#the proper response to a kid finding out about a band you like is to excitedly talk about it with them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

angelofrainfrogs · 1 year

Text

We Can Save Them, Superstar: Ch. 3

Fandoms: Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach

Description: Gregory’s on a mission to save everyone he can in the Pizzaplex—even those that have already left this mortal plane. With the sudden return of Vanessa, it seems some lingering questions may finally be answered. But of course, nothing is easy when it comes to William Afton and his convoluted plots. To accomplish his mission, Gregory will need to work with his new friends and family… and some old, startlingly familiar faces, too.

Chapter Summary: Freddy fills his bandmates in on the status of Vanessa and her connection to freeing the children's souls. Understandably upset, they'd like nothing more than to take care of the revived threat once and for all. However, with a little convincing everyone agrees to take a step back and search for more missing items—some of which may be closer than they realized.

Rating: T

Read on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45578011/chapters/117498388

Freddy was silent, watching closely for the other's reactions as he rubbed Gregory's back soothingly, trying to alleviate some of the boy's nerves.

Moon's usual grin remained prominent, although it was obvious he was not happy with this news whatsoever. “…Vanessa?”

“…Wait, Vanessa? As in, the Vanessa that made me disassemble Bonnie and ruined so many lives? That Vanessa?” Monty questioned, teeth gnashing together in a sudden spark of rage. “No freakin’ way! I'm gonna... Raah!”

Chica remained silent, unable to form a proper verbal response. Her expression of shocked worry said it all, though.

“Yes,” Freddy replied simply. “She revealed herself earlier tonight; apparently she has been hiding out for weeks, although she is confused and does not seem to remember much of what happened while the virus was rampant.” He clenched his teeth, claws flexing out slightly while cognizant of the boy in his arms. “Although that does not make a difference regarding what she has done…”

“Where is she?!” Roxy exclaimed, teeth bared and enraged by the mere thought of this woman and how she was affecting everyone else. “When I find that piece of crap, I’m gonna tear her—”

“Roxy, please!” Freddy held up a hand, and she gave a low growl but fell silent. “I asked you all to try and remain calm—Leon, Thomas, and I have her under control. They are currently watching over her and have agreed to stay during the dayshift to make sure she does not escape again.”

Monty turned away, roughly shaking his head and squeezing his fists tightly. All he could think about was getting his hands on Vanessa and giving her some payback. “So are we gonna rip her to shreds, or what?!”

“I agree. Let's do something about her,” Moon remarked, nodding in agreement. His red eyes seemed glow just a bit brighter within the darkened half of the daycare.

All those poor children—their families… It’d been the animatronics’ job to protect innocent souls, and Vanessa took that away with some errant lines of code.

Gregory remained silent as he clung onto Freddy, shutting his eyes tightly. All he could do was bury his face into the bear’s neck and take slow breaths as the unadulterated anger from his new robotic family threatened to overwhelm him.

“First of all—” Freddy began, his tone commanding the others to listen. “—you are frightening Gregory. Please calm down.”

Despite everyone having their own distinct AIs and personalities, at their cores the animatronics were programmed to respect Freddy Fazbear as the “leader of the band” at all times. This didn’t mean they always listened to him of course, but when he really wanted to Freddy could certainly use this influence to his advantage.

“As much as I completely understand your desire for revenge, we unfortunately need her—at least for a little while longer,” he continued. “She is the only one who knows where she hid the kids’ special items, and without those they will never be able to get free.”

Silence filled the air once again. After another moment of growing tension, Bonnie muttered in a quiet voice: “…Fine. I see where you’re coming from, Freddy.” He met the bear’s gaze, his eyes hard. “But as soon as she’s no longer of use, she’s done.”

Monty huffed loudly, tapping his foot with impatience. Though everyone had been severely affected by Vanny’s actions, he had a personal vendetta as one of her most violent pawns. “This is insane. How do we even know we can trust her? We’re really just takin’ her word for it?”

Chica sighed softly, looking over at the fuming gator. “Well, she might be telling the truth if they found Ben's bracelet... Not that this excuses her actions, but we’ve got to keep in mind she was being controlled at the time.”

“Exactly—Chica is right,” Freddy said, giving the bird a tiny smile. “We showed her a picture of Ben in hopes that would trigger her memory, which it did. She then described exactly where she’d hidden his bracelet and we found it right where she said.” He paused, looking around the room again before going on. “I have hidden it somewhere safe, as I will do for all the other items. Our plan is to show Vanessa pictures of each of the children until she remembers where she hid all their things, then reverse the ritual she used to put them in the endoskeletons and free them.”

“I don’t like this, Freddy,” Sun finally spoke up, shaking his head. “We can’t put the fates of those sweet children in her hands again…”

“Leon confirmed that the ritual she spoke of is real and can be reversed,” Freddy responded, then let out a sigh. “I do not like it either, but it is the best thing we have to go on right now. As long as we keep watch over her, we will be okay. She is arguably not even the worst threat here…”

Freddy mumbled this last sentence, although he hadn’t meant to say it out loud at all—in his stress, he’d let another concern slip. He glanced around quickly, hoping no one had caught that since he really didn’t want to have to explain William as well on top of everything else.

Unfortunately, he was surrounded by machines with super-hearing. Everyone slowly turned to face him, but it was Moon to break the silence this time.

“Oh... So there's a bigger threat?” he asked slowly, keeping his gaze trained on the bear.

Gregory rubbed at his eyes, trying anything to distract himself from the harsh topic. He wanted to be as brave as he could, but it was hard with all these worries stacking together. Not only did they have to contend with Vanessa, but William’s potential return could be just around the corner and no one was the wiser. The image of that mummified face made Gregory bury his face in Freddy’s shoulder again.

“What… What’s the worst threat?” Chica asked, sharing a concerned glance with Roxy.

Freddy’s mouth opened slightly, though no words came out at first. All he wanted to do was keep his friends safe—he couldn’t risk them exposing themselves to William, the cause of the virus that made them lose their minds…

But he also couldn’t lie to them anymore.

“…William Afton,” he said simply, hanging his head in defeat. “I told you all that Gregory and I stopped the source of the virus, but I never told you what that source was. It was William Afton, who somehow possessed Vanessa to do his bidding, which led to him gaining control over all of you, and—”

Freddy cut himself off sharply. That was his limit—he couldn’t relive that night again, not all at once and not right now.

“William Afton…?” Roxy echoed curiously, head tilted to the side. “I’ve heard the name before, but—”

“He’s one of the founders of the Fazbear Franchise,” Bonnie clarified, meeting her gaze briefly. “You newer characters don’t have as much history uploaded to your databanks as Freddy, Chica, and I do.” Bonnie frowned, his ears drooping again. “Not that we have much info on William anyway… I have a feeling he was sort of erased for a reason, right?” He looked at Freddy, who could only nod.

Monty’s gaze swiveled between everyone, eventually settling on Bonnie as he explained further. Scratching the top of his head, the gator let out another strained groan. All of this information was startling, and he couldn't imagine how Freddy or Gregory felt right now. “Ugh... But why is he still a problem? Fazbear Entertainment was created in the 80s—hasn't he disappeared now? He’d at least be an old man, right?”

“We need to figure out everything from Vanessa while we still have her.” Chica murmured, tapping her chin as Monty rambled off his own set of questions. “If seeing photos of the children trigger her memory, what about a photo of William?”

Gregory quickly shook his head, keeping his face buried in Freddy's neck. “Well, I don’t wanna see it! He's scary looking now; his face is so gross…”

“I… do not know if we have a picture of how he looks now,” Freddy said slowly, hugging Gregory closer. “But we can certainly find pictures of what he looked like before as well as… the spring lock suit.” He grimaced and shook his head, not wanting to go into that topic right now. “Maybe we can find a recording of his voice, too—surely he will have given interviews or made commercials for Fazbear Entertainment. If he spoke with Vanessa often, that may trigger even more memories…”

He let out a sigh, looking to Monty. “For the moment, though, we believe he is contained.”

“Are you going to tell us where these people are, Fredbear?” Bonnie questioned, crossing his arms in front of him.

Freddy gazed at him, then shook his head. “Please understand, I am not keeping this information because I do not trust you all. I just… I cannot risk any of you getting hurt again.”

Always on their leader’s side, Chica nodded and took a step forward to place a hand on Freddy’s shoulder.

“We get it. We just want to help you, Freddy. There's only so much we can let you do on your own…,” she said softly, looking back at the other animatronics. “We're all here to help you no matter what, and we won't let anyone get hurt again. It's why we need to do this as fast and efficiently as possible.”

Monty could see his position of opposition was a lost cause. Relenting with his palms up, he offered Freddy and the ghost in his arms a reassuring grin. “Yeah, we'll help! Nothing will happen to us now that we're on high-alert!”

“Thank you,” Freddy murmured, tilting his head to rest it against Chica’s. “Before, it was just Gregory and I against this seemingly impossible force… but we got through it.” He finally smiled, a hint of his usual calm confidence returning. “And now that everyone is themselves again, I know we can free those children and stop any threats to our happiness once and for all—together.”

Freddy held out the arm not supporting Gregory, leaving it open for someone fall into. Bonnie quickly rushed over, latching himself around his robot friends to leave Gregory comfortably sandwiched in the middle.

“Aww, Freddy, you know we’re never gonna let anything happen to us like that ever again, like the others said,” the bunny murmured, eyes shut tight as he also squeezed everyone else. “I really love you guys…”

“Hey, me too!” Roxy exclaimed, rushing over to hug onto both Chica and Freddy’s backs.

“Ooh, group hug!” Sun exclaimed, jumping to his feet and grasping Moon’s hand, pulling his counterpart over to where he could just barely get ahold of Sun and a bit of Freddy’s shoulder that was in the darkness.

As all of the animatronics gathered around, the heaviness started to lift from the daycare. Gregory smiled to himself, feeling quite determined to get the kids back. Thanks to the rest of the animatronics, he was a lot more confident that nothing would happen to anyone. They’d all protect each other and put William's evil plan to rest.

“...Does this mean I can still punch Vanessa?” Monty asked after a moment, looking to Freddy imploringly. “Just one small punch. Maybe even a nibble—”

“…At least wait until we have gotten a little more information out of her, alright?” Freddy said with a roll of his eyes. It went against his programming to condone violence of any kind, but… some people deserved it.

“Oh hell yeah!” Roxy cheered, clenching a fist and completely forgetting about the nearby child for a moment. “I’m gonna take such a big chomp outta that stupid face—”

“Hey, leave something for me!” Bonnie chimed in, a dark gleam in his eye. “I want a piece of her, too…”

Chica wanted to be civil, but thinking about the children truly made her metallic heart ache. “Let me in on it, too!”

“Oh dear…,” Freddy grimaced, wondering what in the world he’d started. He glanced up at Sun, knowing that at least he didn’t have any violent tendencies… but by the way Sun was rubbing his hands together, slightly crouched and cackling softly while mirroring Moon to a tee, Freddy wondered if there were other aspects to the daycare attendants’ programming that he wasn’t aware of.

“I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind next time I see her!” Gregory added, laughing quietly to himself.

“I promise you will all have your turn,” Freddy relented, fully accepting that Vanessa had a lot of well-deserved retribution coming her way. “But as I have said, at least try and wait until we have gotten all the information we can out of her first. We will do our best to move her out of sight when we need to, but…” He paused, looking at everyone seriously. “Please do your best to hold back if you run across her—especially if Thomas and Leon are around. I would hate for them to get caught in the crossfire.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roxy said, waving a dismissive hand. “We won’t hurt them, don’t worry!”

“Speaking of which… I should go check on them and help prepare for the dayshift; I think we have had enough excitement for tonight.” Freddy glanced down at the boy in his arms. “Are you ready to come with me, superstar? It is completely fine if you would like to stay with someone again—you do not have to face her until you are absolutely ready to.”

Gregory quickly shook his head, immediately holding his arms out for one of the many robots to take him off the bear’s hands. He definitely didn't feel prepared to face Vanessa again just yet, especially after this conversation. The last thing he wanted was to feel physical pain like when he faced off with her in the basement.

“Well, I call first dibs on beatin’ her up—just sayin’,” Monty mumbled, stretching his arms out.

“I’m right behind you, big guy,” Roxy said, patting Monty on the shoulder before taking Gregory into her arms once again. She grinned down at him, looking as docile as usual save for the occasional harsh whip of her tail back and forth. “Buuuut for now, we can all hang with Gregory—how’s that sound, kid?”

“I’m in,” Bonnie agreed with bright smile. One of his ears started tilting downwards but he quickly righted this. It seemed that just like Monty, the animatronics were all fighting back their urge for revenge. However, right now they all knew they had one mission: protect Gregory and keep him feeling safe and happy while Freddy was away.

“Thank you, everyone.” Freddy smiled softly at the group. He ran a gentle hand over Gregory’s cheek as those huge brown eyes stared up at him. “I will meet up with you all again shortly—I promise.”

“Okay, dad!” he chirped, nuzzling his cheek against Freddy’s hand with a grin.

“So I think we should all hang out in my room since it's the coolest!” Monty remarked with a wide grin, resting his hands on his hips.

“Um, I think it’s gonna be really crowded if we all cram into one of our rooms, no matter who’s it is…” Roxy commented, looking at the group. “Any other suggestions of where we can all go?”

There was a moment of silence until Bonnie spoke up. “Y’know… I think I’m ready to play some Gator Golf again.”

“Yes, I wanna play Gator Golf!” Gregory insisted, throwing his hands up.

“Oh, can Moon and I come, too?!” Sun asked, waving excitedly. “I‘ve heard it’s dark in there, but I’ll be okay as long as everyone is with me! Besides, it’s probably perfect for Moon!”

Moon clapped his hands as he stood in the darkness. “Sun and I haven't played any games in the Pizzaplex yet, ehehehe…”

Chica smiled, turning to face the two before nodding. “Of course! You’re both always welcome to join!”

“I think that is a fantastic idea!” Freddy agreed with a nod. If he could get Sun and Moon out of the daycare and sneak Vanessa in without worrying about them spotting her that would be ideal.

“Yaaaaay!” Sun cheered, jumping up and down a few times before grabbing onto Moon’s arm and starting to pull him towards the wooden door. Of course, he made sure Moon stayed in enough shadow to be comfortable. “Let’s go, let’s go! Ooh, I’m so excited!”

“Hey, wait—don’t you need Gregory?!” Roxy asked, quickly rushing after the pair with the boy still in her arms.

Freddy chuckled, beginning to follow the group out. As he fell into step with Chica, he gave her a smile, patting her shoulder gently. “Try and keep the others out of too much trouble until I get back, will you?”

“Of course! Take your time and be careful,” Chica replied, before leaning over to give the bear a quick side hug.

Gregory smiled as he turned off a few lights to aid Moon while he was being dragged along by Sun. He wished Freddy could join them now of course, but he knew there were things that had to be done tonight.

Freddy waved after the group before slowing his pace, letting the others get far ahead of him and pile into the elevators to the main atrium before heading for the security office. He was glad things had gone the way they did. He’d expected the others to be angry, but at least they were able to contain themselves for time being. As long as he kept Vanessa out of their sight, they should be able to get all the information they needed before he let the animatronics have at her.

…Whether he’d actually allow this was still up for debate.

Freddy soon approached the security office, peering in the window as he knocked on the door. Vanessa was still in the chair and Thomas and Leon didn’t look anymore distressed than before, so Freddy could only assume things were still okay. Well, as “okay” as they could be given the circumstances.

Leon perked up from his chair as he heard the knock, slowly getting up to open the door. They’d filled two bags full of snacks, food, and drinks so they could go the whole day with hiding Vanessa, although Leon was still nervous about the plan.

“Hey Freddy. How'd everything go?” he asked, shutting the door behind the bear.

“Better than expected,” Freddy replied, moving to stand near Thomas and sparing a quick glance at Vanessa as he passed her. “The animatronics are understandably displeased with the news of Vanessa’s return, but as long as she stays out of their sight they will not actively go searching for her. If they do catch sight of her, well… I cannot guarantee she will get away completely unscathed.” He let out a sigh, completely understanding their reaction but hoping it didn’t come to that. They really didn’t need more blood on their hands, as much as part of the woman deserved it.

“Well… I guess that’s fair,” Thomas said, shrugging slightly. “As long as they don’t come banging down the door trying to get her.” He shivered, teeth clenching together. “I-I don’t wanna be around if they freak out.”

“Right…,” Leon mumbled, looking over to Vanessa. “We can't stay here, so... are we ready to move?

“Yes,” Freddy confirmed. “All of the animatronics have taken Gregory to play Gator Golf—including Sun and Moon. If we go right now, we should be able to avoid everyone.”

“Thank goodness for Gregory!” Thomas said with a short laugh, then looked from Leon to Freddy. “Leon stocked up on supplies, so I think we’re good to go, right?”

Leon nodded, moving behind Vanessa to begin untying her from the chair itself. As he did so, he tightened her arms behind her back. Once the ropes were secure, he hefted the woman over his shoulder and ignored her indignant cry of annoyance. “You can take the bags, Thomas; I'll carry her.”

Thomas nodded, patting down his pockets to make sure he had everything before quickly grabbing the bags of supplies. He gripped them in one hand and opened the door with the other, holding it while the others passed through.

Freddy allowed Leon out first, deciding it would be best to follow behind just in case anything went amiss. This way, he could observe both Vanessa herself and keep an eye out just in case a wayward animatronic caught sight of her and went into attack mode.

“How did Gregory take everything? Is he doing okay?” Leon asked curiously, offering the animatronic a hopeful smile. Out of everyone in the Pizzaplex, that boy was the last person who needed more stress.

“He is... alright considering the circumstances,” Freddy replied, smiling back a little bit. “The other animatronics are very good at keeping him happy, so I am sure he is having a wonderful time right now. However, he is understandably terrified at the mere thought of encountering Vanessa again. The last time we saw her, he...”

Freddy trailed off, shaking his head at the memories. Never before had he seen a child in so much pain and fear as he did that night down in the old restaurant.

“What... what happened?” Thomas asked hesitantly, unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.

Freddy met his gaze, responding simply: “Gregory relived his own death.”

“...Do you think the other kids’ve done that, too?” Leon asked, chewing his lip as he adjusted his hold on the former night guard. “If not, I'm guessing we can't let them know anything about Vanessa being alive.”

“I am unsure,” Freddy replied, shaking his head. “But… I have a feeling they have not. You are right—we must keep her presence a secret from them.”

Thomas grimaced, a shiver running through his body at the thought of having to relive one’s own gruesome murder. “Damn… Gregory’s a strong kid to get through all that…”

It was now more abundantly clear why Freddy was so overprotective over Gregory. Apparently, ghosts could be reminded of their deaths depending on what was presented to them. Whether this was a one-off instance or could be a reoccurring problem, the guards didn't want to find out. The last thing they wanted was for the kids to relive something so traumatic.

They doubted some of those lost souls would be able to handle it.

“Yeah…,” Leon mumbled, glancing at the now-silent Vanessa. “As long as he says he's okay, that's all that matters right now. I just wish this dumbass didn’t show herself like she did; maybe we would've been able to keep it a secret from him, too.”

“We cannot change the past, unfortunately,” Freddy replied, glaring at Vanessa where she hung limply over Leon’s shoulder. Out of habit, Freddy gave her a brief health scan. He didn’t care about the already-healed burns, but if she had any hidden injuries that would cause trouble for them down the road, he needed to know about them.

“I have performed a health scan to see if she has any injuries that require immediate attention,” Freddy murmured quietly. “Once we are settled, you should give her a bit of water and food—she is very dehydrated and her blood sugar is low.”

“Ugh, Freddy, stop being nice; just let her suffer,” Thomas groaned. After this recent revelation and the stressful events of the night—not to mention the thought of staying up all day to keep watch over a child murderer—his patience was at its end.

“I am not saying this to be nice,” Freddy replied coldly. “I am only pointing this out because I do not want her to have a medical issue that would require hospitalization before we get everything we can from her—as you said earlier, if she leaves this building she is as good as arrested.” The bear paused, huffing a sigh. “Speaking of such things, that wound in her side requires attention, if nothing else than to stop the blood flow—I believe it was unintentionally opened up again.”

“Fine. We'll feed her and give her water,” Leon responded, almost bitterly at the very concept. He hated the bad shape she was in—not because she was injured, but because they had to take care of her. It was honestly quite annoying in his eyes. “Also, before the night ends I'll show her another picture. That way you can keep an eye out for their item when you’re walking around.”

Vanessa didn't say anything, keeping her head lowered as she was carried into the daycare. William ruined everything... But she couldn't ignore the fact she was still a part of such a horrible crime, whether she was cognizant of it or not.

The group remained silent as they cautiously walked through the daycare and down to the depths of the theater. True to Freddy’s word, Sun and Moon where nowhere to be found and they had no problem making it into the little back area that would be Vanessa’s room for the time being. Once Leon secured her in another chair, Freddy immediately went to work treating her injury using a first aid kit he’d picked up while they walked through the main area. It wasn’t a deep cut, but the rope earlier had been in just the right position to aggravate it enough to start bleeding again.

“The wound is not severe; it should heal up shortly as long as it is not reopened,” Freddy informed the guards as he pressed some gauze to Vanessa’s side. He couldn’t help but feel a small bit of satisfaction when she flinched as his proximity.

Was he also pushing a little harder than he needed to?

…Yes, but she certainly wasn’t in a position to complain. Vanessa winced from the pain, although she figured Freddy wasn't going to be careful whatsoever. Instead of complaining, she simply had to suck it up lest he make things worse.

“Hmph,” Leon responded to Freddy's comment, pulling out a few things from their bag before lifting his phone up and beginning to scroll. “We should hurry this up; I seriously don't want to spend weeks with this psycho.”

“Me neither,” Thomas mumbled, already opening up one of the canned coffees and taking a big sip. If he was going to stay awake the whole day, he might as well start getting caffeinated now. “We can also figure out what we’re going to do with her in the next few days, because you and I can’t stay here watching her forever… We’ve gotta go home at some point.”

“We will find another solution, if necessary,” Freddy reassured as he finished bandaging Vanessa’s wound. He then stepped away quickly, hating that he’d had to be so close to her. He shot her a glare, adding in a harsh tone: “In the meantime, do not cause Thomas and Leon any trouble.”

Vanessa glanced up at him, eyes narrowed for just a brief moment before she lowered her head with a sharp exhale. “I wouldn't dream of it.”

Sitting up straight, Leon tapped his phone to enlarge the picture on screen and turned it to face the others. “I have the photo of Ella. I'm hoping her object will be easy to find like Ben's was.”

Thomas could only look at the photo for a second before he had to turn away. How anyone could kill a child as innocent-looking as that, whether they were in their right mind or not, was beyond him.

Freddy looked at the picture as well, a pang in his mechanical heart as he saw Ella’s smiling face. “Wherever her item is, I will find it.”

Everyone watched with baited breath as Vanessa took a deep breath and raised her head again. Her eyes widened and she immediately away, groaning quietly. The memories played back as a film reel in her mind, detailing each gruesome detail. Vanessa shook her head, feeling herself tear up.

“...I-In the West Arcade. I put it in a vent beside M-Music Man; high up, where no one could reach unless they really tried,” she finally admitted with a shuddering breath, overwhelmed with the cruel reality of what she did.

“Of course you did…,” Thomas muttered at the twisted irony. He shook his head, then looked up at Freddy. “We’ve got it from here, Freddy—you should try and find Ella’s item and then spend time with Gregory.”

“Yes, I think that is the best idea,” Freddy agreed, then gave a heavy sigh. “I have not told Sun and Moon that you are keeping Vanessa here, so if they spot you in the daycare, just make up an excuse.” He paused, then added. “…Although I would suggest avoiding them if possible, especially Moon. They are not supposed to leave the daycare during opening hours, but if they detect a threat to the children I am not sure what their programming will make them do…”

Vanessa lowered her gaze to the floor, too ashamed and guilt-ridden to look at anyone. If they knew the details of what exactly she’d done to Ella or any of the others, she feared even the composed Freddy Fazbear would been too angry to hold back.

“If you need us, you'll know where to find us,” Leon mentioned, slipping his phone back into his pocket before folding his arms over his chest.

“Alright; thank you both,” Freddy said, finally offering the guards a smile. “If you need me for anything during the day, you can ask a staff member for my schedule so you can find me. Otherwise, I will return as soon as tomorrow’s night shift starts.”

“Got it; good luck,” Thomas said, moving to give Freddy a gentle pat on the arm and a warm grin. “We’re gonna get through this, don’t worry!”

Freddy simply nodded, appreciating the comfort. Then he gave Leon a wave and quickly left the room, unable to look at Vanessa anymore that night.

Leon returned the wave as they watched the bear leave. Once the door shut he went to lock it from the inside, just in case someone got a wild hare to check unused areas today. As he turned back to Thomas, Leon’s gaze caught the half-emptied bag by the other man’s feet. Dumping the rest of the contents out, without even a moment’s thought Leon put it over Vanessa’s head to block her sorry face from their sightline.

“Much better,” he mumbled with a definitive nod.

***

Music Man was asleep as usual when Freddy entered the West Arcade. He was careful not to wake the large animatronic, moving quietly as he searched through any vents that would take considerable effort to find. He’d grabbed a heavy-duty ladder from the janitor’s closet, and he had to stand all the way on the top rung before he found his prize. Shoved deep in one of the smaller crevices of the trippy wall were a pair of tiny hearing aids. Like Ben’s bracelet, they had a smudge of dark red on their surface that Freddy didn’t want to dwell on.

Holding the devices oh-so-carefully in his palm, Freddy rushed back to his room and hid them in Gregory’s toy box before making his way to Gator Golf to join the rest of his friends.

In contrast, the group was having quite a fun time trying to distract themselves. Gregory was up to bat next, lining up his shot with all the techniques he remembered. Even so, he smacked the ball a bit too hard and sent it careening over some fake shrubbery towards the sky.

“I'll go find it!” he told the others, quickly running off in search for the ball.

“This game is harder than it looks!” Sun stated as he watched Gregory run off. “It’s nothing like doing arts and crafts…”

“Just wait until you get in a race car!” Roxy exclaimed with a loud laugh, stepping up to take her turn while Gregory was away. She hit her ball and it rolled right into Monty’s, knocking it further away from the hole. Roxy let out a dramatic gasp and said in a voice full of sarcasm: “Oh no, I’m so sorry! Tough luck, big guy…”

Moon didn't seem to have the technique down either, being at the bottom of the leaderboard. He didn't mind all that much, programmed to be a good sport—though that sentiment couldn't be applied to Monty.

“You did that on purpose!” the gator whined, smacking Roxy's leg with his tail.

“Oh my gosh, you guys are always trying to one-up each other!” Chica giggled, rolling her eyes.

“Did not!” Roxy snapped, smacking Monty back with her own tail. Of course, being made of mostly fluff instead of straight metal, her tail had much less force than Monty’s, so she followed this up by lightly shoving his arm for good measure.

It was at this point that Freddy finally made it down to his friends. A smile lit up his face as he spotted the group in the middle of the course, and he rushed to grab a club and golf ball of his own.

“Hello everyone!” he called brightly, waving as he joined them. “Who is winning so far?!”

Monty perked up as he heard Freddy, turning around and lightly shoving Roxy back before settling a claw on his hip. “Freddy! You're back! Bonnie’s actually winnin’, but I'm in second place, of course.”

“Hey Fredbear!” Bonnie greeted, pulling Freddy into a half-hug once he was close enough. “Yeah I'm winning, but Monty's catchin' up to me fast!”

“I see,” Freddy responded with a laugh, looking for any sign of the small ghost. “Where is Gregory?”

“He's looking for his ball over there,” Roxy replied, pointing to the bush Gregory had disappeared behind. While the kid was away, she took this opportunity to lean in close and ask: “So how's... you know?”

