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sukisdeliveryservice · 3 years

Note

hi!! can i request for an angsty CEO!seungcheol kinda thing where you’re his employee anddd you can continue from there hehe but please make it have a happy ending!! ty -🐼

your choice;

✎ pairing — ceo!seungcheol x personal assistant!reader (no pronouns are specified but there is one mention of reader wearing a dress)

✎ genre — fluff, humour, some angst towards the end but it has a happy ending, somewhat of a slowburn (i tried my best!)

✎ warning(s) — none!

✎ word count — 4.33 k

this is also for ficscafe’s dialogue prompt event!

↳ #10 - “Please don’t be afraid of me.”

✎ a/n — hi anon! this has been sitting in my inbox for so long and i have to apologize because i was only able to complete it with less angst than you had originally pictured. i’m a bit disappointed that i wasn’t able to do the request justice...feedback is appreciated!

also svt comeback tomorrow! super excited and i hope you guys are ready to love all the new songs we're getting ;)

Seungcheol wanted to strangle the head of HR.

You see, he was a very busy man—countless big-name entertainment companies have requested that he promote their agencies on his sites, and he has made appearances on several billboards across high-profile cities within South Korea. At just 25 years old, Seungcheol was already at the height of his career, not just because he was the founder and CEO of Going Company, but also because he was ridiculously untouchable.

When he made a request for the hiring manager to scout out a candidate for his personal assistant, he didn’t expect—and he will say this in the nicest way possible—someone by the likes of you.

For a lack of a better word, you were strange.

You had a killer resume, flawless time management skills and were exceptional at handling tough clients. Your professionalism with him however, was—unique, as a CEO who was trying to maintain a clean image would put it.

If you had any fear about losing your job, you definitely didn’t show it because you continued to complete all the tasks Seungcheol assigned to you with efficiency, but with an air around you that was borderline unsettling.

You would hand him a perfect coffee order but wrinkle your nose at him when he took a sip. When you were given the freedom to book his appointments at any time of the day last week, you scheduled them all to be before 10 am (Seungcheol still fists his sheets in the morning when he thinks about this). And earlier today, you had let the newbie intern enter his office when you knew they were always too excited in the mornings for Seungcheol to handle.

The only reason why he hadn’t done anything about your eccentric behaviour was the fact that he had a conference to attend this weekend, and he really, really needed your deflecting skills to avoid the nosy representatives, who were always trying to find a reason to demean his accomplishments.

“You have a meeting with the director of finance at 8 am tomorrow morning Mr. Choi.”

“Another 8 am? Are you trying to kill me yn?” Seungcheol pinched the bridge of his nose and held back the nth exasperated comment of the day. He was not going to lose it when he was only on his first cup of coffee for the morning. You, as per usual, remained indifferent, and kept flipping through the tablet planner.

“You’ll thank me later when you don’t have to settle that client’s budget complaints later in the afternoon, because the marketing head tells me they tend to be a bit more reasonable in the mornings.”

It’s not like you weren't respectful, you were professional in giving all the appropriate greetings and even occasionally treated your company underclassmen to meals after work. It was just that you were so odd with him, like you were always trying to keep a certain distance.

“Did you already book the tickets to fly over to the conference this weekend?” You briefly glance up from the schedule to nod and bow your head. Without another word, you turn on your heel to leave the office. Seungcheol sighs as he falls back onto his seat, all he wanted to do was to spend more time talking with you. You had been in the company for a little over a year and he felt like he didn’t know a thing about your life.

Seungcheol shakes his head and goes back to wrapping up some reports ahead of the busy weekend.

Now you knew it was bound to happen. As you were doing the last round of checks for Seungcheol’s team’s luggage on the plane, you mentally give yourself a pep talk for the weekend’s conference—your mind was used to spending the majority of your day by Seungcheol’s side, but the thought of being in such close company for the entire weekend was making your heart run laps.

You made sure to book first-class tickets of course, but you also made sure that you were seated as far away from Seungcheol as possible. It didn’t matter that you were his personal assistant, the spacious cabin gave you lots of leeway for roaming around the plane and answering his requests. You just could not handle spending the twelve hour plane ride sitting so closely to him.

You were pretty sure that people were under the impression that you lowkey hated who you worked for, but anyone with two eyes would know that it was the opposite, really.

Lucky for you, Seungcheol’s team had the observational skills of a toothpick.

When you were being interviewed by the hiring manager, you of course knew the company that you were applying to, and the person who would be in charge of all your daily tasks. At the time, Going Company was still small, and you knew that there was going to be a lot of hustling while it was in its beginning stages. You were ready for the over-time stress, the several cups of caffeine and the frequent nagging of either your boss, or his colleagues, that were under the impression that you worked for them too.

You however, were not ready for the boss that told you to go home early when he caught you blinking back eyes that lacked sleep, or the boss that invited you to drink with all his colleagues after work, and said colleagues treating you with an utmost respect that you had never seen from any previous position of employment.

It was a bit sad that you found yourself absolutely smitten at any acts of kindness shown to you in your workplace, but the accompaniment of your boss’s tiny mannerisms really hit a spot in your heart that you never even knew existed before.

Maybe it had to do something with the way Seungcheol was exceptionally grumpy in the mornings, but after you gave him his coffee, his eyes would fall shut and a soft smile would grace his features after the first sip. Or it could be the way he was not afraid to whine in front of you about the silly clients he had met for the day, or the way he would write little notes on the edge of your meeting minutes when you two were stuck in a boring product presentation, or the way he would patiently listen to all the young interns who barged into his office with jittery excitement, or the way—

In short, you loved the company that you worked for (and the person who ran it).

Despite the endearment you had towards your boss, professionalism came first above everything. You decided that you would keep your distance from Seungcheol. You would still perform all of your duties with efficient ease, but any possibility of growing closer was out of the question. Conversations would be kept straight-to-the-point and company dinners would end early for you. You were not risking Seungcheol finding out that you held any sort of feelings for him.

However, the world seemed to have other plans for you, because Seungcheol was now heading in your direction, and when he stationed himself in the adjacent cabin across from you, you were pretty sure that he had no intention in returning to his booked seat.

“Mr. Choi, was there something wrong with your seat?” Seungcheol hasn’t met your eyes yet, instead he smiles while facing forward as if knowing that you were going to ask that question, and he responds with, “Mingyu finds the back more spacious, so we agreed to trade seats.”

How strange, you were pretty sure that each cabin in the first-class area had the same amount of legroom. Unbeknownst to you, Seungcheol had actually not-so-subtly pleaded with Mingyu using the bribery of extra vacation days to switch cabins in order to be closer to you. Reason being, well— he has yet to figure that out.

The first two hours of the flight was spent in blissful silence. You figured it wasn’t so bad to be seated closely next to Seungcheol if you could just pull the divider to separate your areas and turn the lights off so he would think that you were sleeping.

Unfortunately, everyone on the plane had to eat dinner, so you were forced to come out of hiding. Fortunately, you were blessed to find a delicious bowl of bibimbap being handed to you by the flight stewardess. After you thanked her for the meal, you take the chopsticks into your hand and are just about to dig into the meal, before you hear a knock on the dividing partition.

You slide the door open to be met with Seungcheol, who was also holding his bowl of bibimbap and you give a slight bow to acknowledge the request he was about to make. “Would you like to have some extra bibimbap of mine?”

You try to mask the confusion that washes over your face at Seungcheol’s unusual request. If he asked you to place an order for more food, you would not have batted an eye, but to no surprise his unwavering kindness nestled its way into your heart despite your internal protests. “Are you not hungry Mr. Choi?”

“I’m supposed to be dieting right now, there’s going to be another magazine shoot when we get back from this trip.”

“I’m sure the photographer would gladly take your pictures regardless.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“I mean that you will always look good on camera no matter how much your outside appearance changes—”

Your sentence comes to an abrupt halt as your eyes widen slightly at the realization of your words and you plead to the empty air that the conversation you were having was just a figment of your imagination. The curious, yet endearing grin that was immediately sent your way made it very apparent that the words spoken were not a delusion.

“You sure know how to flatter someone, miss ln, and I thank you for your kind words. But I also noticed that you buy this for lunch almost every Friday, so I thought you would like some more of it.”

Had Seungcheol really noticed the foods you enjoyed during the lunch breaks of your work week? Your mind cannot find any further responses to Seungcheol’s last comment, so you just give a small smile and nod in thanks when he scoots closer to your side to pile some extra bibimbap into your bowl.

Seungcheol does not say much to you for the rest of the flight. He figured that you wanted to get as much rest as possible before the start of the hectic weekend. You on the other hand try to ignore the disappointed pang in your stomach when he doesn’t knock on the partition for the rest of the journey.

Conferences were the worst. The whole making connections aspect was so tiresome and kind of shallow if Seungcheol was being honest. But alas, he is CEO after all, and he does try his best to spend more time around the people who seemed the most genuine.

As planned, you were by his side for most of the evening. You were organizing all the business cards that were collected from the other attendees, as well as redirecting the conversation once it got too uncomfortable for Seungcheol’s liking. Majority of the attendees were already middle-aged, and it irked Seungcheol when some of them refused to treat him as an equal. In his mind, business was business, and it didn’t matter that he had spent less years working in the corporate sector than others.

Seungcheol was pleased to have a reunion with Minghao, a distributor in the China district. He was around the same age, and Seungcheol would even consider him as a close friend, as far as partnerships go. You, being the absolute legend you are, not only arranged an event itinerary for Seungcheol that had ample time to meet new people and get work done, but with lots of leeway for him to socialize with mutuals and enjoy the time away from Korea.

Seungcheol also did not fail to notice how you really shone in your professional attire, and how the way you weaved in and out of the crowds of hotshot business owners and investors made it seem like you owned the place. At first, you were a little hesitant to come on the business trip as personal assistants did not have much of a role in these kinds of events, but through Seungcheol’s polite persuasion, you had agreed to lead the team in navigating through the weekend.

"Miss ln, I'll have you know that your input has actually helped the company grow lots in the past year, and it would be a pleasure to have you take the lead in some of the conversations we will be having with the shareholders we are going to be meeting. This is, only if you'd like to, of course."

It all came down to you in the end, and you figured that it would be a good experience for personal growth as well. You didn't think many CEOs involved their personal assistants in business decision making so much, but you were happy to try something other than mastermind scheduling (even if that was a great feat in it of itself).

You were first afraid that the other attendees would see you more as an unnecessary dead weight. However, if anyone felt that way, they would have immediately been proven wrong when they saw how you and Seungcheol worked seamlessly at each other’s side.

Seungcheol had insisted that you were a valuable asset to the team, and while you believed that your appeal came from the sole fact that you were practically a microsoft office god who was amazing at schedules, Seungcheol knew that you were more level headed when it came to business decisions than you let on. While his original intentions were to have your support when speaking to haughty investors, he soon came to realize he valued your insight more than anything.

“Mr Choi, shall we head over to the next panel now?” Seungcheol figured that the tiresome weekend had just begun to take its toll on you. Your eyes were slightly hooded, and a soft, almost dreamy smile had somehow broken through your cool business persona. He liked it when you smiled, you were always pretty beforehand, but he would say that your smile made you look younger, and a little more at peace.

“Right, I can take over for now miss ln, you can head back to the hotel room and rest for the remainder of the day. We still have that dinner tonight, and I don’t want you to be tired.”

“What about you though?”

“I’ll be fine, just make sure to get some rest, okay? Is it alright if I walk you back to your room?”

“Thank you, but I’ll be just fine, you need to be at the next panel soon anyway.”

You bow your head once more before heading off in the direction of the exit. Seungcheol knew that he would see you in a few more hours anyway. It was your first trip out of the country, and he didn’t want you to be drained by the end of it. While you had somehow managed to keep your distance from him all weekend, Seungcheol still managed to learn a few more things about you in the pockets of downtime.

He learned that you were all alone in Seoul, and that you chose to work elsewhere because of the lack of opportunities in your hometown. You didn’t talk much about it, but Seungcheol could tell that your previous places of employment weren’t so good to you, from the way you shifted your eyes at his questions. You weren’t too acquainted with each other, so Seungcheol didn’t pry.

He also learned that you were more of a tea person, hence why you couldn’t help but wrinkle your nose a little when Seungcheol sipped onto his bitter caffeine in the mornings. (Seungcheol of course didn’t know about your fondness towards him when he drank from a perfect order in one of those tiresome mornings). You always booked his appointments early in the morning because he was less likely to make impulsive decisions earlier in his day, and you noticed that the longer Seungcheol spent thinking about a decision, the better the outcome was for the company.

You liked to invite the new interns into his office frequently, because one time when you accidentally gave the green light to a freshly graduated intern, Chan, to enter Seungcheol's office, he left with the biggest smile on his face and rambled to you about how amazing the boss is (you already knew that, of course). You had been letting in new interns whenever Seungcheol wasn’t busy since he was the perfect example of a good mentor, and you wanted everyone in the company to learn of his down to earth, almost fatherly-like nature.

Additionally, you liked to collect different kinds of plants, and Seungcheol made a mental note to gift you a set of succulents at the next office Christmas party. You had a knack for witty jokes, and Seungcheol found himself laughing at the side commentaries you would make after another attendee made an arrogant comment about something neither of you particularly cared about.

You were, for a lack of a better word, intelligent, interesting, and funny. Seungcheol admired how dedicated you were to your career, but he wished you would just stay this way without losing any aspect of yourself.

The rest of the conference went by smoothly, and Seungcheol was pleased to have made more connections in hopes of expanding Going Company into international markets in later years. The conference was going to end with a dinner banquet, and if he was being honest, he had little motivation to go. Back to back early mornings was something Seungcheol had grown somewhat accustomed to, but the constant monitoring of his words and the never ending flow of conversation left him exhausted.

“Mr. Choi, we are to head to the dining hall in approximately fifteen minutes,” Seunghceol sighs when he hears your voice softly echo from the other side of the door. Seungcheol, he’s been asking that you call him Seungcheol when you were no longer in business settings.

When he opened the door to find you in a gorgeous shimmery dress that not only emphasized your beauty, but also made you glow, Seungcheol forgets why he was so opposed to the dinner in the first place.

“Your tie.”

Without another word you move closer to Seungcheol to adjust the tie around his neck properly. Seungcheol tries not to notice the soft curve of your lips, or the gentle flicker of your eyelashes that accompanied the air of elegance that wafted around you.

“Yn, I—”

“I’ll be handing in my letter of resignation once we come back to Korea Mr. Choi.”

“What?”

You had been in the company for barely over a year and Seungcheol thought that you had really enjoyed the flexibility of your schedule and the bonds you had formed with your colleagues.

“Is it Soonyoung from advertising? I know he can be a little energetic but I can have a chat with him and ask him to tone it down a little. Did you not like the event the marketing team held last month? I know it was a little different from what the company is used to but I want you to know that your opinions are valued and— or was it me? Did I forget to approve your last vacation claim—?”

'It’s none of that Mr. Choi, Going Company has the best company culture that I could have ever asked for. You were the perfect boss, and I thank you for letting me have an amazing work experience.”

“But why?” Seungcheol knew that it was no longer his place to be asking you about such things. You were in no way obligated to give a reason, but his emotions have gotten the better of him. He really, really liked you, and he felt guilty for making this a personal matter.

“I— I don’t think I can work under you anymore. I’m sorry but it seems that— I might have—”

You aren’t sure where the words are coming from. You were definitely not going to tell Seungcheol that you were quitting your job because you had fallen in love with him.

“I can’t give you an explanation, but I am going to resign and find a suitable replacement in due weeks time—’

“Yn, I like you.”

You feel your whole body freeze and stare up at your boss, no— Seungcheol, who for the first time in the several months you had worked at his side, looked a little unsure.

“Don’t say that. I’m going to start searching—”

“Will you just listen to me?” You were always so quick to respond to whatever Seungcheol asked you to do. But this time you felt as if you had lost the ability to speak.

“Be honest with me yn, are you— do you like me? Even just a little bit?”

You aren’t sure where your voice went. It’s somewhere far away but you have no intention of finding it. You hoped you could just melt into the ground and go back to your hometown without having to be in this situation. Life was much simpler there, there were no fast-paced evolving corporations and there were no endearingly nosy bosses.

“I do like you, very much so— and I’m not going to let that interfere with everything you have worked so hard for, and I’m sorry—”

“Please don’t apologize. Please don’t be afraid of me. And please don’t be afraid to fall in love, even if you would like nothing to do with me.”

“It’s not professional, what happens if something goes wrong?”

“Then we’ll work through it! You want to be serious about this right?”

You find yourself choking up, so you could only reply with a small nod of your head. This weekend was almost impossible to get through. You had promised your family that you were going to work hard and make it big in Seoul, this situation was something you never had expected to happen. You didn’t want to tell them about all the horrible treatment you had gone through under past employers. You avoided mentioning the sleepless nights, little pay and the side jobs you took on to pay the bills.

When you had secured a position at Going Company, the business was still small and trying to have its big break. You weren’t expecting the company to grow rapidly in just a little over a year, and you knew a big contributing factor to the company’s success was because of Seungcheol and his persistent efforts towards the employees. You didn’t want to tell your family that you had fallen in love with the first person that had treated you as an equal in the soul-sucking world of corporations.

“How do I know if I don’t like you just because you’re nice to me? You wouldn’t want someone like that, would you?”

“Well, do you?” This was the first time Seungcheol had seen you lose a bit of your composure. If he was being honest, you looked a little panicked and if you were under different circumstances, he would wrap his arms around you and curse every being that had made you think, for even a second, that you weren’t allowed to feel things like love. “What is it that you like about me?”

“I like your dedication to your employees. You never cared about what their position was and always valued their thoughts and opinions regardless. You never raised your voice when someone made a mistake, and you would always guide them through it. You never seem to lose your passion, even when the day goes haywire…”

You kept your head bowed down as you rambled on about the true feelings you had towards your boss. You felt pathetic, and you were not looking forward to receiving a call from home asking if you had finally settled on a job that was perfect, and that had met all your needs. If only your family knew that you were constantly in between jobs because several workplaces had been unkind to you, not because you were ambitious and were not willing to rest until you found something exactly to your liking.

“Would you like to try to make it work?”

There it was again. Seungcheol’s way of speaking never failed to amaze you. He would have never forced you to come on the business trip unless you agreed to it. He didn’t force you to speak with him for the entire plane journey and he didn’t further insist that he walked you to your hotel room. Everything always came down to your choice, and you knew that Seungcheol definitely was not going to force you into attempting a relationship, even if he knew that you shared the same feelings.

This is why you loved Seungcheol. And the realization brings you a comforting peace that you had been searching for, for so long. You were going to tell your family that you had found the perfect job, and you were going to say that it had everything you could have asked for. You were also going to tell them that you had found someone who was your perfect match. And that you wouldn’t trade either for the world.

“Can we? You know— try? I really, really would like to try.”

“Then we will, and we’re going to make it work.”

“Is it okay if we talk more about this once we’e back in Korea though? We’re still in the middle of, you know, business stuff.”

Seungcheol laughs for the first time in the evening. He’s tired, but it’s hearty and full, he can’t believe that you somehow regained your professional attitude in the midst of all this. “Of course we can, you know, after all this business stuff.”

You return Seungcheol with a small, shy smile of your own. It is to no surprise that you two are absent from the conference dinner that night. You spend the rest of the night in comforting, yet meaningful silence as you two do your own separate things to regain some energy and relax after a tiresome weekend. At some point you order takeout, and you start calling him Seungcheol. At a later point, you fall asleep in Seungcheol's room while watching one of the kdramas the hotel tv was broadcasting at the time. Your world is lovely, and you have found your peace.

