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#hence why i think we should work later in the day
tenrose · 2 years
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Eating the gazpacho I made for myself, at a very Spanish time, trying to cope with the 35°C, feeling healthy.
Sometimes it almost feel like I've got my life together.
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wonbriiize · 5 months
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bestfriend!Anton who puts you on his lap to give you affection, touches your hair, kisses you on the neck...being super clingy and fluffy :(
pairing; anton x reader
genre; fluff, best friends to lovers
note; i thought this was such a cute idea so i wrote something based on it.. hope u like it anon ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶
listen to your heart
while working in retail isn’t all that horrible most of the time, you despise it over the holidays. everyone goes crazy as they search for last-minute christmas presents for their loved ones, friends or anyone else.
today was one of those days when everything was so annoying that you really thought about quitting your job right then and there.
luckily, your shift has ended and you are now on your way back home. you seem to be forgetting what a terrible day it has been so far as you imagine yourself curled up in your warm bed while drinking hot choco and watching your comfort movie.
“*y/n*, someone is waiting for you in your room,” your mom says after giving you a big hug when you arrive at home.
you‘re confused as to who it could be, until you recall that your best friend anton texted you saying he‘d drop by later as you were spamming him with messages about that one costumer who was extremely rude to you.
you run up the stairs to your room. you’re not so sure why you’re so eager to see anton, but you can’t help yourself. being with anton after a tiring day makes you feel at ease. he just has that effect on you.
“ohhh, slow down,” anton sits up on your bed. you can tell he made himself feel at home because just a second ago he was laying in your bed as if it was his own. “why are you running? is the rude customer after you?”
since you can’t tell anton that you hurried up to your room because of him, you just throw yourself on your bed. “no, i just really missed my bed. it has been an exhausting day.”
“and here i was hoping that you were running because you couldn’t wait to see me,” anton pouts, leaning back on your bed.
you’re right, you think. but i can’t let you know..
“well, apparently you were missing me because how are you at my house when i’m not even there?”
anton shrugs. “so what if i missed you, is it so wrong to miss your best friend?”
you’re shocked at how casually anton can say things like this. does he truly not realise how much of an impact his words have on you? it irritates you that he's saying these things and acting so dreamy when you're already trying to shake the thought that you like him — much more than you could ever imagine liking someone.
you sigh, laying down on your back. “i just really need to rest.”
“hey, come here,” anton pats next to him. “we can rest together.”
for a second, you’re not sure if you should really go and sit down next to him, because your feelings are all over the place today and you don’t know what could happen, but you push those thoughts aside and just go for it.
“you can lay your head on my lap. i will give you a head massage. i‘m a pro,” anton softly smiles at you.
god, he really isn’t making it easy to not fall in love with him, you sigh. your head is telling you not to do it, but for once in your life, you decide to listen to your heart instead.
you place your head gently on anton‘s lap. you’re afraid you won't be able to resist kissing anton if you open your eyes and see him staring down at you, hence why your eyes are closed.
anton starts massaging your head softly and you’re surprised at how good it actually feels.
“i didn’t expect you to be actually good at this,” you say.
“i told you i‘m a pro,” anton chuckles. hearing him giggle put a smile on your face and usually you would try to hide that, but right now, you’re just letting it happen.
“there it is,” anton whispers softly as he touches your cheek, causing you to open your eyes immediately.
“what?”
“your beautiful smile.”
you start laughing nervously. what’s his deal? why is he being extra sweet today?
“don’t say such things, anton.”
“why not?" his hand returns to your head, but instead of giving it a massage, he plays with your hair, twisting it around with his index finger.
“best friends don’t say that..” what you just said has a sad undertone, but you don’t care. maybe if anton knows that he’s kind of playing with your feelings, he will stop being like that.
anton shakes his head. “no, they don’t.. but here’s the thing, *y/n*..”
the sudden change in the atmosphere makes you nervous so you sit up. still close to anton, but there’s a little distance between the two of you now.
“i‘ve been trying to tell you for the longest time that i don’t want to be just best friends with you,” anton blurts out. “i thought it was obvious that i like you.”
world stop. anton likes me?
“but everytime i try to make a move you put me back in the friendzone, saying things like ‘best friends don’t do that..”
with a sincere expression of sadness that makes your heart hurt, anton glances down at his hands.
“i guess you really don’t like me in that way and i was just stupid to to think that-”
refusing to let anton continue, you take hold of his hand and place it directly over your heart.
“do you feel this?” you whisper.
anton nods unsure.
“my heart beats this fast everytime i‘m with you.”
“is that a good or a bad sign?” anton pulls his hand away and looks questionably at you.
his question makes you laugh. “of course it’s a good sign.. it means that you’re the reason why my heart feels so alive.”
“oh,” anton nods, a little smile forming on his face. “so you do like me.”
now it’s you who’s nodding.
just a while ago you didn’t want anton to know how you really feel about him because you were so afraid that the feeling was one-sided, but now that you know it’s mutual, you’re ready to take the initiative.
you slip closer to anton and sit down on his lap. first he’s surprised at your sudden move, but then you feel his arms around your waist, holding you close to him.
seconds later, your lips meet his. not only was your heart racing faster than before, but because your bodies were so close, you could literally feel anton‘s heart racing as well.
you weren't expecting it, but as anton plastered kisses all over your face and neck, things heated up quickly. you didn't want him to stop, but knowing that your parents could walk into your room at any point made you want to go slowly.
“maybe we should continue this when we are alone, like completely,” you whisper as anton was kissing your neck.
“hmmm,” kiss. “maybe..” kiss. “you‘re..” kiss. “right.”
he stops, looking at you with the biggest smile on his face.
“this big smile looks good on you,” you put your arms around antons neck.
“and you know why i’m smiling like this? it’s because of you,” anton softly whispers before he plants another kiss on your lips.
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whaddayadothatfor · 1 year
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Ctenizidae
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Pairing: Miguel O’Hara x Fem!Reader
Summary: You’re an anomaly from another universe. You’re not dangerous though, so Miguel’s made the executive decision to keep you around until more dangerous criminals are caught and sent home first. Unless that’s not the only reason he’s decided to keep you around…
Content warnings: dub-con, voyeurism, masturbation, obsessive!Miguel
WC: ~1k
AN: Y’all this is so unedited but I wanted to write smut for this man so I did! If y’all like it I can post a second, smuttier part.
MDNI
“Here.” You drop a small plastic bin of chocolate chip cookies in front of Miguel. As a peace offering. No, really.
Miguel raises his right eyebrow in question. He doesn’t even answer you anymore. The other Spider-people go about their day in the cafeteria, having seen this scene time and time again.
Every day for the past two weeks since you were suddenly teleported to Nueva York and promptly labeled an anomaly, you’ve been practically begging Miguel to send you home. He’s declined every time.
This is pretty much how the conversation goes each time:
“Miguel, I think I should—“
“No. We have to send the most dangerous anomalies back to their universe first—“
“I’m dangerous! I’m plenty dangerous.”
“The only thing you’ve maimed, tortured, and killed in the past month is a flippin’ houseplant. You’re staying.”
You see how frustrating this man is?
So you’ve decided that maybe bribery— sorry, a peace offering— will work better. Hence, the cookies.
“Maybe if you eat something sweet you’ll stop being so bitter and stubborn all the time,” you smile tightly. “Then you’ll find it in your heart— the one that shrunk three sizes— to let me go home.”
“I appreciate the offering— though you could use some more creativity in your approach— but just know that these won’t get you home.” He pries open the container and lifts one to his mouth before moaning in delight. “These are delicious. Thank you,” he said, sucking the melted chocolate off of his thumb. His overly enthusiastic groans were clearly a tactic to piss you off, and it worked.
You simmer in anger as he smirks while chewing his cookie. You try to snatch the bin back, but he moves it out of your way.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he says, pushing up from the small table he was sitting at and leaning down to whisper near your ear. “No take-backsies.”
He flustered you, and he knew it. He laughed as he walked away. You stuttered a retort in embarrassment, but he didn’t even have the decency to turn around.
“Ugh, I hate that guy,” you stomped in anger. You muttered several curses before you turned around to leave, only to see several wide-eyed Spideys staring at you in concern. This is why you wait until after you’re alone to throw a tantrum— it scares the locals. Whoops. “Uhh, carry on. My bad. Enjoy your lunch!”
You quickly walk away, feeling defeated. But it doesn’t matter, you’ve got nothing but time. You’ll catch him when he’s sleeping. He’s gotta be more amenable then.
Later
“You know, just for the record, I think you going to his room this late at night is a terrible idea,” Lyla warned as she flitted between standing and reclining with her arms crossed behind her neck.
“Well I think him keeping me here is a terrible idea. I guess we’re all full of them.”
“Seriously—“
“Lyla I don’t care! I’ve got a family to get back to. Friends, a life. I don’t care how fine that man is, I’m going back home. Tonight, preferably.”
“Whatever, it’s your funeral.” She acquiesced before disappearing into the ether, just as you arrived at his door.
“Wait, Lyla! Open the door.” Without a response, the door opened. “Thanks, Lyla.”
You walked in to the large room to see Miguel sitting up in a chair near the center of the room.
“Miguel, you need to listen to me—“
The sight that met you was so shocking you had to take it in one part at a time.
First, You see Miguel’s side profile as he faces the wall to the left of you. He’s breathing heavy, chest heaving as his hand vigorously moves up and down his— oh. Maybe you came at the wrong time.
With the sudden awkwardness that’s overtaken you, you look somewhere else, anywhere else, only to find the source of what he’s staring at— a video, no, porn. The second piece of the puzzle, you take in the video’s content. First, you just see flashes of skin and hear soft grunts and moans emanating from the screen. But then you realize, the voices sound familiar, really familiar. Then it hits you.
It is you.
And him. The both of you together. And that realization connects all the pieces of the puzzle together. He’s keeping you here, on purpose.
Your eyes dart back to Miguel, who has now abandoned his video in favor of the live view he has right in front of him. He’s shirtless but he still has some grey sweats on, pushed down just enough that he can jerk off. His hands move desperately over his cock, aborted grunts and breathy moans coming out sporadically.
He turned his head to the side, his cheeks flushed and his eyes narrowed with desire. You were frozen, stuck in time. Miguel kept stroking his cock while staring into your eyes. He did this right up until his orgasm overtook him, throwing his head back and jerking his hips upward as he called out your name.
His cum spurted out in waves, once, twice, three times. It was thick and opaque and made a mess all over his lower stomach. He sighed and sank back into his chair.
“Did you enjoy the show?” His voice is low and heady as he calls out to you. It takes you a moment to respond, because admittedly you’re still staring at his— well, his everything, dick included. Still It was a very, very nice, thick, veiny d—“Am I interrupting?”
His teasing knocks you out of your reverie.
“I-I should go.” You said. You’re starting to realize that Lyla might have been right. Maybe you should’ve waited until the morning. You start backing up to leave but Miguel shakes his head and the door shuts behind him.
“No, no, no. See, that’s your problem. You’re always trying to leave,” he chastises.
He stalks towards you, like you’re prey. You move backwards until your back hits the door. He reaches over you, placing an arm over your head and his index finger under your chin, lifting it upwards. He bends down, close enough that you can see even minute details of his face.
He narrows his eyes as he bares his fangs.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
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slushycoookie · 26 days
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Spa Day ~ Miguel O'Hara x AFAB! Reader
Content: You and Miguel go to the spa, mainly fluff, gets smutty towards the end, "wife" and "girl" are used, thigh grinding, masturbation, perhaps a hint of a praise kink, MINORS DNI!!
A/N: Had an idea to do a cute spa day with Mig. Enjoy!
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“Welcome to the Sunny Side Spa! Are you checking in?”
The receptionist asked, smiling wide as you and Miguel walked inside. You were too busy taking in the peaceful atmosphere to respond. Admiring the soft bright lighting, harpsichord music, and divulging in the lavender aroma.
Miguel stepped in, “Yes. For the deluxe package?”
“Wonderful! Right this way!” You took your husband's hand, following the cheery woman down a hall and to the right, where the showers and locker rooms were. “Please wash up and put on our robes so we can start your ultimate spa experience!”
Your heart sped up in excitement, trying to contain it as you and Miguel went your separate ways in the locker rooms. Sunny Side Spa was a new spa that opened up on Earth-438, being highly recommended by some of the spiders in Spider Society. Ben mainly as he raved about his experience. Saying he suggested it to a few others too because it was that good. Jess came to you a few days later about the same spa and then so did Peter the day after. All boasting about their experiences, wanting you and Miguel to go too.
They mentioned how difficult it was pushing Miguel to go out and try new experiences. Especially after his major role in forming the elite spidey team. But once he started dating you, he was open to branching himself out. Even more so after marriage.
So when you brought up the spa trip with him, he was interested. He didn’t think he'd even been to the spa before when he couldn’t remember the last time he's had a massage or a facial. You weren't sure yourself. Hence why it was clear you two had to get in some relaxation time.
The cream-colored robe you put on felt like cotton. It was warm and soft to the touch with notes of eucalyptus hitting your nostrils.
Miguel was waiting for you, leaning against the wall while listening to the receptionist rave about the deluxe package. You didn't catch much of it, only hearing a little bit about a deep tissue massage.
“Ah you too look adorable!” She complimented before motioning you all to the massage room. The lady repeated what she told Miguel about everything that's in the deluxe package. A deep tissue massage, followed by a manicure, pedicure and a facial. While you all were fed complementary food and drinks. And as an added bonus, a private sauna room you can go to at the end of the wellness visit.
The lady handed you a pamphlet of the details in case you forget as she left you two in the room to wait for your masseuse. Your eyes caught the option to do hot stones in the massage to maximize muscle relaxation.
“Maybe you should pick this one.” You pointed out.
Miguel glanced over your shoulder, letting out a playful huff. “What are you trying to say?”
“Nothing…” You teased, “My man works hard. Just want to make sure we're making the most out of our stay.”
He hummed, kissing the side of your head. “I appreciate the thought, baby.”
The massages you received were out of this world.
Once meeting with your personal masseuse, you lied face down, uncovering your robe for easy access. The masseuses' hands roaming every inch of your bare back. Rubbing spots along your muscles that you didn’t even know were tense. All of the tension built up inside faded away once the soft fingers of your personal masseuse melted it away.
You couldn’t help but groan loudly at the feeling, hearing your masseuse laugh. “Feel good, yeah?”
“Oh yeah.”
Miguel was enjoying his massage as his groans resonated in the room. While he occasionally instructed his own masseuse where they should rub the most. Any semblance of worry that your husband wasn’t going to enjoy the experience were gone.
Hints of jasmine from the essential oils lingered as hot stones pressed along your back. Not hot enough to burn your skin but to soothe your body. The personal masseuses left the room, wanting you two to lie on the cot for a little to fully relax.
“Cariño?” You hummed in response, “I might fall asleep.”
You giggled as you could tell by his low tone. “Fall asleep, baby.” You weren't too far yourself, body desperate to doze off in pure bliss. Miguel’s soft snores weren’t helping either as it blended well with the gentle music that was playing.
After you and Miguel got some shut eye for a few minutes, your masseuse woke you up for the mani/pedi. You took the lead as Miguel trailed behind, walking a tad slower to get adjusted from his nap. The section of getting the hand and foot massages was in a large area outside. A closed off section that was decorated with tons of food at your disposal. Fruit, veggies and mini sandwiches with a variety of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks.
You quickly snatched up a grape as you sat back in your reclining chair, grabbing a drink of water while waiting on the nail artists to arrive. There was an option of getting your nails painted too, which Miguel willingly said yes to your surprise.
“Ooh can I pick your color?” You asked as they handed you a palette of nail colors to choose from.
“Go crazy.” Miguel said, not paying you any mind as he messed with his chair that had a massage function built in.
You decided to pick black for him, the glittery kind that shined in the light. You opted for a dark blue, like his suit, also sporting a shimmery shine.
The techs were really thorough while doing your hands and feet. Placing them in a tub of warm water, scrubbing away the excess skin. Trimming your nails and toes to a decent length. You watched them rub oil across your arms and legs too before they effortlessly painted your nails and toes. You glanced over to see how Miguel’s looked. He wiggled one of his hands to show it off. Black fit well on him.
Your face was soon covered with a mixture of ingredients you couldn't recognize. The green concoction had a clay-like texture, but it was cool against your skin. You watched the spa workers carry a bowl of cucumbers to finish off the facial. And you couldn't help but get excited when they said you could eat the veggies once the facial was finished, earning a laugh from your husband.
“Can I eat yours too?”
“Sure, mi amor.”
They allowed you two to relax in your chairs for a bit. The soothing sensation of the mask really helping. Your nail techs also recommend waiting to touch anything for a bit while your nails dried, making sure their hard work didn't go to waste. That didn't stop Miguel from inching over to nudge your hand with his pinkie.
“Hm?” You said, completely in the zone of your relaxation.
“You look adorable right now.” Miguel chuckled.
You held back in removing a cucumber from your eye, “Put your cucumbers back on.”
“I will. Just let me look at you.”
“You've seen me before.”
“Not with green stuff all over your face.”
You removed one of your cucumbers, opening your eye and immediately snorting at Miguel’s green covered face. “You look adorable too.”
He gave another affectionate nudge before following your command by putting on his cucumbers.
After the delightful facials, you two made your way down to the saunas. You could feel your face glowing from the extra care. Both of you had to change again into some towels, having a similar texture and color to the robes you wore.
You and Miguel had 30 minutes inside before the staff checked on you. And you felt like you were in heaven as you leaned against Miguel. A warmth radiating throughout the room that relaxed your muscles and your mind. His arm draped behind you, leaning back against the bench, legs spread a little wide. You could tell he was enjoying it as he leaned his head back, taking it in.
Something in you honed on his neck, a slight sheen coating his brown skin. His adam's apple bobbing slowly. You swallowed hard at the hair on his chest, following it down to his happy trail and unable to see the prize under his towel.
“We should come here more often.” His voice caused you to jump, not expecting him to say anything.
