he was tortured
You would always give amazing ideas for the shop products. And he would be like: “Where do you know that from?” “Don’t know, just thought it was interesting and decided to investigate”
You were walking in the dull lights of a corridor from the late detention in the Snape’s dungeons. You got this one for arguing with a certain Weasley. This was entirely his fault, though, but he didn’t get caught, and you could still see the stupid smirk on his stupid face when you were assigned to come down here after classes. The Slytherin do was just nearby, and you heard a couple of voices around the corner. You were hopping these were some of your friends from Slytherin, but as you listen closely you herald none other than Malfoy. “These Weaslebeeys are ignorant trash just like their father. Who’s would willingly study what muggles’ life’s are like? That’s just dumb”you didn’t know whether he was just showing off in front of his friends or if he was being serious, but you were furious at the moment.
“Malfoy!” - you energetically approached the group.
“Another gryffindor”, - he smirked. “Why don’t you spend an evening at your dorm or some other lame place?”
“Cut it. Take it back” - you face was almost stone cold. Eyes glimmering dangerously in the flickering light.
“Are you defending the Weaslebees?” - he grimaced, being so proud of himself for no reason.
“It’s not their name, and they don’t need any defense. You’re being an arrogant prick towards my friends, and I’m not going to tolerate that.” - you were stiff, your fists clenched in order to hold back the anger. How dared he speak in such diminishing manner about people 100 times better than him!
“What are you going to about it?” He replied cheekily, stepping forward.
“Well... I don’t know, how about TheLocomotor Wibbly!” - you were gripping tightly onto your wand, and Draco suddenly fell to the floor. His legs turned to jelly.
“You little...” one of his friends pointed your wand towards you, opening his mouth to jinx you back. Suddenly there was a loud bang, everything was covered with the thick smoke, and you were pulled to the corner. You instinctively pointed a wand on the person in front of you, still unable to see anything.
“Easy, lady” you recognized the voice. “Fred? What are doing here?” you were genuinely surprised, and started wondering how much has he heard. “Came to rescue you from the Snape’s claws” he smirked. “Why?” you didn’t understand a thing. “No fun being brilliant if you can’t see that and get jealous” - he cocked his eyebrows. You huffed back. “Well, thank you, I suppose.” “Oh good, I thought I’d never hear that”. You surprised a smile. “Let’s move already”.
“By the way”, he stopped you, “did I hear you calling me a friend?” You nudged his shoulder. “Don’t think too much of it, Weasley”.
The maze runner:
I ship you with Gally
He’s the one to understand you not opening up fully and immediately and keeping things to yourself for 110%. He’s mysterious himself, and he can give you every time in the world (sorry, i’m love him sm)
Again... the enemies to lovers dynamic, ESPECIALLY considering the whole thing with him killing Chuck (still hurts, though).
He can be very protective from time to time, so you can have “Because I care for you!!” arguments when you’re being reckless and decide to risk in order to save him.
He's honestly the sassy king of the show. Taking your sense of humour in account, I belive that he would really appreciate that you have it and can back him up. So you would exchange jokes back and forth
He's also absolutely giving you every freedom in the world not even attempting to control you or tell you what to do, he would only give out advices. And as far as he realises you're sensitive to crticizm, he starts to control himself in order not to hurt you.
"Please, never do that again". You and Gally were walking around the Last City, back to the shelter.
"Do what?" You asked, raising your head to the boy slightly ahead of you.
"You know what I'm talikng about". He turned his head to you, and stopped in the shaddow of the narrow street between the houses. His gaze was pretty serious, and both of you were extremely tired after yet another mission in attempt to undermine the existing regime.
"I don't think I do". You looked up at him with the confusion in your eyes.
"What you did back there was very risky, and you could have not make it. Don't risk like that ever again".
"But the cranks would've gotten you then". You protested. In your opinion, what you did was the only option.
"I appreciate the concern, but I could I handle it". He was starting to get stubborn, while you were getting angry.
"That's not true. One of them was hanging on your throat. That's not something people cal 'I handle it'". You threw your arms in the air, gesturing.