#ficscafe dpe #ficscafe #choi seungcheol x reader #seungcheol #seungcheol x reader #seungcheol x you #scoups #scoups x reader #seventeen x you #seventeen x reader #seventeen #seventeen scenario #seventeen scenarios #seungcheol scenarios #fallinchan fic: your choice

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prince-septimus · 3 years

Text

the run-in

pairing : jason todd x detective!reader

summary : 3 times you run into the red hood, and the one time it’s jason todd

word count : 1.8k

warnings : mention of blood & violence

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to play with fire?”

You spin around quickly, your gun pointed at the chest of a man you had never met but had heard all too much about.

The Red Hood.

“Sounds more like something the Commissioner would tell me,” you speak calmly, but don’t move the gun away.

There are bodies lying around you – some brought down by your own hand and the others brought down by his. Groans of pain fill the air, but you know some of the men are dead.

“Commissioner Gordon—” his voice is mechanical, any real traces of what he sounds like hidden by the mask he wears, “—how is he doing these days?”

Your gaze turns into a glare. “He’s fine. Would you like me to call him up? I bet he’d love to talk to you.”

Under the dim streetlights of Gotham, the Red Hood is a startling figure. He’s almost terrifying as he stands in front of you, but in a city full of heroes and villains alike, you don’t let his imposing structure intimidate you.

“I’ve actually got places to be,” he quips, before turning his attention to one of the men lying on the ground.

They were all members of a local drug ring you had recently been trying to bust. You know the names of a few, recognized them from photos you had found, but now they were just bodies to fill the jail cells, or for some, the morgue. You had been on a stakeout, trying to find some last bits of evidence you would need to finally make the bust, but you were ambushed.

The Red Hood had appeared out of nowhere.

He kicks at the body closest to him. There’s no groan of pain. Letting out a huff of air, it’s almost masked by the static of his mask. “Looks like you have a lot of paperwork to do.”

“No thanks to you.”

His head turns. You briefly wonder what he looks like under that mask, wonder what he sounds like.

“I’ll make sure to leave a few for you next time.”

You can practically hear the smile hidden away underneath the false voice he carries with him. Finally, you drop your gun. “I’ll let the Commissioner know you say ‘hello’.”

“It’s not like you to sit up on roofs. That’s more of my kind of thing.”

You sigh, bringing your camera away from your face to look at the man who’s saddled up next to you. “What do you want, Red?”

“What? Can’t stop by to see how my favorite detective is doing?”

“You hate the police,” you reply flatly.

It had been a few weeks since you had last seen the Red Hood. He had popped up occasionally, always when you were working alone. You figured he had found some sort of trust in you, helping you out on the occasional case by offering information if you turned a blind eye to his criminal activities. You had a sort of trust in him too, you had decided, trusting him to never lead you on a wrong turn when it came to the leads he gave you.

You still bickered with him, though, almost treating him like an old friend rather than a deadly vigilante.

“I only hate the police that don’t do their job.” He leans against the concrete barrier surrounding the roof, the one you had been hiding behind as you spied on the gangsters in the window across the street. “That doesn’t include you.”

“I wouldn’t think you’d be here if it did.” You scroll through the photos you had taken so far on your camera, making sure you have what you need before turning to the man standing next to you. “What do you want, Red?”

“Heard your name from some of the men you’ve been scouting.” He nods toward the building. “I think you need to be a little more careful.”

“Isn’t that what I keep you around for?”

This is one of the moments where you wish you could see the face beneath the mask. You want to be able to read him, be able to know what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling. Instead, you’re forced to look at the masked man in front of you and be completely unaware as to who sits beneath it all.

“Just be careful. Keep someone with you when you’re out here doing these kinds of things.”

You shake your head, turning to bend down and grab your equipment from where it’s spread out on the roof. “I’ll be alright, Red. Now, how about you walk me home, hm?”

You stand back up, but he’s nowhere to be found, almost as if he was never there.

A bullet flies past your head, planting itself into the man who had been pointing his gun at you.

You don’t need to turn around to know who the bullet belongs to. Instead, you let your arms fall to your side as a huff of air falls past your lips. “I had it.”

“Sure, you did.”

He appears next to you, sliding his gun back into the holster strapped to his hip. You feel the anger rise up in you as you turn to look at him, and without thinking, you’re shoving at his chest.

“I had it!”

“I told you not to do stakeouts alone anymore—”

“You don’t get to decide what I can and cannot do.” You lower your voice, trying to calm yourself. “This is my job. I shouldn’t even be talking to you—”

“But you need my help.”

You rub your hands across your face. “I don’t need your help unless I ask for it, and I didn’t ask for it this time.”

A mechanic scoff. “You could’ve died.”

“I needed more information out of the guy.”

“You could’ve died. Do I need to keep repeating it?”

“Well, I’m fine. And now I have to find an explanation of why this guy is dead.”

“Better than finding you dead.”

Sirens sound in the distance. Someone must’ve called the cops before you ever got the chance to call it in.

“Go,” you say quickly, “get out of here so I don’t have to explain to my coworkers why I’m talking to a man they’re actively hunting.”

By the time the patrol cars arrive, spotting you with your hands raised in the air, the Red Hood is long gone.

The lights above you hurt your eyes. You try to lift yourself off the ground, but the pain stops you. You’re not sure where it stems from, but it’s spreading like a wildfire. Your whole body burns. It hurts to turn your head, but you manage to do so and almost let out a sob at the sight of your partner laid out on the ground.

Blood drips out of his nose, and his eyes are lifeless.

You cough, suddenly feeling like you can’t catch your breath at the realization of everything that had just happened. You had convinced your newest partner – a newer recruit, almost 30 – to do a stakeout with you. It was supposed to be a simple watch, one to get more information on one of the newer crime families in Gotham.

Instead, the two of you had been ambushed and laid out. Your partner was dead and you were close enough to it.

You don’t hear the footsteps or the panicked shout of your name until there’s a man standing over you. It’s hard to see anything but his shadow under the streetlight, but you would recognize the voice hidden beneath that mask anywhere.

“Red,” you manage to get out softly before your throat begins to burn and you’re coughing out any next words you have.

“Stay still,” he orders. He reaches for your side, his gloved hand covered in blood when he pulls it back before immediately pressing it back against your side in order to stop some of the bleeding. "You've been shot.”

You hiss at the pain that shoots through you, your eyes shutting . “Feels like I’ve been hit by a truck.”

“Hey, hey,” he pats at your cheek, “keep your eyes open for me.”

“At least I didn’t come alone.”

He looks over at the fallen body of your partner, letting out a sigh. “Look at how well that worked out for you. Where’s your phone?”

“Don’t know. Car maybe.”

“Fuck it,” he spits out, keeping one hand pressed against your gunshot wound while the other digs his own phone out of his pocket.

“What are you doing?”

You watch through blurry vision as he brings the phone up to his ear.

“Commissioner,” he speaks into the phone, quickly explaining what’s happened and where to find you. When the call ends, he looks back down at you. “Help is on its way.”

Beneath his mask, the Red Hood has a confused expression etched onto his face as he listens to the soft laugh you let out. “What are you laughing at? You’re bleeding out in an alley and you’re laughing.”

“You called the Commissioner to help me.” Your voice is broken, breathy words falling from your lips. “You’re risking the police finding you here in order to get me help. You’re doing all this, and I don’t even know your name or what you look like.”

A turn of his head towards the end of the alley, looking to see if there’s anyone watching. There’s sirens in the distance. He only has a few minutes.

With a click, he removes the helmet and tosses it next to him. His black and white streaked hair falls onto his forehead, and his face is still partially covered by the domino mask he always wore underneath, but he’s all-too-familiar even without revealing everything.

You smile. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I was dead.”

“And Jim knows?”

“Yes.”

You try to sit up again, attempting to ignore the pain, but Jason’s free hand finds your shoulder and holds you down.

“Don’t move. It could make it worse.”

“What’s next? Is Nightwing about to appear from the rooftop?”

Jason laughs. “We’re not exactly speaking at the moment, so I assume no.”

You shake your head as best you can. “Jason fuckin’ Todd. Back from the dead. Can’t believe I made friends with a zombie.”

“Real original.”

The sirens are closer now, too close.

Jason lets out a sigh when he hears a car door slam shut. There’s blood on your face and he reaches up to smear some of it away with his glove. “I guess that’s my cue.”

Gordon appears first, clearly keeping the other officers away to give Jason time.

You watch the two nod at each other before Jason grabs one of your hands.

“Almost there,” he tells you softly, removing his hand and placing yours over the gunshot wound in your side. “Keep pressure there, help is here.”

Jason reaches for his helmet, slipping it back on before taking off into the shadows.

You realize he never said goodbye, but as the Commissioner and the EMTs reach you, you know that you’ll see him again.

#jason todd x reader #jason todd #jason todd imagine #jason todd fic #3+1 #red hood #red hood x reader #red hood imagine #my fics #recently got back into my batman phase and im having a grand time #also lemme know if you like the new format #i have another writing blog where i use this format and i just happen to like it better

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dragonfly756 · 3 years

Text

Why did Kepler call Eiffel his Point man that one time: An essay.

Okay here is the reason I was researching what a point man is.

So there’s this throwaway line from Kepler in ‘Persuasion’ where he says he’s “Not about to waste his point man on such a hazardous mission.” Which is incredibly interesting to me because in a military context a point man would go out first into the most hazardous situation to investigate.And, if necessary, to die so others didn’t. Kepler very much isn’t asking Eiffel to do that....Yet.

See, in the episode, he’s asking Eiffel to stay with him on the Hephaestus while everyone else goes out on the dangerous space walk. So maybe it’s just an Inception reference, or the writers didn’t research some terminology that well, and it’s not that deep? (Probably, but I also feel like over analyzing this a little bit.)

So a point man, right? Characterized by being a scout, taking tons of danger for everyone else, and also, and this part is very important, being ceaselessly loyal....... and also an Inception reference, (Creating a sort of right-hand man connotation into the bargain, if you consider the character of Arthur.) (I could write a whole other essay about the whole point man thing for him but it would get really long if I did it here.) and obviously, Eiffel would appreciate a pop culture reference.

But isn’t that role more suited to Jacobi? I would argue not. Especially after Maxwell’s death, Jacobi quickly loses faith in Kepler, in fact, he seems to blame Kepler for Maxwell’s death more than he blames Minkowski. Kepler was the one to make the orders, even if she was the one to pull the trigger. Although his loyalties to Kepler seem pretty fluid, even after Maxwell’s death he has so much faith in her, I don’t have the exact quote handy, but he says something along the lines of “People like that (Kepler) are there to let people like her (Maxwell) be brilliant.” (And presumably better humanity and all that jazz, really sweet that someone as outwardly cynical as Jacobi has such....Noble thoughts.) Even from as early as the Goddard Christmas party, they seem to back each other up on the most banal of lies. TO KEPLER, no less.

This suggests something really interesting, that Jacobi isn’t Kepler’s point man, he’s Maxwell’s. Even before her death, Jacobi’s loyalty to Kepler is always going to be secondary. And even though Kepler heavily miscalculated how much Jacobi would still be loyal to him after the mutiny, I think he does realize this on some level.

So Kepler needs a new right-hand man, one who already has proven himself to be loyal, and who goes out into danger to scout it out.

Enter.....Doug Eiffel! Who has, A: Proven himself to be extremely loyal on multiple occasions, something Kepler would have witnessed both firsthand when he first picked him up on the Urania, and through Doug’s logs. and B: Had significant experience in dangerous situations. (Again, the whole ‘cryosleep and readjust the tiny spaceship to get in comms range of help’ is something Kepler would have seen firsthand.) and C: Eiffel is viewed favorably by the aliens they’re trying to contact. All of this adds up to a very good point man, if Kepler can win him over.

Which Kepler attempts through......Drum-roll please.....Emotional manipulation!!! Is anyone really surprised? Anyway. He starts by outwardly validating the person hood of both Eiffel and Hera, mainly by yelling at Hilbert a lot, While behind the scenes he has Maxwell put malicious code in Hera and expects Eiffel to eventually die for him if it comes to that.

He also isolates Eiffel as much as possible from other members of his original team.

He assigns Minkowski the most menial jobs he can, and since turning Eiffel against her is frankly a tall order, attempts to turn her against him with the records ‘leak’ of his past.

He gives Hera a new friend who understands her on a level that Eiffel doesn’t.

He keeps Lovelace close, (My personal interpretation of their dynamic is that Kepler views her as an opposing, but largely unattached agent. No loyalty to either him or the Hephaestus crew.) as master-at-arms, but largely doesn’t seem to worry about her.

Since degradation and other forms of manipulation (punishment?) don’t seem to work on Hilbert, Kepler attacks him through the only vector he can, denying him his research. (This serves two purposes, keeping Hilbert in line and submissive, and encouraging Eiffel to like him more. I don’t think Kepler would care that much about Eiffel’s health unless it benefited him somehow, so he uses Eiffel’s bodily autonomy basically as a treat for good behavior. Not unlike how a lot of people treat Hera, actually.)

And Eiffel? He praises him for his resourcefulness, he gives him preferential treatment, doesn’t call him stupid. (This is all heavily conditional on his mood, of course.) He makes himself the one person on the station who will give Eiffel consistent support and doesn’t underestimate his ability. This is all to the point where I think if the contact event had gone to plan, even if nobody else on the original crew survived, and it was just him, Jacobi, Maxwell, and Eiffel? Well, Kepler would be just fine with that. Eiffel would go out first, attempt to communicate with the aliens, and come back, maybe short a few limbs, maybe with some additional trauma, but ultimately fine.

Because beneath all the bluster and pop-culture references, Eiffel is stunningly good at his job.

He’s good at not dying, at thinking on his feet.

He’s made first contact with aliens when no-one else in presumably hundreds of other missions has.

Because you know what they say, when you’ve got a pig that good.....

#on a first listen through it seemed obvious kepler was doing some sort of manipulation #just was never sure for what #and then two years and one viewing of inception later #everything just clicked together in lurid detail #Wolf 359 #wolf 359 meta #Doug Eiffel #warren kepler

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tf2-hellhole · 3 years

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Tf2 request! Can I get mercs x an s/o who had a pretty terrible childhood with sucky parents. And the mercs just being so supportive. Also thank you your writing is amazing!!!

Scout:

Scout honestly didn’t have the best childhood either. His mother loved him dearly, but his father was never around and his mother had to take care of eight boys with very little money, so Scout had a pretty shitty childhood too. So, to an extent, he understands what you’re feeling.

When you tell him what your childhood was like, all he can give you are “Jeez, that’s terrible!”s throughout the story. He’s not trying to be so awkward. But he’s so, so bad at being sincere and sensitive about these kinds of things. By the end of it, he probably just wraps his arms around your waist and holds you for a while.

It’s gonna be a while until he works up the courage to talk to you about your feelings. But until then, he’ll always be giving you encouraging looks, short statements of affirmation, and lots of handholding.

Soldier:

Soldier, surprisingly, had a pretty good childhood. He can’t help but feel a little bad about not being able to understand or relate to what you’re feeling or what you experienced. But that’s not gonna stop him from doing whatever he can to make you feel better.

When you’re feeling down, he’ll take you on a little adventure till you feel better. Maybe it’s something simple and casual like the park or a restaurant to help you calm down, or maybe it’s one of his crazy ass adventures to help you get your mind off of things. Whatever he thinks would be better for you.

He’s like your personal cheerleader. Whenever you’re struggling with something because of the trauma or memories, he confidently reminds you that he thinks you are so brave and amazing and that you’re strong enough to overcome anything.

Pyro:

Pyro is such a sweetheart and is so, so good at supporting you and making you feel better. They’ll do anything in their power to help you heal.

When you’re forced to confront any trauma or bad memories, they like to hold your hand, or hug you if the two of you are alone. They want you to know that you’re not alone and that you have someone to lean on. They also become more affectionate just in general.

They also love to make you treats. Their go to is sweets or candy, but if you’re not a fan of them, they’ll make you just about anything you want. They’re an excellent cook, too, so no matter what they make you, it’s going to be absolutely delicious. Sometimes, they’ll have you make it with them for some 1 on 1 time.

Demo:

Demo had a horrible childhood full of trauma and abuse. He knows how you feel, and he’ll remind you of this fact so that you know you can depend on him when you need to.

He likes to wrap you up in a hug if you’re dealing with trauma or something similar. If it’s in public, he’ll wrap an arm around your waist; if it’s in private, he’ll wrap you up in a big bear hug and let you hold on for as long as you like. And of course, he’s going to respect your boundaries, but he’s a very physically affectionate partner and that’s the way of communicating his support that’s most comfortable to him.

When he finds his words, he assures you that you’ll always have him by your side and that you’re strong enough to get through it. He believes in you so much and wants to help as much as he can.

Heavy:

Heavy’s childhood was also really rough, and he’s had to deal with a lot of loss and trauma. So while can’t really relate to your exact situation, he can relate in knowing what kind of damage this kind of origin can do to a person.

When you’re feeling a little down or stressed or down because of something related to your past, he just likes to casually spend time with you. He loves having you cook with him or cuddle on the couch with him or little intimate things like that. If it’s in public, he won’t hesitate to step between you and the thing/person triggering you, and isn’t against fighting someone if they’re harassing you.

He has a funny way of reminding you that he supports and loves you very simply and quickly, almost like he’s dismissing it. You know he loves you to death, though.

Engie:

Engie had a fairly good childhood other than being a little ignored at times by his father, so he can’t really relate when it comes to what you’re been through or how you’re feeling, and it honestly makes him feel horrible, but he’s not going to tell you that.

He absolutely hates seeing you upset, and he’s gonna do anything he can to make you feel better. His favorite thing to do if you’re just stressed or a little upset is just hold you or dance with you. If you’re not a fan of that, maybe he’ll make you a treat or take you somewhere you really like. He just thinks helping you relax a little before confronting the problem is a good thing to do.

You can see that it makes him so overjoyed when he helps you feel better. He just wants his Honeybee to be happy.

Medic:

Medic was raised by horribly neglectful and restrictive parents before being tossed in an orphanage after their death, so he understands how you feel. It makes it all the more frustrating for him that he doesn’t know how to help you feel better.

He reads lots and lots of books about trauma, which helps a little, but doesn’t do too much for you. You can see how hard he’s trying for you, and you do things to repay him, but it only makes him more angry because he feels like he hasn’t done anything.

In his stress, he ends up coming to you for comfort, rather than the other way around. But eventually, he finds what he thinks are the best ways to help you and he’s ready to help you on your healing journey.

Sniper:

Of course, Sniper is absolutely full of trauma, but none of it’s from his adoptive parents, so he doesn’t really have trauma similar to yours, and he hates not being able to relate at a higher level.

The main thing he does to help you when you’re feeling stressed or down is take you on trips out to the wilderness, the length depending on how much you like the outdoors. Sometimes it’s stuff like stargazing, a little hiking, or maybe just cuddling under his blankets and listening to the rain.

Though, sometimes he works up the courage to talk to you about trauma, both his and yours. He’s not the best at talking about his own experiences, but he is an excellent listener and will listen to you talk for hours and hours.

Spy:

Spy doesn’t know how to help you, not in the slightest. He doesn’t even know where to start.

For a while, he actually distances himself from you a little bit, trying to figure out what to do. But when he finds that his absence upsets you, he can’t stay away; It’d break his heart to see you even more upset.

He very, very awkwardly starts trying to talk to you about it. It’s honestly painful to watch but it’s clear he’s trying so hard. The ridiculousness of it earns him a kiss, which does calm his nerves a little.

Eventually he manages to talk you through a lot of the things you’ve dealt with in your life. And seeing how much it helped you feel better, he might work up the courage to talk to you about his own past.

#tf2 #teamfortress2 #tf2 x reader #tf2 x s/o #tf2 x y/n #tf2 x you #tf2 imagines #tf2 headcanons #tf2 scout #tf2 soldier #tf2 pyro #tf2 demoman #tf2 heavy #tf2 engineer #tf2 medic #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy

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shadow-sovereign · 3 years

Text

I’ve got another Ashborn/Jin-Woo fic idea.