“Oh yeah, we should.”
Miguel sat up, red eyes landing on you with a grin, “I know you liked the massages.”
“Of course I did.” You shrugged, “So did you, right?”
He nodded, “I did. But I know you really enjoyed them.” Miguel sat up a little and inadvertently spread his legs wider, “I heard your cute little noises.”
You huffed, trying not to get affected by what he was saying. “It wasn't intentional, it just felt good.”
“I know, nena. I'm teasing.” His hand rested on your side. It felt extra hot for some reason. “Sit on my lap.”
You eyed him suspiciously, “Why?”
“Because I want you to.” He said, sounding innocent.
“We can’t have sex in here, Miguel.”
Your husband bit his lip to hide his amusement, “Who said we were having sex? Your mind is awfully dirty.” You shot a glare towards him. He completely ignored it before patting his thigh for you. Somehow you found yourself on it, hands on his chest for support.
“I'm serious.” You warned before he captured your lips. It was gentle yet passionate. His hand placed on your back to keep you there while your tongues danced with each other. You wanted more when you parted, wanting to lean back in but you stopped yourself.
“We can’t…”
“We're not having sex.” Miguel reiterated as his hand moved to slowly unravel your towel. You didn’t protest, as a glimpse of your breast poked through, your towel loose enough to ride up to your hips. “Grind on my thigh.”
Your hips moved on command, your cunt rubbing against his covered thigh. The plush towel not irritating you at all but the complete opposite as you lowly gasped. Miguel’s hand took its rightful place on your back for stability. His eyes honed on how you were grinding against him.
“Good girl.”
Your eyes flickered to his hard cock coming out from his towel. Standing tall and proud due to your actions. You wanted to touch it, but he beat you to it as he lifted you up gently, plunging two fingers inside you. You whimpered at how embarrassingly wet you were before watching him use your arousal on his cock.
His eyes never left your body as yours watched him stroke his cock. His thumb running along the tip to collect pre cum before using it for additional lubrication. A quiet squishy sound was heard through the hum from the sauna. But you kept going, eyes fluttering shut to focus on what you were doing.
“Eyes on me.” He commanded.
You gazed at him, your stomach twisting as he was still watching you. Intense eyes filled with pleasure. Your hips faltered when he unraveled more of your towel from your body. It was dangling from your form, barely hanging on. But this way he was able to see your breasts move from the hip movement. And your covered sex rub along the fabric.
“Fuck…” He swore, picking up the pace of his strokes. “How did I get so lucky?”
“Miguel…” You moaned, your clit hitting a perfect spot amidst your lazy grinding. That caused you to arch your back and pick up the pace. Miguel’s other hand is still on you, gripping a bit tighter.
“I should fuck you right here.” He grunted, spreading his legs even wider to get a good angle. “But I listen to my wife.”
“Sometimes.” You muttered, enough for him to let out a breathy chuckle. Your thighs started to ache as your cunt pulsed while you felt yourself getting closer. You wanted to shut your eyes and chase it but it was more addicting to look at Miguel’s steely focus on you.
“Wait for me.” He sighed, voice starting to get hoarse. You slowed down for him to catch up. Which didn’t take too long as his rough hand gripped your ass, the cue for you to go. So you kept grinding. Your back arching more and allowing the towel to slip completely off. That earned a groan of approval from your husband, his face turned from the undeniable pleasure.
“Baby I need you to come. We don't have much time.”
“I-I know.” You struggled, whining as you were nearing your peak. You had to ignore Miguel’s demand this time by shutting your eyes to focus on that feeling. Your body exploded, pleasure shooting all over you. Thighs squeezing against his while you quietly cried for him. Any other time he wouldn't like how quiet you were but he didn’t complain.
Miguel wasn’t far behind as cum shot out, staining his abdomen. His death grip from your ass gently released as he heaved. You rested against his chest, listening to his heartbeat slow back down to his original pace.
You and your husband were practically glowing after getting out of the sauna. The two of you changed back into your clothes before making your way to the front of the establishment.
The receptionist waved to you and Miguel as he made the payment, “Did you two enjoy yourselves?”
“We definitely did.” He glanced at you with satisfaction while you held in a grin.
“Awesome!” She handed him the receipt before waving you two goodbye. “Thank you for coming to the Sunny Side Spa! Have a good day!”
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bro-atz · 8 months
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rooftop philosophy
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in which: all hunter wants is a place to eat his lunch peacefully, but you disrupt the peace
pair: hunter/gn!reader
word count: 2k
content: fluff, a lot of unpopular opinions, slight heartbreak, kissing, teasing, and a box of chocolates?
apply for the permanent taglist here!
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Hunter never thought that he’d have to share his safe place. He discovered that the roof was always unlocked one day by accident because he ran to the top of the stairs and tripped, his hand pushing the door open. He was running away from club recruiters that day. The school’s club fest was going on, and each booth tried to grab him before the other one could, hence the running away. Hunter was popular, and he knew that and he didn’t hate it, but he wasn’t a huge fan of all of the attention either. He needed a place he could go to and decompress in the middle of the school day.
So, when you showed up, he was flabbergasted. He was pretty careful about coming to the roof. All of his friends knew that he would go some place else to have lunch— they assumed with his significant other or something— and they all respected his privacy. You, on the other hand, were not close with Hunter in the slightest. You noticed every day around lunch time that he would sneak off somewhere, and one day, you decided to follow him all the way up to the roof.
The boy reluctantly shared his space with you because he was nice but also because he was scared that you were going to tell someone about the fact that the doors to the roof were unlocked and then the school would lock the doors and he’d have to find a new place. You, however, did not know this fear. You just wanted to enjoy the air outside, and the only times to do that were either during gym class or lunch.
You weren’t one to talk much in class, but you loved talking to your friends. You didn’t know if you could consider Hunter your friend on that kind of level, but talking to him was easy because he would just sit and eat his lunch in peace and occasionally agree with you while you talked about all the things in the world that concerned you, most of them being unpopular opinions.
“I still don’t get why people say money can’t buy happiness,” you started one day. “Money can totally buy happiness. My neighbors were really upset with their grandma died, and two weeks later, they were happy because they bought a dog. A dog. That’s literally buying happiness.”
Hunter nodded slightly in agreement, but you didn’t notice.
“I can’t make myself happy without spending money nowadays. No one can. If you want cheer up by eating chocolate or something, you have to buy it, right? That’s buying happiness. Little kids always want stuffed animals or toys, and when they’re sad, parents usually buy something to make them happy. That’s also buying happiness! Whoever said money can’t buy happiness is stupid.”
You continued talking while Hunter cleaned up the wrappers around him— he was pretty much done eating.
“The quote came from 1750 or something, so it makes sense for then, but now? Money is happiness. Material wealth is tied to happiness, and you can quote me on that.”
The bell rang. The unspoken agreement between the two of you was that you would head back to the classroom first, then him a couple minutes later. It’s not that he didn’t want to be caught with you, but he didn’t want his hiding spot being found, and if people thought you two were together, then it meant risking the discovering of his spot.
“Fairy tales are horrible if you really think about it. They tell you that there’s always a good person and an evil person and that you’re either one or the other. Fables are where it’s at. Those have lessons and morals, and more humanizing. Give me a lesson over a conquest any day.”
“Christmas is not the best holiday. Halloween is. We should be celebrating Halloween and having that day off to work on our costumes and enjoy the weather before it gets freezing cold outside.”
“Trying to put sweet and salty things in the same snack is gross and doesn’t work. They should come together but be packed separately so we can balance the flavors the way we want to.”
You would come upstairs with a new opinion everyday, and Hunter would listen to your opinions everyday.
As the school year progressed, there was one boy in Hunter’s friend group that caught your attention: Junghoon. Every time you saw him, your heart would flutter. He was always smiling and always laughing, and you knew that you didn’t stand a chance with him because of how immensely popular he was with the rest of the student body. Until…
“Forgetting to hit send on a message really does happen! Why do people automatically assume that it’s a white lie?! I literally forgot to hit submit on my homework last night, and now I have detention. I swear, I did the work…”
The bell rang. Hunter got up, and you left first. Same as usual. When you stayed back in school that day to serve your detention, you ended up getting to spend it with Junghoon, who was also in detention for the same reason as you. 
“I do this all the time,” Junghoon sighed as he admitted to you. “I just suck at responding and pressing buttons. I’ll have something I want to ask someone and have it all typed out, but when they don’t respond, I get upset, and then check my messages to see that I never sent the damn thing. So annoying.”
“Haha, tell me about it,” you said as you stared dreamily at him. That was also the shortest sentence you said that day.
It made you so happy that your opinion was actually a fact that was proven by Junghoon, but it also made you happy that you got to spend time with him.
You never stopped thinking about Junghoon after that day. You fell for him. Hard. You were planning on confessing to him for Valentine’s Day because, as far as you could tell, he was single, no one else was in pursuit of him, and there was no harm in trying.
What a lie. There was totally harm in trying. You got him a cute little box of chocolates and waited for him before school in front of the gates. You were going to pull him aside and hand him the box of chocolates then confess, but before you could even do that, you saw Junghoon walk towards the gate hand in hand with another student in your class. You wanted to lie to yourself again and say that they were just friends, but then when you saw them hug and kiss, your world came crashing down. You quickly shuffled your way back to the school building, shoved the chocolates back into your bag, and sat at your desk.
Your eyes were misty for the first half of the day, but as the day progressed, your sadness morphed into humor as a defense mechanism then into cynicism. By the time you got to lunch, you justified to yourself why someone like Junghoon was totally out of your reach.
“Here’s the thing, Hunter,” you started with your lecture the second the rooftop door closed behind you. “Things are beautiful. People are beautiful. The world is beautiful. But! Not everything is beautiful. Not everyone is beautiful. The entire world is not beautiful.”
You plopped down on the ground next to him. He continued eating, you continued talking— lunch as per usual.
“I wonder what it must be like to be beautiful. I imagine those people are always, “oh my God, being beautiful is so hard! My life is so tragic!” and then they’re just sweating sparkles and gold and you’re annoyed with them because living a beautiful life is nothing. Nothing! They don’t have to work for anything! Things just fall into their hands.”
Hunter raised an eyebrow because this was a different rant for once.
“I will never know that feeling because I’m not beautiful,” you explained. “People are attracted to and love beautiful things… And I am not one of them.”
“Y/N, shut up,” Hunter said— he had never, ever said anything during your rants or lectures, but this time was different because the rant was different.
“What? It is true. Beautiful things, beautiful people— no one can resist them. Meanwhile, me? I’m not someone’s first choice, and I’m not really a choice anyone considers because I’m not beautiful or even pretty. I’m just… Okay. I’m mid. I’m aight. Not attractive, just aight.”
“Stop it, Y/N.”
“What’s your deal? Since when do you care about what I talk about? You usually just ignore me, anyway.”
“No, I don’t.”
“See? You don’t care—”
“I do care, Y/N,” Hunter interrupted. “And I don’t ignore you. I always listen to everything you say and stay quiet because I usually agree, but right now? Right now, you’re so wrong.”
“Huh? Wrong about what? Liking beautiful things? Do you not like beautiful things?”
“I do, but that’s not what I’m taking about. You’re not just okay, you’re not mid… I’d say you’re aight, but you’re beautiful, too.”
You stared at Hunter for a solid minute before bursting out laughing. He had such a serious look on his face, and he made the funniest joke with that straight face of his. “That’s a funny joke, Hunter. You should be a comedian,” you said while wiping tears from your eyes.
Hunter’s face didn’t even flinch, causing you to laugh all over again. His stone face was incredible. You continued to laugh, but he still didn’t laugh; he didn’t even smile because he wasn’t joking.
“Hunter, you don’t have to lie to make me laugh and feel better, but thanks for that. I needed it.”
“I wasn’t lying.”
“Wait, but wasn’t the joke the fact that it’s a lie? See, wait. Let me look it up…” You took your phone out and typed quickly pulling up the definition of the word. “Okay, it says here that beautiful means “pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically, and of a very high standard,” and that definition is definitely not—”
Hunter couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed your wrist and moved your phone away from your face before pressing his lips firmly against yours. Your eyes went wide, only for you to squeeze your eyes shut when you felt Hunter’s other hand move to the back of your head and hold you gently, his lips leaving an additional kiss, then two, then more until your phone slipped out of your hand. You were completely flabbergasted when he finally stopped and moved back, your eyes staring into his.
“W-wh-what…?” For once, you had no words.
“Now you listen, and let me talk,” he said gently. “Originally, I let you come up here because I didn’t want to lose the access to the roof. I was slightly annoyed at first because I wanted to eat my lunch in peace, but every day, you come up here with something new to talk about, and I’m always intrigued and entertained.”
“I had no—”
“Shut up, I’m not done,” Hunter held a finger to your lips. “I like your company, Y/N, and I like you, so it kills me to hear you say those kinds of things about yourself. So, stop it.”
You stared at Hunter, eyes wide, jaw dropped. 
“I always care about everything you say and think and do, Y/N. If I didn’t, I would have made you stop talking like I did today.”
Hunter let go of your hand and moved away from you while you were still shellshocked. Your mind was blank for once, until a tiny intrusive thought entered your head.
“I have a question,” you told him.
“What is it?”
“So, if I say things you don’t agree with, will you make me stop talking?”
“Yes.”
“Would you make me stop talking the way you did just now?”
Hunter took a second to process the question before going hot red in the face. He let out a couple of empty noises before looking away from you, steam literally rising from the top of his head because of how embarrassed he was. You had to stifle a laugh as you watched him react to your genuine inquiry.
“Love isn’t a choice,” you teased him. “You only like me because you spend so much time with me.”
“Y/N—”
“You just don’t want to be alone on Valentine’s Day.”
“I swear to God—”
“You just want me to give you a box—”
Just as he said, Hunter shut you up, and he shut you up by kissing you again. You couldn’t help but giggle as his soft lips encompassed yours and his fingers tickled your neck and cheek. You kissed him back, suppressing the urge to smile in between each one. It was only when the bell rang that the two of you separated, a slow exhale leaving your lips as he moved away. A small smile settled on your face as Hunter looked away shyly, his face a light shade of pink. You stood up and helped him clean up before heading to the rooftop doors.
“I’ll head down first,” you told him.
Just as you took one step down, you felt him grab your wrist. You turned to look at him, his face still pink, and his eyes barely able to maintain contact with yours.
“Yeah?”
“Um… You said something about a box…”
“What, you want me to give you a box of chocolates?” you asked with a snicker.
“I wouldn’t be opposed…” he mumbled.
“Okay, I’ll give you the box… Tomorrow.”
You shuffled down the stairs while laughing to yourself, and as you turned to take the second set of stairs down, you looked up to see Hunter with a huge grin on his face. He, like you, couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come.
155 notes · View notes
platoniccereal · 8 months
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some notes on the wanderer/scaramouche's characterisation~
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i first and foremost made this for myself since every time i touched upon the wanderer's speech something felt amiss. but i also hope these notes may be of help to any content creator in their characterisation of our favourite an-emo boy!
while writing these notes i went through phrases scaramouche/the wanderer utters to establish his choice of words and thoughts that may be hidden behind them! i also provided utterances themselves for almost every point i made so that his speech can be copied easier. besides, i tried to guess how this can be utilised in our head canons! :)
please keep in mind that these are still my notes of something that stood out to me, not absolutely everything. additionally, i still may misinterpret something + our interpretation may be different + you can see something as a stretch. that's ok! also, i listened to the english va + i speak of the balladeer and the wanderer as Two Different hypostases of a character, not the same continuous character.
hope you find it helpful!
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INVERSION OF GENESIS.
★ when the balladeer/the wanderer is angry, he rarely raises his voice. he starts to whisper and even speak softer instead (it's about the english voice, but afaik it's also true for other voices, too). when he wants an emphasis on certain words, he whispers, too. this isn't true for battles, though, as he is very loud in his wanderer and shouki no kami hypostases.
★ his usual sarcastic structure is to state something he'd expect and then illustrate that someone is acting against it (as in, stupid). e.g. «ah, so if it were up to you, you'd finish the job? guess i had you all wrong. there i was thinking you were just getting cold feet,» «it's not every day you see people questioning the god of wisdom's judgment. just when you think you've seen it all.»
★ when he wants to threaten a person or make them do something, he isn't necessarily uses imperative sentences. he uses «i'd like you to» in «in return, i'd like you to answer a question for me» and still gets what he asks for. other examples are his «so why don't you relax your guard a little?» «let's cut each other a little slack, shall we?» and «so maybe you should think about backing off a little.»
as illustrated, instead of describing painful consequences, he undermines them instead. («a little» is his favourite word, it seems.) as evident later, it is coupled with his, err, laid back attitude towards threats to him. basically, he just lets people act stupid and walk into his traps.
from what we've seen from dottore, he also uses the same structure: «i suggest you keep your true feelings to yourself.» maybe, he was the one scaramouche copied.
★ overall, his sarcasm is what you'd usually see from people. it should be kept in mind that sarcasm is his initial response and he will use it as often as possible even if he could simply explain. there won't be any examples here, though, as there would be too many. but his conversations with nahida, paimon and signora illustrate it well. i believe sarcasm is his way to assert power since it builds on «common knowledge + the inversion of that» hence implying the opponent doesn't have this common knowledge -> they are stupid, he is not.
★ he is extremely professional and focused on completing the task successfully. he knows how operations (which the traveller suggests he was assigned when he was the harbinger) are carried out and follows the strict algorithm. e.g. «(to nahida) we will now proceed to the heart of irminsul», «permission to begin searching for information?»
he isn't easily swayed when he works and tries to get this attitude out of the traveller and paimon, too, just asking them not to fall behind.
★ he follows the agreement with nahida: how they will walk into the irminsul and what his tasks will be. he completes them without any chatter and keeps nahida updated as he should. even after the revelation about the tatarasuna's history, he still is able to proceed with his task.
