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smutsonian · 3 years

Note

Hi there! Can I please place request? How about nomad Steve angst with loads of tears with happy ending? Make it dark please? Probably he impregnates you and leaves you for someone else but when he sees Bruce taking care of you it pisses him off and he makes you his? Probably takes Bucky to help 👀

keep you safe

steve rogers x reader ft. bruce banner

warnings: dark fic, dark!steve, angst, manipulation, drugging, panic attack, toxic steve(he’s back guys), fucked up shit, not proofread

word count: 3.7k

a/n: ouch... also, this is all over the place. I’m sorry this one doesn’t have smut just pure manipulation and darkness and angst also im going to consider this as a oneshot

masterlist

- So, I’m thinking like maybe you and Steve were together before the civil war even happened?

- Like he’s still this soft puppy and he really took his time with you.

- He was this very shy but very romantic guy. A real gentleman who took you on a lot of dates before even making a move to kiss you. AND you were the first to initiate the kiss.

- It’s easy to say that falling in love with this man was inevitable.

- It was perfect. He was perfect. You were perfect.

- Then suddenly it wasn’t.

- Steve started acting strange and distant and it’s not normal for you to doubt his love for you because he’s Steve. He always, and I mean ALWAYS make you feel how much he loves you.

- But is it possible that he’s not in love with you anymore?

- Then you find out that you’re pregnant and you would’ve been ecstatic if it weren’t for the downfall you’re facing called your relationship with Steve.

- You’ve been imagining this moment your whole relationship with Steve. How the both of you would be crying with joy and how the both of you will be planning for your future but that’s not happening right now is it?

- The only thing that happened is the crying part and it was just you crying. Not with joy but with fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of abandonment. And the fear of having to raise a child alone if Steve didn’t want one with you.

- Then flashes of memories you had with Steve appear in your eyes and a smile works its way back to your lips.

- What the hell were you even thinking? Steve would be delighted to find out.

- Steve loves you and he’s just busy with his never ending missions. Steve loves you... Right?

- Wrong.

- The moment you got Steve alone, he seemed very irritated that he’s even in a room with you and that didn’t really help you. You were finding it hard to announce the news and how he’s acting is not helping.

- “Is there a reason for this? I’m very busy, Y/N,” he grumbles but you weren’t offended by his dismissiveness. All that’s going on inside your mind is how he called you by your name. Long gone were the nicknames he always had for you. There was no love when he said your name, only annoyance.

- “I-I have to tell you something,” you stuttered, no longer very fond of the idea about telling him but he deserves to know. Is it horrible to think that maybe he’ll change once he finds out? Will it seem like you’re tying him down with your pregnancy?

- “Well get on with it.,” he says dismissively. Something flashed in his eyes before a grin falls on his lips. For a moment, you thought he was back to his usual self and that made you breathe a little better. “I have to tell you something as well,” he adds before motioning for you to continue.

- “I... Steve, I’m pregnant.” You just went for it, afraid that you may back out when you stalled more.

- Steve’s reaction was nothing you expected. He was too relaxed and you didn’t know if you’re going to be relieved or scared.

- “And I want to break up with you.” His face showed arrogance and the smile that you used to love so much made your skin crawl. It’s like he lived on making you feel this way.

- What exactly were you feeling? Betrayal? Sadness? Anger? No. You can never bring yourself to be mad at him.

- “Is that all?” He asks, his tone getting really impatient that easily makes you feel very belittled and insignificant.

- You can’t find yourself to do anything as Steve rolls his eyes before turning around to walk away.

- You managed to whisper a small “W-wait.” Thankful for his super soldier serum for hearing you.

- He stares at you, still impatient.

- “I-Is that it?” Your eyes started to water, everything falling into you and you start to realize what’s happening.

- “A-are we over? That’s it? You’re breaking up with me because y-you don’t want t-the baby? We can work things out, Steve. It’s... I- It’s normal for couples to not get along sometimes. We can work things out. We always do!” You didn’t even realize that you were crying, whining, or sobbing. You just remember trying your best to make him stay.

- “This is really pathetic, Y/N. I thought you were better than this.” He shakes his head in disappointment which only added a new scar to your heart. You don’t want him being disappointed by you.

- “You want a reason? I’ll give you one. I’ll give you more than one. We are no longer working out. It’s not the same anymore. We’ve obviously fallen apart and I met Sharon...” His face shows guilt and you being so in love with the man, that guilt gave you hope. If he feels guilty then maybe he still cares about you...

- “I never did anything with her, though. Not when I’m still with you. I’m not that kind of man. I’m doing you a favor by breaking up with you. I’m not going to cheat on you, Y/N. I cared about you. I loved you. But this is the end for us. As for the pregnancy... Time changed a lot in this place. I’m pretty sure there are lots of choices for you...” He gives your shoulder a pat before turning around and leaving. Never once looking back at your disheveled form.

- Your heart hurt. The pain was all over you and your ears were ringing and all that’s going on inside your mind is how Steve left you. He told you that he cared and loved you and that’s all in the past now.

- If you didn’t know whether to be relieved or scared earlier, now you do.

- And just like that, you forced yourself to leave. You didn’t know what to do, who to call, where to go. You just know that you had to leave the tower. You were no longer with Steve. You didn’t have the right to be in that place anymore.

- You just had to go.

- You were never really trying to move on. You tried but then you gave up because you can never get over a guy like Steve. You loved him. You still love him. Him loving someone else doesn’t really stop you from loving him. You should but you can’t. And you really didn’t want to.

- You stayed at a friend’s house for a while. They were nice enough to lend you a place to stay, though it’s for a limited amount of time, you were still very thankful. Beggars can’t be choosers.

- You never heard from Steve. Last time you got an update about him was when the news reporter was announcing that the hero was a wanted criminal now. Something about the winter soldier.

- You immediately realized that the winter soldier is his long time friend from all the stories that he used to tell you when you were still together.

- You didn’t know what to feel but you forced yourself to not care. You can’t do anything about it. You only hoped he was in a safe place. You shouldn’t care that much but you did. You still can’t forget about him. Not when you’re carrying his child.

- You were walking around the city, desperately finding a job when you bumped into him.

- Bruce Banner.

- You never really got to get to know him much because when you met him, he was timid and you only ever really talked to him when you bump into him in the tower. And then he disappeared and that’s that.

- But he’s there right in front of you and you didn’t think he’d actually notice you or remember who you are but he did. And he greeted you with a smile. A smile that he never really wore back then.

- “Y/N? Is that you?” He laughed before bringing you into a hug. Well, that’s new.

- “Bruce? Where have you been?” You laughed before returning the hug.

- “It’s a long story... How are you?” He offered to treat you lunch and you followed. You’re basically homeless in a few days so might as well accept blessings when you can, right?

- You told him everything that happened. You told him that you had no idea where Steve is because you broke up before he became a war criminal.

- He noticed your growing stomach and it was quite hilarious and adorable how he was so shy about asking so you told him about it.

- “Yeah, I’m pregnant.” You chuckled at his embarrassed face then apologizing to you for staring. You waved it off, telling him that it’s fine.

- “Sorry to ask but Captain left you even after you told him?” Bruce looks bewildered and disgusted and you could only nod in response, face falling at the memories.

- “Where are you staying right now?” Bruce asked with worry written all over his face.

- “At a friend’s...” You so desperately wanted to ask for help but now is the time that your pride decided to show up.

- “I don’t think that’s safe for you and the baby... You were... The captain’s girlfriend and people can use you for bait. Especially now that he’s wanted... Listen, the tower is really empty right now. Only Tony, Rhodes, and I. I can talk to Tony about it. You can stay there and nobody would even know that you’re there. I’m staying there and nobody knows but Tony...” Bruce’s words gave you hope and you could only nod in tears of joy. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad for you.

- You understand why Bruce wanted to be hidden and that’s something that the both of you would bond over.

- After a few more months, you got bigger. (yep, you kept the baby and fuck steve and his fucking fuckity fuck)

- Bruce is a doctor and you grew to trust him as time went by so it’s normal for him to be the one checking up on you.

- You became very close with Bruce and you found solace in him. He just seems like he knew everything that he’s doing and you felt safe with him. You and your baby are safe with him.

- Steve never really left your mind, not when his child is growing inside of you, but you learned how to live without him.

- You avoided the news because you didn’t want to hear about him, an exercise you taught yourself to become somewhat better.

- So imagine your surprise when he shows up at the tower.

- He looked different. Longer and darker hair. Beard. He looked well and you hated how relieved you were at the thought of him being safe and healthy.

- You locked eyes with him and everything came back to you.

- The hurt you felt when he tossed you aside and the hurt you felt when he dismissed you and your baby.

- You felt sick when you saw his eyes traveling down your body and staring at your very swollen stomach.

- You began breathing unevenly and your chest was becoming tighter. Steve made you nervous. You hate how you feel insecure under his gaze. You hate how you feel like you’re disappointing him and you hate your heart still yearns for him.

- You felt hands snaking around your frame comfortingly and Bruce’s familiar voice brings you out of your mind.

- “Breathe, Y/N… Breathe....” He guided you out of the room, needing the privacy and you thanked him for that after you’re finally breathing properly.

- What you didn’t see was Steve’s fuming face when he saw how Bruce held you and how you reacted to the doctor’s touch. The way you calmed down after hearing his voice.

- Steve remembered how you started panicking after seeing him and he hated how you reacted that way towards him but he hates how you reacted towards Bruce the most.

- Steve’s hatred was drowned by the swelling of his heart when he saw you and your stomach. You’re still carrying his baby and he’s so thankful that you kept his child. He couldn’t love you more at that moment.

- Yes. He loves you. He came back for you and to see you in somebody else’s arms? To see you being comforted by someone else than him? He knows that he’s at fault and he probably deserve it but he’s going to do better. He’s going to be the best he can be. He’s going to be the best for you.

- He’s going to be the man that you would need. You and his baby.

- He’s got a lot to pay for and he’s going to do just that. If only you can cooperate with him…

- Steve watches as Bruce does your ultrasound. He should be there with you but he’s giving you time. He’s giving you space. He doesn’t want you getting overwhelmed again. It’s not healthy for you or the baby so he stands in the shadows, watching you and the baby on the screen.

- “Is that him?” Your voice wavers in excitement and Steve wanted nothing else but to hold your hand but he can’t. Instead, he just watches Bruce’s hand gripping yours in comfort and that just won’t work for Steve… He needs to talk to you.

- “He’s so small but so big at the same time!” Your laugh makes Steve’s heart swell with joy. He will get you back. He’ll do anything and if you don’t want to… He’ll make you want to.

- Steve finally gets you alone. He didn’t force himself on you. He waited. He waited and waited and now you’re ready to finally talk to him.

- “Doll…” He goes over to you to hug you but you step back, avoiding him. If that didn’t hurt his heart, the words you spoke did.

- “Captain.” Your words were short and curt. It’s like you didn’t even want to be there with him at all. And what’s with you calling him captain?

- “I wanted to talk to you, doll.” His voice was soft like honey and you feel your heart pounding with joy but you remained stoic.

- “Well, get on with it.” You should be feeling some sort of relief for repeating his word back then to him but you only felt guilt and the need to comfort him when his face fell and a dejected expression takes place on his face.

- “I-I want to apologize, first of all. You didn’t deserve anything I said back then. I was horrible an- and… I just wanted you to know that I never wanted to hurt you, doll. I love yo-”

- “Well you hurt me. You hurt me a lot.” You cut him off, the stoic expression you were holding is now gone. Steve’s face turns into guilt and he makes a move towards you again but you stop him with a shake of your head.

- “I don’t want to do anything with you right now. I… I don’t even know why you’re bothering to talk to me right now when you were so eager to get rid of me back then. What changed?” You looked at him with those eyes that Steve always felt weak for. He hated himself for hurting you but that’s the only way for you to be safe. He was going to look for Bucky and that will bring a lot of problems and he didn’t want you to be caught in between his fights. He loves you too much and at that time, he believed that hurting you was the best option.

- “I wanted you to be safe, Y/N…” Steve explained, his hand weakly reaching for you but every time you would reject him just adds another stab into his bleeding heart.

- “Well, fuck.” You spat. Steve looked at you in confusion, almost flinching at the way you’re glaring at him.

- “You wanted me safe?” You let out a humorless laugh and this time, Steve flinches.

- “Well thank you, I guess.” You say, voice not holding any emotion anymore. Steve liked you being mad at him rather than this. He didn’t like how you seem like you’ve given up feeling anything for him. He’d rather you mad at him than nothing at all. He deserves your anger towards him. Not this.

- “Well, you can continue making sure I’m safe by fucking off and leaving me to myself then.” That’s the last thing you said before leaving, never once looking back at his disheveled form.

- Steve hated how he feels but he knows that he deserves every single stab in his heart. He knows he deserves more hurting. He wants you to hurt him but you’d never do that. Not his Y/N.

- You’re right though. He will keep you safe. He’ll show you just how much he can take care of you and make you safe.

- He’ll make sure to have you back in his arms. You’re going to be a family and he’ll protect his family at all cost. He’s never loved a woman as he loves you. Not Sharon and not Peggy.

- You never talked to Steve after that confrontation but you still see him. You see him watching over you and you couldn’t help but feel the swelling of your heart whenever you see him.

- You’d see him putting your favorite cereal box down on the counter before you can enter the kitchen so you wouldn’t have to reach for it.

- You’d see him doing simple things to keep you safe and each time, you find yourself longing for the old days you had with him. You find yourself longing for Steve.

- Then it happened.

- Bucky somehow got triggered into becoming the winter soldier and your first reaction would be to find Steve but this time, you didn’t. You went to Bruce.

- Steve’s jaw clenches when he sees you running towards the lab to find Bruce, your hand protecting your stomach. Steve ran towards the lab as well, knowing too well what’s about to happen and he’ll be there to save the day.

- Looking for Bruce didn’t end well because he found you. Not Bruce but the green angry man. The hulk.

- He was shouting while the winter soldier was watching the green man with interest. He somehow managed to trigger the hulk. Your heart skipped a beat at the thought of someone controlling your best friend.

- “Bruce! It’s me!” You shout but the green man only growled before pouncing at you.

- You turned around, crouching and hugging your stomach to protect your baby but the impact never happened.

- The sound of clashing and fighting made you turn around and you see Steve dodging the hulk’s punches with his shield and your heart leaped in relief. You relaxed for a second before feeling worried for Steve.

- It’s like a normal reaction for your body to feel safe with Steve and your brain is starting to believe that too. You remembered his words from before… He just wanted you to be safe.

- He hurt you to keep you safe and you’re starting to understand that now.

- “Y/N!” You see him running towards you with worry written all over his face.

- “Are you okay?!” He asked, hands shaking as he scanned you for any scars.

- “I-I’m fine, Steve… Are you okay?” You tried to look him over for scars but he pulled you into a hug, crying and shaking against your body as he rubbed his hand behind your back.

- “I thought you got hurt. I thought I failed… I just wanted to protect you…” He choked on his words and you hugged him tighter.

- You understand everything now.

- He just wanted to keep you safe.

- You pulled back from the hug before wiping his tears away with your thumbs.

- “What about Bucky and Bruce?” You turned to look behind him but Steve stopped you.

- “Bucky’s alright. He’s back and he’s bringing Bruce to the medbay…” Steve breathes heavily, reminding you of the battle he just had.

- “A-Are you okay, Steve?” You repeat your question and he nods in response before pulling you into a hug again.

- “I don’t care about me. As long as you’re safe. As long as you’re both safe…” He pulls back before pressing a hand on your stomach.

- “I’ll feel safe when you’re both safe. I’ll only feel safe when I know you’re safe. Y/N… Doll… I am fucking sorry for hurting you. There’s no excuse for that. I understand if you don’t want to see me anymore... What I did was horri-”

- “Steve.” You cut him off and he looks at you with sadness and regret.

- You cup his face with both hands before smiling.

- “Thank you, Steve. Thank you for keeping me safe. For keeping us safe.” You grabbed Steve’s right hand before placing it back on your stomach.

- “You keep us safe… Thank you, Steve.” You see Steve’s eyes starting to water once more and you giggle before moving in, stopping just a few inches from his face.

- Your eyes flutter before you leaned closer, finally closing the distance and kissing him.

- You feel his hand moving from your stomach to your back to pull you closer and tighter to his body.

- “I love you, Y/N. I love you so fucking much.” He whispers through the kiss.

- “I’ll always keep you safe, Y/N. I will never hurt you anymore. I’ll be the best husband and father…” He whispers before lifting you up.

- “I’ll keep you safe.” He whispers one last time before carrying you back to your room. The room that you’ll be sharing with him soon. Actually, you wouldn’t even need that room because Steve will make sure to get a place where the two of you can be alone. The tower isn’t safe for you anymore. Only Steve can keep you safe.

- Steve celebrates in his mind as the mission went successfully. With Bucky helping him. With how they were able to drug Bruce’s coffee. Everything went perfectly. You fell right back into his arms.

- And Steve will keep his promise.

- He’ll keep you safe.

- He’ll keep his family safe.

------

undeserved happy ending for steve but what about it💀

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#steve rogers x reader #bruce banner x reader #bucky barnes x reader #dark fic AU #dark!fic #dark steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers angst #dark!steve rogers #dark!steve rogers x reader

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aros001 · 3 years

Text

Read through light novel vol. 8. Random thoughts.

It's funny that what's made me the angriest thus far in this series is Priestess getting her clothes stolen. Closest was Wizard Boy's arrogant ignorance. With the goblins I feel horror and disgust and yeah there's anger there too, but for whatever reason I had just such a strong reaction of "That bitch!" when the girl stole the mail from Priestess and made her cry.

The news that the first princess had been kidnapped by goblins was enough to make the king stand up from his throne.

Okay, I was mad but not that mad!

“About, that...” Witch, who had produced her pipe from nowhere, gave Priestess a heavy-lidded look. Erk... Priestess felt her heart skip a beat; she put a hand to her chest. Would she be able to have this effect on people someday? It was going to be a long time coming...

That does make me wonder, has there ever been a design for Priestess as an adult, be it official or fan-art? She is only 16, so even if she doesn't get much bustier she should still reasonably grow a bit. It's interesting to imagine her and Goblin Slayer anywhere near a similar height.

Also, this is me probably looking too deep into things, but between Witch, Sword Maiden and even a lot of her interactions with Noble Fencer, does anyone else ever get the feeling Priestess might be bisexual? I hesitate to say that because usually I dislike how often I see people insist that a deep friendship/connection/admiration immediately equals love, but how the narration sometimes describes how Priestess is thinking about some other women makes it sound a lot more like attraction than just envy over body proportions. I say bi and not just gay because she does seem to have at least some romantic feelings for Goblin Slayer, even if it is just a desire for his attention and approval.

That aside, I do really like that she wants to be more like Witch, or at least how she perceives Witch. Cool, powerful, knowledgeable, elegant, stacked. I've always had a soft spot for characters who have another person they admire as their goal to be like and are so humble that they don't quite see the positive effect they already have on those around them. The person who admires someone for their positive qualities not yet seeing that they too are admired for similar qualities.

The skin her vestments revealed was perfectly white, almost translucent, as if untouched by the sun. It meant that the tinge of rose in her cheeks was probably not just from the light. She almost seemed like a harlot—and there were temples that kept sacred prostitutes.

What the f**k is a sacred prostitute?

Given that we know High Elf Archer sleeps in the nude, that's twice in this book Goblin Slayer just barges into a woman's room while she's not dressed, first with Cow Girl and then with her to wake her up.

“I know it’s hard,” Goblin Slayer said with utmost seriousness. “When I was a child, I would lay in bed trying to find out how long I had to keep my eyes closed before it would be morning.”

Again, one of the big draws of this series for me and why I think it works is that it takes trauma seriously. The raping goblins aren't just a gimmick to make the series seem edgy. It addresses that these creature would really mess a person up and that the lingering trauma is treated with understanding, never like it's cowardice or foolishness. How this series handles Sword Maiden especially is something I really respect. She comes in to save the day at the end but it's clear it's taking everything she has just to be there. How she froze up when she was called on in the court to deal with the goblins and the relief like a bright light when Goblin Slayer came in to take the job. The position she's in of being powerful enough to face the Demon King but unable to fight "mere" goblins and no one aside from those who've personally experienced the sheer horror of the goblins able to understand, adding to her feelings of isolation and helplessness. It's really good stuff.

I remember when I first started with Goblin Slayer and I saw some people complaining that the series was kind of dull because he never fights anything other than goblins. One, that's just flat-out not true, as he's fought many non-goblin creatures. He just has no interest in fighting anything that's not a goblin. But even when it's just the goblins, I think this series does a good job at making the goblins always feel like a threat and shaking things up often enough. Giving them new tactics, new leaders, new bases of operation, even new breeds like the Goblin Paladin. Every time they're doing something even slightly different from the norm for them it always sparks some dread about what's coming. The moment this volume mentioned a band of goblins with identical tattoos marking them it was just an instant "Oh, that can't be good" from me, which leads into the Goblin Priest, a big cause for alarm given how useful Priestess has proven herself to be, which led into the weird demon arm thing. It's like complaining that a character never fights anything other than humans or dragons or vampires. The power level doesn't matter if it's the same kind of human/dragon/vampire every time. Be it the things that use goblins as their minions/followers or the goblins themselves, I personally think there's enough variety involved to keep things interesting.

A nice moment with Priestess visiting Wizard's grave (so this is the leaked image that got the false rumor started) and, something I'm really hoping for, the possible return of Fighter, even if it's just Priestess eventually finding the courage to see her again at least once. Again, the reason the goblins work is because what they do isn't just a gimmick. Several volumes after her first party's wipe, Priestess is still thinking about them, lamenting their loss, thinking about what could have been, and how difficult it'll be for them to see each other again after what happened. They weren't just Priestess' origin story, they were real (albeit fictional) people, taken before their time and violated in the worst way possible and they shouldn't be just a footnote. Be it for Priestess and Wizard's brother, they should and do still matter.

She strengthened her barriers as an attack came from a strange angle; Sage was thinking fast. It seemed likely that this thing, this shade—if it could be called that—learned by absorbing other living things. They were simply lucky that the creature it was trying to parasitize at the moment was so incredibly stupid. But... Sage gave voice to the obvious question. “How did the corpse of a goblin drop onto a mountaintop...?”

Holy shit, that's hilarious. And the best part is, there was build up to it. Back in vol. 6 when Goblin Slayer used a scroll to flood a nest he did believe there were some goblins he wasn't able to get. Throughout the series it's been noted he doesn't like using the same tricks too many times in a row in case the goblins learn from him, thus the importance of making sure every goblin he encounters he kills. If some escaped, yeah, it makes total sense he'd change to a different type of location for the Gate scroll, just in case he ever meets up with goblins whom are expecting a flood to pop out.

Second only to this with how good the set-up was has to be Priestess turning the blood from the Goblin Priest's ritual into water, ruining its sacrifice to the dark gods. She discovered she could do that last volume but it seemed like she never would again because she's forbidden from using her miracles to deliberately harm another living being (even a goblin). This was a very clever way of bringing it back, having her learn from her experiences while still being devote to the Earth Mother.

Priestess noticed that her hand was still clinging to his and blushed. She made to disentangle her fingers—hesitated—brushed his hand softly and, finally, pulled hers away. She was humiliated, pathetic, pitiful...and yet. I want to be... ...a source of strength to him. That day, she stored up the smallest of prayers in her heart. One day, she swore, she would be.

All shipping and such aside, this is something I really hope to see someday. That point in the series where Priestess is no longer Goblin Slayer's sidekick but rather his partner. Someone he can have truly walk and fight beside him as an equal, easing the burden on his shoulders, until the day all goblins are gone.

What kind of world is it where I'm thinking "Thank goodness, the princess was only severely beaten and nearly sacrificed to a dark god"?

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoblinSlayer/comments/g4llnd/read_through_light_novel_vol_8_random_thoughts/

#goblin slayer #random thoughts #reddit repost

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whimperwoods · 3 years

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Part 10 of Gozukk and Anna

Anna scares Gozukk instead of the other way around. Jak is one part guardian angel, one part Tom Sawyer. Azzor shows a softer side.

The masterpost is here and includes a cheat sheet with character names/relationships.

tw: slavery (past), tw: PTSD, tw: past abuse, tw: self-hatred, tw: self-harm implication (extremely vague), tw: hand whump (past, implied), tw: panic attack

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Tag list: @redwingedwhump, @nine-tailed-whump, @thehurtsandthecomfurts @kixngiggles, @bluebadgerwhump, @dragonheart905, @carolinethedragon, @whumpzone, @newbornwhumperfly, @cupcakes-and-pain, @much-ado-about-whumping, @winedark-whump

****

Anna could hear people talking outside as the time for lunch came, but every time she peeked out the front of the tent, she found herself unable to step through it. A large, boisterous group was talking and laughing, eating together, but everyone she recognized looked occupied.

Djaana’s circle looked friendly enough, talking and laughing, several with small children clinging to them, but she couldn’t imagine interrupting, couldn’t imagine they’d want her, and couldn’t bring herself to risk their anger.

Enzah’s friends were even more frightening, each of them armed, with shields strapped to their backs. The one Enzah seemed to talk to the most occasionally paused their conversation and casually accepted hugs from a string of children, which seemed like a good sign. None of the group seemed to be looking for someone to hurt. She kept trying to convince herself that they were safe. Surely, if Enzah was kind and her friend was kind to children, they were safe. But then light glinted off a weapon or a shield, just beside where she was looking, and a shiver ran down her spine.

She closed the tent for the fourth time, collecting herself. She could do this. She had to be able to do this. It was just lunch. She’d been making and serving lunch for an entire caravan for months, and she’d never given up like this, never given out. But then, she’d always known what would happen if she did. She’d always known it would be worse to give out than to push through. Now - now she couldn’t convince herself that was true.

Another glance just showed that Gozukk was still somewhere else, away from the fire, and that Dumul, who she also remembered from breakfast, was still standing with Mukzod, who she couldn’t possibly face.

She stepped away, back into the room, and went to kneel on the carpet, trying to center herself, as if it would help, as if it would make her strong, as if she could make herself anything but useless. Her breathing was speeding up instead of slowing down, but of course it was, because of course she couldn’t pull herself together.

She bent over, pressing her forehead to the ground, and found herself rocking, pressing her head to the carpet and then back, down, back, down, back.

When the tent opened and light fell across her, she looked up, knowing her eyes were wide and panicked, knowing she looked pathetic, knowing Gozukk was seeing her for exactly what she was, and - and it wasn’t Gozukk.

Jak was already running toward her, his eyes as wide as her own.

“Miss Anna! What’s wrong?” he slowed before he could reach her and put both hands on her shoulder.

She couldn’t figure out how to answer, but that was apparently alright, because Jak moved one hand off her shoulder and smacked himself in the forehead. “Oof, nope! Sorry, Miss Anna, I forgot no questions. Do you need another calm-down cloth? I was gonna come ask if you needed lunch, but I think maybe you don’t need lunch right now.”

More questions. More questions, but she couldn’t just leave a little boy to figure things out on his own. She nodded, because it seemed easier than saying no, and he nodded back. Then he wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a quick, fierce hug that surprised her and ran away again.

He returned quickly, a damp rag in one hand and a heaping plate of mostly bread in the other. “Mama said I could come check on you and eat lunch in here as long as you said it was ok, but if you wanted to be by yourself I had to leave you alone, and she says I gotta make sure to get my work done, but it’s easy today so it’s no problem!”

She wondered if other people had trouble following how fast the boy talked, or if it was just that she was weak and stupid. Either way, she nodded.

Jak beamed. “Cool! I knew you wouldn’t mind! ‘Cause Mama said you’re prolly scared of people for a while, but I’m not scary.”

He walked straight over, placed the plate down on the rug, and sat down across from it. “I even brought lunch for both of us, I was so sure I wasn’t scary.”

“Th-thank you,” she managed, not sure whether she should look the boy in the eye, or whether she ought to discourage him. Did Djaana want him here, or did she want Anna to send him away?

“You’re welcome!”

