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farfromharry · 3 years

Text

The one with the much needed bandaid | Peter’s Girl

Summary: You and Peter finally talk about what you saw the night of Liz’s party, and you become sort of his go to nurse

Word count - 2375

Warnings - mentions of injury, language? i can’t remember

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Peter had spent the entire weekend practically pulling his hair out over the whole thing with Y/N. He couldn’t believe he was so reckless that in the space of the same night he’d managed to one, accidentally reveal his identity to one of his best friends, two, scare away the bad guys by underestimating just how dangerous they were, and three, summon Mr Stark- well his suit and some kind of phone call, to save him from a lake after being dropped in by some weird bird man.

So you could say Peter’s last few days hadn’t been very enjoyable or realistic at all and it was driving him insane.

He was trying to fix things one by one, and he’d begun with apologising to Mr Stark for any inconvenience he caused. His mentor was quick to brush it off, telling him not to get too worked up about it, but warning him to leave the dangerous men to him and the people who were specially trained to deal with these kinds of things, not just some kid from Queens.

He didn’t know how much of that he would stick to, determined to catch these guys as quickly as possible if the avengers weren’t going to jump in, but he’d try and keep that quiet and unknown to Tony of course.

The next part of his plan was to find you on Monday morning, to at least try and explain what he was doing in Spiderman’s suit outside of Liz’s party, maybe tell a few white lies to get himself out of the web he’s caught himself in.

And his plan for the bad guys… well that was still in the works, but he was smart so he’d figure it out in his own time.

»»——⍟——««

You had received numerous texts and calls from Peter since the moment you woke up that morning, all of which had been ignored. You’d gathered he’d want to talk to you but you weren’t returning the sentiment, and you weren’t even sure why. Were you mad he didn’t tell you? Mad that he’d put himself in all that danger?

You didn’t know, but you did know that you were planning on avoiding him so you didn’t have to find out.

Peter had met up with Ned that morning like he did every morning. He was rambling on about some new star wars theory that the brunette would normally love to hear and give his opinion on, so the fact that Peter was ignoring him was strange.

“Are you okay? You seem a little on edge,” Ned pointed out. Peter turned to look at him with a small, unconvincing look.

“I just need to talk to Y/N.”

Ned rolled his eyes. He didn’t know what happened that night other than Peter had left him looking stupid at the party, prompting Flash to call the boy some names while he wasn’t there.

Seeing as Mj had stopped defending him and Ned wouldn’t get involved, the male was free to ridicule Peter for as long as he wished, making for a lot of weird stares in the school halls.

But back to the present, his best friend didn’t seem too happy that he was so obviously keeping things from him, because Peter Parker was a horrible liar.

When your eyes met Peter’s figure resting against your locker you quickly spun around and started heading in the opposite direction, even if you had no idea where you were planning on going. Your hair whipping around was what caught Peter’s attention from his peripheral vision.

“Gotta go,” he announced to Ned, heading off the way you left with a quick jog in his step. You could hear Peter calling your name louder the closer he got, prompting you to speed up.

You cursed quietly when you came to the end of the hallway, having to decide on the spot whether to go left to a crowd of rowdy students, or right to a dead end. People must have thought you both looked crazy, even though that was the only other conclusion you could come to about yourself after you saw Peter on the rooftop.

“Y/N!” Peter yelled, grabbing your wrist in a gentle but firm grip. You stared at him wide eyed, almost like you were afraid of him, and it was a look that Peter never wanted to see again.

He quickly looked around before tugging you through an open door that led you to an empty classroom.

He closed the door behind him, leaving you standing there watching him blankly. He took a few minutes to try and prepare what he was going to say, granted something he should’ve probably done before he pulled you into a room with him.

“I want to explain the other night,” he stated, meeting your eyes for the first time that day. Your expression stayed stoic, pursing your lips.

“You want to lie your way out of admitting you’re Spiderman?” you sassed. The male was slightly taken back at your bluntness.

“Yeah, I guess,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood slightly. You didn’t look impressed at all, and he sputtered out a few apologies.

“Okay yes, I am Spiderman-“ you interrupted him with a scoff, running your hands through your hair in frustration. “Please just hear me out, y/n/n.”

You huffed, folding your arms over your chest. Peter had to admit that without your usual happy mood, you were intimidating and he never knew you were even capable of that.

“Fine, go ahead.”

He took a deep breath. “You aren’t meant to know because- it-it’s dangerous Y/N.” Your heart fluttered slightly. “I didn’t tell anyone because I wanted you all to be safe, I don’t know what I’d do if I was the reason you got hurt.”

Your features noticeably softened. He stepped closer to you, taking your hands in his and running his thumb over the back of your skin.

“You can’t tell anyone, please.” His soft eyes met yours in a pleading look.

“Who else knows?” you asked.

“Ned,” he mumbled. “And Mr Stark, but that’s it.”

You perked up slightly, and Peter noticed.

“So, Mj doesn’t know?” He shook his head, murmuring something about how it probably wouldn’t take her long to figure out though. Sensing your happiness about his words, the boy assumed you were happy that you knew something that she didn’t, and he didn’t really understand why. But that wasn’t the case, you were just glad that it meant she was safe, what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her, right?

“Will you keep my secret?” he asked, staring at you with eyes that resembled those of a scared puppy. You sighed, flashing him a smile and nodding your head.

“Of course I will.” The tone of your voice suggested to Peter that you weren’t done and there was going to be some kind of condition here.

“But?” he prompted.

“But please be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

He grinned, pulling you into a tight hug. You tucked your head under his chin, inhaling his scent and being calmed by his presence.

Peter couldn’t wipe the smirk off of his face thinking about how you weren’t aware of his abilities, something he’d have to explain to you sometime. “You have so much to learn about me.”

»»——⍟——««

A soft tapping on your window was the last thing you expected to hear at almost midnight on a weekday. You raised your head from your pillow, squinting your eyes to try and make out what was on the other side of the glass.

You eventually had to turn on your light, startling when you noticed the shape of a person, more specifically a superhero.

You swung your legs over the side of your bed, hissing when your feet made contact with the cold floor, but you pushed that aside to go and open your window to invite Peter in.

He hastily pulled off his mask, revealing his ruffled hair and bloody face to you.

“Oh my god,” you gasped, taking note of the streaks of red on the side of his face. He looked at you with tears in his eyes, stepping forward without a word to engulf you in a hug.

You were careful wrapping your arms around him, making sure you didn’t cause him anymore pain with your hand placement.

“What happened?”

He raised his head, pressing the spider symbol in the middle of his chest. His suit grew loose, making it easy for him to take off and leave on your bedroom floor.

Your eyes widened, staring at Peter’s body in shock. You knew when he explained the whole situation with the spider that he would have some muscle, but you were definitely not expecting that.

“Um,” you were more or less speechless, forgetting how to even form words while this gorgeous boy was standing in your room in nothing but underwear.

Peter obviously hadn’t thought it completely through, his eyes widening when he realised you were indeed staring at him half naked.

“Sorry, I-I-“ You shook your head, ignoring the definite blush on your cheeks as you guided him to your bathroom. You got the boy to sit down on the side of the tub, where he nervously played with his fingers.

“So, what happened?” you asked, setting your emergency first aid kit on the side. He blankly looked up to you, finally looking at you properly. Only now did he notice that you must have been trying to go to sleep.

You were in an old shirt and a pair of sleep shorts, your hair tied up in a messy ponytail without any makeup. Peter always thought you were pretty, and it seemed as though he was only now realising just how pretty you were.

“Pete?” you whispered, snapping him out of his daydream.

He apologised. “What did you say?”

“I asked if you could turn your head to the light.” He nodded, doing as you asked and bearing his wounded cheekbone to you. His fists clenched when he felt you touch the alcohol to his cheek, hearing a small apology after you heard his pained hiss.

He thought back to a couple minutes ago when you’d ask how this happened, mentally debating whether he should tell you or not. He came to the conclusion that if you were going to generously patch him up then the least he could do was tell you how he got himself in this state in the first place.

“There was some guys following this girl, trying to back her into an alley.” You paused your hand movements, looking into his soft honey eyes with a sympathetic smile. He took that as a sign to continue. “I couldn’t just let it happen, I thought about if that was you or Mj and ai just-“

Your heart almost burst with love for the boy, pressing a friendly kiss to the top of his head that had him blushing a deep scarlet in seconds.

“You did the right thing, even if you got a little hurt.”

He nodded, glad he was able to get your approval, especially after your one condition of not telling anyone was that he was as careful as he could be.

“Where else does it hurt?”

You helped clean Peter up as best as you could, the boy telling you that his quick healing should deal with the parts that you couldn’t, such as the bruised ribs.

“Let me just put a bandaid on and you’re good to go.” He rolled his eyes, trying to tell you that he didn’t need it. It was only a small cut on his bicep but you were insisting on covering it up. Peter watched as your eyes widened when you pulled the bandaids from the first aid kit.

“What is it?” he asked.

You nervously held them up, watching as his face twisted into one of amusement. He let out a loud laugh, quickly being scolded by you as you warned him that your parents were sleeping.

“Really, Y/N?” You blushed, looking down at the bandaid in your hand with a flood of embarrassment. The face of Iron Man stared back at you while Peter continued to giggle. You rolled your eyes, holding out his arm and sticking the bandaid over his cut anyway.

“I hope Mr Stark sees,” you teased, sticking your tongue out at him like a child. “You’re all done.”

He thanked you quietly, heading back into your room while you tidied away the mess you’d made on the counter.

Only when you were done you headed back, planning on getting straight back into your bed as soon as Peter had left.

“Thank you for helping me.” You nodded your head, leaning against the door frame of the bathroom as you watched him slip his suit back on.

“Peter,” you whispered, catching his attention just before he left. He hummed quietly. “You know you can come here anytime you need help, right?”

You were being completely genuine, and Peter could see that in your eyes. He was incredibly grateful for you. He held out his hand to you so you’d come over, intertwining your fingers with his when you were close enough to reach.

On an instinct he dipped his head so he was able to kiss your cheek, refusing to meet your eyes as a cute blush spread across his face, the tips of his ears also tinting pink. If he’d have looked at you, you were sure he would’ve noticed he made you equally as hot and bothered, your heart racing so fast you were surprised he couldn’t hear it.

But he could, and it only made him more nervous that he’d just messed things up.

“I know.” He sent you a smile before shooting one of his webs towards a building in the close distance, slipping his mask on over his face and giving you a wave as a final farewell for the night. Thus began the routine of Spiderman showing up at your window every time he was injured and in need of a bandaid, or in some cases a little more than a bandaid.

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peter’s girl taglist → @sunsetholland @captainamirica @tomsirishgirlx @givebuckyhisplumsnow @lou-la-lou @slutforsr @tayyx @gog0juice @minejungwoo @creatorofthegalaxy @annathesillyfriend @paninipress @bvttercupbby @peterswebshooters @whoeveniskendall @itsallyscorner @hoodpankow

#peter’s girl #peter parker series #peter parker fluff #peter parker imagine #peter parker #tom holland

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fluffymisha97 · 3 years

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Falling, Fallen - Part 3 - 1/2

Summary: The next date couldn’t possibly go as wrong as the first one.

Warnings: Language.

Word count: 3,512

About a week later, Chris had thought of everything. Had anyone asked him, he would say that he’d come up with a brilliant plan. Although he did ask Scott for advice in the beginning. The little brother was more than happy to help out. He could see how much it meant to Chris. Anything to help out a brother.

The day couldn’t and wouldn’t end as badly as your first date. That was something Chris had decided on. He’d texted you on Wednesday asking if you’d plans for the weekend. Luckily, you didn’t have any plans. Chris decided on taking you out Saturday around noon. You were both excited for your date and none of you could hardly wait.

When Saturday came, you’d been waiting by the window looking down the parking spaces in front of your building. A car honk was all you needed to know that he’d arrived. He waited by his car as you came down the stairs inside the apartment building. You smiled as you spotted Chris outside. You briefly heard Abby yell out something a la ‘have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t’. You stepped outside in the cold breeze and walked towards Chris.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

Chris awkwardly went back and forth between going for a hug or a handshake. It ended up being a very odd handshake with a halfway sided hug. Chris cringed inside. Great start. You hadn’t given it much thought and stuffed your hands inside the warmth of your

“So, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise for now.”

“Exciting… Although I should probably be a little more cautious when getting into a car with someone I don’t know all that well. Stranger danger and everything.”

Chris flashed you a smile as he opened the door for you.

“It’s a good thing that you know me a little bit then?”

“We’ll see. Hopefully you aren’t an axe murdering movie-star.”

“Nope, just me.”

You climbed into the already warm car and buckled up. You watched as Chris took a few long strides around the car and then gracefully getting in. He smiled at you as he typed in an address on the GPS. You fiddled with your hands as you prepared yourself mentally for what the day would bring.

“Besides think about all the work murdering me would bring you. I mean disposing the body, cleaning the crime scene and so forth on.”

“Yeah, that does seem like a lot of work. Plus, I’ll probably end up unraveling the truth about the murder anyway.”

“Aww, that makes me feel a little bit better. I think.”

Chris laughed with you. It felt like you were trying to break the ice for him. The two of you chatted non-stop as the radio hummed in the background. It was insane how easy it was to talk with Chris. He talked and then listened at all the right moments. He mostly listened to you wanting to know everything about you. He enjoyed hearing your voice. It was a nice speaking voice and it turned out that you were also gifted with a nice singing voice.

Chris had given you his phone so that you could find some music. You shuffled through some of his many playlists and found one that made you smile.

“So, uh…Chris, tell me something… Are you a fan of Grease?”

“Well I…I… Depends on if you think it’s kinda loser-ish of me to have a playlist called ‘My Grease groove’.”

You could tell you made him nervous and self-conscious about a lot of things apparently. You pressed play and the tune of ‘Summer Nights’ filled the car.

“I happen to love Grease.”

Chris breathed out in relief as he saw your smile out the corner of his eye. You softly sang along to many of the songs and Chris mostly listened and hummed along every now and again.

The drive lasted about 45 minutes which flew in a hurry. Chris parked the car outside what looked like a hall. You dreaded it was a gym center or something like that. As you were getting out, Chris who’d opened your door held up a blind fold which made you narrow your eyes a bit.

“Okay now seeing where we’re…I’m beginning to circle back to the ‘what if’. What if you’re an axe murdering person?”

“Only kidding. C’mon.”

Chris smirked at you and gestured for you to walk ahead. You scanned the place for any signs that would tell you where you were. Mostly because you were so curious to see where you were going.

“So, Y/N. you’re probably wondering what we’re to do out here, yes?”

You nodded your head as Chris continued walking towards a backdoor entrance. He opened the door for you and as you got inside you started to realize just where exactly you were. Or what kind of place it really was. Chris came to stand in front of you with arms wide as he gestured to the room. He sported a very happy face as he watched you.

“What’s your take on Ice skating?”

“The sport genre or my ability to do it?”

“What do you think?”

“Well, I’m probably pretty decent at it but-…”

You and Chris were interrupted by a hoarse voice behind you. An elderly man appeared as you turned around.

“Mr. Evans, I got the rink ready for you and your date. If you’d follow me- Oh, I’m going to need your shoe size, Miss.”

You told him your size and followed the two men leading you to a skating rink. All ready and polished. You felt giddy inside. But something was off. Chris, the man called Sal, and you were the only people in the room.

“Hey, did you rent this entire place?”

“Well…not the entire place just this rink.”

You were completely baffled at this. Never had anyone done something like that for you. Sal came back with two sets of ice skates and gave them to you and Chris.

“Thanks a lot Sal. I’ll be sure to tell my sister to book her son’s birthday party out here.”

“You do that, son. Remember: Sal’s skates is for everyone all shapes, sizes and ages. Now, you two go and have fun.”

You giggled hearing the sales pitch Sal shouted out enthusiastically and sat down to put on your skates. Chris sat down next to you and put on his own. You were much quicker than Chris and already up on your feet when were still working on securing his first skate.

You carefully stepped onto the ice while holding onto the wall for ‘support’.

“So, when I said that I was decent on ice I should’ve probably elaborated.”

Chris looked at you puzzled as you leapt of the wall and started skating with pace and grace that clearly showed that you were no amateur. You skated a few rounds wanting to get warm and went right back the latch where Chris stood with a gaping mouth.

“I’m not just decent, I’m kind of great at skating.”

You bit your lip and offered the gaping Chris a nervous smile.

“Well okay then Tonya Harding.”

You could tell that Chris was still a bit in shock over your confession. It was clear that he hadn’t seen this coming.

“No, no. I’m nowhere near her. Brilliant lady but kind of insane the way things turned out.”

Chris let out a dry chuckle as he ventured out on the ice. He seemed a bit unsteady on his feet. You skated around in circles waiting for Chris to join you when a thought popped into your head. You moved back so you were in front of Chris.

“So, what was the idea or the plan of taking me out here?”

“Plan?”

“Yeah? I mean you must’ve given this some thought. Maybe you thought about taking me bowling but then you ditched that idea and came up with going ice skating. Maybe you assumed or hoped that I wasn’t that good at it? And that I would probably need to lean on you for support or that we would have to hold hands so I wouldn’t fall flat on my ass in front of you. That way we would’ve established the psychical contact… Tell me that wasn’t something you thought of while planning this?”

Chris cringed hard inside for the second time. Was he really that transparent? Had he lost his game and had become this mediocre halfway loser with absolutely no game? His nervous smile gave him away instantly.

“Nooo? Of course not.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you got the worst poker face?”

Chris looked down feeling dumb. You weren’t mad or offended. You hadn’t meant to make him feel like you were calling him out. Even though that’s what you’d gone and done. Now it was your turn to cringe inside. The sound of whistling made him look up.

“Are you going to stay over there or are you going to join me out here? The water’s fine.”

Chris nervously laughed as he moved further out on the ice still a bit wobbly. Chris started regretting his decision as he watched you skate around gracefully while he felt like an elephant inside a porcelain shop.

“C’mon, Chris. I’m sorry if I was a little too harsh but- I think it’s a shame not to take advantage of being here.”

“No it’s not that… I guess, I over- and underestimated this situation both you and myself. I wanted to do something outside the box and in the haste of wanting to get this day right I forgot how bad I really am at ice skating. That was that brilliant yet stupid plan right out the window.”

You giggled softly at the still wobbly Chris and inched closer to him slowly.

“Okay, okay. Maybe your plan is still doable but maybe not in the way that you’d hoped for. Here, take my hand.”

Chris stilled and looked at you.

“What?”

“Hold my hand, Mr. Bold. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Chris reached out and grabbed your smaller hand in his larger one. You started to move bringing Chris with you. The two of you skated in circles in a slow but comfortable pace. Chris smiled widely feeling confident and went to release your hand only to start wobbling a bit again. You could see Chris face falter. He quickly wrapped his arm around your waist with his right hand and the left hand found your still extended hand. Soon he felt himself being steadied. He breathed out in relief. You titled your head and smirked. He was now holding one of your hands and the other arm was wrapped around your waist.

“Now that was real smooth.”

“What?”

You couldn’t decide if he was truly a bit thickheaded to see his move clearly or if he had in fact been on his way to fall flat on the ice. You decided that it didn’t matter. Being that close to Chris wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Not even close. Your right hand moved so that it rested on top of the hand on your waist. You saw Chris smile briefly out of the corner of your eye. The two of you went a few rounds like that. It was no secret that both you and Chris enjoyed the closeness while skating. You tried calming yourself down knowing that this was only your second date and that you ought to chill out, like your friend Emmett would say. ‘Chill out girl, and relax.’

“So, tell me Miss ‘Harding’ did you ever do some professional skating or are you just this good all on your own?”

“I did very, very little when I was a kid but nothing worth writing about. But I guess I’ve just always enjoyed skating. I go a few times every year to keep on practicing. Lame I know.”

“Nothing about you is lame, Y/N.”

You shared a sideways smile as you picked up the pace skating in circular motions in the empty rink. Chris listened as you went on about things from your childhood and then asking him about his childhood. He told you about his siblings and the way that they were brought up. Just hearing about his family made you smile. It was clear to you that he came from a family filled with lots of love. His love for his mother shined through when he’d talked about her. You liked listening to Chris talking about everything and nothing. You enjoyed your conversations just as much as he liked them.

The two of you skated for some time. Truth be told, you’d lost track of time during the time you’d spent with him. You smiled at Chris who seemed to also enjoy himself on the ice. Chris started feeling a little more confident as he took the lead and picked up the pace. He even did a little cross with his feet. He looked very proud which only made him look all the more cute to you. He let go of your waist and readied himself for letting go completely. He gently let go of your hand and skated on his own. Chris flashed you a wide smile as he picked up the pace even further. A smirk even appeared on his face as gracefully skated past you in a circular move.

“Wow, look at you. Quick learner I see.”

