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steve0discusses · 2 years

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S5 Ep 32: Mahad’s Dead

Feels like a million years since I’ve actually sat down and done a Yugioh post, which is a shame, because Bakura was just about to do some nonsense.

Mahad has decided that he’s going to trap Bakura’s soul into this tablet which like...good luck, man.

and like if we are assuming that all of these blank Chekhov’s tablets are going to house demon souls from all of Yami’s dead friends that will eventually become our playing cards in the future...Bakura’s monster, diabound, is a card nowadays right? (And I mean he’s a modern card in the shows universe, I figure there’s like a billion versions of diabound by now in Yugioh proper) so ... at some point Pegasus made him into a card.

So I guess that means Bakura’s soul monster isn’t actually diabound. I think? I try not to think too much about that at this point cuz it is a little bit confusing.

Look at em go, doing this vertical wheelie drop in those flimsy wraps, upskirting everyone on Bakura’s front line. They’re living their best life. Me, personally, would be terrified about going this fast without at least one belt on my sarong, but strangely this is the only time in Yugioh no one has 5-20 belts each.

(Bakura stuff under the cut)

Meanwhile, inside the tomb, Bakura and Mahad are gonna have a card tablet fight against the diabound that Mahad already knows needs a freakin God card to win against. Mahad really thinks a lot of his magician powers, which youknow...that’s hubris for you.

Yugioh loves to go back to hubris as a reoccurring theme and I appreciate that in every season of Yugioh, that has always been a constant. Don’t tempt (card) gods, folks.

Diabound now has a new look, and it’s getting kind of complicated for the art team, who just have no idea where to properly put the snake on this guy without it looking like a problem, so they just go for it and let it be a problem. I mean why the hell not, he has a snake for a lower torso. You can’t make this not awkward.

Because I know a little bit about how this game actually works (Character Development on my part, can I just say) I actually looked up this card, and no where does it say “it gains the super powers of the monster it fought before” so um...really glad I learned how to play this game.

When’s car season? I only know the car deck, and apparently no one in Master Duel plays any of these anime cards except for like Blue Eyes White Dragon so all of this is still completely over my head.

There’s not enough cars in ancient Egypt man. But you know what is in Egypt?

A little bit of actual Egyptian, which was cute!

At first I was like “wow, way to out that you’re from modern day Japan, Bakura!” and then I remembered his past self isn’t even from Egypt, either. Bakura being quite meta here.

Anyway, it was time for Yami to get the hell out of bed, because Yugi and Yami both have a really damn hard time sleeping on this show. And, I guess it’s been so long since Yami had a body and had to go to sleep that he forgot a little bit about how one gets ready for bed. Please admire how much metallic jewelry this child wears to bed.

It’s worse than Yugi. Yami your magpie situation is wow. Four rings, four bangles, a stacked choker, Tea’s airport cartouche, earrings--THE HAT? He even slept in the hat??? (also his eye liner, but I’ll give that a pass. We have, all of us, every single one, slept in our makeup and woke up to a pillow that has that one little splotch of mascara. We have, all of us, every single one, taken that pillow and just flipped it over to cover our sleeping-in-makeup sins.)

From an artist perspective, part of this is because they very much used a mirror tool do draw a lot of him here (which like, yes, you should absolutely be using the mirror tool if you have one. Please use the mirror tool and save your precious time on this planet earth. We like art shortcuts in this house) so if there’s earrings on one hand, it’s on the other by default. And also they just didn’t want to bother figuring out what his bangs situation was without the hat on--but it is pretty funny that he just...went to bed like this.

OR, and this is a big thing I just realized--that’s a wig. He’s bald under there. Do they have the guts to draw a bald Yami? Clearly not.

Parts of me are like...was there a point in the storyboarding process where Yami had no hair here? Did someone in a suit point at that and be like “this is very off-brand put back on the 30 lb hatwig I don’t care if he’s sleeping.” But we will never know.

Also please admire his bed.

What you don’t see here is the giant millennium eye just hovering over him on the bed rest. This is a very cursed bed situation that only a ghost would sleep in for any amount of time. (and that it was too spooky for even Pharaoh is saying something.)

Yes I did look up ancient beds in Egypt and none of them seemed to have four posters. But it’s not like this bed was even drawn to the perspective they clearly mapped out on the floor right there, so I don’t think they had the time to research that. Team did their best. Which involved taking that spooky bed from Noah Kaiba’s arc in S2 and shoving it here in Egypt in S5.

So Yami decides to ponder the sky pyramid that no one else can see but him. Just vibing in the middle of the night on a balcony filled with so much anxiety. This episode is really calling me out right now with my chronic insomnia, but thankfully none of my friends play murder cards (that are apparently made out of human souls of my ancient best friends).

In a sequence that was too hard to cap, one of the towers set off a little laser beam to inform us that Mahad was being a dumbass.

So something that I didn’t catch last episode, when I was hootin and hollering about the Anubis and how Anubis allowed everyone to just use the same damn deck of cards--I was wrong actually. Not my fault, it was the show doing organic storytelling and I was not prepared for that. Because it turns out everyone gets their own unique card crypt. So really, each of these towers is it’s own deck.

What a freakin nuisance this must have been to build, holy hell.

Also when bro was capping this, he at first was like “huh, isn’t this Dartz’ tower of souls?” and like yeah. Of all people, we’re getting a lot of Dartz throwbacks this season, so S4 wasn’t so tangential after all. Really they were just hinting that the horrible awful thing Dartz was doing, was done about 7 times over by Pharaoh’s Dad himself.

Which youknow...Yami is taking this in strides, still getting over the fact that his Dad probably (absolutely) killed that village, and that Seto is going to betray him very soon, and that Bakura is about to kill Mahad. Pharaoh I’m sure will eventually address this hypocrisy soon. Maybe. Kind of. Maybe not.

Man I can’t believe how honest Dartz was when he was telling Pharaoh point blank about how Pharaoh’s dynasty wasn’t that great in the past. Man. Pharaoh really shouldn’t have come here, kid should have just gone to math class, honestly. This isn’t worth ditching PE.

Anyway, Mana’s here because she also had the very bad dream that Mahad was about to biff it.

Imagine if this was a rule during the season where Tristan had the souls of 5 different dudes crammed into his brain who all freaking died in there. Tristan would be like 5 times banished.

Which now that I have played a Yugioh game, I know that banishing the same card 5 times in a row is a completely normal way of playing Yugioh.

Speaking of being dead and being banished and being Tristan, the gang is still lost in Yugi’s brain palace.

Yugi finds a door in it that for a split second really threw me for a loop. I 100 percent saw this and was like “DAMN IT HOW MANY BAKURA’S ARE THERE.”

Thankfully, this was a trick Bakura, and Ryou is indeed still passed out on the steps of Marik’s tomb. Assuming Marik hasn’t picked him up by now and shoved him into the Jeep.

Back in the simulation of the past, Bakura is doing really, really well for himself.

I do like the dedication to the detail on his Ancient Egyptian Toms. When even was the last time I saw a Toms in the wild with the tiny toe box? Like 2012? Maybe the fashion was the same for 3012 BC.

Anyway, Mahad is a real freakin asshole to Bakura this episode and that was kind of refreshing. It was a straight up Home Alone situation in here with him using his magic powers to just make a billion traps invisible. (and do less damage to Bakura than the Home Alone kid did to those robbers, ngl)

HOW.

How did he freakin miss this?

How is it even possible to miss the guy who is chained down by a bear trap with the largest ax that mankind has ever made? And how did it manage to break off said bear trap in the process? Like Mahad may be dark Magician, but he’s also the unluckiest human who has ever lived.

Anyway, Bakura reacts by shoving the ax at him which like--I never get to see this ceiling to figure out how the hell the suspension on this can go so many directions, but the big takeaway is that Mahad overcompensated, tried to kill a card god, and cheated at cards in the process of doing so, which in Yugioh means you’re already dead.

Meanwhile, in the Desert, Pharaoh is doing his best to not look like a dumbass in front of Mana.

Mana directs him to the summoning training grounds, which is where I guess they practice cards usually (don’t think about how many souls were sacrificed so they could practice cards). Where, Pharaoh finds out that Mahad has already locked himself into a cave, and that it’s too late to do freakin anything about it.

Mahad’s explanation for why he’s doing this is that he wanted to pay back Yami for all the goods stuff he’s done, like that time that Yami sucked the snake venom out of him all those years ago--which is a somewhat symbolic thing about how Yami tends to remove people’s darkness when he plays them with cards (or kills them, either/or)--but also puts in motion the fact that Mahads going to hella die here and put Pharaoh in a pretty bad position.

Mahad shouldn’t have done this, it definitely hurt Pharaoh’s dynasty in a huge way more than it helped Pharaoh, but Mahad was absolutely certain that his dark magician powers could do the trick. Which they didn’t but youknow...hubris.

Anyway, Bakura’s guards are here.

Lets jump cut so we don’t have to animate that. Instead, we’ll just jump straight to this:

This is a nice shot. For your redraw a scene from an anime meme, you could redraw this shot. I like this shot.

I don’t like this next shot though.

Good ol Egyptian spandex.

Unprovoked, the tablet from the very beginning of this episode decided it had enough of this plotline.

Pharaoh realized he was about to lose all of his magicians in one single day because of this single damn piece of rock, thanks to Mana just...standing underneath it. Bit she’s fine now. Mana survived.

Mahad is not though, he HELLA died.

If it had killed them both, it would have been a little awkward for that tablet because it’s only really supposed to fit one dude. We gotta wait to kill Mana for later.

Who would you cast as Mahad? Serious question, because I joke about this show becoming a Netflix original but there’s been a little bit of a Yugioh renaissance lately (like apparently Master Duel ended up having WAY MORE downloads than anticipated and it’s really upset the meta of the rankings because everyone is playing the same deck) so we all know it’s only a matter of time. How white are they going to cast Mahad?

Like it’s just going to be an off brand Robert Pattinson, and honestly I’d be kinda down for that because my expectations are zero, and I just want to recap that potential hot garbage and what it would do to their hair.

And if an off brand Pattinson is too much, like I enjoyed the cowboy Bebop remake cast, I just didn’t want them in the Cowboy Bebop remake. Make them all Yugi. Go ahead Netflix, Yugi’s so many people at this point, turn him into those three, you have done worse.

Yugi realizes that he needs to stop searching through random doors and simply wait for Pharaoh to call out to him, which, because Yami is trapped in a hell period where he’s absolutely going to die, should have already happened like a billion times already but Yugi just wasn’t paying well enough attention.

And like that, they get transported away. To where? Probably Egypt. Excited for the outfit change on all four of these guys. Yugi will be the only one in Egypt with a belt around his neck.

Soon, they will all be eating a garlic in Egpyt with the homies, assuming they don’t get immediately murdered because everyone will think they’re some sort of wizard. Which, in the case of Yugi is absolutely correct.

Anyway, see you next episode, here’s a link to read these in chrono order from the beginning.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

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bonny-kookoo · 4 years

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Bunny Boy (JJK x Reader)☁️⚠️🔪(💜)🔞 Part 1

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Genre: Angst, Yandere!AU, Stalker!AU, questionable romance, smut, Oneshot

Warnings: (oh boy) Stalking, Obsession, Yandere themes, cute Koo but aggressive, he ready to fight, graphic description of violence, blood, very twisted JK, oblivious! Reader, kinda Stockholm-syndrome Reader?, soft romantic lovemaking, body worship, Dom! Jungkook, Sub! Reader, Handjob (fem. receiving), oral (fem. receiving), protected sex because even with your mind scrambled up in a frying pan we still wrap it before tapping it y’all hear me STDs ain’t cute Susan

Summary: It all started with a hello kitty charm.

A/N:(IMPORTANT) I’d like to note here that I do not condone nor romanticize any of the things depicted in this. This is purely fictional, and only to be seen as a work of art, not as a depiction of real life relationships. For short: if he a creep, kick his balls, don’t kiss. Thank you.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part?

Whenever you slept, he had to think of an angel portrayed in an old painting displayed in a museum he'd seen when he had been a kid, years ago. He remembers its features, flawless and so carefully drawn that it edged on perfection. It couldn't have been however, he knew that much. Because the painting wasn't of you.

The sheets had fallen all over the place during the night- you sometimes moved during your period of unconsciousness he'd noticed, which wasn't unusual for you. It had been more often and severe these days however; probably because of the stress you experienced at work nowadays. It was okay though, he though to himself. He'd taken care of that for you, just so you could finally rest in peace again. Just like he'd decided almost a year ago.

"You lost this, I think.." A voice spoke behind you, as you turned around, eyes looking straight at some american writing on a black t-shirt, then a jean-jacket thrown over, until your eyes raised, spotting a silver chain necklace- not one of those large ones guys wore to impress, but a rather delicate looking one. Your eyes found soft looking lips, the upper one smaller than the lower, slightly parted like a doll frozen in time, before you saw a prominent nose, a slight scar on his cheek, and eyes wide open; a dark chocolate brown, reflecting the artificial lights of the grocery store, shining all around you as they tried to advertise several products to the people browsing the isles. His hair was a bit curly, dark and only mildly styled you assumed. He stood way taller than you did, the main reason you had first made eye contact with his chest rather than his face-

He was handsome.

You stuttered a bit as you looked at the hello kitty charm, a simple one you'd hung on your phonecase, for the aesthetic and sole reason that you liked the cat character a lot. "T-Thanks.." You said, and your voice made his eyes widen even further, before he flashed you a bright smile, bunny like teeth giving him a charm that completely contradicted his entire punk-like attire he wore, combat boots stepping back a bit to give you a bit more space, sensing how his close presence made you feel pressured.

What a nice gesture.

"Jungkook." He said, and you nodded, giving him your name as an exchange.

Unknowing where this would lead.

His phone chimed with the familiar tune of his alarm, making him simply tap away at the screen without breaking eye contact with you. This was his favorite moment of the start of his day.

You moved around a bit more, the screen of your phone bright and annoying, just how you intended it to be. He knew that you were quite the sleepyhead, cherishing your dreams and cozy blankets like no other around him he knew. That's why your phone had an extra obnoxious tune to it to wake you up, screen as bright as possible to drown the entire room in its glow, so you had to move around. Your eyes opened slightly, pout ever so endearingly present on your lips as you sat up, raising your arms to stretch them above, making him swallow his saliva as he saw how your shirt raised up, revealing the soft skin of your belly, and the slight peak of your cotton underwear. He loved how you always put comfort over visual appearance- you didn't need fancy clothing to look absolutely divine in his eyes, after all.

He had to remember his task at hand however, grabbing his phone with a bit of hectic, before he dialed a number, waiting until your screen lit up. You instantly took on the call, not looking at who's calling.

Did you know it was him? Or is were you so careless all the time?

"Goo'mornin' Kookie.." You drawled into your phone, and his entire previous thoughts flew out his window, his eyes closing at the sound of your slightly raspy voice, his nerves instantly soothed at the fact that for another day he'd managed to become the first person you would talk to.

"Good morning angel." He said, voice low and smooth, just how you always told him you liked it. He watched as the corners of your lips turned upwards, a smile only dedicated to him, even if he technically wasn't supposed to see it. It made it the more special to see. "Did you sleep well?" He asked, and you nodded. Silly girl he thought. You noticed your mistake before sleepily giggling to yourself, yawning before answering him verbally. He cooed at you internally. You were so cute.

"Hmhm. Had a bad dream though." You said, and his heart clenched at the way your lips lowered a bit with the remembrance of whatever had happened during your slumber. He wished he could invade your very thoughts, keep even your own demons tormenting your precious time of rest at bay, kill them off with a shot straight to their cores, just to have you safe. "but you were there 'n fought the monsters." You said with a smile, and his eyes widened. Maybe he really was invading your thoughts just like you did with his. Was your connection really already that strong? He watched the clock on the very corner of his laptop, keeping an eye on the time. He didn't want you to be late, after all.

"That's right, I'm always keeping you safe." He hummed, and you sleepily replied with a confirmation of his statement. "Now get ready, or you're gonna be late baby." He said, the nicknames still foreign yet oh so sweet on his tongue whenever he said them. He could finally speak them out loud, finally give them to you regularly, and it had been a firework of emotions ever since. He could never get tired of the way it made you squirm, giving him a teaser of what you could look like underneath him, bare and ready for his taking. Just the thought alone made his pants tighten around him, making him force composure down his throat- at least for the moment. "I know you're still in bed. Go and get dressed, don't make your coworkers wait. Love you angel." He said, and waited for you to say the same words to him again, as a form of farewell and confirmation alike.

"Hmhm, love you too, Kook." You said, and disconnected the call, giving him finally freedom to groan out loud, hands scrambling with his pants, fingers working on the button and fly with desperation as he pulled his half hard length out of his underwear, moving his fingers around as his eyes never left your form on his screen, bare legs softly walking up to your dresser. As you discarded your shirt, leaving you bare, his grasp tightened a bit, air coming out in gasps as you stretched yourself so deliciously like a feline did- your back arching enticingly, breasts on full display for him, before you started to bend down, looking for something to cover them, probably.

His mind started to come up with visions of you, arching your back underneath him like that, speared on his cock, mewling alluringly, delicate hands frantically searching for something to hold onto as he would push himself inside you again and again, your name falling from your lips in a manner he couldn't even imagine yet.

Would your voice raise in pitch? Would you only huff, gasping without a tune? Or were you a screamer?

He didn't know yet, but he knew he was close to making these mere dreams a reality with you. He'd finally managed to show you his love for you after all, finally making you see how you belonged to him and him only- you had finally accepted him and your destiny at his side. When he'd first met you, you were so sweet yet so.. dumb. You didn't notice, didn't feel the connection- but he was patient. He was able to wait, to hint you at it the best he could, to softly lead you into his awaiting arms, to serve you and worship you like the goddess you were. You had started to finally connect the obvious strings of fate to him, kissing his lips in such a shy manner that he still felt his veins buzz from the euphoria he'd felt that day.

The day he got kissed by an angel, by his soulmate, his other missing part.

He spied on you as you worked away, busy like a bee, ever so hardworking he thought. You didn't deserve to work at all in his opinion, your hands too delicate to be endangered by maybe scolding yourself on hot water or coffee that you made every day for absolute strangers or regular costumers; yet you were so happy at your job that he had to be gentle at slowly showing you that this wasn't where you were supposed to be. The amount of people looking at you every day made bile rise in his throat, making him feel like vomiting every time he saw the way you smiled at another man.

It was even with woman, he'd noticed recently. He didn't care much about the elderly, but he could sometimes spot girls your age eyeing you down like you were a rare diamond behind glass, admiring you like they shouldn't be allowed to. He understood them to an extend, he'd admit that much; your visuals were magical, absolutely breathtaking, making him almost sympathize with the people being drawn towards you. Your soul was so soft and gentle that people naturally felt comfortable around you- too comfortable, if anyone would ask Jungkook himself for his opinion on that matter.

Just like right now; the guy you once went to school with as he'd found out after photographing his face and running a google search on him, finding his facebook and other social media accounts on his hunt. He hadn't really tried to stay in contact with you after you both graduated, dating girls left and right like he was a 12-year old collecting pokemon cards, posting disgusting things such as post workout pictures, bathing in attention of strangers who'd never really met him. It was disgusting, really; Jungkook himself had given himself away to others before as well, but his counter was standing at a number easily displayed on one hand. With this guy however, that was way more difficult to portray. He'd collected information on his past affairs as well, after all. He wondered what you would say if you knew he even slept with men in his freetime, selling himself like a whore just for animalistic pleasures and his own satisfaction. He almost felt himself gag at the thought of you possibly falling into this man's trap.

Thank the heavens he'd found you first.

He saw how uncomfortable you felt around that guy however, even your naive self sensing something malicious behind his attention seeking behavior towards you. He'd overheard you telling him multiple times how happy you were with Jungkook, yet the guy simple did not take the hint, speaking over your words as if they didn't hold any significance at all, uncaring of how you hated not being taken seriously by others.

How nauseating.

Jungkook looked at the passenger seat next to him, cold eyes gazing at the silvery tape and plastic bag, his glove clothed hands gripping the steering wheel in determination as he turned his face again, patiently waiting as that demon payed for his coffee, finally leaving the cafe after sending you another look. Jungkook cracked his neck. He had to do it.

He was doing it for you.

You'd understand.

Seoul's nights were mostly starless, due to the amounts of artificial lights blending out the galaxies above everyone's head's. It was quite tragic to him, really, because as he watched the colourfully lit up Bridge blend into the distance behind him as he drove further and further away from the city, the nightsky above him got clearer and clearer, as if the earth was revealing itself with every kilometer he brought between himself and the buzzing citylife.

He'd bring you out to a trip far away one day. Maybe camping, you always told him how you found these things quite romantic- roasting marshmallows over a small fire, stargazing, and sleeping in each others arms to converse heat in stuffy sleeping bags. Oh, he loved this already. He'd work a little overtime at his job to get enough money together so he could maybe even rent a small van. Or would his small car suffice for you? Maybe it was better to use the smaller space of his own vehicle- the less space meaning being closer to you, after all.

