#DRAG HER THROUGH THE MUD BENDER | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

senatushq · 2 years

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NAME. Jasper “Jas” * Ophelia “Effie” Stewart AGE & BIRTH DATE. 30 (26) & June 6th, 1992 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Female & She/Her // Male & He/Him SPECIES. Terror VARIANT. Doppelganger OCCUPATION. Barista at the Last Bean // Musician FACE CLAIM. Daisy Edgar Jones & Joseph Quinn

BIOGRAPHY

( tw: abandonment, murder, blood ) The mud plugged up her nose, smeared against her tightly scrunched eyelids and bled into her mouth when she finally caved and took a gulp of air through the muck. Her palette filled with the minging tastes of earth and blood and strawberry milk, which made her nearly certain she’d vomit. Her hands clawed at the wet ground, fighting to slip free of the smothering grip on the back of her skull.

“Eat up, Piggy!” Spit the owner of the hand doing the smothering. A squawk of laughter lifted up from the goons like a flock of hormone-addled parrots. It was no mercy that the girl’s ears stayed clean.

Earlier in the week, a plague of second-years had turned up with itching with lice, and as such Effie’s lunchtime refuge in the library had been shut for fumigation. Instead, she’d decided to take her lunch in the courtyard, hoping the public stage would deter the brute squad. Her heart had sunk when she heard the stampede of footsteps behind her, and seconds later her plastic tray was tumbling in the air, showering her in a hail of peas and pink milk. The rest happened in a blink.

“I didn’t know they let farm animals try out for theatre, did you?” Sneered the ringleader, ripping her up by the braid. “We’ve got a ring for your nose after you’ve finished your slop-” A sharp elbow to the stomach interfered with the monologue.

Effie picked herself up, scraped knees singing in the February cold, and ran. Her lungs felt ready to burst by the time she reached the rugby field, but she kept running, feeling peril tailing close behind, scanning the uniforms for a face near-identical to her own.

The relief was immediate. Jasper’s face was like hers, but significantly less muddy and locked into sternness seeing the state of Effie’s. He’d already separated from his lounge of friends, like he’d been fully expecting the slight, mousy-haired girl to tear through the brush with a face full of mud and blood and tears. She threw herself behind the impenetrable fortress of her brother’s slightly-taller frame. Jasper’s arm belted protectively across his elder sister - by two minutes.

Such was the pattern for the Stewart twins. When their father knocked about and raised his voice, they sheltered under the bed and passed the time spinning stories, using the wood platts as a stage. When the archaeology scene dragged half of the Stewarts to a new country across the globe, the twins stayed perfectly in tune. When heartbreak befell them both in adolescence, it sent the other twin careening into the gutter with them. When Effie’s bakery flailed, Ozzy was there to pick up the pieces. And Effie was the one who, when she felt like she was coming down with the worst flu of her life, drove six hours from her college to Berlin to pull her brother out of a weeks-long bender with his shotty bandmates and cleaned him up before rehab. As it turns out, the celebration she’d cut short was for a single on their EP hitting the UK’s top 50. Ten days later, with Jasper finishing detox and Effie’s fever waning, the record went gold.

After that, she felt her brother less but saw him everywhere. On vinyls gracing the endcaps at the local bookstore, on the morning news, laughing awkwardly at passes made by hosts twice his age. He became a sensation, and she the sister of somebody who broke free of hometown’s grip and mentioned it by name in radio interviews. She fought back her resentment, flipping her bakery sign each night with a persistent lump in her throat and sense of finality in her position in life. Not that it wasn’t well earned, he was always the brave one, the stepped to a challenge while she’d freeze up, chain herself to the bed she’d made or shrink away until the threat moved on to a more worthy target. But the brother who threw himself toward danger in her stead wouldn’t sit by and let her be patronized, objectified, commercialized in the way that he was now.

That line of logic made it easier to justify icing over when the subject breached his career, the agents, the industry promises. To her dismay, one such promise solidified into an EU tour, during which she was forced to liquify and lock up her bakery for good. For the first time, her twin wasn’t there to dampen the burden of hardship. Failure, she learned, tasted like mud and blood and leftover strawberry cake. She tried to stuff out the undercurrent of fulfillment she felt, no doubt his, and feel her own goddamn emotions for once.

Nonetheless, she always felt him. Unexpected fits of euphoria, bouts of illness, followed by all-encompassing numbness. The morning she spent hugging the porcelain bowl until her spine felt it would come rocketing out too, she didn’t even have to check the news to know where he was. Nearly a year passed after that with radio silence between them.

Then, the death of their father called the twins both back to the Rome estate. Jas looked… surprisingly well. He said he was sober, and the quiet months since they’d last spoken didn’t betray the claim. He headlined a new band and had a girlfriend he wanted Effie to meet. She designed collector ouija boards or cards or something like that. No, Bryan was no longer in the cards, nor was the bakery. Effie was back in business school, pursuing a Master’s. He offered money. She refused it, and excused herself to the chapel, where she barricaded herself against the stained glass and sucked down a flask in solitude. Whether out of intuition or just good will, Jasper insisted on driving her back to her accommodations when the ordeal was over. Over the long drive in a ridiculously expensive vintage car, the twins began the work of untangling the web of hurt that years of separation had woven between them.

The ride to the estate was soon full of punch-drunk laughter, the two belting along to the radio like they were children again. Then, riding off of Running Up That Hill, a lush guitar riff led into an all-too-familiar voice crooning through the radio. Bile rose in Ophelia’s throat at the put-on grittiness of it. In a flash of petulance she’d regret for eternity, her hand smacked against the console, silencing her brother’s canned voice. Even brand-new sutures couldn’t keep the wound she’d dealt months ago from ripping open again. She swore if she were sober then, she would’ve heard the hurt rip through Jas from within before it breached his armored skin and spilled outwards into an epic argument.

A hulking shadow darted across the road, interrupting the pools of the headlights. Effie didn’t hear the screech of tires over the mounting tenor of her voice, frightened by her twin’s newly exposed wound she felt as deep as her own. But she felt the world violently shift in time with Jasper’s hand on the wheel, and the sickening pull of her insides as the blurred treeline ate up the view beyond the windshield. She felt her brother’s arm whip protectively over her torso as they crashed towards it, and then she died.

What remained of Effie woke up. Formless, weightless, flickering weakly like the still-popping engine now warped around a tree trunk. If she had fingers, she’d have used them to pluck at the grass as she waited until the ambulances came. After one look in the mangled wreck, the paramedics shook their heads and waved to kill the sirens.

Effie searched herself but didn’t find him. Couldn’t feel him. He wasn’t there. Other things were. Their old estate, the shell of her business, the empty venues, and conversations that buzzed near-indecipherable like TV static through the screen. Her flicker danced between them, haunting the realms of what was and what could have been, observing how time passed in the lives that had succeeded hers.

She traipsed the veil like a tightrope walker, not knowing just what it was keeping her suspended or when it would give out and plunge her into the depths below. What she knew for certain - no one would be there to catch her when she fell. Her imagined audience’s applause collapsed into unison, into a rhythm that crescendoed and overpowered her weakening light.

Bum.

Bum-boom.

A flash of a near-identical smile in the crowd.

Bum-boom. Bum-boom.

Her sure step faltered, slipping on the tightrope.

Bum-boom bum-boom bum-boom bum-boom-

Then there was clawing, fighting, pulsing, drowning, digging, sputtering, digging, digging. The manicured earth trembled. An arm tore up through the soil like a bone-white sapling. The sinewy hand gripped and nails dug at the loose earth, pulling her body up with sinews restrung and flesh renewed. Breaching the earth she gasped, feeling her stinging lungs drink in the foreign luxury of air as soil tumbled from her face.

Effy gripped the family headstone for support, toeing indelicately past the shrine of flowers and records and carefully-laid candles encircling the open grave. She stumbled from the toothy limestone grin of the graveyard, but paused under a streetlight to vomit a sludge of rot and chemicals and an assortment of wriggling things. Her clothes were worm-pocked and reeked of the grave.

Collapsing to the curb, the reanimated terror could do nothing but feel the full weight of grief and fear felt by the living wash over her, sucking out her sanity with the ripping tide. This was wrong. Not her. Never her. It was supposed to be Jasper, if anyone. He was the fearless one, the one who loved without conditions, the one with a life worth saving.

The self-comforting hold around her knees grew firmer as the hours drew on, until it grew unbearable for this new body to idle any longer.

“It’s okay,” Croaked a voice from the depths of her throat, several octaves deeper than her own but no less familiar. The terror jumped, searching for the source of the haunting distortion. Broadened fingertips brushed a protrusion from her neck, before catching on a hint of stubble just above. A ghoulish hypotheses set in Effie’s mind. A trembling hand crept towards it’s hairline, pushing back through the wild, razor-cut curls that fell the way he’d always worn it. “This is okay. It’s okay.” The dead twin’s voice tumbled from the abomination’s mouth. We’ll be okay. The doppelganger tested again, soon melting into the safety of the mimicked voice.

In her reserved lot of purgatory, the terror no longer felt alone.

PERSONALITY

+ intuitive, versatile, ambitious – deceptive, egotistic, withholding

PLAYED BY THEO. PST. She/They.

#original rp #skeleton rp #supernatural rp #city rp

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chaoticallysapphic · 4 years

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Oh my heart part two

Summary: Lin never expected to have a soulmate, in a world where your mark appears whenever your soulmate is born she grew up completely blank. So when she’s thirty and it finally etches itself around her arm, she vows to never be with the one meant only for her.

A/N: one more part after this! Originally I just wanted it to be a two parter but it feels better this way.

Word count: 3k

Korra was becoming overbearing with her concern for you. Once you come back to air temple island she was there waiting to rant about a theory she had regarding Asami’s father. Usually, you’d reply and give good advice, unlike Pema’s, and would remind her not to get too worked up. But instead, as she opened her mouth to begin her rant, you broke out into tears. You wouldn’t tell her why, you were too embarrassed about the rejection of your soulmate to confess, even though it would help put Korra at ease to at least be in the know. She’d probably hunt Lin down and start some kind of fight with her regarding what happened.

“Korra,” you say one night when you both are lying in your separate beds in your shared room. “Have you met your soulmate?”

“I don’t know, I’ve kept it covered” she replies softly, she props herself up on her elbow, her eyes narrowing in the darkness, which you don’t notice. “Even with all these new people we’ve met?” your voice is soft, almost a bit hesitant of your inquiry.

“I like Mako, but I’ve seen his mark and it’s not what I said to him, I don’t want to confuse myself by looking” she sits up fully, “Is that why you're so sad, did you meet yours?”

“They didn’t want me..." You roll over so your back is facing your sister. Korra tries to pry it out of you, her voice laced with quiet rage but you simply squeeze your eyes shut and tune her out.

The next morning, Korra doesn't leave your side, she tries multiple times to get the truth out of you, but you always tell her to drop it and walk away. Later on, she reluctantly leaves to do some avatar stuff and asks Pema to keep you company. Pema was nice and in moments like these when you wished your mom was around to comfort you she was the second-best thing. Both of you are sitting at a table, teacups in your hands as the laughter of the kids can be heard from out the window.

"Korra told me what happened" Pema finally breaks the silence, it knocks you out of your thoughts and you harshly set the cup down onto the table, some of the contents of the cup sloshing out from the sides. "That was between us" you spit out.

"Tenzin tells me a lot of things and he's a man so I don't think he's pieced any of it together but… " Pema purses her lips and sets her teacup down onto the table, gently. "It's Lin, isn't it?" Sadness trickles down your throat and wraps itself around your insides, suddenly the door you'd hastily locked to keep yourself from crying in front of anyone busted open, and with it a tidal wave of tears. Pema pushes herself up off the floor and sits down next to you, albeit it takes her a few minutes to get there in her pregnant state. She wraps her arms around you and pulls you in tightly. You let your head fall onto her shoulder as you weep, your shoulders shake as the feeling of loneliness rocks you to your core.

“She doesn’t want me,” your voice is muffled but Pema hears you perfectly, she shushes you, running her hand soothingly through your hair. For what feels like hours all that can be heard is the sound of your strangled breaths and Pema’s humming. She slowly pulls away from you, panic rises in you and you try to stay within her arms but she places her hands on your shoulders to keep you from doing so.

Her hands reach up to your face, wiping away the tears that continue to seep out of your eyes. “I think part of Lin’s hesitation has to do with me,” she begins, your brows furrowed in confusion but before you can ask any questions, she continues “A long time ago Lin and Tenzin were together, he hadn’t met me yet but I knew he was it, even without having spoken to him. So when I saw him pulling away from her, I finally made my move and admitted I was his soulmate, the woman who could make him happy.”

Lin and Tenzin?... jealousy bubbles up in your throat which you try to push down, that was forever ago but maybe, she still loved him. Maybe that was part of the reason she rejected you. Pema pulled you out of your thoughts, brushing some of your hair out of your face in a motherly way. “I think because of that, she doesn’t think anyone else can love her.”

“But I’m her soulmate” you respond, sure you didn’t love her yet but you knew you felt something, ever since your discovery at the arena you’ve dreamt of being wrapped up in her arms once more, to be so close to her you can see every detail in her gorgeous green eyes. These dreams that fill you with pain and longing when you wake up, feel so unattainable now due to her swift rejection.

“Lin is a very confusing person, I think you need to try again and show her you won’t take no for an answer.” Pema’s words swirl around your mind as you try to think up a plan, her advice she gave to Korra a few weeks ago may have been bad but this seemed like it might work. If not then at least you wouldn’t stay awake at night wondering what if.

------

Before you can even formulate a plan on winning Lin over, Korra drags you off to help her with something important. She’s talking a mile a minute while Naga weaves past mobiles and dodges anyone who enters her path. The sun is high in the sky, marking that it's roughly midday and families are walking down the sidewalk together, couples are hand in hand, laughing about something the other has said. A part of you wonders what it might be like if Lin does decide to give the two of you a shot. She doesn’t seem like the kind of person to show affection in public, but what about behind closed doors?

Due to how fast Korra is talking along with you getting lost with the idea of Lin, you don’t pick up a single word she’s been saying, so when the polar dog finally stops in front of a warehouse that is in the middle of getting raided, you're a little confused, to say the least. You both climb down and walk towards the entrance where Tenzin and Lin are talking, that childish feeling of jealousy hits you at the sight of them talking and you mentally scold yourself for it. Tenzin is happily married to his soulmate, you remind yourself.

“Found anything?” Korra calls out, catching the attention of the two master benders. Lin’s eyes land on you and for a split second a look of sadness and pain crosses through her features but she quickly smothers it down with her usual scowl. It seems only you notice that momentary slip up as Tenzin begins telling you and Korra, even though honestly you aren’t listening, about whatever has gone on since she’s been gone.

Apparently, Korra believed Asami’s father to be an equalist which seemed a bit far fetched, he did sponsor her pro-bending team, right? But you trust your little sister and so when they find his factory to be empty, you place a gentle hand on her shoulder to offer her some form of comfort.

“It would appear Hiroshi is innocent” Lin finally speaks up with her arms crossed, since that first glance when you arrived, her eyes have been set on Korra. It stings to know she’s ignoring you but right now is about helping your sister and getting to the bottom of this. Asami waltzes up to the four of you with Mako by her side. “Okay, you did your search. Now you can all leave.” Korra ignores Asami and walks off to talk to Mako, leaving you alone.

“I can’t believe your in on this” Asami says to you, for the most part, you’ve stayed out of Korra’s drama, only lending her advice in private and helping her out when it came to equalists or Tarlock. You let out a sigh and look away from her gaze “she’s my sister Asami and she wouldn’t do something like this without reason.”

“Well he’s my father and he’s innocent, your sister is dragging him through the mud over a misinterpreted conversation” she fires back. Asami glares at you, taking a step closer to you to most likely try to get you all to back down. Before you can even think up a retort Lin, surprisingly, speaks up. “Ms. Sato, during these hard times we can’t leave any stone unturned, the warehouse is empty so you don’t need to worry about us anymore.”

Asami walks off with Mako’s arm slung around her shoulder and Korra all but storms back over with a defeated look on her face, you side glance Lin, who isn’t even paying you any attention anymore. She was probably just trying to keep a fight from breaking out, you tell yourself, she doesn’t care about you. But then Pema’s advice rings through your head, louder than the self-deprecating thoughts and you try to remind yourself that maybe Lin does care about you, hopefully.

After talking to the mystery man at midnight who ends up giving valuable information involving Hiroshi, a plan is set in place. You're all in a police force blimp, if not for the situation at hand you’d be marveling at the machinery with unbridled joy. You’ve never been on something like this before, sure the South Pole isn’t behind on the times but they don’t have any form of aircraft. “Raiding the Sato mansion is risky with Tarlock breathing down your neck. If we’re wrong-”

“I know. I can kiss my job goodbye. But protecting republic city is all I care about. We can’t let Amon get his hands on this new weapon” Lin says, effectively cutting Tenzin off. You stand a few paces behind them, fiddling with your hands as you eavesdrop on them. You want to get to know her, and Lin’s words offer you a piece of information regarding her personality and life without even meaning to. She’s a good person, she might have hurt you but she’s good and that warms your aching heart just a bit.

There are so many horror stories of people's soulmates being monsters, of being chained to someone who doesn’t treat them right that at least the universe decided to spare you on that front. You shake yourself of your thoughts, now is not the time to lose yourself over Lin, and soon enough you land in front of the Sato mansion, once inside Asami puts up quite a fight over her father's innocence which you don’t blame her for. If the roles were reversed you’d probably have already gotten physical with whoever tried to hurt your dad.

The workshop behind the house is small and empty, the policemen try to find any sort of nefarious plans hidden in drawers or boxes but once again come up empty-handed, the confusing part though is how Hiroshi is also nowhere to be found. There isn’t a connecting room where he may be and there aren't any windows he may have left from. “Chief, the estate has been secured, no one has left since we’ve arrived,” an officer tells Lin.

“Perhaps we just couldn’t see him leaving” she replies as she walks over to the center of the room, you step to the side as Korra had sort of stepped in front of you protectively when you entered the workshop, to see what she’s doing. What she does next you’ve heard of but never seen, many talk about the way Toph Beifong revolutionized earth bending, not only by learning to bend metal but also with her aseismic senses. She bends the metal off her foot and slams it down onto the ground. Lin closes her eyes and for a few seconds remains completely still.

“There’s a tunnel beneath the workshop running deep into the mountainside.” Your eyes widen at the discovery, maybe sometime in the future, if you and Lin do work it out you can gush about how much you admire her bending abilities, how truly powerful she is. Asami interrupts your daydream with her denial of such a thing, you do admire her loyalty to her father and his innocence and you honestly don’t want to see her reaction if he is an equalist.

Lin effortlessly bends a piece of metal from the floor and slams it into the wall, showcasing a staircase that leads down, just like she said. You grab onto Korra’s hand knowing she probably wants to race down immediately to find out what lurks below. “Maybe you don’t know everything about your father,” Korra says in an apologetic tone, looking over at Asami, “I’m sorry.”

Lin orders the officers to go down first and as you make your way to the stairs, Lin stops you. “Uh-uh, you four stay up here, officer so-” you scoff, going to push past her but she clamps a hand down onto your shoulder. “That includes you too.”

“I am not letting my little sister go down there without me, I can handle myself” You shrug Lins handoff and push past her to make your way down the stairs, her voice stops you as you take your first step down. “I’m the chief of police and I am order-” you look over your shoulder at Lin who looks completely composed, it irks you that right now she’s trying to control you, acting like she has some sort of say over your actions.

“Yeah and I don’t care, family trumps law enforcement” you reply, effectively ending the conversation.

“Wait, does that mean we can go down to?” you hear Boin ask from up above, Lin barks out a no as she follows after you, most likely scowling no doubt. On the tram that speeds downward, Lin approaches you with her hands held behind her back, she’s still scowling from earlier, but her expression softens just a fraction when you look into her eyes.

“Stay in the back and out of trouble” she orders, Korra and Tenzin are on the other side of the tram, out of earshot. You push off the railing and take a step closer until your chests are touching, maintaining eye contact with her. Lin’s breath catches, which pleases you and offers you a bit of hope.