“Yeah! Well, it’s like riding a bike I suppose. I guess, I was just a bit rusty-AHH!”

Just as he was showing off to you he lost his balance and fell right backwards. Your hands went up to cover your eyes as you saw the whole thing play out in slow motion. You heard a breathy groan which made you look at the scene before your eyes. Chris was lying on his back breathing hard as he raised his head to look at you. You went over to him and bent down to him.

“Chris! Oh my God. Are you okay?”

Chris didn’t answer you straight away and seemed to have trouble looking you in the eye. You instantly feared that he’d hit his head on the ice. You maneuvered so that you kneeled down on the ice and were leaning down to examine him closer.

“Hey look at me. How many fingers am I holding up? Do you know your name? Where you’re right now. Do you know who I am? Are you hurt anywhere-…?”

Your nervous rambling was caught off by Chris’ hoarse and breathy laugh.

“Depends. That was a whole lot of questions.”

You let out a breath of relief hearing him talk.

“My ego’s probably the most wounded…I had this horrible dream where I brought this great girl out here to impress her and only ended up botching this date because I got too cocky.”

You felt yourself smile at that. Chris leaned up on his elbows and pretended to look around as shock appeared on his face.

“OH no…It wasn’t a dream.”

He made a pouty face and looked down.

“Hey, you haven’t botched anything.”

“So, you don’t think I’m a transparent doofus?”

“Well, maybe you’re a little bit transparent but-…”

You sheepishly smiled at him as he let himself gently fall backwards on the ice with a groan.

“Just let me die here of humiliation and embarrassment.”

“God, you movie stars truly have a flair for the dramatics.”

Chris snorted at your comment but well knowing that you were absolutely right. You gently patted his arm making him look at you.

“C’mon, big guy. Up, up.”

You helped Chris upright with ease while still looking him over with worried eyes. He had just fallen quite hard.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yup, yup. I’m okay. Luckily my ass broke the fall.” “You want to go and sit down? Just for a while.” “Sure. Let’s do that.” The two of you slowly skated over to the latch door and Chris went out first. Chris sat down on one of the benches. You carefully went over and sat down next to him.

“So apart from falling flat on my ass in front of you just now, I hoped that you still liked it here.”

“I thought it was a great idea, Chris. Something outside the box.”

“Well, then I have a small plea for you. Or more of a question.”

You nodded your head at him.

“Could we pretend that this was our first date considering that our first was a bust? Clean slate and everything. Although I didn’t make a fool out of myself that other day so maybe it was a bad idea to even-…”

“Chris, it’s cool. This is officially our first date then.”

Chris gave you a grin thankful that you were on. This date had to be great. He wanted everything right to go right.

“Hey, what do you say we get out of here? Unless you want to go back on the ice. I mean we can go if you want to. You looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

“It’s all good, Chris. I think you’ve had enough ice time for now.”

The two of you took of your skates and went to clerk where you handed them in. Sal came over and quietly shook hands with Chris.

“I hope you kids had fun. It looked like it. I must say that you miss, looked like you knew exactly what you were doing. Say, have you ever done some competitively skating?”

“I did very little when I was a kid but nothing big.”

“You looked like you belonged on the ice. I think Mr. Evans would agree with me.”

Chris only nodded in awe which you felt was totally misguided. Your cheeks felt warm as you felt the two men staring at you. Chris shook hands with Sal while you were putting on your gloves.

“Thanks a lot for today, Sal. I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it.”

You were getting ready to exit when Chris excused himself to go to the bathroom. You leaned against the counter as you waited. Sal remained behind the counter as he arranged some papers or so.

“So tell me Sal, did you really let him rent an entire hall because he’s famous or?”

“Tell you what, I’ve known him for some time and I would’ve probably let him anyway. That guy’s a good young man. He’s decent that’s for sure.”

“So, he’s brought other girls here too or what do you mean, Sal?”

“Naah, I’ve only ever seen him here with his family. He’s a family man no doubt.”

Sal winked at you and went to answer his phone ringing in his pocket.

Chris came jogging over to you and gestured for you two to walk outside again. As you reached his car, you gave Chris a questionable look.

“Are you sure that you’re okay to drive? You did fall pretty hard…”

“Yeah, I’m fine but if it makes you feel better then-… Here.”

Chris tossed you his car keys. You let out a small gasp.

“Wait- you would let me drive your car just like that?”

“Sure. Unless you would rather not to-…”

“Nooo, it’s all good.”

You grinned and practically jumped over to the driver’s side. Chris chuckled at your enthusiastic laugh and got in the passenger’s seat. You buckled in and started the car. It was defiantly something else than your own. Chris typed in the new address for your next destination. Then you were off to God knows where. Still you’d never felt more safe with Chris by your side.

The drive was about 30 minutes or so, Chris pointed to an exit where the two of you switched places.

“I wanted to keep going with the element of surprise.”

You didn’t mind and Chris seemed very okay to drive. Although he only drove for about maximum of 5 minutes before he’d parked by what looked like field. Chris had beaten you to open your door, he gently grabbed one of your hands and led you closer to wherever you were going.

“Close your eyes.”

You narrowed your eyes slightly but did as he’d asked.

“Tell me what you smell now.”

“Smell, what do you mean?”

“Just go with me on this. Try to take a deep whiff.”

Again, you did as he told. Inhaling, you could suddenly smell all kinds of smells. Confused, you found yourself inhaling like an asthmatic snail.

“Okay maybe I’m way off here, but I smell cotton candy and popcorn but aren’t we out in the middle of nowhere?”

“Well, yes and no. You’re in fact right, cos if you open your eyes you’ll find out just where we’re right now.”

Slowly you opened your eyes and discovered that you were now standing at by the entrance of a funfair or something that looked like a Carnival. You couldn’t hide your shocked state nor excitement. You were definitely liking where this was going. Chris beamed as he watched your happy face as it lit up.

Tag list:

@patzammit

@Chris-butt

@castellandiangelo

@harrysthiccthighss

@tantricevans

@katiew1973

@denisemarieangelina

@pinkdiamond1016

@missswriter

@arabescapr

@liquorlaughslove

@chaneajoyyy

@sunflowercaptain

@ la-cey

@adoreyou976

@geminievans1

Tag list for Falling, Fallen series:

@commanderrykov

@ thatoneperson5000

@hockeychick10

#chris evans #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans series #chris evans imagine #chris evans x reader #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x you

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monstersdownthepath · 3 years

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Spiritual Spotlight: Zyphus, the Grim Harvestman

Neutral Evil God of Accidental Deaths, Graveyards, and Tragedies

Domains: Death, Destruction, Evil, Plant, War Subdomains: Blood, Catastrophe, Daemon, Decay, Murder, Thorns, Undead

Inner Sea Faiths, pg. 88~93

Obedience: Spend an hour sitting on the grave of someone who suffered an accidental death. You must reflect on how chance has wronged you and vocally reject the influence of any gods associated with these wrongs. If no suitable grave exists, spend an hour telling strangers how their religious beliefs and hopes for a just afterlife are folly and of no consequence. Alternatively, you can write this screed and post it in a public place within a settlement. If you’re away from civilization, you can instead spend an hour sabotaging a path, bridge, tool, or other device so that it’s dangerous for the next person who uses it. Benefit: You gain a +4 profane bonus on Craft (traps) or Disable Device checks, chosen when you complete the obedience.

i’m glad the grim harvestman covers his basis but also jesus

Anyway, Zyphus is one of the most petty and spiteful of the gods, and this is no better shown than in this Obedience. A typical adventurer wandering the countryside must actively make the world a worse place for everyone else involved, and the clause “next person who uses it” means that you have to either toss aside your party’s good will, or take up the dreaded spot at the back of the marching order. Should you find yourself in a public area, you become just as much of an obnoxious git as a follower of Groetus, except this time you’re personally spitting on their beliefs... However, if you wish to be significantly more tolerated by society, you should do as Zyphus encourages his followers to do and disguise yourself as a Pharasmin or the faithful of another god of order and afterlives and very carefully disguise your blasphemy as “misguided” teachings. At worst, you can feign ignorance and/or explain that you’re new to the faith and had no idea that what you’re saying is wrong. You can even blame other Zyphans for muddying your understanding of the truth, an act I’m sure the Harvestman finds extra ironic!

Telling someone that their practices don’t matter because Pharasma has already decided your fate is the easiest way to go, and the best part is it’s not even inaccurate! NPCs don’t have the spiritual freedom PCs do, so their path is already nearly impossible to change! Get pranked, idiots! Masquerading as one of Pharasma’s flock comes in especially handy when performing the first and ‘easiest’ ritual, as well, because tending to graves is something the Lady of Graves wants people to do in the first place. Make sure to be careful with how you word your vocal casting away of the god’s will, however, or you may arouse more suspicion than you soothe.

The benefit is subpar. Crafting traps is alright, but you’ve likely got better things to use your gold on--wait, there’s no restriction on the CR of traps you can craft, so long as you can beat the DC and have the gold? Well. Go crazy, go stupid, I guess! Here’s a list of everything you can make! The most cost-efficient and useful, however, is the CR 1 bear trap, which--make no mistake--will absolutely shred lower level encounters, but will lose a lot of its spark later on. At least it costs basically nothing to make! Traps are usually the domain of the DMs, but if you need to hold an area? They can come in very, very handy. Otherwise, you’re just leaving them behind you on lonely roads in the hopes some fool will step on them.

Disable Device is normally the way you want to go, shutting off traps that could be a potentially lethal danger for most of the party at most levels. And, of course, rearming them so some fool behind you can stumble into them later. Even if your adventure doesn’t contain many traps, you should never underestimate the strength there is in doing something as simple as popping a lock.

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 5; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 8, 11, and 14 instead. As Zyphus is a true deity and does not require Fiendish Obedience, you earn the right to enter the classes earlier than those who serve fiends!

-------- EVANGELIST --------

Boon 1: Champion of Cruel Chance. Gain Deathwatch 3/day, False Life 2/day, or Healing Thief 1/day.

Decent all around! And by “decent” I mean “they have niche uses, but shine in those uses.” Healing Thief is the most interesting one, establishing a link between you and a creature you touch that causes the victim to heal only half as much from magical or supernatural means, with you gaining the other half. Creatures who gain Fast Healing or Regeneration through supernatural circumstances can become a boon to you, while enemies relying on Channeled positive energy or in-combat healing will find themselves struggling. The best part is that it doesn’t even offer a saving throw!

Of course, it’s still a touch attack, and you have to remain within an extremely tight radius around the enemy (25ft + 5ft/level) to maintain the siphon. This is a little riskier than I’d like, not to mention it’s completely useless if your foe doesn’t use any in-combat healing. Also, at only 1/day, I’d probably settle for the significantly more boring False Life for a nice 1d10+8 (up to +10) temp HP that lasts for a million years. It’s not much, but you can use it twice and it might stop some scratch damage, and every point between you and 0 HP is nice.

Deathwatch lets you instantly know if you’re looking at an Undead or disguised Construct, which is its primary function in my book. With a duration of 10 min/level, it’s likely to last for entire dungeon floors and makes you an expert at calling out foes who’re on their last legs but otherwise looking healthy. It’s a decent spell if you’re unsure of what you’re going up against or want to be the pointman for your team, but otherwise False Life is the typical go-to.

Boon 2: Resiliency. 1/day, you can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Hit Dice, lasting for 1 minute. Activating this ability is an immediate action that can be performed only when you would be brought below 0 hit points, and can be used to prevent you from dying. If you have the Resiliency ability from another source, you can activate these abilities separately or as part of the same immediate action.

As far as I can tell, there is exactly one source for the Resiliency ability as it’s written here, and that’s a single Rogue Talent. It’s... eeeeeegh, not so good. It lets you stall death’s timer for a single minute, usually long enough to end the battle (or be ended) and get some real healing. It will likely save your life at least once in a campaign, but the goal here is to avoid being brought to 0 in the first place! Especially since this will, if obtained ASAP, only shield you for 11 HP, which is one--maybe two--attacks from a creature with a similar CR and basically nothing against spells being flung around at that level. This Boon is actually worse in many ways than just giving +1 HP per HD you have, especially since you technically already have access to the same amount of temp HP in False Life.

I suppose the most amusing use of this power is to fake being down and out until your foe turns away, but that carries risks of its own. If you’re brought to -20 or something and the temp HP only takes you to -5, you’re still knocked out but at least have some mercy time before you start dying for real. I’d advocate for combining this with Diehard if you want to get the most out of it, because otherwise this is an extremely subpar “Life Insurance” Boon that will really only impress the group maybe once or twice in a campaign and be boring or underwhelming in all other moments.

I’d want it to be at least 2 or even 3/day.

Boon 3: Tragic Minion. By spending 1 minute praying over the corpse of a Humanoid opponent or a Humanoid who has died a tragic death, you can summon an Allip to serve you. Unlike a normal Allip, this Allip is of an alignment that matches yours, and has a number of hit points equal to half your total. It receives a +4 bonus on Will saves to halve the damage from channeled positive energy, and it can’t be turned or commanded. This Allip serves as a companion to you and can communicate intelligibly with you despite its madness. You can dismiss it as a standard action. If the Allip is destroyed or dismissed, you can’t summon another for 7 days. This ability allows you to have only one Allip companion at a time.

Oh, that’s cute! You get a little insane friend! Unfortunately, as you can see here, it’s about 10 levels too late to actually be useful. At the level you can finally summon one, your Allips are extremely fragile, as even with their boosted HP they’re still only protected by an AC of 14 and no outstanding resistances aside from their incorporeality. Enemies with magic weapons are almost a certainty by level 14, and even enemies without magic weapons will rarely ever fail their save against the Allip’s Touch of Madness, whose save DC doesn’t scale past 15. You’d be relying wholly on it scoring critical hits, which make the Wisdom damage and drain irresistible, but that’s obviously not viable.

Really, all parts of Tragic Minion are ironically accurate. The Allip can’t even really serve as a scout, because they constantly Babble to themselves in a way that hypnotizes everyone within 60ft of them. Even with their +8 Stealth, a bunch of mooks suddenly stopping and standing still will alert enemies who can succeed the DC 15 Will save that something strange is going on. Adding in that Allips have no ability to hide or disguise themselves, just walking around with one is enough to turn heads. And don’t even think about just dismissing it and summoning another one, or using it in combat with any level-appropriate foe, or this is a blank Boon for an entire week!

Seriously, the 7 day ban on summoning another one is a serious kick in the teeth when the “only one at a time” limit was restrictive enough. You’d think Zyphus would be happy to grant his most powerful Evangelists more than one CR 3 minion at a time, but no! If you lose this extremely fragile minion, no more for 7 days! That’ll teach you to take good care of your toys! And that’s more or less the Allip is; a toy. An accessory.

-------- EXALTED --------

Boon 1: Catalyst of Destruction. Gain Break 3/day, Find Traps 2/day, or Spiked Pit 1/day.

Well I certainly hope there’s traps, given who you’re working for! But it’s good to have insurance that they’re not aimed at you. Find Traps lasts a decent time (1 min/level) and grants a monstrous Perception bonus to spotting them, automatically triggering a Perception check if you draw too close to a trap as well which--depending on how you interpret the spell--alerts you to the fact one is nearby even if you don’t see it. Then you can use Zyphus’ granted +4 to Disable Device to knock it out!

Break can have its uses, shattering enemy equipment even as they wield it. Just remember that targeting an attended object allows the wielder to make a saving throw in its place, while an unattended object gets no saving throw (provided it’s nonmagical). And since Break targets Fortitude, it’s not likely to affect the targets you’d really need it to (Fighters in heavy armor and Barbarians with big weapons), but if your teammates can knock their weapons from their hands, they’re free game. However, the use of Break in combat doesn’t nearly compare to what it can do out of combat; weakening doorways, crumbling containers, sabotaging enemy equipment they’d otherwise grab later, and cracking open items made of skymetal. Note that a second casting of Break outright destroys an item that’s already broken, and you have three each day! Personally, I’d save it for the times you need to sabotage something or bypass a small obstacle, rather than risk a high-Fort-save enemy succeeding in combat and wasting your turn.

And I’ve spoken about Spiked Pit before, here and here, but to reiterate: it’s a pseudo Save-or-Suck that seriously waste the time of anything without a decent Strength score or some Climb skill as they crawl back out of the pit, while you and your allies either deal with other foes, or rain destruction down on them from above. Even if the victim makes their initial save, the pit doesn’t go anywhere, letting you push your targets in one at a time if need be. Since it’s literally just a huge hole in the ground, you can even hurl multiple enemies inside! AND it’s filled with damaging spikes! The spikes don’t do much, but every little bit helps.

Boon 2: Ever Vigilant. You are protected by a constant Death Ward, The immunity to energy drain ends after the effect has prevented a number of negative levels equal to your Hit Dice*, which resets when you next perform your Obedience. In addition, you gain a +2 profane bonus on saving throws against effects that occur before your first turn in combat.

*it says “Exalted level” but that would mean that this could have zero effect if you don’t class into it, so it’s been changed to prevent it from being a dead Boon.

Huh, this is pretty g--wait. Hold on, let me read this a little closer

“The subject gains a +4 morale bonus on saves against all death spells and magical death effects. The subject is granted a save to negate such effects even if one is not normally allowed. The subject is immune to energy drain and any negative energy effects, including channeled negative energy.“

and what did Ever Vigilant say? “The immunity to energy drain ends--”? But that implies that the rest of Death Ward stays up, right? ... right :)

A lot of Boons grant you an everlasting spell effect for your trouble, but none of them are quite as potent as this one. Death Ward UTTERLY stops negative energy effects, crushing the entire school of Necromancy underfoot, crippling the offensive power of most forms of Undead, and ironically making the devotees of the God of Tragic Death some of the hardest sons of guns to actually tragically kill. Even if an incoming death effect offered no save (such as Power Word Kill), Death Ward forces one, and because you’re Ever Vigilant you don’t even have to know you’re going to face one to begin with!

Also, a universal +2 bonus to saves when out of combat, and for the first round in combat! A nice and cute addition, making it slightly harder for enemy casters or monsters relying on their powers to get the jump on you. Ever Vigilant makes you one of the best Undead hunters out there... Which is why it’s--ironically--tragic that Zyphus, an Evil god, gives it out. In an Evil vs Good campaign, you’re not likely to actually be combating enemies who use negative energy, death effects, or anything else Death Ward protects against. The real sauce in this ability comes from an Evil vs Evil campaign, or a campaign in which you’re pretending to be Good, or at least Neutral! Just... make sure it ends before level 14, because...

Boon 3: Visitor From Abaddon. 1/day as a standard action, you can summon a pair of Greater Ceustodaemons as if with Summon Monster II, and gain telepathy with them to a range of 100 feet. The Ceustodaemons follow your commands perfectly for 1 round per Hit Die you possess before vanishing back to their home on Abaddon. The Ceustodaemons don’t follow commands that would cause them to perform overly good acts or save mortal lives other than your own, and they immediately vanish if your orders contradict these restrictions.

...it’s going to be very difficult why a Pharasmin can summon two daemonic gorilla-men who breathe electricity. Ceustodaemons are bred to be the dumb muscle of Abaddon, but they’re still capable warriors in their own right with decently damaging claws (2d6+6) and a bite (1d6+6) and the ability to exhale 6d6 points worth of Electricity damage in a 30ft cone. There’s also their spell-likes, an at-will Dimension Door letting them infiltrate and scout for you, a 3/day Fly to make your party a nightmare to fight, and a 3/day Dispel Magic to crack enemy magic open.

However, they’re only CR 7, unlikely to stand up on their own against level-appropriate threats. So, the key here? Don’t use them against level-appropriate threats, as is normal with summons dramatically weaker than you are. They’re terrors that shine brightest against enemies hovering around the CR 10 or so range, their resilience and immunity against--and I’m not exaggerating--nearly every status effect in the game except petrification and their DR 10/Good or Silver letting them slug it out with mid-level foes and rip apart nearly anything else lower than that.

There’s also the fact that they can be summoned as a standard action with a range of Close, letting you teleport your gorilla fiends right at the enemy’s vulnerable backline or in front of their melee bruisers to tie them up while the rest of your team flanks. The standard action summoning is the biggest treat here, because being able to have two more beefy bodies available immediately shifts any battle in your favor... But know that if your campaign keeps going past level 14, your gorilla men are going to have a harder and harder time standing up to level-appropriate enemies, and it’ll eventually cause them to be summoned to fight against minibosses only or--eugh--being sent on scouting missions. They’re good at them, mind, but you know how it is.

At their absolute worst, though, they’re still six castings of both Fly and Dispel Magic. There’s worse things out there.

-------- SENTINEL --------

Boon 1: Walking Disaster. Gain Bungle 3/day, Spontaneous Immolation2/day, or Deadly Juggernaut 1/day.