As he opened his window a bit, he breathed in the almost icy air from the outside, not much sound heard apart from his car's engine and wheels on the road, monotonous sound making him feel less concentrated than he should be. But he knew these roads, thankfully. Luckily for him the air inside his car was waking him up a little bit, as he turned around a corner, Jungkook clicked his tongue in annoyance as he felt something on the backseat of his car tumble down behind the seats. Hopefully the bag didn't rip. He had a spare one with him though.

He was organized, after all.

It was something that you always praised about him, making his chest feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He loved whenever you told him how handsome he was, how you always felt so appreciated whenever he held the door for you or helped you with simply mundane things. He didn't care about anyone else's comments about him; when you were happy with him, he was happy with himself as well. Your opinion of him mattered most- everyone else's only served as a safety cushion if you will.

He knew you would probably feel a bit upset with the tragedy that befell your former classmate- but he was insignificant. He had no good intentions, he knew that much, and now, he'd ridden the world of such a nuisance, cleansing it from another rotting soul. In a way he felt like he'd done a great job, as if he'd done something important. If ghosts existed, Jungkook hoped that this young man's was thankful for finally being freed of it's miserable existence. Even though he have had all the rights to make him suffer, he'd made it quick and simple, keeping things clean and sharply cut.

Pulling on the parking break in his car, he shut down the engine, before he opened his car door, stepping outside and stretching his arms. He'd definitely pulled a muscle carrying this dudes body into his car- the weight much more heavy than he'd initially thought. But that would pass. Maybe it was his punishment for not acting sooner, not getting things done immediately. His dad had always slapped that part of his neck too whenever he messed things up. He still remembered that to this day.

The memory made him shudder.

Sighing, he opened the door to the backseats, part of the plastic-wrapped body falling a bit out, making Jungkook huff a bit in frustration. He pulled on it, assuming it was his head, letting the weight fall down onto the ground, a low thud and a bit of dust covering his black sweatpants and combat boots.

He'd clean them up at home.

Heaving the body onto his back as to not rip the well made covering, he began to collect rocks nearby, stuffing them into the bag carefully, adding weight as much as he could, while still making it possible for him to shove the body over the banisters placed on the edge of the cliffs before finally securing more tape around the bag to make sure the rocks couldn't simply tumble out and leave their destined place inside. Jungkooks gaze was still cold, icy, as he finished his work with an almost bored expression, finally hefting the heavy weight over the metal bars, before he let it fall with a groan on his side, Neck still hurting. He watched as the body hit the water's surface, white splatters shooting in circle formations around the bullet-like hole in the waves before the darkness swallowed it whole, leaving nothing behind but a few air bubbles.

Jungkook took a deep breath, watching for a moment before turning his gaze to the stars above, clouds slowly shielding the nightsky from his vision as if the heavens above closed their eyes- not looking at his actions.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, making him remove his black glove, unlocking it with his fingerprint skillfully, smile already on his lips. 'I'm gonna be done in half an hour. Do you wanna get some late night Ramen with me and eat it at my place?' you wrote, silly emojis making him imagine the pink hue on your cheeks as you wrote these lines to him.

Now that he thought about it, he was quite hungry.

"Jungkookie, here!" You said, waving at him as he spotted you, bunny grin sent your war as he walked over, immediately pulling you into his open arms, his nose nuzzling your neck as if he needed to claim you like an animal. It tickled you a bit and you giggled, making him chuckle as well as he kissed your cheek, before he took your hand into his, walking you to his car as he looked at the plastic bags in your hand.

"Why did you buy them yourself angel? You could've waited and I could've payed." He whined, and you scoffed a bit, blushing at the way he seemed to be pouty over the fact that he couldn't be all gentlemanly like he always said he wanted to. Having told him how it made you feel so special inside whenever he did these things, he made sure to do them for you as much as possible. He shuddered at the fact that you'd once told him that your ex boyfriend never did these things such as holding the door for you or help you grocery shopping. The same night however you thankfully told him that you were still pure; having never been touched intimately before, a piece of information that had made his pants tighten embarrassingly fast, the simple revelation that you were still untainted and his for the taking making him feel starved. Yet he had controlled himself, not wanting to rush things. You were a bit skittish, easily overwhelmed with things, so he knew not to push anything too fast too far.

Loosing you could be fatal for the both of you, after all.

"Ah, but its fine Kookie." You said, thanking him after he'd opened the car door for you, closing it after you had gotten inside the passenger seat after you with a smile. Jungkook really was a special guy; he seemed to cherish the old ways of courting a girl- something that had made him be seen as a 'softie' in your group of friends, the girls constantly making fun of the way he acted around you. It made you feel more and more upset the more time went by; after all you really loved Jungkook and the way he made you feel. You both were happy- why did they need to make fun of that?

"Angel?" He asked, and you snapped your head towards him, humming an answer and proving to him that you weren't paying any attention. His eyebrows furrowed a bit, and for a split second you thought he was mad, but his voice didn't hold any bad feelings at all- only slight concern. "Is everything okay? If you're tired I can drive you home-" He said, stopping at a red light and using that moment to look at you. You didn't look physically sick to him, yet your face told him how something was bothering you inside. He'd studied your features for longer than he'd like to admit, making it impossible for you to hide anything from him at all. "Or is something troubling you?" He said lowly, his eyes suddenly fogging over with a look you could not quite describe.

It made your spine tingle and your skin shudder, however.

"I just.." You said, trying to figure out what to say concerning this topic. Jungkook was emotionally very easily affected, you knew that; something that made it even more difficult to bring that topic up. You didn't want to hurt his pride or his ego concerning his manliness. "The girls at work they uhm.. they were making fun of you a little bit for being so, you know, soft and sweet to me-" you said, making him raise his brows and open his eyes more, his innocent doe-look returning into his face as he looked forwards to continue driving. You immediately raised your voice a bit, hand instinctively touching the one not on the steering wheel as a form of confirmation for your next words. "But I don't think that at all, I think you're really nice, and strong, and you know, manly and all that.." you said, ears slowly turning red as you noticed how that sounded. Jungkook simply smiled, his eyes reflecting the traffic lights like mirrors.

It made him seem almost ethereal to you.

"So you think I'm hot?" He asked, and you sunk down in your seat, fiddling with your fingers as you nodded, making him giggle a bit, and ruffle your hair playfully, before interlacing his fingers with yours, holding them towards his lips to kiss the back of your hand. "Thank you Angel. So that's what you were worried about? That I'd feel hurt by the words of your friends?" He asked, glancing your way for a split second before looking forward again. He wished he could look both ways at the same time; the short image he'd gotten of your form so shy and adorable sitting right next to him looking like a scene out of a movie he'd never stop watching. You nodded again, and he parked in front of your apartment complex, grinning your way as he turned off the engine. "You're so sweet, angel." He said, while you whined, opening the door to escape his laughter-

While failing to wipe your own smile off of your lips, uncaring on how his car had smelled a bit weird.

You were still so oblivious to everything around you.

When he'd left after your last dinner together, you'd again refused to let him drive you to work. You had a split shift during the week, working in the mornings for a few hours before continuing your shift later that evening. It made him feel uneasy knowing that you had to get out of the house so early, and coming home so late at night- yet you still trusted your own driving skills enough to not let him help you with these things. He knew this was okay, but it didn't make the fact less frustrating for him.

He needed to keep your trust. He needed you to be scared of things. He needed to keep you needing him.

The only way to do that would be to show you what could happen when you didn't trust his judgement enough. He knew that you were just so fast at giving away important things such as trust to others; even to yourself. Yet Jungkook knew that he knew better- he knew best what was the best for you.

Even better than yourself.

He knew it would hurt, but you would understand. In the end, he was only showing you what would happen if you didn’t listen, if you didn’t trust him, didn’t do what he said- he needed you to feel your mistake, needed you to get scarred so you would always remember to stay at his side loyal like a dog, never to leave his sight ever again. He thought about this dream like vision, your hand in his, desperately seeking his attention, as his oil stained hands cut through the proper cables underneath your admittedly old car.

He never liked you driving by yourself anyways.

You were still so innocent, so stupidly oblivious to the dirt underneath everyone’s fingernails around you that it made his blood boil. But that was okay. Angels were naive creatures, he knew that. He would teach you how disgusting the world was to untainted beings like you, and afterwards he would keep you safe, keep your hand in his at all times, so no one could ever touch you again and blemish your skin. No one but him was allowed to corrupt you, to feel you, to have you lay in his arms as he filled you up and became one with your physical form at night.

And also;

Who said that you would ever find out that he was at fault?

"The breaks aren't working Jungkook, what am I supposed to do?!" You sobbed through the speaker of his phone, the one which he held calmly in his hand, his own vehicle parked at the sidelines of a road a bit further down your typical route, waiting. "I can't slow down- I'm so scared Jungkook what should I do-!" You whimpered again, and he closed his eyes for a moment, praying to the heavens above that they would forgive him for hurting one of their most precious fallen doves. But it was for the greater good- they'd understand, he was sure of it.

"Don't worry angel, you're gonna be okay-!" He said acting as if he was hurrying as well, even though he was still sitting peacefully inside his car, watching as the sun slowly turned the skies into twilight shades. Quite beautiful, really. "Can you slow down, somehow?!" He said, his voice cracking a bit as he got into his role, your voice telling him that you couldn't- the only way would be to drive into the woods and maybe try and crash the car. "Angel no, there's gotta be another way-" He sobbed, as he suddenly heard the line go silent.

He sniffled a bit, drying his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater, before he turned on his car, his phone showing the location of yours just a few meters away from him.

And there you were.

You car was a wreck, yet it seemed like it took most of the blow- you had actually taken the wood-option, using the bushes, foliage and brushwood as a form of emergency break before hitting a tree, which had split a bit from the impact, mushing your car against it like a piece of gum onto the underside of a shoe.

He carefully got out of his car, walking up to the drivers side, opening the door with a bit of difficulty- but he'd always loved working out, so in the end, his strength succeeded in opening the bent metal. He immediately caught your falling body, his heart breaking at the small cut over your eye, marks on your bare shoulder from where the seatbelt had pulled on your skin too roughly. Your arm looked like it was swollen, your leg bent in a direction it naturally wasn't supposed to as he pulled you out of the wreck, laying you down onto his lap as he sat down on the grassy ground, softly brushing the hairs away that had formed groups of single hairs stuck together by the blood that was already clogging and turning a bit darker. Oh how his soul hurt seeing you like this.

But this had needed to happen.

And as he called the ambulance with his phone, careful to sound as desperate as possible over the line, he failed to notice how your eyes weren't fully closed.

You were still conscious.

#bts #bts imagine #bts fic #bts fanfic #bts smut #jungkook #jungkook imagine #bts jungkook #jeon jungkook #bts reactions #bts yandere #bts yandere au #yandere jeon jungkook #yandere jungkook #yandere bts

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scottymcgeesterwrites · 4 years

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10 Underrated Movies of the 2010s

1. John Carter (2012)

Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was even produced in 1937, Disney was considering producing an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess of Mars as Disney’s first animated film. During its pre-production stage, producers weren’t quite receptive to the concept. The story was about a man being transported to Mars, where its gravity gave him super powers, and he fought with four-armed green-skinned aliens. Back then, space ideas were the last things on people’s minds in the ‘30’s. They wanted something uplifting from The Great Depression. Disney didn’t quite scrap the story; they shelved it for later and decided to go with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as Disney’s (and the world��s) first feature-length animated movie. John Carter holds the award for the movie with the longest time spent in “development hell”. For the next 75 years, different directors and producers would try to bring back the classic tale of daring-do on the planet Mars. Growing up reading Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels, I was enthralled to hear that they finally produced a live-action film to be released on 2012 – and it was even near my birthday! March of 2012 marked 100 years since Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars. It was like all the stars were truly aligned for something great. The movie finally came out and it . . . didn’t do well at all. It’s also notable for being one of the most expensive movies ever made – and it was all for nothing. What happened? Most of you reading this may even be unaware of the hero John Carter or A Princess of Mars. I find that the main issue was the problem of John Carter being largely unknown because it has been long overshadowed by Flash Gordon, Superman, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and literally everything else that owes its inspiration to John Carter. Superman got its concept of gravity-granting superpowers from John Carter. Flash Gordon got its human-on-another-planet heroics from John Carter. Star Wars derived nearly everything from Flash Gordon. The domino effect goes on. The further you go, the more people forget the original inspiration, and we live in a world now where people don’t really care about who did it first, but who did it best.

There’s a particular scene in the movie John Carter where the titular hero has to fight monsters in an arena. Many critics were bored of the scene, claiming they saw it already in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones; which is ironic being that the arena scene was written almost a full century before Attack of the Clones. Scantily clad Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi? That’s a Deja Thoris reference from A Princess of Mars.

It can be difficult to judge a movie or story by itself aside from other derivative works. When that source material is some obscure adventure tale that is literally older than World War I, you should realize that probably not a lot of people have heard about it nowadays.

The film suffers from two other major points: the runtime and the combination of books one and two of Burrough’s original trilogy. A Princess of Mars is a rather simple tale of a man saving a princess on Mars. Its sequel, The Gods of Mars, goes into more complex matters as the evil Therns are revealed as a group of mysterious aliens controlling all culture and life on Mars for their benefit. The movie John Carter tries to combine the two, and I see why. Modern audiences are uninterested in seeing another adventure tale about a guy saving a princess. Ironically, that would have worked much better in the 1930’s, but the Disney board at the time was like, “Space? What’s that? Mars? What’s this newfangled spaceship business?” John Carter ultimately had the unfortunate and unique experiences of being both too ahead and too dated for its time.

I still highly recommend it because the production value is amazing and it’s still highly entertaining. The score is fantastic (Michael Giacchino), and the performances are great, albeit with some cheesy dialogue. The screenwriters added more depth to the character of John Carter that really pulls some heartstrings, especially during one particular scene where he’s bashing hundreds of aliens to a pulp.Unfortunately, the poor performance of John Carter prevented its sequel and the planned trilogy from ever being produced. At the end of the day, I’m still content with seeing the world’s very first space adventure that ultimately inspired Star Wars finally put on screen. 2. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

I was frankly surprised when nobody else cared about a Solo movie coming out. Having read A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo Trilogy when I was a kid and having overall grown up loving the character, I thought ANY Star Wars fan would be pumped. That was the issue right away before the movie even hit theaters – Nobody. Fucking. Cared. The previous year’s Last Jedi left a sour, divisive taste in the Star Wars fandom. Toxic fans threw their hands in uproar and an entire debacle unseen since the prequel trilogy exploded. Like with Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, fans had continually harassed and bullied Kelly Marie Tran for playing Rose to the point where she quit Instagram. YouTube videos nearly 30 minutes long were dedicated to bashing the film and “SJW culture” and “virtue signaling”. The entire debacle was a nightmare that makes me shudder to even think about. It was like everyone was tired of Star Wars by the next year. Some people like to say that “Star Wars fatigue” wasn’t the thing because nobody was tired of Marvel movies. I disagree. First of all, I witnessed immediate responses to people’s reactions at the trailer. They said “I don’t care” and “Why do we need that?”. Second, Star Wars and Marvel are two completely different universes. Marvel has a nearly infinite range of various stories with various atmospheres and moods and characters. One Marvel fan can “specialize” in Doctor Strange while another mostly loves Thor. Star Wars follows the same group of characters over the same damn story that we’ve already known for the past 42 years. Like John Carter, Solo had the same problem by being too confident and throwing too much money into its production. Solo also happens to be on the list of the most expensive movies ever made. Its poor performance and inability to make a return on the total costs scrapped the possibility of any more future standalone Star Wars films. Further dissections of why it didn’t work out vary. Some people hate the droid L3-37 and claim unnecessary SJW content. I disagree with that too. In my rulebook, something in a story is not unnecessary unless it proves crucial to the plot; L3-37 is the reason why the Kessel Run worked. Were it not for her fanatic desire of starting a droid revolution, Han wouldn’t have survived. The idea of revolution is also crucial and foreshadows the coming Rebel Alliance. I wonder if people would have had the same reaction to L3-37 if the movie had been released years before the current political situation; if we would have just seen her as a cool, kooky and rebellious droid instead. Solo: A Star Wars Story reveals that Han has always been around instances of rebellion, which he has tried to ignore. It isn’t until A New Hope that he finally gives in for good. I honestly don’t see why some people say it doesn’t fit with A New Hope when it clearly does. One of my favorite parts is when Q’ira tells Han, “I know who you really are.” From the trailer, you would expect her to say “A scoundrel.” But in the film, she says, “The good guy.” The film cements the idea that Han has always tried to look and act cool but deep down he gives in to doing the right thing, which separates him from the other scoundrels at the cantina. It’s because of this adventure that he ends up helping to blow up the Death Star later on. Also, like John Carter, the score is absolutely fantastic. I could go on about it but that would derail the topic for another time. 3. The Gift (2015)

I ended up seeing this movie on a whim by myself after someone bailed on me at the last minute to hang out. I had nothing to do but wanted to do something and checked what was playing in theaters at the time at my local theater. The synopsis hadn’t told me enough about what was really going on while at the same time enticing me. Jason Bateman though really surprised me in this role.I really don’t want to give anything away other than what you can find on the basic synopsis. Jason Bateman is married to Rebecca Hall and the two share a completely content life, until an old school friend of Jason’s starts visiting them. Joel Edgerton plays the school friend, and it’s quite amazing that he both wrote and directed this film too. 4. Prisoners (2013)

This movie was great – and absolutely nobody talks about it. I recall wanting to see a movie with my mom around fall of that year. We realized there was really nothing interesting in theaters. It was a lull where there was nothing really interesting playing. No blockbusters and no Oscar buzz. We chose Prisoners solely based on the fact that we like Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, and I guess we also gathered the general sense that it was a mystery.I became glued to the screen during the entire movie. The story revolves around Hugh Jackman’s daughter supposedly abducted by Paul Dano, who plays a mentally ill suspect. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the detective tasked with finding the daughter. With Paul Dano being unable to articulate his thoughts, everyone is left distraught on how to solve this case. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal take drastically different routes in trying to find the girl.Out of everything on my list of underrated films here, this was the most nail-biting. Highly recommend. That ending. Whoo. 5. Source Code (2011)

This movie is a real mindbender. It might be so much of a mindbender that it’s the reason why people didn’t talk about it more. They probably just thought, “Huh?” and wanted to rewatch the previous year’s Inception again instead.Jake Gyllenhaal is on a mission to find a bomber on a train in a computer simulation. That’s how it starts at least. . . Another movie I probably shouldn’t explain too much, but it explored themes about a post 9/11 world and the nature of self. 6. The Big Short (2015)

This movie was a hit and then everybody forgot about it. Heck, I know a bunch of you didn’t even see it. I find this really concerning. Brought to you by the director of none other than Anchorman, Adam McKay directed a very entertaining but distressing take on the Great Recession. It has an ensemble cast of Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale. The movie manages to translate complicated, bullshit concepts in Wall Street into layman’s terms. Every performance delivers, yes, but it was also staggeringly prophetic in what would come a year later in the 2016 election – “I have a feeling, in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people.” This movie should have seriously started a riot. But it didn’t. Watch it. 7. Spectre (2015)

Many Bond fans hated Spectre, and it’s often compared to the supposed high-and-mighty Skyfall. I beg to differ. Spectre brought back the fun in Bond without also resorting to the really obnoxious misogyny. The Daniel Craig era of Bond films went back to Ian Fleming’s original intention of Bond being more of a “blunt instrument” than the tongue-in-cheek action hero he came to be known in the film series. And that’s okay. But you can’t help but be bored once and a while by the recent trend of “making things gritty in the new millennium”. Spectre brought back the evil Blofeld, Bond’s nemesis. Fans hated it because this movie implies that every other Daniel Craig movie has been tied to Spectre, ruining the standalone nature of Skyfall and feeling like Spectre was a shoe-in.

This situation requires a lot of explaining, but I’ll be brief.

The creative entities of Spectre and Blofeld were tied up in a copyright battle for almost half a century. Back when Ian Fleming was still alive, he was working on a script for Thunderball with a screenwriter named Kevin McClory. Long story short, there was a dispute on who created Spectre and Blofeld – Fleming or McClory. McClory won the dispute and MGM (the producers of the Bond films) were prohibited from using the names and characters of Spectre and Blofeld.

The last time we officially saw the character in name was in 1971’s Diamonds are Forever. Blofeld made a cameo in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only but was never mentioned by name, but you knew it was Blofeld because he was always the man with the white cat. McClory did eventually make his own version of Thunderball in 1983’s Never Say Never Again, which was an unofficial Bond movie yet it still starred Sean Connery (crazy, I know).

