Tumgik
#like. i love a good heroic turn. but we never really addressed that he was apparently seriously considering sacrificing moss. and. um.
Thinking about how Paige stopped drinking, all the politicians and bishops are drinking heavily and joylessly, Webb is busy drinking before he decides to give it all for the lucha, and the episode ends with Carpenter and Hayward quietly and companionably having a beer.
Not sure there is a clear throughline there - other than that everyone is stressed and coping as best they can with the options available to them - but there's something very touching to me in the chiasmus we get here:
Paige --------- Greve and Shrue (and I guess Carson, though is he even actually having his fruity little mojito or just being pathetic and banal alone in his office? Unclear!)
Webb --------- Carpenter and Hayward
The chiasmus is our main characters, who start and end the ep, and we get a nice little parallel where the leaders (Paige and Webb) set down their vices in an attempt to reconnect to their people, to real success. Meanwhile for the duos, sharing of alcohol is an expression of a sort of foxhole camaraderie. Both conversations are pretty dark in content and tone (Greve is selling out Faulkner's people as grist to Shrue's war machine, and Hayward is politely but firmly admonishing Carpenter for her distressing lack of concern for her own life) but neither Greve nor Shrue is actually enjoying each other's company very much, whereas Carpenter and Hayward seem to have genuine affinity towards each other in this little moment.
27 notes · View notes
luffyvace · 4 months
Note
Hey there brook! I hope u having a nice day! Can I ask for a luffy x heroic fem reader headcanon? by heroic I mean that she completely dedicated her life to help and save ppl and that her purpose in life, she's strong and seems cold but when u get to know her she has empathy more than anyone else, I feel like this is the perfect character that luffy would fall in love with, pure kindness hiding behind a tough facade, she doesn't even like being called a hero, yet she is willing to do anything for those in need, slaves, poor villages, she goes against anything unjust without any fear, cause thats her purpose in life (sorry if that was too long 💀)
Hi anon <33 (it makes me so happy that someone finally addressed me as that💗)
today was a very chill day 😊 thank you! How’s yours?
Tumblr media
Reader sounds so genuine with such a good background for a op character!!
(Don’t worry it’s not too long—I love to read:3)
Ngl luffy subconsciously sees a little bit of himself in you!!
like your hearts are so similar—gold!
of course he doesn’t directly think that way- but he feels the connection!
which is through helping!
you two never turn your backs on those who have never wronged you
its not even about if they’re on your side or not, as long as they haven’t wrong you? and they need help?
the both of you are on it 🤜🤛👍
you wanting to save others becomes admirable to more than just him, to all of the straw hats—chopper and usopp especially!
I’m gonna go ahead and say it here and now you remind both Jinbe and luffy of whitebeard and fishman island type thing
LIKE THAT’S HOW IT IS!!
Y/n is just her tbh 🤷‍♀️
and if the ops don’t like that? 🤨
🤜💥
how you like that? >:)
your strength may or may not be hereditary but either way if you don’t continue training or working out your gonna loose that strength eventually
which shows just how hard you train everyday!!
bro works harder than zoro 🗿
and we all know he don’t sleep on workin out
so y/n is a gorilla the og
its no wonder you be cookin the ops like breakfast👩‍🍳👍
this is literally turning into a rant about me being (name)’s biggest fan ok let’s move on
luffy saw you cold exterior and was like
😍😍😘🥰😘💍💋💋💋
LOLOLOL no but fr he looked straight past that
he always does- he ignored law’s and zoro’s why wouldn’t he with you-
and once he sees your true kindness???
Locked in like a booty hole 🔗
(ANYWAY I HAD TO🧍‍♀️)
yeah he pretty much busts right through that
he pretty much instantly demands you already are is nakama after that
Your empathy is what really swoops him off his feet tho
like luffy has a good sense of empathy so much so he can hear the voice of all things
and you probably can too! It’s highly likely!
(y/n could have her own anime at this point 🤷‍♀️😚)
But seriously the way he can just feel the way you long for others when they’re in pain just gets him right at the heartstrings you know?! 🥺❤️‍🩹
you comfort them so assuredly and keep your promise to win every time !!
luffy would admire himself more than he would know if he realized how alike the two of you are
tbh you probably admire luffy!!
like it’s a mutual thing, where you pretty much don’t see your own coolness you only see the other’s
so you admire each other unaware that your the same 😂💗
he absolutely adores and admires that empathetic part of you thoo!
he loves how your kind and tough
he wholeheartedly believes the strong should protect the weak, cuz that’s what a man does.
especially with nakama.
so he definitely understands your need to protect those who can’t do it for themselves
there are many times he can recall where he had to rely on others
so he loves that your the one who does that for people
and you don’t do it for the money or fame!
you don’t even view yourself as the hero and savior that bystanders see you as!
that’s so cool to him!
you background/past might’ve caused it! Like maybe you had no superhero! So you decided to become one!
he kinda looks up to you in a way 🤩
as someone who has also helped slaves and the poor he completely understands where you come from in your kindness
and it’s even cooler that you charge head on into battle for others without a second thought
that’s just how tough you are ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
not an ounce of fear in your eyes as you walk up to someone 20x the size of you to simply get back the bread they stole from a poor little child
LIKE HOW COOL IS THAT?! 💥💥
your a super hero!! Dundun duh-duuuuuun!!
🦸‍♀️‼️🤩
you have a goal just like him!! He wants to be the king of pirates and you wanna help others!
With the type of pirate he is?, those things go hand in hand 🤝
”STRAW HAT LUFFY AND PIRATE HERO (NAME) IS HERE!! RUN AWAY!!”
says the pirates who know they’ve done wrong doing!! 😎
also excuse (name)’s lame pirate alias i couldn’t think of one 😊💖
(Name) is so cool 😎 I admire her 💓
hope you enjoyed your hcs anon!! *super heroes away🦸‍♀️🚀*
192 notes · View notes
codenamesazanka · 2 months
Text
418 Thoughts
Love how The Walk became a non-issue. I had imagined that when the memory came, Deku would see all the bystanders ignoring Tenko and feel rightfully disgusted, understanding what Shigaraki had complained about in Jaku and connecting with his own experience of a selfish mob of civilians, and then chase after Tenko to become the one who reaches out a hand. Instead The Walk (so far) has become a two panel flashback. Deku does get to see those memories and feel those emotions - Tenko says 'Let Go', because he believes he doesn't deserve the help, he's being punished for killing his family - and Deku doesn't let go, instead comforting Tenko that he's here regardless, so in a way The Walk is addressed... but in doing so, it feels like the bystanders are resolved of their complicity. Maybe even that Tenko was indeed being ignored and should be ignored for killing his family and being born with his hands—but luckily Deku is heroic enough to still help him despite that. I've said before that the solutions the manga offers isn't that things should change on a large scale, only that there should be one exceptional person who happens to be at the scene to help the victim endure (and not eventually lash out). This is kinda a continuation of that. Addressing how the family turned a blind eye to Kotarou's maltreatment of Tenko? Addressing how the streets full of people ignored a five-year-old? The memory foray Deku goes through here doesn't do any of that. What Deku does is stop Tenko's Decay from going wild by offering up his own body (which is very brave of him!), and to tell Tenko he's here (which is good and needed, someone should be in Tenko's corner!), but that this is the save, this specific solution, sort of reframes the problem then as an individual problem: That Tenko has a quirk that kills, and feels the hatred/catharsis/sadness/confusion that allowed the quirk to go out of control; and that the right Hero wasn't at the scene to stop him. (if we get the reveal that AFO gave Tenko a quirk, that this all becomes irrelevant though.) (Also, last week, Nana apologizes not for abandoning Kotarou in the first place, but for not being strong enough to defeat AFO and come home. Kinda misses the point in the same way, imo) I have confessed before that I don't like Deku as a character, but I really had wanted him to see The Walk, to understand this side of Hero Society. And him chasing Tenko through the streets, to symbolically resist the lure of 'what everyone else is doing/what is normal/follow the routine of society' and do the simple thing of taking the step to reach out a hand to a lost soul - that would be the pure heroism of helping. But it seems the story doesn't want this, and I have to accept it. Okay.
The League showing up and Shigaraki stating that he needs to be a Hero for the villains is so good. That he's doing this for them. That even if his own hatred fades and he's empty, what's left is his friendship and innate heroism for the outcasts. ...However, given how it's turning out all the villains were actually mostly mistaken about problems in society and nothing major needs to be changed, they only needed a Hero bestie and to endure whatever life threw at them, this becomes kinda sad and misguided. Poor Shigaraki/Tenko. He thinks he's doing this for his friends, he thinks he's being a hero-villain, but he's actually just making things worse. Not even, actually, because he's never made a decision in his life.
I do think it’s interesting that it’s AFO who says this. “Even though until now, you haven’t chosen a single thing.” Like, if it was Deku who said this, or if Shigaraki had realized it himself, it would be seen as the truth to unconditionally accept, right? “Hey Shigaraki, wake up, your whole life has been engineered by this evil megalomaniac. You don’t truly want any of this.” Exposing AFO’s lies, so that Shigaraki can ditch them and now find something real. Accepting the truth is the resolution; it’s freedom, it’s salvation, it’s the light. Challenging it in any way, even for the smaller stuff (“No, but it was I who chose the League.”), is denial, or doesn’t subtract from the larger overall point. But here, it’s AFO saying this, it’s the Bad Guy saying this, and it feels like it's set up for a rejection. Like, AFO is being full-blown evil, condescending and dismissive and hurtful - you’re weak, you’re useless, you have never chosen a single thing - and so it’s time for Shigaraki to prove him wrong. Or for Deku to help Shigaraki prove him wrong. It’s not the most clear cut of lines, but I do think it’s there.
Saw a theory that with AFO posing as someone from a construction company, it means AFO built the Shimura House. It's absolutely beautiful in how it destroys everything that was built up about Shigaraki (correctly) disliking society. “Everything I’ve witnessed in this world of ours… lead to the existence of that house…” - but really, it’s all engineered by AFO. Everything Shigaraki hates is actually created by AFO. All the rejection he thought he felt was actually fake. At this point I’m expecting The Walk to also have been engineered by AFO - he used a quirk to make everyone turn away or something (which would track with The Walk being a non-issue as mentioned above). At this point I’m also expecting the house that AFO built to be emitting some brain waves that forced Kotarou to slap Tenko, and made the rest of the family cowardly (and after all, AFO is responsible for Kotarou becoming bitter and cold by forcing Nana to abandon her son). I have to applaud it. 
21 notes · View notes
mz-elysium · 9 months
Text
why wyll....
i finished bg3 with wyll and idk if i've ever been SO MAD about any story's writing choices. i legit feel robbed of what we could've had.
i've never felt such a feral need to write fanfic to fix... an entire character.
spoilers and rant under cut
idk if people were whining THAT MUCH about Wyll in early access. I just know he was rarely used bc as the "Blade of Frontiers" w/o Pact of the Blade, he really suffered in combat.
But, hey, he's now... quite good. My hero of Act 2 fights (sorc!Tav, Wyll, Shadowheart, Astarion). Gave him two levels of Paladin and he hits like a truck.
But they ~rewrote~ his story.
They broke him. This was a PERFECTLY good warlock and they ruined him. He was a fraud, a liar, a reckless proud cheat who wanted to be beloved by the smallfolk and sung about by the bards -- and not beat by goblins at level 1, but he was a useless fighter so he made a pact with a devil. Like the others, he was complicated. Flawed. In need of fixing a deep-rooted problem that the tadpoles could've taken advantage of.
But now, he's unfinished. His story feels so empty in Act 3. I managed to free him from the pact AND save his father, but their reunion is so flat and lackluster. I was totally expecting to find that an overbearing father was at the heart of Wyll's need to be praised/admired/loved, but there's just total forgiveness.... after 7yrs of exiling your teenage son for fucking a devil. Their dialogue trees also kept looping and his father addressed Tav as "my son" more than once.
Throughout the game, Wyll also said (in the same convo) that he "always wanted to get out of the pact", "never regretted it", and had "a hero's heart". He encouraged me regularly to follow my heart, that we don't need tadpoles or other powers to Do The Right Thing. Bruh. You're a warlock. What moral high-ground do you have? Either Mizora has never fucked you over by having you kill innocents/do minor evil (obviously not true), or she has, in which case you're a desperate liar but I can't call you out on it.
They made Wyll flawless, mature, always right, and honourably heroic. He never loses his cool. He holds nothing against his father. He's never lost a major defeat to hold grudges against. I would've loved EA Wyll to have a chance to become this stoic, calm, centered paladin. But Wyll, now, doesn't feel like he's earned it.
They made Gale less manipulative/sketchy before launch, which is fine. But completely erasing Wyll's growth by dropping him at the finish line is so unsatisfying.
I can totally see EA Wyll's development: from a lying adventurer crutching on his powers and needing the praise and reputation as a folk hero, to leaving the pact behind and growing up to save his father at the cost of his legend; becoming Grand Duke to do "common boring heroics" that make a difference.
But it just... doesn't exist. I have no idea why full-release Wyll wouldn't become his father's heir. He doesn't seem to need his identity as The Blade of Frontiers as much as EA Wyll did. He's older, mature, and less violent.
It felt the whole time like I was adventuring with someone whose arc had already finished. Shadowheart and Astarion changed dramatically; their comments, greetings, convos. Wyll was so static and painfully dull.
Also, making him half-devil looks super wonky. His horns are too wide and don't really suit him, let alone how he clips. He has no arc, coming to terms with them. You can't uncurse him.
I was most excited for Wyll in full release and I just feel like I played 92hrs waiting for him to turn on. A waste of a companion slot, when I could've taken Lae'zel this whole time and actually had a character with depth and development.
15 notes · View notes
Saw this review of MoM and compared it with Loki and thought of you.
Ugh I hate the layout of the submissions, I swear, this is so weird.
Thank you @i-sudoku! Loved it, they're so right.
I agree with most parts but I disagree that MoM is WandaVision 2. The series took the time to address her issues and her past, they even had an entire episode that tackled absolutely everything: from the murder of her parents, to Hydra experimenting on her and Pietro, to losing her brother and falling in love with Vision, then EG and seeing what Sword were doing to his body... MoM never cared about any of that, they just took the post-credit scene and ran with that.
Elizabeth Olsen does steal the show as Wanda though, I hate the story they had with her but damn if it wasn't pleasant to see her doing it.
We keep seeing that Dr. Strange and Christine Palmer don't work out in any universe, which we already knew, but they keep repeating it for some reason
Mikey might have seen DS1 many times but he didn't understand that both Stephen and Christine had already moved on in that movie. So instead of having them as friends who clearly still love each other, since he thinks the only relationship you can have is romantic, he acts like instead of a mutual understanding this was an unilateral decision from Christine who chose to dump Stephen, she even has a scene in which she tells him she didn't love him. Excuse me?!! They always loved each other, just because you love someone it doesn't mean you have to be with them. But hey, Mikey doesn't get that.
Dr. Strange realises that he's really no different from the other versions of him [...] But he also realises that he can choose to be different from the other versions of him. [...] Which one is it? What does he learn from the other versions of him?
He could have learned something from them but since he only met one of them and spent more time fighting him than talking to him... and the others were given a couple minutes each so we didn't learn anything either. He's the same but he can be different but also being him is not bad. It's perfectly not confusing!
I gotta say though, I do believe they were trying to show him as being different from them because 1) He kept rejecting Wanda's offer to move to a universe where he could be with Christine, 2) He let America save the day unlike Defender, 3) He took the Darkhold and used it only to get to America, once he was done he left it on the floor and never bothered with it again.
So he does learn, it's just that the execution of the story wasn't exactly a good one, but what do we expect, this was Mikey writing it.
There are times when it felt like the writing room had an extensive Q&A session where they tried to cover every possible viewer doubt, concern or plot hole, but instead of weaving the details in naturally, they just made the characters parrot their explanations verbatim, which sounded contrived and awkward.
This is a huge problem with Marvel these days. They got rid of "show, don't tell" and it hurts the narrative.
But this part comparing MoM with Loki is so good (purple annotations are mine):
Waldron was chosen because of his experience with multiverse stories, especially Loki. This sounds great until you realise that Waldron has already run out of ideas and just wrote the same story again:
Main tension: The powerful protagonist is put in cuffs and deprived of his powers.
He is brought before a powerful tribunal of celebrity cameos with AI assistants to account for crimes against the natural order. [Just adding this to say that both Stephen and Loki are blamed for something a variant of them has done]
The tribunal has some heroic story for the public, but they are hiding a sinister secret. They turn out to be staffed by imbeciles who couldn't catch a shoplifter.
Main plot: A female character is being pursued because she has powerful abilities to transport herself across time and space and keeps evading everyone.
Main threat: A female character possesses the minds of other people to attack.
Lazy and blunt exposition technique: Protagonist uses a machine to bring his memories to life.
Lazy and blunt character development: Protagonist is forced to encounter an alternate version of a significant female character from his life to make him realise something about himself. She otherwise serves no story purpose.
Eventually, protagonist finds a deranged man who lives alone inside a castle in a post-apocalyptic realm. He knows more about the vaguely defined dangers of the multiverse and must be dispatched.
In short: Waldron is a terrible writer.
18 notes · View notes
asking-paradise · 2 years
Note
What is your process for coming up with ocs, whether it be for the blog or in general?
[Admittedly, there isn’t much of a process? Or at least it’s hard to explain, haha.
Well, I say that, but then this got really long, so my explanation will be under the cut! But tldr; there isn’t much of a process my brain just comes up with things and I follow through those base ideas.]
[For this blog and other ocs I make that are based on a pre-existing media, I have the fun of having to interpret characters that are already there, but may not have been written with all the details fully put together. GtI is especially good at having characters that feel like fully fleshed out characters, but also leave a lot to interpretation. Or, a lot to interpret from memory, because sometimes, admittedly, I forget something about a character (like Munna helping you at the end of the game) but then it turns into something more interesting for me anyway (just because Munna helps you doesn’t mean it changes everything for you and her). For example, GtI!Partner is generally optimistic and friendly, has big dreams, but is also missing a bio family. Meeko thus gets all those traits, but I get to add more to flesh him out some more. He love giving hugs, he doesn’t really know his exact birthday, he’s a little bit claustrophobic (there’s your fun Meeko fact of the day), he loves the world and people in it so much despite how little he had to base that love off of for so long. Of course, I have some ocs that exist in this blog but do not have any explicit in-game counterparts, namely the five other humans I mentioned. Rather than expanding on pre-existing characters in this case, I’ve expanded on pre-existing concepts. We know there were other humans. We don’t know how many there were (even within the lore of this blog, the five mentioned ones, six including Linn, are not the only ones), nor do we really know what they were like. As Hydreigon goes over in this ask, each of the human characters I came up with were sort of selected for some core traits that I, and therefor Hydreigon, would think to be possibly good heroic traits. For their pokemon species, Jason, Steven, and Audrey defaulted to tepig, snivy, and axew as a nod to the other GtI hero and partner options. As for Becca and York, Becca got machop because it’s an old pmd hero option that I feel like everyone forgets about, and York got poochyena because I wanted to pick a pokemon that was not in gen 1 or 5, to shake things up a bit, and poochyena came to mind. It’s a pokemon I am fond of, and makes sense to be a pmd hero despite never having been one. The five of them have more to their characters that might get time to address in-universe, but we’ll have to see when we get there.
In general for making ocs through, I don’t have a better way to phrase it than just the vibes sometimes? If they’re for a story, I often think of the role I want them to play, or the concept, and expand from there, which is often where the vibe checking comes in. Answering questions like what are their goals? How do they interact with other characters? Are good to figure out early, in my experience, and then you start answering the “why’s?” and after that, the “then what’s?” For example, why does character A treat character B poorly? Depending on that answer, it could lead to what would make character A treat character B better? Does character B treat everyone poorly, or just character A? It’s a lot of asking yourself questions and figuring out the questions, whether that’s something your brain comes up with on your own, or whether you have to crack down and do some research.
It may just be another me being weird thing, since I know the way I do a lot of creative works is often an odd, roundabout way, so it’s hard to know what makes sense to others and what doesn’t, but I tend to let my passion for whatever my project is fuel me and just listen to what my instinctual ideas are for ocs. There are some things that will never get addressed in-universe in some of my stories, but just having them in mind helps me to figure out how those ocs may act in other situations (fun fact! Junior, i.e Kangaskhan’s kid in Galaxies Above, his father was an awful person and him and Kangaskhan are like the closest to divorced you can get in that setting, but it never comes up in the actual story!). To avoid making this post too much longer, I suppose, if you were looking for advice, just remember what role the characters serve in the story or in relation to other characters, but never just stop there, always have other ideas in the back of your pocket for them.]