"I'm not letting them take me instead of you!" Gally was almost shouting at this point.
"Well, I'm not letting them take you either!"
"Great!"
"Great!"
You both went silent and were walking angrily towards your shelter, turning, sneaking, and hiding.
"Gally". You called in a few minutes. "It's just that I really care about you".
"I know". He told you, looking back again. "Just promise me, you're going to be careful".
"You know I really can't promise, but at least I'll try".
#ship requests#reader#reader insert#x reader#y/n#the maze runner#tmr#gally#gally x reader#the death cure#hp#harry potter#fred weasley x reader#fread weasley#weasley twins#fred and goerge weasley#golden era#hp x reader#submission
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OISIN - 4* CASTER - PROFILE
Under the read more!
Summon: “My name is Oisin. I am a poet – and now, I am your Caster-class Servant. Though our time together won’t last forever, I’m glad to meet you, Master."
Initial Information:
A beautiful poet, blessed with eternal youth and wisdom. Though he is a great knight, he is most famous for his silver tongue, which has preserved the legends of many heroes in what is now called the "Fenian" or "Ossianic" Cycle of Irish mythology.
Passive Skills
Territory Creation A
Item Construction C
Divinity C
Active Skills
Heroic Legacy A – Increase defense for three turns and clear own debuffs, increase attack and star generation for all allies for three turns.
Blessings of Youth A – Apply invincibility for 3 turns, apply Arts, Quick, and Buster up for 3 turns. Costs 9 critical stars.
Storyteller B – Drain all enemy NP charge, increase own NP charge, increase party NP gain for 3 turns.
NOBLE PHANTSAM: Dord Fianna – the War Cry to Defend Humanity (QUICK)
Area of effect Noble Phantasm that deals damage to all enemies, special bonus damage to any Threat to Humanity trait enemies. Applies defense down, critical strength down, and slight chance to inflict Terror status to all enemies. Applies attack up, critical strength up, and NP damage up to all allies for 3 turns.
Lines - Room
Idle: “Master, are you doing anything right now? If you’re bored, I can show you the song I’m working on now. No? You’d rather go outside? Well, that’s alright, too. I’ll tag along.”
Master-Servant Relationship: “I’m used to working, living, and fighting alongside others, so this situation is fine for me. Honestly, it brings back pleasant memories.”
Opinion of Master: “I could write a thousand songs about your adventures. I really do consider it to be a privilege to fight at your side!”
Scheherazade: “I think she and I could have a lot in common. And so beautiful too… hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m happily married, you know!”
Author Servants: “There are a lot of very talented people here. I consider myself a formidable opponent, but I think I’ll work a little harder, regardless of that. [laugh]”
Saints: “It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I can’t really understand them. I have my reasons, but that may be the one story I’m not interested in telling.”
Irish Servants: “There are so many famous heroes here from ages past. Of course, I already know the tales by heart but I wonder if there would be any differences in the first-hand accounts…”
Diarmuid: “Diarmuid! It’s been too long since I’ve seen your face! Master, this is the only person in the world who is smarter than my father. He always used to beat us at chess, and that’s just the start of it. I’m sure you already know. What? Oh, don’t be modest! And here – look! I brought you some letters from your relatives. They say you hardly ever visit anymore and – hey, where are you going?!”
Fionn: “Ahh… It’s good to see him in his prime like this. He seems to be very at ease here. Seeing that he’s able to smile and relax like this… honestly, he looks just as Mother always described him. Ah, wait a moment. Please don’t ever tell him I said that.”
Lines – Battle
DECK: QQ/AA/B
Start 1: “Just because I am an artist doesn’t mean that I can’t do battle when I need to.”
Start 2: “That look on your face… I have to wonder if you’re not taking me seriously. Well, it can’t be helped. Best of luck to you!”
Skill 1: “This is the blessing I was given.”
Skill 2: “Hmm… still a bit out of tune.”
Skill 3: “With the strength of my own limbs.”
Skill 4: “With actions that will match my speech.”
Attack: [IDK SOME NOISE]
Extra Attack 1: “With purity in our hearts!”
Extra Attack 2: “You won’t underestimate me a second time!”