Fast-forward to when the Daniel Craig era started in 2006 with Casino Royale. Spectre and Blofeld were still under copyright protection of McClory. Instead of using the name Spectre, the writers had to come up with another Specter-inspired evil corporation. So they came up with “Quantum”, the evil company behind the plots of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

BUT THEN, the McClory estate officially settled the matter with MGM in 2013, and Spectre and Blofeld could now be used. The writers jumped on it and that’s why to some Spectre feels like it was a shoehorned at the last minute.In my opinion, Skyfall had more issues being a standalone film. The villain Silva was supposed to be working alone and yet somehow create all these elaborate, time-sensitive plots that was just too much for one man with maybe a few henchmen to pull off. In Spectre, it’s implied that Silva used Spectre’s resources to help him plan his revenge. This would realistically make more sense. After all, it’s in the name: SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. One would go to Spectre in order to enact revenge on someone if one didn’t have the means or resources.

And the whole Quantum being a part of Spectre thing – so what? Quantum was meant to be the same thing anyway. Lastly, there is some dispute on to the nature of Blofeld’s relationship with Bond. Bond suddenly has an evil foster brother now? Some complained about it. I thought it was fine. It gives a reason for Blofeld to go out of his way to torture Bond rather than just shoot him, which is a point always parodied in Bond spoofs. So again, it actually makes sense. I thoroughly enjoyed Spectre. It was virtually not misogynist out of the new Bond films. It treated the main girl, Madeline, very well, as well as the “other” girl Lucia. Yeah, some of the action is dumb and more out of spectacle than realism. It’s still done with the same wit and style of the old Bond films. 8. Shazam! (2019)

Yeah. I get it. Everyone’s tired of the god-awful, insipid DC Cinematic Universe (except for Wonder Woman), which pales in comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Shazam! was finally a very fresh, funny, and lively DC movie. What makes it stand out to me was how it ended up revolving around the main character’s friends standing together with him, rather than just simply being an origin story of one superhero. Nothing felt like it fell flat. The humor was spot on. The action was good. You had a really pained, terrible villain. Some of the plot may be simple but it had a satisfying ending. Shazam! has the same kind of energy as Spider-man: Homecoming, but by doing its own thing and having its own theme of what a family really means. It revels in the genre by literally putting you in the shoes of a child’s wish fulfillment. 9. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

I saw this movie on a whim on Netflix. Nobody has made any fuss about it. I think it was fantastic. It’s a quirky sci-fi comedy with Aubrey Plaza playing a newspaper reporter investigating an ad someone put in the classifieds asking for a time travel companion. She goes along with two other co-workers, played by Jake Johnson and Karan Soni (who later becomes the taxi guy in Deadpool). I have to be honest – I don’t find Jake Johnson that funny. In most things I’ve seen him in, I feel like his reactions are forced. But his deadpan deliveries in this movie are on the spot. Mark Duplass was still relatively unknown at this time, and played the oddball guy who placed the ad and firmly believes he made a time machine. The entire movie only costed $750,000! Movies today need to spend over $10 million in order to try and make something as compelling as this. This movie alone influenced the modern indie film industry by combining forces with Netflix. Maybe Netflix and chill wouldn’t have been a thing if it weren’t for this movie. 10. The Nice Guys (2016)

I saved my personal favorite for last. The Nice Guys is my favorite underrated movie that I have seen this past decade. It has everything I love in a buddy film; wit and style. Written and directed by Shane Black, this movie has some real zingers and hilarious deliveries. Ryan Gosling plays a jittery private detective, who unwillingly teams up with Russel Crowe, who beats up people for a living. The story revolves around a missing girl who is a key witness to a grander conspiracy involving the automobile industry. This is one of those movies that never fails to make me laugh. I can rewatch the same scenes over and over and still crack up with laughter. My only gripe is that the final confrontation can be a bit unrealistic at times, which can be close to breaking that border of “Okay, is this witty satire like Coen Brothers or just outright comedy sketch like The Naked Gun?” So to me it felt a little imbalanced in the last quarter. Still, the rest of the movie really hits the right marks.

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artofkace · 5 years

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here’s a huge comic/doodle dump for my She Ra/Steven Universe crossover AU!!! I might not draw anymore for this but here’s what i have cause why not :’)

PLEASE look under the readmore for a whole bunch more info and explanations for what it’s all about if u wanna know more!

She Ra Gem!AU overview

Rebellion on Earth was started by King Micah (Glimmer’s dad) in order to save it as a haven for gems who did not want to be under homeworld (The Horde’s) rule. Glimmer is half human - her dad having given up his gem form (in some way) to become half of her.

Angella is either a gem who loved her dad (a la Pearl) and learned everything about human culture, giving up her gem name and taking a human one even, to raise Glimmer as a real ‘mom’ or she’s human (a la Greg). Leaning toward the first one. She has a forehead gem.

Glimmer feels heavily the burden of being the Rebellion’s heir. She hates homeworld and everything having to do with them. She wants to step up and be a leader and tries to run missions on her own with Bow a lot (with little success.) She 100% loves Angella as her mom but is tired of being treated like a baby. She’s 19.

Her dream is to reunite all of Earth’s most powerful gems and strike Homeworld hard to hopefully drive them off of Earth once and for all, but nobody else believes in this plan much.

Bow is an earth gem who emerged 6-7 years before story starts. He’s enamored with Earth culture and is super friendly! He and Glimmer have been best friends from day one and both have chest gems (which they love, twins!!!). He designs weapons even though his gem type isn’t specifically made for that.

Adora and Catra are both Earth gems who emerged at the same time and stayed with eachother alone for a bit at their kindergarten until they were ‘saved’ and taken to homeworld by Shadow Weaver. They don’t know that they came from Earth and were taught to hate it and the rebellion. They have their gems the backs of their hands opposite each other (Adora right, Catra left).

Catra emerged a little misshapen and fuzzy (Literally fuzzy? And she has the cat ears and tail bc i say so) because the materials to make her gem type technically weren’t supposed to be in that kindergarten and she would have been shattered as defective if Adora hadn’t vehemently defended her. Shadow Weaver relented bc of her soft spot for Adora, (which she has bc she personally cultivated Adora’s gem type??) but Catra lives in shame of that day bc of how she froze and couldn’t do anything to defend herself.

Pilot Episode Basically

Adora is a gem created for strategy and fighting and she excels at being a leader. She was being groomed to take over as general to defeat the rebellion once in for all when story events happen.

Adora first comes to earth again when she and Catra stole a ship to go on a joyride and nearly crash landed. They didn’t know what the planet was, but found a warp pad there and were shocked it worked. They eventually go back to homeworld, but something there was calling to Adora so the next day she sneaks back (asking Catra to cover for her).

She uses the warp pad, then eventually finds the Sword in the forest half-buried, covered in vines. She thinks it must be gemtech, but it's nothing like anything she’s seen before. While she’s contemplating it, Glimmer and Bow stumble upon her (on one of their ‘missions’) and they tussle and eventually take her captive, grabbing the sword too for good measure.

Adora has no idea they’re part of the rebellion at first, but when she finds out she makes a break for it, grabbing her sword as she goes, Glimmer and Bow in pursuit. Eventually they all run headfirst into a giant gem monster and Adora gets pinned down alone. She’s never fought anything this big and freezes up, yelling for help.

In her mind a voice answers calmly, telling her that it can help, but she’ll have to have faith. The voice calls her Adora instead of her gem name (Adora being a nickname Catra gave her? I want Adora and Catra to have already had their ‘real names’ before Adora defects).

Adora looks on in wonder as the sword she’s holding starts to glow. Glimmer and Bow, running to help from the side, stop and watch in shock as Adora fuses with the sword, turning into She-Ra, who is huge but otherwise not different from canon.

After that then events, events, events. Catra is given a position of leadership and comes down to get Adora with a fleet of ships. She attacks a nearby human village and Adora, who has begun already to admire and like the life on Earth, tries to talk her down (events like canon). Eventually she fuses again into She-Ra and drives the fleet off, Catra, betrayed and angry, going with them.

And then Adora is officially part of the rebellion! She is brought before Angella (the sole ‘leader’ still technically fighting) and takes her nickname as her permanent name (its customary in this rebellion to, since they have so many more gems and there are repeats, and most everyone like having a name!) and she joins the trio to make the Best Friends Squad.

Other Things

All the Princesses are gems of different types and abilities. They were all put in charge of different parts of Earth because they’re extremely powerful (Though most of them nowadays only defend instead of actually fighting against homeworld). Each of their ‘kingdoms’ is made up of mostly humans and some gems. You can travel from warp pad to each kingdom, but it’s sometimes a hike to get to where the princesses actually live.

Despite her being otherwise ‘perfect’, Adora had never been able to summon a weapon from her gem before she found the sword and it had really bothered her.

Glimmer and Bow theorize that the gem placed in the sword is Actually A Gem, which is why Adora can fuse with it, but it doesn’t respond to anyone but Adora and refuses all attempts to remove the gem.

Adora’s stints as She Ra are odd for her, she rarely ever hears the voice again and while its very easy to fuse after the first few times, sometimes she doesn’t feel all in control. Like there’s someone else taking the reins from her who’s ancient and powerful. She doesn’t know what to think about that.

‘Diamond Authority’ is basically Just Hordak. He puts other gems up to lead next to him and almost any gem that shows potential can be promoted thus, but he will allow no other diamonds to be made. He is a Red Diamond, so all homeworld gems wear red.

#steven universe #adora #adora spop #bow #bow spop #catra #catra spop #fanart #glimmer #glimmer spop #she ra #she ra netflix #she ra princesses of power #spop #she ra gem au #idk if i'll draw more for this but i figured i'd post whet i have cause its been weeks lol

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danurso · 4 years

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Taming a beast

Today was a good day, Weiss finally managed to unpack everything at her new home, placing all of her belongings on their new places. Winter was also coming to visit in just a few hours for dinner and Weiss had given herself the task of making Winter the best dinner she ever had. Weiss wasn't really a great cook but luckily for her, Jaune and Ren were, and they didn't hesitate to help her to hone her cooking skills.

So now she was standing in her new kitchen, checking the tray in the oven and hoping that what she was preparing for dinner could impress not only her sister, but her boyfriend as well.

Weiss: *sighs, taking off her kitchen gloves and wiping a few drops of sweat from her forehead* okay, i think a few more minutes is enough. Now all i have to do is wait. *takes off her apron and walks to the living room, sitting on the couch and pulling out her scroll.*

Weiss: *staring at her wallpaper, a picture of her in a light blue dress during yang and jaune's marriage, with her boyfriend on a suit holding her close* . . . *sighs* i wonder how long until you come home.

As if for a cue, she heard the door of her home opening and then being slammed shut, the sound was quickly followed by a few footsteps coming in the direction of the living room.

Weiss: *looks back at the doorway as a red haired man walks in* hi adam.

Adam: *ignores her with a scowl, walking to the table and putting down his bags*

Weiss: *gets up and walks to him* adam?

Adam: *finishes putting down his stuff, placing both hands on the table and taking a deep breath* hey.

Weiss: are you okay?

Adam: *rummaging through his stuff* yeah.

Weiss: what are you doing?

Adam: nothing. *pulls out his sword, walking to the door right after*

Weiss: *stands on his way with crossed arms*

Adam: get out of my way weiss.

Weiss: where are you going? And why do you need your sword?

Adam: it doesn't matter.

Weiss: i think it does, can you tell me?

Adam: *clenches jaw* you don't need to know, now get out of my way.

Weiss: yes i do need to now, now tell me or i'm not letting you through this door.

Adam: just get out of my way!!

Weiss: no.

Adam: and why not!? Do you think i'm gonna go after a group of innocent people too!? You think i'm gonna attack humans mindlessly!? You think i'm gonna go on a rampage like an wild angry animal like them!?

Weiss: *staring into his eyes* . . .you do know that's not what i'm thinking right?

Adam: *looks away, taking deep breaths*

Weiss: adam, what happened?

Adam: nothing, i just need to go out and hunt some grimm, that's all. Can you let me by now?

Weiss: only when you tell me what got you so angry.

Adam: im not angry.

Weiss: then why did you just shouted like that?

Adam: did someone already told you that you ask too many questions?

Weiss: try being ruby's partner for six years and you'll end up just like me. now, care to tell me what happened?

Adam: nothing, it's just been a rough week and i have a lot of steam to let out.

Weiss: does it has anything to do with the meeting?

Adam flinched as his jaw clenched, Weiss didn't needed an answer to know she was right.

It's been a tough road for adam since he turned to a new leaf, most humans hated him everything he did, as did most of the faunus. Nowadays he worked with blake, both to help Blake to archive equality and to show to the others that he isn't the same Adam from the past.

Unfortunately, most people didn't saw adam how weiss did, they didn't knew that he had changed since his killer days. Yes, most of his personality was the same and he sometimes gets as scary as his old self, but he doesn't kill anymore and now at least he's fighting on the good side, even if most people didn't wanted to see that.

Weiss: thought so. Care to tell me what happened there?

Adam: for the last time, nothing-

Weiss: if you don't tell me i'll call blake, or even better sun, you know how loose his tongue is, right?

Adam: . . .

Weiss: so, who's going to tell me what really happened?

Adam: . . . *sighs*

Weiss: so?

Adam: . . .they beat me. . .until i could barely hold myself on my feet.

Weiss: *eyes wide* what!? How!?

Adam: i went to the conference with blake, sun and ilia, it was the big day for us, all of our fighting finally gave results and on the next day we would sign the papers along with the council to make so every faunus had the exact same rights as humans, that was supposed to be a good thing but of course, to the humans it wasn't.

Weiss: . . .

Adam: *hands clenched into fists* from the moment we stepped out of the bullhead to the moment we got back to it, we were always surrounded by racist bastards who kept insulting us without a rest.

Weiss: i thought you didn't bothered with insults anymore.

Adam: and i don't, mostly, but apparently being me walking down that bullhead made things much worse, they kept throwing rocks at me, calling me a murderer, telling me to die and how they wanted to kill me. . .

Weiss: a-adam, i. . .

Adam: *jaw clenches* but that wasn't all of course, it would be too easy if it was.

Weiss: what happened?

Adam: at night, one day before signing the treaty, one of the council members called me for a private talk, but when i got there he along with other six people ambushed me. . .they kept beating me while throwing every insult they could think on.

Weiss: *shocked* a-and what did you do?

Adam: nothing, i just took the beating without fighting back.

Weiss: but why!?

Adam: because if i fought back and harmed not only humans but a member of the council, the treaty would probably be revoked and all we fought until now would be for nothing!!!

Weiss: . . .

Adam: *looking away with a scowl* i'm tired of these damn humans! All we're doing is fighting to be seen and treated as equals! But they insist that our place is under their damn boots! I try to change for the better and fight on the right side but the more i fight the more i see how pointless that is!! *grip tightens on his sword* in days like this all i can think about is to go after every single of those bastards and ki-

Weiss: adam!!

Adam: WHAT!?

Adam snapped back at weiss, staring directly her. He honestly expected her to be scared or disgusted with him, but all he could see in her eyes was worry and concern, she was giving him a serious look but her eyes still told him what she was really thinking.

Weiss: are you listening to what you're saying? You're not like that anymore adam.

Adam: how are you so sure of that!? I'm trying my best to change but by the end of the day i'll always be the same person everyone is afraid of! a murderer! a killer!! A DAMN MONSTER!!!

Weiss: you are not a monster.

Adam: why are you so sure!? Everyone sees me as a monster! For all i know i can wake up one day alone because you ran away from me! From this worthless monster everyone hates!!

Adam shouted once more, he was angry, after spending a whole week being target of hatred from humans weiss honestly could blame him, nor could she blame him for not being able to listen to her at the moment, yet, she needed to deliver her message, and if he wasn't going to listen her when she's talking, she would make him listen to her in a different way.

And so, weiss snatched adam's sword from his hand while ignoring his protests, he tried to take it back but she held his hand and dragged him to the couch.

Adam: what the hell are you doing!?

Weiss: just come with me and stop complaining.

Adam: weiss-

Weiss: if you don't wanna listen what i'm saying, at least try to listen to this. *sits down on the couch, pulling him along and resting his head on her lap.*

Adam: just what are you planning to do now? Just let me go already!

Weiss: . . . *slowly inhales and then exhales*

Adam: weiss?

Weiss: Hush your cries 🎶

Close your eyes

Stay with me

Let's just dream

Quietly

Of what might be

Calm your fear

I'll be near

To you, I'll cling

Rest, my friend

Time can mend

Many things 🎶

Adam: why are you singing all of a sudden?

Weiss: I don't know the answers 🎶

Tomorrow's still unknown

But I can make this promise

You won't be alone 🎶

Adam: weiss, what-

Weiss: *stroking his hair* I don't know where we should go 🎶

Just feeling farther from our goal

I don't know what path we will be shown

But I know that when I'm with you I'm at home

Yes, I know that when I'm with you I'm at home 🎶

Adam: *looks away* you're crazy.

Weiss: There's a quiet place 🎶

In my embrace

A haven of safety where

I'll dry your tears

Shelter here

In my care 🎶

Adam: *slowly looking back at her*

Weiss: But even when we stumble 🎶

And someday when we fall

What I will remember

That I had you through it all 🎶

Adam: . . .

Weiss: I don't know where we should go 🎶

Just feeling farther from our goal

I don't know what path we will be shown

But I know that when I'm with you I'm at home

Yes, I know that when I'm with you I'm at home. . . 🎶

Adam: *silently staring at her angelic face*

Weiss: Yes, I know that when I'm with you I'm at home. 🎶

At the end of the song, adam was still silently staring at her face. He might not have realized but while she sang to him his expression slowly softened, and the precious scowl he was carrying was nowhere to be seen anymore, all there was left now was a calm expression, with admiring eyes locked on the white haired angel stroking his hair.

Weiss: so, feeling better?

Adam: . . .maybe.

Weiss: *with a small smile* i think that's good enough for me.

*plim*

Weiss: now if you excuse me, i need to go see the oven. *gets up, walking to the kitchen.*

Adam: . . . *staring as she leaves*

. . .

Weiss: *humming while taking the tray out of the oven*

Adam: *walks in* . . .

Weiss: *with her back turned to him and putting some spices on the tray*

Adam: weiss?

Weiss: yes?

Adam: how. . .how did you do that?

Weiss: how did i do what?

Adam: you know what i'm talking about. Five minutes ago all i wanted was to pounce at the throat of the first human i saw but now i don't care about that anymore, i'm a lot calmer actually. How did you do that?

Weiss: well, i just saw somewhere that music can help to calm down wild animals.

Adam: *narrowing his eyes* . . .did you just called me an animal.

Weiss: *chuckles shortly while placing the tray back in the oven* i called you wild you dork.

Adam: . . .can't say anything about that.

Weiss: yeah, you can't, because you're a wild dork. I know a lot people keep saying bad things about you because they still see the old adam instead of the new one, but i'm not one of the peoples *turns back to him* they might see you as a monster but i know better, and as long as you need me i'll be here for you, so stop thinking about yourself as a monster, you're clearly not one anymore.

Adam: i know. . . *sigh* thank you weiss. And sorry for screaming at you earlier.

Weiss: its okay, no need to thank me, I'm in a great mood since winter is coming to visit.

Adam: . . .

Weiss: Oh, but just so you know, if you ever shout like that to me again. *with a scary smile* i'll show you what a real monster looks like, understood?

Adam: *shivers* y-yeah, understood.

Weiss: good, now come here and give it a taste.

Adam: okay *tasting her food* . . .it's good, when did you learned how to cook?

Weiss: i've been getting classes from jaune and ren, i can't always rely on you to cook for us, specially now that you're always so busier than normal.

Adam: you know i don't mind cooking for us, right?

Weiss: i know, *facing him again* but what's wrong with a girl wanting to cook for her sister and her boyfriend?

Adam: nothing. *with a small grin* you never cease to surprise me snowball.

Weiss: good to know that i don't bore you.

Adam: you never did, life is never boring with you around.

Weiss: i could say the same, although i'm not very fond of the excitement you usually bring me.

Adam: really? Because i can't remember you complaining about it that much, specially when we invaded your father's office just to have se-

Weiss: and thaaaaat's enough! Why don't we forget about the past for now and focus on the present? *turns around and goes back to cooking*

Adam: agreed. *walks closer and hugs her waist from behind* why focus on the past when i have you here right now?

Weiss: *pink* a-adam, now is not the time for thIS!

Adam: *kissing her neck*

Weiss: w-wait *breaks free and turns around* winter is going to arrive in one hour and i still-mhmn.

Adam: *pulls her into a kiss*

Weiss: *melting on his arms*

Adam: *lifts weiss, placing her on the table and breaking the kiss* cooking can wait, i've been out for a week and all i can think right now is making up for the lost time.

Weiss: *red* . . .f-fine, but lets do it quickly, okay?

Adam: not making any promises. *pulls her into another kiss*

Weiss: *wraps her arms around his neck and starts making out heatedly with him*

Bônus:

*an hour later*

Winter: *knocks on the door*

Weiss: h-hey, wait! Stop!

Winter: weiss?

Weiss: let me go! Stop!

Winter: *pulls out her saber and kicks door open* weiss! Are you okay-

Weiss: *naked with a towel around her torso and giggling*

Adam: *naked with a towel around his waist and holding weiss from behind while nibbling her neck*

Winter: . . .can someone tell me what is happening?