“If Korra needs me I’ll do what I must to protect her, even if that means being in the frontlines,” you say defiantly. Lin sighs, her scowl diminishing. “You shouldn’t care anyway, remember? This, us, isn’t a thing… unless you’ve changed your min-”

“I haven’t, I want you out of the way because you’ll be a nuisance to the mission if you end up hurt or in need of help,” she says, taking a small step away from you before stalking off. Your shoulders sag, oh. Pema’s encouraging words seem so quiet right now, you could really use another pep talk from her right about now. For a second it seemed like maybe she’d caved, maybe she’d finally admit at this moment on the tram that she had feelings for you and wanted to give it a shot after this raid. Your hands clench as you try to squash down any oncoming tears and sigh.

The tram lurches to a stop and you stumble forward a bit before catching yourself. You can’t let Lin be right, can’t give her the satisfaction so you square your shoulders and march out after them. An audible gasp leaves you at the sight ahead. Korra was right, all day it seemed like a wild goose chase but in front of you is a large warehouse that has banners hanging from the ceilings with Amons face on them, fear crawls through you at the memory of being electrocuted at the arena, of the explosion and Korra almost dying too many times to count.

The center of the warehouse is empty, but what lines the walls are towering, mechanical… statues? You squint in confusion at the contraptions “and I’m guessing those are the new weapons” Korra states. You take a step forward from the group but Lin grabs your forearm and pulls you away from the statues and has you stand behind her. A part of you wants to yell at her, claim you aren’t a nuisance or useless, but now doesn’t seem like the time.

“Hiroshi was lying alright, but where is he?” Tenzin asks, and as if answering his question a large metal wall shoots up from beside you, Lin pulls you away from it and if not for her you probably would have gotten killed as it slams into the roof, locking you guys inside. You look up at her and she immediately drops your arm, tearing her gaze away from you and composing herself once more. Lin steps forward and tries to metal bend the wall back down, but nothing happens, not even a slight tremor, green lights flash on within the statues as they come to life, Hiroshi’s voice suddenly surrounds them, he must be talking into a microphone.

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to metal bend that wall, Chief Beifong. It’s solid platinum.” The statues make a loud whirring sound as they start to move away from their respective spots and glide towards the group, effectively cornering them. “My mecha tanks are platinum as well. Not even your renowned mother could bend a metal so pure.”

“Hiroshi, I knew you were a lying no good equalist. Come out here and-”

“And do what, young avatar? Face the wrath of your bending? No. I think I’ll fight from inside here, where my odds are a little more… equal” he cuts Korra off. Your eyes widen, not hearing what Lin says as he shoots a metal hook out of his tank's hand, you all jump away from it but the other tanks keep moving in on you.

You look around for any kind of water source, for a moment it seems like a fruitless attempt until you feel it, you whirl around and notice the metal pipe against the wall. You run-up to an officer and shout “I need you to break that pipe for me!” He stares in confusion for a minute before following your pointed finger and realizing your intentions. He rips the pipes open and water comes flooding in, you hope there's some kind of drain around here or you might have just doomed you all.

There’s no time to worry though and you bend sharp daggers made out of water and aim them at the tank closest to you, it whirls its face around to stare at its attacker and starts to advance on you, but you bend water around its feet and legs, then freeze it. While it’s immobile you send more frozen daggers at it, this time aiming for its chest and two finally penetrate the metal, causing sparks to fly out of its chest as it whirs, you bend water into the two holes, completely breaking it. Without a second to lose you move onto another that the officers are holding down with their wires and do the same to its chest. A loud crash is heard behind you and you whirl around to see that the tank Lin was on fell against a metal beam and onto the floor.

Your heart squeezes in fear until you see her standing on top of it, completely fine and a breath you didn’t realize you were holding in finally escapes with a strangled noise that probably would have embarrassed you in different circumstances. In your moment of distraction, the officers you helped had moved onto another tank, and you watch in horror as it electrocutes them by using their metal wires. The officers shout in pain as they spasm out of control before dropping to the ground.

That same tank advances on you quickly, you stumble back, slipping on the ice you had created for the first tank and fall onto it with a groan, your head slams down onto the ice and pain begins to spawn from that same spot but you can’t stop now, you can’t be a nuisance. Out of the corner of your eye, you see another one shoot its wire out at Lin and slam her against the wall. “Lin!” you shout, your eyes widening as she doesn’t move. Next Hiroshi’s tanks knock out Korra and soon after Tenzin, you're the only one awake and the tank chasing after you finally stop but doesn’t make a move to hurt you.

Hiroshi’s tank swirls around from its stance in front of Tenzin and charges at you, you bend water around the floor in front of you to create ice in hopes of stopping his advances, your starting to feel weak from the wound at the back of your head.

“I have plans for you,” Hiroshi says through his tanks microphone, it comes out a bit staticy due to the attacks but otherwise it moves like it’s still in perfect condition. You try to bend daggers at him but you can’t throw them far enough to hit him, they all fall at his tanks feet and a mocking laugh echoes through the warehouse. Something warm trickles down your neck, you hesitantly raise a hand to the back of your head and when you pull away your met with blood, it drips off your hand and onto the ice. You can’t beat them all, not alone and not in your state.

The ice begins to melt due to the heat of the room and Hiroshi shoots out a wire of his own, your heart gives out as you know what's about to happen, you close your eyes as you wait for the inevitable and are shortly encased in shocking pain, it's worse than last time, so much worse and you think you might have screamed, you're not entirely sure due to being disoriented from the millions of sharp pinpricks you feel in your bones. All to fast you once again succumb to the pain and your eyes give out.

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shortkingzuko · 3 years

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title: growing fondness

relationship: jeong jeong/piandao

warnings: brief allusions to SA, light mention of homophobia and transphobia

summary: Piandao and Jeong Jeong's feelings for each other through the years. Despite himself, Piandao managed to grow a fondness towards the man.

word count: 4k

read under the cut or on AO3 for more tags and details on warnings!

20 YEARS BEFORE THE END

Dislike is too strong a word for the emotions that they first carry for each other. Dislike implies a meeting, an aversion, and an emotional reaction to each other. At first, they only have apathy. What else would they have for each other?

Jeong Jeong is a lieutenant commander, a fire bender to boot, his days are spent in war meetings, dusty courtyards, using a stick to thwack his student’s stances when they were off (and they were often off), and conversing with soldiers of higher ranks. It’s a world Piandao is barred from by virtue of his cold hands and cold spirit, and removed further still due to his previous engagement, called off before it could become a marriage, now that his records were proudly stamped with the seal meant only for men. While commanders and recruiters would repeat, until they were blue in the face, that the Fire Nation does not hold confusion against him, he, of course, called off his marriage before he was a man, and thus no illegal activity could have occurred, Piandao knows that he is looked at with a critical gaze. His interactions with fellow soldiers and commanders are watched and noted, and the Fire Nation, for all her might and glory, would never risk a scandal.

Divided as they are, they feel nothing short of the basic respect a soldier is meant to have for his so-called superiors. Perhaps a glimpse of quickly greying hair, or sharp cheekbones beneath dark skin, inspires a sense of aesthetic appreciation, but it is quickly ushered away upon hearing harshly said instructions and critiques.

This changes when Jeong Jeong, - Lieutenant Commander Jeong Jeong, he introduces himself as, frustration clear in his voice - is reassigned to the non-bending corps of the training academy. Whispers and conspiracies flourish at the news, as people try to guess the cause. Some say Jeong Jeong ‘lost his stuff’, that his fire-bending students have outmatched him in the field, though Piandao doubts that to be true. Another in Piandao’s rank suggests that Jeong Jeong was caught in bed with an Admiral’s daughter, that this is a punishment for his crassness and disrespect, since promiscuity is not, in itself, a reason to be stripped of his title. Piandao doubts that as well, based on the polite apathy Jeong Jeong seems to hold for the women that share Jeong Jeong’s rank; all of them capable and beautiful, yet inspiring none of the behaviour in Jeong Jeong that other men exhibit.

The most believable guess that Piandao hears is that Jeong Jeong criticized a decision in a private meeting, asked a question that implied disrespect to a superior officer, and being forced to teach non-benders was supposed to scare him back in line. A reminder that despite his mastery of the element, he can easily be stripped of any valour or honour that comes with it. After all, Piandao thinks bitterly, nothing is as insulting as being forced to teach non-benders.

Regardless of the reason, it’s clear that his new position of testing hand-to-hand combat to lower ranks is meant as a punishment, one that Jeong Jeong accepts with little grace. His attitude is dour, words harsh as he barks orders at troops, and has a clear disdain for those who were never kissed by sparks or flames. Lessons are unpleasant, and Piandao’s opinion of Jeong Jeong sours as days turn to weeks of the man directing soldiers to fight each other, offering little guidance besides telling them that they would perish within minutes to the dirt-caked armies of the Earth Kingdom.

It’s an insult that strikes Piandao a little too close to home. The words all too familiar to the disbelief of his friends and family when he told them he was going to continue his military career past the very basic training all Fire Nation citizens are forced to go through. The concern that wove its way into every conversation, asking him what he would do if an Earth Kingdom thug caught him off guard, or what if another cadet found out about his condition and snuck into his bed chambers at night. As talented as he was, everyone would explain, he was nothing compared to the might of spirit-born flame.

Piandao doesn’t quite remember what he said that provoked Jeong Jeong, though he knows it was snide, under his breath but purposefully loud enough that if the Lieutenant Commander wanted to make a scene, he could. Of course, Jeong Jeong challenges him to a duel, as Piandao knew he would. His calm demeanour hides a hot temper that everyone knows about. The courtyard is cleared, all other ensigns packed against each other around the walls and pillars of the training yard. He’s given a training sword, heavy and unbalanced, the blade dulled to prevent mortal wounds, and Jeong Jeong, the bastard, takes only the thing bamboo rod he was using before, brandishing it as a sword. The message is clear; he doesn’t need a weapon to take Piandao down. It infuriates Piandao more than it should.

He’s seething as he gets into his stance, sword poised, and eyes narrowing as he walks Jeong Jeong prepare. The long shadows of the late afternoon sun obscure Jeong Jeong’s face, and for some reason, that makes it easier for Piandao to maintain his upset. He’s overconfident, clearly, and the bamboo reed wobbles and quakes with each motion. Jeong Jeong smirks, and for a moment Piandao wonders how long he spent riling them up in search of a fight.

Piandao moves first, darting forward and to the side, trying to gauge Jeong Jeong’s agility, and whether or not bending is on the table for him. He reacts quickly enough - of course, he does, for a man of his title and skill - though Piandao can see some hesitancy in his movements. Likely, he thinks, making a half-hearted thrust to test Jeong Jeong’s reflexes again, his muscles aren’t warmed up yet. All he did was stand around until now, and he didn’t even stretch before making everyone else clear off. He knows that if he wants to strike, he needs to do it sooner, rather than later.

With that thought in mind, Piandao lunges forward again, swinging his arms upward to block the obvious swipe that Jeong Jeong makes with his reed. The wood wobbles as it slides against the dulled metal of Piandao’s blade, and faintly, he can see smoke rise from where Jeong Jeong is gripping it. He ducks when Jeong Jeong makes a wide swing, kicking a leg out to force his lieutenant commander to take another step back. It’s just a matter of blocking another swing, the bamboo crackling from the force and from the heat emanating from Jeong Jeong’s hand, before Piandao is standing once again, holding his blade just shy of Jeong Jeong’s head.

He grins when he sees the shock register on his superior’s face, his eyes widening and eyebrows furrowing in frustration and confusion. Jeong Jeong’s lips part, almost to make a soft, Oh, before quickly closing again. From this distance, Piandao can see strands of hair falling out of the tight bun that all Fire Nation troops keep their hair in for training. He’s almost pretty in this light, Piandao thinks. Then Jeong Jeong huffs and flicks his wrist, and before Piandao knows it he’s being smacked in the check with the reed of bamboo, the wood hot to the touch and leaving a dark red welt on Piandao’s tanned skin. He drops his sword and stance in shock at the sensation.

“This is why you’ll die in the Earth Kingdom,” Jeong Jeong, voice booming once again. “You’ll never survive if you’re too soft to finish the job.”

Piandao scoffs. “Would you have hit me if I did hit you?”

“You should never assault a superior officer,” Jeong Jeong, though his voice is blank, dull as if he’s repeating a mantra that he’s been told many times. Students around the courtyard start to fidget, unsure what to do. “... You are well-trained, uh..”

“Piandao,” he supplies, only a little put off that Jeong Jeong doesn’t even know his name.

“Yes, Piandao. You put up a good fight. You may even inconvenience those mud-welding buffoons before they crush you to death.”

It’s not quite a compliment, but it’s all Piandao gets before Jeong Jeong is back to yelling orders to the rest of the students. Surprisingly, he tells them that they can all head off to bed early, so they may dream of improvement.

If Jeong Jeong is a little more respectful to Piandao in the days that follow, if he offers a little more feedback to people during training, if the lessons are more thoughtful than just ‘practice these poses until I say we’re finished', then no one is willing to question it, just in case things will go back to how they once were. By the time that Jeong Jeong has won his way back into the good graces of his superiors and is once again reassigned to his old students, Piandao is almost sad to see him go. Despite himself, he managed to grow a fondness towards the man.

10 YEARS BEFORE THE END

The sun is obnoxiously bright and inviting for such a testing evening, Piandao thinks, squinting at the sun as he makes his way towards the town. Presumably, it would be less glaring if he left later. The distance from his house could easily be shortened by carriage, but he needs the time to calm himself, put on a more friendly demeanour than he truly has for the men he’s going to meet.

Sometimes he wants to say ‘screw it’ and stop replying to all the letters he receives from the people he knew in the military (well, most of them, at least) and to stop agreeing to invitations to come out to dine and drink when they’re in town. Sometimes, becoming a shut-in doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

If Piandao drags his feet a little as he makes the trek to the village, no one can blame him, nor does anyone seem to notice, already caught up in the merriment of drinking. He sighs but plasters on a grin as he approaches the table, loudly announcing his entrance as he sits at the table. The tabletop is already damp and sticky with alcohol, and even before everyone has greeted him, a glass is shoved in his hand as he’s encouraged to catch up with the tipsy table.

The chatter is asinine, and they cycle through topics that they’ve discussed well enough. The folks that Piandao trained with badger him about why he left the military while bragging about their exploits. They tell him if he had stuck around he could have a wife by now - despite everything you have ‘going on’, they always make sure to tack on - he would probably be commander by now, given his skills. They tell him about their government-provided vacation homes that they’ve been promised in the Earth Kingdom. They tell him that, sure, he lives a pretty cushy life as it is, but once the war is over - and they’re so close to winning, they tell Piandao with a wink - they’ll be rolling in coin and be given the highest honours.

The waitstaff and other patrons surely hate them, but what can they do? No one seems to notice the rest of the bar flinching as a playful argument amongst them grows in volume No one else at Piandao’s table notices when the waitress stops being the young, pretty girl, who brought them their first bottle of soju and starts being the rotund, thick-armed man, likely the owner of the establishment. Other patrons start clearing out, despite the half-full bottles still on their tables. Piandao wonders if there’s a line that they’ll have to cross to get kicked out, though surely it’s far in the distance. The military’s money is no less gold, and after months at sea, his old crew seems eager to spend it on booze before they head back to their families.

By the time they start loosening up and giving Piandao what he came here for, they’re suitably drunk. Even Piandao feels a little fuzzy around the edges. Everyone at the table leans forward, their voices lowering to a slurred whisper, as they dish the gossip they’ve all heard on their respective vessels. Which captain’s wife cheated on him while he was at sea, which ensign’s corpse was found burned beyond recognition, which ship has lost funding. Which battles have been lost without the public knowing or, more frighteningly, which have been won without reporting. The information is invaluable now that he doesn’t have the ability to hear it firsthand.

Tragically, the important gossip is always few and far between. His drinking partners scoff and shove each other, glaring at one another if a comment gets too close to being critical, or worse, negative about their military pursuits. Someone makes a joke about how Commander Anong alone is responsible for any lost battles since her beauty distracts everyone. Another comments on the figure of a young woman sitting at the bar. The mood lightens and the moment passes, and any thread of useless information that Piandao could collect is lost.

He’s about to call it a night, make up some excuse to leave and start the long hike back to his childhood home on top of the hill when a large hand claps him on the back.

“Piandao, remember that old Lieutenant that we all hated? Jeong Jeong?” At the name, a few soldiers turn to spit on the ground, earning another laugh from the table. Piandao sees one of the bartenders grumble at the mess. “You nearly beat his ass once?”

“I recall,” Piandao replies. His response makes everyone else at the table double over with drunken laughter, all unable to get out what the joke is.

“You’ll never guess what that scumbag did.”

“What did he do?”

It takes a minute for the giggles to die down enough for any answer to worm its way through their lips. “ Defected ! Made a huge scene at a meeting then gave a speech to his crew about the ‘evils of war’! Ran off into the woods like a dog with his tail between his legs afterwards!”

Piandao is shocked into silence for a moment, but when he sees the searching eyes of his companion, he forces himself into a hearty laugh. It is soon swept away by the laughter of the table.

“Oh, when we find him, it’ll be good fun,” a man who is now a captain, who has sway and power and money, says, before taking another swig of drink. “It’s always a good day when we find a traitor.”

“I wonder if he’ll cry like a coward when we drag him out of whatever mud hut he’s hiding in,” another soldier adds. “Remember how chicken he was when you fought him, Piandao? Took his final shot at you when you had already won, as a coward would. I swear they’ll make anyone an Admiral these days.”

It feels like his insides are twisting until he can get away. There’s groaning and pleading for him to have one more drink as he manages to extract himself but the hole made by his absence is already filled by the time he’s reached the doorway. More tales of bloody victory and pregnant spouses to be told while he walks home.

His mind buzzes as if it’s full of insects as he makes progress on his venture home. He almost can’t believe the news that Jeong Jeong left , that he was able to even get away and survive.

A traitorous part of his brain whispers, "for now."

There’s only a small stack of letters at home with Jeong Jeong's distinctive handwriting, perfect in form and size, but always too thick, as if he took too long to write each letter. Like he was trying so hard to master each word.

Their… exchanges have been lighthearted, chaste, even, and fleeting. Piandao would receive maybe two letters a year if he was lucky, and he refused to send anything more than he received. In the years since Piandao almost bested Jeong Jeong, their relationship went from begrudging respect to a tentative friendship. They wrote to each other about poetry, in words and infighting, and it always made Piandao’s heart quicken whenever he received a letter with Jeong Jeong’s seal. For however long it took to read Jeong Jeong’s latest accounts and send a reply, Piandao turned into an embarrassing romantic.

By the time Piandao makes it home, the sun has long been set, and it’s mostly by muscle memory that he can find, much less enter, his estate. He lights a candle when he reaches his room, letting the flickering light grow as he sets more candles ablaze. For a moment, he feels a brief temptation to write Jeong Jeong a letter.

But what would he say? Congratulations? Good luck? Please come back to me, even though Jeong Jeong was never his? Or maybe, knowing that the military would be ripping open every letter that would even mention Jeong Jeong, a heartfelt rejection, a letter filled with nothing of insult and swearing off his name, just to make sure no one catches on to… whatever they could have had.

In the end, he knows it’s a waste of time either way. Whatever he wrote, Jeong Jeong would never see it. Piandao doesn’t really want to talk to anyone else besides him.

TEN YEARS AFTER THE BEGINNING

A shadow crosses Piandao’s face as he paints. He glances up, having to squint against the sunrise, and spies Jeong Jeong as he slinks across the courtyard. Quiet as an embermouse, he walks across the yard and climbs on top of one of the many decorative stones. He has to use his hands to pull his legs into the lotus position now - funny how a few years of luxury can steal away one’s flexibility so quickly. All the same, he knows that if Jeong Jeong wanted to be unnoticed then he wouldn’t have noticed him.

Piandao smiles and returns his gaze to his paper, dipping the brush back into the paint tin. The last few years have been good to him and, dare he say it, good to Jeong Jeong as well. There’s a pleasant fullness to both of their cheeks and stomachs. New wrinkles form at the corner of their eyes and mouths, and as much as Jeong Jeong denies it, Piandao knows their origins come from smiling.

Jeong Jeong has never been an extroverted soul, has never yearned to be the life of the party. His years on the run certainly didn’t help that facet of him, but over the years he’s gotten friendlier again, more willing to socialize when unexpected guests pop by their house. Sometimes they ask for Piandao to train them, sometimes they ask for Jeong Jeong.

It’s more than Piandao deserves; this dream-like life that he’s gotten used to. He spent so long trying to prove himself to others, doing unspeakable things to earn the respect of horrible people, to prove himself as a man and as a non-bender in a red-hot, burning world. When he realized that he would never get that approval, he was angry and then relieved, suddenly free of the delusions he once carried, and ashamed that he sought such acceptance. For years he wondered how he would make amends with the world; if he would ever find peace. Now, it seems as if he has.