★ «you can't have your prisoner knowing too much,» «i understand that prisoners have to put up with harassment from the guards,» it may be a stretch, but from these sentences + how he talks about his relationships with the fatui i can conclude that he easily justifies abuse towards himself. the balladeer/the wanderer isn't the person who just lets people do that, but whenever abuse happens, he easily explains it by the natural order of things and weaklings suffering from the strong ones because they deserve it. hence, whenever he ends up being the weak one, he believes he deserves this abuse. this can seep through into in his further interactions with people who care about him should any fight occur.
★ «sometimes it's you using them, other times it's them using you.» it comes in a direct parallel to niwa's words about dottore's attitude towards kabukimono: people of tararasuna didn't want to use him, hence it's the doctor who altered scaramouche's perception of human relationships. the balladeer/the wanderer believes in mutual gain and uses it to: 1) get what he wants from the traveller, 2) pay back for nahida and the traveller's help.
thus, it's safe to conclude he uses this principle as a moral compass in every social interaction he comes across. he could use this law to navigate his personal life instead of his emotions.
★ «most of human relationships are this way… certainly the stable ones are.» it is easier for him to predict when he stops being valuable to someone and toss other people out when they are not useful to him, so there is no sudden abandonment. it is easy to see how it corresponds with his trauma. this principle gives him the illusion of control since he can calculate everything, and gaining control over situations that may lead to the repeated trauma is a response real abuse survivors have. hence, it's safe to conclude the wanderer will try to find what other person gains in his more sincere relationships and, what's worse, may use other people who care about him out of habit since it's a natural order for him.
★ even though he earned the reputation of someone who doesn't bite his tongue when he should he doesn't backtalk or lie when it isn't beneficial to him.
★ he admits to managing «cordial conversations», so while the wanderer may avoid participating in small talks at all, it isn't unreal to picture him having one and not imploding. this is also something confirmed by his first appearance in the unreconciled stars event where he handles a friendly conversation perfectly - so the friendliness is just something he knows (and studied intently as kabukimono) but ignores on purpose. social skills are there.
★ the balladeer and possibly the wanderer, too, is sadistic in a classical sense of the word. he admits to enjoying stomping on the pests, meaning bringing pain and destruction to people. this can also be confirmed by one of the husk of the opulent dream's pieces. there, it is stated that «he also loved watching expressions of terror and helplessness play across human faces, and it was perhaps precisely because of this imbecilic underling's expressiveness that he had kept them around.» as the balladeer, he let some of his subordinates stay not because of their usefulness, but because they were funny to abuse. (also. hot.)
thus, it can be possible that in a less hostile environment of the akademiya the wanderer can struggle with this side of himself, hurting people on purpose. this can also become something he has to fight in relationships with people he cares about.
★ before his memories are restored the wanderer is polite and reserved. he apologises, calls his boss properly and tries to do his part. we can notice the similar behaviour of the balladeer but weaponised to imitate friendliness (e.g. unreconciled stars). there isn't any features of a classical shy character, he doesn't stutter or use abrupt phrases.
★ «i ran into him out in the wilderness during the storm, and he let me take shelter in his cart. in return, i said i'd be his helper for a while.» even before he gets his memories back and remembers principles the fatui likely taught him, the wanderer navigates his relationships with others through understanding what he gets and what he must give in return.
it is clear that he spent some time in the shop already and made enough work to make the merchant uncomfortable for exploiting him. thus, the «for a while part» isn't quite true. the wanderer has nowhere to go so he has every intention to pay back more than he needs to, to just stay somewhere.
hence, he can continue using this principle in his relationships with others, creating a conflict where he is dead set on paying back with little to no regard for his own feelings.
★ «i don't deserve your protection.» it seems that even before he restores his memories and is only told about his sins, the wanderer already despises himself enough to reject help. this attitude may exist later, when the wanderer restored his memories, with an added «i'm not that weak» but this is only my speculation.
however, this phrase may be another example of him carefully weighing what others give to him and what he should return.
★ «(uttered by the jester) what you are, truly, is a weapon, one that can be wielded with an iron will…» to further ingrain the thought that the balladeer is a tool, not a person, the jester proposes the idea of seeing himself as a weapon to kunikuzushi. coupled with dottore saying someone will eventually use kabukimono, it seems this was the strategy that was used to keep the balladeer in the harbinger ranks.
thus, we can see that the balladeer continued to suffer abuse due to 1) his beliefs in the strong dominating the weak, 2) his illusions that he is a person shattered by events of tararasuna, hence he perceives himself as an object, a weapon that must endure. the latter is a bit of a speculation but i don't think it is far off the mark:
★ «now that i've had a taste of just about every flavour in this world, i've found that actually… bitterness is the one i like best,» and the whole bitterness discussion in the teapot are the example of him pushing himself to his limits in order to being able to handle the true bitterness of life. (also, it lies in a nice parallel with ei/shogun's «illusions shattered» thing, but i diverge.)
★ «(uttered by the jester) or, you could continue to drift aimlessly.» another tactic fatui used to win kabukimono over was his obvious lack of any goals and place to go. we can see that the wanderer finds himself in a similar position, staying with the merchant because he had nowhere to go. long time ago, the balladeer stayed for these very reasons with much, much more dangerous people than a common merchant.
★ «i'm harsh on myself and everybody else.» while the former comes from the low self-esteem and believing himself to be weak, the wanderer also won't be patient with anyone's blunders. i suspect especially if it's about someone in his charge or if it's about work. i also suspect that an easy way to get on his good-ish side is to act this way as well and not let any mistakes slide.
★ «utility to others is what makes me worth.» as soon as his memories were implemented into him, he is reverted back to his harsh principles ingrained into him by the fatui. it seems there isn't any other tool he could use to measure his worth. the base principle that any life is worth something does not exist for someone who didn't see himself as an alive being for several past centuries.
hence, it can lead to reckless behaviour driving him to his limits which will cause stress to someone who cares about him.
★ «oh right… i almost forgot. you're the good guys. you're into justice and all that.» this is his answer to the traveller trying to argue with how the wanderer sees his own worth. i believe there's some division between what he thinks good guys deserve/what the wanderer himself deserves. thus, while it is possible he will agree that life's worth is life itself after some long argument, he still won't apply this to himself. i believe it's a somewhat common coping mechanism to think «people don't deserve X, but i deserve X.» (i'm not talking about his crimes, btw.)
★ «no nonsense. i like it.» he approves when the traveller doesn't argue with the «let them stab the blades into my chest if they so desire. maybe that's how it always should have been.» while the wanderer might need support in his life and changing his self-destructive perspective might be of great help to him, it seems he still wouldn't appreciate a direct approach to that.
VOICE LINES.
★ one of the most consistent features of the wanderer is despising the idle chatter, as evident in this idle voice line, «it's rather pathetic to force a conversation just to occupy silence.» another example is the husk of opulent dream's description: «the youth, hating chatty humans the most, gave his subordinate a backhand slap.»
so, the balladeer/the wanderer despises small talk even if he can participate in one. he would likely appreciate people who are just focused on the task and don't say anything that isn't related to their common goal at the moment. perhaps, it can be used to form a wordless bond between him and people who hang out with him.
it seems that he is quite harsh in his criteria for the idle chatter since his subordinate asks quite a normal question of where the harbinger is heading next.
★ looking through every voice line about other people, it can be argued that the wanderer's initial algorithm to describe someone is to trash them. but i believe we should also remember most of his voice lines are about the harbingers, and he's never had particularly warm feelings towards his colleagues. other four are yae miko and raiden shogun, and he isn't fond of them both, and kazuha and nahida. last two are the only people he doesn't despise, and these voice lines are pretty tame, while not an open praise.
★ «i have no need for food. save me the trouble and take care of yourself and that small thing floating next to you.» this can be perceived both as him not wanting the traveller getting in his way like the balladeer's subordinates, or genuine, poorly expressed care. thus, the wanderer may say dubious phrases with that intention whenever he expresses his care.
★ «so, you're still stewing over our run-ins from before? huh. well, what are you going to do about it? take your time. i'm in no hurry.» the wanderer's attitude to threats is quite unique. other examples of that are his lines from the trailer, where he answers «sure i will» and «i look forward to that» to the threat that he will pay for his attitude. also, «fine by me – come one, come all, i say. as a matter of fact, i'm somewhat looking forward to it.»
basically, you can read his behaviour as «you can be stupid enough trying to attack me, and i won't stop humans from being stupid, and the outcome is their fault.» it's basically all over his trailer where he waits until the fatui attack first.
★ when it comes to answering for his sins, though, i would rather see it as accepting his punishment. it is also evident in his falling voice line, «the price for my sins.»
★ «the gods aren't guided by any kind of rationality or moral compass. haven't i shown that to you already?» i believe he doesn't mean ei or nahida here, two archons he is connected with, because he didn't show us anything in regard to them. (we dealt with problems with them ourselves) what he might mean is shouki no kami. this also may be evident in his battle ost and, «(about his actions) after all, gods have never been needed to be reasonable.» so this phrase may indicate irony he feels regarding his actions as an archon.
★ overall, it seems that he's rather profiling everybody for us rather than giving his pure opinion.
★ «anger, whether it be from others or myself, is too convenient and useful as a tool.» while the balladeer went as far as becoming a god only to become emotionless, he now learns an actually legitimate way to deal with anger. the first step to do it is to learn that anger is a normal emotion and how to channel it instead. thus, he can also learn this about other emotions and that each one of them is ok. knowing he uses the utility of everything as a compass, the utility of emotions may be something that will help him accept them.
★ «don't you know that's only asking for trouble?» coupled with the phrase from his birthday letter, «has she ever stopped to think about what an «experience» it is for others to meet me?» it is apparent that while behaving highly unsociable due to detest for idle chatter, he also wants to shelter others from his presence since he believes it is nothing pleasant. i believe he also thinks it will only bring suffering in the end – to them.
★ «it's not so much that i have nothing to say… i just have nothing fun or positive to share,» explains another reason he avoids conversations – he just doesn't believe himself to be someone people would usually have as an opponent.
★ «if you don't mind, perhaps… we could sit here together for a while,» coupled with «the scenery here should be quite breathtaking» from his birthday voice line lets me think that his favourite quality time with others is to peacefully enjoy some scenery (he truly is a cat who just likes to be in someone's presence).
★ «are you so dumb as to have forgotten that i'm not human?» this is a less useful observation but i find it rather funny that he is annoyed not by the fact that the traveller may try to poison him but by the fact that they chose an ineffective method. if we wanna extract something useful, though, it can be said that if the traveller tries to kill him and fairly wins, he is ok with that as he is the weak one in this situation. but that's quite a stretch.
★ «i can see the great deal of effort you put forth,» «thank you for trying to look out for me. go get some rest,» and «it's generous of you to host me in your home. the least i could do is be grateful,» show pretty clearly that even after the wanderer restored his memories he is still able to express gratitude without exploding, and i don't believe he finds it useful to be mean when it isn't of any need.
★ «hey, you own this place. what are you so nervous about? it's not a good look,» coupled with «look at me, coming around here, criticizing your lifestyle choices.» everybody noticed how nice the wanderer is in the serenitea pot (as shown in the previous point). but this also reveals that while he enjoys being painfully straightforward and kept people around just because they suffered prettily, he doesn't enjoy when at least the traveller doesn't put up any fight. maybe it's about the subordinate/the equal difference. basically, he seems to respect people with strong personal boundaries. the ones who don't try to justify their own home where he is just a guest, at least. that would be logical since it's evident he navigates his life through «weak/strong» division.
★ «this is your home. arrange it as you wish,» this and previous voice lines illustrate once again that he isn't unnecessarily mean, at least not all the time. he understands the dynamics of a place he is in and how to be a grateful guest instead of shitting on every player's choice.
★ «the fact that things didn't work out doesn't make my past self a fool for hoping in vain that they would, does it?» and «you're a god. do you think i'm evil?» depending on whether we see the former as rhetoric or not, this may show that even though he is quite old, he still looks for guidance whenever it comes to more vulnerable topics. he looks for this guidance in people he respects, such as the traveller and nahida. and at least with nahida, he listens intently because the answer truly matters to him. maybe, if there wasn't any mechanic restrictions, he would listen to the traveller, too.
PRE-IOG SCENES.
★ «for just a small price, they get the feeling of controlling the world. trading their life for supreme power… pretty good deal, don't you think?» there isn't much to analyse as the utterance is pretty clear, but i just find it funny because this is what he ended up doing with shouki no kami. so either he fell into the same trap or he truly believed in what he said then and wasn't just mocking teppei.
★ «[haypasia] peered into my consciousness and saw my past. someone like that is qualified to become my first follower.» while this qualifies haypasia as a follower, having one also qualifies him as a god. but this can be perceived differently. haypasia saw his past and stayed devoted and didn't leave her god. it is my speculation, but this may be something scaramouche is after - this is a twisted form of acceptance. as the wanderer, he still may harbour such desire to be seen and accepted, leading him into healthy relationships or unhealthy obsessions. still, the whole haypasia sequence demonstrates that scaramouche is still a loyal individual, he just didn't have anyone to grant this loyalty.
★ on the same note, it should be said that scaramouche openly admits and expresses affection to haypasia. a mortal, a feeble human, mind you. because, of course, she is his first and only follower. thus, he can show such feelings honestly and without shying away if he deems it necessary, which might be useful for creating his future bonds with other people and maybe he will be much more open with them than we'd initially thought.
★ «has anyone ever told you that you're not good at sowing discord?» and «you're still too naive if you think a few words will be enough to convince me to destroy the doctor,» imply that before the revelation in 3.3, scaramouche wouldn't let just anyone get him on bad terms with the doctor and manipulate him into that no matter how much abuse by dottore he endured. no matter how bad his relationships with his colleges are, he will handle them himself. this is a note purely for me and my future writing of the wanderer, but it seems that even after 3.3 getting him out of the dottore's mental grasp will be a demanding task.
SMALLER DETAILS.
★ his idle emotion and his character picture are him smiling, so it isn't unusual for the wanderer to do it and even more natural - maybe, at least when he is alone.
★ whenever the wanderer finishes the task, he prefers to shortly say «done» without any chatter.
★ when it comes to speech, he doesn't divide his sentences much and uses compound, very complex ones freely. whenever he needs to explain something, if it isn't something he deems stupid, he does it fully and doesn't hold back.
★ scaramouche always calls nahida buer, perhaps as the way to show himself being above «demon gods», while the wanderer calls her lesser lord kusanali, which sounds more respectful as it is her title.
★ overall, i think the approach hoyo use for their characters is choosing one main characteristic (if you think about any character, you can remember One main thing about them) and then building their interactions around situations where it feature shows and situations where it is an exception and they act against it.
if we focus only on one type of these situations, we mischaracterise the character. thus, if we choose, say, the wanderer being mean as his main feature and focus on it, we miss out on times where it isn't true. for example, his respect for the traveller's realm or his desire to help others in a parade of providence. if we focus only on nice exceptions like that, we mischaracterise him as well.
updates:
★ now that we have both the second birthday story and his tcg lines, it appears to the wanderer is no stranger to doing something just to make someone happy. and then say it was only because he's got nothing to do. e.g., reading books someone recommended to him, «some vahumana students were trying to push some book recommendations onto me. i don't have anything else to do, so i'm just idly flipping through them» or playing a duel because he thinks it makes the traveler happy, «can a game like this really make you so happy? childish... if you want to play, then be quick about it,» «all smiles after winning a game like this? ha, so easy to satisfy,» «and the boring game is finally over... you happy now?»
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accio-victuuri · 9 months
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CPN : ZZ’s mysterious driver & Web’s “selfie”
So I thought about whether i should talk about this or just leave it be. Cause i did mention the mystery driver in the August CPN post but I kept it vague and left minimum information. Because at the time, it sounded so galaxy brained and that it’s something that will never be what we want to be. And that’s fine. There are a lot of cpns/speculations/interpretations that are barely plausible and even us, we know it’s not possible, hence the term “clowning”.
this is one tho is making all of us go 👀.
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( isn’t he the most gorgeous man ever? i don’t blame wyb for wanting to fetch him or visit. )
If you’ve been in this fandom long enough, you’ll know that sometimes the most nonsensical clues will become key points in the future. or those impossible cpns will (sometimes) sooner or later become more true.
This incident is a great example of that…..
For ZZ’s LOCH filming, there are proxy shooters who wait outside the site and film when ZZ arrives and leaves. Their clue is the car he uses but i don’t think he was ever photographed coming in or out like what happened with SBMS. That time, you can physically see him leaving/arriving to the hotel back entrance. There are photos and videos.
So 8/13, the same thing happens and cpfs noticed that the driver looked peculiar. It’s not his face per se, but what’s on it (p2).
We were clowning that it’s WYB with his helmet but it doesn’t look like his usual one. It’s too covered up.
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At the time it was full on clowning. Would he really do this? Were other drivers photographed before and what did they look like? Is this the first time this mystery driver popped up? I haven’t seen the answer to that so that’s why i’m questioning it too. Maybe XZ does not want any part of the team to be recognizable.
A piece of the puzzle is added tho because of the Selfie WYB shared. As displayed above, we are putting it side by side. So is this him confirming our clowning? What are the chances that we were speculating about him wearing a different kind of helmet ( as the driver ) then he pops up with this selfie in particular.
Is this another coincidence? 🤡🤡🤡🤡
It’s also giving this vibe. His photo when he celebrated ZZ’s birthday and drove to where he was. Did he take this photo for the same purpose?
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There is also a cpn going around based on XZ’s workday, it ended 20:20 and then WYB posted 20:39 so did he post it for XZ to see after work?
CPFs also noticed it’s taken from wechat camera. So meaning he sent it to someone else and yet again, we got leftovers. You could actually argue that “selfies” or things he shares on his weibo now are “leftovers”. I actually like that. He did not take a selfie or film a video with the intention of “posting for fans”. He probably shared it to xz or his circle of friends and decided why not share it on his weibo + fans.