This one is an au world, though I’m still working out the exact details of the setting. I know that I want it to be a no electricity, everything’s run on magic world. No cars, internet, and phones.

The setting is a somewhat isolated town near the mountains and a forest with one dirt path leading to the next village, several miles away. It’s a town where the people have worshiped a death god (Ashborn) for as long as they can remember.

In return for sacrificing some animals and produce here and there, Ashborn keeps them safe from invaders. But unbeknownst to the townspeople, the temple priests in charge of the sacrifices have recently begun keeping the offerings for themselves, leaving them vulnerable.

Now, Ashborn isn’t being malicious about it, but without people actively praying/sacrificing to him, his attention begins to wander. Maybe it’s even harder for him to visit the mortal plane without the anchor of their worship. So, he doesn’t even notice when that town he used to protect is attacked.

The townspeople are able to fend off the invaders, but many are injured in the process. And they know that the retreating force were mostly just scouts, a bigger force to follow. Everyone’s frantic, wondering why Ashborn didn’t defend them.

Obviously, the temple priests aren’t willing to admit that they’ve been slacking on their duties, so they tell the people they’ll research the old texts to figure out what Ashborn wants from them. There, they find reference to what they perceive is a human sacrifice, made a couple thousand years ago. The texts say that the human woman gave ‘her mortal life and heart’ to Ashborn, and in return, he protected the town and helped them prosper.

The priests think this means a greater sacrifice gets greater reward. It also gives them an excuse to tell the townspeople, that the death god requires a human sacrifice every so often. They’d rather sacrifice a human than admit their mistake, knowing the townspeople would call for the missed sacrifices to come from their own wealth.

It takes them a while to convince the townspeople, but then it becomes a question of who to sacrifice. Not wanting a mob to form if they start fighting about who to sacrifice, the priests lie and say they’ll look for a volunteer. In reality, they look for someone who won’t be missed.

Thus, we have Jin-Woo’s family, living out in the woods. His father is a hunter, selling meat and furs in town. He’s often away in the forest, checking traps and hunting animals. His mother tends to their garden, along with Jin-Woo and Jin-Ah. No one in town would notice for a while if one of them went missing.

The priests find Jin-Woo when he’s in the woods and threaten his family to get him to come with them quietly. They make him write a note, saying that he’s willingly sacrificing himself to save everyone. Since Jin-Woo will be dead by the time anyone reads the note, they figure there won’t be a way to prove one way or the other whether his sacrifice was willing or coerced.

What they didn’t count on was Ashborn’s reaction.

Ashborn feels it the moment they kill someone in his temple, cutting out Jin-Woo’s heart and throwing it in one of the black flame torches next to the throne. He’s livid, the room growing dark as he appears inside.

His anger permeates the room, demanding to know what they’ve done, his rage only growing as they explain what and why. To have that ritual from so long ago twisted by their greed.

The woman that gave her ‘mortal life and heart’ to Ashborn was never a sacrifice, but his consort. He replaced her mortal heart with one of his own creation, the ‘black heart’, so that she’d live for a long time by his side. And as his consort, he naturally took care of the people of her hometown, wanting to make her happy.

But now the temple that was built to house them both has been defiled, a seventeen year old boy sacrificed in his name. Even though it’s not his fault, he still feels guilty that Jin-Woo’s life was cut short. And so, he offers Jin-Woo’s spirit a choice.

He doesn’t have the ability to heal Jin-Woo’s body as it is, but he can create a new black heart for him. Not telling him the original meaning of it, but that it will extend his lifespan if he accepts it.

Jin-Woo isn’t quite happy about the idea of living longer than a normal human lifespan, but he’s unwilling to move on and leave his family behind. He accepts the heart, then asks if Ashborn will help him defend his family from the invaders.

Ashborn agrees, but says that he wants Jin-Woo to move into the Temple. With that Black heart inside him, Jin-Woo is now able to command his shadow soldiers, and he wants to get to know the person who’s essentially become his second in command. (Again not mentioning that the heart originally had that power because it was meant for his consort.)

Jin-Woo moves into the Temple while the Shadow soldiers start patrolling around the village. His family slowly moves into the Temple, too, packing up their stuff, moving the garden. His father has to go around collecting his traps from the forest, as the Temple is on the other side of the village.

While this is all going on, everyone starts getting to know each other. Jin-Woo and his family have conversations with Ashborn and get introduced to some of his most trusted shadow soldiers. Igris and Bellion are made the family’s guards, but Jin-Woo also becomes close to Beru, Iron, and Tank.

Jin-Woo and Ashborn slowly develop a friendship and eventually, Jin-Woo asks about the story behind that woman who was said to give her ‘mortal life and heart’ to him. Ashborn is a bit reluctant to tell him, but doesn’t want to lie to him either. After revealing that she was his consort and what the black heart originally meant, he’s quick to reassure Jin-Woo that he doesn’t have any expectations of that from him, but that he couldn’t just let him die when he was killed in his name over such a misunderstanding.

Jin-Woo is a bit embarrassed by the revelation, but knows Ashborn enough by that point to trust he’s telling the truth about not expecting such things from him. But it does get him thinking later, seeing Ashborn in a new light. It hadn’t occurred to him before that a death god could fall in love with humans. He assumed a god would see humans in a more distant way, a species that’s so much weaker and dies in the blink of an eye.

It makes him curious, wanting to get to know Ashborn better. He finds that they both value loyalty and family, are ruthless in the pursuit of keeping their people safe, and both enjoy the simple things in life. Family meals, stargazing, the first bloom of flowers in the Spring, petting an animal as it purrs in your lap, and many other things like that.

Slowly, they start to fall in love.

For Ashborn, this presents a bit of a moral quandary. It’s already an awkward situation with Jin-Woo having the black heart inside him, even with his promise of having no romantic expectations. He’s not sure if Jin-Woo will react badly if he confesses his feelings.

There’s also the difference in their status. Some humans would feel pressured if a god admitted interest in them or worry about retaliation if they refused. He doesn’t want Jin-Woo to accept his feelings out of fear or obligation.

On Jin-Woo’s end, he wonders if Ashborn would even be interested in someone like him. He’s fairly young, seventeen when they met and eighteen by the time he realizes his feelings. But surely every human must seem young to someone so ancient.

And even if age isn’t an issue, he doesn’t know if he’s Ashborn’s type. What was his human consort like? Does Ashborn prefer women or does gender even matter to gods?

Jin-Woo would probably start by asking the shadow soldiers if any of them were around when Ashborn’s consort was alive. Asking them what she was like and how Ashborn treated her. They’d end up having a conversation about Jin-Woo’s feelings and maybe give advice. At least one of the summons would know that Ashborn liked to take his consort stargazing or that she sometimes cooked his favorite food. Things like that.

Ashborn, meanwhile, is thinking of ways to subtly get across his feelings. Courting Jin-Woo without being obvious about it. Starting with making sure Jin-Woo at least thinks of him as a friend, not as his patron god.

So, they’d both be thinking of activities to do together. Finding gifts that the other would like. Ashborn would also try to get closer to Jin-Woo’s family, so that they wouldn’t feel concerned if the two of them started dating.

It’d just be both of them trying to show that they can be a good partner, hoping that the other person will start seeing them in a romantic light as well. Eventually, they’d start to catch on, maybe the shadow soldiers and Jin-Woo’s family giving them hints that the other person likes them. Then someone will clue Jin-Woo in that he needs to be the one to confess first, as Ashborn is worried about their difference in status making things awkward if he expresses interest.

After confessing, they start going on actual dates and live happily ever after.

And Ashborn figures out a way to extend the lives of Jin-Woo’s family, too. A way that’s less traumatic than literally cutting out their heart and replacing it with one of his own creation. And thus, they all get to live long, happy lives together. The end.

#Solo Leveling #fic ideas #Sung Jin Woo #Ashborn #black heart temple au

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twdeadfanfic · 3 years

Text

Stranded Pt.3

WD|Death Stranded AU with aspects of both worlds and my own thing, and mostly TWD characters showing up as we go.

Daryl Dixon x OC

Summary: 30 years have passed since the Stranding ended the world as it was known, as if pretty much the apocalypse came, and now people live in isolated communities or by themselves, while the dead walkers roam the world and so do hostile groups of people. Daryl Dixon is a freelance porter that during a delivery finds an orphan baby who he takes, unsure of what do with her, and not much later stumbles into Rick Grimes, and ex-guard looking for his missing family with the help of Grady Memorial Settlement, in exchange of working for them by joining to their net the other settlements, reconnecting the world, and with the help of Vikki, a scout sent by Grady to take Rick to those settlements, and to help them reach Alexandria, the final destination, a big, distant settlement, where his family is supposed to be.

Chapter 1/25 Words 4455

Find more chapters and fic in my masterlist

The last chapter, Daryl and the baby met Rick Grimes, who’s working with Grady Memorial Settlement in order to reach Alexandria, where his family seems to be...and it seems that Merle Dixon might be with them there too...

“I know where I saw the Dixon’s name before,” Rick suddenly said, taking Daryl out of his thoughts. “In the list of people I found in the Quarry Settlement.”

“Can’t be.” Why would his brother settle down in a new, tiny camp? When they left their home settlement, Merle had gone to a bigger one which would be better for his drugs business.

“You can check it yourself, the list is in my bag,” Rick said, and Daryl wasn’t sure if he felt like going through the man’s things, but if there was a chance of him being right, of Merle having been there, then he needed to know. He got up and went closer to Rick, and the baby looked curiously at the man from his slinger. Daryl was a bit apprehensive, but Rick smiled at the baby, and didn’t try anything. Awkwardly, Daryl opened the bag attached to Rick’s suit and reached inside, taking out a paper, but it was a picture of a woman and a small kid. “My family,” Rick explained, and Daryl nodded, placing the picture back inside the bag, careful not to bend it.

The next thing he got out was an envelope. Inside it was a note signed by someone called Shane, as Rick had told him his best friend was called, and written in it was everything that Rick had said. Daryl also took out a note with some inventory from the Quarry Settlement, and another one in which they seemed to have written the tasks of the camp and who was doing each, making a schedule, and there it was the name. Merle Dixon.

How could it be.

“It’s your family? Brother?” Rick asked and Daryl nodded in silence, dumbfounded. “I take you didn’t know where he was?” Daryl didn’t answer, didn’t even hear it, a million thoughts were running through his mind, and he began pacing back and forth the bunker, looking at the paper, wondering what he should do…Merle…Merle had been not far…Merle was now maybe in Alexandria, for reasons that Daryl didn’t understand but that sounded strange to him…but anyway…his brother was maybe with Rick’s family…what should he do… Finally, Daryl stopped his pacing and looked at Rick.

“I’m going to Alexandria.”

Rick nodded at it, and Daryl knew he got it. They were both going to look for their family. “We could help each other,” Rick suggested and Daryl knew it made sense, but he was still apprehensive at lowering his guard and trusting him, even if Rick seemed to have said the truth and seemed genuine, and didn’t feel to Daryl like one of the bad guys…but he had a baby with him, he had to be careful… Daryl studied the man in silence for a while again, and finally he nodded. He took his knife and went to the man, cutting his restrains and then he untied him off the chair. He really hoped he wouldn’t regret it. The man smiled at him, nodding too.

“How you know you can trust me?” Daryl asked to the man. “I could kill you, take all the shit that Grady gave you for myself.” He nodded at the bag.

“You just don’t seem to me like you’re one of the bad guys.” Rick shrugged and his words took Daryl aback. Nobody had thought like that in his old settlement, he knew what they thought of him, and though he probably deserved it, he’d always wondered if it’d something to do with his Dixon name, and also with Merle. “Besides…” Rick smirked, looking from him to the baby. “I know it means nothing and someone with a baby can kill you too, but you carrying your baby around…I don’t know, didn’t strike me like a murderer.”

“Murderers got kids too,” Daryl said and when Rick nodded, chuckling, he found himself smirking and chuckling too. “And I’d murder anyone who tries to hurt her.” He felt so protective over her, it was stupid considering he’d had the baby for three days, but he couldn’t help it.

“I know.” Rick nodded, serious again. “I’d do the same for my kid…but, are you sure about taking her to Alexandria? We’re talking about a long journey to places neither you nor I know, and probably dangerous.”

Rick was right…but Daryl didn’t know what to do…his original plan had been to take her to Grady Memorial, but he’d never been too keen on that…but it might be the best chance for the baby, and Rick was right, the path to find his brother was a long, dangerous journey towards the unknown…

“I was on my way to take her to Grady…” He murmured, looking at the baby, stroking her cheek softly with his fingertip, and the baby made a noise and smiled at him…it didn’t feel right, to leave her in Grady, not even if Rick was working with them, their agreement just threw Daryl off more somehow, there were too many blank spaces in it and things unanswered…

Rick frowned at that. “Really? You got family or friends there? I wasn’t expecting that…”

“No, no, I…” Daryl chewed on his lip, but finally he decided to say the truth. “She ain’t mine. I found her in a bunker three days ago, their parents were dead and so I took her, I thought that if I got her to Grady she might have a chance of having a good life in that posh place…”

“Seriously?” Rick seemed surprised. “She’s not your baby? And…three days ago?” He looked from him to the baby and back at him like he was amazed, and Daryl felt a bit awkward. “You both look like you had been together all her life, she seems so attached and fond of you, and man, you’d do anything for that baby, I only got to look at you to know it.”

Daryl would, he knew it, even if it was crazy and didn’t make sense. “She seems fond of me?” He found himself asking, a smile tugging at his lips.

“She does, and she seems so comfortable with you, I’d have never guessed she wasn’t your baby if you hadn’t told me.”

Daryl felt something tugging at his heart again, and he stroked the baby’s cheek again. He was so ridiculously attached and fond of her…and Rick said she was too? It made Daryl feel so many weird things that he almost felt dizzy, and he knew it, he knew he didn’t want to leave that baby and never see her again, he didn’t want to let go of her. But maybe it’d be the best for her, having a posh family in Grady, which could give her anything she needed, living in a sheltered place with all her needs covered, it was certainly better than the life Daryl could offer her, and he wanted the best for her…but he didn’t want to let go of her. And what if he left her in Grady and the family who took her wasn’t good with her? What if she wasn’t treated right? What if they were abusive assholes like his own family had been? Daryl felt rage but also panic at the idea.

“I don’t wanna leave her in Grady,” Daryl finally said aloud and Rick nodded.

“It’s dangerous, sure…but I think maybe the best place for her is with you.” Rick said, and Daryl hoped so, he really did. “She’s attached to you and…I’m working for Grady, but I didn’t like the place that much, it didn’t feel right, might be because they all feel above the rest of us as you said, might be something else…but if she’s with you, you know you can protect her better than if you leave her with someone else who you don’t know. When I find my family, I’m not getting separated from them again, and for that baby, you’re her family.

Daryl felt again all those feelings at Rick’s words, he felt moved even, and he nodded. He wasn’t giving up that baby, he was going to take her with him and protect her from harm. Rick looked at the baby and smiled. “You heard, baby? We’re all going to an adventure to find my family, and also your uncle, yeah, your daddy’s brother…” As he said that, Rick frowned and looked at Daryl. “Sorry, it’s…it’s just I thought you were his father all this time…if you don’t want me calling you that-”

“No, it’s fine, it’s fine.” Daryl found himself liking it, even if it made him feel all sort of weird feelings again, and also an arrow of pain and sorrow in his gut, but he forced himself to push those thoughts away, he couldn’t deal with them, he’d never could. “So, are we leaving? You got supplies?”

“Yeah, Grady gave me a lot of things, but we could expend the night here, leave early in the morning if the timefall stopped,” Rick said and Daryl nodded. Rick rummaged into his bag and took out a map, spreading it on the table. “Okay, first stop is here.” Rick pointed at a dot not far from where they were. “CDC Settlement, Grady told me it’s kind of their settlement too, there’s where people build stuff for Grady, they’re getting me a bike there.”

“Alright.” Daryl nodded, hoping they could get him a bike too since he was going to help the guy that was working for them. It wouldn’t be his brother's bike, but it’d be a bike…Merle was gonna be so pissed when he arrived at Alexandria and he found he’d lost his bike…

“There’s also someone waiting for me there.” Rick looked at Daryl as if he were sure he wasn’t going to like that.

“What for?”

“They didn’t want me going alone so they radioed one of their scouts and told them to wait for me there and help me reach Alexandria,” Rick explained. “I didn’t know I was going to find someone in my way.”

Daryl didn’t like the idea of having to travel with yet another stranger, but he didn’t think there was anything he could do about it. He could try to go looking for Merle alone, try to reach Alexandria on his own, but he knew it’d be a long journey to do alone in an area that he didn’t know, he’d never been past Grady, and whether he liked it or not, he knew it’d be easier and safer to travel to the unknown with the help of people, he had to accept that. Besides, like porters, scouts were resourceful people, used to survive out there in the dangerous world. Settlements sent them to explore and find new places, or to bring to them people in need of shelter, or who wanted to move. It was always good for settlements to have more people working.

“Okay,” Daryl grumbled.

Rick seemed to catch the sentiment, and he didn’t seem too happy about Grady pairing him up with someone of them. “Tell you what, we don’t like that scout, we leave just the two of us.”

“Ain’t sure whatever contract you have with Grady allows you to do that…” Daryl muttered…he kind of felt like Grady wanted to have Rick controlled, but maybe they really just wanted to help.

“We’ll see…” Rick shrugged and got out some packages of rations. “Do you want some?”

“I got cans of food.” Daryl took out two from his bag. “Better save those rations for the journey.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Daryl took also a milk bottle and then he realized something. “I gotta go to Grady, I need milk bottles for the baby, I’m running low.”

“You want me to go all the way back to Grady after I just left?” Rick complained.

“You want me to run out of milk and starve her?” Daryl snapped.

“I’m not saying that…look, CDC is closer, we can go there, see if they have baby milk-”

“Why would they have baby milk in a place of just workers?” Daryl interrupted him.

“Maybe they have kids.” Rick shrugged, but Daryl doubted it, if they had, they probably moved to Grady. “Maybe they have regular milk, she can eat that too even if it’s not as good, I don’t think it’ll be easy to find baby milk, not even in Grady, there are not that many babies anymore.” Rick might be right, but still, Daryl knew he needed milk for the baby, and the biggest settlement was Grady. “Alright, look, we go to CDC, if they don’t have milk, we ask them to bring us some from Grady, they’ll be faster than us with their bikes. They want me to go connecting settlements to their net, I want them to bring me baby milk.”

“I think you overestimate how important you are for Grady.” Daryl snorted, but if someone from Grady did deliver them milk, it’d be faster than having to go on foot. “Alright, we do that, just don’t get all offended and sad when Grady says no and send someone else to Alexandria, Mr. Important.” Rick chuckled at that but didn’t say anything, and Daryl began to feed the bottle to the baby.

“What’s her name?” Rick asked and Daryl wondered why he hadn’t thought about that before.

“I don’t know…there was no name in the note I found…”

“And you didn’t give her any name?”

Daryl shrugged, he hadn’t even been sure that he was going to keep her, he had been on his way to get her to Grady… “I just call her baby?”

Rick chuckled again. “Alright.”

On the next day, they followed Rick’s map to CDC Settlement and Rick’d been right, they arrived there quicker than if they had backtracked to Grady. The baby had spent part of the journey sleeping, but she stirred when they were close. Daryl felt her moving in the sling and cooing and so he picked her up.

“Hey, Baby, you took a good nap, yeah?” He told her quietly, holding her to his chest and rocking her. “You okay? Wanna eat?”

“Hey, BB, look, we’re almost there.” Rick pointed at the CDC building. “Sure you rather eat in there than outside here where walkers and timefall can come to us, right?”

“BB?” Daryl frowned at Rick.