Noble Phantasm Activation: “If the time has come to defend humanity – then I will serve with all the power I have.”
Noble Phantasm 1: “For the things we have forgotten, and for all that we have to gain – there is something that I, too, must protect. I swear that I shall defeat all evil in the world. With the purity of our hearts – Dord Fianna!”
Noble Phantasm 2: “This is a story of those who stood should to shoulder to defend humanity's destiny, from all that would covet and destroy it. No matter when, or where, we will always rise to meet this challenge. This is our sacred duty – Dord Fianna."
Noble Phantasm 3: “This hunting horn is not for making music – if you’re skittish, you might want to cover your ears. Listen – to our sacred battle cry!”
Injured 1: “Rude!”
Injured 2: “At least make sure to avoid my face!”
Incapacitated 1: “It seems that… once again… I can’t stay beside you until the end… I’m… sorry…”
Incapacitated 2: “It’s always like this, huh… Strange… this time, it doesn’t hurt…”
Victory 1: “I told you from the start. Before I am an artist, I am also a knight!”
Victory 2: “You know, I think I could make a song about this victory. Someone give me a tune! Hey… wait a minute… why are you all walking away?”
Bond 1: “You know, Master, I spent a long time out of human society. So, I need you to tell me to my face if I ever say something strange. Seriously. I’m not joking. I really don’t know what people talk about these days. I’m counting on your guidance.”
Profile 1: Oisin, the son of the legendary hero Fionn MacCumhail. Because his father had already eaten the Fish of All Knowledge, he was gifted from birth with wisdom and a quick wit. His name literally means "little deer" or "fawn."
Bond 2: “What was it like, growing up with such a famous father? Well, that’s a difficult question. Father has always been good to me. I’ve always felt that the Fianna were my family. Even the most loving and tight knit families sometimes fight… and even so… hm. I wonder… …Um, sorry. [slightly nervous laugh] What was I saying again?”
Profile 2: The story of Oisin's birth is a tragedy. His mother, Sadhbh, was Fionn's second wife. Though they were madly in love, his mother had another suitor, who was a cruel and wicked mage. One day, when Fionn was out hunting, the mage lured the pregnant Sadhbh out of their home by impersonating her husband, and transformed her into a deer before loosing her in the forest.
When Fionn returned to their home and found it empty, he immediately marshaled his knights and began to search for them, leaving no stone under-turned.
Eventually, the toddler Oisin was recovered - but his mother was never seen again.
Bond 3: “Yes, yes. My wife is the most beautiful woman in the world. Every man says that about his wife, but in my case, it’s actually true! She’s a wonderful, wonderful woman, and her family always treated me so kindly. I simply lost track of time, that’s all. Yes, I always meant to go back and visit, but the opportunity always… Eh? I trailed off again? I’m not sure why I keep getting lost in thought. Anyway, let’s talk about something else.”
Profile 3: Fionn was never the same after Sadhbh's disappearance. Plunged into a deep mourning, it was said that his entire personality shifted, until he was nearly a shadow of his former, magnanimous self. It was Oisin who volunteered to seek a new bride for his father, perhaps desperate to see his father smile again. It was these events that eventually lead to the Pursuit, another tale that is narrated in the Fenian Cycle.
Bond 4: “Was it hard? Yes, I suppose it was. All the places that I had loved, and all the people I had loved were gone. Even my own father. Even my first son. And then, I was even stupid enough to fall off my horse. Hah. Sorry, Master, I’ll go now. No, no. It’s alright. It’s just that I would never want you to see me like that. That’s all.”
Profile 4: Like the other Knights of Fianna, Oisin lived a long life full of adventures too numerous to recount in full. He married a fairy woman and went to live in Tir na Nog, the land of eternal youth. Eventually, he decided to return to the mortal world to visit his family. His wife gifted him a magical horse, and told him that he would not be able to dismount, or the blessings of eternal youth that he had been granted would disappear.
When Oisin emerged from the Land of Youth, he discovered that 300 years had passed, and the Fianna had all but completely disappeared.
