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hellfirenacht · 4 months

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Upside Down to Inside Out Chapter 2

Fic Summery: It has been four months since anyone has heard from Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson. After the Events of the Upside Down, he skips town, leaving you to reflect on the fallout and how your relationship changed during the battle for Hawkins. 1

Chapter Summery: Hellfire goes to the Championship game and Team Surfer Boy looks for El.

Tags: Eddie Munson x Reader, no use of y/n, reader is not described, sfw

May 1986

You hadn’t been to a school basketball game since you were in middle school when you’d been dragged by a few friends with the promise of free food. This wasn’t much different, with the school marching band blasting music and the excited chatter of what seemed to be the whole school anxiously waiting for the game to start.

Eddie had disappeared for a few hours after the final bell rang, only appearing at the last minute to meet you with the rest of Hellfire outside of the gym. He smelled faintly of weed covered with some cheap cologne to avoid suspicion. Shit, that would have been a good idea to have a joint before this.

Despite his assumed inebriated state, Eddie still held a firm frown on his face that made you wince internally. It was clear he was still upset with the change of plans for the evening, and you didn’t blame him, you really didn’t. But this was something important to a friend, and you hoped he could at least pretend to care long enough for Lucas to see his friends coming out to support him.

His mood affected the others as well, or at least the more impressionable ones of Jeff and Gareth, who had been in Hellfire the longest. Gareth had always looked up to Eddie, and had always been one to fall in line first with the DM, imitating whatever emotion Eddie had to almost a comical degree.

Tonight it wasn’t funny, Gareth’s scowl at you seemed to be overkill compared to Eddie’s look of annoyance from having to be here. Jeff and Zack were talking to each other, probably going over some strategy that their characters would use when the final session did happen. Dustin and Mike looked like they had a d4 up their asses from the way they were nervously looking between you and Eddie.

It always came down to between you and Eddie. Somehow in the year and a half that you’d been a part of Hellfire, you had become his second-in-command with the club. You hadn’t set out to do it, but while Eddie was good at actually running the campaigns you were better at making sure that Higgins didn’t have any reason to disband the club and sweet talking the drama teacher into letting everyone use the prop room for the meetings.

Hell, you’d been the one to actually make sure that the yearbook club came to take everyone’s photo as proof that you all existed in the school.

“So,” Dustin said, trying to shift the mood a little. “Should we go inside? I think it’s about to start.”

“Yup, I got everyone’s tickets.” you said, pulling out six slips of paper from your back pocket and handing them out.

“How’d you get so many tickets to this game?” Jeff asked, looking at the ticket and then at you.

“I have connections.” you shrugged. The connection being your piggy bank at home that was now starving. You’d probably have to go without your usual supply from Eddie for a while, but it would be worth it, though. You all would make it through the game, Lucas would be happy, and then you all would be able to meet up over Spring Break, beat Eddie’s campaign together as a team, come back to school, graduate, and then maybe you’d finally consider telling Eddie-

“Henderson!”

Everyone looked up to see Steve Harrington of all people walking towards the group. There was a pretty blond girl on his arm, who looked confused as to why she was being ushered towards the freaks of Hawkins.

Dustin had mentioned a few times that he was friends with Steve, and you had honestly thought he was joking. He’d acted like the two of them went on life threatening adventures together, and that Steve was some sort of badass. Mike had backed him up, which added a little bit of credit to his account as Steve had infamously dated Mike’s sister at some point.

But now there was no doubt in the world that Dustin and Steve knew each other. Both of their faces lit up and soon they were doing some sort of dorky secret handshake that shattered any previous perception that you had of King Steve. You covered your mouth with your hand, trying not to laugh too much and immediately looked over at Eddie, as if to say ‘Are you seeing this?’.

Eddie was looking back at you out of the corner of his eye, his lips slightly parted and his eyebrows raised. Yes, he was indeed seeing this, and he looked just as baffled as you were.

The two of you glanced back at the scene and you looked over at the blond girl who seemed equally as baffled at her date’s sudden burst of dorkiness.

“I thought you had your nerd club on Fridays!” Steve said, clearly pleased that Dustin was holding a ticket to the game.

“Yeah we, uh, were able to reschedule for Lucas! Eddie was generous enough to postpone the final session so that we could cheer on the Tigers.” Dustin said, trying to give Eddie credit for the good deed. You couldn’t tell if the attempt at flattery had helped or hurt, as Eddie was reminded why you all were outside of the Gym and not safely tucked away in the prop department.

Steve looked at Eddie, and there was just something weird about seeing the King and the Freak acknowledging each other in any way. Steve had never so much as glanced at another member of the Hellfire Club, despite his former reputation of being a jackass. You had assumed that you all were beneath him, and yet there was an undeniable real friendship between him and Dustin.

“Yeah, that’s great!” Steve said, turning his attention back to Dustin. Guess he didn’t know what to say to Eddie, who also didn’t seem to know how to handle this bizarre scenario.

Steve’s date tugged on his arm, clearly ready to go inside and be around normal people again. Steve and Dustin bumped fists, and he gave everyone else a polite enough parting, making eye contact with you for a moment before the two turned to head into the gym.

“I’m sorry, was that Steve Harrington that just came over and was willingly seen next to us with a girl?” Jeff asked, looking around at everyone. “Am I dreaming?”

“That sure was.” you said, as Steve and his date disappeared behind the double doors.

“He’s cool!” Dustin said defensively. “He’s not as bad as you think he is.”

“Didn’t he vandalize the movie theater downtown to call Mike’s sister a slut?” Zack asked, and Eddie’s eyes widened.

“Jesus.” he muttered.

“Shut up.” said Mike, glaring at Zack.

“Alright, that’s enough!” you said, placing yourself between the two. “How about we all just go inside, we’ve stalled long enough.”

In a sea of Hawkin’s Tigers green, the Hellfire club stood out like sore thumbs with their matching shirts. The six of you had managed to find a few spaces on the bleachers to stand around in. You, Eddie, and Jeff were standing a row above Dustin, Mike, Gareth, and Zack. The seven of you barely had time to file into the gym and grab spots before the team was running out onto the court.

You made sure to cheer as loudly as you could as Lucas ran onto the court with the rest of the team, only losing in enthusiasm to Mike and Dustin. You swear, the only other time you had ever seen Lucas’s face light up like that was was when his character had pulled off a near impossible bluff check last semester that could have ended badly for everyone in the party. It was worth pissing off the whole club, if anything just for this. Even Eddie managed to bring himself to clap with a grimace. You wished that he understood that this wasn’t the end of the world to support his friend.

Then again, you’d been lucky enough to fly under the radar at Hawkins High. You hadn’t endured the same level of bullying that everyone else in this club had, even on the days that you wore your Hellfire shirt.

Everyone’s attention was brought back to the court when Higgins was announcing for everyone to stand for the national anthem.

Tammy Thompson couldn’t carry a tune in the bucket. You were once again looking to meet Eddie’s eyes as the second most bizarre thing to happen today happened. She came back to Hawkins from Nashville to sing at a school function? This day kept getting weirder.

“Do you think Nashville kicked her out?” Eddie asked, leaning into you. You snorted and elbowed him. It was reassuring that he was at least talking to you and making a joke.

Tweeeeeeeet

The whistle blew and within a few minutes it was clear that you and the rest of Hellfire was completely lost. The baseline of everyone’s knowledge of the game was that the ball needed to go in the laundry basket hoop, anything beyond that might as well be calculus.

Jeff and Zack lost interest pretty quickly, almost immediately turning to chat with each other rather than watch the game. When it became clear that Lucas was going to be sitting on the bench, yet again, everyone took their seats and started ignoring whatever was happening on the court. The only ones even trying to figure out what was going on were Dustin and Zack.

“So... how does everyone think the adventure’s going?” you asked, seeing the glazed look in everyone’s eyes as you tried to lighten the mood.

“We aren’t on an adventure.” Gareth was looking at you like you were crazy.

“Yeah, we would be on an adventure if we didn’t have to be here.” muttered Jeff.

“Oh, come on.” you rolled your eyes. “It’s not even that bad. Yeah we have no idea what’s going on, and the person we came to support and cheer on is on the bench-”

“You are terrible at pep talks, mom.” Zack said.

“I’m better than Jason Carver!” you pointed out, remembering his horrible pep talk this morning at the pep rally.

“A mime is better at pep talks than Jason Carver.” Mike said.

“Yeah the bar for that is in Hell.” Added Dustin.

“Gee, thanks guys-” you started.

“Wait what happened at the pep rally?” Eddie asked, much to your surprise. You knew he skipped, having looked for him earlier in the day in the bleachers but you didn’t think he’d bother to show an interest.

“He basically said that when their team was losing, he told them to think of dead students and Hopper and how they’d want the team to win.” you provided. “It was really distasteful and gross.”

Eddie looked even more unimpressed that he was here now. “You all could be fighting cultists right now instead of this.” he said, gesturing to the players on the court. “It’s not too late to head to the room, you know.”

He grunted when you punched him in the arm, glaring at him. “Absolutely not.” you said firmly. You’d already have to miss out on anything that required money for the next month getting everyone tickets to this game. “Besides, who says that we aren’t already fighting cultists?”

He looked at you skeptically, as did the rest of Hellfire. Sometimes, it was hard playing the ‘Team Mom’, the ‘Bad Cop’, the ‘Cheerleader’ as Jeff once even called you much to your distaste.

“Look around, everyone’s wearing the same outfit!” you said. “The basketball team is clearly performing some sort of ancient money ritual-”

“I’m sorry, a money ritual?” Gareth asked.

“Wait, that makes sense!” piped up Dustin. “Doesn’t the school get extra funding if the sports team does well?”

You pointed at Dustin, thankful for the assist. “Exactly! See? So the team’s doing this crazy ritual with a rival cult, right? And everyone in town is showing up because they want in on it, even if they won’t get any of the benefits because the money’s just gonna be funneled back into the cult.”

“You know, she’s starting to make some sense.” Zack said slowly.

“I do that often.” You looked back at Eddie. “You said it yourself that Sinclair’s been taken in by the dark side, see? He joined a cult!” You pointed to the bench where Lucas was watching the game intently.

Eddie followed your gaze and you saw that crack of a smile as well as his shoulders relax just a little. Right, this was working. Just get through the game with everyone in something resembling a good mood and things will work out.

You were about to start on how the cheerleaders were bards when you noticed someone staring at you from below. Somehow you and Chrissy Cunningham were making direct eye contact with each other. Why would she be looking at you? Why would she be looking at anyone in this area? She realized you were looking back and she quickly turned back to the game, clapping with her pompoms.

Bizarre count: Three.

It really wouldn’t have made your list of strange happenings for the night had she not kept looking over her shoulder at your group nervously. You realized that it wasn’t specifically you that she was looking at, but (assuming you were not insane) Eddie. Chrissy the Cheerleader was looking over at Eddie the Freak. She looked a little shaken up and you nudged Eddie.

“Eddie, why does that cheerleader keep staring at you?” you asked, motioning towards the strawberry blonde ponytail that was now bobbing up and down as she cheered for the Tigers.

“She’s not.” Eddie said quickly, with the undertone of ‘shut up’.

“Oh, she really is.” you said. “She keeps staring directly at you, and she looks... scared.”

You didn’t want to accuse Eddie of anything, you refused to make any sort of judgment without at least asking what was going on.

His hand wrapped around your arm and he jerked you closer and leaned in close. His voice was so quiet, even this close to your ear you could barely hear him over the sound of the crowd. “I’m selling something to her tonight. Stop drawing attention to this.”

You quickly shut your trap, though you looked at him in surprise. Prom Queen Chrissy Cunningham was buying off of Eddie? She was the last person that you would ever expect to approach Eddie, let alone buy from him.

“I’ll shut up, but she should be less obvious.” you mutter, more to yourself than to him.

The sound of a buzzer echoed through the gym, signally halftime. This was good, the club no longer looked like they were completely miserable being there, just regular annoyed. You were sure that by the end of the game they’d be able to move on and set up a time for the end of Eddie’s campaign.

Everyone started to disperse, using this time to go to the bathroom or grab snacks. You made your way over to the concession stand, looking over once more at Chrissy, who was talking to two other jocks, you think they were from the football team? She still looked nervous but at least she wasn’t looking at Eddie anymore.

That was the memory that would haunt you looking back on that night. More than what would happen just a few minutes later, more than the words exchanged between you and Eddie, and more than the large bruise that would appear on your ribs before the end of the night.

Maybe if Chrissy had kept her eyes to herself, things would have been different.

September 1986

Trying to keep up with where all the kids hung out was proving to be an impossible task. You, Jonathan, and Argyle had started with visiting Hopper at his cabin. A few months ago it had been run down and nearly uninhabitable but the past few months had seen changes. There were still parts of the exterior that could use a good coat of paint but it was far more intact than it had been.

Former Police Chief Hopper wasn’t exactly thrilled to see three stoners showing up at his door unannounced but he didn’t immediately turn you away either. It probably helped that Johnathan and Argyle had been the ones to help El save the world.

She wasn’t home. It was the weekend and El had disappeared with Mike and the others some time after school and he’d only heard from her twice. The last Hopper heard, they were at Mike’s house.

Mike’s house proved to be of no help either, with Nancy opening the door. You liked Nancy, she had at least been nice to you in school and the two of you had worked well enough together to solve the Creel mystery as well as her using her own money to help buy Eddie food when he was in hiding.

You didn’t know if Nancy and Johnathan were together. You knew that had been, but were unsure now. It didn’t help that the two seemed to freeze when they made eye contact, their smiles hesitance and awkward. You and Argyle looked at each other, before Argyle stepped up to the plate to ask if El was there.

Jonathan just stared at Nancy as she explained that they had been there last night and this morning, but they had run off right after breakfast. She mentioned that they had talked about grabbing something from Dustin’s house before they left.

Nancy and Johnathan gave each other the most painful and awkward hug you’d ever seen in your life, and you think Nancy kissed his cheek when you turned away. Just like you had only given your new friends snippets of your relationship with Eddie, Jonathan had kept the more intimate details about his relationship with Nancy Wheeler close to his chest since you all started hanging out.

You already knew that the kids were long gone before Ms. Henderson even opened up the door. There were no bikes in the front yard to indicate that anyone other than Dustin’s mother was home.

Sitting in the Surfer Boy van, you sighed as you all tried to figure out where to go next. The three of you ran down the mental list of all the kids, crossing out where you had been. El, Mike, Dustin... there was always the Beyers house, Lucas’s house, Max’s-

The thought of stepping back into Forest Hills Trailer Park made your stomach turn. You hadn’t been back in months, not since Wayne gave you the news. You highly doubted the kids were even there anyway.

“We’re getting nowhere with this.” you said, rubbing your face, leaning against the seats. The scent of pleather and weed fogging up your brain as you leaned forward against the driver seat. Months ago it would have just reminded you of Eddie, but the scent memories were slowly shifting to long nights talking to Argyle and Johnathan.

“Man, this would be so much easier if we had that girl's powers!” Argyle said. “We could, like, go lay around in a tub and just think about where she is and we’d know it!”

“Argyle, if we could do that, we wouldn’t even need her to find Eddie.” you snorted.

“Oh right, we’re looking for Eddie!”

That just made you laugh more. You probably shouldn’t be trusting Argyle to drive in this state, but here you were, letting him pull out of the driveway of the Hendersons.

“Wait, shit. I think I know how we can find them” you said. “Take me home, I have an idea.”

Soon enough you were digging through your drawers, pulling out an old heavy walkie talkie. You hadn’t touched the thing since the last time you saw Eddie. After checking to make sure it had batteries, you brought it back to the van.

“Those kids always have their walkies on.” you said, flicking it on and extending the antenna. Your hands were shaking a little-

“-NEEDS AN AMBULANCE! DOES ANYONE COPY? EDDIE NEEDS AN AMBULANCE. WE’RE CALLING 911-”

A firm hand on your arm made you jump and you looked up at Johnathan. Right, you were supposed to be using it, not having flashbacks.

“You’re okay.” he said and you nodded.

“Dustin, do you copy?” you said into the brick. “This is Team Surfer Boy to Dustin- do you copy?”

The three of you stared at the walkie talkie. Maybe it was a few seconds, maybe it was a few hours, but the speaker crackled to life and you looked up at Argyle and Johnathan in surprise, relief flooding your face.

“This is Dustin to Team Surfer Boy, we copy. Over.”

“Dustin where are you and is El with you? Over” you asked.

“Yeah, we’re all over at Will’s place right now.”

You looked up at Johnathan who groaned in annoyance. Of course they were at his house. This could have easily been solved with a phone call home- or any phone call. Wait, why were you running all over town again?

Ah, so that’s why weed is not the most conducive to making logical decisions.

“I repeat, we are all at the Byer’s home now. Is everything okay?” Dustin’s voice repeated.

“Copy that, Dustin. Everything is fine, no one’s in danger.” you hoped. “Team Surfer Boy is coming to crash the party. ETA fifteen minutes.”

“Copy that.” Dustin said and you pushed down the antenna again.

“Alright Brochachos, buckle up! Next stop is Casa Byers!” Argyle said, taking off again. Argyle had been living with them for a few months now. You wondered if he would ever go home.

You couldn’t imagine Hawkins feeling like home to anyone after everything that happened.

It was just warm enough outside to roll down the windows of the van as Argyle drove. You hoped that the cool air would do you some good as you zipped through the familiar streets towards the new home that Johnathan lived at. You realized that you had never actually been to his home. Everytime the three of you hung out, it was Argyle picking you up from your house, or meeting up somewhere else.

If you had never been to their house then why did this neighborhood look so familiar to you?

The faint sound of drums and guitar was echoing through the old speakers of the Surfer Boy van. This was also something that didn’t make sense as this song wasn’t exactly Argyle or Johnathan’s usual style of music. It sounded like...

All the blood drained from your face as you heard the music getting louder. A guitar riff- one not as practiced as it used to be, echoed through the otherwise quiet street. You could basically hear the lyrics in your mind ‘raging through my skin, blazing through my veins’

You had been told that they broke up, that Corroded Coffin was no longer together after Eddie had skipped town. Gareth had made it very clear that he blamed you for the destruction of the band and Hellfire Club. You couldn’t even bring yourself to argue if that was fair or even technically correct. But everyone else agreed that it was better if you all went your separate ways, needing space apart to heal the gaping wound that Eddie’s disappearance had caused.

Jeff, Gareth, and Zack were healing. You felt your wound start to pull at the seams.

You slid down in the backseat as you passed by the Emmerson house and pulled in right next door. Of fucking course. Of course Johnathan and Argyle lived next to Gareth Emmerson. Of course Gareth was outside with the friends that shunned you. Of course you’d have to get out of the car and risk being seen by them.

“You doin’ okay back there?” Argyle asked, turning off the van.

“Not even a little, why?” you asked, staring at the ceiling.

“I take it you know those guys?” Jonathan asked, looking next door. The music had come to a stop and though you couldn’t make out any words you knew that Corroded Coffin was standing around and talking now.

“Yup. That’s.. Hellfire Club. Well, Corroded Coffin. Eddie’s band. We were in Hellfire together.” you explained, wishing you could disappear into the seats. “They hate me.”

“Mom isn’t too thrilled with them either.” Jonathan said, continuing to look out at your former party members, not being even a little discreet. “She says they make too much noise when she’s trying to work.”

Music started up again, a cover of an old song that you and Eddie had listened to one night after they played the Hideout. He’d snuck some beers out of the back, you two stayed out all night just talking-

“You aren’t gonna find him in my van.” Argyle said, nudging your leg. “Let’s go talk to the psychic girl and find your friend!”

He was right, you knew he was right. But stepping out and being seen by those you’d given everything to was hard. You sat up and took a deep breath, maybe if they were playing they wouldn’t notice you and you could just sneak into the home.

If only things could ever be that simple. When you stepped out and the van door slammed shut with an echo, the drumming immediately stopped followed quickly by the rest of the music.

You froze in place as you made eye contact with Jeff, stuck in place like a deer in the headlights.

“You know this is a closed practice, right?” Gareth said, stepping out from behind his drums and walking outside of the garage. There was a small line of shrubs that separated the two driveways and you supposed that if Gareth tried to fight you he’d at least be slowed down by that.

“I’m not here for you, Gareth.” you said, crossing your arms. “I’m here to-”

You couldn’t tell them that you were here to see a girl with psychic powers who could possibly help you locate Eddie and confirm that he was alive. You wanted to tell them, but the look in their eyes was distrustful, as if your very presence would somehow disrupt their fragile contentment that they had clearly worked hard to piece back together.