5 notes · View notes
hyunjilicious · 3 years
Text
a helping hand [henry cavill] - part 2
Tumblr media
A/n: I’m sorry it took me so long. I don’t like how this part turned out, at all, but I rewrote it 3 times and I can’t even think about these scenes anymore without getting annoyed. I’m just happy it’s finished and that I can start working on part 3 (that is, if you like this one enough to want to keep reading lol)
Summary: After you post on onlyfans a video starring another man, Henry decides to take matters into his own hands. (cameo: Steve Rogers) KINKY 4k
Warnings: spanking, daddy kink, dirty talk, mentions of smut and masturbation (male), humiliation/degradation kink, groping, mentions of porn and filming pornographic material, stalker-ish/obsessed Henry. (also tumblr crashed when I first tried to upload this so maybe that a sign this sucks)
You can read part 1 here!
-
The sight brought down a storm upon Henry's mind. He stood there, mouth agape, watching the screen, unable to believe his eyes. It was one thing to post videos of yourself on the Internet, but to have someone else take part in them was too much. At least for Henry. Still smart and composed, he realised there wasn't anything he could do about it, but nevertheless, he was determined to not let this shit slide for much longer. 
As much as he wanted to hunt down that man who dared put his hands on you, Henry gathered himself, took a deep breath and closed the onlyfans page. He was perfectly aware that just the right amount of you could get him to lose his sense of control and do things he'd later regret. Still, in desperate need to see you, he grabbed his phone, eyes scheming over your socials, only to see that the last time you had been active was 7 minutes ago. So, without much consideration, he started typing.
"You up?"
"Yep. Finishing up an essay. Coffee in 30??"
Oh, and how deeply that hurt him. "Of course" he sent you, and then checked again the post you made at 3am. '...I'll go to sleep right now, edit it for you when I wake up...'
You were lying? Why were you lying to him? It drove him insane. Henry felt like he couldn't sit down anymore, like he had no chance to catch his breath. He couldn't think straight, so he wasn't really to blame for what he did next. 
Henry's fingers flew over the keyboard, accessing Facebook and logging into your account, desperate to see whether he could find out who the man in your video was. And it was as easy as it could've been, considering your last 5 conversations were with the girl friends he already knew about. But somewhere among them, he spotted an unfamiliar name - Steve R., and instantly clicked and opened the conversation. His blood started to boil when the multitude of emojis you sent reached his eyes, but he scrolled up, until he found the beginning of yesterday's conversation. 
It was started by you, and with a request. You were blunt and went straight for it, asking him with just one message to be in the video with you. There was no trace of your relationship with him on the Internet, so Henry had no idea regarding the nature of yours and Steve's connection. Judging by the way you addressed him, he could easily assume the man was nothing more than a fuck buddy. Even though it angered him, Henry kept his calm and decided to go about this with care. It would only be a matter of time until he removed Steve from your life. But for now, he just had to keep digging for information. 
Steve R.: "Exactly what do you need me to do, baby? Spank you? In front of the camera? Are you serious?" 
"Yes, Steve. Come on!! I know we haven't seen each other in a while, but still... 😇 when it comes to these things, you know me better than anyone"
Henry scoffed. Who the fuck was this guy?
Steve R.: "I know, baby"
Steve R.: "What's in it for me?"
Smoke came out of Henry's ears, and the fact that you acted so sweet and innocent made him want to smash his keyboard.
"Whatever you want! Just do this for me!!! Please!!!! 🥺😊😋"
Steve R.: "Ofc I'll do it, sweetheart. I got you"
"Thank you thank you thank you 😘"
Steve R.: "I should be the one to thank you"
Steve R.: "Send me the location and I'll be over there asap"
After that, your address followed and then that was it. Determined to dig deeper, Henry started to scroll up again, wanting to find out as much as he could about this mysterious man. He didn't get a chance to lurk too much before this computer alerted him of a notification, the onlyfans tab glowing orange. His attention was instantly won, smiling devilishly as he checked the content.
Posted 30 seconds ago, was the new video. Ready to kick back and enjoy, Henry pressed the play button, ready to go at it with an open mind. 
He reluctantly accepted the fact that there was another man in it with you, but he decided to enjoy it nevertheless. The video started, displaying Steve seated on the couch, thighs suggestively parted. He had a pair of black dress pants on, dangerously stretched over his massive thighs. A white, elegant shirt hugged his visibly sculpted torso, the top two buttons undone to show just a hint of chest hair. Quite a sight, but all Henry saw was trash. With his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a silver watch on his wrist and a pinky ring on, Steve patted his thigh, cueing your entrance.
When Henry saw you, he felt his breath reach a new, sudden level of difficulty. With the shortest of skirts barely managing to cover your ass and a mostly see-through shirt on your top half, you made your way to him in such an angelic way that Henry couldn't believe his eyes. 
You looked like happiness personified, and it came in such a painful contraction to what you were about to do, that it twisted Henry's mind in such a perverse way, his cock nearly twitched just by seeing you. 
When you were about to bend over Steve's thigh, he grabbed your chin and stopped you mid action, his lips slamming against your as his free hand lewdly caressed your ass. He flung the skirt over your hips, your flimsy underwear on full display. 
Attentive to the events unfolding on the screen, Henry found his cock, teasingly rubbing it over the material of his pajama pants. His mouth watered when he felt the sensibility in his tip, actually believing this would be easier than he initially anticipated.
"Are you going to be Daddy's good little girl, or do I have to make this fucking hurt?" Steve asked and Henry almost threw up. 
"Yes, Daddy. I'll be good" you mewled, wiggling your feet. 
"Let's see" the man menacingly chuckled, releasing a sharp slap against your ass that made you yelp out in pain.
At this point, about 30 seconds in that was, Henry was already losing his mind. It was as if you took a trip inside his dreams and decided to play out his fantasies. The only problem was that you did it with another man. It was next to impossible for him to keep this going.
"Can you count?" Steve taunted, his hand traveling all over the back of your thighs, your exposed ass and between your legs. 
"Yes, Daddy" you eagerly nodded and Henry almost threw up.
"I wouldn't be surprised if a dumb slut like you didn't know how to" Steve chuckled, "But it's ok, that's how we like our girls. Dumb and pretty"
"Thank you, Daddy"
Henry couldn't believe his eyes. He refused to accept the fact that a random man got to play with your innocence like that. You were his sweet little girl. And if until now he pushed through heroically, when literal yelps of pain started erupting from your lips as the blonde man slapped your ass hard enough to rock your whole frame, Henry's blood ran cold.
But no matter how hard the jealousy had hit him, the video was still pushing his limits of self control. It was still what he always wanted to see. When he reached inside his pants and grabbed his cock, a low grunt of early satisfaction left his lips. He once again found himself picturing you, willing to please him, but this time, he didn't get to go too far. The buzzing sound of his doorbell rang through his apartment, and he never stood up faster.
Cock still hard and completely visible through his pants, Henry slapped the pause button and minimized the browser, before springing to his feet and rushing to the door.
"Henry!" you exclaimed as soon as he came into view. He looked somehow tired, but it was easy to tell there was something else bothering him. "You didn't answer your phone" you pouted.
"Yeah, sorry" he shook his head, a few sweaty curls falling against his forehead. "I was busy with something. What's up?"
You raised your eyebrows and pointed to the door of your apartment, "You said you'd come over? Coffee? Remember?"
"Oh, shit, yeah" Henry cringed, rubbing his forehead. "I'll be over in 10 minutes, that ok?"
"Sure" you beamed, completely oblivious to the way he just tried to get rid of you. With utter nonchalance, you pushed your way past him and strolled into the kitchen.
"You wanna wait here?" he muttered.
"Yeah... Is that a problem? I can leave..."
"No, no" Henry eventually sighed and rushed over to you. He cupped your cheeks and kissed your forehead. "Wait here, I'll be right back"
And that was what you did. You silently sat down, grabbing a bag of chips you found laying around, and settled to wait. And maybe, a few seconds passed where nothing devious came to mind, but as time ticket itself away, boredom got to you. First you stood up, and padded to the hallway, looking around. There was almost nothing new over there, but it still felt so homey you absolutely loved to inspect every detail. The TV in the living room was turned off, a couple of pizza boxes on the floor and his DVD cases laying around - absolutely nothing interesting.
You sighed and plopped down on his couch, folding your legs under your body, ready to flip through the channels on TV until he'd decide to join you. Nothing seemed of interest, being bombarded with news and fishing programs. "Old man" you thought to yourself, before opening up the menu in search for something less depressing. A wave of nostalgia hit you when you came across a Spiderman marathon, and you were done for. Maybe one full episode passed until Henry walked out of the bathroom, but you were nowhere near ready to leave.
"Look what's playing!" you beamed, pointing to the screen. Henry raised his eyebrows in amusement, his shoulders shaking as he softly laughed at your unusual choice of entertainment. 
"Are you serious? Cartoons?"
"Yes!" you scoffed, extending your arms and gesturing for him to join you. Although reluctant at first, Henry agreed to sit and watch the show with you, but not before brewing some coffee first.
When he returned from the kitchen, two steaming mugs in tow, you shuffled to the side and welcomed him on the couch. He brought you close against him, draping his arm around your body. With your head resting on his shoulder, you sipped your coffee, eyes glued to the TV. "You seriously never watched these as teen? You were 11 when it came out."
"I did" Henry laughed, rubbing his hand up and down your side, "I was in love with Felicia Hardy"
"MJ was so much better!" you shook your head disappointed, "You have no taste"
"No need for that" Henry threatened, his fingers exploring their way down your body. The way he trailed his hand across your hips and thighs made you squirm, smiling to yourself as you shuffled closer to him.
Henry was more than happy to reciprocate, kissing your forehead and squeezing you tighter. 
And just like that, you didn't care about Spiderman anymore. You flung your leg over Henry's lap, all but crawling on top of him. The episode was still playing in the background, but none of you was paying attention anymore. Henry wrapped his muscular arms around your frame, eliciting a soft moan from your lips as you pushed your hips down against his thigh. His hands traveled lower, exploring your body with delicate but greedy strokes. 
As you let yourself get carried away with absolutely no worry in mind, Henry knew exactly what he was doing. And considering how easily you let your guard down, he had you right where he wanted. 
When you hid your face in the crook of his neck, your nose rubbing across the slope of his collarbone, Henry's right hand found your ass. You froze for a second, but his gentle caress helped you relax again in an instant. With his lips against the top of your head, he allowed his fingers to sink into your flesh. Your whole frame stiffened as you gathered a handful of his hoodie into your fist.
"What's wrong?" Henry cooed, grabbing your chin, "You ok?"
"Yep" you whimpered, and then winced again as he squeezed your ass once more. "I'm good-" you lied, cupping the side of his neck into your palm as you crawled higher up his body, your lips right against his ear. 
As weak as he was for you, Henry stood his ground. If you wanted to play this game, he'd do it, but he wouldn't let you win.
"Does this hurt?" he asked, roughly groping your ass.
Jumping slightly from the pain, you still managed to shake your head, blurting out another lie. "... no"
"What about this?" Henry teased, grinning widely as he shoved his hands inside your leggings, under your panties. 
The urgency of his touch made your eyes open wide, your back arching as you tried to push yourself off of him.
"Does it hurt, darling?" he continued, keeping you in place with ease. 
Defeated, you sighed and lowered your gaze, "A bit" you mumbled.
"Just a bit?" 
"Henry-"
"Did he fuck you good?" 
Your mouth fell open. "What- no, I didn't- we didn't do anything-"
"Didn’t do anything?" Henry grinned, his perfect teeth showing as he proudly pried information out of you.
"I just... fuck-" 
Seeing no way out of this one, and eager to stop hiding, you pushed yourself back. Henry's hands left your body as you sat beside him, and he watched you curiously, patiently waiting for you to word your thoughts. "I just filmed a video for my page, that's all" you bowed your head.
"What kind of video?" Henry questioned.
His demeanour was so relaxed, he was right in his element, unlike you, who were riled up to the extreme. "A spanking video-" you cleared, awkwardly fidgeting with the hem of your shirt. 
"Did he spank you good?" 
His hand found your hips again, and you leaned into his touch, nodding your head yes as you were too embarrassed to actually word your answer.
"Then show me" 
He was dominant and stern, and even if you wanted to, you felt like saying no wasn't an option. Henry didn't wait for your permission as he grabbed your waist and pulled you up to your knees, chuckling softly to himself when he saw you shyly smile down at him. 
His fingers curled around the waistband of your leggings, forcefully pulling them down your thighs. "Come on" he urged you, softly guiding you to lay down across his lap, your ass barely covered by the pinkish and slightly unflattering underwear you had chosen for the day.
Henry's breathing picked up at the sight, and so did yours. You watched him over your shoulder, his fingers tracing over the bruises Steve left on your bum the night before. 
"Henry-?" you whimpered, the anticipation building up in the pit of your stomach becoming too much to bear. 
"Yes, darling?" he cooed, leaning down to the side to kiss your cheek. His stumble tickled your skin and you whimpered when his hand made its way between your legs.
You felt his fingers against your opening and involuntarily clenched your thighs around him, hiding your face in the cushions of below your head.
"Tell me" Henry pushed, teasing your folds and clit over your underwear. 
"Nothing, I-" you cried, making him chuckle.
He loved giving you a taste of your own medicine. He straightened himself up and grabbed your ass into his hands, squeezing until you yelped out in pain. A soft laughter of approval escaped his throat as he bent down and pressed his lips to one of your cheeks, applying lingering kisses over each and every single bruise. 
The way he took control of the situation and handled your body, turned you on to no end. For whatever reason, being exposed like that for him, waiting for any kind of judgement to leave his lips, you were getting more and more riled up by the second. You were done for. You did your best not to moan with need, but little did you know that was exactly what kept you from being thrown onto the floor and fucked into oblivion. Just one single sign was all you needed in order to break his self control, but you didn’t have it in you to do it. 
But he didn’t say anything, instead just keeping you on your toes as he had his way. You were dripping through your underwear, and judging by the bulge in his pants that pushed up against your belly, you knew he was on the same page as you. But again, he didn’t allow things to go further. Everything about this moment pointed in the right direction - the teasing, the touching, you were all but whimpering in his lap, but he cut the moment short with a sharp slap against your ass before he helped you up. Henry acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened as he pulled your leggings back up, but this glare became colder when he found your eyes.
He bent down and spoke into your ear, "He could've done a better job"
Completely under his spell, you bit your lip and furrowed your eyebrows. "I don't think I would have been able to take any more"
"That's not what I said" Henry shook his head.
"Look at you being an expert" you teased, relishing in the fact that he seemed eager to keep things going. 
"All I'm saying is that if you had asked someone else-" Henry laughed, stroking your cheek, "Things would have turned out much more different"
"Oh" you pouted, ready to tease him further. "Who should I have asked-"
Just when you started getting comfortable and confident enough to push things further, Henry's phone rang. "I don't have to take that" he shook his head when he heard you stopped talking.
"Just see who it is" you giggled, slapping his shoulder.
Before doing so, Henry grabbed your chin and kissed your forehead, his touch drawing you in like a magnet as you leaned into him when he pulled away. With a sigh, you eventually crawled off his lap and then your face fell with disappointment when Henry showed you the screen of his phone. 
"Yeah?" he huffed after picking up, his boss being the last person he wished to talk to right now. 
You watched him closely as he listened to whatever the man was saying, and almost whined out loud when Henry frowned annoyed.
"I'll call you back in 5, ok?" he asked and after a couple of seconds hung up.
"I'm so sorry-" Henry sighed, turning to you, "I gotta go take this, there's a problem with one of the radars, I need to go see if I can fix it remotely"
"Sure thing" you shook your head. "But please tell me you don't have plans tonight"
"I don't" Henry leaned towards you and again, kissed your forehead. As much as you loved the sweet gesture, it was now more than ever that you craved something else entirely. 
"And please don't forget about me again" you giggled, grabbing his biceps and stopping him from leaving without a promise.
"I won't" he sighed, "I'm really sorry about that. I'll make it up to you"
"However I want?" you beamed and licked your lips.
"Absolutely" Henry smiled, sweetly embracing you before walking you to the door.
You had his word now, and you were planning on making it count. There was no way either you or Henry would act as if nothing had happened, and you couldn't wait.
Once alone and seated at his desk, Henry opened up the text editor associated with the code he wrote months ago. When his screen was flooded with errors and his chat popped up with three different messages asking for help from his colleagues, Henry all but yelled out loud in frustration. Not only did he wish to be with you, it was also Sunday, one of his days off. But he couldn't just text the pilot of the plane whose radar went berserk and tell him to wait. So he got to work, determined to get this done as soon as possible. 
But unfortunately, that 'as soon as possible' turned into 3 hours of continuous work. He didn't even stand up to go to the bathroom until he made sure everything was on point. It was about 4pm when the program started running smoothly again, and seeing how he had a few more hours to waste until he had to see you, Henry decided to make the best of them, by getting a head start on his tasks for the following day.
Productivity flowed through his fingertips as he solved the first issue he had been assigned for the day to come, getting ready to start working on the second one when a call caught his attention. He didn't recognize the ring tone, and it only dawned on him that he was still logged into your facebook account a couple of seconds after it stopped ringing. 
Still curious, Henry switched the tabs on his computer, noticing that the chat with Steve, which he left open hours ago, showed that there was an ongoing video call. His jaw fell. Henry tightened his hands into fists, fuming with anger. First as you for doing this, and then at himself for allowing you to believe this was an ok thing to do. He knew there was no way to eavesdrop on your conversation even if he had the password, but that didn't mean his curiosity died down. No, it only grew stronger.
He felt lost for a minute, but then he thought of something. On his dresser, right next to his winter gloves and under his favorite jogging hat, laid an extra set of keys. Henry remembered the day you gave them to him, saying something along the lines of 'I feel much safer knowing that if something were to happen, you could always get to me, Henry.' and then remembered how you stuffed them in his pocket, and kissed his chest before stepping back. Such different times. 
There was no trace of hesitation inside his mind as he grabbed the keys and made his way out of his home. He passed the hallway in less than a second and pressed his ear to the door. It was perfectly quiet, and through the peephole, he couldn't see any light. You weren't in the kitchen or living room, so he felt confident enough. After putting his phone on vibrate, Henry ever so gently pushed the key inside, turning it inside the lock with the most meticulous movement his wrist could muster. The sound of the door knob being turned was so faint he barely even heard it, but his pulse skyrocketed when he heard the click that signaled the door was finally open.
With small, careful steps, he made his way inside. The entire apartment was dark and quiet as he made his way in, stopping just outside your bedroom as the relaxed, deep voice of a stranger became audible through the wall. “Trust me, sweetheart. Just relax, I got you. You’re all tense, I can see it from here. You know I have more experience with this than you do, just do as I say”
With one hand on the doorknob of your bedroom, Henry was ready to put an end to this whole charade. He knew he might regret it later, but he didn't care. The image of a so called friend, pushing you to do anything that you seemed to have clearly stated your discomfort about, flipped a switch inside his brain. There was no stopping him because no one, no one got to push you around like that. Not while he could do anything about it.
1K notes · View notes
implexedactions · 3 years
Text
Penance is a virtue
Yandere!Enji Todoroki x Reader
Enji Todoroki is many things; kidnapper, lover, sadist, hero, villain, husband. He is many, many things. But he isn’t delusional.
Beta-Read by best person: @absolute-flaming-trash
Warning: Yandere content and themes, Angst, Heavy emotional themes, Suicide, Stockholm syndrome, Kidnapping.
---
You wake up, eyes dashing to the clock.
5:55 AM - SUNDAY
Okay, good, you hadn’t slept in. Enji always wanted you to wake him up. He got...mad if you didn’t. You turn over to him in bed, expecting to find him still sleeping.
Teal eyes stare back at you instead.
“Ah!”
His face takes on a sorrowful expression.
“Did I frighten you? Sorry. I could not sleep.”
Not leaving you time to respond, he pulls you into his chest, under the covers. He sighs in content, and you press into him, not wanting him to forget your devotion.
After some time, he pulls you up to his face, kissing your forehead gently.
“Thank you. For everything.”