He finishes his painting before Jeong Jeong finishes his morning meditations - the first of many in a day - and sets weights on the edges of the paper to ensure it remains flat enough to dry. Piandao rises to his feet, a little slower than he might have a few years previous and makes his way to the kitchen to assemble a tray of tea.

He had long dismissed any additional help around the house, and Jeong Jeong’s arrival after the war, suddenly allowed to return to the country but with nowhere else to go, certainly did not encourage Piandao to hire any assistance. He loads a tray with cups, a small teapot of tepid water, and a bowl of dried tea leaves on the side. No need to waste time boiling water here or letting the leaves over steep, he thinks, as he throws a few milk buns onto the tray as well.

He’s careful as he walks back to the courtyard, trying to be as quiet as possible as he approaches Jeong Jeong on his rock. His eyes are closed and he faces the sun, looking so calm that for a moment he almost reminds Piandao of a cat or perhaps a lizard, basking. Piandao places the wooden tray on the ground, earning a slight scowl from Jeong Jeong from the noise, before leaving to retrieve some cushions to sit on. By the time he returns, he sees Jeong Jeong sliding off the rock, landing on the ground with grace.

Jeong Jeong warms the tea for them before adding the leaves to the pot. They sit in silence while they wait, something that once scared Piandao - the silence that draped Jeong Jeong like a wet cloth. It didn’t cling to him so much as he dragged it around with him like a weight. For so long Jeong Jeong demanded silence, refused to have anything that even resembled a polite conversation with Piandao. It was hard to tell if it was the last remnants of shame that built the wall between them or if that was just what Jeong Jeong had grown used to. Despite many of the White Lotus viewing the battle of Ba Sing See as a chance of redemption, they quickly realized even if the war was over, peace would not just fall into their laps, and forgiveness wasn’t as easy to find as they hoped. Piandao often wondered how many battles would he have to win for peace, to make up for the battles he fought in the name of the war.

He knew that Jeong Jeong struggled with it too, viewed his welcoming back to the Fire Nation almost as a testament to the fact that he didn’t atone. Even now, basking in the morning sun, Piandao knew that Jeong Jeong often thought of what else he could have done to make amends.

On the other hand, Piandao doesn’t pretend that a good portion of Jeong Jeong’s behaviour is just who he is. He was never ‘nice’ although Piandao knows that he always wanted to be kind. He never quite enjoyed being social nor did he ever yearn to amongst others. The years he spent on the run, surrounded by people who presented his privacy and space and didn’t push him on matters that he didn’t want to discuss, certainly didn’t help him in this regard.

Piandao pours their cups of tea and passes on to Jeong Jeong, smiling when he takes a deep breath of the aromatic steam. He tears off a piece of bread and hands it to his lover, feeling warm fingertips brush against his own as Jeong Jeong takes it from him. Jeong Jeong mumbles a soft thank you , a more recent development after years of Piandao chiding him about table manners.

Piandao can’t help himself, reaching a hand across to softly comb through Jeong Jeong’s hair, white and so much softer in their gentle years together. Jeong Jeong lets out a little huff, but takes a sip of his tea, instead of trying to shove Piandao’s handoff.

“I’ll stop focusing on your hair once mine matches,” he jokes, earning a glare from the grouchy man. His hair is only starting to get flecks of silver, his beard only having a few specks of salt and pepper. It’s almost exciting, growing old with a loved one when a few years ago the thought seemed so alien. Plus, he thinks, it gives him ample ammo to tease Jeong Jeong, who’s been grey since long before the war ended. He retracts his hand, letting it glide gently across Jeong Jeong’s roughened face, before returning to his own steaming cup.

The morning is still young when they finish their drinks, though they sit and bask in the warmth for a while longer before getting up. Their pace is languid, the conversation easy, as they return to the house to start their days. There are chores to do, errands to run, but neither of them is aching to get started on them at the moment. Age has brought a comfort and appreciation for languidity that they've never had before. There’s no need to rush, they know, when the day’s just begun.

#m #pianjeong #piandao #jeong jeong #atla #atla fic #my fic #lmao i forgot to post it here and was like ; ~; commints??

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onlyhenrys · 4 years

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She-Wolf - Chapter 11

She-Wolf

Summary: She’s the only female witcher. He’s the most powerful witcher in the continent. What happens when the two cross paths?

Series Masterlist: here

Warning: Violence and mention of possession

Thank you @iloveyouyen for being my amazing bestie/wife and for beta’ing this chapter <3

Chapter 11 Geralt swallowed as he looked at the raven-haired woman in front of him. Time seemed to freeze and her pale skin glowed as she stalked closer towards them, her black and white dress flowing freely around her feet. The presence of the woman was both familiar and intimidating to the white-haired witcher. Memories from another life flashed in front of his eyes and he had to clear his throat before being able to face the fearless woman. The two of them had shared a lifetime worth of intimate moments and Geralt knew that he was one of the only people that had ever seen her vulnerable side. Being with Avyanna almost felt like he was betraying her, even when he knew that Yennefer didn’t see it that way.

The featherlight touch of her fingers brushed over his skin and he closed his eyes at the sensation of her touch.

‘’Hello, Geralt,’’ her voice was smooth and so familiar that his body leaned closer on instinct. She withdrew from him, leaving him cold and focused on Avyanna, who was shielded behind him.

‘’I heard you needed my help?’’ Her voice remained the same and yet her features darkened as she came face to face with the she-wolf.

Avyanna straightened and lifted her head, amber eyes locking with violet ones. “Not if you’re being so smug about it.”

Yennefer’s features softened and a smirk pulled at her lips as she shook her head, sharing her lilac and gooseberry scent with everyone that was close enough. “Always the feisty one,” she muttered, before pulling the female Witcher in her embrace.

The redhead relaxed into the other female’s arms and placed her hands against her shoulders, holding her close. She was never close to the older mage, mainly because she couldn’t stand the sight of Geralt and Yennefer together, but also because the raven-haired woman secretly intimidated her.

Yennefer released her grip and took a step back, looking over her shoulder to the rest of the company, her eyes lingering on the element bender.

“Mmmh, interesting,” she mumbled, stepping closer to the silver-haired woman, “I can feel the power running through your veins.”

“And I can feel yours,” Nesrin raised her chin, not afraid to face the woman in front of her, “the elements told me about you. Yennefer of Vengerberg, the most powerful sorceress of the continent, you have so much potential,” she sighed, “and yet you waste it pining over someone that doesn’t belong with you.”

Faolàn jumped in between the two of them as Yennefer stepped forward to lash out, her hands already lit up with unused magic. “Woah, calm down,” he pulled Nesrin behind him, shielding her with his large body. The earth started to shake as Nesrin braced herself, ready to face off with the mage in front of her.

‘’What’s going on here?’’ thundered a heavy voice, successfully breaking the two women apart. The earth settled down and Faolán sighed in relief before pulling the petite woman against his side, secretly hiding her from the woman with the burning violet eyes.

Avyanna broke free from the group and jumped into the older man’s arms, her face pressed in the crook of his neck. ‘’Vesemir, I missed you.’’

A chuckle vibrated through his body as he pressed her close against his body before settling her back on her feet, taking in the rest of the company. ‘’I see we’re all getting along?’’

The mage pressed her lips together and stared away in the distance, while the element bender giggled, not at all fazed by the incident. ‘’I can’t promise that.’’

The old witcher shook his head and turned away, mumbling something about the attitude of the young ones, before leading the way up to the old castle. Avyanna looked up as he felt a presence next to her. ‘’I see the two of you finally decided to stop pretending to not like each other?’’

She grinned as Eskel pointed to Geralt, who was keeping his eye on them, an unreadable expression on his face. ‘’Yeah, I guess we did.’’

A soft hand touched her shoulder as the witcher smiled, his eyes softened when they met hers. ‘’I’m happy for you,’’ he faced Geralt, who had crept closer, ‘’for both of you.’’

She squeezed his hand and watched as he joined Faolàn and Nesrin, who immediately jumped into a conversation with the quiet witcher. An arm around her waist pulled her attention back to the White Wolf and a smile took over.

“Are you okay?” He softly mumbled, his concern for her clear in his amber eyes.

She leaned up and pressed a soft kiss on his rough cheek, trying to take some of the concern away. “I’m good,” she sighed, “I just really hope Yen is able to find out what’s wrong with me. I hate being a danger to all of you.”

He looked like he wanted to reassure her, but she captured his lips with hers, preventing him from speaking words that she knew held no truth into them. “Don’t,” she warned him, as she pulled back, “I know what kind of risk I am, no need to pretend I’m not.”

He kept quiet for the rest of the walk, his features sharp as he took in his surroundings, overwhelmed with memories. This was the place where he taught Ciri how to fight, where he fell in love for the first time, where he learned what it was like to truly be in pain, where his heart got broken…

Dark clouds covered the sky and the wind started to pick up, pulling Geralt from his train of thoughts. The horses became restless as they picked up the trace of magic that was lingering in the air, their hooves scraping the cold ground in nerves. Geralt shuddered at the sudden cold that crept up his skin and gazed down at Avyanna. ‘’Are you alright?’’

The She-Wolf had her eyes closed, a thin layer of sweat covering her face as she seemed to strain herself, almost like she was trying to fight something.

When she opened her eyes, Geralt bit back a curse. A leaf green had replaced the smouldering amber, but the look in her eyes was different. She seemed terrified as her body started to tremble, her fists clenching and unclenching. ‘’Geralt - ‘’

He reached out with his hands, slowly approaching the terrified witcher, aware of the others who had stopped to watch. ‘’It’s alright, Avy. Grab my hand, I will help you through it.’’

She took a step forward, one of her hands raised when a deep shudder ran through her body and a tear escaped. ‘’I’m sorry,’’ she whispered and Geralt knew the instant she was gone. Her body stopped shaking as she straightened and her cold eyes locked with his amber ones.

Dread filled his stomach as a smirk crept up her bloodless lips, cocking her head to the side. ‘’Hello, Geralt.’’

Thunder sounded from a distance and a flash of lightning cleaved through the sky, hitting the ground near Faolán, making him jump back, dragging Nesrin with him. A chuckle rang through the air and Geralt watched in horror as Avyanna summoned a ball of lightning between her hands, holding it like a toy.

‘’So,’’ she smiled, ‘’who’s next?’’

Red strands of hair plastered against her head as it started pouring, making it almost impossible for Geralt to see her. Even more magic filled the air as both Yennefer and Nesrin readied themselves, both a faint light in the heavy storm.

Chaos broke loose as Avyanna released more lightning, hitting both Eskel and Faolán. The wolves flew backwards and an angry cry broke the heavy silence as Nesrin flew through the air, her silver hair like a halo around her head. Geralt dashed forward and threw his body in front of Avyanna, protecting her from the furious element bender.

‘’Nesrin, please,’’ he begged her, his hands stretched in front of him, ‘’ don’t hurt her. Avyanna is still inside.’’

The redhead chuckled from behind him. ‘’Are you sure of that, White Wolf?’’

His boots slipped in the mud as he turned to face her, his movements, so quick that he had her pinned against the wall before she could blink. A look of surprise crossed her face before she relaxed against his grip as a lazy smile started to spread. ‘’Hello, there.’’

His hand wrapped itself around her throat, holding her tightly against the cold wall. ‘’Let her go,’’ he growled between clenched teeth, ‘’you’ve had your fun, now back off.’’

She managed to free her hand and reached up, brushing the wet strands of hair away from his face. ‘’The fun has just begun, why would I leave the festivities early?’’

Her gaze shifted to Nesrin, who dragged Faolán on her lap, her pleads for him to wake up desperate, painful. ‘’She really loves him, doesn’t she?’’ Nesrin cradled his face in her hands and pressed her forehead against his, whispering softly. ‘’A love like that almost warms my heart.’’

Her gaze fell back on the witcher in front of her, who was studying her, his tight grip still around her throat. ‘’Would you sacrifice yourself for her?’’

‘’Yes,’’ he said, without hesitation, ‘’I would sacrifice everything for her.’’ He leaned closer, his amber eyes burning with desperation. ‘’I know you’re in there, Avy.’’ One hand released her throat and stroke her cheek, ‘’Fight, Avyanna, fight. I can’t even imagine how hard it must be, but we’re going to help you. Just come back to us,’’ his voice dropped to a whisper, ‘’come back to me, please.’’ A tremor ran through her body as he pleaded.

‘’I love you,’’ he pressed his forehead against hers, slowly releasing her throat. ‘’I love you so, so much, Avy, you have no idea.’’

He waited for her to burst out in laughter, to mock him. But when she stayed quiet he lifted his head and amber eyes stared back at him, the edges silver with tears. Her arms wrapped themselves around his neck before her body collapsed and Geralt rushed forward to scoop her up in his arms.

He felt her eyes burn a hole through his back and turned around, facing the raven-haired witch. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest, her eyebrow raised in question. ‘’I guess this is why you need my help?’’ She pointed at the chaos around her. Eskel had managed to recover and was standing close to Vesemir, while Nesrin was still on the ground with Faolán, his unconscious body limp as she held onto his hand, silent tears on her cheeks.

‘’Can you help her?’’ he whispered, the words heavy in his mouth.

Yennefer released a deep breath before answering truthfully, ‘’ do you want the good or the bad news?’’

‘’Honestly?’’ he shrugged, sudden tiredness threatening to drag him down, ‘’I just want the truth.’’

A muscle clenched in her jaw before she averted her violet eyes. ‘’You may want to sit down then.’’

#she wolf #she-wolf #tw: possession #tw: violence #henry cavill #geralt of rivia #female witcher #netflix #the witcher #geralt of rivia x oc #geralt of rivia x ofc #henry cavill characters #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill imagine #geralt of rivia angst

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awkwardpenguinproductions · 3 years

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Rebellion

Part 8 of Dragon of the Yuyan

Read on AO3 | Series Masterpost

The prisoner is tiny.

That’s the first thing Zuko notices, when Banli Squad returns triumphant from their mission with a figure wrapped in heavy iron netting like a landed fish. Tiny, and young. Zuko would be damned if the kid was a day older than eleven. The top of their bald, tattooed head barely comes up to the middle of Zuko’s chest.

White hot rage shoots through him as Zheng shoves the Avatar down the corridor ahead of him, radiating smugness like a fucking peacock. He wants to rip that netting off and carry the kid away from here, away from Zhao who acts like the entire Stronghold and everyone in it is his to do whatever the fuck he wants with.

The plan, dum dum, remember the plan, he chants to himself, and holds onto his control with both hands and every ounce of stubbornness in his body.

Do you think it’s true? The Avatar’s returned? Zuko had demanded, barely waiting for the Commander’s office door to close behind him. The announcement had been made twenty minutes ago, and Zuko had immediately followed the older man to his office when he’d left the mess hall.

Commander Toshiaki hadn’t replied immediately, but had reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of rotgut. He’d poured two cups, knocked one back, and pushed the other toward Zuko, who sipped at it warily, grimacing at the taste.

The Commander had dropped into his desk chair and tilted his head back for a moment before beginning to sign. I can’t imagine the Fire Lord making an announcement like that unless there was some truth to it. Either way, it changes things.

No kidding! Zuko had snapped. The Commander shot him a Look, and Zuko had winced and signed a quick Sorry, sir.

The Commander had sighed silently. If anything, all it does is move the timeline up rather a lot. It shouldn’t take the Avatar very long to gather followers and allies, and as the main aggressor in the war, the Fire Lord will be their main focus.

Instead of waiting for Azula to come of age and then to get impatient, we just cut her out of the line completely, Zuko had realized. Instead of the war dragging on for another four years or more, the Avatar can help us end it sooner. Within the year, even!

The Commander had nodded. We need to stay alert for opportunities slip away and rendezvous with the Avatar and their followers. I have a list of Troop members who are willing to defect. When the opportunity presents itself, you will give the signal, and the Yuyan Archers will disappear.

Zuko meets the Commander’s eyes, and blinks. The Commander blinks back.

Zuko slips down a service corridor, and races back to the Yuyan dorm. He grabs the bag he’d kept prepared for this exact scenario and his dao, and shimmies up into the ventilation shaft. With his most recent growth spurt, it’s a bit of a snug fit, and Zuko suddenly has to wrestle back the panicked thought of oh Agni what if I get stuck. He pauses, breathes a few deep breaths, and continues on to the bathroom, where he gets his Blue Spirit uniform on as fast as he can. His hair gets tied back into a braid, the length of which is tucked under his tunic and hood. His dao go on his back, every single throwing knife he owns is strapped somewhere on his body, and he carefully burns the clothes he was wearing in the brazier that heats the water for the ofuro. The bag his Blue Spirit materials were in gets folded up as small as Zuko can possibly make it and tucked into the back of his belt. Could be useful later.

He fastens his mask as securely as he possibly can, and Cadet Zuko of the Yuyan Archers disappears. In his place stands the Blue Spirit, ready for war.

By now the Avatar will have been secured in one of the cells at the top of the Central Tower, where the most powerful benders are kept for holding. Zuko ensures that he has left no trace of his presence in the bathroom, and makes his way upstairs as fast as he can, employing every shadow-walking technique he knows to avoid detection.

It’s caution well spent, because the upper detention level is crawling with Stronghold guards. At least a dozen of them. Zhao may be a pompous ass and a creep to rival Koh themself, but he’s not completely stupid. These guys must be new, though, or they came with the Admiral, because they are not nearly as wary of dark corners and high shadowed ceilings as they should be.

It’s quick work knocking the idiots out and looping lengths of chain around their ankles to hang them from the rafters like freshly hunted game. If this were a training exercise, he would’ve just left them where they had fallen, but Zuko can’t afford the possibility that they’d wake up and be able to come after him and the Avatar. Getting out of the Stronghold is going to be hard enough, no need to alert anyone to the breakout any earlier than necessary.

Only one of the cells has a guard at the door, who is reaching for the signaling horn as Zuko peeks around the corner. Zuko grabs a bucket of water kept for the guards to drink on duty in one hand, and throws one of his knives with the other. The horn is knocked out of the guard's hand, and as Zuko rushes him the man shoots a rather paltry plume of flame at him. Zuko doesn't miss a beat as he throws the water into the strike, then whips the bucket into the man's leading foot to break his root.

Thank Agni for Mika's "learn-to-fight-with-any-kind-of-random-shit" lessons, he thinks a bit hysterically as the man goes crashing to the floor. He binds the man with his own handcuffs, borrowing a second set that had fallen from another guard's belt to bind his ankles, and ties a length of cloth he finds in the last guard's pocket into a gag.

He takes a minute to retrieve his throwing knife and to breathe, and he can very distantly hear Zhao's ridiculous speech echoing up from the main courtyard.

Zhao had arrived about two weeks after the Winter Solstice, just in time for the Fire Nation Armed Forces' rumor mill to have built up a full head of steam. He had swept into the Stronghold like he'd owned the place, towering over Colonel Shinu in a ridiculous attempt to intimidate the much shorter man, but he had still been a Commander at the time and the Colonel had quickly put him in his place. The complete 180° turn the man's personality had taken at that point had completely creeped Zuko out, had reminded him uncomfortably of Azula, and he'd done his absolute best not to be caught alone with him.

A few days after Zhao's arrival, Commander Toshiaki had indicated that he'd wanted a meeting, and Zuko had met him in his office.

Zhao has been trying to convince Colonel Shinu to allow him to use the Archers in his hunt for the Avatar, the Commander had signed as soon as the door was closed behind Zuko. The tension in the older man's body had been obvious, his signs rigidly composed.

There's no way the Colonel will go for that, Zuko had replied, trying to decipher the Commander's body language. Disapproval, maybe? Or anger? Either were rarely seen from the stern but kind officer, and therefore hard to recognize.

He may no longer have a choice. The Commander's jaw clenched. Anger, then, and Zuko had felt proud of himself that he'd felt no unease at all around the Commander as he'd struggled to hold his temper. A messenger hawk arrived last night. Zhao has been promoted to Admiral by the Fire Lord.

Fuck, Zuko had stated into the whirling chaos of his mind. With that wonderful piece of news, it was only a matter of time before the Avatar was captured.

My Prince, I also have reason to believe that your safety could be compromised should Zhao discover your identity, the Commander continued. He has been overheard making… comments… about your performance in the Agni Kai against the Fire Lord, as well as voicing theories as to your current location and opinions of how you should be treated when returned to royal custody. A small, distant part of Zuko had mused that if the Commander had been a bender, he would’ve seared the top of his desk black in his rage.