“Still contained,” Freddy replied, watching everyone move in closer to hear. “Thomas and Leon have her set up for the day ahead. Also, I was able to recover another item—Ella's hearing aids were in a vent in the West Arcade.”

Monty beamed, although his grin was quick to fade upon hearing Freddy's update. As he heard the next item that was located, he narrowed his eyes. “The heck? Outta all the things to take… She's so evil.”

Moon shook his head, a darkness to his tone that made the others shiver. “She will certainly be dealt with as soon as possible.”

Deep in the shadows, Gregory was still searching for his ball. It’d rolled far off the path, towards an area that looked slotted for refurbishment due to the half-exposed wiring around the nonfunctioning floor lights. While Gregory scanned the area, he stumbled upon an odd sight: a dingy yellow material half-buried underneath fake soil and rocks. Immediately, curiosity got the better of him and he crouched to brush away the excess “dirt.” Either this thing had just been placed here, or someone did a horrible job of burying it properly.

As Gregory tugged the object out, a sharp gasp escaped his lungs. A few dark fingerprints littered not one, but two stuffed plushies, unmistakable in their design. Magnets sewn underneath the fabric on their stubby hands connected them, always together no matter how dark the world around them became.

Sun and Moon.

Trembling, Gregory slowly looked up to see the catwalk above him. Something nibbled at the back of his mind—a memory, vague and fuzzy from the terror of that horrid night. He’d crawled through a vent to get to the catwalks, one that Freddy had said only staff would have access to. As Gregory frantically shuffled towards the exit, slamming into metal walls with every twist and turn in a mad dash to avoid whatever was following him, he’d kicked something out of the vent opening just above the catwalks. In his blind panic he’d completely forgotten about it, but… Perhaps he’d been even closer to freeing the other kids than anyone realized.

The plushies had been hidden in this little unattended corner this whole time, untouched by patrons and staff alike. Truly, in times like this it was lucky Gregory was still such a bad shot.

“I found something!” the boy called out, steeling his nerves as he got up and wiped the fake dirt off of his knees.

“What is it, superstar?” Freddy asked, quickly rushing over to where the voice came from. He moved some of the shrubbery aside as Gregory stepped out, and there was a collective gasp as everyone saw what was in the boy's hands.

Gregory held the plushies out with a frown, holding them out for Freddy to take. “They were kinda buried in the dirt!”

“Oh no... oh no no no no...,” Sun muttered, shaking his head rapidly. He clung to Moon's arm, eyes darting back and forth between the plushies and his counterpart. “Moon, that's... oh no...” He sucked in a few rapid, unnecessary breaths, not used to feeling such negative emotions. Even without Vanessa's confirmation, he knew exactly who these plushies belonged to.

“Flynn and Ian's,” Moon finished the sentence bitterly, placing his hand over Sun’s and trembling with rage.

“How... How could she DO THAT?!” For the first time since he was powered on, Sun's voice actually held a note of genuine anguish.

“What?!” Monty growled, fists clenched so hard the plastic of his golf club began to crack. Yet another tragedy in his attraction, and he was none the wiser. The gator opened his mouth to yell something else, but Chica quickly stopped him.

“Let's just calm down… We still need her to help free the rest of the children!” the bird explained, resting a firm hand on Monty’s shoulder.

Freddy took the plushies, hiding them away in his chest cavity so they’d be safe until he could put them with the other items. Then he picked Gregory up, hugging him close while the animatronics tried to control themselves.

“I’m seriously gonna bite her face off…,” Roxy growled, tail bristling as she slowly clenched and unclenched her claws. Bonnie patted her back until she relaxed—he fully agreed with her feelings but knew now wasn’t the time to act on them. Not yet.

“Those poor little things…,” Sun murmured, then turned to hug onto Moon tightly.

Gregory clung to his caretaker, hesitating for a moment before pointing up at the catwalk. “I, um… I think they fell. I might’ve kicked them off that vent I crawled through to get to up there a while ago…”

“Try not to think about it,” Freddy said, gently turning Gregory’s face towards his and giving the boy a soft smile. “You found their items, and that is wonderful; no need to muse on how they got where they were.”

Chica frowned softly, resting a hand against her chest.

“I know she did this, but... I can't help but be ultimately angrier with William than Vanessa,” she admitted, looking over at Freddy. Of course she still wanted revenge against Vanessa just like the others, but her urge to knock William’s decrepit teeth out was a lot stronger.

“…You’ve got a point, Chica,” Bonnie murmured. He shook his head with a sigh. “I just wanna know why William did all this!”

Freddy didn’t fully understand why William did what he did either, but he had more of a theory than anyone else. Vanessa’s comment about Evan and Gregory ran through his mind, making him grimace. However, he decided not to share that just yet—maybe he could get more information about their supposed connection (or at least in William’s mind) when they showed Vanessa a picture of Afton.

“Because he's mean and evil!” Monty chimed in, growling quietly to himself as he looked away. “I'm still punching Vanessa; I don't care!”

Chica lowered her gaze, gently shaking her head. “I don't want to find out. I just want to get those kids out of the endoskeletons as soon as possible.”

“We will,” Freddy said, smiling reassuringly at the group. “We have already found four items—we only need five more and then we will be so much closer to releasing the children than we ever have been. We are moving as fast as we can.” He glanced down at Gregory, noting the way he clung, and then looked back to everyone. “For now, though, I think I must take Gregory to bed; he has been through a lot this evening.”

Chica reached down to give Gregory’s hair a gentle ruffle. “Mm-hmm. Get some sleep, Gregory. We'll see you later.”

Gregory smiled before gently nodding his head. “Thank you, 'm really tired…”

“Understandable, bud; sleep well,” Bonnie said with a smile, waving a hand and an ear in unison.

“Sun and Moon, do you need us to drop you off at the daycare?” Freddy asked, looking up at the tall animatronics.

Sun finally detangled himself from Moon, sounding more like his chipper self as he replied: “Oh! Yeah, if Gregory’s up for it! We’ll make it work if you’re too tired, Sunshine.”

“I can do it!” the boy insisted, propping his chin on Freddy's shoulder.

“If you can keep the lights dim, Moon and I can go in the elevator together,” Sun remarked as the group headed towards the Gator Golf exit. He paused, then added: “And even if you can only turn the lights off, I’ll just… hold Moon’s hand or something! I’ll be okay!” He gave a small laugh, clearly trying hard to get over his fear of the dark to make it easier for Gregory. The last thing he wanted to do right now was put more stress on the boy.

“Deal,” Gregory agreed, glancing in concentration towards the elevator. As the doors opened, the lights dimmed significantly.

Moon cackled, looking over at Sun and taking a hold of his brother's hand. “You're a chicken.”

“Oh, hush!” Sun replied, but he made a point to hold onto Moon tight. Though the lighting in the golf course was darker than in the elevator, it was still a little dimmer than he’d like. Still, he soon glanced over his shoulder and gave Gregory a big smile. “Thanks, Sunshine! You’re so good with your powers now!”

Freddy followed the pair inside, chuckling softly at their antics, then pressed the button to take them up to the top level. He gave everyone still in the golf course a final wave as the doors closed, hoping they wouldn’t get too worked up in his and Gregory’s absence… especially Roxy and Monty.

Moon nodded in agreement with Sun as he hopped around, head knocking against the ceiling. “You're so talented! You'll be such a good teacher for the rest of the children, ehehehe.”

“Moon, be careful!” Sun exclaimed, tugging his arm to stop him from jumping quite so high. He kept laughing though, knowing Moon was completely fine despite the impacts with the metal above.

“Gregory will be a wonderful teacher,” Freddy confirmed, grinning over his shoulder. “I think it would be best to host most of these lessons in the daycare, as it is the perfect environment to fit everyone comfortably.”

“We’re gonna have soooo much fun!” Sun said, tugging Moon’s arm up and down as he now jumped excitedly.

“Heck yeah!” Gregory kicked his legs excitedly, a prominent smile remaining across his lips.

Before long, the quartet approached the doors of the daycare. Moon reached out to give the little ghost a pat on the head, the bells on his wrists jingling with each movement. “Thanks again for all your help, Gregory.”

“Yeah, thanks!” Sun reached down to with his free hand to pat Gregory’s head one last time, then gave Freddy a wave before tugging Moon into the daycare. “‘Night, you two!”

“Goodnight!” Freddy called after them with a slightly strained smile. He couldn’t help but think of the guards and hoped they were doing alright. Since he hadn’t gotten word of any problems so far, he could only assume they were fine.

Not wanting to linger, Freddy quickly turned and walked Gregory back to their room, setting the boy down once he closed the door behind them. He went to the toy box and deposited the plushies with the other items, carefully wrapping them all up in the extra blanket before hiding them away again. Just over half of the items were left—hopefully they could find them all soon and be done with Vanessa once and for all.

After putting everything away, Freddy sat on the couch and patted the spot next to him for Gregory to join, offering the boy a soft smile. “How are you doing, Gregory? You can be honest—it is just you and me now.”

“I'm tired,” he admitted, laying himself across Freddy’s lap. He didn't feel the need to elaborate any further, as his concerns had already been voiced many times tonight.

What if William was back? What if Vanessa was still lying? Were they really safe?

“I understand,” Freddy said, and he meant it. Gregory had been through a lot of emotions in such a small amount of time the boy might not even be able to process everything he was feeling, let alone describe it. Freddy let Gregory settle comfortably, smiling as he wrapped his arms around the boy once he stopped wiggling. “You rest up, superstar. I promise I will stay with you as much as possible tomorrow night, alright? And of course if you wake up early during the day, please come and find me!” He chuckled. “I will try to save you an extra slice of cake!”

Gregory smiled at Freddy before hugging his torso tightly.

“You're the best dad ever!” Gregory proclaimed, hugging onto Freddy’s torso. The bear knew just how to make him smile.

“And you are the bravest boy I know,” Freddy murmured, returning the embrace and nuzzling their faces together until the boy shrieked with laughter.

Once Gregory finally calmed down, he didn’t waste another moment before crawling into to his usual sleeping spot on the couch. Pulling his blanket over his legs, he grinned up at the bear. “Tuck me in!”

Freddy did so without hesitation, situating the blanket so it was securely wrapped around Gregory’s body. Once that was done he sat back down on the couch, planning to stay until he absolutely had to leave to start the day.

“Sleep well, Gregory,” Freddy said quietly, resting a comforting hand on his side. “I love you very much.”

“Love you too, dad.” Gregory yawned as he cuddled his pillow. Though it was a bit harder to fall asleep compared to prior nights, he eventually managed it—and tonight, his blank dreams were a blessing.

***

Masterlist of chapters on Tumblr here!

Please check out The Superstar Series on ao3 for all fics in this series: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2726401

6 notes · View notes

glitch10 · 2 years

Text

I’M CURRENTLY KILLING CRINGE CULTURE BY MAKING A DESPICABLE ME/MINIONS OC !!

THIS IS JULIA, MY DESPICABLE ME/MINIONS OC! (This is her when Rise of Gru takes place btw)

Small synopsis about Julia -

Julia is a teen that’s the babysitter for Gru (more like a second parent/sibling since Gru’s mom doesn’t do crap). How did she got herself babysitting him? Well, Julia’s mom happen to be at some mom meetin club and met Gru’s mom. The two chit chat, and her mom bought up about how Julia was getting a part time job in babysitting. Gru’s mom decided to take advantage and have Julia babysit her kid to not having to deal with him herself. As a side note, this is before the minions became Gru’s henchmen. At first, Julia just saw him as a normal kid until Gru started bringing up about being a super villain or anything along those lines. However, Julia thought Gru just having a huge, but odd, imagination that every kid have and thought nothing about it. It isn’t until later that Julia finds out that Gru isn’t joking by stumbling into a small hideout with a bunch of yellow creatures that call him ‘mini-boss’ as proof. At first, Julia was in total shock, just with the fact that a kid has a whole hideout and different gadgets for villainy. However, it took her awhile to grow used to it to become chill with the fact that Gru is a villain due to her growing bored of the whole babysitting that she willing to still babysit a villainous kid. Nevertheless, she stills needs to watch over this diabolical kid and his henchmen and that they don’t get caught by the cops or any authorities at all. At times, she would help out with Gru’s villainy schemes and would often join in. She soon started to warm up to the minions since she was freak out by them at first (let’s be honest, how come no one in the movie was freak out by them??) and would help them out create their disguises and collect anything they need.

Extra facts -

Julia has the reputation of the gifted kid, getting good grades and appearing as a proper student/daughter. I guess you know where this is going.

Has her own electric guitar. Her parents don’t know about her owning one. She wants to create her own music band.

Her and Gru are basically siblings because of how they treat each other.

Hates Gru’s mom guts, not only because she barely pays Julia but just how she neglects her son and dumps all the responsibility onto her.

Has an obsession with unicorns (guess you can figure who’s gonna be her favorite niece in the future lol)

Has a smug personality, she tends to enjoy being right and brag about how much she knows by stating facts about whatever. She thinks she comes off as smart, but it does the opposite. To help out, just think about Hunter during the first few episodes of The Owl House before his character development, yup that’s her!

BONUS : Otto just talking to Julia because he’s my favorite character

#despicable me #minions #rise of gru #oc #despicable me oc #I feel like people are gonna make fun of me #I’m actually hoping no one does #also Julia officiated Otto and the pet rock wedding #Julia would’ve love Marina and the Diamonds #why am I acting like I haven’t been active on here for a year #as a side note I’m back!

14 notes · View notes

nonokoko13 · 3 years

Text

Child!reader being adopted by spy x family characters Pt. 2

As I said in the previous part, these adoption headcanons are really specific, including your hypothetical pronouns and name; these two are extra so you can imagine yourself with your name and desired gender. You can ask for less specific headcanons if you want too. Part 1 here

Enjoy!

Sylvia Sherwood

How you met

She carries the responsibility of WISE, she needs to be committed to it. More than ever now that the peace was threatened every day by those who wanted war to arise again

She missed her family, but she overcame it. Just like the HQ she had to be impenetrable

At least, that's what she thought

Because right in front of her there was the question which answers she wanted to hear. A kid.

It would be normal to see one if she wasn't at the HQ

It didn't help no one knew there was a kid there until you spoke up

The camera system didn't record you and there wasn't any entrance to the agency that had been forced. You weren't any employee's kid either

After scolding them and order to search your parents she met you again

"Hello little one. May I ask you how did you get in here?"

You smiled, seeming to have been waiting her to ask

"Because I like to play and explore! And I'm really good at hide and seek"

Sylvia raised an eyebrow. No matter how well someone was good at hiding there was no way you could break into the HQ; it sounded surrealistic

"But how did you find this place?"

"Because it was easy to find"

"Don't you think you could end bad breaking into unknown places?"

"If I don't know what isthis place how I'd know that?"

Fair enough

That conversation wasn't going anywhere, yet she was angrier with the security staff than you. You didn't look worried though

You gave her an idea

"Do you want to play with me?"

Both entered in the nearest police station, she talked with the officers before telling you to count until 1000 while she was going to hide. You started the count facing a wall

She felt bad, but there were some traffickers she had to catch before they made the exchange

She was following their car; everything fine until she believed to see a small hand greeting her from the car's trunk

She returned to the police station to find out that moments later of her departure you disappeared without anyone realizing. She went to the point where the delivery would be made

Outside the abandoned warehouse there was no signal that you were there until she saw you getting out from under the car on the other side

Something caused a shooting that would make the police come and caught her at any moment. The bands kept shooting at each other while you were behind a transport container

"What were you thinking?! I told you to stay with the police!"

"I'm sorry, I counted until I know, then I saw you following the car, so I followed too. But before they caught me I hid in there...I'm sorry..." You pulled out a walkie-talkie

"I got two from the police station. I left one in there so the others thought the guys of that car were betraying them, it should have worked to scape with no bad guys seeing us"

She was impressed. However, there was no time to ask where you learn that from

Analyzing the situation the principal scape was blocked, fortunately they hadn't noticed you yet so–

You pulled her shirt, pointing somewhere else

"Let's get out"

General headcanons

Sylvia was still surprised that your plan of exiting through a rear window she hadn't seen and walk away without hurry could work

She stopped walking to watch you smash the walkie-talkie and take out some matches to burn it

"Now they can't find footprints!"

The police may not get answers about it but she had many questions for you

She lied to you about the HQ, after the shooting her lie was on the floor. Thenceforth Sylvia's not able to tell if you were playing along and keeping her secret or you have no idea what's all about

You thought her name was Handler. When you knew she was called Sylvia Sherwood you pointed your hoody logo and say "S of Super, you're superman–Superwoman!"

That's how she begun to be mistaken with an endearing mother and her son. She was superwoman and you "kid", because you said that's how you were called, along with child, shrimp, demon...

"That's unacceptable". She handed you lists of names to choose, unfortunately no one convinced you

It wasn't until you two went to a jewelry store that you found the name

The casual way you break in HQ when you want still frustrates her, how do you do it?? You don't see big deal though

Fullmetal lady didn't remember how tough was motherhood

Anyone would freak out if they found out about spies. Yet there you are, admiring flying guys in underpants

Sylvia asked you about your family, but you always tell the same: you lived with dad until he left you with a woman that he said was your mom

The Handler found out your father is a repeat offender, currently on a maximum security prison in another country. Both him and the woman without offspring legally

"Please, don't tell me one of his criminal records is jailbreaking"

The informant doubted "Actually, that's the main one"

"..."

The Forgers

Scenario where it's up to both of them to adopt you. To keep Loid's mental sanity safe it will be independent of the timeline where Yor has a kid on her own, feel free to imagine both kids being Anya's siblings at the same time. You can ask me to include that idea if I write more about this

How you met

As I said before Twilight wouldn't adopt anyone due his job, only one kid for Operation Strix and that was Anya. For now Yor didn't want more kids, she loves Anya and that's enough for them

Not for Anya. She wanted a little sibling

All started talking with Becky when Damian mentioned his brother. Back at home she brought the topic and neither Pa or Ma were giving her an answer of where babies come from

That's when she begun to feel like being a sister. Any plan helped her to convince her parents though

Anya remembered something Mr Henderson told them. "If you want something, take it into your own hands"

And she took it too seriously

Next day Anya and Bond disappeared, she was in the dogs park with Yor

While Mrs Forger panicked Anya had returned to the place she met Twilight

As the time passed the Forgers worried more. When they found Anya and Bond at their building's door they felt relieved

Your presence didn't make things better

They asked Anya where she had been and where did you come from. She said she adopted you

Of course Anya wasn't going to say she broke into an orphanage and took you

Loid's scolding made you cry

"Anya, we aren't adopting–"

"If she's not my sister I won't go to school ever again!!"

"Just for a trial period" that's what Loid hoped

General headcanons

Loid thought babies were easy because it's unnecessary (more impossible) communication with a living being that can't talk; after all babies only have basic needs. He was wrong

It would be easier if you could talk. Why are you crying? You have eaten! Are you sad? Cold? You dislike him?

Yor is not better either. Because her parents died when Yuri was a kid Yor didn't have experience with changing diapers, or anything related with babies

She was more scared than Loid to the point she didn't want to hold you. She broke Yuri's ribs with a hug when he was a toddler, what if she kills you with few contact?

In less than 24 hours you already had a crib and all kinds of things a baby would need. However, having three bedrooms and parents sleeping in separate rooms meant all your things ended in Anya's room

You cried at night until they discovered you calmed down when Anya let you a plushie to hug

She can't wait for the day pa and ma share bed to take back her bedroom

The second night Anya had an idea

Ma is scared of being your mom, solution? Leave you in her bed while Yor is asleep imagining that would work

Thanks God Yor doesn't move much when sleeping. On the other hand Yor is a light sleeper due not being used to sleep with someone so she woke up minutes later

She almost jump out of the bed, realizing that would make you cry made her contain. You groaned, did she wake you up? Yor wasn't sure of holding you, instead she laid down again and approached you to her chest

Seeing you so peaceful by her side melted her, thinking about it you looked a bit like her and Loid.. She blushed at the embarrassing thought

Bold of them to not imagine that's why Anya chose you

In the morning Loid discovered what happened and had a little words with Anya during breakfast before she went to school

Yor went to work and he decided to take a day off from his work to spend the morning with you. The Handler said the first days you should see them to recognize faces

Walks with Bond, buying toys, trying to teach you sign language...Normal stuff

Loid is glad you don't do anything but sleep and eat, except your obsession with munching. When you first kissed Yor he found it normal until you munched her cheek and now you do that to everyone; probably you're teething

Yor found it really cute, but you shouldn't go kissing and chewing cheeks. Anya thinks is funny just don't try to chew her hair again please

Another problem came with names. Loid was going through a list of 850 names in alphabetical order, meanings included; Yor didn't take it to the extreme

"Hum, what about Rose? I think it's a cute name, I mean it's both decision and I'm not good with names Loid–"

Welcome to the family Rose

A spy, an assassin, a telepath and... Well, a baby. Seems like a good mix

Yor Briar

As we know Twilight only would adopt for Operation Strix's sake. Yor became mother by marrying Loid, but what if she had already a kid before being Mrs Forger?

Inspired by this post of @say-seira

How you met

Long ago before Twilight adopted the identity of Loid Forger, the Briars moved to a flat in Berlint

While the eldest sibling had recently become an adult Yuri was only a kid, Yor decided to move to the city so he had nearer his school. It was possible due her proper salary as Thorn Princess

This change would make her job easier too. She had a new client which death could pay Yuri's entrance to a good university

There was a politician who negotiated with terrorists, helping them to get into Ostania and providing them with weapons in exchange to gain good propaganda abroad and getting rid of competition

Knowing this was enough to make Yor's blood boil. He deserved to die, she was sure of it

Struggling with the security around him, Yor finally killed the target without leaving trace

The only inconvenience was a bad injury made by a bullet that she received. After removing the bullet the wound got worse

She went to the hospital to avoid an infection. In the waiting room she met a kind lady, Yor swore that she had seen her before

The woman was scared, but Yor reassured her she will wait her

While Yor was attended the girl was taken to another room. As she promised, Yor waited in the hall after her wound was treated; with a buttoned medical gown on because she didn't want to attract more attention due the bandaged wound in sight

Time passed and many people enter and exit from the room, but she didn't. A nurse carrying something mistook her for one of the staff and scolded her for standing there

"Here, take the baby to the nursery"

"Me? But— wait! What about the woman? Is she okay?"

From afar she heard the answer, but before Yor could explain the error the woman had left. She was shocked, how? She seemed fine

Against her will the dark-haired looked at the lump she was holding: rosy cheeks babbling in dreams, you were in peace

Her shock grew when she saw you shared the username that the man she killed had. That's why the woman was familiar: she was the politician's daughter

Yor searched someone who hand the baby when she recognized the doctor that guided the woman to the room, he was talking with a masked nurse

The fact they went to a private place and maintained their voices low made her suspect

"Did you take care of the mother?" the nurse asked

"Yes, they got ahead of us with her father but I think they will pay us anyway. When they found it was a medical negligence we'll be far from here"

Yor understood they were assassins as well, probably paid by a rival. Luckily they hadn't seen her yet

"Heh, do you they will pay more if we got rid of the baby?"

Yor left the hospital with you, unsure of what to do. Did you have more relatives? The widowed politician didn't have more kids, and your mother came alone. What if they wanted to kill the rest of the family?

A small hand grabbed hers, and every fear disappeared. Looking at each other, she knew you were safer with her. Perhaps it was only guilt or sympathy, but she would try

General headcanons

The moment Yuri saw Yor holding you was in disbelief. Yor said she found you in the streets and he believed it

At first he tried to convince her sister to leave you in a orphanage but once scolding was enough to cease

Still disliking you for the first months. It took some time until he saw you like one of his family

Yuri helped, although they had a rough time because you refused to eat Yor's purees. Your endurance might grew up to make you the only person who can eat her food without bleeding but it doesn't mean you like its flavor

She viewed you as a sibling until you were two, being called mom made Yor too happy to correct you. Yuri was just Yuri, you never feel like using formalities with him or addressing "Uncle" everytime you talked

Yor decided to let your belongings, it was better that way. When you were older, and only if you wanted, she would tell you the truth

She's bad with names, Rose was the only name she could think of but you're a boy. Yor's parents loved that Yuri and her had matching names, therefore you would be the sweet addition to it

The only name I could think of is Yuu because it's gender neutral and means "you" sorry

During the first year of your life she didn't try to hide the blood of her clothes from you. Yuri never suspected either and you wouldn't remember it when you grow up

Your lack of childhood amnesia was something she didn't have in count. Not that she knows you know anyway

Yor has been training you since you were able to walk, if she wasn't there when you needed at least you would be ready to defend yourself. Proud to say you're her strong boy

That said, if the assassins that tried to killed you found were you lived it's something you ignore. Being the protective mother Yor is they could be dead by now

Six years later, it was still Yor and you against the world, with Yuri being the only paternal figure you had. Before one day she met a man and everything changed

She said he will help her by accompanying her to a party so Yuri stopped worrying about her. She said it would be one night, and the next morning you woke up with Yor waiting to talk with you

In part she accepted because of you; you passed the Eden exam before knowing you needed a dad for it. That requisite seemed stupid for you, as you reassured her you could go to any other school; now you would be accepted into the best school!

You agreed and started packing. What else you could do? The decision was made before you were asked anyway, and you didn't want to argue with your mom because she was doing it for your future too

Of course it affected you. No matter how nice they were it was a huge change; in one day you had to move to a new place which didn't feel like home and live with strangers who you'll have to share mom with isn't easy

Anya was nervous too, but for different reasons. She was so excited to meet her soon-to-be sibling! For her, who was an orphan last week, having a pa, a ma and a friend to play with was great

Her expectations went down when she read your mind. You didn't think bad of them, but excited wasn't the word to describe your emotional state either

Loid may not be good at understanding children, but it was clear for him you wasn't comfortable. For him would be weirder if you didn't seem affected at all

On the contrary, Yor seemed cool with all of this to you. Even without any idea of how to be a wife or mother for Anya she enjoyed her time as Forger, which confused you a bit

Yor is happier, not only because she didn't have to worry about the SSS or Yuri anymore. They make her happier, it's just matter of time she could fall for Loid and have a baby that was her own, real kid

Being sure Yor loves you and your new family want you to feel welcomed doesn't make disappear the feelings you carry with. Still, if mom is happy you prefer to keep it to yourself and try to maker her smile too

If it wasn't because Yuri hates the idea of her sister hiding her marriage for a year and sympathized your situation he would have laughed at the irony when you told him during your uncle-nephew walk the next day of his meeting with "Loiloi"

He doesn't know they got married before you attended school so he assumed you had been holding it for a long time. He passed his fingers through your hair

"I understand it's difficult, but I'll be for you whenever you need me"

+ Honorable mention to compensate you for the mild ansgt without warning

Daybreak

We don't know much about him but I included this dork for fun

Thinking about "Daybreak" and "parenthood" makes anyone's mind stopped working

Mainly because it's difficult to say which one would be the child

Not "How you met headcanons" because he wouldn't be able to adopt to begin with

From what we saw in chapter 27 he seems to live alone, depending on his amazing spy career to afford pork steak for dinner. So he must not live too good given that after his first mission he was fired

If he had a child, it would be likely because of a previous relationship he had and didn't end well

He didn't adopt you. You're his biological kid, the only not adopted of this gang

Sorry we can't choose our family good luck ig

Not necessarily ended bad, even remaining as friends, your mother took a different path and is happily married with another man

If she knew he wanted to be a spy either thought "it's a joke" or *sigh*

She was who brought money in the relationship, now you live with her and your step-dad but at the beginning you didn't want to

Daybreak talked with you and promised you could visit each other and even live with him when he could afford it

They don't get it

Who would take care of him? The idea of living on his own was frightening to you

Imagine being father and is your kid who worries about whether pops know how to pay taxes without mom

You took after him in terms of appearance. Any signal of intelligence was from your mother

Average smart but surely smarter than him

Probably he thanked God that you were a boy. He will love whatever you are but he was relieved of saving himself of buying female products when you were on that time of the month and guide you through puberty

As much as he says to be a charming man he's not good with women either so

Your name is Sunny. Guess who chose it

Probably you see him more on weekends than during the week

Until you showed him Spy Wars he didn't have no idea that existed such good series

Of course not cooler than the legend he is but Daybreak jokes about how reading that and seeing your cool pops in action would make you half as good spy as he is someday

Quite sad is that your common sense along with the things you see on TV are enough to be better spy material

You try to watch it with him to see if he learns something

Unsure of what you'll be in the future but in the mean time you had fun watching cartoons and liking kids stuff like dinosaurs and skateboard

Current status: Busy with your first year at school and getting him out of trouble

#spy x family #sxf headcanons #sylvia sherwood #the handler #loid forger #yor forger #anya forger #yor briar #thorn princess #daybreak #child!reader

590 notes · View notes

sukipershipper · 2 years

Text

What if I just...made some family members for the Punch Out boxers? Nah jk jk...unless?