Bonus is in today’s episode of SBMS there is this scene. Shengyang was looking through drawings of what looks like a moto goggles (?). LOL. The universe is really joining in on the clowning. Does WYB know this scene will come up the next day? Hmmmmmm…
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It’s one of those things that is the reason why so many people are drawn to this pairing and fandom in general. Candies like this are why more and more people, even to this day, are becoming cpfs. We don’t even have to make “brainwashing” packages. You can’t even make these up. It just happens.
-END.
Disclaimer: I know the implications and dilemma of taking candies from these proxy shooters who make their lives hard. Tho the entrance of the shooting site is a public space and they know LOCH crew is in there, it’s still not an excuse to camp out. If you think about it, these paparazzi are the reason why the mystery driver have to dress like that instead of a normal person. So yeah. I understand if people don’t wanna eat this candy because of that or feel 50/50 about all of this.
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Not Your Classic Vigilante [Ch. 13]
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Alternate Dimension AU TW: Language, Light Alcohol, Attempted Kidnapping, CW: OC Use, See the OC Guide [Here] Genre: Drama, Action, Angst, Light Comedy Pairing: Batfamily & Batsis!Reader, OC x Reader YN Pronouns: Female (She/Her) Word Count: 8.8K
(13/?) [First] | [Previous] | [Next] [DC Masterlist] | [Not Your Classic Vigilante Masterlist]
Notes: IT'S FINALLY DONEEEE this is crazy how many chapters have I updated this year? LMFAO Not fully proofread by my awakened mind yet but I did run it through grammarly lol I'll give it a proper look later
Disclaimer: This series is originally by @fandom-meanderer who is a close friend of mine, but she has since fallen out of her Tumblr days and asked me to finish a few series for her, hence why I am now in ownership of the Not Your Classic Vigilante series, I hope I can still live up to her writing as I rewrite this series! (I promise not to change too much, hehe)
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2012
Things were different. Lonelier. And maybe a bit sadder. You stood in front of the room that now loomed over you, and you took a deep breath to steady your nerves. You opened it, the door slamming against the wall with a loud bang, and you waited, you waited for the usual ‘Get out of my room!’ But none came. And there hasn’t been one for months now. You walked inside, still a mess and untouched as it was the night before he left, and you sat in the middle of it, hugging your legs close to your chest.
“There’s another party downstairs,” you said out loud. “I was thinking I should go for a walk, should I?” You wondered aloud. No answer. No 'Wait for me,' no 'ask Dick to go with you.' Just silence. You just wanted a quiet place to escape the noise, what with the gala going on downstairs and your father acting in front of the masses, you just didn’t feel up to it. Besides, Dick wasn’t even there to keep you company this time. You sat in the silence for a while, looking around the room as if he was hiding somewhere and was about to jump out to scare you. But no surprises came. Instead, you got up, took one of the dusty books from the shelf, and left the room.
“Oh, hey!” A younger boy stood in front of you, he looked vaguely familiar. “Could I ask you a quick question?” 
“Yeah, the party’s just downstairs, walk down the corridor and you’ll hit the ballroom eventually,” you answered.
“No, it’s something else,” he shakes his head.
“Ah, the bathroom is also downstairs right next to the ballroom,” you cut him off and turned to walk into your room.
“(Y/N) Wayne. I know who your father is, we need to talk.” That got your attention. You stopped with your hand on the doorknob and sighed.
“Right, he’s a businessman, nothing else,” you nodded. But the boy’s face remained grim. “Let’s go somewhere private,” you nudged your head further down the hall and he followed. Once you were both situated in a secluded part of the mansion, he spoke up.
“I’m Tim Drake,” he introduces himself. You shook his hand. Tim Drake, a couple years your junior, you've seen him around in your family's galas before but you've never really talked to him, you were always more preoccupied with your brothers or too busy taking pictures to go up to the boy who tended to stay on the sidelines more.
“I know.” Now you remembered him, he’d gone to a few of your father’s galas before.
“Oh, cool, I was worried for a second, we didn’t usually talk much,” he says, “you were always with two older guys.”
“My brothers.”
“I know that,” Tim shrugs. “I tracked you down because I had a favor to ask you,” he says.
“Sure,” you agreed only as a formality. The Waynes and the Drakes were somewhat of friends. Tim glanced around.
“Batman needs a Robin,” he says quietly. You wondered how he figured it out. There was no point in hiding anything either, he must have been really smart to have figured out your identities, even people who worked right next to your dad couldn’t have deduced it. “Don’t try to deny it, I have pictures,” he says. You shook your head.
“If you’re asking me then that means that Dick said no, huh?”
“Right away,” Tim mutters.
“I can’t give you an answer,” you told him. But Tim’s eyes seemed to shine, as if he’d found a treasure he’d been looking for. Why he was so desperate, you didn’t know. “Well, either way, you figured them out, I’m sure you can think of something too just in case,” you replied bluntly. 
“Thank you, (Y/N),” he says. “Even just thinking about it is enough.”
“Why do you feel like you should do this, though?” You asked him.
“I…” Tim hesitated. “I’m sure you know as well as I do the kind of rampage Batman has been on in the city.” You were. Recently, you were certain, that your father and the one behind the mask are two different people now.
“And you think having a Robin would help him?” You muttered. 
“Yes, I do, and who better than his own daughter?” He asks. You looked away and toward your clasped hands.
“You may be asking the wrong person, Tim, I have no qualifications to be a Robin,” you say.
“Better you than none,” Tim insists.
“I could never do what they did,” you shut your eyes. “The Batman... he scares me,” you mumbled, clutching onto the book in your arms a little tighter now.
“I’m sorry,” Tim says. You held your hand up to stop him. 
“I’m sorry too, Tim, this isn’t a good time,” you shook your head, stood up, and you left. You admired Tim’s good intentions, truly, but they paled in comparison to the thoughts that ran rampant in your mind right now. You just lost a brother. Your father didn’t want to listen to you. Your other brother was nowhere to be found, and that left you to mull all this over. 
You felt lost.
Lost in your thoughts, and all alone. This was the first time, the first in a long time, where you once again felt alienated in this manor. Not a vigilante and barely a Wayne, was donning the Robin mantle what you needed to do to be seen again?
You didn’t know.
~
2022
The three brothers climbed onto the train after Damian pulled an insignia out of his pocket. 
“The Captain sends her regards,” Damian says to the guards. They salute and march away after leading them to a private cabin, one that Damian shut and locked as soon as the other two were situated.
“Alright, Damian, you first,” Tim invites him. Damian nods.
“After that man teleported me here, I woke up on a battlefield, it was… very different than the ones we’ve seen before,” he says. “Everything in this world is different from ours, laws, people, everything,” he says. “I don’t even know where to start for you two. I’ve been here for almost two months now and I’m still learning things.”
“Two months?!” Tim shouts. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah?”
“Damian, you went missing two weeks ago,” Jason corrects.
“Weeks? No, no, I’ve been here for a while now,” Damian shakes his head. Tim pulls out the remains of the watch. “Where did you get that?”
“(Y/N) left it behind before she left,” Tim mumbles.
“This is it. This is the watch that the stranger had too,” Damian takes the watch and opens it.
“So this is the culprit then,” Tim looks down at it. “Maybe we could reverse it somehow to get home.”
“Not in this state, it won’t,” Damian shuts the watch in his hands and places it in his pocket. “I’ve been trying to do my own investigation, but without the watch and with the constant surveillance I’ve been drawing blanks.” 
“Superveillance?” Tim, always the skeptic.
“To avoid any unnecessary complications, I had to hide in plain sight, but that greatly restricted my movements,” Damian grumbles. “Now you two, how did you figure it out?”
“We were tugging it around, and somehow it activated the mechanism inside of it,” Tim explains.
“Before I was transported, the man swang it back and forth, maybe moving the watch is key to activating it,” Damian hypothesizes.
“Movement of some kind, but it has to be precise, otherwise you’d be teleporting everywhere with every step,” Tim swings the pendulum of a clock, but in its sorry state nothing happens.
“Well, either way, we’re not going to figure out shit with it like this,” Jason shakes his head. “I say we find (Y/N) then we figure out how to fix the thing.”
“That’s a good start,” Tim agrees.
“Luckily, I know where she is,” Damian cuts in, “we’ve been sticking close to each other since I landed here.”
“That’s good! She’s alright, then? Safe?” Tim worries. Damian hid the smile behind his hand.
“Good, great even, and most of all safe,” he answers. The train halts and Damian stands up first. “But, since I have you both here, we’re going to have to figure out a way to have both of you go under the radar too. So I’ll share the story we've been using.” Tim and Jason shared wary glances.
“Okay.”
“Sure.”
“We’re from the mountains—”
“Fuck, couldn’t you have come up with something more believable?” Jason groans.
“Trust me, it’s worked so far, it explains our general lack of knowledge on how everything in this universe works as for the lack of ID,” he starts, “so, we’re from a mountain village. Recently, due to impoverished conditions, our parents sent all of us down to start working and to send money home. It works with (Y/N) in her position, it works with me being inducted late, and we’ll find a way to make it work with you two.”
“Sure, alright, I’ll play along if it means we can get home easier,” Tim says.
“Home… yeah,” Damian nods, but Jason is quick to catch his unease. He chose not to bring it up, though.
“Fine, yeah, I’ll be a farmer, or whatever,” Jason leans back against the seat.
“This world, though, you mentioned different laws. Hell, Jason and I got arrested for taking care of things the way we usually do, how can you explain that?”
“The law enforcement in this world is basically airtight, and it’s based on an honor system,” Damian explains, “At any moment, someone can be removed and replaced in the Knighthood under two circumstances: reasonable petition or honorable combat. Reasonable petition is when enough people with viable grievances petition for a member to be removed. Honorable combat is when someone challenges a Knight for their position. Because of this system, a natural respect is garnered by the people, and as a result of that there’s hardly any petty crime. As for the larger crimes, those are dealt with quickly, there’s far worse problems to deal with in this world than crime,” Damian says.
“And the law?” Jason probes.
“No unreasonable violence without just cause and material evidence,” Damian says. “That’s the best way to put why you two were arrested. The victim ran away so you didn’t have their testimony, the criminal was knocked out cold so he couldn’t say anything anyway, and two people without IDs were spotted at the scene. Not a good look, right?”
“Fair enough,” Tim brushes his shoulder.
“It’s a good thing you two are in civilian attire, makes it easier for you to blend in,” Damian says.
“Yeah… speaking of, where’s your uniform? What’s with the get up?” Jason asks.
“It’s at the apartment right now, we had to keep it hidden. To be able to integrate quickly I joined the Knighthood alongside a new regiment, I lucked out in the timing, but because of that I have a strict regimen to stick to, it’s been hard to investigate, but now that I have you both here we should be able to delegate.” The train slows to a stop and the cabin door opens automatically. Damian held a finger to his lips to signal that the conversation was over and the older two nodded. Damian leads them out of the train and the trio steps into a high-ceiling station. “We’re in the citadel now, the Knightsguard is the primary form of law enforcement here,” Damian says just loud enough for them to hear.
“This looks right out of a fantasy book,” Tim looks around.
“Uh… yeah,” Jason watches people interacting with holograms and other tech he couldn’t have even imagined. “So, where’s (Y/N)?” He asks.
“I’m taking you to her, obviously,” Damian grimaces. “But she’s busy right now, we’ll have to wait, but you’ll be able to see her,” Damian leads them down a series of corridors. “I need you both to remain calm while we’re here, though, remember we have to fly under the radar if we’re all going to go home, that means we have to play by their rules,” Damian says.
“Yeah, I can be calm,” Jason huffs. Tim and Damian deadpan toward him. “What? I can!”
“Says the man who decked someone first thing,” Damian chuckles.
“How’d you even know that was us anyway?!” Jason gasps.
“Two men in their twenties, one used excessive force on a civilian and the other screamed in frustration when it happened, then they argued with each other right after,” Damian recites. “I didn’t even have to listen to your names to know it was you two,” his mouth falls into a flat line.
“That could’ve been anyone, though,” Tim says.
“Sure, in any other earth where law-breaking was common, like ours. I already explained to you that things are different here. Not to mention, those other worse things to worry about,” Damian led the two into an arena-like room.
“Dami! Over here!” A voice yells out.
“Ooh, Dami, huh?” Jason nudges him and Damian rolls his eyes.
“Don’t embarrass me,” he glowers.
“It���s kinda in the job description,” Jason snarks and Damian frowns.
“You two are so similar,” he mumbles under his breath. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he responds to Retta regardless and the three approach them.
“Whoa, who are these?” Lowen asks.
“These are my brothers, Tim and Jason,” Damian introduces them. “They are also from our backwater mountain village,” Damian glares at Hugo.
“Whoa…” Hugo was stuck in admiration, though.
“You two, the group here are my friends, don’t be weird. The one eating a sandwich is Niers, the one who called us over is Retta, the girl playing with those rocks is Luciana, the one reading over there is Lowen, and the one making googly eyes toward Jason is Hugo,” Damian runs through the list and the group exchanges awkward hellos.
“Well, you’re all just in time! The Brigade’s about to start their sparring matches,” Retta points toward the ring in the middle. “Every month the Brigade checks their individual progress through these matches, randomized opponents and randomized scenarios. Though we don’t have to be here, it’s always fascinating to see how quick-witted they are. Truly they are the best of the best for a reason,” she explains.
“Yeah? We’ll see about that,” Jason mutters.
“Jason’s somewhat of an expert,” Tim nudges him.
“What about you?” Lowen snarks.
“He’s smart,” Damian answers for him.
“That’s… that’s it?” Lowen hums.
“Trust us, he’s the most important one,” Jason sighs.
“Oh! It’s starting!” Niers leans forward, pulling out his phone to start recording. “Looks like Officer Jones and Lieutenant Wright are first,” he says.
“Jones is the one on the left, Wright, I’m sure, looks familiar,” Damian speaks so only the two could hear him.
“Holy shit… that’s Alex,” Jason squints his eyes. “What’s he doing here?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out myself,” Damian leans forward. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“In our line of work, those don’t exist,” Tim replies.
“What’s your first impression of them? Just a curious question,” Luciana butts into their conversation, she’s looking at Jason, the so-called expert.
“Well…” Jason leans forward. “Both of them are in the military, that’s clear from their builds. Jones has a broader build, though, his shoulders are heavier but his arms are just as built, he probably uses a heavy weapon, right?”
“Right, he uses battle axes,” Luciana leans back. “And the lieutenant?”
“Hm…” Jason thought back, he’d met Alex a couple of times, that nerd. He couldn’t imagine him wielding anything as heavy as an axe, and with that more balanced build it was clear that, if anything, he would only be able to use lightweight weapons. Then again, Alex is a nerd, and if this world is straight out of a story booy then one thing could be plausible. “Magic user.”
“He is an expert!” Niers gasps.
“Just lucky guesses,” Jason hums.
“Watch the screens there,” Retta points to the monitors. “Look, you can see who’s fighting on that first one and the second one shows the random scenario.”
“Swords, wow,” Lowen closed his book and watched with an intent gaze. “Just look at the way they even hold them,” he was amazed, and rightfully so.
“So, you both have talents in martial arts?” Retta asks.
“Yeah, but I’ve never used a sword before,” Jason shrugs.
“Observe carefully,” Damian mutters. Tim and Jason catch onto his words and they turn their focus to the fight ahead of them.
~
2013
You walked downstairs one night, the moon was high in the sky and the stars just barely peeking out of Gotham’s smog. You had another nightmare, the same one you’ve been having for a while now. Your fear of being left alone because of the looming threat of death was one that you didn’t think would be going away any time soon. You walked into the kitchen, ready to pour yourself a glass of water.
“Hey, (Y/N),” Tim says behind you. You gasped in surprise, nearly dropping the glass while turning around. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says. There’s a mug in front of him, freshly poured and still cooling down.
“Is everything okay?” You pulled up a chair in front of him and he hesitated before answering.
“… No,” he looks into the mug in front of him. “I know I volunteered to become the next Robin but… training’s been harder than I thought it would be,” he shakes his head.
“That bad?” You rest your head on your hand. “Is Dick being too hard on you?”
“No, it’s not that, if anything Dick is the only one I’m actually learning from,” Tim shakes his head. “It’s just… it’s a lot,” he admits. You leaned forward on the table now.
“Well, for what it counts, I know next to nothing about fighting crime, so if you ever want to take a break, why not spend the day with me? I’m just a boring old civilian, but it’ll be nice to get some fresh air once in a while,” you offered.
“You’re not just a boring old civilian,” he shakes his head. “But… if you’re not doing anything tomorrow, maybe we can do something then?”
“Tomorrow?” You hummed. “Sure, let’s go do something after school,” you nodded. “I’ll tell dad so don’t worry about it, if he gets upset he’d have to go through me first,” you joked.
“Yes! I can’t wait!”
The next day, you and Tim were practically bouncing in your shoes waiting for the day to be over. Tim wondering what you had planned and you wondering how the day will go. This is the first time you’d have something of a younger sibling and you were so excited about it. You were excited to spend time with Tim the same way your older siblings spent time with you. It was a miracle that your dad agreed to let you take Tim out for the day, granted Dick did most of the talking, but you were thankful nonetheless. And, once the bell rang, it was nearly in the blink of an eye that both of you were outside.
“So, what are we doing today?” Tim asks.
“Hmm…” you pulled out two slips of paper and showed them to Tim, blank side up. “Choose one.”
“Any of them?”
“Yup, the one you choose is the one we’ll do today,” you nodded.
“Okay, well…” he looks between them both and selects the left one, “ice cream?”
“Ice cream it is,” you showed him the other paper which simply read ‘Arcade’ and you saw the way his eyes lit up, “this one is for the next time we hang out.”
“Next time?”
“Sure, even heroes need breaks,” you nudged him. “Anyway, there’s this hole-in-the-wall place I used to go to all the time, you’ll love it there, they have this cookie-butter flavor that is just so good,” you hummed.
“Cookie butter sounds good right now,” Tim follows at your heels.