“I’m here to see someone else.” you swallowed and looked at all of them. You should say that they sound good, that it’s clear they’re working hard. Something, any kind of compliment to ease the tension just like you used to. You always were able to get everyone to relax, right?

Maybe the old you could. Maybe Team Mom could. But not now.

“You should probably not keep them waiting.” Jeff said, and you looked for anything other than contempt and distrust in their eyes. When you didn’t find it, Jonathan placed an arm around your shoulders and led you into the house.

Maybe it was just easier to be mad at you compared to Eddie. After all, you were the one who stopped Hellfire from having its final campaign session. If everyone had that closure of finishing the Cult of Vecna before Eddie’s grand disappearing act, then maybe they wouldn’t direct their hurt and anger at you. They didn’t want to blame Eddie, and so you were the next best thing.

It had been easy to push the rejection down when you didn’t see them, when you were spending time with Johnathan and Argyle. But the reminder that you weren’t wanted tugged at the wound inside of you.

The Byers’ basement was spacious, with plenty of room for any casual group of teenagers to hang out without the bother of parents hovering. As Johnathan directed you down the stairs you saw the party in place. Well, some of them.

Dustin, Mike, Will, and El were sitting around and watching a movie as you all walked in. The tv paused as everyone greeted each other.

Of the four, you knew Dustin and Mike the best after a year of adventuring as well as the battle of the Upside Down. Will you barely knew, only hearing stories from Johnathan, and El you had met in person a handful of times.

“No Sinclair or Max?” you asked, looking around.

“Max had rehab and Lucas went with her.” Mike said.

“It’s called physical therapy, Mike.” said Will.

You nodded, at least one couple might actually make it out of all of this.

“So.... what are you guys doing here?” Dustin asked, bringing up the elephant in the room. “I take it you didn’t track us down to have a friendly chat?”

“You were looking for me.” El said.

“Wooah... she’s good.” Argyle said with a nod and you pat him on the shoulder, not having the heart to remind him that you had specifically asked for El over the walkie talkie.

“Yeah I... I need your help.” you said, walking over to the young girl. Her hair was short, having been buzzed a few months ago. It was slicked back right now, and you couldn’t help but think about how badass she looked, even with her softer features. “I want to find Eddie. Can you help me?”

The silence was deafening as she looked at you in surprise. The rest of the kids were also looking at each other.

“Have any of you heard from Eddie...?” you asked, looking around.

Mike looked over at Dustin who shook his head. “No. No one’s heard from him.” Dustin looked away, and you felt for the kid. He’d looked up to Eddie so much, and you were sure that his disappearance had wounded him the same way it had for you.

You were going to strangle Eddie if you ever saw him again, if not for yourself then for Dustin and Wayne at least.

“He probably doesn’t want to be found.” Dustin said. “I mean, he left months ago and no one’s heard from him. I mean, this town still hates him.”

“My dad told me that I’m not allowed to go to Hellfire anymore.” Mike added. “That’s why we come over here to play D&D now.”

“Hellfire doesn’t even exist at school anymore.” Will chimed in. “Higgins banned it the second school started again.”

“Which is not fair, because Eddie did nothing wrong.” El said looking at you. “Eddie was a hero and Dungeons and Dragons is a game for nerds and it is bitchin’.��

Eddie would have loved El, you were sure of it. You couldn’t help but smile at her. “Yeah, yeah you’re right, kid.” you said. “Please, El. I just want to know he’s alive and not dead in a ditch somewhere.”

She looked at the others, a silent conversation happening between them all. El finally nodded.

“I will look for him.” she said.

You reached into your wallet, and pulled out a polaroid of you and Eddie. It had been taken a few weeks before everything had gone wrong. You two looked so happy. Eddie was on his throne in the props department, you were standing behind the chair with your arm slung around his shoulders as you pretended to try and look at his DM notes. He was laughing and trying to push you away.

“I don’t know if you need a picture or anything but, here.” you handed over the photo to El who looked at it.

February 1986

“I will do my best.” she said.

It had been a pain in the ass going to yearbook club every week to remind them that Hellfire Club still hadn’t had any pictures taken for the yearbook but finally they had sent someone to do it. Molly was the only one who had been willing to come and get the few group photos needed, and you were fine with that. The two of you had English together, and she had always been nice enough to those in Hellfire.

She had just finished taking the group pictures in the hallway of everyone and now you all were back in the drama room. Molly had said that she wanted to take some more dynamic shots, like at any other club. You somehow doubted that anything other than the group shot would make it in, but you appreciated the effort anyway.

Eddie had already set up his DM screen earlier and was more than happy to ham it up as the freak for a photo. She had taken a few of everyone at the table, pretending to play while getting quotes from everyone about why they liked Hellfire Club and how it “enriched their lives at Hawking High”.

While Eddie was going on a tangent about his many notebooks he kept to keep track of his game, that’s when you got your idea. You stood up as quietly as you could, sneaking behind him. His back was turned to you as he chatted with Molly, and you leaned over his chair, looking over his shoulder in the most obvious way possible to catch a glimpse of behind the screen.

“Hey!” Eddie’s head whipped around and he looked at you. “Nu-uh, nope, you know the rules. Get back in your seat.” Eddie grabbed his notebook and slammed it shut. “Nice try.”

“Come on, Eds!” you slipped around him and threw your arm around his shoulder, leaning over more. ”I know you keep track of who your favorite players are, and I want proof that you’re unfairly targeting me!” you joke and reach for the notebook again.

“Touch my notebook and I’m killing you when the session starts.” he said, and despite his words he was smiling at you. Eddie tried to push you away, but you leaned into the touch instead, feeling his warm hand squish against your face as you reached for the notebook again.

“Don’t you mean kill my character?” you asked as he pulled the notebook out of reach.

“Nope. I mean you specifically.” he teased.

The notebook he was holding wasn’t even where he kept his important notes. You knew that, and he knew that. That was the notebook for doodles and song lyrics, and fucking around. You knew that because you had given him the leather bound notebook that he kept his real notes in last year for Christmas.

You had forgotten that Molly was even there until-

Flash

September 1986

El was sitting on the couch, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. You’d been told that she had powers, that she could do this but you had never witnessed it.

She had only looked at the picture for a few seconds before handing it back to you. It was tucked safely back into your wallet for now.

It had been tense in the room for a few minutes as you all stared at the girl. From what you had been told, she had lost her powers and had just recently had them come back. You had no idea what to expect from this, really. What if she couldn’t find him? What if only some of these powers had come back?

“I see him.” El’s voice sounded far off, as if she were talking in her sleep, hell maybe she was. “Eddie is... at a store. He is buying cigarettes.”

Your heart leapt up in your chest as you listened to her. He was alive. Eddie was alive and he still existed somewhere.

“How... how does he look?” you asked, unsure if she could even hear you in this state.

“He looks... tired.” El said slowly.

You wiped at tears that were threatening to fall from your eyes.

“But he’s.. He’s alive? He looks okay? He’s not.. Not hurt?” your voice cracked.

“I do not think so.” El said. “He is not talking. He is buying cigarettes and a mountain dew.”

“That’s not real food, Eddie.” you said, a tear escaping your eye. .

El removed her blindfold and you got up and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you, El.” you said. “Thank you so fucking much.”

Eddie Munson was alive, but that did little to ease the ache in your heart. Eddie was alive, and you were still slowly dying inside without him.

Now what?

----

Dividers by @strangergraphics

a/n: Only 2 people showed an interested in this fic, but I love it so I'm gonna write it.

Comments and reblogs feed the muse <3

#eddie munson x reader #nacht fic

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laf-outloud · 6 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/laf-outloud/732013686369189888/everytime-i-wish-for-jensen-to-do-better-hoping

So, I sort of agree with what people have been saying about Jensen sounding bitter when he makes jokes that seem like digs on Jared, especially when he isn’t present. Because of his actions with the prequel, it definitely makes any jabs feel like they come from a place of resentment, which they certainly might. There is a time or two where I think they really were. However, at comic con, he and Mark were joking about Jared, and it seems very clear that Mark holds Jared in high regard. We also haven’t seen a whole panel, so it’s hard to know the full context.

Jensen also makes jokes that that seem like digs at Misha. And I would say he does it more frequently than he does at Jared. He makes them when Misha is there and behind his back. Yet, I don’t see people calling him a bitter asshole when he does that. There was even a con where I felt like his teasing went a bit into the overkill territory, where Misha didn’t look like he was enjoying it, and I don’t normally really mind seeing Misha brought down a peg.

Anyway, my point with all this is, Jared is not the only person Jensen makes jokes at the expense of, so I’m not sure it’s always because of bitterness with Jared, so much as he’s just that type of guy. People certainly don’t have to like that about him, but for me it’s hard to judge if it’s truly coming from a place of anger at Jared or just going for whatever laugh he can get. Again, not saying that’s a good quality, just that it might not be intended maliciously.

People do a lot of projecting onto to broth Jared and Jensen, but at the end of the day, we can’t actually know either of their motivations in full. People say Jared doesn’t like Jensen anymore, and he’s the main reason Jared seems to be moving away from CE cons. Maybe, but maybe it’s just a good career move. People say Jensen is mad at jared for succeeding more than him, so his every joke is based on bitterness, and his every nice action is just a manipulation. Maybe, but they do have years of shared history and experience and good time too.

At this point Jared Stans are starting to use the kind of “bad faith” interpretation that AAs have been using for years. Everything the J we don’t like does gets interpreted in the worst possible way. Don’t get me wrong, Jared stans still aren’t anywhere near as bad as AAs because they don’t tag Jensen on their posts, wish for death on anyone, or attack on mass when someone shows appreciation for Jensen on Twitter or wherever. But, looking at someone from the worst possible light all the time leaves us open to misunderstandings and assumptions.

Sorry, if I’m coming off preachy or something. That’s not my intention, especially when I agree that Jensen has been acting a bit douchey, but I also don’t think he’s the devil with nothing but bad intentions.

Ugh, I don’t know if I got my thoughts across clearly on this post. I’m not trying to tell people what to think, just remind everyone not to .. assume the worst in every situation.

Anyway, feel free not to post of this comes off wrong.

Thank you for sharing, anon! I do get where you're coming from in wanting to share your opinion without sounding like you're trying to police other's opinions, and I appreciate that!

You are correct that we all interpret things based on our own opinions/biases, and at the end of the day, what's missing is the understanding of the motivation behind certain actions, words, etc. So, at best, we're opining on incomplete information.

I'm glad you're able to see things from a larger perspective, particularly in regards to the way Jensen jokes about other people, in addition to Jared. I'm with you in that I find that style of joking distasteful, particularly when the person isn't there to joke back. It feels like laughing at that person rather than with that person. It's almost reminiscent of the playground bully teasing other kids in front of a group in order to build themselves up while hiding their own insecurities. (Yeah... I probably projected there, lol.)

Anyway, I do appreciate you writing in and perhaps it might help others consider how and why they see things a certain way. Perhaps they'll stick with their opinions, or perhaps they'll adjust some of them, but either way, you've provided another perspective to consider, so thank you!

#ask box #jensen critical #anti aas #misha critical #just in case #perspectives and biases #fandom issues

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11queensupreme11 · 8 months

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yes yes yes 100% yes. i nearly had a stroke when hades was just like poseidon but instead of a trident, he uses a bident wow like i havent seen that before. and shivas third eye is open and everyones still alive hes so nerfed

have you seen the subreddit? lmao i think everyones convinced the gods are just superhumans at this point. shame cuz the art and character designs are amazing. could have been top tier story wise but the characters themselves are underutilized.

i think the main purpose of the ragnarok should have been the humans gaining the gods acknowledgment. they didnt need to win in a fair fight, they just had to earn their respect, and as bad as this sounds, the right to live. just make up an excuse like a pact or something that you wont use said powers (if they even exist) cuz you dont think you need it. or bring the chess god against magnus carlsen and just let them play chess, who said a seinen chess battle couldnt be epic

also, i have no problem with poseidon losing BUT at least have a reason on why he cant use water WHEN THE ARENA IS LITERALLY SURROUNDED BY IT. hes so hyped, god of gods and for what? and hades is surrounded by skulls lol just turn them alive and throw it or something ANYTHINGG 😤

i wanted to see poseidon wavering, near his death and knowing that he could smack kojiro to death with a wave of water with a single thought, pondering, thinking about doing it but in the end he wont cuz his pride wont allow it. like cmon just give us proof they actually have powers

and i think hades should have won and beel should have lost. the greeks are like the main antagonists, and they got wiped out. beels arc could have ended there, him losing and hearing the crowd's boos as he dies gloriously pitiful would have been so nice, just the way he wanted

AND YES THE PJO GODS WEAKNESS, if the ror gods learn about it, the ragnarok is gonna happen in percys world for sure. ror gods be like: i cant kill you but i can kill them *points at humanity*

tho pjo gods do have the power to turn humans into a plant or whatever they want, is that included in your ror gods arsenal? or too much of an overkill? tho the ror gods dont seem to meddle with humans much. lmao maybe if pjo gods try to use it on ror gods it just wont work hmm

btw, is persephone around? cuz i think i can handle incest but not cheating lol the subreddit is also looking for her and theyve given up and just said the bird hades was playing chess against was persephone lmao or that hes actually married to the bident 😂

yes thank you! they deserve to be portrayed as the gods they are, not superpowered humans. tho i wonder how you'll handle the ragnarok fights then, so excited! ❤️

the gods will be very much like actual gods in the ror world so they'll be VERY powerful and have actual... you know, godly powers (the powers of their domains, the turning-people-into-animals ability, cursing people, etc etc).

as for the persephone one, i answered a similar ask to that previously! you'll have to find it, it's should be in the 👸🏻| arsenic blues tag. luckily for you, i don't have a lot of posts under that tag so it should be quick to find

#👸🏻| asks #👸🏻| arsenic blues

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haleigh-sloth · 2 years

Text

Okay. I wasn’t gonna bite and feed into this ridiculous behavior but clearly you’re missing my point.

And I deleted my previous response because it was pretty bitchy and I feel it was overkill, but I don’t feel that what I’m about to say is gonna be any better tbh.

You sound really immature first off. Your expectations of me, someone you don’t know, are a bit outlandish, and you’re just assuming that I have the same relationship with the internet that you do. I don’t btw, and I can tell just based off this interaction.

Listen, I know you think you’re being reasonable—but you’re not.

You are asking and expecting that I:

Background check every internet person I either directly or indirectly interact with, on here, and on other platforms??? Many of which I do NOT use

Just take your word for it without any visual evidence for me to go off of—which I won’t do because I’ve had untrue things said about ME to other mutuals on here, and I’m glad they took it with a grain of salt

OR alternatively if you were to give me a Twitter handle—you’re expecting me to go put in the work myself and do the investigating

But I have a better idea: why don’t YOU compile these concerns and show me privately? To avoid this whole mess?

Also—don’t twist things. “You wouldn’t believe this and that because its Twitter”. That isn’t what I said. I said—I do not use Twitter, so why would I know? WHY WOULD I KNOW? Please tell me. I never said I don’t believe it—but again you will not convince me by just sending an anonymous message. You have to do better than that. Show me this person is fully knowledgeable of the accounts they’re endorsing—show me the horrible things people are doing before expecting me to engage in cancel culture.

Let me tell you what really pissed me off about your first message:

You’re asking as if I’m supposed to know already. THAT is fucking ridiculous and that is what really spurred me into insufferable bitch mode.

I’m gonna ask you one more time: Do you really expect everyone online to thoroughly stalk and investigate every account they interact with?

I can tell you right now if I were to go through the tags for a fandom, I might come across a gorgeous piece of art and reblog it, not knowing that the particular account is associated with all kinds of weird shit. It could happen. It does happen. It HAS happened.

No, I’m not responsible for background checking every account that I think has decent posts. And you deeming my level of righteousness based off of whether or not I do that is laughable.

No, just because I reblog or someone reblogs from me does it mean that I’m super chill with everything they do online. But I’m gonna reiterate—I don’t know what everybody on here does. Of the people I follow on this website, I personally know 5 of them in real life, and a couple I’ve spoken to enough privately to get to know them enough to consider friends. The rest are all literal strangers.

I’m not telling you I like those things being accused, I’m not telling you I don’t straight up believe you and will ignore the issue if there is one, but you have failed to do your part.

You are not helping anything by sending anonymous messages. You think you are, but you’re not. Maybe take it up with that person themselves. That’s the mature thing to do. And more effective. Not coming to me about it.

I’m gonna tell you this one more time: I go off of what I see on tumblr. If someone is a freak outside of this website, I won’t ever know. And you thinking that I’m responsible for being in the know of that is absurd.

I know it may not seem like it, because I never shut up on here, but I DO have other things to do besides background check and stalk people online. I do have some semblance of a life, actually. I work two emotionally taxing and exhausting jobs, I have two dogs to take care of, I have my personal time spent offline, I have family and friends to talk to on a personal level.

When I get on here, I post, read, reblog, like, whatever. I don’t investigate other people. So my advice to you is if this is an issue that you personally have come across, go about it the right way. Please. Don’t just assume you’re credible behind anon. And maybe, idk, call that person out? Directly? Get their side first?

Idk. I used to be an investigator for the state and we kinda had to get all sorts of information before coming to a disposition on whether or not something happened. So yeah no, I don’t just take everything I’m told at face value. Forgive me for not doing that as I would really hope other people would show me the same respect before trying to cancel me for accusations.

Have a nice day.

#netiquette #negative #anonymous

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raleighcarrera · 3 years

Text

saved by the bell

foreign affairs | m!blaine hayes x mc (kennedy monroe)

blaine springs kennedy from her date in chapter 10.

catch up: knockout (E) / on the ropes (T) / outpoint (T) / parry (E) / pulling punches (T) / ringside (T)

tagging: @pixeljazzy ; @zigtheeortega ; @pixelsandkink ; @writinghereandthere ; @choicesarehard ; @dakotawinchester ; @flyawayboo ; @withbeautyandrage ; @blainehellyes ; @levineseth ; @gryffindordaughterofathena ; @thefirstcourtesan ; @josieplayschoices

~3.5k words | T

he’s not going to look.

no matter how much his phone lights up with incoming notification after incoming notification, he’s not going to look. blaine refuses to torture himself by checking for photos of kennedy’s date, though his curiosity is eating him alive.

it’s a nice reprieve from worrying about her, at any rate, even if it is maddening.

lately it feels like all he’s done is worry about her, though that’s mostly because kennedy looks to be about an inch away from tears every time she’s around -- not that it’s often, anymore. there’s absolutely nothing worse than seeing her suffer from the sidelines; he still feels just as helpless as he did when he watched her give that first disastrous press conference in his dorm, the day after the pictures hit voyeur.

it’s unbelievably frustrating, being forced to sit on his hands and watch everyone else try to control her life. kennedy’s under a microscope like neither of them have ever been before, and for the first time in his life, he’s in the uncomfortable position of having to be careful -- not because he gives a shit about himself or his own reputation, but because of her, and what it might do to her if he was reckless.

he’s bitten his tongue more times in the last week than he has in his entire life. it’d taken every last ounce of his self control not to snap and defend kennedy at the pet store, not to panic when she’d clued him in on her mom’s newest pr strategy, not to keep her locked in the teacher’s lounge with him for the rest of the semester and refuse to let her go when she snuck out to meet him.

already he knows he’ll never forget the names and faces of the classmates of theirs that’d picked on her. if he ever really does wind up in charge in ardona, one day, he’ll come to power with a ready-made list of enemies, all because of the way they’d made her look when she sunk down low into her seat in class, her shoulders hunched in shame.

he’s laying in bed, moping miserably, thinking over it all when peter pokes his head in with a hesitant knock. “how’re you holding up?” he asks, tactfully, given that blaine’s pretty sure he looks utterly awful. “those daily post photos were... rough.”

blaine groans, burying his face in his hands. “i’m not looking at them. i don’t want to know.”

“that’s probably for the best,” peter says sympathetically, and that does it -- seals the deal completely. he reaches for his phone, snatching it off the nightstand.

dionne’s also texted him, which means the photos are as bad as he’s hoping they won’t be. his stomach twists into knots as he navigates to his favorite gossip site, certain the pictures he’s looking for will be plastered all over the homepage.

sure enough -- there they are: kennedy and alexei, huddled together outside of some swanky restaurant, hand-in-hand. she’s all dressed up for the occasion, because with alexei she’s allowed to be; she doesn’t have to sneak out to see him, hidden under a baseball hat in some far away place where no one will recognize either of them. the point of this date is to be seen, and judging by the crowd of flashing lights surrounding them, they’ve done a perfect job selling their relationship to the press.

so the second picture accompanying the story is an unnecessary twist of the knife -- complete overkill. they’re kissing, in this one, lips pressed together chastely just outside the limo. he feels nauseous.