Look at all these boys with their families. I just like to see them be happy. I have info of them all under the cut.

Warning: Very Long and does have some mentions of death

Little Mac:

Obviously Doc is a huge part of Mac's life, the boy practically sees him as his father. Mac later introduced Doc to his mother, Sarah and the two take shared responsibility of looking after Mac. Sarah is a retired middle-school teacher who lives for boxing. Even going so far as to marry a boxer when she was younger who later became Mac's father. Later on in his career, Disco came into his life and after finding out how close the two lived (I mean Disco's in Brooklyn and Mac's in the Bronx so...) kinda just...made himself Mac's big brother. Mac is always constantly fussed over by the three older ones, and though it gets a but much sometimes, Mac wouldn't want it any other way.

Glass Joe: (so there is a longer version of this idea but I'll share it in another post)

Joe was never close to his family growing up, and cut off ties with them long ago. However, when he found out that his family had died, and he had a niece that needed immediate attention now that her family was gone, he took her in and raised her as his own. Belle is Joe's second chance to make up for being ignorant of his family and he gives her the world. Belle is actually an aspiring designer, she and Joe always talk about fabrics and designs are Paris that look inspiring. During the boxing season, Joe brings her along so that she isn't in France by herself.

Von Kaiser:

Kaiser lived a very hard life, growing up and seeing mostly death and destruction everywhere he went. Just when he thought that was all he was going to know, along came Lina. Lina is a simple grocery store worker, but she is a real angel. Sweet and giving as well as very honest, she always knows how to calm Kaiser down whenever he goes to into a panic attack. Kaiser misses her deeply during the boxing season, and calls her frequently when he doesn't have matches on. Lina will always soothe his nerves or sing him a song over the phone.

Disco Kid:

Though Disco takes a lot of pride in being Mac's self proclaimed older brother, he also takes much pride in being the brother to his two sisters, Sylvia and Tillie. While Sylvia attends private school, with Disco paying for her tuition, Tillie works as a piano player for a jazz band. The girls absolutely love their brother and everything he does for them, and he loves having them around to support him. Tillie and Sylvia always make sure to attend Disco's matches and are always super loud when cheering for him.

King Hippo:

Hippo is a very respected leader, and there are many people he will consider his family. However, there is one that ranks above the rest. A small Hippo girl named Olaga ((Ola-ng-ah) I know Hippo is meant to be a pacific islander and is from the south pacific but I wasn't sure if the people have actual island names so...) who is his translator for any visitors to Hippo Island, is someone he takes great joy in seeing. Olaga is one of the only residents of the island that Hippo can hold a proper conversation with. It gives Hippo great comfort knowing he can talk to someone properly.

Piston Hondo:

Unlike some of the other boxers in his circuit, Hondo grew up in a very cold household. Right after he was born, his mother passed away, and his father, Daichi, didn't like him all that much. Hondo's dad is a very esteemed teacher, and very stubborn. He taught Hondo all of the proper practices of fighting and always made sure to discipline Hondo when he didn't follow them properly. Despite the coldness though, Hondo still cares about his dad, even if their relationship is quite strained compared to most. It's why he's he's close friends with Hugger too, always nice to have someone like that around to comfort you when you haven't really had much comfort in your life.

Bear Hugger:

On that note, Hugger is another one who lost his mom after he and his twin, Harriet were born. Despite this however, their father, Dale, managed to raise them all on his own and keep them safe and happy. At an older age, Dale helps out at the rescue center in Salmon Arm, keeping an eye on everything that goes on, alerting the rangers and what not. Harriet, as well as being a single mother of two, Nora and Harry, is a very well known vet. Hugger absolutely adores his family and will do what he can to help and protect them whenever he can. Oh! And of course, his wingman chip comes with him everywhere he goes! No doubt about it! Best wingman to have anywhere.

Great Tiger:

Though Tiger doesn't really talk to his parents, he keeps very close contact to his siblings, Kareena, his sister and Ahaan, his brother. While Kareena is in her second year at university to become a Biologist, Ahaan is starting Law school to become a lawyer. Tigers relationship with them has always been him trying to help them through school and life, using his winnings from his matches to pay for their tuition or rent. He also loves to use his magic with Kareena, Kareena just loves being able to fly or teleport around with her brother. Ahaan on the other hand just likes to watch them, but Tiger will often help him with studying if he needs help.

Don Flamenco:

Don comes from a very large middle class family, (There are several more, but I can't fit them in). He is the third Eldest child of 6 children, to Ex-stage performer and Matador, Sara and Luis. His siblings, Tomás, Maria, Matteo, Emmanuel and Isabela, all live with their parents and the older ones have several jobs around town to help out with rent and food. Don is adored by most of his family, as he has secured such a high ranking place for himself in the boxing industry. Unfortunately for him, his brother Tomás, Maria (somewhat) and his father all envy him and often treat him poorly compared to the others. This can often lead to Don blowing up at his family, and storming off into town, only for him to be comforted and reassured by his beautiful Carmen. Despite the few complications with his family, there is no one else Don loves more, and he would gladly doing anything for them. Especially Isabella.

Aran Ryan:

If one Aran Ryan was too much, try having a whole family filled of folks who look just like him! Aran is the Eldest child of 5. His mother, Bonnie, works tirelessly as a supermarket worker, to provide for her children. Her boys, Brian, Riley, and Quinn, all work down at the docks. Meanwhile, her youngest, Daisy is a grade A student and a high achiever. Unfortunately, Daisy has to face a few bullies every now and again, but luckily that's why she has a brother like Aran to sort it all out. Aran will make it very clear that if you lay a hand on Daisy or his mother, you will face very dire consequences...his brothers though? Go ahead, he'll still punch you a new one but they can handle. (Yes, Aran picks favourites.)

Soda Popinsky:

Soda was born into a poor family. His father left before he was born, and his mother, Katerina was only 16 when she gave birth to him. There were several struggles growing up, but Soda helped his mother through all of it, from getting a small paper boy job at the age of 10 to learning to cook dinner by age 13. Life became much easier for them when Soda joined the WVBA at 18, earning big money and spending it all to afford good housing, food and nicer appliances. He also recently got an unexpected younger sister through a one night stand. His new little sister, Sonya, is an unexpected but very welcome addition, Soda will call all the time during the boxing season just to talk to her and hear her babble. When he gets home from the season, he always spends as much time with Sonya as he can, taking her out for walks, reading her books, playing games, anything he can do just to make her smile he will do.

Bald Bull:

Bull has a very, very strained relationship with his family. His Mother wasn't around in his life and his dad treated him like garbage, until Bull basically forced his dad to respect him after breaking his leg (which I think is kinda canon). Despite that however, Bull can always make time for his younger brother, Zeki. Zeki is a small town farmer, helping out on the families ranch where they raise cattle. Bull and Zeki often joke around with each other and talk about life on the ranch on in the WVBA. Zeki is someone Bull can really open up to, and Zeki will gladly protect his brother from the flash mobs and photographers that want to crowd him every single day. During the season, Zeki always sends Bull inspirational messages to fet him through the day, and they never fail to make Bull smile.

Super Macho Man:

Macho's family is actually very supportive of him, but they aren't always around since his family actually live all the way in Louisiana while he lives in California. Macho does get lonely because of this, but he does have a cousin who is always there. His cousin, Nikki, is a life guard down by the Coronado beach. Nikki is very humble compared to her very boastful cousin, but the two get along very well. Due to hormonal changes and unfortunate circumstances, Nikki had lost a lot of her hair, and Macho showers her with compliments and affection so she feels just as splendid as he does.

Mr Sandman:

Not much is known about Sandman and his outside life by the Public, but everyone in the WVBA has met his wife and kids...because he shoves them in their faces because he loves them so much. His wife, Starr, is one of the many hands behind the scenes of the WVBA. The two met after one of Sandy's (That's her name for him) matches and they've been together ever since. Starr is the sunlight in Sandman's live, someone he can go to when he needs cheering up or needs to release some frustration. Sandman also delights in his two children, his son, Riley, and his daughter, Carrie. The family is very tight knit and the kids love watching their dad beat boys up in the ring. Although, while they love their dad's boxing, they do have a favourite over him. No one knows why, but the magical antics of Great Tiger always make them smile.

226 notes · View notes

mmmmalo · 3 years

Text

For anyone still under the impression that June Egbert is just a product of the Toblerone wishes with no particular relevance to Homestuck proper, here's an argument to the contrary: that June (or whatever you like to call her) was already here, woven into John's relationship with the idea of Dad.

Act 1 has a certain preoccupation with the ideal forms of things, John having multiple instances of saying X isn't a REAL X unless it has this or that characteristic. "A fire BELONGS in a fireplace, categorically." One of those outbursts touches upon masculinity, with John saying a gentleman without a monocle is a piss-poor excuse for such. Along such a paradigm, you might gather that something like John saying the beaglepuss sucks as a disguise or trying (and failing) to integrate Dad's pipe into the façade communicates that John is kind of grasping at this ideal of masculinity exemplified by Dad and getting frustrated that he can't seem to measure up to it (or that masculinity feels "fake" on him).

This sort of dynamic is more blatant with Dave, who talks openly about how he isn't a "hero", not really, measuring himself against the impossible standards set by his Bro. But as much was already implicit in Act 1.

Later it gets established that John has some kind of fear of heights: the first ogres appear after John experiences vertigo from almost falling off the stairs, and again after getting launched by the pogo hammer. (Just as Karkat suspected he was given a planet covered in his own blood as a form of harassment, Sburb placed John's house on that needle plateau because of this fear of heights; the game generally manifests adversaries in response to fear). The phobia becomes relevant to Dad stuff after the ogre fight is over, when John is hesitating to jump down into Dad's room: it isn't just that John's nervous about entering the room for the first time, the descent itself makes John anxious. Furthermore, this juxtaposition serves to establish that the fear of heights and anxieties around Dad are related somehow, if not outright synonymous. The two are associated again at the beginning of Act 5 Act 2, when dream!John tries to jump over a canyon to reach Dad, but awakens mid-leap. The formal reason John awakens is Vriska of course, but if we ignore her we're left with John approaching Dad and immediately experiencing vertigo. (The name "June" comes from Vriska contacting John shortly after this dream, incidentally)

This comes up again when John finds Dad's wallet and gets overwhelmed by the prospect of Manhood and the responsibilities it entails -- next thing you know John is flying around in Dad's car, having fun... and after the scene is interrupted by Seek the Highblood, we return to find John crashing the car (another fall from the sky!) and talking with Vriska about dread surrounding societal expectations, and the possibility of rejecting them to pursue something different for yourself. John came into the scene worried (if quietly) about the expectations surrounding manhood, so the Vriska conversation serves to makes those kind of concerns more vivid.

The car crash is itself kind of a metaphor for that conversation's trajectory... in Act 6 we see something analogous play out among the Dersites who have gotten into dapper-wear: one Dersite sits on a hat, panics about ruining it, and then begins to wonder if perhaps a crumpled hat could have a value of its own, aesthetically. (Dirk expresses this sort of counter-assessment more bombastically: "...the next best thing. By which you mean, the vastly superior thing.") Dad Crocker swoops in to condemn the crumpled hat, but the Dersite's tentative revaluation of an apparent failure mode is something the scene shares with Vriska, who initially regards her ambivalence towards murder as a symptom of personal failure, unbefitting her caste. John enters that conversation with a crumpled car, and from context we can guess John's revaluation concerns "failing" to be a man in the way Dad is, and how maybe that doesn't need to be considered a failure.

As laid out so far, I guess none of this quite necessitates trans-Egbert, since people can come at "anxiety and reservations at the prospect of embodying masculine ideals" from a number of angles... but there are other considerations which make me think wrestling with self-deprecating thoughts like "I'm a failed man" are maybe comorbid with a budding sense of being a girl, in Egbert's case.

Foremost, I think it helps to recognize that Dad's car can function as a symbol of John's body. To sketch a case for that:

1a. Death often means transformation: the trolls die in questcocoons to reach the godtiers, suggesting that death stands between the caterpillar and the butterfly, their too solid flesh dissolved into a goo.

1b. A command in Act 1 implores John to "retrieve arms from MAGIC CHEST". John complies twofold: we see some fake arms retrieved from the toy chest, held up by John's real arms which have been "retrieved" from John's ostensibly armless torso.

2. This dual usage of chest is deployed in part 3 of Openbound, in service of building a dysphoria metaphor (among other things). The segment reintroduces us to Fiduspawn, a game in which one creature hatches from another, a host creature, killing the host in the process (fans of the Alien films may recognize this as derivative of the "chestburster", fans of Homestuck may recognize this as analogous to godtiering). Damara (who Rufioh refers to as "doll") becomes the host plush, who is accused of locking away Rufioh's "happy thought" (Tinkerbull) in her "chest". Rufioh's beef with Damara serves to illustrate an adversarial relationship with one's own body, the ways in which the body itself seems to function as a barrier to some happiness. The carnal imprisonment of euphoria (the "happy thought") represents dysphoria. The conversation between Kanaya and Porrim which follows has analogous content and offers a potential resolution to such a conflict, with Kanaya coming to distinguish her body from the reproductive duties assigned to her body by her caste's place in society, and knowing that she is not "bound" to the Matriorb by any will but her own...

3. But the paradigm of Fiduspawn reminds us that the act of actually ripping the happy thought out of your chest has suicidal overtones, when taken literally. And Aradiabot notwithstanding, the inner ghosts the kids give up are often green: Dirkbot tears out his uranium heart and explodes, Rose peels pink bricks off the green core of an island and wonders aloud if her existence is a mistake, and (returning to our main topic!) John tries to retrieve the green package from Dad's car. The retrieval of the box comes to represents the birth of the self from its shell, the now broken body, a gesture which overlaps with the pursuit of death.

So we can infer that Dad is akin to Damara here, having locked the desired object (the box, the "happy thought") within a container that we can identify with John's own body. Thus Vriska's talk of perhaps rejecting her assigned role in society proceeds naturally from the wreckage of Dad's car: insofar as the car functions as an emblem of the masculine expectations imposed upon John, the car's wreckage suggests the possibility of liberation from those expectations, liberation from your own body. John is "sick to death of cake" -- cake is a Life symbol imposed by Dad, in visceral excess, accumulating as every birthday marches John towards Manhood. The possibility of living as a girl does not seem to have occurred to John yet, life and masculinity seem inextricable and absolute. The first time John sees Dad's car totaled (after Rose drops it), the symbol of self-as-corpse is surrounded by yellow bands of caution tape. The Authority Regulator who placed the tape will later declare himself to be THE LAW, and we should take his word for it: the scene's function is to declare that the crumpled car, the "dead" and therefore feminized body, is forbidden to John. No surprise then that as John marches to her death, in defiance of the Law's prohibition, she-whose-name-does-not-yet-suit-her is met with impressions of several maps that actually align with their territories: troll movies whose titles are their contents in full, a rocket encoded by the sound PCHOOOOO. John wants that for herself, I think. And as @lscholar once pointed out, it’s worth noting that John's pursuit of this unity (this pursuit of "death") is interrupted by Dave, who in saving John's life repeatedly emphasizes their status as "bros" -- masculinity being, again, inextricable from life within John’s symbol system.

...and that's the short of it. A more detailed account might get into the association of Vriska and other blue girls with the feminized corpse, or read into Equius self-consciously roleplaying as a cat girl between John’s joyride and crash, or perhaps try to apply this car-body framework to the appearances of Dad's car in the Epilogues. And I haven’t even touched upon clowns...but I'll call it here for now.

#homestuck commentary #john #i might do a follow up going into life metaphysics and how jade ties into things

260 notes · View notes

scariercnidaria · 2 years

Text

not to be all like “people who say uncle is a bad show dont get it”, But. honestly? if you say something like that im going to assume that you gave up on it before you finished the first season. so like, spoilers all for the end of season 1 (and trigger warnings for suicide, substance abuse, overdose, cancer).

the show is about andy growing and becoming a better person and learning to take responsibility through his relationship his nephew errol. yes hes annoying and a scumbag and unlikeable at the start, but its not like hes Winning; the show literally opens with him about to kill himself.

there are a number of turning points throughout uncle. first of all his decision Not to cut the string and electrocute himself and instead pick up the phone when his sister (sam-- she is also strongly contending with val [and bruce] for my favourite character. shes divorced shes in rehab she loves facebook she has a pinterest board for her imaginary horse sanctuary she loves her son above everything. there are many characters that help to make uncle watchable [at least while andy is still a grade a prick] but genuinely sam and her unparalled older sister ability to tease andy and call him out on his shit) calls him. sam needs him to pick errol up from school and take him to football practise because her uni class has run late and errol is Very Neurodivergent (ocd in the show, i think he is also probably autistic. errol is also one of the best characters and written so well. never once did i think ‘this is a child actor’) and cant have his routine disrupted, and because it could blow her custody case.

so he picks up errol, because he does have Nothing Better Going On, and then continues to have him tag along on little schemes while babysitting or chaperoning him. which is a little bit irresponsible, sure, but errol grows to enjoy hanging out with andy through their combined interest in music and playing together in val’s battle of the bands (their band btw is called “the bear maximum”, based off of the cutest and most genuinely charming joke in the entire show, which was told by an 11 year old errol when andy suggested that he try telling a joke to impress a girl that he likes [”what’s the bare minimum? // one bear”]).

and for a while its all well and good, wacky hijinks following andys love life and errols social life, kids birthday parties, andys struggling music career; they continue to play together in a band and eventually the duo get noticed by a record label. andy, 3 weeks late on his rent, is thrilled and drags errol-- who is really into dental hygeine right now and made a laminated schedule of the weekend and just wants to get sushi and go to the planetarium-- along to the meeting, where its revealed that the label executive mo khan (kayvan novak) is actually only interested in errol. errol is adamant that he can explain the situation to andy, and mo khan gives him a tin of branded breath mints, but errol fails to do so before the record labels mixer party the next day.

at the party, mo khan separates errol and andy, taking errol to the vip room while an intern distracts andy outside to keep him from making a scene when he inevitably finds out. inevitably, he finds out, and makes a scene, leaving errol in the care of mo khan. mo has errol perform a song for the other vips and errol very enthusastically bangs out an utter tune he wrote about salmonella and e. coli and proper food safety, but the vips are bewildered. errol runs off and finds himself back in the executives office, and goes looking for more breathmints, at which point he find a load of little white breathmint sized pills in the desk and takes far too many.

its ecstasy.

andy punches mo khan in the face for laughing at errol having an overdose and errol is rushed to hospital. fucking thankfully he survives, but its going to blow sams custody case out of the water and errol very well could never see his mother again, and its at this point where it really stares you in the face that errol is a child, and he is to some extent reliant upon andy and all the other adults in his life, and that andy had better get his fucking act together like the rest of them or else hell just continue to hurt people.

this is followed, in typical andy fashion, by a dramatic gesture wherein he storms the custody hearing to take responsibility for his actions, proclaim that that sam doesnt deserve to be punished for believing that there would be no way that andy would be irresponsible enough to take a 12 year old to a party with drugs, and that its his fault for continuously bending over backwards to hit new lows, that its his fault, his fault alone, and that he swears never to go near errol ever again.

a restraining order is placed upon him at errols dads request, one which andy is happy to honour. errol is the one who fudges the bus times to go to andys flat in the year timeskip between the end of season 1 and the start of season 2 to play video games with him. and thats all they do; andy doesnt take him out anywhere, doesnt bring him on adventures. he gets a job at carpet brothers and he stops living excuse to excuse and he calms down. errol is the one who wants the restraining order lifted, because despite everything andy is the only one who really gets him. hes shared custody and he doesnt have any siblings, and he doesnt have any friends either besides bruce’s stepdaughter tiff, who he isnt the closest with and who also doesnt have any friends besides errol. errol is a fairly high-strung (in some ways very Grown Up Already) kid, but hes still a kid, and andy is the only person he can really be A Child around. this is in part because of andys childishness, but that means that andy is forced to grow in order to make way for someone elses needs now.

in episode 1, andy sarcastically suggests that errol “get some [whiskey] down ya”. by the end of the season 3, hes sober. he starts reading feminist literature (im pretty sure. its one moment and he . he joins sam at her NA meetings, and when now 15/16 year old errol, who is acting out and just got an illegal tattoo of sams name, asks him for a cigarette outside the hospital where sam has cancer he refuses and fights him to keep him away from it.

just, please give this show a chance. its got a lot of heart and a lot to say about family, and it doesnt all come from val.

#bbc uncle #suicide #substance abuse #drugs #overdose #cancer #long post

27 notes · View notes

hotdamnhunnam · 3 years

Note

Charlie himself for the three emojis drabble request…

🧠🫀👩‍⚕️

Thanks for your request for my Emoji Fic Fest! 💗

..................................................

Doctor Who(re)

Pairing: Charlie Hunnam x F!Reader Warnings: smut, swearing, dirty talk, Charlie being ridiculously awk, hospital parking lot fuck Word Count: ~900 Emoji Prompt: 🧠🫀👩‍⚕️ (key words are in bold)

On this fine morning for a perfectly routine appointment Charlie Hunnam struts his cocky little (not so little) ass into his local hospital… only to catch a glimpse of something—someone stunning—in a white coat down the hall.

Practically bumps into the nearest wall and suddenly he doesn’t feel so damn cocky at all.

The poor boy literally has to psych himself up like a kid who sees the schoolgirl of his dreams across the playground. You’re the prettiest damn thing around. C’mon, don’t be a pussy motherfucker. Just go talk to her…

And so he does, as bashful and as bumbling as he ever was. “H-hi, I’m looking for—uh, Dr. …”

You turn to look into the most brilliant eyes of blinding blue. This handsome stranger’s voice has trailed off and he’s speechless as he stares at you; you manage to say something though you’re rendered breathless too. “… for Dr. Who?”

His big mouth blurts out a response that’s just as filthy as it is cheesy. “Oh now is this the BBC? All I’ve got is a BWC, apologies.”

… Jesus no you did not just say that Charlie. Honestly? His brain is broken and he probably needs a whole fucking lobotomy. Not from you preferably, as you’re the one who’s ruined him irreparably. Hopefully you practice some other kind of -ology.

You know exactly what his innuendo means, but you’re at work and don’t quite want your cunt to sploosh across the floor and cause a scene. “Do you have an appointment, sir?”

Well fuck if ‘sir’ off of your lips didn’t just raise the poor guy’s blood pressure. He’s suddenly imagining all sorts of dom/sub shit and wondering if that’s your pleasure. “Y-yes, though I’m afraid I’m running rather tardy.”

“You mean TARDIS?” you flash him a smile and curse yourself for being such an imbecile but then again he started this. You really can’t be blamed. “God that was lame—I’m sorry…”

He’s just glad that you’re a little dorky too so that he doesn’t have to worry. “Don’t be—I’m the one who started talking nerdy.”

Aroused to death, you mutter out these next few words under your breath. It’s not like you to be so flirty. “Bet you’re good at talking dirty.”

Charlie can’t believe his luck that you’re apparently just as horny as he is and that you find him hot, too. His mind runs wild with smutty thoughts of all the shit he wants to do. “This isn’t proper, Dr. Who. You’re giving me a heart attack which isn’t fair after I had to calm my nerves just to come talk to you.”

This cheeky bastard is so cute you just cannot. Now that his confidence is back a little bit he’s smirking at you and it’s super fucking hot.

You have some doctor shit to take care of, but once you’ve gotten off… you’re gonna get off even harder when you meet him for a quick fuck in the parking lot.

***************

You were supposed to do this in your car—but you just couldn’t wait to fling the car door open so now here you fucking are.

Your body spread across the bonnet, with this tall blonde sex god towering above you grinding his enormous bulge against your crotch and asking how badly you want it.

Fuck the fact you haven’t even seen his BWC yet but already know you definitely want to live and die on it.

His pearly whites gleam bright, here in the parking lot’s dim light, now as he reaches in his jeans and sets to work. He’s playing into all your pleasures with that pussy-slaying smirk.

And when he whips it out—a goddamn gorgeous monster of a cock—he brings the ‘B’ in ‘BWC’ without a doubt… you gape your jaw in shock, and groan out fucking loud.

He knows the power that he has over you now and damn he’s proud. Not long ago he was a mess of nerves and fumbling like a fool. It feels so good to have you under him and drowning in a pool of your own pussy juice and drool.

“You better keep that pretty mouth shut,” he taunts, tearing off your panties as he slides two of his thick fingers inside your swollen cunt. “You wouldn’t want this whole damn hospital to know that you’re my little Dr. Slut.”

Oh holy fuck but that’s exactly what you are?! He has his sleeves rolled up so you can grab his firm muscular forearms as he fingers you to pieces on your car.

In a few seconds you’re about to cum undone but he pulls out, sticking both digits in his mouth, pink lips locked tight around the slick shine of his knuckles. Savoring the flavor of you with a filthy little chuckle.

His other fist is wrapped around his rock hard dick which is now even bigger than it was before. Go fucking figure given that your wet hot pussy is the sweetest thing he’s seen or felt or tasted and he’s never wanted any woman more. He lines himself up at your entrance now that he’s made sure your soaking slit is ready for the absolute wreckage he has in store.

You want him just as much as he wants you—couldn’t be happier that Charlie Fucking Hunnam summoned up the nerve to talk to you. You went from saying Doctor Who… to serving as his little Doctor Whore.

..................................................

Emoji Fic Masterlist

Emoji Fic Tag List – below; if you’d like to be added or removed, just let me know!

@happyhunnams @band--psycho @est11 @edonaspanca @starbooty @innerpaperexpertcloud @i-love-scott-mccall @six-camelot @alexa-rae-dreamz @coffeebooksandfandom @thesuicidalflower @flaireandsynch @helloheyhihowdyheya @gemini0410 @waywardodysseys @zozebo @bettergetusetoit @emilykjh @little-diable @rocketqueen @mrspeacem1nusone @miss-smutty @rayslittlekitten @abby-splace @chubbychubbs28 @miraclesoflove @tegggeeee @hunnambabe @missusnora @kesskirata @vixenrebellion @thexhostess @pomegranatearildreams @kandii395 @severewobblerlightdragon @itspdameronthings @niki-xie @cind-in-real-life @saweetspoiled @poge-life @few-proud-emotonal @samanthaisnthome @melodranas @soaharleys @charlie-hunnams-old-lady @simpmasterjr @nataliewalker93 @lovebarefootblonde @marvelousmermaid @tsukuyomi011 @sciapod @midnight-dreams-23

#charlie hunnam #charlie hunnam smut #charlie hunnam imagine #charlie hunnam fanfiction #charlie hunnam fic #charlie hunnam x reader #charlie hunnam x you #rpf #rpf fanfic #rpf fanfiction #celebrity imagines #emoji fics

115 notes · View notes

sopxhiea · 4 years

Text

Scarce

Alfie Solomons X Reader

Summary: Alfie and the reader spend cozy days in Margate while Alfie remains his grumpy self.