“Hey, catch up! Don’t walk behind me like that,” you waited for him to join you at your side before continuing onward. “Look at those, Timmy,” you pointed into the shop window at the shoes. “I’ve been wanting that pair since forever,” you pointed at the one in the middle.
“Why don’t you just buy them then?” He asks you.
“Where’s the fun in that? My mom taught me from the get-go to earn things before getting them. Sure, her way was a bit…”
“Illegal?”
“Yeah, yeah,” you tilted your head to the side and nodded, “so I decided to combine both her and dad’s philosophies.”
“Beating people up?”
“No, no,” you shook your head quickly. “Work hard to make the prizes more worthwhile. It’s good for goal setting, and motivation, and it feels nice to finally reach a goal,” you pointed at the shoes. “I’m not going to buy those shoes until I graduate high school. No ifs, ands, or buts,” you announced. You and Tim walked into the ice cream parlor next to it and Tim slid into a booth. “How about you, Timmy? What’s your motivation?” Tim hums for a second.
“I want to do what’s right,” he says.
“You sure about that?” You asked him. He looks confused. “Think about it, Tim. I’m gonna get our ice cream.”
“But, that is my motivation.”
“That’s like premeds saying they want to save lives when asked why they wanted to go into medicine,” you explained.
“Well, you want to be a premed, why do you want to go into medicine?”
“Surgery, I want to specialize in that specifically because I like cutting things open,” you laughed and Tim’s face grew grim.
“Are you serious?!”
“Yeah, I mean, cutting things open with consent, duh, but see it’s small reasons that will help you drive your bigger one,” you say. “Anyway, what flavor do you want?”
“Chocolate, please.”
“Sounds good, think about it, Timmy, I’ll be right back.”
~
2022
“Talk about crowd,” Carter looks out from his spot. “When did we become zoo animals?” He nudges you.
“Who knows? It started out with the twins observing us, and now we have half the knighthood here,” you shrugged. “Poor Nix, though, he got the short end of the stick with swords.”
“He was never good at that subject,” you and Carter watched the sword slip out of Nixon’s hand and land stuck to the ground beneath. Alex, meanwhile, stops the blade right as it would’ve hit Nixon’s neck.
“Yield! I yield,” Nixon rose his hands and Alex put the sword away, offering his hand instead, which Nixon took with pride. “Good one, Lex,” he pulls Alex in and the two bump shoulders before separating. “Hey, stage’s all yours!” Nixon flags you both down.
“Yeah, yeah, take your time to walk that one off,” you fired back. Nixon rolled his eyes and followed Alex.
“Nixon, you have to pay more attention to your footing, I didn’t even have to worry about striking you since you were too busy tripping over yourself,” Alex says, “it’s amazing that you can wield an axe a foot taller than you.”
“Hey, come on, an axe is weighed totally differently than a sword,” Nixon shrugs. “Who’s up next anyway?”
“That would be us,” you raised your hand alongside Carter’s.
“Oh, now this I gotta see, you two don’t get paired up often,” Nixon grins. “My money’s on the Captain, of course,” he whispers to Alex.
“That all depends on what the random scenario is,” you shrugged. “If it’s anything other than swordsmanship or rifling, I’m screwed,” you sighed and followed Carter out, keeping your eyes glued to the screen to see the scenario. The words moved through the screen quickly in a wheel-like fashion until they settled on one phrase.
‘Hand-to-hand combat’
“Damn it all,” you cursed. Carter, meanwhile, stretched his arms across his chest. “You’re an expert at this one, Adara.”
“You would know,” he answers with a grin.
“Oh shut up,” you rolled your eyes, but your smile betrayed you. You grabbed the wraps from the table and secured them around your hands. “Go easy, maybe?”
“You’d hate me if I did,” Carter held his hand out and you shook it with a firm grasp.
“Good answer,” you separated and took a deep breath and, once the buzzer sounded, your first move was to block, of all things. Too preoccupied with what was going on in the stands, you were more focused on not getting knocked down.
“Hey, she kinda looks like (Y/N),” Jason whistles. Damian and Tim turn back to look at him, the latter’s jaw on the floor.
“You really are stupid, aren’t you?” Damian clicks his tongue.
“That is (Y/N)!” Tim gestures toward you with open hands and Jason whistles louder.
“Oh!” He leans back to get a wider view. “Oh,” his voice drops alongside his jaw. He shoots up and runs down the bleachers.
“Jason! Don’t do anything dumb!” Tim makes a move to follow, but Damian pulls him down.
“Shh!”
“He’s gonna blow our cover!”
“You’re both going to blow our cover if you make a scene,” Damian hisses. 
“(Y/N)!” Jason cupped his hands around his mouth and your head whipped to the side.
“Jason?!” Now it was your turn to be shocked.
“Twelve o’clock!” He shouts. You duck your head in time to dodge the jab.
“Distracted, cap?” Carter pulls his fists back and you hold your arms in a defensive stance while shaking the shock from your thoughts. You knew Carter well enough to know that he wasn’t going to let you off easy, and such was true when he landed a hit clean on your jaw. You stumbled back on slightly, pushing your mandible back in place.
“Good hit.”
“Not good enough apparently.” Carter was relentless, you knew he had a natural talent at this but goddammit you were about to get schooled in front of the newbies. You blocked another hit from him and ducked under his swing. You could only dodge him for so long, you’d have to fight back eventually, but he kept all of his weak points well-guarded, moving just enough every time to block you off. It was when he knocked the wind out of you, causing you to stumble back and land against the railing, then a small ray of hope appeared.
“Hey, kid,” Jason takes your shoulders and holds you steady, “come on, shake it off. When dealing with opponents twice your size, you gotta go for the spots they won’t think twice of. Looks like this guy doesn’t skip chest day, but if you look at his proportions, your best bet is to go for the legs and then you throw punches,” he instructs. You nodded your head shakily, your pride was getting in the way of your logic right now.
“Yeah, okay, why?” Was all you were able to get out.
“I’ll be damned if my little sister loses in a hand-to-hand fight, this is my bread and butter,” he hits his chest with his fist. “Now go fuck him up!” He pushes you forward and you roll your neck, the world stabilizing around you and your breathing steadying again.
“Okay, I’m back,” you hold your hands in front of you.
“Isn’t that cheating?” He nudges his head toward Jason.
“Please, he just wanted to say ‘hello,’” you shrugged and charged again. Go for the legs, that’s right, that was always Carter’s weak point, why didn’t you think of that before? Good on Jason for noticing it as soon as he looked at him too, just goes to show you still have a lot to learn. Color Carter surprised when you roundhoused him first, knocking him onto his back and grabbing him by the collar. “Yield.”
“Nah,” he grabs your arm and sweeps you off of your feet, you were airborne for a while before you felt yourself pinned to the ground. You broke free from his grasp and rolled to the side, regaining your footing quickly to move out of the way of another swing.
“Come on, (Y/N)!” Of course, Jason was always the loudest in the room. You adjusted steadied your stance and threw a jab just as you moved out of the way of Carter’s right hook.
“Who’s he, anyway?” Carter asks.
“Focus,” you duck behind him and sweep his legs again, this time Carter falls forward, but you grab the back of his shirt on time. “You always keep your back open,” you shook your head.
“Well, I usually have you to watch it,” he pushes up and pivots on his heel, once again grabbing your arm, but you took this as a chance to slam your knee into his abdomen, effectively knocking the wind out of him and pushing him to the side. You stretched your arms out again and, right as he recovered, you landed a hit clean against his jaw, knocking him onto the floor. You shook the stinging pain out of your hands while he raised his right one. “Yield,” he adjusts his jaw and you help him up.
“Goes to show I’m captain for a reason, right?” You pulled him close so you could whisper in his ear. “Why’d you let me win? I know you can pack a harder punch.”
“Half the knighthood’s watching, and that guy who said ‘hello’ is glaring daggers at me,” he nudges his head toward Jason. Jason. You let go of him and turn to your brother, nodding toward the side of the stage, and he catches your signal, going in that direction while you drop the wraps back in their place. “Where are you off to?”
“Investigation, watch over Eve’s and Alex’s spar for me,” you walked under the entrance and spotted Jason at the end. “Don’t get excited, he let me win,” you jutted your thumb behind you, but Jason still had a proud grin on his face.
“Does it matter? Look at you go, kiddo!” He clapped a hand against your back and you groaned. “Now… what the fuck was that?!” His shout was obvious and you squeezed your eyes shut.
“Look, Jay, a lot has changed since we last spoke, but more importantly, what the hell are you doing here? How? Are the others about to come pouring in?” You asked.
“Oh, actually, Tim’s here too.”
“Tim’s here too?!”
“Yeah, wanna say hi?”
“Jason, be serious, you shouldn’t be here, the three of you!”
“Well, duh, Tim and I came here to nab you and Damian and head back.”
“Head back? Do you even know how to head back?!”
“Sure,” Jason pulls out the wristwatch and you grab it, looking at the damaged insignia on the front. It was almost too scraped and worn through to be able to get a clear image, but the shape was a dead giveaway.
“How did you get this?”
“You left it behind?”
“Me? No, no, that’s impossible, I don’t use this model,” you said.
“Model? Wait, you have one of these?” Jason points at it in your hands.
“Yes, kind of, it’s complicated, Jay.”
“And you never came home?!” You stopped. You took a deep breath.
“… No,” you shook your head. You opened the watch. “Whatever you two did to this, it’s busted beyond repair. It can’t get you back now, and the models I use are under lock and key by the Crown,” you shut the watch with one hand and handed it back to Jason.
“And since Damian’s still here then you haven’t been able to get it, huh?”
“Without putting him at risk, no,” you crossed your arms and Jason mirrored your stance. “I’m not going back, Jay.”
“I’m not going to try to convince you,” he says while rubbing the back of his neck harshly. “Look, I know you have your reasons, and I’m not going to bang my head against a wall to understand them—”
“I thought you of all people would understand,” you interjected.
“What?”
“You didn’t come home either, did you?” You asked.
“That was different.”
“How so?” You stepped up. “We both died because of a mistake that father made and we both came back fundamentally changed from who we were before, how are we different?”
“Because you are you and I am me,” Jason points to you then to himself. “I… I can’t explain it other than that,” he shakes his head.
“Sister,” Damian approaches with Tim in tow.
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” you took the watch from Jason’s hand and held it up. “Look familiar, Damian?” You held it by the chain and the younger nodded. “Shit, this just got more complicated,” you muttered. You shoved it into your pocket as soon as you heard footsteps.
“Ayo, Cap!” Nixon waves his hand. “Ayo… everyone else,” he observes the group while the rest of the Brigade follow behind him. 
“Whoa, long time no see, Alex,” Jason waves.
“Hello, Jason,” Alex nods his head. “I don’t suppose daddy dearest will be next, will he?” Alex whispers toward you.
“Interesting to see a familiar face,” Tim was already making connections, you could see it in his expression.
“Shit… the Queen’s gonna kill me,” you slumped your shoulders and your eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “Would it be nepotism if I just tossed them in some honorary role?” You looked at Alex.
“Yes, very, but they’re too old to take the recruits’ test too,” Alex hums.
“It’s fine, there’s no need,” Tim cuts in. “We’ll be in and out, we’re just here to get Damian and (Y/N) and we’ll be on our way—”
“Whoa, whoa, what do you mean you’re here for the captain?” Carter subtly steps next to you now. “Sure, take the kid, we were looking for ways to send him back anyway, but you can’t take her.” He looks toward you and you sigh.
“What do you mean we can’t take her?” Tim frowns.
“Stop,” you held your hand out and the group fell into a tangible silence. “Look, we can’t have this conversation until we even find a way to send them back. We haven’t had access to our watches since we came back, and we can only use those with a direct Royal order, so until then, we’re going to have to find a way for you both to lie low, that’s why I inducted Damian into the Knighthood, it gave me a way to keep an eye on him while I researched the monster outbreaks,” you explain.
“There’s monsters here too?” Tim asks.
“Naturally,” you nodded. “Any of you have any ideas on how I handle my brothers?” You looked at your team.
“You are taking this surprisingly well,” Alex comments. You look at your watch.
“No time to freak out, I have to head down to the lab soon, there are developments with the daemon I need to check out,” you silenced your phone, “well? Anyone?”
“It’s a long shot, but…” Eve hums. “I know we have openings on our research team, we could probably fit them in there,” she says.
“I could do that,” Tim says. “Jason, though, I’m not too sure,” he looks at his brother, who crossed his arms.
“There is that way,” Alex speaks up but you shook your head.
“No way.”
“Well, it’s your best bet if you don’t want Jason around vials ten times older than he is,” Alex insists.
“What is it? I can handle it,” Jason nods.
“Mm… who would he fight though? He has to take someone’s place,” you mumbled.
“Or, if he fought someone with high authority and they were impressed with him that could work too,” Alex insists.
“Who has that authority?” You asked him.
“…” Alex didn’t answer.
“Oh,” your eyes widened slightly with the realization. “Okay, yeah,” you nodded. “Jason, repeat after me,” you looked at him and he nodded. “I, Jason Todd.”
“I, Jason Todd.”
“Challenge.”
“Challenge?”
“The Captain of the Brigade.”
“The Captain of the Brigade.”
“For a position on their team.”
“For a position on their… team?” Jason’s head tilts slightly.
“Sure, challenge accepted,” you took his hand and shook it.
“Wait… What?!” You pushed him toward the arena. “Hold on!”
“See you guys in a bit, I’ll explain everything after this, promise, meanwhile someone makes up an ID for him and Timmy,” you looked at your team and they nodded, heading toward the stands. “Jason, make it look realistic, yeah? Eyes everywhere.” You pushed him out of the entryway and Jason looked around the arena. He’d seen it from above, but to be in the center of it all was a whole new experience.
“Get a load of this! Someone challenged the Captain!” A voice shouted.
“Captain Wayne?! He doesn’t stand a chance!”
“Who is he anyway? Someone pull up his ID.”
“Not every day we see someone not in the Knighthood challenge, should be interesting.”
“What did you get me into?” Jason asks, looking around the now looming arena.
“Shh,” you pointed toward the screens. The phrases rolled in roulette until it settled: No scenario. “Well, that’s just luck.” Two tables rose on either side of you. “Take your pick, Jay. Whichever you choose I’ll go with too. If I’m impressed, I’ll induct you in, if not… well, we’ll deal with that after,” you shrugged and stood at the table, waiting for your opponent to make his choice. Jason, as predicted, picked up the pistols. “Don’t worry, there’s an enchantment on them, nothing here is deadly,” you told him, picking up your own pair of guns. “We’re sparring, not killing.”
“Sure, yeah,” he gives them a spin to test their weight, and, strangely enough, they felt perfect. “So what exactly are we doing?”
“Only way I can keep you two close by. Tim goes with research, you stick by me. I can’t have you running off punching people, Jay.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Not here you can’t, god, you’re worse than Damian,” you readjusted your grip around the handles. “Think of it as a spar, you’ve done plenty of those.”
“This isn’t fair, though,” Jason stood at one end of the arena. “You’ve watched me since I started, you know all my moves.”
“Not true, there was a three-year gap, right? I would hope you learned something new.”
“Oho, you really are my sister if you’re making jokes about your death,” Jason held the pistol up. “I saw that fight too, let’s get caught up,” Jason takes the first shot and you move out of the way just in time, taking your own shot in response.
~
2015
“So, anyway,” Tim takes a bite of his cheeseburger while you drank your soda, “Conner did some crazy shit where he ripped the robot in two, it was insane!” Tim continued to tell his story but soon he caught himself.
���It’s okay, he’s still your best friend,” you urged him to continue.
“Still, though, I mean…” Tim crosses his arms.
“At least he did it the right way, he broke up with me first,” you shrugged. “And it’s good for you too! You don’t have to hear me talking about him anymore,” you nudged him playfully and continued eating. “Anyway, you were saying?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, sis,” he shakes his head. “Plus, I’m out here with you, why would I want to talk about work?” Tim groans. “How are you?”
“Oh, you know, the usual,” you hummed. “I’ve just sent out my applications. I’m looking into some different universities,” you pulled up the list on your phone. “I’m really looking at Metropolis or Central City, they have strong STEM programs that I’m interested in,” you said.
“Oh… what about Gotham U?” Tim asks. You look up from your phone and you don’t quite think you’ve seen that expression on him before.
“Of course, that’s my safe university, I’m pretty much guaranteed acceptance with my namesake alone,” you cleared your throat. “Is… is everything okay, Timmy?” You asked him. You couldn’t beat around the bush anymore. You’d noticed Tim being a bit more… resistant to certain things going on in the house. You leaving for college being one of them, you never noticed just how close you two were until now.
“Bruce… he doesn’t need me anymore, huh?” He says quietly.
“Oh, Tim, don’t say that,” you straightened your posture and you took a deep breath.
“And you… you have an actual younger brother now,” Tim says quietly.
“Hey, come on, blood doesn’t make the bond,” you say. “Plus, no one could ever replace you,” you continued. “I mean, not just anyone memorizes 200 digits of pi for fun.”
“Come on, that’s nothing!” Tim grumbles.
“Definitely something, Tim I cry tears of joy when problems tell me to just use pi instead of 3.14,” you laughed. “But, I’m serious, Tim, if anything you’re going to get promoted,” you grinned. Tim shoots you an uneasy smile.
“Yeah, I guess, I don’t know what exactly I’m so worried about,” he says. “I mean… well, I don’t know,” he stops and decides not to pursue it any further. “But, uh, Metropolis, huh? That’s a good school!”
“I know, just a little far now that I think about it,” you muttered. “Gotham’s program isn’t so bad either, I guess,” you hummed and took a quick glance at Tim, who already seemed a little happier.
“But, (Y/N), you don’t have to go there, you looked excited talking about those other two,” Tim catches your glance. “It’s just… they’re far,” he leans back against the booth. “We can’t be with you there, you know? You’d be on your own and you’re a Wayne and…”
“Hey, I can handle myself pretty well, I think,” you insisted. “I mean, I made it this far, right?”