Jak didn’t leave much silence unfilled before he continued, “Anyway, I asked Enzah what she thought you liked to eat from breakfast and she said I should bring you bread ‘cause it’s easy to be fair and then you wouldn’t try to eat less than everybody else, maybe, but that’s just as well, ‘cause I like bread just fine!”

She reached for a piece of bread and took a bite just as he seemed to be running out of breath, so that she wouldn’t have to find an answer, but she did manage a nod she hoped he would understand as more thanks.

She felt almost faint as she sat listening to the boy list everyone’s favorite foods he could think of and ate her bread. It was dizzying, sitting like this and trying to catch everything, trying to remember everything when her head was still so hollowed out and exhausted with fear and its remnants.

Gozukk apparently had a fondness for figs, and that, at least, she could keep in her mind. She needed to remember that one, and something about having something specific to note in the sea of words was reassuring.

She managed to keep ahold of what Jak was saying enough to prompt him with questions, feeling proud of herself as she realized that as odd as this was, it seemed at least to be going better than trying to answer questions and keep track of the conversation at breakfast had.

“You said you have work to do?” she asked, as he reached the end of an explanation of how much better he was getting with a bow and how he thought he’d be able to outshoot his friend Emve this evening even though Emve was older. (She wasn’t sure why he was convinced that tonight was his night, but it was better to understand some than none. Less dangerous.)

“Oh, yeah,” he said, sighing. “It’s not very interesting today. I’m just supposed to help gather dried dung from the aurochs for the fire. You could help, if you want! I bet you could do it. And it goes plenty fast already, so I bet if both of us did it it would go really fast.”

She found herself nodding, agreeing, before it could fully sink in or she could think about it.

They were out of bread, and Jak was fast, always fast, doing everything fast. By the time she fully realized what she’d nodded about, he was already on his feet, offering her a helpful and cheerful hand up.

She took it, only to find he didn’t let go. He led her by the hand out of the tent, grabbed a basket from beside the fire pit, and turned out toward the open land where the cattle were spread out.

It was strange, having a hand smaller than her own in hers. She couldn’t remember the last time that had happened, the last time she hadn’t been the small one, the fragile one, the thing to be crushed.

Jak’s hand held hers with a surprising strength, and a wave of cold washed over her, but she held herself together. He would not break her fingers. He could not break her fingers, probably, not like this, not without giving her a chance to pull away, and his hands were smaller than her own.

He let go when they were in among the herd, and she clenched her newly released hand, hard enough to press her fingers against the welt on her palm through the bandage and send a jolt of pain through it, familiar but manageable.

Gozukk didn’t threaten to break her fingers. He bandaged her hands, kissed her knuckles. Once, he’d kissed her left palm. Thinking about it made her blush.

Jak was practically skipping with excitement as he listed off the things he did around camp, things she should be listening to, things she might be expected to do when her maste- when Gozukk decided she was fit for work, things she could only half hear, her mind taken up with the unfamiliar landscape, the terrifying size of the animals around them, the pain in her right hand, the basket in her left, the past pressing in on her around the edges of the present.

She carried the basket while Jak darted around energetically, gathering balls of dung he seemed unafraid to touch. He’d told her she’d better not, because he’d told her that her bandages had to stay clean.

It was going to be alright. Her bandages were going to stay clean, and the dung was for the fire, wouldn’t be in her food, wouldn’t be ground into her hair, I didn’t think about that, Miss Anna, but don’t worry, I can do it so your hands stay clean!

It was easier and harder to breathe steadily out here. They were alone, away from people, and Jak was right. He wasn’t scary. Mostly. The aurochs were scary, but Jak seemed perfectly comfortable around them, calm and content, occasionally patting one affectionately on its flank.

Jak had said they would be quick, but the longer they were out in the field, away from the safe, soft dimness of Gozukk’s tent, the harder it felt to keep ahold of herself, to keep her breath steady, her mind clear.

She followed the boy, trying to listen, trying not to fade into a half-haze, but then, all of a sudden, there was shouting from camp, raised voices, running feet, and Jak’s eyes widened. “Uh-oh.”

She should run. She needed to run. Something was wrong. They should go - back to camp? Away from camp? Jak stood still, and she didn’t know where to run. After all that, after all the speed all afternoon, Jak was still, and she found herself suddenly sobbing, directionless and lost.

Jak turned toward her, brow furrowed. “Whoa. It’s ok, Miss Anna.” He patted her arm, “You’re not gonna be in trouble.”

Oh gods. Trouble. Was she - would she - what if -

Her throat tightened, her breaths coming shorter, shorter, and then her head was reeling and her knees were buckling and she was on the ground, panting, on her hands and knees. Dirty little bitch. No better than a dog.

She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe.

Jak’s hands were on her shoulder, shaking it, but then he was wrapped around her instead, his torso pressing against the wounds across her back as he tried to hug her, tried to tell her it was ok, but his voice sounded scared, now, scared, like she was, like she should be, if he was scared.

She gasped for air and then tucked farther in on herself, a sob breaking loose from her throat.

There were heavy footfalls, close enough to hear through her ragged breaths, so close she should have heard them before, so close that how had she not heard them before, they were running, but they were close, close. Heavy footfalls, and close, and Jak - Jak was still here. Oh gods, she wasn’t the smallest thing here, wasn’t the smallest - wasn’t - wasn’t -

She forced herself up to her knees, breaking through Jak’s admittedly loose and awkward embrace, and grabbed his forearms. “Run,” she panted, “If it’s trouble, run.”

Jak’s hands grabbed her own forearms, almost instinctively, as if to support her. He was looking over her head, looking at the source of the footsteps, looking and not moving. She ripped her arms out of his grasp and shoved lightly at him, but it did no good.

The boy looked sheepish, all of a sudden, tucking one foot behind the other. “Oh,” he said, his voice calm in spite of everything, “Umm. Sorry, General Azzor. I, umm - I think Miss Anna got scared when she heard the yelling?”

General. General. Oh gods. A general.

Anna collapsed all the way onto the ground, curling up on her side, tucking her legs in to protect her stomach and her arms up to protect her head.

There was a heavy sigh, and the footsteps came closer. Then a new orc was squatting down beside her, only vaguely familiar as the one who had stood behind Gozukk when she was brought before them. He had a nasty-looking scar across his cheek, narrowly missing his eye, and his bare, muscular arms showed off more battle scars than she could count.

She was crying. She shouldn’t be crying. He hadn’t touched her yet. She shouldn’t be crying. Worthless bitch. She needed to stop crying.

“Jak, go get your uncle.” The man’s voice was a deep, rumbling bass, miraculously not angry, just very, very tired sounding.

The boy was running immediately, his small feet pounding against the dirt, and she was alone, and she was trying not to cry, and she was waiting for a blow, and then she could stop trying so hard to stop the crying, and that, at least, would be easier. He would hit her, and she would cry, and that would be easier. She sobbed again, flinching as she realized she’d failed, again, to quiet herself.

The man moved, rearranging to sit beside her. He ran a hand through his hair. “This is not how I thought your presence in this camp was going to go, gmeling.”* His voice was gentle, but still tired, and it didn’t make sense.

She pulled in tighter, tried to breathe, tried not to cry, not to antagonize him, not to ruin the small miracle of a general sitting beside her, tired instead of angry.

“If you are playing some kind of trick on my chief, I will gut you,” he continued, his voice still tired, calm, devoid of anger. “But if it’s any consolation, I hope he’s right about you.”

The man’s large hand reached out slowly and, as she flinched away, carded gently through her ratty, unevenly shorn hair. “He’s often a better judge of people than I am.”

She fought to get her tears under control, not to seem ungrateful. “Th-thank you,” she managed, half breathless.

The general stroked her hair gently again. “He’s better at this part, too. But at least now I’m close enough to see you’d have to be a hell of an actress for him to be wrong about-” he removed his hand, gesturing vaguely at nothing.

Gozukk arrived loudly, his feet thundering across the ground as he ran at a full sprint toward her. She flinched away instinctively, and Azzor made a little sound of surprise.

Gozukk’s knees thudded onto the ground beside her, and then his hand was touching her shoulder, cupping her face, letting go. “Anna.” He sounded winded, at a loss.

“I’m sorry, Master,” she whispered, not sure what else to say.

Gozukk’s sigh was heavy, not all annoyance, not all relief. “Just Gozukk, Anna. Just Gozukk. You’re alright.”

“Hmm, this is what’s passing for alright?” Azzor’s voice was warm, all of a sudden, joking, but she didn’t know to whom. He started standing up, but her master ignored him, and she wasn’t sure if she should, too.

Gozukk’s hands reached toward her, then stopped, frozen.

Azzor nudged Gozukk’s shoulder playfully with his knee. “Come on, Goz, help her up. We should tell the others you panicked about nothing before they get too far afield or spun up.”

Anna couldn’t make sense of it, couldn’t understand the joke in his voice, the laughter, unless she was - something - she sobbed, losing control again, and her master half growled under his breath before he answered. “Now you’re winding her up, Az. Go tell everybody you were right. It’s a false alarm.

She had dropped the basket when her knees gave out, but it had landed on its bottom beside her, still full. The general scooped it up and walked away, more slowly than he’d come, shouting something as he went on his way.

Then she was alone with Gozukk, and it was the best kind of alone she’d been since she’d left the tent.

She reached her hands out toward him even before she sat up, reaching so he’d know - something - something - she didn’t know what it was she was trying to tell him.

He grabbed her hands, but his grip was loose, loose enough that she could slide her hands up to his forearms, feel him gripping her forearms instead, still loose, still gentle, his palms carefully avoiding the rings of bandages.

“Do you want me to carry you?” he asked, his voice all softness.

She didn’t know how to say yes, so she just nodded.

He scooped her up, and she closed her eyes and tucked herself up against his chest, trying to convince herself it was no different than the other times he’d carried her.

He started walking, and tears leaked from her eyes. Please, gods, let this be like the other times with him.

*****

*little hawk in orcish. He means it affectionately, more or less. More more than less.

#whump #d&d whump #recovery whump #panic attacks tw #ptsd tw #slavery tw #past slavery tw #self harm tw #JUST IN CASE #it's really not #but it tends vaguely in that direction #i promise she will eventually have fewer panic attacks and feel more stable #but it's also like... day 2 #the problem with azzor is that he does not have one single non-sarcastic bone in his body #i love him #but his default state is friendly ribbing with allies and biting sarcasm with enemies and that's just how it is #incidentally this afternoon was supposed to be a trip to the midwife but WHOOPS #lunch is hard and jak can't stay out of trouble #not generally bad/ill-intentioned trouble #but gosh that boy #you can't just TAKE ANNA SOMEWHERE and NOT TELL GOZUKK #also for reference i say gmeling is orcish but i literally made it up it's just sounds #but it may also be the only thing azzor ever calls anna in his life so *shrugs*

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alolowrites · 4 years

Text

Sleepless Nights

Summary: Bakugou can’t sleep ever since the brutal breakup and decides to do something about it.

Author’s Note: Here is the second story for @bnhabookclub’s Hero Camp Bingo event. The prompt I used was Betrayal. It’s been a while since I wrote a Bakugou story, so of course he became my latest victim for an angst story (lmao). Don’t worry, it does end on a good note!

As always, please enjoy!

Word Count: 2.1K+

Bakugou is restless.

Crimson eyes glare at the dark ceiling and his left arm unconsciously reaches over to hold you closer to him—splat.

A cold bedside greets his rough hand, the silky sheets bunching up in his deadly grasp. Luckily the linens are not alive, or else they would be begging for mercy. Nitroglycerin secretes on his palms without fail, seeping through the thin fabric; it will turn into an unrecognizable, ashy pile if he ignites the sweat beads. Bakugou hesitates because these sheets are your favorite.

He jostles the gray covers off his body with a vicious growl. Bakugou forgot you aren’t sleeping with him anymore after what happened three weeks ago. Grudgingly sitting up, he slams his back against the headboard. Bakugou shoves his face into his rough hands and grits his teeth as he remembers that unfortunate night—damn his stupid mouth.

Bakugou breathes through his nose and reaches to turn on his lamp. The dim yellow light partially illuminates his face, but fails to brighten the darkness swirling inside his heart. He’s broken and wallowing in his despair. Both fists curl until his nails dangerously dig into his skin, a small trickle of blood oozing out that makes him curse, “Fucking hell.”

His bed groans as Bakugou gets off and trudges out the bedroom to find the first-aid kit. He annoyingly rummages through the bathroom’s cabinets, your face mask packets spilling out on the floor. The woman’s perky fake smile irritates him to no end, his right eye twitching nonstop. Bakugou aggressively shoves them back inside as he yells, “What are you so damn happy about, idiot?!”

The cabinet door cracks after he slams it with brute force; a staggered breath escapes his mouth as he grips the sink’s edge, ignoring the sting from the fresh wounds. Bakugou lifts his head until he stares at his heated reflection. Bloodshot irises glare back at him, his ashy blonde hair even more disheveled than usual. A blue kit sticks out like a sore thumb, and Bakugou snatches it; he freezes when he reads the words “Blasty’s First Aid Kit” affectionately written across the cover.

A gut-wrenching punch attacks him without warning. Growling, he shuts the light off and storms to the living room. Bakugou tosses the kit on the coffee table, plopping down on the couch to get this shit over with. He carelessly rips the alcoholic wipe’s package, tasting the bitter flavor now burning his tongue and hissing when he rubs the napkin on his bloody scratch.

Unraveling the gauze, Bakugou realizes something is off. He hears no laughter or snarky comment coming at him. Ironically, the living room feels dead; it’s as if someone came in with a vacuum and sucked out any hint of warmth in this place. The blonde man glances at his palm with a frown. Usually, you’re the one tending to his wounds while scolding at him for his reckless behavior. He pretends to hate it, but deep down, he appreciates how much you love him.

Bakugou wishes he’d done the same for you that night.

“Babe, I’m home!” You kick off your shoes near the front door. A hand massages your neck as you crave for a nice, hot bath to soothe your sore muscles; work has been a pain in the butt lately. Once the keys fall in the bowl, you realize how everything is eerily quiet. There’s no ruckus coming from the kitchen or a delicious smell greeting you by the entrance.

You raise a curious eyebrow and walk down the hallway. Each step grows more burdensome, the floor creaking under your tense weight. Turning the corner, you see your boyfriend sitting on the couch. He’s hunched over as his fingers anxiously twiddle above his knees. Despite looking down, you notice the permanent scowl on his face and become worried, “Katsuki?”

“You’re an hour late,” he grumbles, still not looking up.

“I got held up at the office,” you cautiously approach to the brutish man with a slight frown. The black bag settles on the coffee table, “There was so much paperwork to get done before the deadline. I also needed to help out Shimizu—”

“Can’t that dumbass ask someone else?!” Bakugou barks like a mad dog, his heated eyes glaring straight at you. They catch you off guard, “Aren’t there other extras at your damn agency who can help? Or do you love spending time with him, huh?”

You seethe, “What the hell is your problem, Katsuki? He’s the new sidekick, and my boss assigned me to show him the ropes. Nothing is happening between us, so calm the fuck down!”

“Like I fucking believe that!” Bakugou shoots up from his spot, the ground shaking from his harsh stomps, “Why does he keep calling you after work-hours? Why is he always so close to you while you two are out on patrol?”

“Oh my gosh, this again?!” You exasperatedly throw your hands over your head. “Are we really gonna argue about this shit? Katsuki,” you march closer to him, pinching your nose for a quick second, “For the millionth time: Nothing. Is. Happening. Between. Us! Why don’t you believe me?!”

Bakugou scoffs, and a flash of irritation crosses your face, “What do you want me to do, huh, Katsuki? Do you want me to quit my job—”

“Fuck yeah I do!” He interrupts, making your mouth fall in astonishment. Did your ears hear those words correctly? His mouth starts running on its own, “At least it will give me some peace of mind knowing you’re not screwing around with him behind my back—”

Bakugou freezes when a harsh slap strikes his cheek.

Tears well up in your mortified eyes. It’s unclear whether they are like this because of his offensive words or the fact you laid a hand on him. Either way, you back away from the stunned pro hero. The hand that delivered the blow continues to shake uncontrollably; you bring it closer to your chest. Bakugou finally comes to his senses and blinks his pale eyes at you.

After the shock subsides, you furiously jab a finger at him, screeching, “How dare you accuse me of doing something like that! How dare you accuse me of cheating on you when all I ever did was love you!”

“Wait!” Bakugou stumbles over his feet, and you stagger backward, “Shit, no. I-I didn’t mean—”

“Don’t!” The razor-sharp tone cuts through with as much strength as Kirishima’s hardening quirk. Bakugou stops in his tracks. Your body quivers with tears raining down to your chin, “Don’t apologize…don’t come after me…we’re through.”

The last thing Bakugou hears is the front door loudly slam behind you; he’s sure everyone in Japan heard it. And the first thing he feels after you’re gone is his broken heart wallowing in pure agony.

Bakugou punches the cushion, muffling down a cry trying to escape his lips. He’s living in a nightmare that never ends. The bitter breakup constantly replays in his mind, haunting his thoughts. It reminds him of how pathetic his life is right now. Every morning he notices the tear stains getting larger on his pillowcase, and every night, before going to bed, he feels the emptiness expanding on his right side.

His bed is now just cold, unwelcoming, and unnecessarily giant—he hates it.

Bakugou rushes back to his room, randomly picking a pair of gray sweatpants and putting them on. The lamp’s light barely helps him as he searches for his black sweater; it lounges on his chair, and the hero hurriedly pulls the hoodie over his head. The last thing he grabs is his keys and phone before exiting his apartment. After suffering in this hell hole for three weeks, he’s desperate for an escape.

Fortunately, the weather is tolerable for his late-night journey. However, he would trudge through anything—heavy rain, typhoon-like winds, massive snowbanks—to get to you. In his mind and heart, Bakugou knows he needs to make things right with you. Sure, you two fight and argue, but it never goes too far except for that regrettable night; he crossed a line. You are the best thing in his life, and he foolishly let your relationship slip through his fingers like sand. Bakugou needs you, and for once, he’ll push his bloated pride aside to beg for your forgiveness.

But first, he has the find you. It won’t be an easy feat considering you could be anywhere; he figures you’re staying at a friend’s apartment, and Bakugou accepts the fact it will be a long night. Pulling the dark hood over his head, he shoves his hands inside the pockets and treks down the bare streets to begin his journey.

The first two stops are a complete miss. One friend answers the door with droopy eyes and a roaring yawn—she has no idea where you are. The second friend scratches his wild bed hair; he’s so tired that he accidentally calls Bakugou “Shadow Dude” and shakes his head when asked if you’re staying in his apartment. Bakugou wonders if both your friends lied to him, but he gives them the benefit of the doubt and picks up the pace.

He arrives at the next apartment, praying that you’re here. Third time’s the charm, right?

Climbing the never-ending stairs, he finally reaches the fourth floor. Bakugou’s eyes bounce until they land on the correct apartment number. With a deep sigh, he knocks on the door a couple of times, hoping it’s loud enough to wake up your friend; the hero stops after no one answers him. His forehead softly hits on the door, a muffled thud echoing around him. Just as Bakugou turns around, the door creaks, and a faint voice stops him in his tracks, “K-Katsuki?”

Wobbling by the door with confused eyes is you; Bakugou’s breath hitches as his stance falters. He wonders if you’re just a figment of his imagination that will disappear in a blink of an eye. When you don’t, he slowly steps forward as if he’s walking on thin ice, putting the hood down. Your vision finally adjusts to the dim light shining in the hallway, and Bakugou whispers, “Hey…”

“What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep…”

“That makes two of us,” you mumble and lean against the doorframe. Despite this, your cold glare forces the hero to stay in place, “I’m still upset with you.”

“I know,” Bakugou lowers his head in shame. You glance at his bandaged hands, and your scowl softens at his lousy attempt to fix the wounds. Did he injure himself again? Bakugou rakes one hand through his messy hair, “What I said to you wasn’t right; I know you would never betray my trust, but I let my stupid jealousy cloud my damn thoughts. I’m a fucking idiot with a big ass mouth.”

You swallow a small gulp, “Yeah, you are.”

Bakugou tests the water by taking another step. This time you don’t say anything to stop him, and he takes it as a sign to get closer. Unconsciously, you cross your arms over your chest and gaze at your purple slippers shuffling on the cold tile floor. Your heart pounds like a jackhammer as the electricity buzzes impatiently in the thick air.

A dark shadow looms over your personal space. You hesitate to raise your head, but Bakugou’s warmth radiating off his body convinces you otherwise; he leaves only a slight gap between you two. Now that Bakugou is close, you notice the deep anguish whirling through his eyes; it’s like staring at your own reflection—a shudder runs down your spine.

“I’m sorry,” he croaks, shutting his eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry for hurting you so much with my ignorant ass. You mean so much to me that I can’t take another second sleeping in that bed alone. I fucking miss you…”

Bakugou’s hands slide up your jittery arms, reawakening the spark that almost died inside you. He pleads like a desperate man, “Please give me a second chance…I love you too much to have you out of my life.”

Two arms instantly circle his neck, clinging onto him like no tomorrow. Your quiet sniffles reach his right ear, and Bakugou hugs you tighter in his warm embrace. Ghostly kisses pepper down your face until he captures your lips and pours his entire heart and soul into you. Delicate fingers run through his ashy hair and give it a soft tug as you smile against his lips, “I hate how much I love you, Blasty.”

A chuckle rumbles through his chest.

“Now c’mon,” you pull him inside the apartment, guiding the hero to your room, “We both need to catch up on our beauty sleep.”

Bakugou agrees with a soft grunt.

Climbing into bed together, you two finally fall soundly asleep in each other’s arms for the first time since the breakup.

And that’s the second prompt crossed off from this bingo card! Which once will be next? Stay tune!

Previous Prompt: Adopt a Pet

Thanks for reading!!

Hero Camp Bingo Masterlist

#bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki #bakugou imagines #bnha imagines #bnhabookclub #bnha x reader #hero camp bingo #betrayal #angst

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twinkleton · 4 years

Text

first glance - douxie x reader fic

Hey! So, I couldn't sleep last and decided to spend my evening writing a douxie imagine because I can't get enough of him and wanted to contribute in some small way. Please bear with me, as I havent the slightest clue how any of this works, and I haven't written anything since 7th grade :')).

this is about the reader and douxie meeting for the first time! enjoy!

In hindsight, maybe she should’ve gone straight home. Anyone would’ve told her not to follow the strange grunting noises she heard coming from deep within the forested area of Arcadia. However, Y/N was never one to pass up a chance at helping someone. So, she hid her purse in the nearest bush, took out her only choice of weapon, pepper spray, and dashed towards the noise.

As she ran closer and closer, she could hear a man’s voice repeating strange words that definitely weren’t English. She could also hear a voice that definitely didn’t sound human. Still, if someone was in trouble, she had to be there. It was a reflex that she always assumed would lead her to her demise. The deeper she went, the more concerned she became at how she would even find her way back once she found whoever she was looking for. There was no one nearby to help, so if she had just put herself in a life-threatening situation, there would be no hope for her.

All thoughts came to an end as soon as she came to a sudden halt in her step. She honestly hadn’t a clue as to what she was witnessing. Instinctively, she ran behind a tree and took a second glance.

What she saw was a tall and slim man, dressed in dark clothing with hair and sweat cascading down his face, fighting a monster whilst surrounded by piles of broken stone. It was insanely large compared to the man, with skin that looked identical to rock except for carvings that seemed the glow within. The monster swung the hammer in it’s hand towards the man, but he jumped back in time to dodge it. “Tenebris Exilium!” he shouted, and suddenly a blast of blue light came from his hands and shot at the creature. It knocked it off its feet, throwing him into a nearby tree and slamming its back against it.

Y/N observed the man closer and noticed how heavy he was breathing. He was also clutching his side in pain. ‘He must have been fighting for a while’, she thought. As she concluded this, the creature stood up and charged at the man. He threw himself to the floor, rolling off to the side. This must’ve been the monster’s plan, as it jumped up and landed right on top of him. The creature brought his hammer down, aimed at the man’s head. Using only his left arm, which is seemingly supported by a unique looking bracelet, he blocks the attack.

This begins a battle of strength between the two, however it’s the creature who has the upper hand. ‘I have to do something,’ Y/N reasoned.

She searched her surroundings, looking for anything that might be of use. Nothing, aside from a few stones and sticks on the ground. With what seemed to be no other option, she grabbed what appeared to be the heaviest rock she could carry, and emerged from her hiding spot.

Gathering her courage, Y/N raised her hand and threw the rock as hard as she could at the monster’s head. “Hey! Get off him!” she yelled. The rock rather pathetically bounced off it’s head, but it did want what she wanted it to do. It switched its attention towards her. The sinking feeling of fear hit her once it locked eyes with her. She felt glued to the ground; unable to move.

“Get away from here!” the man shouted from underneath the creature. He had no idea where this girl had come from, but she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Immediately, her safety became his priority. The creature stood up, eyes focused on the girl.

“What on Earth is that thing?!” Y/N cried out. Her heart was pounding, harder than she’d ever felt.

“It’s a Gumm-Gumm. Something far, far too complicated to explain at this current time. But you need to run now!”

Running in her mind was deemed the most impossible task to accomplish. There was also the concern she had for this man she’s only just now met. The Gumm-Gumm took advantage of her hesitance and sprinted towards her.

“No!” the man shouts out. He jumps up from the ground only to be knocked down by the pain in his side again. “Run! Run!” His cries are not reaching her.

At this point, the Gumm-Gumm is standing right in front of Y/N. It grabs her by the waist and yanks her up towards its face. She can hear the man’s shouts distantly, however they are drowned out by her thoughts. ‘I was right’ ‘This is it for me’ Her only regret was that all she thought bringing only pepper spray would be enough--wait.

Her pepper spray. The thing she’s been clutching this whole time.

Wasting not a second more, she raised her hand towards the Gumm-Gumm’s face and sprayed seemingly half of the bottle. The creature cried out in pain and immediately dropped her. She fell to the ground, taking the chance to back away. Getting his fifth wind of the night, the man got up on his feet and wasted no time, charged up a spell, and blasted the Gumm-Gumm. This caused the creature to turn to stone, actual stone, and immediately shattered into pieces identical to those already surrounding them.

Neither of them spoke for a solid minute; the only sounds coming from them being their breathing. Y/N was still trying to comprehend what just happened. She had the notion that she would be helping someone who was getting jumped, or assaulted, not helping someone kill a...Gumm-Gumm?

“Are..are you alright?” she asked. She walked closer to him. Upon further inspection, this man looked like he could be in his late teen years. He was also--very attractive.

“Don’t worry about me, are you okay? I apologize for not helping you. The fourth Gumm-Gumm rammed into my side and I-I just couldn’t get up-”

Y/N put a hand on his shoulder, “Hey-hey it’s okay. You did all you could. You still saved me from it.”

He gave her a small chuckle, “Actually, I think it’s you who saved me. If you hadn’t distracted him I would’ve been a goner.”

She smiled at him and said, “We saved each other.”

“Ha, yeah we did.”

They locked eyes with each other, seemingly entranced by each other’s charm. Then, everything from the past few moments caught up with Y/N. “I’m sorry, I’ve seemed to have forgotten the fact that I was almost just killed by a Gunn-Gunn-”

“Gumm-Gumm”

“Thank you, Gumm-Gumm, and you blasted it with some blue sparkly light-”

“Magic”

“...Did you just say magic?”

This made him laugh, wincing a little from the pain. “Right, I’m sure you have many questions, but trust me. The more you know about this the worse off you’ll be so be allow me to make this go away for you.” He raised his hands, apparently getting ready to do a spell.

“Wait! You can’t!” Y/N exclaimed. The past hour has made entirely no sense to her, but somehow she wanted to stay involved. It could’ve been insanity, or maybe she just really wanted to know more about him, find out how to help him. Either way, she needed to know.

“Why not?” he stopped, hands still in the air. Trust him, he didn’t want to put her to sleep and have her wake up in her room with all of this seemingly a dream either. She intrigued him. She seemed kind, a rare selflessness he hadn’t expected from someone who was just thrusted into peril and world-shattering threats with no warning whatsoever. Plus, she was very beautiful. But, someone like her deserves a normal life. Free from danger like what he and his friends have to face.