I believe, Prince Zuko, that it would be prudent of you to consider vacating the Stronghold sooner rather than later. The Commander had looked like every sign he’d made had been physically painful, which had eased the pain in Zuko’s own heart of being ousted from his home again. This time was not for someone else’s gain or convenience, but for Zuko’s own safety. And it wasn’t going to be forever, like his abandonment. No matter what ended up happening, Zuko knew he would see his Troop, his family, again. Kai would hunt him down, to say nothing of the rest of Chihese Squad and the Commander himself.

I understand, Commander, Zuko had replied, smiling at his commanding officer. Depending on how quickly the Avatar is apprehended, the Blue Spirit should be able to escort them away without too much effort.

Famous last words, Zuko growls silently to himself as he picks the lock on the cell. It’s a new model, something Zhao had installed in the last couple of weeks as he prepared to imprison the Avatar, and Zuko hasn’t had enough opportunity to practice picking it between avoiding Zhao and smuggling supplies and his belongings out of the Stronghold with his squad under the guise of “wilderness training”.

It takes forty-seven seconds more than Zuko really cares to admit, but he does finally get the cell door open, and he slips inside and shuts the door behind him.

The Avatar is chained hand and foot in the center of the cavernous cell, arms held out and fastened to the two huge torches that provide the only light in the room. Their odd yellow, orange, and brown clothes are tattered and splashed with mud, and their skin is ghostly pale. Their stormy gray eyes are huge in their face as they stare at Zuko.

Zuko draws his dao, and rushes forward in a form meant to build momentum. The Avatar screams and cringes back, squeezing their eyes shut. Zuko’s blades slice cleanly through the chains holding their arms, and it takes the Avatar a moment to realize that they aren’t hurt and to stop screaming and open their eyes. They stare in bafflement at the manacles on their wrists, which Zuko also slices off. He finishes with the cuffs on their feet, and strides back to the cell door.

“Who are you? What’s going on?” The Avatar’s voice calls out, high with prepubescence and stress. “Are you here to rescue me?”

Duh, Zuko thinks, opening the door and making sure the coast is clear before turning back and making a vague come on gesture.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” the Avatar mumbles, warily following him. Their footsteps are barely audible against the steel-clad floors, and Zuko has to listen extra hard to make sure they’re still with him.

“My frogs!” The Avatar gasps, and Zuko has just enough time to think what? before those nearly silent footsteps go pattering off in another direction. He clenches his teeth behind the mask and follows, catching up as the Avatar is kneeling on the floor trying to catch a bunch of half-frozen wood frogs. He grabs the kid by the collar of their weird tunic and hauls them away, and cringes when the little idiot hollers for the entire Stronghold to hear, “But my friends need to suck on those frogs!”

Zuko switches his grip on this absolute moron of an Avatar from their collar to the front of their tunic, (gently) pushes them against the closest wall, and flicks them between the eyes hard with his free hand. Then he puts his finger against the grinning mouth of his mask for quiet.

The Avatar has the grace to be chagrined, at least. “I’m sorry,” they whisper. “It’s just— I got captured ‘cause I was gathering those frogs ‘cause my friends are sick and the crazy old lady on the top of the mountain said that they needed to suck on the frozen frogs to get better and I’m really worried about them— my friends, not the frogs— but I know I gotta be quiet so we can get out of here, right?”

Great Agni and all the stars, how is this kid the spirits-damned Avatar? Zuko bites back a sigh, nods sharply, and makes a note that the Avatar has ill companions that need treatment. The Avatar nods back, eyes huge in their pale face.

Zuko leads the way to the main sewer line, which the pair of them follow out of the Central Tower and to the back courtyard. A quick peek through the bars above their heads reveals that the coast is clear, and Zuko points upward to indicate to the Avatar that they need to pull themselves up through the bars. The Avatar follows without a word, and they break for the rope that hangs from the top of the Stronghold’s innermost wall, left there by one of the Archers on Commander Toshiaki’s orders.

They’re halfway up the rope when the alarm sounds. Zuko can hear Zhao shouting that “the Avatar has escaped!”, and some bootlicker responds with “There! On the wall!”. Zuko has five seconds to curse his fucking luck before the rope in his hands goes slack and they start to fall.

The Avatar does something, and with a roar of wind Zuko feels himself slowing down in midair, and they both land gently on their feet. Zuko draws his dao and points with one to the gates starting to close. As one he and the Avatar start running for the gates as Zhao shouts "Close all the gates immediately!" like the gatemen don't know how to do their freaking jobs.

"Stay close to me!" The Avatar tells him, and all Zuko can do is nod and try to keep up as the Avatar zooms towards the gate, faster than a normal human can run. Zuko's no slouch, racing against Jiyoti will ensure that, but after airbending a line of guards out of the way, the Avatar seems to forget that Zuko can't run as fast, because they book it for the gate and leave Zuko in the dust.

He gets cornered, surrounded by guards with spears, and it takes everything he has to keep from bending, because if even the slightest spark slips from his blades he’s done for. Abruptly the guards disappear, blown away by the Avatar’s airbending, and Zuko has a moment to wonder why they don’t bend any of the other elements before the Avatar swings a broken spear like a trebuchet and Zuko goes flying.

He lands on top of the innermost wall and immediately tucks into a roll to bleed off the momentum. He hears the clomping steps of the guards approaching and snaps to his feet, swords out and held at the ready, and then something slams into his upper back and a steel band wraps around his chest under his arms, and with a jerk he’s flying again.

They land with a crash on the intermediate wall, and Zuko’s blades clatter away. He doesn’t have time to grab them, though, because the Avatar’s been cornered by a guard at least twice their size. Their makeshift staff has been knocked away, and Zuko doesn’t think before he grabs the guard around the middle and throws him off the wall.

They reach the other side of the wall just as more guards come up the bamboo emergency ladders. The Avatar blows the first two ladders clear with their airbending, and Zuko just finishes clearing the third and barely has time to sheath his blades before the Avatar is handing him one of the ladders with a hurried "hold this!". They have the second ladder in their arms, and they jump onto the parapet of the wall and step onto the third ladder, pushing it away from the wall.

"Jump on my back!" The absolutely wolf-bat fucking crazy Avatar calls at him, and Zuko can do nothing but obey. His momentum and weight are what tip the ladder over fully away from the wall, and the Avatar maneuvers the ladder in his arms so that the pair of them stilt-walk across the no-man's land between the intermediate and outer walls. However, some really intelligent person decides to set fire to the last ladder. Zuko and the Avatar are forced to jump for the outer wall, but Zuko can't keep his grip, and they tumble to the ground just in front of the outer gate.

Dazedly shaking his head, Zuko struggles to his feet and draws his blades as the guards converge upon them. Four firebending guards (I trained with you! a tiny part of Zuko sobs upon seeing them, I sparred with you and you laughed when I beat you!) blast at them in unison, and Zuko is ready to deflect the flames with his blades when the Avatar spins them around and defends them with airbending.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

The flames die away as Admiral Zhao himself strides forward, hands clasped behind his back as calm as can be. "The Avatar must be captured alive," he orders, scowling, but there's a triumphant light in his cold bronze eyes that Zuko immediately hates. Then his words hit, and Zuko immediately knows what to do.

Sorry, kid, just trying to get us out of here alive, he apologizes silently to the Avatar, as he crosses his blades under their chin, razor-sharp edges each a hairsbreadth from the delicate pale skin of their neck. The Avatar makes a strangled "ulp!" sound, and Zuko presses himself against their back and stares Zhao in the eye.

A vein throbs in the man's temple as he grits his teeth in frustration. "Open the gate," he grits out, after a moment of attempting to glare Zuko into submission. Compared to Mika without her morning black tea, the guy's a rank amateur.

"Admiral, what are you doing?" Colonel Shinu hisses from his position at Zhao's shoulder.

"Let them out," Zhao snaps. "NOW."

The gate creaks open behind them, and Zuko carefully walks backward, keeping his blades rock steady at the Avatar's neck. He doesn't take a single eye off of Zhao.

They're in the middle of the last crossroads before the forest when something zings through the air and everything abruptly goes dark.

Zuko had reported to the medbay at Dr. Atsuko's order, and the Chief Medical Officer of the Stronghold had ushered him into her office at the back of the ward.

"Zhao's just sent out Banli Squad to retrieve the Avatar," she'd said brusquely. "Are you ready? Do you have all of the supplies you need, all of the things you're going to take?"

I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Zuko had replied. The Commander gave the signal for everyone who's leaving to be ready to disappear after Banli gets back. I'll be meeting up with Kai at noon the day after the Avatar and I escape to get my bow and quiver from him, since I can't exactly carry them with me as the Blue Spirit. Are you leaving too?

Dr. Atsuko had nodded. "It's time," she'd said, and for once the steel had melted from her expression and she'd actually looked sad. "I've done all I can here, but it's time to go where I can do some real good."

Where will you go? Zuko had asked.

"Here and there," Dr. Atsuko had shrugged. "I've got options. A doctor, especially one with my skills, is always in demand. Before you take off, though, I've got something to teach you," and she'd handed him a Pai Sho tile, the Lotus.

Five hours later, Zuko had been leaving the mess hall after dinner when Banli Squad had paraded the Avatar through the Stronghold.

Zuko wakes up to early morning light filtering through tall trees, a full range of vision due to his mask being gone, and the Avatar sitting curled up in a little ball on top of a huge tree root. He also wakes up to a splitting headache, and bites back a groan that's half pain and half frustration. He doesn't have time for this, the Avatar's a fucking kid, and probably doesn't know any bending besides their native element, and Zuko somehow has to get them ready to… what, overthrow the Fire Lord? Get Zuko's throne back for him?

His temple throbs, and Zuko can't quite bite back the hiss that he makes as he sits up, rubbing his forehead.

"Oh, you're awake!" The Avatar exclaims, voice piercing in the stillness of the surrounding forest. Zuko winces, and thankfully the Avatar seems to notice, because their voice drops several levels of volume until they're almost but not quite whispering. "I never got to thank you last night for getting me out of there. That Zhao guy was kinda creepy. What's your name? I'm Aang."

My name's Zuko, Zuko signs, slow and sluggish with pain and the stiffness that comes with not cooling down properly after excessive exercise. What're your preferred pronouns? I don't want to assume anything.

The Avatar is watching him with huge gray eyes, and Zuko knows without them even opening their mouth that they have no idea what he just said.

Oh damn me to Koh's lair, he thinks, heart sinking. Not only does the spirits-damned Avatar not know any of the other elements, they don't know hand-language. Honestly, Zuko doesn't know why he'd assumed that they would, the Yuyan guard their language with the same ferocity that they hunt their quarries.

"Is that… talking? With your hands?" The Avatar asks, eyebrows sliding up the blue arrow tattoo to the sky. Their voice is hushed and full of wonder. "Can you teach me that?"

Ah, a yes or no question. Zuko nods, then gingerly gets up, glancing around for his mask and picking it up where it lies next to the bed of green leaves that he'd been resting on. His blades are there too, and Zuko huffs slightly in relief as he slings them across his back. He looks at the mask, noting the large scratch in the lacquer on the left side of the forehead. That must've been some shot, he reflects, and kind of wishes he'd been able to see it.

"Uh, so I gotta get some frozen wood frogs for my friends, 'cause they're really sick," the Avatar, Aang, says awkwardly. "You want to come along? Do you have anywhere else to go? Katara could probably give you something for your head, if it's hurting you."

Zuko tugs his braid out of his shirt, cracks his neck, and gestures for Aang to lead the way.

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#atla #atla fanfic #awkpenproductions presents #dragon of the yuyan #part 8 rebellion #full text post

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statticscribbles · 3 years

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Detention

Summary: John/Plus Sized!Reader Request: John Bender/ plus size reader where they argue because she’s friends with Andrew and John doesn’t think he’s good enough for her & thinks that Andrew is, so he acts mean to her when they’re all in detention and he only reacts when Vernon gets up in her face and says something really rude? Maybe some cuddly/but pissed of Bender vibes

“John calm down. I can have friends outside of you and the-“ “I know; I’m not upset just; think a little bit. Why would Andrew give you the time of day anyways. You know what he’s said about behind your back.” “And to my front.” You add in, John’s hands running against your sides as he mumbles in your ear. “He just doesn’t appreciate you like I do.” “Nobody does, did you miss the drawings Claire managed to post around the school of me as a ‘cute pig’ oh wait that wasn’t her was it?” John rolls his eyes. “Listen Y/N I have detention this Saturday and-“ “What a coincidence so do I.” You grin when he narrows his eyes. “And how does a sweet innocent girl like you end up with detention anyways?” “You should know.” You flash your teeth at him and he shakes his head fondly. “You’re going to be the death of me you know that right baby?”

You’re scowling when Vernon walks in. “Wow didn’t think seeing a dick could depress me so much.” You comment. “That was good.” Andrew snickers at your comment nodding to you when you eyebrows furrow at his praise. John arches an eyebrow himself and you can feel the heat and anger in his gaze. You bit another laugh down when you see Andrew wilt. “Y/N I thought I told you not to show back up here again; if you think playing around instead of studying, or stuffing whatever you can find into yourself is a better use of your time than school why bother coming in. You’re certainly not going to go very much farther beyond the next size up in your clothes if you keep that up.” Vernon turns his attention from you back to Allison who blinks up at him until he turns away shivering.

“Come on Y/N you gotta admit what Vernon said was a little funny. Like I get it was about you, but ya know he’s right. You’re not going anywhere eating like you are, I always see you with food. I mean it’s nice to see a girl eating but there are extreme’s either way you know.” You roll your eyes at Andrew and feel John’s arms pulling you back into his chest. “You got shit to say to my girl?” “Nothing you shouldn’t be telling her. Besides already said it; she knows it either way. Can’t hide the truth.” Andrew grins and John scowls. “How can you be friends with him.” He grumbles and you shrug. “If I’m friends with him than its one less person teasing me to my face.” His eyes widen in surprised and annoyance.

“And what do you call what just happened? Small talk?” You nudge his arm. back towards the desk and empty paper he’d been given. “Fine.” He snaps almost shoving you away before smirking, making eye contact with you before leaning over towards Claire. “Hey Claire, you busy?”You wrinkle your nose and turn your chair back to Andrew making a point of leaning slightly too far over onto your desk. You swear you can feel John glaring at Andrew with how his eyes are suddenly anywhere but you despite the fact you’re both talking about the history assignment you need to work on.

The rest of the day passes in similar fashion before one of them decides to turn it into a practical group therapy session post weed jailbreak from John’s locker. You still aren’t talking to him and you can feel whatever anger he’s had has turned to him sulking. You nudge his shoulder before you ask what’s wrong. “Nothin’ it’s good you’re getting friendly with Andrews, he’s probably leagues better for you anyways.” You sigh letting him continue his pity party of one as he mopes and drags himself through the mud. You stay silent through all of it. “Well.” He mumbles face set with a glum smile.

“As much as I’m sure everyone enjoyed your tirade about how shit you are cause of your piss poor excuse for a dad, I didn’t nor do I think any of that is true. Do you really think Andrew is better than you for me? Lets not forget he calls me a pig just as much as Claire, just as much as Veron when they all can get away with it.” “I know I just.” You arch an eyebrow and he grins slightly before he leans forward kissing you. “I’m not mad at you.” “I didn’t expect you to be?” You smile at him and he sighs resting his forehead against yours. “You know I’m gonna have to kill all of them right?” “Baby, no. Not all of them. Not at once.” You grin laughing a little and he smiles softly at you. “So one a week good for you?”

“Maybe one every two weeks, or better yet we ignore them.” “And get detention again?” He grins and you laugh. “Ignoring people is one of the best ways to get them to leave you alone.” “Oh, guess I shouldn’t have ignored you earlier then.” “You shouldn’t have. Now you have to make it up to me.” You grin and he sighs dramatically fighting to keep a smile off his face. “Would cuddling help?” “You’ll have to risk it and find out.” His hands pull you from where you’re sitting onto his lap and he leans his head to rest on your shoulder.” “Bender! No physical contact! Another detention if I catch you two at it again.” “Are we still ignoring him?” “As long as we get away with it.” You grin kissing him as Vernon walks back down the hallway.

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stupouid · 4 years

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Unity (ATLA boys x reader) Chapter 3

returA/N hey guys!! sorry it took so long to get chapter 3! I literally could not find a plot for this chapter, so i decided to skip the desert.

Chapter 2|Chapter 3

Word count: 3210 words

Chapter 3

The Desert (i am aware that i skipped a lot of episodes I just don’t want it to bee too long)

Traveling with the GAang was interesting. To kill time Aang told Y/N stories of how King Bumi was like as a kid. Y/N was extremely fascinated by these anecdotes, and amazed by how everyone could travel freely throughout the four nations 100 years ago. She wanted to participate in the story-telling too, so she told Aang some of the stories her mother had told her about her travels, and this shocked Aang as well. Soon the two realized that a century ago traveling rules were less strict than they were twenty years ago.

Everyone in the group was quite fond of Y/N. Katara was grateful to have another girl in the group so she would have someone to rant to whenever Sokka did something disgusting. Aang was grateful to have someone help him locate his next destination, as Sokka and Katara had never been outside of the south pole. And Sokka was grateful that there was someone who would listen to his jokes or agree with his crazy ideas.

Sokka would be lying if he denied the fact that he was feeling some sort of connection to Y/N. He always wanted to be around her for some reason, and every little thing she did would be engraved in his mind. If Y/N played with her h/c locks, Sokka would save that and think about it when he had nothing else to think about. If Y/N laughed at one of his jokes, he would automatically analyze said joke, and try to make more jokes like that one. If Y/N gave him a compliment on something of his or suggested he do something, he would think about that constantly and change whatever Y/N suggested.

I could say that Y/N felt the same about him, but I would be lying, and fRiEnDs DoN’t LiE. Y/N couldn’t stop thinking about Zuko, and wondering how he was doing. She may have not felt any romantic feelings for him, but that doesn't mean she couldn’t think about her friend.

Weeks had passed and the GAang had a new member, an earthbender named Toph. Y/N and Toph had hit it right away, their personalities instantly clicking. And the similarities in the ways they were treated when they were younger made them closer, if anything. Toph was treated as a helpless, blind, little girl even though she was an extremely talented earth bender. Y/N’s parents treated her well, but Azula made her feel useless since she had no bending. And after Y/N’s mother died, Y/N’s father had neglected and emotionally abused her. So yeah, the two girls had been through a lot.

As of right now, the 5 teens were walking through the desert, without Appa because he had been taken by sandbenders for money. As usual, Y/N tuned out of the conversation (more like an argument) that was between Toph and Aang about how Toph let Appa go away.

“I’m going after Appa,” Aang shouted in a harsh tone. He then flew off with his glider.

“Aang! Wait!” Katara shouted, running to the spot where he took off from. Y/N walked over to KAtara and placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

“We'd better start walking,” Y/N started. “We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get that information to Ba Sing Se.” The teens, minus Aang, then started to walk towards the same direction Aang flew off in.

“You think if we dig out the giant owl, he'll give us a ride?” Sokka questioned. Y/N laughed and punched his shoulder playfully.

Sokka, Katara, Toph and Y/N had been walking in the desert for at least an hour now. The sun was scorching hot, and much to Sokka’s delight, Y/N had taken off the top layer of her outfit, leaving her in a tank top that showed off her smooth, s/c, arms. Annoyed by the sun, Y/N took Momo off of Sokka’s back and used his wings to create some shade. Sokka, obviously annoyed because he could’ve done the same, was about to protest when he crashed into Toph.

“Hey! Can’t you watch where you’re-” Sokka stopped his sentence after realizing what he’d said.

“No.” Toph hissed.

“Right. Sorry!” Sokka replied bashfully. Katara turned around to face the rest of the group.

“Come on guys, we’ve got to stick together!” Katara announced. During the short time Katara spoke, Sokka had accidentally stuck his clothes to Y/N, and was trying to free himself by pushing her away. Luckily for him, Y/N was trying her hardest to help him out too.

“If Sokka sweats anymore, I don’t think it will be a problem!” Y/N shouted, struggling to get the boy off of her. Toph, who was even more annoyed, pushed Sokka to the ground, separating the two at last.

“Katara, can I have some water?” Toph asked politely.

“Okay, but we’ve got to try to conserve it.” Katara bended four blobs of water out of her pouch into the mouths of Sokka, Toph, and Momo. When she noticed Y/N wasn’t accepting it, she asked, “Y/N? Don’t you want any?”