“they’re probably having a terrible time,” peter says, though blaine’s still staring at his phone, eyes fixed on the photo in his hands. “i heard that restaurant is horrible.”

“it’s fine,” blaine says hollowly, tapping back to his texts to answer dionne. she wants to know how he is, too, and he gives her the same answer: fine. everything is fine.

“you’re so full of shit,” dionne says, when she shows up at his dorm twenty minutes later, her arms folded across her chest and her expression unimpressed.

yeah. he forgot she knows him so well. “well -- whatever,” blaine sighs, dragging a hand down his face. it doesn’t matter. it has to not matter, for kennedy’s sake. “it’s not like i can do anything about it. this is the way it has to be.”

the look in dionne’s eyes grows distant, and he sits up slowly as a smile starts to overtake her face, cautiously optimistic while what’s obviously an evil plan begins to unfurl. “no,” dionne says, “it’s not. i think i have an idea.”

so -- that’s how he finds himself sweating through his jacket, overthinking this whole stupid plan while he waits for kennedy to slip out the back of the stupid opera house and meet him and his stupid rental car in the alley. he thinks back over all the ways they’d had to cover his tracks to get him here: how peter’d had to call in the car, how dionne’d had to threaten and sweet talk alexei at the same time, how there isn’t a single hurdle he wouldn’t leap or hoop he wouldn’t jump through for even just half an evening alone with her.

this is probably a terrible idea. at the very least, it’s dangerous, and sure to get them fucking caught again, no matter how careful they all were in making it happen.

maybe he should call the whole thing off. call dionne and get her to tell kennedy to forget it -- to go back to her date and take the easy way out, because who is he kidding, anyway?

the sound of heels on the cobblestones takes the decision swiftly out of his hands. blaine looks up to see kennedy standing in front of him, admiring the rental with a gentle smirk on her beautiful face. she looks even more ridiculously gorgeous than she had in the daily post pictures, as annoying as that is.

she’s alone.

“no limo? that’s not very romantic, mr. hayes,” she teases playfully, mouth stretched wide with a smile.

he leans over to pop the door open for her, grinning to cover up his nerves. just having kennedy around is going a long way towards keeping him calm -- he feels undeniably more sane out here with her than he had in his room, pouting with fruitless jealousy. “take it up with dionne,” he shrugs, eyes raking up and down her outfit. she really does look nice. “now hop in.”

“we have three hours and forty-five minutes,” kennedy says helpfully, as soon as they’ve slipped out of town unseen and headed to the highway, “i have to be back by curtain.”

“i know,” blaine hums, sighing with relief as soon as he glances in the rearview mirror and sees they aren’t being followed, “dionne briefed me. she figured out a whole plan.”

“oh,” kennedy says. she sounds... happy. “that was really nice of her.” there’s a pause, and he fidgets with the steering wheel for a moment before shifting his left hand up to the top to steer so his right arm is free to drape across the back of kennedy’s seat. she leans in closer to the center console and continues, “i really wish it was you in there with me.”

he exhales heavily. more relieving than not being followed, than being with her at all is hearing that -- that he’s not alone in his insanity. lately he feels like a completely different person, and he has no idea what’s come over him, so it’s comforting to know that it’s all for something, beyond just making kennedy smile. evidently, she wants to be his stupid girlfriend just as badly as he wants her to. “me, too. you have no idea. i’ve really missed you, these past few days.”

“i know. it’s weird,” kennedy agrees, “hardly seeing you. not being able to text you, and tell you about my day... i mean -- i barely even get to talk to you, outside of class.”

yeah. he knows. and when there’s other people around he has to watch what he fucking says, too. it’s far from ideal, and he knows he’s gotten sloppy, but...

part of him almost wants someone to catch them. blaine knows it’s selfish and stupid, but he wants it all the same. because if someone found out the truth and spilled the beans... they’d be free, and the impossible decision of what to do next would be out of their hands.

he could never ask kennedy to go public on her own. he would never ask her for that, no matter how badly he wants it. but a slip-up... that would be beyond their control.

blaine shakes his head. “it’s fine,” he says again, clearing his throat, “i’ll plan some secret meet up for us every night, if you want. even if it only buys us a few minutes.”

he glances to the side just in time to catch the look that crosses her face. kennedy’s quite obviously touched by his offer, her teeth digging into her bottom lip as she stares down at her hands. forcefully, he drags his eyes back to the road. “i’d really like that,” she murmurs, so quietly he almost misses it. when he only nods, she raises her voice and asks, “so, where are we going?”

“you’ll see,” he directs, taking the exit that’ll bring them to the drive-in, mentally cataloging the travel time it’d taken to get up here and making a note of the minutes he’ll need to account for to get kennedy back, especially if he has to circle the block until the street is empty before he drops her off.

her eyes light up when he pulls into the parking lot. “a drive-in theater, seriously? i used to love going to the drive-in back home. i didn’t know they had them near vancross.” her nose is practically pressed against the window as she looks around excitedly while he idles.

“this is my first time,” blaine admits, though how eager kennedy is definitely bodes well for the experience. even if it completely sucked, he’d still bring her back every weekend, just to see her smile like that. “we don’t really have these in ardona, but dionne talked it up.”

kennedy finally peels her eyes away from the window to smile playfully at him again, her eyes sparkling. “so you’re a drive-in virgin? interesting.”

his face feels hot, suddenly. blaine rolls his eyes at her, gesturing at the map of the venue in front of them. they’re kind of holding up the line. “yeah, yeah. pick your movie, rutherland. it’s just background noise for the real show, anyway.”

if he’s being honest, he barely hears her make her choice, the instructions on where to go flying in one ear and out the other. all he cares about for where he parks the car is that it’s secluded, and dark, away from prying eyes and any other people in the lot.

fortunately, blaine finds them the perfect spot, and he doesn’t even waste a second pretending like he gives a single shit about the movie at all, his eyes on her just as soon as the gear shift’s out of his hand.

kennedy’s turned in her seat and already looking back at him. she smiles and says, “thanks for doing this. it’s nice to have a normal date. i never pegged you as the type of guy who was all about carnivals and drive-ins and making these fun experiences for us.”

he shrugs, more nonchalantly than he feels. “probably ‘cause i’m not,” blaine answers honestly, “but everything’s different, with you.”

kennedy makes a soft sound of disbelief, lifting her hands to cover her face. when she peeks out from between her fingers, he sees that she’s smiling widely again. “you keep saying stuff like that. it’s so charming.”

blaine laughs, reaching out to tug her hands off her face. “that’s kind of the point.” he clears his throat, then continues more seriously, “but... i want you to know how i feel, you know? you shouldn’t have to guess. the truth is... i’ve been all-in for awhile, now, and -- those pictures were just a shitty setback. they don’t change the way i feel about you at all.”

she reaches out for his hand, and he lets her lace their fingers together, squeezing affectionately. “you have no idea how nice it feels to hear that,” kennedy sighs. “honestly...” the hesitation in her voice makes it clear she’s unsure of whatever she’s about to say, but she continues, “it kind of just felt like i ruined everything. things were actually going pretty well, for once, but now it’s like there’s this... dark cloud hanging over everything i do. i can’t even hang out with you without worrying we’re going to get caught again.”

his expression softens. he’s not usually one for optimism, but for her, and in the interest of getting some of that thick sadness out of her voice, he’ll try. “well, we’ve done a pretty good job avoiding that so far.”

“that’s true.” kennedy’s head tips back agains the carseat, and she smiles at him again. “i guess we’re making it work, in our own way. i love that i can always count on you to be real with me. it’s so -- refreshing, after all the fake posturing we deal with.”

well -- that’s probably as good an opening as he’s ever going to get. he spares a moment to silently thank whatever god is listening for the chance to ask the question that’s been eating at him for hours, the one thing he’s most desperate to know, beyond even the other stuff that usually keeps him up at night, everything from the simple inner workings of kennedy’s mind to why he’s so tripped up over a girl he’s only spent a few short months with. “speaking of fake...” blaine pointedly looks somewhere beyond her, staring out at the parking lot, “how’d your date go?”

kennedy’s quiet for long enough that he has to look back at her. there’s a knowing little glint in her eyes that he decidedly does not like. “are you jealous?”

“what?” he scoffs, “of course not. you left alexei to go out with me.”

“right,” she laughs, one small word injected with endless disbelief. “well, we had a good time. alexei’s not so bad.”

he’s an egomaniac and a self-centered prick, actually, blaine thinks. out loud, he says, “oh. cool. glad it worked out. cool, cool, cool...”

he fidgets restlessly. kennedy’s visible amusement only grows. “you know it was still a fake date, right? neither of us have any interest in the other.”

“i know,” blaine insists defensively. kennedy only arches an eyebrow at him. with a groan, he slumps back in his seat, a hand rubbing at his jaw. “fine, maybe i am a little jealous. give me a break, okay? this is kind of a unique situation for me.”

“if it helps, i think you’re doing a pretty great job.” she’s still smiling at him, but less like she thinks he’s being funny and more like she thinks he’s being sweet. she leans in a little closer, and -- it actually does help. the knots in his stomach that’d been coiled there since she first said her mom’s team was planning a pr relationship for her are finally starting to unwind.

“yeah?” he asks, gratified by the immediate nod she gives. “that’s good. i don’t wanna half-ass this boyfriend stuff just because it’s new to me.”

there’s a long stretch of silence. he realizes what he’s said all at once and starts to feel nauseous all over again, staring silently back at kennedy while he waits for her to say something -- anything.

“boyfriend stuff?”

“ah.” his hand slips around to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly. “sorry. slipped out.” he should probably just cut his losses now -- bring her back early to be on the safe side and go back to his dorm and drown himself in the shower, because he is an idiot and that’s what an idiot deserves. “i know you kind of already have a boyfriend.”

kennedy huffs out a quiet laugh. “i kind of do.” she tilts her head to meet his eyes, forcing him to look at her again. his heart stutters painfully in his chest, picking up into a pace that’s almost frantic. “but... that’s not a ‘no.’”

their hands are still linked together. he looks down at where their fingers are interlaced, hoping his palms aren’t as sweaty as they feel. blaine disentangles his hand to lift it instead to kennedy’s face, pushing a lock of hair out of her eyes with a hesitant smile she immediately returns tenfold.

it’s also not a ‘yes,’ but he’ll take what he can get.

as it turns out, three hours and forty-five minutes is kind of not actually a long time at all.

or maybe it would be, for some people, but with kennedy in his lap, squished between him and the steering wheel so she can kiss him senseless, the time flies by. they watch what’s probably ten minutes total of the movie, they’re so busy kissing and talking, his hands wandering along her new outfit to show his appreciation for it the only way he knows how.

for her part, kennedy gives as good as she gets, tugging his hair out of place and messing up his jacket and making him forget his own name, with the way her hips are pushing into his lap and all the sweet little sounds she makes when he whispers something dirty in her ear and presses her in closer against him.

no amount of agonizing over her fake dates and not being able to kiss her in public is ever going to drive the way she shivers with her whole body when he says something she likes from his mind.

still, the drive back is somber. it’s time to bring kennedy -- kiss-swollen lips and raised hemlines and all -- back to the opera house before he knows it, and he’s really not looking forward to everyone who sees her thinking she spent four hours fooling around in the private box with alexei, of all people. he’s looking forward to driving home alone and going to bed by himself even less.

tomorrow he’ll have to sit by her in class again and pretend like everything’s fine.

because they had tonight, and he knows he should be content with that. the problem is -- he’s not.

“you okay?” kennedy asks, checking the time on the watch on his wrist with a frown. she’s holding his hand in both of hers. “and don’t say you’re ‘fine.’”

“i am fine,” blaine insists, running his thumb across her wrist. “this sucks, but it’s what we have to do. if you’re good, then i’m good.”

she studies his expression for a minute, then sighs. “i’m as good as i can be,” she murmurs, “but things will get better.”

he knows that, too. even if no one ever finds out it’s him in the photos, even if they have to spend the rest of their lives sneaking out and ditching their bodyguards so they can find a few hours alone together -- things are good. the alternative -- winning the fight with his parents to keep him away from vancross, never getting the chance to know kennedy as well as he does... that’s a future that seems bleak, now that he’s seen the alternative.

“it’s really alright,” blaine assures her. “i’ll miss you, but... do what you gotta do.”

something about the way he says the words seems to instill new confidence in kennedy. she straightens her shoulders and glances back at the opera house door with determination. “thanks,” kennedy sighs, squeezing his hand one last time before slowly pulling away. she probably has only seconds until the finale starts up, though he’s desperate for a way to make them stretch longer. an eternity would be a nice place to start.

“will you... text dionne goodnight before you go to bed?” she asks, looking so hopeful he finds it’s impossible to do anything other than nod.

he grins widely at kennedy, leaning in to steal one last kiss. “dream about me, will ya?”

“every night,” she promises, and blaine lowers the window to get a better view of her and the sway of her hips when she slips out of the car and back inside, sighing heavily once she’s gone and he’s alone again, whacking his head against the carseat.

this is some mess they’ve gotten themselves into.

but, he figures, as he pulls away from the curb and starts back towards campus, the image of kennedy walking away in the heels and skirt she’d been wearing playing over and over again in his mind like a highlight reel, it’s definitely not without its perks.

#blaine hayes #foreign affairs #choices foreign affairs #blaine hayes x mc #myfic #long post

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benedictscanvas · 4 years

Text

dizziness - aaron hotchner x reader

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Reader

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: Brief mention of serial killers and what they entail, appendicitis

A/N: Another one for my man Hotch! Thanks so much for requesting anon. Pretty sure a lot of us just love reading similar protective Hotch fics over and over...I know I do! By the way, if anyone wishes to be tagged in these, please do drop an ask. Hope you enjoy this one :)

---

(ways to say i love you) number 44: “i’ll drive you to the hospital”

You could feel the dizziness coming again and took another deep breath in through your nose, out through your mouth, even though you were being very careful to do it slowly and not alert any of the others around you to your abnormal breathing. Spencer in particular was sat right across from you around the table and you knew if he heard you he wouldn’t hesitate in asking whether or not you were okay.

Instead, you were confined to feel hellish all on your own just to avoid the overprotective instincts from your team.

This was a tough case, one where you felt as if you had been in Alabama for weeks instead of days, where each new body was mutilated beyond description and made even the toughest in your team falter when that sheet was pulled back at the crime scene. Overkill to the extreme. You, and most of the others, were getting sick of the fact that this guy held so much rage and yet still hadn’t made a single mistake that might help you catch him.

“Y/N?” Spencer’s voice snapped you out of your thoughts and you blinked at him dumbly, cursing yourself. You’d been so focused on keeping your breathing steady so he wouldn’t notice anything was wrong that you’d spaced out, “You okay?”

“I’m alright, Reid. Just sick of this guy,” you sighed, hoping you were convincing enough for the team to continue their brainstorming session, but instead, all eyes turned to you.

“You don’t look alright, Y/L/N,” Morgan piped up, looking at you with concerned eyes and you scoffed at them all.

“Well, if I did look alright when this guy is still out there somewhere, there would be something wrong with me, Morgan,” you insisted, shooting him a pointed look. He held up his hands in surrender and turned back to the board where Hotch and Rossi were standing. You turned back to them too, now trying much harder to be alert, even though you were gripping your stomach with one hand and your seat with the other. Hotch paused a little longer, looking at you with a furrowed brow but when you just stared right back, almost challenging him to say something, he carried on.

You didn’t hear much of the discussion. Everything sounded distant, like you were all in a tunnel. Instead of trying to join in, you nodded at random intervals as if agreeing with people and tried not to close your eyes and let yourself cry out at the pain in your stomach. You felt ridiculous and weak and there was part of you trying not to cry.

Despite all that, soon you heard those familiar words that meant you could leave the room.

“I think we’re ready to give the profile.”

People began filing out, and you waited, pretending to flick through one of the files on the desk, doing a pretty convincing job even if you did say so yourself. Only once everyone had left did you stand up, feeling your body swaying on your feet. There was definitely a chance you might be sick. You held onto the table for support and closed your eyes as you tried to steady yourself.

“Y/N?”

Hotch was back in the room. You sighed.

“I’m fine, Hotch.”

“You can’t stand up,” he pointed out stoically. You hadn’t even noticed how doubled over you were. You pushed up with one hand until you were standing properly with only a tiny groan, feeling quite proud of yourself.

“There, see?”

“Walk towards me.”

His voice was hard. You knew he hated it when you did this, he’d told you so multiple times in the past. Your tendency to hide any and all pain, physical or mental, from those closest to you was one of your worst qualities in the eyes of the team, but you didn’t seem to be changing any time soon.

You glared at him, then took a couple of steps. The world spun and you faltered but he was beside you in an instant, arm around your shoulders as he helped you into a chair.

“Okay,” you said exasperatedly, “So maybe I’m a bit dizzy. But I’m fine.”

He ignored you and now you knew he was really pissed. Leaving you sat in the chair, he left the room and for just a split second you wondered whether he was really just going to leave you like this before he returned with the whole team behind him.

“Tell Reid your symptoms.”

“Hotch, this is ridiculous, would you all just leave me-”

You cut yourself off with a long, loud groan as you doubled over in the chair, the pain in your stomach flaring up suddenly. You were sweating now, not just from the pain but from the embarrassment of your entire team seeing you like this. Emily came over to you and rubbed your back soothingly which you were grateful for, even if your first instinct was to flinch away from her.

“Symptoms, Y/N.”

“Fine,” you said through gritted teeth, “Pain in my stomach that gets worse when I walk on it and I’m lightheaded as hell.”

Spencer kneeled down in front of you with a worried look and gestured to your stomach. You nodded, leaning back a little as he reached out and gently pressed on your lower right abdomen, rearing back again when you yelped.

“Reid!” Hotch said sharply as soon as you cried out, stepping forward to do something but Spencer was already backing away from you with mumbled apologies.

“It’s appendicitis,” he said apologetically, once he was at a safe distance from you and you couldn’t hurt him when he told you. At his confession, you let out a laugh.

“No it isn’t,” you said, shaking your head, “I’m just being dramatic, seriously, I’m sure I’ll be fine in a few hours. Maybe I should just go lie down.”

“I’ll drive you to the hospital,” Hotch said, taking the few steps over to you and joining Emily in helping you stand up. Your knees buckled only a little, but Hotch was firm beside you, and his strong arm around your waist was enough to keep you upright.

“Are you joking?” you asked incredulously, “We’re working! If I have to then I’ll drive myself to the hospital or, I don’t know, get a taxi or something but I am not interfering with this case.”

“You guys can give the profile without me, right?” Hotch asked the team, to which he only received a series of nods. You shook your head.

“Hotch, you’re the leader of this team, at least send someone else.”

He didn’t even answer you. The rest of the team murmured their well wishes and patted you gently on the back as Hotch and Emily led you out to the SUV in the parking lot outside. Emily helped you into the seat and gave your hand a quick squeeze as Hotch took his place in the driver’s seat.

Before you really knew what was happening, you were pulling out of the car park and on the road.

“It’s only a few minutes,” Hotch said quietly into the silence of the car. You were still slightly doubled over, even if you were trying to hide it and you nodded in response, “I wish you wouldn’t hide this stuff from us, Y/N.”

He sounded a little defeated and you turned your head to look at him, but his eyes were fixed on the road. You looked back at your lap.

“I know,” you said softly, “I’m sorry. It’s not in my nature.”

You saw his lips quirk up in a half-smile out of the corner of your eye.

“I know, but will you try? I hate to think that you were in pain that entire time and felt you couldn’t tell any of us,” he paused but you could tell there was something else he wanted to say. You were a profiler, you could fill in the blanks. I hate to think you couldn’t tell me.

“Hotch, you know if I was going to tell anyone, I’d tell you, right?” you said with a small chuckle that you instantly regretted as you winced with pain again. He looked like he wanted to say something cocky in return but had changed his mind when he looked over and saw the state you were in.

“Just a couple minutes now, Y/N,” he said, his voice soothing as you leaned your head back on the seat, “Hold on a little longer.”

“Think I’ll just-” you drifted a little before you could finish your sentence, “Take a lil’ nap…”

You heard Hotch say your name a few more times, along with some other words you didn’t quite listen to, but the pain was getting too unbearable, so you closed your eyes and let yourself drift away.