“Because..because you’re hurt! I can’t very well leave you by yourself. Please, at least let me bring you to my place. I’ll patch you up and then I’ll pretend this night never happened.” She extended her hand towards him.

Against all better judgement, against Merlin’s voice ringing in ear about how terrible of an idea this was, he thought, ‘why not’.

“You’re very persuasive, do you realize that?” he asked with a cheeky smirk.

“I did get a lot of A’s on my persuasive writing in high school,” she joked. Both of them laughed softly. He took her hand. Her hand was very soft compared to his rough and calloused hand. She didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m Y/N,” she said as she pulled his arm over her shoulders, moving her hand to support him at his side.

“Hisirdoux, but you can call me Douxie.”

“Lovely to meet you, Douxie,” she gave him a warm smile.

“Same to you, Y/N” he offered the same grin.

Together, they walked out of the forest, side by side. Little did they know that they would never be apart from each other after that night.

#douxie x reader #douxie imagine #douxie #tales of arcadia #trollhunters

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shortdalee · 3 years

Text

Holy shit, I completely didn’t realize that it was Wednesday, and thus time to post something, until right about now.

Currently, the Safe Inside series doesn’t have a Tim Drake, but in its very first iteration, I’d had Tim in it, and he was the first Wayne Jason met after being rescued. I ended up cutting him out of this verse for ReasonsTM, but this is what I’d imagined him to be like:

Canonically, Tim’s basically a stalker. Like, kid has good intentions, I’m sure, but that doesn’t change that he’s a stalker. And personally? I’m of the headcanon that he admired Dick, but he idolized Jason, and if you twist that with his stalkerish tendencies to fit into the Safe Inside verse? You get someone who’d never hurt Jason, but also someone who’s obsessed with him. Someone who’s a hardcore fan.

You get someone who reminds Jason of this verse’s Joker (surprise, yeah, Joker still killed him :)).

And he doesn’t mean to, is the thing. He doesn’t even know that he’s reminding Jason of the Joker, though he and the other Bats suspect something based on his behavior. Could you imagine it: The Bats don’t know shit. They know they don’t know shit, and the literal only person who can resolve that and tell them the shit’s Jason who refuses to say crap.

Except every time he interacts with Tim for a prolonged period of time, they can see the panic attack forming. They can see the way he goes real still and watches Tim, no matter who’s talking, no matter what’s going on. They can see the way he flinches if Tim moves too close or the days when he sometimes shakes.

So Tim blunts himself. He’s a Drake, he knows how to pass for normal. He knows how to pass for safe. He regularly guts that part of himself for the sake of convenience in his everyday life, so it’s with less than zero hesitation that he does exact that for the comfort of his Robin (not that Robin exists in this verse, not really, but the sentiment stands) (maybe “his Wayne”?).

Jason knows, of course. He knows Tim’s sanding his edges down for him, and he’s so pathetically grateful. It’s not right, and he shouldn’t encourage it, but he can’t right now.

He will. Come hell or fucking high water, he will, but just. Not now.

(And in the meantime, if Tim starts looking through his scrapbook to try and see any regular appearances, if anyone else followed his Robin the way he had? Well.

Secrets never stayed secrets anyway.)

#WIP #Mob!Batfam AU #DC Comics #Tim Drake

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hiraemy · 3 years

Text

Lumine and the Goblet of Fire [part 3]

[Part One] [Part Two]

Word count: 2k

Notes: I’m sorry for the delay! I actually planned to have this part posted last week, but there were a few things that got me troubled so I had to postpone it a bit. This part is almost 100% action, and I’m not sure myself if I could write it in a way that’s interesting and easy to imagine, so... Yeah. I would spent more time trying to make it work, but I thought I had already delayed it enough. Anyways, thank you for the support and enjoy your reading!

Act three: Lumine and the stupid First Trial

To everyone who had the rare luxury of getting closer to the twins, there were a few obvious things that came to light, like how Aether and Lumine were complete polar opposites but still managed to understand each other with a simple glance.

Lumine was the most guarded of the two— almost bordering on paranoia, but we don't talk about that—, probably a result of her constant worrying. She wasn't one to openly talk about her feelings, even to Aether, and it took a lot of insistence from Paimon to even befriend her.

Aether was too aware of this. He knew Lumine had a lot on her mind, and he also knew not to push some things because it was both painful and cruel to do it to her. Still, when he heard about the Triwizard Tournament, he felt like it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that they couldn't miss.

It was good for her to be pushed out of her shell once in a while. Aether felt like one day or another Lumine had to learn to not let her fears keep her from doing risky things. Better sooner than later, right?

That being said, it wasn't like he was a heartless monster. Watching Lumine's eyes glistening with anxiety from the screen— even if no one else could spot it in her stoic expression— made his heart clench, a grimace forming on his lips.

He had full faith in his twin. But that didn't stop him from worrying.

Lumine learned too late that watching someone almost being crushed by a legendary beast and actually being the person almost crushed by a legendary beast were two entirely different experiences.

While she felt her breath caught in her throat too many times watching Childe and Albedo defeat their opponents earlier, she felt like if she didn't breathe enough in her own trial she would be toast in no time at all.

Dvalin lunged, his entire body crashing in the stone and leaving behind a trail of destruction, eyes narrowed on her figure. Lumine ran until the end of the platform, gulping when she saw the dead end. Fuck. There was another rock pillar, but it was too far. The dragon was closing on her and she had to think fast. She had three options here: learn how to fly out of nowhere, fall to her death or to try to outsmart the Great Dragon Dvalin.

Yeah, no fucking way.

So, flying it is.

Broomsticks were out. First of all, she didn’t even bring her broom from Beauxbatons, because she didn’t think she would need it in the first place. Besides, this was a pocket dimension, so, unless she knew how to teleport things from outside, that was also out of the question. Right. In the end, it was do or die. Great.

Lumine was going to kill Aether. Was it bad that she could only think of how she could be the most petty and annoying to her brother after this? Oh, if she survived, of course. Not to jinx or anything.

She gathered all the courage of a lifetime in her chest and took a deep breath. She didn’t dare to look behind her or even below and jumped off the still, safe ground. Her hair whipped in all directions and invaded her mouth and she almost let her grip on her wand slide. Lumine was sure both Paimon and Aether would kill her later for being so reckless, but she convinced herself that they couldn't kill her if she was already dead in the first place.

Free falling was extremely unsettling, with no other words being enough to describe the feeling. Her stomach was spinning and all her senses were screaming for her to do something, but her logical mind overruled everything, making sure she got the timing right. When she felt the tickly sensation of passing by the clouds, she finally let out the breath she was holding.

“Arresto momentum!” She stopped falling. Literally. Ignoring the chills in her spine when she noticed that she couldn’t see the ground when she fell at least a hundred meters from the platform, she stabilized herself in a good position mid-air before casting the next spell “Ascendio!”

Lumine was shot up upwards, but this time, she had full control of her movements in plain air. It was almost as if she had a pair of wings on her back, allowing her to have a fair combat in the skies with Stormterror. The rational part of her mind asked herself how the fuck was she supposed to do attack and defend when she was already distracted with maintaining the Ascendio charm. She didn’t even know before jumping if her trick was going to work, so everything she could accomplish after was already great.

Dvalin roared again, his entire body convulsing, almost as if he was in pain. Lumine narrowed her eyes at the strange behavior, but decided to take the advantage of not being noticed by the beast yet.

“Confringo!” She yelled, aiming directly for his head. Dvalin took the direct hit and roared again, his scales scorched, but mostly unaffected despite the lethal force used behind the curse. “Expulso!” Lumine tried again, merely blasting the dragon a few inches off course in air. The beast seemed more annoyed than damaged by her attacks, blindly clawing as someone who tried to shoo bugs away. The witch had a hard time avoiding his attacks, almost being hit once or twice.

However, in these attempts, she noticed something. No matter what spells she threw at Dvalin, the dragon wouldn’t attack her with the intent to kill. He had a few too close tries, but he never aimed directly to take her down. It was almost as if he was distracted with another thing— Or he simply didn’t want to attack her. It roared a lot, each time sounding more painful than the last. Was he cursed, or something…?

Not a single spell she casted had a great effect on his defenses, no matter how strong her firepower was. She didn’t doubt her combat abilities, having full confidence in her DADA and Charms scores from Beauxbatons, but it was painfully clear she wasn’t going anywhere with this full offensive plan. Before, Tartaglia managed to beat the Oceanid sorely in combat, but Albedo took a rather different strategy to encase Andrius in wines and stop it from moving. What the hell would she do with an opponent who was tankier than both of the other beasts, and at the same time, could kill her with a single swipe?

As if a light was shoved into her brain, she noticed a purple crystal hanging from Dvalin’s neck. It was almost as if it was forcefully implanted into his skin, corruption growing between his scales and rooting the gem in its place. Not a single book that covered the biology of the world’s magical beasts mentioned a purple gem on the dragon, so maybe… Was it safe to guess that it didn’t belong there originally?

Another attack brought Lumine from her thoughts, her left arm suffering a deep gash from the shoulder to her elbows for lack of attention. It stung like a bitch and she bit her lips harshly to stop the pitiful scream from escaping. If she wanted to take a closer look to that crystal, she had to be better than this.

“Diminuendo,” She cast the spell on herself, feeling her figure shrink until she was twenty centimeters tall. In this state, Dvalin’s crazed eyes were unable to track her, so she had an easier time flying until she was at the dragon’s neck. She casted the countercharm to grow back into her full height and used Relashio, removing the crystal’s roots from his neck. The crystal let a purple smoke that Lumine didn't inhale by instinct and clattered to the ground. The blonde quickly blew the gem to dust, watching as it released a lot of elemental energy into the air.

The dragon seized as if it had suffered a great shock, his uncontrollable spasms sending her flying towards the stone platform like a pathetic bug, the ground around her gaining a huge crash landsite from the pure strength of the throw. Her back gave a pitiful noise— it wasn't broken… hopefully— and the air was expelled from her lungs, leaving her gasping for air.

She didn’t even have the time to properly feel the pain, because in a blink of an eye, Dvalin was also falling— Right on her. Lumine propelled herself by the elbows, tripping on her feet one or two times before being able to drag herself away from the gigantic dragon, and escaping by a hair thread. Her adrenaline rush lasted a few seconds before she collapsed on her feet, right arm(the good one) crutching her ribs rather tight.

“Is it over…?” Lumine muttered, tired and feeling like she could sleep for months. As if she had jinxed it, Dvalin groaned again, but the only body part he could move was his head. His mouth was half-open, showing the sharp fangs and the strange coloration on his tongue— It had a nasty stain, looking like rotten flesh. But the thing that caught her attention were his eyes. The pupils were grey, hazed and unfocused, even if the irised sustained an angry looking red with a tiny purple circle spinning around the pupil as if it was actively sustaining a curse.

Lumine still had to take that Plume. However, there was something off about his whole demeanor that made her extremely unsettled.

With tiny, careful steps, she dared to get closer to him. The dragon hissed, growling in a threatening tone that screamed ‘Get Away!’, but she ignored it for the sake of her instincts. Suddenly, his head dragged on the floor, aiming to bite her.

Her hand shot up automatically, wand long forgotten meters away, on the ground where she fell before. She didn’t know how— or why— she did that, but rather than questioning her own sanity, she felt the energy channeling on her veins into a not-exactly-shield made of pure magic. And instead of crashing directly on it, Dvalin simply stopped mid-track, eyes changing coloration and suddenly clearer. His pupils slowly regained focus, clear and a dark black coloration again, the circle around it long gone.

Dvalin shook his head slowly, regaining his senses.

It stood up on full fours, wings opening in a magnificent beast deserving of the title King of the Skies. It gave another roar that sounded even… happy? At least, as far as happy roars could go, she guessed. Anyway, it didn’t want to claw her eyes out, so she was taking it as a win.

Ah. Right, the plume—!

“Mr. Dvalin!” She screamed when the winds began to pick up again, signaling that the dragon was almost leaving the platform for good. She ignored the dumb feeling of calling Stormterror by ‘Mister’ and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Please, could you give me a plume? It's really important…!”

It sailed off. Lumine tried to not let her disappointment show on her face— God, who the fuck was dumb enough to try to chat with a dragon—?!

Wait.

On the stone platform, hidden by the cracks. Lying there was a single dark blue plume.

The cheers were loud. So loud that Lumine first thought she was going to be deaf. Still, with Dvalin's plume on her raised fist, she didn't have in her to let the screams affect the adrenaline of beating the goddamn trial with flying scores. Literally.

She quickly scanned the crowd for her brother and Paimon, searching for approval in her most

precious people in the world, just to see Paimon almost flying off the benches. As for Aether… well.

Seeing the grin on his sister's face caused a wave of pride to take over his system in a heartbeat. All the tension accumulated on his muscles left him all of sudden, making him flop tiredly into the chair(when did he stand up anyway?).

A part of Aether's worries were soothed. Lumine was strong. Even if she didn't notice, she was letting herself grow into a beautiful flower despite all the harsh currents that tried to take her down.

"...you're crying"

"...n-no, I'm not… Stop laughing, Paimon!"

#genshin impact #genshin #lumine #childe #aether #paimon #albedo #genshin fanfic #chilumi #childe x lumine

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thebladeblaster · 3 years

Text

Digimon: Tamer ZERO

Concept Chapter The Digimon Phenomenon part 2

“Shin gave it to him about two weeks ago when he helped him and you know I can’t imagine someone like Aichi just letting a poor defenseless Digimon uncared for.”, Miwa explained.

“Yeah, I can definitely imagine that. Knowing him that Digimon is probably drowning in affection.”, Izaki replied with a chuckle.

“Knowing him he probably has a ultimate already!”, Morikawa said angrily.

“That’s probably true Aichi does tend to learn rather quickly. So, how about it wanna pick one up to battle Aichi, Kai?”, Miwa said.

“Hmph...”, was Kai’s only response.

“That’s probably a yes and you know it would be interesting to see you two have a different kind of battle.”, Miwa replied.

“Okay! I’m gonna find Aichi and crush him!”, Morikawa decided raising his fists.

“Well, you gonna find him first. He’s been pretty aloof lately maybe Kai’s finally rubbing off on him.”, Izaki replied.

“I think he’s still a bit moody after everything. That’s probably why Shin gave him the Digimon. Misaki is the others are giving him some space for a bit.”, Miwa said as Kai looked over to him again.

“Yeah, he was pretty sad about Kourin...”, Izaki replied.

“Oh my dear Kourin! If only I knew where she was then I could reignite her memories!”, Morikawa shouted.

“Maybe, we can try holding a big surprise party cheer him up?”, Miwa suggested.

“With cake!”, Morikawa said.

“All parties have cakes.”, Izaki replied sweat dropping.

In the digital world...

“Not this again!!!Ah!!!”, two Digimon screamed as the ran from fire being shot at them.

They were both small. The shorter one was white and wore a pink strap. The taller one was yellow it had two rabbit-like ears and closed eyes. It wore red pants.

They were running from a red dragon-like Digimon. It had a metal helmet and claws along with a serpent like tail with no legs. It had two massive purple wings and purple hair on its head and along its back.

They panicked more as the Digimon also shot missiles at them.

Eventually the two Digimon were cornered as the dragon Digimon breathed fire enveloping the two.

“That’s what happens to those who don’t submit to the demon lords!”, the dragon Digimon said.

It’s golden eyes widened as in the flames it saw a silhouette of a bigger humanoid Digimon with horns, wings, and glowing red eyes. It stumbled back as the fire dissipated revealing a Digimon clad in white dragon-like armor. It had light purple skin and demonic wings. It had bits on gold on its armor and red orbs on the palm of its claw-like hands. It’s red eyes were on the dragon Digimon striking fear into it. The two Digimon from before were behind it cowering.

“I-Is that Dynasmon!? I thought he was dead!”, the white Digimon questioned frightened.

“Well, the didn’t Seraphimon, Ophanimon, and Cherubimon reboot the digital world?”, the yellow Digimon questioned.

“Ah! That’s right!”, the white Digimon replied.

“D-Dynasmon!? W-wait I serve the demon lords we’re on the same side!”, the dragon said shakily.

“Me on the same side as a quivering weakling like you? Don’t make me laugh! Dragon‘s Roar!”, Dynasmon replied as if raised its hand and shot a beam of energy at the dragon Digimon killing it instantly causing it to dissolve into data.

“We’ve gotta hide or he’s gonna kill us.”, the white Digimon whispered.

“I’m not interested in weak Digimon like you two. Maybe if you guys had the kid who could transform into Emperor Greymon. He’s not here is he?”, Dynasmon said as he looked at the quivering Digimon.

“N-No! He’s been gone for years!”, the white Digimon replied.

“Then, I have no interest in you two.”, Dynasmon said as he flew off.

The two Digimon sighed in relief as the mega level Digimon flew off.

In the human world...

The teens from before were now sitting inside Card Capital. They looked over to see countless kids battling in various games the ones that seemed the most prevalent were Cardfight Vanguard and Digimon. Misaki was behind the counter reading a book as usual. When the teens first walked in she peered up for a moment expectantly before going back to reading her book.

Kai looked down at the red V pet on the table intensely.

“Good thing it can’t see you or that poor Digimon would be petrified.”, Izaki said with a chuckle.

“I’m glad you finally came around to playing Digimon, Kai. And all it took was mentioning your rival.”, Miwa said coyly.

“Hmph...it’s a new challenge.”, Kai replied.

“I’m not surprised Kai is going for a dragon especially one of the hardest ones to get.”, Izaki said.

“Well, you know Kai loves his dragons. He probably chose that one because it reminded him of Dragonic Overlord.”, Miwa replied.

“Speaking of what kind of Digimon does Aichi have?”, Izaki asked as Kai turned his attention to Miwa as well.

“Well, I know which Digimon he’s going for. I don’t know if he has it yet or anything or even what stage it’s at.”, Miwa replied.

“What did he choose?”, Izaki asked.

“Well, let’s just say much like Kai over there he chose one that reminded him of his avatar.”, Miwa answered coyly.

“Something like Blaster Blade huh? It’s probably some knight digimon though there’s a lot of those...”, Izaki replied.

“Well, that at least narrows things down.”, Miwa replied.

“Wait! You don’t think he’s The Blaster is he? Now, that I think about it The Blaster sounds a lot like Blaster Blade. Not to mention their partner is apparently Knightmon.”, Izaki questioned.

“Maybe? Who knows.”, Miwa said cryptically.

“It’s The Blaster!”, Morikawa shouted as he pointed to his V pet and they saw a battle was about to start.

The other three looked at the V pet it said Great Ninja Master vs The Blaster.

“You called yourself Great Ninja Master?”, Izaki questioned sweat dropping.

The device then showed the players Digimon. Morikawa’s Sukamon and The Blaster’s...Dynasmon.

“Oh, crap The Blaster’s Digimon has become a mega!?”, Izaki gasped.

“This is gonna be a murder stomp...”, Miwa commented sweat dropping.

In the digital world...

“Really, a Sukamon the other tamers besides my master are really pathetic.”, Dynasmon said snickering.

Sukamon was a Digimon that was yellow poop. It had cartoonish teen and skinny arms. It had red eyes and a big tongue.

“Who the heck are you shiny dude?”, Sukamon questioned as Dynasmon growled in disgust at it.

In the human world...

“It’s party time! Get that jerk Sukamon!”, Morikawa ordered as he pushed the buttons quickly.

Sukamon threw its poop at Dynasmon who effortlessly dodged.

“I think your a bit outmatched here dude.”, Izaki said sweating nervously.

In the digital world...

“How unfortunate these online battles as they are called don’t allow me to kill the other Digimon.”, Dynasmon complained as he simply raised up his hand and shot a beam of energy not even bothering to call out the attack name.

In the real world...

Sukamon hit the ground defeated as its hp bar hit zero and it fainted.

“One hit kill oof...You wanna take a crack at him next Izaki?”, Miwa said chuckling.

“No way, he’d obliterate me.”, Izaki refused as he raised his hands and shook his head.

“He’s still on let’s see how strong a mega Digimon is.”, Miwa said as he challenged The Blaster.

Kai looked over Miwa’s shoulder as the battle started.

In the digital world...

“This is a bit better...Hopefully you’ll be a bit more fun.”, Dynasmon said as he turned to Groundramon.

Groundramon was a green dragon Digimon with four legs and two arms where it’s wings would normally be. It’s tail was tipped with a spiked ball and it had a row of red spikes along its back. Groundramon tensed as it eyed the mega level Digimon.

“I don’t care if your mega! I’m gotta demolish you!”, Groundramon growled entering a fighting stance before charging at Dynasmon.

Dynasmon raised its fists as Groundramon swung its spiked tail.

“Megaton Hammer Crush!”, Groundramon called out.

It’s attack caused a dust cloud as it grinned cockily. It suddenly flinched as it felt it’s tail be grabbed. The dust dispersed to reveal Dynasmon holding its tail. It sweated nervously as Dynasmon swung it around by its tail as if it was weightless. It ended up crashing into some trees as it was swung before it was was thrown at a mountain.

In the human world...

“Oh, crap this guy means business!”, Miwa gasped as he hastily clicked the buttons.

Groundramon’s massive back hands outstretched out grabbing onto some trees, cushioning and stopping itself right before hitting the mountain.

“Woah! That was awesome Miwa!”, Izaki said as they noticed some kids crowding around.

“Your the guy fighting The Blaster?!”, one questioned.

“Yeah, this guy’s tough if I wasn’t careful he would instantly knocked out my Digimon. Though he has made it disoriented which isn’t good.”, Miwa replied.

“Avenge Sukamon, Miwa!”, Morikawa called out.

In the digital world...

Groundramon stumbled a bit as it tried to regain its bearings.

“Oh, so you will make this fun?”, Dynasmon questioned.

Groundramon growled angrily as it dug it’s way into the dirt. Dynasmon looked around for where Groundramon would strike. It stumbled a bit as fissures started forming in the ground.

“So, that’s your plan...”, Dynasmon said as it flew up.

In the human world...

“Dang it! Giga Crack missed! Though he is distracted!”, Miwa said as Morikawa, Izaki, and the kids cheered him on.

In the digital world...

Groundramon came up from behind Dynasmon and pinned it in its claws on its back trying to crush him.

“Scrap Claw! Get it because you’ll soon be scrap!”, Groundramon said.

Groundramon suddenly heard laughter as it noticed that Dynasmon’s health had barely dropped.

“Now way that impossible no Digimon could possibly survive my Scrap Claw?!”, Groundramon gasped as it squeezed tighter.

“Nice trick.”, Dynasmon said as it grabbed Groundramon arms and pried itself free.

Groundramon paled as Dynasmon looked back at him.

“However your tricks won’t work on me.”, Dynasmon said as it threw off Groundramon’s arms punched it hard sending it crashing down.

In the human world...

“Woah, it dealt that much damage from just a normal blow!? It took out over half Groundramon’s health!”, Izaki gasped.

“Mega Digimon really are strong! I can’t wait till Groundramon becomes a mega!”, Miwa said as he sweated nervously.

“How can he deal that much damage with a normal attack he must be cheating!”, Morikawa growled.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch it off guard again. Which along with its flight makes Giga Crack useless. Scrap Claw barley did anything and he caught Megaton Hammer Cush.”, Miwa thought.

In the digital world...

Dynasmon hovered over where Groundramon crashed.

“Aren’t you going to get up? I held back so that attack didn’t instantly wipe you out.”, Dynasmon asked.

Groundramon struggled up glaring at Dynasmon.

“What the heck is with that freak?! He’s a data type I should have the advantage even if he is mega!”, Groundramon thought.

“Do you intend to continue fighting?”, Dynasmon asked as Groundramon growled.

“I’ll get you!”, Groundramon roared as it charged Dynasmon swinging its tail and claws at him.

“Hmm...my new master really is such a softy they want me to end this already. Though, I will admit your struggle does look quite pathetic so I understand putting you out of your misery. My master desires it so it shall be so!”, Dynasmon said as it then held out its hand in front of Groundramon.

“What the heck are you blabbing about your stupid shiny jerk!”, Groundramon yelled.

“You should be honored to receive this mercy from my master! Dragon’s Roar!”, Dynasmon called out as a beam of light hit Groundramon.

In the human world...

“Looks like I lost.”, Miwa slumped seeing Groundramon’s hp hit zero.

The kids walked off afterwards.

“Seriously, to think The Blaster has a mega maybe he will become number 1.”, Izaki said.

“Looks like that match has Kai fired up.”, Miwa said as he looked at Kai clicking his V pet with a a intense look which was kinda menacing.

Izaki sweat dropped as he looked towards Kai imagining a fiery aura around the brunette.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be left in the dust. It’s time to train Tyrannomon!”, Izaki said.

“That Dynasmon really had quite the attitude...”, Morikawa grumbled.

“To be fair you can give your Digimon commands in battle but you can’t control what they say.”, Miwa replied.

Misaki lowered her book for a second as she heard their conversation.

#cardfight vanguard #digimon #aichi sendou #taishi miwa #toshiki kai #yuta izaki #morikawa katsumi #misaki tokura #dynasmon #sukamon #groundramon #bokomon #neemon #ophanimon #seraphimon #cherubimon #my crappy writing

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onemistresstorulethemall · 4 years

Text

Another kind of game

I read a post about the boys reacting to MC proposing a threesome and Levi's bit got me inspired. For simplicity the other girl will be "your friend" but remember that it's fiction and you can imagine anyone, even Megan Fox in the place of the other woman, there's nothing stopping you. P.s. this oneshot has girl on girl action. So, if you're not into that, I suggest you don't read this one.

After you got back to your realm, everyone was all over you, wanting to find out all of the juicy details about your one year visit to hell. Most were shocked that you came back in one piece, others were relieved to hear they have a chance of not being forever tortured, but one particular reaction was the light that sparked the flame.

Your friend became quite interested in the demons you lived with, particularly one, Leviathan. He sounded great from your description, but after seeing the pictures of him on your phone, she was sold. So, she asked if she could have a taste for the night. Being the generous person you are, you agreed.

It was a Friday night and you arranged with Leviathan that you were going to summon him. You briefly mentioned that one of your friends will be there too.

"She wants to stop being a normie and while I don't think that's possible, if anyone can make a miracle like that happen, then that's you."

You also casually stated that there's a game you'd like to try out but it's only fun with three players. He agreed.

Thanks to Solomon, you now knew how to summon demons. So, both you and your friend got ready and stood on either side of the summoning circle. It was a bit hard mastering the design as you had to write in Hebrew, but with a bit of practice, you managed to do it. (Yes I read the lesser key of Solomon in 9th grade and I'm showing off, sorry not sorry) But before you even got to doing that, there were other preparations you needed to do. Both you and your friend were dressed up in magical girl outfits. The costumes consisted of over the elbow gloves, deep v-neck tops with a decorative bow in the middle, mini skirts and lacy see-through thigh high socks. Both of your hairstyles were half up and half down, you sporting two pigtails on the side of your head, while your friend had a ponytail. The hairstyles looked cute, but they also worked as handles. Your make up was soft and glittery with just gloss on your lips.

After the incantation was said, Leviathan appeared in the middle of the circle. He was dressed in the clothes you picked for him when he asked you to dress him up as a normie for a concert.

In a matter of seconds he began to blush and stutter, covering half of his face with the back of his hand.

"W-why are y-you dressed like t-that?"

"It's for the game, silly."

Previously, you were both on your knees, but then you started crawling towards him on all fours and your friend followed.

You stood next to his right leg, while your friend took the left. Gently, your hands stroked his legs.

"Please let us make you feel good...", she finally spoke.

"Come on, Levi. Let us treat you properly. You deserve this more than anyone.", your hands wandered upwards on his thigh.

"Why would you want to do this with someone like me?", he blurred out.

"Someone like you? Like what? Unbearably hot?", your friend giggled while her hand stroked his crotch area.

While he was too flustered to say anything more, you took your shot and undid his belt while your friend unzipped his pants.

"Fuck. You weren't lying, he's huge.", you friend smirked when she was able to see Levi's member.

"Wait, you told her about...?"

"About how good you fucked me? How big your cock is? Hell yeah, I told her.", your reply came quick.