Requested by @vieuwer <3

“Are you shivering?”

Winter had always been harsh.

The calendar that rested against the cold surface of the oak wall showed that the seasons were in fact changing and it would soon feel like the cold would be unbearable. The front door was locked while the seagulls cried out a familiar song, the rooms were warm due to the fireplaces in two ends of the house.

Margate was quiet, the only sound being the slow music of the seagulls and the sea. Most people were tucked inside the warmth of their homes, no kid was allowed to go outside and play in this weather.

It had been a while.

Although it had been just over two years since you had moved to Margate, it felt like you’d been there for longer than that. You had been seeing Alfie for about four years prior and even though there was no golden band around your finger, it felt as though you were married to the bear of a man.

There was no noise as you walked through the empty corridors. The house was usually like this, quiet and warm and that became the case in winter as well. Cyril was upstairs in the bedroom making noise as he chased something around the house but that was all the noise in the house.

Certain things had changed over the years.

Alfie had been shot and somehow survived it. He hadn’t let you see him for a couple months but he cracked quick. He couldn’t do it without you, this thing called life. He appeared in the shadows first, watching over you and decided that if you were to hate him because of all that had happened, he would be fine with it but he needed one last hug, a kiss goodbye and he’d be content.

But you hadn’t done that.

He was a silly man, your Alfie. It had taken you a long time to convince him that you loved him the way he was. He didn’t like the way he looked now, with the scar covering one side of his face. He realised though, after months of you reassuring him, that you didn’t care. If anything, it had given him a tougher look and that worked out for you.

“Alfie!” your voice was soft against the air around as you called for him. Maybe he was asleep somewhere in the house but due to the large size of it, it would take you a while to find him if he didn’t answer.

“In here!” he shouted. You shook your head with a smile, in where?

You felt yourself shiver a little while making your way towards the other end of the house where his study was. You didn’t go in there often, he was easily distracted and it was hard fucking against the cold wooden table. You knocked once, softly and didn’t wait for a proper answer before entering.

Unlike Alfie, you weren’t a very warm creature. He was your blanket during winters when you’d wear layers on top of other layers and still be cold. It was a problem with your blood, Alfie had said but your mother was the same way so you didn’t ponder on it. He would keep you warm anyway.

Walking in with the thick robe and the satin nightgown you had on, you smiled at him as he looked up from the book in his hands.Your slippers made soft sounds against the wooden flooring as you made your way towards him. He wasn’t working so you were allowed bother the grump bear.

“Hi.” you said, almost cooing as he opened his arms after putting the book back on his desk. He knew you were coming to sit on his lap and you were more than welcome in his eyes. He was obsessed with you doing that and you liked his warmth.

“‘ello, dove.” he spoke, voice gruff as he spoke.

You lifted one leg to straddle his thighs and sat down immediately. It was easy to ignore the way his eyes caught your bare legs under the nightgown but Alfie was always in the mood when it came to you. He brushed the thought away while you held onto his arms and sat down on his lap. The man was almost thrice your size but you made it work.

Feeling your cold fingertips against his inked arms, he grabbed them and brought them against his lips. He had disappeared after breakfast and you weren’t complaining but you needed your source of warmth during the colder months.

“Pet..” he spoke before his hands engulfed your much smaller ones. You blinked at him while feeling his warmth spread through your body. “Are you shivering?”

You shook your head immediately but your nails were slowly turning purple. The cold had never been good to you but you were content with the way things were at the given moment.

“It’s cold, you know.” you spoke, as a matter of factly. He smiled at the silly response before moving one of his hands to touch your neck. You were warm everywhere except your feet and hands. “It’s fine, Alfie.” you said and leaned in for a kiss but he wasn’t having it.

He stood up slowly, removing you from his lap but never letting go of your hand. If it was left to Alfie, he’d have you sleep, eat and basically do everything else against the fireplace, hence why there were multiple of them around the house. You knew he was taking you to the living room to make sure you were warm again and a sigh left your lips.

You started speaking as he led you through the long corridors of the house. “It’s okay, I can ju-”

“I don’t want ya’ to get sick.” he said, a cold hard fact before making you sit down in front of the fire place. He grabbed the blanket on one of the sofas and draped it over your shoulders before sitting on the comfy chair next to you. It was one of the moving chairs and it was Alfie’s except when cyril would get on it to rest for a while.

You stared at Alfie’s fingers that were holding yours, the gold on his fingers glistened as he stared at the fire place. He was a brazen gangster when you had met him. He didn’t flinch when faced with death or the barrel of a gun but he had become your very own teddy bear soon after.

He had changed in some ways. He was not so young anymore but just as full of life. There was a river of wisdom in his eyes, he was still as sharp and good looking but he was much calmer. He had invited you to live with him in the small mansion you were currently sitting in and you hadn’t thought about it twice before nodding frantically.

You’d be where he was.

Feeling you warm up against the fire, his hand came to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. You smiled at the touch but your eyes remained glued to the fire and not his blue orbs. He wanted to sit next to you but his back wasn’t always feeling so good, especially during the colder months.

Sometimes, he thought, he wanted to die for you.

He had come close a couple times but they all been with the purpose of business or honour. He didn’t care that much for that stuff at all, not since when he’d met you. Women were sacred to him, they had always been but the only encounter he had with the fascinating beings had been in a brothel, up until he had met you.

You were young, far too innocent for him and he knew he had done some very bad things but maybe he’d saved someone important in his god’s eyes and he was given you as his reward. He wished to be the young brazen man he once was but he wasn’t sure if you’d fall for him back then, he was too reckless.

And that hadn’t changed.

“I’m warm now. Can I go?” you asked in a sweet voice but you had no intention of leaving him. You’s stay as long as he would.

He nodded once and smiled at you, but you didn’t move.

“It’s very cold.” you spoke, earning a nod from yourself as you drifted away and Alfie watched you in a daze before he spoke up, the conversation flowing easily between the two of you.

“Yer always fuckin’ freezin, luv.” he said, not letting go of your hand even though you were more than warm now. The fire place was cozy and it always made you want to sleep after sitting in front of it for an hour or so. There had been many times where you’d ended up on top of Alfie, curled around his body and taken a long mid-day nap. He didn’t mind, he’d usually join you.

“Yeah but that’s why you’re here.” you spoke with a childish smile on your lips. You were still a kid, especially compared to him and Alfie knew but you were his best girl too.

“Yer own fuckin’ fire place, eh?” he said, amusement dripping from his words and you caressed his hand with your thumb as much as you could, his hand was twice as big as yours. “That why you kept me around for this long, hm?” he asked and you giggled, he was being grumpy again but in the good sense.

“No.” you said, you knew he was joking but you didn’t want to take that one percent chance of him being serious somewhere along the line.

“Why then?” he asked, taking the serious route since you had just started it. You looked at him then

There were many reasons why.

You were much younger than the man, everyone around knew that and even if they didn’t, one glance at the both of you and it was easy to figure. That had meant different things for you, it meant maturity and the kind of love of someone who knew what they wanted from life and had it in their palms, unlike the lousy young men your parents seemed to find for you.

He had rescued you, as you saw it. You were going to school when you met him, to get a higher education so you didn’t end up becoming someone’s desk buddy like the other high school graduates you knew. He had seen you around Camden a few times when you’d visit the flower shop and the next thing you knew, he was leaving gifts and jewels for you.

But it wasn’t all that easy.

He’d chased you, through his dreams and many months until one day, he was confident enough to take you out. It had been a lovely dinner and a museum, you didn’t care much for pictures and it was mostly Alfie talking anyway. He rambled when he was nervous and that was all he had done for the first four dates.

Then, he’d taken you to his home, that one day where it was pouring rain and you had just gotten out of dinner with him. He had dried you and gave you a spare change of clothes. You’d kissed him passionately but he’d stopped you, you were in the daze of things, he knew that so he told you to wait until the morning and see if you’d still want him.

It was silly.

Because you did. You woke up and asked for the same thing you’d asked the day before and he willingly gave it to you. He was hooked after that, flowers and dates, countless phone calls that annoyed the hell out of your flatmate were made.

And he was shot soon after.

It was rocky then, it had taken him a few months to heal and a few more on top of that to open up to you. You had gone without seeing him for 6 months and when you couldn’t take it anymore, he realised he couldn’t either. So what if his face was a little different now? That wouldn’t change the love you had for him.

You kept him around because he was your first love.

“Alfie..” you said, in that soft tone you knew made him feel weak inside. “You know why.

He smiled at your words. Of course he knew, but he had wanted you to say it.

It was easy to love him, you thought but you had never been good at vocalising your feelings. It was said in the quiet mornings or the dreaded moments, you didn’t just tell him out of the blue but you knew it would be good if you did.

“I do, yeah.” he spoke and smiled fondly. He knew.

He took a good look at you as you rested your head against the side of the chair he was sitting on. You were glowing to him, you just always were. His finger caressed your cheek as your face rested facing the fire place, eyes closed because you knew you’d miss this someday.

With a final yet long sigh from you, you got rid of the robe and the blanket on top and remained only with the nightgown you had on. Standing up slowly, you let his eyes reek over your body as they usually did, he was a man after all. He didn’t understand what you were doing but at that moment, he thought it didn’t really matter as your hands gripped his arms like they had done in his office when he was sitting on his chair and you laid on top of him in one swift motion.

His chin rested on top of your head as he started speaking. He was saying something about the deals he was making and not too long after he jumped into something else, speaking about the way his mom used to scold him when he came home late. He chuckled as he talked the day away, the vibrations on his chest making their way to your ear and you sighed, happily this time.

“Luv..” he spoke, thinking you were asleep after a while and truth be told, the idea was tempting but just like how he would watch you fall asleep every night to savour the memories, you were keen on keeping your eyes open as well.

“Hm?” you said, hiding your face in his chest and a childish smile found Alfie’s lips.

“You wanna sleep?” he said, knowing the answer before he even thought of asking you the question.

You smiled and faced him this time, hands caressing his fuzzy cheeks as he looked at you, expectedly.

You nodded.

You didn’t know if Alfie would be letting you get any sleep since you were in a mere nightgown. He had marked the one you were wearing as ‘distracting’ a couple days before but it was the comfiest one you owned. He also wouldn’t let you go anywhere away from where he was sleeping since he knew you needed the warmth so he’d wrap himself around you to the point where your heartbeats would be against each other.

You watched as he got up after you did, too. A couple grunts here and there as you both made your way to the upstairs bedroom. It was usually kept warm during the winter time, by you or by him. Since the weather was freezing and there was no work today, you didn’t see a point of making the day productive. Spending time with Alfie was the most productive you could be anyway.

An hour later, you were laying on your side and facing Alfie as he told you a story about this kid he knew in grade school. You joked and said that it was miracle he remembered since it was a long time ago but he’d brushed it off with a hasty kiss and kept on telling the story. He’d watch you fall asleep that night much like he did on the other nights to make sure you didn’t have any trouble doing that. And he’d know that there was work to be done but he couldn’t get out of the warm bed covers with your hands hugging him the way they were.

You came first.

-----

Tagging: @clairecrive @parkbearum @sourirez @vetseras @mollybegger-blog @babylooneytoonz @peakascum

a/n: I hope you liked it!!! This is a very cute and chill imagine so it was very fun to write it and i hope it wasn’t too late <3

458 notes · View notes

shihalyfie · 3 years

Text

The different aspects of Miyako’s personality and character arc

Miyako is a character where there’s just a lot going on with her in general, and asking different people to summarize Miyako in one phrase could feasibly get you some very different answers -- “the computer nerd girl”, or “the one who keeps talking about boys”, or “the one who panics all of the time”, or whatnot. Given that there’s so much to unpack at once even from her base profile, ironing out the full extent of her character arc can get a bit tricky, and there’s a lot going on with it. So, given that: Who is Miyako, anyway?

Miyako’s background and personality

Miyako is a character that I think is best understood by understanding what kind of person she is, and the personality and mentality she goes into the story of 02 with.

An interesting background story behind Miyako’s creation is that she’s based off a real person -- more accurately, a certain assistant producer on the series (whose identity has remained undisclosed, presumably for privacy reasons) was used as a reference for her behavior and actions. Although Adventure and 02 have a philosophy of portraying realistic human behavior in general, this level of specificity is a unique designation to have, and series director Kakudou Hiroyuki has referred to this a few times over the years -- it seems she’s the only of the Tokyo Chosen Children to have such a concrete single-person reference, and it’s also the reason her blood type of AB and star sign Gemini were given in 02 episode 25 (the other kids don’t have mentioned birthdays or blood types to prevent personality restrictions via horoscoping, but a real person having Miyako’s personality, star sign, and blood type wouldn’t make that as much of an issue). Even Volcano Ota himself confirmed Miyako’s resemblance to her upon hearing it after the fact! Indeed, a lot of 02 fans (especially adults) have admitted that Miyako’s probably one of the most relatable people in the cast, namely because her gushing about things she likes and panicking at things that overwhelm her is...well, a bit too uncomfortably on-point at times.

(And especially since so much about Miyako’s character has to do with how happy she makes everyone around her, it’s not too hard to imagine that the staff was so fond of her real-life inspiration that they wanted to pay tribute to her in such a way...)

Still, Miyako is a fictional character, one with her own backstory and interactions in 02′s story, and said backstory is such: she comes from a family that runs a convenience store in Odaiba, and is the youngest of a family of four siblings. Running a convenience store on a small island means that Miyako has probably seen a lot of the island’s residents, and her family also has various levels of connections to the other kids’ families (her older sisters Momoe and Chizuru are friends of Daisuke’s sister Jun, and Chizuru is Yamato’s classmate). Moreover, she’s befriended her nine-year-old neighbor (one who otherwise has trouble socializing with his peers) to the point of regularly going over to do computer repairs for his family. She’s also worked in the computer club under Koushirou, and even before the series has started, she looks up to him and adores him in a way not entirely unlike how Daisuke looks up to Taichi -- and although it’s unclear whether or not she started after the beginning of 02, 02 episode 29 reveals that she helps Yamato with his band.

The pattern here is that Miyako is extremely sociable, and one who actively pokes her nose into nearly everything so she can help out. This makes her a very different sort of Mom Friend from Sora -- both of them are Crest of Love holders for good reason, but in Sora’s case, she was compulsively going out of her way to help other people to the point of exhaustion, and her character arc was about trying to find a way to detach herself from obligations and do something for herself. Miyako is the complete opposite -- she’s the kind of extrovert who actively enjoys poking her head into other people’s business, picking up a bunch of peripheral hobbies so she can do something useful for everyone and go I’M HELPING!! If you actually look closely at those hobbies of “computer programming and hacking”, “hardware tinkering”, and “sound engineering”, other than vaguely being related to computers, they are completely different skillsets, and every single one of them is one Miyako’s depicted employing in order to help someone else out. (Koushirou is never really depicted as having super amazingly high technical skill and most of his unique talent comes from being a thorough analyst, but in contrast, while Miyako is established as being good at even hacking in Diablomon Strikes Back, she doesn’t really seem to have a huge propensity for deep analytical thought.) It’s hard to tell if she has any personal preference for any of them as much as she basically turned herself into a jack-of-all-trades so she could do whatever job was necessary for someone else.

If we’re to believe the official 02 site, Miyako’s been a bit pampered by her family -- as the youngest of four siblings, she’s the “baby of the family”, who hasn’t had to live with a ton of responsibility for others. This means that, much like Mimi, she seems to have been raised surrounded by a ton of affection, which is why she herself is such an openly affectionate person who’s open-minded towards trying all sorts of things, and why she’s used to wanting to help others by actively throwing herself into situations -- but it also means that, being the youngest of a family who is now in the situation of being the oldest in a new group, she ends up in Jou’s situation of suddenly being faced with the pressure of the concept of proper responsibility for others.

As far as Miyako’s general personality goes, she is constantly overflowing with affection and cheer and a desire to dote on everyone -- but the flip side is that she’s also aggressive. She has zero sense of restraint. (If you ever get around to listening to the Japanese version of 02, Natsuki Rio’s performance is energetic and over-the-top in almost every way imaginable to the point that you get the impression of Miyako as someone who doesn’t easily run out of batteries -- at least, until things start getting really serious.) When she loves something, she’ll gush about it as if there were hearts floating around her (and, depending on the level of closeness, even jump in and physically hug them), and she has no qualms against physically manhandling if she feels she needs to, and if she dislikes something, she will make it very clear (including yelling very loudly about it). You could argue that she’s actually closer to the archetype of the brash shounen protagonist than Daisuke himself is!

In fact, Miyako and Daisuke have very similar temperaments -- pure-hearted, but also rough around the edges -- but can be distinguished by the fact that while Daisuke is actually deferential and somewhat lacking in assertion, Miyako is actually aggressive, and while Daisuke’s “honesty about his feelings” is mainly because he’s too simple-minded to be any good at hiding anything, Miyako’s honesty is because she has no brain-to-mouth filter, and everything she’s thinking comes out of her mouth before she can control it -- in other words, Miyako has a huge case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. She doesn’t want to be insensitive, but it keeps coming out of her mouth before she can control it -- and even worse, her emotions are prone to taking control of her, and she is very prone to getting overwhelmed and collapsing into a massive panic.

If you think about the two archetypes of “girl who takes care of everyone” and “aggressive action girl”, Miyako has a tendency towards both at once, and moreover there’s an extra nail in it -- most “action girls” in the latter category would be portrayed as badass, put-together characters with a cool personality, but Miyako is a mess. She’s prone to panicking, all over the place, and her tendency to get in-your-face is not exactly in the most dignified manner. And as a result, a huge part of her character arc (as we will be going more into detail about below) is that she’s aware of this and doesn’t like this about herself -- because she doesn’t want to be insensitive or rude, and in fact she wants to be someone who can better help and take care of others, but, in her mind, her own personality keeps getting in the way.

Miyako in 02

After fully becoming a Chosen Child in 02 episode 2, it only takes one more episode for Miyako to bring food for everyone, as if to say “Right! I’m going to be working with everyone now! All of you are now my new best friends!” (”Bringing food for people” is one of Miyako’s many ways of showing love, given that she returns from Kyoto in 02 episode 34 and immediately hands off souvenir yatsuhashi to Koushirou.) And with that, Miyako settles into the archetype of the group’s “mood maker” -- someone whose role is to keep everyone in emotionally high spirits by influencing everyone with cheer and energy. 02 episode 5 features the debut of her famous “Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let’s roll!” catchphrase -- this and her other famous “Bingo!” catchphrase establish her as the only of the Tokyo Chosen Children to have a catchphrase (at least, in the Japanese version). Because catchphrases are fun.

As much as everyone (especially Daisuke) is a bit blindsided by her behavior at first, they eventually come to embrace the positive effect she has on all of them -- Daisuke very genuinely asks her for “the usual cheer” in 02 episode 10, and, all the way in 02 episode 22, this is such an agreed-on and established role that they’ll still wait on her to do the honors even when they’re in a hurry. So in other words, it didn’t take long for Miyako to go out of her way to shower everyone with cheer, and it didn’t take long for everyone to answer to that cheer and appreciate her for it.

The flip side of this, however, is that Miyako doesn’t start off being very emotionally equipped to handle this -- right off the bat in 02 episode 2, she says that she’s not inclined for fighting, and in 02 episode 4, she refers to it as being “like an adventure game”. That is to say, she’s not at the point where she’s able to handle the full gravity of what she’s just involved herself with (Daisuke reminds her that she’d panicked earlier, but she just blows it off). She’s handling it so cheerfully now because the series is still in its early stages, when she can enter and exit the Digital World at will, and she’s capable of treating it like this.

So when the stakes do get higher, she’s the first one to take the stress hard. As mentioned before, she’s the youngest in her family, now recast as the oldest in this group -- but unlike Jou, who consciously knew this fact and took stress onto himself because of the responsibility this entailed, Miyako seems to repeatedly forget that she’s the oldest in this group, and the events of 02 episodes 9-10 (when Agumon is kidnapped) cause her to break down from stress and have to take a time-out. (Which everyone allows her to do, because this is not a series where people are pressured to fight if they’re not emotionally ready for it.) Miyako comes to terms with the fact that the stakes are going to keep escalating, and she can’t just gloss over everything with cheer -- and she does manage to pull herself enough to bring Yamato into the fray at the end of the episode, but this continues to be a recurring theme for the rest of her character arc.

While we’re discussing these early parts of the series, one thing I want to briefly address is the part where Miyako infamously calls a lot of people hot. (Although, not as many as the fanbase would love to make you think; it’s only four people in total.) This tends to get her pinned as some kind of flirt whose head is only filled with being hot for people, but while she’s certainly a bit on the shallow end at this point of the series -- dealing with that being what this character arc is about, after all -- this trait of hers tends to get exaggerated by a lot of people in the audience as if she’s completely lacking in common sense. Miyako’s ridiculous (and we love her for it), but she does have some degree of grip on herself! Context is important here -- she might show a crush on someone, but at no point in the series itself does Miyako show any indication of seriously thinking of full-on dating.

For Miyako, who’s accustomed to just blurting out the first thing that comes to mind, commenting on someone being hot is like commenting on the weather -- she means it as a compliment, but there’s no evidence she thinks she has a chance with any of them, let alone wanting to try dating. This is especially when you take into account her self-esteem issues that we learn about later in the series, and also...well, the fact she’s only twelve. (Remember: even Daisuke’s thing for Hikari comes out as a lot of unfocused affection, and it’s unlikely he’s seriously considered the concept of following that up with a serious relationship -- any serious prospects of romance or dating are not going to be on the table for these kids for a while.) Miyako has also been accused by some of being abysmally shallow for still complimenting Ken’s looks in 02 episode 9 (after it’s already apparent he’s the Kaiser), but although she certainly is a bit shallow at this point of the series, she’s not that lacking in common sense; Iori got in on it too in this scene, and both of them were doing it to tease Daisuke more than they seriously wanted to compliment the Kaiser all that much. So in essence, it’s just “Miyako has eyes” -- she still completely agrees he’s their enemy and she’s not going to judge him any better for his looks, but she also doesn’t see this as a reason to lie about the fact she thinks he’s visually good-looking, especially if it’s to tease Daisuke about it.

In any case, 02 episode 14 digs a lot more into Miyako’s stance on herself regarding others -- in 02 episode 6, Miyako met Mimi for the first time, and latched onto her for their similar dispositions and her looking up to Mimi for being beautiful, amazing, and cool (and she should, because she’s right). 02 episode 14 adds another layer to this, however, when Miyako spends the duration negatively comparing herself to Mimi. At first it starts off as simply just shallow jealousy for Michael giving Mimi more attention, but as the situation with Digitamamon escalates, Miyako spends a prolonged period of time trying to figure out Mimi’s behavior of pure-heartedly choosing to trust Digitamamon despite everything, against Miyako’s insistence that Digitamamon’s behavior proves that he was untrustworthy the whole time.

Mimi and Miyako’s stances are both on extremes here -- Mimi’s pacifistic tendencies are causing her to let her get beaten up by Digitamamon despite the fact that “appealing to people’s hearts” has never really been demonstrated as a good way to get Evil Rings off (to be fair, this is probably the first time they’ve made an attempt at this with a Digimon that can still talk coherently with it on), but Miyako’s acting as if this retroactively proves him to be untrustworthy even though she knows that the Evil Rings are tantamount to brainwashing. Nevertheless, Miyako acknowledges that her own stance was borne out of her being shallow and judgmental, especially since the discussion between Mimi and Digitamamon brings out a question about the meaning of the “true self”.

Miyako, at this point, is confronting everything that’s bad about herself -- that she’s shallow and not as much of a “good person” as Mimi is. But the Crest of Purity -- once meaning “lack of malice” back when it applied to Mimi in Adventure -- now has a secondary meaning of “not lying to oneself” (the dub translation of “Sincerity” is not actually that off in this sense), and it also means that Miyako is not going to get anywhere pretending or forcing herself to be someone she’s not. The secondary Digimental arc has a recurring theme of understanding that there are still things you need to learn and improve on in order to do better, and this is Miyako’s version of it -- she will have to acknowledge all of the bad parts of herself before she can get anywhere and become a kind person like Mimi is -- and, indeed, becoming less shallow and judgmental and not jumping to conclusions, and learning to reach out to more substantial cores of the problem, ends up becoming a major part of her character arc in the latter half of the series.

This episode also implies one more thing, even if she doesn’t realize it yet at this moment: the path to her becoming a less shallow and more considerate person is not going to involve trying to force herself to be like Mimi, but rather in a way that’s closer to her “true self”.

Miyako’s first major turning point is in 02 episode 18, an episode that’s said to have such a profound impact on her that even Natsuki Rio testified to having to alter her Miyako performance thereafter.

Back in 02 episode 10, Miyako first started to realize that this whole experience of fighting as a Chosen Child was a lot more stressful than it seemed at first, and reacted badly to it. Here, the ante gets upped even more -- the kids decide to make use of their summer break and organize a Digital World stakeout, and, eventually, Hikari accidentally becomes indirectly responsible for tipping Miyako over the deep end by making an implication that they need more “determination” to the point of refusing to leave until they’ve beaten the Kaiser. (Remember that Hikari can be terrifyingly assertive as long as it’s not something to do with herself.) For Miyako, who’s never had the same experience of being in the Digital World for a prolonged period of time the same way the Adventure group has, this is terrifying, and she tries to “get herself together” over the night -- only to completely overshoot it and go into the complete other extreme. As much as this ends up being one of Miyako’s peak hilarity moments, it’s most certainly representative of her being under a huge amount of pressure and stress, and it’s effectively her “peak worst” moment -- which results in Hawkmon ending up having to cover for her, and getting injured in the process, and Miyako immediately realizing how badly she’d messed up.

Miyako is thus forced to face a major consequence of her behavior: if she doesn’t manage to figure out a way to get herself under control, other people will be hurt, and as someone who wants to do her best for other people, that’s one of the worst possible outcomes for her.

In addition, it’s also important to point out Hikari’s role in this. The Jogress arcs have yet to set in, but the series still gives you a little preview of what’s to come eventually, such as the insight we get about Daisuke and Ken’s initial attitudes towards each other in 02 episode 8, and Iori later personally witnessing (and being very disturbed by) Takeru losing his composure in 02 episode 19. In this case, we see a bit of what Miyako and Hikari’s opposing personalities can offer for each other (especially since the later 02 episode 31 more heavily involves Miyako returning the favor in the other direction) -- Hikari correctly identifies exactly what it was that set Miyako off, takes responsibility for it, and even decides to make sure Miyako and Hawkmon get proper alone time so that they can figure things out. In general, everyone in the 02 team is understanding of Miyako’s antics and doesn’t hold any of it against her because she’s doing her best, but right now, Hikari may be the only person in this group who can actually proactively do something about it, because Daisuke’s not assertive enough to step in, Takeru has a tendency to dodge things whenever they get awkward, and Iori’s holding himself back too much for the sake of manners (especially in the presence of Miyako, who’s the oldest one in this group). But while Hikari does have an emotional repression problem, she’s perfectly capable of holding herself together and putting her foot down when it comes to other people, and because of this, she’s the one who’s able to understand what exactly is going on with Miyako, and how to adjust the situation around her to make things easier for her.

Miyako and Hawkmon have a proper heart-to-heart, and we see more of Miyako’s self-hating tendencies going on here -- she refers exactly to her problems with impulse control, and even labels herself a “bad partner” as a result. But Hawkmon reassures her that she’s fine the way she is, and it ties into how a larger theme of her character arc will involve her learning to find better ways to channel the qualities she already has, rather than trying to force herself to be someone she’s not.