“U-uh, what do you mean? Are you okay?”
Enji sighs, failing to meet your gaze.
“I never do compliment you that often...”
---
He carries you to the breakfast table, adorned with pancakes, your favourite.
“What’s going on Enj- I mean, dear. I’m meant to make you breakfast?”
He fails to answer you, instead sitting down with you on his knee. He takes a fork and puts some pancake on it.
“Eat.”
And so you do.
When you finish, he moves to wash up.
“W-what are you doing? You told me that was my job.”
Your memory wanders back to your first few months here, when you disobeyed his every command...and received due punishment for it.
“Are you going to punish me again?”
It escapes your lips before you can stop it. The thought of being punished again, like before, makes your veins cool with fear.  Your breathing increases and you move down on your knees onto the cold kitchen floor.
“P-please, I swear, I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t-”
“Stop.”
He walks over, his thighs the same height as your head. You move to undo his belt, but a hand puts a stop to that.
“There is no punishment. I am just doing an acceptable act for my spouse.”
The words “but you never do that” get stopped in your throat. You instead swallow and try to weakly smile. Looking up at Enji from your position on the ground, sunlight bathing him in a warm glow, to contrast the unsettled expression on his face.
---
He places you on a stool while he washes up. You fiddle with your hands, nervous. This isn’t how Enji usually acts. He’s so...vulnerable. In all honesty, it’s scary.
“Do you like the sunrise, my sweet?”
You look out to the orange glow emanating from the windows.
“Do you want me to like it, my sweet?”
Enji simply sighs and continues washing up.
“I’m sorry you cannot enjoy it. One should always appreciate what they have...”
---
After breakfast, he walks silently to the study. You follow behind him perfectly, like he trained you to.
He walks into the study, sitting down at his writing desk, and you take your place in his lap. He pulls out pen and paper, and you avert your eyes. 
It isn’t for good spouses like you to read.
He spends the better half of 6 hours writing. You entertain yourself by tracing the pattern of the wallpaper. This evolves into focusing on Enji’s breathing, noticing how he breathes in more, not less when he becomes frustrated with something on the page. You eventually move on to thinking about all the things you miss from the outside world, like ice cream, and human connection. You finish out the last hour by thinking about how angry Enji would be if he knew such a perfect little spouse were thinking such nasty little things. 
Shuffling about, he motions for you to hop off his leg, and then stands and leaves the room without speaking to you. You get the feeling he’s coming back, though; he left the door open.
You’re worried. You’re scared beyond belief. This isn’t like him, this entire day is wrong. You’re hoping he’ll burst in and start yelling, the anticipation feels worse than any potential punishment. You consider that maybe this is the punishment and that you should perhaps just start apologising regardless. He didn’t take well to that before though.
This day has made little sense. Enji is acting so far out of his usual behaviour that it doesn’t just scare you because he might hurt you. It scares you because you don’t know what is even happening. It takes you back to the days you first came here—a blurry, hazy mess. You struggle to even remember it. You remember bits and pieces. Chains, fire, the cold, the scent of sex. Small things like that.
You turn your head to the papers on the desk, intrigued by what took up so much of his time. Before you can look away, you see what they are. Letters, addressed to countless people, your parents, Shoto, Rei, Hawks, various news stations.
You glance towards the open door...surely what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him right?
You pick up the letter to the Hawks. 
 Keigo, I write this letter to you as a mentor, and I presume a father figure. I know that in some capacity, you looked up to me. You were just a scared kid, and I helped. That said, if what I have done becomes public knowledge, do not defend me. I do not know how much you know of my dealings, but for the sake of your future, throw me to the dogs. Do not say that I was perfect, or that I did no wrong. When I turn and look at my darling, I see my mistakes for the damning judgments they are. You will be a fine no.1 hero, just let go of your predecessor. Please.
 That alleviated little concern. Undeterred, you move onto the letter to the media.
 To all the news channels and gossip rags that haunt this city like the festering ghouls you are, I detest you. You created division, turned heroics into a popularity contest, seeded doubt during a time where we needed hope, and fought so hard to bring us all to our knees. I know my story will vilify me, so I accept my place in the burning flames of hell. Just know that when you get down there, I will be waiting to enact justice.
 You are practically hyperventilating now. You grab the letter to your parents. You don’t know what these letters are, but they seem like-
The letter is snatched away from your hands. It appears you forgot to watch the door.
Turning around, tears in your eyes, fear in your veins, half-baked excuses running rampant in your mind. You expect to see vengeful Enji with a glint in his eye, telling you it is time for your punishment. Instead, you find an apathetic Enji, eyes soft and watery, stance broken and exhausted.
“I did not want you to see that. I am sorry that you did.”
Enough is enough, you want answers. Pushing against your instincts, you stammer out a question.
“W-What is going on? Why...why are you like this?”
He seems taken aback, eyes opening wide. This minor act of defiance, of speaking out when not spoken to, is enough to break you. Falling to your knees, you look away from him. Aghast that you even thought of defying his wishes.
“I’m sorry! Please, forgive me! I didn’t mean to question you like that! Or read the letters! Please! I didn’t- I don’t-”
A calloused hand grips your shoulder.
“Please. Stop.”
You look up to see Enji’s eyes, dull and watery again.
“Sorry.”
“Trust me, I am sorry too.”
---
The afternoon is spent on the couch, watching TV in Enji’s lap. He seems to notice your nervous disposition, as he slowly envelopes you in a hug the more the hours go by. Eventually, he gets up to make dinner by himself, much to your unvoiced dismay.
You simply stare as he makes it. Both of you silent. He occasionally looks over to you, as if to make sure you haven’t merely vanished into the ether. You feel like you might vanish into the ether, honestly.
You move to the dining table, and a couple of minutes later, he brings out dinner. Silent, he sits down beside you, but a hand stops you from eating.
“Tell me, do you remember when we first met?” he sounds...hopeful.
“Is...Is this a trap?” you ask cautiously. This entire day has put you on edge.
“No. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“I...I can’t remember it, really. Most of those months are...blank, I remember a few pieces of my first couple of months here. They’re admittedly not pleasant memories.”
“I see.”
“I mean, I appreciate that you did those...things you did to me! If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t be any good at my job.”
He turns to you and raises an eyebrow.
“Your job?”
“Yeah, loving you, being your spouse.”
“Ah.”
Both of you go quiet. You wait on the signal to start eating. It doesn’t come.
“It was a gala event. You told me how much you hated them, and I laughed and agreed.”
“Ah. Gala’s sound so wonderful, don’t they though? Being outside, getting to dance, to listen to beautiful music.~”
You sway slightly thinking that you could have once been permitted to be a part of such a magical event.
“You may eat now.”
Enji’s command breaks you out of your daydream. He watches as you take your first bite, and follows in kind.
---
When you finish, he seems restless. He gets the plates and puts them in the sink. He then takes you to the living room. He fiddles with a speaker for a couple of seconds, before classical music emerges.
“You said you cannot remember our first meeting, and by extension our first dance. I was wondering, would you like to dance with me?”
Confused, but delighted, you join Enji in the embrace. Softly dancing around the living room, you try to imagine what it was like meeting Enji for the first time. He must’ve seemed so sweet, right? That’s how Enji would come off to a stranger, right?
You lose yourself in the moment, allowing yourself to imagine a life outside of these walls. You would’ve met Enji at the Gala. He would’ve laughed. He would’ve given you his number, the gentlemen that he was. He would’ve taken you to a fancy restaurant for your 1st date. You could’ve shown up at his agency while he was buried under paperwork once, and it would’ve made his day. You could’ve kissed him under the rain, snickering as you pulled away and saw droplets evaporate on contact with his blushing face. He would’ve proposed in a quiet place, with a brilliant ruby. You would’ve met Shoto, and figured out what his deal was. You would’ve grown old together.
But this life is just as beautiful, right?
Enji leans down during the dance and kisses you. Softly, unlike all those times before. It’s beautiful to you. And based on the silent tears running down his face, it’s beautiful to him too.
He pulls you down onto the couch, staring into your eyes as the soft music plays.
“I’m sorry, my love.”
“What for?”
“For a lot of things. For kidnapping you. For...training you. For punishing you. For breaking you, beyond belief. For so many, many different things. You are not the person I fell in love with, you are hardly a person. I broke you, I gutted your personality until all that was left was a shell, echoing any command I gave it. You do not have a soul anymore.”
He pauses, seemingly debating over this next part, ignoring your shaky and scared reassurances.
“And I am also sorry for the poison in our food tonight.”
Your world shatters at that.
“The fatal effects should kick in soon enough. It will not be a nasty death. Even in death, I intend to remain dignified. Or at least, I wish to preserve your beauty.”
You cannot vocalise anything, your mind is failing you. From either the poison or situation, you are unclear.
“There is an antidote on the kitchen counter. If you can get there and drink it, you will live. And if you are feeling ever so generous, you may even give some to me.”
He turns and looks you in the eyes.
“My only command is that you do not get that antidote.”
“Wh-what?”
“You heard me. Disobey me, and save yourself. Or obey me, and die.”
He shrugs.
“I did say I was sorry.”
“I-I...why?”
“Like I said. You are a shell. If you get the antidote, maybe I have not entirely broken you, maybe you can still be saved from my conditioning. If you do not get the antidote, I get to make Dabi just that little bit happier.”
You try to get up and into the kitchen. You really try. Your arms try to push up. You try to move off the couch. But...that feeling of fire licking at your body...it’s paralysing.
You instead collapse back onto the couch, and Enji sighs.
“Can you hold me?”
“Sure, my sweet.”
His arms pull you into his body. You feel yourself getting more and more tired.
“I’m sorry...I couldn’t be...what you wanted...”
“I am sorry I could not be what you wanted either...”
520 notes · View notes
year2000electronics · 3 years
Text
Siblings, Origami, and Slightly Wasted Potential
Hi. Me again. I have some thoughts on Origami King and the ideal future we could have had.
(Spoilers for Origami King!)
(image recreation)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Last time on the analysis show, I took a look at the characterization of Paper Luigi (which is a pretty good read, I’ve been told). This time, I’d like to build on that a little more by addressing Paper Mario’s other pair of iconic siblings- Olly and Olivia. 
Specifically, the way I believe they have the ability to parallel Paper Mario and Paper Luigi.
So, to lay out some basic facts (as is usually necessary to make a strong foundation), I’d like to talk a bit about Mario and Luigi’s relationship with one another. 
Thanks to Luigi gaining importance in the Mario series as a whole, he’s been equipped with some new abilities and stories of his own. However, thanks to Mario encompassing everything heroic under the sun, a lot of the time, Luigi tends to need to take the ‘road less traveled’ of abilities and stories. This may just be an out-of-character thing, but over time, it’s given Luigi this sort of niche that he fills compared to Mario. 
Me, personally, I like to call Mario a ‘sun sibling’ and Luigi a ‘moon sibling’. 
The sun is associated with brightness, happiness, daytime- the time that most people use to the fullest. A sunny day will bring a smile to anyone. Mario has the same happy aesthetics as the daytime, his adventures always triumphant and basking in the spotlight. 
Tumblr media
... (And sometimes, they’re quite literally ‘sunny’ adventures.)
Compare this to the moon- the nighttime. In popular culture, the night, darkness and even the moon have been used to signify darkness, mystery. The night in and of itself is something that’s only designated to ‘night owls’- it takes a lot of active planning to stay up for a lot of the night. However, the moon itself isn’t inherently dark- people still need it to get their eight hours. Even though the night’s job isn’t the same as the day’s, it’s still important...
Tumblr media
...when the sun is hiding away. 
That little bit of poetry aside, Luigi’s ‘dark’ and ‘against the norm’ aesthetic can be seen pretty much everywhere you look, even if you’re not much for my metaphors.
Tumblr media
Luigi’s flagship series being all about ghost-hunting in a spooky, dark mansion...
(Which, by the way, in Mario Super Sluggers, can only be accessed at NIGHT!!! !!!) 
Tumblr media
Luigi being the one who has access to the mysterious and vague dream world powers, 
Tumblr media
Whatever this was,
Tumblr media
This fucking guy,
You get the point. 
Which leads me to my next point: Olivia and Olly are also Sun Sibling and Moon Sibling.
I’m sure this is fairly obvious to anyone who looks. Olivia is bubbly, excitable, friendly, and kind.
Tumblr media
Olly is, um.
Tumblr media
Not that. 
(Oh also, their colour schemes the ‘night’ and ‘day’ colour schemes of Scorching Sandpaper Desert. So there’s that.)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
So now we’ve established that 
Tumblr media
But here’s the thing. Siblings is not the same. See, there’s something different about Olly and Olivia compared to Mario and Luigi.
Olly is the older sibling. And just like that... Luigi’s primary reason for being a ‘moon’ sibling is just straight-up not available to Olly. Luigi got his quirks from being in Mario’s shadow, but Olly is new... fresh. He just is this way. It’s not a phase, CRAFTSMAN. 
This poses some... interesting ideas when it’s presented next to the Mario brothers, though. Olivia is the younger sibling, who seems to look up to Olly just as much as Luigi looks up to Mario. Or at least... she’d like to. 
Despite having LITERALLY NO EVIDENCE to believe this, Olivia spends the entire game saying that she believes Olly can be talked down from this. She almost treats Olly and his entire evil plan as two separate entities, almost like Olly is a damsel she has to rescue. Don’t get me wrong, she never shies away from saying her brother needs to be stopped, but considering what seemingly little reason Olly gives for her to believe he’s worth saving... (sorry Olly. You lived then you put your dad in a wall. Life’s tough like that. Also you put a rock on her.) She’s persistent. 
Imagine how that must feel to Mario, seeing someone- seeing a Luigi who’s not the meek, mysterious one, but just as bright and bubbly as him. They grow so close throughout all this, but... Mario isn’t HER brother. And Olivia isn’t HIS sibling. 
Tumblr media
And neither of them forget that. Even for one second. 
It makes us almost sigh in relief that Mario is such a good role model to both Olivia and Luigi, because Olivia shows us this idea of the underdog sibling not HAVING a forever-kind older brother. It’s... kinda sad. No, really sad. Olivia and Olly WANT to be a pair, but neither of them agree. They both want to ‘save’ each other, but they must keep battling if they want their side to win. 
This on its own is pretty interesting, but I want to cover the ‘slightly missed potential’ part. If you think Olivia and Mario’s parallels are a good story bit... can you IMAGINE what Olly and Luigi would be like? 
Referencing my Luigi analysis again, I concluded that Luigi has a bit of an inferiority superiority complex- a TV trope where someone’s feelings of inadequacy are often masked by an overconfidence, trying to hide that horrible blemish. 
(Don’t worry. He gets better.) 
Now, I wouldn’t say Olly is secretly insecure or anything- far from it. He is, however, EXCEEDINGLY confident, in both his abilities and his beliefs. He truly seems to believe that the ways of origami are glorious and that folding the kingdom will be a sort of ‘rebirth’. The only thing that is motivated entirely by his rage (not that those other parts aren’t, this one is just really personal) is his wish to turn every Toad into blank paper. And why is that? 
Tumblr media
Because the Origami Craftsman scribbled on him. It’s a blemish, and one that he keeps hidden VERY easily. (I mean, you don’t see it here, do you?) 
...Interestingly, Olly has this line here: 
Tumblr media
He says he made Olivia ‘too perfect’. It’s backhanded, sure, but... it’s still a compliment. He thinks his sister is perfect. She is perfect. He is blemished.
Tumblr media
The sun sibling is perfect...
Tumblr media
The moon sibling isn’t. 
This is why I think Olly and Luigi should have had some form of interaction. Luigi is this perfect mentor figure for the young king. Even though he wouldn’t be able to make a dent in Olly’s ideology or Toad-hating, there is one thing... one thing Olly might still be able to turn to the good side for. 
Tumblr media
His sister.
Despite the fact that Origami Castle gets folded to life before Mario’s very eyes, which is when Olly has asked time and time again for Olivia to join him, and she’s still refused, the castle is still LITTERED with decorations of BOTH OF THEM. 
Olly still loves his sister. And he doesn’t want to lose her- even if he is blinded by rage. I think if Luigi was around Olly somehow, for most of the game (my personal idea would be that Luigi just can’t be folded somehow and Olly has no choice but to keep him in Peach’s Castle because he might help Mario otherwise), then he could say, from personal experience, how blind rage doesn’t solve anything... how your relationship with your sibling is the most precious thing in the world, should you keep it correctly. 
How... he KNOWS Olivia really looks up to him and looks to him for guidance, because he’s the exact same way. And how Olivia needs her big brother. 
Maybe Olly has some second thoughts, but convinces himself it’ll all be for the greater good. He just needs to defeat that red plumber. 
That green plumber’s... big brother. 
All in all, I think it could really have made Olly and Olivia even more impactful than they already are. At least they finally get reunited...
Tumblr media
Even if it’s only for a brief moment. 
125 notes · View notes
cutegirlmayra · 3 years
Note
Is it just me or does every guy in the sonic franchise have a soft spot for Amy? Of course we all know sonic does. But, tails, knuckles, shadow, and silver seem too also. For example shadow and silver would give into her requests in shadow the hedgehog and sonic 06. Or knuckles would be protective of her in sonic x, and of course her and tail have a good friendship bond. She’s like the really sweet and cute anime girl that can make even the most stoic guys soft.
Hmm, can’t remember Knuckles being ‘protective’ of her-
Tumblr media
(But everyone would tell a girl character in a Shonen to ‘be careful’, ‘stay out of trouble’, ‘This isn’t a place for a little girl’ sort of thing anyway. So it could just be the genre..? But yeah, he’s a good guy so I see what you mean ^^; )
Tumblr media
and her and Tails are decent enough friends, but it’s also out of necessity sometimes that any of these characters actually interact.
Tumblr media
You have to remember that Sonic is kinda the ‘glue’ of their gang. It’s like having that super close friend and then their friends become your friends? Lol But yes, they are a super-powerful force together! They don’t always just randomly ‘hang out’ together, and were kinda stuck at Chris’s place so what ELSE can they do to bide their time? But they get along, and they do consider everyone their close friends!
Tumblr media
It’s canonically stated that Amy is ‘Pretty’ and in Shadow’s description of her, he loosely states that he can’t help but want to help her. Silver also is another canon statement where he was ‘roped along’ into Amy’s antics but ended up just unable to refuse her.
She’s very persuasive XD they say she “cheerfully embarrasses men” on her Japanese Sonic channel bio and I 100% believe that’s the embodiment of Amy lolol She just gets people to really care about her, due to how passionate, innocent, and sincere she is about caring about others. It’s hard to feel like, “She can defend herself” when she so sweetly grabs your hand and loops you into dramatic chaos lolol
She’s also a magnetic for trouble... lol She runs headfirst into Sonic’s adventures, so you can see why!
She’s a very preppy, pretty, and persuasively bossy girl. She’s full of energy and it radiates a sense that everyone wants to keep her safe. It’s like... protecting that little bit of light you found, that wholesomeness of caring and having that optimistic energy that A LOT of these poor lost souls are missing, but desperately wish they had... But that’s not all Amy brings, and I’ll get to that later!
Tumblr media
This was Shadow at one point (When it came to Rouge, who he did end up saving), then-
Tumblr media Tumblr media
To shed a tear due to Amy’s words, the same spirit of promise that Maria once had, and in dying memory of her, he immortalized her desire for that promising world of people’s dreams by returning Amy that same promise--renewing and keeping it as his new ‘purpose’. Other than a weapon, and in Shadow The Hedgehog, she is also associated with a mission with ‘Love’ as it’s title. Along with his warning: “If you want to stay out of trouble, stay away from that doctor.” Which also proves the point of everyone feeling like ‘I have to keep her safe’ which is just one of the things that Amy inspires in people. They just... instantly care about her.
Tumblr media
Amy also forces Silver to question his resolves, realizing--just like Shadow--that his way of taking lives so thoughtlessly is not the answer.
Tumblr media
To -
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Amy is constantly inspiring people to be better.
Tumblr media
He even laughs at himself for ‘following this girl around’ and helping her search for ‘her missing person’ instead of doing his own task. SHE ran into HIM, and yet, he felt obligated to help her search on her own task.