With his boxers down, his cock stood in all its glory in front of your faces.

"Mmm, Captain, I see somebody already hoisted the sail.", your friend licked her lips.

Not a moment passed and your lips met hers as both of your mouths licked the sides of Levi's member.

"You can grab us by the hair if you want to. We didn't doll ourselves up for nothing.", you winked before going back to working him with your mouth.

Eventually, you ended up taking him into your mouth. Levi was far too shy to actually grab ahold of your pigtails, so your friend did it instead, guiding you by your hair up and down roughly, making you gag. Saliva was dripping down onto the floor and on your chest.

"Come on, Captain. We need you to give us some of your strength. We're too weak to defeat the monster. We need your cum.", your friend played to his kink, using the plot of one of the hentais you told her he likes.

Finally, she let go of your head as you gasped for air. You switched places, you being the one holding her ponytail, pushing her head down, forcing her to take all of Levi's cock into her throat.

"Please, Captain. Look at us... We're pathetic. How could we ever defeat the monster without your help?", you begged as precum and saliva glistened around your mouth.

Levi put his hand over yours and pulled your friend away from his member. It seemed like your little role-play worked and it hit something inside Leviathan, which made him switch the way he acted.

"Well then, why don't you two lay down on the bed for me, huh?", he smirked.

"Yes, Captain", you said almost in unison.

Quickly, you both got up from the floor and made your way to the bed like the good girls that you were. The skirts you were wearing didn't leave much to the imagination. Your underwear was very much visible and you chose it especially for the occasion. Yours was pastel pink and hers was pastel purple, both frilly and sheer. It was sure to drive Levi insane.

After he stepped out of the clothes which laid around his ankles, he got rid of his top and sat on the edge of the bed, between you two.

Without wasting a moment, both of you began to kiss him. You attacked his neck exactly where his sweet spot was, while your friend placed kisses along his collarbone. Moaning softly, he cupped your cheek as well as hers while you two were having your way with him. His cock was rock hard and twitching.

"Enough is enough, girls. You want my power? Work for it then. I can't fuck you if you're not ready for my cock. So will you be good girls and stretch each other out for me? After all, you want to defeat the monster, right?", he licked his lips after the last question.

He got up from the bed, grabbed a chair and sat himself in a spot where he could enjoy the show best. Your panties ended up on the floor and your tops were lifted up to reveal your breasts, but the rest of the outfit stayed on. You didn't want to ruin the immersion, after all. As you and your friend teased, edged and fingered each other, he sat there and stroked himself, snapping pictures from time to time. He couldn't afford to not immortalize the moment. Two hot women in magical girl costumes wanted to get fucked by him? At the same time? Somebody pinch him cause it sure as hell is too good to be real.

"Please, Captain!", you cried, "We're ready!"

"Face down, ass up. Let me decide that for myself.", he ordered you around.

You both obeyed and put your leaking holes on display for him. Soon enough, his fingers came in contact to your sensitive spots, making you arch your backs and moan. After he was satisfied by your cries and pleads for his cock, he was kind enough to slip a finger inside each of you, then adding another and another, while moving them at an agonizingly slow speed. So slow that you rocked yourselves onto his fingers to speed up the process.

"Alright, girls. Fun's over. Make room for me on the bed."

Although both of you were trembling, you complied and made room for him to lay down.

"Come on, y/n, hop on my face, will you?", he then turned his gaze to your friend, "And will you be a good girl and ride my cock for me? I'll fill you up full of my strength if you behave.", his smile didn't match the filth that came out of his mouth.

Your friend eagerly sat on top of him, easing his cock into her, while he moaned softly against your clit.

Levi seemed so hungry while he sucked onto your clit, holding his hands on your asscheeks, spreading them open for better access to your leaking folds. His nails dug into your skin and it helped build up the pleasure inside you. On the other side, your friend rode his cock as if her life depended on it, rolling her hips and picking up the pace while using one of hands to massage her swollen nub. As both of you were getting heated up, you started kissing to muffle your moans so you wouldn't get complains from your neighbors.

Levi made you reach your limit at the same time that your friend reached hers. The two of you came while french kissing. Her walls clenched around Leviathan's cock, making him linger over the edge of his own release.

He stopped working you with his tongue and ordered you two to get on your knees.

"I'm about to give you my strength, so make sure to not waste a single drop.", he stroked his cock while you two sat there with open mouths and tongues sticking out.

Soon after, his thick load was all over your faces, into your mouths and on your breasts. You played with it, sloppily kissing each other, transferring his cum from one mouth to the other. But you did as he ordered, not wasting a single drop. You even licked what ended up on the floor.

The Avatar of Envy couldn't be more proud, seeing you clean the cum off of the floor. His cum.

You all fell asleep cuddling each other after a much needed shower. He, obviously, liked your normie friend. According to him, she wasn't all that bad.

Next morning, after breakfast and a morning quickie, you sent him back to the Devildom.

During dinner, as he was searching for a picture of a new game he bought to brag to his friends, he stumbled upon some of the pics he took the night before. Immediately, he started blushing and gripped his phone a little too tight.

"What are you looking at? Is it something naughty?~", Asmodeus cooed from behind him.

Before he had the chance to react, he'd already seen it.

"Is that y/n!?", both indignation and pride could be read in his tone, "Wait, so you're telling me you didn't only get to bang y/n, but her friend too?"

Mammon choked on his food.

"He did what!?"

#obey me! shall we date?#one master to rule them all #shall we date #obey me #obey me asmodeus #obey me mammon #shall we date asmodeus #shall we date leviathan #mammon obey me #shall we date mammon #leviathan obey me #obey me leviathan #leviathan #smutty #the smuttier the better #smut #filthy

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sparkexplosive · 4 years

Text

Sentiment [Izuku Midoriya] ; 02 ; rewrite

Precious Chapters in Sentiment [Izuku Midoriya] SERIES

Word Count: 1,507

During the morning, [Name] took notice throughout the day, there were a lot of students walking past her workroom that she shares with another student who is currently behind her studies. They were so deep into creating their own toys which made her behind on her studies.

The two of you are the top inventors of U.A, Hatsume Mei and [Full Name].

Each time, you would look at the door. You would find students looking at you with either curiosity or disgust. You don’t understand why they would look over, usually, everyone minds their own business or they’re too distracted.

You return to your work on your smoke bomb for the internship you have with one of the hero companies. You shake off the thought of everyone acting odd, as you connect the colored cables together. Before you close it, holding it close with your gloved hands and using your heat vision to seal the smoke bomb just enough to keep it intact.

That was until you get startled by your best friend’s Misaka voice, making you blink a few times and turn around to her. “Wha-”

You swirl around in your computer chair as you roll your neck and relax your head to look at her.

“I thought you were already told him! But your little dirty secret is out. Everyone is literally talking about it.” Misaka exclaims, clearly expressing her disappointment.

Your eyes widen in shock and trembling when the realization washed over you.

“D-don’t actually mea-”

“Yes. I actually do! Apparently, there is evidence of a check.” She retorts narrowing her eyebrows.

Your mouth gapes in the revelation to clutch your hands into tight fists. You could only imagine Midoriya trying not to be bothered by the rumors but having the evidence. He must be going through a rush of emotions such as betrayal to pure sadness.

He must be thinking of how he was fooled by you. He would get into his own thoughts overthinking everything. He must be thinking your whole relationship was built on lies. When reality, you never act differently with you. You were yourself completely with him.

You bit your lower lip from trembling anxiously, before voicing your thanks to her.

“Thank you. I owe you big time.” You said in a shaky voice and stood up grabbing your bag.

You abandon the unfinished smoke bomb on your messy table. Underneath your table was a table cloth covering a metal suitcase with a red envelope stuck onto it along a sparkly ribbon. It was hidden away from the public eye until the occasion arose to come out from the shadows.

Misaka looks at you worriedly due to the fact she is aware of the deal and [Name]’s feelings towards Midoriya. She knows how deep you have fallen for him. She watches you run out of your workroom with your bag in tow. You almost crashed into the window, making your sneakers squeak loudly against the floor as you turn to go to the cafeteria.

You are literally sprinting your way out of the building, and skipping some stair steps could potentially end up with twisted or sprained ankle. You don’t care at the moment. The only thing running through your mind is Midoriya. Your thoughts are all over the place on Midoriya. You couldn’t think straight.

Your heart beating against your ribcage and slowly losing your breath. You are running down the hall yet you didn’t notice the tiles shifting in front of you. You see the cafeteria doors and hearing students chattering away behind those doors.

Once your foot lands on the shifting tiles as if it was water. The tiles shoot up to create something similar to a chain wrap around your ankle making you fall forward. You were about to stand up until someone pressed their foot on your back.

“Well well, what we got here. Miss Golddigger.” You heard a too familiar voice, and you glance up at the corner of your eye to see a stupid fangirl who is the leader of the group.

You breathe heavily from your nose to huff out. You were too familiar with them since they would follow when you are on a date with Izuku. The two of you literally had to run and turn a lot in order to lose them from your tail, so we could continue your date in peace.

“How about we talk like normal people?” You asked to feel a foot to be lifted off your back and feeling your ankle being freed. You push yourself from the ground and stand up straight.

You don’t have time for this and turn around to face them to only get sucker punch in the mouth to make you stumble backward, before a burst of invisible force pushes you through the waving doors with a loud bang. It causes everyone to stop what they are doing.

You crash into a table with students who immediately stood up from their seats. You had your eyes closed and hissing the pain on your back and holding your jaw to the only gasp in surprise when something got spilled over your head spilling into your school uniform.

“Oops.” She smiles.

You had your head lower down due to being surprised to get something spilled over you. You were shaking not from embarrassment but anger.

“Hey! Bullying is not allowed in U.A.” Iida comes from his seat being followed by Uraraka.

The fangirl leader huffs and pushes her hair back in confidence. “It’s what she deserves for what she did. She is just a golddigger who-”

You had taken one of the trays from the table and smacking her from behind her head with all your strength. It makes the tray break when it makes contact with her. She gasps in surprise to stumble forward. You take a drink and a plate of food. You spill the drink over her head before taking the plate to drag it down her hair. She cherishes so much.

She turns around to fake throwing a fist making you bend down to only kneeled in the face. Immediately a fight breaks out which caused some students to react to break them apart. Some students cheered because it was a catfight in U.A grounds. You could feel your lip cut up and the burn sensation from your swollen lips due to the punching, but she doesn’t look too good either. She has a black eye with her make up got destroyed with the drink and punching.

The rest of the fangirls just watched it go down but cheering for their leader. They didn’t back up their leader as she ordered since they didn’t want to get trouble as well. “What is going on here!?” Midnight voice echoes through the cafeteria to see you and the other girl were being restrained from attacking each other again.

This causes two of you to be escorted to be taken Recovery girl than to the principal office. You waited outside with Midnight who was clearly disbelieve since you were one of the good students that barely cause any real trouble. The girl whom you fought with was inside telling her side of the story.

You hear footsteps from the end of the hall, causing you to look up to see All might being accompanied by Midoriya. When they see your cut open lip and bandages on your body, you could see their eyes widen at the sight.

“Are you o-” You interrupted All might with a serious look.

“I am fine. It's just swollen lip, no biggie.” You answered, completely ignoring the pain sensation from your lip.

“Could I talk to Izuku for a moment?” Your eyes glance over to the green-haired boy next to the tall man. You could clearly see he is conflicted, and you know why.

All might and Midnight exchange eye contact. They hesitate for a split moment.

“It’s just a moment,” Midoriya says and glancing up to his teachers just making sure its okay to continue later.

All might nod at Midoriya and Midnight moves her hand to show it was all right.

The two of you walk a little bit forward away from teachers. Midnight took the moment to talk to All might to discuss what happened in the cafeteria.

You gulp down your saliva. Its uncomfortable silence between you.

“Could we talk after school?” You asked biting your lip while looking down on your fingers. You played with your fingers.

You are being a coward. You can’t even bring yourself to look at him.

You seriously got into a fight with one of his fangirls.

“Yeah. You can come to my dorms.” Midoriya says in a serious tone that he barely used when he was with you.

But it also shows how it is affecting him.

You could feel the stare on you, but you know you will be faced with disappointment or pure sadness.

You just know this is probably gonna be one of the worst days in your pathetic existence.

_______ Any predictions or theories you have, please comment them down below.

Feedback is appreciated!

Please be kind within the comments. I hope you are enjoying the story. Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors.

if anyone wishes to be tagged, either send me an ask or comment below this post!

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asherranceoftheheart · 4 years

Text

Icarus Falls - Ch. I - What A Wonderful World!

Story Summary: “You'll never leave me alone right?" "You think I'd actually let you go?"

A story about the slow descent and corruption of a lonely man, a demon who learns that bonds go both ways, brothers who deeply regrets their words spoken out of anger, and a conflicted man watching them all fall down from the distance. Here's a Puppet!Chase AU that was written with extreme self-indulgence so beware and read the tags before entering.

Chapter Summary: It’s Sad Chase Hours, my friends! (:( Pairing/s: None, Platonic Character/s: Jack McLoughlin, Chase Brody, Antisepticeye, Mentions of Other Septic Egos Genre: Angst Chapter Warning/s: Creepy!Anti, Self-Deprecating Thoughts (Thoughts like I’m not as good as the others, etc.), Sadness (Archive Of Our Own Edition) Note/s: If you wanna get tagged in this fic just tell me lmao. Also I’d advise the people who has an AO3 account to follow and subscribe to this fic there cause it’ll be easier to get notifications that I’ve updated the story. Oh and Jack McLoughlin is basically NOT Sean. He’s based on him but his motivations, personality, and etc. are different. So I guess please consider him as like another Septic Ego?

Nearly an entire year has passed ever since his best friend had been rushed into this hospital and was declared to be under a comatose state without showing any sign that he was going to be waking up soon. The chemically clean smell of the hospital that originally made him sick now barely affected him. Don’t get him wrong, he still hated the smell but when you’re here every three days it stops affecting you and is basically just a part of the background like the constant beeping of the heart monitor that originally drove him rather mad.

He held Jack’s thin hand, pressing the cold palm against his cheek and closed his blurring eyes.

“I miss you so much…” Chase choked on the heavy, bitter tar of sadness clinging to the inside of his throat and the wire of thorns made out of his guilt constricting suffocatingly around his bleeding heart. “I should be the one in your place, not you… I’m the weakest, most useless one among all of us. It shouldn’t have been you.”

The stinging burn of his tears welled up in his closed eyes and he furiously blinked them away even as his body heaved with dry sobs.

Pathetic…

While all the others are out there trying to find the cure to help Jack wake up from his coma, he was stuck here moping around, constantly crying like a little crybaby…

Powerless, useless, waste of space Chase…

He snapped out of his self-deprecating thoughts when he felt something squeeze his hand lightly. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought he was just imagining the action out of desperation. He looked at Jack’s sleeping face and humorlessly smiled. Somehow, even when the man was in the depths of his coma, Jack always knew whenever he wasn’t being kind to himself. When he was awake, he’d just painlessly whap him on his back or shoulders before pulling him into a tight hug to murmur against his hair that he’s going to be okay and that whatever mean thing he was telling himself wasn’t true.

“Hey! Don’t think of yourself that way, Chaser. If it weren’t for you nobody’d be dragging Henrik off to sleep or to eat something for the entire day and would’ve just kept on working regardless of how much he was already suffering. Jackie wouldn’t have anyone to chill and relax with when he’s trying to take a break from his superhero job to remind him that he’s human and he needs to rest too. Nobody would be dragging Marvin, screaming and spitting like a cat, out of his stuffy bedroom to enjoy the day outside and to be nicer to others rather than continuing his foot in mouth syndrome. You’re important to us Chasey so please, please never think of yourself that way.”

He could still hear Jack’s voice pleading with him while he used those silvery blue eyes to melt most of his self-doubt and self-hatred away… At least for the time being.

Chase laid his cheek on his crossed arms on top of the bed and he held Jack’s hand tightly as if he was afraid that the comatose man would disappear if he wasn’t watching over him carefully. The effects of sleepless nights, repeating extremely vivid nightmares, and the constant emotional and mental torment from Him finally took its toll on the weary man. A wave of exhaustion poured over his entire body and he could feel his eyelids being weighed down by fatigue.

He drifted off to sleep in mere seconds.

-----------------------------------------

A hand was squeezing his cheeks and pulling them apart. Chase grumbled and attempted to turn over to the other side to escape the menace who was snickering at his futile attempts.

“Good morning Chasey Wasey,” he heard Jack coo at him mockingly in a tone used to humor babies. He hissed angrily when he felt a hand ruffling his bed hair furiously making it even worse than usual. “Time to wakey and facey the day, sunshine!”

“Fuck off, Jack,” Chase grunted as he pulled up the blankets to cover his face and swatted the hand that tried to squeeze his cheeks again.

His only warning was a sigh before someone was suddenly jumping on him and laying their entire body weight on the previously sleepy man. His eyes snapped open just as his blanket was forcefully pulled down and a pair of hands with wriggling fingers began to attack his ticklish sides. Chase began to squeal like a pig and squirmed like a worm trying to escape the smirking Jack’s trap while he howled with laughter.

“Jahahahahahack! Stahahahahahap!” Chase began to curse the snickering man who ruthlessly kept dancing and digging his fingers up and down the cursing-laughing man’s sensitive sides to hear him scream.

“Awwww, why should I? Look at you, you’re having so much fun right now!” Jack grinned down at the rapidly growing red face. “Coochie coochie coo!”

The older man only took mercy on Chase after his laughter had evolved into soundless screaming and he looked like he just stopped breathing with how hard he was laughing. Jack chuckled and rolled off the panting man’s body to flump over, spread-eagled to his other side. He draped an arm over Chase’s face and snickered when he shoved it away with an irritated grunt.

“You… are… a… motherfucker,” Chase huffed out every word with a hiss, righteous vengeance burning in those teary baby blue eyes that had Jack internally adding to his mental notes to watch out for the upcoming revenge from the other man. “I’m… going… to… fucking… kill you.”

He propped himself up on an arm and teasingly poked Chase’s soft, flushed cheek with a grin.

“Is that any way to talk to your father, young man?” Jack dropped his voice in a teasing mockery of a stern father’s loving but scolding voice.

Chase rolled his eyes and gave Jack a look that could wither up an entire tree in three seconds.

“I didn’t realize you signed up for my child support, Dad,” Chase narrowed his eyes dangerously and sassed him back with a sickly sweet smile and a voice dripping with poisoned honey. “I’m sure Marvin would be very interested to find out about this little fact.”

This time it was Jack’s turn to shudder and look at the younger man with a little bit of fear. They both knew that if Marvin ever heard of their little jokes, he was not going to leave Jack in peace. That magician was determined to have Jack take responsibility as their ‘parent’ despite the fact that trying to get that legally acknowledged is going to be a piece of hell to explain. Not that that matters to Marvin of course. The prideful man could out-stubborn even a rock.

Jack pouted and Chase’s smile widened. This was definitely a win for Chase.

He smacked his palm over the little bastard’s smug face and yelped and gave Chase a disgusted look when he felt him lick his palm. He snagged his own hand away and wiped the saliva off his shirt while Chase sat up trying to pat down his fluffed up hair that was flying all over the place.

“You literally don’t know where this hand has been, you little shit.” Jack told Chase who arched an eyebrow at him and looked him dead in the eyes, no sign of regret or remorse over his previous action.

“What? Are you one of those crusty dirty bastards who never washed their hands when they go to the bathroom? Are you a crusty, dirty old man, Jack?” Chase taunted his creator who snapped and pounced on him to lock his head under his arms while he noogied his creation. “I’m going to tell Henrik you’re one of those dirty bastards and then you’ll get five hours worth of lecture for your crusty ass!”

“No you fucking won’t or I’ll tell Henrik that you haven’t been eating anything else other than Mac and Cheese for dinner for the past week just because he said that it wasn’t healthy for you and you, the complete child you are, decided to spite him because you said quote that Henrik is not the boss of you end quote.” Jack growled back at the other man who was still trying to pull his head out of his armlock.

Jack smirked victoriously when Chase stopped squirming and looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

“... Truce?” Chase finally decided after a few minutes of their stubborn staring contest. He was pouting sulkily.

Jack snorted and gave Chase’s hair another ruffle before he finally let him go, “Truce. Anyway, get your ass up. We’re supposed to be meeting the others for lunch outside today.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Chase grumbled but the next words still came out as easily as breathing to him. “Love you, bro.”

The words albeit it had been grumbled out was still painfully sincere. It lit up Jack’s weary face with a fond smile. He pulled Chase into a big hug and buried his face into that fluffy brown hair.

“Yeah… Love you too, Chaser.”

-----------------------------------------

“...dy? Mister Brody, visitation hours are done,” Chase slowly, reluctantly stirred from the peaceful dream that he tried with all his might to never wake from.

He didn’t want to wake back up into the cold reality where he had to face that he was all alone and carrying what felt like the entire world on his aching back. He wanted to stay in that memory where his family was by his side and his closest friend and brother would be there to shake him awake ready to greet him with a smile and a lively spark in his eyes. However, he knew that he couldn’t postpone reality any further and he also knew that Jack and the others wouldn’t want to lose him to the world of bittersweet memories. There was no need to add one more unimportant baggage with another comatose friend to the other’s stress.

Chase forced himself to open his eyes and his hand was still loosely being squeezed by Jack in his sleep. That was the only reaction they ever got from him. He hoped that the others at least read his messages reporting Jack’s ‘progress’ over the past months. It’d be nice to try and be optimistic in believing that this means that Jack was slowly regaining his strength again.

“Good evening, Mister Brody,” Chase sat up at the sound of the familiar voice. He rubbed the crud made from sleep from his eyes to blink up at one of the doctors that had been assigned to care for Jack.

The man had neatly cut auburn hair, freckles dusting his pretty face like a night sky full of stars, and a pair of kind grey eyes. Doctor Adam often allows him to stay a bit later than usual for visitation hours, probably out of pity especially whenever he sees his god awful face.

“Evening Doc,” Chase muttered with a rough voice and glanced at the clock. He let out a groan and rubbed a hand down his face when he saw that the clock’s hands were pointing at nine o’clock. “Thanks for giving me an additional hour, Doc.”

The man just patted his shoulder and gazed at his comatose patient’s blank face. If one didn’t know better, they would think that Jack was merely in a deep sleep.

“You slept the entire day away since you came in before lunch. Have you been getting any sleep on your own, Mister Brody?” The gentle inquiry made Chase wince as he thought about his sleep schedule or rather to be more accurate, the complete lack of it. “Please try to get some rest by yourself. Nobody would be happy if you were to follow after your brother’s footsteps into this hospital.”

Chase sighed and rubbed a thumb on the back of Jack’s hand. It’s not like he can tell the doctor that sleeping peacefully and living well is not an option in a household where you have to deal with a demon who follows your every step, save for when he comes to this hospital, to torment you and push you around. Thank fuck Marvin used a powerful warding spell on this place before he and Jamie vanished on a trip to find a spell that could wake Jack up. He did ask his older brother why he couldn’t use the same spell around the house but Marvin explained that the hospital is connected to a powerful leyline so the spell is automatically powered to be kept up without his influence. The house doesn’t have the same advantage.

He understood his brother’s explanation and dismissed his own suggestion. He didn’t want to take up too much of Marvin’s energy when he should be focusing it on more important things. Marvin gave him one of his rare hugs and thanked him for his understanding before he was off. Jamie followed after him but not before staying back a bit longer to talk to him.

“Are you truly sure that you will be alright by yourself?” Jameson furrowed his brows as he asked his older brother. Chase plastered on a convincing smile and gave the youngest ego a hug before letting him go.

“Take care of our stubborn big brother. He’s a bit prickly but since you both have the soul bond he’s more likely to listen to you and be nicer to you. Keep yourselves out of trouble, okay?” Chase stood up on his toes to kiss Jameson on his forehead before gently pushing him towards the direction Marvin left. “Go. Don’t worry your head about me. I’ll be fine. You guys would be going through more dangerous tasks than I do.”

Jameson looked like he wanted to say something before he must have thought it wasn’t worth the effort before he gave him one last squeeze and a kiss dropped down on the crown of Chase’s head before he ran off to follow their magician.

He hasn’t heard anything from them in months but Chase knew that they were fine. If Anti had captured them, he would’ve been gloating about their unfortunate fate day in and day out into Chase’s ears.

“I’ll try to take care of myself, Doc.” He returned his mind back to the present and gave the concerned doctor a small smile. “You’re right. Nobody would want me to follow Jack here.”

‘At least… not yet,’ Chase’s dull eyes dimmed further at the dark whisper of his mind.

He stretched his arms out and faked a big yawn to hide the dullness of his eyes that were only accented by the dark raccoon-like black bags circling them. Chase stood up, gently prying Jack’s hand from his own, and leaned over to brush his chapped lips against the cold skin of his forehead. Sometimes, his morbid thoughts would rear in and tell him that he was basically caring for Jack’s corpse at this point. He brushed away his brother’s growing bangs from his thin face.

“His hair’s getting pretty long,” Chase idly commented as he twirled a brown lock around his pinky finger. “We should trim it soon.”

“We should,” he heard Doctor Adam walk behind him and grab his shoulder with a firm squeeze. “You look exhausted, Chase. Are you sure you’ll be fine going home on your own?”

The fussing from the other man painfully reminded Chase of the times Henrik would nag him over his health. He’d often tell him to call him or one of the other guys to come pick him up if he was too tired from his shoots to drive home on his own.

Poor Henrik… Ever since That Day, he had gone missing, probably spirited away by the demon that was tormenting all of them. Jackie followed soon after telling them tersely that he’s not coming back until he finds the other half of his soul bond. He did tell them to call him or text him if they managed to find a solution to Jack’s coma or if they found Henrik but other than that he had been ghosting them (or well, Chase) since he left. Chase wondered if the second leader of the group managed to find any other clues about Henrik other than that time when He managed to take over Jack’s tumblr to post the taunting images of a vacation postcard that grew bloodier and glitchier with every post edit before it was erased from existence as if it had never been there in the first place. He sent Marvin and Jackie messages about what happened but he has no way of knowing if they saw it or even believed him.

“I’ll be fine. I took a cab coming here,” Chase shrugged off the warm hand from his shoulder and pushed past the unresisting taller man’s body, “It’s getting late. I won’t get you into more trouble for letting me stay past visiting hours again.”

“You look like you’re only getting your good night’s sleep here and it’s not like you’re disturbing our patient,” Adam scratched the back of his head and gazed at the tired slump of Chase’s shoulders. “Be careful on your way home and please get something to eat… You haven’t eaten anything the entire day.”

Chase wisefully didn’t say that he hasn’t been having that much of an appetite to eat anything for the past months. Everything just tasted like cardboard in his mouth and it was taking him more energy to get food down into his stomach than any other activity. He still forces himself to try and eat something three times a day despite his lack of appetite. After all, you can’t hide extreme weight loss in a recorded video easily unlike the makeup he would expertly use to hide the black bags around his eyes. He does have to care for his body or else the community would notice that something was wrong.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll eat something when I get home.” He waved off the doctor’s concerns and inclined his head towards Jack. “Bye Jackaboy… I’ll see you in three days.”

He looked back at the doctor who was now checking his patient’s numbers to see if there was anything they should be worried about or if there had been any positive change.

“Doc, please keep taking good care of my big brother.”

“Of course, you take care of yourself as well, Mister Brody.”

With one final glance at his brother’s face, he turned around and mustered up all the flimsy strength in his heart to prepare himself for the war that will greet him when he returned to that house.

-----------------------------------------

Chase paid the cab driver his fare and gave him a nice tip for the smooth drive. Before he exited the cab, he bade the old man farewell and wished him a safe drive. He slid out of the car and closed the door behind him, watching the cab disappear off into the distance then told himself that he can’t keep putting the upcoming event off. He deeply breathed in, his lungs expanding with the chill of the evening breeze before letting it out slowly through his nose to calm his racing heart.

He looked up into the darkened windows of the house, the lack of light giving it a more ominous look even before he caught sight of a pair of green eyes watching him from the windows on the second floor. There was unrestrained delight in those eyes as they relished in the sight of his obvious fear and internal conflict that kept him from moving his frozen legs to enter the house.