Once the Kaiser is defeated, the second half of the series is where we start to see Miyako’s growth start to really kick in. In 02 episode 24, there’s a short blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene where Miyako suddenly takes Daisuke and puts him in charge of taking care of the Punimon. Why is this important? Because two episodes prior, Daisuke had been running around in circles like an idiot due to having been third wheeled by Takeru and Hikari, and the moment Daisuke started exhibiting similar signs this time, Miyako personally stepped in and gave him a job to do -- and her actions of keeping an eye on them and her conversation with Takeru and Hikari indicate that she did it exactly because she figured that he would like it. Or, in other words, Miyako correctly identified Daisuke’s need for validation and purpose, and became the first person to proactively do something to address it -- Hikari and Takeru had generally been dodging it awkwardly for the duration of the series, which had only really been making it worse, and, in the absence of another crisis to take care of or someone like Ken to fill the void in Daisuke’s life, Miyako was able to properly figure out exactly what he needed at the moment as a stopgap, and thus is starting to settle into her proper role of understanding what others need in terms of emotional support and actively working to address it.

Since the second half of 02 is dedicated to Ken slowly establishing his place in the group, 02 episode 25 is dedicated to Miyako tussling with her conflicted feelings on the situation -- she’s just as open-minded and pure-hearted as Daisuke is, but the one thing that’s bothering her is that she’s a little more doubtful than he is in regards to whether Ken’s heart is really in the right place with all of this. She says, outright, that she believes he’s learned his lesson -- in a way far more firm than Takeru, Hikari, and Iori are about it -- but that one thing about him having potentially killed Thunderballmon in cold blood doesn’t fit the optimistic image she’d like to have of him.

Daisuke is more practical-minded than she is and is more willing to accept that there might have been a good reason -- especially since he himself starts to consider in this very episode that killing an enemy may be necessary if it’s the only way to prevent more victims -- but Miyako is more emotionally oriented and just can’t accept the idea of doing this at all. Both the internal debate over accepting Ken and the internal debate over having to potentially do a kill tear her apart over the course of this episode, and Miyako finds herself constantly waffling back and forth between the two positions. It’s not just her expressing minor doubt; she actually agonizes over this for the duration of the night and the next day, to the point she even considers asking him about it (and eventually can’t bring herself to).

It’s also made a prominent point that Miyako’s prior attraction to Ken in 02 episode 8 was not the reason she wanted to be optimistic about him -- remember, back in 02 episode 14, she completely admitted that she judges people by appearances, but at this point she’s well past that! Miyako takes this entire issue of whether Ken should be considered a friend very seriously, and that’s why it torments her so much over the course of the episode.

Eventually, all is resolved (at least, for the time being) when it turns out that Ken has been dealing with non-sentient Dark Tower Digimon, and Miyako takes this as sufficient evidence that Ken has changed -- the morality debate about killing comes back in full force in 02 episode 43, and Ken himself ends up just as shaken about it, so the important part is that she understands that he’s trustworthy and wants to put faith in him. Attention is also given to Miyako deciding she’ll now call him by given name (”Ken-kun”) from now on -- even Daisuke himself won’t start calling him “Ken” regularly until 02 episode 39, but Miyako starts slowly inserting given-name basis for Ken into her vocabulary from this point on until she finally commits to it fully in 02 episode 30. This is a proactive and conscious act on Miyako’s part that she actively wants to get to know him better and consider him a close friend, and it’s because of this that she ends up one of the only people who never gets habituated into surname basis with him by the time everyone’s come to properly befriend him.

So, at this point: Within only one episode (and, in-universe, one day), Daisuke and Miyako landed on the same page with their ideological stance towards Ken. They’re both open-minded and forward-thinking, and have an interest in becoming his friend (the next person to show active and open goodwill towards him, Hikari, won’t do so for another 9 episodes). However, despite their surface temperaments being somewhat similar, they have some differences in their priorities and way of approaching things, and it means that each of them ends up reaching out to Ken in ways that the other isn’t as good at. Daisuke, being the very practical and simple-minded sort who doesn’t overthink things or get caught in arbitrary philosophy, is the one who most proactively reaches out to Ken and most famously connects with him the most due to Ken very badly needing guidance in how to move on forward and stop getting fixated on his past. Miyako, on the other hand, being very much the type to consciously think about things (to the point of sometimes thinking about too many things at once) and focus on “how do I most show my support for someone right now?”, puts her priorities on checking on Ken’s current emotional state and actively attempting to glean his feelings and position. 02 being a series about relationships and what people can provide for each other, this ends up reflecting on their roles in the group as a whole -- Daisuke becomes the person who can pull everyone forward in determining the best thing to do, whereas Miyako fills in the parts his rough-around-the-edges demeanor doesn’t quite cover in terms of supporting everyone emotionally and keeping them together.

And thus, Miyako resolves to “wait” until the day Ken will join them -- that is to say, she takes the stance that Ken deserves proper space and to come on his own terms. It’s an interesting inversion of the usual roles you’d expect from Daisuke and Miyako at this point -- and, again, since 02 is about relationships, “each character’s approach towards the new kid and how it impacts them” reflects a lot about their own characters. For Daisuke and Miyako, who were open-minded towards Ken early in the game, you can already see the impact on them -- the necessity of reaching out to Ken causes the normally deferential Daisuke to become more proactive and put his foot down, whereas the normally uncontrollably in-your-face Miyako comes to understand when something needs to be handled delicately and starts getting a better grasp on the concept of restraint.

Which means that Miyako’s actions regarding Ken in the following episodes are significantly more passive than Daisuke’s are, but it’s clear that she’s still supportive. Moreover, it’s also important to establish that she and Daisuke aren’t fighting about this or anything -- Miyako does want Ken to come around eventually, so she doesn’t stop the more proactive Daisuke from reaching out to Ken in an important way, but she instead exerts her position in ways such as joining in with the others reminding him that Ken might have gotten a bit emotionally overwhelmed by the Jogress (and thus that it’s understandable that he might need some time to parse this before pushing the issue further). The way Miyako words this statement so casually can easily be a distraction from the fact that she is completely correct -- as we see later, Ken did emotionally freak out the moment the incident was resolved and had to go home to think about this. Scatterbrained as Miyako may seem, as the series proceeds, it turns out that she has a natural propensity for empathy that means she’s capable of making perfectly correct readings of the situation, even without her thinking that hard about it.

Not that she’s correct all of the time, though. 02 episode 30 has her attempt to get Ken and Iori to hopefully be a little less tense around each other end in complete disaster (although to be fair to her, it’s not like she and Daisuke were particularly forceful about it, it’s just that their plan was so poorly set up that it was too easy to read the motive behind, and it’s ultimately thrown off because -- as Daisuke correctly points out -- the two are being really childish about it.) But in response, Miyako takes direct action and responsibility to fix the situation when Ken continues to refuse to help despite how badly the situation is escalating, and when she finally reaches him, she gets frustrated at the fact he’s being so stubborn, smacks him, and personally drags him back over. Miyako cared a lot about this, she had wanted Ken and Iori to get along for no reason of personal benefit to herself but more because she cared that much about the group’s dynamic and friendship, and she’d held herself back so much because she was worried about him, but here he’s taking all of that and still giving them all the cold shoulder when everyone is in grave danger, and all of that frustration causes her to break down at once.

And note Ken’s reaction -- he’d been holding off on the grounds that he was being a burden on everyone’s friendship, but he sees Miyako distraught and upset and calling him an idiot (i.e. his whole pretense of not hurting others has clearly not worked here), and his “idiot...?” comes out flustered and off-guard, and he shows no resentment towards her thereafter and comes quietly with no protest, even holding a hand to the place she’d smacked him as if mulling in agreement that he deserved that. So, again: Even when Miyako is coming to all of these conclusions in a haphazard manner, it doesn’t change the fact that her readings of these situations are often completely correct.

02 episode 31 is another landmark episode in which we get a lot of insight into Miyako’s current feelings regarding herself in comparison to others, and what she’s trying to achieve at this point in the series. Daisuke makes an offhand remark at the beginning of the episode about Hikari being more “kind” than Miyako (”kind” having a double meaning of “gentle” in Japanese, so Daisuke’s mainly referring to Miyako being such a rough and belligerent person). The way Miyako takes this statement indicates that Daisuke had accidentally just hit a very deep-seated complex within her -- Miyako had never liked the fact she was aggressive and belligerent and in-your-face (remember, back in 02 episode 14, she was constantly negatively comparing herself to Mimi for not being as good of a person as her, and now this has extended to Hikari, who “keeps so much inside”.). As the crisis in the episode escalates, Miyako continues to fall victim to her foot-in-mouth syndrome, saying things and instantly regretting it, because she sees herself as making the situation worse -- and especially when it comes to a situation also involving Ken, whom she’s actively trying to reach out to right now. Her frustration at the fact she can’t see what Ken and Hikari see is because, unable to understand what they’re talking about or what their feelings are, she’s basically a sitting duck who can’t do anything while things are getting worse for them.

Which ultimately results in Miyako completely losing her marbles and Hikari having to smack her out of it -- again, recall that in 02 episode 18, it was shown that Hikari is one of the few people who has enough assertiveness to be able to rein in Miyako’s behavior, and even outright admits that Miyako is a bit of a handful. Miyako, as it seems, had been carrying a complex that Hikari had been thinking of her badly for all of this -- but Hikari then proceeds to reveal the flip side of all of this: she’s also conversely jealous of Miyako for being able to express herself so clearly and easily, because she herself is the type who compulsively represses her own feelings about herself, which is why nobody had been able to properly reach out to her for the duration of Adventure and 02.

For someone who had spent so much time considering herself a “bad person” and a “worse person” in comparison to people like Mimi and Hikari, that someone considers her qualities outright enviable is a huge deal -- it’s not that Miyako’s an objectively worse person than all of the other people who aren’t as rough or in-your-face, but rather, that those qualities can bring out positive things in their own way. And, immediately after that, we see one of those things -- she makes Hikari laugh, thanks to her antics. Of course, it involves Miyako being a bit all over the place and making a lot of mistakes, but even she admits “I guess it is funny.”

And there’s another thing to this, too: Miyako continues to end up with foot-in-mouth as she casually refers to things like the Evil Ring and Ken being the Kaiser with zero fanfare, before realizing seconds after that she probably shouldn’t be doing that in front of him, but, once again, even without her realizing, her evaluation is not incorrect -- although the fact he’s extremely out of it doesn’t make that clear quite yet in this episode, Ken is not the kind of person who’s touchy about acknowledging that he was the Kaiser, and, by his own statement in 02 episode 23, his stance is that he wants to “accept everything about it”, take responsibility, and move on. So here we are with Miyako, who just casually tossed that statement out like it was no big deal, has accepted his past with no lingering grudge against him, and even made a casual evaluation about him presumably having the same resilience he had as the Kaiser, which, again, is completely accurate. All of this is exactly the kind of attitude that Ken needs to be surrounded by right now, and Miyako had just touched on this without even thinking that hard about it, and also is still making it clear she doesn’t want him to feel bad about it...

And so, the episode’s climax has Miyako finally attaining the solution to the question of reaching out to Hikari, the one that nobody had been able to successfully accomplish throughout Hikari’s childhood of never expressing herself properly and the majority of Adventure and 02: to get Hikari to stop being so passive and accepting her inevitable fate because she doesn’t want to burden others, someone as aggressive as her will need to reach her and yank her out, and hit all of the exact points about understanding that someone will be there for her and that she should not accept this defeatist mentality. Hikari is unusually, unhealthily passive, and Miyako, being outwardly aggressive and someone who never hesitates to be blunt about things, is the best person to yank her out of this; it was never a sign of her being a “bad person”, just something she needed to channel in the right direction.

At the end of the episode, we’re also reminded once again that this is a series about relationships, so this kind of growth is important to everyone’s relationships with others as well -- thanks to Miyako’s efforts, Hikari is finally able to speak honestly with Takeru in contrast to her way of leaving off in silence with him at the end of 02 episode 13, and Miyako herself is happy that she’s finally gotten to have a better understanding of both Hikari, whom she herself had been unsure about the position of earlier, and Ken, whom she’d been worried she hadn’t been reaching out to in the right way.

While Ken was out of it during said episode and unable to coherently respond, we do get confirmation that he himself has hopped on the train of respecting Miyako’s intent well enough that he doesn’t hold anything over her -- during 02 episode 33, a mere three episodes after she’d personally slapped him in the face and two episodes after he’d practically seen her at her emotional worst, he still takes it upon himself to personally deliver Poromon to Kyoto and trust her to handle the rest. This isn’t that particularly interesting by itself, but moreso in terms of the context this is in -- this is a point where Ken’s still at awkward arm’s length with a lot of the team (including even Daisuke, in some ways), and he’s seen Miyako do all of the above messy things only not too long ago, but he still is comfortable enough around her and trusting enough in her abilities that he’s okay with casually approaching her and saying “you got this.” So it’s working, all things considered!

We also learn that Miyako had trusted Koushirou with Poromon during her trip to Kyoto, which says a lot about the fact she trusts her senior that much -- and, on a meta level, seems there specifically to facilitate the existence of the above scene (it would have been very easy to save time by just having Poromon accompany Miyako from the get-go and ending Ken’s involvement in the episode at his conversation with Koushirou...).

The following episodes also meanwhile establish that Miyako’s relationship with Hikari has been improving a lot -- with Miyako now actually understanding what Hikari needs, she’s much more proactive in reaching out to Hikari, and it’s even said directly by Iori in 02 episode 36 that their relationship seems to have gotten much better now. And, once again, Miyako’s antics are depicted as making people laugh -- note her and Hawkmon’s over-the-top advertisement performance doing so for everyone in the vicinity.

Which is also reinforced, again, in 02 episode 38, when this even spreads to Ken himself, in a moment that’s said to be particularly unusual and portrayed as one of the first times Ken has been able to be truly carefree in a long time. Again, the point here is: Miyako’s “all-over-the-place” nature brings joy to other people, and that “she makes people laugh” is continually reinforced as a symbol of this over the course of the second half of the series.

Beyond that, the visit to Ken’s house kicks off with Miyako noticing the picture of Osamu and asking about it, to the point she’s shown leaning over and staring at it for quite a while -- Koushirou had allegedly informed her about it earlier, and a whole point is made that she’s the one very prominently wanting to understand more about Ken and his background.

Also, Miyako reminds us all that she still does think Ken is attractive, but it’s a huge contrast to her behavior from back in 02 episode 8, when she knew nothing about him except that he was some celebrity genius boy -- she got completely worked up about it, moped about it for a whole day, and even dragged the fixation into the next day when she started aggressively confronting Daisuke about it, but we’re here 30 episodes later with Miyako actually considering him an important friend that she respects the feelings of, and she simply casually tosses out the statement of him being cute in her usual “like it’s commenting on the weather” manner, with no extra weirdness about it.

We close up some of the threads of Miyako's character arcs when Miyako herself is forced to confront the possibility of fighting an enemy to the kill in 02 episode 44, and Silphymon is eventually forced to kill LadyDevimon to save Miyako's life. Miyako’s emotional reaction is given the most attention here, since she herself had fixated so much on the horror of potentially killing Golemon back in 02 episode 25 -- in fact, everything Miyako does in this episode is about her emotional empathy and empathy for others, in that she rails on LadyDevimon for being a “coward” who hurts other people. Eventually, it’s once again the assertive Hikari who’s able to get her back on her feet by putting it in a way she can understand -- they were not doing it out of a callous and cruel intent to kill, but to save the exact victims that Miyako herself wanted to prevent.

And, even to the very end of the series, Miyako continues to channel her proactivity into emotional awareness first and foremost -- 02 episode 46 has her take the lead in the Dark Seed roundtable, and it’s implied that she’s doing this mainly because she knows this is a very personal issue for Ken to have to witness. In contrast to the way she frantically started spitting out potentially insensitive things in front of Ken in 02 episode 31, here, she outright says that she doesn’t want to make him feel bad about this (and, fortunately, he understands perfectly well that she’s trying). Even all the way to the very end in 02 episode 50, she’s the one who first brings up the question of the issue, because of how emotionally invested she got into this and her high level of awareness as to how deeply this impacted Ken.

In 02 episode 49, BelialVamdemon presents everyone in the team with a potential deep-seated desire that none of them want to admit, and in the case of Miyako’s, it ends up being a rather tame thing in comparison to Iori and Takeru’s more severe family issues, Hikari’s desire for WORLD PEACE!!, and Ken’s complicated feelings about punishment and forgiveness. In Miyako’s dream world, she’s just eating cake, and it says a lot about the fact that were it not for the fact that she overthinks things and often gets easily stressed, she’s fundamentally fairly free of deep-seated issues in a way not entirely dissimilar to Daisuke’s simple and pure-hearted way of life.

The thing that causes Miyako’s issue is often misinterpreted to be about her selfishly wanting everything to herself, or the idea she’s fighting for attention with her siblings, but Hawkmon actually says what the real problem is in direct words: her crowded family is “noisy”. Or in other words -- Miyako, being the overly empathetic type and someone who easily succumbs to stress, is just really overwhelmed and stressed because of everything around her.

An interesting thing about Miyako’s “illusion” is that it’s the only one that in itself starts making its victim feel lonely and sad even before it’s taken away or dispelled -- Takeru and Iori had to have their happy images pulled away from them, Hikari had to have Tailmon clarify that everything is fake, and Ken had to have Wormmon personally chase the image of his brother away. But in the case of Miyako, all Hawkmon has to do is ask if she’s happy right now, and she’s quick to admit that she’s not. It’s just that everything was stressful and overwhelming and there was so much to deal with all of the time, and for once she wanted to be able to enjoy a little peace, but she loves her family and she loves everyone around her and she doesn’t want to be alone, and she’d rather have them back even if it’s stressful. Miyako’s love for others is so strong that even an illusion supposedly made to cater to her won’t make her happy if everyone’s gone.

Miyako also takes the moment to realize that for all Hawkmon’s been going out of his way to be steadfast and loyal to her, she hasn’t been doing enough to understand her own partner in turn, and there’s still a lot more she can do in terms of thinking of others.

Miyako after 02

As per Spring 2003, once Miyako graduates elementary school and moves to middle school, she continues trying to be helpful to her juniors -- she joins the computer club and once again ends up under Koushirou, and now outright makes music for Yamato’s band (some creative differences aside). It’s also interesting to note her attitude towards her other friends when she tries to recruit them into her music unit -- she snarks at everyone right up until she gets to Ken, who declines politely, and in exchange, she just can't bring herself to be mean to him and simply apologizes for asking too much. It’s ambiguous whether this is because she’s still trying to have a heightened level of consideration around him (this is still only four months after 02′s finish, after all), but it seems she’s still concerned about the idea of handling him overly roughly, and is able to exercise a proper level of restraint about him.

Which brings us all the way to Kizuna, a whole eight years later where we have to fill in a lot of blanks about what’s been happening in the meantime, but the official website establishes that she’s now pursuing a degree in computer programming at an engineering university, and is now on study abroad in Spain (implied to be Barcelona, given details in both the movie itself and the drama CD). Pretty ambitious stuff!...or at least that’s the first impression one would get, until it turns out that she’s getting her flighty personality enabled by the local culture. As we learn in the drama CD, she’s absolutely taking the time to milk this entire situation so she can play around -- and, in accordance with how she was established to be an important factor in bringing Hikari out of her shell, it’s rubbing off on Hikari, too.

In addition, Miyako is still working under Koushirou despite their educational careers having completely diverged, this time as his assistant in terms of managing the Chosen Child community. Interestingly, her specific job seems to be consultation, and people come to her for “advice and stuff” -- meaning that it’s very likely that a lot of new Chosen Children who are having a hard time adjusting to life with a partner are coming to her for practical and emotional advice, and she’s still continuing to channel her ability to be emotionally aware and supportive of others.

That is to say, until she gets a mysterious request from a certain Menoa Bellucci. We learn later that Menoa’s motive was to obtain the list of international Chosen Children, meaning that she most definitely was not approaching Miyako for emotional help, and with that, Miyako decides that she doesn’t want to do this and dumps it on her seniors...

...but then picks it back up with zero hesitation the moment her friends present her that exact same job, and not only is it just “zero hesitation”, Ken even comments on how “fast” she arrived to do so! (This was also before Iori came up with the plan to infiltrate Menoa’s office; there wasn’t any indication Miyako’s computer abilities would be particularly necessary at the time.) On top of that, the drama CD gives us full context as to why she was so willing to dump this on her seniors in the first place -- she had wanted to see her friends so badly that she practically invented D-3 gate exploitation so she could hang out with her friends despite technically being in another country, and even wanted to invite them to come visit her, and eventually they’d all made an organized plan to meet up in New York. In other words, her loyalty to her friends is still stronger than anything else -- remember, she’s the kind of person who was picking up tons of jobs specifically so she could help her friends in the first place.

On that note, Ken’s ability to be casual with everyone besides Daisuke has noticeably improved, and that’s especially prominent with Miyako, whom he proactively converses with in a way that wouldn’t have happened back in 02, and, likewise, in contrast to the sense of distance she’d still been maintaining with him back during the final arc of 02 and Spring 2003, she has no qualms about handling him as casually as she would anyone else.

Which eventually leads us to...

This is a recurring theme on this blog, but every so often I have to draw the distinction between creative concepts “in meta” (i.e. the way the audience will read it, in relation to franchise standards and other real-life factors) and said concepts “in-universe” (i.e. with audience factors completely removed, whether there’s a presumable logical reason for these events happening in-universe, and whether this is reasonable behavior to expect out of the characters). This blog is largely dedicated to the latter, but the reason why I have to keep drawing this distinction in the first place is that I get the impression that the staff behind Adventure and 02 really did not pay much mind to the former part as part of their dedication to the latter. And, I mean, part of the reason I respect the writing of Adventure and 02 so much is how uncompromising they were in terms of not really pandering to what a fanbase might expect, which allowed the story to retain a lot of creative integrity that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

But every so often you get something like this that makes me want to just bang my head on the table and scream, I swear, I get what you guys were going for, but I am begging you, please think a little harder about how people are going to read this!! In general, I do think there’s something that’s not very good about disregarding your audience completely, because if you’re trying to say important things and those things are going directly over your audience’s heads (this is a kids’ show, for goodness’s sake), you can’t call that good communication, and it’s not like you can blame the audience for getting blindsided or being upset, and this is before we get into what they just dropped on the global audience that was presumably full of young girls interested in STEM fields who were hoping to see them go all the way with that, or the feelings of those who are bothered that one character has to be singled out to be defined solely by her relationship to others, and I mean -- to be fair, with a character like Miyako and the tons of things going on with her, there was probably no outcome they could come up with that wouldn’t be reinforcing some negative stereotype (believe it or not, there are people who have conversely mentioned identifying deeply with Miyako’s personal story and the meaning of this ending to them, and have also expressed discomfort about some of the comments the fanbase has made over the years), but at the same time, holy hell, they really went for the one that immediately looks the worst on its face...

...That aside, I will reiterate that this is a blog and analysis meant for that latter category of “analyzing things in-universe”, and making good-faith assumptions that there was a reason for everything (and, I’ll be quite honest, reading everything the staff has said about the characters, including Miyako, there is no indication that they didn’t treat every single one of them with love and zero intention to curse any of them into a horrible fate). We can debate whether this was a good or bad choice in the context of real life, or how much they really should have thought this through more or considered alternative ways to do this, in another place and time (it’s been done by many other people, myself included, in the last 20 years, and it will most certainly continue after this, and probably should continue). It’s not like I’m necessarily giving my blessing to every single creative decision in Adventure or 02 in running this blog, it’s more of the attitude of “now that this decision was in the series, can we figure out what that was intended to mean?”, and that’s going to apply to this one too. And so, we’ll proceed with the analysis.

In any case, here’s the first thing to start with, which may surprise some people to learn: at no point in the epilogue is the word “housewife” ever used to refer to Miyako. The only words that Takeru uses to describe her are: that she is married to Ken and is a mother of three. Not only that, post-02 materials that have referred to the epilogue and Miyako’s part in it have also avoided using that word -- the Character Complete File and the Animation Chronicle only reiterate the same points of “married to Ken” and “mother of three children”, and practically go out of their way to avoid insinuating that being a stay-at-home housewife is the main focus of her life right now. It would have been so easy to say it outright if they’d wanted to, but they didn’t, and they consistently don’t, to the point the omission is almost suspicious. And, indeed, if you want to believe the Character Complete File, Miyako is not a full-time housewife and is simply not working at the time of the epilogue due to maternity leave because the third child had recently been born. So it’s completely within the realm of possibility that she’s still working! In that case, why is something that could easily be a big deal left ambiguous like this?

If you look at the way the epilogue presents its information, there’s a certain pattern: what information is emphasized and what information is given little attention or omitted has very little to do with “how curious the audience would be about it”, but rather “how relevant it is”; just because a certain piece of information is omitted doesn’t mean it necessarily isn’t true. For example, Sora; she’s married to Yamato, but despite how much the audience would probably consider that as vital information, it’s left for you to infer from the visuals and an oblique comment that Sora’s daughter is a “dependable older sister”, and even the question of whether Sora did succeed her mother in flower arrangement is left up in the air despite that also probably being a question the audience is curious about (and in fact, a few flower branches are clearly visible in the front, implying very heavily that, whatever happened, she’s at least still maintaining her roots with her family instead of violently cutting it all off). But we do learn about the fact that she went into fashion design, which is something that’s not an expectation that was placed by her family but rather something she presumably decided on herself. Hence, presumably why that’s the part emphasized, and moreso than her marriage to Yamato -- said marriage is of course an important part of her life, but it’s not as prominent as the fact that she has her own independent career, especially since her entire character arc was about doing things that she wanted for herself instead of doing things for others. That is to say, compared to their own individual ambitions, Sora and Yamato’s love life is “an important part, but not the important part.” This is especially when you add the context that Takeru is delivering abridged single-sentence “catch-up” descriptions of his friends on their behalf (possibly to the world, if this is part of his novel), and so, it begs the question: what would each of these characters want to be most remembered for accomplishing?

(And if you think I’m being tinfoil hat about this, remember that a constant theme with this blog I’m running is that “being annoyingly subtle and relying on ridiculously oblique messaging” like this permeates the entirety of 02 in general, and it’s definitely not the only time they’ve used this kind of technique to communicate details that are too consistent and on-the-nose to be passed off as coincidence. As far as assuming that this series follows rational storytelling logic goes, we are far past that point, and in ways that extend far beyond this epilogue.)

So we look back at Miyako, and the hobbies she’d indulged in and what purpose they were for, and her personality, and the fact that the main point of her character arc was about her complex that she would never be a good enough person who could properly emotionally reach out and take care of others -- in some ways, her arc was the opposite of Sora’s, in that while Sora’s was about not being as beholden to others, Miyako’s was about how to become someone who can better support others -- and once we apply the above question, there lies the answer to why the priority and emphasis given to her future in the epilogue is “Miyako is the kind of person who prioritizes taking care of and supporting her loved ones more than anything else.”

This is especially because (in an epilogue with not very many lines, so every bit of information becomes vital) the lines we see Miyako and her family exchange are representative of a lot of what that character arc was about. According to her son, Miyako is still her panicky and emotionally messy self, even when in the role of the matriarch of a large family who’s responsible for taking care of all of them. She did not ever become the ideal “gentle” and “mature” kind of person that she considered Mimi and Hikari to be and negatively compared herself to. However, her family responds by cheerfully laughing, which is -- most likely not coincidentally -- the same thing that was shown to be the positive flip side of Miyako’s over-the-top personality back in 02 episodes 31, 36, and 38, in that it brings joy and cheer to others.