Tumblr media
She makes a cute pose and says something like, “I’m sorry, Silver. When I’m done, we’ll find who you’re looking for!” it leaves him embarrassed and scratching his head, turning away from her in his clear attraction to this cutie! This scene is meant to be funny, as Amy often inspires comedy in the Sonic series, but also showcases Silver’s awkwardness in social interactions. (How Naïve he can be in them lol)
Tumblr media
It’s this very thing that makes him look around and reflect, realizing how gorgeous this whole world is without the flames of destruction from his world. Amy inspired it. She created a moment where Silver wasn’t so gung ho and focused on his main task (which was manipulated through Mephiles’s evil intent, by the way) that he failed to notice anything else around him.
Tumblr media
Amy doesn’t notice this, lost in the meaning of his words, which makes him once again embarrassed. Notice how he looks directly at her when he says “And Everyone is Happy”? He’s referring to her!
Tumblr media
When she doesn’t get it, he just can’t bring himself to explain further.
Tumblr media
He shows the same excitement as her.
Tumblr media
So at first, he turns away--abashed--unable to tell her the horribly depressing future he’s from. Instead, he opts to continue to help her, showing his desire to remain in that presence of joy. HER presence of happiness... HE WAS HAPPY WITH HER TOO (sobbing) HE DIDN’T WANT THAT FEELING OR PEACE TO END.
Tumblr media
And even in this scene, it was meant to highlight Amy’s innocence and natural beauty, he was complimenting the green and natural wonder of the world.. then looked at her as the sun was directly behind her. He looks away, embarrassed, but Amy is canonically ‘pretty’ lol
Tumblr media
Amy’s endlessly compassionate to the ‘Morally Grey’ or ‘Led Astray’ characters and ends up being their ‘Guiding Light’ towards becoming heroic characters themselves.
Tumblr media
Addresses him first, as a soul, which in his core--he is a living being. However, she questions this by saying that she pities Eggman didn’t give him feelings.
Tumblr media
When Amy asks Gamma why he doesn’t know why he wants what he does, she inspires humanity. The difference that makes Amy a hero unlike the rest of the casts is she will always choose the option to help the lost soul other than combat them. She will actively choose connecting hearts over violence to save many lives, even though she can fight. She would convince someone to change their ways rather than beat them into her ideals. She will go after the misguided and bring them towards redemption.
“Don’t you know how bad I feel?” She pleads humanity. She begs emotional mercy, for the purpose of understanding and linking hearts together in compassion.
Tumblr media
Amy will UNSELFISHLY fight for the outcasts, the broken-hearted, and the abused. That’s how she fights, she wields her heart, and it has never failed her, not once.
So, overall, yes! She makes stoic guys weak and melt at her endearing charms XD Even robots remember their humanity in her!
225 notes · View notes
illuminatedquill · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Nevertheless, Episode 9
More Thoughts/Analysis
“So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.”
- E.A. Bucchianeri
Jae Eon’s Self Sabotage
Chekov’s Gun is the dramatic principle that details within a story will contribute to the overall narrative. You might have heard of this before in its simplest form: if there is a gun shown in Act 1, it absolutely must go off in Act 2 or 3. In episode 9 of Nevertheless, we have this scene right at the beginning:
Tumblr media
Yes, that scene. Park Jae Eon sees Yang Do Hyeok standing off to the side as he waits outside Na Bi’s apartment to retrieve his stuff. Na Bi doesn’t know Do Hyeok is nearby. Jae Eon makes the calculation in his head and manipulates his way inside Na Bi’s apartment, knowing exactly what it looks like to Do Hyeok. It’s petty revenge for seeing Na Bi and Do Hyeok together on campus from earlier.
This is the gun. And it backfires on Jae Eon big time. Throughout the entire episode, his acts of sincerity towards Na Bi seem genuine and heartfelt, yet his action in that one scene undermines anything he attempts. It doesn’t work; to his mounting frustration, Na Bi and Do Hyeok continue to talk and meet as if nothing happened.
(We know that’s not the case as seen from Do Hyeok’s alone time but I’ll talk about that later in this post.)
It’s a ticking time bomb and it goes off at last in the rain scene. Nothing is working for him. He is desperate not to lose Na Bi. And he goes off in a drunken rage on Na Bi after she returns home on that fateful rainy night.
And he loses her. The gun goes off. Everything sincere he did turns rotten in Na Bi’s eyes after he reveals his actions. Actions have consequences, always rippling forward and affecting change in moments not yet experienced. He ruined his chances because of his petty cruelty towards Do Hyeok in the beginning. His sincerity only extended towards Na Bi and it was only to get her attention once more.
Jae Eon lost. Not so much to Do Hyeok, as he lost to Na Bi, who cares about him deeply. He underestimated her feelings towards Do Hyeok, assuming, like so many other viewers, that he was an an irritating distraction that refused to go away.
He can’t fathom why Do Hyeok still seems to like Na Bi after seeing them enter her apartment together. Is he really that incredible a person? What makes him so special?
Well, let’s talk about it.
Do Hyeok’s Crisis Playbook
Tumblr media
We see from Do Hyeok’s time alone after his initial visit to Seoul that he is taking it pretty hard; I can’t really blame him, considering what he saw that night. His struggle is open, honest, and raw; like Na Bi, it affects him to the point that he can’t focus on his work (anyone seem to notice that Jae Eon’s work never seems to be affected by his feelings?).
It’s jealousy and insecurity eating away at him. Just like Jae Eon. He’s also desperate not to lose Na Bi but doesn’t want to do anything untoward or overboard because he’s afraid of ruining their friendship. Once again, his consideration is for Na Bi and how she feels, but he cannot ignore what he saw and how he feels about it.
So, what is our favorite Potato Boy to do? Park Jae Eon already made his move by staging that whole scene of him and Na Bi going into her apartment together. How does Do Hyeok fight back? What’s his playbook in this time of crisis?
He doesn’t fight back. And that’s how he stays in the game. Do Hyeok is not a player like Jae Eon; there isn’t a manipulative or deceptive bone in his body. Do Hyeok does what he always does and doubles down on his sincerity, on the strength of his feelings, and his faith in Na Bi.
Do Hyeok doesn’t play the game Jae Eon tries to involve him in. He always lays it all out on the table with Na Bi so there is no room for misunderstandings. That’s one of the reasons why their relationship works so well; they talk more. Not just about feelings or romance but about school or their day to day life. What they’re building now is something that can last a lifetime.
So he talks to her about it. And admits his jealousy. She wasn’t even aware that he had seen them and yet it sounds like he’s the one who is apologizing (even though he never let his hurt feelings show in his conversations with Na Bi, DO HYEOK YOU ARE TOO GOOD). He lays himself bare to her once more. We don’t see Na Bi’s response other than her shocked and guilty expression, which is annoying because it would definitely be interesting to see how she reciprocated his frankness.
(Underrated super cute scene between them in this episode; when they meet up at night and bring drinks for each other. It’s even the exact same drink. I was grinning like a maniac.)
But Na Bi is familiar with Jae Eon’s game. And when she finds out how badly Do Hyeok was hurt by Jae Eon’s actions (and how he involved her in it) Na Bi finally is snapped to her senses and severs the thread still binding her and Jae Eon together.
Na Bi’s choice isn’t shown as a redemptive or heroic moment. It never was supposed to be. Although I’m sure a lot of us were cheering in that moment, her moments of unrestrained grief alone afterwards are the sobering reality that love, as always, comes with a price.
Nabi’s Choice (The Review)
Tumblr media
This is a follow up to my earlier post before episode 9 came out. So, now we see what Na Bi decides and, maybe, how it will all play out in the next episode (barring any last minute twists).
First, let’s address the still ongoing criticism I see regarding Na Bi and Do Hyeok’s relationship: lack of passion, no romantic vibes, blah blah blah. I wrote at length in a previous post why that isn’t true - at least on Do Hyeok’s part (one of the reasons why we don’t get internal monologue from Do Hyeok is because what else is he thinking about other than Na Bi?).
Na Bi, on the other hand, is still ambivalent about her feelings towards Do Hyeok. Episode 9 provided more clarity for her stance towards Jae Eon - he’s the dog shit she stepped on and was promptly wiped away in the grass - but Do Hyeok is still a mystery. Yes, she’s friendly, she cares, and genuinely enjoys being with him but the spice, the passion is missing. And that is kinda important for a romantic relationship.
Well. Look no more. Na Bi has spice for Do a Hyeok and it shows not once, but twice this episode. Where’s the passion? Jae Eon fucked around and found out. Very kind of him. Turns out Na Bi, like all of us who like Do Hyeok, will not tolerate any Do Hyeok slander and I am 100 PERCENT here for it.
There’s a scene shortly before the climatic rain fight where Na Bi is having another meeting with her assistants: the junior (does he have a name? Jin-su?) and Jae Eon. The junior talks to Na Bi about her and Park Jae Eon: the usual tired gossip of whether or not they’re dating. Na Bi waves it away like dandelion fluff.
And then the junior mentions Do Hyeok. “What about the noodle shop guy? Ever since the camp meeting, people have been saying there’s a higher chance you’re dating him.”
And Na Bi just . . . we’ve never seen this from her before, even when she broke up with Jae Eon in episode 5. Her whole demeanor turns ice cold and her voice is wicked sharp as she proceeds to shut down that avenue of questioning. The junior physically leans back from the force of her anger and wonders aloud why she’s so upset (you’re talking about her love life as gossip, idiot, why do you think she’s so upset). Jae Eon walks in and doesn’t see the foreshadowing; he just hears Do Hyeok and it feeds his jealousy.
There it is, everybody. Evidence of Na Bi’s feelings for Do Hyeok and what he means to her. Her protectiveness over him and her refusal to let him be involved in the drama surrounding herself and Jae Eon. Her desire to be the better around him; not because he asks (and he would never) but because his feelings for her make her think she might be worthy of such a love.
And then there’s the rain scene. Na Bi and Jae Eon, vulnerable in the rain. Na Bi admits to her faults in the relationship, how she brought this upon herself. No, she hasn’t been nice or good this whole time; in fact, she’s been kind of terrible. But Jae Eon revealing what he did and how it was to hurt Do Hyeok wakes her up and convinces that the time has come to end this “game”. It got Do Hyeok hurt because of her inability to end it with Jae Eon and good people don’t let that happen to people they care about.
So Na Bi ends it with Jae Eon and chooses herself. At last. And to do so, she has to cut out this malignant tumor of a relationship and, God, does it hurt so much to end it, but she gets it done and takes the first step to being a better person for herself.
Tumblr media
The cinematography in this drama is top tier and we see her situation presented so viscerally. She’s alone, in the light, but it’s not a warm, redemptive light; it has a sickly, yellow tint and is surrounded by darkness.
But she’s still there. She still made it.
One Last Observation, I Promise
Last thing I noticed from this episode that I want to talk about: the professor’s critique of Na Bi. She specifically mentions that a good artist can inspire others and Na Bi, whether she realizes it or not, actually does do that.
Na Bi helps Do Hyeok with his videos, giving advice that helps boost their popularity and making them better.
Jae Eon is inspired to make the butterfly bracelet for Na Bi and gifts it to her.
The difference between the two? Do Hyeok actually thanks Na Bi for her help and points out that it was her influence that made his videos better.
Jae Eon obviously means his gesture to be romantic and sincere but he again fails to talk about why he’s doing it. The implication is there but Na Bi needs more than some vague nonsense.
Communication is at the heart of this episode and how, without it, relationships stagnate and fail. Bit Na + Gyu Hyun and Soljiwan couple - their relationships only progress because the couples voice their concerns and fears to one another. And instead of being rejected or being hurt, it allows their partners to reassure them and move forward with their relationship.
Why do Na Bi and Jae Eon fail? They. Don’t. Talk. Na Bi is stuck inside her head and Jae Eon relies on vague gestures and sexual chemistry to express himself.
Why do Na Bi and Do Hyeok succeed? Because they talk. About everything. Their dialogue is clear and honest and sincere without any hidden meanings or motives. And you see why Na Bi is rapidly moving more and more towards Do Hyeok and not Jae Eon.
(The preview does raise some questions about how it will all end but I don’t think the show is going to pull a bait and switch and have Na Bi end up with Jae Eon. I also don’t think it’s likely they’ll have an open ending, either. I’ll talk about that in another post.)
My next post will be what I envision to be the best version of a Na Bi and Do Hyeok endgame and what I mean by that since Na Bi shouldn’t be dating anyone right now. So, look forward to that.
Tumblr media
Until next time, everybody. Thanks for reading this long ass post. Hope you enjoyed it.
61 notes · View notes
gofancyninjaworld · 3 years
Text
Garou and the futility of heroism
.With much thanks to @the-nysh for the conversation.  I thought of making this longer and more detailed, but I know myself: it’ll turn into one of those drafts that hangs around for years.
 I've recently been reading the Epic of Gilgamesh as a part of reducing my terrible ignorance of the foundations of Western literature.  Cracking good yarn, highly recommended, but I’m not here to talk literature. The latter half of the story is dominated by Gilgamesh’s struggle against the idea that he was inevitably going to die.
Where this relates to Garou is not that he’s railing against the inevitability of death and the reality that everything built up over a life will crumble to dust.  What Garou is struggling against is the seeming futility of heroism.
Tumblr media
His specific approach is all sorts of bad, but the reality he's struggling against is something brought up repeatedly in One-Punch Man.  One of the *big* themes in One-Punch Man is critically examining what a hero is actually good *for*.  No matter how diligent a hero is, no matter how strong they are, the world's evils do not disappear. 
It's very outrageous and painful to acknowledge how small and fleeting one's efforts are in the grand scheme of things. 
The moment we get a look into Saitama’s thoughts, it’s the very first thing he leads with.  Literally the very first sentence of his thinking.
Tumblr media
Saitama might be the strongest hero ever, able to defeat anything in one punch.  Not only has the world not become a better place as a result of his actions, but the very neighbourhood he lives in has become depopulated as it’s become too dangerous to live there.  In its own way, having birdsong be the loudest sound in the morning is its own rebuke to Saitama’s ambitions of helping people.
Watchdogman is the most diligent hero ever, with a perfect monster elimination record.  And yet, City Q is as monster-infested as ever.  Should anything happen to him, it will be as if he never existed for all the good his previous efforts will have done its inhabitants.
Tumblr media
however diligently he sits, the pedestal he’s on will crumble the moment he cannot do his job any longer.
 And that’s just talking about monsters.  There are a lot of very bad people in OPM world and not just of the cackling mad scientist variety, although it’s got plenty of those too.
The world of One-Punch Man also has evils driven by factors that are far too big for any hero by their action to stop.  Problems best addressed at the political or economic level aren’t going to be solved with a punch.
Tumblr media
Even when the evil appears to be tied up with a single person, like the Ninja Village was established by That Man, getting rid of them doesn’t necessarily change affairs.  The Village stole the freedoms and lives of boys for a good fifteen years after Blast defeated That Man.  It was still too profitable to *not* do.
Tumblr media
when you think about it, crime must really pay in One-Punch Man!
Even when you say you’re going to do something simple and heroic, like save a single child from the clutches of a monster... what do you mean by ‘saved’, exactly?  How brutally difficult it is to save even a single person, how easily it is that your best efforts to be turned to naught by an adverse event, like springing a rabbit from a trap only to have it swooped up by a hawk, is fully on display this arc. 
Tumblr media
so many heroes’ efforts and yet Waganma went almost nowhere...truly like fetching water out of a river with a basket!
Other than Saitama, we see so many other heroes struggle with the reality of how little they can change things in the long term.  Very notable is the conversation that Snek has with Suiryu, where Suiryu challenges Snek to justify why he bothers being a hero at all? “No matter how hard you try, it’s just drops of water on burning rocks,”  Suiryu says, something done for self-satisfaction rather than because it actually creates meaningful change.   Snek’s thoughts mirror Suiryu’s as he considers whether heroes are actually necessary at all.
Tumblr media
Let’s bring it back to Garou.  Garou’s Very Bad No Good Plan to Avoid Heroic Heartbreak he laid out in chapter 41.  Quite simply, heroes always have to wait for bad things to happen and then react to punish the evildoers and/or save people. 
Tumblr media
I love how long this guy is...um, sorry I was supposed to be typing something insightful here
But what if it was possible to take the initiative instead, like a monster does?  What if people could stop wanting to be bad and monsters could stop wanting to attack people?  That’s where the Human Monster was born, the quest to create a persona so strong that no one could oppose it, and so senselessly evil that no one dared to do anything that attracted its attention.
Tumblr media
punishing the good and evil alike, don’t make him come your way if you know what’s good for you.
I see a lot of readers read superficially, misunderstand and think Garou is punishing heroes in some way. That heroes are bad in some way.  Nothing like that: he attacks heroes because they’re good and devote their lives to protecting people.  After all, only a total monster would do that.  Also, if even the strongest heroes aren’t safe, what hope have the regular people of this world?
All throughout the arc, that Garou doesn’t actually want to be a monster at heart is clear to every actual monster.  It’s clear to us as we see his interactions with Tareo.  It’s clear to him himself as he tries to steel himself to take a life just to prove to himself that he can (thankfully it’s Saitama he tries to kill). 
It’s what makes Saitama’s bullshit-cutting words as cutting as they are.   Ultimately, his trying to scare the world into being good is his way of running away from the tough, heart-breaking work of being a hero.
Tumblr media
there is a crazy confidence a hero needs to embody in order to step up, as if by doing so they can do something
The pathos that we can empathise with is that it’s hard to look on a world as messed up as theirs is and not feel that surely, surely there’s something more that one can do.  Garou’s struggle is absolutely legitimate.   However... I’m going to let the however hang a moment...
It’s childish thinking to frame heroism in terms of strength and it’s not much better to frame it in terms of being of exceptional virtuousness.  What a hero is, according to ONE, is someone who can look honestly at the cruelty and randomness of the world, who can acknowledge frankly the fleeting nature of any good they can do, feel the pain of this reality fully.   And then choose to reach a hand out to help anyway.  
In a world where feeling helpless in the face of impossibly large and complex problems feels inevitable, cynicism is too ready a refuge, and just looking out for yourself is common sense, the mere act of reaching that hand out is an act of courage.
Tumblr media
not with illusions of good triumphing over evil, but the dogged determination to do the right thing even if the world burns down.  That’s what being a hero is about.
However...
...the way Garou worked out his inner conflict was not legitimate.  He picked the worst possible way at the worst possible time to wrestle with it. Which I think goes to a second theme: that your feelings may be valid.  But that does not mean that every action that follows from those feelings is valid.  Garou hurt a lot of good people and impeded their vital work at a time the world could ill-afford it.
One of the joys of fiction is that not only do characters act for reasons that make sense, but we get to hear and understand *why*. And at the same time, the external actions they take on the world persist. I’m very happy too that ONE isn’t glossing over the consequences of Garou’s actions.  Too many readers pick one or the other and lose half the joy.   
Thankfully, ONE isn’t a half-ass.
It doesn’t become okay for the heroes that Garou attacked that they were assaulted.  It doesn’t become okay for the world that so many people were needlessly deprived of heroes when they needed them most.  And it isn’t okay for Garou that he’s made an outlaw of himself as a result of his actions.   The ramifications on both personal and societal are going to be explored for the individuals involved.  I bless ONE for his conscientiousness and for creating so many excellent characters that make the enterprise worth the candle.
What kind of hero Garou will decide to be and how he’ll make it work in practice, ah that we’re waiting to see.
Coda:
Of course, that’s not the whole story.  There’s one other part.  Occasionally, by being the right person willing and able to step up in the right way at the right time, a hero can change *everything*.
Tumblr media
51 notes · View notes
bookishofalder · 3 years
Text
Night Changes [Five]
Series Masterlist
Summary: Poe and the reader eagerly focus on their friendship. Unfortunately for them, life isn’t that easy.
Warnings: Language, mentions of smut, violence, injuries. WC: 11.1K
A/N: Please enjoy this failed attempt at fluff. Also, thank you to @hoeforthefictional for inspiring a scene in this chapter (see: Charlie’s shirts)
Tumblr media
Your hand smacked against the cool steel of the dining table as you snorted, “That is not true!” You exclaimed, watching Poe run his hand over his mouth to try and hide his smile, though you could still see him shaking with laughter. “Poe that was Charlie, it was NOT me!”
“Sure Sweetheart,” He drawled through his chuckles, quirking a brow at you, “Charlie convinced your dad that we could all be trusted on our own for the weekend. ‘Cause, he was the one with the big sad eyes your dad fell for every time.”