Bond 5: “I will make sure that they remember you. I’ll fight beside you until the end – and then, I’ll make sure that the world remembers you. Really, it’s the least that I can do. But let’s not talk about depressing things. For some reason, I’ve been wanting to write a love song lately. What do you think? ‘Too early…’ It’s never too early for beautiful music! [laughing] Really, you ought to enjoy life a little more, Master.”
Profile 5: DORD FIANNA - The War Cry to Defend Humanity. A war cry to strike fear in the hearts of humanity's enemies, a power that can wake sleeping kings.
This Noble Phantasm would not normally belong to Oisin. It is said, in Ireland, that their great hero Fionn is not dead, but slumbers beneath a mountain, surrounded by his loyal knights, and that the one who blows upon his hunting horn will rise him from his sleep. When he rises, he will resume his duties, to protect humanity.
But the stories of the Fianna exist in the modern age because, after emerging from Tir na Nog, Oisin wrote them all down. Using his talents for word and song, he told the tales of valor and heroism and adventure, the stories of his friends and family to anyone who would listen. After an accident caused him to fall from the horse that should have carried him back to his beloved wife, Oisin lay dying, feeling each of those 300 years seep back into him, even as he desperately tried to finish the story he was telling.
So in this form, the Dord Fianna is not a war cry, but more like a song.
Bonus Profile, Post Interlude: In one version of the story of Oisin, he encounters a certain saint while traveling around Ireland. The saint listens to the knight's tales, but even so, because Oisin is still a pagan and an immortal himself, he and the saint don't get along very well and part on bad terms. Even though Oisin claims that it wasn't like that, and even so, he never holds grudges, he still can't help but make a face whenever the saint's name comes up in conversation.
#fate grand order#fgo#servant oc#fate servant#fgo oc#servant profile#lemme know what yall think about my Boy
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You’re Brave (Part 2/2) - Levi x Reader
Link to Part One
Synopsis: You’ve been losing sleep because you’ve been hearing noises in your bedroom at night and you think you’re being haunted. Levi makes plans to help put your mind at rest and later helps to investigate the source of the noises in your bedroom.
Warnings: No smut but a brief mention of sex. Just fluff.
The abandoned house was eerily quiet despite its lack of windowpanes (and even a roof in some parts of the building) exposing it to the whistling wind and distant murmur of people heading home for the night in Trost. A bitter breeze crept through the building, slowly shifting between bodies as if taking its time to scrutinise the people who dare obstruct its path. Some of the brick walls had crumbled into a pile of debris on the floor while others were barely intact, seemingly held together by the graffiti sprayed onto the stone. The house felt as if it were one harsh gust of wind away from disintegrating into the ground, its history buried with it like an avalanche of memories provoked by the quaking of the present.
We were stood in a decrepit foyer as our tour guide explained its past and the people that used to live there, along with stories of ghost sightings in this room. A decaying painting was leaning against the wall – a portrait of someone once noble but now their legacy is far less grand. Despite its face worn away and hardly visible, its unnerving stare sent a chill up my spine. I shuffled towards Levi and when he noticed my apprehension he positioned himself between the painting and me so I was no longer in its line of sight. I’m sure he moved his body nearer to mine, but it was most likely something he was unaware of as opposed to an active effort to stand even closer to me. Nevertheless, the feeling of his bicep and part of his chest pressed against my back, coupled with his slow and soft breath brushing past my ear, was titillating.
“Excuse me, sir.” Levi spoke when our tour guide asked if we had any questions. I could feel his deep voice resonating through my body as it vibrated through his chest, causing my knees to tremble slightly and butterflies to frantically flutter in my stomach as if they had just been released from a killing jar. “What are the signs that a building is haunted?” I shivered as his breathing near my ear resumed and Levi, assuming that I was cold, adjusted my jacket to ensure that my skin was not exposed to the cool air. Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Ackerman?
“Well, you’ve got ya classic signs: items fallin’ off shelves, hearin’ strange noises, doors openin’ or closin’, candles goin’ out. Ya might also notice some cold spots around yer house. Those are the most common signs, but in rare cases ya might actually see some shadows or even an apparition.” The tour guide paced around the room and counted off his fingers with confidence as he answered Levi’s question.