Bungle is a fun spell, slapping a target with an insurmountable -20 penalty to their next attack roll or check requiring a d20 roll, but since the spell is only level 1 and takes your concentration to maintain, it’s not likely going to stick. Granted, it lingers for 2 rounds after you stop concentrating so you can focus elsewhere, so there’s certainly worse spells to use... but it only affects one attack roll or check at a level where most enemies have two or even three attacks, making it significantly less useful than it looks. It’s best if you use it out of combat to scramble a skill check a foe is trying to use, but it’s negated by a Will save entirely so it loses a lot of potential oomph. And I just read the spell even closer and it says it only works on Humanoid targets, so it’s even worse than I previously thought!

Spontaneous Immolation is infinitely funnier to use, anyway. Why make someone flub a speech or fail an Escape Artist check when you could have them suddenly burst into flames from within? With no component requirements, Spontaneous Immolation is TRULY spontaneous, the victim exploding into fire without having an idea of the source. You could potentially make people believe it’s the wrath of your god, the power of some curse you possess, or even the wrath of their god if you can spin it well enough. The damage is middling--3d6--and is halved on a successful save, but it’s got a range of Medium and sets its victim alight if they fail their save so you can create a single spark in a crowd that becomes a roaring inferno as the panicking victim grabs onto whatever they can to try and put themselves out.

As God of Sudden Death, it’s a perfect spell for both in and out of combat, slaying random citizens in bursts of horror and pain they’d have no chance to realize is coming, I’m sure Zyphus approves of using it to malice citizens just as much as he enjoys watching his faith’s foes burst into flames. This leaves Deadly Juggernaut, a spell that a martial character such as yourself would normally LOVE getting... if it weren’t for the final clause stating that the effect doesn’t trigger unless you slay a foe within 4 HD of yourself. While that prevents the effect from being exploited with a Sack Of Rats, it also makes it far less likely to activate if you’re fighting swarms of lower-level enemies. It DOES mean that battling creatures of roughly equal strength to your party has some pretty high snowball potential, but since you, personally, have to reduce the target to 0 HP, unless you’re the party’s DPS you may just end up missing out on most of the spell.

I’d personally just tuck Makes You Explode under your belt each day. If nothing else, it’s a funny prank to pull on the locals.

Boon 2: Tragic Accident. 1/day as part of a successful attack, you can target your opponent with either Inflict Critical Wounds or Poison as a free action. The DC for this ability is (10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Cha mod). You don’t have to declare the use of this ability until you know the attack is successful.

More than almost any other god I think I’ve encountered, Zyphus encourages lying, subterfuge, and you looking as harmless as possible. Even the ostensible God of Secrets and Murder, Norbergorberburgerhurger, inspires less subtlety in me than Zyphus, because his domain is specifically accidental deaths. You gotta make your kills look like mistakes no one could have seen coming, which makes Tragic Accident yet another tool in inspiring fear and terror than actually being useful in a fight.

Give someone a playful slug on the shoulder and scream as they fall over, dead. Deck some guy who’s hitting on you in a bar in the chest and feign horror as he suffers an apparently fatal heart attack as Poison rips through his body. Hit someone with a blowdart or even just hurl a pebble at someone and strike them down with nearly no trace, since this ability can work with ranged attacks as well. Coming up with subtle ways to use this power out of combat is significantly more fun than thinking of ways to use it in battle, because as a 1/day negated (or halved, in Critical Wounds’ case) by a save is just asking to be disappointed.

Especially in the case of Poison, because if you want someone dead in combat, hitting them usually works better than slowly, slowly, slowly hoping and praying that their Con hits 0. Inflict Critical Wounds is a little more useful if you’re using it to speed up an opponent’s death in combat, dealing 4d8+11 (+1 per level) damage... or healing an Undead ally. Yes, you have to hit with an attack, but as I’ve already stated above, the attack doesn’t have to deal much--or ANY--real damage to trigger a Tragic Accident. I do appreciate that Zyphus assures your attack connects before you trigger this ability, a lot of other Boons are not so gracious. Like...

Boon 3: Unfairness of the World. 1/day, you may fill an attack with negative energy. You must declare your use of this ability before you roll the attack roll; on a hit, the target gains a number of negative levels equal to 3 + 1/2 your Hit Dice unless it succeeds at a Fortitude saving throw (the DC for this ability is the same as Tragic Accident’s DC). If you openly wear an unholy symbol of Zyphus, the saving throw DC to resist this effect increases by 2.

... This one!

Hah. Well. Whatever you hit with this is dead. Like, straight up dead. The name of this Boon is as accurate as can be. There is NO recovering from being slapped with ten negative levels (+1 for every 2 levels you have!), because even if your victim survives the initial onslaught of energy, that’s a -10 to every single roll they make and the loss of some or even all of their high-level spells and most potent abilities. This isn’t so much a Save-or-Suck as it is the mother of all signals for your entire party to unload every SoS they have on their person upon your victim.

IF it lands.

Because not only do you have to succeed an attack roll to use this ability or have it dissolve into the aether, but they also have to fail a Fortitude save. That’s two possible points of failure for this ability which seriously reins in its potential, but with just a LITTLE bit of setup you can cut your unfortunate victim in half. It’s definitely both a possible end to a fight AND something you can smite a random citizen with by using the same “things that count as an attack roll” exploits I listed Tragic Accident. By the time you get this power, you can also shamelessly reveal your faith in the Harvestman to make the DC 2 higher, but you may want to keep that to yourself if you’re still masquerading as something else, breaking it out only for boss fights.

Most gods in Inner Sea Faiths leave a lot to be desired, so it’s nice to see a god give so generously! It’s just too bad it has to be the God of Pettiness and Inconvenience.

You can read more about him here.

#Spiritual Spotlight #Sinister Spotlight #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

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makeste · 4 years

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top 20 favorite quirks

okay, but listen, though! it’s exactly what it says in the title. not best quirks, or most useful quirks, or most creative quirks. not even coolest quirks! I did try to take all of these things into consideration when choosing, but honestly? by far the most important factor was, “I JUST THINK THEY’RE NEAT.”

anyway but let me backtrack and post the actual ask.

you’ll note that at no point was I asked to pick twenty of them. I did that all on my own. so here is my list!

20. Solid Air (Tsuburaba)

Tsubaraba Kousei. all-time undefeated grand champion of The Floor Is Lava. or at least he was until Ochako came along. anyway, so this is an extremely nifty quirk with all sorts of utility ranging from defense to helping him get around. it’s super useful for catching bad guys, and apparently the only real limit is his lung capacity. this quirk has so much potential and I love it.

19. Copy (Monoma)

the fact that he can copy his opponents’ powers and use them against them is badass enough, but add in the fact that he can hold up to 3 (or 4??) of them at once -- for as long as ten minutes -- and this quirk starts getting seriously powerful. anyway so one thing you might note as you read on is that although Copy is on my favorite quirks list, AFO is not! and that’s because Monoma’s limits actually make the quirk much more interesting to me, because they force him (and Horikoshi) to get creative. this is a really fun quirk and I would love to see more of Monoma in action. about time we saw him fight some actual villains and not just class 1-A, honestly.

18. Brainwashing (Shinsou)

as with Monoma’s quirk, what really sets this apart from other mind-control superpowers (to me, anyway) is the fact that it has limitations. he can’t just control anyone at random; in order to take them over he has to get them to respond to him somehow. which leads to innovations like the voice-changer, and which as a result has made his battles so genuinely interesting and fun to watch. anyway so I really want Shinsou to hurry up and join 2-A, and for them to just give him his provisional license all “here you go, son” with no testing whatsoever, because we’re past the point of pretending the HPSC is actually responsible these days, and because I really want to see if he can help turn the tides the next time the heroes battle the League.

17. Zero Gravity (Ochako)

I feel like it’s worth noting that I don’t really have any kind of fear of heights or falling or anything like that. and so I can’t really explain why Toga using this quirk on Ms. Curious and her lackeys was hands down one of the most singularly disturbing scenes in the entire manga for me! but it was!! even now I’m wincing just thinking about it. she just lifted them all up and DROPPED THEM and they just FELL and DIED. just like that. holy fucking shit. anyway, so we should all be very grateful that Ochako is super kind and sweet and more inclined towards helping people rather than murdering them. because holy shit. anyways though this quirk is dope.

16. Erasure (Aizawa)

I once said that this quirk was “not very cinematic”, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so wrong about anything in my life. oh, past me. you truly underestimated the dramatic impact of someone with a terrifyingly powerful quirk going in for the kill, only to be all “NANI?!” as they suddenly realize that their powers are no longer working, and the camera pans over to a man with gorgeous floating hair and intense red anime eyes. I owe you an apology, Erasure. you are cinematic AF.

15. Black Hole (Thirteen)

I really wish we got to see Thirteen fight more often. they suffer from the same “too powerful” curse as so many of the other characters and it’s a shame. anyway so Black Hole is cool af and gives me a ton of Miroku/kazaana vibes, which I freaking love. this quirk is lowkey on a Tomura-level of destructive potential, honestly, and yet no one ever talks about it?? Thirteen could literally destroy anything they touched if they wanted to?? imagine if they ever Awakened, you guys. holy shit.

14. Tape (Sero)

this power is so fucking stupid and ridiculous and completely absurd and I LOVE IT. Horikoshi really drew a skinny guy with tape elbows and was all, “so this kid is basically Spider-Man but with tape. I have not put the least bit of logical thought or creative effort into this power beyond that, and I’m not going to, either.” and somehow we all just accepted it. anyway, dubious origins aside, it’s such a versatile ability and Sero has such amazing control over it. it’s offense; it’s defense; he can use it to set traps; he can use it for maneuverability. TAPE ELBOWS CAN DO IT ALL.

13. Outburst (Ms. Joke)

when will it finally be her time. Outburst is one of those powers that sounds super dumb at first, until you really stop and think what the ability to make someone laugh at will could actually DO to people. true uncontrollable belly laughter is a totally incapacitating thing. she’d have people collapsing to the ground and practically seizing up. and good luck using your own quirk to fight back when you’re doubled over struggling to breathe and can’t even see straight because of the tears in your eyes. that’s assuming any of her opponents are even capable of thinking straight long enough to try it. like, this is such a straight up brutal ability and the fact that we have still NEVER SEEN IT is honestly infuriating.

12. Glamour (Camie)

it’s an illusion quirk. of course I have to put it on my list. illusion powers make every battle approximately 100x more entertaining. and what makes this particular power even better is that in any other series, this quirk would have been given to some Tokoyami-esque super serious emo kid. but BnHA went and gave it to Karen from Mean Girls instead. what a fucking power move. goddamn.

11. Black (Kuroiro)

according to BnHA Ultra Analysis, Kuroiro’s Appearing Out of Nowhere skills are rated a 4 out of 6. I still haven’t figured out if this is meant to be a burn on him or not. this kid can ninja in and out of literally any dark object in existence. if it’s nighttime, that means he can basically move wherever he wants to at will. of course he’s skilled at Appearing Out of Nowhere. so tell me then, why is it ONLY a four out of six?? how could he possibly fuck this up?? who was grading him?? DOES HE JUST SUCK. I don’t know, but anyway it’s really funny to me and also I really love this quirk.

10. Transform (Toga)

Toga went and Awakened herself right into the top ten with the reveal that not only can she mimic other people’s appearances, but that while she is transformed, she can actually use their quirks. like excuse me, what?? holy shit??? it is honestly driving me crazy that we’ve only seen this in action once. Transform is basically Plot Twist: The Quirk. I really want to see Toga use it to its full potential and infiltrate U.A. and/or spy on the HPSC and/or murder someone with their loved one’s own quirk. I WANT HER TO GIVE SOMEONE THE MAES HUGHES TREATMENT. I want her to do something so shocking that people ragequit the fucking manga lol. I know I’m always saying the manga isn’t that dark, but this is honestly the one exception where I would freaking love for it to get dark as shit. anyway so yeah. if you want to fuck with people you really couldn’t ask for a better quirk.

9. Creation (Momo)

MACGUYVER: THE QUIRK. an unlimited inventory in the hands of someone brilliant enough to actually utilize it to its full extent. what’s not to love? honestly if it were me with this quirk it would be completely useless. not only would I get hopelessly bored two seconds into trying to memorize an object’s molecular structure or whatever, but even if I DID manage to figure out how to make stuff, I would never know what to do with the stuff, or when to use it. every time a new situation cropped up I would just create a bunch of random objects in a panic. but Momo is so elegant in her problem-solving that she often needs to create only one or two things to come up with the perfect solution for something. basically this is a good quirk that becomes a truly great quirk when placed in the hands of the best possible person in the world to wield it. the quirk is awesome because Momo is awesome, and I fucking adore quirks like that (see: next entry).

8. Permeation (Mirio)

ah, Mirio. the original victim of the “too powerful to be allowed” curse. remember that time he BEAT HALF OF CLASS 1-A IN UNDER SIX SECONDS, you guys. small wonder Horikoshi couldn’t even make it through one complete villain fight with him before he had to de-quirk the poor kid. anyway, so Mirio makes this quirk look so mind-blowingly awesome that it’s easy to forget what a terrifying and fucked-up power it is in reality. “yeah it makes me blind and deaf and if I’m not careful I’ll fall into the center of the earth or splice myself in two or some shit.” what the actual fuck Mirio. but because he’s worked so hard and because Nighteye trained him so well, he’s mastered the timing to such an insane degree that he could kick Overhaul in the face without harming a single hair on Eri’s body. and honestly, there’s no way I could not love a quirk that gave us a moment like that.

7. Warp Gate (Kurogiri)

unlike SOME OTHER PEOPLE whose names start with Kuro, I would bet you that Kurogiri’s Appearing Out of Nowhere skills are a full six out of six! alas, the top ten of this list is chock full of people whose quirks are so badass that they had to be written out of the story one way or another. with Kuro at large there was technically nothing stopping the villains from just dropping in on U.A. one night to kill All Might, or rekidnap Bakugou, or whatever else they might want to do. and that’s actually a really scary thought though lol so it’s no wonder that Horikoshi was all, “yeah I’ll just have them capture him now.” anyways do you guys remember that one time in chapter 18 when Kuro used Warp Gate to create an endless loop of All Might suplexing Noumu suplexing All Might?? fucking quirks, though. wild.

6. Fiber Master (Best Jeanist)

another badass quirk, another badass quirk-user incapacitated and taken out of the story before their time. Best Jeanist is honestly terrifying. if he wanted to he could immobilize and even strangle and kill pretty much anyone in the world, whenever he fucking felt like it. that alone would be crazy enough, but then add to that that this quirk for all intents and purposes is basically telekinesis. as long as someone is wearing clothing he can move them around however he wants, as we saw in Kamino. basically, everything Hawks can do with Fierce Wings, Jeanist can probably do with his own quirk. AND THAT INCLUDES FLYING, YOU GUYS. the more I think about it the more I think we truly were robbed. I need Jeanist to come back already and fly everyone at Jakku to safety and tie Tomura to a chair with his own cape before proceeding to style his hair.

5. Rewind (Eri)

IT’S MY LIST!! I CAN PUT WHATEVER I WANT, AND IF YOU SAY I CAN’T, I’M TELLING MOM. okay but listen. everyone always rags on this quirk and how stupidly powerful it is, and look, I get it. but isn’t it kind of interesting that everyone is also always speculating over who Eri is eventually going to heal with her quirk? like, fandom is always complaining about how broken it is but at the same time they’re out here hatching all of these wild theories that center around it. and to me that indicates that in truth, this is actually an awesome quirk -- just so long as it’s used right. obviously there have to be some major limitations or else this is just “Fix Everything: The Quirk.” thankfully, Horikoshi did limit it! it’s super dangerous, she has trouble controlling it, and most importantly, it’s ridiculously slow to recharge and so she can only use it once every few months. it’s basically Recovery Girl’s quirk with a bonus slow-replenishing stamina bar that, once charged, allows her to release one ultra-powerful SUPER HEAL special move. and that’s pretty awesome. basically I think this quirk gets too much hate and not enough credit for the additional menu options it adds to the story. it’s interesting and compelling and I can’t wait to see what Horikoshi does with it.

4. Dark Shadow (Tokoyami)

TOKOYAMI WHY IS YOUR QUIRK SENTIENT. Existential Crisis: The Quirk. do quirks have souls?? if you shot Tokoyami with a quirk-be-gone bullet would Dark Shadow fucking die??? if Tomura absorbed Tokoyami’s quirk would Dark Shadow grow out of his back and be all “hey um, who the fuck are you”?? and would Toko’s head turn back into a normal human boy head?? would Dark Shadow look like Tomura instead of a bird shadow?? what even IS Dark Shadow, actually?? obviously it is not just a shadow because shadows can’t punch people or shield people from attacks or pick people up and fly them around. but yet he’s afraid of fire and grows weaker in daylight?? is Tokoyami secretly the strongest character in the entire series?? is there any way I can possibly justify putting this quirk all the way down at #4 instead of #1 where it clearly belongs?? let me answer that question by not answering it and moving on.

3. Explosion (Bakugou)

is the fix in?? is “exploding hands” really a better quirk than a fucking sentient monster man who lives in your belly button and reads your mind and is made of ~darkness energy~ and is your best friend? apparently the answer is yes! to both of those questions. yes the fix is in. I love Kacchan and his quirk is fucking awesome okay. it just never ceases to amaze me how this one single quirk, which really only does one thing, is nonetheless so spectacularly powerful that it allows Bakugou to compete on the same level as the fucking protagonist with all of his godlike super-strength and Main Character Powers and wacky SIXQUIRKS!! shenanigans. in my opinion the coolest thing about Explosion isn’t even its firepower; it’s the way Bakugou’s adapted it to fly around and to boost his speed. I think he legit may be the fastest character in the series right now, or close to it. he’s faster than Iida and Gran Torino and Endeavor. he can keep up with Deku without breaking a sweat. and he knows how to use that speed, thanks to his insane reflexes. add in the fact that this is also without a doubt the most cinematic quirk in the entire series, and I think I’m justified in putting it this high up. and anyway I still put two others up above it so shh.

2. Search (Ragdoll/Tomura)

Hey, What’s That Guy’s Deal: The Quirk. I just really love this one you guys. it’s so fucking useful. Video Game HUD: The Quirk. one hundred people at a time?? locations and weak points?? works even when you’re not looking at the person anymore and have blinked your eyes, unlike CERTAIN OTHER PEOPLE’S weak-ass quirks?? check, check, and check. is it any wonder AFO wanted this? plus it just looks so damn cool. the visual representation of everyone as little stars on a map. Turn On Location: The Quirk. okay look I feel like I’m doing a bad job of explaining why I have this quirk all the way up at number two. it just has this subtle badassness to it, and its introduction after almost two hundred chapters of buildup was just so fucking cool. maybe it’s recency bias?? I don’t even know; all I know is that I love this quirk and want to see more of it in action.

1. Blackwhip (Lariat/Deku)

listen, I was obsessed with this quirk back when it was called “Venom” and was by far the absolute coolest part of the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon series. I’m not just going to suddenly not be obsessed with it just because fandom is mad that Horikoshi gave Deku an additional power beyond just Smashing Stuff. Blackwhip is hands down the coolest quirk, guys. I’m sorry, it just is. it has the coolest name. it had the coolest entrance. it does basically anything you could ever want a quirk to do in battle. it grabs stuff. it Bloops. what more do you want. you’re all just jealous because you wish that you could Bloop too. I know I am. I wish I had a Bloop. anyway so yeah, Blackwhip is the upgrade to Deku’s fighting style that we desperately needed after 200+ chapters of Delaware Smashes and Broken Bones. all his fights are cooler now. he can save more people! he can fight without instantly dying! plus you just gotta love powers that occasionally explode out of control if their user gets all emotional and pissed off about the fact that you insulted his boyfriend. so yeah. Blackwhip at number one! on this list of favorite quirks. not best quirks!! jesus christ. please don’t kill me I have a family.

so that’s my list! all 3000 words of it. how does this keep happening.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha meta #bnha ranking #bnha top ten #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks

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dragonsaphirareads · 5 years

Text

I Am Creativity (Chapter 1/5)

Crossposted on AO3 under the same name!

“I knew you were insane but this is just ridiculous, Remus.”

“Aww, c’mon, I thought you liked my ideas!”

“This hardly counts as an idea - more like a suicide mission.”

“I’m more powerful than you think, Dee. I can handle my brother!”

“Don’t try and fool me. You’ve been losing power for weeks, what makes you think now is a good time for this stupid plan?”

“Deceit’s right - you need to wait until you have your strength back! I could step in and make Thomas tired so you’d be able to play with his nightmares!”

“Come on, you two, I’m Creativity! This idea will work, I can guarantee it!”

“You’ll be endangering Thomas. I can’t allow you to do this right now.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you can’t stop me then! This doesn’t have to do with Thomas knowing anything, so you’re out of your element here!”