Y/N replied with, “I’m fine. Really.”

“Y/N! You have to drink some! If not you’ll pass out because of dehydration!” Sokka shouted.

“Okay, dad!” Y/N groaned. She accepted the blob of water Katara had bended her way.

Smacking his lips, Sokka said, “We're drinking your bending water. You used this on the swamp guy! Urch!” Y/N started to laugh, but ended up coughing after registering the taste of the water. Worried, Sokka patted her on the back repeatedly until she wasn’t coughing anymore.

“It does taste swampy.” Toph giggled. Momo whined at the taste.

“I’m sorry, it’s all we have.” Katara mumbled bashfully.

“Not anymore!” Sokka shouted. “Look!” He walked over to a random cactus plant that was in their path. He cut off a piece and drank the liquid inside.

“Sokka, wait! You shouldn’t be eating strange plants!” Katara shouted with worry, running over to him. Curious, Y/N joined the two siblings.

“There’s water trapped inside these!” Sokka shouted. He offered some to Y/N, and she took a tiny sip. She instantly felt lighter.

“I don’t know…” Katara started.

“It’s thirst quenching though! If that helps!” Y/N proclaimed. A little juice dribbled onto her chin and Sokka wiped it off. Blushing, Y/N punched Sokka again. He paid no attention to the punch as some sort of trance overtook him.

“Drink cactus juice. It'll quench ya! Nothing's quenchier. It's the quenchiest!” Katara grabbed his drink and poured it away.

“Okay, I think you’ve had enough.” Katara laughed. “Y/N, will you watch him?”

“Sure!” Y/N answered, still laughing. She grabbed Sokka and lockerd their arms together so he wouldn’t get away.

“Hey pretty lady!” Sokka shouted, dragging out the ‘y’ in ‘hey’. “Are we married?”

Still laughing, Y/N replied with, “Sure. We live in Omashu, and we adopted three turtle ducks. One’s named Toph, one’s named Katara, and the last one is named Aang. Sounds nice, right?”

“Anything’s nice as long as I’m with you!” Sokka sang out with a lovestruck expression on his face. He leaned towards Y/N for a kiss, but she only shoved his head away from hers. “Who lit Toph on fire?”

“I'm sorry, Aang. I know it's hard for you right now but ... we need to focus on getting out of here.” Aang had recently joined the group again and Katara was trying her best to comfort the airbender.

“What's the difference? We won't survive without Appa. We all know it.” This surprised Y/N. In the short time she had known the Avatar, he was always positive, no matter the situation.

“Aang. If we work together, we can find Appa. Stay positive! Right Toph? Katara?” Y/N looked to the girls for affirmation.

“As far as I can feel, we're trapped in a giant bowl of sand pudding. I got nothin'.” Toph sighed. Frustrated, Y/N turned to her last resort.

“Sokka? Care to share any knowledge as to how we could reach Ba Sing Se?” Y/N was standing next to Sokka’s body, which was lying on the sand with Momo right next to him.

“Why don't we ask the circle birds?” Sokka responded nonchalantly. Groaning, Y/N looked at the sky, only to see four buzzard wasps circling above their heads. Katara grabbed her head in annoyance.

“Ugh ... We're getting out of this desert, and we're going to do it together! Aang, get up. Everybody, hold hands. We can do this. We have to.” Katara grabbed Aang’s hand and Aang grabbed Toph’s. Katara used her other hand to grab Y/N’s and Y/N used all her strength to tug Sokka from the ground. Sokka stood up and placed Momo on his back.

Y/N was sleeping peacefully next to Sokka when she was abruptly woken up by Katara shouting, “Come on, get up! We need to go.” Groaning, Toph, Y/N and Sokka all rose up from the place they decided to rest.

“Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud. Now it just tastes like sand. I never thought I'd miss the taste of mud so much.” Y/N was going to laugh but she started coughing again, much like last time when Toph had registered the taste of the water. Sokka instinctively patted her back repeatedly while Katara went to wake up Aang.

“I’m awake,” Aang stated. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Nodding, Katara responded to the boy with, “Well, we need to get moving if we want to get out of this sand pit.” Aang quickly sat up as he noticed a sky-bison like silhouette floating by the moon.

“Appa!” Aang shouted, trying to get it’s attention.

“Appa‌? But why would Princess Yue need him‌? She's the moon! She flies by herself!” Sokka questioned as he grabbed Y/N’s hand, using it to rub his cheek. Y/N smacked him on the head, obviously weirded out.

“It's just a cloud.” Katara stated sadly, referring to the sky-bison-like object in the sky. “Wait! A cloud! Aang, fly up and bend the water from that cloud into my pouch.” Aang scoffed, obviously annoyed and agitated, but did as the girl said. When he landed on the ground, he threw Katara’s pouch at her. She looked in, only to be disappointed.

“Wow ... there's hardly any in here.” Aang sighed loudly.

“I'm sorry, okay! It's a desert cloud; I did all I could! What's anyone else doing?! What are you doing‌?!” Katara and Y/N were shocked. Aang had never acted like this before. Katara shook her head.

“Trying to keep everyone together. Let's just get moving. We need to head this direction.” The group walked towards the direction Katara had set them up in silence until Toph tripped and fell on her face. Worried, Y/N let go of Sokka and Katara’s hands to check up on the earthbender.

“Ow! Crud! I am so sick of not feeling where I'm going!” Toph shouted, pointing to the rock-like object she tripped on. “And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert‌?”

“A boat?” Y/N asked. Katara ran over to observe the object.

“Believe me, I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations.” By now Sokka and Aang had joined the three girls to observe the object. Aang motioned everyone to step back, and used his airbending to get rid of the sand, revealing a boat like contraption.

“It’s a glider! Like the one sandbenders use!” Y/N exclaimed. Sokka clapped his hand onto her back.

“Look!” Katara shouted. “It's got some kind of compass on it! I bet it can point us out of here! Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're going to make it!”

The five teens had squeezed onto the glider, with Katara navigating and Aang driving it using his airbending.

“The needle on this compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to my charts.” Katara had stated. Y/N was going to sit next to Katara to help her out, but decided not to. Sokka placed himself right next to Y/N, and grabbed her hand.

“Take it easy little lady. I'm sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here.” Y/N was obviously weirded out, but let Sokka do his thing. She didn’t want to make him angry, because in his current state, it would result in him doing something extremely annoying.

Katara gasped. “That's what the compass is pointing to! That giant rock! It must be the magnetic center of the desert.” Y/N turned around to look at the rock that Katara was pointing to.

Obviously ecstatic, Toph shouted, “ A rock‌?! Yes! Let's go!” Y/N just giggled.

“Maybe we can find some water there!” Katara exclaimed with a hopeful tone in her voice.

“Maybe we can find some sandbenders.” Aang snapped. He guided the glider towards the rock.

“Ahhh ... Finally! Solid ground!” Toph cheered as she laid on the rock, creating a rock angel with her bending. When she was finished creating the angel, she stood up and joined the rest of the group, who were exploring a cave with a gooey substance.

“I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice. And look!” Sokka shouted as he dipped his hand in the mysterious substance, earning a groan from Y/N. He licked the substance and offered some to Y/N, who kicked him in the leg in response.

“You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave‌?!” Y/N ranted. “Spirits, you really are dense.” Frowning, Sokka wiped the goo off his hands and placed a hand on Y/N’s shoulder. He whispered, “Sorry.” Y/N just nodded in response.

“I don't think this is a normal cave.” Toph stated. “This was carved by something.”

“Yeah,” Aang agreed. “Look at the shape.”

“There's something buzzing in here. Something that's coming for us!” Toph shouted. The group ran out of the cave. Toph, Aang, and Y/N screamed as a buzzard wasp emerged from the darkness of the cave. Y/N pulled down Aang and Toph as it flew over their heads.

Another buzzard flew between Toph and Sokka. Toph used her earth bending to launch a rock in the direction of the buzzard, and the rock nearly crushed Sokka.

“What are you doing? That rock almost crushed me!” Sokka shouted.

“Sorry! I can’t tell where they are in the air!” Toph replied. Another wasp flew in between Sokka and Y/N. Y/N was going to hit it with one of her many throwing knives but Sokka lightly shoved her out of the way.

“I got this one!” Sokka told her. Y/N was annoyed, but realized that there wasn’t a wasp and Sokka was still hallucinating. Figuring that it would be funny to watch him smack his machete at nothing, she moved out of the way. Sokka then swung his machete at nothing, and Y/N giggled.

“Sokka, there’s nothing there!” Katara shouted, obviously fed up with him.

“I guess my head’s not as clear as I thought.” Sokka muttered. Y/N grabbed his arm and dragged him down to her level.

“We have to get out of here!” Katara shouted. “I’m completely out of water to bend!” Y/N nodded, about to move with Sokka trailing behind her, when a buzzard grabbed Momo.

“Momo! I’m not losing anyone else out here!” Aang shrieked. Full of anger, he took off on his glider in hot pursuit of Momo and the wasp.

“Come on, we’re going down.” Katara told the others. Katara held Toph by the hand as they made their way down a narrow ledge. Y/N was about to make her way to the others by herself when Sokka grabbed her hand.

“Hey! You- you shouldn’t go down alone!” Sokka exclaimed. Annoyed, Y/N traversed the wall and landed on the ground with a backflip, while smiling up at Sokka.

“What are you doing in our land with a sandbender sailer? ‌ From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hami tribe.” A sandbender named Sha-Mo asked Katara.

“We found the glider abandoned in the desert. We're traveling with the Avatar. Our bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se.” Katara stated. The man’s eyes widened when he learned that Aang was the Avatar.

“You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride in on a stolen sand sailer‌?!” Another man stated. Toph’s eyes narrowed when she heard the man speak, and Y/N frowned.

“Quiet, Ghashiun. No one accused our people of anything. If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality.” Sha-Mo stated.

“Sorry, father.” Ghashiun replied.

“I recognize the son's voice. He's the one that stole Appa.” Toph cautioned. Y/N’s eyes widened, and she looked at Sokka, who looked equally as confused and surprised.

“Are you sure?” Katara asked.

“I never forget a voice.” Toph answered.

Aang charged forwards toward Ghashiun. “You stole Appa! Where is he? ‌What did you do to him?”

“They're lying! They're the thieves!” Ghashiun defended himself. Aang, obviously agitated, he smacked his staff on the ground, and one of the gliders flew off due to his airbending. “Where. Is. My. Bison! You tell me where he is now!”

“What did you do?” Sha-Mo asked Ghashiun.

“I-it wasn’t me!” Ghashiun tried to defend himself.

“You said to put a muzzle on him!” Toph shouted!

“You muzzled Appa‌?” At this point, Aang was enraged. Sokka, Katara, and Y/N all looked to each other, with fear evident on their faces. Aang’s tattoos then started glowing as he entered the Avatar state.

“I'm sorry! I didn't know that it belonged to the Avatar!” Ghashiun shouted.

“Tell me where Appa is!” Aang shouted, with the voices of all the Avatars.

“I traded him! To some merchants! He's probably in Ba Sing Se by now! They were going to sell him there! Please! We'll escort you out of the desert! We'll help however we can!” Wind started swirling around Aang as he started floating in the air. Sokka pulled Y/N as he booked his way out of Aang’s vicinity. They finally found a spot that would keep them safe from Aang’s sandstorm and Sokka wrapped Y/N in a hug to protect her.

“Just get out of here! Run!” Y/N shouted towards the other sandbenders. Aang dropped his staff and the wind formed a sphere around him. As everyone ran away, Katara stayed put near Aang. The sandstorm engulfed the two, and they braced themselves as the whirlwind swooped over them. Katara managed to embrace Aang in a hug, causing him to calm down. Sokka lifted his arms which were wrapped safely around Y/N’s head and body.

taglist: @emberislandplayers @eridanuswave @fandomobsessedlife @hopefuloperaangelnerd @multi-fandomstan @minifruity @marylisss @iflostreturntoflynnrider

#sokka #sokka x reader #atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #mai #ty lee #azula #katara #aang #kataang #toph #toph beifong #haru #haru atla #unityfic #theres kataang in the bg

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stattic-writes · 5 years

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Detention

https://statticscribbles.tumblr.com/post/639099629845233664/masterlist

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#john bender x reader #breakfast club imagine #judd nelson #judd nelson imagne #breakfast club #claire standish #andrew clark #written #female reader #female reader insert

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prorevenge · 5 years

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Don't tell mom the dog-sitter's dead.

TL;DR at the bottom.

This didn't happen to me, it happened to my sister.

My sister moved up to SC from FL about a year ago, but she still visits us periodically. We're a big and close family. Shortly after Thanksgiving, she flew down with her husband and son for one such visit. She has 3 geriatric dogs, so she got a house/dog sitter.

MS (my sister) went through the basics of how they can only be fed at certain times. They get let out at certain times. They need to be in their crates from X hour to Z hour. Most importantly, they don't get treats. They get vitamins in place of treats, but those vitamins have to be given only twice a day. No people food. Very strict diets. They're all happy and healthy, but only because MS is so strict with their regime.

This lady she got to watch her dogs had stellar reviews on the site she was found through. She's a stay-at-home mom who does this as a side thing for extra cash. I feel like I can end it here, you all can guess where this is going.

MS left for Florida for a week. The first 5 days, everything is going well. DS (dog sitter) texts MS regularly or video calls. She shows MS pictures and gives her regular updates of when she comes and goes to MS's house. MS just bought that house, btw. She's been working her butt off to finally be able to afford it. She puts so much into making that a nice home for her family.

MS has some health problems herself. She's got a ton of prescription medication in her medicine cabinet. She brought enough for the week, but left the rest at home. Stuff for epilepsy, asthma, and allergies. But she's also got a ton of pain killers from when she had my nephew not that long ago. She's paranoid about becoming addicted, so she kept the pills for safety, but never used them. It's a full bottle.

On top of that, she's been a collector of rare beer for about 15 years now. Beer that's not even sold anymore because they were promotional from micro breweries. Beer she can't get anymore because she doesn't live in Florida. Those bottles, she keeps as mostly decoration in her kitchen.

On the 6th day of her vacation, DS stops all communication altogether. MS texts, calls, emails. Nothing. Radio silence. She's got a bad feeling, but she doesn't want to kill the mood because she doesn't get to see her family very often anymore.

Day 7, she gets on a late flight back to SC. The plane gets there around 2 in the morning. They drive an hour to their rural town. They get home. The front door is wide open. The lawn looks like someone in a truck (which DS happened to drive) just tried to go drifting over grass and a tree before vacating the premises super quick.

MS goes to handle my nephew who is groggy and screaming. It's been a rough day. She's thinking the worst. That someone robbed the house while this poor lady was there. MS's husband (BiL) goes inside to survey the damages. It's all clear, MS and Nephew go inside too.

The back door is wide open. The couch looks like it exploded. The rug in the living room and the couch, and pretty much every square foot on the bottom floor is covered in the kind of pee and poop that can only be made from 3 geriatric furry buttholes.

The dogs are, thankfully, still in the backyard. But they're shivering and filthy. There are broken beer bottles everywhere. Some have been stuffed deep in the trash to hide the evidence. Some have been refilled with water and put back with their tops precariously situated on top so they might look like they haven't been touched.

82 bottles, each growler sized (roughly 64 oz) - gone. The medicine cabinet is like one of those Western ghost town's with a tumbleweed bouncing through. MS is already thinking this DS threw herself a party. No way in heck could someone 5'6'', 170 lbs, drink that much beer and take that many pills and not be dead.

MS called the cops. Obviously. The police get there to figure this must be a break in. They take a bunch of pictures, take an account of all the bottles and drugs that were missing. MS cleans what she can, but gets to sleep because thankfully the upstairs hasn't been touched.

One day later, the police find DS. MS has assumed she's dead and abducted, so the police were looking for her and her car. They found the truck run off the side of a highway, with this lady about two miles up, tweaking OUT OF HER MIND walking along the side of the road, screaming at nothing.

They take her in for whatever charges. Idk. Her husband bails her out and picks her up. According to her husband, this has happened before. DS has a drug and alcohol problem.

At first, she's messaging my sister, super apologetic, saying she'll reimburse MS and please don't press charges. MS quotes her the price of the rug, a new couch, and the vet bills because her dogs had somehow gained access to 9 containers of doggie vitamins and one of them was having liver failure. (The dog is fine now, but she's an old yorkie so who knows. Also, MS buys in bulk from a wholesaler, hence 9 containers). The total was somewhere around $800. MS didn't bother with the beers, the meds, the lawn, cleaning the house. She could have. Heck, I would have.

On top of that, MS demanded DS never dog sit again and she had to refund MS for her dog sitting. MS works in advertising. I won't say what kind, but basically if she saw/sees DS advertising herself as a dog sitter ever again, she has the means to drag this lady until all she sees is mud for the rest of her life.

DS insists she'd gonna pay it back, but that MS has to wait until they get their taxes back. Ok. So MS waits. Late February, she texts DS asking where her money is. DS immediately starts saying how she didn't do anything wrong, MS is a bad dog owner and her dogs are miserable, none of the stuff MS says DS did was actually done. MS has all the old texts of DS admitting to all of it sooo....?

This goes on for a while. Eventually, DS starts saying how "as a courtesy" she has a friend who owns a furniture store, she will give MS a credit of $200 for a new couch. And she has an old rug she doesn't want anymore that MS can have.

Erm... what?

She payed MS about $500, but and insists she'll get the coupon to MS soon. March goes by. Nothing.

Around March 20th, MS marches her happy butt to the small claims court and files. Then she snaps pictures of everything. Then she sends DS the message. "As a courtesy, I'm letting you know that I just filed this at the small claims court."

Then the fun starts. This lady goes OFF on MS. She says she's going to sue for slander and undue distress and harassment and blah blah blah blah blah. MS saves all of it, including the fun bits where DS threatens her family and calls her the C-word 20-dozen times.

Today is what? April 6th? Tuesday was the court date. Things move fast in a small town, idk. This lady shows up looking like she just got run through by a garbage disposal. She gives the judge her sob-story, talking about how she did nothing but give MS and her animals the best care, that MS is making all this up.

Yeah. MS has the OG cop with her. She's got pictures of all the damage, the vet bills, the bottles, proof that she was out of town, police reports of both the "break-in" as well as DS's DWI the following day. DS tries to spin it with that one law about how you can't serve alcohol to a known alcoholic. That obviously gets thrown right tf out.

DS then tries to appeal to Judge and MS's sense of humanity. She tells them how her husband just left her and is suing her for full custody (good!) and that if she can't dog-sit how is she supposed to support herself or ever get her kids back (tough cookies!). The judge takes my sister's side, for obvious reason, come tf on.

DS is homeless now, living with her parents. She can't see her kids, who btw don't want to see her. Apparently she was a drunk who ran her hubby's credit all the way down, she was abusive to her kids, and because of her heavy alcohol abuse - one of her kids has FAS. DS has 60 days to pay the remaining $300 or she faces jail time (idk how much time, sorry). Her husband filed for divorce already. Oh, and she lost her license thanks to that DWI.

As a former addict myself and someone who's been through a DWI, I want to sympathize. That's a lot of stuff to go through. MS gave her chance after chance, but at some point, you have to take responsibility for your actions. It really seems like this lady has just been using her husband as a crutch while she tries to get better, only to backslide hard. It's rough, I know. I hope she gets the help she needs.

MS's dogs are doing well. She got a replacement couch on Amazon for like $75 and a nice fluffy rug for even less. DS eventually coughed up that coupon. It didn't even work. It was for something like 20% off with a purchase of $500 or more, so um...no thanks.

TL;DR: World's poopiest dog-sitter trashes my sister's house after going on a bender. Claims she didn't do that, while also promising to pay for the damages. Never pays. Gets taken to court. Loses her home, job, kids, and marriage.

(source) story by (/u/anoukdaae)

#prorevenge #by /u/anoukdaae #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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ghostofbambifanfiction · 5 years

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Can you be more specific on why you like Arya and Sansa? So many people like Arya for being strong and fierce, but for some reasons so many hate Sansa for what she was like in the earlier seasons. Can you give specific instances why you like both of them? And why not Daenerys? Thanks! (I'm just really curious, please indulge me :) )

I’m going to talk about Dany first (and I’m sticking to the show here, though I have read the books, but they’re never getting finished, let’s be real), and then I'll put my thoughts on Sansa and Arya in another post (hey, you asked, so I’m delivering) because otherwise this will go on forever and it’s cleaner this way. Putting a ‘read more’ here because this is long (lol I’m at work I should be working)

To preface, I would not dislike Daenerys as much as I do if she didn’t want to be queen. I’ll touch on this when I talk about Arya, but I appreciate characters who have the self-awareness required to know who and what they are. Since Daenerys does want to rule Westeros, I have so many issues.