“Well, you just call her ‘baby´so I don’t know, it fits…” Rick shrugged, chuckling. “Unless you thought a name?”

Daryl scoffed. “She’s Baby, ain’t you?” he looked at her.

“That’s not a name?”

“And BB is?” Daryl rolled his eyes. Baby didn’t seem hungry, for now at least, or she’d be complaining, and Rick was right, it’d be safer to feed her inside the CDC, and it was just a few meters away. “Alright, let’s rush there.”

The guy at the reception of the CDC had been glad to see Rick, but then he’d seemed puzzled to see someone with him, and even more puzzled to realize that the other man had a baby strapped to him. Daryl could feel the shocked eyes of the man on him while he walked to the room where they had to wait for the scout that was supposed to help them reach Alexandria.

Daryl sat down on a chair to feed the baby while Rick paced back and forth, waiting. Daryl looked up when he heard footsteps in time to see an asian woman walking in, giving Rick a friendly smile as she approached him. She’d dark eyes and fiery red hair, keeping her fringe and the hair closer to his face pushed back into a half ponytail, and she looked very friendly and non threatening…Daryl didn’t trust it.

“Hey! You’re Rick, right? It’s nice to meet you! I’m Victoria, but call me Vikki, and…” The eyes of the woman landed on Daryl. “Uh…who are you?”

“He’s Daryl, we found each other out there, his brother was in the same settlement than my family, so he’s coming with me to Alexandria,” Rick answered for him, while Daryl held the baby protectively to his chest, studying the woman…

“Alright, the more the better, yeah?” The friendly smile was back on the woman’s face, but she still seemed surprised. “But…you got a baby with you! I’ve never seen a porter carrying their baby before…actually, no one of the porters I know have babies!”

“It’s a long story…” Rick answered again instead of Daryl.“ Listen, Daryl doesn’t have many bottles of milk left for her, can you ask a porter to bring some from Grady before we leave?”

“Sure, but…just…I don’t know what they’re gonna think…” Vikki frowned seeming thoughtful. “Or how long it’d take, I’m pretty sure there aren’t babies at Grady…can I have the map?” She asked to Rick, who had taken the map and was inspecting it, and he nodded, placing it on the table. “Look, see this dot? That’s the Greene’s farm, we have to connect them to the net. They got protected crops and cattle, which means, clean cow’s milk, I’m sure it’ll work perfectly for your baby and it shouldn’t take us more than a day to get there with the bikes, alright?”

The woman looked at Daryl and he checked the bottles that he had left and nodded, they would last and he felt like he’d rather have Grady not knowing about him and the baby for as long as possible.

“Good!” Vikki smiled brightly at Daryl and he had to admit that she seemed a genuine person, like he’d thought of Rick…at any rate, she didn’t look like the kind of person he’d imagined would be working for Grady, even though he was still suspicious of her, he couldn’t lower his guard and trust her blindly. She did seem genuine, though, and her smile turned into a grin when she looked at Baby, who was also smiling at her and cooing. Daryl knew that he shouldn't go softer on a stranger just because the baby seemed to like her, and she seemed to like her too…but it helped, he couldn’t stop it.

Vikki pointed at some other dots in the map, telling them the names of some of the places, until she pointed at one way further west. “And the last one is my friend Malingen’s place, I haven’t seen her in so long, and she got a baby a couple of months ago, but I know nothing of her since them, I can’t wait to see her… anyway, that’s the closest settlement to Alexandria that I know.” Vikki informed them, her smile gone now. “A team went to clear paths to go further but disappeared, and then the few scouts that tried to go never came back and we never heard of them again except one, she came back saying that there was a big settlement called the Sanctuary, the people there called themselves saviors and didn’t let anyone pass, they either killed them or enslaved them, so no one has dared to venture there again.”

“Sounds like Grady is sending Rick to a suicide mission,” Daryl muttered. He’d heard that the area of Alexandria was so far that nobody really went there, that it was unknown and dangerous, but not the way Vikki was saying it.

“My family is in Alexandria,” Rick said and Daryl wondered how he did it to not doubt it even for a second. His family might have changed their mind, why would they go to somewhere they didn’t know just because they were with someone with family there, which was already strange now that he thought about it, since Alexandria was far and very unknown to them. And now Rick knew how dangerous the journey and the area was…maybe his family had even died on the way there already. Yet Rick was absolutely sure that they were there. Daryl thought it was kind of delusional but at the same time he admired it, and it helped him to think that his brother might be there with them too. “So I’m going to get to Alexandria.”

“Well said.” Vikki smiled.

“So, Grady got what they wanted,” Daryl said, he was still suspicious and he didn’t expect to stop feeling like that. “Someone with a motivation strong enough to go to Alexandria and do what they want no matter what, not caring if they die because of it.”

Vikki seemed taken aback by that, and Daryl tried to, but he couldn’t see any hidden intention in her. “I…guess…I hadn’t thought about it that way…”

“What’s in it for you?” Daryl asked her, determined not to let his guard down with her.

“Me?” Vikki blinked at him as if she didn’t expect that question, and she seemed to think it for some seconds. “I just want to see that area, Alexandria, maybe other new settlements, I want to go further than I’ve done, I want to know what’s there…I’m a scout, I’ve scouted all this area and everything to the east…I want to see the west now.” Daryl just hummed at all that…he knew scouts wanted to rediscover the world, but this was a dangerous journey, she had said so herself, doing so just for the sake of seeing new lands…Daryl wasn’t sure if he bought it, but as he studied the woman, he still couldn’t sense any threat coming from her, and she kept talking.

“No other scout wanted to go with me after the news of that Sanctuary place, and I’m not crazy enough to venture there alone without backup and help…So when Dawn from Grady asked me to help Rick go to Alexandria, I said yes in a second! I guess they knew I’d wanted to go there for a long while now, I got lucky.”

“Well, we can help each other to reach Alexandria, then.” Rick smiled, though as Daryl looked at him, he thought he was studying the woman and her words too, as if he didn’t trust blindly either.

The baby shifted in his arms, tugging at his clothes and making soft babbly noses, and as he held her to him, Daryl realized something, feeling like an idiot for not having seen it way before. “I can’t go on a suicide mission with a baby.”

“We don’t know if it’s a suicide mission…but yeah, you’re right, it’s dangerous…too dangerous to take a baby with us, I think.” Vikki seemed sorry as she looked at him, and Daryl felt conflicted again.

“I was gonna leave her at Grady but…couldn’t do it, couldn’t leave her,” he admitted quietly, a bit embarrassed, without looking at the woman.

“It’s understandable that you don’t want to leave your baby, nobody would…but it’s going to be dangerous, and I’m not sure if once we leave the area I know, we can protect ourselves, let alone a baby…” Vikki frowned, seeming thoughtful.

“She’s right.” Rick nodded, though he seemed sorry too.

“I damn know she’s right.” Daryl didn’t mean to lash out at him, but he couldn’t help it, overwhelmed be feelings as he was. “But I gotta find my brother…but I ain’t gonna get her killed…” He looked at the baby, who cooed and smiled again, all those feelings tugging at his heart and stabbing at his gut.

“Are you thinking about leaving her at Grady again?” Rick asked him softly.

“No…no, I ain’t gonna let her in that place with that damn people…” Daryl didn’t care that Vikki heard him talking like that about her people, he still didn’t trust Grady and had never liked the people there…what could he do with the baby, though, if he didn’t leave her there. “Or…I dunno…”

“Where are you from? Could you leave her in your settlement?” Rick asked him and Daryl snorted. His place didn’t have the best reputation around, and Dixons had a reputation there too, if people knew that a Dixon had brought Baby there, sure her life would be less from ideal, the people would make sure of that, and he had nobody there anyway.

“Don’t want her growing up like I did,” he said. Daryl didn’t know what to do and he felt defeated, maybe he should have left Baby at Grady after all…he couldn’t just not go looking for his brother, leave without knowing if he had made it to Alexandria or if he was dead, or if he’d gone to someplace else…

“Daryl, listen,” Vikki began, as if she was going to say how great Grady was, Daryl wasn’t going to listen to that bullshit, and he glared at her, but she didn’t back down. “Hershel Greene is a good, kind man, old-fashioned but good, and so are his daughters. If we ask him, I’m sure he’d take the baby and take good care of her until you were back…or you can stay there with the baby, I’m sure Hershel will welcome to have some help in the farm,” Vikki added when she noticed Daryl’s reluctance. “At least until she’s big enough to be your little porter assistant.” She smiled at the baby.

“I gotta find my brother.” Daryl shook his head, he couldn’t just stay somewhere playing farmer, not now when he knew where his brother might be.

“When I reach Alexandria, I’ll ask for him, I’ll let you know if he’s there, once those settlements are connected, it should be easier to communicate with each other,” Rick offered, but Daryl shook his head again.

“Nah, I’m going too.” He didn’t like the idea of leaving the baby in a place he didn’t know, with a man he didn’t know, but who seemed to want to get connected to Grady, or Grady to him.

Vikki seemed to notice it. “Look Daryl, the way I see it, you can either leave your baby at Grady, which you don’t want to, or you can go to the Greene’s farm and meet Hershel and see what you think of him yourself, but I think you’ll like it better than Grady, and I promise, the Greene’s would take good care of your baby.”

Daryl hummed…she was right, though, he didn’t have many choices. “Okay.”

“Good!” Vikki grinned, looking at the baby. “And you don’t like the Greene’s? Then I’ll get you three safe to Malingen’s place. I told you, she just had a baby, I’m sure she’d take care of your baby too while she waits for us to reach Alexandria and come back. I’m sure you’ll like Malingen, she’s the nicest, kindest person I know, nobody has ever disliked her!” Vikki assured him. “And if then you decide to stay back and wait for Rick and me, I’m sure she’ll welcome the help of a porter, she’s a scientist and always needs to have stuff delivered to her lab.”

Daryl just hummed…he was going to go to Alexandria too, but it was good to know that there were potential places where he could leave the baby, now he just had to be sure that they were trustworthy and safe, and that the baby would be alright there. The idea of leaving her felt like a kick, but if it was for the best…

We met Vikki! I stole her face from @ddixons-angel Next chapter we’ll meet more twd characters.

Thanks to everyone who gave this a chance, if you have a moment please let me know your thoughts, your support is what keeps me posting!

As always, excuse my English, is not my first language

If you want to be (un)tagged, let me know. I also can remove you only from this fic.

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#daryl dixon #daryl dixon/oc #daryl dixon imagine #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon fanfic #daryl dixon fic #daryl dixon x oc #daryl dixon & reader #twd au #au twd #death stranding au #au death stranding

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jazy3 · 3 years

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Thoughts on Grey’s Anatomy: 17X1 & 17X2

MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

My mind is blown! I am shook! Never in a million years did I ever expect that we would see McDreamy again! Or that Meredith and Derek would be reunited like this. Oh my god. I literally can’t even. I think this might be the best season opener Grey’s Anatomy has ever done. Hands down. They came to play and they did not mess around. I thought something was off when they showed the opening sequence with Meredith on the beach because the pier walkway was way too long, but I never expected the surprise to be what it was.

The implication at the end of the episode is that Meredith has contracted COVID-19, is currently unresponsive, and will be battling this for the foreseeable future. I’m interested to see if that is in fact the case or if it’s something else. I did not believe that she was going to be the character that got it so I am super shocked and surprised. As some eagle eyed fans noticed over the summer the IMDB page for Grey’s Anatomy was updated recently with the appearance dates of many of the original cast members being updated to 2020.

I have to admit when I first saw that I didn’t think much of it because Season 16 overlapped between the years 2019 and 2020 and since they mentioned and used archival footage of past characters during seasons 15 and 16 my initial thought was that the actor’s profiles were updated to reflect this for contract reasons. But now that the McDreamy Derek Shephard himself has reappeared anything is possible my friends!

Literally anything and I am so glad. It looks like there are more dream sequences and possible afterlife sequences to come. My guess is that more of Meredith’s deceased loved ones will appear on that beach. I’d love to see George, Mark, Lexie, Ellis Grey, Doc the dog the list goes on. I’d also love to see Cristina, Alex, Izzie, Callie, Arizona, and April all make appearances either through dream sequences or over Zoom.

I’m also wondering if they’re going to have Meredith code and then do a reprise of the elevator hallway sequence where the elevator doors open and Meredith’s dead loved ones and important people in her life greet her and tell her it’s only temporary and she’ll back in the land of the living soon. Oh gosh. What if they have Ellis tell her she’s extraordinary?!?! Now I’m crying! She so deserves to hear that! Oh my gosh. The possibilities are endless.

The Station 19 episode wasn’t much of a cross over to be honest and I’m okay with that. My best friend and I watched it for context, but you could have totally gotten everything you needed to know just by watching Grey’s and those are the cross overs I prefer. In the Station 19 episode we got some additional Bailey and Ben content (always nice) and we learned how the kids who wound up with third degree burns became injured. That’s it really.

Richard had some snaps in this episode! He had all the best lines in my opinion! He was hilarious. His exchanges with Bailey and Catherine were hilarious. It’s great to see him back on his feet and throwing zingers. Bailey was a boss ass bitch in this episode. I loved it! She laid down the law and I thought they did a really good job of showing subtly how the COVID situation is impacting her because of her OCD. I really liked that they wrapped up DeLuca’s storyline because as long time readers will know I was not a fan of his mental health storyline and the last two seasons have really made me hate his character.

I thought they did a good job wrapping that up giving the confines of COVID, both real and fictional, and that we got closure there. At this point they’ve wrapped up his storyline to the point that DeLuca is back to being a side character and just another doctor who works in the hospital and for that I am glad. A fun little aside, when DeLuca asks Meredith if there is a specific patient she wants him to check on she tells him to check on the patient in room 1702 which is the episode number.

I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get as many Meredith and Hayes scenes as I would have liked. Hayes wasn’t in the first half of the premiere at all and his scenes with Meredith in the second half were briefer than I would have liked. However, that might be because they weren’t able to film scenes with the actor before COVID shut everything down so I am hoping that we will see more scenes between him and Meredith, especially him at her bedside, going forward now that both actors are full time regular cast members.

I really loved the scenes that we did get. They felt authentic and natural. That natural comradery that the actors have was there in full force. We got to learn more about both characters quarantine situations with regards to their kids and we got to learn a bit more about Hayes’ past and their developing relationship which was nice. Also I really want to hear that story he alluded to about hoping an electric fence as a teenager to see his girlfriend. I loved the aside where Meredith commented that his mask was falling apart and he told her that he gave his new one to a nurse who needed it more than he did. He’s so caring and compassionate and kind I just want to reach through the screen and hug him.

Meredith deserves someone in her life who is kind like that and who thinks of others the way she does. Who puts the job and her patients and her kids first over everything else. Who gets it and thinks nothing of showing that kind of compassion. She’s never really been with anyone like that before. No one who was a doctor anyway. I also thought it was very significant that Hayes invited Meredith to have a drink with him in his office after work and then was the one that found her in the parking lot at the end of the episode.

This appears to be a call back to the fact that he asked her out for a drink at the end of last season and she accepted, but asked that they do a rain check because she was so exhausted and the fact that they are growing closer and he wanted to check in with her and see how she was doing. The fact that he was the one to discover her I think is also very significant because at the end there I felt liked he looked towards her car to see if she was there to talk to her or to see if she’d gone home and I love that he was looking out for her in that way.

Also, the fact that he was the one to find her and call for help and that led into a dream sequence where she was reunited with Derek the love of her life feels very significant. The fact that Hayes calls out to Meredith and tells her to stay with him, in the present and in the land of the living, and then that transitions into the dream sequence where Derek is calling out to her on the beach feels significant to me.

My best friend that I watch with commented that she could see them doing a scene where Derek tells Meredith it’s okay to move on and fall in love again the way Abigail did with Cormac in the flashbacks we saw in the Conference episode last season. And that based on that Meredith makes the decision to formally move on and actively pursue something with Hayes now that she knows she has Derek’s blessing and that her ex DeLuca is doing okay and is back to work.

I think both of those things could free her to truly give Hayes a chance and build a life with him. He’s really the only post-Derek love interest for me who really checks all the boxes and who I could see her building a life with in a way that would respectfully honour what her and Derek had. It also just occurred to me that because they established that both Meredith and Hayes are quarantining at hotels because of their COVID work and are away from their kids there’s a potential storyline there in that once Meredith is better they could quarantine together and spend some sexy time alone without breaking any of the necessary restrictions. I’d love to see them quarantine together.

Something else that I realized after watching is that the episode establishes that Amelia and Link are quarantining at Meredith’s house with Scout, Zola, Bailey, and Ellis and that Maggie has been coming by to watch and visit with the kids from a safe distance while Meredith has been quarantining at a hotel because she’s working COVID command. The fact that they set this up early on in the episode becomes important later when you realize that something is wrong with Meredith and she’ll be hospitalized for a while and could die so it sets it up that her kids are okay because they’ve got Amelia, Link, and Maggie, people that Meredith trusts, looking after them.

Also we find out that Meredith’s house has a backyard for the first time! So that’s neat. Maggie and Winston are officially the cutest! I love them! I’m calling it now they’re endgame. They’re soulmates. I thought at first the long distance thing was going to be super boring and dull, but they found a way to make it really sexy and fun and I love that! We finally found out what Amelia and Link named their baby! As many had predicted they named the baby Scout! His full name is Scout Derek Shepherd Lincoln! My heart! Derek would be so so proud of Amelia. She’s come so far. I loved the scene with Meredith, Amelia, Link, and Scout. I really felt like that was missing from the Season 16 finale so I’m glad we got to see it in flashback.

About the only thing we didn’t get to see in this episode that I would have liked to have seen is a scene with Richard and Meredith catching up and either operating or treating a patient together. They haven’t had as much time together recently and I’ve missed that. Although considering that Meredith is about to hospitalized I’m guessing were about to see a whole lot of that. We did get to see Jackson spending lots of quality time with Richard and we got to see Maggie stand up for him with Catherine this episode so that was nice. This episode changed my mind about Catherine and Richard.

At the end of last season I really wanted them to separate and go their separate ways because I felt like they were bringing out the worse in each other and that was the only way they could find peace. But this episode we saw Catherine apologize really apologize and she made Richard Chief of Chiefs to make up for what she did and I thought there reconciliation was really quite sweet. Teddy and Owen wowza. Teddy was god awful and a terrible human being this episode. I was completely on her side last season, but this episode changed that for me. I hate Owen as a character most of the time, but damn if this episode didn’t make me feel for him. Oh boy. Teddy lied straight to his face multiple times when given the opportunity to tell the truth.

I don’t think there’s any way that they can come back from that personally. Which is a shame because for the first time in the show’s run Owen is single and is not hung up on someone else. Cristina is in Switzerland living her best life. She’s happy. That’s long over. Amelia is with Link. They have a child together. Her and Owen are happily co-parenting Leo and there’s no way that Owen, horrible as he can be, would do anything at this point to split Amelia and Link up or come between them because that would mean separating Scout from his father and having lost his Dad at a young age Owen would never knowingly do that to someone else’s child. At least I don’t think he would.

Plus, he got what he wanted in that he did get to parent Betty and Leo with Amelia and they still share in the parenting of Leo. I also thought there was a good call back there to when Owen cheated on Cristina. I hated that plot, but it’s nice to see them acknowledge his relationship with Cristina because it was so instrumental to the show in those early seasons. I’m glad that we got a reference to Amelia and Owen co-parenting Leo because I feel like that’s been missing lately. I get that Teddy is scared of being happy, but the way she treated Owen was just horrible. She was so awful to him in this episode I actually felt sorry for the guy and that is truly a miraculous feat because I rarely do because of how horribly he treats all of the women in his life.