---

“Did it burst?” you asked groggily as you woke up, not opening your eyes yet because it was just too bright. You didn’t really know if there was anyone with you, but you were really hoping Hotch was sat in the chair beside your bed, because you’d be disappointed to wake up to anyone else.

“No,” came the voice you so desperately wanted to hear, a little gravelly like maybe he’d not slept in a while, “It didn’t. But we got here just in time. Surgery went well.”

“So I’m appendix-less now?” you asked jokingly and heard him chuckle beside you.

“You are,” he said, “And we’re also case-less. They caught the guy, finally. Soon as you’re up and about we can go home.”

“Oh thank god,” you groaned happily, finally opening your eyes and blinking a few times before you focused in on Hotch’s face. He definitely hadn’t slept, “Hey.”

“Hi,” he gave a rare smile, one that you couldn’t help but return in full force, “How do you feel?”

“Groggy, but fine,” you said honestly, “Thanks for driving me. Don’t know what I’d do without you, sometimes.”

He looked a little taken aback by your little admission, but he recovered himself quickly, putting it down to whatever pain medication you must have been on.

“Only sometimes?” he asked teasingly and you laughed, even though it hurt like hell. You winced, wondering how long it would be until you could laugh freely again, when you felt a hand on your head, stroking a bit of hair out of your face, “Take it easy.”

His voice was soft, and his hand was soft too. When he began to retract it again, you panicked and reached out to grab his hand before it could get too far, bringing it back to rest on your face. Your own hand rested on top of his as you leaned against it, sighing happily, closing your eyes for just a second before you knew he would inevitably pull his hand away. He did so a moment later.

“I’m sorry-”

“We can’t, Y/N, it’s-”

You spoke at the same time, stopping each other mid-sentence. Hotch finished his sentence first.

“It’s not professional.”

“I know,” you said, frustrated, but not with him, “But our friendship in the first place isn’t professional. The amount of time I spend with you and Jack isn’t professional. The way I feel-”

You trailed off before you ruined everything when you saw the look in his eye. It was his turn to fill in the blank, and you knew he had. The way I feel about you isn’t professional.

“Y/N, we shouldn’t.”

You nodded sadly, trying to keep the tears that were threatening to appear at bay. You would not cry over this right now. You’d cry later, over a tub of ice cream in your tiny little apartment when you were back to being all alone again. Obviously.

“Aaron,” you breathed, wanting to say something else but getting stuck on looking at him, with those sad eyes and the face that didn’t give anything away.

Suddenly, without warning, he was surging forward out of his chair and his lips were on yours. It only took you a shocked second before you responded, pushing back against him and winding a hand into his hair, the other resting uselessly on his chest. You could tell he was being gentle with you, holding back, trying not to hurt you, and the warmth in your chest only grew at the thought. With one last chaste kiss, he pulled away, his hands retracting from your face again as he sat back down in his chair, leaving a trail of heat in their wake.

Even when he sat down, he didn’t pull away too far, grabbing your hand in his on the bed and holding it tight. You looked at your joined hands then back to him.

“Not that I’m complaining,” you whispered, not wanting to disrupt whatever air was between you, “But I thought that was off the table.”

“It was,” he admitted, rubbing his neck, “But then you called me Aaron.”

Your eyes widened before a smirk settled itself on your face. You leaned over towards him on the bed as far as you could and lowered your voice even further.

“Glad you changed your mind-” you licked your lips, “-Aaron.”

His lips were back on yours before you could process his movements and, despite the pain in your stomach as you leaned up to kiss him deeper than before, you decided that you’d take any pain you had to if it meant he would kiss you just a little longer.

#aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fluff #aaron hotchner fluff #hotch #hotch x reader

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dropoutparty · 3 years

Text

shurara corps ark fix-it concept babeyy!!

under a read more bc this shits long LOL

also this is kinda rambly but whatever

when it comes to shuraras motivations here, maybe he could have been another childhood friend of keroros. idk how they could have been introduced, maybe through pururu or just by meeting in school, but ig that part doesnt rlly matter. what DOES matter though is that shurara decided to tag along with keroro, giroro, zeroro, and pururu on one of their misadventures and he gets hurt during it. BADLY. pururu patches him up, and zeroro apologizes like crazy (since he knows how much this sucks), but shurara is left with a strong dislike of keroro and friends. except for pururu, who he still likes (but im not keeping the crush bc it serves no purpose here) and zeroro who he kinda forgives a little bit but just because he apologized so much. maybe this could have resulted in some major physical injury that affected how he lived for a while, or maybe it spawned a phobia, but either way it left an impact.

putata and mekeke are sent in first with the goal of beating up the platoon a little bit and taking the star because they are the most skilled team. shurara doesnt want the star because of some stupid bandaid, but he wants to take it in order to both deeply hurt keroros pride and also to potentially have his platoon no longer be officially recognized, taking away something that means a lot to keroro. they actually succeed in taking the keron star kinda. when they get back to base, they realize that the star is fake, its just a piece of fabric or paper with tape on it (like what happened in the original arcs ending). this way the shurara corps will be established as an actual threat and also the ending will have actual stakes.

gyororo sends word back to base that the keron star putata and mekeke got was fake, so giruru is sent in to ACTUALLY get the real star, as well as punish the platoon for embarrassing the corps like that. this one plays out kinda like the actual episode (bc im too lazy to think of anything else), but all that matters is that he still ends up captured.

after this, the platoon is like ok this might actually be serious so they go on high alert. one day dororo notices gyororo (who was sent in a little before putata and mekeke to scout the place out and gather info) bc hes the only competent member of the platoon and confronts him, outing his presence to everyone. gyororo fights back but he is also captured in the end.

after the platoon has captured giruru and gyororo , shurara plans to capture and torture a member of the platoon as revenge. before he can do this though, dokuku and nuii decide to rescue giruru and gyororo in secret. nuii serves as a distraction to everyone while dokuku goes to rescue the fellaz. theres some minor conflict but in the end the four of them escape. after that happens, shurara is furious about his subordinates disobeying him and doing things behind his back, but he keeps his goal the same.

im gonna change yukikis powers bc they kinda suck and hes confusing. anyways yukiki isnt actually a snowman, but hes the hat! kinda like in mario odyssey, you put the hat on anyone or anything, and it will immediately be controlled by yukiki. he was an experiment done to try to make a sentient object, and he got his name because he was first tested on a snowman (which also makes it the form hes most comfortable taking). anyways, shurara sends in yukiki to capture someone by taking control of them, but hes defeated somehow and returns empty-handed.

im also gonna change robobos powers a bit. with robobo i dont think that he should have the ability to turn people into electronics because thats dumb and doesnt make any sense, so im gonna give him the ability to just control other machines. he also doesnt have a giant form, and can switch his hands between their magnet form and their drill form. anyways, at this point shurara is furious and decides that he doesnt care about capture anymore, he wants the platoon dead. he decides to send robobo for the job because robots dont have the same margin of error that living things do, or at least theyre supposed to. turns out, they totally do bc robobo also comes back with a failure.

after this, shurara somehow lures the platoon to his base (just like in the anime) but this time everyone is waiting for them there in a big empty room together. shuraras disembodied voice gets a monologue like in the anime and the roof opens, lighting the room up because its a bright spring day. kagege then appears and takes control of the platoons shadows like in the anime! all of the shadows are used to fight the platoon, as well as the corps themselves fighting. its an epic fight, but just when it seems like the platoon is all gonna die, the corps suddenly decide to stop fighting. they all tell the platoon about how shurara has been acting worryingly erratic and obsessive, so they agree to spare the platoons life as long as they confront shurara. the platoon obviously agrees, and theyre taken to a holding area so that shurara thinks that theyve won. they give them this offer because theyre not personally invested in killing these nerds, they dont really care. they ARE worried about shurara though, seeing how obsessed with this hes become.

anyways kagege reports to shurara (in my headcanon hes like shuraras right hand man or something like that) and is like "we beat the platoon, but we didnt kill them. theyre our prisoners right now and were gonna torture them before we let you do the honors" and then shuraras like "poggers!!! thats a great idea!!" and then proceeds to drink his choccy milk and play minedcraft. meanwhile, some of the others are actually patching the platoon up and telling them what to do with shurara. they tell the platoon to try to hurt him as little as possible, and DEFINITELY dont fucking kill him, but just try to knock some sense into him and restrain him or something.

the platoon asks why shurara hates them so much and whoevers patching them up doesnt know, but kagege comes down soon after and tells them shuraras motivations. after this, some understanding can be felt by giroro and dororo (bc they were there, even tho dororo is the only one who remembers shirara like at all) and keroro feels kinda guilty but not too much bc head empty. later, the corps has a big celebration feast and shurara declares that hell painfully kill the platoon bright and early tomorrow. in all the commotion, nuii convinces gyororo to sneak down into the platoons holding cells to bring them some leftover food.

the next day, the platoon is brought to the same room that they fought the corps in, and theyre tied up. shurara is talkin abt how hes gonna kill them all super painfully and stuff but little does he know that the ropes holding the platoon are actually not secure at all (on purpose), so the platoon all escapes their bindings and a fight with shurara ensues. when the platoon is in a tight spot, one of the corps will show up real quick and help them out, kinda like a support in a fighting game. eventually, shurara is tied up and defeated technically.

shurara is whining and stuff and calling the corps a bunch of traitors, but the corps talk to him about how worried they all are about him and that this whole thing has gone too far (you rlly think these goobers are worth all this effort??). shurara says something about how keroro hurt him before, so he wants to hurt him and his platoon back. the corps are like ya i get that but killing them is wayy overkill no pun intended. keroro apologizes and maybe dororo can say something about how keroro also hurt him in the past but hes been able to move past that or whatever and shurara is like bro ur right and he starts crying like da babey he is lmao and there u have it!!! the arcs over and everyone is ok and happy!!! found family trope pog!!!!!!

#keroro gunso #sgt frog #shurara corps #i wont tag anyone lol #if anyone wants to like elaborate on or expand anything here go ham!!#also send it to me bc i wanna read that shit lksdfjlsd #im just sending this out into the ether but if u base somethign off of this idea id like to be credited #as if anyones gonna wanna do that psjdfksdjflk #anyways i hope this is good!! its way better than what we actually got imo but i might be biased

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jo-the-schmo · 3 years

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Red, Dead, Reflections Ch. 1

A/N: Alright so... I started writing this fic over a year ago, and was posting it as I wrote it. I fell out of it for a few reasons but I’ve missed it. So I decided to start writing it again. The original versions of the first 5 chapters already exist on my blog but I want to repost them and do some editing. This way I can make the series more polished. I also want to try and do a once a week maybe schedule to give me some time in between writing chapters and so I can take some feedback into consideration.I hope some of the people who originally wanted to keep up with my series see this and I want to apologize for falling back on this. I feel really bad about it. I’ll try harder to commit to this. Thank you so much for being interested in my work. If anyone would like to be tagged just let me know, I don’t wanna assume the people who did before want to now.

Summary: At the age of 23, you and your pseudo-family perform a heist gone wrong, leading you into a dangerous and seemingly impossible position. Discover your own history, the story of those around you, and gain new relationships along the way in this (sorta) choose your own adventure.

Warnings: Explicit language, blood, death, violence

Word count: 5,988

From Out West

“This is a little too ballsy for my liking, Austin.” You warned as you carefully adjusted the colored contact lenses in your eyes.

“Since when did you turn into a little pussy-willow?” He smirked at you while he turned a corner.

“This is a bank, not a home robbery, so forgive me if I’m a tad nervous about this! We’re robbing a god damn bank in the 21st century, in a busy city that we aren’t necessarily familiar with!”

“Maybe you aren’t familiar, you know I’m a regular ol’LA boy.” You turned your head to look at the two in the backseat.

“Miguel, you can’t seriously be okay with this.” You questioned but were confident in it enough to make it a statement. He shrugged his shoulders, making that confidence literally evaporate.

“We gotta trust Austin, as crazy as this plan is. We haven’t gotten caught yet.” You crossed you arms and made sure your wig was pinned right.

“Doesn’t mean we won’t be startin’ now.” You grumbled.

“Come on, sissy! This plan is fool-proof! They’ll never even know it was us!” Eli chirped.

“Oh yeah, except for the fact that this is a fucking bank and the FBI CAN get on our asses for this!” You swore it was exhausting being the only realistic one sometimes. “On top of that, there’s only 5 of us! We’re insane!”

“6.” Austin corrected.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Your girlfriend won’t be in the damn room with us.”

“She’s the ace up our sleeves, it would be silly for her to be in there with us.” The car smelled like old cigarettes, it made you sick. The band around your chest dug into your ribs. You opted to stay silent and relent for the time being, instead focusing on your disguise. The wig was carefully pinned to your real hair, it was short enough to be confused for a men’s haircut but had enough length to not require any glue. Dark brown hair, abnormally vibrant green eyes. And with the mask covering your face, that would be their only descriptions they could give to the police. Flat chest, boyish haircut, baggy black hoodie, just your average deviant. The destination was in view.

“Alright,” Austin started. “everyone knows the plan, yeah? Gina is inside, she’ll send us the signal. We go in quick and make our presence known. I go behind the counter to make sure the tellers ain’t up to no funny shit. Miguel, you round up the lovely citizens into a corner, hit Gina a little to make it convincing. Eli, you take care of the money. And Y/N, I need you to stay in character, be loud and intimidating, keep the tellers in check when I’m helpin’ Eli, and the civils with Miguel, got it?” You all nodded. He looked back at Miguel. “You got the fake bomb ready?”

“Yes’ir.”

“I’ll pass the big boss to you once I pick him out. Zoe is waiting for us in the alleyway between the bank and the office building. We get in, make some noise, scare them shitless, get the money, and go.” He parked up front of the white walls, you saw a mother walk through the glass doors with her toddler in a stroller. You immediately felt bad.

“You promise this is the last job, right?” You looked at him seriously. “At least the last of something this big, I don’t think I could handle with again.”

“Of course! This is just to get us enough money to get us all out. The economy is garbage, think of it as taking what should already be ours.” You heard the crackle of the walkie on Austin’s lap. He threw it into his bag. “That’s the signal, masks on everyone.” Austin’s was a fox, long, fake salt and pepper hair rolled form under his hood. Eli’s was a raccoon, convincing copper bangs swooped between the ears. Miguel had an owl; disturbing blue eyes pierced your being. You strapped on your black dove and joined with group as they exited the stolen vehicle. You kept both your hands in the front pocket of your hoodie, trying to be discrete about the two handguns inside. Only one was loaded with real bullets, that was the backup, You preferred to use the blanks. Unable to trace, and when used properly, won’t hurt anyone. Austin and Eli took the leads.

The doors were kicked in.

“EVERYONE GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND RIGHT NOW! HANDS UP, ALL YOU! THIS IS A ROBBERY!” He screamed, pointing his gun at a man behind the counter about 3 yards away. Miguel was quick to shout at the people in line to get into the corner of the room. Gina pretended to try and defy, he slaps her, needless to say it’s convincing.

“Dove, handle the worms.” You traded spots as Austin grabbed one of the men behind the counter. Your eyes locked with the poor woman, she was covering the stroller with her torso. You pointed your blank gun at some random person.

“Stay on the ground or I’ll fucking shoot, ya hear me?” You lowered your voice, made it coarser, time to be a ‘man’. They nodded hysterically. The woman was crying. You could hear Eli screaming his demands in a fake accent. “Everyone hand over your phones. If any of you give me a reason to even SUSPECT you’re up to anything, I will shoot.” Everyone put their phones on the ground and slid them over toward you. You turned your attention to the back. “What’s the hold up, owl?”

“I’m handling it.” He strapped the fake bomb to the teller’s chest, making him kneel down in the middle of the bank. “Listen up, everyone! This man has a bomb attached to his body. We have someone hacked into the security cameras. If you don’t follow our instructions to the T, they will blow a hole in this lot.” He paused to let the cries and gasps die out. “Now, for those said instructions, listen close. We will exit the building soon, you will stay down for 5 minutes.” He pointed at a clock on the wall. “Do not touch anything or move a muscle. When 5 minutes have passed, the big guy here-“ He patted the man’s shoulders and dropped a key wrapped in tissue in his lap. “will take a little drive off the premises. He will keep going until he reaches the designated location written on that tissue. If any of you contact the police before the end of the day, he will die, along with any other drivers in his vicinity. So, unless you want a substantial amount of blood on your hands, I’d suggest you keep quiet until midnight. As for the rest of you, you have permission to leave the building once that 5 minutes are up. But I would suggest keeping a low profile, for your safety and others’.” There was a loud crack.

“I got it!” The phony Australian accent rang. Austin led the rest of the bank tellers to you, making them sit in the flood of civils.

“Staying alert, Dove?”

“Don’t patronize me, stupid Fox.” This whole situation pissed you off. The baby was crying, mom was too, trying to hush the whines.

“Fire a shot, Dove!” What? “Don’t let their insubordination stand.” He demanded. This was a fear tactic. He was trying to teach a lesson to the others.

“I’m not firing a warning shot over a fucking baby, you psycho!” Your blood was boiling, this was overkill, he was way out of line with this. Of course, he wasn’t telling you to shoot the baby or the mother, but you weren’t going to cause more grief where it didn’t need to be.

“Take the shot!”

“Fuck you!”

“Why are you going against me?” Was he seriously doing this now? You felt like your head was going to explode. She was the only person with a child present. You put both of your pieces back in your hoodie and knelt next to her. She flinched as you approached, but that was to be expected.

“Ma’am, I’m making an exception for you because you have a child with you, and that prick is really getting on my last nerve. You’re allowed to exit the building now, but the other rules still apply. People will die if you talk, maybe not you, but other people who have children like you do, most certainly. Take your kid and get out, don’t do anything out of the ordinary, and get out.” Her red eyes shook you to your core, familiarity. She nodded in both fear and appreciation.

“Than-than-thank y-“ She was choking on her own misfortune, you decided to spare her.

“Yeah, yeah, just get out.” She got up and collected herself, checking around the room as she walked out of the building. You could only see his eyes, but you could tell Austin was reaching his limit fast. An older gentleman stared at you.

“At least one of you has a heart.” You were glad Austin was too focused on being pissed to hear that. You got up, kicking the phones toward the door as you walked. Austin grabbed you arm.

“You’re lucky I didn’t kill her for that.” By letting that woman go, you showed weakness. It was a hint at your identities, but you didn’t care.

“And you’re lucky I’m not shooting you for saying that. I’m not a killer like you, Fox.” Your voice was laced with venom. Eli had interrupted your dispute.

“Alright lovebirds, time to play nice, we’ve got precious cargo.” He gave both of you a duffle bag, they were pretty hefty. Austin took a deep breath, putting on his best showman voice.

“Alright folks! That right there is our cue to hit the road. Remember, 5 minutes on the clock. No one likes a-“ The doors were filled with red and blue, sirens. The police were here. “Shit!” Shit was right. “How the hell are they here?” Austin screamed. He gave you a shove. “It’s probably because of that god damn woman!”

“There’s no way she would’ve had enough time for that.”

“And no one had a phone out, I was watching the whole time.” Miguel chimed.

“We have bigger fish to fry right now! We gotta go.” You all dashed over to the back door, all you had to do was move towards the alley, if you could just get to the dump van, everything would be fine. Drive up to get the real car, leave that one with no prints or hair, and you’d be home free. The 4 of you booked it out the door. But the van was no where to be seen, instead, there were about 3 cops on either side which was 6 in total, trapping you in.

“They must’ve got Zoe!” Yeah, no shit.

“Put your hands up!” You all raised your arms, except of course for Austin. You kicked his calf. He didn’t budge. “I said put your god damn hands up!”

“In case you didn’t notice, pal, there’s a bomb in that building. If you don’t let us pass, I’ll blow that building out of existence, along with the man attached to it.” He pointed his gun to one of the cops to your left. “So, I suggest you let us through, or else you’re gonna piss me off more than I already am.”

“We know the bomb is fake, drop to your knees or we will shoot!” Another one barked. Someone had ratted you out. You looked at Miguel and Eli, you weren’t letting this go down, not by a long shot. You tuned out Austin’s ramblings and whispered to the other two.

“Be ready to run. I’m gonna buy you guys some time. Don’t kill any of them, disarm them.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Y/N?” Miguel questioned with panic. You took a deep breath.

“Thank you for being my family.” You swept your leg behind Austin’s knees, and he collapsed to the ground as you stood.