“Because you had us!”
“Tim,” your voice dropped and you looked both ways, ensuring that no one was listening. “I get that I’m not as… extraordinary as you all, but I’m not helpless, I can take care of myself, I’ve been taking care of myself, and I know you mean well, but Tim you’ve gotta trust me a little,” you folded your hands in front of you. “I’m not as fragile as Dick likes to make me out to be.”
“That’s… that’s not what I meant,” Tim looked away and you sighed.
“I know, I know you just want me to be safe, all of us,” you crossed your arms. “But I can’t just live in fear. One thing being in this family teaches you is how to be careful,” you looked to the side. “And another thing it teaches you is that family is what you make it,” Tim looked at you now. “Dick and I aren’t blood-related, neither was Jason, and neither are you, but still I have never looked at any of you as anything other than my brothers. The same goes for Babs, Steph, and Cass, you’re all my family regardless of anything, and I will always put you all first. But, with that said, the same goes for Damian. He’s young, alone, and probably confused, we can’t alienate him just because of his background, if anything, that’s why we should accept him more. And you, Tim, I get it, you’re different from the first two, but that doesn’t make you any less than them, hell, I bet if Jason were here right now he’d say the same.”
“But…”
“No ‘buts, Tim, I mean it, you’re amazing!”
“Maybe… maybe I’ll take a page out of your book then, (Y/N), retire early,” he says. Your shoulders slumped.
“Whatever you want, little bro. And if you do, I’ll be here to help you out. And if not, I’ll still be here.”
“Even if you’re miles away?”
“You know, there’s this wonderful invention called cell phones.”
“Stop it! You know what I mean!”
“Yes! Yeah, of course, even if I’m partying it up in Central City, if you call me I’ll come running, I know you’d do the same.”
“Well, that goes without saying,” Tim crosses his arms now.
“So… the new team, huh? I’d love to meet them.”
“Oh, you are going to love them, (Y/N)!” Tim beams.
~
2022
You just narrowly dodged the bullet this time, had Jason already gotten a reading on you? Impossible. You had to switch up your tactics quickly or else you’d actually lose. Think, (Y/N), what was he going to do next? Jason, as much as a wildcard he is, you could read him easily. He had these kinds of wind-ups to certain moves, you noticed. Like now, that roll of his shoulder, he’s going in for a hook so now you had to think about where he’s aiming. If he ducks low enough it’s your abdomen, if he keeps his level then it’s your shoulder. Leave it to Jason to play dirty, he picked up the pistols only for them to be a red herring, but, then again, you should’ve expected this from him as soon as he holstered the damn things.
But you knew him as well as he knew you. You play by the rules, maybe a little too much, out of the box operations were more of Carter’s forte while you and Alex tried to stick to orders more. But, come to think of it, you’d always been this way. Always doing what you’re told and never standing up until you have to. Then here’s Jason, an absolute force of nature when he’s pissed and an unstoppable machine when he’s focused.
You dodged his punch and bounced back, creating some distance before aiming the pistol and taking three shots. One on his arm, the other on his leg, and the third missed its mark when it grazed his shoulder. On each impact the bullet dissipated, hitting him with enough force to push him back but hardly enough to leave more than a bruise. You switched hands and fired another round, this time the bullet grazed his cheek and Jason couldn’t stop the proud smirk that rose on his face.
You never really got why your siblings were so crazy about sparring. Sure, you got it from a training standpoint, but their obsession with it was on a new level. It was just a pass time for them and you’d just sip on a juicebox and wait for them to finish.
But you get it now.
It’s a whole different language, one that was perfected by the Waynes. Each attack was like a part of a conversation, let’s get caught up, you get what he meant now. Even your spars with the other members of the Brigade weren’t this entertaining, and everyone in the stands agreed. Usually, you’d hear roars of shouts but this time it was silent. Everyone was watching in tense observation, trying to see if Jason had what it takes to join the Brigade and, hell, he actually might.
“Come on, Jay, you picked up those pistols, use them,” you taunted. Jason shook his head and charged again, you barely moved out of the way this time. “You’re faster.”
“I do cardio with Steph.” You ducked under his swing.
“Wider shoulders too.” He grabbed your fist before you could hit him and you shook him off before he could toss you.
“Dick would kill me if I skipped chest day.” You held the pistol up but misfired.
“Thought he was more of a glutes guy.” Jason evades your attacks easily.
“You know that’s all genetics.” He shrugs and you take this chance to shoot at his foot, causing him to lose his balance temporarily.
“True.” It didn’t last long, Jason was up on his feet in seconds and you were planning your next attack.
“I’m starting to think you just use those things as a safety blanket,” you looked at either pistol and Jason rolled his eyes.
“You know one thing about you that hasn’t changed, kiddo?”
“What?”
“You still don’t look under you.”
“What?” You looked down and your breath stopped, seeing the array of bullet shells and spikes beneath you. “Now when did you get those?”
“Had them from the beginning, you just weren’t paying attention,” he shakes his head.
“Effectively, this would be a draw,” you looked around you, one misstep would be something of an unfortunate lego brick under your shoes. “Neither of us can move forward,” you explained.
“Oh yeah? Boring,” he shakes his head.
“This match is over,” you announced, stretching out your neck and, in seconds, all the weapons disappeared as if in a simulation and the cheering was deaf to you. “I like you, you’re not Brigade material, but I’ll find a place for you,” you held your hand out and he shook it.
“Sure, I look forward to it,” he says. 
“So, I have to ask, why didn’t you use them? Wanted to prove you didn’t need them?”
“You really think I would shoot you? Spar or not, I couldn’t do that,” he shakes his head. You stopped for a moment, but regained your senses before anyone could notice. “Now what?”
“I either get my ass kicked by the queen or we start your onboarding, should be quick, I’m putting you in one of the honorary squadrons,” you nodded. Jason followed you into the end of the arena. “What we talked about earlier? We discuss it to no one. Not Damian, not Tim, and no one on my team,” you said.
“What did we talk about again?” Jason caught your hint.
“Captain! Captain, we have a problem!” Marion was quick to meet you.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“That beast from a few months ago, the one that attacked the new recruits! It’s back! It’s in the courtyard right now! Aldryn’s moving the royal family to a safe house as we speak.”
“Shit,” you looked at Jason, then to Marion. “Take me there,” you pulled your phone out and held it to your ear. “All members of the Brigade report to the courtyard, we have another Daemon to take care of,” you held your hand over the speaker, “Mary how many of them are there?”
“We counted one so far, but if it’s anything like before…” She doesn’t finish her sentence.
“You take the recruits and go somewhere safe, we’ll call for help if we need it.” You ran off toward the courtyard and Marion looks at Jason.
“Who are you?” She asks.
“I’m with her,” Jason jogs after you. “What the hell is a Daemon, (Y/N)?!”
“We have monsters. This is a recent one that happens to decimate towns,” you explained, “why are you following me? Go somewhere far!”
“I wouldn’t even know where to go!” Jason defends. You both stop once you reach the outdoors and Jason swallows down his words. “That… is that it?”
“Whatever it is… that is not the one that attacked the recruits before,” you looked up. It was huge, bigger than anyone you had fought before. It towered over you easily while fresh blood dripped down its maw. It spots you and its ears straighten in alert while its eyes, empty white sockets, bored their way into you. Your eyes drifted to its neck and you could just barely make out the glint of metal that was hidden in its fur. You held your phone up again. “We need it alive.”
“Roger,” Nixon answered first.
“I’ll handle crowd control,” Alex says.
“I’m on my way now,” Eve was next.
“Can you handle it until we get there?” Carter.
“Sure… maybe.” The beast growled and, maybe you were just noticing it, but with every roar or grunt the skies seemed to get darker.
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lisbeth-kk · 22 days
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May Prompts
Today's prompt is: calm.
The Luckiest Girl in the World (chapter 7)
Summary: Rosie is brought to school in a police car, and it has nothing to do with her parents. What's more troubling is her attitude about the events afterwards...
Seven Years Old
Being brought to school in a police car by a uniformed police officer got me some unwanted attention, but there was nothing for it. (I say unwanted…)
Everybody thought it had everything to do with Papa’s detective work. A mistake easily made, but no, it had absolutely nothing to do with either parent, uncle or the DI at New Scotland Yard.
Dad and Papa were away for a few days, and Molly and I made a girl’s weekend out of it. We went to Madame Tussaud’s, Daunt Books, and St, James’s Park. Molly painted my nails, we applied hideous looking face masks and covered our eyes with slices of cucumber, watched the Narnia films, ate popcorn, ice cream, chocolate, pizza and Molly’s homemade scones.
When Monday arrived, I was eager to get to school and tell my friends all about the wonderful time I’d had. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth after breakfast when I heard Molly cry out and then a man’s voice spoke. Not a voice I was familiar with, and his speech was slurred. A commotion ensued.
“Stay calm. Focus. Deep breaths. You can do this, Watson.”
It was Papa’s voice, urging me into action with a calm tone, and I knew what to do. He and Dad had trained me for this if an emergency should occur.
Molly had a landline in her bedroom, so I called 999. The woman answering was very understanding when I told her, in as few words possible, that a man had forced his way into my godmother’s house, could she please send a car over asap.
We were in luck, because a car with two officers was patrolling the area. The doorbell rang a minute later. 
“The door is open. Come…”
Molly’s voice went suddenly muffled. The man was probably holding a hand over her mouth.
Bite him, Molly, I thought, but then the police entered, and chaos followed next.
***
It turned out that the man breaking an entering, was drunk, hence the slurred speech. He lived one street down, and evidently thought he was locking himself into his own house. Molly had left the door unlocked after she’d brought out the bins. We were after all about to depart minutes later. So, when this man saw Molly in “his” house, he thought she was a burglar.
Molly was a bit shaken, but the man had been too drunk to have the strength to harm her. Another car was called, and Miriam, one of the police officers, offered to drive me to school, lest I’d be late. (Actually, it was me who asked her.) The reason she acquiesced had probably everything to do with my heroic effort, and resourcefulness in saving the day.
I told Miriam all about Papa and that I knew Greg Lestrade. Miriam didn’t know them, but she’d obviously heard of the great Sherlock Holmes. I think she was a bit amazed that I was his daughter.
So, this is why I was delivered at school in a police car, just in time for my first class of the day. Our teacher was supposed to read us a story, but everyone, her included, was bursting with curiosity about this morning’s events. Now that I knew a bit more about the West End, as I was a part of the school’s theatre group, I gestured and dramatized as best I could, which seemed to have the desired effect.
***
That evening, Dad told me about what had happened after Miriam had driven me to school. Two minutes later, uncle Myc arrived, had a stern talk with Molly about locking her doors when his precious niece was in her care, and when Molly returned from work, a top-notch alarm system had been installed.
Also available on AO3
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ladye-zelda · 5 months
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Which Links do you think have been to formal schools?
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Oooo, good question
Sky without a doubt has a formal education; I am not sure what kind of teaching they do at the knight's academy, but I am sure they would teach some kind of math, science, or whatever was known in Skyloft at the time.
I think Four might've also had a formal education, as we can see a school in Minish Cap in Hyrule Town. Then when he was of age, he would've been taken under apprenticeship by his grandfather (or maybe taught smithing at an earlier age, who knows).
For Time, I think he relies heavily on experience. The Kokiri don't have a traditional school, and judging from the little training area and how highly they regard their deity, I think they have a sort of "figure it out" mentality when it comes to, well, figuring stuff out. I don't see Time (especially as a kid) to going to anyone for anything, but I think Talon would teach him some things, especially when he gets together with Malon as that's probably the only adult that Time trusts (since the Great Deku Tree is gone).
Legend is taught by his uncle during his childhood, and does try to go seek more places to learn (as apparently he does travel in pursuit of knowledge, hence why he got caught up in the oracle games/link's awakening). Then, afterwards, tries an apprenticeship with the blacksmith but then just decides experience is the best teacher and travels from there.
Much like Time, Hyrule is also a hands-on learner. I think the reason why he might be so insecure about his place in the Chain is because he wasn't taught properly like some of the other knights; one day he was just given a sword and was told to go save Princess Zelda. The only things that he were taught were magic spells by old people in Zelda 2 (though I am not too familiar with the game so I might be wrong on that) and that is about as much as he would learn. I like to headcanon that he tried to get a formal education in the 6 years in between games with Princess Zelda, but it didn't work out for him.
Twilight was most definitely taught by the people of Ordon. Probably not any formal education, as Ordon is a small village and probably not enough kids to have a proper school (like, you're telling me that Ilia is the only other kid in the entire village close to Link's age? And look at that age gap between Link, Ilia, and the other kids!). I think Fado taught Twilight all of the ranching aspects -- horse riding, animal tending, etc -- while Rusl taught him how to fight, other things a boy needs to know, and Uli taught him how to take care of himself and to help others.
I'm not too knowledgable about what goes in Wind Waker, but there is the old guy that teaches Wind how to sword fight, right? If I am thinking correctly, I think Wind's island would've had kind of like what they had in Moana and that the village elders would just teach the kids what they need to know, mainly stories as that's kind of what Link's grandma does in the beginning of the game.
I think Warriors was taught by some sort of school. After all, he had to become a knight in training and there had to have been some qualifications to get into that, right? Either that or he was taught at the knight training place, where he would've learned to strategize and make rational decisions. Maybe some heavy-duty military training.
Lastly, that leads to Wild. I kind of have a few headcanons with this, so stick with me.
Before the Calamity, Wild was definitely taught things when he was travelling with his father's knights, especially how to fight. He was probably under apprenticeship with his father, as it's sort of baffling to me why a four year old would be travelling with the knights instead of, I don't know, at a daycare or something? (But that raises the question of if whether or not his mom is alive, but she should be since Wild's sister is canon in LU, but then again his dad could've remarried and had his little sister a bit later. Actually, I kinda like that idea.)
Anyways, when Wild was old enough he could've further his training and education at the military camp right outside of the Lost Woods, which would've made it easier for him to find the Master Sword when he was twelve (plus with the village nearby, he and his father could've been living there as it is close to the castle, but not close enough at the same time). Then for the next five years, Wild just goes around Hyrule, doing natural hero stuff, developing his stoic personality as everyone sort of tells him what a hero should be; so it gives him plenty of time to mold that persona until eventually he becomes a Champion and... well, y'know the rest.
After the Calamity, Wild just sorts of takes the Time and Hyrule route and learns on his own. Though, I will say I think Wild is more open to asking how this are and what to do with things more than the former heroes because its quite easy in the game to have a tutorial on literally anything if you ask the right npc. So, he would just have an education from just random travelers he meets. Plus I guess it would make fighting easier since he still has muscle memory, due to his prowess with weapons right from the get-go.
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youredreamingofroo · 1 month
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📩 Simblr question of the day: Who's your biggest inspiration/s on Simblr? Mention them! Tell us why you like them!
honestly probably could've made an 800 page essay on people who inspire me on simblr, but these are my BIGGEST biggest inspirations :P
@minimooberry : Honestly, she's the reason why I even pursued rendering in blender and her stuff is probably the only reason why I even joined Simblr to begin with 🥹
@stellarfalls : Bree, the LEGEND, has inspired me in a lot of ways but the biggest one was her GIFS... I remember seeing her post of Rohan and Hana's first meeting and that sparked a light in my chest... I wanted oh so badly to make Gifs as good as her... I'm getting there but we all have different styles so it'll never be exact and I know my gifs will be good in their own way 🫶
@birdietrait : Their overall sim style just... idk its so good and loved it when I first saw their posts 🥹
@groovetrys : Her general editing style was a HUGE inspiration for me, I can't quite explain or pinpoint it but I LOVE her editing its sooo aesthetically pleasing
@slightly-ludic : This is a bit of a smaller detail, but I just LOVE how Jade edits her globetrotter screenshots, I love the sort of narrator perspective in the text and I've started to try and do something similar in Make the Most of It :)
@mattodore : So i've always loved being passionate about my characters (hence why Roo still exists 5 years later), but seeing River's blog and how IN DEPTH they go for Theo and Matthias (and their other OCs ofc) and how much passion they have for their characters inspired me to get more into the blood and guts of my characters, I don't think I'll ever get there exactly cuz I feel like u could ask River what Theo was doing on February 9th 2018 and they'd have an answer and I would not LMFAOO
@rebouks : I am just overall VERY inspired by Becca, but she's one of the people who got me inspired to start making more poses (albeit I was already into making my own poses, she definitely bumped that inspo) and I'm very inspired by her storytelling, its SO good and feels soooooo human
@buttertrait @miralure @acuar-io : squishing these three together because all their vibes just make me so happy and inspired or at least allowed me to feel like I can be myself in this community (mainly cuz their vibes are similar to the vibes of people I like and am friends with irl)
@torissims : her whole aesthetic is just something that I ASPIRE to have... like the vibes of her yesterday save posts are just MWAH chefs kiss man
@missatan : (nat getting all my love today damn LMAO) I don't think my renders will ever be as 8K ultra HD 5 billion pixel quality as hers, but the symbolism behind them and just how good they look have inspired me to at least WANT to do/get better at rendering
some of these might not really be classified as "inspirations" but I still felt like sharing my adoration for these people - There's SO many more people I could've @'d but felt these were my very VERY best inspirations.
I should mention that all my mutuals inspire me one way or another, the community as a whole has inspired me to be kinder and inspired me to just spout my adoration for peoples' work
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lythea-creation · 2 months
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Worst Prank Ever - Platonic Fred and George Weasley x fem reader
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summary: During the summer holidays between their first and second year, Fred, George and (f/n) pull a prank they swear to never repeat again.
warnings: none, i think
word count: 729
Author's note: Feel free to check out my Masterlists and make requests. No reposting please! Reblogging, comments and requests are always appreciated <3 If you like the story/my writing, please don't be shy to say it via comments or asks! It takes you a few seconds and might make my day. It's the best appreciation you can show to a writer you like.