If you do want to take the Character Complete File’s statement at face value, the fact that she’s on self-imposed maternity leave means that it’s very likely she wasn’t on a salaried job and was instead freelancing, or at least was involved with something that didn’t require constant commitment. Considering the fact she’s consistently portrayed as an impatient sort who gets bored easily, she probably would prefer something more flexible like freelancing or at least not being tied to a single thing; even looking back at her completely disparate hobbies back when she was a kid, when she was basically jack-of-all-trades-ing to fit whatever people needed her for, she never really came off as someone who could commit very easily to a single form of work, but what she did have commitment to was other people, especially her friends and family. If you (or, perhaps, Takeru) were to ask her during the time of the epilogue “what are you up to right now?”, it’s not really that hard to believe that gushing about her lovely family would come before everything else; not to say that everyone else here (especially her own husband) isn’t presumably devoted to their own families, but Miyako’s the type to have that much higher sense of pride in what she does for those she cares about than she would have particular attachment to any kind of work. Look at her behavior during Kizuna; she’s pursuing a degree in computer programming and thus is still aiming to be a busybody with a high level of skill, but when given a job by a stranger, she immediately dumps it off on her seniors so she can be with her friends, then happily accepts that same job again when the same friends present it back to her.

So, in other words, the conclusion is: the biggest priority and most important thing to Miyako in regards to her future is that she finally became someone who could properly support others around her, even in spite of her personality that would suggest otherwise.

In addition, the fact that she has three children might initially come off as a little in-your-face or overkill, but remember that Miyako came from a family with four siblings, and 02 episode 49 had her say outright that she does treasure that – or, in other words, being part of a big family surrounded by affection and love is something she considers to be a valuable part of her life (especially since the age gaps between the three children imply a reasonable likelihood of actual family planning, moreso than even Miyako’s own).

Incidentally, this is just a bit of a personal note, but one might notice that I’ve also never actually used the word “housewife” to refer to the epilogue’s depiction of Miyako in the course of writing for this blog, because of how little evidence we have that she is one – being on temporary maternity leave still being a very viable and, given the post-02 materials we now have, arguably heavily likely interpretation, it’s not like you’d necessarily call someone a housewife if their break from work is only temporary, even if they’re a freelancer. Given the above circumstances, perhaps something like “family matriarch” would be more accurate…

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #inoue miyako #miyako inoue #kizuna spoilers #shihameta

96 notes · View notes

nattikay · 3 years

Text

So I saw this post while browsing toa tags the other day. While I don’t think being obsessed with the school mascot automatically makes Toby a furry (though it is funny to joke about lol) since “being a furry” actually just means “being a fan of anthropomorphic animals” and doesn’t necessarily require any form of costuming or interest in such, it did get me thinking, hmmm...if he was a furry, what would his fursona be? 🤔 And from there I started wondering what Jim’s and Claire’s would be as well because y not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BUT WAIT, I hear you say--haven’t you already drawn the trio as werewolves and wolfwalkers etc.? Wouldn’t those be their fursonas??

Well yes....but actually no.

I guess it’s a little hard to explain, but there’s a nuance between “[person] but as an animal” and a proper “fursona”. While a fursona is an animal character used to represent its person, it doesn’t have to physically resemble them at all as you would expect [person]-but-as-[animal] to. For example, if you were to design me but as a cat, you’d probably give it light brown fur and green eyes like I have irl. But my fursona, unlike my human self, actually has blue fur and purple eyes. You can give your fursona matching physical traits to your own if you want to, and some people do, but most use only a pinch of their irl appearance, if any at all.

The choices people make when designing their fursonas vary wildly from “it looks like me irl” to “it looks like who I want to be” to “I just really like this color scheme” to “this particular color/marking holds deep personal meaning to me” to “this particular pattern represents a particular defining moment in my life” to “idk it looks cool and i vibe with it” etc. etc. etc. Everyone has different reasons of varying depth for the decisions they make in designing their fursona.

Therefore, to design a fursona for Toby etc., it’s less a question of “what would this character look like as [insert species here]?” and more of “how would this character choose to present himself with his own [animal] character?”

And that’s a much trickier game than just transferring a character aesthetic to a new species. ^^; We have to kinda dive into the characters and makes some guesses about how they, if given infinite creative freedom to design an animal avatar with no rules or limits, would choose to present themselves.

So all that said, here’s what I came up with:

Starting with Toby because he’s the one who inspired the post. I think Toby might choose a wolfdog fursona. A lot of people who choose wolves as fursonas consider themselves to be overwhelmingly loyal to their friends, a trait that fits Toby very well. However, while Toby likes to be “cool”, I don’t think he really thinks of himself as much of an “alpha” type--he’s more of a sidekick, and he knows that, and he’s ok with that. He’s the wingman. So what better way to incorporate that than to add dog into the mix? Man’s best friend=Jim’s best friend. Sociable, humorous, and unwaveringly loyal. Wolfdog it is!

With the species decided, we can move on to the design itself.

I can’t imagine any form of Toby in anything other than warm colors. This is extra emphasized by the flamelike patterns on his legs and tail, which both speaks to his desire to be totally awesome-sauce as well as acts as an allusion to his flaming warhammer. It’s fairly common (not universal, but common) for people to give their fursonas a more “ideal” physique than the person actually has as a sort of way to live by proxy physical goals or fantasies they’ve been unable to attain irl for whatever reason. Given that we’ve seen Toby struggle with fitness from time to time, it wouldn’t shock me to see him take this route. His wolfdog self is still relatively short and stocky, but it’s all muscle, babey.

This fursona is strong, fun, boisterous, and generally just kicks butt. Concentrated awesomesauce flows through his veins. Just don't mess with his friends, or you’ll feel the flames!

Moving on to Jim. Jim was the hardest to nail down, and most definitely the hardest to keep my personal biases out of oof. Which I may have failed to do anways because yes, ok, I made my favorite character a blue feline, sue me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But hear me out first!

For Jim I ultimately settling on a cheetah/lion hybrid.

Cheetahs, in a way, are sort of the underdogs (er...cats?) of the feline world--at least, in their local ecosystems. They are built wholly for speed, not strength--and as such, just about every other large predator in their environment has them beat when it comes to raw strength. Remind you of a certain Trollhunter? plus the long lanky legs. don’t forget those lol

However, because of this disadvantage, cheetahs...usually surrender. They know it’s not worth it to defend their kill from larger, stronger opponents, so they’ll give it up and just catch something else. This aspect doesn’t quite fit our protective, selfless protagonist all too eager to risk everything to save his loved ones--so a pure cheetah may not be the right choice.

So what animal is brave and protective? That’s where the lion part comes in, of course!

Why not just make him a pure lion? Well, a little similar to making Toby a wolfdog instead of a pure wolf. A straight-up lion feels a little too “chad” for our sweet Jimbo. Too much of a jock.

Jim has the humble underdog nature of a cheetah as well as the bravery and fierce protective drive of a lion. Cheelion? Leetah? idk, but let’s design it!

Like Toby and warm colors, I don’t think I can possibly associate Jim with any color but blue. While it’s never directly stated, given that we’ve never really seen him wear any other color (with the exception of the Eclipse armor), I think it’s pretty safe to assume that that’s his favorite. Blue sweater, blue jeans, blue shoes, even his backpack and bedsheets are blue. So naturally, his fursona would be predominantly blue as well! Plus some yellowish accents to (somewhat) match the natural colors of his chosen species(s).

I imagine he originally designed the character without horns, but then added them after becoming the Trollhunter, since it became such a major and impactful aspect of his life.

His lion’s mane also continues down his back in imitation of the “mantle” found on baby cheetahs. This youthful feature could subtly represent the fact that he’s been forced to grow up too fast and take on so much responsibility so young--so his fursona can still be young and carefree as long as he likes even while his real self struggles with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

This fursona is relaxed, calm, and confident. He’s not just cool--he’s crispy!

Lastly but not leastly, we have Claire. Out of the three, I think Claire was actually the easiest to choose--or at least, I had the clearest idea of what I thought she might go for.

Claire is a bit of an interesting duck, because while she’s shown to be fairly popular at school, she’s definitely far from the stereotype of The Popular Girl™. Yes she’s smart and pretty, but she’s also a little spunky or even a bit quirky--she’s a theatre kid, she’s a huge fan of hard rock band Papa Skull, and while I wouldn’t quite call her “rebellious” per se, she’s certainly willing to bend some rules if she feels the situation calls for it (not telling her parents that she was going to the concert with Steve, literally sneaking into Jim’s basement to try to find out what was up with him, etc).

That said, I think Claire might go for a hyena fursona--something a little out of the box, but not totally out of left field. (she also shows a slight Gurl Power™ streak here and there “the staff was not meant to be wielded by man--” “I am not a man!!!”) and if you know anything about hyenas...well, yeah lol)

I think Claire would lean into her punk-rock “rebellious” side with her fursona design. This character is completely free of the pressure of being the councilwoman’s daughter and having to maintain her mother’s public reputation, and thus allows Claire to express a less restrained side of herself. She has a bold semi-edgy color scheme with bright accents (and some earrings to match her person’s hair clips) while still remaining feminine and (her own brand of) fashionable.

This fursona is spunky and sassy; she’s spicy and sweet all rolled up into one. She knows what she wants and she’s not afraid to chase it down. She lives her own life and she’s dang proud of it.

....sooooo yeah there’s my take on what Toby’s, Jim’s, and Claire’s fursonas could hypothetically be. And I guess since this post was inspired by a joke about Toby’s infatuation with the school mascot, here’s just some quick thoughts on how they might approach fursuiting to end us off:

Jim I don’t see as much of a suiter. He might try it once or twice if given the opportunity, but at the end of the day it’s not really his cup of tea--he’d rather act as the “handler” for his friends, if anything.

Toby and Claire, on the other hand, I could definitely see as suiters. In fact, with her interest in acting, Claire would probably particularly enjoy it--she’d be one of those suiters who really gets into character, absolutely refuses to break the magic publicly (outside of any actual medical emergency), and popular at cons because she just performs so well.

Toby, meanwhile, would be the more chill type--uses his normal voice in-suit, isn’t really too stressed about “breaking the magic”, just kinda hanging around like he would normally except “look I’m a talking dog, cool right?”.

also while I was typing this it occurred to be that since Eli is canonically a cosplayer then he could be a fursuiter as well; in his case i imagine he actually made his own suit it’s a protogen and it’s full of little LEDs and other electric gadgets, it’s not the prettiest thing ever as sewing is not his forte but boy did he try!! good for him. good for him

#so anyways I put way too much thought into this...enjoy I guess?#trollhunters #tales of arcadia #toby domzalski #jim lake jr #claire nuñez #furry #my art

61 notes · View notes

clonecest-bin-account · 3 years

Text

300 followers bingo - Bad Batch | Band AU

(A story about how the Bad Batch gained a new member)

It’s always been their dream, becoming famous, even if a certain asshole - coff coff, Crosshair, coff coff - likes to act like such childish thoughts are too low for him, and now… well, they haven’t exactly reached it yet, but they’re getting close, Hunter can feel it.

All four of them have always loved music, and they love playing in their band, with Crosshair on guitar, Tech on the keyboard, Wrecker on drums, and Hunter that guides them with his singing. They have been together since they were kids, playing with fake instruments, but as soon as they got old enough, they bought the real deal.

Sure, their music is a bit… particular, to say the least, since none of them has actually studied music - they’ve all learned to play on their own, without the need of a teacher - so it’s not exactly popular, but it’s fine like this: they wouldn’t stand out if they played the same exact shit everyone else plays, right?

Things are moving up, although slowly, but progress is still progress.

Who would’ve thought that they would be able to find a few gigs around town? Apparently many locals are trying to get some experimental musicians in order to gain attention from the public, whom we know loves curiosities.

It’s their perfect occasion to show others what they’re capable of, getting the local crowd familiar with them and their style of music and publicizing their spotify account as well as their youtube channel, even though they mostly just put their covers there.

… There’s still something missing to their music, though, something that they could easily fix if they find the right guy: one of the few critiques that they accept about what they produce, is that the baseline is quite weak, because it’s true.

Usually Tech takes care of it, along with Wrecker, but it’s obvious that a proper bassist would make things go way more smoothly.

There’s only one problem: finding the bassist.

Hunter doesn’t think they’re particularly unlikable, just that they have a quite peculiar dynamic, and yet every time it seems like they’ve found the right one, they always leave in a matter of a couple of days. Oh well, he doesn’t blame them: it’s definitely harder to become famous when you insist on making experimental stuff, rather than following the trends, though where’s the fun in that, he has no idea.

“We don’t need a bassist,” Crosshair said once.

“Just ‘cause you’re the reason most of them quit, doesn’t mean you have to be an ass about it!” Wrecker replies, but thankfully Tech’s interjection breaks up any potential argument between the two. God knows they have enough of them already.

“It has been proved that adding a base does make our music sound better,” he says, scratching his chin then. “We just need to find someone that gets along with us.”

“Maybe if we ditched Crosshair…”

“Hey!”

“Guys, c’mon,” Hunter intervenes, “there’s no need to fight.”

“Right… Sorry Hunter,” Wrecker mutters, while Crosshair says nothing, though he does lower his gaze.

At that point Hunter sighs, but he goes quickly back to a hopeful demeanor - after all, they all look up to him for guidance, he can’t falter.

“C’mon, let’s not lose hope. We’ll find someone…”

Indeed, they do find someone.

It happens almost causally: Crosshair’s browsing the internet, when he stumbles about one of those clickbait-y articles about a talented bassist who’s keeping playing even after losing his arm.

Despite the fact that he’s not expecting to find anything mind-blowing, Crosshair still decides to check the article out of curiosity.

What he finds is the same ol’ tear jerking story that makes him roll his eyes, not because of the story per se, but for how it’s framed. It makes him wonder if the bassist in question, Echo is his name - quite peculiar, it makes him wonder if it’s a stage name like his own is - has read the article beforehand and has approved of what has been written on it. With the way he appears in pictures, he seems humble and nice, so Crosshair doubts it.

Something catches Crosshair’s attention thought: apparently, despite his story, Echo plays solo, but not for personal choice. Just like them, he’s having a hard time finding someone willing to play with him.

At the end of the article, he finds a series of videos in which, he supposes, Echo plays. It’s like they’re taunting him, trying to get him to watch them.

Eh, what the hell, how much could it hurt to give them a peek?

Well, color Crosshair impressed. He’s not a base expert, of course, but he has never heard someone play like this Echo does; he’s truly a natural. He’s so fast that it seems that he’s barely moving his fingers, to the point that it’s hard for Crosshair to follow each and every movement.

Holy shit, could he be…

“Hunter, come here! You gotta see this guy!”

Echo manages to charm everyone.

“It’s him!” Wrecker exclaims. “He’s the one!”

“Yes, his addition would be very beneficial to us,” Tech agrees, eyes still peeled to the screen, watching rapt as Echo plays.

Crosshair turns to Hunter. “So? What do you think?”

“He’s good,” Hunter admits, “but I wonder if he’d be willing to give us a chance…”

“He seems nice enough,” Tech comments, but he too seems to share Hunter’s worry.

“In that case, let’s just ask him,” Wrecker suggests. “Didn’t we do the same with the others too?”

“That’s true, it’s worth a shot…”

“C’mon,” Crosshair begins, “we’re all on the same page for once, let’s just do it.”

“Alright,” Hunter concedes, allowing himself to feel hopeful, though then he points at Tech. “But you’re the one writing the e-mail this time.”

Tech chuckles. “Leave it to me.”

Dear Bad Batch,

I have been a fan of yours for quite some time. I find your take on music refreshing and courageous, which unfortunately isn’t something that I can say for many other artists of this time.

You can imagine how honored I’ve felt reading your e-mail! I’ve never seen myself as someone who can be all that inspiring, so I was surprised to read how much of an impression I’ve made on you.

That said, I would love to meet up and discuss about music and a potential collaboration. Actually, I’m looking forward to it.

Let me know whenever you’re free, and we can arrange something.

Best regards.

Echo.

Echo’s response has been very quick, which has taken everyone by surprise.

As they read and reread the e-mail, almost as if they expect the text to change if they stare at it hard enough, they can’t help but to smile at each other.

In the end, Hunter has to admit it:

“Yes, guys. I think we’ve truly found the one.”

#300 followers bingo #bad batch #clone trooper hunter #clone trooper wrecker #clone trooper tech #clone trooper crosshair #arc trooper echo #my fics

23 notes · View notes

taexual · 4 years

Text

i’d love you to stay but that’s simply insane // JJK (13)

jungkook is an uncontrollable lead vocalist of the campus band, and you’re a goal-oriented top student that’s known his rich and complicated family since childhood. you don’t want anything to do with each other, until each other is exactly what you want to do.

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: college au

warnings: angst, years of longing escalating into something serious

words: 8.6k (send help)

chapter thirteen

The lamp posts on the street illuminated Jungkook’s face with a warm yellow haze as the two of you walked back to your dormitory, the noise of the party – and the argument you’d had outside of it – already behind you. You didn’t dare to watch him for longer than just a split-second but you could feel his eyes on you when he thought you were too focused on the pavement to notice.

You hadn’t said a word to each other since you left the front yard of his house – and that was already two and a half blocks away – and both of you were busy worrying what the right way to say goodbye once you reached your dorm was. A wave didn’t feel enough but a hug seemed inappropriate after the intense conversation you’d had.

Clearing his throat, Jungkook volunteered to make your trip less awkward.

“Were you actually going to have me arrested?” he asked, recalling your previous threat with surprising clarity – probably because it had impressed him so much.

You sighed, recognizing the amusement on his features – no matter how hard he tried to play it off as simple curiosity – and then said, “no, probably not. That would have only ruined your whole plan and your future—”

“I already have a record,” he pointed out. He said it like that was supposed to make you feel better – it’s totally fine if you get me arrested, you know – but you almost stopped walking in surprise.

“Y-you do?” you asked, unable to fathom how a family as rich as his could not find a way to ensure their beloved son remained a flawless citizen.

“It’s not the first time I got into a fight,” he explained simply and, if you hadn’t known the truth, you’d have thought he really was just your usual troublemaker with no strong backing from his relatives whatsoever. “Some of those fights were more public than others.”

“And your dad—?”

“He took care of it to the best of his ability,” Jungkook admitted, sounding far less dignified than when he mentioned he had a record – as if that was something to be proud of. “But he can only do so much without staining his own reputation. It’s just a few misdemeanors anyway, so he decided it wasn’t worth it. If it proved to be a problem later on, he thought he could just blame it on my youth.”

You chose not to voice it – to avoid an argument that would certainly arise because that was just how Jungkook was – but you couldn’t help thinking that his father’s reasoning was actually different. Maybe he chose not to cover Jungkook’s previous arrest up to teach him a lesson.

“Does that bother you?” you asked instead.

“What?

“That he didn’t put enough work to cover this up.”

Jungkook looked down. All of your questions about his feelings, his wishes, his ambitions were so unusual to him that he didn’t even know what the proper way of answering them was, because you looked like you genuinely wanted to know. You didn’t ask just to be polite.

“No,” he ended up saying, “I didn’t want him to cover it up. And it’s not like I acted out to get his attention, or anything. He seemed really tired of it all when he had to deal with that. You know he’s usually the sort who gets his frustrations out vocally?”

“Yeah,” you said.

“Well, when he picked me up from the police station, he didn’t say a word,” Jungkook said. “It was like I’d unlocked a new level of disappointment – one I’d never seen before – where he was just quietly fuming. Or just… so disappointed, he couldn’t even begin to find words.”

You felt jittery. It was hard to walk when your legs kept trying to bounce nervously, hoping to rid you of the excessive anxiety.

“I never knew this,” you said.

Jungkook gave you a smile that wasn’t supposed to seem sad but, because it was purposefully meant to conceal his despair, sad was exactly what it seemed like.

“My mom didn’t tell yours,” he said.

“But they tell each other everything,” you felt the need to point out but you could feel your own naivety getting the best of you – even the people, who had no secrets, had secrets.

“Yeah, I know,” Jungkook replied. “But I don’t think my mom would have had it in her to brag to her best friend – with a straight-A student for a daughter – that her son got arrested. She may have been less obvious than my dad, but she was still just as disappointed.”

Your heart clenched uncomfortably when he mentioned your scholarly achievements and, for a brief moment, you almost felt bad for being such a good student when he was struggling to be a good person.

But you didn’t think now was the time to feel bad about yourself – especially since there wasn’t anything you should have felt bad about in the first place – and you eyed Jungkook carefully before finally daring to ask, “did they ever say they were disappointed in you?”

“They don’t have to say it, it’s plain and obvi—”

“No, but maybe that’s just you assuming things,” you interrupted. Your mind conjured up a thousand scenarios of how this conversation could have gone wrong, but your mouth kept moving, “you have that right. I mean, they have been disappointed in you plenty of times before. But maybe this time they weren’t. Maybe they were just scared for you.”

Jungkook looked at you and he wanted to believe that you were basing your speculations on some legitimate evidence that he’d missed, instead of just hoping that this was true. But he’s known his parents long enough to recognize their defeat.

“Why would they be scared?” he questioned rhetorically. “I know how to throw a punch.”

“Well, maybe that’s why,” you said.

“No, that’s not it,” he said firmly. “They don’t get scared when I get into fights. They get frustrated, like how did I dare to do that? And then do that again. And again. Maybe they also get confused: I am their son and yet they can’t explain why I am this way.”

He said it like he was diseased – like lacking proper conflict-resolution skills and being impulsive was an illness he’d inherited from someone and, since no one else in his family was sick, that had to mean he didn’t belong there. He belonged somewhere else.

And every time he did something that did not fit into the frame of acceptable behavior in his family’s eyes, it just reminded them that he was the black sheep in a herd of white ones. How did he get here?

“It’s not just you,” you said, your heart hurting. No matter if his parents were really disappointed in him or if they were just worried for him, no child should ever feel like he didn’t belong at home. “Kids from close, loving families rarely grow up to be impulsive or, well, aggressive.”

He clenched his jaw after you said this and that was when you knew that, despite feeling shunned for not being the son his parents had wanted, Jungkook was still their son. They were still his parents.

“I was always like this,” he declared. “From the day I was born. You know that. The relationship with my family hardly changed anything.”

You wondered if he was aware he was defending his family – the family that constantly hurt him with their expectations – by shifting all blame to himself.

“They could have worked as a preventative measu—”

“How, exactly? Remember the time I gave three kids from my pre-school class bloody noses?” he said to prove his point. “Because one of them mocked my drawing of a giraffe and the other two laughed.”

“I-I remember—” you struggled to find a word, “that. It’s not an acceptable way to solve conflict. If they’d taught you that—”

“Acceptability is subjective,” he snapped.

“Uh, sure,” you said and then stopped to wonder if you had the right to draw these conclusions about him.

You thought that, if only Jungkook had gotten more love from the people who were most responsible to love him, he may have grown up to be different – but saying that out loud would have made you sound far too condescending and it would have made a normal person feel uneasy.

Someone who was as arrogant as Jungkook was bound to get riled up – he was already defensive enough as it was – and, maybe, rightfully so. He wasn’t telling you about his family to have you psychoanalyze him. He was just talking to you.

“I-I guess there are other factors that determine how a person chooses to react to something,” you said, threading more carefully now. “For example, you let your testosterone make your decisions for you.”

The sudden transition to biology confused him as he turned to look at you with furrowed eyebrows. “My testosterone?”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “It’s obviously your uncontrollable hormones that get you in these situations in the first place. You’re like a twelve-year-old boy, unsure what to do with himself, so you just go with whatever your instincts tell you.”

“Fourteen-year-old boy,” he corrected.

You shrugged. “What’s the difference?”

“The difference is I was fourteen when we stopped being friends.”

That only confused your further. “What does that have to do with—”

“Maybe you were the preventative measure that my family was supposed to be for me,” Jungkook said, the words pouring out as smoothly and elegantly as the floating of your skirt in the windy night. He chuckled humorlessly as he finished, “and then I lost that – the only positive influence in my life.”

You wanted to tell him that he never lost you. That he tried to rid himself of you, he tried to walk away – but he never lost you. No matter how much you wanted to detach yourself from him, to walk away, to move on – he never lost you.

And, more than that, you wanted to ask him why that happened – to demand why he walked away – but allowing him to shift the focus to your relationship would have been selfish. This wasn’t about you-and-him right now. This was about you and him.

Because you were here. You were always here. But Jungkook wasn’t – not always. Often, he fell out of touch with himself completely. And if there was no him, there could never be you-and-him.

“You… you need to be the positive influence in your life,” you said instead, advocating for independence when all you wanted was for him to let you hold his hand so he was steadier on his feet. “You can’t rely on others to get you out of the messes you create all the time.”

“I know,” Jungkook said but he no longer felt like discussing the reasons for his behavior, because every reason eventually led back to you – and when he thought of you, he couldn’t think of anything else. “But I never learned how to take care of myself, did I?”

“No, you never did,” you agreed and then, watching him smile appreciatively – you rarely ever agreed with him – you continued more playfully, “maybe it’s time you started learning, you big baby.”

He laughed and even the wind stopped to listen.

“Maybe,” he said then, the same pathetic hopeful tone that was in your voice before, now evident in his, “I do have you to help me again, don’t I?”

You do, you wanted to say, you’ve always had me. But you only smiled.

“I can’t be the one to handle your conflicts for you,” you said instead. “You have to learn how to do that yourself. How to do that responsibly. I can just… be there for you.”

And, much to the joy of your body that was aching to support him, he smiled and said, “that’s more than enough.”

“Okay,” you swallowed. You felt relieved suddenly – like the tension that surrounded you since you left the party had finally dissipated – and, paradoxically, nervous. Like you didn’t know how to act anymore.

Jungkook didn’t seem to notice that, however, as he teased, “support me even when I inevitably fuck up again, though, yeah?”

You raised your eyebrows, countering his lively pout.

“That’s not a very good attitude,” you said. “How do you expect to change if you’re setting yourself up for failure from the get-go?”

He shrugged. “By a miracle?”

“Jungkook.”

“Come on. I have you rooting for me. I won’t let you down,” he assured you and then, carelessly throwing his arm around your shoulders, added, “I am a great actor. I just have to start playing a responsible role.”

“It’s your father you’re supposed to prove your responsibility to, not me,” you reminded him – just like he’d reminded you a few days ago in your dorm room – although your skin was burning from his touch. “But I’m hoping that by pretending to be responsible, you’ll actually learn a thing or two and prove yourself to us both.”

Jungkook looked at you – his face so close and so welcoming – and said, in the most laid-back fashion that was possible for someone who’d just crossed half the campus while analyzing his childhood issues, “you’re very preachy when you’re drunk.”

It felt like you’d left the party years ago as you said, “I don’t feel drunk anymore.”

“Oh, well. That doesn’t surprise me then.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he leaned his head against yours and the touch of your temples was electrifying -- like shock therapy that numbed every one of your senses except the ones that consumed his close presence. “I’ve missed your lectures.”

You doubted that but your voice didn’t sound convincing when you spoke – he probably wouldn’t have even heard you if he wasn’t so close, “have you, really?”

“Hmm,” he purred and your pulse nearly flat-lined. “I’ve missed everything about you.”

If you two weren’t walking so close to each other, if he didn’t have his arm around your shoulders, if his head wasn’t pressed against yours – then maybe his words wouldn’t have strummed the strings of your heart so terribly and so delightfully. Maybe you wouldn’t have forgotten all about the seven-year-long silence when you heard the song his words played for you.

But you were walking so close to each other – so close, in fact, that a passerby wouldn’t have been able to tell where your body ended and his began; you shared a silhouette.

And he did have his arm around your shoulders – pulling you closer to him while making sure you were steady on your feet even if his own balance was off.

And his head was pressed against yours – so gently and yet so naturally, it was as if there were magnets inside your skulls and they literally pulled you to one another.

And, thus, when you reached the door of your dorm room, you could not imagine yourself saying goodbye. You couldn’t imagine watching him walk away.

“Are you coming in?” you asked as Jungkook waited a few steps away, unsure how to behave now that the moment-at-the-end-of-the-night had arrived.

