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#and its a fascinating choice. even the whole point that of the conversation happening at a cemetery where theyre visiting someone who didn'
lover-of-mine · 4 months
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Fought 'til you tethered me, swept under surfaces, never enough of it...
#911#buddie#911edit#buddieedit#911 on fox#911 fox#911 abc#evanbuckleyedit#eddiediazedit#my edit#otp: you don't need to pretend with me#usercam#at this point i should have a cemetery tag lol#flashing tw#i need a gracie tag dont I?#die on their watch.#so i was thinking earlier and if youve been around here any length of time you know i think about that cemetery scene a lot#because narratively its very interesting scene because i changes the tone of their relationship in comparison to the rest of the show reall#and its a fascinating choice. even the whole point that of the conversation happening at a cemetery where theyre visiting someone who didn'#but i have a tendency to look at that scene from eddies eyes#because when you look at it along with all of eddies reactions surrounding bucks death and the reactions eddie was having to bucks words#that feels like a breakup. if feels like were watching eddies heart break in real time yk?#BUT buck is very purposeful in this scene too. he's basically daring eddie to say something but eddie just thinks that he needs to agree#and if you look at it that way and think about it as buck asking for a reaction you can argue buck feels rejected here too#even tho eddie thinks hes being supportive#they are saying things and they are being misinterpreted. both of them leave that talk with different views of what happened#and thats VERY interesting with how strongly the show pushed buck eddie and chris as a family unity in the episodes before#and well i dont really know how the show plans to recover from that. if they plan on doing it at all. but like#that was a breakup. but if its a breakup where both of them think they got broken up with. how do you come back?#eddie diaz
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lit-80soul · 1 year
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I need to say that i love you
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Michelle "MJ" Jones x fem!reader
*this one was heavily inspired by this perfect song:
warnings: cigarettes, little tension (a good kind, trust me), my writing.
word count: 1772
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(Y/n) and MJ had arrived at the fair without any problems. MJ had put the location on her cell phone and found the street, now closed because of the event, easily. They walked through the huge exposition of the fair. It was literally the whole street and it was very wide too, which was great because there were many, many shelves, so they weren't so close to each other. MJ and (Y/n) went together to several booths, they talked, laughed as always in a light and comfortable atmosphere that always happened when they were together. 
Many times exchanging glances and discreet, but noticeable smiles. Like a whisper in your ear, like a secret confided to you, or a sensation so delicious, so particular that you feel like keeping it all to yourself.
Usually it was MJ who observed her the most. With her head tilted a little down due to their height difference. She liked to observe (Y/n) talking. How she talked to the salesmen about the books, she spoke very well. Almost no slang unlike herself, as if she were a book. But for MJ she must have been poetry, because they were a little hard to read, but when understood, they were simply the most beautiful and sophisticated art.
She also enjoyed admiring the redhead, even if from a distance now, because each went to a booth to look for books that interested her the most. MJ smiled weakly admiring the way her frown creased a little and how she gnawed the nail of her right thumb a little when she was concentrating. She stood a little bent over the book in her hand as she read its back cover. Every little detail about her seemed fascinating and the girl wanted to know more and more, as did that different feeling in her stomach that grew bigger and bigger when she thought about her.
For some reason she sighed still looking at her and decided to look down, she realized that she was in front of some children who wanted to look at some comic books that MJ was blocking her view of.
— Sorry guys — she stepped to the side looking at the three children. — Y’all want to see, right?
— Miss, can you get that one for me? It's too tall — the little boy, looking about 8 years old and with some missing front teeth, asked pointing to a comic book that was on a shelf.
— This one? — she asked, pointing to a “new issue of Spider-Man and Deadpool”. The boy nodded enthusiastically.
— Good choice — she said handing it to him, and the boy thanked her, and before she knew it. She started a conversation with the children filled with comic books in her hands and crouched down at their height discussing superheroes.
(Y/n) bought another book and, after thanking the sellerman, began to search for MJ with her eyes. Frowning when she couldn't find her, she remembered that the biggest one said she would be around. (Y/n) had the chance to buy a souvenir for MJ when she noticed that she was absorbed in everything around her looking at the cover of a book and when she returned the girl was in the same place, but now she was no longer. (Y/n) turned her body and noticed that MJ was talking excitedly with children. Two boys and a little girl. MJ made the children laugh and she herself smiled sometimes.
(Y/n) let her joy show with a chaste smile watching her, MJ had a way with children.