I also think the eighth season is going to see her turning on most of the people she’s currently allied with and I think the catalyst for that is the discovery that Jon is the legitimate child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and therefore his claim to the throne supersedes hers. I’ll gladly admit that I’m wrong if I am, but right now I don’t think I am. Here’s why.

1) She is an ineffective ruler

After Dany liberated the slave cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen, she stayed to rule and did a terrible job of it. Nobody in particular was better off, the majority of the slaves she freed were homeless and scraping for food in mess halls, and she killed elders who had spoken out against slavery without even listening to what any of them had to say. She has the mind for conquering, not for ruling.

(side note: why does she even want to be queen? It’s something she just seemed to jump on in season two without ever reasoning it out, and from there on in it’s like an obsession that has grown inside her. Now she says she wants to make the world a better place but she hasn’t the skills to do it. It should be enough for her to liberate oppressed societies and allow somebody qualified to fix them. But it’s not.)

The truth is, Meereen saw no real improvement until after Dany skipped town on Drogon, because Tyrion had the idea to replace the slave trade with actual trade. He made changes that impacted the city’s economy and allowed its residents to start supporting themselves, so of course, the slavers attacked just as Dany came back, at which point her bright idea was to decimate an entire armada when she needed ships. Tyrion had to talk her out of it. Which brings me to her next point.

2) She requires constant babysitting

It’s ironic to me that Tyrion told Cersei that “the difference” between Cersei and Daenerys is that Dany knows herself well enough to hire advisors who tell her not to do dumb, impulsive things, firstly because that is such a low bar, Tyrion! There are people out there (Sansa) who do not require that kind of monitoring! Secondly because Cersei is far more self-aware than Dany.

Cersei knows that the things she does are bad and does them anyway because fuck it, she knows she wants power for power’s sake. Dany has such a narrow view of justice that actually thinks she’s being righteous when she burns people to death (more on that later) and that is the most dangerous mindset a leader can have. Compare that, if you will, to Sansa, who quite sensibly told Arya that chopping off heads might feel good but that’s not the way to make people work together. Jorah, Tyrion and Jon have all had to speak out against Dany’s more violent predilections and she’s fast running out of people she wants to listen to. She and Tyrion are certainly hanging on by a thread. Which brings me to my next point.

3) She mistreats her own Hand

The relationship between Dany and Tyrion absolutely reeks of Aerys and Tywin, their respective fathers, who were the best of friends until Aerys’ jealousy and paranoia forced them to opposite sides of a bloody war. Dany is all too happy to take credit for Tyrion’s best ideas when they work (and he is happy to let her) but as soon as one of his plans go wrong she whirls on him and berates him like he’s a piece of trash. Everything’s his fault when a plan goes wrong.

When he brought up the matter of the succession she accused him of plotting her death with his brother, which not only is batshit insane but proves that Daenerys gives far less of a shit about the future of Westeros than she claims to, because if she cared that much, she’d care about planning to carry on the legacy she wants to build. She can’t seem to forgive Tyrion for the heinous crime of…loving his siblings? Trying to broker the most peaceful end to the war? Not wanting his brother to die?

Honestly, her treatment of Tyrion is one of the most telling aspects of her character and I am aghast that nobody seems to be talking about it.

4) Like all of the maddest Targaryens before her, she gets off on burning people

This one isn’t subtle at all. Sorry to drop the intellectual veneer for a moment but she fucking loves that shit. It doesn’t bother her a whit to watch people scream as they’re being burned alive. She takes pleasure in burning people, you can see the satisfaction on her face, and a good leader should never take pleasure in something like that.

(FYI people like to mention how Sansa smiled when Ramsay’s dogs ate him when I make this point and to that I blow a raspberry. That was her personal moment of justice against her rapist and abuser, not the lord of some house who wouldn’t submit to her, there is no fair comparison)

Dany was smiling like a satisfied cat when she burned down the temple of the Dosh Khaleen and killed everybody inside it, which was something she did to seize power, by the way. She didn’t do it to stick it to a bunch of misogynists, though I’m sure that was an added bonus. She did the exact same thing Cersei did to the Sept of Baelor and for the exact same reasons, yet only one of them is painted as a villain by the viewing public even though you can argue that Cersei was also sticking it to misogynists when she killed the High Sparrow. The only reason for that is that Dany was given humble origins while the narrative told us that Cersei was bad from the very beginning.

Theon is still beating himself up for killing and burning those two farm boys — as he should. Stannis burned his daughter and everyone was horrified. Jon was so repulsed to watch Mance Rayder burn that he defied Stannis and shot him in the heart. How many times is the show going to have to tell us that burning people alive is a terrible act of evil before people stop cheering Dany on for it? When Ned Stark was Lord of Winterfell, he understood and felt the weight of executing a man. Jon feels the weight of it, too, as we’ve seen on a couple of occasions. Sansa clearly thought long and hard about executing Petyr — that’s what her moment of reflection on the battlements was meant to show us. Dany just… doesn’t care. I think she cared a bit when she had Daario execute Mossador, but I can’t think of any other occasion where she has been directly responsible for a death and been remotely bothered by it.

So. yes.

I think the reason a lot of people – and in particular a lot of women – support Daenerys is because she has a girl power narrative. She does have a girl power narrative, it’s true, but that is not a good enough reason to support a character who on so many occasions has proven herself to be unqualified for the job she wants, not to mention bordering on dangerously unhinged and increasingly paranoid. In that sense I think her season 1 narrative was genius, because her origins and the way in which she started to gain power (as well as her gender) has granted her a kind of automatic forgiveness for behaviours that several male characters – and Cersei, most importantly, because she also has a girl power narrative (and she and Dany are two peas in a pod) but the show told us she was a baddie from episode one – would be dragged through the mud for. And I’m sorry, but it’s not good enough for me. I’m not going to support a powerful female character just because she’s a powerful female character who did some good things once. Powerful women can be good or bad.

Some other points re: Daenerys

The dragons are weapons of mass destruction and need to be killed. They’re nukes with wings. She’s burned her own people with those monsters because fire doesn’t fucking differentiate. Sorry not sorry.

The Targaryens are literally GRRM’s interpretation of the Aryan race. It’s practically in their name.

“I have tried to make it explicit in the novels that the dragons are destructive forces, and Dany has found that out as the tried to rule the city of Meereen and be queen there. She has the power to destroy, she can wipe out entire cities, and we certainly see that in Fire and Blood, we see the dragons wiping out entire armies, wiping out towns and cities, destroying them, but that doesn’t necessarily enable you to rule – it just enables you to destroy.” – George R R Martin, folks.

One of the show’s directors, Jack Bender, made a reference to Hitler when talking about her. He said we should be “horrified” by her. No shit, Jack. No shit.

“Do you wonder if the gods ever get lonely?” Just… this line. Get a grip, woman.

#Game of Thrones #rambling

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miscellaneousmoontoffee · 5 years

Text

MoonToffee A monster in Paris AU

The full timeline and some notes ( contains swearing and gets kinda lazy towards the end! ) (( another note Chauncey although mentioned sometimes doesn’t come up much in the AU cause there wasn’t much need, so sorry pig-goat lovers! ))

Characters

- Moon = Lucille - Toffee = Francoeur ( both monsters toffee's just a lot more cunning but I think in this AU he's going to be a lot more open and slightly naive because of the circumstances ) - River = Raoul / Emile ( Raoul's place in the story-ish and Emile's more cautious behavior but without his romance of Maud. ) - Mina = Victor ( the antagonist that's pretty full of themselves and could potentially/go mad, I think they fit each other pretty well ) - No one = Maud ( since river is going to be following after Raoul in terms of loving Moon/Lucille there is no need for a Maud plus no one really fits her much anyway ) - Count Mildrew = Albert ( both background characters and kinda up their respective asses ) - A solarian soldier = Pate ( Pate is the inspector/right hand man of Victor btw ) - Comet = Carlotta ( both the main female leads mum/mother figure ) - Chauncey = Charles ( Chauncey in this AU of course still belongs to moon but she tells him to keep an eye on the river, plus she lets him hang out with the professor cause they both have fun together, aka the prof needed a smart animal companion (( mad scientist aesthetic man )) and Chauncey wanted more food than moon gave him )

Loose plot

- River wakes up daydreaming about being together with moon then is like oh i forgot something ( you can choose what he forgot ) so he goes downstairs. - his dad is like "hey son can you help me run some errands?" obviously this was not a question so river hops in his dad's car and they drive off to do the thing. - his dad drops him off at the lab to deliver some eggs and says he needs to go do some other task and that hes gonna go and he will pick him up when hes done, and River is like "dad I’m just giving some dude eggs i can go with ya" - so his dad goes well actually the guy is out of the country and hes sure they dude wouldn't mind if river went in and looked around, wink wink nudge nudge. - river gets the message and his dad drives away. - He goes in and is like okay I'm glad I went to do chores today this is awesome, and then a pig starts chewing on his trousers and hes like " Chauncey?? what are you doing, does moon know you're here?!?" and Chauncey says nothing cause he's a pig but he tries to push river to the exit but river doesn’t pick up on this hint. - so river goes "Oooh do you wanna explore with me little buddy?" and Chauncey is like 'no leave' but river goes into the lab anyway. - the look around for a bit and river starts drawing stuff that looks cool ( the drawing is bad but he wants to remember what stuff looks like ) -he finds some potions and is like "ooh I wonder what they do???" so tests one out on a seed that says "instant growth potion " on a label. - it of course grows and he's like wow but walks back to see it better and knocks some potions over. - Chauncey goes to try and stop the potions but steps on a lizards tail and it gets scared and runs under where the potions are falling ( river of course doesn't notice this ) - crash, boom, smoke! - river gets up and sees the shadow of a lizard man and is like " AHHHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" so it runs away so river draws it before he forgets then runs out to the front to get home, not caring that his dad said he would pick him up he's not waiting for that thing to get him! - unfortunately he drops a handkerchief which crudely had his name stitched into it and leaves back to his house. - A couple of days pass and the lizard monster starts showing up in the papers. - an investigation is started over the mysterious explosion at the lab and the new monster that appeared the very same night. - the cheif investigator tells mina loveberry 'bout this and she's like "yes, now is my chance to rise to the top!" - they look around and find River's handkerchief.

- Cut to moon, and her club is looking for a new act/singer and it's not going well. - so one of the waiters, a real smug bastard, is auditioning and it's just him singing badly about how amazing he is and telling her that she's welcome for the free performance of a god. - and she's like "yeah... no thanks I don't really think the club is really the right fit for you." - so hes like " FINE I'M TOO TALENTED FOR THIS LITTLE CLUB I'LL GO FORM MY OWN CLUB! ( *bender voice* with blackjack and hookers! ) - so she's like " yep you are way too good for us, I worry if you joined I would be out of a job. goodbye now! " - Cue Mildrew seeing toffee and freaking out trying to go back in but still being really vain ( ' PLEASE LET ME IN I'LL EVEN SIGN YOU AN AUTOGRAPH!!! ' ) - It doesn't work out so he jumps a nearby fence and books it. - Toffee is like what is that awful ringing noise is it this? and then proceeds to ring the doorbell a million times just too ' make sure it's this '. - So Moon opens the finally all like " YES Mildrew what is it- of holy fudging schnitzels " - she accidentally hits it with the door and is apologizing profusely as she goes to help the ' person ' up. - sees its the lizard person and freaks out, bolts and locks the door. - hears it singing a sad song ( more bitter about the people than the original though ) and is like oh it can talk???? also it has a godly voice???? - she gets an umbrella and tentatively opens the door and apologizes and welcomes this creature in out the rain. - he is suspicious but goes in anyway because its better than freezing to death in the rain - so she awkwardly starts conversation " Soo I'm sorry about hitting you with the door and leaving like that, I just got a bit.... panicked. but might as well start with names, mines moon " - and he just kinda sits there and she picks up that ‘oops he doesn't have one’ so she looks around and is like I have to call him something. - then she looks at a box of toffees a fan had given her and is like " Since you don't seem to have a name would you like me to call you toffee? I'm not the best with names but I need to call you something. " - so he goes ok, and she says that if he wants to stay in Paris he should probably have a disguise.

-cut back to river and someone knocks on his door. - he goes and opens it and it reveals officers who see his drawing of the monster in the lab on his wall and he is arrested. - they bring him to mina, and he starts pleading not to go to prison and that it was all an accident. - ( they also brought Chauncey who was staying with River) - he panicking blames the pig and chauncy narrows his eyes as this will be remembered for later.... - Mina tells him not to worry and that by creating a monster he has actually helped her in one of her secret projects and she gives him a badge of honor. - River leaves and then is like "now that I have this badge I have the confidence to go to one of moons shows and maybe I can try and woo her with my badge!" - so he goes to see her and due to the fact that Mildread is still pissed at moon he gives river the best seats in the house cause he is bad at revenge, so river thinks its his lucky day! - he sees the show and was hypnotized by moons song so he decides to push his luck by going to talk to her back stage. - during the time river was being arrested moon got to see a lot of what Toffee could do and who he is;

. he has a pretty wry sense of humor . he is rather naive in the way of society and social cues . he's also really smart and a quick learner . she also gives him his disguise ( his hair isn't a wig ) . he is pretty fuckin' strong . really stubborn . takes a while for him to trust her but when he does he's pretty clingy . he is vain about his hair and constantly brushes it to lay flat, it always curls at the ends anyway. . he REALLY likes suits. and is rather cuddly.

- so the performance is about to start but he doesn't want to leave her side and sit with the band so cue the scene in the movie. - they actually perform and they end up dancing together on stage, and she refuses to admit to her self that her face felt a little warm when he looked at her with such a loving look while dancing. - back to after the performance and river comes over nervously to congratulate her for the awesome performance, and goes to shake toffee's hands when he spots his tail. - he shrieks and moon puts her hand over his mouth and drags him and toffee back to her dressing room. - she tries to tell him that she knows he's the monster and he's not awful at all. - but river starts freaking out so she slaps him and tells him to get a grip man! - he calms down a little but is still like how are you so calm - so moon tells him why toffee is not dangerous and he calms down properly. - unfortunately for them Mildrew overhears and he now has a better idea for revenge against moon...

- the police arrive soon moon leaves to greet them and try to distract them, while river has to hide toffee. - so Moon goes to the door and is like " oh Mina I wasn't expecting you, what are you doing here? " - And Mina's like " sorry mud sister but this is serious business, where are you hiding it? " - and Moons like fuck she already knows its here somewhere. so she plays dumb " hiding what? I don't have anything to hide. " ( as she sweats bullets ) - and Mina already knowing that moons lying just barges through with the inspector and the 'troops' - Mina instantly tries to go to moons dressing room but moon cuts her off " okay Mina I'm sorry but if you go in there we can't be mud sisters it's a blatant breach of my privacy. " - and Mina calls her bluff and goes in anyway. - Moon is like fuck everything's over they found him... crud. - so when she goes in to make her last stand she is surprised that they are nowhere to be found, and so is Mina. ( surprised that is ) - the inspector comes in and says they haven't found anything so Mina stands silently for a while then goes and pleads to moon to be mud sisters again. - moon still a bit high on adrenaline from then panic says yes just to get her out of the room and they leave after arresting Mildrew for basically pissing Mina off. - moon sighs and says that they can come out and the cost is clear after Mina and the others leave. - she then gets spooked as toffee pops out of her piano, so she lends him a hand and then checks to make sure nothing's broken in her piano. ( storing lizard men in your pianos isn’t a good for pianos kids ) - river then falls down the chimney coughing from all the soot and toffee warily gives him a hand up. ( the start of a beautiful friendship! )

- the next day Mina opens the Montmartre Funicular ( its a escalator/elevator thing on a hill I think ) - the trio ( plus Chauncey ) planned last night that they are going to fake toffee's death on the opening day so people won't look for him and he can live a normal life. - so Mina introduces moon who is going to sing for the opening. - so halfway through singing river loudly shouts " oh my god it's the monster oooh nooo! " - so the crowd starts panicking and Mina is like ' It’s my time to shine! ' - then Toffee hops down and picks up moon bridal style and roars viciously - and moon is all like " oh noooo it's got me, whatever shall I do? " - one of the 'soldiers' tries to shoot toffee but Mina tells him not to as he could hit her blood sister. - then she remembers that river had conveniently given some ' anti monster grenade ' earlier so she throws it and smoke spreads everywhere. - when the smoke clears the monster is gone and the crowd rejoices their savior (the crowd lead by river and moon of course ) - but then Mina spots a scarf caught in the trapdoor and opens it to reveal toffee.

- moon freaks out so her and river shout at toffee to run, as they themselves make a break for it. - river had conveniently brought his dads car/van to get there ( with his dad's permission of course ) so they hopped in and booked it as toffee went the other way so there would be less people chasing him. - luckily Chauncey had already been waiting in the car so they didn't need to wait for him to get in. - so they speed down the street narrowly avoiding obstacles, one of which ended up making river loose his ' fashionable ' straw coat to a horse. - unfortunately for them a hook ends up grabbing their car and they look up and who is it other than Mina and an exhausted looking soldier peddling their FREAKING AIRSHIP LIKE MINA YOU REALLY DIDN'T NEED A WHOLE FUC- - so moon has to climb out and try and get rid of it cause river is driving. - unfortunately for her it's way to heavy and she almost ends up falling off several times, but fortunately ( finally something good for these poor characters ) toffee was making his getaway very near to them so he hopped down on the cars bonnet to help moon pull off the hook. - but because things can never be easy it doesn't work and Mina ends up lifting the car off the ground. ( also moon falls back onto toffee's chest, cue blushy blushy BS when they think back on this at a later date,a scenario which I have obviously not written ) - so they are currently panicking as moon and toffee precariously make their way back inside the van so when they inevitably fall they won’t be as injured. - so Mina drops them in to the seine to try and drown toffee, currently forgetting that her mud sister ( however traitorous she may be ) was in there. - luckily when they start sinking river's father had been planning a boating trip so he had oars in the back. - they paddle to the Eiffel tower before they drown and make it, only loosing River's dad's car along the way. which in the end maybe worse than drowning in the long run. ( for River at least )

- river mourns the car and they make their way up the tower unsure what to really do now other than try and get as far away from Mina as possible. - Mina shoots the airship and she lands on the Eiffel tower, the soldier only just making it out alive by jumping into the seine. - the trio reaches the top when toffee starts to feel weak and moon notices that a lot of his scales are falling off, and she gets worried but slings his arm over her shoulder and asks river to help her carry him to the top. - they are almost at the top when they are stopped when moon placed toffee down for a bit to rest her arms and she hears a gun click. - Mina demands they hand over the monster and toffee makes a run for it up a ladder to the very top of the tower, so Mina brushes harshly past moon to run after toffee. - unfortunately for moon she was standing too close to an edge and got pushed over but managed to grab the edge. - so river goes to try and help moon but somehow also falls over, hanging only onto a spare belt he tried to lower down. ( hey it’s always handy to have a spare belt y’know? ) - luckily they forgot Chauncey was there because he was trailing behind them the whole way up the tower, so he pulls them both up and moon rushes for the ladder after hugging River and Chauncey. - River goes up too but a bit slower and more careful, after almost falling to his death he didn’t really wanna take another chance after all. - Moon goes up there only to see toffee get shot by Mina and fall to a lower level. - before Mina can look over and make sure he's dead the police inspector comes over and arrests her after the ‘soldier’ who was peddling the airship called the other police officers to arrest Mina for leaving him for dead. - moon vaguely sees this but doesn't stick around long, she rushes back down past river (who had only just gotten up here) to find where toffee fell. - she only found his clothes and no body. - It doesn't really register that he could have escaped because of the shock so she just cries - river finds her and comforts her and she brings the clothes back to her dressing room as to not forget him.