“Stop being such a wuss, Chase,” he whispered to himself as he swallowed around the lump in his throat and forced his shaking legs to walk up to the front door.

He unlatched the collection of keys swaying from its place on his front belt loop and flipped through them before coming to a stop on the front door key. He fumbled with it, trying to stall for more time, and inserted the item into the keyhole. The man hesitated for a second, knowing just what awaited him behind that door before he gritted his teeth and forced himself to turn the key. The click of the lock opening sounded like the bell that would sound for one’s death. He pulled the key out and reached over to wrap his sweaty hand around the ice cold steel surface of the doorknob and slowly pushed the door open.

The pitch darkness of the hallway made him feel small and helpless to whatever lurks within its shadows. He resisted the urge screaming at him to turn around and run back to the hospital with his tail tucked between his legs. He dug his nails in his palms, forming faint crescents, before he stepped inside the dark house and closed the door behind him. The hair behind his neck rose along with the goosebumps on his arms. Someone was watching him.

The feeling of being watched has grown worse now that he stood all alone in the dark. It was as if His eyes were everywhere, focusing their unblinking gaze upon his shaking form. He leaned back against the closed front door and fumbled blindly for the lock. He already has enough in his own plate dealing with the being lurking in this house that he doesn’t want to deal with impromptu home invasions. He switched the lock up.

“... I’m back,” he doesn’t know why he kept doing this even though he knew that only one person (and it was his most disliked and feared person at that) would be there to listen. His words carried through the still air of the house and Chase grimaced when he heard the previously subtle static grow louder as He approached.

He shook his head and gathered up the shattered pieces of his courage and journeyed on to the kitchen. While he doesn’t have the appetite, he could still make do with a sandwich or two for food. He’d flick on whatever light switch he’d encounter on his way to the kitchen and he began to lose some of the tension in his muscles as the dark house soon brightened up. Don’t get him wrong. He’d never fully turn off his guard while he’s outside of the hospital’s warded boundaries but light always had a way of easing some of his worries and burning away a little bit of that fear.

When he reached the kitchen, he headed straight for the cupboard to grab a box full of teabags to get a kettle started up. He used whatever flavor his hand could snag from the box first before putting the other teabags back in the cupboard. Then he walked over to the fridge and opened its door to look at his selection of food.

Normally, if this had been the past and he had the energy and enthusiasm, he would’ve been cooking homemade food because it was his favorite activity other than filming videos and trickshots, playing the piano, or doodling or sketching something that caught his interest. However, it’s been a while since he did any of those hobbies. He didn’t really have any room in his energy output to be able to invest some time in his own passions.

Most of what was inside the fridge delivered fast food and a rare takeout box. Occasionally he’d get the energy to eat outside since he was sick of the silence of the house but that happens probably twice or thrice a month.

He wasn’t in the mood for anything especially heavy so he chose the club sandwich that came with his ordered salad a week ago. He gave it a careful sniff and shrugged when it smelled pretty normal.

When he closed the fridge’s door, he didn’t react to His sudden appearance behind it.

“Hello, little Brody,” the demon purred, His creepy inhumane wide smile stretching out further until it looked like it was about to split His face apart when He saw his hand tightly gripping his sandwich. “Did you have fun visiting Jack today?”

Chase swallowed the biting words ‘Don’t say his name’ down his throat to let it sit heavily in his stomach. He found that the best way to cope with the demon’s presence was to ignore Him and give Him no attention until He grows bored of you for the rest of the day. It’s not a perfect tactic. Sometimes it angers Him and Chase is left with new bruises covering up the side of his back that makes it difficult to sit in a hard chair but he made do. He turned around without looking back at the smiling demon and returned to the whistling kettle. The strong fragrance of peppermint filled the room and its scent lessened some of Chase’s drowsiness. He turned off the heat and poured himself a cup of tea before going to the living room.

“Still ignoring me, Chaser?” The high pitched giggles grated on Chase’s nerves and ears but he determinedly pretended that nobody was shadowing his steps, blowing little puffs of cold air behind his neck. He gritted his teeth and stopped his twitching arm from spinning him around and striking Him on the face. That would just encourage Him to retaliate.

He hastened his brisk pace and placed the cup of scalding tea on the table before collapsing on the couch. He reached out to grab the remote control of the TV from the table before turning it on and navigated the screen to Netflix. He decided to continue watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and maybe even bring some cheer to himself. His dull blue eyes never wavered from the screen in spite of the intent, sneering gaze burning a hole through him coming from the side. He only leaned over to pick up the mug that was still smoking hot.

“Have you finally received any notice from the cowardly magician and fake hero that they’ve actually read your messages or are they still pretending that you have no important information to tell them?” The demon crooned, His poisonous words managing to directly hit all of the weak points of Chase’s insecurities.

His hand tightened around the mug's handle. He felt Him shuffle closer almost until their arms were touching together.

Ignore Him Chase. Ignore Him. He’s just taunting you. He’s just trying to get a rise out of you. You know His games. You’ve been playing it since December last year. He is lying to you. Do not believe His lies.

“Leaving you with no way of contacting them for emergencies, ignoring all of your calls and messages… One would think that you’re just an unimportant nuisance to them,” He giggled, He was so close now that Chase could feel the static that clung to His presence teasingly sparking up against the skin of his arms. “Such loyal and loving brothers you have there, Chaser.”

He suddenly grew hyper aware of the heaviness of his phone that had been stuck in his front pocket for the entire day. He didn’t power up the thing ever since he woke up this morning until he was sitting in the taxi cab on the way back. He texted Marvin and Jackie’s number to give them the weekly updates on Jack even if there hasn’t been any change at all. He began to type out that He has been haunting him and stared down at that part of the message with a blank gaze before he erased the parts mentioning how he was actually doing and just said that he’s been fine if not a bit tired.

Sometimes, when Chase was feeling a bit selfish, he wished that they would send him back something, even if it’s just the single letter K to tell him that they’ve been reading his messages. Originally, he told them about his daily nightmares about Him and how He was starting to show His presence around him but the lack of replies felt… cold and uncaring. It felt like he was annoying them about his complaints and should just suck it up. It wasn’t like He was kidnapping him or anything.

So he stopped. He only texted them now for reports on Jack’s state.

His head was beginning to hurt, more specifically the side of his head was beginning to hurt like a bitch. Ah. He was getting too emotional.

He bit down on his tongue, the pain snapped him out of the emotional downhill he was starting to fall into and to stop him from snapping at the demon and defend his brothers from the lies that He was spewing from His grinning mouth.

“Stubborn, so stubborn… You do know that everyone considers you as the weakest link of the group right?” Chase felt the shivers run up and down his spine when those ghostly fingers began to brush the top of his hair. “Poor useless, powerless little brother… You lost the only person who stood by your side while the others who swore to be your brothers abandoned you, left you to face the monster all on your own.”

Chase abruptly stood up, the mug that was filled with tea that had gone cold fell over to the floor as his loosened grip let go of it, the sound of his racing heartbeat roaring in his ears while he tried to ignore the demented cackling coming from his tormentor. His words kept bouncing around his head and in a futile attempt to forget it, he held up the ruined sandwich that he had unknowingly crushed in his hand and tore into it.

“You can’t run away from the truth, Chaser.” He crooned right next to his ears, His dark presence loomed over his shaking body. “I truly do wonder if the others would actually come to your rescue if you cried for their help?”

Chase looked down at the remaining pieces of the sandwich in his hand and at the feel of cold tea on his feet.

His sandwich tasted like ash in his mouth.

-----------------------------------------

Chase ran his fingers through his wet hair and walked out of the shower, wiping off his wet feet on the bathroom mat so that he won’t accidentally slip and crack his skull on the toilet. Knowing Him, He’d probably just laugh His ass off at his own stupidity and then the last thing that he would see would be that demon’s grinning face. That would be a shitty end to an already shitty life.

When he said that the hospital was the only safe place in the world against Him, he was sort of lying. For someone as creepy as He was, He still doesn’t invade the bathroom space especially when he’s taking a bath so that’s one place he can have some temporary peace whatsoever. It’s not that everything stops when he’s in there. Like…

Chase looked at the mirror and saw that he was crying tears of blood again. He reaches up, wiping the crimson liquid away from his cheeks, feeling the squish of the blood on his fingers, and spreads the mess all over his face. However, when he looked down he already knew what sight was waiting for him.

His fingers were clean.

When he looked back up into the mirror, there was not a shred of evidence that blood had been streaming down his cheeks a few seconds ago.

It was sickeningly funny in a fucked up way how such a thing that would’ve incited extreme panic attacks and mental breakdowns in the beginning barely fazed him anymore. He squeezed his dry fingers together and sighed. After all, there were worse things to panic about other than illusory tears of blood at this point in his life.

After their little one-sided conversation in the living room, Chase decided to take out his airpods and plug them up to his ears while he cleaned up the mess his tea made on the floor and finished up the remaining tea on the kettle and his smushed up sandwich. He could see Him snickering at his valiant attempts of ignoring Him at the corner of his eyes but Chase just averted his sight and began singing loudly to the lyrics of the songs screaming against his ears. Once he chugged down his tea, forced the tasteless sandwich down his throat, and cleaned up his mess, he dragged himself upstairs and decided to go for a hot shower before going to ‘sleep’.

The heat was both a comfort and a hit on the face about how this entire bullshit situation was the reality that he has to live with. A comatose best friend, a missing brother, a demon haunting nearly every second of his day poking at every raw wound of insecurity in his psyche, and a bunch of distant brothers who were too busy with their own respective tasks to listen to him… A tiny part of him wanted the ex-wife and children in his backstory to be real so that he could at least worry about something else other than the supernatural stuff but the bigger part of him wasn’t cruel enough to wish this messed up situation on anyone just because he wanted to feel a little less lonely.

He stepped out of his shower once his skin turned slightly red from the temperature of the water. No doubt he’s going to feel the rawness and sensitivity of his skin in the morning if he wasn’t feeling emptier than usual but for now, he just didn’t care. He changed into an oversized clean blue shirt and black shorts after he finished drying his hair with a towel and walked out into his bedroom.

The place was what you would frankly call a Mess. Dirty clothes formed into small mountains all around the corners of the room, a bunch of dirty mugs and plates sat on the table, his laptop in sleep mode settled on top of his unmade bed, and a trashcan full of empty packets of chips and snacks that he couldn’t be bothered to take out. Chase looked around his room and could just imagine Henrik or Jack’s fussing over him and the mess. They’d drag him out of his bed and help him clean out his room or get some sunshine.

God… He missed them so much…

He trudged over to his bed and replaced his laptop over to the floor. He slipped under the sheets and crossed his arms under his head while he stared up into the dark ceiling of his room. He could feel His gaze staring right at him, watching him do nothing if not for the sole purpose of reminding him that he’s not alone.

…

Would it be fucked up if he said that some part of him was glad that He was there? Save for the people in the hospital and his other absent brothers, everybody thought that he was Jack. He couldn’t let it be known that the man was in a comatose state as that would just bring more questions than reasonable answers that they could answer with. He has to pretend to be him in front of the public because nobody needs Chase but a lot of people need Jack.

The demon was the only one outside of the hospital to acknowledge that he was Chase and it’s so disgustingly, pathetically refreshing to him. He was the only one who ever calls him by his name now and it helps him remember that he wasn’t Jack, he could never be Jack.

Maybe after all this is over… If he’s still alive by then, he’ll dye his hair an outrageous color again so that nobody would ever make the mistake of calling him Jack.

“Oh Chaser~” He hates that the nickname that held such fond memories for him was now tainted by the eight months of hearing it being hissed out with mockery by the demon who couldn’t help but ruin everything that previously made him so happy. “Still giving me the cold shoulder while you’re about to sleep? How rude.”

Chase closed his eyes and turned over to lay on his stomach and bury his face into his pillows. He felt the side of the bed dip as He sat on it. Still, he feigned deafness to the sound of static popping and hissing in his ears while he tried to force himself to go to sleep. He felt his entire body tense when a painfully familiar hand started to play with his hair in the same way as Jack often did to him in the past.

“You’re lucky I’m in an indulging mood today, Chaser,” His voice dropped while His static grew louder. The hand that had been gently playing with his hair suddenly tugged on the strands while claws threateningly grazed his scalp. “On any normal day, I wouldn’t have stood for such disrespect.”

The healing bruises all over his body twinged at the same time while he listened to those words.

‘I know,’ Chase thought numbly. ‘I know that very well.’

The touch lightened once more now that He had delivered His message effectively. As those fingers glided down his hair to massage the weak spot behind his neck, he couldn’t resist melting against those hands. Unconsciously, he had moved his body closer to the gentle touches that his body has been craving for months. He wanted to laugh at the sad fact that the only physical contact he has felt over the past year came from the demon who also hurt him every single day. He heard Him chuckle as he chased His touch greedily.

“There, there, big brother’s here with you now,” Chase shuddered as He impeccably imitated Jack’s loving tone, tears springing up from behind his closed lids when he couldn’t stop the wounded whine that just escaped him. “Shh… You’re tired aren’t you, Chase? Go to sleep. I’ll keep you company for the night.”

He should be fighting this. He shouldn’t be taking any fake comfort from the demon… But he wasn’t strong enough like the others and he was so, so lonely... So they’ll forgive him if he gave in just a few times right?

“You think too much,” Chase sniffled at the perfect copy of the way Jack would express his fond exasperation while helping him go back to sleep after one of those terrible nightmares.

It hurts. It hurts that this feels like his big brother never left but he knew perfectly well that this was just another cruel game He was playing with him.

“Goodnight, Chaser,” He whispered into his ears while He continued to pet his head.

“Goodnight… Jack.”

#jacksepticeye #writersofjack #chase brody #antisepticeye #jack mcloughlin #Icarus Falls!AU #tw blood #tw hospital #tw coma #angst #hurt no comfort #creepy anti

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consumedkings-archive · 3 years

Text

ancient names, pt. xii

A John Seed/Original Female Character Fanfic

Ancient Names, pt xii: splinters

Masterlink Post

Word Count: ~11.4k. (ash shut the fuck up challenge has been brutally failed)

Rating: M for now, rating will change in later chapters as things develop. Tiny tiny TINY hint of something more explicit for like one second if you blink.

Warnings: uhhhhhhh descrips of an anxiety attack, Elliot turns feral like 2x, Joseph is V creepy (what's new--so I guess like, some Joseph/Deputy if you squint again), brief allusions to assault, also some very very very VERY minor steaminess mentioned but it's like just John being himself inside his own brain so. Yeah.

Notes: "what do you MEAN you're closer to your best friend and actual working partner than me, the guy who tried to drown you like a week ago" - @starcrier, impersonating john seed

I don't want to sound like a broken record but I mean it when I say: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This chapter is 11k words long and I don't have anything to say for myself, I just want y'all to know it wouldn't have happened without y'all (which you know by now).

I've been staring at this chapter for like 3 days so I'm gonna keep this short but. I hope you enjoy! Everyone say thank you to @starcrier for proofreading this hot mess and then we can move on to wishing John and Elliot would just bang it out already.

“So what the hell was that?”

Elliot didn’t particularly want to think about it, and she especially didn’t want to discuss the nature of her last John Seed Interaction with Joey. She knew how that was going to go—and even if she didn’t, she’d hardly figured out the whole thing herself. She didn’t think her heart had stopped hammering even after he’d left.

I told you, there’s just the one. This one, El, me.

Boomer’s cold nose pressing against her chin pulled her mind away from the feeling of John’s fingers in her hair, his arm slid around her waist, his mouth on hers, the faded scent of his cologne washing over her. Already she felt the heat crawling back into her face and she swallowed thickly, closing her eyes as she planted a kiss on the side of Boomer’s face.

“It wasn’t anything,” Elliot said, before she could think too much on how the lie coming out of her mouth made her feel. She’d never lied to Joey—not about anything, not about her ex-boyfriend or her mama or anything —but it felt like a losing game to be honest about what had happened, especially before she’d even figured out how she felt about it.

“Didn’t look like nothing,” Joey replied, sitting on the edge of one of the beds. “And you’re doing that thing you do when you’re trying to lie.”

“It was nothing, ” Elliot insisted. There was no heat in the words. She pulled Boomer into her lap and rubbed his belly, watching the Heeler loll his head dreamily against the affection. The blush was starting to fade from her face now, and in its place was the stabilizing familiarity of the hound.

Joey watched her for a moment before she said, “Crazy that Boomer didn’t rip John’s throat out.”

Deciding against answering—because the answer would almost certainly sound like she was defending John , which she did not want to follow up whatever it was that had just happened—Elliot instead pressed her cheek to Boomer’s and shrugged.

John kissed me, something in her mind said, furiously rebellious, and I kissed him back. Fuck fuck fuck.

“El,” Joey said quiet, “we have to get out of here.”

“Yeah,” Elliot agreed. “We will. We can hitch it Fall’s End, you think? And get... Supplies, and a car, and...”

Her voice trailed off. The idea of walking all the way to Fall’s End from the compound, unarmed—because the Seeds would certainly not give them arms if they could help it—exhausted her. While the drugs that the Family had pumped into her were mostly out of her system by now, save the occasional faint wobble in the corner of her vision, her body still ached; her lungs still strained to fight off the sickness she’d gotten just days ago, which had been blissfully tamped down from her senses while she was high but was now back in full force.

“But it’s dangerous,” she added after a moment. “With the—the others still out there. I thought if Ase died it would be the end of them, but—”

“The big one.” Joey’s voice was a quiet agreement. “He’s going to be mad. I thought I heard him last night, when we were getting out of there, after John and Jacob brought you back down.”

Another quiet pause stretched between them. Elliot couldn’t help but think back to what John had said: that he hadn’t shot Ase that second time, but Jacob had. She couldn’t remember for the life of her if John had been holding the shotgun or not when they got down the slope. She couldn’t remember if she saw Jacob with a shotgun. She couldn’t remember much from that night, anyway, besides the dread that had flooded her body when Ase had made her look into the woods, and the strike of the woman’s viscera against her face when she’d been finished off.

Sleep had not come easily to Elliot, in the last twelve hours, and she didn’t imagine that it would any time soon. Her life had become one exhausting blur of blood and panic, with only the occasional respite of quiet, and Elliot felt deep in the marrow of her bones that pattern wasn’t going to be changing any time soon.

“Let’s just take advantage of the quiet while we can,” she suggested after a moment, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Already she wanted another cigarette, the gentle rattle of her lungs on every intake of breath told her to rethink that urge. Joey made a low noise of agreement.

The brunette slid off of her seat on the bed, scooting over until they were next to each other and she could give Boomer’s belly a steady pat. Elliot rested her cheek against Joey’s shoulder. She sighed.

“You think those Seeds are plotting something?”

“I think they never stopped,” Joey replied tiredly. “Not for one second.”

Elliot made a soft noise of agreement. She wanted to ask her what she remembered of the night before—if John was being honest when he said Jacob had delivered that second blow, if she thought that it even mattered who had done it.

It does matter, she thought tiredly. It matters to me.

“We’ll lay low for a few days,” she murmured. “Get back on our feet, and let them think.... Whatever they want to think. And just keep our wits about us until we can get to Fall’s End. Maybe one of us should stay, in case someone tries to call for us.” She closed her eyes, and for a moment, Elliot could almost pretend things were normal; it wouldn’t be crazy to think that maybe this was all just a bad, horrible dream.

But she couldn’t have dreamed up the way John had kissed her—one hand in her hair, the other gripping her hip, like he was hungry. Hungry for her . She had always wanted that, she thought; for someone to be starved for her. How did he know? How did he always know what she was weak to?

“And then we’ll get out of here,” Joey said, her voice soft and tired, too. Elliot couldn’t imagine how tired she was, after it all.

“Yeah,” Elliot replied. She steeled her voice, but her eyes stayed closed. “Then we get the fuck out of here.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The best sleep she’d gotten in days was on a bed in the Eden’s Gate compound, Boomer tucked into her side. It was only an hour or two—certainly not the full night that she needed—but when she woke up she was already feeling better.

Better, and more aware of what had transpired.

She’d yelled at John about shooting Ase, and John had said that was Jacob, and there was no way to affirmatively know that he was telling the truth short of taking his word on it, and if there was one person who she didn’t trust the word of, it was John Seed.

Well, maybe Joseph less than him, she reasoned absently, rinsing her mouth with water that wasn’t contaminated with drugs in the bathroom, splashing it onto her face. Then John, then Faith, then Jacob.

She tried not to think about how troubling it was to consider Jacob the more straight-forward of the Seed siblings, even more so than Faith, but while Elliot felt desperately like she wanted to protect the girl—she knew that was the point. Joseph wouldn’t have picked Faith if she was truly as pure as she liked to put on.

Boomer buffed in the main room of the cabin, nails clicking on the wood flooring. Elliot dried her face and headed out the front door to see what he was fussing about; Joey still slept quietly, probably glad to sleep without drugs weighing her system down and an immediate threat—well, immediately beyond the Seeds—hanging over her.

“Stay,” she murmured. “Stay with Joey, Boomer.”

The Heeler whined, low and exceptionally pathetic, before crouching low to the floor and settling. She closed the cabin door behind her and wiped her hands absently on the front of her jeans, gaze flickering across the yard. Joseph had apparently gathered the members of Eden’s Gate from hiding and they now milled about, heads turning wherever she went, hostile but controlled. For now. It wasn’t unlike the first time that Elliot had walked into the compound with Burke and Whitehorse, as she moved across the yard to the chapel; almost surreal, the world fizzing around her in a white-static as she remembered the way it felt to have Joseph look at her and say, and Hell followed with him.

Dreadful.

Fall was now in full swing, which meant that though the sky was clear, the afternoon had a bite to it that was trying to work its way under her clothes and into the marrow of her bones. From the side of the church, she could see the treeline of the woods that surrounded the compound; against her better judgment, Elliot stopped at the chainlink fence and stared.

The monster in the woods that she’d seen last night still stuck to her—wadded up somewhere right in the hollow of her jaw, locking her mouth shut from being able to talk about it. It wasn’t like she’d know what to say if she could talk about it, anyway; I saw something big, and scary, and it was in the woods and it knows me. What would it matter? It had just been the drugs, anyway. A madness shared by a group of people, seeing what they wanted to see, melding with the things that Elliot hated the most.

Seeing herself, hearing herself, and not recognizing who she was anymore.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

She didn’t have to turn around to know who it was; the slick, rich timbre of Joseph’s voice rattled through her, straight down to the marrow of her bones. If I could have only gotten a good look at it, something in her said, like the monster had been real, like something really was out there trying to slide under her skin.

“Joey and I are leaving,” Elliot said, by way of response; she could feel Joseph’s eyes on her, his footsteps against the packed dirt hitting soft behind her before she saw him stop just in her peripheral. “As soon as I can get to Fall’s End, we’re leaving.”

Joseph was quiet for a moment. And then he said, “You seem troubled, deputy.”

“Well, I did get fucking drugged out of my mind,” she snapped.

“You’ve seemed troubled for a while,” he replied. “Prior to the Family, to all of this.” He gestured vaguely at the compound, absently adjusting the yellow-tinted glasses on his face. Not once did he look at her, pin her with those eyes, but rather kept his gaze focused on the forest where she’d been looking. “I saw you before, Elliot. Before you were even a junior deputy. You were different, then.”

It shouldn’t have felt like a violation to know that Joseph had seen her, known of her, before all of this—but it did. It felt like a violation because she had no way of controlling it. Joseph may as well have flipped through an old yearbook and read all of the things friends had written to her, or pried open her diary.

Elliot said, carefully and meticulously planting each word, “People change.” She was determined not to lose her temper with Joseph, not the same way that she did with John or Jacob—it made it difficult to feel justified, when the man was so hard to rattle as it was.

“People are changed,” Joseph corrected her in his easy cadence, “by the things around them.”

The pressure of her molars grinding together was beginning to make a headache bloom just behind her eyes. What the fuck does he know, she thought furiously, the idea that the person that she was today had been entirely out of her hands making her stomach wrench with something vicious. Joseph was full of shit, and he wore stupid sunglasses and preached hollow, empty words, so what did it matter?

It mattered a lot. It meant that she’d had no hand in who she was now, and that she wouldn’t be able to change it if she wanted to; as though, in the instance that she didn’t want to feel hungry and hurt and needing all the time, she wouldn’t be able to make it change herself. She’d have to wait.

“If I put you in a perfect, empty bubble of a room,” he continued, when she didn’t argue, “and left you there, would anything about you change?”

“You’re the last person I would take psychological observations as truth from,” she managed out after a moment, finally turning to look at him—and he did too, at the same time, like he was ready for it. Anticipating it. Knew that she would do it all along.

For a long moment, he didn’t say anything. He just watched her, his eyes glued to her own, and finally he said, “Elliot, it’s not uncommon in people who are abused to—”

The word abused rinsed her system like an ice bath. It catapulted her mind somewhere else, somewhere far, away, but the muscle memory pulled through anyway, spitting the words, “I’m not abused,” out of her mouth to overrun whatever psycho-babble bullshit Joseph was trying to tell her. She might have tried to swallow down the volume of her voice had it been anything else, anyone else, but she felt it shoot up with hysterical rage.

“Deputy—”

“I’m not.” And now she didn’t know if she was saying it for his sake or something else. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“I know that you have scars,” Joseph replied, his voice firmer now than before. And that dragged her head back, neurons firing off left and right. Red alert, they screamed, abort mission. “Scars that you don’t get from nothing. Scars that—”

“—need to stop fucking talking—”

“—only mean that you don’t become like this without—”

“Like what?”

He stopped. Something passed over his face, but only for a moment—not long enough for her to decipher what it was. Against her better judgement, she stayed where she was instead of walking away from him; perhaps it was a morbid curiosity, to know what it was that the great and mighty Joseph Seed thought she was afflicted with.

And then, with a soft, delicate kind of pity, Joseph placed his hands on her shoulders and said, “Hurting.”

This was all wrong. The pressure of Joseph’s hands on her shoulders did not quiet the roar in her head, did not bring her any kind of comfort. Nausea welled up inside of her like a black bile; her body wanted to purge it, a venom seeping from a wound. Vaguely, she was aware that she wished he’d said something else—anything else, anything other than hurting, anything that could give her the footing to be angry and furious and spit her poison at him.

But there was nothing.

“You don’t have to keep pushing it down,” he continued, his voice low and almost urgent. “Absolution isn’t out of your reach forever.”

“Shut—” Elliot sucked in a sharp breath; she reached up, but her arms felt like lead weights. “S-Shut the fuck up—”

“Elliot,” Joseph murmured, squeezing her shoulders, “you might be able to convince yourself that you’re fine, but I see you.”

Ase’s glassy eyes, her fingers twisted in Elliot’s. Sisters. Do you see?

“Aren’t you tired?” His voice, sliding under her skin, trying her on. He was the monster in the dark of the woods, humming as he lifted the edges of her skin and peeled them back. “Aren’t you so tired, Elliot, of all of this running? All of this anger?”

He was too close, now, his hands on her neck, cradling. Joseph leaned in and rumbled, just against her temple, “It must be so hard, living with it every day. I can help you rest.”

Her brain scrambled for a grip, anywhere; she was only vaguely aware of pushing Joseph’s hands off of her shoulders, that they met resistance for a moment before he gave way for her. Anything, anything but that, don’t fucking look at me, I didn’t say that you could, don’t fucking touch me.

She willed her feet forward. Away from the fence, away from Joseph, away from the church and around the back of one of the buildings.

“It’s not uncommon in survivors, Miss Honeysett. The nightmares , reliving the moment — it’ll get better. I promise.”

But she still felt his hands on her; not Joseph, but him, his hands grabbing her mouth and her hair, pinning her against the door, the taste of copper flooding her mouth when she sank her teeth down and ripped. She still felt the grip when she closed her eyes, and the doctor said it would go away and it would get better, but how long was she supposed to wait? How long was she supposed to feel like this?

I see, she thought frantically, the… The grass, and… I hear… I hear —

“I can see that you’re hurting. I’m only here to help; you just have to let me. I can help, Elliot.”