You groaned, knowing Poe was right, your giggles confirming it to him even though you didn’t outright admit it. “Well you were the one who suggested we try to nab some booze at Eddard’s,” You pointed at him accusingly as memories of you, Charlie and Poe as preteens trying to break into a closed cantina to steal spotchka replayed in your mind. “I was the only one the old man didn’t hit.”
“My ass smarted for a week after that,” Poe frowned at the memory and you giggled again. He grinned over at you, and you felt a flush of delight at the early morning banter, each of you sipping your caf as the golden sun streamed in through the high windows and the room steadily grew busier around you.
It had been a few weeks since your return from the classified mission, the data collected on the outpost proving to be immeasurably useful, earning you both a very pleased smile from the General. A larger secondary team was already there; though they were outfitted with greater protective equipment and a lot more manpower to clear back some of the overgrown jungle from the base and work to bring it back up and running.
While it was a severe break in protocol, neither you nor Poe included the exposure to the red flower pollen in your mission reports. You described the sighting of the plant, cautioned approached and advised the settlement team to wear protective gear, but that was all. Though a mild amount of guilt settled in your stomach for the breach, the idea of writing down what had happened, of being hauled for questioning and medically assessed, was more than enough to make you feel it was the right decision.
It had taken three days to return to base from the mission. Even after your long conversation with Poe assuring him you were alright and that you didn’t blame him for what happened, he still walked around you like he was afraid any moment you would crack and reveal your anger or mistrust. He’d pointedly refused to touch you or come too close after the initial embrace you shared, and although you disagreed with his reasoning, you couldn’t help the relief that you felt because something about being close to him, touching him, stirred feelings inside you that you didn’t want to address.
It made it easier to focus on repairing your friendship if you maintained a slight distance from the man you’d known your entire life. Better to set aside any feelings or thoughts and work to find your way back to the version of yourself you missed. The one who had been happy. You wanted to be her again because the lonely woman you’d become was less than ideal. And you had missed Poe more than you’d admit.
You just wished you could stop the dreams.
“You know,” You spoke slowly, your eyes losing focus as you thought back to those younger years, “I’m pretty sure that was the weekend I became obsessed with learning about Mandalore. I saw that picture of the really famous one up in the cantina and wanted to know everything about it all.” You shook your head at your youthful silliness, the crush you’d developed for the faceless bounty hunter simply from hearing the tales of his heroics. You’d even had a-
“Remember the picture you had?” Poe cut into your thoughts and you refocused on him, “You had that up for years, on the back of your door, a street artist's painting of the rogue Mandolorian, Charlie teased you all the time for having it.” He was smiling at the memory, his eyes crinkling slightly.
You stared at Poe in surprise as warmth swept through you. “You remember that?” He shrugged, his eyes flicking away to glance at the table as if he was suddenly self-conscious, surprised at himself.
“Yeah, I...” You watched as he appeared to steal himself, his cheeks dusted with colour. “I remember everything. It was always us three, wasn’t it? I’d never forget Charlie or y-you.”
When he looked up again his eyes were burning with bright intensity. You couldn’t bring yourself to look away, even as your heartbeat tripled and emotion swelled inside you. Everything else-the noise of the caf, the sounds of others laughter and conversations-it all faded into the background as Poe and you regarded one another across the table.
A hand coming down onto your shoulder jolted you from your thoughts. You glanced up to find Temmin grinning at you both as he moved to take a seat next to you. “Morning, morning,” He glanced over mischievously at Poe, then back to you, “Sorry to interrupt your eye-fuck session, just wondering if you saw our surveillance got moved up?”
Poe was quicker to recover, pulling Temmin’s attention from you as heat flooded your face and you gaped wordlessly. “Uh, to now, I’m assuming?” Poe spared you a glance, his eyes unreadable as you swallowed, embarrassed at your reaction.
You’d anticipated those close to you or Poe to tease you both about the renewed friendship, entirely unsurprised that Temmin was the leading comedian about the entire thing. He’d happily jumped on any excuse to tease, but even though you were never one to flinch away from adult banter, the occasional sexually suggestive comments brought you straight back to the memories from your mission and rendered you speechless each time.
Pursing your lips, you took the last sip of your caf and stood up, your hands automatically sweeping down the front of your flight suit to straighten any wrinkles. You tried to give a half-hearted smile, hoping Temmin didn’t start to think you had a shitty sense of humour.
“I’m going to get started on pre-flight, in that case.”
You glanced at Poe and found he was already watching you, his lips quirking up in a way that made your insides bubble confusingly. Before you could turn away, however, Temmin was gently grabbing your forearm.
“Don’t uh, go that way, use the longer route. For your sanity.” He suggested, grimacing as you groaned in frustration.
“Kriff. Thanks, Snap.” You spun and stalked in the opposite direction, your eyes still scanning to ensure that you didn’t accidentally run into Rush despite Temmin’s warning.
The Healer had not taken kindly to your outright disinterest, apparently taking Poe’s interference at the cantina before your mission as a challenge. You felt you had enough on your plate now to justify not telling him point-blank to fuck off. You’d instead found yourself actively avoiding him, going so far as to duck into storage closets to hide, or in the case of two days ago, hide behind the broader frame of your Captain when you’d spotted the Rush walk into the hangar and look around for you.
Temmin had started to goad you after Rush had departed, stopping when he saw the look on your face and you’d resigned yourself to explain the situation. When you’d finished, he’d offered to talk to the Healer for you, suggested the Poe could and would step in as well, but you had been very clear that you didn’t want either of them to deal with your issues and told Temmin in no uncertain terms to keep the situation from Poe. He had been going out of his way in previous weeks to be kind to you. His continued (and entirely unnecessary) attempts to make up for everything that had happened, both on the mission and before. Having him do another favour for you when you had yet to figure out how to give back to Poe, didn’t sit right with you.
So you snuck out of the back of the dining hall and hoped you’d bought yourself more time to figure your shit out.
Earlier that morning
His curls were softer than you’d remembered, you loved sinking your hands into them and gripping. Your head felt so heavy that you felt yourself drop it into his neck, your heart swelling at how right it felt to nuzzle into Poe as he held you.
Fuck, it felt so good to straddle him this way, not just for how close your bodies were, how easily you could kiss him, but because his thick, long cock hit the best spots inside you at this angle. It was bliss, delicious, something you should have been doing for years. You rolled your hips as you came, crying out when he slammed you onto him and held you there as he came undone as well, feeling close to passing out when he cried out for you.
“Sweetheart, oh fuck, (y/n)!”
“FUCK!”
You gasped as you woke from your dream, trying to sit up even as your body continued to convulse from your orgasm and small moans tore from you. You gripped the sheets, panting as you floated down from your high, again. Another dream, the same memory replayed over and over every night until you eventually woke up like this, shaking and sweating and cumming.
You sobbed, sitting forward and drawing your knees up to your chest, wrapping your arms around yourself as you dropped your head. This needed to stop and you didn’t understand why it wouldn’t. It had started up the first night you were back on D’Qar, always the same; the memory of those finals moments wrapped around Poe, the last orgasms you each had as the pollen had worn off, and then you’d wake up as you came. You’d tried masturbating before bed just to try and curb the need, but that hadn’t helped in the least. You were desperate now, confused and exhausted from waking up day after day filled with an intense need for something you shouldn’t want.
A good part of you thought your sleeping brain was just cruel, taunting you for what had occurred. But the logical side of your brain noted that it could very well be an aftereffect of the exposure to the pollen, perhaps the last dregs of it working its way from your system when you were most vulnerable. But since you hadn’t reported the exposure, there was no way to find out. It wasn’t like you were going to ask Poe if he was experiencing anything similar-either response he could give was equally as mortifying just to imagine.
Kicking your sheets away, you glanced at your clock and noted the early hour before stalking angrily into your fresher to take a shower. A cold one, because despite the daily orgasms you were waking up from, you were constantly on edge, hornier than you’d been in a long time.
It didn’t help that you were a touch-starved, lonely and unattached woman. Aside from what had happened with Poe on the mission, you hadn’t had sex in a long time and even the last few times you did, it wasn’t anything spectacular. Which was why you’d been almost ready to let Rush take you to bed before, just to feel something pleasurable.
And now...now you wanted to run away from all pleasure.
+
Poe watched as you hurried out of the room, your shoulders stiff and he frowned when you glanced hastily toward the other doorway before slipping out of view. He looked at Temmin, who was giving him a knowing, guilty kind of smile from across the table. “What the hell was that about?”
Temmin considered his words for a long moment, rapping his knuckles on the table. Finally, he said, “Major hasn’t told you?” As if hoping Poe might suddenly realize what was going on with you and let him off the hook. At the same time, his friend appeared unsurprised of the direction the conversation had gone since your odd departure.
Raising a brow at his friend, Poe leaned forward. “No,” He replied slowly, shaking his head, “Told me what?”
“Let me preface this by telling you she asked me not to make you aware of the situation. Healer Derrin has been cornering her around base every day since you’ve been back, trying to convince her to give him another chance,” Temmin paused as Poe shifted from curious to downright outraged, “Don’t look at me like that, I just found out myself like two days ago.”
“But-I-” Poe stammered, half rising from his seat, “What the fuck has he been doing?”
Temmin waved a hand in a calming manner, “Popping up all over, trying to catch her for a conversation. Only reason I found out was that he came into the hangar the other day and she practically climbed on my back hiding behind me from him.”
Beside himself with fury, Poe took several deep breaths to relax. “Fuck,” He growled, running his hands over his face.
A distant part of his mind wondered why he was so physically worked up, ready to seek out the Healer and lay into him. When he glanced up, Temmin was casting an obvious glance to the time and Poe relented, releasing his anger to focus on the task at hand. “Sorry, thank you for telling me. Let’s go.”
With a curt nod, Temmin jumped to his feet and fell into step with Poe as they made their way to the hangar. It didn’t go unnoticed by Poe that his friend cast a wary eye around, no doubt concerned they would run into Rush and he would be required to break up a fight.
Quietly sighing to himself, Poe rationalized that he could focus on patrol, then return to base and seek out Rush for a civil conversation, nothing more. Flying would calm him, help him to clear his head, and despite your request to keep Poe out of it, he wasn’t about to let you down by allowing some dick head to harass you.
-
Patrolling the Resistance base was a duty that fell upon every squadron, regardless of status. Poe knew he could probably convince Leia to let Black team off the hook, considering the number of high-status, incredibly dangerous missions she entrusted them with, however he felt it was good for his team to pull their weight when it came to the less exciting tasks.
It was also a good opportunity for some team building, as you all kept your comms open to have idle chit-chat throughout the shift. “Listen, Poe, Tommy was a lot taller than you. You know it, I know it, hell Temmin knows it! He knew Tommy!” You were giggling now, which was the only reason why Poe had continued to argue that Tommy wasn’t all that much taller than him.
“She’s right, Commander.” Temmin supplied with a chuckle.
Kare’s voice joined in, “I’ve never met this Tommy but he sure sounds a lot taller. Did you date him, Major?”
At the question, Poe felt himself stiffen slightly, suddenly extremely curious to hear your response. You didn’t hesitate, “Oh, maker, no. Never.”
“Wow,” Poe chirped with a laugh, “I’m kind offended for Tommy with how passionately you just said that!”
You laughed, “Tommy wasn’t my type, Kare. We were just friends.”
“But he did ask you out,” Temmin suddenly supplied, unknowingly causing Poe to frown. Tommy had asked you out...when? It can’t have been during Gold team days, because then he’d know about it, if not from you then certainly from Charlie, who was close with Tommy. Which meant that you had seen Tommy at some point after you left and spent enough time with him for the handsome pilot to ask you out. Jealously silenced Poe and he opted to listen only.
“Oh,” You sounded surprised that Temmin knew about it, “Yes, well we were stationed together for a while at an outpost a few years ago.” Though your voice had tightened somewhat, Temmin had apparently not picked up on it and continued speaking, teasing you.
“Huh well, Major, from what I heard via our mutual friend Rico, you two had a 'friends with benefits' thing going on during that assignment.”
You laughed in embarrassment, “Fuck off, Temmin.”
Realizing that his silence was both telling and uncalled for, Poe decided to join back in. “What, sweetheart, embarrassed to admit you liked his man-bun?” He joked, happily drawing further laughs from you and the rest of Black team. Inwardly, however, Poe was spinning and he tuned out of the remainder of the conversation as he fell into deep thought.
It was incredibly wonderful having you back. Despite everything that happened during the mission, the resulting change between Poe and you had exponentially increased his overall happiness. It felt, in some ways, like old times. The void that was Charlie was there, ever-present but not always overwhelming, sometimes it was just a hum of grief in the background as you walked next to Poe, your shoulder occasionally brushing his arm, or when you laughed fully and your eyes crinkled the same way Charlie’s had.
And stars, you were funny-Poe had always thought you had a great sense of humour, but the past few years had given you a slightly harsher perspective, something that most Resistance fighters developed in time. It meant your wit was a little drier, your sarcasm in great abundance. He’d laughed more these past few weeks than he had in years, something that didn’t escape Temmin’s notice, his friend often shooting him a knowing wink when you weren’t looking.
Professionally, not a whole lot had changed, though conversation and directives were less chopped, he was proud to know that despite the tension and anger that had been between you before the mission, you had both worked immensely well together.
He had been terrified that you would leave again, despite your assurances on the contrary. He wouldn’t even have blamed you if you had; he remembered everything that happened, the way he’d touched you, the dark bruises and marks he’d littered across your soft skin, and the things he said. The harsh, cruel words still twisted in the back of his mind, surging to the forefront at random to taunt him, force him to relive the way he’d demeaned you. But you hadn’t left, in fact, Poe was pretty certain that the first few days back you had barely left his side just to prove to him that you wouldn’t, and he was grateful for that more than he could tell you.
He was grateful to have you back, to banter and tease, to see your smile brighten the room every day, usually because of something he had said. His old feelings were stirring, never really having faded altogether, but he was eager to push them down again and focus on the friendship. He needed to reign in his jealousy over something that had happened years ago between you and Tommy.
There was no reason good enough to admit how he had felt before Charlie died, and certainly, nothing in the galaxy could convince him to confess to you how he was starting to feel now.
It was better, he thought, to just be friends. Safer.
Earlier that morning
Your skin was soft, delightfully silky and smooth under his rough fingers, and he enjoyed gripping you harder, pulling your hips to his as he filled you, over and over. Your warm body pressed against his as you straddled his lap, your moans weak and head lolling from the pleasure.
The feel of your head falling to his neck, your body curling into him as your orgasm hit.
“Oh Poe, don’t stop!” The way you said his name. How you clenched around him, pulling him to his own peak. The feeling that was coming inside of you, bliss and rightness of the action intensely overwhelming as you shivered in his arms.
With a start, Poe woke up, his dream-induced orgasm ripping from him. He was unable to do more than groan in pleasure, his hips rutting against the mattress as his cum spurted, hands gripping his pillow. Biting his lip, the shame washed over him before he’d fully finished cumming, his groan morphing into a pitiful sound of desperation.
Every fucking day he woke up much the same, his dream-memories of those final moments under the grip of the pollen replaying over and over until he woke up mid-orgasm. He hadn’t had wet dreams since he hit puberty, for Maker’s sake. He thought it must be an aftereffect of the pollen, further proof the intensity and potency of the red flower was beyond anything he’d ever heard of.
Grunting in frustration, Poe climbed out of bed and retrieved a towel to clean up his mess. Turning on the shower, he glanced at the time, happy that he had enough time to rinse off before meeting you for what was becoming a routine morning caf.
He kept the water cold, punishing himself for his dreams and wishing like hell he could erase the images of you, so beautiful and soft around him, from his mind.
+
It was ideal that the man essentially stalking you was a Healer because it meant that he was relatively easy to track down on base. Healers had long shifts in the med-bay and usually didn’t stray far from base in case something major happened that required additional medical support. Poe was walking to the med bay now, leaving you with Temmin and your funny friend Ana back in the dining hall, to confront Rush.
He’d come up with a simple excuse to step away, stating he required a few essentials from the commissary and wanting to get there before they closed. You were eating slowly tonight and he had taken advantage of that and Ana’s rare presence-something that would keep you in the dining hall much longer, conversation flowing, so that he could slip off to the med-bay.
He’d felt your eyes watching him as he excused himself, burning into the back of his neck as he tried to walk as casually as possible out of the room. As soon as he was clear, he sped up in case you decided to follow him, but a glance over his shoulder before he turned the corner a few minutes later proved he was right that you would linger with Ana instead.
As he walked along the halls, nodding and smiling at anyone he passed, Poe attempted to steady and control his emotions. He would ask Rush to leave you be; be nice but incredibly firm. Advise the healer that it was in his own best interest to keep things professional unless you did indicate you were interested. As he argued with himself on the best way to word the request, Charlie’s image floated around in his head, reminding him that if he was still alive and some dick head was bothering you, he would be the one to calmly protect you. Poe was the less than calm protector, but he needed to channel your brother here because he hoped to prevent you from finding out he’d cornered Rush.
As he approached the final stretch of the hallway that led into the med-bay, a nurse just coming off duty came walking along in the opposite direction. Poe recognized the older woman, brightening when she glanced up and saw him. “Evening, Rosie, how are you?” He flashed her his best grin.
With an affectionate roll of her eyes, Rosie calm to a halt in front of Poe, “Good evening Commander, what brings you to our neck of the woods? You don’t look injured unless your big head is giving you a headache.”
This was why Poe liked her, she was the type to catch on to bullshit and funny as hell. He couldn’t help his bark of a laugh, “No, I’ve gotten pretty good at lugging it around,” He replied, “Listen, can I ask you a quick question before you head off for a night of dancing with a lucky guy?”
“Lucky lady,” She corrected with a wink, and Poe smiled apologetically with a nod, “And go ahead, what’s up?”
“Right, my mistake, although now that I think of it I don’t think any of us men could survive your charms,” He joked, pulling a laugh from the deadpan nurse, “I’m looking for Healer Derrin, do you happen to know where I could find him?”
Something close to a knowing look flashed in her eyes then, but Rosie didn’t comment. “His shift just ended, actually. He left for the hangar roughly, oh, ten minutes ago.” She glanced at her wrist comm for the time, nodding to herself at her estimation.
Poe frowned, realizing that it was routine for you to have left dinner already to go to the hangar to input your mission report for the day and perform your check of his and your own ships. Because you were dining with Ana, however, you hadn’t left yet. “Thank you, Rosie.” He gently clasped her shoulder as she smiled at him with that look still in her eyes, but she merely bid him farewell before he spun around a hurried away, taking the quickest route to the hangar.
When he arrived, the hangar was fairly quiet, only a few lingering mechanics wandering about, several service droids cleaning the large space and performing nighttime checks. Still wearing his medical clothing, Rush was easy to spot as he stood near your ship across the room, eyes staring off at nothing as he waited to see if you’d turn up.
When he heard Poe’s footsteps approaching, he turned with a hopeful look before spotting him and shifting to a placating smile. “Evening, Commander!”
Poe stopped a few feet short Rush and tried his best to return the smile, “Healer,” His voice was clipped, and he took a careful breath in an attempt to keep calm and channel Charlie. Friendly, to the point, no need to get worked up. “What brings you here so late?”
Rush shrugged, “Hoping to catch the little bird that keeps flying off,” He admitted, gesturing at your ship, “Can’t seem to get any face-to-face time with her, but I’m hoping to clear things up and start fresh. Think I moved too quickly before.”
Poe plastered his face with a neutral expression as his insides burned upon hearing Rush refer to you as ‘little bird’. “Listen, man, I’ve known (y/n) my whole life and I don’t think she’s interested, I mean, it’s been weeks since your date and she’s been avoiding you since.” Poe kept his voice as steady as possible, not wanting his tone to convey anything other than mild interest.
Rush bristled immediately, however, “That your objective opinion, Dameron?”
His voice was pointedly not steady and his tone was anything but mild. Still, Poe held up his hands in a placating gesture, “It is, and it’s kind of...uh, obvious, I guess.”
Poe watched as Rush took a measured step closer to him, though this didn’t serve to intimidate as the Healer stood an easy couple of inches shorter than him. “You’re full of shit. You’re telling me this because you want to fuck her,” He glared up at Poe, who was frowning as he fought his internal battle to remain calm. “Actually, noticed you two are buddy-buddy all of a sudden; so that’s it, isn’t it? You went off together for nearly two weeks and she spread her pretty legs for you-“
Well, no one could say Poe didn’t try. His fist was connecting with Rush’s smug face before the Healer could continue his vulgar accusation, falling back a few steps before regaining his balance and shooting a glare that did nothing to intimidate Poe.