- the next day she realizes she has to perform but she is still overcome by grief, so she picks up his scarf to at least wear if she has to perform when she feels wiggling. - she carefully unwinds the scarf and inside there is a lizard. a lizard missing its middle finger. - overwhelmed by joy she tells river and him and Chauncey go to get a potion that will turn him back to his bipedal form permanently. - so he turns back and after hugging him really hard and him apologizing ( what for though? upsetting her? IDK ask him ) she asks if he wants to go sing with her and he says yes. - they perform and at the almost end of the dance she kisses him, just a light peck but a kiss none the less. - river is semi-heart broken yet had kind of seen it coming for a while now. - and toffee goes beet red as the crowd whistles. - while her mum squeals that her baby had finally found a partner! - END

Notes + extras

- Moon cuts off toffees finger when she was cooking with him at one point but then constantly apologizes for it later, he of course forgives her but she does it anyway and he likes making little jokes and jabs at her about it. - Although when we first see River it looks like he's bad with the cold due to the amount of clothes he's wearing, he is actually really good with the cold and was constantly almost overheating but wanted to impress moon with clothing items that his friends told him were cool. of course they weren't very cool all in one outfit. - when toffee first transformed he got his hair, he doesn't know where from but he thinks there may have been some hair on the floor when he got hit by the potion. - Moon takes star's role as Mina's mud sister since star isn't here in this AU. - cause river was distracted when he was watching moon performance before he knew toffee he didn't see the way they ( moon + toffee ) looked at each other but looking back he can definitely see 'it'. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) - due to the potion making toffee human it also increased his regenerative ability from being a lizard to new heights ( for example, if an ant were human sized it would have super strength ) (( no this doesn’t really come into play into the story )) - after the kiss on stage Toffee and moon share another kiss in her dressing room ( nothing like that get your mind out of the gutter! ) - Chauncey was staying with River before he got arrested because when he left the lab scared he brought him so he wouldn't get hurt but then was too shy to give him back to Moon. - Mina calls the police her ' troops ' in reference to the solarian warriors. possibly why no one wants her as mayor...

#whoops accidentally posted this on my main!#but thanks to everyone who told me they wanted to see this #I wouldn't have been motivated enough to post this if not for you #Ps yes they got togther in the end I wanted a happy ending #also sorry for any typos #or plotholes #moontoffee #moon #toffee #svtfoe #a monster in paris

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grapeinacape-blog · 5 years

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The Late Arrival

“You know, I think this has been the worst day of my life.”

I didn’t need to say it, he didn’t need to hear it. But I had to say something, or I’d go crazy. The silence was unnerving in the back of the car and the rushing landscape and the sound of the engine was making me feel slightly nauseous. I search through my handbag for some water, but I seem to have forgotten that, as well as everything else.

“Really?” He doesn’t sound interested and I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t be interested in some whiny passenger either.

But clearly that doesn’t stop me, as I find myself replying; “My alarm went off late, which meant I’d be late. My cat decided she loved me that much, she brought a new pet mouse to my bed, which I proceeded to step on. I was late for the bus, but luckily for me, my bus was late too. My luck is changing, I thought! But no, it drove past me, which meant I got covered in mud.”

Looking down at myself, I fully assess the damage. My blue jeans are covered in dirt, making them a gorgeous new distressed brown. My new white blouse, which I knew was a mistake and cost me £30 from H&M, is covered in a very flattering red, brown substance that looks crusty and slightly like I have spread faeces all over myself. I’m entirely sure that my cheap powder won’t wash it away.

“Oh dear.” The man replies, adjusting his rear-view mirror, probably so he doesn’t have to look at me. I can’t blame him, I wouldn’t want to either.

I lapse back into silence, finding that silence was much better than talking to the driver. I pick at my nails for something to do, as we slow to a halt.

“Traffic?” I ask. I find myself hating myself in this moment, wishing I could just stop talking.

“A little. I reckon there’s been an accident.” He replies, this is the most I’ve got out of him all trip and I feel a sense of achievement.

This sense of achievement goes straight to my head.

“Maybe. What’s the damage?” I ask, moving myself to the middle seat and leaning forward.

To this day, I have never seen someone move as fast as he does, shifting so he’s not sat by my face. I wonder if I smell. Probably, I neglect to remember if I sprayed this morning. I sniff the air, which is nowhere near as subtle as I wanted it to be.

“I can’t see much. Just a fender-bender, probably. I’ll go a different way. You can’t be too late.”

“Oh, it’s really okay. Once you’re late, you’re late. Doesn’t matter whether it’s half an hour or 2 hours.” I laugh it off and he doesn’t laugh back.

I settle back in my seat and stare out my window, as he pulls out of the traffic and takes a side road, through a housing estate.

“Yes, but you can’t be too late. People don’t like to be kept waiting.”

I assume he’s referring to the five minutes I made him wait whilst I recovered from the splash of mud I got in the face. I hadn’t been that long. Although looking at the price so far, you’d think it was. We drive in silence now. Because, thank God, I’ve stopped talking. I look for my phone, to find I’ve forgotten it at home and sigh. People-watching will have to do. A little girl cries on the side of the road, as her knee pours blood. She’s laying on her side on the floor, clutching at her knee as her Mum crouched beside her, stroking at her hair. I read somewhere that everyone has a scar on their knee, it’s something that fake psychics play up on by guessing. I’ve got a scar on my knee, from something similar, so I guess it would work for me too. I remember crying so hard that it made me sick, I was a bit dramatic like that. I bet a psychic couldn’t guess that. I’d been running after a swan and ended up falling head over heels and bursting into tears. Mum told me I was inconsolable for hours.

“So, what do you do?” The voice from the front of the car piped up, interrupting my daydream.

“For fun, or…?”

“For work.”

It takes me a moment.

“I’ve just been fired actually. I was a materials analyst, horrible job.”

“You didn’t enjoy it?”

What I want to say is, No, Mr Taxi Man, I’ve just said it was a horrible job, so clearly, I didn’t enjoy it. But I didn’t particularly want to get out and walk.

“No, not really. It’s not where I want to be.”

“Where did you want to be?”

“In publishing, I think. I’m not quite sure yet.”

He doesn’t have a reply to this.

I purse my lips as I turn to look outside the window. I’m glad of his adjustment of the rear-view mirror, so that I don’t have to face the damage. I run my hand through my knotted hair, tugging at it with a grimace. I can’t imagine what it looks like to the taxi driver who already hates me, nor do I want to. I tug a little harder to get a stubborn knot out, to find its sticky. Pulling my hand out, I look at the mud. Disgusting. I open my mouth, to tell the taxi driver all about it. Luckily, I decide against it.

We’ve taken a few turns now and the area is a lot quieter. There are few people outside, except for a couple, thinking they were hidden behind a bright orange skip. Slowing down for traffic lights ahead gives me longer to watch them. Young teenagers stealing a long drag from a cigarette and a chaste kiss.

“Young love, eh?”

I smile at that. It’s sweet in a way, but it still makes me cringe.

“You forget what it’s like sometimes, don’t you? Being young and secretive. Thinking a kiss was the be all and end all of everything.” I reply.

I can’t help but stare out the window as I speak. Back in motion, the nausea has been swept away.

“Of course. Love is a strange thing, see. Love can be sharing a cigarette in secret, or it can be a hand hold over a candle lit dinner.” He added.

“Very poetic.” I reply, with a smile.

But it’s true. A young love of sneaking around the back alleys, climbing out of windows to meet with a secret boyfriend. Trying my first cigarette with Josh Miller, in an alleyway behind loads of rubbish. A lot of first dates that end with me doing the same thing and climbing out of the bathroom window for a secret cigarette.

“I suppose. Have you had any of that?”

“Any love? I guess so. A couple of boyfriends, here and there. Not much else.”

“Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.”

I don’t mean to, but I laugh at that. Far too cringey for my liking. Though there’s definitely truth to what he says. Though it’s not the be all and end all. Not in the relationship sense of the word.

We’re in a quieter area now. Glancing around, I cough a little before staring at the one person outside. She’s blurry, since we’re moving so fast. But I can make out the girl reading a book as she walked along, in her own world. I’d done that a couple of times, stuck in the middle of a good book and finding I had to leave the house. I stopped soon after I walked into a lamppost and gave myself a fat lip. She was gone rather quickly, and I was left feeling nauseous again as outside flew by.

“Can you stick the radio on?”

I’ve never liked the quiet. I was one of those children that was always talking. I never stopped moving, nor making some sort of noise. Even asleep, I’d find myself at the other end of the bed, talking to myself. Especially now, with no music and a quiet taxi driver, I just wanted to talk or even hum. I doubt he’d have liked that though.

“Where did you want me to drop you off?”

I stop looking out the window and focus on the driver now. The radio still isn’t on and I’m struggling to think without something else to focus on. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to say what I don’t want to say.

“There’s a while left before we’re there anyway. I wouldn’t worry. Just switch the radio on.” I reply.

It’s better than the reply that’s dancing across my tongue. The reply that I’m struggling to stop myself from saying; ‘I don’t know.’. I stop looking at the taxi driver and stare outside. The roads are looking more familiar now. I look at the fare and inwardly wince. I shouldn’t have made him wait whilst I washed my face. I was definitely going to be late now. In the reflection of the window, I catch a hazy glimpse of my reflection. It’s a mess and I’m covered from head to toe in-

“Bloody hell!”

Lurching forward, I look to the driver immediately, my mind racing.

“Sorry. Just a rabbit. So, where did you want to go?”

I don’t answer again. I busy myself with tapping my feet on the floor, trying to distract myself from the dread filling me. I am feeling sick now, my throat is constricted, and I think I’ve forgotten how to breathe. I look down at my feet and the slight breath that I’m managing gets caught in my throat. One foot is in my black trainer, the other… isn’t. Unpainted toenails and covered in dirt.

“Where’s my shoe?”

“Where did you want to go?”

“I want to go home.”

There’s a prick at my eyes and I wipe at them with the back of my hand, feeling the wetness wipe across my face. I stare outside the window, biting the inside of my cheek. I don’t know why I’m being stupid and crying. Something just doesn’t feel right.

Staring furtively outside, there’s an old lady searching through her bag at a dirty bus stop with a shattered window. I recognise her. No, I remember her. It was just a glance in her direction, but she’s stuck in my head on repeat.

Then there’s the girl. She’s young, with brushed, clean brown hair, blue jeans, a pristine white top and two black trainers. She’s running for the bus. She’s going to be late. I want to tell her to run faster, or not run at all.

“I don’t want to see this. I don’t want to remember. I just want to go home. Please.”

My heart is beating quicker than ever as she races across the road, though not quickly enough. One second, she’s there, gripping onto the bag that’s no longer beside me. The next there’s a bus where she once stood, now broken on the ground. A scream fills the taxi and I wish it would stop, before feeling the hoarseness in my chest and realising that it was coming from me. Clasping my hands over my mouth, I try and remember how to breathe again.

“What’s going on?”

I glance to the front of the taxi. The rear-view mirror has been adjusted so that I can see myself now. A gravel imprinted cheek decorated with mud. Or blood, I can’t tell which. As if nothing has happened, I hear his voice over my sobbing.

“Where are we going?”

“I want to go home.”

“I’m taking you home.”

“This isn’t the way home.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, you were a good person, Sophie.”

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fenrism · 5 years

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♡ HARK —— ! yet another has risen in Purgatory ! the curve of [ his ] face likens them to [ JAMES PUREFOY ], but don’t be fooled — there is only one [ MARC ANTONY ]. upon arrival, they settled in as a [ detective ], and have since aligned to the [ VICES ]. it’s written that they’re [ steadfast & courageous & could charm the skin off a snake ], but whispered that they’re [ hedonistic & impulsive & definatly brazen ], so tread lightly. may their heart remain whole. [ nina, she/her, 20s, GMT+2 ]

hello peeps ! first thing’s first i’m going to link marc’s bio here, because lbr why bother string details about a historical figure who’s just had their 2102 birthday ?

PAST TIMELINE TIDBITS:

husband to 5 wives and at least 2 mistresses....

he once threw up in front of the whole roman senate after a 3-day drinking bender

truly loved caesar dont even @ me with your power-grabbing antonius that is not canon and shall never be in this house

did cleopatra love caesar now thats a dif matter & one to be plotted!

i wrote a whole 4 paragraphs depicting what he feels for cleopatra (before this rp was made appless) but I didn't save it so now I'm left to scour my brain for the beautiful epithets I used back then smh... let's just say she is the hands that mould the course of his existence, and that of his essence as well.

very skilled as a sportsman and warrior, less so in the matters of state - plutarch said that due to his stellar family background and upbringing he would’ve made a tremendous ruler, had his boyhood intimate friendships with both men and women not ruined his character - bisexuality™ literally killed him in the eyes of his coevals. im weak.

CURRENT TIMELINE TIDBITS

he has sided with the Vices, in body (would that were real) and soul (would he could understand it) because he yearns for the freedom of the living.

though not a leader, he was always a man with unbridled zest for conquering, exploring, tasting full-bite whatever the day ahead offered. now, to be constrained between a few mist-dappled hills, picturesque as they might be, feels nothing short of an offense.

does cleopatra reinforce his longing for answers and free will once more, or does she try to placate him? the answer can only be filed as to be plotted !

he will come for your woman, best resign to it. if you’re nice, he might add you to the bargain as well; let not their century-long affair fool you. monogamy was the furthest thing from their concerns. almost as remote as, let’s say, octavian’s lackeys dragging their names through mud. for them, pleasure indeed rose from the east and set down westward.

why does he enjoy working as a detective? well, it’s hardly enjoyment for such corrective endeavor, and more about using the privilege according to his whims. he is a man who was bred & fostered in hierarchical structures - in groups of men he would die for, or request their swords for his sake instead. it could hardly have been otherwise after death.

are their children with them or not? you guessed it: to be plotted !

#— ⋆ impartial to all tidings : about.#lnd.intro

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our-smooty · 6 years

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Take me to Church Chapter 1: Rocky Road

Fandom: Gorillaz

Rating: Explicit

Relationships: 2doc

Tags: Car Accidents Angst Hurt/Comfort Drugs/Alcohol Implied/Referenced Suicide SuicideHealing Everything Hurts

Summary: The band is back together, but things are... weird to say the least. But when a crisis arises, can they pull it all together and be a family again?

Link to other Chapters on my Blog!

The rule was that whoever was up first woke up everyone else. Usually, that was Noodle or Russel, but since coming back from her trip to Hell Noodle had given up policing the boys, and Russel was still huge after eating all that toxic waste, so that left 2D or Murdoc. And since nobody told Murdoc Niccals what to do—his words—the job fell to 2D. Even though he slept through his alarm half the time that meant that at people got woken up on time occasionally so it was better than nothing.

Today, despite his best efforts to snooze the alarm, 2D was up on time. Mostly. He'd pulled himself out of bed and into the bathroom, got a shirt and trousers on, and only fallen on his face twice before getting out the door. All in all, not the worst morning that week.

Noodle’s room was first. The halls outside were filled with trash and miscellaneous band gear, but her doorway was at least mostly clear. Quiet as possible, he cracked the door open and peered in, spotting her amongst the pile of blankets and stuffed animals.

“Oi, Noods,” he whispered. Noodle shifted in her bed, dragging a pillow over her head.

“Noodle-girl, you said not to let you sleep in again.”

“Toochie….” she groaned, “5-Bu ijō…”

“S’up to ya but it's not my fault if ya sleep all day.” He chuckled. Knowing better than to needle her when she was waking up he closed the door again.

The next part was his absolute least favourite part of the day. Worse than when it was his turn to do dishes, worse than when Murdoc made him clean toilets. He had to wake up their bassist.

Holding his breath he gave his band mate’s door a timid knock. On good days Murdoc might shout at him to fuck off through the door. On bad days Stu got in some early morning cardio dodging projectiles down the stairs. This morning it was silent.

“Oi, Muds. You up?” he called against the damaged wood. Still nothing. Gulping audibly he leaned against the door.

“Hey Murdoc, you in here?” Sometimes he wasn't even home and 2D got off easy. He had half a mind to walk away and get started on wading through the trash in kitchen for breakfast. But then he remembered the last time he'd failed to wake Murdoc up on time, and decided against it with a shudder. There’d been punching, yelling, and strangely, a lot of sandwich making. Never again.

“Ah come on Muds, at least give me a shout or somethin’ so I know you're in there…” he sighed. Again there was silence beyond the door. He had no choice, and, after allowing himself a few seconds of nervous wavering, he opened the door a crack.

As usual, it was pitch black inside. 2D shuddered in the darkness, the only light coming from the hall behind him.

“A-anybody home?” he warbled into the blackness. The door behind him swung open a little wider, revealing more of the room. It was dirty inside, bottles and papers littering the floor, miscellaneous pills and baggies of powder scattered in between. 2D didn't judge though, his room looked the same. Squinting into the darkness where he figured Murdoc’s bed was he called out again.

“For fuck's sake, Muds, y’in here or what?” A quick glance around told him the other wasn’t in the room. The bed was empty and frankly, nasty. Beer cans, papers, and cigarette butts were folded in between unwashed sheets. Taking a cautious step forward, dodging a particularly terrifying pair of underwear, 2D looked over Murdoc’s things on the nightstand. Condoms, more pills and booze, mail, a worn picture of the band back in Phase One. And Murdoc’s phone, which was weird. Ever since Plastic Beach Murdoc had been nigh inseparable for his cellphone.

Figuring Muds was somewhere else in the house, 2D picked his way back through the mess and out into the hall. Noodle still wasn’t up and the house was silent. 2D ambled down the stairs two at a time, happy for once to have a morning to himself. He made it all the way to the last four before tripping up and landing on his face.

“What the—!” Murdoc’s shouted hoarsely from the sofa. “Can’t a man get five minutes rest in his own home—ahh!” he screamed as 2D popped up suddenly from the floor.

“Oh, there you are Muds! I was lookin’ for you!” 2D said, a little bit garbled due to the bloody nose. “What’re you doin’ on the sofa when you got a perfectly good bed— oh nevermind.”

Murdoc didn’t answer and 2D continued his shambling way into the kitchen. It was only a little better than Mud’s room in here but it smells awful. Like—

“Gas? Why’s it smell like gas?” He stuck his tongue out between his missing teeth in concentration.

“What’re you on about in there, Faceache?” Murdoc sneered from the living room.

“It smells like gas in here, like for the cooker. But nobody’s cookin’— oh fuck!” 2D’s eyes landed on the cooker, which was wide open, with the pilot light out. Thinking quickly for once he flung open all the doors and windows in the kitchen to air the place out.

“Whatever you do don't light a fag yet Muds!” He shouted, aimlessly wringing his hands as fresh air wafted in.

Though he hadn't intended too light one, Murdoc bristled. “You ain't the boss of me dullard” he growled. Just to spite the younger, he pulled out his pack of Lucky Lungs and Zippo.

“No!” 2D shouted shrilly, diving onto the sofa and into Murdoc’s space.

“Dammit 2D, what the hell are you— ow! Did you just bite me?” 2D continued to struggle against the older man, successfully snagging the Zippo with a triumphant, but muffled shout.

Unknown to the two brawling men, Noodle had followed 2D down the stairs and was watching the show. Sighing at the dramatics of her family she continued into the kitchen to get a start on breakfast.

“Noodle! Noodle luv, is that you? Get this soddin’ idiot off me!” Murdoc called, still trying to release his arm from the mouth of his singer.

She ignored Murdoc and kept searching for adequate breakfast food. “Did I hear something about the gas being on?”

2D perked up. “ I fank sum-un left tha gash on an’ tha door opn’,” he answered, Murdoc's arm still firmly grasped in his teeth.

Unphased, Noodle shook her head. “Let him go 2D, the room’s aired out enough for a cig.” 2D finally released Murdoc, who snatched his arm and cradled it.

“Sweet Satan finally! You nearly tore it off!” he whined. 2D scrambled up and out of reach into the kitchen in case Murdoc wanted revenge.

“Well you deserve it for leaving the gas on and the oven open!” Noodle called back.. Murdoc scowled and stomped into the kitchen.

“How’d you know it was me then? Could just as well have been you or 2Dents,” he snapped.

Still choosing to mostly ignore the older man Noodle pulled out a beat up box of cereal. “Because, 2D isn't allowed to use the stove unsupervised, and he listens. And we all know you do stupid shit like this all the time.”

“She's right Muds, and ya were pretty drunk last night.”

“Was not!” Murdoc protested. Both 2D and Noodle raised an eyebrow at him, taking in his bloodshot eyes, pallid complexion, and general lack of appropriate clothing. “Ok I was plastered, but I didn't touch the fucking oven!”

“Whatever, it doesn't matter just don't let it happen again. You want cereal, 2D?” Noodle asked.

“Yes please!”

“Oh fuck this,” Murdoc growled, stomping out of the room and slamming up the stairs.

2D and Noodle watched him go. “Well he's hungover as fuck, he didn't even make that much of a stink over that bite you gave him.”