The mothers of the little ones appeared and after the three waved good-bye to the oldest as they walked away and MJ reciprocated, she stood and as the magnetism of (Y/n)'s gaze, MJ looked for her in the same place she was watching from afar and found her looking at her with a smile. MJ smiled weakly and drew her eyebrows together in a funny expression as if asking what was happening to (Y/n). Why the (y/h/c) haired girl was looking at her like that?
But before they could have any other kind of interaction, a rainstorm caught everyone there by surprise. The rain started suddenly without giving any indication in the clear sky that it was coming. Suddenly the heavy rain that started out of nowhere and closed the weather with you made MJ have only one reaction: to quickly approach (Y/n) and take her by the hand. (Y/n) let herself be guided by MJ while they looked for a marquee or somewhere to protect themselves from the rain like the people there. The fair was open-air, only the stands had a small awning to protect the books.
They both walked quickly through the rain, but that didn't stop them from getting very wet due to the intensity of the sudden rain.
MJ struggled to see a store that seemed to be closed with a small roof in front. She and (Y/n) arrived there completely soaked and panting. And holding hands, their fingers intertwined tightly as if they could get lost in that crowd yet, or because they didn't want to lose that pleasant contact even without touching that they had been holding hands all this time.
(Y/n)'s surprisingly sudden laugh made MJ look at her now. The laughter started brief and weak and began to escalate into a bigger level with the confused look MJ threw at the redhead. (Y/n) put her hand in front of her mouth without stopping laughing yet, MJ started laughing too because the redhead's laughter was contagious.
— Why are you laughing, you crazy? — MJ says between giggles still and shaking her head. (Y/n) stops laughing slowly, recovering when MJ pulls a wet strand of hair away from her face. She was too close again — Well, how nice that you regained your sanity, Y/L/N.
Just the opposite, thought the redhead.
— You're going to catch a cold — MJ comments, taking off her jacket and handing it to her. (Y/n) didn't accept it, she just looked at her with a frown. 
— Oh, and you're not going?
— No, I never get sick.
— Sure, Jan — (Y/n) rolled her eyes, but then smiled right after.
— I'm wearing a sleeve shirt, I'll be fine. You're wearing a cropped top. Here — she insisted, offering the jacket in her hand again.
— No need to, MJ, i'll be fine.
— (Y/n), you made me wear sunscreen against my will, so it's only fair that you accept my jacket." The big girl simply put the leather jacket that was dry inside on (Y/n)'s back and slung it over her body by her shoulders. (Y/n) was clearly cold and hugging her own body. — Can you please just shut up and take it? Thanks.
— Bossy.
— Look who's talking... — MJ hisses raising her eyebrows quickly.
— What was that? — The smaller one narrows her eyes at her trying to hide a small smile that wants to form with the silly expression on her face that MJ made, as if she were a cute little child caught for doing something stupid.
— I didn't say anything! 
— Yes, you did! — she laughed and started tickling MJ's belly, who was pulling away from her because she knew that the redhead knew her weak spot. They started laughing, one because of the tickling and the other simply because she got carried away by the laughter and the way her eyes almost closed when she laughed like that. — You said I'm bossy!
— No, I didn't! — MJ laughed even harder — Even though you are!
(Y/n)'s jaw dropped for a second and she moved away from the big girl. She straightened the jacket that was almost falling off her shoulders and pointed at MJ with her index finger.
— Take it back right now, Jones.
— Uh, Y/L/N… I'm so scared... 
— Okay, you asked for it...
— Wait... n-no! No! I was kidding...
Eventually MJ managed to pin both of (Y/n)'s hands above her head after several laughs. (Y/n) was almost leaning back against the glass of the closed store behind her. Her (y/e/c) eyes were locked on the brown ones that were staring back at her intensely. It seemed like an eternity of time as it always was when the two girls looked at each other. The bubble they created around themselves seemed impenetrable. MJ took another step forward and looked at the hands that delicately held (Y/n)'s wrists and she made her hands intertwine, now consciously, not by instinct.
She knew and didn't know at the same time what she was doing. Part of her was only responding to what seemed to be the call of the magnetism she seemed to have to (Y/n)'s body, it seemed that she was always driven closer to her.
(Y/n) watched the larger one's movements and then her gaze went back up to her eyes, brown and a little dilated now. Then they wandered to MJ's mouth that had just become more eye-catching with the glow that her own tongue left there after wetting her lips with her tip quickly.
(Y/n) tried to control the beating of her own heart that began to speed up inside her chest as she swallowed dryly and looked again into MJ's intense, eager eyes. Again time seemed to pass so slowly, but torturously this time for some reason.
— Hey, you two. You're going to catch a cold.