Weiss: *freezes* o-oh my god, winter!?

Adam: . . .

Weiss: i can explain!

Winter: . . .i'm not sure if i want or even need an explanation.

Weiss: w-we're just-

Adam: about to go for round four, so if you excuse us. *goes back to bitting weiss' neck*

Weiss: *red* a-adam!!

Winter: i understand, i'll be back in half an hour. *leaves*

Weiss: winter, w-wait!

Adam: you heard her, we still have half an hour left. *goes back to kissing her neck.

Weiss: w-wait, mhmn, stop it already you dork!

Adam: *grinning* no.

*outside*

Winter: *sigh* out of every single man in the world it had to be him, why did it had to be him?

*plim*

Winter: *pulls out her scroll and reads a message*

'after you're done with your sister i'll be waiting at your ap'

-Q

Winter: *taps on the attachment, opening a image of a grinning shirtless qrow who likely just came out of her bath.*

Winter: *red* damn you bad boys! why are you so effective on schnees!? damn you all!!

#rwby #adam taurus #adam x weiss #weiss schnee #frostbite #winter schnee #qrow branwen #qrow x winter #snowbird

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thirstyforred · 4 years

Photo

I had a lot of fun coming up with my own witcher school, answering questions from @oxenfurt-archives meme, and patching up my own canon. I even made it into small fanfic by all answers in-universe and also acquired two extra ocs (Skelliger and Archivist) :p

Excerps from the essay "The short and disturbing history of the school of ray" from "Of witchers and monsters - essays on monster hunting from the First Landing to the Northern Wars" by the Head Archivist of Archives of Oxenfurt Library, Marcin of Tridam.

Animal medallions

" Manta ray, flat-bodied venomous fish. Gnomes use their shagreen on hilts of their swords. Not many met witchers of ray school, even less actually saw their medallions. And no wonder the school operated only for a few decades in the XI century... "

Keep

"Midgaeth, the Middle of the Gate. Apparently, it's want's even a keep, but a magical vessel. Elven longship, even more beautiful than the ones Aen Seidhe used to sail here. It is possible Skelligers would even mistake it for the Naglfar... "

Location and route to the keep

" They sailed the Great Sea, from the north and the Gulf of Praxeda, all the way to the south and Nilfgaard. The only ports Midgaeth entered were on Inis Porhoet and Undvik, so anyone wishing to met ray witchers would have sometimes wait for months on these cold, windy islands... "

Origins

" The mage Jacques who was the main perpetrator of the creation of ray witchers claimed that he was the Source, able to enter other worlds, and that's how he acquired the ship and equipment required in experimentation. Supposedly the very first tried took place either on Inis Porhoet or in Rissberg, as these two sites Jacques and his associate Hubert list in their diaries and notebooks as places where they met for the first time ... "

Relationship with the populace

" Populace of ports Midgaeth enters doesn't know what happens on board. And even if they heard something, they wouldn't believe anyway... "

Fate and numbers of Witchers

" Thanks to notes of Jacques and Hubert we know the exact number of witchers they created - fifty-one, the last one, had gone through his Trials on the eve of Saovine in 1078. Jacques & Hubert didn't consider it important to note down his, or for that matter, others, name so we know him only as Skelliger. The last witcher claiming to come from this school died in besieged Houtborg... "

Fighting style

" Ray witchers borrowed some of their fighting techniques from the Order of Witchers itself and pioneers who first ventured the Continent. They trained with the short swords, with one edge being normal cutting blade and the other serrated like a saw. Such weapons were called sawback swords and not only were quite effective in the fray, both slashing and lacerating flesh, but could be also used as regular saws... "

Knowledge of magic and arcana

" Considering that Midgaeth itself was a magical longship, it would be sensible to assume that ray witchers knew not only signs, but also some of the magic theory. Jaques makes a point in his notes about his techniques of teaching Quen and taking his "students", as he calls witchers, to magical sites all over the Continent in an attempt to'fix these fucking portals'..."

Armor

" The only information about armor type favored by ray witchers we have is the description of Skelliger as he was sawn in Mirt shortly before the city was destroyed: 'There was a man in gambeson, quite short and well-fitting, so for a minute we all thought he was just another young mage looking for a place to hide. With the blond hair and blue eyes, I don't think any of us would complain about his companionship in besieged ruins of our school. But then he stepped out of the shadow and we got to see him, really see him. There was blood all over his clothing, so soaked it only seemed black in color, the nasty knife or some other weapon in his hand... And his eye, oh gods, I will never forget his monstrous eyes...' "

Alchemy

" From their notes, it seems that Hubert was the one responsible for alchemical education of ray witchers. But it's also obvious that he had only a basic understanding of this field. What he and Jaques lacked in knowledge and expertise, they always compensated in enthusiasm and with reckless experimentation... "

Creators

" Not much is actually known about these two other than what they wrote about each other. Jaques obviously claimed to be a powerful sorcerer, possibly not a real interplanar traveler but rather a delusional Source. Case more common than one may suspect. Hubert might be yet another renegade mage, but nothing really indicates his knowledge of arcana. On the other hand, his notes and drawings of various dissected creatures are tangible proof he was a skilled surgeon. Yet it's still baffling how he managed to outlive Jaques and all their creations... "

Mutation Formula

" Unlike other witcher schools, rays described their process quite in deep with every subject, both failed and successful, although it seems to not make much sense and it's unlikely that any of it could be recreated these days. Jaques & Hubert wrote down their ingredients but forgot to provide an explanation for the names of herbs or where they come from. There is also a difference in that the other schools seem to cook decoction that can be injected into yet-to-be-witcher's bloodstream, while rays would open and sew these ingredients inside the body. Either kerenzikov or sandevistan were weaved into the spine, sometimes with additional 'pain editor', sacks with creatures called nanoids (possibly a type of bacteria or such small organisms) were placed near the liver... "

The Path

" Ray witchers were a rather lonely sort. It seems they had problems with integrations into the society due to their unusual mutations and possibly every winter would come back to the ports visited by Midgaeth... "

The opinion of other witchers

" Rays were lucky that their ranks were so scarce because it's very likely they would be as hated and feared as the cats are nowadays. Few of witchers of other schools that met the creations of Jaques & Hubert described them as detached from humanity, more a specter or mage-made toy than someone, something that was once a human. Feral, psychotic, waiting only for that last reason to snap and turn to senseless violence. Of course, those descriptions don't mean all rays were like that, the good example would be already mentioned Skelliger, who took an active part in the events during his lifetime and fought alongside others in Falka's Rebellion... "

#witcher oc #school of ray #Witcher fanfic #the witcher #jacques de aldersberg #Thirsty vs Dziki Zgon #i'll add extra [and normal] explanations just not today #archivist marcin #hubert rejk #alvin x hubert

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paws-and-claws-au · 5 years

Text

Chapter 2: A Lonely Existence

Prologue, Ch.1, Ch.2, Ch.3, Ch.4

Summary: In a kingdom where practicing magic is outlawed and mythical creatures are being hunted, one boy is caught in the crossfire between the two sides of the fight. Only an act of pure, selfless love will lift his curse and return his life to normal…but who could ever love a monster like him?

Chapter Summary: As Patton loses more and more hope with every passing day, Roman sets off to find the tower Remy told him about...with a watchful eye following his every move.

Warnings: Loneliness, fear, hopelessness

Pairings: Eventual Royality and Analogical

Word Count: 3,456

Song for this chapter: Temporary Nothing

AU Creator: @thegremlinprince

Fic Author: @ironwoman359

Available on AO3 here

The first time he’d heard someone climbing his tower, Patton had been excited.

It was a few months after the Dragon Witch had appeared, and Patton had been doing his best to keep his spirits up. There was hope now, real hope for the first time in years, he just had to hold onto it! So he tried to stay strong; he sang songs, he fed crumbs to the mice and birds that made their way into the tower, he distracted himself as best he could, and when he felt the pangs of loneliness in his chest grow, he tried to force them down by whispering it’s alright, someone will come for me, it will be alright, it will be alright soon.

That didn’t always work, and sometimes he found himself as a dragon, curled up in the corner with steaming hot tears dropping to the stone floor, but he knew it wouldn’t be forever…one day, someone would come for him and he wouldn’t have to live like this anymore. He just had to wait.

So when he first heard scrambling and scraping from the outside of the tower, he had been excited. He rushed to the window, already feeling the beginnings of a transformation as his spirits rose, but as he poked his dragon’s head out to see who was coming, he was met with an angry shout and a flying arrow from a crossbow. Patton yelped, and darted back inside, the tingle of magic inside that had been about to turn him back into a human stopping abruptly. Instead, as his heart beat wildly in his chest, he could feel his claws and teeth growing longer, his scales growing tougher, the heat in his center growing hotter.

“Foul beast!” a shout came from below, and Patton cowered away from the window. “Prepare to taste my blade and take your final breath!”

“No…” Patton whimpered, his heart sinking. This knight wouldn’t be able to save him. All he could see when he looked at Patton was a monster that needed slaying.

The knight’s head appeared in the window, crossbow at the ready, and Patton acted on instinct.

“Get OUT!” he roared, and the knight’s eyes widened in fear as Patton opened his mouth and let a stream of fire shoot towards the window. The knight made the very smart decision to let go of the windowsill, dropping several feet before he managed to find purchase on the tower wall. He tried a few more times to scale the tower, but Patton fought him off each time and the knight eventually gave up, shouting a few more obscenities at the dragon for good measure.

As he finally rode away, Patton collapsed on the tower floor and began to cry. He didn’t remember falling asleep, but the next thing he knew he was waking up in human form, curled up on the floor in a patch of sunlight streaming through his window.

That day, he learned that it would be harder than he thought for someone to break his curse.

There were more knights through the years, each just as cruel and vicious as the first. Time and time again, a tiny spark of hope would light in Patton’s chest…only for it to be quickly stomped out as again and again they proved what Patton now knew to be the truth. Patton was nothing but a monster.

And nobody could love a monster.

— — —

“What do you MEAN he saw you!” Desmond roared. “What was he even DOING there?”

“I-I, I don’t know!” the boy stammered hurriedly. “I think…he just goes there sometimes, the lady at the inn said something about plants…”

“I do not believe this,” Desmond grumbled. “What is the point of having you go on secret missions if you’re incapable of actually keeping a secret?”

“I’m sorry!” the boy pleaded, taking a step away and raising his hands. “I couldn’t help that he was there, it isn’t my fault that he and the prince stayed at the same inn!”

Desmond glared at him, then pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine. You know, it’s fine. I’ve known Remy for years, I know how to handle him.” He sighed, and turned to the pile of notes and diagrams on his desk, muttering to himself. “It’s fine, we’ll just have to change some of our plans around and-”

“Uh, actually…he said he wasn’t going to get in your way.”

Desmond paused, and turned back to the boy.

“What?”

“He…he said he knew better than to try and get in your way…” the boy fiddled with the edge of his cloak. “And…he said…”

“What?” Desmond frowned, and leaned forward. “Tell me, what did he say?”

The boy looked up and met Desmond’s eyes.

“He said just because you think you know what you’re doing doesn’t mean you aren’t being stupid.”

“Oh…” Desmond sucked in a breath and the boy shrunk back.

“W-what? What does that mean?”

“Remy’s being cryptic,” Desmond said with a sigh. “Which means he’s playing things close to his chest, so we have to be ready for anything.”

He whirled around and the boy flinched, and the Dragon Witch sighed again.

“Always so skittish. Do me a favor and grow yourself a backbone, then get back out there and follow the prince. Don’t let him out of your sight. His birthday is approaching soon, and you know what that means. We haven’t got much time.”

The boy nodded, then there was a flash and a sleek black cat stood where the boy had been a moment before. The witch and the familiar locked eyes for a moment, then the cat turned and darted out of the hut. Desmond sighed, and sank into a chair.

“Remy…” he muttered to himself. “What are you up to?”

— — —

Patton was incredibly sore.

He’d been stuck in his dragon form for over a week now, and while his tower had been more than roomy enough for him when he was young, he now found himself terribly cramped in the space. He wondered, sometimes, if the reason the tower wasn’t large enough for an adult dragon’s body was because his parents had thought they’d be able to break his curse before he grew this big. Or maybe they didn’t realize just how large he would truly get as he matured.

Or maybe, Patton thought with a dull ache in his chest, they just hadn’t cared enough to consider it at all.

Not that it really mattered now. It had been seven years since his parents had died, seven years since the Dragon Witch had come to his tower and given him a chance of breaking the curse. Seven years of disappointment as knight after knight ventured into his tower with swords and bows drawn, angry voices sending him into a panicked transformation and leaving him no choice but to fight his would be rescuers away.

His transformations took longer and longer to come out of these days, and the fear that one day he would lose his humanity completely kept him awake at night, wrapped in every blanket he had in the tower in a desperate attempt to stop himself from shaking. When he found himself trapped within his dragon’s skin, there wasn’t much he could do now besides curl up into a ball and wait to turn back into a human.

Which, with how hopeless he felt almost all the time nowadays, was easier said than done.

A sudden screech from outside caught Patton’s attention, and he lifted up his head just in time to see a large barn owl fly up and perch on the windowsill of the tower. The bird let out another call, quieter this time, and Patton smiled softly.

“Hi there, pretty bird,” he murmured. “How’ve you been?”

The owl didn’t speak, as it was just an ordinary barn owl, but Patton liked to think that his feathered friend who flew by from time to time could understand him anyway. It was either believe that or face the crushing loneliness of his tower day after day.

“I’ve been about the same,” Patton continued, stretching out his left wing as much as he could and glancing at the pale blue scales he could see out of the corner of his eye. “As you can tell,” he added, sighing.

The owl squawked in response and cocked its head, fixing Patton with a pointed look.

“What?” Patton sighed, resting his head back down on his claws. “It’s hardly surprising, is it? It’s not like I have a lot to be happy about right now.”

The owl ruffled his feathers, then looked back and forth between the window and Patton several times. Patton lifted his head up again, and the owl dutifully hopped out of the way so he could look.

Sunlight poured into the room, and the stunningly blue sky outside was dotted with the whitest, puffiest clouds Patton had seen in a long time. A soft warm breeze carried the scent of pine needles and wildflowers through the tower window, and Patton closed his eyes, breathing deeply and taking it all in. When he opened them again, the owl had vanished from its perch, but Patton barely had time to wonder where his little friend had gone before the bird returned with a freshly plucked wild daisy in its beak.

It dropped the flower onto Patton’s claw, and screeched expectantly. Patton laughed, and as he did so, he felt a tingle of warmth glowing at his center. A flash of magic, and he was human again, a freshly picked daisy in his fist. He brought the flower up to smell, and he smiled up at the owl.

“Thank you, pretty bird,” he cooed, reaching forward and giving his friend a scratch on the head.

The owl leaned into the touch, then its gaze fixed on something above Patton and it squawked again.

“Hmm?” Patton glanced up, then sighed when he realized what the bird was looking at. “Oh, these.”

He ran a hand over the horns that were protruding out of his fluffy brown mess of curls.

“These haven’t gone away the last several times, I’m afraid,” he said, stroking the owl absently. “Guess that Dragon Witch really lives up to his name, huh?”

The owl ruffled its feathers, and Patton could have sworn it frowned, and he shook his head fondly.

“Now now, there’s no use getting angry, pretty bird. What’s done is done, we can’t change that, can we now?” He looked down at the flower in his hands and he sighed. “We just have got to live with what we’ve got now. And what I’ve got…” he looked around his tower, then wrapped his arms around himself. “Is this.”

The owl screeched indignantly, then took off from the windowsill. Patton went to the edge to watch as his friend flew in a few small circles outside before returning to its perch. It squawked again, flapping its wings a few times for good measure, before fixing its unblinking stare onto Patton.

“Out…there?” he asked, cocking his head. The owl chirped in approval, leaning towards Patton then turning and leaning back out of the window again. “Me out there…” Patton supplied, then he sighed. “Oh, I know pretty bird. Believe me, I know.”

Patton turned and set the flower down on his desk in the corner, then turned back to the owl with a sad smile.

“I wish I could leave, fly away like you. But I’m too big now as a dragon to get out, and there’s no way down as a human. Besides…” Patton felt tears prick at the edge of his eyes, and he quickly wiped them away. “There’s…nowhere for me to go. I can’t…I’m not…”

More tears fell, and Patton could tell he was in danger of transforming again, but so, evidently, could his visitor, and the owl chirped again, hopping forward and pushing his head against Patton’s hand. Patton smiled shakily, and began stroking the owl’s soft feathers.

They stayed there in silence, for how long, Patton wasn’t really sure, but bit by bit, Patton felt himself calming down. He let his hand fall away from his feathered friend, and he took a deep breath.

“I’ll be okay now, pretty bird,” he said quietly, and nodded at the owl. “Go on now, you have your dinner to catch I’ll bet.”

The bird let out one final screech, before it spread its wings and took off from the window again, leaving Patton once more to his solitude. Patton sighed once the bird had gone, glancing over at his reflection in a mirror that stood by his bed. The horns on his head were longer now then the last time he’d been human, but he couldn’t let himself think about that now.

He lay down on his bed, savoring the feeling of being able to stretch his limbs again before pulling a blanket over his head to block out any sunlight. It may have still technically been morning, but Patton found that he just was too tired to continue the day. There wasn’t much for him to do in the tower anyway, and none of his usual past times seemed appealing to him just then. He closed his eyes, and waited to be taken by sleep.

— — —

Even though the sun had barely risen when he’d started out, it was still nightfall by the time Roman came upon a scattering of shacks and huts by the river that could be called a village. He dismounted and took his horse’s reins in his hands, entering the settlement on foot. Most of the villagers had retreated indoors for the day, and the streets (if you could even call the beaten down strip of earth running between the buildings a street) were eerily empty as Roman headed towards what he assumed to be the village leader’s home, as it was the only structure in the town that stood at two stories high.

Roman knocked on the door, stroking his horse’s neck as he waited for an answer. The door cracked open, and a pair of curious eyes peered out.

“What d’you want?” a boy looking to be in his early teens asked.

“Hello,” Roman said, smiling down at the boy. “Tell me, is this where I can find the village leader?”

The boy raised an eyebrow, but nodded and turned, calling over his shoulder into the house.

“Gramps! Someone’s at the door for you!”

“Is it Margerie about her chickens again? Because if it is, then I swear–”

“Nah, it’s some guy in armor!” the boy called back, glancing at Roman again. “And he’s got a horse with him!”

“Oh? Very well, then.”

A soft grunt, then the door was pulled open, revealing a man stooped over with age standing behind the boy. His eyes swept over Roman, lingering on the royal crest on his tunic and saddlebags before turning to his grandson.

“Kai, please tend to our guest’s horse. Lucy will have to share her paddock tonight.”

The boy, Kai, nodded, and Roman handed over his reins, stepping into the house at the old man’s invitation. Once the door was closed behind him, the man turned and bowed as low as he could manage.

“Prince Roman, it is a great privilege. Many a knight has passed through our humble village, but never one as stately as yourself.”

Roman nodded, indicating with his hand that the man should rise.

“You honor me with your words, sir. I do hope I am not imposing.”

“Not at all, Sire,” the man assured him. “Please, come sit and rest yourself by the fire. Wherever it is you have ridden from, you must have travelled far to reach this place.”

“Is your village as isolated then in other directions as it is from settlements to the west?” asked Roman as he sat, grateful to finally have a break from riding.

“Indeed,” the old man nodded. “For years, there was nothing in this part of the countryside besides the Belmont Watchtower. A few decades ago, some settlers thought this would be a fine place to begin a new village, but not many people wanted to move somewhere so remote. Then, of course…after awhile, no one wanted to stay. Ah, but forgive me, I am rambling again.”

Roman cocked his head, smelling a story.

“Why would no one wish to settle here?” he asked. “The land looks good, and the river flows strong and clear. There is a pine forest I can see just over the northern ridge, no doubt suitable for hunting or trapping. Distance from civilization aside, it seems to me like this would be a fine place indeed to build a homestead.”

The man smiled wryly.

“Indeed, perhaps with a few more years work this place could have become quite prosperous. Then, nearly fifteen years ago, something changed.”

Roman leaned forward expectantly.

“The Belmont Watchtower no longer sits abandoned,” the elder continued. “A terrible monster now resides there, and though it has never left the tower to our knowledge, none wish to live in its shadow. The only villagers left are those who cannot leave, because they have nowhere else to go, or because they are too old or frail to travel.”

“Like yourself,” Roman asked, and the man nodded.

“My wife died many years ago, and my only daughter did not live to see her son’s fourth birthday. My grandson, Kai is ill as well, and cannot travel far. What’s more, over the years the villagers have begun to look to me for answers. We do not have much here, and it can be very lonely at times. But we make do.”

Roman nodded in understanding.

“While I’m sure it is hard to imagine how, I do believe I understand your plight,” he said, thinking back on his own life at the castle. Sure, he had far more wealth and privilege than he knew what to do with, but being surrounded by servants and advisors and nobles could make you feel just as alone as being in a settlement with hardly any inhabitants. Roman would even go so far as to wager that the people in this tiny village often felt less lonely than he. At least they had each other.