“Elliot,” John said, sounding surprised to see her come bolting around the corner. He leaned a little, to see where she had come from, and then looked back at her, reaching up. “Why are you breathing so hard? I thought I heard shouting. What’s—”

“Stop,” she bit out, grinding the words between her teeth before she let them out. “Don’t—”

“Okay,” he replied quickly. His hands hovered for a moment before dropping; his gaze drifted again, lingering behind her, before he returned his attention. “Okay, I won’t. Why don’t you sit down?”

I see you.

“No!” Elliot snapped, taking in a shaky breath. The adrenaline wouldn’t stop; not even with the distance between herself and Joseph, not even with John’s voice anchoring her to the ground. “No, I’m not fucking—sitting down. Take me to Fall’s End so I can get—so I can get out—so I can—so I—”

She didn’t think when she grabbed John’s arm to steady herself. Looking back on the moment later, she thought maybe it was a force of habit; he’d been around for a lot of moments like this. In the last few days, they’d gotten through a lot. And—

And he hadn’t had to come back for her if he didn’t want to. And he hadn't had to kiss her if he didn’t want to. He didn’t have to do any of those things, and he did them anyway, and somehow she only felt worse than before; it had been easier when she could hate him blindly.

“It’s supposed to storm tonight,” John said, and if he felt anything about the way she was gripping his arm he didn’t say. Something uneasy flickered in his face, and he added, “You should probably wait until tomorrow, deputy.”

“Fuck. Off,” Elliot said. “Take me to Fall’s End or—”

This seemed to reassure him that she was doing fine. John arched a brow at her loftily and said, his voice a light challenge, “Or what?”

“Hey, John? Hey?”

“Yes?”

“Fuck you?” It returned a bit of normalcy to see him roll his eyes. Her fingers wadded into his shirt sleeve, she said, “Or I’ll walk there myself.”

“You seem to think that relieving me of the burden of your constant verbal assault is a threat,” John deadpanned. “And besides, you’re in no position to be threatening me anyway . You’re the one who didn’t want Joey to know that we—”

Kissed.

“Sh—” The sharp sound coming out of her mouth was enough to stop John. She glanced over her shoulder; if there was one person she would hate more than Joey to find out about that, it was Joseph. Oh, he’d probably just be delighted . As she swallowed back the lump of anxiety in her throat, she said, more urgently now, “John.” Please, she wanted to say, but she wouldn’t.

He watched her for a long moment. She didn’t know how to tell him that if she spent a second longer with his human scalpel of a brother trying to peel her skin back she was going to lose it. She didn’t know how to say that even though she hated him—even though he’d kidnapped her best friend and teased her with that stupid commercial and considered the logistics of drowning her—in the last few days he’d been something close to reasonable, something, and she wanted desperately to keep that streak going.

“Fine,” John said after a moment of deliberation. “But only you. Hudson would spend the entire time trying to eviscerate me, and I only just got you off that kick.”

Bad, Elliot’s gut said. But he was right. Joey would have never accepted help from one of the Seeds, and it was best if she stayed here to rest, anyway; she’d been through the worst of it. She could leave Boomer here to help ease her concern, and if someone tried to radio in—either the Resistance members or Burke—it would be better for Joey to make sure they didn’t get lied to.

“Fine,” Elliot repeated, swallowing thickly. “But—we go tonight. Like, right now.”

“Sure, boss.”

She dropped her hand from John’s arm and took in a deep breath, pushing the hair away from her face. When she looked back over her shoulder to where she’d fled from, Joseph was no longer standing there. She had the feeling that he’d been there for a while. Watching.

But she couldn’t think about it much, because John was turning and heading off, talking over his shoulder. “Tell your Hudson that we’re going, and we can head out.”

Yeah, Elliot thought. Easy enough.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It did not, in fact, go over well.

Or, well, that’s what John could glean from what he heard from the outside of the bunkhouse. Hudson wasn’t pleased—but it was easy to see that it was because she didn’t want to have to say that she owed anything to them. In the long run, even John knew that this was the best option.

Well, the best option was probably not having Elliot do anything.

“Hudson’s a problem,” Jacob said, arms crossed over his chest as John stood leaned up against the front of the truck. Absently, he swung the key ring around his finger.

“It’s fine.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be convincing Honeysett to stick around?” Jacob muttered. “Seems like giving them the resources to fuck off is the opposite of that.”

“What did you say to Joseph?” he asked, ignoring his older brother’s comment regarding what he was supposed to be doing or not doing. “Before I talked to him last night.”

Jacob slid his gaze to him. For a second, he didn’t say anything, like he was trying to parse out what exactly it was that John was asking him. Because it wasn’t just what did you say to Joseph, it was what did you two talk about, and he wasn’t sure he was going to get even close to the answer that he wanted.

“Just told him what you told me,” the redhead replied, uncrossing his arms and letting them drop to his side. “Burke’s gone. That’s a problem, too.” Another pause, and then: “Seems like we have a lot of problems around here as of late.”

John watched his eldest brother’s receding silhouette. What the fuck does that mean? He wanted to say, but there was no time—Jacob would almost certainly indulge him, and if he derailed Elliot’s plan anymore than it already was, he’d almost certainly get strangled. In the less-fun way.

The door to the bunkhouse opened, and Elliot came out with Hudson trailing close behind. Seeing the two of them together just reminded him, again, of the last time the three of them had been in the same space together.

I don’t know which, Elliot had said, like there was a John she’d want to kiss, and she needed to find him.

“Are we going?” Her voice, brisk as it normally was, ripped him out of the memory as she reached to take the keys from his hand.

He lifted them just out of reach. “At your leisure,” John quipped, “my liege. ”

“Bring her back, alive and in one piece,” Hudson ground out. “I’m only staying in case the Resistance radios in, and to keep an eye on your stupid brothers. If I had my way—”

“I’d be dead, the Resistance would be flourishing, the cops would be flooding this place, yada yada.” John waved his hand absently. “A pleasure as always, Deputy Hudson.”

“Don’t instigate her,” Elliot sighed. “You sound like a fuckhead.”

“He is a fuckhead,” Joey bit out. “Elli, I’m serious—I can come. You don’t have to—”

And then, in what John thought could only be a surprising act of self-control, she stopped herself. She stopped herself and didn’t finish her sentence, and the moment stretched long and unspoken between the two of them.

More than ever, John felt like the intruder, the interloper. Where he had thought Hudson would need to get used to the tenuous and tentative teamwork he and Elliot had been building, it now felt painfully apparent that the person that was going to be on the outside was him.

“I know,” Elliot replied after a moment. “I know, and I’m—it’ll be okay, I’ll be back soon, okay? John, I’m driving.”

“I don’t feel like dying.”

“You drive like an old man,” she quipped, and when he arched a brow at her as if to remind her that she’d never once experienced his driving, she said, “ probably, in comparison to me—”

“—right, yeah, the woman who drives like she’s on Monster Jam. I think I’ll pass on the adrenaline rush, but thank you.”

“ Fine, ” Elliot sighed. “You’re so annoying.”

He headed around the front of the truck. Elliot exchanged a few softer, quieter words that he couldn’t quite make out with Hudson and then slid into the seat next to him, buckling up and settling back against the seat with a sigh. As soon as they had pulled out of the compound, she seemed to visibly relax; whatever tension had been holding her shoulders so close to her face had fled.

“Do you want to play a game?” John asked conversationally, after they’d been on the road for about ten minutes; he anticipated her answer but asked anyway. Part because the silence made him uneasy, and part because there was a small chance she’d say yes.

“No.” And then, moving on the offensive: “Do you really believe it?” she asked, and when John waited for her to elaborate, she continued, “All of this—bullshit. That Joseph is saying about the end times, and—”

John cleared his throat. He’d figured this question would come up sooner or later. He’d just hoped to have had more time, first. “I believe in Joseph,” he said after a moment, skimming his hands along the steering wheel. “I always—Joseph has always had our best interests in mind. And he hasn’t been wrong , you know.”

“So far,” Elliot pointed out.

“Yeah, well, that’s still a pretty good record.” He could feel himself getting defensive. “I spent—our parents, they—”

And then the words stopped coming out. They halted in his throat, dragging, shredding inside of him. I spent my whole life waiting for something to say yes to.

“Anyway,” John continued after a moment, eyes grazing the incoming storm clouds, “I would do anything for my family.”

“Ah.” And that was all she said. For some reason, it really dug at him—didn’t she want to push and press, slam on his berserk button until he couldn’t stand it anymore? John let the silence stretch between them for a bit longer before he glanced over at her.

She was about half-asleep in the passenger seat. Every time her eyes began to drift, they’d suddenly flutter awake; without her brows furrowing and her mouth set into a hard line, she looked like she had when he’d seen her in that bar, years ago. Soft, he thought absently as wisps of her hair fell out of her ponytail.

He was reminded briefly of how Jacob had once told him, back when they were kids, that an animal feeling comfortable enough to sleep around you was a sign of trust; and then he thought about how much he was sure Elliot would murder him for even drawing those parallels.

“What were you doing?” he asked, when he saw her eyes stay open for longer than a few seconds. “When I ran into you, I mean. Back at the compound.”

A grimace crossed the blonde’s face. She rubbed her forehead tiredly. “Just thinking.”

“That is quite a chore,” John agreed, and she shot him a scowl.

“Fuck you.”

“If you ask,” he agreed, “politely.”

That bloomed the red in her face, so fair was her skin that it was visible almost instantly. For once, she had no rapidfire response ready. He could hear the gears of her brain grinding and hitching before she finally said, “Stupid.”

John tried not to seem too pleased. Rain began to fall—steady at first, and then pelting the windshield with what felt like baseball sized raindrops. John slowed down as they took a corner, grimacing.

“I don’t want you to tell Joey,” Elliot said after a moment, with no context, though he had an idea of what she meant and it made something sharp and prickly coil in his stomach, right there under his heartbeat. Still, he feigned innocence.

“About—?” he prompted, but before she could clarify he plunged on. “That I’d do anything for my family? Or about how if you asked nicely I’d—”

“The kiss,” Elliot bit out, scoffing under her breath. “You fucking narcissist.”

“That’s still about me,” he pointed out, slowing down more as the wind picked up. “I really don’t think we’re gonna beat the storm.”

“ John.”

“Well!” He exhaled sharply. “What, you don’t want your best friend to know that I kissed you—”

“I’m serious—”

“—and you kissed me back?”

“Yes!” She snapped. ��That’s exactly right! Good job, John, do you want a medal for your skills in critical thinking? I know that must have been a real fucking strain for you.”

Great, he thought dryly. Glad she’s back up to full steam. “And why not?” he demanded. “Seems like you and Hudson don’t keep anything from each other.”

“Because she’s going to ask why ,” Elliot replied finally, after she let a long heartbeat wind its way between them, “and I don’t—I won’t have an answer, because I don’t know.”

It was his turn to be quiet. He might have been more discouraged—and fairly—if his brain didn’t keep turning over the fact that she hadn’t denied kissing him back. Not even for a second.

I think you’re doing a great job with the deputy.

In an effort to ease the tension, and ignore Joseph’s voice lingering in his head, John offered, “If she asks that, you could just be honest.”

Elliot waited, because he supposed that she knew he wasn’t done talking; but it wasn’t any fun if she wasn’t going to walk into the punchline, so he waited, too. And when she finally said, “And how would I answer, then, John?” tiredly, he settled back into the seat comfortably.

“That I’m handsome, and irresistible, and there is an undeniable —” He ignored her infuriated groan and plunged on, “—attraction between us.”

“I have an incredible idea. Let’s play the “John shuts the fuck up and gets Elliot to town” game.”

“Now you’re just being mean. ”

A little laugh came out of her at that—the first time John thought he’d heard her laugh in a long time, even considering that they’d only been at this for a little under a week. The sound made a pleasant warmth bloom in him.

“Just focus on getting us to town, grandpa,” she said. “Then we can talk about how mean I am.”

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By the time they got to Fall’s End, the storm had started to hit in full force. John barely managed to pull the truck in front of the Spread Eagle before he watched the wind lean a telephone pole hard left.

“We’re not driving back until this storm is done,” he told Elliot, over the screaming wind. Thunder rumbled, rattling deep inside of the cavity of his chest; two seconds outside of the truck had them drenched, clothes sticking to them.

“Then we’ll have plenty of time to collect up supplies,” she called back, pushing the door of the bar open and stepping inside. John followed suit; he even held his breath, just for a second, with the idea that maybe the Resistance hadn’t left when she’d told them to. But inside it was quiet; the lights were down, presumably from the storm, and all he could hear was the faint sound of the rain pelting the windows and the thunder rolling outside.

Elliot said, in a sigh of relief, “They left.” John threw the lock on the front door just for good measure—not that he thought Ase’s men would be out in this kind of storm—and then followed her further into the bar.

“I’m glad that we’re able to get… Fireball for you and Hudson,” John remarked as he inspected one of the bottles, and Elliot scrunched up her face.

“Gross.”

“What? You’re a little country bumpkin. Don’t you love Fireball?”

“Um,” Elliot said, “fuck you. Call me a country bumpkin again, John.” She busied herself with picking up one of the plastic crates and filling it with dry foods, muttering crossly under her breath. He watched her deliberate for a moment before she picked up one of the nicer bottles of vodka and planted it in the crate.

“I’m scandalized!” he exclaimed. “Can’t wait to tell Jacob I drove you down here for you to get alcohol .”

“That’s not the only thing,” she protested, “and we still have to stop by my house. Once the storm clears up.”

It didn’t pass John’s attention that Elliot hadn’t argued with him about driving in a storm like she had before, nor that she seemed to be a thousand yards more relaxed than she had been in the compound. Her hands moved with a different surety now, a different kind of confidence that had been missing before; sleep, he thought, and a day or two without getting drugged would do that to a person.

“Well, I’m going to take a shot,” John announced, shivering. “Before I die of exposure.”

She eyed him warily but continued to busy herself; though her clothes were drenched too, her shivering was purely physical, shuddering in her shoulders and back but not once rattling her teeth or hands. The blonde pushed the wet hair from her face on occasion, and sometimes sniffled, but as John poured himself a shot he thought that she seemed much more composed.

John made his way over to where she was packing things up behind the bar, reaching around her from behind to set a shot down in front of her.

“I’ll take back that I called you bumpkin,” he said lightly, “if you take this shot with me.”

“We’re here to get supplies, John,” she replied flatly.

“And we’re stuck until the storm blows over.”

Elliot narrowed her eyes. She was certainly considering a number of things—the fact that they would be leaving as soon as the storm was done, he would assume—but then, as though she had worked herself up to it, she snatched the shot glass off of the table and took it. John quickly followed suit, but not without a noise of protest.

“That isn’t how you take a shot,” he told her, watching her mouth twist at the taste. “You’re supposed to tap the bar first.”

“I was going to lose my nerve,” she defended, and for once that idea that Elliot was admitting that she had nerve that could be lost made John feel a little good. “ Yuck. I told you Fireball was bad.”

“I take it back. You’re not a bumpkin. You’re a very sophisticated, intelligent, beautiful woman, who just happens to want to live in the country, for some reason.”

Something about what he’d said made her attitude falter, disappearing right before his eyes as her cheeks heated up from his words. She said, after a moment, “Why are you trying to get me to drink, anyway?”

The question was a fair one, he supposed, though as he leaned against the bar near to her he shrugged. “Well,” he began, “it’s fucking cold, for one. For two, since Hudson spirited away when we first met, I never got the chance to figure out what would have happened if you’d stayed.”

The blonde returned to keeping her hands busy, moving briskly. “ I know,” she said, more confidently than he would have expected, and he arched a brow at her.

“And what would have happened, then?”

“I would have gone home with you,” Elliot replied, without missing a beat, sucking the wind right out of his sails. And it was that easy, too; I would have gone home with you, she’d said, like it was nothing, like it didn’t matter that this whole time she’d been fighting him at every turn but was now openly admitting that she had wanted him then.

She would have been mine, something wicked in him whispered, pulling itself out of the dark recesses of his mind. I would have had her, all to myself, for all this time. She’d have been my monster of Wrath. Think about how obedient she would be now.

Before John could say anything, she continued, “Because I was young, and stupid, and we should be thankful that I’m not the same girl I was then.”

He studied her for a moment, watched the way that she absently pushed the damp hair from her face, the way the heat spread in her cheeks. And he said, “Pretend, then.”

Her hands stilled, and she looked at him. “Pretend what?”

“We’re in a bar,” John replied, closing what little distance remained between them, his hand on the bar beside her, gently and half-way boxing her in. “You’re Junior Deputy Elliot, as you are now , and I’m me. Pretend that we’re just in a bar together, and that you’re not a stupid, young girl that was just charmed by me.”

There were a few moments of silence; moments where John thought he might have spooked her off, ignited that hairpin fight-or-flight inside of her, but she didn’t seem like she had adrenaline running through her body; she just seemed to be figuring it out.

“I can’t,” she said after a moment.

“You can’t,” John repeated.

“Yeah. Because—” She stopped, and then said, “we’re behind the bar. If we’re customers, we wouldn’t—”

John couldn’t stop the short, barked laugh that came out of him. The absurdity of the moment just struck him too hard; and when he laughed, Elliot frowned, turning to face him fully and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well, it’s true!” she exclaimed. “You can’t ask me to roleplay a situation and then put me in the wrong location.”

“Unreal.” John reached up absently, tucking a loose strand behind her ear. “I cannot believe you just completely ruined the moment.”

“It’s not like we were going to kiss.”

“Oh, it’s not?” His hand drifted from where it had been tucking away her hair down, resting at the juncture between her neck and shoulder. The gesture made her eyes flutter; just the sight of that had something pleasant twisting in John’s stomach, this wild little animal blushing from just a little teasing, just a little touch. How touch-starved was his little hellcat, he wondered? How much could he wring out of her, just like this? “We didn’t even go through the whole scenario, you don’t know.”

“I know ,” Elliot said, even as John leaned in closer, even as her arms seemed to instinctively drop from where they were crossed to allow him to crowd in. The meaning of the gesture wasn’t lost on John—he’d seen the way she’d acted when other people touched her, aside from Hudson. The way she threw up a wall or a hand the second someone got in her space. It made it all feel different.

There was a strange moment suspended between them; the air felt thick and syrupy, humid from the storm outside and their drenched clothes and something else, bubbling and fizzing. She would have been mine, that voice said again. Mine, and not anyone else’s. Not Joseph’s and not Jacob’s and and and.

A thick rumble of thunder rolled just above them; John’s thumb skimmed just over Elliot’s pulsepoint. Her heartbeat flickered at the touch, beats after the sound, so that he knew exactly what had caused it. Him.

She still could be our little hellcat. Our little monster. Our little killer.

“John,” she started, maybe by way of warning, maybe for something else; he leaned in, felt her shoulders tighten with tension or anticipation or both.

So good, John, she’d have said, sweet and obedient and his, when he finally got his hands on her, and the sweet cadence of her voice would hitch just the way that he liked. You feel so good, nobody else has ever made me feel like you, I’d do anything for you, yes yes yes.

“I meant it back then.” His hands itched for it, now that the words were turning over and over in his head, now that he was letting the days of frustration and anger fade for just a moment. His voice came out in a murmur. “When I called you beautiful. That hasn’t changed.”

She sucked in a little breath, like she was trying to steel herself. “Don’t fucking play with me.”

“I’m not.” John skimmed his fingers up to her jaw; her chin tilted up like nothing, as though she already knew what he wanted and she wanted it too, and it suddenly all felt like a little bit too much; too raw, scraping against exposed nerve-endings, all of those times she’d spit on his work or bite out an insult into the walkie or dig her nails into him until he’d bled or tried to kill a man for touching her, all blending into sharp edges that caught and tore the closer they got to each other. John would twist and writhe his way in past them, if she gave him the chance—so that he could get elbows-deep in the gore and grit of her, really sink his teeth in.

So much wrath, he thought, when their noses brushed. So much wrath, and look at how sweet she is for me now.

What patience he’d been exerting was rewarded; Elliot closed the last of the distance between them and kissed him. She tasted like cinnamon-whiskey and a little like rain; he wouldn’t have wanted someone less, he thought, someone less wrathful. He liked the infernal in her—he was supposed to be wiping it out, breaking it in his hands and shaping it into obedience, but he liked that when her lips parted and she sighed into the kiss that something felt carnal about that simple, plain gesture alone, because the knowledge of what she was capable of and what she didn’t let others do made this kind of thing feel more.

A heavy gust of wind rattled the front door in its frame; the sound of it, wood colliding and metal shuddering against the strain of keeping it in place, made Elliot jump and pull away. It took all of his willpower not to chase her body heat. Instead, he stayed exactly where he was—perfectly within reach of her, and he thought for a moment that Joseph had been right: she would have never cowed to his methods. This was the only way to—

To what? Break her in? Make her mine?

“I can’t,” Elliot said again, the words brushing their lips together, and this time he hadn’t asked her to do anything so he knew what she meant. “I don’t know what kind of game—”

He felt her pulse jump under his fingers again. “No game.”

“There’s always a game,” she protested.

“Maybe I just want to kiss you,” John offered, and leaned in just a little again, keeping his voice low. “Have you thought about that? Maybe, I just like the way you are when I kiss you.”

Elliot’s head tilted out of reach. He could feel the heat blooming on her cheeks, even in the dark. “Oh,” she said. He waited for an elaboration, and it was several heartbeats before she continued, “You make me so fucking mad.”

John exhaled a sharp breath, hand dropping from her as he lugged most of his weight against the bar top. “It must be so exhausting,” he said, “doing the amount of mental gymnastics you have to do every day to pretend like you don’t want to kiss me back.”

“Well, I—” Her eyelashes fluttered, and she set her jaw, and John could see she was doing that thing where she readied herself for some kind of blow. “It’s—different. When you’re like this.”

“Like…?”

Elliot sighed. “I don’t want to talk about this,” she said, turning back to the crate full of supplies and nudging it out of the way to make room for a second. As the wind howled outside, and rain pounded against the roof and windows, John thought that the most infuriating thing about Elliot was that she’d run her mouth for days and was now deciding to be tight-lipped.

“No, please, continue,” he insisted, his words coming out tight. “I’m just dying to know your official diagnosis of me, Deputy Honeysett. While we’re at it, why don’t we do the whole group? Jacob, Joseph, me, and Faith. You are the authority on fuck-ups, aren’t you?”

“You don’t owe him,” Elliot snapped. Her gaze was hard when she turned to look at him, her words a vicious parry of his anger. “You don’t owe Joseph your blood and guts all the time.”

“He gave me everything,” John bit out. “He’s my brother.”

“So what?” She ground the words on their way out of her mouth. “So fucking what, John? You think I bend over backwards for my mama while she drinks herself to death every fucking day? No, I don’t. I don’t grovel for her affection, I don’t kiss the fucking ground she walks on just because she brought me into this world, and that’s more than you can say Joseph did for you. So I’ll say it again—so fucking what, he’s your brother? What does it fucking matter?”

I don’t know, John thought, his brain scrambling to piece together a response. But nothing came. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to explain to Elliot that before-Joseph and after-Joseph were so drastically different, and that if he went back to before-Joseph, he didn’t know who he was going to be.

“I don’t,” John managed out after a moment, all of her softness gone. He’d misstepped on his way in, and now those jagged edges were latching on to him; no room to back out and escape her dissection, no room to delve in deep and find refuge in the space between her ribs, either. “Do that, for him.”

“You do,” Elliot snipped, turning to him now. “I’ve seen it. I told you I have. You’re not that stupid, John.”

Her words lit something angry in him—something wounded, something hurt, something that wanted desperately for Joseph to tell him he did a good job and that didn’t want to admit it. “Well, that can’t be true,” he said, “because Joseph didn’t ask me to go back for you at the campground, and I did anyway. So what’s your diagnosis on that , Doctor Honeysett?”

Elliot’s baby-blues flickered for a moment, impatient to exit the conversation but unwilling to relinquish any ground she’d gotten. She is so fucking stubborn, he thought as he watched the tension in her jaw. So fucking stubborn, even when she practically crumbles the second I touch her.

“I don’t know,” she said finally.

“Well I do ,” John replied angrily, “and it’s that outside of my loyalty to Joseph, there’s you, and I want both.”

“Fuck you.” Her words weren’t angry now, but strained, scrambling for a foothold somewhere; not a damsel in distress, but a damsel under duress, Joseph had said. “You sound so—fucking stupid saying shit you don’t—”

He kissed her again—no tentative questioning, now, no delicate pauses between breaths to try not to spook her. He took her face in his hands and kissed her, pinned in the corner of the bar between the terminal and the bar top itself; John waited for any sign that she wanted him to stop, but her fingers fisted the front of his shirt and kept him there.

“I do mean it,” he said against her mouth, fingers threading in her hair, just at the base of her scalp. “I want you too , Elliot.”

“You—can’t,” she said. “You can’t have both. I won’t—”

I can, John thought furiously as he kissed her again, as he felt her tense and then relax against him, like each touch was a potential for vicious impact but it turned out not to be. Not quite, anyway. She still felt sharp, like he had to slide past each jagged every time he went to kiss her, but it was worth it, to hear her say his name against their kiss. I can, he thought again, a mantra. To grip too tight or to hold loosely; he didn’t know, but he was afraid of the departure, so he held tighter. I can. You’re mine, and I can have both.

I will have both.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The storm didn’t let up, which meant that Elliot was trapped—with John, with what she’d done, with what she’d let herself do. Kiss—and enjoy kissing—John Seed.

It had been stupid to indulge again. It had been stupid to let herself take his words— I want both —at face value because John had proven time and time again that even he couldn’t swallow back the duality of his own existence. The bark and the bite. But though she wanted desperately to pretend as though she didn’t want or feel anything, though she wished that she could wipe the memories from her mind forever, John’s hands on her face grounded her; they rooted her to the earth, and he didn’t kiss her like any man had ever kissed her before. It was like he was starved for her.

A vicious gust of wind rattling the front door of the Spread Eagle had broken the moment. John went to the window to make sure it was just wind, and without the smell of him and the heat of him muddying up her conscience, she could busy herself. Loading supplies, gathering whatever she could that Mary May had been holding on to and hadn’t taken with her when they left, because tomorrow she and Joey would be gone, and she would be able to forget about John Seed and the glimpses of goodness and patience she had seen in him, in equal parts with his anger and cruelty.

And she could forget about how she liked those parts, too, because they felt like her own, like someone knew exactly what she felt and was going to accept those parts of her anyway.

By the time they had finished loading stuff up in the truck through quick darts back and forth, the storm had mostly slowed down to rain. John’s teeth chattered as they loaded up into the truck and then pulled around and down the street to Elliot’s house, the heat cranked and the radio flipped off, leaving them with only the sound of the rain to mitigate whatever lingered loud and sharp between them.

“I’ll wait here,” John said, rubbing his hands together. “If you go quick we might be able to make it back before this picks up again.”

“Got it,” Elliot replied briskly, grateful that he wasn’t going to push to come in. He seemed just as deep in his thoughts as she felt, which meant maybe she’d get some peace and quiet on their way back.

She nudged the door open and ducked into the house, fumbling under the mat for the spare key before opening the door and stepping inside. It might have been a little bit of a mistake to come back home. The smell of her house —a little like pine and her fabric softener, because she’d just ran a load of laundry before all this happened—hit her hard. It sucked all of the air out of her lungs, ripped it right out of her, gutted her instantly.

My home, she thought, with a sense of finality. Because she would never be coming back. She would never come back to this little house, even if Joseph got put down, even if the Family got cleaned out of Hope County. There was a part of Elliot that understood she would never be able to be happy here, not again.

She stuffed clothes, photographs, some books into a bag. She took the time to change into something dry and warm, pulling socks up and lacing herself into some boots. There wasn’t time to take everything that she wanted, everything that mattered, but she had started over her whole life once before and she thought that she could do it again.

It felt like perhaps an eternity had passed as she moved through her house and tried to pick and choose what mattered enough to come with her; in reality, it was probably only ten minutes, but her grip on time seemed to slip away the second she was in the safety of her house, of her own clothes, around her things.

I’m really leaving . The thought swept through her brain violently as she closed the door behind her, zipping up her jacket against the chilly nighttime winds. I’m really never coming back.