“Argh... Obsession, say something, this cannot happen!”

“...You’re going to lose, Remus. You realize that, right?”

“I’ll do my best!”

It was a quiet day in the mindscape. For once, the sides felt content. There were no huge issues in Thomas’s life that needed addressing, and they were able to spend some quality time together in the common area. Patton was flitting about in the kitchen, baking a fresh batch of cookies. Virgil was curled up in his chair and half asleep, warm and comfortable from lunch. Logan had a new book he was already halfway through, and Roman had a fresh script in his hands, already covered in his scrawling, curly handwriting.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a day in the mindscape if something didn’t come to cause trouble. Specifically, this “something” came bouncing down the shadowy hallway that lead to the dark sides’ territory, his steps loud and obnoxious.

“Oh Roooomaaaaaan~” He called out in a singsong voice, putting those in the common room immediately on edge. Virgil shot up out of his chair and was on his feet in an instant, vaulting over the side of the couch to put himself between the newcomer and Roman. Patton froze, a tray of steaming cookies in his hands. Logan sighed, bookmarking his place and closing his book with a snap, standing and facing Remus calmly.

The darker side of creativity waltzed right up to the couch, completely ignoring the defensive positions Virgil and Logan had taken. He stared right past them, grinning widely at his brother. “Roman!”

The prince sighed, not looking up from his script. Over the past few months, he’d grown less scared of his brother. Now, he was just a minor nuisance, even though his friends seemed to think otherwise. “What do you want? I’m busy, I don’t have time to mess around.”

“Aww, the great prince Roman doesn’t even have time to play a game with his only brother? And I came all this way!” Remus pouted, putting his fists on his hips. Roman glanced up, eyebrows raised.

“A game? What are you talking about?” Remus grinned again at Roman’s question, and he spread his arms out widely.

“Why, none other than a duel of our minds! Just like old times! You do still remember how to play, don’t you?”

Roman squinted at him, putting down his script carefully on the coffee table. “Of course I do, I came up with it! But you haven’t wanted to play since you left, why are you showing your mustached mug now?”

“Whaaat, I can’t request a friendly game?”

Virgil stepped forward, getting in Remus’s face and sneering. “No, you can’t. Roman isn’t interested in playing any of your sick, twisted games. Now get out of here before we make you!”

“This doesn’t concern you, emo.” Remus said it with a smile, but his voice was cold. “Besides, you should hear me out. I think you’ll like this idea very much.”

Finally, Roman stood and walked over to his brother, crossing his arms and straightening his back to try and force any extra height he could. “Just tell me what you want.” Roman said, wanting to just listen to whatever bad idea his twisted brother had come up with and get it over with.

The dark side grinned, flourishing his arms and putting his chin in his hand. “We’re both Creativity, aren’t we? But lately, Thomas doesn’t seem to need both of us. One would be more than enough. So, I’ve got a bet for you, my brother. We play our old game, by our rules, and whoever wins gets to be Thomas’s one and only Creativity! Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?”

Virgil spluttered, holding a protective arm out in front of Roman. “No deal, you sneaky rat. Roman is already Thomas’s creativity, and he’s got nothing to gain and nothing to prove to you!”

“Virgil—“ Roman tried to say.

“I bet this is just another one of Deceit’s plans that you’re tagging along with, isn’t it? Well you can count us out, we’re not gonna play along with anything you want!”

“While I appreciate the credit, I’m not responsible for Remus’s actions this time around.” A smooth voice came from the dark hallway, and the sides whipped around to see Deceit and another shadowy figure lurking behind him. The snake had his arms crossed, and an uncharacteristic scowl across his face. “Let’s go, Remus.”

Remus giggled.

“He thinks this is a bad idea. But I didn’t ask your opinion, did I?” Remus sneered towards his fellow dark side, to which he received rolled eyes. Patton winced, putting the tray of cookies down and pulling off his oven mitts slowly.

“You’re... not behind him being here?” He asked cautiously. Deceit shook his head, and behind him the other dark side snickered.

“Oh no, I’m perfectly alright with sending one of my friends off when it’s certainly going to get them killed, I do it every week!” Deceit answered sarcastically, staring straight at Remus.

“You have such little faith in me, I’m hurt!” Remus put a hand over his chest dramatically. Then he turned back to Roman, grinning madly. “C’mon, if Deceit thinks I’ll lose then I��ve got no chance! One game, Roman, and I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

Roman stared at his brother. His eyes were wide and teeth showing. On someone else perhaps it would look innocent, but not with Remus. He just looked wild. His own mind was racing, trying to figure out what in the world he wanted.

He knew he had everything to lose in this wager. Thomas already considered him his “main” creativity, even after learning about Remus’s existence. His host had been happier than ever with his contributions, and he knew that losing this game would mean losing everything for Thomas. He could only guess what Remus would turn his channel into if given the chance.

There was very little Roman could gain from this. If he could trust his brother’s word - which he knew he could, the one good thing about him was that he never lied - that would mean Remus would disappear. He wouldn’t show up when he wasn’t wanted, he wouldn’t make a fuss. He would stop messing with Roman’s ideas and leave Thomas alone for good from his unpleasant idea of ‘creativity’.

For some reason, that thought made him angry. He opened his mouth to tell him off, to tell him to go back to his dark cave and leave him alone.

“Roman, don’t you dare!” Virgil growled. The prince looked at him, nose wrinkled. Virgil really thought he’d be stupid enough to take this obvious bait? Sure, he was reckless, but even he wasn’t dumb enough to--

“Aww, would you look at that Roman? Your friends think you’re so weak you can’t even defeat little old me in a game you created! Maybe they’re right though, it has been a long time, I might actually be stronger than you!”

“Excuse me?!” Roman screeched.

“Roman!” Logan warned, his tone steely. He and Virgil both tried to hold out their arms to block him, but Roman stormed past them, getting up in his twin’s smirking face.

“You are not and have never been better at creating than I am! I could beat you with both arms tied behind my back!” Roman immediately regretted his words as his brother’s smile grew, and he heard three collective groans from around the room.

“Ooh, kinky~ Why don’t we put that to the test, then?” Remus waved his hand, and suddenly Roman found himself in the middle of a sunny field, squinting against the harsh light. Virgil and Logan landed unsteadily, and Patton stumbled and fell in a heap with a soft ‘oof’. A few steps away, Remus stood with the other dark sides behind him, who were trying to regain their balance as well.

The Imagination. Roman swallowed. Shit, this was not what he’d meant to happen.

“So, dear brother of mine, we’re here! We just need to get you ready!” Remus grinned, waving his hand again and conjuring a length of rope and hanging it from his fingers lazily. Roman’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, trying to keep his voice strong.

“I said I could beat you with my arms behind my back, I never said I would! Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to see you beaten with me limiting myself like that? Don’t worry, I won’t go easy on you, so you’ll have an excuse ready when I win.” Roman tried not to notice Deceit’s eye twitching behind Remus. Curse him and his ability to detect lies.

The dark side of creativity rolled his eyes but let the rope drop, where it disappeared once it hit the ground. He looked vaguely disappointed, but shrugged.

“You're no fun! Fine, it doesn’t matter. Your dull creations are no match for me, handicap or no. I’ll give you a few minutes to set your friends up with a viewing platform. I know they’ll want to watch as I beat your sorry butt into the ground!” He said with a laugh and a shoulder wiggle.

Roman watched him for a moment before he felt a hand on his shoulder and he was spun around to meet face to face with a very angry Virgil.

“What the hell are you thinking, Princey!? Have you somehow forgotten that he’s the embodiment of Thomas’s bad creativity?! If you lose—“

“We’ll lose you!” Patton finished, grabbing Roman’s hand and gripping it tightly. There were tears in his eyes and his lip quivered. Roman winced. Did they really think he couldn’t do this?

“You two shouldn’t underestimate Roman.” Logan interjected, and Virgil whipped around to face the logical side.

“Roman got knocked out for an entire video because of him! Remus is strong, and—“

“And that only happened because we all failed to warn him of the threat until it was too late. Now he has a chance to prepare. Not to mention he created this game they’ll be playing, so I see no reason to worry.”

Patton pursed his lips. “What is this ‘game’ anyways?”

Roman smiled. “It’s just like he said - it’s a battle of our minds! We used to play it all the time as kids, before...” Roman licked his lips, shaking his head. “Well, anyways, it works like this.”

The creative side waved his hand and created a floating image, simulating a TV screen to help him explain. “I created the game as an exercise to practice creating things in the mindscape. The goal is to knock out your opponent using anything you can create in the Imagination.”

“When you say knock out, what do you mean exactly?” Logan asked.

“I mean exactly what I said? If your opponent is unable to continue, then you win.” Usually it ended with a very big bruise on one of them, but he had a feeling Patton might object a lot more vehemently if he told him that.

Roman waved his hand and a top down image of the field they were standing in appeared. “We split the field in two, and we have fifteen minutes to get ready. We can create anything we want in our area, whether it be to protect us or attack our opponent. After we’re done preparing, we start the fight!”

“So it’s not a battle of pure strength, but more a battle of wits?” Logan clarified, and Roman nodded.

“That’s right! I can’t tell you how many times one of us has won even if we had fewer creations on our side!”

Patton twisted his fingers together nervously, biting his lip. “That sounds simple enough...”

“You said you played this before, right?” Virgil asked. Roman nodded. “How many times have you won?”

Roman huffed, planting his hands on his hips. “I am Thomas’s creativity! I created this game, and I am not going to lose to my brother on the other side! I don’t appreciate you doubting me, Virgil! The hero always prevails over the villain, so you have nothing to worry about!”

Virgil glared at Roman, anger brewing in his eyes. Instead of wasting time continuing that argument, he turned away from his fellow sides and made a grand sweeping motion with his arms.

A large pavilion tent shimmered into existence, staked into the ground and several comfortable lawn chairs underneath. He included more of the TV like screens so they could watch without getting too close. Roman knew they probably wouldn’t be happy about being put to the side, but it would help him focus if he knew they would be safe.

“Now you’ll be able to relax as I earn my rightful title as Thomas’s creativity! Make yourselves comfortable, I’ll make this a showdown you won’t soon forget!”

Patton looked like he was about to cry as Virgil took his hand and pulled him towards the tent, keeping his own eyes fixed tightly in the ground. Roman took a breath, setting his shoulders back and cracking his neck, and turned towards the center of the field.

“Roman... are you certain about this?” Logan asked him gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. The prince signed, setting his jaw.

“I have to do this, Logan. This is the only chance we’re going to get to actually get rid of him. He makes Thomas upset, and if I can do something to help him, I’m going to do it.”

“Getting rid of a side of himself is not going to help him in the long run. Remus exists for a reason - if he’s gone, the balance we currently have will be thrown off. That could negatively affect you as well.”

Roman refused to look at him - Logan sounded worried about him.

The hand on his shoulder tightened. “I... can’t stop you. But I beg you to reconsider this, Roman. I don’t want you to inadvertently hurt yourself in this endeavor.”

“I’ll be fine, Logan. Go sit down, I need to focus.”

“Roman...”

“Go!” His voice cracked, and he ripped his shoulder away and walked off from his friends, trying to calm his racing heart.

He couldn’t let their worries get to him. He was Prince Roman, the hero who would defeat his evil twin and bring peace to the land once again. It was what his life had been leading up to - a fitting end to their rivalry.