“And...the tower,” Roman asked, not wanting to dwell on such somber thoughts. “Who inhabits it?”

“As I said,” the man said with a frown, “a beast lives within its walls.”

“I have been told that if I wished to protect my kingdom, I would do well to face whatever is in that tower.

“Your Highness,” the man sighed. “As I said, you are not the first knight to have come here. In the past seven years or so, we have had many who sought to lay claim to whatever it is that creature is guarding. None have succeeded. While I have no doubt in Your Highness’s abilities, I must implore you to seek elsewhere for your prize. There are not many who can kill a dragon.”

Roman’s eyes widened. He was a capable warrior, it was true, but never in all his days had he faced down a foe as formidable as a dragon. He didn’t know if he could win in a fight against such a beast. He didn’t know if anybody could. He could hear his father’s voice in his head, telling him that he had no business riding across the country going on “pointless adventures” and chasing “flights of fancy.” But then, another voice echoed in his head.

“You may find yourself in the face of danger the likes of which you’ve never seen, but behind it all lies a lonely soul that is desperate need of help.”

“I appreciate your concern, good sir,” Roman said, with another nod. “But it is not a prize or glory that I seek. This is a task that I must do.”

The man shrugged in a way that said have it your way, then, before rising to his feet.

“Whatever your decision, Sire, it is late now. Please, we have a spare room in this house for travellers. It is not much, but it is at your disposal.”

Roman nodded in thanks, and once again found himself in a sparsely furnished room, tugging off his armor. He glanced out the window, and saw the Belmont Watchtower peeking over a hill in the distance. A faint light shone from the tower’s window, and Roman felt a resolve stirring in his heart. He couldn’t explain it, but somehow, he knew that whatever was waiting for him in that tower would change his life.

And Roman was determined to be ready for it.

Prologue, Ch.1, Ch.2, Ch.3, Ch.4

A/N: SO sorry that it’s taken me so long to finish this chapter guys, real life has just kicked me really hard in the gut with how busy I’ve been so far this year, but I’m so happy to finally have this out for you guys! Thank you so much for sticking with us! (I promise, next time Roman and Patton will actually be in the same scene XD) As always, reblogs and comments are hugely appreciated <3

AU Creator: @thegremlinprince

Other fics by @ironwoman359

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edgelordtozier · 5 years

Text

new person (same old mistakes)

a/n: this is my steve and robin Friendship fic bc they're best friends 🥺🥺

AO3 LINK

description: After the events of The Battle of Starcourt, Steve Harrington finds himself going back to an all too quiet empty home. Overtaken by feelings and a sense of anxiety, he calls his new best friend Robin.

They have a sleepover.

Steve Harrington felt hopelessly hopeless. Grasping onto something small that would never actually happen anytime in his life, but something he longed for so deeply it pained him. Though he did not know precisely what it was he was longing for. Love, perhaps; or maybe just Nancy Wheeler, who was most definitely wrapped up in Jonathan Byers' arms right now, warm and protected despite the traumatic events of the day.

Steve wished he could feel protected.

He truly was alone if he really thought long and hard about it. His parents didn't give a shit about him, too busy with their jobs and their perfect lives without their imbecile of a son. He didn't have a girlfriend anymore, and even when he did she didn't truly love him as he did her. And his only real friends were children much younger than him, who would be busy soon at a school he'd already graduated from.

To top it all off, he'd spent the last few days with terrifying Russians punching him around and drugging him up, all ended off with a huge monster that nearly killed everyone earlier in the day. And sure, it hadn't all been terrible; the parts where he got to joke around with Robin and Dustin and Erica made up for it all in a way he couldn't explain.

The part where he professed his newfound feelings for Robin was embarrassing, though. Getting rejected always sucked. But he found it wasn't as bad as he expected it to be. Getting told by a girl he had feelings for that she didn't like him in that way —not because he was a bad person— but because she liked other girls herself was much easier to take, he found. And of course he respected her. He would have been stupid not to. She was hilarious, beautiful and so smart; it would have been a loss to not settle for just friends.

His feelings hadn't dissipated just yet, but he knew they would soon. He wasn't desperately in love like he had been—or maybe even still was—with Nancy Wheeler. It was a crush, something that easily could have developed into more if he hadn't been let down in such a way. He didn't have a problem with the way she didn't like boys the way society told her she should have.

Sure, if she would have told him a year or so ago he probably would have reacted in a much different way; but that was a result of the people he surrounded himself with. Tommy H. and those shitheads who emphasized what he already hated about himself and misconstrued everything to make it look like he was the bully, when it was really their actions that got them into mess after mess. And Steve played a part in most of them, he would admit. He wasn't just a bystander, watching and allowing. He partook in the shitty things they did, and he wasn't proud of it. But it was usually their plans and their pressure that pushed him into executing those things.

He was glad he'd abandoned them after the fight with Jonathan Byers. After Jonathan had beat the living shit out of him while the love of his life— who he'd just called a slut publicly; painted by Tommy in red on the big sign in the front of the movie theater while Steve watched and didn't protest— watched and pleaded with them both to just stop fighting. Steve realized he probably should have on his own, rather than only stopping when the police arrived and acting on his own cowardice. Maybe Nancy would have thought higher of him and perhaps they would have still been together. But that probably wouldn't have happened anyway. Steve had done something fucked up, and he knew that helping clean it up afterwards didn't excuse it.

Nancy just liked Jonathan more than she'd ever loved Steve. According to her, their relationship had been bullshit from the start; so maybe Steve shouldn't have put as much as he did into it. But he couldn't have helped it. He'd been in love with Nancy ever since he'd laid eyes on her; spoken to her and seen the way she smiled shyly and looked down at the ground. He wanted to protect her, love her, keep her happy. It seemed Steve was bad at doing anything right nowadays.

He'd failed at that, failed so desperately to just keep Nancy happy. Maybe he didn't even put enough into the relationship in the first place, maybe he was just bad at being a good boyfriend, maybe he'd just always make the same mistakes over and over again. She'd left him and he'd been alone, so alone and so melancholy.

He wanted to feel alive, so he fucked girls who just wanted a good hook up. He liked it, but the euphoria was never as much as it had been when he was with Nancy, so deeply in love and infatuated. It would never be the same.

And then he'd graduated, and the loneliness jerked up to an all time high. He had Dustin Henderson, the curly haired kid he'd fought interdimensional monsters with a while before and become best friends with, giving him tips on picking up girls despite just how fucking atrocious he was at it himself, but that was all. Dustin looked up to him for whatever reason, and Steve couldn't bring himself to tell the kid he wasn't role model material. He was just Steve Harrington, the fuck up with good hair who somehow got lucky with girls when he had been in high school.

Dustin had gone to camp the first month of summer. He'd shown up to Steve's high school graduation with his mom and a plate of cookies, congratulating him on actually finishing high school despite his low grades. He'd graduated high school, but that didn't mean he'd go to college, Dustin had joked. The poor kid didn't know just how true that statement really was.

Dustin had sent him a toothless grin and thumbs up, performing the handshake they'd made up before Dustin announced he'd be leaving for camp the next day. They said goodbye on the field while Steve was in his cap and gown, holding a plate of cookies with foil on the top, as he watched Dustin Henderson walk away. After that Steve drove himself home to an empty house, where his parents were absent. They hadn't bothered to go to his graduation. They'd only left a note on the dining room table that said "congratulations," a one hundred dollar bill underneath. He'd pocketed the money, ate a cookie or two and went to bed, feeling worse than ever.

In that month that Dustin was gone, the Starcourt Mall had opened. The town adored the place, despite the older residents protesting the fact that the downtown area was all too empty now. Steve found it to be an opportunity.

He'd gotten a job at Scoops Ahoy alongside Robin, and it had been easy enough. He didn't make a lot of money an hour, and the job definitely wasn't his passion; but he had no other choice. His father didn't believe him to be smart enough to work for his company, despite Steve being his only son. It was unfair, infuriating and unprecedented. He could have at least given him a chance. But Steve had to settle for something else, something simple.

He didn't know that working at the ice cream place would have such dire outcomes. But now, there he was, sitting on the sofa in his empty home late at night with a bruised face, clad in his bloodied Scoops Ahoy uniform, hands clasped together and nails scratching nervously at his palms. His house was too quiet, too silent for him to feel comfortable, safe, protected. Jesus, would he ever feel protected?

The happenings of the day had been far too much for Steve to handle; the aftereffects of the Russians beating his ass and the hangover of whatever drugs they had given him only added to discomfort. Robin rejecting him and telling him she liked girls topped it all off; which wasn't nearly as horrible as the rest. He supposed all that mattered was their friendship remaining intact. But then there was coming face to face with Nancy and Jonathan again and the monster- huge and terrifying- trying to kill all of them. And then the end of it, when Billy Hargrove- the bastard- died on the ground with his sobbing step-sister beside him and Steve thanked fuck it wasn't him dead on the ground, with no one to cry by his side.

The military had arrived after that—led by Dr. Owen's from Hawkins Lab—and they'd all gotten out of the mall. Steve was guided into an ambulance and his wounds were treated, though he'd played them down as if they hadn't mattered and told them all he needed was bandaids. After a while they hadn't bothered fighting him on it, ignoring his nasty black eye and the purple and yellow bruise taking over his cheek.

He'd wrapped himself up in a blanket, walked over and made small talk with Nancy and Jonathan about what had happened. He'd asked them where they'd go after they were all released, and they'd told him they were going back to Nancy's house together. When they asked him the same question, he'd lied and said he was spending the night at a friends house. He didn't want them to pity him if he told the truth and said he was going to be completely and utterly alone all night.

After that he'd talked to Robin and Dustin, spoke to them animatedly about whatever came to mind in an attempt to get that thing out of his head. His parents didn't come to pick him up, as expected. The keys to his car had been taken by the Russians earlier so Steve, much like after his graduation, walked home.

And now here he was, nervously picking at his fingernails, his teeth gnawing at his bottom lip hard enough to worsen the split of it from the earlier beating he'd endured. He still lived in his parents' home and he knew they didn't mind. Why would they? They were never home anyway and it didn’t tamper with their work. Though Steve hated the goddamn house, hated how large and quiet it was.

And now it was too quiet. So, so, quiet;, quiet enough that Steve could hear his own heart beating rapidly; the sound of cars driving by outside; the phantom sound of footsteps that weren't really there, that he was really just making up in his mind out of nerves. He could turn on his TV, but the old thing barely worked anymore. It was an older model and he'd had it for a few years. He could have turned on his radio instead, but he didn't bother getting up. He didn't know if he refrained from turning it on because he was scared of the slight chance of hearing the familiar growl of the monster again or if he really was just too anxious to stand up.

He could hear his breathing, the inhale and the exhale growing faster as time passed.

Steve shot up. He stood up so fast that his vision grew blotchy for a moment, and he clenched his jaw so tight that it hurt, grinding his teeth together out of annoyance. Annoyance towards what, he didn't know. Perhaps he was annoyed by the way he was acting. Big bad King Steve breaking down because it was a little too quiet and he felt lonely and scared. Jesus, he sounded like a child.

Steve ran a shaking hand through his hair, ignoring the ache of his bruised knuckles; a wound he'd developed after hitting a Russian guard. Dustin had been so proud, and Steve found he felt pride in himself for even just a second.

He shook off the initial blur of his vision, sighing under his breath as he found himself walking over to the telephone plugged into the wall in the kitchen above the counter. He had a phone in his room as well, but there was no use in walking all the way upstairs just for that.

He grabbed the phone, holding it up to his ear as he used his other hand to dial the number, the number he'd memorized the day it had been told to him but had never called before. He'd never had a real reason to call it, they'd seen each other nearly every day all summer due to their shared job.

"Hello?" A familiar tired voice on the other end rung out, breaking Steve out of his thoughts and making him jump in surprise.

He let out a heavy sigh, running a frustrated hand down his face and wincing when he touched the prominent bruise on his cheek. "Robin? Hey, it's...uh...it's Steve. Y'know, Steve Harrington? The Steve you work with?" He rambled out.

Robin laughed on the other end, a noise that Steve had found himself growing fond of. "You could have just said you were Steve, you dingus. I'd know which Steve we were talkin' about. I only know seventy other ones."

"Really? You know more Steves?" Steve asked with a chuckle, raising his eyebrow to himself. Talking to Robin helped him realize just how nervous he had been beforehand; made the shaking of his hands cease to a minimum.

"No, dumbass," Robin spoke, and Steve swore he could almost hear her roll her eyes. "What did you call me for? I was like half asleep, man."

Steve bit the skin on the inside of his cheek too hard, flinching lightly at the pain before he let out a shaky sigh under his breath. He found himself sighing a lot nowadays. "This is a really weird question and you can say no if you want to, but uh…do you want to come over for the night?"

The other end was silent for a few long seconds and Steve hated how it made his stomach churn. Before he could open his mouth to assure Robin was still on the other end, she spoke, gently and tentatively. "Steve…. you remember what we talked about in the mall bathroom today, don't you?"

Of course he did. The talk where Robin let him down and told him she liked Tammy Thompson rather than him, despite her singing sounding like Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear’s love child. Steve didn't mind, but the conversation was still fresh in his mind, made only more vivid by the shock that he had felt in that moment. Nonetheless though, it meant nothing now. Steve just wanted to be friends with Robin, and her sexual orientation didn't change that. Besides, he needed to withhold at least one friend his age.

Steve laughed, shaking his head. "Not like that. I'm not gonna make a move on you, don't worry. The embarrassing feelings are gone. Pretend I never said anything about them," He said simply before he cleared his throat almost awkwardly. "Y'know it's just my parents aren't home and… uh… kinda still fucked up over the Russians. I thought maybe you'd want some company too," He paused. "I've got a pool."

Steve heard Robin chuckle gently on the other end, letting out the slightest sigh before speaking. "Yeah sure, moron. But if my dad catches me sneaking out, it's all your fault. You've gotta use your rich boy money to pay him off," He heard Robin stand up, rustle through some things and open up her window. "What's your address, Harrington?"

Steve told Robin where he lived, listened to the girl hum and explain how she wrote it on her arm in blue glitter gel pen before she hung up and presumably began her trip to Steve's house. He didn't know if she had a car, and he probably should have asked beforehand, but he hadn't thought about it in time.

He set the phone back down on the wall, walking away and sitting back down on the sofa. It was two in the morning, still dark outside with barely any light seeping through the blinds over the windows. Steve had nothing on in the house but a measly lamp and he just hoped the monster was really dead and that the thing wouldn't start flashing the lights like it had that one time at Jonathan's house.

The thought of the monster was a thought that seemed impossible to force out of his mind. His focus would stray at times, but mostly kept to that one thought, that one impending image of a monster running after a car and a teenage boy that could have been him dead on the floor.

Steve hated it.

He hated that the second he got home from the mall he'd found the bat he kept stowed away under his bed, the one with nails stuck inside of the wood; and he'd placed it on the coffee table in front of the sofa, eyeing it with unease as he sat down.

Steve looked over at the bat, found himself swallowing thickly at the mere thought of those things he'd fought off by the abandoned bus; at the terrified look on those kids’ faces when they'd blocked off the entrance, held it down as a means to keep those things out; at Max's scream when she saw one pop it's head in through the top, growl at her with such vigor. He was a good babysitter, he supposed. At least, Nancy had thought so. But what does she know?

Everything, maybe. Everything about Steve that he'd tried so hard to keep bottled up. She knew he was a shitty boyfriend. She knew that their relationship; that her love for Steve was bullshit. Though Steve's love for her was never bullshit. It was far from it.

Steve averted his gaze from the bat, turning it up towards the ceiling. He could smoke something, numb the pain in his face and his knuckles and his brain. But that would just remind him of his father, the way he'd come home one day to Steve laying against the counter, a giggly mess with bloodshot eyes and terrible smelling breath. The way his father had pulled him up too roughly and yelled at him, asked him if he was doing drugs. The way Steve mumbled out "it's just marijuana, dad," had earned him an incredulously angry glare from his father. The way his father dropped him back down on the floor and muttered that he wished he'd gotten a better son than Steve.

Steve understood why they did. If he'd been a better son, perhaps he would be working happily in his father’s large company, not having to deal with all this… bullshit. Fuck, maybe Nancy would want him back if he wasn't full of so much bullshit.

Steve jumped when the doorbell rang, more antsy than usual. Huffing to himself at his own behavior, Steve stood up and walked over to the door, opening it without bothering to look at who was there.

Though he didn't have to, as Robin stood behind it as expected. She too was still wearing her Scoops Ahoy uniform—minus the hat—blue and white now stained with just the slightest amount of dirt and vomit and perhaps some blood, too. She looked tired, purple bags under her eyes and her hair tangled. But despite that, she smiled. "Ahoy," She greeted jokingly, eyeing Steve's uniform in amusement. He knew his was definitely covered with blood and vomit from earlier, as gross as it was, but he hadn't the energy to change.

"Ahoy," Steve chuckled, stepping aside and gesturing for Robin to walk in. She did so, stepping foot in his home and almost immediately furrowing her eyebrows, looking around. He noticed the smeared ink on her arm, glittery blue just like she'd explained on the phone. He could have laughed if he weren't still so damn shaky.

"Shit, this is huge. Or bigger than my house, at least. I knew you were loaded but damn, dude," Robin laughed out, looking over at Steve with a grin before she plopped down on his couch, legs propped up on the coffee table, one crossed over the other.

Steve shut the front door, locking it and moving to sit down beside Robin. He watched as she scrunched her nose up in confusion, reaching out and grabbing the bat from the table, tracing her finger over the nails with a confused expression. "Something like this happened last year too. And a little before that," He explained in a mumble, pointing to the bat.

"Holy shit. This town is mega fucked. I've never noticed anything before," Robin shrugged, placing the bat back down. "So, you scared or something? Of the huge monster?"

Steve didn't find himself trying to argue on it because, yes, he supposed he was scared of the huge monster. He found himself nodding a bit, sighing. "A little. I just don't like being alone much. It's- iIt's lame, I know..." he trailed off.

Robin nodded in understanding before she stood up. "Well, let's go to your room," She spoke, rolling her eyes at Steve's responding raised eyebrow. "Not for that, moron. I like girls, remember? Tammy Thompson?"

"Ah. How could I forget that you liked the muppet?" Steve joked with a laugh, shaking his head as he stood up, guiding Robin up to his bedroom. She followed, laughing at his words the same way she had in the bathroom at the mall. He loved her laugh; the way it sounded raspy, cracking just barely in the middle.

"She was cute! And I liked her perm. Usually perms are godawful, but hers worked with her face shape," Robin explained with a chuckle, not wasting any time to sit herself down on Steve's bed when they walked inside his room, right down on his plain light blue bedsheets. Steve turned on the lamp placed on his bedside table.

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say. I still think hers was terrible," Steve spoke with a small grin, sitting beside Robin. "She looked like Barbra Streisand but worse."

"Hey! I'll have you know that Barbra Streisand is hot—smoking, even!" Robin exclaimed, looking at Steve with a wide smile.

"Oh yeah, smoking in the crematorium. She's old, and if anyone looks like a muppet, it's her," Steve joked with a laugh, watching curiously as Robin stood up from the bed, moving to look through Steve's drawers. "What the hell are you doing?"

Robin chuckled, "You're being an ass to Barbra, so I'm gonna look through your stuff," She spoke, opening up the first drawer. Steve laughed as she snorted in amusement, holding up a box of condoms. "Gross. I'm assuming you haven't used these in a while?"

"Ha ha, very funny. I use them plenty," Steve deadpanned, rolling his eyes. That was a lie, of course. Steve hadn't had sex since a little before summer began, and even then it was a terrible hook up.

Robin placed the condoms down, opening up the second drawer. Her eyes widened, grabbing the magazine inside and holding it up in front of Steve, who's eyes widened as well at just which one she held. "You have Playboys?! You really are lonely. This room is a ‘Steve and his right hand’ zone, huh?"

"Of course. I should get a sign that says just that and put it on my door," Steve pointed out casually, nodding his head and watching as Robin pulled out the other three Playboy magazines out of the nightstand, walking back over and sitting down on the bed.

Robin raised her eyebrow at the top one in the stack, chuckling. "You're real updated. You've got the July one and everything."

Steve chuckled, looking over at the magazine cover. "My dad has a subscription. He tells me not to look at his mail and just put it in his nightstand but I steal his Playboys sometimes. He gets pissed at the mailing company for screwing up and gets a new copy for free," He spoke. "I have the Madonna September issue too."

Robin's eyes widened as she picked up the Madonna 1985 September issue, flipping through the pages with an undeniably large amount of interest. "Tell your dad I said thank you," She joked. "You may suck, dingus, but you have good taste in women."

"Maybe," Steve mumbled lightly, unable to help the image of Nancy Wheeler that popped into his brain. He swallowed hard, finding himself picking at his fingernails again. He stopped, shaking off those thoughts and mumbling a joking, "You can't really relate to the good taste in women part."