Their little moment was interrupted by a sweet, gentle, yet concerned voice. They turned away and saw a short black lady with her body leaning forward, indicating a slight hump from years of bad posture. She had warm, tender black eyes.
— Come in, this rain doesn't look like it's going to stop now — the lady gestured for the two to enter. The lady came in, holding her pink coat around her body, waiting for the girls inside. (Y/n) looked at MJ quickly and gave her a dull smile for not knowing what to do right, she usually smiled when she was nervous. She then walked hurriedly to the entrance of the store holding her jacket and then disappeared from MJ's view.
The black woman sighed audibly since no one would really hear, trying to calm herself from what had almost happened now. She put her hands in her jacket pocket to get a cigarette, but remembered that she didn't have them or the jacket.
— Fuck... — she muttered to herself and took another deep breath before entering the store.
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inkedinfantasy · 1 year
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@leafstranger​ sure!! making a separate post for this so I’m not dumping paragraphs of text on someone else’s art post (link to original post/art)
basically the thought that started it all was the desire to examine how the context of the player’s relationship to hydaelyn is turned on its head in shadowbringers when it’s revealed that she’s a primal. I just felt that was such a fascinating idea to introduce at that point in the story where it comes with this sense of betrayal, almost, this crack it puts in the trust the player has put in her thus far as the fantasy trope of “benevolent goddess bestowing her blessing on a chosen hero.” what does it mean for the WOL if hydaelyn has been a primal all along? is the reason the blessing of light protects you from tempering because you’re already tempered? have you truly been acting of your own volition all this time? how would you even know?
that’s one thing I kind of wish they’d explored more thoroughly in the story; just letting the WOL sit with some of that uncertainty. the idea that you’ve potentially spent so long not acting of your own free will is terrifying! I think having a moment of doubt like that could’ve ended up feeding really well into venat’s story they set up in endwalker to show you that hydaelyn isn’t and was never some perfect, all-knowing, infallible being; she was just a person doing what she thought was best. and that circles around back to the very idea of what a primal is!! none of them are actually the gods or legends or whatever they're taking the form of, they're made out of prayer and belief. they’re reflections of what the people who create them want to see in them.
there’s another moment where you’re asked to think on these kinds of ideas in the endwalker omega questline, I don't have the whole conversation screenshotted, but it’s the part where you're on the moon and you're talking about everything that led up to the events of endwalker and you’re asked who you ultimately think was justified in what they did and you get this choice:
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and I remember even knowing that the choice would have zero effect on anything, I just sat here for several minutes actually thinking about it because it's an interesting question. I ultimately think I ended up picking "none of them were" just because the way I see it, all of them made choices that led to a lot of awful things happening, knowingly or unknowingly. I don't know that any of them are justified in what they did, per se, but I do think that they were all doing what, in their own way, they thought was best, for better or for worse. which I think is something else entirely and a distinction that’s important to make. and that's interesting!! I think it's a testament to the writing that regardless of whether or not their actions were justified, you can clearly see why each of them would truly believe what they were doing was the best course of action. I’d be interested to hear what other people think!
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good evening my love, my brain decided to make up for 0 thoughts yesterday by having 1 million today. im gonna narrow it down to 2 for now though fjsjjfjs
1. Song on repeat is a new one, "backyard boy" by Claire Rosinkranz. VERYYY catchy and repeatable. also it's so funny to me bc i actually saw her live bc she opened for Alec Benjamin, and I had no idea who she was and had never heard the song before but!! she had amazing energy on stage and I wish the crowd had been more receptive to it fksksjdj but yeah now I hear the song often on random playlists and I'm glad bc its a bop
2. is a much longer thought fjjsjx. now we all know I'm a Queen Kristina apologist so i was having Thoughts. and theyre more of "these are fascinating scenarios to think about" thoughts than any kind of "I think this actually happened thoughts" but like. I was thinking about how the video scandal was handled and I remembered that one of the things she says about not taking action against August has to do with Wille's denial and how it would seem contradictory. which makes me think she learned it was August AFTER Wille denied his involvement, so I wonder if she actually would have done something if she had known it was August before Wille's interview.
connected thought is that while the crown wasn't doing anything about it, we never actually hear Kristina tell Wille to keep this information from Simon. so like... not telling him that it was August who did it was Wille's choice. but again I'm thinking like... what if Kristina expected Wille to tell Simon, so that Simon could take it to the police and then SOMETHING would have been done without the crown being involved. like Wille assumes that the royal court would have had August's back the whole time but doesn't that fall into the whole "if we get involved then it contradicts your denial" thing? August hadn't been chosen as the spare at that point, so aside from him being a distant relative the crown would have had no actual reason to protect him if Simon had gone to the police.
anyway. I spent half of my lunch break typing this up bc its rotating in my head at rapid speeds so i should probably eat something now. I love you have a good night mwah
Hi love!