“At the risk of sounding like a sceptic, couldn’t those things be explained by, I don’t know. . . the wind?” He protested and I didn’t need to look at Levi to know that his expression was unimpressed. I could picture his face in my mind: eyebrows slightly furrowed with apathetic eyes and his mouth in a straight line across his face.
“I s’pose it depends on the context of the situation – it might be a bit silly to attribute strange happenin’s in yer house to the wind when, say, there are no windows open. Anyway, let’s move on to the next room.” The guide panicked as he attempted to persuade us against Levi’s apparent ignorance.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not convinced.” Levi whispered into my ear and I momentarily froze on the spot, my knees almost giving out and falling to the floor like a house of cards collapsing at the sound of his voice so close to my skin.
I agreed with him though; those things that our tour guide said could be attributed to the wind, so I didn’t think he could say anything that would convince me that this building was haunted, especially because the windows were all smashed and I could feel the wind in every room. Any activity that was claimed to be supernatural in this house could have, in fact, been caused by the wind. It did put my mind at ease somewhat when I realised that my wardrobe activity was unlike any of the ‘classic signs’ of a haunting that our guide mentioned, so it was unlikely to be due to ghosts. I still had no explanation for that, though, and that irked me more than anything.
The next room we visited was a large kitchen with a pantry at the far end of the room, darkness engulfing the doorway. After the tour guide had given his speech about the room, he invited us to look around and I took it as an opportunity to ask him a question of my own.
“Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me? I’ve been having an issue in my bedroom for the last couple of nights and I was thinking it might be haunted? You see, I’ve been hearing noises from my wardrobe as if it were shaking violently and last night a painting even fell off my wall.” I sheepishly explained my predicament to him, part of me was hoping he would be able to give me an explanation so I at least had an answer – ghosts or not – while the other part was wishing he was clueless so I would be certain that this man’s arguments lacked any credibility.
“Ah, yes, definitely sounds like you’ve got a ghost. I don’t s’pose you’ve told ya friend over there? Let me guess, he said it was caused by an earthquake?” He chuckled to himself as he nodded his head in Levi’s direction. An earthquake would have been a reasonable explanation to be honest, but it’s unlikely that two earthquakes would hit only my bedroom at the same time in two consecutive nights.
“Well, he didn’t say anything actually.” That’s not entirely true, he said ‘spooky’, but the tour guide didn’t need to know that.
“That’s the thing with sceptics – they’ve always got some sort of ‘scientific explanation’ for everythin’, but as soon as it’s somethin’ that doesn’t fit with their beliefs they’ve got nothin’ to say.” I didn’t appreciate the hostility in his tone as he spoke about Levi and my shoulders tensed up as I felt defensive. I had already made my mind up that I wasn’t keen on this man, so out of stubbornness I decided not to take anything else he said too seriously.
“So how can I get rid of the ghost?” I asked him firmly just to silence any further criticism he could make of Levi.
“First you should burn some sage to cleanse ya room. Then you’ve gotta be firm and let ‘em know they’re not welcome an’ if that doesn’t work, hold a séance.” His tone was unconvincing and he sounded like he was just making all of this up as he spoke. Even if what he was saying was true, I doubt that telling the ghosts they are unwelcome in my room would work since I had already tried to politely reason with them last night and failed.
Another person who was taking the tour with us came to the guide to ask him some questions of their own, so I took my leave and looked for Levi. He was walking over to the pantry on his own and I mentally commended his bravery – I would not go inside a dark hole on my own in an abandoned building in the middle of the night, but he was humanity’s strongest soldier, of course he's brave. This was the perfect opportunity to test his courage, I thought, so I silently followed him and when he was alone in the pantry, I jumped through the doorway and playfully nudged his shoulder.
“Boo!” I shouted, but my attempt to scare him was in vain. Levi stood in front of me, almost invisible in the dark, with the same apathetic expression on his face. “How?!” I moaned, amazed that he was immune to my childish prank.