“You're right Noods. Musta been a right bender. Funny we didn't hear him down here,” 2D answered, pouring milk into his cereal. “And he didn't even really hit me!” The milk started to overflow onto the table and Noodle grabbed the jug.

“He's been acting weird since we all got back together again, was he like this on Plastic Beach too?” she asked.

“Uh, no he was, ah, different.” 2D hadn't told the others a lot about what happened on Plastic Beach other than Murdoc kept him there and was drunk all the time.

“Good different?” Noodle pressed. 2D knew she wanted to know more about what happened between them.

“Nah, just different. Less angry and more… sketchy?” he answered. “I think that was the first time I've seen him out of his room all week.”

Noodle, thankfully, nodded and let it go. 2D was glad she had inherited Russel's social graces and not his or Murdoc's.

Things had been weird between the band since they got back together. Russel was so giant he had to live on top of the house, but he also didn't talk as much as he used to. Sometimes 2D caught him looking like he wanted to say something, but then he didn’t. Noodle had been a teen last time they were all together and now she was a grown woman who had traversed hell and killed demons. Murdoc locked himself away and was downright hostel to his bandmates when he did leave his room. And 2D was skittish, damaged in a way that showed in ragged bitten nails and dark under-eye bags.

But they still worked together. Russel was too big to play the drums but he still leaned down to the window during band practise to give his two cents. Noodles guitar and wild sense of style matched up perfectly with Murdoc's weird genre bending lyrics. And 2D’s vocals we're just as fantastic as always. Musically they were in a good place. Emotionally, they were struggling. There was s distance between them that hadn’t been there before, and 2D didn’t have the first clue how to fix it.

2D stared down into his soggy Captain Crunch. “Do you wanna go to the mall with me today Noods? We could get ice cream at that place you like.” Anything to feel normal for a little while.

“Sure D, maybe we can pick up some more toys for Katsu,” she replied, slamming back her coffee. “Just give me a few to get ready and we can go. Should we even invite Murdoc?”

“Uh, I dunno. I guess it'd be rude not to?” he replied. “I'll go ask him, but I doubt he's even still awake.” Noodle shrugged and walked off towards her room.

Dumping the now gross cereal in the sink, 2D prepared himself to knock on Murdoc's door for the second time that day. Finding himself standing outside the bassist’s door he steeled himself to once again risk waking his beast of a best mate.

“Oi Muds, you still up?” he called. Unlike before he could hear shuffling and grumbling beyond the door. It only took a few seconds before the hungover man pulled the door open, leaning heavily on the doorframe. Clad in the same thing he’d been wearing when 2D’s bitten him, a raggedy grey long sleeve and dirty jeans, he looked just as grumpy as he had when he left the kitchen.

“Come to say sorry for nearly gnawing my arm off then?” he sneered. “Or maybe you liked the taste of me so much you’ve come back for more?”

Used to Murdoc’s behaviours, 2D only blushed a little. Murdoc would firlt with anything with a pulse, and even then that wasn’t a strict rule. “I-I am oftly sorry for biting you Muds, but you were gonna—”

“Yeah,yeah, whatever. What do you want?” Murdoc scowled and picked his teeth with one long nail. 2D gulped.

“W-well me and Noodle are going to the mall and I wanted to know if you want to come with?” the other squeaked, angling his body as far away from Murdoc as he could without moving his feet. 2D was ready to bolt at the first sign of movement. Instead, Murdoc continued to pick his teeth, eyeing him.

“The mall with that ice cream place? The one that can actually make a decent cone of Rocky Road?” 2D nodded enthusiastically. “Fine, give me 15.” He slammed the door in 2D’s face, nearly taking off his toes.

Stu, a little gobsmacked, jerked back from the door and landed on his ass. Scrambling to get up, long limbs getting in each other’s way, he cursed, realising that he only had 15 minutes to shower, get dressed, and get all his stuff together.

What the fuck was he doing. Going out with Noodle and 2D was the last thing he wanted to be doing after last night. He was too hungover this, hell he wasn’t drunk enough for this, he thought, taking a swig from the bottle by the doorframe. 15 minutes was enough time to down the bottle and get a good start on another if he was industrious about it. Maybe then he’d be drunk enough to enjoy his ice cream instead of thinking about how he’d fucked up last night.

“Cheers,” he said as he toasted the medical skeleton in the corner of his room. By the time 2D was knocking on his door again he’d managed to make quite the dent in a second bottle and the world was beginning to look fuzzy. He capped the bottle and tossed it behind him in the direction of the bed. Judging by the shattering sound, he’s missed.”

Murdoc yanked the door open startling 2D into fall over backwards. 2D yelped and scrambled out of the way best he could, but still ended up on his ass. Murdoc glared down and growled.

“Watch where you’re goin’ faceache.” He continued on down the stairs, gripping the railing tight and wavering side to side.

“S-s-sorry Muds,” 2D mumbled, but Murdoc was already halfway down the stairs. Noodle was waiting at the bottom in to foyer, tapping away on her phone. He looked up briefly as Murdoc ambled down the final few steps and began fighting with the shoe rack.

“You alright there, Muds? Lost your heels?” she asked. “Or maybe you’re trying to steal mine again?”

With a grunt, he ignored her and pulled out his Cuban heels. Trying to put them on as normal, was useless so instead he sat at the bottom of the staircase like a child to wiggle them on one at a time. Noodle giggled a little and Murdoc sent her a murderous glare. It didn’t faze her. He took to staring at his shoes with vitriol.

“You ready to go then, D?” Noodle asked. Murdoc could hear 2D traipsing down the stairs behind him and moved just in time for the singer to barrel through.

“Yeah I think so! You ready Muds?”

Murdoc grunted again and grabbed the keys off the hook above the shoe rack. 2D briefly looked worried before Murdoc tossed the keys to Noodle. “You drive Sprog; can’t have ol’ no-eyes drivin’ us off the road, can we?”

“Whatever you say Muds, let's just go.” They filed out the front door and down to the car. 2D stopped to wave up at Russ, who was looking much smaller, Murdoc noted. He was almost looking forward to when Russel could fit through the front door. The drummer was really the only one who could cook worth a damn and he was getting tired of boxed meals and being hungry. Russel waved back and continued with the book he had been reading.

Getting into the front seat Murdoc hunkered down. He could hear 2D complaining in the back seat that there was no legroom but didn't say anything. Noodle got in last and started up the car, flicking to a preferred radio station.

The mall was at least half an hour away so that left Murdoc a lot of time to think. And to sip from the flask in his jacket pocket.

Murdoc was no stranger to bad nights and even worse hangovers. Last night probably hadn’t even been the worst he’d ever had, but then there’d been the oven. The details were sketchy to him, but he could piece together what he’d probably been doing. He took another, larger pull from the flask, stared out the window, and lit another cigarette.

2D and Noodle were chattering in the background but Murdoc didn’t join in. There was a pinching anxiety in his gut, crawling up into his chest and settling in his throat. His fingers itched to hold his bass. Why the fuck had he agreed to come out today?

“Oi Muds, gimmie a ciggie?” 2D all but shouted right in his ear. Murdoc jumped out of his skin, cigarette falling into his lap and burning a hole in his already tattered jeans.

“Fuckin’ Hell” he gasped, brushing the hot ash off his pants before it burned him for real. “Here, take it and fuck off.” Noodle gave him a weird look, probably surprised he hadn’t lashed out at the younger, but he was just too tired.

“Well we're here, everybody out!” Noodle called, cranking the parking brake and unlocking the doors. 2D cheered and leapt out, or he tried to, but he forgot to undo his seatbelt and had to fight with the thing. Murdoc rolled his eyes and exited slowly.

They wandered around the mall for a few hours. Noodle and 2D picked out some cute new toys for Katsu, and Murdoc almost got arrested for shoplifting a whole tank of turtles. He got out of it with a few autographed guard badges. 2D insisted they stop at a menswear shop so he could pick out a tie for his dad, which took 45 minutes too long and involved at least one near-strangulation event. It was mid-afternoon by the time they made their way to the food court.

“Finally, we reach the point of this entire misadventure,” Murdoc groused as they waited in line. 2D bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly wringing his hands.

“What are you gonna get Muds? I don’t know if I should get strawberry or maybe chocolate and strawberry or what about—” Murdoc punched him in the arm, shutting him up. Stu glared but didn't’ say anything.

“Well I want pistachio,” Noodle said. They were at the front of the line and Murdoc stepped forward.

“Pistachio for the girl, vanilla for the idiot, and rrrrrocky road for me,” he orders. 2D made a fuss behind him.

“Murdoc I didn’t want vanilla I wanted— ouch!”

“Murdoc behave. I’ll share some of mine with you Toochie.” Noodle offered. Murdoc could hear 2D whining about not liking pistachio flavouring but tuned him out. He was too sober for this. So he took out his flask and took all but the last sip.

Ice cream in hand the three band members walked back to the car. Noodle and 2D were gabbing again and Murdoc was lagging behind. Ice cream gone, there wasn’t much reason for him to be hanging around, other than to get a ride home. His bad mood from earlier was coming back with vengeance, and even the fading sweetness of, admittedly good, ice cream couldn’t sooth it. Noodles high-pitched giggles and 2D’s grating, muddled speech dug into his brain like a kid in the candy bowl at Halloween. The turtle debacle had been a good time, but it wasn’t enough to distract from the clawing, crawling feeling under his skin. It was probably time to finish off that last sip of whatever he had in his flask.

“What do you think Murdoc? Noodle says my dad doesn’t wear ties but I think maybe if he had one he might wear it, so I got this one but then it’s kinda ugly and—” Did he ever shut up ?

“Do you remember where we parked Murdoc? I can’t see the jeep over all these other cars,” Noodle asked jumping up and down on her tippie toes. Her purse and jewellery jingled with each jump and made Murdoc’s ears twitch.

“—but my mom said she’d like him to dress a little smarter and I dunno if she means, like, more practical or neater so I thought maybe a tie would be good, but I don’t—” He was still going for the love of Satan! A car honked in the distance.

“Murdoc? Did you hear me? Muds?”

“For the love of—SHUT UP 2D!” Murdoc shouted, giving the singer a harsh kick to the leg. 2D shouted and toppled over, straight into Noodle.

Later Murdoc would realise it was like looking at the storyboards for one of their music videos. A still shot of 2D bumping into Noodle, another of Noodle stumbling backwards from the impact. Then another, of that damn minivan coming down the aisle, looking for a parking space and not looking for people falling into the laneway. The penultimate shot of the impact, and the surprised look on Noodle’s face. And finally, the image that would haunt him for years, Noodle, his guitarist, his daughter, on the ground, still and a little bloody. There was no sound, not 2D’s screaming, or the driver's frantic pleas. There was just silence and a sort of ringing, and the single thought running through his head over and over again.

I killed my daughter, I killed Noodle. I killed my daughter, I killed…

#2doc #gore #car accident #drugs #fanfiction

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human-resourccs · 6 years

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He Just Likes The Rush - Ch. 7

In which things finally settle down a little and Jon gets put through the wringer.

previous chapter

~2000 words

Jonathan was lucky that he hadn't killed him right then and there, stood at his complete mercy in one of his own traps. Yes, it was definitely luck and nothing more. Another whim of his good mood, and his sense of fair play. Not the look of embarrassment on his face nor his pathetically dishevelled appearance which suggested he hadn't had a good night's sleep since Edward made his escape that first time - the implication of the latter made him swallow dryly. He would not be so quick to forgive, however; if he thought an endearingly sentimental apology note was going to cut it, Jonathan had another thing coming. But… he'd hear him out. This once. the last thing he needed was people thinking he'd gone soft, after all!

He wondered why Jonathan hadn't simply tried to contact him through the regular channels. Making meaningful gestures was Edward's thing. Frowning lightly, he reached blindly across his workbench for his phone; it used an incredibly secure network of his own making. He punched in the numbers - Yes, he had gone out of his way to find out Jonathan's contact details; so he could make a point of not using them, to prove… to prove something to himself - and dialled it in. The startled look that briefly crossed Jon's face made him smirk; there was a sort of audible smile to his tone when the other dropped the scrap of paper and fumbled for the ringing phone in his pocket - startled, but not at all surprised by it.

"Jonathan."

It hung quiet for a moment.

"Edward. I appreciate your not gassing me immediately upon entry."

"Don't thank me yet, I haven't made my mind up."

Jonathan paused, measuring his words. He… wasn't really expecting to actually face Edward so soon already. Ed spoke up again first.

"Not very good at this, are you? One would think one would try harder when their life quite literally lays on the line. Or perhaps you're just getting a kick out of it, who knows? I certainly-"

Jon gathered his breath.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I've no good excuse for what happened. I was simply acting like a complete fool."

He heard Edward huff quietly over the line.

"Yes, you were. Acting like a total idiot. When I was attempting to show concern for you, of all times!"

He had prepared so many speeches in his head to cut Jonathan down in the coldest, most efficient way possible, but this was so… blunt. Utterly honest. Jonathan had put himself at his complete mercy in this way; he had cameras and traps at his disposal. It had thrown him completely off-kilter, honestly. He wasn't expecting this. He was trying to be angry with him, damn it!

He saw Jon glance briefly up to the camera, then away again. If it weren't for the poor monitor quality, he'd have staked a bet that he actually looked guilty. Now that must have been a trick of the light. That was not fair.

"As I said, I've no excuse. And no good excuse for my continued absence after my escape, either."

"Oh, I'm quite aware of what you were up to after Dent's ham-fisted half-assed breakout. Information and intelligence are my most valued commodities. I'm sure it simply slipped your mind during your toxin-induced months-long bender. It's honestly amazing that your addiction to mortal danger hasn't killed you yet."

"…Of course. It had never been my intention-"

"You look like garbage, by the way. You look like you've been sleeping homeless for a month."

He saw Jonathan's mouth hang open, taken aback slightly. Edward bit his lip, trying not to let his sly grin be too audible through his tone.

"I think I can smell you through the camera. If they decide to re-make Castaway I'm putting you at the top of the casting list."

Jon frowned indignantly.

"Edward-"

"No, no. I'm still pissed off at you. You deserve this."

Jonathan sighed an indescribably tired sigh.

He did.

"…I do."

"Good! We're in agreement."

This continued on for approximately twenty minutes before Edward was suitably smugly satisfied with the thorough verbal dressing-down he'd given his friend. More importantly, he had the entire ordeal on disc, which left him with a larger measure of control than Jon could be entirely comfortable with. But this was the exchange for their continued interaction; Jonathan had been equal parts exhausted and impressed by the vulgar creativity he was capable of when he set his haughtiness aside; decidedly dragged through the mud, things were… more or less forgiven. It was a shaky, tentative re-alliance. Edward did not trust easily, he'd discovered.

Following the methodical verbal dissection, Jonathan bid his farewells, went home, and was promptly overcome by the exhaustion he'd accrued over the past couple weeks - he'd actually left to speak with Edward the moment the impulse had taken him; which had been mere moments after waking up from the previous day's escapade. It was a measurably more restful sleep than he'd had in quite some time.

It wasn't until a day or few later that Edward started breaking into his home again; proclaiming rather loudly as Jon came home that if he was going to continue visiting him then the place was going to have to measure up to the barest standards of cleanliness he had! Which, incidentally, was still absurdly high by Jon's standards. This was probably also a passive-aggressive extension of Edward's ire. He wasn't really complaining, despite the resulting misplacement of a fair number of his instruments.

"I mean really, Jonathan. Did you just grow fond of the abject squalor at Arkham? Decide to keep the aesthetic?"

"Been busy, that's all."

"No no no. I've been busy. You've been-"

Edward's sentence broke off with a strangled squeak as he turned and caught sight of movement in Jonathan's hair and his stomach seemed to drop through the floor, then puffed up angrily.

"Is this a joke? "

Jonathan had no clue what he was talking about until he felt the newly-familiar tickling across his hairline.

Oh.

Shit.

He'd forgotten.

Jon's eyes widened a little bit, stiffening in an attempt to quickly correct the situation.

"Now just hold on-"

"Seriously?? Did you really go through all of this just to-"

"Edward."

Something about Jonathan's expression interrupted his thought process- he'd never seen the man look so openly visibly distressed since he'd met him, and an amount of colour had gathered at his cheeks. Edward inhaled, slowly, and relaxed his shoulders.

Fine, fine.

"I am expecting a very good explanation for this."

Jonathan frowned a little indignantly.

"I. Uh... Became quite fond of her. After you left."

"You… got attached. To a spider."

Scarecrow. Self-proclaimed Master of Fear. Had become attached to a small spider. Was letting it nest in his hair. He needed a second to process the catastrophic mental shutdown this information had caused.

There was a long pause.

"...Yeah."

The anger and indignation had more or less evaporated by this point. He clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. Jonathan frowned harder - the arachnid came to rest hanging just above his eyebrow. It was too much; he doubled over laughing.

Jonathan was absolutely baffled by Edward's uncanny ability to switch moods at the drop of a coin. His laughter was sweet, though; compared to the hearty fake stage laugh he employed in his criminal performances. Giggling, even. It made that warm sickly sweet feeling swallow up his heart in the way it always does; he was starting to enjoy the sensation. In that brief instant he could've told you with total conviction that he'd make a fool of himself a hundred times to see Edward collapsing into uncontrollable fits of giggles and snorts like this. At least he could attribute the burning in his cheeks to embarrassment; his face had remained the picture of indignation while he worked through the emotional short-circuit he'd just suffered.

Edward lifted his mask ever-so-slightly in order to wipe the tears out of his eyes.

"I can't believe you- you- replaced me with a spider! I suppose now I'm going to have to compete with it for your attention like some sort of trashy rom-com, aren't I?"

Jonathan pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

Gotham (particularly the GCPD) was incredibly grateful of the re-alliance that they were never really even aware had occurred. From the city's point of view, the Riddler and the Scarecrow simply finally toned down their frantic activity a little and everyone could rest a tad easier for it.

They settled back into the rhythm of before; enjoying one another's company. Edward abjectly refused to get within 5 feet of Jon for a while so long as his companion - lovingly dubbed 'Aria' by Edward, who flatly refused to let Jonathan choose a name with the argument that he would undoubtedly pick something so embarrassing she would run away from home - remained on Jon’s person.

They'd settled into a comfortable silence in Jon's living room, it had passed quite late into the evening and they were content to remain in each other's presence while Jonathan scribbled horribly untidy notes of theories and formulae into his worn old notebook and Edward overthought things that he knew didn't really matter.

the journal wasn't even old, Edward mused, watching the other's hands work quickly down the pages. Things just seem to look weathered when they stay in proximity to him too long. It's like he has an area of effect that just causes furniture to age. Fascinating.

He rested his head in one hand. Drew a long breath. Something about the atmosphere, the bizarrely intimate silence finally caused a welling up in his chest that made Edward speak up.

"…I'm colourblind."

The quiet scratching of pencil against paper came to an instant stop, but Jonathan didn't look up. Edward paused, heartbeat quickening. Why did he admit that? He'd never revealed this weakness to any of the others. This… mistake in his biology. A defect he could never truly fix. He'd nothing to gain from it. But then, nobody had spared the fraction of time it took to even ask before Jon had. Whether it was because he was simply curious or because he cared; it didn't matter. He'd paid attention and after all was that not all he demanded people do in order to become more intelligent?

"You asked why I never take this mask off. I'm severely colourblind. Short-sighted, to top it off."

Jonathan set the pencil down quietly. Ed swallowed.

"I'm telling you because I trust you won't abuse this."

There was an unspoken threat behind his tone.

"Completely deuteranopic. Greens, reds, and purples. I always did enjoy taking things I was told I couldn't have. These-"

He pressed a finger to the edge of his mask.

"Are corrective. I created the tech with my own two hands. I detest having them removed and being reminded of the irritating imperfection. Amongst other things. That's all there is to it. Trivial, really."

As he spoke, Jonathan had turned to face him - an obvious question resting on his features. He wasn't really capable of grasping just how difficult the admission was for Edward, but… he had a sense of it. The notion of being trusted with such information made it feel as though his chest might crack open with the effort of trying to contain the rogue emotion.

"Thank you, Edward." Was all he could muster in response; hoping that the emotion in his voice could put across what he didn't have the words to convey.

Edward held his gaze for a few impossibly long seconds more before the intimacy of the moment became more than Ed could comfortably tolerate without babbling anxiously.

"Seriously. If - If you tell anyone about that, I'll tear you and your stupid little spidery companion apart, you hear me?"

Jonathan laughed.

#jonathan crane #edward nygma #scarecrow #the riddler #danny writes

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