Elliot tossed the bag into the back seat, among the other supplies, and then settled into the seat. John looked at the small bag, and then back at her.

“Got everything?” he asked, and what he meant was, is that really all you wanted?

“Got everything,” Elliot replied. She kept her eyes fixed forward, because she thought if she looked over at John and saw the way he was looking at her, she might actually come unglued.

The brunette only waited for a moment longer before he pulled out from in front of her house and then drove them out of Fall’s End. The bar, the church, her house; they all faded away in the rearview mirror of the truck, perhaps the last time she would ever set eyes on the place that had always taken her back and held her—in the way that her mother hadn’t, the way her father hadn’t, the way nobody else had.

John stayed blissfully quiet for the car ride. He didn’t bring up their moment in the bar, or anything that she’d said, but just drove them diligently back to the compound. It was the first time that he’d opted to stay quiet of his own volition, and she was grateful for it.

I want both.

She didn’t know what that meant. She knew what he was saying—in a perfect world, John Seed would have Joseph’s approval and she wouldn’t want to kill his siblings, and she’d stick around and just drop everything she had spent this entire time suffering for. But she didn’t know what it meant, what it really meant to John, when he was saying it to her with his fingers tangled in her hair and his mouth on hers.

It was early morning by the time they got back to the compound, dawn just beginning to creep over the distant mountain range and the rain having slowed. John turned the truck off, the engine ticking as it cooled, and for a second they just sat there, the sound of the rain in the early morning swallowing them up in the cab of the truck.

And then, Elliot said, “I’m really leaving,” at the same time as John said, “You don’t have to go,” and the silence was really awkward then, stretching out endlessly between them. John exhaled sharply, rubbing the back of his neck.

“If you go, it won’t be the end,” he finally continued. “They could catch you and Joey on your way out. Even if they don’t, Burke got out—this whole thing is far from over.”

“So—” Elliot stopped herself, trying to find some composure somewhere inside of her. “—why are you staying , then?”

It wasn’t like she was asking John to come with them. She just didn’t understand the need to stay and burn.

“I told you,” John replied after a moment. “They’re my family.”

The words made her tired. She pushed the door open, a gust of cold wind hitting her and sobering her almost immediately.

“Elliot—”

“I’ve got a lot to do, John,” she said, hauling one crate and then another out of the truck before stacking them and lifting them into her arms. Her muscles screamed at the effort, but it was a good kind of burn—the kind that reminded her that she was alive. The kind that reminded her she was real.

John said, “Okay, El,” as she hauled her things back to the bunkhouse.

Okay, she thought. Okay, okay, whatever you say, John.

It would just make it easier in the morning, anyway.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Elliot spent the entirety of the morning ignoring him. It was probably for the best, anyway; John had a distinct feeling that any conversation between the two of them was only going to end up tense at best, and explosive at worst. He didn’t know how he was going to tell Joseph that they weren’t sticking around.

Another problem for another time.

Once, when the sun came out, he passed Joey on his way to the church. She stopped and looked like she wanted to say something; even when she finally got around to it, her words were clipped.

“Thanks for bringing her back,” the brunette said, watching him warily.

“I wasn’t going to leave her at Fall’s End. You’re not the deputy I want,” John replied dryly, knowing full well that Joey thought he had some nefarious plan to keep Elliot stuck there. Well, she’s not that far off, anyway.

Joey’s lips twisted into a grimace. She said, “I meant before. From the campground. I know you didn’t have to, and Jacob’s pissed you did, so.”

Oh, John thought, not having expected that. He cleared his throat and tried to figure out how it was he wanted to respond—there was no formula in his brain on how to disarm or parry Hudson when she was being genuine.

Before he could come up with something, she said, “Anyway, that’s all,” and turned to head off, walking briskly, effectively ending their conversation and reminding John that their time together was rapidly drawing to a close.

The morning bled into the afternoon. It was a beautiful Fall day, after all of the rain and wind that had been plummeting Hope County into something wretched. John thought that Elliot had to be sleeping off their little adventure in Fall’s End—another event and space in time that he wanted both to lock away forever and keep at the forefront of his mind in equal amounts.

“Hey, fuckhead!”

His head snapped immediately to the front of the yard. They’d been back since early dawn, but he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Elliot, or even Joey after their little run-in; John was still stuck trying to figure out a way to get them to stay—tell them they couldn’t take a truck, maybe, but even though he knew that’d slow them down, he also knew that Elliot and Joey would carry their shit on foot if they had to, and Elliot wouldn’t be staying without Joey.

However, the problem at hand had immediately made itself apparent; Jacob, turning a truck off after having pulled up next to the one that she had just emptied out and Elliot, stalking across the yard, vibrating with fury. He could feel it from here.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, feeling eyes turn to the commotion. Faith watched him inquisitively from the doorway of the church, leaned against it with the dark circles ringing her eyes. He took in a sharp breath. “Hold on, I’ll—one minute—”

“I’m tired, deputy,” he heard Jacob drawl as he opened the driver’s side door, one leg sliding out. “Don’t you think you can wait to...”

Elliot kicked the driver’s side door hard , in a spartan-like gesture that would have been impressive if it wasn’t so alarming, slamming it on Jacob’s leg and drawing from his eldest brother a bit-out swear that made John think perhaps Elliot was going to be hurtling herself toward death imminently; and maybe Elliot knew that too, but if she did, she didn’t care.

Jacob climbed all the way out of the truck and closed the driver’s side door, the frame rattling from the force of the gesture. Bad , John thought faintly, idly, somewhere very far away from himself. Bad, so fucking bad, what the fuck.

“Hey,” John said, coming around the front of the truck feeling something close to panic at the way Jacob’s expression darkened. “Deputy, let’s—”

“Where the fuck is she?” the blonde demanded. John hooked one arm around her waist the second she started taking another step toward Jacob—not just because he thought Elliot might actually put her teeth in Jacob if she got the chance, but because he also thought that Jacob wouldn’t skip out on an opportunity to try and teach her a lesson. Regardless, John’s presence meant next to nothing; she pushed at his arm with vigor, but her vitriol remained pointed at the redhead. “What the fuck did you do with her, you stupid fucking caveman?”

“Muzzle your fucking beast,” Jacob snapped, his words overlapping Elliot’s. The collision of their voices in apparent discord—Elliot’s high, frantic note of hysteria and fury brutalizing the darker timbre of Jacob’s voice—clattered around in John’s tired brain violently; Elliot squirmed in his grip, and the idea that she might try and headbutt him passed briefly through his mind.

“Yeah, John .” Elliot dripped the words in a sticky honey on their way out of her mouth. She was practically sweating poison, her thrashing stilled for a moment as she used that same eerie, cloying sweetness she had before, with Jace. You’d let me walk around, wouldn’t you? Except now it was pointed at him, this saccharine tone, begging him to do it. “Muzzle your beast, poor Jacob’s scared I’ll fucking kill him.”

Not how he wanted this. Not like this. Fuck fuck fuck. “Elliot—”

A half-cocked grin split across Jacob’s face. He leaned forward, almost within grabbing reach of Elliot. “Yeah? You think you could do it, little girl?”

“We’re not doing this,” John insisted, hauling the blonde back a few feet. “Alright? We’re not doing—”

It was only them, the two of them in the whole world—Jacob and Elliot, desperate to rip each other apart, and John was just the poor fool stuck in the middle.

“Get John to let me go,” Elliot bit out, “and fucking find out. I know you did something to her, and when I find out I’ll fucking kill you—you and your stupid fucking brother and every single Peggy that tries—”

“Okay, alright—” John turned, dragging the blonde— she’s so tiny, how is it so hard to take her anywhere —and started walking her toward the bunkhouse. She dug her feet into the dirt, but he thankfully had an advantage on her in that respect. “We’re done here.”

With his arms locked around her, and wisps of her hair sticking to his face, he heard Jacob call from behind him leisurely, “Only one thing to do with a rabid dog, John.”

Put it down.

The sentence completed itself against his will in the confines of his mind. He knew already what Jacob was thinking, but that was a problem for another time.

“In we go,” John said, releasing one grip to open the door. The bunkhouse was empty , which suddenly made Elliot’s venom and anger make more sense.

“She’s gone!” Her voice was almost a wail, and as she pulled herself out of John’s grip she began to pace, frantically. “She’s fucking gone and I know he did something, what the fuck was he doing out of the compound? He hates Hudson. I know he does. He did something to her, John—”

He held up his hands to steady her, reaching, but she smacked his hand away.

“Move,” she bit out.

“You can’t kill Jacob,” John replied.

“Fuck. You.” For a second, he thought that she might actually try to kill him. Her eyes swept over him in a way that they hadn’t before— calculating, figuring out the logistics of strangling him or not, the same way that he’d seen her regard other members of Eden’s Gate, the same way she had looked just before smashing a man’s face in with a shovel.

It seemed her brain came to some conclusion, because instead of trying to kill him she moved to go past him again, but he was faster. His arm hooked around her waist again and hauled her back from the door.

“I don’t mean that for lack of trying,” John snapped, “I mean that Jacob will kill you first .”

She made a wrecked, agonized noise and tried to squirm out of his grip again, but he locked it in tight; the noise was enough to rattle his skeleton, enough to make his stomach twist, but he held fast.

Elliot said, distressed now, “I have to find Joey, I have to—what did he do with her—”

A frantic kind of panic was spilling out of her, bleeding into him, too. She was going to go out there and try to kill Jacob if he didn’t put a stop to it, and though there was a part of him that wanted to let her try—to see how much she could actually do against Jacob—he knew better.

“El,” he said, “don’t. Jacob didn’t do anything to her.” He didn’t know that for sure, but that would be a problem for another time.

“I have to find her,” Elliot insisted, her voice breaking. “I have to, John—”

“We will.” His words seemed to cut straight through the panic, right down to the grit of it, and she stopped trying to split past him. Her hands were trembling though, the blood having fled them as she gripped him.

“Find her,” she gritted out. “ Please.”

Please. John couldn’t remember a time that she’d asked him like that, with politeness. With sincerity. Maybe she had—but it was hard to pick out those moments in all the rage, all of the wrath.

“I will,” John managed out, after those baby blues had him pinned. “I will, El, okay? I’ll find her.”

“Promise me.” Urgency flooded her voice; her eyes flickered over his face, as though to check for a lie, some kind of tell that would out him; but she would find none, because there were none. There was no universe, John thought, where he would say he’d find her and he didn’t mean it. To what end, anyway? She’d leave if he did. “Promise me, I can’t do it by myself.”

“I do.” He took her face in his hands; all of the blood which had fled her fingers was in her face, feverish with panic. Her breath wobbled in her mouth frantically; it was the first time he’d seen her so close to tears without the horror of a bad trip dragging her down.

John knew that he was toeing a fine line between helping Elliot and keeping her. He knew that he couldn’t say he wouldn’t, or he’d risk ruining everything that had been so delicately built between them—but finding Joey would enable them to go. And then what would he do?

Anything I have to.

“I promise.”

#john seed x deputy #john seed x oc #far cry 5 #far cry fic #fic: ancient names #my writing #ch: elliot honeysett #ch: john seed #uhhhhhhh #im sorry in advance #that's all i have to say for myself

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tomahawk-swing · 4 years

Text

Dingo was on edge. He glanced above his shoulder every ten seconds, and checked the street twice before he made a turn. He kept a firm hold on his delivery box, as if it might try to slip away from his grasp. As he looked down at his tomahawk, ready to throw it again for directions, Dingo couldn’t help letting his thoughts drift away.

He had to keep his guard up. His body already ached in too many places - not to mention, his pride was wounded too.

Dingo knew that couldn’t keep this charade going forever. Every time he returned to the restaurant empty-handed, he could feel Maha’s patience grow thinner. Maha was the only one who still believed in him - Hinoken and the others surely believed that he just kept the curry for himself, and dumped the delivery boxes in a dumpster.

The first time, he had claimed to have fallen into the canal, and hit his face on a pillar underwater. The second time, he had gotten lost outside of town, and fought with a fight with a wild animal. The third, fourth, fifth times ... He had run out of excuses.

He couldn’t tell anyone who the real culprit was. Tomahawkman had agreed to stay silent, but Dingo doubted that he could trust his Navi with the truth much longer. If they couldn’t do something about Netto by themselves, they would have to let the adults know. Each of Dingo’s attempts had resulted in pathetic failure, and insult added to injuries. Netto’s punches had left bruises worse than any adult had ever inflicted him in a fight.

As Dingo looked down at the weapon in his hand, he spotted a long shadow rising behind him. Dingo swiftly turned on his heels, and brandished his tomahawk at his opponent.

It wasn’t Netto. His aggressor was a tall, bald bloke, dressed in a black suit, and equipped with sunglasses. A second man stood behind him, equally intimidating.

“Are you Dingo-kun ?” The man questioned, his deep voice matching his looks. He didn’t seem impressed by the blade in the kid’s hands. “We are the NetPolice.”

Dingo stood motionless for a moment, his weapon still turned towards the man. The realization struck him after a few seconds - he was pointing a weapon at a police officer.

I’m gonna get arrested. Dingo thought to himself. He couldn’t get his arm to lower.

“Apologize now, Dingo !” Tomahawkman hissed from Dingo’s sweater pocket. It was already bad enough that Dingo carried that weapon on his person, but now he had almost attacked a policeman with it.

Finally, Dingo found the strength to move his arm, all while ignoring his Navi’s words. He quickly tucked the tomahawk behind his back, and stared the man up and down. He looked like a secret agent right out of a spy movie.

“Y-yeah. That’s me.” Dingo stuttered.

“Please come with us. Your presence is required at the NetPolice headquarters.”

Dingo spotted the second man tucking a piece of paper into his suit’s pocket - probably a picture of his face. Was it already too late ? Was Dingo getting arrested for a crime he didn’t even know he’d committed ?

He followed the two men back to their vehicle, trying to ignore the glances they were getting from the crowd. Two tall men dressed in black, and a young kid with a hood covering his face, clutching a delivery box to his chest ... Dingo wanted nothing more but to prove all these judging glances wrong, but he couldn’t risk making his situation even worse.

He climbed up at the back of the car, while the two men sat at the front, not even exchanging a glance. The silence weighed heavily on Dingo’s shoulders. He could already picture himself being shipped back to Ameroupa, and forbidden to return to Japan. What if he was thrown in jail for good, this time ?

“From now on, everything you will see and hear will be stricly confidential.” One of the men spoke. “As such, you must let your family know that you will be absent for the upcoming two days. You will not be able to go home tonight.”

Dingo almost retorted that he had no such thing as a family, but the image of Maha popped up in his mind. For a second, his panic washed away. Surely, Maha could get him out of this mess ... No, he couldn’t rely on anyone right now.

“Do you understand ?” The man insisted. “Officially, you have left for two days of vacation. You may give a single call to the authority figure of your choice. Now.”

It took Dingo a moment to figure out what the man meant. Was he going to jail after all ? Why just for two days ?

“Dingo, you should call Maha.” Tomahawkman’s voice tore Dingo from his thoughts. “We’ll ask questions later. Don’t get yourself in even more trouble ...”

For once, Dingo listened to his Navi’s advice. He initiated a call with Maha, aware that no matter what he said, the man would find it suspicious.

Maha picked up the call after just a few rings. His expression was never easy to read, but for once, Dingo could immediately see the concern in his boss’ eyes.

“Dingo ? Is everything all right ?” Maha questioned. If Dingo was calling to get himself out of trouble, it meant that he had already exhausted every other option. Dingo was usually too proud to ask for help.

“No, no, I’m alright ! I’m just calling ‘cause, uh ... I need some time off. Right now.” He glanced at the policemen, and thought that he should try and add more details. “It’s just for two days. Remember my friend Shanka ? She’s in town, and she wants to see other parts of Japan, like the mountains and stuff ... So imma take her around the place. I’m already in a taxi to meet up with her.”

For a long moment, Maha remained perfectly silent. Dingo was a fool, but he wasn’t stupid - he could tell that Maha had bought none of his lies. For some reason, though, Maha eventually nodded.

“That is fine. I will call Hinoken in to replace you in the meantime.” Maha announced. “Have a nice vacation, Dingo.”

Maha ended the call, and Dingo could finally breathe again.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Tomahawkman commented. “Shanka was here a couple weeks ago. They’ll never believe she came back all of a sudden-”

“I know !” Dingo hissed. He slammed his PET onto the car seat, screen down, to let Tomahawkman know that this conversation was over. He already felt enough guilt as it was.

By the time the car stopped again, Dingo had time to imagine all kinds of scenarios. He mostly wondered why he hadn’t been handcuffed yet. He was invited to climb out of the vehicle, and for a split second, he considered running away as fast as his legs would allow.

“Follow us.” The bald man announced, bringing Dingo’s focus back to reality. It was already too late to run.

Dingo followed the men into the police building. The group earned a few curious glances again, pushing Dingo to giving a tug at the brim of his hood. They climbed up a short series of stairs, and walked inside the elevator. Dingo took a deep breath, and fought a short outburst of claustrophobia.

One of the men pushed the button to the highest floor. Dingo knew what it meant - they were going to meet with someone of importance. Surely, this wasn’t the way to the prison cells.

As glad as he was to get out of the elevator, Dingo found his nervousness skyrocketing again. He was led to an office door, and didn’t have time to try and decipher what the nameplate said.

A round-faced man sat behind a large desk, right across the door. Behind him, a wall-wide window revealed the landscape below, and allowed light to pour inside the office. The man looked up from papers scattered across his desk, and had a kind smile for his visitors.

“Ah, you must be Dingo-kun. Thank you for taking him here, officers.” The man had a nod of gratitude. “You may dispose. I will take things over from here on.”

The two men gave a deep bow, their heads sinking below Dingo’s eyeline. He watched them make their exit and close the door behind them, leaving Dingo alone with the affable-looking man.

“Please, take a seat.” The policeman gestured at the seats by his desk. “I hope that my subordinates did not scare you too much. They tend to take their job quite seriously ...”

“I wasn’t scared !” Dingo proclaimed. Shame immediately stung at his cheeks, and as he searched for an anchor, he realized that he had left his delivery box in the police car. With no other choice left, Dingo finally sat down.

“I am Commissioner Kifune, head of the NetPolice. It’s my pleasure to meet you, Dingo-kun.” The man had a warm smile. “I’m very glad that your village’s heritage could be taken back from its thieves, and returned to its rightful owners.”

Dingo blinked a few times. “Why do you know about this ?”

“I was alerted of the totem pole’s theft by the museum. The theft of an exhibition’s central piece is no trifle matter.” Kifune had a long glance for Dingo. “I’m afraid that for a moment, you were on our list of suspects, along with Neo WWW’s Yamashita Hidenosuke.”

“What ? I’d never team up with those guys !” Dingo protested. It was already the second time he yelled at the police chief, and it surely wouldn’t be the last. “I was only tryna take back my village’s pride !”

“Yes, of course. Your name was immediately cleared by Hikari Netto.” Kifune’s smile faltered. “Which brings us to the reason why you were brought here.”

Dingo’s anger faded in a second. He recalled his last encounters with Netto, and felt his face sting with a dull ache. His black eye still hadn’t faded.

“I suppose that his ... disappearance may have reached your ears already. You may also be familiar with the NetSavior initiative, in which Netto was taking part.”

“Netto’s not disappeared. I saw him.” Dingo blurted out, unconsciously reaching for his sore face. “He’s just ... he’s gone crazy. It’s like all the goodness’ gone from him. Like he’s just causing evil for fun.”

“That is a correct guess.” Kifune replied. He watched Dingo’s eyes widen in shock, and went on : “The circumstances are still unclear, but it appears that Netto-kun has fallen into the hands of the Darkloids, and has been corrupted to join their ranks.”

"I’ve heard about those.” Tomahawkman spoke up, prompting Dingo to set his PET on the commissioner’s desk. “There’s a lot of rumors about them ‘round the Net. They’re kinda like Navis, except they’ve been corrupted with Dark something ... evil energy. I heard they were a big thing a moment ago, but everyone kinda forgot about them, with the Asteroids and whatnot ...”

“You are correct. Darkloids feed on the energy provided by DarkChips, which typically offer a Navi with a tremendous boost in strength, but leave their program badly corrupted. The Navi will lose sight of their moral compass, and even turn against their friends. We believe that Netto-kun was tricked into taking in some of that dark energy.”

“But Netto’s not a Navi !” Dingo protested. “How can he get corrupted by a Chip ?”

“With the use of CrossFusion, most likely. You have already seen it in action, haven’t you ?”

Dingo nodded. That explanation did nothing to make his insides stop squirming. “So that’s why everything about him felt so ... wrong. It wasn’t really Netto."

“Possibly.” Kifune agreed. “Unfortunately, his absence leaves a large dent in our defences. With its other two members stationed abroad, the NetSavior initiative no longer has a member in Japan. After discussing it with Dr. Hikari, and revewing a list of potential candidates, we wanted to offer you the position.”

Once again, Dingo found himself lacking words. His brain struggled to process the implications of Kifune’s offer.

“You want me to replace him.” Dingo repeated. “I’m gonna be in charge of protecting this whole city.”

“You and your Navi both, if you accept. Given your prowess against the Neo WWW, you seemed to me like a very solid choice. If you were to accept, you will be trained to master CrossFusion under Dr. Hikari’s guidance. And if the opportunity were to present itself ... You would be called to help us capture Netto-kun.”

Dingo’s brains were about to explode. With CrossFusion, surely, he could stand a chance against Netto - even with the freakish strength and speed his former friend had displayed. With CrossFusion, he would have the strength to protect all the people he cared about. Everyone would have to take him seriously.

“I’ll do it.” Dingo stated. He didn’t need to consult Tomahawkman - he knew for sure that they share the same sentiment. “I’ll become a NetSavior.”

“Very well.” Kifune nodded. “To be perfectly honest, we had expected a positive reply, and have already prepared the terrain for your training. Arrangements have been made for you to spend the next two days at the Ministry of Science’s facilities. Given the circumstances, we will have to speed up your training, but you have the option to opt out at any moment.”

Dingo shook his head. He wasn’t going to give up halfway through - not when he was the only one who could rescue Netto. He could feel the weight of everyone’s expectations pushing down on his shoulders.

“I don’t mind. I ... “ Dingo glanced at his PET. “We can handle it.”

“Good. Very good.” Kifune nodded, obviously relieved. “May I take your PET ? I will grant you the NetSaviors’ authorizations right now.”

Dingo pushed his PET towards the commissioner, his heart pounding under his ribs. He already imagined himself clad in a cool armor, wielding Tomahawkman’s axe, and slashing through his enemies with his own hands.

He’d finally be able to pay Netto back for all the punches.

“There. You’re good to go.” Kifune announced, and handed Dingo’s PET back to him. “My subordinates will drive you to the labs. Dr. Hikari is waiting for you there.”

Dingo pocketed his PET, and stood up from his chair. He took the hand that Kifune offered him, ahd shook it with vigor. His eyes met with the commissioner, letting Kifune read his determination.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Dingo-kun. And welcome to the NetPolice.”

“I won’t disappoint.” Dingo promised. He wouldn’t be ridiculed anymore. Dingo felt his skin itch at the thought that he was now part of the police, but he was only using this chance to accomplish his goals. They were his stepping stone.

With Tomahawkman’s strength added to his own, Dingo would protect the city, and prove his worth to everyone who doubted it.

And at long last, Netto would have to pay for all the curry he had stolen.

#drabble #[[don't mind me - just posting discord related plot drabbles on this blog for reading convenience x)#in an AU where Netto has fallen into darkloid hands around stream 36 #dingo is called to replace him ... and will later fight against his own friend :3c ]]

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tev-the-random · 4 years

Text

A casual Sonic Forces rewrite + some headcanons, because why not

Part 1 – Infinite and Episode Shadow

Just a warning: none of the images used here belong to me! They all belong to SEGA – the game screenshots, the official art and the comic pages.

Next Part ->

I have yet to see the Sonic Movie, because the universe seems devoted on not letting me do so, for some reason. Being as desperate for Sonic content but as determined to not receive spoilers from the movie as I am, I decided to go for the next coolest thing: writing really long and random posts about a game that came out three years ago and no one cares about anymore.

This shall be fun!

(Update: as of posting this, I have finally watched the movie! But I don’t want to throw this away, so I’ll post it anyway. We can have a nice talk about the movie later.)

*“Fist Bump instrumental” intro plays*

*“This is Our World: a New Hero” plays in the background*

I’m the type of person to always try and see the best in every game, and Sonic Forces is no different. Despite its obvious flaws, I love this beautiful game! Mostly the concept of it is one of the coolest things I’ve seen this last decade, but the execution… lacks on a few things. I mostly just fill in the gaps with my imagination and enjoy it nevertheless, but, upon going through the tag and seeing that some of my concerns were shared by other people, I decided to try my hand at rewriting Sonic Forces juuust a tiny bit. Just for fun!

For this first part (and I have no idea how many parts we should have), I’d like to share some of my ideas about…

*Infinite’s Theme plays in the background as I try hard not to sing along*

Oh, my poor jackal boy, what do we do with you? Despite being so heavily promoted and having an undeniably awesome theme song, Infinite’s backstory and general development throughout the game came out as lacking, having the self-proclaimed edgelord become a laughingstock amongst most fans. Nevertheless, I still love Infinite, and it saddens me how much wasted potential he had; it’s like they were trying to write a really interesting character, but gave up halfway through.

So yeah, let’s talk about it. And let us begin with his origin story.

I believe you are all familiar with this scene:

I… I want to defend my boy here, I really do. But honestly, the way this was portrayed, it just sounded like he was throwing a childish tantrum. It seems as if his entire motive for becoming a villain was “Shadow beat him and called him weak”; dude, you’re not the only one: Shadow does this to basically everybody who’s ever crossed his way! We’re not given a reason as to why Infinite gets so bloody offended, nor are we given a reason why we should care.

So, how can we fix this? I think we should firstly focus less on “I’M NOT WEEEEAAAAK!!! URRAAAAGHH!!!” and more on:

It doesn’t need to be – and I don’t even think it can be – as sad of a situation as the Rivaille Squad in Shingeki No Kyojin or anything, but I believe that showing us that Infinite lost something important would already do wonders to his backstory.

The simplest way – that is, the way that doesn’t majorly change how things go, but does give the jackal a clearer motive – to do this would involve the ever so humble inclusion of two new cutscenes and one new in-game battle, plus a few tweaks to some already existing scenes.

Episode Shadow begins not with the usual reading introduction, but rather, with Shadow’s voice. “I was a couple of months before the Doctor took over the world. The first time I encountered him… I didn’t know what he would become.” Then we open with what used to be a couple of months prior (aka where they presented Infinite’s memory, aka where they screwed up), so we’ll go through things in a chronological order instead of having a flashback inside of a prequel, because that’s confusing AF.

Now, instead of starting the Mystic Jungle level immediately, we should get a small cutscene: Shadow gliding through the jungle, cool camera angles/lighting and all – maybe something similar to the opening scene of Episode Shadow in Sonic 06? –, on his way to invade Eggman’s base as a voice coming from the hedgehog’s communicator reminds him about his mission (yep, that’s some subtle exposition to the audience so we don’t think Shadow is there just because). My idea for said mission would be the simple task of retrieving a Chaos Emerald (yeah, remember those?) from Eggman. Nothing too serious; just another day, another emerald stolen like usual; we’ve seen this before, there’s no need for a long dialogue.

As the black-and-red blur crosses the screen, the camera pans to a group of people hiding above in the trees: Squad Jackal. Infinite is not among them. One of the jackals asks “where’ the boss?” to which another one replies that he’s on the other side of the base/talking to the Doctor/whatever and they have no time to waste; their mission is to take down the intruder and protect the base. We get something in the lines of “the boss is counting on us. Expect no mercy, show no weakness. Let’s go!” and the camera fades out as the squad drops from the trees and runs after Shadow.

I believe that having the phrase “show no weakness” – or any possible reference to “I’m not weak”, really – appear earlier as seemingly common and then have it become something the character gives a lot of importance to due to consequences and parallels sounds a bit more interesting than having Infinite’s inferiority complex come out of nowhere.