The world slowed to a crawl, pulling a gun out of your pocket, these were real bullets. You’ve never missed a target. You drew the attention of all 6 police officers, but no amount of training could prepare them. You fired 3 shots, each one hitting the hands of the officers Austin had been talking to. Their weapons fell from their hands. You felt bodies push past your legs, down the alley way away from the bank. You were glad the streets of LA were confusing. Now was the time. You whipped your body around to face the rest of the officers, firing rapidly at their shins. You weren’t gonna put blood on your hands.

But deep down you knew, there was no making out of this one. You would buy them a few minutes while trying to subdue you. Just as your haphazard shots began, they fired precise ones of their own. Two passed through your skull, three in your chest, and one got a through almost half of your jugular. Both pieces fell away from you as gravity swaddled you. Bits of your wooden mask, blood, head pushing back unnaturally, seeing the backs of your made family run, they were almost home free. There was no pain after that point, you waited patiently for your back to hit the ground beneath you, but it never did. You kept falling.

And falling.

The midday light felt like it was slipping away, there were leather walls encompassing your lifeless form. No sound, no sense of texture, just the smell of dirt and decay. Then there was nothing but darkness, but that void that beckoned you, that pulled at your very being, was gone just as quick as it appeared.

Your body shot forward with a violent intake for air. The gasps filled your lungs to the brim, your chest and head ached, throat tight. The coughing erupted from deep in your chest, which also held a different pain from the ever-tightening band around it. You threw you hoodie away and made quick work of loosening it just a bit, and in doing so noticed that your body was free of any physical wounds. There was still a soreness, and blood wiped off your skin, but there were no open wounds. You were incredibly cold, and at first you assumed that to be attributed to your near-death experience, until you looked up high to see to see an open window with snow falling outside.

“I don’t think we’re in California anymore.” You muttered to yourself. You shivered, the place was covered in hay and in low light, that’s when the smell hit you. It reeked of animals, that would probably have something to do with the fact that you’re in a barn. Shakily, you got to your feet. Knees wobbling, your eyes adjusted, there were horses. That certainly explained the stench. A chill ran up your spine, the cold tickling at your vertebrae. You scanned the room for where you had tossed your hoodie, only to find it in a horse’s mouth. Your eyes widened in fear. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” You exclaimed. You rushed forward and grasped at the hanging sleeve, tugging on it with all your strength. “Drop it! Drop it right now!”

The horse did not listen, in fact, now it seemed more hellbent on consuming the thick material. After hurtling a few curses at the horse, you heard a distinct rip. You fell back, the remnants of black cloth now in tatters. You let out a muffled scream of frustration. Even with the long sleeves of your cotton shirt, you were still freezing. It suddenly struck you how odd it is for it to be snowing at all. You figured you weren’t in California anymore, but you were somewhere that snows in the middle of May? How far were you? You couldn’t think of any states that snowed this late in the year. Were you in Maine? Up north, Canada? How did you even get here?

“Did those idiots come back to get me? I could’ve sworn…” You could’ve sworn they ran like you told them to, and that you had experienced several fatal injuries. Is this hell? Purgatory? The other side? It was cold enough to be Hell that’s for sure. Nothing made sense. You found your mask on the ground, chunks of the painted wood were replaced with vacant space, splintered bullet holes. You fastened it to the first belt loop, it rested against your left pant leg. Pins dug into your scalp, wigs still surprisingly attached to your head. Your eyes watered, your contacts were drying out. You opted take them out now rather than waste your time trying to find drops in a barn. You flicked them away once they were out. “Now, if there’s a barn with animals, there’s gotta be a house with people.” You walked over to the large wooden doors as your talked to yourself, but today just had to be the worst day of your life. Something landed on top of you, or more accurately someone.

You were surprised you didn’t feel any cracks as the weight crashed on you. Shifting your weight over, you elbowed the man in the jaw. He rolled off of you with a grunt of pain. You were quick to jab him in the stomach with the toe of your boot. Sputtering a cough with saliva dripping out the mouth, the man rushed to stand. He was trying to fight.

“You’re on the wrong side of the mountains, partn’r.” He slurred. “This here is O’Driscoll territory, Which you don’t got no business bein’ in.” I’m in the mountains? Where the hell- He didn’t give you enough time to finish that thought before he was throwing a punch at you. If this basic boy thinks he can step in my personal space, he’s got another thing coming. You blocked the fist with your forearm and redirected the force toward the ground. With the base of your wrist, you hit his throat. The force of your own strength and the ever so impeccable sense of gravity caused him to wheeze, choke, and writhe on the ground.

“Listen here, buddy,” you pressed your boot down on his chest “I have no idea where the hell I am right now. I don’t give a single shit about territory or whatever the fuck you’re going on about, but if you put your hands on me again, I’m gonna mangle your entire lower half with a rake.” You applied more weight. “I didn’t come here of my own volition, someone put me here. Which means, you’re little punk ass better tell me what’s going on or get out of my way so I can-“ Gunshots. Mystery man took your distraction as an opportunity to wriggle out form under you. They were ceaseless, did someone drop you off in the middle of a gang war, what the hell is going on? You were about to duck behind whatever cover was around you if the idiot of the room had decided he didn’t learn his lesson.

“Are you with those crazies?” He yelled, peeking out the barn doors for only a second. “I should’ve known.” His voice was cold and malicious. “You’re with that son of a bitch, Dutch!”

“Who?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, pretty boy, they must’ve sent you up to spy on us! I’m gonna kill you for-“

“I literally have no idea what’s going on!” But he wasn’t listening to reason, clocked you in the ribs before you got the chance to block, then using your surprise to his advantage, hit you on the nose. There was a familiar crack and blood rush. “Did you just fucking break my nose, you ass?” You screeched toward the ground, wiping away the blood.

You took him off guard by doing that, so you were quick to knock him in the jaw. The shooting stopped but you were a little preoccupied and decided not to waste anymore time. His arm bent to caress the side of his face. You rushed forward, lacing your arm between the gap his made. Using all your weight, you swung your legs out and forced him to drop to the ground. His back slammed forcefully and with a swift adjustment, your shins trapped his neck, locking him in place. You squeezed his neck enough to make him gasp. He tried to push away from you, but with the position you left him in, there’s no way he’d be able to without some sort of outside assistance.

“Who are you calling pretty boy now? Huh? Who, bitch boy?” You heard the door start to open, you let lose and pulled the man up to shield you, locking his head so that you peek between a gap in your arm and his head. A man wearing a blue coat and hat walked in, his hands resting on his belt.

“Well, well, what have we got ourselves here?” You couldn’t quite place his accent. You noticed he had a holster.

“Don’t fuck with me, dude. I’ve got your friend trapped between me and you. No need to make this get crazy.” You warned, tightening your grip to enunciate your point. What sounded almost like a chuckle escaped his throat.

“You must not be an O’Driscoll if you think he’s my friend.” You panicked, you tried to think of your next move, but he had plans of his own. “What’s your name, son?” Your suspicions were correct, it seems. This isn’t the first time someone’s confused you for a man, especially when you were trying so hard to not look like yourself. But maybe, you could use this to your advantage.

“James West.” That was Austin’s code name for danger. If someone introduced you or called any of you James, it meant they weren’t trust worthy. You and Gina would usually use Jamie, but now James felt like the safer option.

“Now how in the hell did you get involved in this, West?” He rested his hip against one of the stable posts.

“I have no idea.” You threw the man away from you, there was no point holding him anymore. “I woke up here, and this guy just started attacking me.” You thought for a moment. “Are you Dutch?” You asked. This time, it was a single, hearty-

“HA!” He had a spark in his eye. “Me? Dutch? I ain’t that old yet, kid.” You rolled your eyes and pulled yourself up.

“Well, my nose is broken because this little shit thought I was with you, so I have some choice words for this ‘Dutch’.” You huffed. “And don’t call me ‘kid’.” You brushed your fingers across the bridge of your nose, preparing yourself for what you were about to do. One deep breath in, out, pop. You pushed your nose back into place and winced. A wad of blood shot out. “Jesus shit!” You coughed, you never get used to having to do that. The blue coat cowboy looking mother-fucker looked semi-impressed.

“Well, I’m not Dutch, but you could sure meet him if it pleases.” Something caught his attention. “Speak of the devil…” The door opened again. A man walked in with very distinct black hair. He was also a cowboy looking mother-fucker. Oh god, am I in yeeyee country? His eyes immediately locked on you.

“Did you cause this mess, Arthur? Or have we just met a new friend?” The man who you presumed to be Dutch, had a deeper voice than the man apparently called Arthur, but their accents were similar. That was not promising for you.

“That depends, his name is West, James West. I walked in a right fine mess between him and that there O’Driscoll.” Arthur pointed to the man still struggling to steady himself. Dutch choked a deep laugh, he seemed more amused than Arthur was.

“Right fine is right, Arthur. You did this?” He asked. You nodded reluctantly. “You’re a good fighter, boy. Real good, it seems.” He strode over to the guy on the floor and picked him up by the collar, tossing him over to Arthur. “Morgan, you deal with this trash while I talk to our new pal.” Dutch walked over to you, confidence in his step, while Arthur threw the man back on the ground. He wrapped an arm around your shoulder and shook you around a bit. “James West, huh?”

“Yeah, what’s it to ya?”

“Oh, this boy’s got spunk, Morgan!” You looked over and saw Arthur yanking the man around by the shirt. Dutch forced your attention back to him. “Now West, you’ve gotta understand our position here. We can tell clear as day you ain’t involved in a lick of this mess. But we don’t have a single clue as to what your business is up here. Now, you seem like a considerate young man, but I got worried folks on this mountain, and I can’t have no scamps running around and hellraising” He squeezed your shoulder. “So, don’t take any offense to what I’m about to ask, but what are you doing up here?” He looked you dead in the eyes. In your opinion, the question was fair. You couldn’t fully let your guard down, but they appeared to not be whoever put you here. Then again, these O’Driscoll’s didn’t seem to be either.

“I can’t give you an answer to that one, Mr. …?”

“Van Der Linde.” That’s one hell of a name.

“Mr. Van Der Linde. Frankly, I have no damn clue why I’m here. One minute, I’m getting shot down in the middle of the day, and then I wake up trapped in some barn in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, in what looks like the ass end of winter. So, I’m a little confused right now to say the least.” You were clearly frustrated with your situation, he wasn’t oblivious to it.

“Where are you from, son?”

“California.” That was a safe enough answer.

“James West from out West. That’s certainly an opener.” He scratched his chin. “I’m gonna put you to a test young man.” He turned you around and lead you over to where Arthur had just gotten off the now bloody man. He was whimpering, begging under his breath for mercy.

“I don’t think he’s got much to say, Dutch. They apparently happened upon this place and took it over. That’s all I’m getting’”

“I’m going to give our new young friend a choice.” He pulled a revolver out of his holster and held the handle out to you. “In normal circumstances, I’d let Arthur handle this situation himself. But I’ve got an itching curiosity with you, kid.” You felt obligated to hold it in your hand. Looking down at the man, pity flared in your chest. “Should we kill him, or let him go? I’m letting you make the call.” What kind of question was this? Who were these guys? The choice wasn’t very difficult, you’d be a hypocrite if you did otherwise, and you weren’t compromising your promise on the off chance these guys might not like your opinion.

You handed the gun back to Dutch.

“Just because he’s an asshole, doesn’t mean he deserves to die. Let him go.” Dutch was intrigued by your answer. He looked over to Arthur with a smirk.

“I think I like kid!”

“Please don’t call me ‘kid.” You requested. Arthur pulled the man to his feet and threw him outside.

“Get outta here before he regrets it.” The man darted into the snow, leaving a trail behind him.

“Grab the horse, Arthur. We gotta get something out of this.” You were lead outside to find a horrific scene, bodies were strewn about the snowy landscape. Whoever these guys were, they were not to be trifled with. You should play this safe.

There was a house not too far away, the snow was dense. It was more than freezing. You sent a glare to the horse Arthur led past you. You’ll pay for this, you dumb fucking horse. With your adrenaline dying down, your whole being felt frozen.

“Normally, I wouldn’t be one for disrupting dead for anything other than money, but you’ll die out here without something warm, Mr. West.” Dutch gestured to one of the several bodies riddled through the snow. You swallowed the lump in your throat, trying your best not to think about how you were robbing from dead people. It wouldn’t be the first time, but you still didn’t feel good about it. You separated from him and carefully stepped around the bodies littered in the snow. You found a man with his face in the snow, you pretty much picked him so you wouldn’t have to see his face as you stripped him of his coat. It didn’t look particularly warm initially, but anything would be better than this. The arms bent limply back as you peeled the sleeves away. Luckily upon further inspection, you were happy to learn there was a sort of wool lining inside, that would at least help insulate your own body heat. A sudden commotion broke out from inside the rustic home. A man yelling for Dutch and a woman screaming. Your instincts made you spring into action, you lept through large portions of the snow to make it to the steps faster and before you knew it you were bursting through the door. A blonde man wearing another cowboy-looking hat was chasing a woman around a table.

“What the hell are you doing, Micah?” Arthur questioned as him and Dutch followed you in.

“We got a feisty one over here, boys!” He hollered. Oh, you were not comfortable with this type of language.

“Stop chasing the poor woman, ya moron!” He warned with more intensity. You weren’t gonna see this go down, that’s for sure. You ran up behind the man called Micah, grabbed his collar, and used his weight to pull his back towards you, and then to the ground. His body slammed, he let out a surprised yelp, followed by a pained groan.

“Fucking sicko! Stop chasing her around, she’s scared!”

“Get out of my house!” The woman bellowed. Admittedly, you had no idea what was going on, but you knew you could at least try and defuse the situation. You put your hands up to appear less threatening.

“Miss, I don’t know who you are or what in God’s name is going on, but I promise I am not here to hurt you.” You spoke to her in a calm voice. Whatever was going on, it clearly had her frazzled. “I don’t have any weapons, and I don’t make it habit of hurting people who don’t need hurting. You clearly have been hurting for no reason. Can you explain to me what’s happened so that I can help you with this situation?” You took a cautious step around the table to make sure she wouldn’t dart away from you, you kept steady eye contact.

“They…they killed my husband a few days ago! They took over my home and locked me in the basement!” She wept. Maybe these O’Driscolls were the ones to stow you in the barn, they sure seemed like the type with this new information.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, ma’am. I can assure you that those men won’t be bothering you anytime soon. Can you-“ You heard glass shatter, looking over, you found Micah scattering to his feet, fire was spreading from the floor to the wall at an incredible rate. It was already crawling up the right-side wall before you had a chance to react. There was no way you could put that out by yourself, and the others weren’t exactly jumping at the chance to help you. You settled on running to grab some blankets from the bed across the room. The boys were leading the woman out of the house and she reluctantly followed. Micah sent you a glare as you passed him out of the house. “Oh, don’t you look at me like that, you weren’t any help!” You knew you should keep your mouth shut, but you knew you were right on this one. The group was walking toward some horses, you followed behind.

“Micah, lead the horse back to camp.” You handed the blankets to the woman.

“Thank you.” She seemed genuine but was also hurt by your sentiments.

“It’s no problem, ma’am.”

“Adler, Sadie Adler is my name.” She wrapped herself in the blankets.

“Well, it’s no problem, Mrs. Adler. It’s the bare minimum to what I could’ve done.” You hoped whatever camp Dutch mentioned was close by. This cold was blistering.

“Mrs. Adler, you may ride with me, we’ll get you back to people who can help.” Dutch hopped up onto a white horse, lending a hand for Sadie to pull herself up. “Arthur, please take our new friend with you. I don’t think he’s in any shape to be riding.” Arthur nodded, heaving himself with ease onto a spotted mare? You couldn’t tell if it was a girl, but you just got that vibe. He did not give you a hand. Oh yeah, I’m a dude. A manly man. You gripped the back of the saddle and used all the arm strength you had to get onto the bare back on the horse. You hoped this ride wasn’t going to be too bumpy because you were not about to get punched because you had to grab onto this man and couldn’t tell if someone was a homophobe or not. You sure hoped these people weren’t, but you weren’t exactly in the position to be picky.

“Pearson’s not gonna happy about this.” Arthur mentioned as the horses pushed forward.

��Mr. Pearson isn’t happy about anything except his drink. He’ll be alright.” Now seemed like a good a time as any to start asking questions. They couldn’t go anywhere away from you at the moment.

“Not to interrupt or anything, but could someone tell me where I am, or what day it is. Could someone please tell me what the deal is?”

“We’re north of New Hanover if the maps are correct. We’re planning to head down there as soon as this winter passes. God knows how long that’s gonna take.” Dutch complained. You had never heard of New Hanover, but apparently it was winter. Maybe you really did get shot, put into a hospital maybe? Then these guys… You panicked for a second. O’Driscoll wasn’t another name for them was it? It didn’t make much sense but no one else would put this much effort into stealing you away. “As for the day, I couldn’t tell ya exactly. It’s winter in the year of our Lord 1899.” He laughed. What?

“What?”

“Ah, just bit of a joke, son. We live in dark times. We’re hurtling straight into a new century.” Wait was he joking or not joking?

“It’s 1899?” You tried to keep your voice neutral, but he seemed to pick up on your worry.

“Yes, it is, son.” He paused. “Are you alright?” You were anything but alright. These people are crazy, I’m trapped on a mountain with some insane cultists who think they’re in the 19th century, I’m fucked. “Arthur, we need to hurry, the boy’s looking pale.”

Your head felt fuzzy, colors were blurring together. I am not stuck on a god damn mountain in 1899, I’m not, that’s physically impossible. This is all a dream, or some weird set up. You felt like you were 19 again, disconnected, afraid, losing it. You weren’t gonna go back there again, you wouldn’t! You didn’t know you had stopped breathing. You didn’t feel Arthur’s arm catching you so you wouldn’t get trampled. Everything was black.

#rdr2 #rdr2 fanfic #arthur morgan #Dutch Van Der Linde #time travel au #red dead redemption 2 #Javier Escuella #Charles Smith #John Marston #sadie adler #mary-beth gaskill #hosea matthews #abigail marston #lenny summers #too many tags

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freshouttaparsnips · 3 years

Photo

Stretch is healing, getting over the hurts of the past. Until they come literally knocking at his front door.

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this is a sad fic ya’ll, no happy endings yet but there will be a continuation! (if anyone wants to fund a chapter or two, it’ll be sooner rather than later XD)

tags: Hurt/Comfort, minor fluff, Angst, relationship angst, this is basically just sad, no happy endings here, at least not yet, fluff in the future!

read it on Ao3

or read it below!

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They were all having fun, for once. Blue had dragged him out of bed a few hours before to get a shower and get dressed, which was a lot easier these days than it had been. It’d only been a few days since his last shower, this time, which made it easier to step inside the little glass box and scrub down until his bones tingled.

Stepping up to his closet, towel around his waist and water droplets shining under the titty light on the ceiling. He could wear the “Bad to the BONE” shirt today, Papyrus would get a kick out of it and it’d make his brother smile, at least a little.

Or the “I make science puns periodically”, that was a favorite, and the texture of the shirt was nice and soft after repeated washes. His decision having been made, his bones were succinctly dried and the shirt was pulled on, as well as a pair of soft boxers and one of his pairs of light blue sweats.

It’d warmed up outside significantly, enough that the sweats might have been a little bit of overkill, but it was a party. He wanted to at least be comfortable in his own home. He hadn’t gotten a lot of that until a month or two ago, so it was a nice sensation to have back.

Blue was waiting downstairs when he tromped down them, holding the handle to the vacuum cleaner and grinning wide as Stretch took it without a word. He’d partially made the mess in the living room over the past week, and it looked like Blue had already taken all the extra dishes and trash out, so the least he could do was clean the floor a little.

The whir of the vacuum was soothing, at least until he hit a few things it didn’t want to suck up, that was always a fun mini heart attack. They were all easily taken care of though, so he let his mind wander as he went about the floor.

Blue must have started cooking that morning, seeing as how there were already a couple cheese trays sitting out on the tables in the living room. Monster cheese, so it wouldn’t spoil being out, but Stretch had almost preferred dairy cheese; he hoped Blue had another tray of it in the fridge or something.

He could smell the rich scents of something chocolate and something fruity coming from where Blue had disappeared in the kitchen, making his stomach grumble. He’d have to get some breakfast after this, maybe some toast with a nice piece of american cheese sandwiched between the bread.

He hoped Red actually came this time. Stretch had taken the whole thing pretty hard, but Red had taken it the hardest. Hadn’t left his house for weeks, hadn’t come to join them for a movie night for at least a year.

He still didn’t come every time, and always had a vague vibe of guilt whenever he looked at Stretch, not that he cared.

What happened, happened. There wasn’t anything anyone could have done differently. And it’d been three years, so it wasn’t like it really mattered that much anymore either way.