Side note: His line where he told his Mom to tell Leo that the broccoli and carrots needed to be reunited in his stomach was both hilarious and horrifying! I loved Owen’s lines and how he kind of played Teddy while giving her opportunities to tell him the truth. I thought that was hilarious in a funny not funny kind of way. I’m curious to see what Teddy, Owen, and Tom’s storylines will be going forward. We didn’t see a lot of Tom in this episode and at the end he was fired and demoted to being a Neurosurgeon. There’s no indication of him and Teddy getting back together so I’m curious to see what they do with him.

Owen seems 100% done with Teddy and her nonsense and at this point I can’t blame him. I would be too. I’m interested to see where this goes. Will Owen end up with someone else? Will he stay single and continue on as a single parent? What will happen to Teddy? I’m starting to really like Levi as a character I have to say. Nico not so much. He treats Levi horribly and the guy deserves so much better. I loved seeing the intern from Pac North who called Bailey an icon last season checking temperatures. Amazing.

Richard’s idea on how to sanitize the masks with the purple light was really cool. I loved the moments between him and Bailey. I get why she’s worried about him, but as Richard says Grey Sloan is his life. It’s his longest and most successful relationship and as he says he will find no peace without it. Bailey and Ben have my whole heart. They are so cute. They’re the best. I loved the small moment that they had at the beginning of the episode where Ben did the “going through the motions” count with her because he knows it helps her. It was also a great call back to Jo teaching that to Bailey after she got out of treatment.

Also oh my god Jo and Jackson! Wow! I have to say when I saw fans speculating about that online before the show came back I thought it was the dumbest idea ever. One, because those two characters rarely have scenes together and aren’t that close. And two, Jackson has Harriet and is a single parent. Jo has been decidedly luke warm on the idea of having kids. She only considered it because of her relationship with Alex. That being said, after this episode I could go for it. I liked the twist that she went to Jackson and asked him for a favour and they were going to hook up and have a one night stand and then Jo got drunk on the way over and wound up crying because she wasn’t ready.

I have a feeling that they’re going to have them go back to being friends for the time being and then pick that storyline up later when Jo’s had a chance to heal possibly in the second half of the season. I also like that they wrapped up the storyline between Jackson and Vic and that we got to see Harriet for the first time in forever! Yeah! Vic isn’t ready or wiling to be a step parent and I liked that they established that Jackson needs to be with someone long term that is. Jo isn’t at that stage yet, but at least she’s open to the idea and has been married and had a successful adult relationship with someone in the past. Jackson’s been married, divorced, lost a child, and is raising a child.

With time and proper communication I think they could actually be a great pairing. Never thought I’d say that. Not wanting to be a parent is part of what broke Jackson and Vic up in the first place. They never addressed the issue with Maggie, but in retrospect that was never going to work out because Maggie is so involved with Meredith’s kids. They’re her main focus kid wise. We should have known that they weren’t going to work out when they failed to address that.

With April what broke them up was her devote faith and his complete lack of belief coupled with the different ways they dealt with the death of Samuel. While I did like April and Jackson as a couple I was happy with April’s write off in the sense that she got to be with someone who shares her faith and dealt with the trauma of losing someone close to them in a similar way. Her and Jackson never had that. Jackson found God in the wake of almost losing April, but by that point it was too late.

The damage was down. There was nothing either of them could do to repair what had been broken. With Jo he has the opportunity to start anew and lay all of that out on the table and vice versa. Although I imagine that the conversation Meredith would have with Alex about that would be pretty weird. I thought they did a really good job of showing the realities of COVID in hospitals right now. What the disease does, how deadly it can be, and how hard it is on all the health care workers and first responders.

I have family members and friends who work in health care and it’s a scary time. Levi’s comment that they had lost 100 people in one day and that he’d had to tell 100 people’s family members that their loved one had died was chilling. It’s also real. This is not something they are sensationalizing for the sake of television. This is really happening to real people everywhere and it is heartbreaking.

In this episode we saw Meredith have her first breakdown in quite some time. The last one I can remember was after Derek died and that was a while ago. She was upset that so many of her patients had died and I’m sure that reality is something that a lot of healthcare workers are going through right now. This episode felt raw in a lot of ways because of that and I’m glad that a show that has worked so hard to reflect the realities of our time is taking the time to honour and showcase that.

Also I think having Meredith Grey the show’s titular character and star for over 16 seasons potentially contract COVID and collapse from working too hard and not taking her own advice is the ultimate example of it can happen to anyone and anyone can get it. The show did not have to go as hard as it did, but they did and they delivered and I respect the hell out of that. The tagline for this season is “Sometimes we all need saving.” Apparently they were being literal about that as that includes Meredith freaking Grey. What a twist!

I honestly believe that this will be the show’s last season. Because when I look at the storylines and the ways in which they’ve set up the characters starting with last season I can see where they could go with it and how they would wrap everyone’s storylines up in a satisfactory way. Plus I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top this season and it’s opener. Also we’ve got main cast members coming back because those actors are normally so busy they’ll probably never get another opportunity like this to bring them back and they’d be foolish not to take it.

The promo for next week teases more scenes with McDreamy (!!!), Meredith battling COVID literally, and Hayes visiting her in her hospital room. I’m excited!

Until next time!

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tren-fraszka · 3 years

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Fic in a Box 2021 Exchange Letter

Dear creator,

Thank you for taking your time to check my requests. I know my requests can sound a bit tricky, but please don’t be discouraged. I wish you will have good time writing first and foremost!

My AO3 is Tren, if you wish to check it out.

Likes: comedy, casefics, canon compliants, AUs, time loops, bodyswaps, roleswaps, “being hoisted by your own petard” plotlines, snark, pettiness, rivals, enemies to friends to lovers, violence, friendships, and character bonding,

DNW: explicit sex (makeouts and fade to black is okay), A/B/O, mpreg, rape depicted as positive (so no “it’s okay, because the other person enjoyed it/it was what they truly wanted”), trans headcanons, soulmate AUs, stories ending with surrender to fate/destiny, fourth wall breaking in canons where that doesn’t occur, character has cancer or other real-life terminal disease AU, word “queerplatonic”.

Also, I included what ships I’m okay with in each fandom. Please do not include any ships that aren’t canon and I have not allowed in those sections (if you feel really strongly about a ship I haven’t mentioned, you can always ask through mods just in case).

On a separate, but similar note, I’m okay with OCs as long as they don’t overshadow the characters I requested.

Additionally, while I almost never request fanart as possible medium, because I prefer my main gift to be fic, I would be very okay with receiving fanart treats. Also, feel free to peruse my old letters if you get your hands on them. I never stop being interested in fandoms, and if I requested something once I will still want it in the future.

REQUESTS

Medium opt-ins (they are the same for all the fandoms):

Length Opt-In: Drabble Length Opt-In: Drabble Series Medium Opt In: Any - Any In-Universe Documents Medium Opt In: Art - Drawn - Comics Medium Opt In: Art - Drawn - Fanart Medium Opt In: Art - Excerpts from a Character's Sketchbook Medium Opt In: Art - Tarot Card Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Bureaucratic Paperwork Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Excerpts from a Journal/Notebook/Sketchbook Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Field Report Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Mission Report Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Scientific Documents Medium Opt In: Writing - Unreliable Narrator Medium Opt In: Writing - Non-Linear Narrative

MARIMASHITA! IRUMA-KUN

I read new manga chapters as they get translated so feel free to incorporate anything from the manga that’s available in English.

Kirio Amy/Suzuki Iruma

There are many good ships with Iruma, but this one just has a lot things I like. I love enemy ships with both sides being way too emotionally invested into each other so this was inevitable. I love how this relationship starts as this really wholesome friendship and school festival preparation, except Kirio turns out to be a bit messed up and wants to blow up everyone. But then they both accept the outcome and go on with their lives still thinking about each other. Iruma goes through a lot of trouble to keep the club operating even though Kirio has been pretty much expelled. And then Kirio is now obsessed with Iruma as his anthitesis and perfect enemy.

I’m okay with the potential story happening at any point in the canon. I would love both a story set before the festival while Kirio is still hiding his true colors or a story set after it. Maybe Iruma runs into Kirio somewhere after he escapes prison and instead of calling an adult, he tries to stop Kirio from causing trouble on his own. As for pre-festival story. Maybe some upperclassmen steal important parts from the club and Iruma and Kirio set out to get them back.

Naberius Callego & Suzuki Iruma

I love Callego for being a much better take on Snape than original Snape ever was. The second the series made Callego Iruma’s familiar I knew this was about to get good. And it was. I love how Callego slowly warms up to Iruma, even if he is still allergic to his and Sullivan’s antics. I love that Callego is actually a competent teacher who cares about his students, but at the same time he would rather eat a whole lemon than admit it out loud.

For prompts, maybe Sullivan ends up having an important business and Opera isn’t available so he dumps looking after Iruma on Callego for a few days. Or Iruma is struggling with studying since so many things are new for him, so Callego ends up forced to help him catch up with the material (if you are following manga inclusion of Balam is always welcome). Or maybe Iruma gets into usual trouble ends up stranded somewhere and the only one he can call for help is his familiar.

Crocell Kerori | Kuromu/Gyari

One of the last thing I expected to get this year was a canonical yuri romance in this manga, but here it is and it’s perfect. I love how it is pretty much built on mutual pining. I love how Kuromu loves Gyari, but refuses to reciprocate her feelings, because she knows that she needs to remain unattainable to keep their relationship alive, and I love how Gyari is never ever going to give up.

I would love to see more of the time when they worked together. We know it was love at the first sight for Gyari, but I would love to see how Kuromu’s feelings grew. Those hours they spent together practicing, maybe a not-date where they sneak together to scout a venue where they will be having their first big concert, or maybe a small contest that would sow the seeds for their future rivalry. I would love any and all of it. Also, Gyari doesn’t seem to be aware of Kuromu’s civilian identity, so I would love a story where Gyari meets Crocell Kerori rather than Kuromu. Does she recognize her? Or does Kerori manage to successfully trick her? Maybe Gyari makes a full investigation after hearing rumors that Kuromu is attending Babylys. I would also love any sort of future fic for those two.

AUs and ships

I love the worldbuilding around the demon world, so I would ask that if you decided to write an AU that it still incorporates demons. I would definitely love an AU where rather than getting summoned to demon world, Iruma accidentally summons either Kirio or Callego into the human world. Maybe Iruma’s parents try to use him as an offering, but instead he ends up bound to a demon. I would love to see Kirio excited to unleash suffering (even if his weak powers severely limit him in that regard) onto human world just to discover that he made contract with the biggest pacifist possible. Or Callego being torn between wanting to return home as soon as possible (he has classes to teach!) and wanting to somehow help the weird human child that just keeps getting into trouble. Any other demon-focused AU is also welcome. For Gyari and Kurmou, maybe one of them is a human who ends up summoning the other as a demon. How different would their relationship be then? I’m also fine with any sort of AU divergences scenario. Maybe Iruma keeps accidentally sabbotaging Kirio’s terrorist plans without realizing it. Or Iruma ends up summoning Callego more often as his familiar when he gets into trouble. What if Gyari also attended Babylys.

As for ships, I’d rather avoid any love triangle scenarios for this canon, so please focus on just one pairing per character (competing for Iruma’s attention is normal for this canon, I’d just rather not see outright romantic competition). It’s self-explainatory for Kirio request, but if you want to include some shipping elements into the other requests I also ship Iruma/Amelie and Callego/Balam.

VIVY: FLUORITE EYE’S SONG

Solo: Vivy

WB: Any

I would love a look into some alternate timelines or missing scenes. Feel free to go as tragic as you like for alternate timelines, or make a happy end, or anything in between. I just think the core concept of the show has a lot of potential in that regard. For a more specific prompts I would love an AU where Diva doesn't disappear, but maybe she and Vivy end up spliting in some way (I'm sure Matsumoto could find a spare body or something). Or maybe a story where one of the Sisters ends up dragged into Singularity project (I really loved what they did with Elizabeth in the show).

For more worldbuilding prompts I would love a more in-depth look of how Matsumoto as more advanced AI differs from the past eye and how that gap is slowly being closed with each case he and Vivy resolves. Or outsider POV on how Vivy’s and Matsumoto’s actions shape the world. Them turning off the plant producing new androids and the subsequent suicide would definitely get coverage. I would love to know how the whole thing was officially explained. Are there conspiracy theories on the Internet? Sisters are involved in every major incident, would people suspect something?

AUs and ships

I would prefer no setting changes for this story. Any other AUs are fine. As mentioned I would love any look for alternate timeline. I would also love an AU where Diva doesn’t recover her memories and keeps helping Matsumoto while trying to regain them.

Any canon pairings are fine.

SOUSOU NO FRIEREN

I read new manga chapters as they get translated so feel free to incorporate anything from the manga that’s available in English.

Frieren

Frieren/Himmel

I love how this manga is a slow-paced fantasy dealing with loss and inevitable passage of time. And I love Frieren for being one of the best depictions of an elf whose long life actually affects their outlook on life and actions.

I would equally love the insight into Frieren’s present with her charges and the past with hero party. What other shenanigans they get into on their journey? What kind of weird magic Frieren pursued? I would love to see more of her mentoring Fern and Stark. I also love to see her interactions with the hero party. Maybe some more insight into how they fought with demons, since Frieren seemed to have picked up a number of enemies during that time. For some more specific prompts: maybe Frieren accidentally stumbles ona cursed item that erases her memories (or just her memories of Himmel). How would it affect her? What would the party do to help her? Or maybe a demon kidnaps someone from Frieren’s party?

Feel free to include any other characters, they are a colorful bunch.

AUs and ships

I’m fine with AUs as long as Frieren’s long lifespan is preserved. Her perspective is very much shaped by how long she has lived, so I wouldn’t want that aspect to change. One exception would be, a roleswap where Himmel is an elf, while Frieren is a human, and exploration of how both of them would be affected by having a different lifespan. An AU with mythological creatures or similar could be interesting.

I would very much love Himmel/Frieren, though I also enjoy how the manga softly builds on their connection. I also enjoy the budding romance between Fern and Stark.

ONMYOJI

I like all the characters so feel free to include any of them in the story. Bonus points for Ennmusubi doing some subtle matchmaking.

Hakuro/Kusa

I love both of them and how much Kusa looks up to Hakuro. I would love to see them have some adventures together. Maybe they help some other youkai? Or one of the onmyoji? I would also love a deeper insight into how Kusa became stronger after getting inspired by Hakuro. How did she try to improve herself? There definitely was some trial and error and I would love to see that.

Shiranui/Kinnara

That pairing came out of the left field for me, but I absolutely love the interactions the two of them had so far. I would love to see them meeting more, their feelings growing each time they see each other. I also feel like a story where they keep meeting each other in a dream would really fit them, as they would long to finally meet each other in reality.

AUs and ships

I’m fine with any AU. A modern AU with archer Hakuro and gardener Kusa would be cute. Or a dancer Shiranui and a musican Kinnara. Alternatively an AU where one of the two is onmyoji could be very interesting.

I’m fine with Hakuro’s admiration for Hiromasa being present as long as it doesn’t overshadow her relationship with Kusa.

DRESDEN FILES

Harry Dresden/Lara Raith

I was sceptical of this pairing all the way through Peace Talks, but then Harry and Lara had this intense falling out, Murphy had died, and suddenly this is a supernatural arranged political marriage and I love everything about this situation. I mean everything. Harry still being in mourning and absolutely not wanting to be forced into this arrangement, Lara still being distrustful of Harry, suspecting that Dresden is using their brother as a bargaining chip, Mab expecting both of them to present themselve as a couple for political reasons. It’s just terrible time for both of them, but so much fun for me.

I would love to see them forced to attend various supernatural events to present themselves per Mab’s wishes. How badly would Dresden handle it? Also it was confirmed that he was marked with true love which means he and Lara probably can’t even touch directly. How well do they hide that fact from everyone? How much guilt would Harry have once he realized that the mark has weakened or disappeared now that he started to develop feelings for Lara? How much chaos will ensue when the wedding does happen?

AUs and ships

I don’t want any setting AU for this fandom, because the existing setup is just too perfect. I’m fine with a divergence AU as long as Lara and Harry are still forced into arranged marriage.

I would want for Harry’s past relationships be acknowledged mostly because him being in mourning is part of what I find appealing about his situation. I don’t expect any scenes actually showing him with his past lovers, but I would be very okay with them appearing.

TALES OF CRESTORIA

Feel free to include other Tales characters. My faves are the cast of Xillia, Symphonia and Graces, but I’m also fine with including other characters (I would appreciate proper introductions in that case, I still haven’t played some of the games, so I might not recognize everyone just by their name).

Solo: Lloyd Irving

I would love more insight into small, but murdeous Lloyd. Seriously I loved the idea of Lloyd originally being manipulated into killing Colette and would love to see Lloyd remembering his lost memories at some point (bonus points for also exploring the idea of Colette as an artificial construct). Also I'm always a sucker for Kratos and Lloyd awkwardly trying to rebuild their familial bonds. What if Lloyd went with Kratos after all? What would happen if they ran into each other again.

Stahn Aileron & Leon Magnus

I would love more of Leon's utter suffering as he searches for a way to turn his best friend back into human, so people stop thinking he's crazy whenever he tells his sword to shut up. I would love to see him reunite with Crestoria’s main cast and getting annoyed at how chaotic they are. Or running into Sorey again. Honestly, I would love seeing him interact with pretty much anyone, and grumpily helping them kill monsters/do charity/etc. Or exploring Stahn’s and Leon’s past. I would love to see their childhood and how they grew to be such a good friends.

I haven’t played Destiny, so please give me context if you want to include any elements that aren’t in Crestoria.

Velvet Crowe/Milla Maxwell

I thrive on the twisted codependency those two have in Crestoria. I will take both good, tragic and/or ambiguous ends for this relationship. Whether Velvet decides to forgive Milla or kill her it will be great. Give me all those twisted emotions, the hesitation, and pain both of them are carrying.

For straightforward approach, maybe the two of them stop in a town while chasing the last Incarnation and Milla decides to throw a party (because it’s some sort of festival, or maybe she found out it’s Velvet’s or Laphicet’s birthday and wants to make some amends however small). Or maybe one of them gets hurt during the fight with an Incarnation and the other ends up nursing them to health.

For some more levity, maybe Velvet and Milla ran out of money and pick up some side-job to have enough money for an inn. Maybe they work as waitresses and are both great and terrible at it at the same time. Or they have to take care of kids. Any other amusing job is also good.

AUs and ships

I’m fine with any AUs, though for Stahn&Leon request I still want Stahn to be the sword. I’m okay with Stahn turning human (or from human to sword) in the course of the story or being human when showing his past with Leon.

I don’t want Velvet or Milla paired with anyone else or Asbel/Cheria. Other than that there’s too much ships. Please inquire through the mods about specific ones.

FATE/GRAND ORDER

WB: Any

Please only include NA content, I want to avoid JP spoilers

I would love to explore any part of the setting really. I especially love the various interesting connections Servant have with each other that might not be obvious at first glance (like the fact that Iskander is also a pharaoh). I’m just fascinated by all the intricate historical connections. I would also love to see how some Servants would react if they were taken to Singularity/Lostbelt/Event they weren’t a part of.

Alternatively I would love to see exploration on how different the protagonists upbringing is from other mages especially given how bad they are at magic. We get some of it with Crypters (I loved how frustrated Kadoc was at the fact that the protagonist is even worse at magic than him), but I would love to see more of it. Maybe some Servants try to teach protagonist magic or prepare them for interactions with Clock Tower mages.

I'm fine with both male and female protagonist. Feel free to do anything from a serious character exploration to zany antics. I love both moods FGO jumps between, you can't go wrong with that. Historical context always welcome. I'm fine for any usual suspects when it comes to plot ideas: be it training simulator shenanigans, "oh no we lost comms and are stuck in Singularity", Moriarty scheming, to someone wanting to make Master happy in their own special, dysfunstional and/or possibly destructive ways

Some of the characters I enjoy: Gilgamesh (any), Mordred, Karna, Medea, Saint Martha, Ereshikigal, Danzo, Jeanne D'Arc Alter, Mysterious Heroine XX, Sitonai, Moriarty, Goredolf, any character from pairings section solo. Though honestly I love pretty much everyone in Chaldea except Columbus.