Forcing himself not to move in for another punch, Poe pointed his finger at Rush, “Shut the fuck up, asshole. I never want to hear you talk about her that way again, got it?”
Rush scoffed, his hand rubbing along his reddening jaw, “You’re only proving me right, reacting like that. Either you want her so you’re trying to prevent me from having a chance, or you already had her,” The Healer was seething mad, clearly not thinking straight. He didn’t seem to see the tension rolling over Poe’s body, anger coiling within and ready to burst forth in more than just a single punch. Or maybe a handsome guy like Rush Derrin couldn’t stand the idea of having a competitor, as he seemed to view Poe, and it clouded his usual ‘nice guy’ personality entirely, made him mean, made him say things that he really, really shouldn’t. “Tell me, what is she like when you’re balls deep-does she moan as loud as I-“
This time, Poe didn’t hold his anger back into a single punch, he opted instead to launch himself at Rush, whose eyes flashed in fear just before he was taken to the ground. Fistfights weren’t something that Poe usually got himself into anymore, though he’d had more than his share growing up. He held himself to higher standards now, especially considering his high rank within the Resistance, the respect he had from his fellow fighters.
All of that was out the window though as he wrestled on the hangar floor with Rush, who gave a yell of anger as he tried to out fist Poe. He was strong, a decent enough match physically despite being shorter than Poe, who twisted his hips to roll Rush in a flurry of movement, eager not to end up bested by being pinned under the man. He did feel the punches he gained in return, particularly a stinging blow to his cheek that seemed to hit directly on the apple, skin splitting on contact. Rush was wasting energy on cursing and yelling insults, most of which didn’t register with Poe as blood rushed loudly in his ears, rage only intensifying.
It was only a few moments of fighting at this point, not long enough for anyone who had been on the other side of the hangar to have made it over already to break them up. This was why Poe stiffened in complete surprise when he saw a figure approaching quickly in his peripheral vision, which distracted him just enough for Rush to take advantage and roll heavily, slamming Poe into the floor. He felt his head hit the concrete, though it wasn’t too hard of a blow it was disorienting. Before he could even begin to attempt to get Rush off of him, however, the figure that had first distracted him now came directly into view over Poe.
It was you.
But you weren’t yelling for them to stop like he would have imagined you would do. Instead, from his vantage on the ground, Poe witnessed your fury first hand, so much more intense than he’d seen in years. But the night of Charlie’s funeral that fury had been lined with grief and heartbreak. Now, you looked shockingly terrifying as you swiftly launched yourself at Rush, tackling him off of Poe in one motion before rolling with ease and jumping back to your feet.
When you pointed your blaster down at the Healer, who lay flat on his back in complete shock, even Poe flinched at the look on your face.
“Don’t you fucking touch him,” You hissed, your voice cold and low. There were a few people nearby, all who’d frozen upon seeing the Major asserting her authority over the lower level Healer. Though he partially flushed with pride and equal parts surprise, Poe was quick to scramble to his feet and hurry to your side. “I forbid you to enter this hangar again unless it’s for medical purposes, got it?”
Poe could see that your finger wasn’t on the trigger of your blaster, the safety clicked on still. All the same, your reaction was completely out of character and he wanted to stop that cold, harsh look on your face in its tracks, even if it wasn’t directed at him.
“Sweetheart,” He murmured, quiet enough that only Rush could discern his words, “Let’s take a walk, let Healer Derrin go and lick his wounds.”
The moment you dropped the blaster, Rush was on his feet and hurrying out of the hangar, blissfully silent, entirely amusing. Poe glanced around to the others nearby and gave a friendly nod of release, and they broke away to finish their work. Placing a hand carefully on your lower back, he put a slight pressure and started to walk, relieved when you complied and holstered your blaster.
Though he’d suggested the walk, you seemed to take control of the direction and somehow Poe found himself stepping through the door of your room minutes later. He barely had a moment to glance around at the minimally decorated space, his eyes again finding your pinned copy of his favourite photo on the corkboard, before you rounded on him.
You weren’t as furious as you had been before, but he still took a measured step away from under the heat of your gaze, flinching as he waited for you to begin yelling at him for interfering in your life, for embarrassing you, bracing himself for your wrath.
Instead, your angry gaze met his own and you faltered, your eyes flicking over his face and Poe watched the anger melt away, your expression softening into concern. “Oh, Poe,” You sighed, closing the distance between you both to reach up and carefully grab his jaw with one hand, turning his head to peer up at the cheek he’d taken the worst punch to, “Are you alright?”
You dropped your hand, not completely as he would have expected but to rest on his chest, just over his heart. Poe felt himself stiffen again, the casual way you touched him driving him almost into a frenzy of confusion and hope and fear.
“I’m fine, I can take a punch,” He grinned, cringing when his cheek stung from the movement. “Might need to pop a bacta-patch over this, though.” He reached up and carefully prodded the split skin, hissing at the pain.
You stepped away, tugging Poe by the arm, “Sit,” You ordered, pushing him toward your bed. He perched himself on the edge and watched as you went to the med-kit you kept in your fresher to pull out bacta-patches. “I knew you weren’t going to the commissary.” You added when you walked back toward Poe, grabbing your desk chair and setting it in front of him before taking a seat.
“In my defence, I was being nice at first,” Poe said as you wiped away the blood on his face before gently placing the patch, your eyes focused on your work. “He uh, turned out to be a bit more hot-headed than I’d have thought.”
You snorted, “I came in too late to know who hit who first, but you don’t need to defend yourself,” Picking up another wipe, you cleaned around the patch and some spots along the rest of his face that must have had blood splatter. “I made Temmin tell me if he told you about Rush. I know you were fighting with him because of me. And that’s...that’s why I hadn't mentioned it, actually.”
Poe stared at you for a beat, “What do you mean?”
“I just,” You sighed, your eyes searching his face before you tossed the wipe in the trash and you sat back in your seat. He already missed the feel of your hands on his skin. “I knew you would want to talk to him, and that could lead to a fistfight or whatever on my behalf, and I didn’t want you to put yourself in that position just for me.”
“Just for you?” Poe repeated in surprise, leaning forward, his arms resting on his knees, to look at you closely, “Sweetheart, come on, you know I’d do anything for you.”
You nodded, but Poe wondered if you understood how serious he was, how he wouldn’t hesitate, wouldn’t question. Or maybe you did understand and that was why you looked slightly afraid, your face flushed as Poe gazed at you intently.
“Poe, you’ve been going out of your way for me since we’ve been back. You know it’s all...we’re good, I trust you,” You leaned forward, your face mere inches from Poe’s, and took his hands into yours, “So you don’t need to keep proving yourself, I promise.”
Poe felt himself nodding as he looked at you, gazed into your bright eyes and saw the sincerity in them, the emotion. He was still, afraid to move now that there was nothing between either of you, fully aware that you were alone together in a locked room and nothing could interrupt you. He felt himself blush, heat crawling up his neck, and Poe wanted to lean away and clear his throat and push back everything he was feeling but you were making it too difficult, sitting there with wide eyes and plump lips and a look so earnest, so trusting that he was transported straight back to the first time he’d wanted to kiss you.
But the thing was, he was a skinny teenager back then, and it had been easy to talk himself back and resist the urge because of Charlie. Because he didn’t want to offend you. Because your mom was just down the hall and could walk in at any moment.
But here, Poe wasn’t a teenager anymore, and for that matter neither were you. No, you were both fully grown adults, a fact he was keenly aware of as his eyes moved from yours, slowly, and he saw the way your lips were parted, the flush up your neck, the way your chest was heaving slightly.
He’d never wanted to be braver in his entire life.
Just as he thought of closing the gap, though, an image surfaced. The memory of you, trembling on the table after the pollen had worn off, just before he could give you the bacta shot, your body littered with marks he’d put there, the marks that were in the nightmares he kept having. Bile rose in his throat and he was sure you sensed the shift then because you were pulling away even before Poe broke the connection of your gazes and eased his hands from your grasp.
It was quiet for a minute, each of you looking determinedly away from the other. You stood, and Poe glanced up, fearing you were going to ask him to leave. You had a thoughtful look on your face, however, and moved over to your dresser instead. He watched as you opened the lowest drawer, flipping through the contents.
“I realized the other day that you didn’t have any of Charlie’s clothing because of course, I’d taken it all,” You straightened, turning around with a small stack of shirts clutched in your hands, “But I shouldn’t have done that, so here, take these.” And you held the stack out to him, biting your lip as you did.
Poe’s heart stuttered in his chest and he had to blink a few times to clear the sting of tears threatening the corners of his eyes. “These were...Charlies’?” You nodded, your eyes swimming with similar emotion. He took them from you and looked down at the familiar, worn fabric in a variety of colours, each shirt soft and well cared for. “Sweetheart, I don’t know what to say.”
He stood up, gripping the clothes in one hand before carefully reaching out and wrapping his arm around your head, pulling you close and kissing your hair. You were stiff in his arms, but he felt you patting his mid-back. “You don’t have to say anything, flyboy.”
It was very rare that you found yourself in your current position, crouched outside of Poe Dameron’s window late at night, grateful that his father slept on the lower floor of their home because he found it cooler. And even though you knew Mr. Dameron wouldn’t be mad if he found you sneaking into his son’s room, because you and Poe were together most of the time anyway since forever, you didn’t want him to interrupt your attempt to apologize to your friend.
You carefully slid the window open, your eyes attempting to adjust to the darkened room within but there was no light this evening, even the stars were hidden by clouds that threatened rain you knew wouldn’t come for another day at least. You were gazing in the direction of where you knew his bed was, so when hands shot out to grab you from almost right in front of you, you couldn’t help the squeak you let out, still desperate to be quiet, before promptly falling backwards. You wondered if you were about to break your arm again, and it had only just healed the month before. Kriff.
Thankfully Poe had already grabbed your waist, his hands gripping tighter when you lost your balance before he pulled you through his window with a grunt, both of you tumbling down due to the force he’d used to ensure you didn’t fall. Landing clumsily on top of him with a thud, you both froze in the dark, listening for any sounds from downstairs.
You waited a few minutes, heart pounding in your ears, wishing you could at least see Poe’s face but it was too dark, you could only make out the faint outline of him. You could tell he was looking up at you, but that was about it. Feeling confident Mr. Dameron was still fast asleep, you shuffled off of Poe, only his hands were still gripping your waist, so you ended up kneeling right next to him.
“Poe?” You whispered, moving a hand down to pat the back of one of his, “I think we’re good-sorry, I wanted to-“
Poe’s angry sigh halted your words in their tracks, and you felt his fingers flex before he released you and moved away. After a pause, light from a small lamp bathed the room in a low, golden glow and your best friend came into view, standing a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I heard your apology the first time, (y/n),” He hissed, and you hated the way he said your name, that he even said it at all when you were used to him only referring to you as ‘sweetheart’. “Breaking in to say it again doesn’t really-“
You had climbed to your feet, dusting off your knees before glaring up at Poe, “Fine, I won’t apologize again. But I’m not leaving until you talk to me, tell me how I can fix this.”
Poe ran a hand wearily over his face, not meeting your eyes. Guilt and shame and sadness were all that you felt these past several days as Poe actively avoided you, refused to even look at you, because of what you’d said. And you hadn’t meant it, you really didn’t, it just slipped out in a moment of heated disagreement and you wished you could eat the words back up before you’d fully finished speaking. The look he’d given you...
“I don’t know, I just need some time,” He grumbled, still not looking at you. You took a half step closer, hoping to draw his gaze. Disappointed when he only frowned harder and kept his eyes on the wall. “I know you’re sorry, but you still fucking said it.”
“And I have no excuse for it, Poe, I was out of line. I was angry and I wanted to just...”
“You wanted to hurt me.” He finished, and you were shaking your head violently because that wasn’t it, it really wasn’t.
“No, no that’s not why,” You breathed, tears threatening but you swallowed them back, blinking, “You’ve just been so weird lately, and you wouldn’t tell me why so I lost myself and wanted a...a reaction, something, from you.”
Poe’s eyes locked on yours then and you felt yourself shrink inward at the coldness within them, “You said my mother would be ashamed of me. Out loud, to my face. Because I wasn’t explaining why I’ve been moody-which by the way, if you thought about it you’d fucking realize why-so that was your solution?”
His voice had raised only a fraction, a whisper yell in the dim room, yet he might as well have been screaming at you. You deserved for him to rage and yell because you had said that. In a stupid, selfish moment, after weeks of odd behaviour from Poe and another fruitless attempt to ask him what was going on, you’d said his mother would be ashamed of him for shutting you out. You hated yourself for saying it.
You grappled with yourself, struggling to find words and Poe jumped on your silence to continue speaking. “I forget sometimes that you’re just a kid, a silly, spoiled little girl who gets her way all the time,” His words cut through the air like little knives, driving straight into your chest, “But in the real world, when you say mean shit like that you can’t always just bat your pretty lashes and say you’re sorry. Words have consequences, you fucking brat.”
You bristled, despite having known when you decided to come here tonight and beg for forgiveness that he might lash out, you weren’t prepared for Poe to talk down to you like this. Little girl. Spoiled. Brat. Was that really how he saw you?
Was he really going to leave to join the Resistance and you’d never see him again?
“Fuck you,” You gasped, pain lancing your heart as you glared up at your best friend, “You don’t talk to me like that, Poe Dameron. I said a shitty, horrible thing to you and I didn’t mean it and I’ve been trying to apologize, that doesn’t give you the right to speak to me like this. You’re calling me the kid when you-you’re acting like an angry little boy?”
Poe dropped his crossed arms, his mouth opening in fury as he stepped toward you, and you were ready for the fight, for the words to start flowing between you both as whatever the fuck was going on lately seemed to bubble up and over. But the dim lighting of the room left a lot of shadows and darkness, and his sudden movement toward you startled you. You couldn’t help it, you flinched, visibly and almost bone jarringly. You flinched away from Poe, one hand half raising in front of yourself defensively.
And the fight in Poe, that fire and passion, it was out in an instant. Like you had flipped a switch and all the power was sucked from the room. For a moment, he stood frozen in mid-motion, gaping at you as you straightened from your defensive stance, and you shook your head to organize your thoughts, wanting to just apologize again and leave. But he was looking at you so intensely now that you felt like you couldn’t move; like he’d pinned you with his horrified expression.
“Are you-?” His voice almost broke, and he didn’t try to clear it, merely lowered the pitch, “Are you scared of me?”
You wanted to shake your head, but your brain was still processing the shocked look he was giving you, the colour rising to his cheeks as emotion seemed to overwhelm him. Poe looked utterly wrecked at that moment, and even though you knew he needed to hear you speak, to assure him that of course, you weren’t scared of him, the sudden movement and looming shadow on the wall had simply caught you off guard, you couldn’t bring yourself to fucking speak.
“Sweetheart, fuck, I’m so sorry, please don’t be afraid,” He gasped out, holding up both hands slowly, palms facing you, “I would never-shit, sweet, beautiful girl, please don’t be afraid of me, please I’m sorry, I’m so so-“
You cut him off as he started to nearly sob, convinced you were scared of him, that you thought he might hurt you. “Poe, no, I’m not scared!” Regaining the use of your brain, you stumbled forward and threw yourself against Poe’s chest, gripping the soft tee he’d worn to bed, your face pressed over his heart. “I was just startled, I’m not scared of you, I could never be scared of you.”
You could hear his heart hammering away in his chest, feel how tense he was, his hands hovering in the air behind you. His voice was so quiet when he spoke that if you hadn’t had your head so close against him, you wouldn’t have heard.
“I would never hurt you, fuck, I wouldn’t try to intimidate you. I’m sorry I was going to stand closer so I-I could yell without waking dad up, so stupid...” The sob that had been threatening him tore out, crushing your heart a little.
He was ridiculous because you’d know him your whole life and you knew he wasn’t the type of man to physically harm or scare anyone. Sure, he’d been in his share of fistfights, but even you knew he was usually throwing a punch in response, and these last few months he’d been relatively cool-headed, a sign of his maturity.
You pressed your body closer to his before lifting your head to look up at him. Poe was still not touching you, and he was looking across the room unseeingly as he blinked back tears, his expression tense and upset. With slow movements, you reached up to stroke along his jaw, your hand pausing when you first touched him, your heart rate picking up a little when his eyes closed at your touch. You stroked more than the usual three times, repeating the action until his body relaxed against yours, continuing until his hands tentatively moved, one settling on your waist and the other raising to cup your face.
You stood like that for a long moment, your fingers still trailing the familiar path of his stubble, drinking in the way his expression, eyes still closed, softened for you.
“I know you wouldn’t ever hurt me, Poe,” You whispered, “That’s why I’m fucking wrecked that I hurt you. If you don’t want to see me anymore...I understand, I crossed the line like an idiot. Our friendship has always been the most important thing to me and I overstepped and I’m sorry, you’re right that I’m just a stupid little-“
“Stop,” Though it was low, whispered into the room, the command behind the word was enough to silence you and you gazed at Poe in surprise. He looked at you then, and you delighted at the expression he had, so filled with love and care. “I forgive you, I know you didn’t mean it. I saw your face right as you said it...we just, we both got too worked up. We keep doing that, I think because we know Charlie and I leave in less than a year.”
You nodded in agreement, the small movement making you suddenly very aware of how tightly pressed against Poe you were. He was still holding your face gently, but the hand on your waist was gripping you in a way the suggested he felt the proximity as well. You took a shuddering breath, “I love you, Poe. I’m sorry.”
He dropped his head to rest his forehead against yours, his eyes fluttering half shut, and the weirdest thought suddenly cropped up in your head. The most absurd notion that you could easily tilt your head and press your lips to his. You remained still, but couldn’t help but stare at his soft lips as he spoke.
“I love you too, sweetheart,” The hand on your waist clutched you closer, which you hadn't thought was possible, “And I promise I would never hurt you, never lay a finger on you or say something awful that I meant, never. Nothing could ever, ever make me hurt you, sweet, lovely girl.”
You closed your eyes, unable to trust yourself to resist kissing him when he spoke to you like that, his words coated in the deep, suddenly husky tone of voice. And you couldn’t rid those thoughts as he led you over to his bed and you cuddled against him, ready to sleep but your heart thrumming away as you imagined what it would be like to kiss him, your Poe.
What would it be like to be with him, to touch him, to-and you really blushed now, grateful he’d shut the light back off and his light snores were filling the room-feel him hard for you...you’d never been with a guy before, not like that. You’d had some steamy make-out sessions, groped and fondled with cute guys...but the idea of your Poe coming undone for you...
Well, that was suddenly an idea that you were completely unaware would have such an intense impact on you. You let the images play out in your mind for a moment before taking a deep breath and pushing them back and down, convincing yourself it was just a reaction to the adrenaline, the high emotions. Poe’s grip on you tightened in his sleep, and you snuggled closer to lay your head over his heart and listen to the steady beat.
Word travelled quickly around base that Rush Derrin had been beaten up by a pilot; the surprising thing was, at least to you, that the pilot in question was you and not Poe. Apparently, Poe scrapping on the floor with Rush wasn’t nearly as interesting or exciting as the story of how you’d tackled Rush, moved to your feet and drawn your blaster on him in one swift motion.
You had grown used to the quiet greetings over the months you’d been on D’Qar, and enjoyed the last few weeks of friendlier hello’s that cropped up in response to your rekindled friendship with Poe, but the tale of your no-nonsense, ego stripping attack on the rude Healer seemed to blast you into the same orbit Poe had been in as the ever-popular poster boy for the Resistance.
Everyone said hello, no matter where you went or the time of day. Ana sought you out the afternoon after to tell you that all the mechanics were raving about how they thought you were snobbish, and now realized you were, in fact, a silent badass. As embarrassing as it all was, it was nothing compared to Poe’s response to your new status.
He was insatiable, eagerly and proudly telling anyone who would listen-and it seemed everyone did want to listen-his first-hand account of watching you tackle Rush. Of how you’d coldly told him off as you followed your professional directive-protect your Commander, no matter the threat. Your shoulders were starting to ache from the number of times he’d clapped his hands over them, rooting you to the spot so that you couldn’t escape the latest admirers, gripping you because he really was proud, really meant everything he said.