“I’m not scared of anything.” His tone was smug as he took a step closer to me, his face just a little bit more visible now because it was mere inches away from mine. There was a smirk on his lips – bigger than the one he wore in the mess hall that same morning – and I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. Did I make him smile? Even in the absence of light, with what little my eyes could see, I thought that he was beautiful and I wanted to kiss him right then and there. But what would happen if I did? Would it come as a surprise to him? Would he push me away? Would he pull me in?
I watched his lips, drunk on the rare sight of his smile, before two tourists made their presence known behind us as they chatted with each other about the unsettling aura of the house. Levi’s smirk faded and I was sober again with my hopes diminished. I could not kiss the captain for his ship had sailed.
As we left the pantry, I felt a pair of hands grab both of my shoulders and a disembodied voice shout a startled ‘ah!’ behind me. I flinched and let out a loud squeal in response, attracting the attention of everyone in the room.
“I’m sorry, I thought that would be funny.” Levi confessed and I relaxed my shoulders, internally smiling about him showing his playful side and getting revenge on me for trying to scare him. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just a little bit scared.” I chuckled and ran my hand through my hair as we walked towards the next room in the house.
“I guess you’ll just have to stay close to me if you’re that fearful.” Say less, Levi. I timidly wrapped my hand around his bicep and linked my arm with his as we walked. He looked down at me before he spoke again, “Your bedroom isn’t haunted, by the way. And setting fire to herbs won’t do anything other than make your room smell funny.” It was an attempt to reassure me that I had nothing to be scared of, and while it put my mind at ease, I wasn’t prepared to let go of his arm just yet. He didn’t move away from me, though, and I thought that it was probably because he felt guilty for scaring me and there was nothing more to it.
We returned to the barracks in the early hours of the morning. Admittedly, I paid more attention to Levi than the tour itself, especially after our guide had been so critical of my companion, I didn’t particularly want to listen to anything else he had to say. Besides, the feeling of Levi’s muscular arm linked with mine was overwhelming and I couldn’t concentrate on anything else, even if I wanted to. It’s safe to say that my thoughts were completely distracted from the supernatural, at least for the time being.
“Will you be alright?” Levi asked me after he walked me back to my bedroom.
“I think so. I wasn’t particularly convinced by what the tour guide was saying, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for what has been happening in my room. If any ghosts want to start shit tonight I’ll knock ‘em out.” I joked as I put my fists up and pretended to spar with the air. “Anyway, if the noises continue and they scare me, I’m just going to have to tell my brain to get over it because I need to confront my fears. If it’s going to become a regular thing, I can’t keep losing sleep over it.”
“You’re brave.” Levi patted the top of my head and I smiled at him in return. “If you do get scared and you want some company, just come and find me. Goodnight.” He turned around and walked down the hallway after I said goodnight to him in return, and when I entered my room and closed the door behind me, I fought the urge to scream and jump up and down in excitement. Just come and find me – I’m sure he wouldn’t just offer this to anybody, right? Somewhere in the back of my mind I was praying for another scare tonight just so I had an excuse to visit Levi. I shook the thoughts away, realising that what I told Levi was true: I need to confront my fears.
It wasn’t long after I hopped into bed that I heard the shaking noise sounding from my wardrobe again. I remembered Levi telling me that I’m brave before he left, and after hearing those words in my mind I decided to keep my eyes closed and ignore the noise. I pictured Levi in my head and thought about his chest pressed against my shoulder and his whispers in my ear to override the fear of the mysterious wardrobe noise.
This tactic didn’t work for long, however, because the familiar sound of my painting falling off the wall and crashing onto the ground filled my room. And in that moment all my thoughts ceased. My breath caught in my throat and my whole body tensed up as my heartbeat pounded in my chest and chills ran through me. No, I thought, Levi thinks I’m brave.
My hand tentatively grasped onto the covers and hesitantly pulled them away as I sat on the edge of my bed, my heart thumping against my ribcage. I took a few steps towards the wall to hang my painting back up, but before I could I heard a door creaking in the hallway outside my room. I’m brave, I repeated in my head as I tiptoed towards my door. After turning the doorknob and peeking through the gap I had created, I witnessed the silhouette of a woman walking down the hall in the darkness. Instinctively and out of fear, I slammed the door shut and pressed my back to it.