"Maybe not," Robin laughed out, nodding along to Steve's words before she closed the magazine. "Can I keep one? I'll give it back in like a week or something."

"Keep as many as you want," Steve shrugged. He didn't really mind. He had more under his bed anyway, if he really needed to let off some steam. It wasn’t like he’d found his libido to be too high nowadays.

Robin grinned widely, grabbing the Madonna issue and two other ones, placing the one she didn't want to keep back in Steve's nightstand, shutting it and setting the magazines on top. She turned back around, looking at Steve for a moment before chuckling. "Your face looks shitty."

Steve surprised himself by laughing, nodding a bit. "Gee, thanks. That makes me feel a lot better about myself," he joked, still grinning to himself.

"You moron, I mean your bruises. You look stupid with those bandaids on your face. All of that is gonna get infected and you're gonna get like, Russian herpes or some shit," Robin explained, shaking her head. "Where the hell is your first aid kit?"

"Russian herpes? What's the difference between American herpes and that?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow, "and in the bathroom cupboard."

Robin laughed, walking off to the bathroom connected to Steve's room, grabbing the first aid kit from the cupboard before coming back to the room. "Russian herpes is like a crazier, gooier herpes. You're gonna have huge warts on your face and when you touch them, they'll pop and there will be puss all over your face and in your hair and shit," she joked with a grin, opening up the first aid kit.

"That's disgusting," Steve chuckled. "I knew a girl with herpes. She stopped showing up to school. I think she got pregnant," He mumbled, watching as Robin laughed, yanking the bandaids off of Steve's cuts before pouring some sort of liquid on a cotton swab before pressing it against Steve's wounds. He couldn't help but let out a yelp, flinching back. "What the fuck?"

"See, this is why I didn't warn you it would hurt," Robin huffed. "Stay fucking still." She spoke, dabbing the cotton against the rest of his cuts and bruises. Steve flinched every time as well, but tried to stay as still as possible. "Getting pregnant would blow. Good for us, huh? You're not gonna get pregnant, are you?"

Steve chuckled, shaking his head. "Not planning on it. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll get reckless one of these days," He joked with a grin, wincing when Robin began to place larger bandaids on his cuts, gentler than she applied the liquid to them.

"That'd be a sight. Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington with a child. Or maybe herpes. Maybe...both, like that girl!" Robin laughed, moving away from Steve's face and closing up the first aid kit, going to put it away before coming back to the room. She sat down on his bed, raising her eyebrow. "Sleeping arrangements, hot shot. What's it gonna be?" She grinned.

"I've got a sleeping bag if you wanna sleep on the floor. But you like girls, so us sleeping in the same bed shouldn't be a problem for you, should it?" Steve asked, genuinely asking.

Robin chuckled. "Nah. Wouldn't bother me at all. You sure it wouldn't bother little Steve though?" She asked jokingly, wiggling her eyebrows.

Steve rolled his eyes, finding his cheeks growing just barely red, simply out of embarrassment. "I'm sure! I would be fine! I told you, feelings are gone."

"Alrighty then, Stevey," Robin grinned, pulling off her shoes and lying on the right side of Steve's bed over the comforter, either lacking shame or just so comfortable around her newfound best friend Steve that it seemed she lacked shame. "You said you had a pool. I'm gonna swim in it tomorrow morning."

Steve chuckled at her bluntness, nodding his head and lying on the left side of the bed, hands clasped over his stomach as he stared up at the ceiling. "Sounds good," He smiled lightly, shrugging. He found himself comfortable around Robin;, more so than he probably ever had with Nancy. With Nancy, he was always so worried about being the perfect tough guy for her; the perfect guy who didn't feel anything heavy except for anger and protectiveness over his girlfriend. With Robin, he could be himself, because Robin was his best friend, nothing more, and that was much better than having a girlfriend; despite his earlier opinions.

It was silent for a few minutes, comforting silence that didn't leave Steve anxious and worried. Nothing but the sound of their breathing and the occasional chuckle Robin would let out at nothing at all.

"Do you still love Nancy Wheeler?" Robin asked after a while, catching Steve by surprise. He glanced over, eyes a bit wide, caught off guard. Robin was still looking up at the ceiling, smiling to herself.

Steve thought of his answer for a moment, swallowed and averted his gaze back up at the ceiling as he poked his tongue out to lick his lips nervously. "A little, yeah," He whispered. "I think I always will."

Robin let out a laugh, a laugh that made Steve furrow his eyebrows and look over again, look over as Robin laughed harder. "That's so lame," She explained as she calmed down, looking over at Steve with a grin. "Nancy Wheeler is hot as hell, but you're Steve Harrington. All the girls that aren't lesbos like me are in love with you! So why are you so obsessed with Nancy, out of all people, when there are so many better girls out there?"

Steve sighed, shaking his head with a bitter chuckle. "None of them like me anymore. I've lost it, I guess," he murmured, shrugging.

"Exactly why I had that board. You suck," Robin smiled wide, "which is why you should take a break. Relationships are shitty and clearly you're not good at them. Word of advice, get over Nancy. She's over you."

Steve knew it was true. As much as it pained him to hear it, Nancy was over him. And Steve should have been over her too. He shouldn't have been constantly reminiscing about what life was like with Nancy Wheeler, but he couldn't help it. She was the love of his life and getting over her would never be easy. For him, their love was nothing close to bullshit.

"It's not that easy," Steve mumbled simply, letting out a sigh.

"I wouldn't know. I've never been in love. Guess I'm not educated enough to tell you what to do, but still. You should try to get over Nancy," Robin smiled gently, glancing over. "She's just fucking you over."

"I guess so…" Steve trailed off. "The monster today... did you think it was gonna kill you?" He asked curiously, mostly as a means to avert the topic.

"Nah, man. I wasn't, like, petrified with fear or anything. Maybe I should have been but it was pretty cool to see. Same with the Russians but, hey, I wasn't the one getting my face bashed in," Robin laughed. "What about you, dingus? Were you scared?"

"Already told you; a little. I thought I was gonna get killed or something like that. And I probably would have been if Dustin and Erica hadn't shown up..." Steve spoke, nodding slowly.

"Most likely. That little dude is cool as hell. Annoying, but cool," Robin grinned. "He reminds me of you, but nerdier."

"Come on! I'm not nerdy enough already?" Steve joked with a grin that mirrored Robin's, looking over. "You couldn't tell from my extensive Star Wars VHS collection?" He joked again. He definitely didn't have one. He'd only ever seen the first ever Star Wars movie, anyway. And during that, he'd only been ten years old.

"How could I have possibly forgotten?! You're a new man! You know everything there is to know!" Robin smiled wide. "Who's your favorite Star Wars character?"

"Uhhh… the little green guy with the sword," Steve said slowly, making little motions with his hands that really didn't help to explain at all.

"You're amazing! Star Wars extraordinaire. You should partake in trivia, I'm sure it exists," Robin joked with an amused laugh. "You'll get tons of chicks if you join a fan club."

"Seriously?" Steve asked, genuinely curious as he held himself up by his elbows, glancing over at Robin with a grin. "I'm sure Dustin knows a few I could join. I just have to catch up on the last couple of movies and I'm golden."

"Oh, are you?" Robin mocked with a chuckle. "No, moron. Hot girls will scatter if you start talking about sith lords and R2D2."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows for a moment. "What the fuck is that?"

"Exactly! You don't know anything about it either. Nerd girls will hate you and so will the popular girls! All the girls! Sucks for you, dingus." Robin smiled wide.

"What will get me girls?" Steve huffed out, letting himself fall back down on his bed.

"What did we just talk about, Steve? No relationships for you until you get over Nancy," Robin scolded, flicking Steve in the side of the forehead, to which he winced and rubbed the spot with the palm of his hand.

"For future reference!" Steve defended, shaking his head.

"You're asking the wrong girl, Harrington. Flirting is nowhere near my expertise," Robin chuckled, waving him off.

"Then what is your expertise? Using your pointer and middle fingers?" Steve grinned, laughing at the resulting slap on the arm from Robin.

"No, idiot! My expertise is bad advice. I'll give it to you if you give it to me," Robin grinned.

"First of all, that sounds terrible," Steve pointed out with a chuckle. "Second of all, why would I want bad advice?"

"Hey, advice is advice, Harrington. Take it or leave it. Maybe it'll be good advice in a box that looks like bad advice." Robin shrugged.

"Wh-what…what the fuck does that mean?" Steve asked with furrowed eyebrows, confused.

"You are such a dumbass. You know what? Never mind." Robin laughed out.

"No! I want bad advice!" Steve protested, shaking his head. He found himself entirely forgetting all the happenings of the day. It was only him and his best friend, the girl who would give him shitty girl advice for a long time. Steve liked it that way.

So Robin grinned and nodded her head, let out a laugh that filled the room and took over all the silence that Steve hated so much. After a few more hours of talking, Robin fell asleep, sprawled out in her Scoops Ahoy uniform on Steve's bed beside him and Steve shut off the lamp without any further concern of seeing a monster lurking through his window.

The silence was filled with the sound of Robin's snores, snores that Steve found amusing and comforting rather than irritating. And Steve, despite believing that he wouldn't fall asleep that night, shut his eyes and didn't find himself dreaming of anything but the friends he had who loved him. That was what he had been longing for. Love, but not from Nancy. He didn't need Nancy Wheeler— or any girlfriend for that matter— when he had his friends who would love him more than she ever had and would never treat him like, well, bullshit.

Maybe this was where Steve Harrington felt protected.

#steve harrington #robin stranger things #stranger things #stranger things 3 #theyre best friends and robin is a lesbian

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coffee-for-himchan · 6 years

Text

Unable To Protect You (Yongguk mafia/gang AU pt.1)

Requested by: 2 (!!) nice and cool anons

Word count: 6.2 k+

Genre/warnings: Mafia/gang AU (contains a swear word or two. Also contains violence, and contains a lot of flashbacks and emotional pain. But, as always - imo nothing too vivid.)

Summary: Him and Himchan were done with all of the dirty work for the day. Another person down, and the burdens of knowing a life had been taken once again hanging on his shoulders, dragging him down lower to the ground. Yet when he came home, his dangerous and dark attire faded away completely as he let himself be held by your arms, letting your reassuring whispers fill his ears. He wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t a bad person. He simply fought for his own survival and for the lives of his loved ones. Which, looking at the situation, would once again be much harder, since an old, unwanted and uninvited guest had appeared on the scene. Threatening to kill him, and threatening to make you his by rather cruel and painful methods.

(A/N) Three mafia AUs done, three to go! Part two of this should be up sometime tomorrow or on Tuesday. And, in case you like this one and haven’t read the others yet, consider checking out the Himchan mafia AU or the Jongup mafia AU, or maybe both! ^.^

THIS IS PART 1 // PART 2 IS HERE

“Are we done here yet?”

Himchan turned to face him, a playful smile appearing on his lips. He watched the close to fragile figure in front of him, and kept wondering how this guy had managed to get so far.

How his face screamed danger, yet he was the most peaceful of all when he wasn’t shooting. How he looked like trouble, yet moved so slowly and unwillingly when he wasn’t in the middle of an argument. How he had too much soul to handle, and how that drew him lower and lower into the abyss of pain and desperation with every single passing day, as for his line of work, he had a too complex mind, with little space for letting go of things and too much space for remembering.

How he was the strongest warrior of all - Bang Yongguk. The man who could single-handed bring the whole world to his feet, but would never do it, simply because he had too much respect for it.

“Are you in a hurry?”

“No,” his answer was simple and short, cutting through the otherwise silent night air with ease, “I’m just tired.”

“Let me get rid of the last evidence first and then we can leave.”

They did so soon enough, filling the quiet alleyway with their intimidating shadows creeping alongside the walls of the old, abandoned and destroyed buildings as their footsteps echoed down the street, their shoes seeming a little too fancy and expensive for this dirty place.

But that’s who they were. Young, handsome men who looked like the gentleman every girl would more or less willingly want to lay her eyes on. The guys to open doors for others, and talk in a smart, polite fashion that made everyone around them think they were the best kind. The ones who treated people right. The ones who were perfect.

Yet the only thing they were indeed perfect at was shooting. And killing. And getting needed information, and what not else - they were quite multi-talented in their survival. In reality, they were the guys your mom warned you about and guys who knew what mercy meant as a term, but were quite bad at using it practically.

Being the Best Absolute Perfect - the best guys out of all of the bad ones - was their calling. And at this point in time they couldn’t be more grateful for who they’d become over the time, because they knew they’d manage. They’d shaped themselves and made their permanent existence in the area more than simply intimidating and bloody obvious. They were “The King”.

“I’ve never seen you hurrying home like this before, friend,” Yongguk barely noticed Himchan’s a little too loud and all over the place talking, slowly turning his head to eye him up and down.

“Get some glasses then, it’s been like this for a year already,” he answered, tucking his freezing hands into his pockets as Himchan laughed at his unusually sarcastic remark.

“It’s because of her, isn’t it?”

Silence filled the void between them as Yongguk looked into the distance, his breath rising up in the air and making little twirls as it faded away into the night. It was the start of November for a reason, after all, and this was only the start. It was about to get colder.

“Kim Himchan, am I allowed to have a private life?” He turned his head to face his friend once again, even though he knew the answer already.

He wasn’t allowed, because Himchan was a part of it, and has been since quite some time ago when they had nothing but each other and a will to survive left.

“Not on my watch,” Himchan said, smiling as he joined in and tucked his hands in his pockets as well. His standard signature phrase that could almost always be heard only in conversation with Yongguk. He’d spilled it once again.

Yongguk chuckled a little, watching him carefully. God, what he could’ve actually accomplished in life if it wasn’t for the whole gang thing. He’d been gifted with a picture perfect face, and, even though his behavior could be more on the immature side at times, he served good as a leader. Who knows? He could’ve been a local business owner, or a good lawyer or something. He had the brains, and even more than that, the ability to talk with people well. He had the charms to convince anyone who listened to do unbelievable things and to go to unimaginable extents, and his charisma could draw a quite big following of beautiful women to choose one from. And, over all, he had enough honesty and dignity still left to be able to digest that type of life and live it to the fullest.

Yet he was here. Wandering the streets just to get back to a safe place and stay unnoticed after another murder mission alongside with Yongguk. Once again, after more than ten years, they were still at it, refusing to let the other four handle it all on their own.

Because the younger ones could be the main mechanisms and best shots at most of the missions nowadays, but they knew nothing compared to these two. The hyungs would still take upon the most important things, just to keep in mind how having to do the dirty work and coming home with blood stained hands felt like. Because that’s where their roots laid, and that’s where they believed they came from. Never forgetting your beginnings was the most important thing.

“Hey, I don’t blame you at all,” Himchan said, smiling up at the sky a little, “After all, I haven’t seen you acting this way before you met her.”

“What way?” Yongguk questioned quietly, focusing on the main street ahead of them. Soon they’d have to part, walking their separate ways for the night and staying in the shadows until the reports would come on the news and TV yet again. It was the regular, really.

“I’ve got my own fair trade of issues, and you know that. Mental, which keep me from sleeping soundly at night, and physical as well. I didn’t take the last major encounter especially well, gotta admit. It still feels like my left arm is of no use.”

“But fact is, if there was one person who’s been sinking further down with every passing day from the very start, it’s you, my friend,” Himchan said, letting Yongguk devour those words a little before continuing.

“You’re too much of a “Mr. Right” to be a part of this lifestyle, yet you always keep going on with no perspective in mind. You don’t even care if you’re going to make it, which is about the scariest thing there is about you, if you ask me. And for the longest time you’d been fighting with no reason.“

"Hey, I’ve always had my reasons. Who else is going to watch you, leader loud-mouth?”

Himchan chuckled yet again at the remark, looking somewhat pleased with the title Yongguk had gifted him with.

“I appreciate it, really. You know that at this point it’d be hard to continue surviving without each other. I’d made so many mistakes in the past and even the present, just to get all of them fixed up by you while I did vice versa later on. But ever since.. You know what happened.. And since you gave up on your leader positions, you’d become even less invested in this whole thing, which, looking at how you’d never liked this life you’re leading in the first place, is quite dangerous.”

Silence filled the air yet again. They both knew there were just a few more steps till they’d be back on the main streets, and Himchan patiently waited for Yongguk to say something before they would eventually have to part ways.

“Himchan,” he finally spoke, stopping and looking him right into the eyes, “I really appreciate the worry, but I’ll manage. I’ve always did, and nothing will stop me from continuing on the same way. In the worst case, you’ll slap me in the face and make me move, just like you used to. But I will always keep my guard up high and my expectations of the world down low. I know nothing’s fair, despite being so beautiful, and everything hurts and itches. It’s quite tragically devastating actually. I’m aware. I’ll manage.”

“Without a doubt,” Himchan walked out into the street, the street lights highlighting his amazing bone structure and making his gaze look even more amused but yet so dangerous, “You have no choice now, since you took her in.”

“You generally learned how it is to care for someone - someone who’s too vulnerable and fragile to keep herself safe on her own. You learned that not everything and everyone except the five of us would always be against you in this world,” he was already walking away, leaving Yongguk to stand alone and tap his feet on a puddle, “She’s waiting for you right now, and you know that. She’s cutting her sleep short just to welcome you back home like no one else will ever do. While everyone fears you, she loves you. Not caring how many men you’d gotten rid of tonight, and not caring about your intentions. She blindly trusts you, and you trust her. And if that isn’t beautifully destroying, I don’t know what is.”

One moment he was there, and the next he was gone, leaving Yongguk to hang his head down lower and walk back home through the pouring rain. Who needed cars anyways? He lived quite nearby, and walking hadn’t hurt anyone yet.

Himchan had always been right, no matter the situation, and the way back home seemed painfully long because of all of the thoughts creeping into his head. Yet he couldn’t help but agree that all of those statements were true within seconds of thinking. He didn’t doubt it even once.

He doubted it even less when he dragged himself through the door, kicking off his shoes just to wander into the living room doorway and stop at the mesmerizing sight in front of him.

You were dancing. To one of the vinyl recordings from his collection.

Your body looked so beautiful, and he wondered how you ever let it trail against his. How your smooth skin never minded the touch of his rough and scarred one, and how you always found pleasure in the parts of him he hated the most. Your movements were subtle and little, yet quite eye catching and pleasing as your hips swayed from side to side, and your quiet humming could be heard all through the room. Your eyes were closed, and your head was slightly tilted upwards, letting the moonlight shine right onto your chest. You moved, until you felt his presence and slowed down, turning to him in a swift, elegant move and letting your stare meet with his longing one.

He stood there, all across the room, watching you. The way his shirt that you’d snatched away looked so huge and loose on you, drowning out your frame in it completely. How it looked so aesthetically pleasing with your knee socks to extents that made you look like a goddess rather than a hot mess in his eyes. He had to resist not to let all of his senses kick into overdrive and have all of you at once, right then and there.

“Yongguk..”

He heard his name and carefully watched how it left your lips - how it stayed hanging in the air for a little before completely disappearing without leaving a single trace. How it only managed to sound this gentle and soft when you said it. Your feet started slowly moving towards him, but he was too out of this world to see. He barely even noticed when your hands reached to rest on his chest.

“You’re freezing, Yongguk..”

He did nothing and just stood there, his body willingly obeying to every movement you put it through. Your hands slid carefully over his shoulders, freeing him from his jacket slowly. His eyes never left yours even once during this whole time, savoring every given moment. How you undressed him from the cold, wet jacket, being a little too caught up in the moment and simply throwing it to the side, deciding you’d take care of it later. How your arms found their way back around his neck to rest on his shoulders in seconds, as they knew their desired route perfectly. How you simply looked at him, your eyes displaying the fact that you knew.

You knew he was bad. But you didn’t mind.

“I killed a man today,” he quietly said, feeling like he could tell you all his sins and be forgiven for them all at once, “And, because I killed a man, I am no good for you.”

It was going to be one of these evenings. He kept coming home emotionally crushed beyond belief more and more often, and you couldn’t help but simply feel worried about him. He was thinking again. About how bad he was. About all the things he’d done in life. Thinking about how he’d become the thing he initially feared and hated.

“Yongguk.. I thought we had talked it out…”

His hands eventually found the right path to trail down as well, holding your hips tightly in place as he felt he was drawing his face closer to yours once again.

“Why do you keep doing this?” his breath itched against your skin as he let his hand trail up and down your side, feeling every curve, and every part of you that took his breath away oh so often, “Why do you keep telling me it’s alright?”

You had his marks on you, one of them beautifully displayed on your neck for him to admire, distracting him from thinking straight. He could clearly make out the shape of his lips, drawn onto your skin ever so roughly in red and purple lines, and he was amazed by how he could’ve been the creator of something so beautiful. His hand eventually reached to trace the mark, and he ran his fingers over it, remembering how he made that happen. Remembering sinking his lips into your skin, waiting for your approval and allowance to continue. Remembering wanting to go gentle at you, but losing himself somewhere along the way when you told him he could do it all. Remembering your parted lips. Your tiny whimpers of pleasure and slight pain that twisted with it. The feeling of you grabbing the back of his shirt, and eventually his skin later on, when the shirt was removed and you were off to do more serious things.