“I thought you said you felt like going to sleep,” he said perhaps a little awkwardly.

“I do,” you said and maybe you were still drunk without realizing it but you felt bold enough to add, “but I also feel like spending time with you in a place where... we don’t have to worry about what other people think. Not to mention, your wound needs to be taken a look at.”

“My wound?” his bruised cheekbones had completely escaped his mind. “Oh, that—it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“At least, let me put a band-aid on it,” you asked.

“And cover up my beautiful face?” he scoffed, using his favorite strategy of dealing with problems – deflection. “No.”

You sighed. “It won’t be beautiful if it scars.”

“Are you kidding?” he still didn’t give in, bringing a hand down the side of his own face and clenching his teeth so you wouldn’t see him wince when he touched the wound. “It’ll make me look badass.”

“You’re a baby,” you declared and then ordered, “come inside.”

“Not if you’re going to be pulling your medical equipment out on me—”

Groaning, you cut him off with a reluctant – but irritated – promise, “I won’t. Now, come in.”

“Are you sure?” Jungkook checked again but he was already reaching for the door that you kept open for him.

“Yes,” you said.

He still hesitated. “Because you don’t have to—”

His uncertainty did terrible things to your boldness – it seemed to vanish with every moment that he did not enter your room.

“Look, if you’d rather get back to the party,” you said, “and drink some more of Taehyung’s painfully unbearable drinks, then, by all means, go—”

“No,” he cut in sharply – maybe too sharply – and then, just to be sure you understood why he cut you off, he said, “I’d rather be with you.”

“Well, come inside, then,” you said and, because you were nervous, you felt the need to add, “but I can’t promise to be more entertaining than absinthe.”

He snickered, finally walking past your doorway. “Oh, you have a far bigger effect on me than absinthe.”

He stopped to take his shoes off. You stopped to lock the door.

The hallway of your dorm-room was very small for two people but, locked away from the rest of the world, you suddenly felt like you were home. Like there was nothing to be nervous about here. Like you were back with your best friend that you’d known for decades.

“Ah,” you started to say because you were back with your best friend that you’d known for decades, “so it burns your throat when you get in contact with me and you feel sick every time you look at me?”

“That’s—” Jungkook paused, one sneaker off. He raised his eyes to look at you. “You really hate it that much, huh?”

“It’s a rational feeling,” you said, unbuckling the strap of your own shoes. “Absinthe is not meant to be enjoyable.”

“Well, if we’d stayed longer, you would have seen what my bandmates do with it,” Jungkook said. “It involves a cube of sugar and a whole lot of cursing because their hands shake too much to do anything.”

He hadn’t realized just how hypnotizing it could be to watch someone take off their shoes so, when you finally placed your shoes on the floor, your feet aching from the torture you’d put them through tonight, he was still staring at your legs.

You cleared your throat, somewhat self-conscious now. “I’m, uh—I’m a little intrigued.”

This got him to lift his eyes to your face. “Oh? So… does that mean there’s a little possibility you’ll go to the party with me again next week?”

“Next week,” you repeated, realizing that this was Parental Advisory’s routine: parties every Friday, hangovers every Saturday. You turned around with a soft sigh and headed into the bedroom, plopping down on your bed. “I didn’t sign up for that.”

Jungkook chuckled, sitting down on the bed next to you.

“You don’t have to come,” he said, keeping respectful distance from you – because you weren’t walking across campus anymore, now you were on a bed – but still remaining close enough to hear your faint breathing. “I was just kidding. We can stay here.”

You looked at him. “No.”

“No?” he repeated, his voice breaking in surprise. “Okay, then. We don’t have to do anything togeth—”

“No, I just mean—you like that,” you clarified before his stomach could drop any lower. “You enjoy partying, hanging out with people, drinking, dancing, and all that. I don’t want you to give that up to hang out with me here.”

You were saying you didn’t want to bore him. You were saying you didn’t want him to overstep the boundaries of your fake relationship.

He’d never heard you say something so stupid before and he didn’t realize that it was his own words that got you to feel this uncertain.

“I’m not giving anything up,” he said because, apparently, even the smartest people sometimes needed to have it spelled out for them. “I do enjoy that but I also enjoy spending time with you.”

In your defense, it wasn’t spelling out that you needed. It was reassurance.

“We haven’t done that since we were… well, in middle school,” you pointed out and your last words were an incantation of a silence spell that prevented you from saying anything else for the next few minutes.

This time was no exception, as both of you shared a thoughtful moment, avoiding each other’s eyes, and then Jungkook clapped his palms on his knees, nodding his head in the direction of your laptop on the desk across the room.

The spell was broken. You weren’t going to speak of that day. Not today.

“Well, come on, then,” he said. “We have a lot of catching up to do, it’s been seven years. Show me the movies I’ve missed.”

“Lots of movies came out in seven years,” you replied but got up from the bed to get your computer nevertheless.

“Well,” Jungkook said, dramatically extending his arm to check the non-existent watch on his wrist. “We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

You sat back down, smiling at his antics, and pulling up your Videos folder. You scanned it briefly, trying to pick one movie that would leave a long-lasting impression on him – even though you couldn’t explain why you wanted to impress him.

“Don’t think about it,” he suggested. “Just choose the first one. We’ll watch them all.”

You scoffed. “There’s not a chance in hell you’ll stay awake through more than one movie.”

“You want to bet?” he countered, knowing your taste in movies too well. “After the movie you’ll choose, I’m sure I won’t be able to sleep for a week.”

You rolled your eyes as you smiled – he’d never grown to like horror movies as much as you did – and teased, “don’t be a baby.”

“I can’t,” he pouted on purpose, hoping for more of your sympathy and not knowing that he already had all of it. “I scare easily.”

“You don’t,” you said. “You just get distracted all the time and everything catches you unprepared.”

“That’s the same thing,” he insisted.

Sighing as you finally settled on the movie, you gave him a look. “Just try not to fall asleep on me, okay?”

“Do you mean that literally or—”

“I mean it in every sense of the word,” you replied. “If you start snoring during my favorite part, I might not be able to forgive you.”

“So strict about snoring,” he said, a mocking grin on his lips.

“I am,” you replied, completely serious. “So, now that we’ve established that—”

“We established that in second grade,” he reminded you, “when you tried to suffocate me with a pillow during our sleepover.”

“I…” you started to say but the memory was too unexpected and overwhelming – and he didn’t remember it correctly. “I tried to get you to stop snoring!”

“By putting a pillow on my face!”

“Nothing else worked!”

“You could have kicked me!”

“I did!” you said. “Several times. My feet bruised.”

He rolled his eyes, adamant to prove your murderous tendencies. “Oh, please.”

You shook your head, the argument so pointless and unnecessary that you chose to opt for a compromise. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen tonight, alright?”

“It won’t,” he assured you, “I stopped snoring after that incident. I guess, you could say I haven’t recovered from that trauma. I’m constantly afraid someone’s going to try to use a pillow on me—”

“I wasn’t trying to do that!” you said with a groan and when he opened his mouth to protest again, you cut in quickly, “drop this or I really will suffocate you with a pillow.”

He closed his mouth again and then nodded, impressed.

“Still very strict about snoring,” he corrected his earlier statement. “I’ll keep my breathing in check.”

You finger lingered on the mouse button, ready to play the movie you’d picked, but your mind lingered on the memory he’d brought back and all the other memories that came with it. It’s already been a long night, full of reminiscing, discussing, and analyzing.

But you couldn’t resist it.

You’d wanted to know for so long – even if there was nothing to know and it was something that just happened as things sometimes did – that even the late hour couldn’t stop you.

You didn’t want closure. Seven years have gone by – you didn’t want it.

You needed it.

“Can I ask you something?” you started, swallowing slowly.

“Of course,” Jungkook said, unsure why your face had clouded all of a sudden.

“It’s been seven years,” you said and the thunderclouds started to make sense. “Why did you talk to me that night at the party?”

The question was so loaded, he probably wouldn’t have been able to answer it without reflecting on his entire life. But right now, after the night he’d had, you managed to catch him off guard and his mind was void of any answer that made sense.

“Because you were there,” he said because that was the simplest way of explaining it.

You needed more. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve…” he shifted his weight to his side until he was half-laying on your bed, his left shoulder pressed into the corner where your bed met the wall. His body was facing you but his eyes were on your hands, “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a very long time. Actually, since the day I told you we shouldn’t be talking anymore,” he paused here. He never learned how to talk about that without pausing. “Not a clever decision on my part.”

“Mm, no, not really,” you felt the bitterness in your voice as you said this but you didn’t try to justify it – and Jungkook didn’t need you to.

“Yeah,” he only nodded. “So, I don’t know. I saw an opportunity to talk to you again – and I was drunk, and sort of on a post-show high – so I took it.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” he confirmed but it sounded like only one half of an answer that you needed. Jungkook didn’t know how to explain the other half and he naively hoped he wouldn’t have to. “Timing, right?”

You weren’t sure if that was right. He could tell.

“You deserve a better answer,” he acknowledged, sighing heavily, “but I don’t want to lie and make up stories about how I’d been—I don’t know—bracing myself to talk to you for a long time, how I planned it all out, because that’s not true. I did want to talk to you, I’ve wanted to every day, but I probably never would have. Not if I wouldn’t have seen you right then and there, in front of me.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t think I was in any position to seek you out,” he replied, “and, actually, I sort of got the feeling that you weren’t that excited to see me, either. Every time I saw you on campus, I’d blink, and you’d be on the other side of the street, already far away from me.”

Fair enough, you weren’t entirely blameless in this, either, you decided, and then admitted, “yeah. Maybe I was avoiding you a little.”

He chuckled. “I deserve that. I made the decision to… to stop talking to you and I knew I should have stuck with it.”

“Can I ask you something else, then?”

He knew what you were going to ask as he exhaled shakily and closed his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Why did you make that decision?” you asked, unafraid of the potentially childish connotations in your voice. You just needed to know. You’d waited for this long enough. “Why did you decide to stop being friends with me?”

Even though he hadn’t answered you yet, just getting the question out of your system felt so relieving, it was as if Sisyphus had dropped his boulder on your chest seven years ago and now, at long last, you’d rolled it off.

The boulder seemed to roll off onto Jungkook, however, as he tried to open his mouth to speak several times, but always ended up closing it again. He didn’t know where to begin.

“We… we were so different back then,” he finally said. He looked at you then and there was hope in his eyes – he wanted you to understand him without any words. “Remember?”

“From right now?” you asked. You weren’t willing to try to decipher the signals his eyes were sending you. Right now, you needed him to use his words.

“From each other,” he clarified. “You were always so focused on your studies and spent so much time working with the school staff when you were in the student council, you were essentially the de facto headmaster of our school.”

You snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Right. And I was… well, you knew me then. I haven’t changed much.”

“The troublemaker,” you said and then, almost automatically, tried to make light of the situation because he looked like he was having a hard time and you didn’t want that. “Good thing there are no more PTA meeting in college, huh?”

Jungkook laughed at this but his laughter lacked humor.

“Yeah,” he said, not sounding wistful in the slightest. He wouldn’t go back to high school even if someone paid him to do it. “There’s still the risk of expulsion even without them. That never goes away in any institution.”

“It’s what brings you to life, though,” you said, your previous discussion returning to your mind. “You love the adrenaline, the danger of doing something that might have long-lasting repercussions. You always have.”

“And you don’t,” he said sadly. “That’s why I felt like—I didn’t want to—I was bad for you.”

Your loud heartbeat momentarily halted your ability to comprehend his words. “Hmm?”

“You probably don’t know this, but,” he hesitated on the very edge of what he knew you needed to hear, “I’d overheard my parents talk about us once, after our middle school graduation.”

There it was again. The last day of your middle school.

Thankfully, this time, the silence spell didn’t linger and Jungkook continued. Actually, this time, the spell didn’t even work on him – now that he’d decided to answer your question – now that he’d found how to answer it – he couldn’t be silenced.

“And the only thing I remember from their conversation,” he said, “is my mom – who’s been on my side for as long as I could remember, standing up for me to my teachers even when they believed I was a lost cause – saying to my dad that she was afraid I was going to be the end of you.”

“What?” you asked, perplexed.

After spending almost every day with Jungkook – and his family, too – for years, you hadn’t even considered that they may have been talking about you when you weren’t there.

“She, um… she saw something between us that we didn’t, I guess,” Jungkook continued as his fingers absentmindedly toyed with the edge of your blanket, his eyes on the shredded fleece. “And she believed I would be the reason why you stopped working so hard. Why you lost your ambitions. She thought I’d turn you into someone entirely different.”

“But that’s—why would she—” all the questions you had tried to pour out of you at once.

“She saw how much we meant to each other and—”

“Yeah, but—” you cut him off and, closing your eyes for a moment to settle on just one of the many things you wished him to explain, you tried, “I mean, why couldn’t she have looked at it from a different perspective? I could have been the good influence that you needed in your life. Y-you said I was.”

“I thought you were. I still think you are. But, um…” Jungkook spoke to the fleece blanket because he couldn’t speak to you, “she… she didn’t seem to think you had it in you to resist me.”

“Resist you?” you repeated, unexpectedly offended. But that only lasted for a second before you felt it necessary to disarm yourself and stop pretending. You were absolutely devoted to Jungkook when you were growing up. “Oh, fuck it,” you said. “She probably had a point.”

Jungkook was prepared to hear your offence. He was not prepared to hear that.

“She had?” he repeated, looking at you for the first time since he started talking.

You swallowed the ball in your throat. “Yeah.”

Shakily, Jungkook concluded, “so, I made the right choice, then.”

“By putting an end to our friendship?” you asked, suddenly aware of how cold your body seemed to be, your hands especially – and painfully so, too. Dancing with the ghosts of your past proved to be difficult. “Was that for my benefit, then?”

It wasn’t the disbelief in your voice that he focused on. It was the anger.

You’d moved on. He thought you moved on – you were still the same in almost every aspect that he remembered, but you were also so different: so mature, so determined, so certain.

And he was partially right – you clearly didn’t hold a very strong grudge. But he also felt ridiculous for assuming that, despite it being so long, you wouldn’t still be angry about this now.

You’d allowed him back into your life and blessed him by not asking him to explain himself for weeks before you finally gathered the courage to do it; it was natural for you to feel angry about something that you’d waited for for so long.

“That’s… well, it was supposed to be,” he explained and then felt the need to defend his decision by saying, “that’s how everyone seemed to see it. I didn’t want you to lose the best parts of yourself because of me. And I don’t doubt that your parents were also relieved when I was no longer such a prominent part of your life.”

You had considered the possibility that Jungkook ended your friendship per the request of his parents. But you had assumed they saw you as a threat to him – even if, in retrospective, that didn’t make a lot of sense; what threat could you have possibly posed to him or the company?

Instead, it was the other way around.

Looking down, you said, “my parents weren’t relieved.”

“They weren’t?” Jungkook repeated because he couldn’t find enough words of his own.

“No,” you confirmed, remembering the not-so-distant times when Jungkook’s name was a forbidden word at your dinner table. “Hardly any parent would feel relieved to see their child cry her eyes out for days.”

Admitting this made you feel vulnerable and it would have made you feel pathetic, too, if Jungkook didn’t immediately wince after you said this – not from pity, but from his own hurt.

“I’m sorry,” he said because he had to, and because he was. And then, even though he didn’t have to, he continued, “I didn’t handle that well, either. I broke my leg in a bike accident about three weeks after we last talked.”

You frowned, focusing all of your energy into your confusion so your wet eyelashes wouldn’t release the droplets of tears down your cheeks. “Was that—”

“That’s how I deal with my emotions,” he said with a nod, confirming your guess. “That is, I don’t. I get reckless and I do stupid shit. That’s the last time I ever saw Dad’s beloved Ducati. He sold it.”

“He sold the bike?” you asked. The bike had belonged to Jungkook’s father who was a casual collector of sports cars and motorcycles – much to the joy of his underage son – but Jungkook was never permitted to drive any of them, at least, not until he was “old enough” according to his father’s standard.

“On the same day they ‘scraped my body off the pavement.’ That’s how he put it,” Jungkook said. “I only got to ride it that one time. Clearly, I’m not a natural. But dad couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to get on a bike for the first time without a helmet or any help at all. He wasn’t even looking for reasons why I did it, he didn’t ask me anything. Just sold the bike, locked up the garage, and didn’t talk to me for a week after I returned from the hospital. Actually—t-that was the first major thing that lead to me moving out of their house later on.”

You replayed his words for a long time, thinking and trying to understand.

“Why did you ask me to put this act? To play a couple for your parents?” you asked when you thought you were ready for the final cross on the last T. “If they thought you were a bad influence on me, this—seeing us back together again, could have painted you in the wrong light again.”

He didn’t think so.

“It’s been so long,” he said, “and you’re arguably the best student in your year. You’re determined and driven. And you’d rather kick my ass to the curb than give in to me and what I want. You… you affect me in ways I could never affect you. Control me in ways I could never control you. And I mean that in a good way. You are a good influence on me. And my parents can see that now.”

Obviously, he wasn’t entirely aware of how much control he still had over you, but because now you knew that this was precisely the reason why you’d stopped being friends seven years ago, you chose not to bring it up.

“I… I don’t control you,” you said.

“You do,” he disagreed. “Maybe not intentionally—actually, probably not; I’d like to think that you didn’t want me to suffer—but you do. You want to stay inside of your room, watching movies – and I want that, too. You want me to come to class and I want that, too. You want me to change and I’m changing.”

“I just—I don’t want you to kill yourself with your recklessness. But I don’t want you to be different,” you said, looking down. “I’d... always liked you the way you were.”

Your broken-up confession couldn’t have warmed his heart more. And yet, he had to point out, “I was unbearable.”

You gave him a look that wasn’t threatening at all because your eyes were still glossy from the tears.

“I know,” you said.

He smiled in spite of himself. “And you still liked me that way?”

You nodded, not saying anything else because he already knew the answer to that—and every other—question.

“I’m sorry for these seven years,” Jungkook said then and maybe that wasn’t enough to cure the wounds the years had left but it was a start. “You had a future ahead of you and I didn’t. My parents could see that but there was little they could do. I had to understand and deal with the fact that I was going to fall off the rails sooner or later myself. I was fourteen and I had to understand that. And I did. I knew that. And I also knew I didn’t want to drag you down with me. You didn’t deserve that.”

You fell into silence again.

You knew you wouldn’t have walked away from him then – anything he’d have asked, you would have given him. Any cliff he would have jumped off of – you would have followed.

To realize that Jungkook didn’t let you go because he didn’t want to be your friend anymore, or because he got tired of you, or because he didn’t care about you anymore -- or because of any other reason you tried to find over the years -- but rather, he let you go because he knew you wouldn’t, was groundbreaking.

It didn’t fix the hurt, it didn’t make it better, and, perhaps, nothing would – the years have gone by and you couldn’t get them back – but now you knew that the end of your friendship was a sacrifice of sorts.

You were intertwined together – it was you-and-him, always you-and-him – and you were comfortable living this way, both of you were. But that wasn’t right. It wasn’t healthy.

Except, you weren’t the one who had her eyes opened seven years ago – if there was no you and him, there could never be you-and-him – and so Jungkook ended up having to break out of your comfort zone, to leave your sanctuary, and walk in a different direction. On a different road.

All so you could have a road for yourself.

“I’m…” you tried to say but the tears that had welled up in your eyes were now cascading down your face and Jungkook – alert as soon as he saw that you were crying – sat up straight. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long day. Thank you for telling me.”

“I… you’re welcome,” he said, wanting to reach out and wipe the tears away but watching you do it yourself. “Although, I wish I didn’t have to tell you anything. Not just because I don’t want you to think about my mom differently after this—she always wanted what’s best for you, we both did—but also because I… I wish there had been a different way. A way where we could have kept in touch and still remained individuals.”

“Maybe there was no such way at the time,” you said. “We’d been close from the day we were born. Maybe we needed to spend some time apart to learn how to be ourselves.”

“Maybe,” he agreed but he didn’t think that was fair. “We were too close.”

“We were,” you said and couldn’t help sniffling; the tears have started to block your breathing. “Sorry, I just—it didn’t have to be seven years. I-I mean, it doesn’t take that long for people to mature.”

“No. It didn’t have to be,” Jungkook said but the fact that he agreed with you didn’t bring you much joy because his words were sad. “I have no excuse for that.”

Knowing that you could have been setting yourself up for more heartache, you still dared to ask, “would you have talked to me sooner if I hadn’t been avoiding you?”

“Probably,” he said, afraid to look at you in case he’d lose control of himself at the sight of your tears. “I-I couldn’t resist myself. But would you have replied to me?”

You looked down, making it easier for another tear to trail down your cheek. “I did that night at the party.”

Jungkook bit his lip. “Would I have seen you again if I hadn’t crashed my car?”

You inhaled sharply, not liking that this was what it came to. “No. Probably not.”

“It didn’t have to be seven years,” he said again, nodding thoughtfully, “but I think that we… started to talk again right when we had to. When it was time.”

You didn’t like that, either. “That can’t be true.”

“We’ll never know what’s true,” he said, leaning in closer to you but still not daring to reach out and touch you. “But it’s been long enough.”

“It has been,” you said, nodding and, feeling more tears coming. You sniffled, throwing your head back to fight the crying, and excused your emotions again, “it’s been a long day. It’s been seven long years.”

It’s been a long life; but you didn’t think of your years as his best friend to be draining. If anything, these were the years that made you feel alive: both of your families so close, it was like you grew up with two sets of parents, and with a soulmate for a best friend.

It’s what happened next that was a task.

Life had been pouring out in every shade of color around you when you knew him, when you laughed with him. And when you didn’t, you had to physically strain yourself to see the world in anything other than black-and-white.

You’d worked so hard to get used to the darkness of your life that the explosion of the color spectrum when you finally got to laugh with him again was almost painful. You’d grown so accustomed to monochrome that seeing colors all over again felt scary. Dangerous. Potentially hurtful.

But now you knew he never meant to take the colors out of your life. By doing so, he ended up having to sacrifice his own brightness. His own light.

Maybe what hurt the most right now wasn’t the memory of the years that you’d spent without talking, but rather the pointlessness of it all because here you were again: together. Affecting each other in ways ordinary people should not have been allowed to affect one another.

“Come here,” Jungkook finally asked, extending his arms, but you shook your head, not wanting to admit to how big the hurricane cloud in your chest was. “Come here, please.”

The insistence of his tone wasn’t what got you to move closer in the end – it was the pain in his eyes.

This had hurt him, too. He was the one who had to find a different way so he wouldn’t have to end your friendship. He was the one who eventually failed and had to say goodbye – stone you so you’d run away. Wound you, so you wouldn’t come back.

It would have hurt your pride if you didn’t love him so much.

And he couldn’t find it in himself to say how much he wanted you to come back after he told you to leave; how much he agonized over your phone number – which he’d deleted off his phone only to realize that he knew it by heart – and how much he wished he was different—better—so he wouldn’t have to stay away from you. He couldn’t find the words.

So, he just held you – like it was the first and the last time he was ever going to hold you. And he hoped that this would be enough for you to know that he knew you loved him. He’d always known.

And he loved you, too.

“I’ve missed you. Everything about you,” he whispered, clutching your body tightly against his own and sinking his face into your hair. “So much.”

Your hair grew wet – you could feel the pain leave his heart in tears – and, even though you’d seen him cry before, you’d never cried with him. But it felt inevitable now – like everything you’d done together in the past few weeks was only the prologue and tonight you were turning the page, you were starting the first chapter of the rest of your lives.

It hurt because of how long the prologue was. It hurt because of the seven empty pages.

But it felt so relieving to reach the end. So freeing.

You wrapped your arms around him tighter because you were ready to work on letting go of the pain, and you were ready to move on, and you were so happy to have him with you. You didn’t know what awaited you after tonight but that scared you much less than all that you’d already survived.

“If history repeats itself,” you said, your nose stuffed from the crying, “we’ll find a different way, right?”

Jungkook considered pulling away when you said this but that didn’t seem right. Not holding you when he could, didn’t seem right.

“We will,” he said into your hair. “I’m not leaving again.”

And he meant it – in the long run, at least. Because this night was coming to an end.

Your laptop – and the movie you didn’t get to watch – was long abandoned as you and Jungkook sat on your bed, your legs crossed and hearts open, and you talked.

You talked and the seven empty pages filled. The filled with words, written in different fonts with different colors, but they filled.

You talked and your bodies grew tired even if your minds didn’t, so you lied down on your backs next to each other, the white concrete ceiling painting itself in the colors of all that you’d missed about each other.

You talked and the hours went by – minute by minute, morning was creeping up on you.

“It’s late,” Jungkook said when your room got so dark, he couldn’t make out which bits of skin, glistening in the pale light from the street lamps outside, were yours and which were his. But even so, he remained on his back next to you. “I should probably go home. Maybe we can watch a movie tomorrow? Or next week?”

“I… I don’t have plans tomorrow,” you said and you wanted this night to keep going so badly, that if you’d been Faust, your soul would have gone straight to hell: beautiful moment, do not pass away! “Will the party be over now?”

“No, probably not yet,” Jungkook replied, “won’t be the first time I’ll be woken up by someone drunkenly smashing a bottle or something,” he said and then, when you bit your lip, clearly concerned, he added, “it’s fine. I’m used to it.”

Then, because you were not Faust and the devil had not chained your soul to the pits of hell just yet, you found a way to stop the moment as you said, “you could stay here.”

“Hmm?” Jungkook turned his head to look at you, unsure if he understood your offer. “H-how do you mean?”

“Just… stay here,” you said with a shrug as if it was that simple. Your eyes remained on the ceiling. “The RA didn’t see you come in with me. And, usually, no one smashes anything in the middle of the night here.”

“Are you sure?” he asked again. He didn’t want to go – but just like he did before coming inside earlier tonight, he didn’t want to force you into something you weren’t ready for; God knew you’d already done so much for him.

But you assured him, “yeah. You didn’t want me walking home alone, well, maybe I don’t want you stumbling around at 3 AM, either. You’d already had one fight today.”

“It’s, uh,” he checked his phone, “four-thirty.”

You gave him a look.

“But your concern is understandable,” he added quickly, catching on, “I just don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable with you here.”

“Okay,” he said, your gazes so intensely focused on each other, both of you were almost paralyzed as you lied side by side.

“Yeah?” you asked. “So, you’ll stay?”

“I’ll stay if you let me.”

You turned to your side, facing him. Your eyes never left his, just like his did not stray from yours. You even seemed to blink in unison.

“Stay,” you said. “I’m letting you.”

He turned to his side as well and, as his eyes fell to your lips – he could have touched them with his own if he dared to move a little bit closer – you knew you would have allowed him do a lot more than just stay here for a night.

But you’ve come a long way tonight, both literally – when you walked back here from the party – and figuratively – when you scratched the wounds until they bled because there was no other way for them to heal properly – and maybe that was enough for one night.

“Goodnight,” Jungkook whispered because you’d walked so much tonight but your road hadn’t ended yet. He didn’t dare to touch you.

“Goodnight,” you whispered back because just having him here with you after so long felt enough right now. You didn’t have to to touch him.

keep reading | masterlist

#bts reactions #bts fanfiction #bts college au #jeon jungkook #jungkook fanfiction #bts angst #college au #bts x reader #jungkook x reader #friends to lovers au #bts f2l #fanfiction #bts au #angst

640 notes · View notes

blu-archer · 3 years

Text

Let me help you..

Right. So I felt the need to attempt writing smut and sneeze inducing, so if this sucks I’m blaming it on the fact that I’ve never written this before.

If you are under age, please don’t read this. While its not particularly hectic, it still is what it is.

Warnings: mature content. Very very mild language

Sickie: Jimin

Caretaker: Yoongi

-smut and fluff.