I felt pathetic as my breath was shaky and a tear escaped my eye; after all my time as a captain in the Survey Corps, after risking my life to save my comrades, this was the thing to almost break me. I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t an apparition, it was probably just someone going to the bathroom or getting a glass of water. But I wasn’t the best at persuading myself to think reasonable thoughts, I needed someone more convincing.
I’m brave, I said to myself, my voice shaky as I wiped away the few tears that ran down my cheek, and I opened my bedroom door and ran in search of Levi. I navigated the hallways, trying to stay quiet out of courtesy for everyone else who was sleeping, and I finally found myself outside Levi’s bedroom. Before I knocked on his door I made sure to compose myself; I couldn’t let him see me looking like a trembling mess. Levi opened the door almost instantly after I knocked three times, calmly and softly.
“Hello. You look like you’ve seen a- no, never mind, I said that one last night. Kuso. Are you alright?” Seeing the concern on his face was enough to distract me from my worries, at least for a brief moment.
“Funny you should say that, actually,” I chuckled nervously but it wasn’t enough to hide my fear, “the noise, i-it happened a-again and my painting fell off the wall again. Then, I heard a door opening and I looked into the hallway and saw a woman.” As I stood in his doorway, I waited for Levi to tell me that I was being ridiculous and I had nothing to be scared about. I waited for him to give me a logical explanation for what I just witnessed, but he didn’t say anything of the sort.
“We need to go and check this out.” He stepped out of his bedroom and closed the door behind him, then he motioned for me to lead the way and he walked down the hallway with me. “So let me get this straight: you heard someone opening a door and then you saw a woman and you immediately assumed. . . ghost?” His tone was a little condescending, but I didn’t mind it because I needed him to make me realise my thoughts were silly and clouded with fear.
“I realise it sounds quite stupid now that I think about it, but at the time I was scared so. . . I came straight to you.” I was embarrassed that I admitted to Levi that he was the first person I ran to in a time of crisis, but he didn’t mention it and instead linked his arm with mine as we walked. I was surprised by his gesture, but I realised that he probably did it to offer me some comfort after I did it to him when I was scared in the abandoned house.
“There’s no ghost.” He assured just before we arrived at my bedroom. I opened the door and I lit some candles after we stepped inside so that we weren’t in complete darkness and I could hang my painting back up on my wall.
The shaking noise from my wardrobe had stopped so we stood in silence for a while waiting for something to happen. It wasn’t long before the creaking of a door was heard in the hallway and my head quickly turned to face Levi. I ran towards the door and pulled him with me as I slowly turned the doorknob and poked my head out of the room. Levi’s body pressed against my back as he stuck his head through the gap in my door, the feeling reminiscent of when we were stood in the foyer of the abandoned building, but this time it was more than just his arm and a bit of his chest against my back. This time I could feel almost all of his chest and the hard abs on his torso, and my knees felt weak again as my breath hitched. Despite Levi’s cold exterior, his body was warm and inviting, and I resisted the temptation to lean back into his chest.
“There’s nobody there.” He whispered into my ear and again I felt myself shivering upon feeling his words on my skin. We stayed in the same position for quite some time before Levi moved away, the cool air on my back replacing his presence.
I closed the door and walked across my room towards my bed, but before I could get there the noise from my wardrobe resumed. My wide, anxious eyes met Levi’s as I pointed towards the furniture. He grinned slightly and shook his head, then proceeded to gently place his hand around my wrist and pull me inside the wardrobe. I didn’t have many clothes, so it wasn’t too much of a struggle to fit two adults inside, but our bodies were very close with our legs almost entangled.
“Eren’s bedroom is the one next to yours, right?” He whispered. I was unsure of why he was asking me this, but it made me realise that I could have asked Eren if he had been hearing strange noises in the middle of the night too.
“Y-yes.” I stuttered. The lack of distance between us caused my heart to race and my breathing was less controlled.