Why, then, did he feel so uneasy at that thought?

~~~

The playing field was set. It was about the size of a football field, with a waist high fence surrounded the entire area. There were two raised towers on either end for each of the twins to survey the field. Floating in the sky above them was a scoreboard with a timer, frozen on 15 minutes.

Roman made his way to the center field line, marked with a green and red striped line. His brother was standing there, arms crossed and lips twisted into a smug grin. His morningstar was slung casually over his shoulder, and he tapped it impatiently as he waited.

The prince held his shoulders back and chin high as he walked, showing no trace of the fear that was racing through his veins. He hadn’t had a ‘Creativity Battle’ in years, and while he was confident in his abilities in manipulating the Imagination, he knew Remus had also grown in power over the years. He couldn’t let his guard down for even a second, or it would be all over.

“So, it comes to this. I can’t wait to see the look on your friends’ faces when I break you into little pieces like a princely pinata!” He broke into a deranged laugh, but Roman just shrugged.

“Laugh all you want, Captain Hook, but you should know by now that good always prevails. You’re going to regret challenging me when I come out on top!”

Remus stepped forward and smirked, raising his free hand to pat Roman’s cheek. “Oh Roman, we both know you’re not a top.”

Roman groaned. “Enough! I cannot wait until I can say something without worry that you’ll twist my words like you always do!”

“Aww, you know you’ll miss me!”

“Quit bantering and let’s go!” A voice called from the sidelines, and Roman looked over to see Deceit and Obsession sprawled out on a tattered blanket laid on the grass - it was a far cry from the fancy pavilion Roman had conjured for his friends. Obsession had his hands cupped around his mouth and Deceit was snickering.

Remus glanced from his fellow sides to his brother, and raised an eyebrow. “Ready?” He asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. Roman steadied himself, and looked Remus in the eyes.

“Let the game begin!”

#sander sides #sander sides fanfiction #remus sanders #roman sanders #creativity twins #creativity brothers #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #deceit sanders #obsession sanders

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feelingfredly · 5 years

Text

Tea for Two, part 2

Summary:

Never underestimate the capabilities of a guinea pig.

Or, what happens when Ichigo gets even.

Notes:

So, my brain refused to let the plot bunny go and now we have part two, from Ichigo's POV.

This bit qualifies for its E rating a little more than the last one, but it's still just a fun, cracky ride. Enjoy!

Kisuke’s ego was monumental.

Ichigo was certain that if it had a physical form it would be visible from space. He could just imagine the conversations on the space station. Oh look, there are the Pyramids at Giza, the Greenhouses of Almería, Urahara Kisuke’s ego…

The problem was that it wasn’t undeserved. The man was ridiculously capable, whether he was applying modern insights into resurrecting lost kidō or making curry, there was nothing he set his mind to that he didn’t have a better than average shot at making work. Then, add decades of training in the Onmitsukido and you had a hyper-vigilant, paranoid genius with a tendency towards manipulation and an almost preternatural ability to sense deception from others.

It was incredibly sexy when it wasn’t making him want to bash his head into a wall. Or bash Kisuke’s head into a wall.

Ichigo also knew that he, on the other hand, had a negative ability to lie, a terrible tendency to just steam-roll through the niceties of social situations, and a total—some would say suicidal—disregard for rules and regulations when he thought they were stupid, or wrong, or, Gods forbid, both. It was probably why Kisuke loved him.

Sometimes, though…. Sometimes he just wanted to take that competence and shove it down Kisuke’s ridiculously long, smooth, sexy, ahem… well… just make him choke on it.

Like now.

“Let me make sure I understand you.” He tried to keep his tone level. “You’re saying that the only way I could ever drug you was if you allowed it.”

Kisuke tilted his hat a little so Ichigo could see his eyes and grinned. “Exactly, Ichigo-kun. I knew there was something in the tea and went along with it. You’d never do anything permanently damaging, and it was only fair after you’ve been so…” the eyes crinkled around the edges a little and Ichigo frowned, “accommodating.”

“You make me sound like a kagema,” Ichigo groused. Accommodating. He’d show the old pervert accommodating.

“Don’t be like that, Ichigo-kun,” Kisuke was trying for soothing, but it just set his hackles up further. “You know how much I value your trust and willingness to…”

“To be your guinea pig?” Ichigo finished for him. Kisuke didn’t press the point.

The hat came back down a fraction. “Human testing is always the hardest part of biological experimentation.”

“I can imagine.” Ichigo could feel the flush on his cheekbones.

“Ichigo,” Kisuke leaned forward and put a hand out, “I only meant that after all my years of training it would be impossible for me not to notice if someone was attempting to drug me. I wasn’t saying that I didn’t trust you.”

Ichigo shrugged that off with a huff. “Oh, I know that. That’s not the point.”

Kisuke looked completely confused, now. It was oddly endearing.

“Then what has you so distressed?”

Ichigo threw an exasperated look at the stupidest genius he knew. “The fact that you truly believe I couldn’t do it.”

***

“Dinner was lovely, Ichigo-kun.”

Ichigo hid his satisfied smile with a little bow of thanks as he took the dishes to the sink to wash them.

“I especially liked the addition of valerian to the soup. It wasn’t enough to make the bonito bitter, but it was very relaxing.”

Fuck.

***

“I would never turn down a massage, Ichigo-kun, but next time could you skip the wolfsbane? I would much prefer to be able to feel your hands when they’re on me, rather than this numbness.”

Ichigo shook his hands, silently cursing the tingling in his fingers.

“Yeah,” he agreed sheepishly. “Definitely no more wolfsbane.”

“Whatever you say, Ichigo-kun,” Kisuke smiled slowly as he rolled over onto his back, sliding his hands up Ichigo’s thighs where he was straddled, and the heat of him between Ichigo’s legs awakened a deep desire beneath the pleasant relaxation left by the massage, “Luckily, my lips aren’t numb.”

Fuck.

***

The glass hovered an inch below Kisuke’s lips and then was lowered to the table with an audible click.

“Ichico-kun?”

“Yes, Kisuke?”

The blond tilted his head to one side a fraction. “Are you aware that the amount of tetradoxin in fugu required to kill a man is measured in micrograms?”

“Here,” Ichigo reached over and removed the glass, “let me get you a new drink.”

“Thank you.”

Fuck.

***

“Look, for the last time, I don’t have a drug problem.”

Isshin frowned and held the prescription pad even more tightly to his chest. “That is exactly what an addict would say.”

Ichigo scrubbed his hand through his hair. “It’s for Kisuke, not me. I need to knock him out. Again.”

Isshin’s eyebrows rose even higher. “You’re drugging your boyfriend? Is he mistreating you? Do we need to have an intervention? I told you he wasn’t to be trusted before you allowed him to sully your innocence, but you wouldn’t listen. I should call Karin and Yuzu, maybe the other Captains… we will save you from your perverted lover, my son. I swear!”

Ichigo groaned.

Fuck.

***

Six weeks.

He’d been trying to dose Kisuke for six weeks.

He’d researched more plants, drugs, and poisons in the past month than most med students do in their entire careers. Add to that trying to extrapolate how those substances would work on a gigai relative to how they worked on humans. It was insane.

Weirdly, he was having a blast.

“I think I understand the drugged tea experiments better now.”

Kisuke looked up from the notes he was working on and quirked a silent eyebrow. His hat had been lost earlier in a bout of athletic kissing, and his lips were still puffy and pink in a way that did strange things to Ichigo’s heartrate.

“I mean, I’m no mad scientist, but there is definitely something about setting up the experiment, having your expectations, and then watching how it all plays out. Even if it doesn’t turn out the way you want, it’s still quite… exciting.”

Something shifted behind Kisuke’s eyes and Ichigo could feel his heart kick up a pace. He knew that look.

“You may not have reached mad scientist status yet,” Kisuke’s voice was low and Ichigo had to focus to hear it, “but your attention to detail has been… admirable.”

Ichigo had been the center of Kisuke’s attention to detail on more than one occasion, and he wondered if the blond was enjoying it as much as he typically did.

“Hmmm,” he stretched forward and crawled into Kisuke’s lap, allowing himself to go back to those addictive pink lips, “I’ve always strived to be admirable.”

Kisuke’s hands wrapped around his waist and then slid lower.

Fuck.

***

He was covered in dust. It was the worst part of Hueco Mundo.

“How was your visit with Grimmjow-san?” Kisuke sauntered out of the storeroom, his eyes trailing over Ichigo’s destroyed shihakusho, hovering over the two still sluggishly bleeding cuts on his side where Grimmjow had landed a couple of lucky shots.

“Oh, he’s just great. Vicious as ever. He asked when you were going to come and let him fight with your crimson bitch again.”

Kisuke nodded once. “I promised that Benihime would slice him in two the next time they met. He was oddly pleased by that.”

Ichigo stretched and groaned. “Yup, sounds just like the big blue psycho. I swear, I can’t tell if he’s a sadist or a masochist.”

Kisuke smirked. “Why not both?”

Ichigo snorted. Kisuke would take the both option. Hell, he was the both option.

“I don’t want to admit that he might be that complex. It just makes the whole thing easier if I think he’s one or the other.”

Kisuke nodded again and reached out to help him shrug out of his kosode.

“Either way his first goal is to try to kill you,” he said, “so best not to waste mental processing space on the why of it.”

Ichigo hissed as the black material pulled away from his wounds, the fabric tugging a little where blood had dried and made it stick. “Careful Kisuke,” he said with a huff, “let Grimm do his own dirty work.”

The blond head lowered and Ichigo shivered a little at the light drag of lips across injured skin.

“Grimmjow-san can, indeed, do his own dirty work, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it when you are so delightfully dirty.”

In the time they’d been together, Ichigo had learned at least one thing. Nothing got Kisuke worked up faster than seeing him either mid or just-post-battle. Something about the torn, worn, sweaty look of him after a fight pushed every one of the blond’s buttons.

“Kisuke,” he said, shoving the taller man away a little, “come on. I’m gross. Let me grab a shower and then you can take advantage of my weakened state all you want.”

Kisuke’s fingers dug a little deeper into the meat of his hips and Ichigo couldn’t help his stuttering inhalation. It was easy to forget how strong the other man actually was.

“Shower Kisuke. You can join me if you want.” Ichigo pried his hands away, and grinned up at him. “Maybe then you could make me another one of those curare teas if you still have some lying around. I wouldn’t mind the view.”

Kisuke’s eyebrows rose comically and Ichigo took the opportunity to dodge free, leaving the blond grinning behind him as he made for the bathroom.

Ichigo stripped the remains of his shihakusho away and climbed into the glass cubicle, only then reaching out to turn on the water. Kisuke was naked behind him before it even began to warm.

Hot lips latched onto the sensitive spot at the base of his neck, teeth worrying the skin until Ichigo knew he’d have a violently purple mark when he was done.

“I swear you have your own Hollow,” he said on a groan, “there’s no other way to explain your obsession with biting me.”

Kisuke huffed out a laugh that sent waves of goosebumps rippling along Ichigo’s back, “Don’t blame me because you’re delectable.”

“At least you don’t blame the whole strawberry thing,” Ichigo said arching into the biting kisses, not bothering to stifle a moan when Kisuke hit a particularly good spot.

“No,” the blond agreed, “your skin is many things, but ‘sweet and fruity’ wouldn’t be on my list of adjectives.”

There was a pause, and Ichigo smiled silently into the water falling in his face. Gotcha.

“Normally bitter wouldn’t be on that list either,” Kisuke’s delivery was as bland as plain rice, “but clearly something is different today.”

“It’s just the dirt, I told you I was gross,” Ichigo was so proud that he didn’t laugh, but it still wasn’t flying.

“No, I know what Hueco Mundo dirt tastes like, more’s the pity, and this is decidedly different.”

Ichigo turned in Kisuke’s arms and pressed their fronts together. “Maybe it’s my new soap?”

The taller man shook his head and smiled, “No, I got a mouthful of that this morning when I was...” the grin widened into a smirk, “No. This… this is decidedly new.”

Ichigo tilted his head back allowing the water to rinse the dust and dirt from his hair. “Hmmm. I can’t imagine what it could be. I mean, if Mr. I-could-never-be-drugged doesn’t know what it is.”

Kisuke let out a groan and dropped his head into the crook of Ichigo’s neck and shoulder. “Will you never let that go? I told you it was just because of my training…”

Ichigo snorted. “That wasn’t about training. That was about ego. Yours. The size of Mt. Fuji.”

Silver-gray eyes peeked out at him. “Just Mt. Fuji? You aren’t going to go for, say, Everest?”

Another snort. “See? Ego. Can’t even settle for your that being smaller than something else. Shall we continue this discussion or move straight on to the penis measuring?”

A water-slick hand shot out and grasped his cock and gave a tantalizingly slow pump. “I would have figured you’d have memorized that by now.”

It was true. Ichigo had everything about Kisuke��s cock memorized—size, weight, texture, taste—but this wasn’t the time to get side-tracked.

“Regardless of my knowledge of your junk,” Kisuke choked on a laugh and Ichigo couldn’t help but smile, “Before it becomes impossible, I would like you to admit that I have, in fact, successfully dosed you with something that you were unaware of, don’t recognize, and would have no way of combating.”

Kisuke sighed and leaned forward, pressing a light kiss on his lips. “So admitted. Now, are you going to tell me what I just licked off your shoulder, or am I just going to be your guinea pig for the evening?”

Ichigo reached down and trailed his fingers across Kisuke’s semi-hard length, reveling in the full-body shudder that accompanied the motion.

“I really wanted to figure out how to dose you with the hypersensitization stuff, but I figured that anything you’ve tested on me was out. You’d have familiarized yourself with all the information about it.”

Kisuke hummed in agreement. “That was a logical assumption.” He busied his hands soaping Ichigo’s back. “So that means this isn’t something we’ve, ah, investigated before?”

“No.” He turned to let Kisuke rinse him. Oh well, getting a mouthful into him was enough for his purposes. “Although, knowing you I’m surprised that you didn’t recognize it immediately. People call you an old pervert often enough.”

Gray eyes widened a fraction. “So, it’s that kind of evening I’m in for, hmmm?”

Ichigo nodded. “You’d have been in for that kind of night whether you discovered my trick or not. This way it’s just going to be a little more… interesting.”

Kisuke dropped his head and nibbled along the long tendon that stretched along his jawline. “Interesting. I can work with interesting.”

They didn’t speak for a few minutes, hands and mouths exploring each other under the falling water.

“Let’s move this into the bedroom before the warm water runs out,” Ichigo said, breaking up Kisuke’s lamprey imitation where he was attempting to leave “Kisuke was here” in love bites along Ichigo’s shoulder.

They tripped and dripped their way down the hall, drying each other haphazardly with towels in between breaks to kiss and touch and leave each other breathless, until they finally dropped onto the futon.

“So,” Kisuke said, his voice a little rough around the edges, “are you going to tell me what you used?”

Their hips were slotted together and Ichigo rocked his hips, rutting against Kisuke. A pool of wetness gathered on his stomach as his foreskin pulled back exposing his glans, the skin a shiny red, sensitive and oh so tempting, and the blond moaned at the feeling.

“I used what any young lover uses when he wants a good hard fucking from an older partner.” He leaned up and nipped at Kisuke’s earlobe. “Sildenafil.”

Kisuke reared back a stunned look on his face. “You dosed me with erectile dysfunction medication?”

Ichigo bucked his hips up again, sliding their cocks together once more, and answered a little breathlessly. “I did. Ryuuken thought it was hysterical. And remember, ah,” he tried to focus on the words, “an erection lasting more than four hours may require further intervention.”

Kisuke rolled them to where Ichigo was straddling him and dragged his hard-on through the cleft of his ass and along Ichigo’s sensitive entrance.

“If I have an erection for more than four hours,” he said, his voice full of promise, “I am not the one who is going to be needing assistance.”

“Fuck, Kisuke,” Ichigo couldn’t have stopped the words if he’d tried. He wanted so much. Screw the whole drugging contest. He just wanted Kisuke. “Please.”

Long fingers ripped open the bedside drawer with more haste than grace, and Kisuke grabbed the new jar of lubricant he’d placed there earlier. He slicked his fingers generously before returning to Ichigo’s ass, pushing slowly, inexorably, against the dark pucker there.

“Oh, I will,” he said, beginning the long, drawn-out process of taking Ichigo apart before the release of putting him back together again. “In about three and a half hours.”

Fuck.

#Bleach #UraIchi #Kurosaki Ichigo #Urahara Kisuke #smut and fluff #getting even #consensual tea drugging

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darlingod · 5 years

Text

Jurdan Au

post wicked king, when jude comes back for cardans’s blood.

(can’t promise any grammar is correct)

I walk into the High King’s scattered room. It looks the same as it did a year ago, but it feels… different. Unfamiliar.

He’s at the end of the bed, head down as if disappointed, ashamed. Which he should be. He looks not like a king, but a boy. Something he never was. Never had the chance to be.

I wonder if he spends all of his time moping in his room like this. I hope he does.

He picks on the sides of his fingernails, a habit he may have picked up on from the time I’ve been gone.

I take an almost inaudible, but loud enough, step to show my presence. He doesn’t look up as he whispers, “Jude.” Not a question, a statement. After this long he knows it’s me. I do not know how he knows. And I also do not care.

I think.

“Hello, darling.” I mock what he once called me. I smile at him as if we were close friends. As if we didn’t hate each other. Yet he still doesn’t move. To see the High King in a state like this is odd, maybe even a little amusing. What has affected him this way? What could? He has his wine, his courtiers.

His crown.

What else more could he want and not have?

I’m suddenly hot with anger. The person in front of me has always had a gift of pissing me off all too easily. I hate myself for it. I hate him for it. My blood boils at the memories. Of the mere thought of him. “It’s been awhile,” my hatred is thankfully concealed. I cannot let him know the effect he still has on me. How angry he can make me. Any other feeling I had towards him is very, long gone. Not even the fae can see it.

His dark locks are dangling in front of his face, long but not too much longer than when I left. It seems Cardan never fails to take care of himself, no matter the circumstances.

What circumstances? He never cared. He exiled you because you are nothing to him.

I cock my head to the side, “Though, it wasn’t in any of my control since you exiled me,” he lifts his head up slowly, his hair naturally moving out of his face. His eyes drift to my finger, where the ring isn’t. His face is neutral but I can see the exhaustion. Good. “It was hard, however, nothing I couldn't handle.” I mention for no reason. I have nothing to prove to him.

Then why isn’t he in pieces on the floor already?

“You’ve always been able to handle anything.” A lie he believes. He truly believes that. I wish I could believe it too.

“You are not wrong, Your Unbearable Highness,” I don’t even attempt a courtesy, I’m too angry for dramatics.

As I said the words, his eyes lock with mine and I grin wider at the sadness I see in them. At the mess I see. He’s been terrible without me, this I know. This, I want to scream with delight.

“You won’t say my name.” he says and I fight a scowl.

“You don’t need a name,” I spit, “you have a title. One that I gave you and in return, you repaid in kind.” I say with laminated respect, still smiling. I lift my hand up and start picking at my nails, to act as though this conversation has no effect to me at all. “Banishing me was clever, more than I’d like to admit. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe that you had become accustomed to playing High King, turning me blind to your talents, your desires. Well played,” I take a step toward him, our gazes still connected. I’m about to take another but his next words stop me short.

“I’m sorry.” My eyes go wide and my smile falters. I swallow hard, too shocked to do anything else. Those were the last words I thought I’d ever hear from his mouth. I almost wish he didn’t say them. Maybe I could start with cutting his tongue off. It would fix so many problems.

“What?” I question unbelievably, my voice coming out high.

“I’m so sorry, Jude,” He covers the right side of his face with a hand and wipes an eye exhaustingly and a bit dramatically.

“You don’t mean that.” I accuse and he scoffs.

“Of course I do. I cannot lie.” He snaps, obviously pissed off by the fact. He relaxes himself and drops the hand on his face. “I’ve thought about it every day since you left. I’ve thought about you every day since you left.” he quietly curses at himself.

“Since you exiled me.” I correct harshly. “Since you humiliated me in front of our court. You made me look nimble and insane. You made me look powerless.” He makes a pained face though continues.

“And you killed my brother,” I flinch as he snaps. I never intended to kill Balekin. I never intended to kill anyone. It’s not my fault the fae have a talent for underestimating me. “I had plenty of reasons to exile you. You forget, Jude, that I don’t forgive. You forget that I’m not the childish, naive boy I was a year ago,”

“And who made you who you are today? Who gave you the title you currently hold?” I question but we both already know the answer. I tell him anyway, to make him realize a mortal gave him something that he, himself, a faerie, couldn’t take. “I, a weak mortal, made the folk believe you are important. They no longer think of you stupid and foolish because of me; because of a mortal.” I push my words into his face, something I’ve always been so good at, especially with him.

He pushes back. “Does it nag at you that no one knows you are the crown?” He raises a single, dark brow. “True, they don’t see me as foolish, but they see you as that. I was not the one who was exiled, I was not the one who lost the crown. I was not the one,” he tilts his head to the side, “to lose power.” And he smiles.

The Devil smiles.

“I don’t have power? Who’s the one with the knife?” It’s my turn to grin. His black eyes start to glow. I try not to remember why.

“Beside those facts, I still hate myself everyday for what I did.” My smiles fades. “It was the most idiotic thing I have ever done, and I’ve done many idiotic things.” He admits and closes his eyes, hiding whatever he feels. If he feels at all.

“Then why’d you do it?” His eyes snap open. Now it’s his turn to be surprised.

“What?”

“Was it because I posed a threat?” I take a step closer, leaving two feet separating us. “To spare your feelings?” Another step. “Or did you always feel nothing at all?” I let my emotions get the best of me, I compose myself, empty my expression, which is something I have gotten too good at. I take my last step and lean closer to his face so we are only inches apart. He’s much taller than me but I feel as though we’re on the same level. I hope I make him feel small. “You said you had many reasons to exile me, tell me the most valuable one, the one that settled my exile.” He’ll tell me, I’m not worried about that at all.

“You want to know why I really exiled you.” his eyes fall to my lips, then to my knife, then back up to my lips.

“The High King actually listens now does he?” He raises an eyebrow. I lean back up and cross my arms. “Of course I want to know. It’s been gnawing at me ever since.” I exasperate, flinging my arms in the air. As I do, he looks uncomfortable and moves his body slightly. His eyes are on my knife and I fight the urge to laugh.

He waits a few seconds to see what I’ll do, he doesn’t move until I put the knife back into my pocket. His eyes dart up to my eyes then he says, “I did it to protect you.” Impossible. So stunningly impossible I can’t believe it. I am not able to.

But he cannot lie.

For once I wish he had the ability to.

“You were constantly getting hurt, being threatened. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to offer protection, but I would not allow my true feelings to show. Not allow you to know how I felt.” True feelings? I thought he only knew what anger and hatred were like, in those ways we were the same. He goes on, “After the Under Sea made their move and took you their prisoner, I went mad. I blamed Madoc, then myself, for not protecting you at all.” I want to scream at the memories that surface from the Under Sea.

“I never needed protection. I’m no challenged. I’m a challenge.” I pride myself, almost smiling again. But smiling is hard to do when the person you hate most stands only inches from you.

“When you were brought back to the land, and I saw you, that state you were in, I…” He looks for the words. “Hate was never such a weak word for how I felt. I wanted to rip apart the sea bit by bit. To drain the waters, or freeze it perhaps. To destroy it all whole at least.

They kept you in that dress.” His voice softly breaks. “It didn’t fit you as nearly as it had used to, you were more of a hanger for it. So frail; your rib cage was sticking out too far, as if they never fed you. Which I doubt they did.” He says bitterly. “It completely and utterly destroyed me.” He glares at me. “You destroy me.” Distaste covers his face. “And that was it for me. I was so sick of everything terrible happening to you. Sick of people using you against me.