The vacuum clicking off, the glorious white noise gone, Stretch noticed a faint hint of sinatra playing in the kitchen, and for a moment more, he was taken back.

Back to warm hands holding his own, the music turned loud as he laughed and swayed with his soon to be husband. Red eyelights staring at him in adoration, a small, secret grin stolen from the music that danced with them both.

Shaking himself out of it, Stretch wiped at his face with his sleeve until the wayward tears were gone. He wasn’t going to ruin today.

Blue smiled softly at him as he walked into the kitchen, taking a large loaf of what looked and smelled like banana bread out of the oven. Stretch went to pinch a piece, laughing as he was smacked away before grabbing the bread and popping two pieces in the toaster.

Blue set about icing the tray of cookies he’d been letting cool, studiously not looking up at Stretch.

“Red said he’d come this time. He’s been busy at the Embassy, but he needed the break.”

Stretch nodded, watching the toaster rather than look at the despondency of his brother. He and Red, at one point, had been thick as thieves. Stretch would have believed it fully if they’d ever gotten serious, but as time went on… well. Things happen, and you lose sight of what used to be important, but wasn’t anymore.

The pop of the toaster startled him, a small laugh forced out as he grabbed a slice and began buttering.

“I just wanted you to know, in case he brings anything with him. I know the last couple times he hid a few bottles of whiskey in his damn coat, so I told him to at least bring a case to share if he was going to bring alcohol.”

Stretch paused, trying not to outwardly wince.

Blue was many things… and frugal with alcohol when he was depressed was not one of them.

“Just…” Stretch started, but closed his mouth. Blue was an adult, older than him even. If he wanted to spend a night getting drunk with his friends, when he’d done so well recently, then Stretch wouldn’t say anything.

He’d worry from the sidelines, but he wouldn’t say anything.

“Just be careful, yeah?” he finally settled on, and Blue chuckled.

“Don’t worry, I will.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent making the actual food they’d be eating; a whole platter of nachos that would do actual restaurants proud, as well as several servings of rice and beans and homemade quesos.

All of it made Stretch’s mouth water; his bro was no slouch when it came to cooking mexican food.

But he waited diligently, snacking on a sandwich just before the first guests were set to arrive.

Blue had told everyone to come around 6, which meant that just about now…

The knock at the door, hard and unrelenting, was almost comically on time, Stretch letting his brother have the option to go answer it. He did, letting Red in with a small smile that Red returned.

There might be something more there, someday. Stretch hoped so, they both deserved it.

“‘Ey Stretch, how’s it shakin’?” Red asked, setting two boxes of beer on the side table Blue had directed him to. Stretch tried not to glare at it all, instead focusing on Red.

“Its been fine. Better.”

Red nodded, seemingly pleased. “Good to hear.” And with that he settled on the floor, pulling an X Box out of his inventory and setting it up to their jacked up TV. Stretch left him to it; he’d get a chance to play something later. Right now he was waiting on their second batch of guests, which… also were the last, but that was okay.

It took another half hour for the customary shake and a haircut to sound at the door, and this time Stretch answered, finishing the song and letting Papyrus and Sans inside. They were both carrying tupperware of what looked and smelled like more food… they were having a real feast that night, huh?

Blue greeted Papyrus warmly, the two of them taking off to the kitchen to unpack, leaving Stretch with Sans.

Sans was giving him that searching look that he honestly hated, but there was also really nothing to do but stand there and bear it. Let the old man get his reassurance that Stretch wasn’t about to fall down… it was worth it so they wouldn’t all worry.

“Lookin’ better today, bro.” Sans finally said, satisfied with whatever he saw, and Stretch grinned, nodding.

“Yeah, and you’re looking old as ever.”

Flopping back on the couch, Sans raised a hand to his chest. “I’m wounded, kiddo, how could you do me this way.”

“He could be a lot worse and call you an old fartin’ bastard, like yer are.” Red piped up, playing some kind of platformer while he waited. Stretch and Sans both snickered, but Sans glanced up at Stretch, looking him up and down before patting the couch cushion he wasn’t taking up.

“Park it, kid, the food’ll be done soon and Paps wanted to say somethin’ before we all ate.”

Stretch glanced to the kitchen, but after looking down at an earnest Sans, he did as told, flopping on the opposite end of the couch so he could stretch (heh) his legs out.

Things were quiet, the only sounds coming from Red’s game, which was turned down, and Blue and Papyrus talking in the kitchen.

At least until they started moving the food into the living room on the fold out table Blue had set up, the smells and sights mouthwatering.

It all looked delicious, Stretch saying so and relishing in the pride it brought on their faces.

But before they all got up, Papyrus stood tall, ready to say whatever it was he needed to say, Stretch waiting with an open mind to listen… when a final knock came at the door.

There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else coming… so Stretch stood, walking past confused and wary guests alike, walking to the door and unlocking it before opening… only to find Edge standing there.

He looked. Tired. Worn down. His thick leather jacket looked like it’d seen better days, and Stretch would know, seeing as how it’d been an anniversary present.

His eyelights were smaller, less bright red. He had a few more scars on the bones that Stretch could see, and all in all, he no longer had any of that pride about him that had bugged Stretch so much.

It threw him back, back to the day that he’d proposed to Edge. They’d both been happy, crying and kissing each other as Edge slipped the ring on his own finger and Stretch had gotten up, to go take a shower.

Just a shower. Just to get clean, so they could go out of their little shared apartment and tell their brothers.

It’d been silent, the whole time he’d been inside, so Stretch had called for Edge a few times, but nothing had been answered.

When he got out, it was like a silent storm had blown through, clothes strewn everywhere, one of their suitcases missing and most of Edge’s favorite clothes gone as well.

He’d left. Without saying a word, without even taking his phone. Without saying goodbye.

And here he stood, three years later, looking like a kicked puppy and if that didn’t piss Stretch off more than nothing else had, he wasn’t sure he would ever be this angry again.

“You left.”

The words hung in the air between them, seeming almost like a physical blow to Edge’s soul, seeing as how his HP dropped a few digits hearing it.

“I know.” was the whispered reply. Not an explanation. Not an apology. Just “I know.”

“Then you know where you belong. And its not here.” Stretch answered, shutting the door with a click.

He knew everyone behind him was waiting, waiting for the answers he needed to give them about who was at the door.

By the way Red was standing, stock still in the middle of the room, Stretch had a feeling he already knew.

But he couldn’t do this. Taking a short cut up to his room, he listened as pandemonium broke out downstairs, his door locked as Blue tried to come up and ask him what the hell was going on, but Stretch just said a simple “Go answer the door.” and left it at that.

He felt… numb. Emotionless would have been incorrect, because on the inside he was furious. Seething, he sat up, wrapping his arms around himself.

Edge didn’t care about him. That was the bottom line. If he had, he never would have left.

And as far as Stretch was concerned? He never came back.

#fresh writes #undertale #papcest #spicyhoney #angst #relationship angst #hurt/comfort

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rpbetter · 3 years

Note

You make some really good posts!! Can I ask something about DNIs? I know it's not directly RP-related, but I have trouble as an RPer with how many DNIs, with urls, there are now. I try not to interact with muns who have them, I block them, because it feels manipulative? But I'm also tempted to block people who follow those muns, because they probably think their DNIs are okay to have, so they're still "bad", just not as bad? Do you think that's overkill, am I shooting myself in the foot?

Oh, thank you! I'm very happy you've enjoyed them!

And, of course, ask anything at all!

I think, ultimately, the answer to whether that's overkill is entirely dependent on what your experience is and if you're happy with it. I don't think it is overkill at all, but if you feel like it is costing you too many mutuals, it might be overkill for you.

I'm a pretty insular RPer, I like a handful of close writing partners that I write a lot of threads with, so, having something like, under ten writing partners is great for me while it's miserable for other muns. I can go wild on blocking and not have it negatively impact my enjoyment, but I know that's not the case for everyone!

And I do, actually, I do go pretty wild with the blocking when it comes to things like DNIs. If it comes off as policing to me, not just something like a difference of opinion or a strong opinion on something, I'm going to block. Otherwise, it's just recognizing that this isn't a mun I'm going to work out with, but no hard feelings. With policing though...I don't want that anywhere near me or my mutuals, so, it's going to be a block.

Because they do tend to be in these odd, like, nested situations lol I totally will spend the effort if their DNI is bad enough to look at the muns they interact with and make sure I don't have future contact with them either. The RPC is such a big place, making it easier to forget URLs than to remember them, but it's also a place where we establish circles of contact, making it easier to run into the same group repeatedly. I feel like it's better for my peace of mind to be a little more certain than not at all that this isn't going to happen as easily.

If that DNI etc. has been so awful, I definitely don't require their mutuals professing the same beliefs as loudly as they are. If you interact with someone, maybe you don't know their pet fish's name or the obscure lore in a headcanon they posted five years ago or the rule they updated without telling anyone, but you do know what is on their pinned post or blog description or rules. At some point, we all visit each other's blogs in dash-view if nothing else when we're getting replies or checking for memes they might have posted, going through their tags, whatever. I do not believe that you're mutuals who reblog from each other often, reply frequently to each other, ship each other's muses and so forth, and all this time, you've somehow failed to notice your bestie mun is telling proshippers to die in their DNI lmao

No, you've seen it. And I find it extremely hard to believe, too, that it's never come up in conversation OOC either.

So, this hypothetical mutual is so oblivious to others, completely agrees with the other one's views while not feeling confident enough to share them publicly, or is scared enough of the other one that they won't disagree...and no matter which/which combination that might be, they're not a mutual I want.

Especially when it comes to a DNI with someone's URL in it. Hard pass on anyone who is okay with that!

If I visited a writing partner's blog, let's say this person is also my closest friend, I value them and the threads I have with them so much, and I saw that in their DNI they had dropped someone's URL? We would have to talk. I'd have to bring it up because it's the right thing to do (and would also be highly out of character for any of my friends, thus very concerning). There would have to be a question posed about what happened here, why did you feel like this was a good choice, and do you think it's increasing or lessening the problem to have that there?

Honestly, sometimes people do get so upset about something that has happened that their worst impulses are let loose freely. When you ask someone you have an established relationship with about that, unless you're being really hateful about it right off, it can help them settle down, take a step back, and see that this is maybe not the right action to take. To me, silence says you're okay with it.

When muns started putting more elaborate DNI's in, that alone rubbed me the wrong way because I genuinely do not think that the majority of that information is at all necessary. It's something I can see and fully understand minors doing, not because they're terrible or anything but because the impulses and rationale are just different. You're very much geared to be as loud as possible about things that are important to you, making them a part of you in a huge way, as a teenager. Shit just is unreasonably intense! But as an adult, I expect that behavior to be different. You don't actually need to say on your RP blog's DNI that "transphobes WILL be blocked!!!"

Well, yes, I should hope so lol we're a community filled with muns who are trans, I'd certainly hope you were not cool with that kind of thing. It's one of those assumptive states, it goes without saying because, in a group of legitimate adults, it literally doesn't have to be said that a trans mun in a group of trans muns in a RPC filled with trans muns would be intolerant of transphobic assholes.

And, no one likes a damn transphobe, it's not like this stunning, fresh information, here. Not making such a statement does not, in fact, act as a welcome.

Saying that, and I do not mean literally just that, it's just an example of the type of things found in a common DNI, is a little immature for me. Some of those things are, in addition to being purely self-validating: playing into the fear created by policing, virtue signaling, policing, or baiting. And all of them are pointless. Telling someone who would already be bigoted toward you and others to not interact if they somehow miraculously ID as whatever label that takes for them to not interact with your posts is waving a metaphoric red flag in front of a bull. Kind of like tagging a post as either "antis don't interact" or "proshippers don't interact." Actual quickest and most assured way to get that interaction!

I totally understand the age thing, it's self-protecting. Most people do respect it, but when they don't, you've clearly stated that this is not for whatever age group. Things pertaining to your writing and/or muse I also understand and think are great for a quick glance before someone even gets to the rules. Having in a DNI something like "muns who are easily triggered by gore" when you write a horror muse, for instance. You're advising them that this isn't a great idea for them, and it shouldn't be expected that you change your muse and topics because they decided to follow anyway.

But it became excessive very quickly, and there is the expectation that blogs have a DNI. The further expectation is that there be a specific list of things found in that DNI, if yours does not include it, you obviously don't have a problem with those things. I really cannot be okay with that, you know?

However, when it wasn't being used as a callout or a way to police, that was something that could just be ignored. Once URLs of other RPers started to appear, it was a whole other problem.

It used to be the pervading rule of the RPC that it is not alright to force other muns to chose between you and another mun that you had an issue with, but now we have DNIs with other muns' URLs in them. Now, it's the opposite take - if you have an issue with a URL being dropped in a DNI, or if you continue to interact with the mun, you're likely to get a callout or be on the receiving end of other bullying.

So, I very much think the self-insulating thing to do is to avoid those mutuals as well as the RPer with the URL-laden DNI. They could just block you, but is someone who was so juvenile as to put another mun's URL in their damn DNI going to be mature enough to do that? Will their friends once they complain about you? For me, it's too high of a risk of being around muns I wish would take a very long break from RP and only come back once they've grown up some.

I would never advise anyone to do something that is erring on the side of getting them into harassment water unnecessarily (as in, not something that pertains to digging in your heels and writing what you want or not tolerating bullying where you see it happening), and I feel like not doing what you are is that. However, I also am a firm believer in agency, even to make mistakes.

So, if you genuinely feel like blocking mutuals of someone with a URL-dropped/callout/other highly offensive and bullying thing in their DNI is costing you so many chances to RP that you're no longer enjoying yourself here? You might want to consider adjusting how widely you are blocking.

If that's the case, try going for mutuals who are what I call Casual Mutuals and leaving them open. Those are mutuals that the mun doesn't write with often or at all, they're technically mutuals because they both follow each other, but that's it. There might be some liking of posts or even comments or non-committal, OOC style memes sent in by Casual Mutuals, but that interaction is sparse and, yep, casual. These mutuals might legitimately be unaware of the mun's hateful, bullying bullshit in the DNI, or they are actually afraid to unfollow/block them at this point, so their option feels like staying around as quietly as possible.

With that last deal...you could even be doing someone a favor, Anon. When I've encountered that situation before, it's come about because the other person's Casual Mutual is painfully anxious, shy, and a previous victim of bullying. They feel isolated, they don't have many or any writing partners, and they really, truly, are terrified to distance themselves in a way that might be noticed. It's a type of toxic interaction that rarely gets mentioned in PSAs, presumably because it is so low on the actual interaction scale.

Giving them someone else in their corner, especially if that other mun is more open about their intolerant stance on bullying, can go a long way toward giving someone else confidence. I've had other people's Casual Mutuals become my Casual Mutuals and wouldn't you know it? After a while, they get braver. They see my friends and mutuals doing our thing without any of the bullying going on, they see us supporting anti-policing and not tolerating bullying, and they get brave enough to unfollow the hateful mun. It feels nice to even inadvertently help someone, and over the years, some of those Casual Mutuals have become great writing partners, too. People I would have missed if I had made the choice to block them by the association of a hateful mun they were trapped in the orbit of.

Just try to exercise caution! You seem like a reasonable person who doesn't mind truly thinking on things or doing the work required to be cautious. Assume the close mutuals are a problem, too, and block away. Build a wall with some razor wire on it with those blocks! Don't assume the low-interaction, very casual mutuals are, though. Check out their blogs for signs of agreement with Hateful Mun, and if they don't have any, give them a shot as far as just leaving them unblocked goes.

I also have to say, here at the end, that it's extremely nice to see that people out there are doing this. Honestly would have thought I'd be the last person to encourage a ton of blocking, but that's the environment of the RPC now, and it's really the only way we can deal with this issue. You can't reason with these people, you can't stop them, you can only stay away from them for your own good and send a message that this isn't benefiting them. Not everyone agrees with them, they're not going to keep having people left open for their attacks or their RP entertainment. And if enough people are just walling them off, that is a message they'll have to receive because RP runs on interaction with others.

They might think they want every "nasty ass" xyz Problematic RPer to block them, not interact, or vanish from their view of the RPC, but I don't think they realize what that really looks like. What it looks like is a huge percentage of the RPC missing, including people they didn't realize were "problematic." We tend to be quieter, wanting to stay in our own lanes and actually enjoy the hobby and each other. That's why they have to resort to shit like making everyone pre-guilty, or setting up traps to catch people out on being "gross."

So, I genuinely do not think they're prepared for the rude awakening of silence that would happen if we all actually vanished, but I am dying to see it lol and do sometimes have to wonder if the complaints about the RPC being dead/dying/empty, not in a fandom but overall, are coming from the purity police some of the time. It's quite active over on the Leave Folks Alone Over Fiction side of life :D

#answered #anonymous #policing #dni lists #blocking #rp advice #rp problems

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snowdice · 4 years

Text

Folds in Paper (Chapter 6: You Try to Cut Her Wires)[Folds in Time Universe]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus/Patton, Remus & Roman, eventual Logan/Virgil (maybe more)

Characters:

Main: Janus, Patton, Remus

Appear: Remy, Emile, Virgil, Logan, Roman

Summary: Janus, a disillusioned senior agent working for the Time Preservation Initiative, struggles to find meaning in a world where time travel could change everything about your life’s history in less than a moment. When time distortions start popping up, threatening the timeline and the fabric of reality as he knows it, it becomes a race against the clock to fix the damage before everything unravels. And the problem with time travel… you never how long you have before the clock strikes 12 and your time is up.

With a partner who has more mysteries in his past than Janus had anticipated and an enigmatic free agent time traveler mucking about time always with a clever pun or a time appropriate pet name on his lips, Janus will need to figure out what went wrong with time, and more importantly, how to fix it.

Chapter Summary:

You try to cut her wires but you're way too late.

-from the song “Time Bomb” by Iration

Notes: Time travel AU, mystery, enemies to lovers, alcohol

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted).

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office before even sitting down at his desk that morning. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.

She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”

“It wasn’t a time period incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”

“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.

“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.

She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”

“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”

“We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority?”

“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”

“What?” Janus asked straightening up. “When?”

“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”

“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.

“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so it is our mission. I’m leading it.”

“Who all is going?” he asked.

“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”

Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.

She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”

He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only other senior agents.

He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.

A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.

Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of thick glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them. It was so caked on that Janus couldn’t even recognize him on sight, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness. In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.

There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.

Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. They were nests of anywhere between 10 and 50 bombs that were set off by one core explosion. This core explosion would punch through space-time and spew the multitude of bombs across different places and times. Beyond just causing huge explosions where they landed, they would also pose a danger to any time travelers that accidently traveled through them and they could cause disruptions in the timelines around the source and where each one ended up. Once they went off in their source time, there was very little one could do to stop the damage. Thus, the time lock. The time lock would make sure that even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the damage wouldn’t extend outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.

Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.

There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and said timepiece would break the moment the time lock ended, making it impossible to return to the inside of the timelock.

As soon as it was on Khalid’s wrist, she looked up at them all. “Our information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the ‘Millennium Birds’ who are the organizers of the different events,” she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least they’d be easy to find. “There are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So we don’t double count, you’ll need to subtly,” her eyes touched on Remus, “scan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if it’s not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.”

They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. “Three, two, one,” the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus, as a seasoned time traveler, could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red ‘X’ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.

After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadn’t messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.

“Keep in contact,” Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.

Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it got.

“Where should we start?” Remus asked.

“Let’s go all the way North to the games area,” Janus said. “We can work our way back here.”

“Okay!” Remus said. “I wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. I’ve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.”

Janus gave him a disgusted look.

“What?! People eat fish all the time!”

Janus shook his head. “We’re not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.”

“Boo,” Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him.

A few minutes later, he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.

They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janus’s timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. “Well, that was easy,” he said. “It was on the first one we found.”

“Uh…” Remus said. “Jan.” When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.

“What?” Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. “But…” He and Remus’s eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like they’d just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janus’s eyes caught on a man.

He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and he had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janus’s eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janus’s eyes met his, and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.

Want to read more? Click below!

AO3 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

#sanders sides #janus sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #moceit #time travel #adriana writes #folds in paper #folds in time universe #bomb mentioned #logan sanders #virgil sanders #analogical #roman sanders #creativitwins

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milkttea · 4 years

Text

Damsel, Not in Distress

Jungkook x reader, Spiderman!Jungkook, GN!Reader: one shot

:: warnings: swearing, school

Pain is temporary, GPA is forever — @finah on Twitter

I’m a Damsel with Distress, but I'm pretty fine here.