He remembered apologizing for scarring you the next morning, and he remembered receiving another “it’s fine”.

“Because it really is,” you saw his stare fixated on the bruise on your neck, and knew what would eventually follow, as it happened every damn time he marked you somewhere there. His hand always kept travelling where it shouldn’t.

“It isn’t,” with a swift move, he’d exposed your left shoulder, leaving his hand to rest on it. You knew what was to come, and at this point you were already braced for it. Ready to stand the storm.

“I’m no good for you, babe,” he said quietly, tracing over the large scar all across your shoulder, “Because I was there when this happened. Yet I couldn’t help in time, because I was busy with other things.”

“Those other things being looking out for the members of your team, and I think that keeping everyone alive is more important than preventing me from getting hurt,” you felt how he traced the outline of the scar, and even though his heart clenching wasn’t quite visible on the outside, you knew he was a wreck deep inside currently. Such a beautiful disaster.

“Keeping everyone on our side alive just to take other lives seconds later, babe. You keep forgetting, or rather ignoring that,” he added, and stayed silent for a moment.

You could be anywhere in the world right now, yet you were here. Spending your days with the silent, closed-in monster that he was. Letting him find a place he could call home in your actions and intentions. Allowing him to destroy you in the most beautiful ways just to fix you up later on.

Holding him in a standing position when he felt like collapsing and becoming one with the ground.

His hands made a quick, sharp movement, sliding to rest on your sides as he pinned his forehead against yours, closing his eyes and exhaling rather loudly.

“How comes you’re still here?”

“You saved me. And even before you’d done that, I already loved you. So why shouldn’t I stay?”

“You know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, right?”

“I’m fully aware. But I want to,” he opened his eyes, looking at you as you bit your lip right before the next sentence.

“You’re not bad at all, Yongguk-ah. You’re the most honest, truest person there’s ever been in my life, and I truly don’t care about your wrongdoings, because at the end of the day, the people you get rid of are the ones who make this world a living hell.”

“And to me you’ll always be nothing but the love of my life and a savior,” you finished, giving him the last little push he needed, in the form of a hand at the back of his head that moved him in the right direction, gently placing his lips on yours.

A savior. That had to be a lie or a joke, right?

Yet it felt like neither one of those when you kissed him, and he couldn’t help but do the same back to you in a similar intensity and fashion. Tugging at your clothes for support. Pinning you against him fully, leaving no space in between your bodies whatsoever. Refusing to take a breath in between, because, even if every sane person would disagree, he was convinced you were more important than oxygen.

Showing you he needed you.

You glanced over at his sleeping frame that evening, admiring his true face and colors. He’d come home once again with nothing but compunction in his heart and mind, and it drew him to kiss you full-force for a while before collapsing onto the bed and falling asleep before you even managed to scold him for not eating dinner.

He wasn’t tired, you knew. He never seemed to be. He just had too much on his mind yet again, and needed to drown all of that out in the most effective ways.

Him shifting and clenching on the blankets a little made you chuckle, as well as wonder how anyone he’d ever had business with would react to seeing him this way. To seeing the intimidating former leader, the one with the frightening gaze and unpleasantly low voice so vulnerable, and so.. hurt.

Yes. He was hurting tons, and you didn’t know what to do about it.

It was a thing he carried from the very past, a thing that had been programmed into his systems and present in his roots all along. The constant realization he was no good, and the thought of doing the thing he was against much too often for his liking.

Hurting people. Bringing violence everywhere he went. Shooting on quite a few occasions instead of talking it out.

Even if it was to make this world an a little safer place, and to guarantee their well-being and survival, he wasn’t having it. Even if the people he killed were no good, and had been wrecking mad havoc and destroying things and lives for years, he wasn’t having any of that.

He was still no good, and it hurt him to unimaginable extents. But it had been like this forever, and, at this point, nothing could ever change that.

He knew nightmares would haunt him the second he climbed under the blankets. But what he got instead was vivid dreams of how it used to be. A reminder of how he became who he was now.

He’d always been the quiet one, rather standing in the corner and observing than going out to do anything. He never had a lot of friends, but he didn’t mind being lonely at all. He liked the peacefulness, and there were few times he felt like something was wrong with the way his life had unfolded. There were few times he would realize how no one would give him a helping hand in any situation, because there simply wasn’t anyone in his life to do so. And he rarely noticed how he’d always have to deal with it alone.

That is, until he met no other than Kim Himchan.

It was a regular boy’s fight in the yard about a toy. Yongguk must’ve been around seven years old at that point, and happened to be there when a bunch of boys a year or two older than him approached.

“What’s this stupidity?” one called out, snatching the Tigger toy out of Yongguk’s hands before he could react, “Oh wow, this is so lame!!”

“Don’t you have any cool stuff?” another one leaned it, saying it right to his face mockingly, “Like, a water gun or something.”

Yongguk looked up at them with a gaze that made them freeze on the spot for a while, his answer being short and clear, just as always.

“No. This is all I have. Now give it back.”

Needless to say, they didn’t, which lead to Yongguk trying to snatch it away from them and being unsuccessful.

“Look at him! What do you think you’re doing!?” the boy holding the toy laughed loudly, and pushed Yongguk back. He stumbled, almost falling to the ground, but managed to stay in a standing position.

“I think we should show him his place, right, guys?”

The approval could be heard all through the yard, and Yongguk took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was to come.

He knew he would get beaten up. And he knew that in theory he should fight back. But is there any use on doing so, if there’s three of them, and they’re all older, automatically being taller and stronger as well?

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Yongguk heard an unfamiliar voice coming from behind, but didn’t dare to look back. His full attention was still focused on the boys in front of him, and he saw them looking past him and at the mysterious speaker.

“Who are you anyways? Get lost, this is none of your business!” the toy was thrown to the ground, and the boy made his way over to do the first punch.

A punch to the gut, but he was still standing still. His insides hurt at the deep impact with the boy’s fist, yet he managed to hold his grounds perfectly, not saying a thing and simply staring at the ground.

“What an idiot,” he chuckled, giving another punch that seemed to have no effect either, “Still holding on. What for? There’s no one to help you-”

Slap.

It was a moment in time, as everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The boy’s hand was smacked away with quite an unbelievable force, and soon enough he received a slap to his face as well.

“Get away.”

It was the stranger from before - the one who had spoken earlier. He was standing next to Yongguk now, and ready to join the fight.

Still taken aback, Yongguk eyed him up and down quietly. He was a little shorter, and possibly younger than him as well. Yet he was a loud mouth - the complete opposite of Yongguk - as well as someone who couldn’t watch a situation like this unfold and not do anything about it. He was the first person whom Yongguk ever met that had the same perception as him - the opinion that certain people who hadn’t done anything bad didn’t deserve to go through unfair things and conditions in life.

The inevitable happened, and soon the three boys left, leaving behind two beaten up younger ones and a toy carelessly thrown to the ground.

The stranger was the first one to move, sitting up and coughing a bit. With a shaky hand, he reached towards the toy and picked it up, handing it to Yongguk who had already sat up as well.

“Here. A bit dirty, but fixable,” he said, giving an a little pained smile.

Yongguk hesitantly stretched out his arm to grab the toy, and looked at him in disbelief. He didn’t trust him or his intentions at all. There hadn’t been anyone who had simply helped him for nothing out of the blue just yet.

“Why did you try to stand up for me?”

The boy shrugged, tilting his head to the side and thinking, “I mean, are you saying I should’ve left you there alone for them to make fun of? Not on my watch.”

“You knew what would happen. They’re stronger, and there’s more of them. We had no chances of winning anyways.”

“Hah, you didn’t even try,” he laughed, getting up to his feet, “And that’s why you lost so soon.”

“There was no use anyways. There was no way we could’ve won. So why should I try if I know that it won’t do or change anything?” Yongguk slowly took the boy’s, standing up to his feet and wondering what had suddenly made him so talkative. He hated talking, after all.

“Why not? Are you simply going to stand the fact that they’re treating you like they shouldn’t? Or are you going to try and do your best to make the situation fair?”

Yongguk looked at him in disbelief. He was the first person who understood. The first to spark some type of desire in him to actually try, and he couldn’t tear his eyes off of him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Himchan. I live nearby.”

“O-oh yeah, I think I’ve seen you around.. I-I’m Yongguk..”

The scenery seemed so clear, and it felt like all of that had happened just yesterday. How both boys stood under the trees in the middle of the yard, getting to know each other and thinking of how to explain the bruises to their families later on. It was the first time he met Kim Himchan, and it became far from the last time he’d see him.

A few years is what it took to turn the situation completely around. Left without a family, without a home and a place to go back to, they both aimlessly wandered the streets. Fire. Murders. Police sirens everywhere. And they fled, being afraid of what might follow after everything they’d just been through. Being fourteen years of age was enough, right? They would manage.

Getting involved with gangs happened quite accidentally, but as they got into the business, they weren’t allowed to make a run from it.

“Weren’t you against unfairness?” Yongguk hissed as Himchan got ready for another one of the few missions they’d been on already, loading his gun.

Yongguk had been there for this whole time with him, but hadn’t shot even once. He refused to do so, because that would mean hurting people. And he wasn’t about to hurt anybody.

“I am, I promise,” Himchan threw him a gun, knowing a little too well he wouldn’t use it anyways, “But tell me, what other possibilities do we have right now? What else do you have left?”

“Death.”

“Not on my watch.”

Yongguk sighed, knowing there was no way to argue back. Himchan had been the person to hold him above water level for all of these years, and he wasn’t about to give up on him.

He’d been more than simply useless all this time, tagging along, but not doing anything to help out and fight back. He’d been threatened by the gang that he’d be simply gotten rid of if he didn’t start being useful, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything even after all of that, making Himchan work for both of them.

He couldn’t bring himself to hurt people.

“Do you really think anyone who’s been taken care of so far didn’t deserve it?” Himchan’s question snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Well, they did. But the same could be said about you. You’re doing just the same as them. Killing.”

“But I’m not doing it for wealth or power. I’m doing it to guarantee your and my survival. I’m simply fighting back, and if something would happen to me, I’d accept it.”

A shot in the side. And he indeed did accept it.

Yongguk felt his world breaking apart at the sight in front of him. How Himchan’s frame had been beside him all along, until at some point it crashed to the ground, revealing a rather large, bleeding wound on the side.

“Himchan! W-what-”

“Shoot, you idiot, will ya!? Save yourself at least, since I can’t do that anymore.”

And with tear strained cheeks, he obeyed. His hands were shaking and his aim wasn’t the best, but it was just good enough to cover him and Himchan who’d sat up at that point, breathing heavily and trying not to pass out from the immense pain.

“Hold on, do you hear!?” Himchan chuckled at how shitlessly scared and caring, as well as frightened Yongguk sounded. He’d never seen him that way, and he had to admit - it was not simply unusual, but even scary to some extent. Chucking hurt though, so Himchan simply leaned back, focusing to keep his consciousness. “Yessir,” he quietly muttered, his vision blurry, but his head still clear.

It was the day Himchan could’ve died, but because of a lucky coincidence he didn’t. And it was the day Yongguk first used a gun against somebody.

The first time he killed a man.

He sat next to Himchan who was lying medicated and bandaged up in bed, and thought. He’d killed a man. He’d caused violence, and had broken the morals he’d kept up for so long. But what for?

For the sake of the only person left in his life, who managed to stay alive thanks to his efforts. Alive, because he shot and made sure he’d manage.

Suddenly, all colors drained and he was left in his beloved black and white. The sight in front of him got blurry and twisted into wicked shapes, before clearing up again. Yongguk found himself watching the same event happening from the distance, as if he was a third person watching from afar. But something seemed to be off this time around.

“Yongguk-ah!! I can’t do it on my own,” Himchan screamed, shots being fired his way at an alarming rate, “I need backup!!”

Yongguk saw himself not far away from Himchan, and what this other self he was observing now said left him choking on plain air and unable to speak or move.

“Himchan, why should I?” his voice sounded cold and careless, displaying no emotions whatsoever, “There’s more of them than there’s us, and they’re older, taller and stronger. We won’t win anyways.”

“Yongguk-ah, stop being dumb and help-”

Shoot. Right in the side.

They made eye contact, and Yongguk watched the blood coming out of and dripping from Himchan’s mouth. Dark red, thick liquid stained his chin as he hit the ground. The blood was the only colorful thing in the black and white scenery, and it was a nice finishing touch, making the view more than simply tragical and devastatingly painful.

Another shot followed, and he fell to the ground, gathering up his last strength to shoot a few more times. He struggled to keep his balance, and his eyes seemed to refuse to cooperate - they constantly wanted to fall shut at the immense pain.

He continued shooting just to cover Yongguk - the person he cased about. The person who could’ve prevented all of this from happening, yet didn’t.

“Hold..On… And don’t you dare-Ahhh.” he received another shot, and at this point the ending was inevitable. His body was too damaged to keep him alive for much longer.

“Don’t you dare dying, Yongguk…”

Cold sweat was dripping from his forehead as Yongguk woke up in the middle of the night, his heart racing at an alarming rate.

No, no, no. None of that had ever happened. He shot, and Himchan survived. And from then on, they always shot together. Always worked as a team, to not only keep their lives, but to get rid of dangerous people so they couldn’t harm anyone anymore. But, even though he saved him, he didn’t prevent the most important person in his life from getting hurt though, and now Himchan wore a rather large scar on his skin for the rest of his life that showed off Yongguk’s weakness.

And you did just the same.

“Yongguk-ah..” he heard you mumbling in your sleep, and only now really understood what had really happened.

A nightmare. Thank god.

His sudden movements and heavy breathing had caused you to react, and you buried your face further into his neck as the grip of your hand on his shoulder tightened.

“Yongguk-ah.. It’s fine..” you were talking in your sleep, making him realize that this was probably the phrase you’d told him the most during all this time you’d spent together with him. All you ever did apart from loving him unconditionally was reassuring him that all was fine.

He gulped a little, closing his eyes and trying to calm his breathing. His hand trailed to rest on your arm, and he gave it a gentle squeeze. He didn’t want to wake you up and make you worry about him. There was no need to do so, because it had all just been a bad dream. A horrible nightmare.

“It’s fine, (Y/N), I know. It’s fine..”

It wouldn’t be like that for much longer though.

Himchan crashed his place the next morning, being closely followed by Junhong who always tagged along whenever there was something related to Yongguk, no matter the situation.

You were still sleeping when you heard voices coming from the hallway. You froze at first, realizing there was more than just one voice there and Yongguk wasn’t in bed next to you anymore, but soon you understood who those voices belonged to. You knew everyone in B.A.P just like the back of your hand, and after the fear had died down you recognized Himchan’s nasal voice and Junhong’s fast manner of talking. And Yongguk’s low, inaudible sentences, of course.

Climbing out of bed carefully and taking a few steps towards the door, you listened carefully and were wary not to make a sound. Eavesdropping wasn’t good, but their visit at such a time of day couldn’t mean anything good. And if Yongguk was in trouble or danger, you simply had to know.

“We have to get her away from here.”

“But where to? Do you think keeping her around at the base would be a much better idea?”

“It would be slightly safer. I know the base should technically be a more dangerous place, since all six of us could be there at any point, but it’s you he’s searching for. And it’s her he wants.”

“And this isn’t a safe place anymore, Yongguk hyung. Not after all of those threats..”

The floor creaked, and three pairs of eyes were staring at you within milliseconds. You cursed to yourself a little - shifting on spot wasn’t really necessary, but you still did it, causing noise and ruining your perfect hideout.

It took you only seconds to realize you really didn’t want Himchan and Junhong to see you this way. Messy-haired, sleepy-eyed and with nothing besides your underwear and Yongguk’s loose, big shirt that looked like a dress on you covering you. Remembering the bruises and love bites on your neck only added to your embarrassment, but you couldn’t really go away now. You were trapped, and had to simply wait.

“Yongguk-ah.. Is something wrong?”

He looked at both men at first, earning a glance from them as well. Junhong waved, and Himchan bowed a little before disappearing through the door without any explanations, and it was just you and Yongguk in the apartment once again.

“I heard you talking, and.. I really didn’t want to listen at first, but it seemed like you were talking about something really important, and..”

“It’s fine, (Y/N),” he said quietly, giving you another look before gesturing for you to come out of the room and into the hallway. He watched as your slightly frightened frame disconnected from the doorway, and he carefully listened to how your bare feet hit the floor with little thuds, making close to unnoticeable sounds as you came closer.

“Now listen carefully, babe,” his hands met with yours, and he intertwined your fingers with his, putting you slightly at ease, but just until the next sentence.

“Minjae’s back..”

You felt all of your senses leaving your body as fear strained your vision and you felt like collapsing on the ground.

“No.. Please tell me this isn’t true..”

Your eyes met with his, and his heart started clenching. You looked so fragile, and so unprotected - so alone in this dangerous environment. But he wasn’t going to let absolutely anything happen to you. Putting a hand on your cheek, he drew a few circles with his thumb before pulling your face closer, and letting you bury your face in his chest.

“Do you need time to process, or can I speak on?” He asked quietly, earning a muffled sound from you that he took as allowance to continue.“You know what this means. He won’t let you live in peace, and he won’t let me live at all. So now we have to take care of the situation.”

“How?” you quietly asked, gripping at the back of his shirt as he held you in his arms tightly.

“First of, we have to get you out of here. Himchan is right. It’s better if you stay at the base than if you stay here. There’s six of us there to protect you instead of one that’s rather emotionally unstable and constantly drowning in sorrows-”

“And what then? I’ll be safe, but what’s going to happen to you?”

He stayed silent for a bit, considering. He knew his limits, and they were way below Minjae’s. He knew this was close to impossible, and that he wouldn’t be able to handle it on his own.

So why try?

But your silent sniffing and the way your body tried to repress sobs as it shook a little against his own was enough for him to want to slap himself all across the face. He was acting weak again, and this time around it wasn’t him who mattered.

You were there with him. In his shirt, with his marks on you and in his arms. With a bruise on your left shoulder that he couldn’t prevent from being left on your precious, soft skin.

You were his. And he was responsible for you, because he swore to take good care of you.

“I’m going to do my best to prevent anything bad from happening,” he quietly said in your ear, making you feel uneasy.

“Yongguk-ah.. Please, don’t put yourself in danger for my sake-”

“I won’t put myself in danger,” you felt his grip tighten around you, and soon your head was lifted by his hand to look back at him.

Rage. Plain rage and nothing else could be seen in his eyes. He wasn’t scared anymore. He wasn’t having self-doubts. He was simply pissed beyond belief and to the last bone.

“I won’t put myself in danger, because I’m going to become the fucking danger,” his tone was harsh, making you flinch a little, “And anyone who’ll try to put a hand on my girl is going to go down. Everyone who will try harming you will pay for it. They will get their bones crushed, and their hearts decorated with gunshot wounds, or ripped out if I feel like it. I will have no second thoughts in doing all of that to them, and if God won’t forgive me for protecting one of the only people who truly matter to me, may hell have all of me, because I’m going to just what I promised. Understood?”

Shaking your head and indicating you’d heard him, you were still a little frightened by his sudden emotional outburst. That was nowhere near his typical nature. Nowhere near his “peaceful guy” aura. Yet he sounded so genuinely true when he said all of that, it made you really believe him.

All of a sudden he leaned in to softly kiss you. All of the anger was gone within seconds, and his kiss was soothing medication, telling you that you’d be just fine, as long as he was by your side. Telling you that he was there, and that he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you. Telling you he’d prevent you from getting any more scars to remind him every day of how he wasn’t able to protect you back then when you needed it the most. Giving you a safe place to stay at, right in the middle of his heart.

“Go pack a few things, babe,” he spoke against your lips softly, “We have to leave as soon as possible. The guys are waiting for us.”

He watched you disappearing though the doorway, and couldn’t help but clench his hands into fists until his knuckles turned white.

You getting hurt? Not on his watch.

That asshole would definitely pay for all he’d done and all he intended to do.

179 notes · View notes

drundertalescum · 7 years

Text

Big White Mansions

SO I couldn’t sleep last night at like 4, but I also couldn’t sit upright to play stardew valley so here’s what Sans has been up to during the Fell!Pap in Undertale saga:

@themanicmagician

Underfell - Sans (3rd Person) POV - 2032 Words

Warnings: standard Underfell, swearing, angst, anger

Ya know, it really seemed like just a normal fight.

Sans couldn't remember what this one was even about. (It was about not feeding the stupid rock, of all things. That's what it was about). They all blurred together, even when they were first starting up, because they were brothers and they were both assholes and there was nothing about them where one was alike the other besides way too much pride and a need to always be in control. Those little virtues showed up in each brother in different ways, but they always fueled the arguments further than the last time.

From nitpicking about socks or strategy or something more serious, their egos always got the best of them until they were both boiling over with rage whose only target was the other, and neither was that far gone just yet to let that go too far.

(But the fear was there, that they were getting there. Most would put money on Papyrus being the one to strike the first blow. It made the most logical sense. He was bigger. Stronger. Angrier. But Sans disagreed with that, ashamed as he was too think so, and he was always the better gambler.)