So I began planning,” He sits up straighter. “I thought of all I could, Jude. Trust me. I want nothing more for you to stay with me. I needed you by my side, especially then. But only one idea was the most reasonable, most effective.” Exile.

Words do not find their way to my mouth.

“I’m truly sorry. You killed my brother and I still cared. I even thought you’d be glad to be sent away to your home, to be rid of ever seeing me again. Then you cried and I acted like it didn’t affect me at all. Acting is very easy when you convince yourself it’s not an act.” I know that, I’ve done it plenty of times.

I take a step back. “Did you know how miserable I was?” I shout. “How horrifying it was to be forced to go back to the home that I witnessed my parents murdered? My memories had never been so frightening. I have never been more terrified in my entire life.

I never got to know them, Cardan! I never got to love them enough. Do you know what I did get?” I yell, not intending for a reply from him. “To know what it’s like to feel absolutely nothing at all,” tears start to fall from my face, I don’t don’t have the strength to wipe them. “I never got to experience what loving was like, to be loved. I never had the chance to be a child.” I cry. “The chance to be human. I’ve never had the chance for anything, my life was fated illy.” I stay quiet a few seconds, then, “I miss them so much, everyday. I think about how I could’ve stopped it. Yelled at my father to stop or to stop my mother. Or hurt Madoc. But I just stood there, not able to do anything.” I choke out. “In the end,” I inhale slowly, trying to steady my breath. “I am always powerless.”

I don’t realize I’ve fallen to the ground, Cardan in front of me, hand cupping my cheek, eyes filled with too much real emotion that I decide not to place. “Don’t touch me.” I swat his hand away and wipe my tears, only to see him crying as well.

Cardan.

Crying.

I’ve always been so delusional.

“Stop it.” I demand. Confusion strikes his devastating face. “You don’t cry. You don’t feel anything at all.”

“You’d be surprised how I feel.” He seethes, wiping his fallen tears.

“Well then,” I say, wiping all emotion from my words. We both stand up, Cardan eyes me suspiciously. I whip out my knife faster than he can detect and push him against the hard wall, blade to his throat. “Give me a reason not to kill you,” I don’t know if I’m begging him or not.

“Oh I have no reason, though, I feel as though I need to tell you something.” I shrug, lacking care. I think.

“It’s too bad I wasn’t planning on keeping you alive either way.” I make a move to cut him-

“I love you.” I jump back immediately, as if he was the one with a knife to my throat. My knife flies into the wall, where his head just was.

Cardan stares endlessly at me. As if he can’t believe his words either.

“No you don’t,” is all I say, all I can say.

“I wouldn’t allow myself have it be true. But when I banished you, the way I felt… I knew. I knew and I thought I was going to die.” I almost laugh. “No, I knew long before that,”

“You’ve found a way to lie.” I say, stunned.

“Oh dear Jude, if I had we would definitely not be having this conversation.”

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bewareofchris · 6 years

Text

@chamiryokuroi, i have so many feelings and so few of them are good that i almost don’t want to go into it on the internet. but,

(This turned into a dissertation) OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE INFINITY WAR SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT.

first off let me say that I walked into this movie with the expectation that marvel was going to behave in a predictable marvel way. and what exactly is a predictably marvel way to act?

Cap is the Hero, Tony tries but fails, Thor can’t understand that reference but he’s super powerful, for reasons unknown powers that worked yesterday fail today, a critical part of the plot hinges upon a relationship or a decision that the audience hasn’t had enough time to form a bond with and so the critical emotional peak of the movie falls flat

so what happened in Infinity War?

Lets get started by saying that I don’t honestly care if Loki dies, but I am 100% disappointed that he didn’t have a better plan, more action or a real shot at doing anything. I mean. This little shit is basically a cockroach that’s been alive forever and he’s done all kinds of shit in that time but the BEST IDEA he had was to try to stab Thanos right in his stupid face?

I see that the Bifrost works however it wants now. Good to know.

WOULD YOU FUCKING MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND ABOUT TONY FUCKING STARK’S GLOWING FUCKING CHEST MY DUDE.

Look, I don’t think its a leap for Tony to wear nanobots and a hoodie that turns into a suit. I think that’s 100% in character, but Marvel you’re a bunch of morons that took the shiny thing out of Tony’s chest several movies ago you can’t just show up now and act like that didn’t happen because he looks better with it. This is like 0% relative and 100% nitpicky but it’s part of a greater Marvel Realized That Was Silly So They Changed It and Acted LIke We Wouldn’t Notice issue.

Bruce exists in this movie basically as a cheap joke and a town crier. THANOS IS COMING, THANOS IS COMING. Its like someone in the group writer meeting was like: dude, the Hulk is too much. We’ve literally seen the Hulk take on everything. We’ve established he’s undefeatable. We can’t go back now. How are we going to deal with the Hulk being a thing? And the guy sitting next to him, balancing a pencil on his nose was like IDK what if we just like, inexplicably and for no reason we ever need to explain, make the Hulk not show up? What if the Hulk gets hurt or scared by Thanos? And he doesn’t show up? OH DUDE then Bruce can use an Iron Man suit and we’ll do the trailers and make it look like the whole group is there!

You know else is too fucking powerful to let loose too early in the movie? Thor. You know they did this in Age of Ultron too, they were like: lets give him a vision of Ragnorok and send him to a sparkle pool to take his shirt off and see things, so he could not be present when Cap was fighting Ultron. Here they send him off with a Rabbit (this genuinely amused me no lie) and Groot. And Thor speaks Groot. A language he learned in high school. He’s 1500 years old. How does he remember high school Groot? but that’s not important, what is important is that he’s off on a side quest waking up some dead star to forge some Thanos-killing weapon because as we see in the final battle as soon as Thor shows up looking hella fine, the show is basically over.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE SLAP THE FUCK OUT OF STEVE GOD DAMN ROGERS. Look, I understand that its upsetting when someone randomly suggests that killing themselves is the only way to save the planet but Rogers, if you aren’t the single most annoying hypocrite that ever walked the earth. (At least the movie did point this out. At least it did that.) “We don’t trade lives?” FUCK YOU STEVE. It was ONE FUCKING LIFE versus HALF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE. Everyone can do that math. One Life < Half the Universe. SEE, THE OPEN MOUTH GOES TOWARD TEH BIGGER NUMBER YOU SANCTIMONIOUS FUCK.

Honestly, Steve at the end, collapsing as he said ‘oh God’ is the only part of the entire MCU wherein Steve seems to sort of grasp that just because he wants the world to work a certain way doesn’t mean it will. I hate to be a petty bitch but I’m 100% okay with everyone dying because at least Captain Fucking Rogers was wrong AND THE STORY CANNOT DENY IT.

This is going out of order, I’m sorry.

Lets talk about Thanos. I actually liked Thanos. I bear him no ill will. He’s completely insane, but he’s doing what he thinks must be done for the greater good. (*COUGH* THE SAFEST HANDS ARE STILL OUR OWN */COUGH*) He is consistently insane which is nice.

but honestly. I mean, honestly, if this bastard was this set on doing this shit and this capable of it, why the fuck didn’t he show up earlier? Was it because he didn’t know where all the stones were? I feel like it’s been a couple of movies now that he should have known where most of them were? Why not collect them one at a time? Why not send out his assortment of assassins to collect them individually? He could have gotten all of the not-earth stones and then shown up to the party like HAHA BITCHES GUESS WHO THE FUCK I AM and 0 people would have known.

but this way is good too. I guess.

This plot hinges entire on a string of inconveniences. If not for bad timing, this series of events would not have unfolded in this way. I try not to get bitchy about conveniences because things happen in real life that would seem a lot like the cosmic writer whose dictating our lives never took a writing class, BUT if it progresses your story and makes things easier for you (the writer) to accomplish what the plot (and not necessarily the characters) needs/wants to happen next it’s lazy.

The iris mechanism breaking?

Thanos having already found the reality stone?

Gamora secretly being the only thing he loves?

Nebula only escaping after it’s too late?

Cap’s abilities being literally ‘whatever the story needs, is he mortal, is he not?’

Bruce and Hulk’s domestic issue

Dr. Strange apparently being able to not only tolerate 14 million alternate futures but also remember them with enough confidence to make decisions for everyone without consulting them

Everything that happened when Quill found out about Gamora

The end part where the axe to the chest didn’t stop Thanos

the convenient core-member survival of the Avengers

I truly believe in my heart that Marvel decided to kill Black Panther before they realized how popular that movie and character would be and fuck them.

While we’re at it. Fuck them for that whole thing. Like I get that T’Challa was leading his people, but the movie is framed in a way where he’s kind of an afterthought?

They definitely underestimated him, that’s all I’m saying. And Shuri.

THEY MISUSED THEM. THEY DID NOT TREAT THEM FAIRLY.

Look, I love Tony and I”m super happy that the MCU finally, finally stopped treating him like he was insane. Don’t get me wrong here, having Thanos show up and having Tony be like I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS is great.

What’s not great? Is the fact that Tony who literally has been waiting for this this whole time suddenly had very little back up plan? He had enough time to send Peter Parker a suit but he didn’t have a trove of alternate suits, or weapons, or anything that he could have sent along with it? I know he had a few minutes to think but ALIENS ARE INVADING IS LITERALLY THE THING HE’S BEEN FRETTING ABOUT SINCE AVENGERS 1.

I’m just saying, they could have had him be slightly more prepared.

Having said that, Tony was amazing.

One of the best parts of the movie is that twenty seconds where it looks like he’s having a stroke when he realizes he’s working with idiots.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU LET THEM GET THE GAUNTLET OFF IF YOU WERE JUST GOING TO HAVE QUILL FREAK OUT?

No I’ll tell you. Because it’s Marvel.

Honestly that fight V. Thanos in space was amazing. 10/10. Until Quill.

I have never been more furious about anything in my life than I was about Thanos trying to smash Steve Rogers into the ground and being unable to. Like, even his face seemed to be conveying some kind of ‘what is this bullshit happening before me’

(IS HE MORTAL? IS HE NOT?)

I also hated Steve’s shields, but I appreciate that they went with a pointy design so that he could more directly murder his helpless victims in combat. Someone needs to introduce Steve to Jeff Goldblum because I feel like he’d either invite Cap to join the harem or the gladiators or both and it would be glorious either way.

Gamora’s death shouldn’t have won the soul stone because Thanos is a piece of shit. He’s nuts. The Soul Stone should have just thrown her back up there while laughing hysterically something like “AHAHAHA MY MAN, YOU’RE A PSYCHO, HAHAHA, YOU DON’T LOVE ANYTHING.”

That moment when you realize that if even one thing had changed in this movie the entire sequence of events would collapse. That moment.

Also, how the living fuck did Tony live through getting impaled? How? HOW.

Dr. Strange: LET TONY LIVE Thanos: like, aren’t you a medical doctor? Dr. Strange: yes, but that’s not important Thanos: I’m not a medical doctor, like I’m just a crazy man, but he is definitely definitely dead. Dr. Strange: ok, yes, but. Thanos: no wait, I’m just--you’re really going to give up the time stone, a stone that as of this moment is basically impossible to get off you, just because you want Tony to live? He’s definitely going to die. I stuck this whole sharp thing through him. Dr. Strange: I KNOW IT SEEMS UNLIKELY BUT ROBERT DOWNEY JR SELLS MOVIES, OK. HE’S ADORABLE. Thanos: ...whatever dude. Give me the green glowy thing

NO HUMAN BEING CAN COMPREHEND 14 MILLION ANYTHINGS. This isn’t a number people can relate to. It’s meaningless. Why do all these movies have to overact? Lets blow up a whole planet, lets kill half the universe, lets act like a human mind can comprehend 14 million alternate timelines

The fanservice in this movie was incredible. Like, I’m now convinced there’s a whole team of interns at Marvel scouring the internet for more jokes.

“Hey boss, they seem to think Rocket trying to steal Bucky’s arm would be hilarious. So should we do that?” “GREG MY BOY WHAT A FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC IDEA.”

I loved Tony’s whole outfit. I loved the nano bots. I even loved at the end when he was running out and he had to redistribute them. It was amazing

“Home” says Steve Fucking Rogers, the international war criminal that was like ‘but he’s my friend’. BITCH THAT ISN’T YOUR HOME.

I’m actually 100% furious just at the fact that Rhodey who supported the accords immediately didn’t give one fuck about them as soon as it was convenient to want to be on Cap’s side instead. I’m FURIOUS that the Accords didn’t matter. They never did, but the fact that Rhodey was the last man standing that believed in them and he handwaved that shit away as soon as he laid eyes on Steve’s gruff unshaven face, its just like getting kicked in the nuts.

I just looked it up apparently Black Panther and Infinity War were filmed back to back which meant that Marvel had 0 idea how well Black Panther would do in theaters and honestly that must have been why they were like “ah yes you guys remember T’Challa? Well. basically he just gives Steve some shields and that’s fucking it.”

(I know he did more than that, but he was still treated like a convenient secondary character who had convenient abilities, like Groot who couldn’t be bothered to do anything until someone needed an axe handle.)

C O M M U N I C A T I O N. It really could have solved so many things. Dr. Strange: 14 million alternate futures Tony: cool. how many did we win? Dr. Strange: 1. Tony: wait what? TELL ME EXACTLY WHO DID WHAT Dr. Strange: I’m sorry I can’t just tell you the plot I’m not Mark Ruffalo.

Peter Parker did break my heart.

this is just personal preference but since I don’t find Chris Pratt funny at all, basically all the minutes that were put into his character were wasted on me

This movie cannot stand on it’s own. That’s not a negative. You don’t go see a movie like Infinity Wars if you haven’t already spent the last decade on the others leading up to it.

but, my dudes, you did not set up Wanda/Vision well enough. And so much emphasis was put on this. SO MUCH. She’ll have to destroy him, it’ll have to be her. Ok. Cool. So lets get to it.

I may be heartless.

Gamora crying when she though she’d killed Thanos felt more authentic than Wanda’s entire crisis about Vision.

But, hey, I’m sure in the next one they’ll do something stupid as fuck that’ll make the emotional punch of this movie completely fucking worthless.

#Infinity Wars #Avengers Infinity Wars #the american dreamsicle #whats bigger than an atomic clusterfuck? an infinite clusterfuck!

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obsessionislife · 7 years

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Pandora ~9300 ao3 Yoonkook week - free day/fav au Greek Mythology Au based off Pandora’s Box

Summary: Yoongi loved Jeongguk despite the consequences. (Staring Jeongguk as Pandora, Yoongi as Epimetheus, and Namjoon as Prometheus)

It was like a lullaby in his ear. In a soothing tone, it whispered sweet nothings, wrapping around him like cocoon of comfort, drawing him closer until he was in reach. It spoke of a beauty he had never imagined before, tempting him like he tempted all those he came into contact with. To open the jar would be to allow him to have the sweetest of sweets. It would be a pleasure unachievable by any other means.

Its seduction was something Jeongguk was afraid he wouldn’t be able to resist. He was so close to it now, all it would take is one small movement and its contents would be released.

And Jeongguk wasn’t stupid, he knew exactly why the gods had given him the most alluring object in the universe.

If he removed the lid from the jar, his fate would be sealed and the god’s punishment would wreak havoc over Namjoon’s favorite of the god’s creations, the very creatures he risked his life to provide for.

But, by the gods, it was just so tempting.

The thing that drove Jeongguk insane with bitterness was the fact that the gods knew this. Jeongguk could practically feel them peering down from their thrones with bated breath, urging his hand to move the final few inches until he could feel the smooth surface of the jar under his palm. He could feel the engravings, riddled with the words and power of the gods, under his cool fingers. He could sense the amount of energy put into into its creation.

Why would the gods put so much power into a simple jar? What was in it? He had to know. His mind swirled with possibilities of what could possibly be in there. All he had to do was move his hand upwards a few inches and he’d have all his answ—

“Jeongguk,” a soft voice called to him.

Jeongguk felt like he was being revived after drowning, the breath suddenly being drawn in as shock ran through him. He blinked rapidly and jerked his hand away from the jar, putting his surroundings back into focus. The warm air coming in from the window clearing his mind and reminding him of the reason he entered the room in the first place. The lure of the mysterious jar distracting him from retrieving the fan Yoongi had asked for.

He turned slowly, taking in the figure of his husband standing before him with his arms crossed, his head tilted and eyebrow raised. Jeongguk quickly shook the last dregs of the hypnotism from his mind, slightly embarrassed at his lapse of control. It was happening too often lately. He had to resist. It wasn’t just Namjoon’s punishment, it was Yoongi’s. And Jeongguk would be damned before he let something hurt Yoongi.

Yoongi shortened the distance between them with quick strides. He grabbed Jeongguk’s wrist and pulled him across the room with a strength that he didn’t seem to possess due to his small frame. Yoongi was able to deceive others in ways that amazed Jeongguk, but never Jeongguk. As long as Jeongguk remained honest with him, he’d do the same.

Yoongi reached up to cup his face. His palms cradling his cheeks as if he was a fragile child, and Jeongguk understood that he must be radiating with vulnerability still. The control that the jar had over him always managed to shake him until he could barely stand against it.

Yoongi’s gentleness contradicted the overwhelming strength that always exuded from him. “This is not you. This is them. They gifted you with a sick sense of curiosity beyond your own control, but you must try to resist it. Don’t give in to it, love.”

Jeongguk reached up a hand to cover Yoongi’s, staring into the calculating eyes of the only person who thought of him as more than a simple means to an end. “It’s hard,” he croaked out in a gruff voice. He cleared his throat, not wanting to seem more vulnerable than he already did. Yoongi worried enough as it was. “It’s like placing a plate of food in front of a starving man. It’s the most enticing thing I have faced in my life.”

“I know. Trust me, my love. I know. For me, that object is you. It takes all my willpower to keep from locking you up in a room with me for the rest of our lives, however long that may be. But when I think of the consequences that come with doing that, I resist. I need you to trust me, love me in return, and you’d never do that if I acted like a savage.”

Sometimes Jeongguk wondered if Yoongi’s voice was better than even the jar’s whisperings. His deep, rich voice resonated with power every time he opened his mouth. He was careful with his words, only choosing those that benefitted him, it’s how he got the reputation of being the slightly naïve, dimwitted brother in comparison to Namjoon. Jeongguk felt blessed every time Yoongi opened up to him, his voice washing over him as a veil of calmness, gifting him the illusion of self-control.

“You’re the only thing that stops me from opening it. I know if I do, it will not only mean punishment for me. It will mean punishment for you as well. I could never do that to you,” Jeongguk admitted, leaning forward to rest his head on Yoongi’s. His titan may be small, but his presence was larger than anything in Jeongguk’s life.

“My love,” Yoongi whispered, before placing a chaste kiss on his husband’s lips. He would be forever grateful that he ignored Namjoon’s warnings.

“We need to prepare for Namjoon’s arrival tonight, you know how he can be. Why don’t you go instruct the servants on dinner while I hide the jar again?” Yoongi offered, pulling away from his lover.

Jeongguk gave the jar one last longing look before nodding. He turned on the spot, his robes fluttering around him, and strode towards the door. He stopped in the doorway, making a request without turning around. “Hide it better than you have before, Yoongi. The desire keeps growing every day and I don’t know how much long I will be able to keep from opening the lid.” He rushed out.

Yoongi growled quietly as he was left alone in the room, his frustrations against the gods increased every day. They treated the rest of the world like their play things, only useful if they’re able to provide even a modicum of entertainment in their boring lives. They underestimated him, but that was intentional. You never let the enemy know your true strength. He never even let Namjoon know anything. He had seen too many siblings turn on one another.

He took a deep breath. He needed to control himself. The gods were always watching lately. One false move could involve a greater punishment and Yoongi had Jeongguk to think about now.

The jar now sat on a shelf on the far end of the room, away from the original cabinet it had been held in. Yoongi and Jeongguk had tried multiple solutions to hiding the jar, but in the end it didn’t matter how well it was hid. Somehow Jeongguk always managed to find it. Yoongi couldn’t bring himself to leave Jeongguk in the same room alone with it anymore. As much as he trusted Jeongguk, anything to do with the gods had him automatically proceeding with caution.

He shook off his feelings, reaching for the jar that was so tempting for Jeongguk, but so ordinary for him. The jar felt empty in his hands, but he knew not to be deceived. No matter his feelings on it, it was far more dangerous than anything should be. Yoongi had watched Jeongguk become a slave to its force too many times for him to doubt its ability. It made Yoongi want to curse them more for taking something so innocent and turning it into something so corrupt.

He sighed as he set it back down long enough to drag a small chair over to climb on top of. Carefully balancing, he placed the jar behind a collection of vases on the top shelf. Jeongguk would have to climb in order to reach it, and perhaps that will give him enough time to regain control over his actions.

Yoongi could only hope, if there was such a thing in this world.

----

Jeongguk wasn’t blind or deaf. He knew Namjoon practically despised his existence. In his mind, Jeongguk was the downfall of them all.

However, he seemed to adore Yoongi’s, even going as far as to fix Yoongi’s “mistakes”, something practically unheard of in their world. Siblings let siblings out to dry, mothers gave up their children for a better version, and husbands cheated on their partners more often than not.

Jeongguk also understood Yoongi’s hesitation to share anything with Namjoon. Namjoon had the tendency to come off a bit stronger than he needed to, especially since he thought Yoongi didn’t understand their world. Truth was, Yoongi understood it all too well. Jeongguk was a bit hesitant to say it made him a little jaded, but, in the time that Jeongguk had lived with and gotten to know him, it was obvious how much resentment Yoongi managed to hold in his small body.

Namjoon’s complete disregard and distrust of Jeongguk did nothing to turn things in his favor when it came to Yoongi.

Jeongguk was grateful for that. As selfish as it seemed, he liked Yoongi being on his side in this debate. He didn’t know what he’d do if someone managed to turn Yoongi against him.

The weekly argument could be heard throughout Jeongguk’s home. The servants were trained to turn a blind eye to anything that involved their masters. At first, Jeongguk had tried to follow their example, believing that this is how Yoongi wanted him to act. The cook told him that a good husband would keep to himself and not get involve in the affairs of his husband unless instructed. Jeongguk was young and naïve, still fresh to the world. As many gifts as the gods had given him, not one of them had been knowledge on social situations.

However, Jeongguk soon learned that Yoongi would tell him everything anyway. He always replayed past events over several times, analyzing each and every second that had happened.

Yoongi always said, “One of the only ways to control what will happen is to look at what has already happened and learn from it.” And he wanted Jeongguk to learn everything he possibly could just in case he wasn’t around to protect him.

Jeongguk didn’t like to think of that possible outcome.

Now, Jeongguk just listened into every conversation, knowing Yoongi preferred it when he contributed to their nighttime discussions. It was one of the reasons he was well aware of Namjoon’s hatred. It was also the reason that Jeongguk knew he was going to end up opening the jar soon.

Because Namjoon knew the future and it always held the same thing – Jeongguk releasing darkness into the world.

What exactly was the darkness in the jar? The gods held so much power in their hands that it was almost impossible to imagine the outcome. Whatever it was, it made Namjoon storm their home once a week to try and talk sense into Yoongi. On one or two occasions, he had physically threatened Jeongguk to the point where Yoongi no longer left them alone together. Ever.