How you found yourself in the situation you’re currently in, you didn’t entirely know. Was it incredibly weird? Oh definitely. Actually, let’s go to the beginning of your day and see how you found yourself bound with rope and feeling your nihilistic attitude grow so much more.

Now it had been a relatively normal day, at first. You got out of bed a little later than what your alarm had been set to. You’d stayed up the night before to work on an assignment that wasn’t even due until the next week, but you wanted the weekend to be free so that you could relax. Still, you did leave in time to get to school without being late though, which you considered a win considering you really didn't want to be in the building.

When you got to your classes, the students were a little too loud for your sensitive ears and you wanted to just sleep the day away, but just went through the day best you could. The end of the day for you had come around pretty quick, nothing really happened, not that you’d expect anything to, but the events that would lead to you being tied up with rope started with lunch with your friends.

“(Y/n)! Over here!”

You’d been called over to a table where your usual rag tag group of misfits were, but there was an extra guy there. You recognized him as someone you'd talked to a couple times and he was pretty cute, you’d say you had a minor crush on him. His name was Jungkook, really smart guy, super sweet, kind of quiet unless he was with his friends, an all around Nice Guy, but actually a nice guy.

He didn’t look like he could hurt a fly. Oh how wrong you were.

To be honest, seeing him at your table surprised you, he was a mutual friend of yours, but it was weird seeing him in the lunch room. He was more the type to stay away from large groups of people and staying with his friends, only coming in occasionally if they were desperate for food, but you weren’t opposed to him joining the group.

“Oh hey Jungkook, hope I don’t sound like a jerk, but what’re you doin at lunch? You usually don’t come in here.”

It was a genuine question and you hoped you didn’t come off as rude, since you often didn't see him within the general vicinity of the cafeteria, to quote him from a conversation you once had asking about the same general topic: “people are gross and I would rather stub my left pinky toe than step foot in that nasty ass room.”

"Oh— Namjoon, Jin, and Yoongi had some studying to do for their exams since they have them next week, Hobi finished his classes for today and bailed, and Jimin and Tae are hanging with some of their friends in the gym. I didn't feel like tagging along this time, they were really sweaty."

He pushed his hair back as he was talking, what a cutie.

"Damn, well welcome to our little trouble group."

With that all of you ate your lunches with little pieces of banter here and there, nothing really significant to point out. Once lunch ended though, you and Jungkook headed out together since you'd started an interesting conversation about the city's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man™.

"I don't know man, Spider-man needs a break, poor dude goes out like every day! He gets his ass beat—"

"Wow, rude—"

"He wins! I'm not saying he doesn't win! I'm just saying he gets hurt and probably doesn't have enough time to heal completely before going out the next day to deal with the next day's bullshit!"

Jungkook had to admit, this isn't how he thought the conversation would turn out. It started with you saying how you’d give your left lung to give him a hug and then it diverted into the current topic. The conversation ended once you had gotten to your apartment, and after saying goodbye Jungkook went back to his place. It was near, gotta stay close to the school to save gas money, and he thought a little about what you said. You were right, he didn't get breaks and was rarely healed up enough, even with his super regeneration. It was... nice to see some concern from someone other than Tony.

Deciding to not think too much about it, he put his stuff away and got suited up for his usual patrolling around the city. He also got ready to his favorite person, you. At some point on one of his patrols he wasn’t really paying attention to his surroundings, he was thinking about what he should have for dinner, ramen or do his homework until 2 am, truly an important question to ask himself. Anyway, he had been swinging by the apartments that were nearest the campus and saw your window open with you belting out the lyrics to Chop Suey!

This caused him to stumble and he flew directly into the space right by your open window. This scared you and embarrassed him, he truly never wanted to perish more than in that moment. You, being the nice person you are, asked if he was okay and after hearing confirmation invited him in to your room to have a drink. Was it dangerous of you to do so? Yeah, but at that moment you weren’t exactly thinking too clearly, Spider-man just smacked face first into the bricks of the wall after all.

From that day on, he had visited your apartment and a little friendship had begun to form. Back to the present day, Jungkook just made it to your apartment window when something didn’t seem right. For one, your window was wide open. Now it wouldn’t seem to weird to anyone else, but you only kept yours halfway open and with the big screen over it, this time there was no big screen and it was open all the way. The second thing to tip off that something wasn’t right was that there was no sign of you in your room, but it was like a tornado went through it.

The papers that would usually be on your desk were all over your floor, your water bottle had spilled everywhere, and your backpack looked like it had been thrown across your room with the contents all over the place. You weren’t here, but you had been briefly before you disappeared.

Now he was panicking, as both Spider-man and Jungkook, you were significant to both his hero life and his personal life. Frantically he began turning over stuff in your room trying to find anything that could point to where you could have gone. He then found an envelope, no address, it didn't say your name on it and it wasn't opened. There was something about the envelope that just didn't seem right, so he opened it.

It was written for him, and he took off to the address within it.

You were kidnapped. Because of Spider-man, no, because Jungkook had been around you too often as Spider-man and now you could be in danger or worse, dead.

He'd never swung through the city so fast. At this point he wasn't being careful he was just frantically swinging as fast as he could to the address of a warehouse that was used to house cranes and bulldozers. He arrived and swung into an open window, it led to the top floor where workers could go to fix the roof.

As he landed there he finally let some rational thinking take hold of him and surveyed the area, where were you?

"Karen, could you do a check for heat signatures?"

"Of course, Jungkook."

The eyes in Jungkook's mask had changed the vision from the usual clear view to a heat radar, with it he could see every person and got a scan for them. You weren't there, he looked harder and eventually found a body, tied to the top of a crane, placed over a makeshift kennel, with the roof open, of rabid animals fighting each other. Well this certainly can't be good.

"Karen, that's not a good sign right? Rabid animals attack whatever moves in front of them?"

"That would be a yes, Jungkook."

Immediately he springs into action, webbing together everyone he saw to different areas and wrapping them up in webs. He narrowly missed the shots of guns that were pointed towards him, and stayed high up in the building to make it harder for them to aim at him.

He lands on the crane that you're on, the crane swinging slightly and makes a move to grab you, but the sound of something powering up stops him. There, on the ground with a smirk aimed at Jungkook is a man with a scar that takes up most of his face and a large weapon shaped like a bazooka and with other weapons pointed towards you both.

"Well, if it isn't Spider-man, here to save the damsel in distress?"

You, who had been blindfolded turned your head in the direction of the voice, "I'm not a damsel in distress so shut your trap, you soggy testicle looking ass bitch!"

Jungkook whips his head at you, Karen offhandedly commenting on him getting whiplash, and takes off your blindfold.

"Name calling? At a time like this?"

Blinking at the sudden flooding of light into your oh so sensitive eyes, you see your friend, absolute madd ladd of a companion Spider-man.

"Spider-buddy! Nice to see ya!"

Jungkook could have fallen off the crane had his feet not been stuck on it.

"I– you're tied up right now? How are you so calm?"

Shrugging best you could, you make a face, "can't really do much considering I'm pretty tied up at the moment, pun intended."

Now he had been expecting you to be panicked, terrified, maybe crying? This, though, was definitely nothing like he had anticipated. You always continue to surprise him.

You wiggle a little and wince as your side stung a little. When you were taken from your apartment they hit you in the side and knocked you out. Felt a bit like overkill to you, but you did say some obscene things and threatened their genitals so you found it fair. Jungkook just stares at you, making you just a bit uncomfortable, but he spaces out pretty often so you didn't think too much about it. Ignoring the very possible death that is only about a hundred feet away and the pain in your side and head, you try to start a conversation.

"Sooooo how's it goin?"

Both Jungkook and the dude who kidnapped you look at you incredulously and yell:

"Really?!"

Startled, your body jolts and the ropes binding you slip a little and your body falls just a bit.

"Oh that's probably not good—"

"Are you really asking that now? You– you're tied… to a crane… above rabid animals? Along with multiple weapons pointed at you? You're not even the tiniest bit worried?"

In your mind you’re thinking, ‘why hasn’t he gotten me down yet?’ To be fair to Spider-man, you are placed pretty precariously over rabid animals and have multiple weapons pointed towards you both. Anyway, the words that leave your actual mouth:

"Gotta be honest, my GPA and financial status instill more fear in me than the dude that looks like literal bacon over there."

Your voice got louder towards the last bit of your sentence and both of the men look at you. Jungkook at this point was on the verge of having a heart attack. The other man in the room with you (the only one that isn't tied up) was feeling pretty offended and debating just putting you out of your misery.

You continued speaking.

"I mean, is this ideal? No, but it's something different and I can't exactly free myself, y'know no powers or anything like that, so I guess I'm just here. Oh and uh Spider-buddy? My ropes are kind of slipping by the way, so if you could pretty please with a big fat cherry on top pick your dick up and help a friend out that'd be great."

Jungkook, finally snapping out of his stupor, just noticed that your ropes were in fact slipping and grabbed your torso, untying you and swinging you both away as the villain below began shooting, narrowly missing each fire.

"'Pick your dick up,' really?"

You put your face into his neck, telling him to shut up.

Before Jungkook left with you he told Karen to call the police and to arrest the people in the warehouse. He places your body on the top floor, where he came in through a window, and went back down to the villain to web him up. This time, he was not as good at avoiding the weapons firing at him while he goes around him firing his spider webs. By this time the people who had been webbed up were freed by their comrades with knives. He gets hit in the side by a bullet and falters in the air while he grips his left side, well this isn’t good.

"So I didn't get to ask this before, but why did you take this school suffering student?"

The villain just looks at Jungkook's mask, where the eyes are.

"Well to hurt you of course, being close to others only makes it easier for people like me to hurt you. Be grateful I didn't do anything too bad. I may be a villain, but I’m not a monster."

Jungkook stills, did you end up getting hurt? He didn’t recall Karen mentioning anything about you being injured. Then again he was too worried about you to think clearly. His thoughts slowly began taking over his mind and during this the man in front of him pulled a knife and slashed it at his face. That action startles Jungkook, the knife cutting through his suit and marking his face.

He knocked the man out and went back to you as he stumbled, hearing the police with his super hearing and swings away with you held close to him. Finally your both back at your apartment, and go into your room where you see how much of a mess it is.

"Ugh this is gonna be a pain to clean up, sorry about the mess."

Jungkook, kind of upset with how nonchalant you've been, rips off his mask so fast your mind begins reeling and just starts to shout at you.

"What the fuck are you talking about?! You got kidnapped, because of me! I could care less about how your room looks like right now, how are you so calm? You could have been hurt or been killed and your saying sorry for your room? I could have lost you today, (y/n)! What if I hadn’t visited you today and because of that you died? This is serious!”

He finishes his shouting, panting heavily while you just stare at him. It’s Jungkook. Jungkook is Spider-man and has been visiting you for months. Once it finally dawns on you that his mask is now off and his face is showing, you run to your window closing and shutting the blinds. As well as locking your bedroom door after quickly checking to see if your roommate is home.

Thankfully they aren't, most likely spending the night at their girlfriend's place. Bless them and their relationship.

"Okay, you can be mad at me for being all nonchalant, but you've been hiding this! You're Spider-man, you're constantly in danger and you're getting mad at me?! Jeon Jungkook you could have died on any of the patrols you do and I wouldn’t know what happened to you, none of us would know!"

Jungkook, realizing he took off his mask in a short fit of anger, steps back a little. Both of you are breathing slightly heavy, taking a pause to think over all the events that had just happened in a short time. The one to make the first move is Jungkook who just grabs you and hugs you tightly to his chest.

Not expecting it, you awkwardly place one arm around his shoulders and the other around his waist. Closing your eyes and just rubbing his shoulders blades to help calm him down, he was shaking ever so slightly in your grasp.

“Jungkook, not to ruin the mood, but did you get hurt? I know that sounds dumb because you have a cut on your face, but I’m just asking to be sure you’re not hurt anywhere else.”

His shoulders tense under your hand.

“And don’t lie to me, I can feel the wound on your left side and it’s kind of grossing me out right now.”

He let's go of you and sits down on your desk chair, his head was down and he looked a little dazed. You left your room briefly to get a towel, a bowl of water, your first aid kit and a glass of water for Jungkook.

"Here, I'd say drinking some water is good right now."

He leans his body back in the chair, wincing at the ache in his side, and looks at you.

"What about you? How are you feeling?"

You were getting the hydrogen peroxide and a gauze pad from your kit when you stopped. Your head had a dull ache, but you didn't think much of it. You were coherent, able to form sentences and move freely, so technically you were fine. The chances of you having a concussion though? More likely than you think, but you’ll get it checked out when your done with Jungkook. The ache in your side though, that needed some ice.

"For the most part… good? I got hit in the head so I'll need to get that checked out later, and I have ice so I can slap that on my side."

He lets out a loud sigh, bordering on groaning.

“Please take care of yourself, I’d rather not hear that you died from getting a concussion.”

You let air out through your nose in a silent laugh, which was so inappropriate it's not funny you're just uncomfortable. Spraying some of the hydrogen peroxide on Jungkook’s face causes him to wince as the solution fizzes, you walk around your room tidying up a little bit against your own better judgement. You should probably be laying down or calling an ambulance, but with Wonder Boy here you feel guilty just leaving him.

Also if your friend decided to come home early and just walk right into your room it’d be damn near impossible to explain why he was there in the first place.

“Turn your head to me,” you wipe the solution from his face with the gauze, “you’re lucky that the cut isn’t too deep, it doesn’t look like you’ll need stitches.”

He lets out a puff of air causing you to scrunch your face.

“That is some musty ass breath, Kook.”

He laughs, which makes him wince as he grabs at his side. Immediately, you move his hand to look at his side.

“Alrighty so I’m gonna need you to turn yourself so I can look at both sides, if the bullet is still there it shouldn’t bother you, but if not then that’s where the problem is.”

It seemed luck had finally been on both of your sides, there was no exit wound and he wasn’t coughing up any coffee grounds looking substance so there was no internal bleeding. All pretty good, just gonna need to clean the wound which would be a bitch and a half, but better than getting an infection.

Telling Jungkook this was not fun, going through with it was worse. He immediately went to bed in your clean, nicely made— just kidding your bed was a mess. You made him take off his suit and gave him some sweatpants that were big on you, and a giant shirt that you had. You really liked oversized clothes, so what?

With the shower he took, the bandages on his side and face, and the medicine you gave him for pain the minute his head touched your pillow he fell asleep. In the meantime, you picked up the things in your room that didn’t make much noise.

Eventually you went to bed on the couch in the living room, a little uncomfortable but you refused to sleep in the same bed with Jungkook. He had other plans though, he had sensitive ears and could hear you tossing and turning in your sleep. He left your room and went to the couch where he picked you up and brought you to your bed and laid there with you.

Arm draped around your form, you both slept soundly after such a stressful day. Truthfully, you were the “Damsel in Distress,” but if your hero was Spider-Man, and Jeon Jungkook, you didn’t mind.

#spiderman jungkook #jungkook x reader #bts jungkook #bts jk

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maple-writes · 3 years

Text

WHG 14: Post Games 1

whg tag list: @ratracechronicler (Rebecca and Elvira) @concealeddarkness13 (Nesri, Lynne, Shine), @nightskywriter , @rhikasa-archive , @the-moving-finger-writes , @aeslin-writes @knmartinshouldbewriting , @pen-of-roses (Rowan, Lynn) @timefirewrites

this was really run to work on together :D

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According to Nesri who’d heard it from someone else who’s name I couldn’t remember, there was going to be a special, extra, interview put on by the capitol to celebrate the ending of the games. As much as I wanted to stay in bed, to curl up and go back to sleep, curiosity got the best of me. Most of the others were already gathered around the TV set. Cirrus got up when he noticed me and ushered me to take his seat in the corner of the couch. He disappeared somewhere, but I didn’t think to look where he’d gone.

The interview didn’t look like it was on yet, still playing reruns of the highlights from the games. It was strange, and made my stomach turned when I recognized some of the faces from training. A lot of them hadn’t made it. They were gone now. I had to look down when footage of the deaths started to play. I knew what it felt like to die. Countless times I’d relived someone’s last moments, their last breaths as I tried to help them move on, to give the recognition and acknowledgement they needed. I knew what it felt like to die and I didn’t need to see it like this. Not so soon. Not when it could have been me.

Cirrus reappeared by my shoulder, holding out a gently steaming mug. “Here. It’s hot.” He made sure I had it before taking his hand back and leaning against the back of the couch, his head by mine.

I mumbled a thank you and held the mug between my hands. It smelled nice, like some kind of tea. The reruns ended and the interview started with the traditional music and overdone images and Ceasar’s overhyped smile. I swallowed. I could almost feel it on my own face, pulling unnaturally at my cheeks until Nesri threw a piece of popcorn straight to his teeth.

"This Hunger Games was full of surprises. It was one of the longest Hunger Games ever, and the excitement was spread out to keep the tension high! We were so disappointed to see some favorites go, but we don't have to say goodbye to all of them yet..." Nesri threw a second popcorn, this time smack between his eyes. "We have a surprise for you, one that the Capitol made happen to make everyone happy! Two tributes have miraculously survived, and here they are!"

Lynne and Lynn walked on stage, dressed up and acting like it was the pre-games interviews all over again. I stole a glance at Rowan, stiff and scowling at the wall. They held their arm too tight. Lynn was their friend. Their friend. My heart fell. This couldn’t be easy to watch.

Sprawled out in every direction on one of the other chairs, Rebecca growled. “Disrespect. If he starts making jokes about their names, I’m kicking his kneecaps up to his throat.”

Cirrus grinned in the corner of my eye, mirrored by Nesri as she gave a thumbs up.

“I would gladly help.” Rowan agreed with a half-hearted laugh.

On the screen, the two of them sat down on stage as Ceasar begun his interview. “So, could you describe how the Capitol so graciously saved you from the arena?”

Lynne smiled, almost as fake as Ceasar. “I was about to freeze, abandoned in the cold of the arena, but the Capitol graciously came and saved me, pulling me out from the hell of the arena and into the lesser hell of the--" She grimaced.

“I believe I was in almost the same situation, near death in the snow, such fond memories,” Lynn took over. “And of all people, my dear sister appears to, as you said, ‘graciously come and save me.”

“She stopped.” Elivra, one of the ones who’d joined us after we’d left the arena, pointed out. “Why so sudden? Why the face?” Good point.

Rowan’s eyes stayed glued to the screen. “If Lynn’s sister is involved, I can only imagine where exactly they were taken after being pulled out.”

Nesri looked down at her phone. “Shine says they’re both wearing shockers, and that’s how the Capitol is policing what they say.”

“Electric shockers?” Cirrus frowned. “Seems like overkill to me.”

Shockers? I hadn’t heard of anything like that before, but I ignored the questions that were slowly starting to come up and twisted around to look at Rowan. “Wait, you know where they are?”

“Not exactly, more just, from what Lynn’s said in the past. He was involved in something that we thought was only in our district that was hurting people.” Rowan sighed, running a hand through already wild hair.

“Oh.” My shoulders fell. “That’s too bad.” So much for that route.

Rebecca made a face. “The Capitol’s adherence to human rights knows no bounds. So they get shocked if they say something Snow or Caesar don’t like?”

Shine, one of the pirates I think, nodded, and Nesri shrugged. “I guess so. Shine’s the one who knows about this mechanical stuff.”

Ceasar carried on. “What did you think about leaving behind those you cared so much about when you went into the arena?”

“I had to.” Lynne looked straight into the cameras, straight at us. “I didn’t want to, but I had no choice. I’m sorry.”

Rebecca pointed at the screen. “She’s talking about us.”

Lynn spoke next. “Well, I had hoped they would understand when I volunteered for someone so young. Of course, never dreamed one would follow me in there.” His face twisted in pain and I grit my teeth. “I hope they’re okay.”

I gripped the edges of my mug harder, knuckles turning white as I glared at the screen. They were hurting him. Hurting him and putting him through hell for what? For what? To parade them around like broken trophies? To show them off to anyone who’d hear them and put them out to rust? Hadn’t they put everyone though enough? Enough? Anger flared hot from the center of my chest. And in front of Rowan. In front of Rowan and everyone else who’d ever cared about him, who wouldn’t, who couldn’t, who couldn’t do anything to save them. Could only watch. Watch as, as…

“How dare he.” I snarled. How dare he put them through this with a smile and a laugh like it was nothing, like they were worthless, like they were both nothing. Nothing. Nothing. “I should have killed him.” Should have bitten through the thin edge of his soul right there on his exploitative stage and put and end to it. Should have gone through with my threat, should have spilled his overrated blood. “I should have…”

Cirrus shot me a look with quick tap on my arm, slight enough I wasn’t sure if anyone else noticed but enough. Enough. I shook my head out, letting my eyes drop down to my tired reflection in what was left of the tea. Not now. Not now.