-Also massages.

- I was bored and finished this at 2am.

Alternate universe - magic is real and Jimin is a hybrid.

Part 1 of this series.

Jimin moaned deeply, his eyes fluttering closed as a content purr filled the bedroom.

Yoongi smirked with the satisfaction of being responsible for his kittens reactions. He slid his hands up the hybrid’s smooth skin as Jimin began to squirm underneath him. Working his fingers into the hard, knotted muscles of Jimin’s upper back – smugly earning an even deeper moan of pleasure.

Yoongi tugged lightly on Jimin’s tail, aware of its sensitivities but only wishing to tease the hybrid while he had him pinned to the mattress beneath him. Jimin’s breath hitched but flicked his tail back, hitting Yoongi in the face as a form of scolding.

“I want you to feel nice, Kitten.” Yoongi answered innocently, leaning low to kiss the center of Jimin’s back.

Jimin shivered at the action, taking a deep breath before replying hoarsely. “We are not doing anything like that while I’m sick.”

“You would feel good..”

“This feels great as it is, Yoon.”

Yoongi trailed his kisses down the length of Jimin’s spine until he reached the base of his tail just coming just above the waist band of Jimin’s boxers, his hands still massaging into his boyfriend’s stiff muscles. Jimin mewled at the touches, his body betraying him and forcing him to shift awkwardly with shaky breaths as they started to move in the direction that he had very seriously stipulated not too.

Jimin flicked his tail at Yoongi again but he couldn’t bring himself to put in the same effort as before. Resulting in it falling weakly against Yoongi’s forearm. A slow heat was building through his body making him want to just melt into the sheets and as good as it felt, this paired with how Yoongi had laid him down was not helping his running nose. He was already running warm with small yet persistent fever, but this heat made him feel a different kind of weakness. One that Yoongi often enjoyed to-put him through. Yoongi worked his way down Jimin’s back once more, trailing his kisses in the opposite direction until he rested his lips against the cat’s scent gland.

“Yoongi.”

Yoongi bit down lightly on the gland, grazing it with his teeth which sent a strong enough sensation to tremble Jimin’s entire body. The younger broke out into a rough bout of coughing, reaching up to grab the closest pillow to cover so that he didn’t cough into Yoongi’s face. The warlock paused in his activities, not bringing himself to alert Jimin that he had grabbed Yoongi’s pillow to cough into – or remind the cat that they slept together and that he was probably going to get sick anyway, so there wasn’t much point in the wasted effort.

“Sorry.” Yoongi murmured, setting a final kiss to Jimin’s neck before moving off of him and sitting up. “Should I get you some tea?”

“N-no.” Jimin croaked. “Tired of tea.”

“Some warm water with lemon and ginger then.”

The hybrid pushed himself upright so that he sat next to Yoongi, leaning into the elder as he ran his wrist under his nose with a sniff. Yoongi put on arm over his shoulders, letting his hand trace along the cat’s collar bone. When he heard a light scoff, he looked at the hybrid with a raised brow only to see the cat glaring into his lap. Yoongi’s smirk from earlier returned as he saw what had annoyed his boyfriend.

“Stop it.” Jimin snapped without any real anger. “ I said no, and you continued anyway.”

“I thought it would help you. You’ve done it for me before.” Yoongi pressed a kiss to Jimin’s temple. “But I’m sorry I should have stopped… although since I’ve started and you’re clearly able…”

“No.” Jimin stated sternly with a wet sniffle, yet his brows pinched together in thought. As if he were at least contemplating the idea. “I should take a shower. A cold one.”

“Don’t.” Yoongi stood up and pulled the hybrid after him, making sure that one of his woolen sweaters was grabbed before leaving the room. “Come sit with me and we can watch movies. You said that you have been wanting to watch that animation again, the cat one.”

“The lion king?”

Yoongi nodded as he dropped Jimin’s hand once they had reached the kitchen, giving the younger a moment to pull on the white sweater – its length draping to his mid-thigh. He flicked his hand towards the kettle, automatically it rumbled to life as it got to reheating the water.

“If you want to. I don’t want you taking any cold showers, we can deal with it in other ways my love.” Yoongi let his magic flow and a variety of a things were propelled into action. Knives went to work on chopping up a lemon and small section of raw ginger then moved on to cutting up various vegetables that would eventually be put into a broth for them later.

Jimin stretched his arms up as he failed to swallow back a yawn, almost immediately scrambling for a handful of tissues from the box set up on the circular dinner table that they rarely used for anything other Yoongi’s work – and that one time when Jimin had been too impatient to drag Yoongi back to their room…

Hih’igxeshh huh..ahh. huh’iiTTCHhiew…

Jimin let out a congested curse as he blew his nose, wincing at how tender his nose was. The blowing hadn’t eased any of the pressure in his sinuses and he was pretty sure that he was going to sound disgustingly blocked up for at least the rest of the day. Yoongi pulled two small boxed orange juices from the fridge and handed one to Jimin before aggressive stabbing a straw through the top of his own. The juices were typically targeted to kids, but the pair had never gotten out of the habit of buying them from when they had been studying.

Jimin secretly hoped they never stopped. Their other friends often teased them about it but having the little juices always brought fond memories of times spent with Yoongi, back when they weren’t dating and had just been roommates in college trying to survive exams. They would go days without proper sleep or social interaction and there were times when food and water were not consumed as much as it should have been. Which, of course after both had found the other in moments that had scared them quite badly, the tradition of leaving random boxes of the juice and snacks in their separate areas of studying had begun.

“This shouldn’t take too long, let’s go sit down.” Yoongi encouraged, ignoring the glance Jimin made at him using his magic when he had originally said that he would need some time to recover and had agreed to lay off of the magic until then. Thankfully nothing was commented on and he gave a breathy laugh at how Jimin snatched up the tissue box and held it to his chest before moving to the lounge. “Do you want your glasses?”

“Yeah..” Jimin answered as he threw himself onto the small couch, burrowing into the soft throw pillows that Jungkook had given them after setting his juice aside. “Is Tae coming over today?”

“Tae?” Yoongi frowned. “Should he be?”

“It’s Monday… isn’t it your mentor day?”

Yoongi breathed out a heavy sigh as he found Jimin’s glasses on the counter where he had left them the night before.

It was in fact his day to mentor. He had completely forgotten. At least it was still early, the sun had barely risen, so Taehyung wouldn’t have just pitched up at the store to find that it hadn’t been opened. Yoongi would have to just send a message and tell him that he would cancel for the day.

“I’ll ask Namjoon if he can take him again.” Yoongi said and settled down beside Jimin’s head, letting the younger move up so that he rested on Yoongi’s lap.

“He’s not some file or spell casting that you can just hand off Yoon, just tell him to come by here a bit later than usual. I’ll probably be asleep for most of the day anyway.”

Jimin had a point.

He sent a quick text to the witch informing him that they would work in Yoongi’s private studio space at his house instead of the store. Taehyung wouldn’t question it – perhaps he would have even expected it. Yoongi wasn’t as unpredictable as he thought when matters included Jimin.

Jimin was restless.

Yoongi was almost sure that the hybrid had missed the entire beginning of the movie with how he shifted around; adjusting the pillows or removing the sweater he wore to make it into a blanket of sorts – and then into a pillow when he wasn’t satisfied, or getting up to find water and ending up dragging the duvet from their room to the couch.

When Yoongi thought the younger had finally settled down with his head resting on the warlocks thigh, Jimin began to shuffle beneath the blanket as if he just couldn’t find the right place to lie. His cute ears that Yoongi had been softly scratching, were drawn back in irritation and his tail flicked continuously against the cover.

“You okay?” He asked, looking down at the Calico’s flushed cheeks and annoyed pout.

Jimin let out a heavy puff of air, his eyes narrowed as he practically glared at the tv. Yoongi ran a hand gently down the nape of Jimin’s neck and traced along his sharp collar bone, smiling at the deep purr that started up before startling as Jimin pulled away. He was about to question the youngers actions when Jimin settled himself onto Yoongi’s lap. His pretty eyes were dilated, and his bottom lip pulled tightly between his teeth as he rocked forward, drawing Yoongi closer by putting his arms around his neck.

The warlock let out a low surprised chuckled but made no complaint against Jimin putting his lips to his jaw, beginning a journey of lingering kisses that made him shiver.

“I thought –“

“You started this.” Jimin muttered a bit hoarsely, but Yoongi couldn’t tell if it was from his cold or whatever the younger was chasing after. “Finish it.”

“You didn’t want to..” Yoongi shifted as Jimin rolled his hips hard against him.

The movie played on, music cheerfully flooding the room, yet Yoongi could barely hear it as he focused on the soft breaths and moans that Jimin let out into his mouth and neck. Yoongi’s breaths were quickly matching that of the hybrid, if not surpassing him as his body reacted to Jimin’s hands trailing his skin tenderly.

“Now.” Jimin panted out. “Now I do. Please… I can’t focus on anything else.”

Yoongi pushed Jimin off, keening at the low whine that quickly turned to a moan as he forced Jimin back into the soft cushions while he got to his knees in front of him. He pulled the blankets that had been tangled around Jimin’s legs away, taking note of his boyfriends light shivers and hooded eyes from behind his glasses.

Jimin wasn’t normally needy when it came to these private moments between them if anything he was usually the one to be in control. Seeing the hybrid lean his head back and paw at Yoongi’s shirt impatiently and letting the warlock do what he wanted to do to Jimin without complaint or direction was a blessing that Yoongi rarely got to witness. Even if it included Jimin’s mouth breathing, chapped lips and crimson tinged nose.

He was running his hands over Jimin’s tight dancer physique with almost featherlight touches only to grip and hold his hips down in place as he pushed up to try to create some type of friction. Yoongi left tender kisses on the soft inner skin of Jimin’s thighs taking his time while smiling at the soft sigh that left his boyfriend before Yoongi gradually moved an inch higher and suckled the skin there. He could feel Jimin carding his hands through his hair, giving soft tugs almost in time with his heavy breaths.

Once he felt that he had left enough marks there he pushed Jimin’s legs further apart so that he could climb and rest between them as he trailed kisses and hickeys up the hybrids torso – earning a quivering moan as he hovered and switched between nipples. Giving the sensitive buds extra attention as Jimin shivered and dug his nails into Yoongi’s shoulder. The warlock didn’t even have time to wonder if the hybrid was going to claw through his clothes, he could already feel the sharp points digging into his skin – varying in force every few seconds.

Yoongi had always delighted in the fact that his kitten was extremely sensitive when it came to skin contact, every moment was a chance to see how he would react to the most subtle of strokes or kisses. Jimin’s breath quickened as he arched to rub his body into Yoongi’s as much as possible, his body heating at the feeling of the elders own arousal pressed against him when the warlock nipped at the glands on his neck. Jimin moaned deeply, his nails moving to scrape against Yoongi’s scalp and his breath catching in his throat.

He growled as Yoongi caught the lobe of his ear with his teeth, which resulted in him turning to cough harshly to the side. Yoongi pulled back, settling down on Jimin’s lap as he did his best to ignore his own erection that fought against his sweatpants. Yoongi slipped a tissue out of the box and rested it around Jimin’s nose and mouth, feeling his hot breaths hit his palm through the soft material as he coughed.

“Blow.” Yoongi said gently when Jimin had finally caught his breath.

“You blow.” Jimin flushed and pulled Yoongi’s hand away so that he could blow his nose himself. He wasn’t going to let Yoongi have to feel whatever grossness came out of him. Jimin blew his nose twice, but the heat that spread through his body was making his nose run and left him sniffling miserably.

“Is that what you want? Can I continue then?” Yoongi grinned as he leant closer and gently sucked at Jimin’s jaw when he didn’t hear an immediate complaint.

“Yoongi… You don’t have to. Maybe this is too much, I’m quickly realising how gross this is again.” Jimin murmured apprehensively, although his body thrived under the soft caressing touches.

Yoongi let out a breathy chuckle as he drew circles into Jimin’s v-line with his thumbs. “There isn’t a single thing about you that could possibly be gross, love. Lean back.”

Jimin shifted with an unusual amount of compliance. Yoongi merely smirked as he got to work at his boyfriend’s chest once more, priding himself at the low whines that vibrated out of Jimin. Slowly Yoongi ran a hand down between their bodies and slipped it smoothly beneath the boxer’s he had forgotten to remove to grasp at the base of Jimin’s dick. He smirked at the jolt that that trembled through Jimin’s entire body.

“Oh…” Jimin rolled his head back, his hips pushing against Yoongi’s hand with more force than he thought he could muster just then. He didn’t even bat an eye at the slick he could feel seeping out and no doubt ruining the couch. Yoongi didn’t even hesitate to start stroking at the achingly hard length, almost teasingly so, and Jimin could barely keep his pleasure contained, his body betraying his control as he shifted and mewled at the heat that coursed through him. “…ahhh… st-stop be-nnhgg.. ahh.. so-soft.”

“You want me to be harder?” Yoongi asked. His voice dipping low enough to spark a new wave of dizzying heat through Jimin even before the elder gathered some of the slick that had gradually begun to gush out of him before wrapping a strong yet tender grip around Jimin’s dick once more. Moving to pump him roughly.

“Fuck!” Jimin cried hoarsely. His head slammed into Yoongi’s shoulder as he jerked up to meet the newly set pace, burying his face into Yoongi’s shoulder as he was driven closer to the edge.

The warlock bit at his cheek to try to bring his mind back to the present, controlling his own breathing before he drowned in Jimin’s whimpers and lewd pleas. Jimin hadn’t complained about his actions, but Yoongi couldn’t help but be mildly unsatisfied. Retracting his hand, earning sharp claws into his back as well as a hoarse whine, Yoongi moved down and yanked the boxers off of the hybrid in a hastily, swift motion. Jimin had just began to let out a low whine again when Yoongi took him in his mouth. The sounds that left them both were anything but soft and once again Yoongi was glad that their cottage was a relatively far distance away from their neighbours. He licked and sucked and hummed around the calico’s dick and the whimpers and cries set his blood alight. It didn’t take much longer before the hybrid was spilling himself out, arching and thrusting up into Yoongi’s mouth as the elder swallowed as much as he could. He pulled back, white painting his lips as he returned his hand to milk Jimin dry, leaning up to kiss the hybrid’s gaping mouth as he did. Jimin was left a panting and mewling mess in his boyfriends embrace, while Yoongi used the discarded boxer’s to briefly clean them off afterwards. That was definitely better than just watching ‘The Lion King’. Jimin would never be able to view the movie the same ever again.

“mmmngg…” Jimin lay a sloppy kiss into the curve of Yoongi’s neck before lightly coughing away into the air, too blissed to even try to lift up his arm to shield it.

“Content?”

Jimin gave another inaudible reply before stuttering off into a particularly vocal sneeze.

“Let’s shower, okay?” Yoongi said, flicking up his hand to shut off the movie that had still been playing. He was painfully hard, but he had expected nothing less from the sounds and reactions Jimin had been giving him. “Get cleaned up properly and eat before Tae arrives. Then you can get some rest.”

The hybrid sniffled and reached to tug at the hem of Yoongi’s pants, feeling too alone in his nudity, which caused the elder to chuckle tightly but not without affection. He grabbed Jimin’s hands in his own and pulled him shakily to his feet.

“I don’t need any help. Let’s just get you in the shower, okay?”

There were no arguments from either of them. Even when Jimin decided that a second round was definitely in order.

“You should really air this place out.”

Yoongi startled at the voice, not having expected another person to be in his house. He had just finished getting food in Jimin and had gotten him to sleep, which had taken far longer than it should have and had resulted in some more deep massages to help his kitten relax. He hadn’t heard the front door open but seeing Taehyung rummaging around his kitchen shouldn’t have really surprised him. Perhaps his morning activities had sent him to a state of unawareness.

Thank god he had thought to set his magic down on cleaning their couch before leaving the room.

“Yeah?”

“Mm.” Taehyung swiveled to give a stern finger-pointing at the elder, it lost whatever effect he had tried to pull when Yoongi saw the strips of liquorice that dangled from the witches mouth. “This place smelt super musky. Its not good for Jimin to be in an unventilated area. The fresh air would do him better.”

Yoongi avoided eye contact, fearing that his smile would grow too wide if he kept looking at the witches stern disapproval. “I’ll keep that in mind. I thought he’d get cold. Should we get to work? I have a few spell books that I got in London that I thought would really benefit you.”

Taehyung grumbled lightly that his mentor should have ‘known better’ and that their roles should switch temporarily so that Yoongi could learn something about care giving from him instead. The warlock didn’t comment or correct Tae, merely laughed and waved him off as his mind tossed the vivid ‘helping’ details of his morning around in his thoughts.

It quickly became obvious that his heart wasn’t in the lesson that he should have definitely planned more for, and he realised that as soon as Tae accidentally set fire to a third of his sage collection. That was on him though, he should have known better to make an entirely clear space before letting Tae work on anything that had to do with the elements, and he should have been paying attention to what the younger was doing and saying in order to prevent such tragedies. It was entirely unprofessional to be so blatantly distracted, but Yoongi couldn’t seem to help it. A part of him kept wanted to run back into the main section of their little house – back to where Jimin was sleeping – so that he could check up on him. To see if he needed any tea, or some one to talk to, or play boards games with, or to see if he wanted Yoongi to comb his hair or scratch at his ears. Jimin loved having Yoongi scratch at his ears. And Yoongi loved doing it.

He'd missed so much in the months that he’d been gone, that the scents and the feeling of Jimin’s skin or hair or fur – the feeling of Jimin being close to him – he had almost forgotten what it was like, and he never wanted to even consider the thought of coming close to forgetting it again.

Taehyung had spent the next twenty minutes after the flames being a floundering, apologetic mess – even after Yoongi had tried to convince him that he wasn’t at fault and that Yoongi should have practiced some pronunciations with him first. His attempts didn’t seem to sink it. They both agreed on a break perhaps a bit too eagerly once they’d gone over a few pointers – Yoongi trying harder to pay close attention to Taehyung and the fine details that the witch still seemed to be getting wrong.

He let Tae help himself to some of the food that he’d made for Jimin earlier while Yoongi took the chance to peek into the bedroom to see if his boyfriend was still alright. And basically, just how Yoongi had left him, Jimin was curled into his side of the bed with the comforter pulled tightly to his body. His tri-coloured ears contrasted against the thick white sheets and seemed to be the only part of the hybrid that wasn’t completely under the blankets. As much has Yoongi wanted to go and pull them down to see the youngers face, he refrained. The soft, congested snores were enough to tell him that Jimin needed to sleep, so he dragged himself back to the kitchen and made himself the strongest brew of coffee he had to gain focus for the next few hours with his mentee.

Taehyung had just mastered a spell for plant growth and was gleefully trying to revive some of the things he’d damaged earlier when they heard the soft padding of feet coming from the entrance of the studio. They both paused in anticipation, their energy levels spiking until Jimin appeared in the section that they were in. Something in Yoongi’s chest melted like warm caramel at the sight of Jimin – he’d changed before leaving the cottage to join them in the small building outside that Yoongi had claimed as his studio space. Switching his sleep wear to a pair of Yoongi’s sweatpants as well the warlocks thickest jacket, even the hybrid’s tail was hidden beneath the warm layers. The extra padding as well as the broadness of the jacket made the hybrid appear even smaller than usual.

Jimin smiled shyly, bringing a tissue up to blow his nose before letting Taehyung bound over and hug him, his sleep-mussed hair flopping all over the place as Tae swayed him and picked him up to playfully pull him to his chest, quickly moving to ramble on about all that they’d done in the past hours that the witch had been there. Yoongi watched quietly from his high set stool, his hands fumbling around with some of the herbs he’d been planning on making charms with. He couldn’t help but notice the increase in Jimin’s sniffling. The hybrid seemed to be running a tissue under his nose every few minutes while earnest nodding to everything Tae was saying. His nose was an even brighter red than before and his eyes had that tired glazed-over look that made Yoongi think his boyfriend had only just woken up and had opted to find them straight away.

“I think I’ll be able to help Hobi’s little flower garden grow stronger. Both him and Kook have been so busy lately the maintenance of the garden has kind of downgraded a bit, and I’m usually not allowed to work with them ever since I forgot the sprinklers on that one time and drowned all the seedlings… but with this..”

Taehyung shrugged with enthusiasm, grinning widely at Jimin who was nodding along despite squinting with a somewhat dazed look. His nose scrunched up and he murmured a hasty apology before crumpling into his tissue with a desperate sneeze that shook through his entire body. Taehyung lay a steadying hand on his friends shoulder as Jimin snapped forward once more, and again, giving a low groan and a disgustingly wet sniffle since his current tissue was no longer capable of use. Yoongi joined the hybrid’s side rather quickly after that, manifesting the box of tissues that he knew was inside their home so that Jimin could blow his nose again.

“I’b sorry.” Jimin glanced at Tae tired as he tried to rid himself of the congestion, only to find that the itch that had been bothering him was still there. Only this time it didn’t seem to want to progress further. “I was -snf- lis-listening.”

“I know.” Tae grinned and rubbed the calico’s back with nurturing intent. “Bless you.”

Jimin sniffed and scrunched his nose to try and wiggle the itch that had settled there out, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Are you okay?” Yoongi asked softly. His hand gently tugging Jimin’s body closer to his own. With the way Jimin’s face had flushed and his eyes had turned watery, Yoongi didn’t think that he was done. “Did you just wake up?”

Jimin nodded, moving his hand to rub harshly at his nose causing his breath to hitch slightly but overall, accomplished nothing. “I ha-had a bad dre-hih-dream. snf.”

“My kitten.” Yoongi pulled him into his chest, squeezing him tightly. He could feel Jimin’s breath hitch against him and felt the rumbling groan of annoyance flood through Jimin’s body as he pushed his nose into Yoongi’s neck – seemingly no longer caring about possible contagion as Yoongi felt dampness on his skin. Although considering what they’d done that morning, Jimin probably had ruled that contagion was probably unavoidable. Jimin worked hard at trying to scent him, doing his best to try work away the ticklish feeling that left him feeling both crazy and drained, he could only whimper in annoyance.

“I ca-can’t sne-sneez-ah.. snf.”

“Sit down, Minnie.” Tae said, rubbing Jimin’s shoulders as the hybrid did as he was instructed, crumpling to the floor, desperate to try anything. “Yoongi… why… why don’t you try and coax it out. Hobi and I do it for Jungkook all the time during his allergies and colds.”

Yoongi hadn’t done it before. Jimin had always tried to do anything he considered ‘gross’ by himself, and this was usually one of those things. Yet looking down into his boyfriends teary eyes, Yoongi truly wanted to be the one to help him. Like he’d helped him that morning – well, not quite, not with Tae there, but the situation was somewhat similar. Control was being handed over.

Yoongi sat in between Jimin’s legs, grabbing a tissue and staring at it blankly before Taehyung instructed him to roll it to point – further explaining what he needed to do while Jimin coughed openly, his shoulders slumping forwards as Tae rubbed his back.

“Could you tilt back a bit, Love?” Obediently, Jimin leant back into Taehyung.

Carefully, Yoongi pushed the tissue into Jimin’s left nostril, gently nudging it around. At first Jimin merely looked uncomfortable and Yoongi was seconds away from pulling it out and trying something else – surely they had pepper or something – when he angled it and accidentally went deeper. Jimin’s expression changed to one that Yoongi was very familiar with as his breath hitch against Yoongi’s hand.

“Keep doing that and just wiggle it gently.” Taehyung encouraged.

Feeling quite studious, Yoongi pulled it out a little before returning it to that spot, giving the tissue a light wiggle. Jimin’s breath stuttered and hitched achingly until there were tears threatening to spill. Yoongi twisted the tissue with his finger and felt the sudden large inhale Jimin took before –

Heh’ ISHHTEWW! IP’SSHIEW! Hih’ih’ePISHH’uh!

Yoongi tried not to grimace – after all, the fluid that now coated his hand was a simple wash to get rid of, and his Love was clearly not feeling well enough to deserve any type of criticism – whether it was voiced or not. It wasn’t something he could fault the hybrid for. Yoongi merely grabbed for more tissues, pulling the now crumpled mess of an inducing tool out of Jimin’s nose, only to catch the next bundle neatly with his freshly tissued hand.

Yoongi murmured a soft ‘bless you’ each time Jimin was forced forward into his hand until finally the hybrid was halted into soft, tired panting. Taehyung made a comment about going to put tea on in the house and left them, leaving a soft scratch on Jimin’s head.

Yoongi took his time making sure Jimin was finished and clean before he wiped off his own hand, feeling Jimin’s unfocused gaze drawn to his actions.

“This,” Jimin cleared his throat as his voice cracked. “This is not how I hoped today would go. I’m sorry that must have been –“

“It was fine. Interesting actually.” Yoongi reassuring with a hint of amusement. “Your facial expressions were definitely something that will visit my dreams.”

Jimin’s red cheeks turned an even brighter shade as the hybrid smacked his boyfriend’s chest with a breathy laugh. “I really needed to sneeze. It felt really good.”

“I’m glad.” Yoongi placed a kiss on Jimin’s cheek. “I’ll do it again if you even need me too.”

“My saviour.” Jimin huffed with a strong sniff.

Remembering what Jimin had stuttered before, Yoongi ran a hand through the youngers hair, leaning in closer to stare directly into Jimin’s eyes so that he knew not to divert anything that was asked of him.

“What was your bad dream about?”

Jimin froze and then chuckled tightly, looking down into his lap. “It was stupid, looking back on it. I just felt really alone. It was like you weren’t with me anymore and everything was just really cold and dark, so when I wo-woke – hih’igtshh’uh ugh snf –“ Jimin burrowed into a tissue, making his voice muffled slightly. “When I woke up I had to find you, just to make sure.”

Yoongi frowned as he stroked through Jimin’s hair. Perhaps that trip that he’d gone on had done more harm than he’d originally thought. He didn’t want Jimin to ever think that he would be able to leave him. It just wasn’t possible.

“You know I love you, right? With every essence of my soul, I love you. I wouldn’t be able to function without knowing that you are alright, without having you by my side.”

Jimin nodded, but the smile didn’t reach his tired eyes. “I know. I promise I know. And I love you so much. You are so stupidly lovable. It was just a bad dream. I always have you with me.”

Jimin pressed a kiss to Yoongi’s lips, deepened it momentarily before frantically breaking away to sneeze a double down into Yoongi’s chest.

“Argh… sorry about that. I think this entire thing is taking turns between moving to my head and chest.” Jimin leant forward into Yoongi, resting his head on his boyfriends broad shoulder.

“C’mon.” Yoongi patted him when he had started to fall asleep. “Let’s get you back inside and warm. Tae has probably finished making tea by now. You can drink it with him before I toss him out.”

Jimin hummed with a lack of interest.

“And some more medicine will probably be helpful.”

Jimin’s hum turned to a much more agreeable tone.

“Maybe I’ll even rub some of my herbal ointment on you.” Yoongi said with low teasing pitch. “I’ll be extra useful and massage all these stiff muscles of yours.”

That got Jimin laughing. His eyes crinkled before he kissed Yoongi again, wrapping his arms tightly around the elder. Yoongi managed to stand and support his boyfriend as the younger clung onto him to be carried, making sure he was sturdy before making the short work in the cold to get back to the house. He could feel Jimin’s face against his neck, hiding from the chill as he sniffled, but Yoongi could feel the smile on the youngers face as he pressed a kiss to Yoongi’s neck.

And it must have been contagious, because when Yoongi felt the familiar scratch of teeth where the scent gland on his neck should have been, followed by a gentle press of lips, it was impossible to stop his own smile from spreading.

#bts sickfic #bts fanfic #smut #sick!jimin #caretaker!yoongi #hybrid jimin #warlock yoongi #alternate universe #snz #induces #first time writing smut #be kind #domestic #Taehyung is third wheeling #massages

64 notes · View notes