Requested? Yes
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Hogwarts was a place full of magic and new experiences. As a first year I was excited to leave my old muggle school behind to learn how to cast spells, fly on a broom and tame exotic beasts.
But I had not considered that despite all the magic, Hogwarts was still a school.
Therefore I was rejoiced to befriend the Weasley twins, Fred and George. With them by my side boredom was not even in my vocabulary anymore.
Honestly I had never been one for pranks, but since they introduced me to them, I had turned into an obsessive fan. I was always the first one to know what they were planning, eager to participate despite the consequences.
We were a feared trio when it came to the teachers we did not quite get along with.
My parents did not mind the complaints that were sent their way as they were too busy working to care at all. So why should I care?
In the summer break it all continued.
Since my parents were on a business trip and hence could not take care of me, the Weasley's had allowed me to stay over at their home.
In the beginning I had been a bit timid and shy, but that had quickly changed when everyone had been so kind and welcoming. Having Fred and George around may have played a crucial part in that as well.
“Hey, (f/n)! Let's go outside”, Fred suggested.
I did not hesitate to tag along.
A few minutes later we were deep inside the forest around the Burrow.
“Where are we going?”, I wondered.
I had never been inside a forest without an adult by my side. My parents did not allow me to go out on my own.
“There's a place we wanna show you”, George enlightened me.
After about thirty more minutes of walking through branches and roots, we finally arrived at … nothing. Why had they dragged me out here?
“Look up”, George instructed me.
Then I saw it. A giant tree house, hidden between the leaves of the tree.
“What are you waiting for? Let's get up there”, Fred encouraged us, climbing the tree first.
“Wow”, I uttered when I entered the tree house.
It was huge, filled with various things Fred and George must have brought over.
“It's our secret hideout”, George enlightened me.
“We found it when we got lost inside the forest. Nobody else knows about it. So don't be a snitch, okay?”, Fred remarked.
“Of course not”, I promised, outraged that they could even consider me to do it.
“What do you think? Wanna pull another prank and stay here for a few days? We brought food and water”, Fred suggested.
That was what the backpacks were for.
“You mean stay up here and even spend the night?”, I questioned.
“Exactly”, George confirmed.
“That's awesome”, I exclaimed. “I'm in!”
“It's settled then”, Fred noted with a huge grin.
We actually had a lot of fun in the tree house.
Fred and George had brought various magical games we could play. And we used our time to plan pranks for the new school year. At night we could go outside and spot some starts between the tree branches, but only if we climbed up even higher.
It was the best vacation ever.
Until we returned the next afternoon and Mrs. Weasley started yelling at us: “How could you act so irresponsible? We were worried sick! And (f/n), I promised your parents to look out for you. How could you just disappear? You all didn't even say a word. You're all grounded, forever! Now go to your room! I don't want to see you right now.”
Tears were flowing down my cheeks on the way upstairs. This was the first scolding I had gotten by someone else but a teacher and I was feeling agonizingly guilty.
Mrs. Weasley was right. I should have been more considerate.
“That definitely was a buzz”, George declared.
“The worst prank we ever pulled”, Fred agreed.
“Let's never stay away without telling mom again”, George decided.
“Agreed”, Fred and I replied simultaneously.
We stayed true to our word. Even as adults we were always telling Mrs. Weasley where we were going when we visited her.
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bsdndprplplld · 1 year
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tips for studying math
I thought I could share what I learned about studying math so far. it will be very subjective with no scientific sources, pure personal experience, hence one shouldn't expect all of this to work, I merely hope to give some ideas
1. note taking
some time ago I stopped caring about making my notes pretty and it was a great decision – they are supposed to be useful. moreover, I try to write as little as possible. this way my notes contain only crucial information and I might actually use them later because finding things becomes much easier. there is no point in writing down everything, a lot of the time it suffices to know where to find things in the textbook later. also, I noticed that taking notes doesn't actually help me remember, I use it to process information that I'm reading, and if I write down too many details it becomes very chaotic. when I'm trying to process as much as possible in the spot while reading I'm better at structuring the information. so my suggestion would be to stop caring about the aesthetics and try to write down only what is the most important (such as definitions, statements of theorems, useful facts)
2. active learning
do not write down the proof as is, instead write down general steps and then try to fill in the details. it would be perfect to prove everything from scratch, but that's rarely realistic, especially when the exam is in a few days. breaking the proof down into steps and describing the general idea of each step naturally raises questions such as "why is this part important, what is the goal of this calculation, how to describe this reasoning in one sentence, what are we actually doing here". sometimes it's possible to give the proof purely in words, that's also a good idea. it's also much more engaging and creative than passively writing things down. another thing that makes learning more active is trying to come up with examples for the definitions
3. exercises
many textbooks give exercises between definitions and theorem, doing them right away is generally a good idea, that's another way to make studying more active. I also like to take a look at the exercises at the end of the chapter (if that's the case) once in a while to see which ones I could do with what I already learned and try to do them. sometimes it's really hard to solve problems freshly after studying the theory and that's what worked out examples are for, it helps. mamy textbooks offer solutions of exercises, I like to compare the "official" ones with mine. it's obviously better than reading the solution before solving the problem on my own, but when I'm stuck for a long time I check if my idea for the solution at least makes sense. if it's similar to the solution from the book then I know I should just keep going
4. textbooks and other sources
finding the right book is so important. I don't even want to think about all the time I wasted trying to work with a book that just wasn't it. when I need a textbook for something I google "best textbooks for [topic]" and usually there is already a discussion on MSE where people recommend sources and explain why they think that source is a good one, which also gives the idea of how it's written and what to expect. a lot of professors share their lecture/class notes online, which contain user-friendly explenations, examples, exercises chosen by experienced teachers to do in their class, sometimes you can even find exercises with solutions. using the internet is such an important skill
5. studying for exams
do not study the material in a linear order, instead do it by layers. skim everything to get the general idea of which topics need the most work, which can be skipped, then study by priority. other than that it's usually better to know the sketch of every proof than to know a half of them in great detail and the rest not at all. it's similar when it comes to practice problems, do not spend half of your time on easy stuff that could easily be skipped, it's better to practice a bit of everything than to be an expert in half of the topics and unable to solve easy problems from the rest. if the past papers are available they can be a good tool to take a "mock exam" after studying for some time, it gives an opoortunity to see, again, which topics need the most work
6. examples and counterexamples
there are those theorems with statements that take up half of the page because there are just so many assumptions. finding counterexamples for each assumption usually helps with that. when I have a lot of definitions to learn, thinking of examples for them makes everything more specific therefore easier to remember
7. motivation
and by that I mean motivation of concepts. learning something new is much easier if it's motivated with an interesting example, a question, or application. it's easier to learn something when I know that it will be useful later, it's worth it to try to make things more interesting
8. studying for exams vs studying longterm
oftentimes it is the case that the exam itself requires learning some specific types of problems, which do not really matter in the long run. of course, preparing for exams is important, but keep in mind that what really matters is learning things that will be useful in the future especially when they are relevant to the field of choice. just because "this will not be on the test" doesn't always mean it can be skipped
ok I think that's all I have for now. I hope someone will find these helpful and feel free to share yours
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aphrodite1288 · 7 months
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Idk if you still perceived them as a toxic relationship, I'm the one who thinks that the most healthy thing in a relationship is communication so I really doubt ksoo get enlisted bc he wants to and not telling anyone about it, I mean exo is a thing, his relationship with jongin is other, maybe he didn't tell the other members but Ji is something else in his life plus his dad just died almost a year ago. I kinda understand your point and your theory about ji's depression cus his disease is a fact told by him, but speculate everything is all about ksoo fault its fck toxic. Depression is not something you experienced from one day to another and can be caused by so many accumulated reasons that took years and years to understand and ksoo must know that tho do u think he's that cruel and go to the army without a reason knowing Ji could be really sad about it? Kai must know that before anyone else so he could have time for processing and plans to do tgt but is normal still be fck sad after ksoo left and having therapy is a completely smart thing to do, that doesn't mean they had a huge fight
First of all, all what I said is not my perception, not my opinion, it's what I've been told from everyone: from K-EXOL, to our sources to the insiders who know SM staff or worked in SM and from Exo themselves told about this issue. And guess what? They know better than you. They're closer to him than you would ever be.
Sorry if it can't fit your narratives and feed up your fantasies.
Kadi just like any other couple aren't perfect they have their ups and downs and they certainly have their own flaws. Calling a relationship toxic just by one argument is wrong of you. This is not wonderland I think you should go seek medical help if you think like this.
You're the one calling them Toxic for not having a communication not me!
Ask your parents, I don't think they've never fought in a relationship of 2 decades at least.
I don't know if I'm allowed to share this info, but fuck it, I hate when dumb people who think they know their faves start calling us liars.
Kadi in 2022 in March exactly, they were on a massive fight and had a break again and they even went to Couple Counseling and the old Fans of this Tumblr from the Instagram group know this already. I've seen kadi's name on their Couple Counselor's Chart with their names and IDs, it was a bad thing from that Counselling company as they sold the Info to Sasaengs easily, K-ExoL, when they saw Ji and Ksoo going there frequently alone separately were curious why were they attending couple counseling sessions? Do they have issues with each other or with someone else they know ? And hence they followed them dug into the subject and discovered this and unfortunately the info was leaked. Remember when Ksoo went to Hawaii alone? Well it was during that period of time they were on a break.
Couples fight dear. It's normal ! And most of the couple fights occur because of LACK OF COMMUNICATION.
So yeah ! Expecting a couple in a relationship of 14 years won't have any miscommunication or a fight is so dumb of you. We don't live in Wonderland ! This is life! Have you ever been in a relationship have you watched BLs and Couples movies haven't you seen couples hurting each other and crying and breaking up despite being in love??
, t
So same for Kadi, they can hurt each other, misunderstand each other, Do things to each other, TAKE DECISIONS WITHOUT DISCUSSING IT WITH E/O! Take decisions in a moment of anger ! It's normal it happens and this is what Ksoo did and unfortunately it's true and it was a no-going-back issue becos that's with the government it's military application. He himself regretted it later because he missed many good Movie offers and opportunities at that time, even his managers and SM's production team told him he messed up he acted in a moment of anger at that time, and going on hiatus due to military in the Epitome of his career is a very bad move and he was told that by Veterans and his friends in the industry and he admitted it to movie producers and Management teams in SM, and.it was a famous discussed subject. No idol wants to go on military hiatus when they're on the epitome of their career, but instead until they settle things down first then they go. Because Many idols and actors get a little forgotten and may lose their popularity after military due to the hiatus and some DON'T! which is why you see Baekhyun and all idols always anxious telling their fans "Please don't forget us! Promise you'll be here when I'm back! It won't take a longtime! I'll be back before you know it!" " think of me all the time when I'm absent" and Baekhyun was smart enough and was the very first idol to have filmed Content for his fans to be outed every month it was so smart fans didn't even get to forget him.
So moral of the story: Kadi aren't perfect. And you should know Honey that YOU DON'T KNOW KSOO !! The idea you have on him is not 100% what he really is like! Y'all tend to glorify and shape idols in a perfect mold and put them on a pedestal as Sacred people who don't sin or Do wrong. Honey 😂 your Ksoo Oops isn't a Saint! He makes mistakes!! Remember you're just a fan! You don't know him personally to keep saying he can't do such things and that it's not his character 🤣 blah blah blah who are you? His mother?
Listen I'm just really tired of explaining everything to dumb people here. I don't care anymore, I say the info I have which I didn't create myself, I just report what I've been told and confirmed with Evidence, believe what you want if you don't wanna believe, leave it and leave.
Don't come up here and force your opinion on me, because we're not here discussing opinions, I'm giving you an info most of the time "A FACT" means something that actually happened and was proven to me, so I'm not here discussing it with you wether it happened or not and what you think about it, I don't care what you think , the thing happened years ago and that's on Period. I'm not gonna go back in time to discuss with you how it should have happened.
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forbidden-sunlight · 2 years
Text
It Appears That I Have Been Reincarnated as a Draconic Villainess in a Self-Indulgent Fic!
(The Dark History of The Reincarnated Villainess)
Poly!Yanderes x Iana Magnolia! Reader
PART  THREE: THE DRAGON IS A HERO?
This is a collaborated work of fiction with @staradorned. The intention of this story is for entertainment purposes only. The behavior exhibited here is inappropriate and unhealthy, hence it should not be encouraged.
Trigger Warnings: Abduction, Obsessive Behavior, Kidnapping, Attempted Sexual Assault, Attempted Murder.
PART TWO
Hey guys, welcome back to the third part in this series! Last time we left off with the reader being framed for a crime she certainly did not commit. Will she be able to figure out who exactly is behind Menoa’s kidnapping before a death flag is triggered? Well, we are about to find out!
So without further ado, sit back, relax, and let’s dive back into this world of madness ~. 
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After a brief and intense interrogation, you were sequestered to another room with Konoha and the others. They were understandably stunned at the turn of events and believed you were innocent. The exception was, of course, Sol. 
But something did not sit right with you. If Menoa was taken in the middle of the night, then why didn’t you hear the door open? Why didn’t the police find any signs of a struggle in the room, like a broken vase?
It was possible that you did not hear the door open because of the torrential storm last night. Even so, Menoa would not have allowed herself to be taken away without putting up a fight. Unless someone drugged her with chloroform first, rendering her unconscious. Going against your better judgment, you decided to sneak back to the crime scene while everyone had retired to their rooms. 
It was a good plan until Sol caught you red-handed with a call of your current alias. Heart hammering against your chest, you stood rooted on the spot as he looked down at you with an icy smile. 
“It appears you do not fully comprehend the situation you are in, my lady. There is a woman missing, and yet here you are scuttling around like a mouse. Do you…not value your own life?” He asked. 
Crap. Is this the end of your second life? Getting whacked by an assassin who just happened to be exceedingly handsome? Shaking your head, you told Sol your theories. You just wanted to take a quick look and then you’ll come back to the room. You gave your word to him.
The butler stared at you long and hard before he sighed. He will allow it, but only if he goes with you. 
“Protect Konoha instead, Sol. She is more likely the culprit’s next target.”
“She has Sir Ginoford. Why do you insist that she needs my protection as well?”
You stared at him with a raised brow. “Are you asking me a serious question or are you an idiot?” You asked. “This is an opponent that shouldn’t be taken lightly, Sol. If Konoha is kidnapped, then Sir Ginoford will raise hell and the culprit will probably escape in the chaos. And you’ll kill me.” 
“What?!”
“You didn’t think I’d figure it out the truth, why a servant with no prior job history or letters of recommendations, coincidentally be hired by Sir Ginoford on the day I got sentenced to solitary confinement? I might be a little slow, but even a bystander could tell something is off about you.” You said. “Look, we’ll talk about this later. Crime Scene. Now. Or go back to Konoha. Your call. Just be useful and make sure that someone else doesn’t become a victim.” Brushing past the stunned butler, you almost ran down the hall towards the crime scene. 
Well, that was a dumb move on your part. Losing your cool and spilling the beans that you were aware that Sol is an assassin sent to kill you. Looks like you’re gonna die soon…but you’d like to kick the bucket after you save Menoa. 
Igniting The Lady of the Lamp on your right thumb, the crystal quartz glowed an amber and bounced off the darkened walls. Providing just enough light for you to look around. None of the furniture had been turned or seemed out of place. But…why is it when you move towards the dresser, it feels much colder?
Peeling off a black glove on your left hand with your teeth, you waved your bare hand up and down near the dresser. There was a breeze. Inside a room where the windows and doors are locked from the outside. 
It can’t be…can it?
Moving quickly, you searched around the nightstand and dresser, fumbling to search for a button or a mechanism that seemed out of place. Nothing. When you saw the candelabra, you decided to give it a yank, pulling it towards you. 
A low groan came from the wall, followed by clicking gears as you watched the dresser slide outwards, revealing a hole in the ground. Cautiously walking closer to it, you saw that it was a staircase. A staircase leading into the underground.
WTF. How the hell did you sleep through that noise?!
Shaking your head, you were about to take a step down into the darkness, armed with only your magic stones when you heard a voice call out to you. Glancing over your shoulder, you saw a bewildered Sol standing by the door. Why was he here?
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to find my friend. Is it not obvious?”
“Alone?”
“Obviously.”
“Without protection -”
“Sol, why are you here?” You cut off. “If you’re to give me a stupid spiel about making Konoha miserable with my actions before you kill me because I swear to God -”
“I cannot in good conscience allow you to go alone.” Sol said, kneeling before your feet. “It is obvious that there is no way to dissuade you from saving Lady Menoa, but at the very least, allow me to become a shield.”
You raised a brow. “Since when does an assassin have a conscience with the target he was contracted to kill?” 
Silence. You sighed.
“Never mind. Let’s just get going before someone notices that we’re gone.” Turning away from Sol, you ventured down into the darkness, unaware of the danger that lurks beneath the castle. 
You just hoped that five spell stones would be enough in case things got nasty. Damn it.
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Sol could not remember the last time he had failed to complete a mission. Although Sir Ginoford had canceled the contract to assassinate Konoha’s younger sister, Sol continued to stay at the Magnolia compound as a butler to keep an eye on Iana.  He did not trust her. 
Konoha had saved his life when he was a street rat destined to be sold on the black market when they were children.  It is natural to protect such a kind, loving person from the wickedness of the world. Perfectly normal. But now…he was at a crossroads. 
He wanted to continue his role as Konoha’s protector from the shadows, yet recently he found himself wanting to know more and more about Iana. 
Sol did not believe she had amnesia. Only fools would have believed such a story. However, she showed no signs of regaining her evil persona over these past months let alone any memories. If anything, this ‘new’ Iana became more and more bizarre! She was kind to everyone, yet she valued her privacy, wanting to be left alone for days with a needle and thread until her newest sewing project was completed. 
Although she had relearned etiquette with no complications, she wore scandalous clothes around the manor and was bare footed. Bare footed. No decent woman would reveal so much skin until she was married!