“Okay, seriously,” You breathed when you finally broke free from a group of younger pilots, Poe laughing at your side in amusement at your reaction. “Commander, I may have protected you but I can just as easily go ahead and kick you in the-"
“Ah, come on now sweetheart, you wouldn’t do that,” He laughed, a playful arm dropping around your shoulder. Your insides had started reacting to every single touch, lingering or not, that Poe gave you. Which had been happening a lot lately. And it didn’t help matter that he’d look at you the night of his fight with Rush like you had told him you’d hung the moon just for him. You couldn’t shake the memory of the way he’d gazed at you as you sat frozen, inches away.
“Don’t be so sure,” You grumbled, allowing him to lead you to the hangar, “I now have to hope that if either of us gets seriously injured Rush isn’t the Healer on call, because I doubt he’d be much help now.” You noticed then that even though you were still passing people, and those people were smiling at you, no one had stopped you or spoken to either you or Poe.
Confused, you frowned up at Poe, intending to ask him, but the words died on your tongue.
No one was stopping you because they didn’t want to interrupt Commander Dameron and Major Horn, happily wrapped around each other, looking exactly like a love-struck couple. You were sure that a previous version of yourself, the one who existed years and years ago, would have quickly sprung out of Poe’s reach and laughed awkwardly, made an excuse to run to the fresher. Instead, a feeling grew inside of you that felt a lot like...
Possession. But that wasn’t right, was it?
Poe wasn’t yours, not like that. It was almost like there were two parts of you reacting to the increasing touches; the part that enjoyed the familiarity of his affection, and a part that starved for more and grew hungrier every time it was fed. It made it hard, impossible even, to sort through your real feelings for Poe. Because you did love him, you did feel yourself flush at the idea that others were viewing you as a couple, and yet...the path of your thoughts seemed to reroute itself constantly, focusing on the physical and craving more of it.
Maybe this was your problem before, you couldn’t admit to yourself how you felt toward Poe and it ended up being twisted up until Charlie died. You’d admitted to yourself that the biggest reason you’d fled was that you had realized, all those years ago, that you were in love with Poe. Was that what this was now? Old feelings slamming back home with startling intensity?
Then why could you only focus on his hands on you, if that was the case?
He’d noticed you’d gone quiet and came to a sudden halt in the empty hall, glancing down at you curiously, his eyes darker than normal. You felt his arm hold you a little tighter, the hand on your shoulder gripping almost too hard.
It felt really good.
Fuck, what the fuck.
“Sweetheart?” He searched your face, brows pinching in confusion.
Feeling a little dazed, you shook your head to clear your mind, keenly aware that there was no space between your bodies, that you could press up against him easily. And you were warm, actually. Really, really warm.
“Sorry,” You murmured, forcing yourself to give him a placating little grin, “Just...a little overwhelmed, I think.” You admitted, conceding a partial truth that you knew would suffice.
Instantly, his expression softened and he was backing up, pulling you with him until he was leaning against the wall. He spread his feet apart and pulled you to stand between them, his hands moving to cup your face gently as he looked down at you with kind eyes. You think you stopped breathing. You think he did too. He seemed surprised at his actions.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been teasing you for days,” He sighed after a pause, one thumb absentmindedly stroking your cheek. You were going to combust or pass out, or maybe just evaporate on the spot. “Good news is, I’m pretty sure the General has another mission that’ll take us out of this parsec for a day or two. Should give everyone enough time to move on.” His other hand moved from your face to brush back a few stray hairs, his eyes following the movement hungrily. They were darker still.
There was a familiarity in that darkness.
“That-that’s uh, good,” You stammered, your eyes moving everywhere except to meet his. You were afraid of what he’d see if he looked directly at you. Of what you’d see...but you didn’t understand why you were afraid.
You just got Poe back, you weren’t fucking this up. Get it together, get it together, breathe...
“I know I don’t need to ask,” His voice was low, the timbre shooting straight to your core, “But are you okay to fly, because you seem a little out of it.” His voice sounded wrecked, like it was painful to be speaking.
You nodded hastily, pressing your hands into his abdomen for some unknown reason. You could feel the muscle under his shirt, hell you could remember what it felt like to touch those muscles, to drag your tongue along the surprisingly soft skin, before...before...
Oh fuck.
You think you realized what was happening a moment before it was too late to react, your brain opting to shut down as pleasure ripped through your body with a ferocity that knocked you clean over. With a shuddering moan, you collapsed into Poe as your orgasm rocked through you, unable to speak now as wave after wave turned you into a whimpering mess. He caught you, his face confused even as he unknowingly rutted his hips against you and started trembling.
“What-?” He got a good look at your face then and realization dawned, his expression twisting in horror. “Oh shit, shit,” He groaned, clutching you harder against him and you heard him breathe out your name, equal parts fear and desire colouring his tone before he sunk to his knees, bringing you down with him, and his body stilled.
His orgasm tore through him just as violently, the only thing he could think to do was nuzzle his head into your neck and hide his face as he came. You were limp, your body jerking and convulsing as the high never ended, it seemed to hold at its peak and just drag you along for the ride, unwillingly. In the very back of your mind, you recognized that what was happening was, undoubtedly, an aftereffect to the pollen you’d been exposed to weeks prior. The nightly dreams, subsequent orgasms, the way fire licked up your spine at every touch from Poe...it made sense, and if you weren’t currently trying to keep yourself and Poe quiet as you each came, you’d probably be feeling like a first-class idiot for not reporting the exposure.
“Fuck,” You whimpered pitifully, clinging to Poe for life. You felt another hand on your shoulder suddenly and registered a voice saying your name. It took a few moments to find enough clarity to look up, blinking through the haze to find Temmin standing over you both, his expression frantic with concern.
“Major, (y/n), tell me what’s happening, talk to me here!”
“T-Temmin...we, we were exposed on our, shit,” You had to pause as your orgasm seemed to notch up another level, dropping your head to hide your face against Poe’s. “Mission. Red fertility plant, help, oh maker please help!” You cried out, the burning and heat threatening to undo you completely, no longer overwhelmed with lust but now a high that seemed too far for humans, your heart hammering in your chest like it wanted to break out, run away from you and abandon your trembling body as you burned.
You slumped over, distantly aware of Temmin roaring for medics, but determined to bring your focus to Poe, who was now holding you too tightly. You realized he was speaking into your neck, and you had to tilt your head awkwardly to hear. Your vision was narrowing now, but you could hear him perfectly.
“I can’t hurt you again, don’t let me hurt her, please make it stop.” He repeated this plea over and over, and it was the only thing you could hear as your eyes began to close, as other hands were on you, pulling him away and you fought to keep him close until the heat became too much and a sudden stinging cool hit your arm and you were falling, down and into an unknown abyss, your last thoughts swirling in your head louder than any voice around you.
‘Don’t let me hurt him again, please don’t let me hurt Poe again...’
Temmin paced the med-bay waiting area frantically, waiting for an update from the Healers on both the Commander and Major’s statuses. He’d been leaving the hangar when he found them in the hallway, clinging to one another as they seemed to convulse with pain, and it had fucking terrified him. It had made some sense when you’d be able to gasp out an explanation that you’d each been exposed to a fertility plant during your mission. But he didn’t have any room to be embarrassed that you were both essentially having orgasms in front of him because you looked so scared and confused and Poe’s words were stuck in his brain now.
“Please don’t let me hurt her again, make it stop, I can’t hurt her, she’s everything to me, please make it stop...”
While he knew he was a less emotional sort of man, Temmin wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Poe and you were soulmates who’d been through some seriously dark shit. That you just needed to work through it all to find your way back to one another. And apparently, you had started the process-finally-during your classified mission. He had been overjoyed at the change in your interactions with one another, that you seemed to be friends again, at least.
But he’d also noticed the weird reactions you both had to some of his more inappropriate teasing, seen how you would both flush and change the subject and he thought at first that maybe you had started dating again, only something seemed off. You had become increasingly more wound up over the weeks, and Poe had appeared to turn inward more and more, as though his thoughts were so intense he was trying to conceal them with every fibre of his being from everyone.
You had only mentioned a suspicious plant in your reports from your mission. It had been with dawning horror, as he screamed for Healers, that Temmin understood you’d mentioned the flowers because you’d been exposed. That whatever had happened upon exposure had been so bad that neither you nor Poe wanted to include it in your reports.
“Captain?” A Healer came out from the back, a soothing expression on her face that told him you at least weren’t dead.
He hurried forward nonetheless, “Maker, Healer Brooks, please tell me they’re going to be alright!”
Did you enjoy this chapter? Consider leaving a comment or reblogging to ease my inner turmoil as a writer. Thank you 🤍
@mermaidxatxheart @foxilayde @eleinemk @paintballkid711 @mylifeisactuallyamess @20th-centu-fairy-girl @deitysnips @cannedsoupsucks @ubri812 @poedameronloverx @hoeforthefictional @astrological-bitch @itsnottilly @its-djarin @alex-sulli
175 notes · View notes
thran-duils · 3 years
Text
Total Eclipse (P.1)
Title: Total Eclipse (Part One) Summary: Fem!Reader x Sherlock Holmes (RDJ). Sherlock had an impression on the reader from a formative age but he was always so busy running with cases. Their moments of passions were coveted between the two but they were few and far between. He left with Watson on a case and in that time, her parents found her a suitable man to give her to. Wealthy and accomplished. Sherlock and her have not been able to let go of each other though. Words: 1,816 Warnings (for the whole fic): Angst, infidelity, smut, swearing, substance abuse, non liner storyline, character death, 18+ as always Author’s Note: more warnings may be added for other chapters. As always, 18+. Also, the song inspo is def Total Eclipse of the Heart but its the Blvck Ceiling remix!
Part Two || Masterpost (mobile) || Fanfic masterpost
Tumblr media
The carriage came to a stop outside the glove shop in front of you. It matched the description on the note that had mysteriously found its way into your cosmetics bag at home last night. And as the note had said, the gloves you picked up were already paid for. A practical gift from an absurdly practical man. One you could easily explain away to your husband as a gift he had simply given to you that he had forgotten that he had. He gifted items to you so often, it would not be hard to have this small token pass under his radar. Small to him but it was a symbol of a large wedge in your marriage, and it would always be.
The door opened and Sherlock was leaning out, smiling coyly. “May I offer you a ride, ma’am?”
“Do you even know where I am going?”
“Well, no. But if you would tell me…” You kept your face neutral at his toying and told him the address. He smiled broadly and said, “What a coincidence. I am heading that way and it looks like it might rain…” He turned his eyes skyward. It was cloudy. What a coincidence indeed. There was playfulness in his eyes as he pressed, “Ma’am?”
Sighing, you took his hand and let him help you into the carriage. He swung the door closed and tapped the wall behind him. The carriage took off.
“My, I’m pleased I was able to assist you,” Sherlock started cordially. “That is quite a lovely gown. Persian silk, is it not?”
“It is,” you answered stiffly.
You hated the games he played. He was going to pick you apart just for his own amusement now. Comment on all your riches simply because he had such a keen eye for everything with his travels and his intellect. And also because he liked you to remember how intelligent he was; it was something about him that had drawn you in in the first place. It still impressed you but now you knew it was him simply being petty more than anything. He wanted you and he wanted it badly. He was superior to your husband intellectually and always would be, something that would eat away at you. And besides intellect… Sherlock knew how to work your body like a well-tuned clock. This was foreplay for him. Assessing everything that had been going on with you in his absence since your last tussle in the sheets.
“Hmm. What lengths your family or husband must have gone to to acquire that fabric. You must really be special. Or they’re just woefully arrogant about their wealth.”
You shot him a disapproving look and he merely smirked briefly.
“I think it’s the latter personally. But what do I know? I haven’t seen you for four months.”
“Yes. What do you know?” you quipped.
“How is your son?” he returned quickly.
“With the nanny.”
“How aristocratic.”
“You never wanted children,” you told him tightly, getting tired of his questioning.
You knew why you were here. He was jealous still, even more so that you had had a child. And especially a child that was not his. He had been on a case across Europe at the time of conception… leaving no doubt about the father. But he was here now, wanting what he always wanted. A piece of you.
The two of you grasped at whatever pieces of the other you could get to hold close.
“Presumptive. We don’t know each other,” Sherlock replied, shooting you a look. You glared back and he merely simpered in response. “You look tired of the games.”
“I can’t even begin to describe how tired I am.”
The shades were drawn immediately by him, leaving the two of you in almost total darkness.
He was on you in a second and he pulled you close. “And how lonely?”
“Did you really shut yourself inside for four months?” you hissed back at him, as his hands played with the buttons of your bodice. “You are one to talk about loneliness! Watson told me!”
“I was only inside for two,” Sherlock responded lightly, as if that made it any better. “I had a case I did. But… two months inside was nothing. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? And why is Watson tattling to you?”
His hands were running up your sides, holding you close. His breath was hot, and he was coming in quickly. He claimed your mouth with his, the kiss deep and passionate. His tongue slipped past your lips, swirling and you responded in like. The two of you were panting with the intensity, hands grasping tightly on each other.
Sherlock managed to pull you down to the floor of the carriage and you hit him in protest. “My skirts! The dirty floor!”
“Say you fell. Make up a story of a heroic war hero – think of Watson for inspiration – helped you up off the cobble stone. It’ll make a great dinner story,” Sherlock spoke in hushed tones as he turned you around.
Your hands hit the opposite seat, chest planted firmly against it. Your heart was beating loudly in anticipation of the pleasure you were about to engage in. And the excitement that you truly could be caught at any moment if the carriage stopped for any reason.
Sherlock’s lips were at your neck, kissing up earnestly. He sucked deeply and you knew to let him; he knew the rules. He would never suck hard enough to leave a mark. No matter how much he wanted to. He nipped at your ear before circling back down; you turned your head to let him pull you back into a kiss.
He took this distracted opportunity to pull away, leaving you in a haze as he pushed your skirts up. You had done specifically as he liked and he was impressed.
“No undergarments,” Sherlock commented quietly his hands gripping the sides of your ass. “That’s very inappropriate and screams hussy in society. But… it’s very appropriate for me. I’m just delighted.”
“Will you get on with it?” You said impatiently. He always spoke so much and at the most inopportune time.
He chortled at you. “Always rushing. It’s what got you into your marriage in the first place, my love.”
His fingers traced. Running down between your thighs and pressing your legs open as you huffed indignantly at his rude comment. He always had to talk down about the situation you had found yourself in as a woman, no less. He knew why you had given in and still!
“And the fact—oh!” You gasped loudly at the last.
Sherlock’s fingers had dipped into your folds. He laughed quietly and warned you.
“Quiet now, dear. I paid the driver for discretion about who was in the carriage. Not discretion about any gossip he might hear. We should hurry it up though. We’ve taken three turns which means there are only four left. About fifteen minutes.”
Sometimes it paid off how perceptive he was but it still annoyed you right now when all you wanted to do was get off.
“How I wish I could turn around and sink onto you. That would ensure this would be done quickly,” you hissed at him.
You felt him at your entrance immediately and he pushed in. You groaned and he did in turn too. He filled you to the brim and sat stationary for just a moment, seeming to cherish the feeling before pulling out and setting himself a good pace. You pressed back onto him and one of his arms came to hold you tight across your chest. He still laid sloppy kisses along your exposed skin at your neck as he fucked you.
“Another turn,” you said sarcastically, just to rile him up.
And it worked.
He increased his pace in response, driving deeper. You lost your breath, fingers digging into the carriage seat as his teeth sunk in slightly. Bastard. He was pressing the rules just to teach you a lesson to be quiet and let him work.
His hand slipped back down to toy at your nub and your breath quickened.
Sherlock’s hand slapped across your mouth in anticipation. You hated he could read you so damn well. You moaned against his hand, your cunt clenching around his cock. His fingers dug in on your cheek, struggling to hold your pleasure in as you came undone as you were drawing it out of him with your tightness. He grunted loudly, sputtering. And then he was spasming just like you.
The third turn. The two of you felt and you were away from each other in a messy way. You pulled yourself back up onto the seat, touching at your hair. No, that was fine. He was always careful to not mess that up unless you two were spending the night together.
Across from you, Sherlock straightened at his waist coat. “The ball two days from now—” he started to say.
“It’s a masquerade.” You straightened your skirts out and sad back down on the carriage seat opposite him. You pressed them down further and did not miss the amused expression on his face.
“I’m quite aware, darling. Perfect opportunity.”
“For you to greet everyone? Come out of your shell?” you returned.
A smirk tugged at his lips. “Watson told me I should.”
“I’m telling you that you should.”
“And that is enough.”
He had a sincere look in his eyes.
In your tryst, the rain truly had started to fall, a steady beat on the top of the carriage.
You had only been married for less than two years. And god, how you wished it was to him. But that was never to be.
The carriage came to its final turn and your house was so close. Your big… big house. It was so empty. The two of you were locked in a gaze just as the carriage came to a stop.
Swallowing sharply, you grabbed your purse off the bench beside you and said loudly, “Thank you for your courtesy. My husband would have been angry if this silk had been ruined in the rain.”
“You better run quick since there’s no butler here to greet you.”
“Ass,” you snapped, and he smiled again. You hated his smug smile so much, but you cherished seeing it too all the same. You climbed out, reluctantly taking his hand to help.
“You didn’t even say ‘welcome back’.”
He was actually pouting.
“You’ve already made yourself at home, dear,” you quipped.
You slammed the carriage door in his face and heard him chuckle from inside.
Turning, you went up the pathway quickly to the gate and threw it open, not bothering to look back. You knew you would see him again at the ball. The light rain was no bother.
~~~
Marvel tags: @coconutqueen21 @undecidedsworld @holl2712 @agustdowney  @biiskuitx @buttercupfangirl
also @mcnegan​ if you are interested haha!
(THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I’LL USE THE MARVEL TAG, OTHERWISE I’LL TAG SPECIFIC PEOPLE AFTER THIS SINCE IT IS NOT MARVEL, AND JUST AN RDJ CHARACTER! If you wanna be tagged, let me know! :D)
75 notes · View notes
seekingseven · 3 years
Note
All I would like to request is Legend and Sky hanging out, maybe being friends. Also, love you lots Seeking! Hope you're taking care of yourself and having a good day. It's what you deserve ^u^
Linked Universe Prompt Requests #3!
First of all, I appreciate you so much, Silver! And second, here you go!
(You can also read the fic here on Ao3)
~~~~~~
Legend leaned against his kitchen counter, chin in his palm and nose scrunched against the breeze leaking through the window.
"Foul ball, that was a foul ball!"
"Wha- no it wasn't! You can't call a foul ball whenever we score!"
Warriors and Twilight glowered at each other. On the far side of the backyard, Wind dribbled a spotted ball between his ankles and made small talk with Wild, who was trying to wipe away the sweat pooling under his arms with the end of his ponytail.  Legend scrunched his nose in disgust. Apparently the champion's bright idea to host a ball game in the hottest hour of the afternoon had come back to bite him.
His focus drifted over to the other side of his backyard, where Hyrule stood forlornly between two wooden posts. His team's poor excuse for a goal, most likely.
"You tried to trip me!"
"I did not! Stop whining, would you? If you wanted to win you should have learned the rules of the game beforehand."
"Cut me some slack, Twi. It's my first time playing!"
"Not an excuse. If you wanted to learn you could have just stayed inside with Sky and Legend or gone to the market with Four!"
Warriors took a few quick steps forward. Twilight stood his ground and puffed up his chest.
"That's enough, you two." Time said, voice snapping from his spot on a nearby bench. Legend grunted. What kind of referee watched from a bench? This was why there was an argument happening in the first place.
Behind him, the kettle began to whistle. Legend pushed himself off his elbows and turned to shut off the stove top, only partially ignoring the sounds of athletic revelry from the backyard. Porcelain clinked as Legend pulled a cup off the drying rack, then, glancing across the room, pulled off another.
If Sky was bothered by any of the commotion outside or the domestic ambience inside, he didn't show it. Instead, he sat at a table by the porch window, filing idly through the mounds of miscellaneous letters and trinkets piled around him. An overhead cuckoo clock wheedled out a dinky tune as Sky scrutinized an oddly-shaped mask.
"Coffee?" Legend asked.
Sky looked up from the table, then smiled.
"Yes, please!"
"Wrong, it's tea. What kind do you want?"
Sky's eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he caught on.
"Oh, haha! You got me. Uh, I don't really know. Surprise me."
Legend nodded to himself as he poured the kettle into the two cups. "You like sweet stuff?"
"Yeah, big fan. Can't drink anything too hot, though. Hurts my face. You got any iced tea or something?"
Steam plumed from the cups. Legend let out a small snort.