I think Levi mistook this for fear because he gently put his hand on my shoulder and said, “press your head against the wardrobe and listen carefully.” I did as he instructed and pressed my ear against the wood, unsure of what I was supposed to be listening to. And then I heard it. Through the connecting wall between Eren’s bedroom and mine, I heard the sound of a woman moaning Eren’s name and what I assumed to be his bed banging against the wall. I pulled my head away in disgust and due to the complete darkness in my wardrobe, I misjudged the distance between myself and the wood and ended up banging my head quite hard. Ow!
“Be careful, are you alright?” Levi asked as he reached his hand out to rub my head.
“Was that Eren and Mi-”
“Mikasa, yeah. The ghost that has been terrorising you these past few nights has actually been Eren and Mikasa going at it pretty hard. I heard the noise when I stayed here last night and this is what I heard when I investigated.” There was a brief pause as I processed the information that Levi was telling me, and then the silence in the air was broken when both of us burst into laughter. After hearing Levi’s laugh for the first time I noticed that it was beautiful and I wished that it would never end, but we both calmed down when I realised that he was still stroking my head. I softly placed my hand on top of his and lowered it so it was by my side before entwining my fingers between his. Levi took his free hand and cupped my cheek, his thumb stroking along my cheekbone.
“This reminds me – there was something I wanted to do back in that pantry.” He declared, his voice low and sensuous. He moved his face closer to mine so that our noses were touching and I could feel his soft breath against my skin. My hand squeezed his in anticipation as his hair brushed against my cheek and the centimetres between our lips felt like lightyears spanning over distant galaxies. He was a star shining brightly in the night sky that I would extend my hand out to touch before realising that it is too far out of my reach. But I would build a rocket and traverse the cosmos with my bare hands just to feel your lips against mine.
“May I kiss you?” Levi breathed and I lifted my hand and wrapped it around the back of his neck, my face yearning for his under the touch of his thumb.
“Yes.” I whispered. And as I closed my eyes his nose brushed against mine before I felt his soft lips press firmly onto my own. All of the anticipation that had built up suddenly exploded in a supernova of passion and I was being dragged into a black hole of desire, unable to escape the gravity of his taste that was pulling me into him.
Levi untangled his fingers from mine and wrapped his arm around my back to pull me closer to him, his other hand still caressing my cheek. I took my free hand and ran it through his hair before resting it on the back of his head. We pulled our faces away for a short moment as we regained our breath, but it wasn’t long until our lips were reunited, spiralling into an abyss of ardour where time ceased to exist.
I’m unsure of the amount of time that had passed while we were in my wardrobe – perhaps it was hours, maybe it was mere minutes – but we were interrupted by a loud bang coming from the opposite side of my wall.
“Your ghost is back.” Levi playfully nudged my arm as he guided me out of my wardrobe and back into the dim light of my bedroom.
“Oh, shush.” I turned away from him and pretended to sulk with my arms folded across my chest. He responded by gently pulling on my elbow so I faced him again, then he planted a delicate kiss on my forehead and my fake frown turned into a large, open-mouthed smile.
“You’re really cute when you’re scared, by the way.” Levi confessed before pulling me in for another kiss.
“Stop,” I whined, “I lost so much sleep over that whole ghost ordeal!”
“Well, you can rest easy now. Come on.” Levi led me to my bed and tucked me in, sitting himself on the edge while he held my hand.
“Please stay, I’m still terrified.” I pouted and widened my eyes in an attempt to convince him that I was still scared.
“I know that’s a lie, but fine.” Levi smirked as I lifted the blanket up and motioned for him to get under it. When he was comfortable he lifted his arm and I rested my head on his chest while I wrapped my arm around his waist.
Levi pressed his lips against my head one last time before I closed my eyes, drifting off into a dream incomparable to the one I was already living in.
#attack on titan x reader#attack on titan x you#levi ackerman#levi ackerman x reader#captain levi x reader#captain levi#attack on titan#attack on titan fic#levi ackerman fluff#levi ackerman fic#captain levi fanfiction#aot#aot fic#aot x you#aot x reader#snk x you#snk x reader#snk fic#shingeki no kyoujin levi#shingeki no kyojin x#shingeki no kyojin x reader
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