The final nail in the coffin of Iana being a completely different person is that she didn't even know she was allergic to nuts until an incident in the garden occurred after ingesting cookies with nuts in them. Thankfully it was only a small dose, but the doctor mentioned that it had been a close call. Sol personally punished the servants who had been so careless with handling the snacks, per Ginoford’s orders.  And just when he had been relieved that Iana had no intention of harming Konoha anymore, he saw her sneaking off to the crime scene. Upon believing that he caught the villainess dropping the amnesia facade and is in fact the culprit behind the kidnappings.
Once again, she surprised him. Saving a friend? Someone she just met? Who was this person leading them into the catacombs of the castle, with a magical stone as their only source of light?
Is this truly a villainess who has been reformed and trying to find her place in a world she doesn’t recognize? Or is this truly an act? Should he inform Sir Ginoford about Iana knowing the truth? Or keep him in the dark, if not to upset Konoha should she find out her fiance had tried to assassinate her only sister?
These questions swirled in his mind, worried that his fascination with this confusing woman would interfere with his work. 
Eventually, the catacombs led them to the end of a rat-infested tunnel, where shrill screaming and low moans grew louder and louder with each step they took. Pulling his mistress close to him, he guided them to the right side of a stone pillar and peered behind it. 
The walls were lined with barred cells, no doubt containing the missing women, including Konoha’s friends. Lounging in a chaise and being served by two half naked ladies wearing collars around their necks was none other than the castle’s owner. 
Duchess Suselina Rosa Amaryllis. 
Goodness this was not a good situation. His train of thought was interrupted when Iana whispered softly to him. 
“What should we do, Sol?” She asked. “We cannot just attack her because of her ties to the royal family, and she might have rigged the place to collapse to hide the evidence.” As much as he did not want to admit it, his mistress had a valid point. Eyewitness testimony was useless in the imperial court without physical proof of the crimes. And the duchess is the king’s younger sister. Who knows what would happen….
“My, my, my. It seems that we have some unexpected visitors, girls. One is a pretty flower, and the other is a  dirty dog.” The Duchess cooed, turning in their direction as she raised the wine glass in her hand. “Won’t you join me?”
Sol gritted his teeth. The Duchess noticed them. So much for being discreet. He shared a look with his mistress. She was wary, but also aware that there isn’t much they do now. So they obeyed, approaching the older woman and being forced to kneel at the foot of a staircase leading to a stone platform where the Duchess sat on the chaise. She smiled cruelly. 
“Welcome to my garden. Lovely, isn’t it?” She said, pulling one of the girls into a brief, passionate kiss. “Molly, be a dear and tie up the dog, hm?” The girl behind him did as she was told, pulling his arms forward and locking his hands in cuffs that were anchored to the stone floor. “Iana Magnolia, younger sister of the most beautiful woman in the world, Konoha Magnolia…would you be interested in an alliance?” The Duchess stood up from her chaise, descending the stairs as she eyed his mistress up and down. 
“I’ve heard of your reputation, and the rumors that you cannot remember everything…but evil never sleeps. It waits for the right time to remerge and causes chaos. There’s no way you could resist harassing beautiful ladies if there are so many in the vicinity. And I am always in need of new flowers for my garden. I think we can benefit from each other -”
“Are you shitting me?” Iana said, looking at the platinum blonde aristocrat with a disgusted look. 
The Duchess flinched, obviously offended from hearing such crude language.  “W-What?” She sputtered.
“Kidnapping underage girls, Possible possession of illegal drugs, secret passages in the castle, lying to the royal police? Those are some serious crimes that not even the king can protect you from if you’re placed on trial at the imperial court.  And you did all of this, for what? To have your own garden of pretty flowers because you’re a lonely woman who is having an existential crisis. Or something else? Furthermore, you want to add Konoha to your collection because she is the pride of the Lily Kingdom? Unless…Oh God, do you actually bathe yourself with the blood of these women so you can be beautiful forever?” Iana’s face turned green. 
“This mess, being accused of a crime I did not commit, and crimes I don’t even remember…it’s to keep pursuing beauty? For something so pitiful? I am at a complete loss of words at the utter stupidity of this entire scenario, Duchess. And you’re the one who has figured out how to use water to create a beauty serum that’s popular in the capital? What. The. Hell?!”
Sol became worried as the Duchess’ face steadily became purple, clenching her fists as she glared heatedly at his mistress. But as she went on with her spiel, He found himself becoming more and more in awe of what she had to say and the courage she had to speak to someone who clearly outranked her and had the upper hand. 
Realizing that the older woman had a weapon strapped to her back, he yelled at Iana to get out of the way. Fortunately she had listened to him and leaped back just as the curved blade of a large scythe came down onto the spot where his mistress stood. 
Sol watched as his mistress faced off against the Duchess, dodging swings from her scythe and casting spells. Although she had become more adept with using magic thanks to Master Yomi, Iana’s movements were slowing down. No doubt in relation to lack of sleep and crafting so many spells before arriving at the castle. 
According to Master Yomi, magical depletion was a common drawback when someone crafted spells without taking a few days to replenish their magical energy. Because Iana is still a beginner, she could not craft more than two spell stones in one day. She brought five spell stones with her to the castle. 
But despite these odds, she wasn’t giving up. Standing her ground, Iana suddenly leaned her head back and opened her mouth, fire erupting from all different directions. For a moment, she looked just like the ferocious dragon that everyone believed her to be. 
The Duchess shrieked, calling her a dragon and completely unaware of the flames that licked his cuffs, melting the steel and allowing him to escape. 
He made quick work in knocking out the Duchess’ lackey and rushed to Iana’s side, brandishing his knives. Deciding to take a leaf out of his mistress’ book, he called out the Duchess.
“How sad. To think that you had to resort to kidnapping these women when they could have easily coerced them willingly by me. If my mistress were the mastermind…she would have done something much more refined than attempting to use such crass methods to preserve her beauty.”
The Duchess yelled, running towards them with the scythe raised above her head. Sol leaped, getting behind the woman, his gloved fingers against pressure points on different areas of the neck and shoulders. A testament from his studies of the human body as she stumbled, trying very hard to not lose consciousness. 
Iana then raised her hand, an obsidian ring glowing dark violet as thorny vines erupted from it, heading towards the Duchess and coiling themselves tightly around her body. Just as the devious woman slumped against the ground in a curled ball, footsteps and shouts came from the tunnel’s entrance. The police force, Konoha, and Sir Ginoford had arrived. 
Sol sighed in relief upon seeing that his beloved savior was all right before he heard a loud crack. When he turned to look at Iana, his heart leaped out of his throat. Iana was on the ground. Unconscious, her lithe body writhing uncontrollably even as Konoha scooped her up and wept. Sir Ginoford yelled at someone to fetch a physician. Snapping out of his stupor, Sol rushed over to Konoha’s side.
He tried to gently pull her away from Iana, trying to persuade his savior to allow him to take her sister to the physician. It would be much faster than waiting. Konoha looked at him with teary eyes before she reluctantly released Iana into his care. 
Until today, he had never run so quickly with a hammering heart to save a life he was contracted to kill. Now here he is, praying to any god that he would make it in time as he ascended from the darkness with a convulsing mistress in his arms.
When he found the castle’s doctor, he beseeched him to give Iana proper medical treatment, and quickly before she went into shock. But the man refused. He did not want any association with a villainous woman, much less the kingdom’s very own dragon. 
Seeing the blatant malice in the doctor’s eyes for himself reminded the blonde-haired assassin that he shared the same sentiment in regard to Iana. Shared. He no longer believed his mistress was a threat to Konoha anymore. Even Master Yomi had secretly confirmed to him and Sir Ginoford that there is no way to retrieve memories that were shattered upon touching a wicked relic like The Dark History.
Sol was more than ready to threaten this man with a knife against the throat and force him to treat Lady Iana when Officer Clemantis arrived, inquiring what was wrong. Sol briefly explained the situation to the police official, glaring petulantly at the frightened physician till a pained whimper left his mistress’ mouth.
“Magnolia had nothing to do with the kidnappings of the women, doctor.” Clematis explained. “I swear upon my family’s honor that it is true. So please, treat Magnolia lest her condition gets worse!”
“And if I still refuse?”
Sol’s heart stopped. What did he just say? Before he could even say a word, Clematis interfered. He recognized the doctor. He was the uncle of a young man who had recently taken the entrance exam to become a member of the royal police force. 
A brilliant, optimistic fellow whom the applicant looked up to, as it is difficult to become a skilled doctor, let alone be able to find work under a prestigious household. Treat Magnolia, and Clemantis will personally guarantee that his nephew will be able to be part of the interviewing process for Team Hydrangea, which will determine if the young man in question is ready to lay down his life for the kingdom and its royal family. Those were his terms.
And the doctor agreed to it, though Sol could see the older man gritting his teeth as he ordered him to place Iana on the bed so he could get to work.
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slutforsilverfoxes · 2 years
Text
Double Duty (Part I)
“Y/N, your boyfriend is in rare form today.”
You looked up as Tony approached your desks, grumbling something about “bad attitude”.
“Anthony,” you responded in a sing-song voice, knowing that he hated when younger agents used his full name. “When is our boss not in a mood?”
Tony smirked and angled his head toward you, a silent admission that, once again, you were right.
A sharp whistle caught your attention, and you looked up at the bridge to see those steely blue eyes boring into your soul. “Y/L/N and DiNozzo, if you’re done whining about my attitude, we have a case.”
Rolling your eyes -you didn’t miss the way Gibbs’ eyes hardened; you’d pay for that later-, you stood from your desk to head upstairs to MTAC. “When are you going to learn that I don’t like being whistled at like a dog?” You punctuated your question every so often with a finger to his chest which he promptly grabbed and used to pull you closer to him.
“When you stop responding to it like a little bitch.” He smiled wickedly before tweaking your nose and turning to the screen ahead of you.
You could only describe the colorful woman before you as Anti-Abby, a fluffy-capped pen between her manicured fingers as she waved at you. You waved back, a smile instantly blooming on your face at the warmth she exuded.
“Miss Garcia, if you wouldn’t mind filling my agents in on the case.” Gibbs gestured for her to begin and you pulled out your trusty little notebook, ready to dive in.
Garcia, or Penelope as she told you cheerfully, explained that the BAU had been tracking a serial killer in the DC area who was targeting marines, hence consulting with NCIS. They had all been found in their cars outside their homes, dressed in their uniforms with a single GSW to the head. The BAU had discerned that the marines’ wives had similar hair and facial features, and they were presumably the true objects of his rage or desire. However, none of the women had reported a stalker or anything out of the ordinary in the days leading up to their husbands’ deaths. They had simply been going about their routines as usual, yoga classes, grocery shopping, dry cleaning, and so on.
“No other connection besides the wives looking similar?” Tony questioned, brow furrowed.
“Not yet. And he’s interrupted his pattern now, too. That’s why Hotch and our Chief reached out to you guys.”
Hotch? you mouthed to Tony, receiving a shrug in response. You resisted the urge to text McGee who was on a well-deserved vacation; he would’ve been able to tell you in seconds flat.
“Thanks, Garcia. We’ll check in with you when we have something.” Gibbs nodded with finality as Garcia double-waved. “Nice to meet you all!”
“Working for the FBI now, are we, Gibbs?” Tony couldn’t help but rib your boss and you cursed him silently. If he pushed Gibbs too far, you got the beast. At night. In bed.
Come to think of it, Tony should piss Gibbs off more often.
“Not for, with,” Gibbs growled out, frowning at the two of you. “What are you still doing upstairs? Get to work!”
Intentionally brushing up against him, you purred out a “Yes sir,” and trailed your nails across his cheek as you pulled away. You loved playing this game with Jethro, seeing how far you could push him at work before he snapped and pushed you up against a wall or into the elevator or against the dashboard of the car or…
Shaking your head at your impure thoughts, you sat down at your desk and flipped open the case file. You may have been a brat to your boyfriend, but you were an asset to your boss’s team, and now was not the time to get sidetracked. You sipped your coffee and kept your head down, diligently working through the file in front of you.
An hour or so later, you felt a tiny prick against your forehead and shot up to glare at Tony. “Stop throwing things at me!” you hissed. “You’re thirty-five, not five, idiot!”
He motioned for you to quiet down and inclined his head toward the elevator that had just dinged. Scrambling up from your seat, you walked over to perch on his desk which had a better view of the elevator. The doors opened revealing what you assumed to be the BAU, and you nearly drooled at the sight.
“Oh my god,” you and Tony breathed out simultaneously, tracking the movement of the absolutely gorgeous FBI team moving through the bullpen. Your eyes swept over each member of the team, from the classy blonde to the smirking brunette, the curly-haired guy clad in a sweater vest, old money in a suit, tall, dark, and handsome and- wow.
“That’s no Fornell,” Tony commented quietly, nudging you softly as he noticed your staring at the raven-haired man striding to the conference room. His mouth was twisted downward in a hard line, and he walked with a confidence that made your knees weak.
“He’s like Jethro in a different font,” you whispered, mesmerized. Your eyes trailed downward to his strong hands and their delicious veins, your heart rate picking up as you imagined the cold metal of his watch against your skin as his fingers tightened around your-
“Ow!” you and Tony cried out, reeling from twin smacks to the backs of your heads from Gibbs.
“Put your eyeballs back in your heads and get to work,” he growled, shooting you a glare that made your blood heat up. Was Leroy Jethro Gibbs jealous?
Filing that exciting little prospect in the back of your mind, you headed to the conference room to get acquainted with the visiting FBI team. Turned out that Gibbs in a different font was exactly that- Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner was a darker, brooding version of your man.
He shook your hand as he introduced himself and his team, and you let your hand linger in his for just long enough for Jethro to notice. You could feel his intense gaze on your back as you helped the BAU pin up evidence on the board. They then filled you, Tony, and Gibbs in on their working theories and profile before splitting into teams. You opted to join Spencer at the DC map he was annotating. Seeing the cases laid out spatially helped your mind get oriented to the case. He smiled at you as you approached the board and offered you a marker, explaining the way he usually created his diagrams. You smiled in return, finding that his process was not far from your own.
Your teams worked together diligently through the afternoon and evening, and though the case had your utmost attention, you couldn’t help but notice the way your nerves tingled at the sight of Gibbs and Hotch working side by side. The two spoke to each other with such an air of arrogance and confidence that it made you wonder how they’d sound degrading you and praising you, above you and below you or perhaps in front and behind as they-
“Y/L/N!” Gibbs barked, squinting at you. “Something more interesting than the case on your mind?”
“No sir, just thinking about the diagram Reid drew up for us. Kinda looks like the Eiffel Tower,” you mused innocently, his eyes flashing at your outward show of defiance and covert flirtation.
You smiled at him sweetly before excusing yourself to go get some coffee from the kitchen downstairs.
“So, Agent Y/L/N, what has you thinking about Paris?”
You nearly choked on your coffee, turning to find Hotch leaning against the counter with his arms crossed and the hint of a smirk on his face. “I uh- Spencer’s drawing was- it’s just a lovely city,” you finished stupidly, cheeks warming. You would’ve rather dumped your scalding hot coffee on your body than admitted that the Eiffel Tower you were referencing was a structure made of men, not steel.
He reached past you to pick up the coffee pot, and your knees nearly buckled at the assault on your senses. He smelled like warm cinnamon and cologne and pure masculinity, an intoxicating mix that excited you in a different way than Jethro’s sawdust, coffee, and bourbon. You tried to calm your breathing, sure that he would hear it and be able to read your filthy mind. “I’m just- I need to- back to work!” you rushed out, narrowly slipping past him and back upstairs to the conference room.
Idiot, you chastised yourself. You sounded as dumb as the first time Jethro had gotten in your face the second week of your working at NCIS. You’d misfiled evidence which cost the team an extra day’s worth of work as the chain of custody had to be amended. Gibbs had crowded into your space, his steely blue eyes locked onto your warm chocolate ones, explaining how such a mistake could cost them an entire case one day and how you could not do it again, ever. Rather than responding with an intelligible apology or assurance that you’d never fuck up like that again because you had a brain and would be sure to use it, you merely eked out a breathy “Yes, sir,” that betrayed your true thoughts.
And the rest, they say, is history.
Later that night, the two team leaders decided that none of their agents would be helpful or intelligent enough to work this case without some sleep. You gathered your belongings from your desk and walked to the elevator, deciding that you would just meet Jethro at the car. You chatted with the BAU about their lives outside of work and found yourself thinking that cases with the FBI wouldn’t be so bad if you worked with these guys every time.
You could practically feel Gibbs, halfway across the bullpen, shudder at the thought.
“So where do they have you guys staying?” you asked, figuring that a drive back to Virginia at this time of night wouldn’t be wise.
“The Marriott down the road,” Derek answered smoothly, “if you’re looking for some company tonight, that is.” You laughed and shoved his shoulder, realizing that you got along so well with this guy because his annoyingly suave and flirtatious banter reminded you of Tony.
“An intriguing offer,” you teased, earning a smirk from Derek, “but I’m afraid my marine wouldn’t be too happy if he heard you say that.” You inclined your head to where Gibbs was still at his desk and Derek threw his hands up in mock defeat. Bidding them all good night as you parted ways in the garage, you got settled in Jethro’s truck and tucked your chin into your hand, closing your eyes for just a moment.
The driver’s side door opened and you sat up with a gasp, realizing you’d fallen asleep. “W’time is it?” you mumbled through a yawn, stretching your arms above you before wrapping them around your boyfriend’s neck.
“Just past midnight,” Gibbs murmured against your lips, and you hummed happily in response. “Let’s get you home and into bed.”
“And then?” you asked, hoping that your bratty antics today would earn you a punishment that brought more pleasure than pain.
“And then you sleep,” Jethro chuckled, eyes twinkling with mirth as he pulled out of the parking lot. You huffed out your annoyance and crossed your arms like a petulant child. You decided that tomorrow you would hunt down this marine-murdering son of a bitch singlehandedly if you had to, and then you would get a deliciously naughty night with your man.
Part II
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