“As much as I agree with the thought,” Rowan spoke quietly. “I’m afraid of how much worse the games could have been after if you had, on top of it you wouldn’t have survived the interview, and personally I’m glad we’ve all made it this far.”

Nesri held her bowl up like a champagne glass toast. “Cheers, I’ll eat to that.”

“It gives us all a chance to right what they’ve wronged.” Elvira added.

I nodded down at my reflection. They were right. They were all right. Even if I had, even if I hadn’t held back, and if they’d let me survive I didn’t know how I would have lived with it. To do away with a demon was one thing, but a human? A person, no matter how hated, that was different. That was different.

Ceaser’s stupid laugh through the speakers brought my attention back to the interview. “We have a surprise for you as well!” He gestured at something out of the frame, and two people I didn’t recognize entered the stage to a whispered curse from Nesri. “Alastair and Laurel! Two people close to Evelynne and Lynn!” The crowed cheered as Lynne and Alastair embraced and Lynn didn’t seem to know what to think. “We’re going to let them have some time alone…” He winked at the crowd still in hysterics. “But look forward to more surprises throughout the week, with a big surprise being announced at an interview at the end of this week! Have a good night and may the odds be ever in your favor.”

And that was it. The tributes were corralled off the screen and were quickly replaced the usual outro. Gone.

Nesri devoured the last of her popcorn and leaned back. “So, what are we going to do about this?”

I swallowed. Do about it? Was there anything we could do about it?

“I’ve seen enough.” Rebecca stood, grabbing the sword she’d refused to be separated from since leaving the arena. “I’m ready to go get ‘em now.”

Cirrus eyed up the sword in her hand. “Where the fuck did she get that? I want one.”

“You don’t even know how to use it.” I whispered back.

He blinked, half surprised and half embarrassed that I’d heard him, like he hadn’t meant to actually say any of that out loud.

Nesri got up with a laugh, blocking her path. “As much as I’d like to say I’m with you, it would be suicide to get them now.” As if it wouldn’t be any other time? “We’ll have to figure out a time when they’re under less security.” She glanced down at her phone, then at Shine with a quick nod. “The most pressing thing right now is figuring out how to get rid of the trackers.”

Rowan took a deep breath, seeming to force their eyes open. “Alright, does anyone actually know how those things work or could possibly make them not work?” Even from the couch I thought I could see them shaking, shaking and trying their best to hide it.

Cirrus clearly did not. He shrugged. “Take the battery out?”

Shine rolled his eyes and started to type something into his phone. Cirrus scowled but thankfully kept his mouth shut.

Rebecca sat down again. “Maybe we can just slice them out like we did with our trackers?”

“That would require getting close to the person without raising suspicious, and it sounds potentially harmful,” Elvira pointed out. “They’re likely wired differently than the trackers. They must be controlled remotely. If we can destroy or steal whatever triggers the shocks, those who should be safe. Well. Safe-er.”

Nesri looked down at her phone, reading off Shine’s text. “I can figure out how they work and how to make them stop working, but someone’s going to have to s teal one for me. I don’t know what the Capitol would have put in for security measures. I’m not sure where they would be keeping them, however.”

Rebecca jumped in. “I know a guy who might be able to help us narrow that down for you—he’s a sucker for a good cause. Which is why he quit. And I’m sure more than one of us are good for sneaking into places we shouldn’t get to.” She cast a pointed look towards Nesri and I faintly remembered some disturbances back at the training center that I’d done my best to avoid at the time.

Nesri gave her wink. “I’ll totally back you up.”

But that was the training center, and this was different. We didn’t know what we were up against. What kind of place they’d be keeping their technology, what kind of security measures they’d be putting in place. Surely they had to know that we weren’t dead, they had to with no bodies, and they’d be afraid of us finding out what they were doing. It might not be so simple this time. Might not be so harmless.

I took a deep breath and looked up from my tea before I could think twice about what I was about to say. “We might not have to do much sneaking.” I glanced at the others. “If we can get close enough to someone who works there I could swap them with one of us. Take their soul our and put someone else’s in the body and you could use it like your own.” They could just walk right in like nothing was wrong, putting aside how it would break every ethical guideline there was. But Ginger would never have to know, right? And besides. She did tell me I could do whatever I needed to before I left, didn’t she?

Rowan shifted uncomfortably, grimacing. “I’ve had an experience a little too similar I the past to be the one for you to do that with, sorry.”

“Oh, that’s fine.” I nodded. “It’s a lot if you’re not ready for it.” To say the least anyway. “If we don’t need to do it all the better, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have this stuff under a lot of security.”

“That works too!” Nesri grinned. “That’ll be our sub-heist!”

“So that takes care of the trackers, but what about actually getting both of them out?” Cirrus stood up straight and crossed his arms. “Sure you’ll have a field day dissecting some overcharged computer but that doesn’t do anything if we can’t get them free.”

Rowan glanced from Cirrus to the others. “Are we including the two they brought out on stage as well in this recue or do you think they were just there as a way to show the Capitol’s power to those two during the interview, if it could even be called that?”

Nesri shrugged. “Why not? More of a challenge and more of a ‘screw you’ to the Capitol.”

"Are they innocent? They're not working with Caesar, are they?" Elvira asked. "It seems like they were being used as a threat. If we abscond with Lynn and Lynne, Snow will have no use for the other two. I, for one, would rather not have that on my conscience if we can help it."

I tried to keep up, the fuzzy edge starting to creep back into my head and slowing my thoughts.

“I can’t say anything about the other, but Laurel is innocent, she’s family or as close as myself or Lynn have.” Rowan sounded certain.

Nesri shook her head. "Alastair was working with us to begin with, so he won't be working with Snow. He's offered to help us get into exclusive events if it will help us get them out."

Rebecca perked up. “Exclusive events? Like what?”

"His father is a close Snow advisor, but he's not infatuated with Snow like his family is. Triel made sure," Nesri said quickly. "He has access to tickets to parties and other events that are exclusive to high-ranking officials."

Cirrus raised his eyebrows. “Sounds fun.”

Of course he’d like that. He’d probably feel right at home at one of their fancy parties.

Nesri grinned along with him. “And Triel has the best disguises, if we need them.”

"So, we wait for the Capitol to host something flashy to show off their new trophies, find ourselves with invitations, and leave with these four in tow, shockless and safe?" Elvira asked

I nodded, buying time to pick out my words. “I’m in.” So far it made sense. So far it sounded doable.

"It'll be so much more dramatic!" Nesri’s phone buzzed and she read something off of the screen. "So, it turns out the Capitol stole all of the tributes. If we can find a way to steal all of them from under the Capitol's nose, we can show how little the Capitol can control." She looked up at the rest of us. "And just when we were getting things accomplished. How about we save that conversation for later when Triel's back, so she can explain more about what she learned?"

Agreement rippled through the others, and I leaned back into the plush of the couch. Good, I didn’t know how much longer it would be before I’d start falling asleep again. The others started going their own ways, talking in smaller groups or going off alone. I stayed put, setting my cup down on the table and stretching out on the now empty couch. How long had we been here? A few days? I curled up, wrapping the blanket around me a little tighter. Hopefully it wouldn’t be much longer before I’d be back at least partway alert. Partway coherent. At least it was warm. We were inside. We were safe enough. We were out and I hadn’t hurt anyone. Now I just had to rest. I could figure things out later, like whether or not I bit Zenith and whether or not I owed him an apology.

I opened my eyes and propped myself up enough to look around the now near empty room. Where was Zenith? He’d made it out hadn’t he? For a moment I thought of getting up, trying to find him, but the weight in my limbs and the sleepiness behind my eyes changed my mind. If something had happened someone would have told me by now, that or I would have noticed something wrong.

#whg 14 #writeblr hunger games #asher #cirrus #here we are again with the inconsistant spelligns of ceasersa name

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munsonsduchess · 3 years

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So, I re-watched The Old Guard, again. Just like my Mag 7 re-watch I made some notes, six pages of them to be exact which is why I’m gonna drop them under the cut so I don’t clutter up anyone’s dash with my mildest of observations and all my feelings for a sad alcoholic Frenchman.

I love how we’re introduced to everyone, Andy walking alone through Marrakesh and Booker speeding through the narrow streets on his bike. Are we supposed to think they’re strangers or do they know each other

Bookers little smile when he catches up to Andy like he’s so happy to see her again and Andy’s face lighting up to see him again too

Andy spent a fortune on a book because she knew Booker would like it. “First edition Don Quixote, that wouldn’t come cheap” “it didn’t”

“What brings you to Marrakech?” // “Family'' leave me alone I’m already sobbing

Andy honey they’ll still be able to see that picture in deleted photos but you tried and that’s what matters

Nicky and Joe!

Nicky is so happy to see Andy. That little smile. It’s adorable

“You look good” “you look ok” gentle family teasing is the best ok

“Boss”

It’s been a year since they saw one and other and they just love each other so much. No one touch me.

Nicky and Booker betting on the baklava and Joe just sitting there like “let him lose his money it’s fine, he won’t learn and it’s funny”

Everyone teasing Nicky for loosing and he’s just stood there like “no it’s fine ”

These are the best people for the job and Copley knows it and doesn’t care how much it will cost him. He has faith

Copley knowing Nicky is there and the little wave

Andy taking her axe with her. I love that axe

Just a group of immortals walking through the desert with swords and guns nothing to see here

“Peace be with you” those catholic teachings never quite leave

“It’s a trap!”

That has got to hurt. Those guys emptied full clips into them. Like I get the need to do a job and do it well but come on guys that’s overkill

This is what women want. Andy and her axe

Nicky still having faith there are girls

The picture on Copley’s desk. Like if you knew why did you have to go through this bullshit?

Andy has lived too long and seen too much

Like I know now that Booker knew what was happening or maybe he didn’t know the extent of it but him saying sorry did feel genuine

Andy is just all kinds of done. She didn’t want to do the job in the first place

Nile proving that yes you can be in a strange place and you can serve your country but you don’t have to be a dick about it

“Keep it respectful”

She made an effort to learn the language and learn the customs which goes a long way to establish trust

How traumatic must this have been for Nile? She always knew there was a possibility of being injured in combat or worse never coming home but to be injured so fatally and have your friend hold your life in their hands only to come back and be rejected because you’re an anomaly. A freak

Goes a long way to explain Booker’s feelings too

Nicky and Joe sleeping in the train car is something that is obviously so normal for couples and goes such a long way to show people how ‘normal’ queer people are

“What did you see?” “Part of a name tag” thanks Booker that’s helpful

“I felt her die”

“Everything happens for a reason boss”

Booker didn’t want to go after Nile. He didn’t want her involved

Nicky pushing for them to go after Nile. The emotional centre of the group, appealing to their own experiences and feelings from their first times

Andy is not happy and I can understand how she feels. Given their current situation bringing an unknown element into the mix is only going to complicate everything

“I know I saw her die”

No scarring. Nothing to suggest that anything happened to Nile

The seeds of doubt already growing amongst Nike’s friends and allies

Merrick looks like he should have been a doctor who villain who got his shit kicked in by Donna

Copley you asshole what did you think was gonna happen? They were just gonna get clips emptied into their bodies and let the mercs walk away? Use your big boy brain

Nile trying to come to terms with what happened to her. Everyone around her looking at her with suspicion. Even her Sargent who’s sending her away from more tests

The hostility in the barracks. The fact that her things are already packed.

Everyone knows what happened. Nile has never been more alone just like Nicky said

Trying to drown out the noise of the world and decompress and understand what happened“

But you can call me Andy”

Just casually steals a military transport. Nbd

MA’AM PLEASE I AM ALREADY GAY. Riding around in a tank top and shades like that is not helping

“These damn kids”

Zero hesitation in shooting Nile. This is a woman who has run out of every kind of fuck

“Why does it always have to be so goddamn slow the first couple of times?”

“You shot me” “yes honey now back in the car

”Andy might think she’s cold and heartless and only here to do a job but you can see how much she already cares about what happens to Nile

Soldiers. Fighters. Family

You know what I’m really glad they didn’t make Andy’s tank top skin tight or moulded to show off her body. That isn’t how she rolls

Andy is so proud that Nile stabbed her. Look at that smile

!Nile already having the makings of a plan within minutes of stepping onto the plane

Andy just like “god isn’t real, I’m real though and people thought I was god”

I wonder how many nights the group sat up until the wee hours discussing things like theology. Andy who was worshiped as a god. Nicky and Joe who fought in a holy war for their beliefs and Booker who probably had his own feelings on the subject

Andy being so chill about the crash. The best poker face

It was a good try Nile and look Andy is proud of you!

The smile on Andy’s face when she’s fighting with Nile gives me so much serotonin

Soft Andy. Who had to be tough to teach a lesson

Poor Nile. Coming to terms with what she is and the fact that she might never see her family again

Family dinner time!

Awkward family dinner time

Nicky and Joe staring at each each other with their puppy dog eyes “we’re meant to find each other”

Then Booker and Andy like “misery loves company”

Everyone’s just like “awh Nicky and Joe are so cute”

Andy reliving the people she’s fought with and lost

Booker knows just how much ‘help’ talking to ones family about the situation is

Booker do not put your finger on the trigger of your gun when it’s still in your trousers! You might be immortal but that’s gonna hurt a lot more

Oh no. Quynh.

Andy’s face. I can’t

Joe in tears telling the story“

Before me and Nicky it was just the two of them”

Booker knowing exactly how it feels to hang there for hours and not die or dying and coming back time and time again. Knowing how Quynh and Andy must have felt

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Andy. To be with someone for so long. The only other person who understands you. To be ripped apart like that

“Why do you blame yourself” that’s not a nice question to ask people

The big emotional talk with Andy and Nile in the churchyard being interrupted by the gunfire

Andy being so afraid Booker wouldn’t come back and delegating to Nile who just accepts her orders

“Welcome back asshole” / “it feels like someone was dancing on my chest”

The banter

Nicky being banished to the table in the corner after 2006 is my favourite headcanon

“Wait for my signal” Andy is more pissed than ever at the people coming after her family

“Big wounds take longer to heal” Nile as a millennial presses x to doubt

The sheer emotion in Andy’s eyes as she fights. The tears. She’s doing this for her family.

Will I ever stop harping on about found family in this show? No I will not“

How can you even tell what the signal is?” One explosion later “oh wait nvm”

The wound on Andy’s shoulder probably doesn’t even feel like anything with the amount of adrenaline

The van. These two“

What is he your boyfriend?” Stanzas of Arabic poetry later, “he’s not my boyfriend he’s all and he’s more”

Nicky and Joe Horny on Main all day every day

These cocky little shits “can you remove the chains? no? ok”“

There’s a TV Joe!” “Champagne?” it’s not a field trip boys

“I used to keep my stuff here” in an abandoned mine she found in the 1150s or that’s when she thinks she found it

Nile being amazed by Andy’s ‘stuff’

Booker meanwhile makes a joke at the expense of his sister

Merrick really should have been a doctor who villain honestly. The grand gesturing the weird mood swings. He could have been great in a two part episode and then had to reckon with Donna

Donna Noble is my favourite companion don’t @ me

Copley beginning to have second thoughts on everything

Andy realising only now that she hasn’t healed from the fight in the church“

Just because we keep living doesn’t mean we stop hurting” I have a lot of Booker feelings ok“

I thought you were the brains of this outfit” oh honey no

Bookers family. Oh no.

No but really how hard must it have been for Booker. To know that his son, his baby was suffering from cancer such an awful disease all the whole cursing his father for being selfish, uncaring, cursing Booker and Booker can’t do anything about it. He’s immortal, he heals, disease will never ravage his body, but he can’t share it with his son. He can only sit and watch as death claims everyone he’s ever loved. Living with the fact that his family despised him at the end of their lives because they didn’t understand that his immortality is a curse.

I have a lot of Booker feels don’t @ me

The pharmacy girl though. Helping just because she could

Reaffirming the reason why Andy started to help people in the first place

A selfless act. A purely good deed. Nothing expected in return. An unselfish act

Andy’s wound and Lykon’s death causing Andy to come to terms with her own mortality

Merrick “prosperity data” and Copley “I’m sorry those are people not objects”

Nicky is not here for your bullshit

Malta Sex Vacation ™

HORNY JAIL

Family bonding time with Nile and Andy

Andy “whatever it takes” and Nile “not on my watch”

So what I want to know is obviously Booker was in on it from the beginning but did actively derail Andy looking into Copley after Joe and Nicky were taken or was he just genuinely having a hard time

Nile prioritising her flesh and blood family and Andy totally understanding because she’s doing this for family too“

You and me Book. Now and always” my heart can’t cope

Nile finding the empty clip. Realising what’s about to happen and going back for her new family because as much as she loves her flesh and blood family this one matters to her as well

Meanwhile Copley I guess got a tip off from Booker (?) and knew this was all going down

The conspiracy wall

Booker you bastard why did you shoot her in the back?

I love this man but god damn

Booker wanting to be ‘normal’ because the memory of being rejected is still so raw

Suicidal tendencies in a 200 year old man

They’re both so upset by the whole thing. The betrayal

Book loves this woman with all his heart and soul. This is the woman who saved him and now she isn’t healing. She’s dying

Booker putting up so much of a fight so they wouldn’t take Andy

“I’m sorry Andy I’m sorry”

You might disagree with me but in my mind Booker never meant to hurt anyone. He didn’t want to be a lab rat. Didn’t want anyone else to be a lab rat. He just wanted to be ‘normal’“

All things die”

“Your time is coming” // “As is yours” Nicky is gonna fuck someone up

“I’m new” says Nile after shooting herself in the foot to make a point

Copley’s conspiracy wall or his fanboy wall for all the good Andy, Booker, Joe and Nicky have done

Copley’s grief at losing his wife being the driving factor for handing the group over to Merrick is tragic and heart breaking and just goes to show how much of a human story this really is

Nile said no guns Copley

Nile is here to save her family

“Those three men in there and I we’ll keep you safe” // Nile coming in guns blazing for them instead

Joe is going to kill Booker himself

“You and Nicky always had each other. All we had was our grief”

Everyone being so surprised to see Nile like “what the fuck?”“

Just leave me here” // “No man left behind”

Meanwhile Joe is fine with just leaving Booker right there to be the last lab rat

The groups concern for Andy who’s always been so strong

The concern. The subtle little head nods Andy does to let them know she’s ok

Andy spies an axe

Joe being so concerned for Nicky and making sure he comes back ok

Nicky immediately scrambling to his feet to go and help Andy

“What happened in 1934?” // “1834”

“Wait for the signal” “like the last one?” “Go big or go home!”

Arguing over who goes first and Andy just “if it doesn’t work our next time you can go first”

And there’s your signal

“You shot Nicky” Joe is not messing around when it comes to his other half“

You ok?” // “Everything hurts”

Andy has been immortal for so long she’s lost all sense of feeling human. Then Nile shows up to do just that. Remind her

Merrick calling Nile selfish like I’m sorry you entitled little shit what did you say“

Do you think he speaks Russian?”

YEET!

That one must have hurt

Nicky and Joe just like “wow the new girl is hardcore”

“Faster than the elevator”

Gotta save Andy’s axe

Nicky sits in the middle which is the actual worst place to sit in a car

Do you think they al rocked up to a hotel covered in blood like “don’t ask just give us a room and a shower”

Joe still seething at Booker through the pub window

Nile having to live with the fact that her family will never know what really happened to her. That they’ll all think she was KIA and whatever body they send back won’t be hers

The 100 year naughty step

I love that Nile was gonna let Booker off with an apology like “he didn’t mean it he’s just a sad alcoholic”

Nobody look at me. Ok. Andy and Booker saying goodbye on the shore. I can’t. This is it. This is the scene that breaks me

“I won’t see you again” // “Have a little faith Book”

Joe really wants to hit Booker. Probably did in the interim

The big picture“

Maybe this is the why Andy”

Andy laying down the law and Joe in the background like “yeah this isn’t a request”

Meanwhile in Paris. Booker is tired and just wants a drink

I am a fan of the scruff though

If that’s water Quynh definitely brought it in herself for The Drama ™

QUYNH THOUGH

#the old guard #long post #disjoined thoughts #i have a lot of booker feelings #i am not apologising for what he did #i just have a lot of feelings about the why #in which my fave is the traitor of the group #why you ask? wish i knew mate #duchess.txt

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