AUs and ships

Obviously, no setting changes AUs, but feel free to Canon Divergence

Pairings: Amakusa/Semiramis, Izou/Ryouma, Kintoki/Fuuma, Romani/Merlin, Romani/protagonist. Also feel free to assume protagonist/everyone (except the "child" Servants). Feel free to ask about other pairings through mods, I’m definitely missing some

#exchange letters

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aloha-solar · 3 years

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The Spaces Between the Stars: Chapter One

AO3 is here

Pairing: fem!Shep x Kaidan

Rating: M

Ex-Cerberus Operative Miranda Lawson was not a doctor. The Alliance military and the staff at King James Hospital made that quite clear when she sent in an inquiry to join their team. They said that while they appreciated civilian aid, “Miss Lawson was not equipped to handle the delicacies of medical aid on severely injured patients.” In an ordinary case, Miranda would have agreed with them. She didn’t know how to perform an appendectomy. She didn’t have a clue on the proper procedure to amputate a limb. Hell, if she needed to deliver a baby, Miranda felt pretty sure she would end up telling the mother to keep her legs crossed until the doctors arrived.

But Commander Shepard wasn’t an ordinary case. Miranda rebuilt the woman from scratch, fitted her with different cybernetics to repair the pieces they couldn’t replicate from ordinary skin tissue, and made her look and perform better than before. She brought a clinically brain-dead woman back to life. Whatever medical expertise that was, Miranda had it.

But the Alliance didn’t want an ex-terrorist working on their galactic hero. They wanted an actual doctor, and Miranda felt pretty sure most of the doctors in the hospital never worked on someone who ended up being as much synthetic as organic. She sent another fifty letters, all of them rejected. But she still waited. People always came around…even if it did take them a while.

“Are you serious about all this, princess?” Jack asked one night. “You seriously think they’re going to let some cheerleader with nice tits into one of their secret operations?”

“To be honest, Miranda, that does sound a little bit far-fetched,” Kasumi said. “Okay, well, more than a little, but I’m trying to be nice.” Miranda fought against rolling her eyes. The three women weren’t exactly friends, but when the whole universe seemed to be on the brink of destruction only a month before, it seemed only fair to let bygones be bygones, even though Jack still probably wanted to paint her bedroom with Miranda’s innards, while Kasumi most likely stole half of Miranda’s credits while Miranda was watching. However, Miranda wouldn’t have even sought out the position if it weren’t for Jack and Kasumi: several of Jack’s students were being treated at the same hospital, and Jack caught a glimpse at Shepard when she got lost after visiting hours. Kasumi got access into Alliance records during her work on the Crucible and discovered the files detailing Shepard’s rescue and her current medical condition. Jack had gotten the message to Miranda first, while Kasumi ended up sneaking into their comm channel and spamming the chat with all the data she could find about Shepard’s status.

Miranda drummed the rim of her wine glass, like she was playing a piano. “Why not?” she said. “I know every piece of Shepard’s body, both inside and out. I know what pieces of her are still organic, and what areas are heavily synthetic. I spent two years of my life trying to bring her back.”

“This isn’t some kind of fucked-up Frankenstein shit show,” Jack said. “This is actually treating a person.”

“She crash-landed on Earth,” Miranda pointed out.

“Yeah, but there was still an intact body.”

“And who gave Shepard the parts to keep that intact body? When we first got her, she was more like a pile of meat than an actual human. If the Alliance is working on an intact body, they’ve got the Lazarus Project to thank for that.”

“That’s not the fucking point.”

“It’s a point enough.”

“Maybe the Alliance is upset that the woman who rebuilt the Commander Shepard wasn’t actually Alliance-affiliated,” Kasumi said. “Or at least, she wasn’t at the time.”

“I’m still not.”

“There you go,” Kasumi said, taking a sip of her neon-orange drink. Miranda wondered if Kasumi drank enough of it, she would actually be visible when she cloaked herself. “They want to keep everything in the family. Better to not risk an outside source ruining the Alliance’s poster girl.”

“The queen of the girl scouts,” Jack muttered into her bottle of beer.

“So if the Alliance screws anything up, they’d end up blaming me and my Cerberus background,” Miranda said. She downed the last of her wine. In the dim light of the bar, it looked a little too much like blood.

“Yeah,” Kasumi said. “They screw up, they can blame Cerberus for shoddy workmanship. They make her as good as new, it was all the technological advances of the Alliance.” Miranda snorted. She grabbed the wine bottle and poured another glass, nearly overfilling it and spilling it all over the table.

“You’d think that because we worked with her, we’d actually get a chance to see her,” Miranda said, more into her wineglass than her tablemates.

“I think it’s more ‘forced into helping her on a suicide mission’, princess,” Jack said. She opened another bottle of beer with her teeth. Miranda winced and prayed that the white stuff she saw was beer froth and not Jack’s teeth chipping away. Kasumi peered at Jack from underneath her hood and caught the bottlecap when Jack tossed it to the side. “Besides, Kasumi’s still a thief, so they don’t want her stealing their fucking medical equipment. You were on the run for six-goddamn-months, so they don’t know what the fuck you were up to: you could have still been with the Illusive Man for all the Alliance knew. And I’m the Psychotic Biotic, so that’s totally someone they want around the Savior of the Galaxy.”

“Are they calling her that now?” Kasumi said, taking an orange slice from her drink and squeezing it onto the table. She dabbed at the juice spots with her glove. “I can see the air quotes around it already.”

“The point is,” Miranda said, “the rest of the Normandy crew—even Garrus and Tali—get to see her whenever they come back. We’re the poor idiots pushed off to the side.” Miranda swallowed the rest of her wine in the glass, before grabbing the bottle and finishing it off in three long gulps. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, before standing up so abruptly that she made her chair fall backwards and the table wobble. Kasumi grabbed her drink without spilling a drop. She made a grab for Jack’s at the same time Jack did, spilling the rest of the beer onto the floor.

“What the fuck, princess?” Jack said, standing up too.

“You don’t need to follow me,” Miranda said. “I’m going to go to the hospital again. I just need an official explanation other than the vague political bullshit they gave me.”

“You just downed a whole bottle of wine in like ten fucking minutes,” Jack said. “You’re going to be shitfaced walking in there.”

“Liquid courage,” Miranda said.

“Oh my God.”

“Why are you questioning it?” Kasumi said, taking another few sips of her drink before dumping it into a potted plant just a few steps away from the table. “It’s either going to go extraordinarily well or extraordinarily poorly. Whatever it is, it’s great entertainment.”

“Kasumi—” Miranda said, but Kasumi cut her off by cloaking herself. Jack rolled her eyes and sucked at the beer bottle, trying to get the last dregs.

“Are you coming?” Miranda asked. Jack spat the bottle back out onto the table. It bounced and rolled off next to the potted plant that Kasumi threw her drink in.

“And miss the chance to see the Cerberus cheerleader embarrass herself? Fuck no,” Jack said.

“Good,” Miranda said, in a tone that implied the opposite. With legs wobblier than a baby giraffe, she led the invisible Kasumi and the (unfortunately) still visible Jack out of the bar and onto the sidewalk. Jack quickly motioned for a taxi and forced Miranda in first, then Kasumi, then Jack.

“Take us to King James Hospital,” Miranda said. Her stomach was churning like crazy. She wondered if wine vomit stained fabrics in the same way actual wine did.

“So what’s the plan?” Kasumi asked as she uncloaked herself.

“I dunno. Probably laugh at her when she pukes all over Admiral Hackett,” Jack said.

“I’m just trying to get an explanation,” Miranda said, shooting Jack a glare that should have killed her five times over. Unfortunately, Jack was still alive. Even worse, she kept snarking on Miranda.

“Remember how after Pragia I said I was going to spill your guts all over the walls?” Jack said, snickering. “Looks like you’re about to do it yourself, cheerleader.”

“Can we not go that far?” Kasumi said. “I am not in the mood to see if a test-tube human throws up differently than me.”

“I mean, she’s gotta be flawed somewhere, right?” Jack said. Her face flickered in the streetlamps, making her look ghost-like. “Seems not even Little Miss Fucking Perfect can avoid getting hungover.”

“Can we please stop now?” Miranda asked, clutching her stomach. The bottle of wine on an empty stomach—“You need to eat carbs before you go nuts on the alcohol!” Kasumi said when Miranda ordered the wine, but of course she didn’t listen—seemed to only get worse the longer it took to get to the hospital. Or maybe it was the nerves. Miranda sent in a lot of letters to the hospital, but she’d never actually gone in and spoken to the doctors face-to-face. Maybe she never had the time. Maybe she didn’t want to interrupt them. Maybe she was scared at taking the rejection in-person. It felt like one of the Illusive Man’s tricks, only there was no way to charm herself out of answering it. She put her head on the cool window and closed her eyes as Jack and Kasumi argued as to whether Jack could or couldn’t get alcohol poisoning based on her implant.

Eventually, the car slowed to a stop. Kasumi re-cloaked herself, Jack nearly fell out of the cab, and Miranda gave the driver five pounds extra than she was originally going to, but it seemed like the least she could do for him, especially considering that he just spent half an hour with the world’s best thief, the Psychotic Biotic, and the Cerberus Cheerleader. After she watched the driver peel away, Miranda staggered around and blinked in the hospital’s bright lights.

“You’d think they’d reduce their power a little bit, considering that London has power rations going on,” Kasumi mused from somewhere on Miranda’s left-hand side.

“And let five-hundred people die?” Jack said, scoffing.

“Fair point. Also, Miranda,” Kasumi said, briefly un-cloaking herself again. “I was able to steal some of Cerberus’ files before the Normandy got impounded. It’s all pretty much from the Lazarus Project.” Miranda blinked.

“What?” she said.

“I can transfer the files over to an omni-tool or a datapad. What one would you prefer?”

“Damn, Kasumi,” Jack said. “How did you even get those files?”

“A thief never reveals her secrets,” Kasumi said, typing on her omni-tool. “Or maybe that’s what magicians are supposed to do. Whatever. Anyway, Miranda, I’ve set the files to both your internet and extranet address.” Miranda pulled out her omni-tool. Sure enough, she received ten attachments. Tentatively, Miranda opened one. Her own voice came booming back out at her as a lung surgery played on the screen.

“As you can see here, we ended up abandoning the idea of using tissue from the right lung and instead just used synthetic pieces in order to repair the punctures in her left lung,” screen-Miranda said.

“What made you change your mind?” another voice said, and Miranda swallowed. She forgot that she gave every piece of information to the Illusive Man.

Another voice came on, and Miranda fought the urge to roll her eyes. Wilson. “With all due respect, sir, Operative Lawson realized that ou—my initial plan was foolish. We couldn’t take tissue from the right lung without causing severe damage to it.”

“I see,” the Illusive Man said. He paused to take a drag from his cigarette, and Miranda used the ensuing silence as a chance to turn her omni-tool off.

“Never thought I’d hear his voice again,” she mumbled.

“You want to know something funny?” Kasumi said. “In a lot of the Alliance documents, they abbreviated his name as ‘TIM’.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jack said. “And I thought Rodriguez’s name was pathetic. TIM? Yeah, that’s a name that’ll make people shit themselves on the battlefield.”

“They won’t accept it,” Miranda said. Jack and Kasumi glanced at her. “They’ll hear the Illusive Man’s voice and they’ll think I’m still with Cerberus. Let’s get back to the bar.” She turned around to call another taxi, but Jack yanked her back with a biotic pull. She pulled a little too hard, and Miranda landed right on her rear.

“Damn,” Jack said. “With a bubble-butt like that I’m surprised you didn’t end up bouncing.”

“What was that for?” Miranda said as Kasumi yanked her up.

“Yeah, it’s called ‘you’re not leaving this hospital until you go in there’, Queen-Bee,” Jack said. She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side. “The Illusive Man was a major piece of shit, and if there’s a hell I hope that fucker’s rotting in it. But it’s like you said: you were the one who brought Shepard back, and you were the one who built the squad that took on the Collector base. You might piss me off most of the time, princess, but there’s two good things I can say about you: one, you’ve got nice tits, and two, you’re damn good at getting shit done when you put your mind to it.”

“That’s about the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Miranda said. She took a deep breath and gently shook Kasumi’s arm free. She stared up at the hospital again, her fists clenched. “All right then. Let’s do this.”

“And Jack and I will be there as moral support!” Kasumi said. “Jack’ll be the one you can look at for encouragement and me…well, it’ll be good to know my presence is felt.” Miranda gave a quick nod to the two of them before marching her way up to the hospital. Her legs still felt shaky, though she wasn’t quite sure if that was from nerves or from the wine. Luckily, she still managed to make it to the reception desk without turning her ankle in her boots. The receptionist—a young woman whose nametag read “Charlotte”—looked up at Miranda and Jack.

“Erm…” Charlotte said, her fingers hovering above the terminal as she took in their appearances. “Did you two just come from a fancy-dress party?” Miranda did suppose they looked a sight: while her white body-suit was more public-friendly than Jack’s crop top and tattoo combo, the two probably did look like they’d come from a costume contest instead of a bar.

“Good thing I cloaked myself, right?” Kasumi whispered in Miranda’s ear.

“No, actually,” Miranda said to both Charlotte and Kasumi. “We’re here to see Commander Shepard.” Charlotte bit her lip and looked at a spot on her desk.

“Commander Shepard isn’t here,” she said, fiddling with a sticky key on the terminal. “Was there anything else I could help you with?”

“Oh, bullshit,” Jack said, and the two women pressed their palms and leaned over Charlotte’s desk at the same time. “Shepard’s here. She might be in a different ward, but this is the only hospital in a three-mile radius that’s had patients that were hit by the Reaper beam.”

“Plus we worked with Shepard, so we’re kept in the loop as to what happened to her,” Miranda lied.

“Plus I had access to the Alliance information that stated Shepard’s current medical condition,” Kasumi said, shimmering in-and-out of her cloak as she said it. Charlotte glanced from Jack, to Miranda, to the space where Kasumi stood, and wilted.

“She’s on the third floor. She’s had a whole private room to herself,” Charlotte said. “All the people from the Alliance keep going in there. I think one of the admirals is in there right now. Can you please…go away now?”

“That wasn’t too difficult, was it?” Miranda said. She turned on her heel and walked away. “Come on Jack,” she called as she walked to the elevator. She took a quick glance around and saw Jack do a quick fake-out at Charlotte’s desk before running up to catch the elevator. Miranda clicked the button.

“We make quite a power-team, don’t we?” Miranda said as she watched the numbers on the elevator slowly reach their floor. Jack snorted.

“Don’t let it get to your head,” she said as the elevator doors opened.

“If we’re going to be a girl-squad, can we be like Charlie’s Angels?” Kasumi piped up as the three women stepped into the elevator. “No, wait, actually bring Shepard, Samara, and Tali into the equation and we’ll be like the Sailor Scouts!”

“Who?” Jack asked.

---

Shepard’s room wasn’t that hard to find. It was the only one surrounded completely by Alliance military. Miranda, Jack, and Kasumi turned a corner and, upon seeing the huge swarm of blue in the distance, all quickly turned back around.

“That many members of the Alliance there?” Miranda said. She glared at Jack. “I thought you said there weren’t many people around her room!” Jack shrugged.

“That receptionist did tell us that one of the admirals was in there right now,” Kasumi said. “They’re probably just there for protection.”

“There’s like ten guys there,” Jack pointed out. “They don’t need that many. And if you’re that worried, I’m sure a quick shockwave will send ‘em running.”

“We’re not here to give this hospital anymore patients.”

“If you’d like, I could go check,” Kasumi said. She shimmered and became invisible again. Her soft-padded shoes echoed down the hall as she ran down, before quickly running back. As soon as she saw Miranda and Jack again, she became visible. “What was that admiral that Shepard kept talking about? The one with the grey beard? Hatchet?”

“Hackett,” Miranda said. She sighed and buried her face in her palms. “Great. This is going as well as ever.”

“Might mean two things,” Jack said. “Either Shepard is awake and communicating, or she’s about to die and there’s like a funeral going on in there.”

Miranda pulled her head from her hands so quickly she banged her against the wall. “Kasumi, did you see Shepard’s condition?” she asked.

“No, I could only see the admiral,” Kasumi said. “But they wouldn’t bring ten bodyguards in unless something really big happened, right?”

“And this ward does require fewer medical staff. They moved her from the last time I was in to see the kids,” Jack said. “Before, she was in kind of like an emergency unit.”

“Great,” Miranda said, rubbing the back of her head. “So what am I supposed to do? Just walk up to them and act like I’m Shepard’s doctor or something?”

“Her nurse,” Kasumi said. “That would be a little bit more believable than a doctor.”

“Yeah, a nurse in a porno,” Jack said. “With that outfit, there’s no way they’re going to think she’s a nurse or a doctor.”

“I can steal one,” Kasumi offered.

“A nurse or a doctor? You’re good Kasumi, but no-one’s that good.”

“I meant an outfit. And we’ll all act like medical staff.”

“And then we’ll all get put in jail because we were caught impersonating medical staff,” Miranda said, sighing. She stood up properly. “No, the only way to face this is head on.”

“You’re not gonna puke, are you?” Jack asked from below.

“No,” Miranda said, though she wouldn’t be surprised if she did. “Wish me luck.” She stumbled around the corner again, and tried to muster up any sort of courage, drunken or otherwise. She couldn’t. What she got was a few angry soldiers staring at her as she wobbled towards them.

“I’m here to see Admiral Hackett,” Miranda said. Even before the sentence left her lips, she was aware of how stupid that sentence sounded, like a child on their first job interview.

“The admiral?” one of the soldiers said, and the one on her right hand side started to snicker. “Sure, if you pay me a million credits.”

“So the Alliance is accepting bribes now?” Miranda said, crossing her arms.

“How about two million and a night in bed with you?” said a soldier a few steps away from the first two soldiers. “Actually, forget the two million. How about just a night in—” Shepard’s door opened, and all the soldiers immediately zipped up their mouths and stood to attention. Admiral Hackett walked out.

“At ease,” he grumbled. He frowned at them. “Soldiers, you do know I can see you when you’re goofing off out here, right? Keep doing that, and I’ll tell your chief that he might want to put you all on latrine duty for a month.”

“Um, sir?” the first soldier said, raising her hand. Hackett scowled at her. Her friend pulled her hand down and the soldier started sweating. “Um…that woman over there said she was here to see you?” Hackett turned around and raised his eyebrows. Miranda clasped her hands behind her back, though despite her heels and her posture, she felt incredibly small.

“Yes, I am,” she said, her voice shaking. “I was the one who headed Project Lazarus—”

“—And brought Commander Shepard back after we all presumed her dead. Yes, I know who you are, Operative Lawson,” Hackett said.

“I haven’t been a part of Cerberus since the Normandy was taken by the Alliance,” Miranda said. Hackett had the ball in his court and this was her only chance to put up a decent fight. “The Illusive Man was dangerous and deserved everything that he got. I’m here as a friend to Commander Shepard—”

“Miss Lawson, I know you’re here as more than a friend to Commander Shepard,” Hackett said. He put his hand on his chin and gazed directly into her eyes. Miranda stared back. “You’re here because you want to get involved.”

“I am more than capable of doing so,” Miranda said. “I built Shepard back from nothing, and she saved the bloody galaxy.”

“I know,” Hackett said. “And you’re the only person who knows exactly what kind of tech we’re dealing with. You’re on the team.”

“I’m—what?” Miranda said.

“I don’t believe I stuttered there, Miss Lawson.”