Jeongguk could feel his fingers twitch against the dining room table where he sat waiting for Yoongi and Namjoon to finish hashing it out. The amount of effort it took not to go searching for the jar was wearing on him. He couldn’t go looking. He needed to prove Namjoon wrong.

“You’re not understanding, brother. You never understand. He is going to be the end of us all. He’ll end up ruining us,” Namjoon bellowed in a booming voice. It was a familiar argument. The words the same ones he spoke weekly in hope that maybe this time Yoongi would listen.

Namjoon’s voice was nothing like his brothers. While Yoongi’s was liquid and soothing, Namjoon’s was made of hard edges and cutting lines. Jeongguk knew he was the only one who thought that though. The servant’s soft sighs at his commands were telling enough for him to know how desired Namjoon was, but to Jeongguk his voice made him flinch in fear and worry.

Yoongi’s voice was calm in return. Jeongguk and he had gone over these situations enough times to have decided that when his brother was like this, the only thing he could do was remain composed. They believed it showed his seriousness and loyalty more than screaming did.

“Ruin us? Or ruin your favorite creation? It was your thoughtlessness that got us into this situation. You constantly come back to the same arguments, brother. However, you never bring up your role in all this. I knew what I was doing when I used up all my power on the others. I knew the humans’ history. Even Zeus thought they could not be trusted, yet you had to ensure they were able to survive. Why?”

A servant came into Jeongguk’s eyesight in order to refill his cup with water. Never anything stronger. Wine wasn’t kept in the house. Inhibitions were thrown out when alcohol was involved. Control was relinquished. Actions grew reckless. Jeongguk and Yoongi thrived on the small amount of control they still had. He nodded his thanks at the fellow human.

“The humans are our future, brother. Without them, there is no us. We need their worship and love in order to have purpose. They wouldn’t have survived without fire. You had nothing left to give them. You wasted it all on creatures that didn’t matter. You were foolish, and I did the only thing I could think of. I don’t regret my actions,” Namjoon spoke confidently.

“The gods need them, not us. Titans are no longer important in this world, brother.”

“You don’t understand what the future holds, Yoongi.”

“And you don’t understand what the past tells us, Namjoon. While you may know the effect, you will never be able to comprehend the true cause.”

It was quiet for so long that Jeongguk thought that they were done arguing. Both their voices carried, even with the slightest of whispers, especially with the walls the ways they were between the two rooms. Jeongguk used to worry about the humans overhearing and using the information against them, but Yoongi had such trust in his staff that his worry was quickly assuaged.

Jeongguk had learned true loyalty for the servants around him, and they had learned it from Yoongi. Yoongi was honest to those who were honest to him.

“I warned you of what their gift would bring. Why did you accept him anyway?” Namjoon sounded tired, as if the argument was wearing on him and it probably was.

A sigh could be heard, the walls were so thin and the dining hall so quiet. “I’ve explained it to you before, brother. I need him.”

“Was it the gifts the gods bestowed him? There are plenty others with the same gifts, Yoongi.” Jeongguk flinched with the reminder of how expendable he was.

“It’s not the gifts. I’d want him even without the beauty and charm. You allow yourself to give everything to the humans, Namjoon. Let me love just this one,” Yoongi’s voice held finality.

A door connected to the dining hall flung open and Yoongi stepped out. With a face full of strain and cold eyes, he took in the feast laid out on the table. His hair was a mess from running his hands through it, probably in an effort to keep himself calm. Jeongguk hated the toll disagreeing with his brother took on him.

The genuine concern on Jeongguk’s face was enough to cause Yoongi’s own face to gentle as finally met Jeongguk’s eyes. He ignored Namjoon emerging behind him and took long strides in order to meet his husband at the table. He took Jeongguk’s hand as he took his spot at the head of the table, bringing it up to his mouth as he took his seat. He gave it a quick kiss before sending Jeongguk a quick smile.

“The food looks wonderful, my love,” he said, looking away from Jeongguk and running his eyes over the table again. Namjoon took his seat across from Jeongguk, sending him a sneer that disappeared as Yoongi looked over at him.

Jeongguk blushed slightly, pulling his hand out of Yoongi’s grip. “I can’t take credit for it. It was all the cook. All I did was instruct him what to make.”

Yoongi leaned back so the servant that rushed over could fill his own water cup. “You made great choices when choosing tonight’s meal, then.”

Jeongguk wished he could say he was used to the tension that Namjoon’s visits brought over their household, but he wasn’t. The weight of Namjoon’s disproval settled heavily on his shoulder, making him more flustered than he usually was. Jeongguk couldn’t help but think that the blubbering fool he turned into around him wasn’t doing anything to convince Namjoon of his innocence.

An uncomfortable air descended on them and lasted the rest of the meal. Yoongi pretended not to notice and tried to engage both Jeongguk and Namjoon in conversation, but neither of them were in the mood to pretend to like one another.

Yoongi sighed, pushing his food away from him. “Both of you could at least attempt to be civil. It is not like either one of you is going away.”

“You don’t know that. The only one with any knowledge on what will happen once I open that jar – and it will happen – is Namjoon. For all we know, whatever is in there will destroy us all, or, at the very least, me,” Jeongguk corrected, gnawing at his lip and refusing to look at the older boys.

Namjoon eyed Jeongguk carefully before turning to Yoongi. “He’s right, brother. I can’t see anything to do with him. I believe the gods created him in a way that his future is indiscernible. He’s disposable.”

Jeongguk heard a sharp breath come from Yoongi, saw his fists curling inward out of the corner of his eyes, and knew that he was trying to control himself.

Jeongguk’s next words were spoken with an edge to them that could make even the strongest of men wary. “I think we’re done here. Namjoon, it’s been a lovely visit, but I wish to be alone with my husband now.”

Namjoon watched Yoongi for a second longer before heeding Jeongguk’s words and pushing away from the table. When Yoongi didn’t say anything more, he bowed his head slightly and took his leave. A female servant coming up to lead him by his arm towards the door as she sent a wicked grin to her friend, who was giggling behind her hand.

As soon as he was out of sight, Yoongi spoke up. “You are not disposable.”

“I know.”

“We’ll deal with the outcome when it happens. Until then, you’re safe with me.”

“I know.”

Yoongi looked up from his plate, his eyes intense. “I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t,” Jeongguk promised, grabbing ahold of Yoongi’s hand. “They’ll have to recruit Hades if they want to take me from you. And you know Hades. He can’t stand being around his family for longer than a few minutes.”

----

“Do you ever think about what life would be like if you’d never met me?” Jeongguk asked from his position on top of Yoongi. His thighs laid on either side of Yoongi’s waist, straddling him on top of the pile of furs that constituted as their bed.

“No.”

“No?”

Yoongi cocked his head, staring up at his husband with a soft gaze. Jeongguk felt as if his heart was being forced out of his chest with the amount of adoration he felt himself feeling for the small man in front of him. It was like Yoongi was the one bestowed with the gifts from Aphrodite and not him.

“It’s not something I want to think about. If you weren’t in my life, there wouldn’t be a point. It would be boring and unfulfilling,” Yoongi explained, reaching up a hand to caress Jeongguk’s cheek.

Jeongguk leaned into his touch, smiling down at him. “Good answer,” he whispered, turning his head to kiss his palm.

“What about you? Do you ever wonder?”

“I don’t think I could wonder, even if I wished to. There is very little before you that I remember. I imagine it’s like trying to remember parts of your childhood. You know that they were important, but you can’t draw them to the front of your memory. That is what life before you is like. I know it’s there, but I can barely remember it.”

Yoongi drew his forehead to rest against his own. “I will forever be amazing at your ability to say the exact right thing without trying.”

Jeongguk’s answering giggle was interrupted by Yoongi’s lips crashing into his own. He smiles before allowing himself to melt into the embrace. Even after a year of being together, Jeongguk couldn’t get enough of his enigma of a husband. Each touch sent goosebumps up his spine and each kiss had his toes curling from the desire that formed.

But as much as Jeongguk would love to give into his husband, they actually had to talk. Yoongi let out a low whine as Jeongguk separated himself from him. “I know, but we need to talk.”

“We can talk when we’re finished,” Yoongi proposed, trying to reconnect their lips.

Jeongguk chuckled, pushing lightly on Yoongi’s chest, simultaneous pushing himself up and Yoongi down. It didn’t take much force to keep him down considering how small he was compared to Jeongguk. “You say that every time, but when has that actually happened.”

Yoongi glared at him before spitting out, “Fine. Ruin my fun.”

Jeongguk moved his hands from his chest to his cheeks, patting him patronizingly. “Good husband.”

“What did you want to talk about, love?”

Jeongguk’s smile slid off his face slightly as he remembered what he needed to bring up. “Namjoon’s visits are getting more and more frequent. That can’t be a good sign.”

Yoongi sighed, patting Jeongguk’s thigh in a silent command to let him up. Jeongguk scrambled off and onto his knees on the furs next to him, while Yoongi sat up, ready to get serious. He mimicked Jeongguk’s position, his hands lying on top of Jeongguk’s thighs.

“I would love to assure you that Namjoon is just overreacting, but…”

“He’s gifted with foresight.”

“Yes, and that’s what makes me nervous.”

Jeongguk bit his lip and looked away. “I don’t want to worry you, but I-I don’t know how much longer I can resist the pull.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” Jeongguk argued, shaking his head.

“We talked about this earlier Jeongguk. We’ll get through this. I understand that this is hard for you-“

“No!” Jeongguk exclaimed, startling Yoongi. He began tugging at his hair, a bad habit he managed to pick up from Yoongi. He seemed to regret shouting, as his next words were softer, “You don’t. I don’t even know how to begin to explain it to you.”

Yoongi’s hands came up to gently tug his hands away, keeping them clutched in both his as he settles them between them. “Try.”

Jeongguk eyed Yoongi, his mind whirling with possible ways to explain. Was there even a way to describe the pure desperation that he felt consuming him at every possible moment?

“It’s as if something is crawling under my skin, keeping me from ever being truly comfortable. At times it’s the softest silk, gliding across my body, drawing me in deeper and deeper. At others, it’s like a thousand needles, repeatedly pricking my body. My body begs me to end its suffering, and I physically feel like I need to. The only way to sooth it would be to give in. I don’t know what the gods did to me, but the overwhelming need I feel all the time is pure and utter torture. I can’t even think about the jar without my breath being swept from my lungs. This isn’t simply curiosity. There is something wrong with me,” Jeongguk cried, tears welling up in his eyes. He was barely holding on to his composure.

“Jeongguk,” Yoongi whispered quietly in concern. He raised a hand to wipe the tears, but Jeongguk shook his head rapidly, his control breaking.

“I don’t know why you keep choosing me! I’m going insane! Even the maids know of this. I can hear them talk. The signs are all there. I’m positively mad with this silly obsession with a jar. A jar, Yoongi!” Jeongguk stood up, pacing the small bedroom. “In the next few days, I’m going to open it and everyone is going to have to face the disappointment that comes with it. You’re going to be disappointed in me for opening it. Namjoon’s going to be disappointed in you for not heeding his words. And I’m going to be disappointed with whatever that jar contains, because nothing could satisfy what I feel inside!”

“Jeongguk,” Yoongi whispered again, watching with sad eyes as Jeongguk wore a hole with his steps. “Jeongguk, sit back down.” When Jeongguk ignored his request, he stood up, rushing to stand in front of his husband. He gripped his upper arms tightly, shaking him slightly. “Look at me.”

Jeongguk ignored him again, keeping his eyes on a spot above his head. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you decided to marry me? Even I knew it was a trick. Hell, Zeus even told you it was a trick. You had nothing to gain by marrying me. Namjoon’s quick to emphasize how common my skills are. The only difference between me and some commoner is that I didn’t have to work to become what everyone wants. I have nothing special to offer you.”

“Oh, Gguk!” Yoongi moved his hands to clutch Jeongguk’s cheeks between his hands, forcing their eyes to meet. “I didn’t need anything special. I knew from the very beginning that you were it. You don’t live as long as I have without knowing what is worth risking everything for.”

“That explains nothing,” Jeongguk practically growled, frustrated.

“I’m cannot explain things like you, Gguk. I wasn’t gifted with words like you were. The most I can do is emphasize that you are everything to me.”

“Try!” Jeongguk demanded, pushing Yoongi away from him.

Yoongi ignored the shock he felt at Jeongguk’s physical reaction and huffed in frustration, “Jeongguk! I can’t! There are just some things in this world you can’t explain. I’ve lived in a world of darkness so long, that I’m able to recognize even the smallest flame. You were the flame. I don’t know how to describe to you how I knew, but I promise you I didn’t make a mistake. You are proving to be everything I knew you would be.”

Yoongi eyes roamed over Jeongguk’s face, taking in all the pain that painted itself plainly on his face. Jeongguk’s chest shook from the silent sobs he was forcing back. He shook his head rapidly back and forth again, trying to take back his previous actions.

“I know you’re s-serious when you call me J-Jeongguk. I’m s-sorry. I’m sorry I p-pushed you,” Jeongguk struggled to get out over his sobs.

Yoongi’s feet moved of their own accord to stand in front of Jeongguk again, grabbing his hand. “Baby, calm down. Everything is fine. I need you to breathe for me. Can you do that?”

Jeongguk bit his lip, breathing deeply. Yoongi stroked his knuckles until his sobs slowed into the occasional hiccups. He could feel his heart slow and his emotions crash down, exhausting him. Yoongi waited a few more moments, watching his face until he pulled him back over to the furs. He pushed him down onto his back, forcing him to relax. Yoongi laid practically on top of him, pressing his face into the crook of Jeongguk’s neck.

“You’re not insane. You’ll understand that once their hold over you is removed.”

---- ----

Yoongi knew that with how strong Namjoon’s grip on his arm was there was going to be a bruise later. He also knew that with the way Namjoon’s eyes kept rapidly shifting from one statue to another that the meeting that they were going to wasn’t going to be necessarily thrilling. Namjoon always knew what was going to happen before it happened. Perhaps not exactly in the way that one would expect, sometimes he could only sense the outcome, other times he could only sense an associated emotion. If he was nervous, then that meant that something unpleasant was waiting for them.

However, what else was to be expected?

They were meeting with Zeus (and by extension, his “loyal” band of gods interested in drama) and that automatically implied that something negative was going to happen.

Yoongi had decided not to worry about it. He’d learned long ago that it was unnecessary. Worrying about something didn’t change the outcome of the event. It only ensure that you suffered both before and during it. Yoongi didn’t have enough energy within him to care.

Suddenly, Namjoon came to a stop feet from a gilded door that Yoongi assumed housed the awaiting gods. He released his hold on Yoongi’s arm and shot out his arm to the side, catching Yoongi in the chest. He rocked on his heels trying to keep himself from falling from the sudden action.

“Why you-”

“I need you to promise me something,” Namjoon said, his eyes not once leaving the door in front of him. The smallest hint of fear in his eyes confirmed what Yoongi already knew. Whatever was awaiting them wasn’t a grand feast.

“What?”

“Don’t accept anything they offer you. I don’t know if they’ll use it to put you into their debt or if it’ll be a start of a punishment, but I do know that whatever they offer us will end up having devastating effects,” Namjoon warned. He tore his eyes away from the door to look into Yoongi’s.

Yoongi absentmindedly rubbed his chest in the spot Namjoon had hit. He broke eye contact in order to do his own gazing at the door. Behind that door lied individuals with too much power and not enough sense.

“I feel like I should be the one warning you. I’m the eldest,” Yoongi replied, slowly turning back to look at Namjoon.

“Yoongi,” Namjoon pressed urgently.

“I’m not a fool, brother,” was Yoongi’s only reply.

Why make a promise if you didn’t know if you’d be able to keep it? Promises lost their meaning the more they were made and broken.

Namjoon took Yoongi’s words to be a promise though, not paying attention to the words themselves in his urgency. He nodded his head once before continuing to lead them towards the entrance.

He threw open the doors with a confidence that Yoongi knew he didn’t feel. He strode into the room purposefully, making Yoongi smile with pride.

His brother had managed to grow into a stronger man than he’d ever imagined was possible.

It was as if Zeus had thrown a party and they were the guests of honor. Everyone stopped their conversations, turning towards the door to watch Namjoon make his way towards Zeus with Yoongi slinking in afterwards. Yoongi crossed his arms over his chest, unused to the feeling of having a dozen pair of eyes on him. The added smirk on Zeus’ face made Yoongi want to turn right around a leave the way he came in.

“Namjoon! Yoongi! Welcome,” Zeus greeted them boisterously, his tone not matching the look in his eyes. He waved a hand around the room. “We’ve been waiting on you to arrive.”

Yoongi took that moment to take in his surroundings. He took in more with a single glance than probably Namjoon had taken in the entire time they’d been walking in. Namjoon’s nerves blinded him, while they caused Yoongi to become sharper.

The extravagance he saw made him feel sick. Whether it was from envy or disgust, he didn’t know. Here they were living in grandeur, while Yoongi knew for certain the humans were struggling to get by as war after war raged on. Hell, he bet half of them here were fueling the anger and desire that caused the fighting just for their own entertainment. Yoongi wasn’t the biggest fan of the humans, but he was even less of a fan of the rulers surrounding him. Too much power placed in one area.

“As much as I’d like to drag out this visit, I’ve been waiting weeks for this moment. I have a gift for you!” Zeus told them, clapping his hands at the end for both emphasis and a signal of some sorts. Behind him, Yoongi could hear someone walking out the door.

“As kind as that is-”

“Oh hush, Namjoon. There’s no need to deny it before you’ve even seen it. Besides, it’s more so for Yoongi.” The twinkle in his eye was more than a little disturbing.

“I don’t think Yoongi-“

“You’re not Yoongi, are you? Yoongi is perfectly capable of speaking for himself,” Zeus snapped at the fidgeting Namjoon. He melted Namjoon with his gaze before shifting his attention to Yoongi. “What do you say? Would you like to see your present?”

He could feel Namjoon’s eyes (as well as the eyes of everyone else in the room) burning a hole into his skull, however he didn’t look away from Zeus. He had to commend Namjoon for even trying to stand up to the man, because there’s no way he’d ever be able to.

He nodded his head slightly. “Of course.”

Yoongi couldn’t help but feel guilty at Namjoon’s disappointed sigh. He didn’t like going against Namjoon, but the relief he felt with Zeus’ face relaxed slightly and his intense glare shifted.

“Good, good! That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said, moving towards the door they had come in through. “See Namjoon. You have to let your brother have his own voice. How is he ever going to learn, if you keep making all his decisions for him?”

Namjoon kept quiet, put in his place. They didn’t have power here, something Yoongi understood and Namjoon had trouble grasping.

Zeus stood in front of the door, a layer of excitement fell over the other gods in the room. As they all grew anxious with anticipation, the brothers stood there, tension growing with excited whisper.

“Now, boys, you might be wondering, ‘why would Zeus bestowing upon me one of his rare gifts when all I’ve done is betray him?’” Zeus flourished dramatically, building up the tension. “The truth is I understand what it’s like to feel the need to help the less fortunate. Therefore, in this case, you are my charity and I am your benefactor. Bring him in!”

Yoongi didn’t know what he was expecting to be behind the door, but it definitely wasn’t what was.

In the doorway stood easily the most beautiful human that Yoongi had ever laid his eyes on. He automatically knew that Aphrodite had something to do with the creature in front of him. Everything about him scream the contradicting combination of soft and strong that Aphrodite admired in her lovers. His eyes were wide and innocent as he took in everyone staring at him. He shrank slightly into himself.

“I would like to introduce you to Jeongguk, our most amazing creation to date. Created from the Earth herself, he has the best gift my children and siblings could gift him. And he’s all yours.”

“Pardon?” Yoongi suddenly spoke, drawing his eyes away from the Jeongguk to look over at Zeus.

His smile seemed to widen even more at Yoongi’s words. “If you choose to accept, Jeongguk will become your husband. You can take him home with you and live whatever life you choose without our interference. Or, well, with minimal interference from us.”

“What’s the catch?” Namjoon spoke up, not able to keep silent any longer.

“Namjoon. Namjoon. Namjoon Always the smart one.” Zeus complimented.

He laid his hand on Jeongguk’s back, causing him to slightly cringe away from the contact. Zeus ignored him, leading him towards the brothers.

The closer he got the harder it became for Yoongi to keep his eyes off of him. Yoongi had never seen any creature as scared as he looked in that moment. However, he didn’t fight any of it, like a lamb up for the slaughter, unknowing of its fate.

“Unfortunately for you, I’m smarter. Why would I give up my secrets to you now, when it’s more entertaining for you to find them out later?”

Zeus stopped Jeongguk to stand directly in front of Yoongi. “What do you say? Will you accept our gift?”

Yoongi looked over at Namjoon to see him shake his head in an almost imperceptible way. Looking over at Zeus, he could see him practically salivating at the power he held in his hands. If Yoongi accepted the gift, then whatever consequence he had in mind would play out exactly like he wanted it to.

Finally, he looked at Jeongguk standing there in front of him, so unaware of everything. Aphrodite’s gift was obvious, but Yoongi wondered what the others gave him. Jeongguk’s eyes nervously danced over everyone staring at him before they landed on Yoongi’s.

It may have been Yoongi’s imagination, but Jeongguk seemed to relax slightly as the contact was made. It made his answer easy for him.

“Yes. I’ll accept your gift.”

----

“What the hell were you thinking, brother?” Namjoon screamed at him, once they were back home.

Yoongi had sent Jeongguk with his most trusted servants to get cleaned up before dinner was served. He had yet to say anything to anyone, but Yoongi was sure that once he was able to explain everything he would open up. There was no doubt in Yoongi’s mind that the gods hadn’t explained anything to him.

“Have you seen anything?” Yoongi asked, walking past Namjoon into his dining room.

“Not yet, but I don’t need to see anything to know you’re making a huge mistake. All the god’s gifts are conditional. Even someone like you should know this.” Namjoon followed him, standing in front of him as he went to sit down, blocking his seat.

Yoongi narrowed his eyes at his brother. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t think about the consequences of your actions, Yoongi! You’re so stuck in the past that you don’t look towards the future.”

Yoongi let out a hollow laugh. “Just say it, Namjoon. You think I’m dim and shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions that aren’t heavily influence by you.”

“It’s your lack of foresight that got us into this mess in the first place. If you had just considered your actions before you distributed the attributes, then none of us would be in this situation.”

Yoongi rolled his eyes. “And if you had remembered what happened last time when someone stole something from Zeus, then maybe you wouldn’t have stolen the one thing he specifically took from them. Or perhaps if you had remembered what happened the last time humans’ were allowed fire, maybe you would have hesitated a moment before giving it back to them.”

“You’re pinning the blame on me?” Namjoon growled, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Yes, I am. Maybe if you trusted me every once in a while, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I did trust you. I trusted you not to give into Zeus, and look what you did, played right into his hand.”

“I’m sorry!” Yoongi exploded. “Is that what you want to hear? I know you’re disappointed, but what’s done is done.”

“It’s not done. You’re not married yet. You still have a week to back out. Just tell them you made a mistake in accepting,” Namjoon pleaded, grabbing onto Yoongi’s shoulders and shaking them.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one? Haven’t you learned anything from the past? Going back on a deal with the gods is a death sentence. Besides, even if the situation was presented to me again, I’d probably choose the same thing over again.”