The Mystic Jungle level plays as usual, except the dialogue in the background doesn’t say that “the Defence Squad has already been completely annihilated”, but rather that “the Defence Squad is on the case. They’re the best mercenaries there are, Shadow won’t stand a chance!” because Doctor Eggman is naive like that.

Once we reach the end of the level there’s another change: a boss battle against Squad Jackal. You see, we don’t want to hear the squad was taken down like some sort of lazy exposition, because it feels incomplete; we want to participate, we want to be the protagonist and see with our own eyes just what is Infinite’s squad. This gives faces and voices to something that will become an important plot point instead of just telling us “yeah, this happened or whatever”. This could also play as some sort of sympathy point for Infinite, because we, while in control of Shadow, took down his squad; it makes the villain’s animosity towards Shadow and his general anger at least a bit more understandable.

The idea is that this battle should play as some sort of field fight – that is, differently than most boss battles in Sonic Forces, this is not a racing track where you attack your enemy while running, but rather a large secluded area, much like the one we get in the fight between the Custom Hero and the DeathEgg Robot –, where squad members would attack individually in different patterns before going for a group attack. The individual jackals would have both projectile (perhaps something like a wispon, knives or some Eggman invention to keep it family friendly enough?) and close-ranged attacks, while the group attack would consist of this mass of wild jackals changing at you, trying to run you over. The opportunity windows could be either the moment when the opponents switch or band together for the group attack.

(I don’t know, maybe some of you can think of better ways to fight the Jackal Squad? This is just a random idea! I’d like to hear different ones!)

Once the fight is over, we get another cutscene: Shadow stands among the fallen jackals – don’t worry, they’re… sleeping… yeah, there’s no visible blood, they’re not dead… except they’re totally dead – and looks around for a second or two. His expression is indecipherable, and he soon leaves without saying a word – one might say he feels bad for them, or maybe he doesn’t give a damn; we leave that open to interpretation. Not a moment passes and we get to see the leader of the squad arriving at the scene. The camera moves in a circle around him as he looks at his fallen comrades in shock. How did this happen? They were the strongest, how could his whole squad be dead? This is a rather touching moment, where Infinite sticks his sword (because in his origins comic he used to have a super cool red sword and I want to pretend we have a reason for it not existing in the game) to the ground; there’s a feeling of anger and vengeance going on as we get a closer look at the last standing jackal. He clenches his fists and faces the direction of Shadow. “Expect no mercy, show no weakness,” he says in an infuriated, strangled voice. He starts to run and the camera fades out.

(Look at his sword and his squad, man. I do wish we could have seen them in the game…)

When the camera fades in again, we get that exact same cutscene from the game. Blah blah, “destroyed my squad”, blah blah, “ultimate mercenary”, a legendary ass whooping and Infinite falls to the ground, weak, pathetic and defeated.

Now, I’d like to add just a few lines to their dialogue, because this:

Doesn’t really sound like Shadow to me. I mean, man: you beat this random guy to the ground, called him worthless and pathetic out of nowhere and then you just leave? I know Shadow is rather apathetic and he’s supposed to be savage and all, but this just felt kind of out of place…

So instead of going full rude mode, what Shadow actually says is:

‘You’re part of the Defence Squad, aren’t you? Why would a bunch of mercenaries work for the Doctor? What is he hiding?’

‘The doctor paid well enough to not have his secrets spilled,’ Infinite retorts while trying to get up. He’s too hurt to do much, but he’s still willing to fight. He looks at Shadow with fiery eyes as he continues, ‘My squad… you took them down like they were nothing… why wouldn’t someone as strong as you be a mercenary?’

‘Mercenary work is for the weak,’ the hedgehog states matter-of-factly. ‘I’ve sworn to protect, not to follow the dirty line of work you did.’

This blows Infinite’s mind and he simply stares at Shadow, dumbfounded. He murmurs, ‘weak? How dare you, I’m not… We’re not weak! We’re the squad o-’

‘Where’s the Chaos Emerald?’ The jackal’s statement is completely ignored. However, Infinite is having none of this, so tries to attack Shadow once again in a fit of rage, only for the hedgehog to give him a signature roundhouse kick free of charge.

(Image merely illustrative)

‘What a waste of my time,’ Edgelord Number 1 says, aware that he’s not getting any useful information from this. He steps closer and Edgelord Number 2 flinches, ‘here’s some advice: don’t show your face around me ever again, or else I will finish you.’

And with that, Shadow teleports away, leaving Infinite to his existential crisis. He wasn’t able to avenge his friends; he wasn’t able to protect the base; heck, he wasn’t even able to hold his title of ultimate mercenary! How useless of a leader was he? Were mercenaries truly weak? Everything they’ve done… was it all worthless? Show no weakness… what did it even mean? They were all defeated, and Infinite can’t shake the feeling that he’s to blame for it. Wasn’t he supposed to be the best?

‘What is this? I’m…’ He looks at his hands, which are trembling ‘I’m shaking? I flinched? I... We failed… How pathetic… All because…’

Infinite stops as if he’s just gotten a moment of clarity. He then gets up and starts walking inside Eggman’s base. ‘I’m not weak,’ he says in a decided, chilling whisper; it’s almost scary. The view is set at the entrance, right in front of the jackal so that he starts blocking the light from the outside as he slowly walks towards the camera - while saying in that scary voice, “No mercy, no weakness”.

(I can totally see Liam O’Brien delivering this line perfectly…)

Then the last expository narrating happens about the same, except that Shadow narrates it – giving continuity to the fact that he was the one who started narrating this episode for a reason I will talk about later –, so we change a few words to match his speech more; it’s all in the third person and very husky and brooding, but with a subtle note of dread (oh, if only Jason Griffith would voice it… No disrespect to Kirk Thornton, but he just doesn’t hit Shadow’s perfect voice like Jason did; for me, at least. His Orbot voice is fantastic, though).

Now, instead of having Infinite looking forward for a few seconds before he gets the Phantom Ruby out of nowhere and places it in his chest very anti-climatically, we’ll do something different: as soon as he puts on the mask, he starts walking away, and we change settings to a dimly lit room, where we see Infinite from behind, fitting the frame perfectly. Following the beat of the background music, the camera changes to a close shot of his masked face as he’s holding the Phantom Ruby, which is glowing, reflecting on his mask and giving us a beautifully red-lit scene; it’s possible to hear very low, indiscernible whispers coming from the jewel. We then hear a small, evil chuckle from the masked jackal – he already sounds rather different from the guy who stuck his sword to the ground in honour of his friends earlier. The screen goes black, the whole “I was… Reborn!” thing dramatically happens in Infinite’s echoing voice and the not-flashback is over.

(I know this last part was quite specific and oddly detailed, but I had the scenes very clear in my head I wanted to try conveying how intimidating it looked to me o3o)

Ok, now that that’s done, prepare yourselves for an intermission. And by that, I mean prepare yourselves for a long analytical commentary on what I just wrote.

*”This is Our World: Phase 2″ plays in the background*

(Who is Shadow working for again? I don’t even know, man…)

Shadow isn’t just the guy who called Infinite pathetic. He’s the guy who killed Infinite’s squad (his friends) without any apparent remorse – and to be hypocrite as to say he’d sworn to protect when he just did something like this (yeah, Infinite doesn’t know any context of Shadow’s life, so of course he doesn’t understand what he meant); the guy who ruined everything he had going with his new job as leader of the Defence Squad; the guy who put him several levels under what he thought he was; the guy who questioned his entire way of living and the guy who put him under a lingering threat; “don’t show your face around me ever again” feels more intimidating now. Not only that, but, despite how Infinite might hate Shadow, he recognizes him as strong, admirable even – “why wouldn’t someone as strong as you be a mercenary?” Remember that Infinite himself is a mercenary; to actually acknowledge someone would be good at something you’re good at, specially someone you don’t like, has to be a sign of admiration, albeit a frustrating one. All of this puts a lot more of weight on how Infinite thinks of Shadow and why being stronger than the hedgehog is so important to him.

I made it so that “expect no mercy, show no weakness” is something like the Jackal Squad’s motto, their philosophy. I like to think it means that they should never count on someone’s mercy, for their enemies won’t spare them; they should always go into battle aware that they might actually be fighting for their lives. At the same time, they should always stand their ground and never let anyone think they can take advantage of a squad member. This is what the jackals live for. But seeing as Infinite’s world has just been shattered and he failed hard on everything, he revises his mentality. “No mercy, no weakness” is what he’s going for now, as he wants to be above everyone, he wants to effectively be the strongest and for people to know that; he will be the one who doesn’t spare others, and he won’t be weak at all. Never again would a failure cost him that much, for never again would he fail.

To have Infinite place the Phantom Ruby on his own chest in Episode Shadow contradicts the opening scene of the main campaign. Remember the episode is a prequel to Sonic Forces’ main game, so it shouldn’t be completely detached from it; things must make sense when put together. As the main game begins by showing us Infinite inside of a tube in Eggman’s lab, we can assume one of two things: he’s either a robot/biological experiment created entirely by the scientist, or he’s a guy who’s been experimented on, thus Eggman was the one who placed the Phantom Ruby on him. With this in mind, it wouldn’t make sense to show us Infinite doing something if you’re going to tell us that he couldn’t have possibly done it on his own. But to have him hold the ruby as someone who deeply desires its powers and who listens to its ominous whispering? Not only does it line better with the aforementioned scene, but it also makes Infinite seem more prone to the ruby’s power (instead of just… you know, “random angry dude”).

As this intermission has gone on long enough, I’ll only make a brief commentary on the Phantom Ruby: I like the idea of the ruby being somewhat alive and exerting influence over Infinite. Now, I won’t say it’s the kind of influence where it justifies his horrible behaviour or the awful things he did. It’s less “mind-control” and more “that best friend who always encourages you and never calls you out on your bullshit”. Its grooming Infinite’s ego and just nudging him to keep making bad decisions, to keep shutting himself in this new reality where he’s all powerful and above everyone else. So it’s the jackal’s pride, spite and grief, along with Eggman’s overall encouragement and the Phantom Ruby’s influence all put together that, in a general sense, make Infinite what he is. (I can go into more detail about this idea once I make a Part 2.)

Mission Accomplished: “angry bitchy boy turned edgy, OP and unimpressed” changed his status to “tragic boy turned edgy, bitter and extremely power-hungry”.

Intermission’s over, let’s get back to the story!

With Infinite’s backstory slightly redone (or rather, shown under a different light), I could stop right here. But I don’t want to, oh no! I say we take this a few steps further and just finish Episode Shadow! Yeah, I told you this was going to be a long post.

*”Battle with Infinite: Second Bout” plays in the background*

Ok, now we cut to a few months later, where Episode Shadow would originally begin. Rouge comments that Omega was on recon mission in that “unknown base of operations that seems to be totally outside the chain of command for Eggman’s army” (whatever that is supposed to mean) when he spotted an unidentified masked person with strange energy readings and an unknown battle ID. Omega reported a “large scale troop” and… that’s it, he just stopped talking. Rouge then talks about that “new weapon” Eggman was supposedly developing and sends Shadow to the base to investigate along with Omega. She makes a remark about how they should get the entire Team Dark together for this (“It should be fun”), but Shadow dismisses the idea, saying that he’s enough on his own. “Omega said the same thing. You two go together like chilli and hot dogs.”

We can keep this at the whole “dialogue on screen” thing. I don’t really mind and it sure spares the budget.

The City stage plays as usual, except the dialogue in the background changes a bit, because Team Dark bickering (or just talking in general, I love this team so much) is my jam.

‘E-123 Omega here. Extermination proceeding without incident. No problems to report.’

‘Omega!’ Rouge exclaims, ‘Why have you stopped responding earlier? We- wait, extermination? This is supposed to be a recon mission, what are you doing?!’

‘I was spotted. Priorities conflicted; therefore I decided to eliminate the enemy altogether. New Mission Objective: Defeat Eggman.’

‘But you can’t go making a scene like that!’

‘See, this is what happens when you send the giant killer robot for this kind of op,’ Shadow sasses. And I’ll imagine Jason’s voice for this too, thank you.

‘I have several reports of recon missions where you retaliated, Shadow.’

‘I might have to join you boys soon enough. I turn my back for five seconds and this happens…’ Rouge comments in a tired voice.

Omega is ready to start robotically recounting the reports of failed recon missions where Shadow retaliated, but he is suddenly cut by static and the vague sound of the Phantom Ruby. Rouge tries to contact him again and we get small bits of his original lines here – “All sensors offline”, “Casualty report”, “Unidentified system intrusion. Emergency withdrawal!” and “I am E-123 Omega, the most powerf-sjfpstswq”, that stuff – before his communication is completely cut. Shadow asks something like “what’s going on?”, but his communication with Rouge is cut as well. We play whatever’s left of the level in silence (except for the sweet background music).

(Oh yeah, this happened or whatever…)

Now, I know the next scene is a screen dialogue again, and I know I just said I don’t mind it, but watching this:

… Is so bloody uncomfortable. This feels dumb. This is so dumb. I feel like they robbed us an epic scene in exchange of some awkward reading with absolutely no context. What the hell is “!” supposed to mean?! What did Infinite do?! If I wanted to imagine the action scenes all on my own, I’d spend my time daydreaming! What, did they not know what to do here so they just threw in some random lines to fill the gap between this and the next level?!

… Sorry, I got a little carried away. This simple scene frustrates me a lot by not existing. So yeah, we’re throwing in a cutscene.

(I just noticed how salty this post is getting. This was not my intention at all, I still love this game, oh dear…)

Shadow reaches the edge of the city and encounters a dark silhouette hovering just above the flames that cover the ground; there’s debris scattered everywhere. The figure has its back turned, and the world seems to glitch ever so slightly around them.

‘The world’s most powerful robot is no more a challenge than crabmeat. Even the Doctor’s most daring designs can’t compete with my power… It is without peer,’ the figure chuckles to themselves.

Shadow starts approaching silently, analysing the situation. Despite this being Omega’s location, he can’t see the robot.

‘Wonder how easy it would be to end this entire planet. Don’t you…’

Suddenly, the voice speaks close to the hedgehog’s ear:

‘…Shadow?’

He turns around to see that the unknown person has appeared behind him, which throws him off. The hedgehog takes several steps back and puts himself in a fighting stance.

It’s hard to see past the jackal’s mask, but he seems amused as he looks down on Shadow. Twistedly so.

‘How wonderful to see that our not-so-tall, dark and brooding guest has arrived. I’ve been waiting for you, Shadow~’

‘Tell me what you did to Omega. Now,’ the agent demands.

‘Oh, come now, Shadow. Our long-awaited reunion and still you spout such nonsense.’ Infinite floats down to stand a few meters away from his enemy.

‘I don’t know you,’ Shadow states. The masked jackal tilts his head, but doesn’t say anything, so he asks again, ‘what have you done to Omega?’

‘Only what is ought to be done when someone stands in your way. Weaklings like E-123 Omega are of no consequence, don’t you agree?’

‘The only thing of no consequence is that big mouth of yours.’

Shadow launches himself at Infinite, who easily avoids his attack. The jackal starts laughing manically.

‘Ah, I suppose you would think so,’ he states. ‘After all, it’s not so funny to be the one losing the battle, is it? I am Infinite. You say you do not know me, and yet I remember you so very well… I’ve lost all I was, I’ve become what I am because of you. Savour that thought as I return the favour.’

Guess what happens? That’s right, we get another boss battle! I think it’s only fair that Infinite gets to have his rematch with Shadow. Besides, it establishes a comparison with the “old” Infinite and how much stronger he’s now – from Shadow’s perspective, that is.

I have no idea how this battle would play out. Maybe something similar to his second battle in the main story (no, don’t worry: we’ll talk about the exceeding amount of Infinite battles in the next part), with the 2D layout. Let’s say Infinite is surrounded with his Red Cubes of Doom while he’s not attacking, so you can’t touch him. Maybe he makes the fire glitch and get closer to you at some point. Maybe he makes clones and you have to defeat each of them to get to the real guy, I don’t know! Tag your ideas, I’d love to see them! ^^

Anyway, once the battle’s over and Shadow “wins” (because Infinite is not defeated, he’s just done with this fight), the jackal might say something in the lines of “I suppose I’ve let this duel go on for long enough. I have other matters to attend to, Shadow the Hedgehog.”

We get back to the cutscene and Infinite is glitching a bit, quickly recomposing himself, laughing. Shadow is panting.

‘What’s the matter, Shadow? Can’t take down a measly jackal anymore?’ The masked one says sarcastically. ‘It seems like I’ve overestimated your strength. You’re no fit to be a mercenary at all.’

There’s a beat and Shadow realises what this is about. He looks at Infinite, frowning. ‘It’s you… Defence Squad Jackal…’

Infinite stares at the hedgehog. He doesn’t seem to be as amused anymore. His golden eye’s glowing under his mask, and so is the Phantom Ruby on his chest. A tense background music plays as Infinite answers dryly:

‘Yes.’

‘I’ve spared you, but now you’re going too far. It’s time to finish this! Chaos Spear!’

The spears of light simply go through Infinite as if they didn’t exist. Shadow goes for a spin dash/homing attack/kick to the face or whatever you can think of, but the masked villain glitches out of the way with ease and lands an almost perfect copy of Shadow’s roundhouse kick.

The hedgehog glides across the floor, almost falling over. Infinite scoffs.

‘This new “me” has limitless power. I have no mercy; no weakness! I am the true ultimate force that will tear this world apart, and what may have worked to bring me down before…’ the jackal starts floating again; thousands of red cubes start dancing around him and, as he raises a hand, they all group in the sky not far above them. ‘… No longer does.’

(Why yes, this is a reference to Mephiles the Dark and that time he destroyed the Sceptre of Darkness!)

Infinite throws his “Take THIS!” and Shadow does the “!” – which is him frantically trying to get out of the way as the thousands cubes of doom come crashing down on him.

The screen goes black.

Scene ends.

The Virtual Reality level should play as usual from there. I don’t even want to change the background dialogue, because I really like it: it’s confusing, it’s weird, it’s unsettling and it slaps Shadow in the face in a way that we rarely see. I love it! (Although, I do think the gameplay should have a tiny little bit more of 3D parts. We love Green Hill, but we also love the freedom to move on more than two directions when playing as the Ultimate Life Form. But it’s cool)

After that, we could get another cutscene (we’re full of cutscenes, huh? Well, this is a hypothetical rewriting with a hypothetical budget. Also, Episode Shadow is more of an exposition episode anyway). In this cutscene, we would start with some shots of different known locations: Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Crisis City, Mystic Jungle, Kingdom Valley, Babylon Garden, you name it! And all of these places are somewhat “corrupted”; they’re glitching out, full of those red cubes, and there’s just this ominous atmosphere in them, as if they’re abandoned, desolated despite looking roughly the same as ever. We then see a black-and-red blur cross the screen, and a short narration takes place:

“I’ve been here for longer than I can remember. This… alternate reality, this fake world. There seems to be no escape. Rouge and Omega talk to me occasionally…”

We see Shadow leaning against a wall. His communicator plays only white noise, then Rouge’s voice comes in; it’s strangely echoed as it calls out to him. Shadow throws the device far away and sighs.

“… They’re fake too. No matter where I go, no matter how much I run…”

Shadow is skating through Pumpkin Hill or something, when the world suddenly starts to glitch out massively; we hear the Phantom Ruby’s noise and suddenly, we’re on the ARK.

“It’s like this place was made to torture me. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case.”

‘I’ve moved on from this a long time ago,’ Shadow says to the void of the Universe as we hear gunshots in the distance. He’s not being completely truthful. ‘Putting me through this scenario dozens of times changes nothing. Don’t you have anything more creative at this point?’

There’s silence, except for the shouts in the Space Colony. A voice calls out to Shadow, and he promptly ignores it, albeit with a pained look in his eyes. He’s visibly tired, almost hopeless, if one could ever describe Shadow the Hedgehog that way.

He sighs.

‘Alright, how do I get out of this one?”

We then get a start of a short level in the ARK. Don’t worry, it’s not one of those hellish mazes that usually haunt every ARK level there ever was; this is more straight forward, with doors closing all around you so that you know where you shouldn’t go, and some G.U.N. robots trying to kill you, simple thing.

The catch happens when you’re halfway through the level: as you’re crossing a long corridor, the game begins to “crash” – in the sense of you losing control of the character, the visuals beginning to glitch and the soundtrack going weird, all in a way that makes the soul leave the body of the player for a terrifying four seconds of “HOLY SHIT, I BROKE THE GAME”. But nope, you didn’t break the game: the Phantom Ruby is trolling you. We soon find that out as the signature noise plays and the glitching effect on screen disperses to show a new scenario: Mystic Jungle. The real Mystic Jungle. Congratulations: you get to play in a totally different zone for the rest of the level.

‘My head…’ Shadow murmurs to himself. ‘That was too quick; this can’t be right, it- ugh, why is it so bright here? Where are all the red things? This place seems too normal… is it… am I back in the real world?!’

We then finish the level, get our nice score and head to the last scene of the episode.

Shadow is going through the jungle, taking in everything that isn’t an illusion. He passes by a red sword stuck to the ground and leans against a tree, still a little out of it, still struggling to believe that anything is real anymore. The hedgehog then takes his communicator – surprisingly intact; hadn’t he thrown that away? – and tries to make contact. There is static for a moment, when suddenly…

‘Shadow? Oh my- Shadow, is that you?!’

He’s startled for a moment, but so relieved to hear Rouge’s normal voice again.

‘It’s me, Rouge. What’s the situation? Where’s Omega?’

‘Omega? We lost contact with him months ago; the Resistance says he must have been shut down after the Doctor took over!’

Shadow raises both his non-existing eyebrows in surprise, barely holding a gasp. He then frowns.

‘Shut down? Resistance? What do you mean “the Doctor took over”? What the heck happened?’

‘What happened? What happened?! I should be the one asking you that! You’ve been offline for six months! Everyone keeps saying you’re working with Eggman and Infinite, and I couldn’t contact you or Omega, I thought… I thought we’d lost you for good…’

‘Nonsense,’ Shadow states. We start hearing voices in the distance, and the hedgehog starts looking around while still talking ‘I’ll tell you the details later, it’s long story. What’s the current situation?’

‘Shadow…’

The (Tired) Ultimate Life Form spots something from behind the trees. Still in hiding, he looks closer only to see the Custom Hero holding the prototype Phantom Ruby they just found and talking to Tails and… Classic Sonic, much to Shadow’s confusion.

‘… We’re at war.’

Shadow takes a moment to process what’s just been said. He doesn’t even pay attention to what Rouge says next (neither do we, as the background music starts getting louder than the bat’s voice). He still watches the avatar, Tails and Classic Sonic as they leave; he focuses on the Phantom Ruby.

‘Meet me in the City. I’ve got a lot to tell you,’ Shadow says.

And with that, he leaves, the scene fades out and Episode Shadow is over!

*”The Light of Hope: Menu Version” plays in the background*

Now, a few more analytical notes before we close this ridiculously gigantic thing:

The immediate reason why we have Shadow being stuck in the Virtual Reality for six months is to indicate to us why he doesn’t show up earlier in the main game. It’s not like he was being useless this whole time and just decided to show up whenever it was most Ex-Machina of him; much like Sonic, he was trapped by the enemy. A mental trap that put Shadow on survivor mode for months without any way of communicating with anybody; with twisted versions of his friends trying to get to him and remind him that, hey, they’re still out there, probably in high danger; with these illusions mocking him, reminding him of painful memories, isolating him in familiar places… I say: if you want to emotionally hit a character, hit them hard. And this experience is bound to leave Shadow with some emotional scar, alright.

(Ever heard of conveniently coming out of nowhere?)

Shadow is bound to lose his sense of reality and sometimes it should be hard for him to acknowledge that this is the real world. I hope I can showcase some of his reactions in the later parts of this o3o

The Virtual Reality isn’t all glitchy by mistake. No, no: Infinite is perfectly capable of making a “perfect copy” of the real world, but he doesn’t want to. He wants Shadow to know this is a fake world and to know that he’s completely trapped in it while his real friends and allies are out there doing who-knows-what in a world run by the enemy. He wants to throw Shadow off-balance as much as he can, because he’s spiteful and doesn’t just leave the hedgehog to the side without a second glance.

In the game, Infinite says that they didn’t really have time to tune his power yet, so we can tell putting Shadow in the Virtual Reality was more of a practice of sorts. But man, I think this is too much of a cool concept, so I’ll say Infinite did put his power to the test before all of this; because Eggman, sir: you don’t simply throw your super-secret, amazing, unparalleled weapon in the battlefield without testing it first. This is something that can be inferred, it doesn’t need to be directly told, it just- I’m telling you this right now, ok?

I know Shadow is supposedly “over” this conflict with what happened in the ARK and it probably feels over-used to add it in again, but… it’s a thing the games haven’t tackled in such a long time, I feel like this would be a nice call-back. Besides, Infinite would want to know what would bring distress to Shadow; what happened in the ARK isn’t exactly a secret, especially if he’s working with Eggman. And Shadow can be as “over it” as he wants: it’s still a scar that will never truly leave him. Even if he watches it happen dozens of times, it’s still at least a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

ALTHOUGH! I also think this ARK level could be easily replaced with some other random level if you want to argue that Forces happens in Mobius or something, where Gerald and Maria and G.U.N. maybe never existed and whatnot.

What brought Shadow back, you ask? Well, it probably has to do with a certain someone spontaneously activating a Phantom Ruby. Maybe the avatar was thinking of Shadow and how it’d be nice to have him on their side again? Maybe they were thinking of undoing Infinite’s evil deeds? Maybe the raw power of the Phantom Ruby prototype being suddenly activated by the Custom Hero just crashed something another Phantom Ruby user did, like magnetic waves interfering with each other? Who knows?

I also find it important to show the Custom Hero here not only to show that there’s a connection between Shadow’s sudden freedom and their actions, but also to establish the tiniest amount of early familiarity between Shadow and the original character. Then maybe (maybe) I’ll give them a bit more of interaction in the main game, because it’d be nice to have a cool interaction with Shadow; and as endearing as his smile after the avatar does their thing with the sun of destruction is, it feels like it comes out of nowhere, if you think about it…

(I mean... Does he even know who we are?)

Infinite’s sword stuck to the ground goes completely over Shadow’s head, as he has no idea what that is or who it belonged to or what it means. It’s really just there for the viewer to reminisce the beginning of the episode and have a slight existential crisis.

When playing the main campaign, we get some pretty convenient information from Shadow once he finally shows up. Episode Shadow should give us a sense of how he knows those things. Want it or not, he did spend a long time studying the Phantom Ruby’s power far more closely than anybody else – well, maybe Sonic spent almost as much time as Shadow in a similar state, but that’s something to cover in another part.

The fact that Shadow is the one narrating this entire episode is supposed to allude to him telling Rouge exactly what happened during those six months he was gone. But if you want to read it as him talking to himself in the Virtual Reality as he slowly descends into madness, then be my guest!

I don’t know if it’s noticeable, but I’ve tried to tune Infinite’s cheesiness down a bit. I don’t think I can rid him of it entirely – after all, he is somewhat of a pompous, edgy, over-the-top character in general; he’s a full-on drama queen 24/7 and the only character cheesier than him is Sonic. Now, what we do with Infinite is to at least give a base to what he says. Also, I wanted him to sound a bit more like he lets the power get to his head. Oh well, I surely hope we’ll be tackling more of Infinite in the future!

Episode Shadow is extremely short, even for a DLC. I mean, it’s about only 20 minutes long – even less, if you’re good at it! With the addition of the cutscenes, the small changes, the boss fights against Squad Jackal and Infinite, and the added levels, the episode shouldn’t get overwhelmingly longer, but longer enough for it to feel more satisfying!

And with that, we’re done! I hope you enjoyed this massive thing. Despite me really liking Sonic Forces, I do think a few things could be improved. It’s not like it will happen, but rewriting is a lot of fun!

And why, no: I don’t take myself seriously.

#Sonic Forces #Episode Shadow #Sonic the Hedgehog #Infinite #Shadow #Rewrite #Headcanon #Character Analysis #Word count: why do I even bother?#phew that was a lot #I'm so tired

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