“No, Admiral, I heard you the first time,” Miranda said, feeling her face grow hot. She felt a surge of bile in her throat and she quickly swallowed it down before she embarrassed herself even more. “I’m curious to know as to why you’re so…so willing. I have footage of the surgeries if you want solid proof of my work,” she said, pulling out her omni-tool. Hackett placed his hand on her arm and looked Miranda in her eyes again, much softer than before.

“We’ve already most of it, Miss Lawson. Some of it was left on your terminal on the Normandy, and we were able to pick up other bits and pieces from the raids on Cerberus bases,” Hackett said. “You’re the leader of this project now. Shepard’s been out for a month, and humanity wants to see its hero back. If we could raise the Normandy, we’d use them as a placeholder until Shepard was up and running, but they’ve been off the grid since the Crucible went off.

“So we need Shepard, and the staff here aren’t equipped to bring her back, especially when there’s so many wounded. There’s only one other person that’s performed the impossible, and that’s you. Get in there and wake her up. In exchange, I’ll make sure all of your activities with Cerberus are taken off your record. Troops, let’s head out.” With that, Hackett and his foot-soldiers marched away, leaving Miranda feeling like she did when they recovered Shepard’s body. From behind her, Kasumi and Jack walked up to watch Hackett and the Alliance soldiers leave.

“Well then,” Miranda finally said.

“God, if any of my kids turn out to be that shitty, I’m making them deal with Zaeed,” Jack said. “No, Garrus. Actually, fuck it: both.”

“I thought you met Hackett before this?”

“Yeah, with a group of like sixty other people to get pardoned. Not exactly a heart-to-heart conversation.”

“Did he say when you needed to start? Probably tomorrow, right?” Kasumi said. “Then let’s head back to the bar! You need to celebrate the fact you’ve got a new job now, Miranda!”

“Yeah,” Miranda said. “The most important job in the world. Now, does anyone know if there’s a bin or pizza place nearby? I’m probably going to throw up if we don’t get some of this wine absorbed.”

#Mass Effect #mass effect fanfiction #f!shenko #shenko #fshenko #kaidan x femshep #femshep x kaidan #OTP: dipshits in love

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mythicalcanary-literature · 3 years

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FanFiction - Crossing the Stars

Hetalia (c) Hidekaz Himaruya

FTL: Faster Than Light (c) Subset Games

[CHAPTER LIST]

Author’s Note: This FanFiction is a crossover between the sci-fi strategy game ‘FTL: Faster Than Light’ by Subset Games and the manga/anime called ‘Hetalia’ by Hidekaz Himaruya. The story will follow closely to the events of the rougue-like gameplay in FTL and the human characters will be replaced with the human versions of the national personifications in ‘Hetalia’. This is a fun personal project and it requires no knowledge of either fandom to enjoy this story. I’d encourage checking the original sources out though! Use of screenshots in this FanFiction are to supplement the storytelling to help plot the course of our heroes’ journey in the universe. Whatever the outcome of the gameplay I base this story on (as each playthrough is very unique) will be translated into the plot of this story. i.e. If the spaceship gets damaged, it gets damaged in the story. If a character dies in the game, they’re dead in this fiction. (Please note that I find this kind of storytelling entertaining to play/write and I plan to do more in the future if time allows!)

Chapter 1

The Federation was struggling with the advancing Rebel fleet. One lone ship carried some vital information that could turn the tides of the war and the Federation allied Star Ship APH was going to be their champion.

At the helm was Captain Alfred Jones, a spry young American whom fit the Golden Boy persona to a tee. Sure, he wore square-rimmed glasses but he was still awesome. Don’t let his cute blue-eyed, blond haired, ripped body mislead you! He had the courage to lead his crew to the very end. He was the youngest of his crew and had a Hero Complex but his heart helped him to make some decent moral choices. His friends might disagree and say that his Hero Complex leads to some very immoral choices, but how could he be wrong? He’s great!

Stationed at weapons was his best friend from the academy called Arthur Kirkland. He was an officer from England and was keen to aid in an international project. Arthur was rather lean in build with messy blond hair that matched his sassy personality. His piercing emerald eyes held a wisdom beyond his years. He was tasked with weaponry because of his strategic skills and fearless judgement. Unfortunately his friends and colleagues often made fun of him for his bushy eyebrows, apparent inability to cook, and his obsession with the occult.

Last but not least was the Frenchman Francis Bonnefoy, a flamboyant friend of Arthur’s and on-and-off enemy of his. Much like Alfred, don’t let his looks fool you! Francis’ long, golden hair, sea blue eyes and wispy blond beard could charm many but he was a calculated thinker. He graduated with flying colours in engineering, which is why he was manning the FTL (Faster Than Light) Drive in the engine room.

The blond trio were in their twenties, young and wise together. If they could avoid their normal bickering maybe they would survive this after all!

“This is the awesome Captain Jones speakin’! Get your butts over to the Bridge, we need to figure out where we’re goin’,” the voice on the PA system called in a chirpy American accent.

“We’re already here, dipshit,” Arthur countered as he and Francis joined him on deck. “We’ve best be quick about this, the Rebel fleet is gaining speed.” He pulled up the Beacon Map on screen and surveyed their options. “Unfortunately we have no data on the properties of each beacon towards the exit into the next sector, but hopefully we can acquire that as we go along. The faster we get to the exit the better, our mission is too important to mess around.”

Alfred was sipping some coffee. “Psh, who’s messin’? I won’t lead you dudes astray! Hero’s promise!”

Francis sighed. “Let’s avoid battles if we can, ze stress gives me wrinkles.”

“We’re in a civilian sector! How bad could it be?”

Arthur glared at him. “You’ve best be joking. This area will be littered with Rebel scouts. We need to get a move on.”

Alfred dumped his coffee cup in the rubbish bin and winked. “Fine. Back to your stations! Off to our first stop! Warp us there, Francis!”

“Aye, sir,” Francis responded as they all returned to their posts.

The S.S. APH warped to the next beacon. If they were expecting a calming tour of space they were greatly mistaken. Alfred’s voice carried over the announcement system. “Hey, y’all! We have a hostile Rebel Scout attacking a small refuelling outpost here. That’s totes uncool so we’re gonna kick their asses! Kirkland, fire up the weapons! Try out our Burst Laser II on their weapons!”

“Aye, Captain! Locked on and charging.”

The small ship was quick with a laser drone circling the S.S. APH. An alert blared. “Shields took a hit!” Alfred informed them quickly. “Just an ion blast, it’ll be back online soon, stay at your posts!”

Francis’ voice joined him on the announcement channel. “The drone knocked out our door controls!”

“That’s alright, I destroyed their weapons room,” Arthur chipped in confidently.

“Good work, Artie!” Alfred cheered. “Lock on the drones now.”

“Roger that!”

The ship shook and Alfred’s voice called out in concern. “Yo, Francis? Are you okay? The shields are back online but it says the engines got hit.”

“I’m fine, mon ami! Minor damage to ze FTL Drive, I’m working on a fix. I’m not hurt.”

Arthur switched focus from the enemy drones to the helm. He cursed as he saw that the interior scan of the enemy vessel had repaired their weapons in the time his lasers charged. Luckily, his final few attacks took out the scout and they could safely proceed. He sighed with relief. “Danger has passed, let’s pull in the loot.”

Alfred congratulated them over the announcement system. “Well done, dudes! Artie, join me in the door room. We’re not moving on until that system is running again.”

“On my way!”

Francis kept an eye on the FTL charge as his friends repaired the door functions.

Arthur hummed as he replaced some fried wires and Alfred ran the diagnostics. Oddly enough, they didn’t chat the entire time. It was nice working together. “Alright, let’s get back to our posts. Who knows how many of these automated ships are lurking?”

“Just don’t lead us into a black hole or something.”

“Hahahaha! Noted.”

Back on the Bridge, Alfred pulled up his upgrades panel. They had enough scrap to give them a new edge. He grinned as he added an extra unit of power to their reactor and instructed the Frenchman to monitor the upgrade. He also treated himself to a more slick piloting upgrade. Having auto pilot help him to dodge attacks with a fifty percent advantage was too amazing to pass up! “I’m gonna jump to the next beacon. Hold on to your asses!”

The crew warped into the aftermath of a battle. The battlefield was littered with debris from Federation ships and Rebels alike. Their allies had been sadly outnumbered but it was clear they fought valiantly and Captain Jones respected that. He began performing a more detailed scan of the wreckage when his sensors picked up an enemy ship. He gasped and switched on the comms. “To battle stations! We have a Rebel Disrupter in our vicinity!”

The orange spaceship faced the S.S. APH head-on and momentarily knocked out the shields, just in time for the orbiting drone to shoot their door systems.

“Why do they always target our doors?” Francis complained over the communications system. “It’s hardly a vital system.”

“I think it was potluck,” Arthur answered as his return fire knocked out the enemy weapons. “Got the weapons room! I’m going to knock out that drone and then alternate. I wouldn’t put it past them to begin repairs.”

“As you are, Kirkland!” Alfred chimed in as he kept an eye on the enemy movements from the helm. They made quick work of this battle and reaped the rewards. “Good job. You know the drill, Artie. Gotta get those door systems online again. Meet me there.”

“Aye, sir!”

The next beacon jump was nothing special. Beautiful, but nothing interesting. Francis stared out of his nearby airlock windows to view the dancing binary star before they warped to the next point.

“I’m gonna do a triangular-shaped loop here, dudes. I detect a merchant nearby and I wanna see what they have,” Captain Jones announced to his crew.

“Don’t let us get caught by the Rebels, Alfred!” Arthur’s voice warned him.

“They’re not close enough yet. We’ll be fine. We can’t risk running low on supplies and if we can get this hull fixed that would be great.”

“Good point. Carry on.”

The next jump led them to a destroyed space station. Alfred had reservations about this as life signs could be detected onboard. He bit his lip and weighed up the options of investigating. On the one hand, if he could recruit a new member that would be useful! Although he was well aware that doing these kind of investigations could risk damage to his current crew’s lives. After a moment of hesitation he decided not to risk his friends. They collected miscellaneous debris to repurpose for their own mission and jumped them to the next beacon.

The crew assembled on the Bridge to witness the hails of a Rock Scout. The Rockmen were a powerful race but these aliens seemed to be relatively friendly. “Hey, this is Captain Alfred F. Jones of the Federation Star Ship APH. How can we be of service today, my dudes?”

Arthur stared at his friend unhappily. “You could use proper English, idiot. Did you learn nothing from etiquette lessons when dealing with foreign entities?”

“There was nothin’ wrong with my lingo, Artie! Don’t make me pull rank.”

“Insufferable git.”

The Rockman Captain simply stared at these weird humans before gaining their attention. “We could really use some help.”

Alfred saluted. “How can we help?”

“Our FTL navigation system is shot. Can you help us to a nearby station for them to patch us up?”

“Sure thing, rock friend! I’m receiving your fuel down payment right now and I’ll key in the co-ordinates you sent.”

“Thank you. We will be one step behind you, following your jump signatures.”

Francis beamed at his Captain as their communications shut off with their neutral acquaintance. “That was very kind of you, Alfred!”

The American beamed. “If we can help anyone in distress on the way we damn well will! We’re still gonna do our planned route unless we’re forced to change direction, but those Rebel scumbags ain’t gonna take all of us down.”

Francis patted him on the back and returned to his post. Arthur shook his head. “I wish you’d let me deal with the foreign comms once in a while, Alfred, but you did well. I’m heading back to weapons. Try to get our hull fixed at the shop.”

The next jump led them to an outpost that certainly had merchants selling some wares! Arthur and Francis volunteered to be the away party as Alfred kept an eye on the advancing enemy fleet from the Bridge. Their tailing Rockmen friends also spent a bit of time gathering resources for the journey ahead.

Aware of the encroaching danger and their limited supply of scrap to trade for goods, the European representatives agreed that they should spend all of it on an Advanced FTL Navigation Augmentation that would allow them to leap to any previously visited beacon in one hop no matter the distance and the rest of the scrap was allocated to hull repairs. They promptly beamed back on deck and installed their new augment and checked with the Rockmen to make sure that they were ready to follow.

The S.S. APH jumped back the way they came and immediately leapt to the subsequent beacon. It was a tough decision because they had to completely ignore a distress call. The Rebel fleet was advancing far too quickly, they had to put as much distance between them as possible. Alfred felt terrible but his crew and the Rockmen following them depended on forward thinking. There was no helping those in distress right now.

“Rebel transport ship detected!” Captain Jones announced on the communications system. “It doesn’t seem to wanna fight but we can’t take risks. Plus we need the scrap, we’re kinda poor right now.”

“Engaging weapons, Captain!” Arthur replied, powering up the Burst Laser II to lock onto their weapons room. He was going to target the drones next as those little bastards were a pain to deal with.

“CANCEL THAT INTERACTION, KIRKLAND! ATTACK THEIR ENGINES, THEY’RE GONNA JUMP AND WARN THE FLEET!”

“Fuck, really?! Alright, locking both the lasers and missiles onto their FTL Drive!”

It was a tense moment as their weapons warmed up and as they celebrated decimating the enemy FTL Drive, a missile hit their own engines.

“ENGINES, DAMAGE REPORT!” Captain Jones cried.

“Ze bastards damaged ze FTL Drive. I’m working on a fix but my head…”

“Focus, Bonnefoy. You can heal after we destroy these idiots!” Arthur chipped in urgently. He switched the lasers to focus on the Rebel weapons room whilst keeping their Artemis missile locked on the enemy engines.

An explosion rocked the Bridge and Alfred coughed through the smoke. “Dammit, they’re breaking my controls. Kirkland, finish this now.” He gritted his teeth as he repaired the system damage. His wrist was pretty sore but nothing too dire.

“Aye, Captain!”

Fortunately, the battle was over with soon after and repairs could be finished to both the engines and the piloting systems. Jones and Bonnefoy met up in the medbay to heal their injuries before moving on. It was becoming clear how dangerous this mission was.

Back on the Bridge, Alfred instructed his crew that to get to the quest marker they needed to enter a nebula. Nebula zones were always risky as they knocked out sensors but they could also be beneficial in slowing down the enemy fleet. “We’re heading to the nebula. Be prepared for anything! Warp ahead, Bonnefoy!”

This felt like a mistake. Nebulas can be rather peaceful but today was not their day! A plasma storm was active so not only were their sensors dead but their reactor was crippled to half-capacity. The crew was in a mild panic trying to figure out what systems were down as a Rebel automated scout swooped in to cause them hell.

“GUYS, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. SEVERAL PROBLEMS,” Alfred yelled through the communications system.

“No shit!” Arthur shot back as he examined the diagnostics from his post. “Our oxygen isn’t powered, we’ll suffocate!”

“Heat up the weapons, Artie, we have company! I’ll divert power from the medbay to the oxygen room!”

“SHIELDS ARE DOWN AND THEY HAVE A DRONE!” Francis cried from the engine room. “We’re sitting ducks!”

“Divert ALL power from engines to the shields NOW!”

“Aye!”

“I’m locked on their weapons, Captain!” Arthur informed them. “The shield is holding off the drone, thank God.”

“Fire on that and then the drone. Destroy it as quickly as possible.”

“Thanks, Captain Obvious.”

Thankfully the battle was over swiftly. Shaken and worried, Alfred gave the order to drop the shields and restore power to the FTL Drive. They would drop off their Rockmen friends at the next beacon and make their way to the exit.

“Approaching the quest marker,” Captain Jones announced keeping the ship steady, ready for a break. “I’ll inform our little convoy back there.”

“Can one ship in addition to ours really be considered a convoy?” Francis responded contemplatively.

He didn’t receive an answer as the Rockmen’s ship zoomed away without warning and Alfred flipped the Red Alert siren. “AGH! IT’S A TRAP! How could they? We trusted them!” He turned on the power to all systems after they were clear of the plasma storm and glared at the Rebel Disrupter ship. How dare they! HOW. DARE. THEY.

Ignoring the possible melodrama his best friend was stewing in, Arthur had already locked their weapons on the Rebel weapons and drones with their Burst Laser II and the Artemis missile. DIRECT HIT! That’s getting business taken care of. He disabled the Artemis and focused the laser onto enemy shields. He needed no consultation on this strategy, they would not be made fools of! With the shields down and the enemies focused on repairing the damage he dealt to the drones, he fired once again at the weapons room. The Rebel scum would not get a say in this!

VICTORY! The crew celebrated briefly as they collected the remains of their enemy vessel.

“Let’s get the hell outta here,” Alfred urged, turning them towards the next beacon. “I don’t want to try my luck with another one of these guys.”

“We can make it to ze Exit Beacon in two jumps, Captain!” Francis informed him over the comms. “With ze Rebels gaining ground we shouldn’t take anymore detours.”

“Agreed, buddy! Full speed ahead!”

The Rebels were determined to control this star system! The subsequent beacon greeted them with another Rebel Rigger patrol. It stood between them and the exit. This could not be tolerated.

“I’m way ahead of you, Captain!” Arthur called over the communications. “I’ve locked on their weapons and drone rooms. I’ll target their FTL Drive afterwards, we can’t let them get away to inform the Rebel fleet of our location.”

“Show no mercy, Kirkland!”

“Aye, sir!”

Direct hits!

“The enemy is powering up it’s FTL Drive!” Alfred informed them urgently. “This could be bad!”

The landed hits on the enemy vessel weren’t enough to destroy the hull and the Rebels were an inch from jumping out of reach. Fortune dealt them an unexpected hand, though.

Alfred opened up the screen to receive a hail from the Rebel Rigger Captain. “Captain Jones speaking. Stop right there!”

The enemy Captain scowled but offered a metaphorical white flag. “The day is yours! Show us your honour by allowing us to leave with our lives.”

This was a very fragile situation. The enemy hull was weak but their FTL Drive was primed to jump any second. There would be no time to stop them unless they agreed to a truce. Alfred growled in frustration but knew there was no choice. “Kirkland, cease fire! We’re entering a truce.”

“What? Um, okay?” came Arthur’s puzzled response. There was probably a good reason to cease fire so he complied. He would demand answers later.

Captain Jones accepted the supplies from the Rebel Rigger and the enemy did not warp away. Phew, that was a close one. The advancing enemy fleet would not gain speed on them.

Tense, Alfred called a meeting on the Bridge. He turned to his crewmates gravely. “We’re getting real lucky with these battles, our damage has been minimal. With Rebels so close to our Exit Beacon we need to be ready for a possible interception between us and the warp point. Don’t let your guard down and we’ll decide which sector to head to next once the coast is clear.”

Arthur nodded and returned to the weapons room without any answers, but he didn’t need them. It was clear they were in trouble and Alfred made a solid judgement call. He would be ready to defend.

Francis remained by Alfred’s side as they made the final jump to the Exit Beacon.

There was an asteroid field not far from their destination. They decided to risk navigating it for some materials that would help them in the next sector. Luck truly was not on their side as asteroids violently knocked down their shields and damaged their hull!

“Fire in ze portside airlocks, Captain!” Francis cried.

“I’ll open the airlocks to extinguish it. Everyone meet me in shields! We’ll repair and move on!”

Once that crisis was averted, the crew met up to decide where to go next.

Would they jump to the Engi Controlled area, or the Zoltan Controlled area? Both were civilian sectors but carried their own unique risks.

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT SECTOR...

Chapter 1 - END

[CHAPTER LIST]

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[Cover Art] This image was drawn in HB pencil and painted in watercolour paints on the 8th August 2021. It was digitally enhanced in GIMP Image Editor on the 9th August 2021. Paper type = 130 gsm

This chapter was written on the 8th August 2021.

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Please do not repost, modify, resell or claim this work as your own.

(Reblogging is fine, though!)