Namjoon closed his eyes, tilting his head back. “Why? Why did you accept Jeongguk?”

Yoongi ignored the question, shrugging Namjoon’s hands off his shoulders. “Jeongguk’s going to be good for us. I can feel it Namjoon.”

“I doubt that, Yoongi. He’s going to bring a disaster upon us.”

----

“Thank you,” Jeongguk said quietly, as Yoongi fixed the blankets into place for him in the guest room.

Yoongi looked up surprised at the words. It was the first thing that he had ever said to him. His voice had a silvery quality to it that Yoongi assumed was a gift from Apollo. The light, musical tone was obviously from those two words alone. Again, Yoongi wondered what other gifts he acquired.

“There’s no need to thank me. You’re going to be my husband. It’s the least I could do,” Yoongi responded, standing from his kneeling position next to the blankets. “I should, um, let you get some rest then.”

Jeongguk hand reached out to catch him as he turned towards the door. “Wait. I…We should talk.”

Yoongi nodded his head almost immediately. “Of course we should. I just didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“I think it’s safe to say that that’s already been done. I didn’t get much of an explanation when they sent me down here,” Jeongguk explained, drawing his hand back from Yoongi’s sleeve. He took a seat hesitant on top of the blanket, eyes Yoongi wearily, almost as if he was afraid Yoongi would yell at him for the movement.

Yoongi lowered himself to the ground to sit in front of him. “What did you want to know first?”

Jeongguk tapped his fingers against the ground, glancing around the sparsely decorated room. “We’re going to be married, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do I have a choice?”

Yoongi drew in a sharp breath at the question. Due to everything that had happened, he never stopped to consider the fact that Jeongguk might be opposed to marrying him. Granted, neither of them honestly had a choice, but that didn’t stop the small pang in Yoongi’s chest at the thought that Jeongguk might not think of him as good enough to be married to him.

“I don’t think so. No,” Yoongi admitted slowly, continuously running his eyes over Jeongguk’s face for a reaction. When Jeongguk nodded in response, dropping his gaze, Yoongi was quick to add, “But I’ll make a good husband, I promise. I’m not good at knowing what to do, but I easily learn from my mistakes.”

Jeongguk sighed, looking back up to meet Yoongi’s eyes, his frustration evident in his eyes. “It’s not that I don’t think you’d be a good husband. I mean, look at everything you’ve done for me. You even gave me my own room and talked back to your brother in my defense.” Yoongi blushed at the thought of Jeongguk overhearing that argument. “It’s the fact that I don’t get a choice. My autonomy is being taken from me and it feels like there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Yoongi immediately felt regret as Jeongguk spoke. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

“How?”

“I was the one that used up all the power I was given on the gods other creations, leaving none for humans like you. I left you defenseless against predators. I like to tell myself that I knew what I was doing, and looking back on it, I know it was the right choice to make, but honestly, I just didn’t plan ahead,” Yoongi confessed, hanging his head.

“That is not your fault,” Jeongguk told him sincerely. “You weren’t the one that gave too much power to someone they knew couldn’t handle it.”

“You’re being too nice.”

“I’m being logical. Plus, from the conversation I overheard, you told Namjoon the past consequences of such actions. Arguably, none, absolutely none of this is your fault.”

Yoongi had been telling himself this for a long time now, but hearing the words coming out of Jeongguk’s mouth made his heart pick up pace. He knew he had made the right decision in agreeing to the marriage.

Yoongi looked up and smiled at him, reaching a hand up tentatively. He lightly touched Jeongguk’s face, the other holding his breath. “You’re going to make a wonderful husband, Jeongguk.”

----

Jeongguk stared at the jar in front of him. His skin started to tingle, as if there were a thousand little bugs crawling over his skin. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s a punishment,” Yoongi explained, kneeling in front of Jeongguk’s chair.

“How though?”

“What do you feel like doing?”

“Opening it,” Jeongguk confessed, looking up to meet Yoongi’s eyes, his confusion evident.

Yoongi reached out to take his hands. “That’s the point. You were gifted with human curiosity. One of these days you’re going to open it up, and from there the punishment will be released to all human kind.”

Jeongguk was silent, hands lightly caressing the painted jar in front of him. The design on it depicting a battle scene. The gods versus the titans. A further reminder of their superiority.

“It’s kind of ingenious, if you think about it,” Jeongguk wondered out loud. “Namjoon and you have enough self-control not to open it, but I’m the gods’ own creation. They know what I’ll do better than even I do. Even now, after knowing that this is all a trick, all my hand wants to do is pull off that lid.”

Yoongi plucked the jar from Jeongguk’s hands, disappearing into the bedroom without a word. Jeongguk watched his back as he disappeared.

They’d been married for three whole days and Jeongguk was still unsure about where he stood with Yoongi. He knew that the older man had chosen him against his word to Namjoon. In the week and a half that they’d known each other, Yoongi had managed to stand up to Namjoon against him multiple times, had stopped the servants from gossiping multiple times over, and made Jeongguk feel more comfortable here than the month that he stayed with in Olympus.

Yoongi returned, wiping his hands against his robes. “It’s hidden where you can’t find it.”

“Why?” Jeongguk asked softly, taking in the sight that was his new husband. The gruff looking man was a million times softer than the prettiest of gods.

“The gods’ power is more than were able to fight against. I need to be prepare just in case you can’t fight it anymore.”

Jeongguk’s voice was small as he asked, “Do you not trust me?”

Yoongi’s eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head sharply. “No, you’re the only person I do trust, but you were created in a way that made you both irresistible and unable to resist anything as well, including opening that jar. When you open that jar, I want to make sure that we’ve stalled enough time to show them that you’re not a toy they can toss around.”

Jeongguk nodded slowly, determined. “I will not betray your trust. That jar will remain closed as long as I can manage.

---- ----

Jeongguk didn’t mean to do it.

It was like his body had a life of its own. As much as Yoongi argued for his sanity, what kind of sane person lost control of his body the way he did?

He could barely remember entering the room. It happened the same way it had been happening for the last six months, except this time Yoongi wasn’t there to stop him as he grabbed the stool. He moved it to where he has seen the jar hidden earlier that morning, grabbed it, and put it on the floor in preparation. Yoongi had moved it yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, but he wasn’t there to stop Jeongguk now.

Jeongguk gulped, his hands shaking as he gripped the lid in both his hands, the jar sitting between his legs on the floor. If he listened closely enough, he could hear Yoongi moving around on the floor above him, completely oblivious to the fact that his husband wasn’t in the garden like he said he’d be.

He managed to convince himself to count down, barely able to stop himself from rushing into ripping the lid off.

10, 9, 8

The golden scene etched into the jar seemed to glow underneath Jeongguk’s hands. If Jeongguk wasn’t so desperately in love with Yoongi, it would be the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

7, 6, 5, 4

If it hadn’t been for Yoongi always being by his side, this would have happened over a year ago. His desire to be the kind of person that made both Yoongi and himself proud was stronger than his desire to satiate his curiosity.

3, 2, 1

As soon as the jar was opened, Jeongguk immediately regretted it.

He was almost thrown backwards from the force of air that made its way out of it. A piercing scream filling the room. It was hard for him to grip on what exactly was going on.

The smoke and air that forced its way out seemed to be filled with despair and sadness and hardships. Seemed to show Jeongguk the worst of possible of outcomes that would happen with each person. The screams got louder as the misery got worse. It wasn’t possible to feel this, to see this, but somehow Jeongguk could see every bad thing that could possibly happen.

Jeongguk was sure that he had set loose the end of the world, as the stream got slower and slower, as the most painful of situations managed to escape. The nightmares playing behind Jeongguk’s eyes. He was sure this was the end of all of them.

He was wrong though, because almost as soon as it seemed to happen, it was over.

In front of him was a heavily breathing Yoongi holding on tight to the lid, holding back whatever had yet to escape from the rest of the jar.

It took him a moment to realize that the screaming had belonged to him and that tears stained his face.

“Oh, Gguk!” Yoongi exclaimed, immediately setting the jar to the side and taking Jeongguk into his arms.

“How-how could they do that to us? How could they-they think that that was the right punishment?” Jeongguk spat out, still tense in Yoongi’s hold. Sobs wracked his body as Yoongi pulled him in tightly.

Yoongi ran his hands desperately up and down Jeongguk’s back, trying to get him to calm down. Jeongguk’s heart beat rapidly against Yoongi’s chest as he pressed himself as tight as he could get to the boy. “What, Gguk? What punishment?”

“Didn’t you see that?” Jeongguk asked frantically, arms waving toward the jar behind Yoongi.

“No, love, I didn’t. All I heard was you screaming. I thought my heart was going to break at the noise,” Yoongi told him softly.

Jeongguk shuddered at the memories that came to his head. “It was awful. I’ve never seen such despair and misery in my life short life. The amount of humans that are going to suffer from this is-is tremendous.”

“Maybe that’s why I couldn’t see it,” Yoongi offered, sitting back on his heels. His hands still rested on Jeongguk’s neck. His thumbs kept Jeongguk’s head from turning back to the jar.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe the reason I could see what happened is because I’m not human. You are,” Yoongi explained, moving one of his hands to brush against Jeongguk’s tear stained cheeks. “I know you don’t want to hear this, love, but this is the most diabolically, apt punishment they could have come up with.”

“How do you mean?” Jeongguk asked, renewed tears coming to his eyes as he realized that the images were permanently seared into his brain.

“By giving the humans fire, Namjoon ensured that they would be able to protect themselves from the dangers in the world. The gods decided to give them things that they couldn’t necessary protect themselves against. Disease and death are problems that no amount of fire or weaponry can solve. Not even the gods can completely cure misery or sadness, because not even the gods are immune to them. By giving them a means of survival, Namjoon caused them to allow the negativity that Zeus was keeping from them out into the wild to strive,” Yoongi clarified.

Jeongguk’s heart felt like exploding with how much he was feeling at the moment. “How does that punish Namjoon and you, though?”

Yoongi brought Jeongguk back into his arms, this time Jeongguk was more compliant. Yoongi’s presence had finally sunk in and relaxed him.

“Don’t you understand, love? You’re human, this is going to affect you. The god’s knew that by giving you to me it ensure that I would be punished as well, because seeing you in pain makes my heart hurt. And, as for Namjoon, he’s half in love with those humans, he’d be devastated to know he caused them any harm. The gods knew what they were doing when they did this.”

“How do you have all this figured out?” Jeongguk asked him, pulling back. He used the sleeve of his robe in order to wipe at his eyes.

Yoongi smiled, using a hand to smooth out Jeongguk’s hair. “I’ve been trying to think ahead more since meeting you. It hasn’t been working well, but I’ve gotten some ideas.”

Jeongguk pushed himself back into Yoongi’s hold, unnecessarily forcing the older man to comfort him. Yoongi closed his eyes and leaned his head against Jeongguk’s. He thought about how many consequences this was going to have for Jeongguk.

He’d gotten lucky when he fell in love with Jeongguk. Jeongguk was a happy man, full of life though he had barely been able to live. With this punishment in effect, Jeongguk was going to start feeling the emotions that plagued Yoongi daily. The worried, the regrets, the depression was now going to become a part of Jeongguk’s life in a larger capacity, because, while they did have these emotions to begin with, it was more muted, as if someone had place a glass jar over top of them, making them visible but untouchable. Now, the jar was open and the effects of the emotions were going to be felt full force.

“Yoongi,” Jeongguk spoke after a while of silence.

“Yes?”

“The jar wasn’t empty when you closed it.”

“Do you want to open it and see what else is left?” Yoongi asked, pulling away for a third time. He reached for the jar, placing it between the two of them.

Jeongguk closed his eyes for a second before opening them again, a pained look in his eyes. “I don’t think I could say no even if I wanted to.”

“Then we won’t give you a reason to say now,” Yoongi promised him.

He pulled the lid off without the hesitation that Jeongguk had had when he was trying to hold himself back. He watched Jeongguk’s face relax as he watched the final part of the punishment fly out. The change in facial expressions was dramatic.

“What do you see?” Yoongi asked him, curiously.

“Hope,” Jeongguk said, smiling slightly at his husband. The abrupt change making Yoongi head feel lighter and his heart ache more.

Yoongi leaned over the now empty jar in order to place his forehead on Jeongguk’s. “Is that a good thing or bad thing?”

“Both, but right now. It’s good.” Jeongguk leaned forward to kiss Yoongi softly.

#yoonkook week #yoonkook #sugakookie #greek mythology au #it's the longest thing i've written by far

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shrbrt-blog1 · 7 years

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Self Help Fest Detroit (Gallery and Review)

A Day To Remember's Festival “Self Help Fest” came to Detroit for the first time October 7th. This lineup was pretty nostalgic with the last four bands being artists I have listened to consistently for a very long time. This was my initial draw to the festival. They sealed it with the supporting artists and the affordability of the festival with tickets being around 60 bucks with fees. Equals out to 5 bucks a band, touring bands at that, with huge stages and amazing sound. Can't beat the young festivals when they're done right. This is something I want to give ADTR and company credit for.

A lot of festivals either bite off more than they can chew or they underestimate their abilities as festival producers. The important shit for me as a photographer, a fan of the bands, and as a festival goer were all met. Proper sound, great lighting, dope lineup, decent set times, not a lot of conflicting time, decent concessions, cleaner bathrooms, access to free water, shelter from the weather, free parking, within an hour of my bed. That doesn't mean there weren't issues because there were, some completely out of the festivals control, others not so much.

GALLERY 1: TOO CLOSE TO TOUCH, SYLAR, THE PLOT IN YOU

The Cat and I got to Freedom Hill a little later than I wanted to. Instead of her coming back at a later time and going shopping at the mall, she decided to get in the insane line at the main entrance. I was told to go to a different box office to get my pass. I figured either there was a small entrance for media only and realized how far of a walk it was. The complete opposite side of the grounds. I laughed. Mind you, there is a lot of laughing that went on this day as I was incredibly stoned shortly after getting to the venue.

I walked the way toward the other box office and in that time met a guy who got VIP passes and was walking the length of the fence also. We walked all the way behind the main stage and he seemed to be really impressed, I like that shit. I am fucking spoiled rotten when it comes to access to these bands and musicians. I don't take it for granted and I try to take it all in from everyone's perspective. He was no different than most, a lot of “wow” and “holy shit” and “Isn't that the one guy?” I love it.

I fucking love when people get that excited about this shit, that set the tone for the entire day for me. I'm thankful to be here. When I saw the other parking lot I started laughing. The guy was like “what's so funny?” and I kept laughing and eventually said “Sorry, we all parked over there, waited in line to get into that entrance, could have driven 1000 feet and parked right here, walked right to the box office, got our passes and got in while they are still not letting people in at the other entrance.” He looked around and said “Fuck... I stood in that other line for like 30 minutes man fuck.” He went to the VIP booth and I never got his name, hope he had a good time.

GALLERY 2: ISSUES, WAGE WAR, MOOSE BLOOD

I went to the Media booth and got my pass. I asked if I could use that entrance and the dude laughed and said: “That's what it's there for.” I laughed that off walked away and wondered how many people yelled at him already by then. Empathy, it's easy to come by when you're high as fuck on weed cartridges and medibles.

I got to the East entrance and a few older gentleman looked through my bag and noticed my photo pass and made my way in a pleasant experience. Most of the time it is, sometimes it's a little different. They were hospitable but brought up a minor “fiasco” with another photographer before me. I will not go into detail about it because I'm just not that guy. I really don't want to throw anyone under the bus. It took me two seconds to figure it out the next day on Instagram though. Tighten up.

GALLERY 3: OF MICE & MEN AND FALLING IN REVERSE

While going through the first few Underoath photos I noticed Spencer is looking directly at me from afar. I thought to myself, hmm, it's been a long time since I first saw this band. And I looked up the tour with Zao. June 2002. The Shelter. Unearth headlined. Yeah. Then I remembered something. I only saw Unearth in The Shelter once, and that was the night of "The Great Underwear-Unearth Pit". Where what seemed like the 20 biggest guys I have ever seen in my life stripped to their underwear, mostly tighty whities and moshed for Unearth's set. You don't forget shit like that. I have been to I'm going to guess 2k+ shows in my lifetime now? They blend together. My shocking realization that this was the first time I saw Underoath. This lineup was The Changing of Times lineup, pre-Spencer. Yeah. Some people actually remember that version of the band. If you went back and told me I would photograph that band on a massive stage 15 years from now, I would have told you to get bent. You can chase what the world is looking for, or you can do your thing and the world will come to you. Even if it's just for a moment. That band didn't get to that stage to throw me a look for a split millisecond. They did it because of their love of the music they put out. I'm just a fucking leach of that, and well I'm ok with it. Do what you love and sometimes people who do similar things will toss you that “I see you” so many are looking for nowadays.

GALLERY 4: UNDEROATH

Pierce the Veil, the San Diego foursome came out to a setting sun and a roaring crowd. Going right into “Bulls In The Bronx” set my fucking heart rate to maximum overload. Absolutely impossible for me to not sing a song that is played daily in my house. I knew at some point some of the photos would end up lacking a little because of my inability to not scream lyrics and kinda lose my shit for a minute.

We get sandwiched between thousands of fans and the band they're there to see. I have tried for the past few years to just “do my job” and sometimes I am successful. This day, this set, this song, NOPE. I might as well have put the camera away until after that fucking flamenco solo. The lighting changed every few seconds it seemed. I couldn't get my mind to focus. I was fucking enamored. They were fucking killing it. I have felt a connection to this band for a long time. I mean, since Myspace, god I'm old.

GALLERY 5: PIERCE THE VEIL

The dudes from Florida who brought us the festival itself decided to let Rise Against headline over them. I had a few thoughts about this. Until the days before when the schedule was released, it was assumed that RA was a co-headliner and ADTR would be the main headliner. I have been around for a minute, Rise Against has been around a bit longer than ADTR. They have pushed the limit on what a political punk band can do. ADTR has pushed their own limits, but they have done it with a shorter time-frame.

See most people just got mad at the concept that a band that influences another would headline over them. In plain objectivity, it makes sense. In this case, it is kinda weird. I honestly don't care but so many fucking people do. I have no idea. They had the same set lengths. If anything I figured they waited for the weather to see what was going on with that. It is ADTR's festival, so no matter what they should be playing if they are on the lineup.

Considering the weather became hairy later on, ADTR's set went off without a hitch. Including firing off streamers at the beginning of the set that got stuck on the upper part of the stage rigging. While in the photo pit I witnessed a photographer take a load of confetti to the face. Within like 30 seconds there was a stage manager there to fucking light up security for not keeping the photographers back. All day I noticed the confetti blasters. But every set I was in the pit for, the rolls of confetti were sitting on top of the machines in plastic. When I got in the pit for ADTR they were loaded into the machine. I will never forget the look on her face. Total shock. Usually we're warned about this shit, and obviously, this is why people were yelling at each other about it. Regardless, another set where screaming lyrics became incredibly hard not to do.

GALLERY 6: A DAY TO REMEMBER

Rise Against is a band I have always felt a deep connection to. Politics affect us every single day and people ignore it. They get mad when bands and musicians talk about it. Which is really weird, considering most of our artistic movements and rebellions came out of fucked up policies and corruption. That type of shit breeds creativity and independence. It makes free thinking want to spread the more people get pushed down. The early days of show-going in Detroit for me began in early 99. From then on I would see Rise Against an unknown number of times. I honestly am going to go with like 13 times from 99 to 04. In the beginning, they were opening for everyone. Even playing super early at Warped Tour. I met them at a couple different shows and they were always humble, kind, and intelligent. A lot of times I meet bands and they were amidst partying and it wasn't their best moment, or they're exhausted and come off cold, I always give em the benefit of the doubt.

I literally never had that issue with RA.

The type of band that when you're around them, you feel stupid. The room that I feel dumb in, is the room I want to be in, just how I feel about it. It is intense to look back at how many shows this band has played since then. So many small venues, basements, house shows, backyards, hall shows, and into decent venues and having tour buses and being in a band big enough to use their voice for positive political causes. Slowly changing the stereotype of punks, bands like Rise Against inspire the shit out of people like me, even all these years later. I still remember seeing them play 1000 Good Intentions regularly. I feel like there was once where it was twice in a week at St Andrews. Every time a bigger punk band came through Detroit or Pontiac from like 99-02, Rise Against was likely a support act on the bill. Only so many bigger punk bands were from the region at the time. To look up at these same dudes, completely grown as humans and musicians, was an unforgettable wet and windy experience I will tell people about for years to come.

After three songs I made my way through the drunk and stoned and wet crowd as the wind and rain started to really pick up. I managed to get a handful of crowd shots and then booked it to where the Cat was at. We hilariously made our way all the way back to the car which seemed to take forever. I really wish I could have stayed and watched the rest of the set but I had a bunch of camera gear, a cold and drenched girlfriend, and a couch and table full of dabs calling my name. We somehow made it home safely and avoided getting obliterated by the massive wall of storms that headed right at the festival at the end of the day.

GALLERY 7: RISE AGAINST

As a whole, this was a great festival. Simple, two stages, plenty of space, time to get to each stage was maybe a minute, the nachos were stale, the weather was dope for most of the day and ended with it being pretty insane. I didn't hear a bad set or fuck ups from the bands. I didn't see any fights. I did see some people get helped my medical, way too drunk and not enough hydration. Hydration should be one of your top three concerns when going to a festival kids! It makes doing an all-day fest like this less painful. It also helps when you're sweating and only drinking booze all day, skip that fucking hangover and headache with some water you bastards.

Thanks to A Day To Remember and Self Help Fest for letting me shoot and cover this festival. I really appreciate it. Thanks to Stacie the Cat for being with me all day and getting me some crusty nachos. Thanks to everyone who stays patient with me as I'm doing this all on my own, content-wise. I really love doing this and want to keep doing it, so I'm going to continue to do so as much as possible. With the winter coming more of my coverage will be of records and songs, not just because a lot of tours skip Detroit in the winter, but also because it is usually horrendous weather for a few months to travel in. So glad to end the summer and start the fall off with this festival. I hope you dig the photos and words, please feel free to repost or share any of the content, just give the artists, Self Help Fest, Shrbrt.com, and myself credit.

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