So, the fights escalated, from once a month to once a week and now about every other day. And the fights escalated from petty passive aggression to aggressively aggressive aggression, because Papyrus's job stressed him out and Sans's life stressed him out. It used to be, they had a fight, they did a little song and dance. The silent treatment, staying in the same room but never making eye contact. They would both keep the lights on, started extra bright and intense, just to make it clear they were pretending the other didn't exist. It was childish and stupid, (because they were both childish and stupid and stubbornly so), some kind of line of sight game of “I'm not touching you” that had driven pop-pops crazy back when that ol’ geezer was still around.

But then things escalated to avoiding the same rooms for an hour, then a day if it was bad. Then the silent treatments got longer. Then they would purposefully retreat into their own separate rooms with a purposeful door slam, because the old rituals didn't scream “angry” enough for the dramatic little shit (and Sans did it too, to demonstrate to him how dumb it was. That's why.)

And it was a slow process from a fight every few months over dirty socks, each performing dumb little antics to say “I am still kinda mad,” but it ended up with starting fights every three days because they hadn't actually talked in months, and then they would keep not taking, because they were mad.

It was so fucking stupid. What a way to let the only relationship left that mattered to them fall apart. But even though Sans couldn't remember what he was mad about this time, he was still mad about it.

The latest development in the art of fraternal war was to storm out of the house in some kind of rabid fury. There was even a nuance to it. Day times, especially mornings or after shift, but before the street lights switched over? That was Papyrus's hour, and he would go wherever it was he went when he was mad. (Best guess was punching a wall somewhere, or punching a person somewhere). He slammed the door hard enough to rattle the frame each time. Lunch breaks and night time where Sans’s turn. That's when he got to storm off, teleporting to show off because Papyrus didn't know how to do it too and it was an extra special kinda “fuck you”, but Papyrus usually knew where he was going, the Door or the Bar, because it's not like he ever went anywhere else.

He'd leave for a few hours, come back, Papyrus would be either out at the mysterious wall-punching locale or more likely rage-cleaning the sink again and they would both not talk until the next day, if at all.

…

Was it weird that Sans had still thought they were doing okay? You know, as brothers?

Because, you know, he didn't exactly know how to do the whole emotional thing and Papyrus was a closed book nowadays and sure they fought and sure it was getting a little scary just how much his magic screamed threat when they were yelling and in the same room, but people fought. There was not a family in the Underground that didn't.

Besides, you know, the bunnies. They were tight-knit as they come and they seemed to fight pretty rarely, but judging from the brothers’ only literature on the subject, rabbits seemed to be weirdly friendly fuzzy fucks who would just walk up to people they didn't even know yet and start hugging them. Bunnies didn't count. The drakes fought, right? Yeah, Snowy even ran off a few months ago because if it. Kid was probably dust by now. The dogs fought. Not really as much but… they did that dominance thing. Was that what this was? He didn't think so. Whatever, he and the boss weren't dogs. He didn't know a lot of other families. The bears? (Never fought) The mice? Too secretive to know. The rocks? San had no idea but decided got his own sake that they never went a day without the rock-equivalent of screaming.

That still wasn't a lot, though, was it? That so wasn't every family.

…Maybe he and Papyrus did fight too much.

(But it wasn't his fault. He wasn't the one who went from total sweetheart to total asshole. Sans always was the asshole; he never changed.)

So yeah, whatever, they fight, so what. They could fix it; they would fix it. Someday he would find a way to fix it. It was fine. They had plenty of time.

But that night after the latest fight when Sans got back from the bar, Papyrus was gone.

It wouldn't have been weird at all if it was earlier, but being out late was dangerous and Papyrus wasn't that dumb. He didn't sleep, but he didn't go out at ungodly hours. It just wasn't done.

The next day Papyrus was still gone.

And the next.

And it dawned on Sans that Papyrus didn't have to come back. He'd cleared the house of most valuables a long time ago. He had his savings. He had his job.

Papyrus didn't need to stay.

Papyrus didn't need him.

If Papyrus didn't want to come home he didn't have to, and he wouldn't.

Maybe this time it had gone too far. Maybe his brother wasn't coming back.

Sans did what he could: he went to work. He cleaned the kitchen. He slept a lot. He sprinkled the fucking rock. But most off all he just waited.

The asshole finally up and left, and Sans was dying inside to tell him how mad he was about it.

(He missed him. He was worried.)

He convinced himself pretty quickly that Papyrus would be fine. After all, he was strong and mean and it's not like he really needed Sans anymore.

He still waited, because he had no other plans, but he knew he moved on and he wanted to be happy for him. As usual, all he could work up was anger and resentment and apathy and sadness at the prick just moving on (and not even leaving a fucking note! Now who was the ‘rude’ one!?)

He was probably living it up in the Capital. Probably some big fancy promotion he hafn't bothered to mention, just like the last one Sans only heard about while slumped over a bar counter. God, he probably already doubled his LOVE without Sans to hold him back, and everyone knew the EXP in the city was higher. He was probably incapable of missing him now, of missing anyone, if he hadn't already been. (And he was probably so fucking proud of himself for finally shedding whatever nice or soft parts he still had left. When Sans pushed him all those years ago, he'd had no clue how far it would go. Papyrus never did anything half-assed, but Sans only did half-assed, so how was he supposed to have guessed his little brother would be such a massive prick when he grew up?)

Maybe the boss and Undyne had a great laugh together about how good it was that he finally ditched the weakling.

He probably had one of those big fancy New Home mansions, all to himself, no shitty, disgusting brother to muck it all up, everything perfectly arranged in those neat little boxes he loved so fucking much. Sans bet he painted the whole inside white just to show off the sparkle. Asshole. He was so much like dad and he barely even met him. Definitely didn't remember him. Pfft, he probably remembered dad more than pops or Sans at this rate.

He was finally happy wherever he was in his happy new life in his happy new job, and this backwater little town and this stupid worthless brother and these weak and miserable people could all rot while he laughed it up in New Home, dinner dates with the Captain—he wondered if her paramour ever visited too, and did she bring her fucking pets? Did they get that goo shit all over the carpets? He could imagine his brother's eyes bulging out. Or maybe they still make less of a mess of things than him? He could picture his brother having dainty little tea parties with the King of All Monsters, with teeny little tea cups the behemoth of a monarch could barely hold while his brother stuck his pinkie out like some cultured little princess and not some state-sponsored thug who once beat a guy to death with a bone club.

(And God that whole tea party mental image was a rich one. He wished it wasn't treason to tell that one at comedy night).

Sans kept the ‘old’ house clean, first as an apology, but then as an act of spite. If Papyrus ever visited, ever remembered he forgot some of his shit in the closet, he would come in and see how much Sans had his shit together, how much better the house was without him. See, boss, I DO get things done when I say I will! I get them done faster without you telling about it you prick! I'm so much better without you, too, asshole.

Maybe the house in Snowdin would be neater than Papyrus's stupid mansion. That thought gave him some delight. Papyrus would be so busy, and the place would be so pointlessly big (because that's exactly the sort of smug asshole Papyrus was, everything needed to be the biggest and the fanciest. He was as bad as that fucking robot who was on every fucking channel) and he wouldn't have a useless errand boy to order around when he was too busy— at least not for free. He was probably or off his mind trying to keep the stupid place sparkling on to off whatever fancy Jon Asgore had him doing. God he was going to be so jealous when he came back to the old place. If he came back. It was Sans's best prank ever, the definition of punching up, too, so he could feel vindictive and self righteous about it (and pretend he didn't just trick himself into cleaning an empty house nobody was going to visit but himself.)

Papyrus was gone a week by the time Sans forgot that his concocted little fantasy about his brother's great new life was just that: a fantasy, when Captain Undyne burst down the door, screaming even louder than even his brother ever had.

“WHERE THE HELL IS HE!?”

And just like that, the hopes and dreams that Papyrus moved up and on without him, safe and happy, withered away like ash in his skull and died a quick death.

It was big-deal-official and everything: Papyrus was missing. No one had seen him since the fight.

Sans was still so angry; it just wasn't at his brother anymore.

#sans #my fics #fanfic #mine #underfell #save our fellboy #swearing #ufsans #ufpap #angst #some formatting is probably gone but im not fixing it

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fictionstuff · 4 years

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Final Fantasy X-2 (Switch) Points: 3.75/5 Status: walkthrough used 94% achieved played through in approximately 55 hours

I've finished the HD Remaster of X last year already, but then stopped playing due to having no time. With the release on the Switch however, I thought I could try it again. X has always been very dear to my heart, because Tidus was a great main protagonist to me, even though he was probably a bit of an airhead a lot of times, but that didn't mean that the love story wasn't beautifully leading us along a journey of sacrifices in a world, that was always in despair because of Sin. The end of X however totally broke my heart and nonetheless it seemed just right. X-2 delivers a sequel, that hasn't got much to do with X anymore, but it's special in many ways.

Artwork/Design

X-2 doesn't look much different from X honestly. It doesn't feel like 2 years have past in the meanwhile and while the HD Remaster does look nice, it is what it is, a HD Remaster, not a Remake. The FMVs are very beautiful to look at, but everything else seems just as “old” as it is. Spira has been an interesting world in X and still remains beautiful, with vibrant and colourful towns and unique dungeons. Anyone who has played X thought, won't find many new spots or dungeons, although the dungeons don't consist of the same puzzles anymore.

The design feels outdated nowadays, but in 2003 that might have been completely different. What X-2 lacks are new places. Indeed you visit the same places over and over, finishing new side quests that help you contribute to 100% to get the perfect ending. This is too repetitive for my liking, while I do like these places and the few new dungeons that have been added. NPCs also look completely the same as in X.

I've always loved Yuna's and Rikku's design in X and with Paine joining, I'd love to say she looks quite amazing and she's every bit fierce in battle, while soft for her 2 partners.

Story/Combat System

The story continues where X ended, Tidus is gone and Yuna has saved the world from Sin, but while you might think it's all great now, it really isn't. There's much political uproar from various sides as the story starts with a music dance performance from Yuna? Well, that was weird enough at first, but the first FMV already shows how much Yuna has matured and that a lot of things are completely different from X. X-2 focuses on Spira, on politics and corruption, on how the world still doesn't find rest even after Sin has been defeated.

X-2 has a much more laid-back story, while it does display potential danger for Spira once more, but I don't think that has been the focus of X-2 after completing it to a certain extent. I sadly didn't reach 100%, but I finished enough to say that side quests are the main part of the game and make the story feel less important overall. Y.R.P – Yuna, Rikku, Paine (our new female addition) are sphere hunters, a likeable funny trio. And for once, they're all female.

They search for spheres all over Spira to find out more about “Tidus” as Yuna has seen him (or someone that seems identical to him) in a sphere Rikku has brought to her. The sad part about this trio is that we're never shown how everything started and how Paine even joined. I would have loved to venture into this story as well. I am glad we get a lot of back story about Paine though, as well as Spira's new leaders, Gippal, Nooj, Baralai. Then again, I also would have loved to see more interactions between all of them. It's the very end that satisfied my thirst a little.

X-2 is no linear RPG that you simply walk through, no it consists of a mission based story system. You can choose wherever to go and let's say, it makes sense to visit every place before starting the main missions. It's literally what X-2 wants you to do, to get to know more about Spira, its people and what has become of the world after you defeated Sin. 80% of the game are side missions, the main missions are secondary and also the downfall of the game to be very honest. The main story is engaging, but it's rather badly delivered. They should have added so much more to the story to make it even feel emotional. The only time I actually felt a spark was when I viewed the sad and good ending. Yes, X-2 has more than just one ending and whichever you feel is most appropriate is up to you. I felt that the sad ending was ten times as emotional as X, while the good ending has made me feel very very very happy. I mean, Yuna and Tidus belong together, no matter what you may throw at me for saying this. Same goes for Lenne and Shuyin, the main antagonist although I'd never even truly describe him as such. He's not gotten enough spotlight in my opinion.

Also there are fantastic Jpop songs, Real Emotion and 1000 Words are absolutely fantastic while the original soundtrack itself is quite alright. X-2 features many rather annoying mini games which never got me feel any involved, while X-2 has completely destroyed Blitzball for me and honestly, I've loved that shit game in X. Other questionable things are: chocobo farming, dancing to none existent beats (at least for me), moving some musicians into a life (this does have a purpose, I get it) and watching SO MUCH CONTENT THROUGH SPHEARS FOR HOURS. Some scenes never even appeared for me, sighs.

The combat on the other hand goes back to the roots, I'd love to say, but that's just the job system. The combat itself is still action based as you wait for your gauge to load and to react with our three lovely ladies. X's system has been completely revamped and turned into a real time battle (while you can opt for a slower system as I did, cause no way can I choose that quickly). In X-2 you receive dress spheres and grids, where you can implement those dress spheres, while the grid themselves have different abilities attached to them. You can choose which job fits you girls and fight however you want with them. That's freedom and it's a very refreshing combat system, but developing every ability of each dress sphere was just too tiring for me. I could never really choose, while I did always opt for Paine to be a knight while Yuna remains a gunner with Rikku being a black mage or thief. I kept close to the original dress spheres.

New monsters haven't really been added to X-2, you'll fight the same kind of monsters as you did in X and even the summons remained completely the same, although they're obviously not on your side any more. With every battle fought, you gain APs (which you can use to master abilities from the dress sphere) and experience points to level up. I finished the game at 73 for example and I'd dare to say that was too high.

Overall I would have loved for more main story content, more on our characters, but X-2 is a good sequel. It shows exactly what we have to do, move on. One cannot remain in the past.

#game reviews #review

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alolatrainersemina · 7 years

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(Hardenshipping/SMA) A Pokespe Weird Creatures/Monsters AU Idea

A headcanon discussed with my friend :D

*yay first post! *just jotting stuff down *SMA just means that this is pokespe Maxie/Archie, whilst SAM is pokespe Archie/Maxie *spoilers for the entire pokespe RSE arc are all over the place; please proceed with caution *alternate spe ending involved

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So basically Archie is this sea monster creature with anemone/Nihilego-like white tentacles, but he keeps a human form and can hide the tentacles with his willpower. Being a sea creature also means that his sea/water related instincts, like navigating in the ocean and swimming, are stronger than others. Oh, and tentacles. They look and at most times are innocent (you can play with them *ahem*) but can also be very destructive.

Maxie is this Great Demon that can only be injured or killed by sacred Arceus things like holy water, blessed weapons, that kind of stuff. The basic requirement nowadays is to just avoid churches (sacred-ish places) and historic museums (where all the "sacred" things are stored now). If injured or killed by other methods, he'll just regenerate within minutes of time. He has a demon tail, wings, and horns that could release flames containing his own memories (i.e. memory lighter; plugging these spe settings in there right now). He can also manipulate flames to create mirages that affects sight (sorry Blaise).

The two of them start off as normal kids but realize that they're not human somewhere around their teens. Archie doesn't have anyone to trust in as he was growing up so he develops a calm and manipulative nature in order to protect himself. He tries to live off like a normal human. He does. On a side note, Archie has always had an interest in marine biology and ocean/water science related topics; it doesn't have anything to do with him being a sea monster but being one does help him a little as the affinity to water does exist. He forms Team Aqua sometime later in his adulthood. Everyone in Aqua thinks he's just a normal human that's kinda scary and strict. The grunts and the three admins are all human. Well, there might be a really minor grunt or two that's not.

Maxie hides his identity from the public too. Like Sea Monster! Archie's tentacles, demons can hide their horns, wings, and tail using will-power. Unlike Archie, he already finds some company during his teens, though, foes at first but friends after a fight or two later because he's the Great Demon and not just a regular demon so monster people are attracted by his aura or something.

(The Great Maxie used Great Demon Charm! The opponent monster has been captivated by his greatness! Would you like to nickname your new monster person? *no that's not what really happened*)

He gets to lead a bunch of people that secretly hide their monster-ness. As more and more monster people join along Maxie, he meets smaller demons Courtney, Tabitha and Blaise; this was probably when he was in his mid-twenties. Smaller demons can also use the memory and mirage flames (plugging these spe settings in again), but it takes a little more will-power and they regenerate slower. Somewhere around that time Maxie founded Team Magma, because now there's too many monster people around and they have to find a way to not look too suspicious, so why not just say we're this big secret organization thing that wants to expand land! (Maxie wants to do this anyway, being the land dork he is, and somehow convinces everyone that expanding the land and getting Groudon on their side will help.) They manage to design their uniform into demon-horned hoodies because it makes using will-power to hide their own demon horns easier. (I dunno, monster mechanics. Actually helps other monsters maintain a more human form too. Might be magic-cast hoodies.) ↑Spe has a lot of weird stuff (like the memory lighter and Guile's sword and armor), let's just add magical hoodies into the list too! It just works. I guess.

Then time passes, the RS chapter happens, Archie meets Maxie, and supposedly they develop an interesting relationship (*ahem*). And then stuff goes wrong, and the Sird Showdown happens. Archie unleashes his sea monster destructiveness on Maxie, revealing himself as not human thinking that this'll be over with anyways since it's him or Maxie, but to Archie's surprise Maxie doesn't budge at all when Archie proceeds to finish him. (The only thing Maxie tells Archie is to keep his Magma clothes.) Sird's like “this is interesting you are so much more evil than I thought!” and starts to do that voodoo thing shown in the Emerald chapter, when all of a sudden a Great (naked) Demon Maxie with horns and wings and his tail appears before Archie and behind Sird and goes "Guile Hideout sounds like a pretty badass name" (or, depending on when he revived, the line will vary - c'mon he's the Great Maxie he needs to show off), which shocks the other two people. (Whether it's the naked part or the "dear Arceus Maxie's not human" part...*and this is why you keep people's clothes*) Sird runs because it's just not wise to mess with what is apparently a demon even if you are a super cool and manipulative and evil villainess. Archie still has no clue what just happened. Maxie feels great because no more Orb Syndrome (you know, the haunting condition that plagues Spencer the old guy and Archie, mentioned in the Emerald chapter) after regeneration, and explains what he really is to Archie. (While getting dressed.) Archie is now kind of Guile and kind of not Guile; he hasn't gotten rid of the Orb Syndrome yet so he still has to be in that armor in order to sustain himself. Maxie reassures him that everything will be fine.

By the way everybody else recovers because Celebi is amazing to all the "good" people; the Three Fires are already reorganizing Team Magma. They still believe in Maxie because MAGMA IS FAMILY *no* (spe Magma feels like that though) Aqua on the other hand is thinking about disbanding. Archie has done some unthinkable stuff in RS after all, like betraying and dumping your admin into the sea *blame the spe author*

Meanwhile Maxie and armored Archie finds some discreet place to stay over the night (Great Demon Maxie used Flame Mirage! No one notices them). The two of them discuss futures and decides that they'll have to apologize to their team first about their plans to make the world a better place failing and destroying the world accidentally. Archie has to do a LOT of apologizing because of what he's done in the RS chapter. And then they'll figure out how to rid Archie of his Orb Syndrome. They also manage to blurt about their lives hiding the fact that they're not human and sympathize with each other.

And then they go through it all, Emerald chapter still happens because Archie needs Jirachi to recover. But instead of Guile Archie wrecking everything and summoning a demonic Kyogre, Sird does all the bad things secretly and frames Archie (FOR EVIL! *I'm sorry Sird fans*). Archie and Maxie and the entire Magma team's monster identities also gets revealed in the process - it was done to make them look really bad - and everyone is mind blown and falls for it for a moment. But Magma and Aqua have been doing good things contributing to the world lately; they decided to reform. So the kids believe that they mean no harm and ask them to be one their side; Sird has stirred some problems in the Battle Frontier secretly and now it’s affecting everyone. Archie and Maxie, along with the others, sort out whatever mess Sird was making to prove a point. Everything works out in the end and Archie recovers, (the protags get their wish too), the world is not destroyed, happy endings for everyone!

↑That's most of it.

Thoughts: This was such a long drabble… I’m sorry if you got here and had to read that much > < I hope you liked it. I really disliked the spe RSE ending with the whole “make Maxie and Archie super evil for no reason and then let them die” plot. The whole build up to it was just horrible - they weren’t like this in the original games - and my friend thought so too, so the two of us kinda made up an alternate ending where stuff does work out while adding some special touches to it. The main goal was to not let Maxie die when they fought for the armor and the sword. Archie would’ve been so much less crazier if Maxie haven’t died, even without the hardenshipping/weird creature settings. (cue Archie’s flashback in Emerald chapter) Having both of them alive also wrecks Sird’s plan in a sense that they failed to achieve "the full evil” that Sird wanted them to have. We need more happy endings with villains in pokespe ahhhhh this is why headcanons exist right? Gotta fix ‘em up!! I’ll probably come up with more cute things pertinent to this AU (this counts as an alternate universe, right?) sometime in the future; thanks again for reading all this! ;O

#pokemon #pokespe #maxie #archie #magma leader maxie #aqua leader archie #hardenshipping #weird creatures au #brainholes

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