[Mythical Canary Info]

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tf2-hellhole · 3 years

Note

Could I request mercs x s/o where the s/o got out of an abusive relationship but they're still some effects left on them? Like getting scared or submissive and quiet when voices are raised around them, or flinching when a person quickly raises their arm/hand, etc? If you're not comfortable writing this, I completely understand, this can be a difficult topic to write about

Sorry this is so late! I hope this post can be of some comfort to those who have experienced abuse.

Please let me know if I’ve accidentally said anything offensive to abuse victims in the headcanons!

Scout:

When you first explain it to him, he’s horrified. Not because of you, but because he’s scared that he might have done or said things that scared or offended you in the past. He awkwardly apologizes for anything he may have said. You can literally see the tension leave his body as you assure him that he never said anything bad to you or that it’s okay because he didn’t know.

He always gives you little touches to comfort you or let him know he’s watching over you while you two or in public. It’s surprisingly discreet, and he doesn’t even make eye contact when he does it, but he’ll do something like brush his hand over yours or touch the small of your back for a moment. He’s not really comfortable with verbally comforting you in public because he’s still paranoid of not looking manly.

After that first initial apology, he can’t bring himself to apologize for any time he scares you, because he still doesn’t know how. But he shows his apologies through quick hugs and little favors. You appreciate that he’s trying to help in the only way he’s able to.

But surprisingly, he does have his moments. On days you’re feeling particularly bad or anxious, he’ll sit next to you and just wrap an arm around you. He’ll probably talk about some of the things he’s been through, like aggressive bullying in school.

Soldier:

Honestly, Soldier’s probably the worst person out of the whole team to date at first. He can be very loud, obnoxious, intense, and threatening, which often terrifies you into submission, even though he doesn’t mean to frighten you at all.

He doesn’t realize he’s been scaring you so badly until one of the other mercenaries pulls him aside and tells him. After that, he talks to you about it at the first chance he gets. He apologizes for frightening you, though he still halfway yells it.

He tries to tone it down around you, by doing things like not talking so loud and asking you to do something instead of demanding it. It doesn’t work very well but the effort is obvious, and after a while you get more comfortable with his behavior.

He encourages you to not feel like you have to be submissive around him, or anyone for that matter. This is AMERICA, the land of FREEDOM, and you shouldn’t have to listen to ANYONE if you don’t want to.

Soldier becomes much more protective of you, though surprisingly he’s not at all possessive or controlling. But he’s loyal as a dog and will always be at your side, ready to support or protect you. And don’t think he won’t punch someone who’s bothering you.

He’s surprisingly a very encouraging partner, and seems to have a talent for pulling you out of your shell and getting you to be more confident.

Pyro:

Pyro, surprisingly, is probably the best to date if you have these kinds of fears. They’re so patient with you and would never do anything to make you uncomfortable. It’s actually rather funny that Pyro is so unbelievable brutal on the battlefield, but whenever they’re around you they’re so gentle and accommodating.

They would never, ever try to do anything that has a chance of frightening you. If they do, they’re automatically at your side, squeezing your hand and apologizing through their mask. They feel like shit if they scare you and will do anything in their power to make it up to you.

Pyro loves to snuggle up to you when you’re feeling a little stressed due to someone raising their voice or something similar. If you’re in public, they’ll just wrap an arm around you, but if you two are alone, they’ll full on snuggle you.

The reason Pyro is so good to you is because they’re the same way. They’ve never told anybody about their origin, and probably never will but there are things that clue to the nature of Pyro’s upbringing. On rare occasions, Pyro will flinch or jump in the same way you do, and sometimes they’re easily stressed out by the other mercenaries’ bickering. Those aren’t the only things, but they’re a few pieces of a puzzle only you could put together.

Demo:

Demo, for a while, doesn’t notice any of your habits, because he’s usually drunk off his ass. He doesn’t notice it until he’s been sober around you a few times and picks up on your behaviors over those few times.

When he finally figures it out, he’s mortified about the way he’s been treating you. He’s never abused you, verbally or physically, but he realizes that when he’s drunk, his volume, intensity, and emotions terrify you.

He remembers being verbally abused in the orphanage he grew up in, then physically abused by his father. He remembers how horrible it made him feel; it’s one of the main reasons he turned to alcohol. He’s horrified that he may have been scaring you or making you relieve memories because of his behavior. So, he decides to change himself for the better.

In the future, he successfully cuts back on alcohol, so he won’t be acting so aggressively around you. It’s agonizing for his body, but he refuses to back down from the promise he made to himself. He also lowers his voice around you.

He lowkey becomes a little mushier. He’ll go out of his way to give you a quick hug or kiss, cuddle with you, or remind you that he loves you. He never actually tells you why he’s doing all of these things, but you figure it out pretty quickly.

Heavy:

Heavy can be much more perceptive than you think, so he picks up on all of the little clues very quickly. For a while, it actually makes him feel pretty crappy, because he knows he can be very intimidating and intense at times and he feels like he may be the main thing frightening you.

He very bluntly approaches you about it, asking if he’s made you uncomfortable without pushing you to share about whatever’s made you feel so nervous. He apologizes if he did, but either way he pulls you into a loose hug and tells you that, as your s/o, he wants to protect you and you’ll always be safe around him.

In the future, he tries to be less frightening when you’re around. He speaks a little quietly and tries his best to hold in his barking laughter. He’s always softly squeezing your shoulder or touching your back so you know he’s watching out for you, unless you don’t like physical contact, of course. If you don’t, he always clears his throat around you to draw your attention to him, and just looks back at you. The eye contact lets you know he’s watching out for you.

He’s very, very patient with you and your habits. He understands that they’re habits that aren’t always easy to break, but he does remind you of them to help you become more conscious and ease yourself out of these habits.

Engie:

Engie, like Heavy, is very perceptive of other people’s thoughts and behaviors, so he picks up on all of the little clues fairly quickly, maybe before he even starts dating you.

Once he feels like you really trust him, he’ll approach you and ask you about them. He has so many questions such as: Are you comfortable with sharing about your past? Is there anything he can do to help you? Has he been frightening you?

It doesn’t matter if you feel like sharing or not, he assures you that you matter to him, and he would never do anything to hurt you, and you can always trust him. He’s your partner, and he wants to be your rock whenever you need him.

He’s very conscious of your symptoms, and does his best to keep from scaring or offending you. If, for whatever reason, you do become particularly frightened or stressed, he’d sit with you to calm you for as long as you need. He often softly speaks to you to take your mind away from the trigger, and his softer voice often helps. He always has the sweetest smile when he manages to calm you down; he’s really happy he was able to help you. Your happiness means the world to him, and he always puts it above his own, so he’s glad you aren’t scared anymore.

Medic:

Medic, like Soldier, is completely oblivious to your habits for a while. He can be very intense at times, and it often scares you into submission or silence, and he never notices. He doesn’t mean to frighten you, but he doesn’t realize what he’s doing to you until someone else points it out to him.

Once someone brings it to his attention, he realizes what he’s been doing and feels horrible. He confronts you about it- he doesn’t ask why you’re so easily scared, but he just asks if he’s actually been frightening you. When you tell him he has, he’s devastated and brings you into a deep hug, apologizing for his behavior. He feels particularly bad for accidentally making you become submissive, and he tells you he loves you the way you are, and he doesn’t want you to change a bit. Even though he’s notorious for his disregard for other people’s feelings or needs, he values your happiness above all else.

In the future, he tries to tone it down. While he still will yell or bark orders at the other mercenaries, he always lowers his voice when talking to you. He isn’t able to fix all of his behaviors, but it’s definitely an improvement, and enough that you start to become more comfortable with his habits.

Highkey will kill anyone else who scares you

Sniper:

Sniper, surprisingly, notices what you’re doing fairly quickly. He knows he can be a standoffish or intimidating person at times, so at first he thinks he’s just scaring you, and doesn’t consider if there’s anything in your past that’s also influencing your behavior. He has to know if he’s the reason you’re acting this way.

One day, he pulls you aside to ask you about it. He wants to know if he’s really been frightening you, and if you feel like you have to be submissive around him. If you answer yes to either question, he’s horrified. He gently grabs you by the shoulders and tells you that he loves you more than anything on the planet and that you’ll never, ever be in danger as long as he’s around.

He starts trying to be a little more sincere and open to you, because he wants to show you he trusts you and wants you to trust him back. He’s not the best at showing it but you appreciate the effort. No matter what’s happening, he’s always willing to listen to you or protect you when you need him. It surprises you how thoughtful he is regarding your feelings- anyone who didn’t know him well would assume he’s a bit of an ass, but he’s the type of person who’s loyal as hell and values his loved ones deeply.

Spy:

Spy has trained himself to be extremely perceptive, so he notices your habits very quickly. For a few weeks, he just silently watches you, making trying to pick up on all of your habits and their triggers without you noticing. This silent investigation confirms his suspicions. He’s a smart man, and he quickly figures out that your behavior is a result of some kind of emotional trauma.

He never actually confronts you about it. He doesn’t share about his demons or his past with you, so why should he expect you to share everything with him? It’d be unfair. But he does start to remind you he cares deeply for you a little more often. He doesn’t want you to ever feel like he’s not someone you can always depend on. He doesn’t want you to ever feel alone.

But he does start trying to discreetly help you out of your habits, starting with the most harmful. He does things like try to help you develop newer, healthier habits or help you stop being anxious in situations that usually stress you out. He reads a lot about trauma beforehand, and while that definitely doesn’t mean he’s an expert, he at least able knows enough about trauma and it’s symptoms to help dull the mental and behavioral affects of your trauma a little.

#tf2 #teamfortress2 #tf2 scout #tf2 soldier #tf2 pyro #tf2 demoman #tf2 heavy #tf2 engineer #tf2 medic #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy #tf2 x reader #tf2 x s/o #tf2 x y/n #tf2 x you #tf2 imagines #tf2 headcanons

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theonetheycallhannah · 4 years

Text

The Treatment of Captain Syverson-Chapter Six: Sensory Integration 2

Pairing: Captain “Sy” Syverson x OFC (Shane Benton)

Summary: It’s a fine night for a walk by the water with a handsome vet holding your hand. I think that says it all.

Behind on your sessions? Want more from the author? Click Me

Word Count: Almost 1.9k (a bit shorter, hopefully y’all don’t mind by the end!)

Warnings: Basically still fluff, but also some saucy morsels near the end…not full on smut, though, so don’t get too excited. We aren’t there yet, my little lovelies. Soon, though…soon.

Author’s Note: As I said before, this date totally got away from me, nearing a whopping 6k in total. Thanks again for all the love. And in other news, I told a couple of my PT friends about this story, and one of them agreed to be my official technical consultant on the project for future chapters and even if I wanna flesh it out, modify it to include strictly “original” characters, and eventually take it to a publisher! I sent what I’ve done so far to her just before I started drafting this post, so hopefully she’ll have good insight for me! She said it was about time someone wrote a story like that! Lol! (She reads a lot, so I guess people really don’t think of PTs as the heroines of love stories. Sad, really! Most of the ones I know are lovely and loving people!) The other was just instantly excited and can’t wait to read it.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism.

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Hope I’m not forgetting anyone! If you want to be notified when I post a new chapter or work, I’ll be happy to add you to my tag list! Stricken blogs are getting personal messages from me when a new chapter is uploaded because Tumblr’s faulty tagging system will not stand in the way of me delivering what the people want!(?) lol! (Although...their lackadaisical notification system might...sorry for that. I have no control. lol!)

The lake was fairly near her clinic, not two blocks away. He wasn't wrong about her feeling up to a walk when the time came. She was looking forward to the fresh night air near the lake. It was a deep-seated part of who she was to love the water.

He'd pulled into the small, empty gravel lot at the head of the paved walking trail. It was well dark since it had just turned 10:00, and the moonlight danced off the water, calm, but with a faint shimmer from the light breeze. The stars danced, winking at them as if they knew the romance that surged between the couple was burgeoning right here below them.

"Now, last time I walked this trail, I'll warn you…I got approached by a gang. And they were…pretty vicious. I had to resort to some guerilla tactics that I'm not too proud of to fend 'em off."

"Oh no!" she wasn't aware of any gang crime in their fairly peaceful city! "What kind of gang?"

"A goose gang." He looked at her gravely. Before they both burst out laughing in hysterics.

"I thought you were serious!" she wiped tears carefully from her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I was! They are stupid territorial! I had several of them tryin'a bite at my legs at once. It was quite the ordeal, I assure you!" he said, serious, but still laughing.

"Well, you'll save me if the Ya-Gooz-ah descend on us tonight, wont you?" she teased, clutching at his arm in mock fright at the thought of a band of Yakuza Geese being an actual thing, but thinking it was a great way to keep him touching her.

"As long as you stay real close to me, sunshine. I'll protect you from the devil himself." He kissed her on the top of the head, sealing the promise and warming her from the point of contact all the way to her toes.

As they traipsed along the pavement path, they talked about everything and nothing, the gentle night wind a whisper against their skin, which had been made slightly dewy from the walk and the humidity. They had made two laps around the small body of water when they came back around to one of several benches placed at intervals on the trail running its perimeter. Without breaking their conversation, she pointed to the nearest one, indicating her desire to sit, which he understood and lead them there.

“See, the problem I have with sports at that level, especially football is the harm I’ve witnessed it do to a kid’s body. We’ve treated athletes in high school and as early as 7th and 8th grade that the coaches are completely obsessed with getting them out on the field or court again. These kids are taking more impact than their bodies are ready for. They can’t miss a game, or even practice for therapy even if they’re just riding pine. And the parents are so laser focused on that potential college scholarship for that sport that they can’t see that if their child doesn’t get better, no scout is gonna want to dole out a free ride. Not to a broken-down athlete. Did you feel that kind of pressure when you were playing football? Because I don’t remember it at my school.” She went off a on bit of a tangent because she’d just been told by Heather before she left that her torn meniscus, Jason couldn’t get in for several weeks because of his practice and game schedule limiting his availability.

“I mean, I felt pressure, I guess, but not outside of practice or the games. I’d hurt my knee my junior year early, same one we been workin’ on, and they just had me sit out a few weeks and work with a PT, but I don’t remember it being a problem to miss out on anything related to football if it was because of my health.” He sat down next to her on the fiberglass bench, which was molded to have the look of fine blonde wood, and put his arm around her shoulder. No pretense of the reach, no awkwardly sitting for a while beforehand, just continuing to touch her as he had been their whole walk.

She leaned into his shoulder, comfortably, as if they’d done this a thousand times and this wasn’t their first date. And continued their discussion.

“What has gotten into people these days? It’s like they’re not satisfied with anything. Nothing is ever enough for a single person on this good earth!” She sighed, frustrated by the neediness of people that seemed to come with her own job and projecting that on to the world…not that there wasn’t at least a measure of truth in it.

“Personally speaking, I think you’re wrong.”

“You don’t think that the world is full of dissatisfied Karens?” She laughed.

“Oh I do. But it’s not every person. You’re sitting next to one very content man right here.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhmm.” He confirmed.

“Was it the steak, or the lobster mac?” She’d be fantasizing about them both until the next time they went there. Yeah, she was already thinking about “next time” and “they.” She was in trouble.

“Not to knock either, but I’m a hun’ert percent sure it was the company.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.

She smiled, nuzzling into him, feeling the downy softness of his shirt again and smelling his intoxicating cologne. She suddenly remembered a promise from their session.

“Oh, hey. I was gonna have a response for you…to your 'question' from earlier.” She said, mischief burning in her eyes. She kneeled up on the bench and turned his face to hers, brushing a hand against his impossibly soft beard before descending slowly in for a kiss.

It started sweet, a few languid, full pecks, then she parted her lips barely enough for her tongue to venture out to explore his full mouth. They were met after several attempts with a reciprocal openness from him. She dared, then to search him with her tongue. It was simply browsing now. Feeling no rush to complete its quest. Only a sense of the need for due diligence. She was surprised at the flavor she'd encountered. She hadn't seen him pop a mint, and she hadn't left his side all evening. He was sly. It was a sweet and strong taste. Wintergreen on steroids, with the mildest hint of vanilla. She wanted more. Of the flavor. Of him.

She let her tongue find his, knowing what would happen, somehow, even though they had never kissed like this before. Never when it wasn't rushed and needing to be…PG. Here in the dark of night, with no one but the celestial bodies as witnesses, they didn't have to worry about her job, or the public. The judgement of the outsider's gaze.

She knew, by instinct alone, that this would spark him into more than latent participation. And that's exactly why she did it. As previously stated, she was definitely an intentional beast when the occasion called and mood struck.

He did as she'd expected, his own tongue waking, beginning a playful dance with hers, exploring her mouth with more urgency and desire, pulling a ragged gasp from her lungs. She broke away to give some attention to his neck. She held him by the base of his head, thumb playfully brushing into his thick facial hair. A breathy moan that sounded very much like her name escaped his lips. This was the reaction she had been dying to get from him for so long. A surrendering bliss that only came from this kind of personal, intimate, and one-one connection. She'd gotten hints of it when she'd helped him stretch, when she heard those stifled groans he felt at the good hurt she brought him with her expert touch.

She bit his earlobe, and sealed her fate. He growled and pulled her up to his lap in an immodest straddle. Not that she cared in the empty dark. He seemed to need her lips back on his, desperate to find a purchase that would never present itself. The paradox of a kiss.

His hands roved over the back of her from neck to behind, very much favoring the latter. It was an odd sensation. Most of her experience with ass-grabbing had been less than pleasant. Either dirty old men had touched her without consent, or boyfriends had done essentially the same thing as a show of their dominance over her, also without her strictest consent. The way Sy held her was tender, exploratory, and…she couldn't help but think the word loving. "Love" wasn't a word they were ready to even bring up. But she thought he was showing it in his feather touch and hungry kiss.

The breeze was cool, and felt extra cold where she seemed to be warmest. Her position had her…very exposed to the elements, covered only by the fine layers of her underwear at some angles. She was suddenly very aware that they were on a precipice here. If they carried on much longer like this, she wasn't going to want to stop. She already didn't. And she was just out of practice enough to be unsure of where her point of no return was. Dammit. She broke away, in agony from it.

"Sy, I…I think …you should take me back." she stuttered.

"Okay." he pulled her back in for another kiss, pretending to misinterpret,which she indulged a moment but quickly escaped.

"No, sweetie." she chuckled. "You know what I mean."

"Or…I could bring you home with me." It was only a suggestion, but there was a plea in his eyes that pulled at her guts. He wanted her. And she wanted him. With every single cell in her body, she wanted every singe cell of his. But she truly felt that taking things slowly was the best option given the complexities of their situation.

"You don't know how badly I want to accept that invite, Sy." she rested her forehead on his. They were both breathless.

"It's just two little letters, sunshine. O. K. Easy as granny's peach pie."

"I'm terrible at pie crust." they laughed.

"Let's go." he said, helping her off his lap, and preparing to stand, but sitting back down immediately.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned. "Is it the knee? Did I hurt it?" she was already mad at herself, and at him a bit, if this indiscretion had caused him a setback…how ironic it would be!

"Nope, knee's great. Dandy."

"Did you get lightheaded?"

"No, but uhh…it's definitely SOME sort of blood flow issue. Gonna need a minute." he explained without explaining with a sheepish expression on his face…it hit her like a speeding bus.

"Ope." she looked to his lap without thinking, and immediately averted to the water again, as she sat beside him, hands clasped over the seat of the bench. His hand found hers, and covered it, asking to hold it, and getting its way.

"I had…the best time tonight, Shane." he told her, staring at the opposite bank where the maple, oak, and sycamore trees swayed to the tune of the gentle night's breeze.

"So did I, Sy."

"You free tomorrow?" he asked, hopefully.

"You tell me!" she replied…hopefully.

Up Next: Chapter Seven: Non-Productive Time

#netflix sand castle #sand castle #henry cavill #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x ofc #captain syverson #captain syverson fanfic #captain syverson x ofc #sigh for sy #is that a new tag i started? idk maybe...lets use it. teehee!

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