"Would have been nice to know that earlier."
Sky scratched the back of his neck and had the decency to offer up an apologetic smile. With a roll of his eyes, Legend set the kettle down and hoisted himself onto the kitchen counter.
He knew he stored the ice cubes in one of the overhead cabinets, but which one? Cabinets opened and closed as Legend balanced precariously on the countertop. Where was it? Had he really been gone so long that he didn't know where his own things were?
"Hey Legend, what's this?"
Paper rustled. The legs of Sky's chair squeaked as he leaned back, and in the corner of his eye Legend saw his companion hold something up to his face.
"Little busy here," Legend mumbled, closing yet another cabinet full of pots and pans. Maybe he should give some to Ravio; the guy needed some things for his new place, anyway. "Can you describe it to me?"
A snicker, then a stifled sound of agreement. Legend would have turned around to glare at Sky if he wasn't busy gloating over his find; the ice, at last! The countertop groaned as Legend plopped the bag of ice atop it and hopped onto the floor.
"It's a letter," Sky began, his voice uncharacteristically suave. Legend's eyes narrowed. "It's in this little pink envelope, and there's a little heart sticker on it. Says on the back....'from Elise.' Oh ho ho! Who's Elise? And there's another one here! This one's white, and it has a flower sticker on the lip. Very, very cute. Is this from Elise, too? Let me see...oh goddesses! 'From Carmen!' Carmen! Now tell me, does Elise know about this Carmen?"
Sky looked up at him with an impossibly smug grin. Legend pressed the corners of his lips down as he pulled out the rest of the ingredients for the tea.
"They're just girls," Legend began. "Just-"
"Just girls? What kind of philosophy is that? And to think you criticize Warriors for his womanizing tendencies..."
"You didn't let me finish! They're just girls who work at the bakery in Castle Town. I don't know how they got my address, but one day they all started sending me letters like that."
Sky's eyebrows piqued upwards. It might have looked innocent if not for the devious smile on his face.
"Oh, I see. So why did you keep them? Elise and Carmen must have been very sorry to have not received any response," Sky said, rifling through the stack of pink and red and crème colored letters and flipping them over to read the names on the back. Legend pretended he didn't see Sky's grin widen. "And I'm guessing the same is true for poor Lisa...and Donatella...and Trish..."
It was a good thing that Legend was preoccupied with measuring out sugar and honey, because if he had been any closer to the ice cubes, they might have melted from the heat radiating off Legend's face.
"I'm serious, Sky! I don't know any of them. I don't know why they kept sending the letters -- I never even gave them my address! I mean, I'm sure they're all really nice girls, but I'm just not, you know, in the position to be in a relationship right now...with the traveling and heroics and all that..."
Silverware clattered as Legend pulled open a drawer and retrieved a fruit knife. The sound of shouting and running echoed from outside. Light streamed through the kitchen window, and the breeze pushed along dust bunnies on the floor. Sky studied Legend, watching with unusual intensity as the latter skinned and diced a peach, then folded his hands behind his head.
"Fine, fine. But one more question, then."
Legend made a vague sound that could have been read as either grateful or irritated; most likely, it was a combination of both. Sky pushed forward anyway.
"Why'd you keep them?"
"What?"
"The cards. Why did you keep them? Did you just not have a chance to throw them away or something?"
"Throw them away? Of course not! Did you see the paper they're made of? That sort of high quality cardstock doesn't come from just anywhere! If I can find a way to bleach the paper without damaging it, I can use it for all sorts of things!"
Sky snorted, smiled, and tossed a handful of pink cards back onto the table. Hoarder, indeed.
"I think that Ravio friend of yours is starting to rub off on you."
"He is not," Legend insisted, placing a spoon and straw in both cups before walking over to the table. Only after Sky brushed away the cards in front of him did Legend hand him his tea. "He would have tried to sell them off as antiques or something. Guy wouldn't know what a real antique was even if it was staring him in the face."
Sky hummed. The sound bubbled into his tea and set little capsules of air drifting across the frothy surface. "Hey, did you put peaches in this?"
"Yeah, you like it?"
Outside, Warriors cried foul and Hyrule said something about headshots. Sky sipped his drink again, then grinned. "Mmmm, delicious. Yeah, I love it! Give me the recipe sometime, huh?"
"Heh, will do. Glad you like it."
"And speaking of Ravio, where is he? Didn't you say he used to squat here?"
Legend nodded, hands cupped around his drink and goosebumps flaring from its soothing coolness. "He did, but he just moved out. Got his own shop by the castle, with a big nice sign out in front. Professionally made. It looks pretty good, honestly. I haven't seen him in a while, but I might drop by sometime to say hi."
"Ah, I see," Sky said, absently threading one of the love letters through his fingers. Legend shot him a dirty glare, but he paid it no mind. "Hey, you said that these girls somehow figured your address, right? Do you think Ravio might have given it out? Maybe while you were gone or something?"
"Ravio? That's ridiculous. He's not the sort of guy to do that. For the longest time he's been telling me to...to..."
Legend's eyes widened. The goosebumps along his arms grew more pronounced, and this time it wasn't from his chilly drink.
"He what?" Sky prompted.
"He's been telling me to get a girlfriend for the longest time and...he...he set me up. He set me up! He gave out my address to those girls. I know it! He...this is his fault!"
Sky burst into laughter. Tea sprayed across the table, splattering across rose-colored envelopes and sparkling cardstock. Legend punched him in the shoulder, hard, but Sky didn't stop.
"Ravio! Ravio as your wingman, I would have never thought! Doing the goddesses' work, he is!"
"Oh, shut up, would you? I'm not going to make you tea again!"
Their punching and tousling cooled when the front door swung open. A moment later, Four stepped inside, arms laden with groceries and a peculiar grin on his face.
"You're back!" Sky said. Legend mumbled something about Sky stating the obvious before placing his cup to his cheek, trying to smother his burning blush.
"Sorry to interrupt whatever was going on here," Four said. That odd smile was still on his face. "I’m just about to put all these groceries away, but there's something I need to give to Legend first."
"Me?" Legend asked. Four's grin widened; it looked unnervingly similar to the one Sky had worn just minutes ago.
"Yes, special delivery. From a certain 'Amelia'. It's the red box, yeah, that one."
Legend picked up the box gently, sandwiching it between his forearm and bicep, and shuddered. Sky and Four traded a sidelong look before the latter darted off into the kitchen.
"Well? What do you think it is?" Sky asked.
"I don't want to know," Legend whispered. He took a seat by the table before tossing the box by his cup. Something rustled inside.
"Open it..."
"Open it!" Four chimed from the kitchen. His voice was unusually high.
With a world weary sigh, Legend edged his fingers under the box cover and slowly lifted it upwards.
"Well? What is it?"
"Wait, would you? I can't tell..."
Legend leaned forward, squinting.
His eyes widened.
With an undignified BANG, he slammed the box shut and launched it across the room. His face was stained a dangerous color of scarlet.
"...well?" Sky repeated, "what was it?"
Legend let out a short breath, then leaned over to cradle his head in his hands.
"...remind me to kill Ravio the next time I see him," he growled.
Sky and Four burst into laughter, and even Legend couldn't fully stifle a smile.
~~ Fine ~~ I hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much for reading! [Previous Request] - [Next Request]
65 notes · View notes
nightshade-minho · 3 years
Text
MOONSTORM [ iii ]
Tumblr media
You know that feeling when you know you’ve made a terrible mistake?
Yes. That feeling.
It’s a feeling that never really goes away. You had to learn that the hard way.
Irrevocable actions, stupid mistakes. You were heart-wrenchingly familiar with all of it.
To err was human apparently. You...weren’t human, though.
It seems like being superhuman was insignificant, after all. At the end of the day, nothing mattered. None of your powers did.
Despite it all, you still lost him.
Tumblr media
warnings: depressing shit (it gets better though dw) mentions of death, violence, sexual content, future smut
wc: 2.8k
moonstorm masterlist
Tumblr media
It felt like the world had lost all color.
It had happened so many months ago, and yet it still felt like it happened just yesterday. The memories of stumbling out of his lair, covered in his blood and your tears, still fresh in your mind.
The image of his face, betrayed and yet so calm as he uttered those last words to you...it haunted you constantly.
You found yourself looking at the moon every night, dreaming about what could have been. The nightmares endlessly plagued your sleep as well, causing you to fear even your own bed.
No...even after Hyunjin's effects on you wore off, your own brain took on the responsibility of torturing you by conjuring up more heartbreaking dreams. Dreams which made you long for something you knew you’d lost forever- never to be yours again.
You never truly realized how much you’d gotten used to having him around. Life was so glaringly empty and meaningless without him. It was a complicated relationship…and yet it still left a giant hole in you. An all-encompassing despair that threatened to swallow you up.
With him gone, it just didn’t feel right to be a superhero anymore. How could you be the strong role model for everyone in the city to rely on when you knew just how weak you’d become? Even when the newspapers were covered with your heroics, even as the mayor addressed the city and expressed his desire to give you a medal for stopping yet another supervillain from roaming the streets- you stubbornly refused to don that costume ever again.
You stayed hidden through it all. You just couldn’t bring yourself to go out in public anymore. Your vigilante costume lay forgotten in the back of your closet- crumpled and sad.
It just...felt wrong. At the moment you felt nothing but pathetic. You didn’t have time to waste saving a snotty kitten stuck on a tree or stop a petty criminal from robbing a bank- all you were fit to do was eat ice cream straight from the can, and watch a soulless movie. The same routine, day in and day out. You hadn’t left your apartment in nearly a month, not even to buy groceries. Every second was spent wrapped up in blankets, pondering what you’d done.
Was that selfish of you? Probably. You were discovering new flaws by the second.
Sighing, you sat up a little, your ass almost numb from how long you’d spent lying down. Glancing up, you saw your father’s portrait looking down at you. You swallowed and slowly stood up from your bed, groaning to yourself. Why did he suddenly seem so disappointed?
Maybe a little bit of fresh air is what you needed, considering you were starting to believe the paintings were changing expressions. After all, you had work to do anyway- might as well take advantage of the nearby café’s free WiFi.
***
Here at last.
You sat down in the corner of the café, so tired you could barely move a muscle. But you had to get a move on with your life- the recovery should have happened by now.
And yet here you were, months later. Nothing seemed to be able to fill the hole he left behind, and even now you wished you could go back home as soon as possible.
Had it...had it been a mistake?
Of course it had. Your misery was evidence, and you weren’t sure how much longer you could convince yourself that you’d done it for the good of the city.
The truth was... Hwang Hyunjin scared you.
He made you feel things, made you want to be someone else entirely. Every ounce of rigidity and austerity you’d imposed in yourself disappeared every time you were with him. He made you want to give everything up- give up all the responsibilities and burdens you carried on your shoulders to be with him. To be like him- free.
It wasn’t Hyunjin who was a threat to the city. No, not directly.
It was you- or rather the lack of you.
This city needed you to survive, and if Hyunjin managed to change you...it surely wouldn’t have lasted long without your help. Hyunjin had never really been the city’s biggest threat- there were far worse villains and it was them who you really fought against.
He was more of just an inconvenience, someone you had to deal with from time to time. And then he’d struck that deal- after which the nature of your relationship had turned into something entirely different.
Every time he acted up, it was usually just a ploy to get your attention. And attention was exactly what he got. You’d reinforced his behavior like an idiot.
You told yourself it was a chore, but it wasn’t all that convincing. You’d loved spending those nights in his bed, loved the way he was an expert at making you come undone with his body and his words.
It really had seemed like a good idea at the time. The right thing to do. However, it was quickly starting to seem like anything but.
You sighed as your mind tried its best not to travel back all those months. Dipping a teabag into the liquid, you mindlessly observed the customers in the cafe. Many of them were young, teenagers who were heading out before class.
You sighed as you recalled your own high school days, the times Hyunjin and you had hung out in a cafe much like this one.
“You don’t have to help me with this project, you know.”
“Ah, shush. It’s our final year. I’m not going to leave you alone.” He smiled as he flipped through his books, taking a sip of his coffee occasionally.
“You act like you’re not sticking to me like white on rice the rest of the year.” You roll your eyes, chuckling to yourself.
“Don’t get snippy with me, missy.” He smirked, still thumbing the pages nonchalantly. “Or I’ll have to punish you.”
“You- I- what?” You wouldn’t admit it, but the thought caused a fluttering sensation in more than one place. It was a little bit of a shock, considering the two of you had done nothing more than make out and flirt, until now.
“Chill. I’m kidding.” He shook his head, looking up at you. “Unless…” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Stop it! I’m supposed to be working right now.” You whined, swatting him with a rolled up paper.
“I don’t care.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Hm...do you know what I’m thinking of right now, Y/n?”
“W-what?”
“Thinking about how easy it would be to slip my fingers under your skirt and play with that pretty pussy of yours. I’m pretty sure it’s soaked your underwear through by now.”
Fuck.
Your cheeks flushed as you stared at your plate. You couldn’t find it in yourself to respond properly- his mere words had already turned you to a mess.
“S-shut up.” You mumbled, reading out formulas aloud as you tried to divert your attention from it. Hyunjin let out a teasing chuckle at your lame attempt to change the topic, shaking his head as he stared at his book again, unaware you were looking over your own at him, pressing your thighs together subtly.
God, he was so...so annoying.
You snapped out of it, sighing as you looked around at the much less crowded cafe. Had it always looked so dull? So lifeless?
The thought of him was hurtful- it felt like a dull knife, screwing itself into you. Reminding you what you’d done.
You’d killed the love of your life.
And now? There was no way to bring him back.
***
“Murder is never something a superhero should resort to. A good hero always stays true to themselves- they only kill if it’s absolutely necessary.”
A cough.
“But of course...villains are exempt from that rule. Killing one villain’s life could save countless others.”
Hm. You weren’t exactly sure if your father was right. Although you were just a child, you still had some knowledge of morality.
Was he? Killing just...seemed wrong. You didn’t know if you could bring yourself to do it, no matter how evil the person was.
“Surely there are other ways to neutralize someone evil, Father?”
He narrowed his eyes at you, before shaking his head coldly. “Untrue.”
“The truth is, some lives are expendable, my dear Y/n…” Another cough, before he cleared his throat and fixed his gaze back on you.
“You must always look for the greater good.”
***
You still remembered the day you first met Hyunjin.
He was 13, and you were just a little younger. Your families were good comrades and allies, so your eventual meeting had already been planned.
The two of you were in the living room with everyone else as they talked to each other, mingling and chattering like adults usually did. Hyunjin and you made an unanimous decision to sneak out to the rooftop, and get to know each other better.
“So...our parents are allies now, hm? This means we’re going to see each other a lot more.”
“Of course we are! We’re both prodigies, like my dad and your mom...we inherited their powers, so they’re obviously going to want to cultivate those.”
“You speak pretty fancy for a 12 year old.”
“Hey, so do you! Besides, we’re gifted, aren’t we?”
“Hm.” He sighed, swinging his legs and inhaling. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke up again.
“Do you actually like having these powers?”
“Oh? Well, yeah...I do...my father tells me stories of his days as a superhero. I want to help people, just like him.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d much rather live a normal life. Get a normal job, find someone to love, and have a normal marriage in a normal town.”
You pressed your lips together. “To each their own, I guess. Personally, I just want to get rid of all the evil in the world and make my father proud.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“Evil…” He tapped his chin. “How does one even know the difference between good and evil?”
You raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? I’m pretty sure it would be obvious in every situation.”
“I disagree. The distinction is blurry. No one knows for sure, and definitely not at first glance.” He sighed. “I would know.”
You brought your knees to your chest as you observed the city below. “Well, I guess you’re right…” you paused, your heart feeling a little heavy for some reason.
“Do you know?”
“The line between good and evil is thin, Y/n. I can’t say I know for sure. But do you know what will always help you remember?”
“What?”
“Your heart.” He said softly, glancing at you and offering you a small smile.
“Just do whatever feels right...trust yourself.”
***
You sighed and shut your laptop.
Home. You needed to go home, cause your heart ached too much. You definitely weren’t ready to go back to work yet. You hadn’t done anything productive today really, just drink coffee and reflect on your actions. Regretting....regretting it all.
It’d been wrong. The wrong choice, the wrong decision.
You knew that, now. There could have been another way. You shouldn’t have rushed into it like that...how could you?
You felt a surge of hatred towards yourself engulf you. It was all your fault, this pain you were feeling. You didn’t have anyone to direct this immense anger towards except yourself. You realized this little fact in horror, your heart clenching as you wished things could have been different.
Finishing off your coffee, you placed a few bills on the table as you left the café, heading home. Ready to burrow under the blankets again, wallow in your self pity and pain. There wasn’t much else to do except succumb to acceptance.
You made your way down the street, humming the saddest song you knew under your breath.
All of a sudden, you felt eyes burning into your back. Your own eyes widening slightly, you turned around quickly-
But there was no one there.
Weird. Sighing, you decided to go back to going over your plans for tonight in your mind.
Maybe watch a movie in hopes of triggering some sort of emotion in you...or maybe take a bath, light some candles and listen to depressing music- shit.
It happened again. Someone was following you- you could feel it. Uncomfortable, your breathing slowly started getting heavier as you tried to formulate some kind of plan in your head-
The next thing that happened was so sudden you barely registered it for a second.
Your hand was gripped, so tightly you felt it would bruise. Aggressive, shocking and swift as lightning- it took several seconds before you realized someone was trying to kidnap you.
“Stop! Leave me alone!”
Struggling against the person holding you, you caught a glimpse of the masked man and decided to scream, hoping to gain some attention from somebody, anybody. There was no way this was happening, not right now. Your day had already been bad enough, why was the universe so intent on rubbing salt in your wounds?!
The urge to fight had never been stronger. Yet there was no strength left in your body. You couldn’t fight back against this man- he was taller than you and somehow even matched you in strength. Unless you exposed your powers, there was no way you would get yourself out of this predicament. Somehow you managed to smack him with your arm weakly, making him hiss.
“Let me go, please!”
The coffee cup fell out of your hand, brown liquid spilling all over the ground as you were pulled into the dark alley so quickly, no one would notice. Your eyes darted about in panic, trying to work out a possible escape route when the masked man caged you in, his arms on either side of you.
A horrible sense of déjà vu enveloped you. It’s all you can do to not scream, trying to keep yourself calm so that you could escape.
It’s ok, breathe in...and concentrate.
The heat within you started to crackle, your palms beginning to burn up gradually.
Your eyes blinked as you decided to try and take a good look at the person holding you. Their head was covered with a black mask, their finger held over their mouth as they ran their eyes over your distressed expression.
Inhale. Exhale.
“What the fuck are you doing?” You hissed, staying still and pretending to give up the struggle. “Unhand me now, or you’ll regret it, trust me-“
“Shh! Y/n, please…” He shushed you, his voice shaky.
You stopped in your tracks.
Huh?
That voice…
“I’ll explain... but first we need to get out of here, fuck-” He looked from side to side quickly, scanning his surroundings.
Shit. Why does that voice sound so familiar?
“Who- who are you?!” You managed to get out, the heat fading away as deep, panicked confusion took over you instead.
There was a small sigh as your assailant stood up a little straighter, groaning. And then, his fingers deftly pulled the mask off, clutching it in his hands tightly.
Golden locks spilled out, a handsome visage coming into view. Plump lips and beautiful eyes, looking oh so familiar.
No.
No.
It couldn’t be. This wasn’t happening. What the fuck, what the fuck, what the actual fuck was going on?
It’s him.
But it can’t be.
How? It’s not possible-
You’re definitely losing your mind.
The man’s breathing got quicker as he watched your expression morph from fear into one of pure, electric shock.
“I know you’re shocked, Y/n, but please listen to-“
Your chest started heaving, quickly rising and falling as your heart pounded against your rib cage.
This...could not be happening. What was this? Was this a nightmare? Yet another sick, twisted dream? He couldn’t be standing right in front of you...it was impossible. No. No no no no no no no.
It was all too overwhelming, and your brain and body seemed to agree on that. Your mind swam, your thoughts all over the place as you felt yourself sway on your feet.
“This- I-“ You stumbled over your words, tears slipping past quickly as you tried to form words to express what you felt.
Pain. Searing pain, taking over, spreading from head to toe.
Your breathing slowed as the world suddenly went black, Hyunjin’s shouts in the background fading away...until there was nothing but silence.
Pure, unadulterated silence.
Tumblr media
237 notes · View notes