So thought one: I love that song! And I love Alex Benjamin too lol.
Thought two: we know that Kristina knew for “a few days” before Wilhelm’s denial but that’s it. We don’t know anything she tried to do in those days. And we know that she didn’t reach out to August. Because August spend the first half of season 2 scared out of his goddamn mind about it. She also does tell Wille to “stay away from Simon” for the time being. We know that she told Wille off-screen that he “could never see [Simon] again” because Wilhelm brings that up in a conversation.
But yeah. We don’t know much about her thought process. And season two did show us much more of her maternal side. Anything is possible. She straight up tells August she doesn’t like him and will be by Wille’s side even if August is the backup. She says that to his face.
Yeah idk.
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master-gatherer · 2 years
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The more I think about this whole description the more insane I get:
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Text Description:
“Even Systems Alliance Marines Need a Break
Kaidan Alenko might be a badass sentinel marine with powerful biotics that can kick the life out of his adversaries (and commanders who dare to duel). But even this warrior needs a break once in a while. And just like on a sunny day on Earth, a “cold one” in space does the trick. In this Kaidan Alenko statue, you find him seated with his legs crossed, a cold beer in his, and his eyes lost in thought, perhaps about Rahna. His outfit is recreated to perfection, with every little detail from the creases in his folded sleeves to the texture on his pants.”
Okay! So! One by one:
“Kaidan Alenko might be a badass sentinel marine with powerful biotics that can kick the life out of his adversaries (and commanders who dare to duel).”
I just really hate how this is phrased and the word choices in general, but I’m gonna hone in on that parenthetical clause: “commanders who dare to duel.”
Who? Which commander? Because Commander Shepard never dueled Kaidan.
They had a duel/fisticuffs with James. They had a stand-off with Kaidan. But they never dueled Kaidan.
When did they duel Kaidan, Bioware? I would remember if they dueled. I would not shut up about it if they dueled.
“a “cold one” in space does the trick”
I am just fascinated by putting cold one in scare quotes. Like that’s special Mass Effect slang for a beer, and not like... a general colloquialism in the States (and maybe Canada? Canadians let me know.)
(Although if its strictly a States thing that may go a long way to explaining why it’s in quotes.)
Also gotta make sure this ad copy is strictly profesh for our collectible statue of a video game man. Don’t want to get too familiar with potential buyers.
“his eyes lost in thought, perhaps about Rahna.”
I’m not going to go too into this since this is what our little corner of mini-fandom has been focusing on, many others have pointed out the ridiculousness of this.
I will just reiterate what I’ve said elsewhere: whoever wrote this skimmed the fan wiki entry for Kaidan. That is the only explanation I can think of for why they’d name drop a character he mentions twice in the first game, and who is never seen on screen and is mentioned once outside of those particular conversations, if you happen to make the choices to get that dialogue line.
Like the writer was stumped for stuff to put in this description, hopped to the wiki, skimmed the entry about his early life, “oh he loved Rahna, I’ll put that in there, see boss I totally how to weave in game details,” and called it a day. Because I don’t know about you, but if the world was ending around me and I had to fight cyborg zombies all day, I’d be thinking about my high school crush.
The truly baffling thing is this should have been a layup. “His eyes are lost in thought, perhaps about a certain commander....” BOOM! The Shenkos would eat that right up. Particularly since who the fuck else is spending $125 USD on this? You can lean into the romance options on character merch if they’re a romance option. It’d be like if Thane’s body pillow’s description talked about how he missed Irika. Sure, yes, but maybe don’t mention it on the thing you’re selling to people who like to pretend to smooch on him?
Damn I lied, I did go too into this.
“His outfit is recreated to perfection”
Okay this really irked the nerd in me.
This is not his outfit:
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This is his outfit:
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The outfit he’s in for the statue are the fatigues that Shepard wears at the start of Mass Effect 3:
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I don’t know if that has a special name or not, I’m not about that life.
What I AM about are tiny little details like this. You can put Kaidan in that outfit with mods, and he does look good, but that’s not “his” outfit. Hell, his outfit isn’t really “his”, it’s the default casual look for most of the Alliance characters.
It’s not that I don’t like the outfit. I mind that the copy says they’re recreating it “to perfection” and it’s not even his.
Anyway I have had a total of 10 hours of sleep over the last two days (work stuff - don’t ask) and am going to try to rectify that now that this is out of my system. Apologies for grammar/spelling mistakes, again, 10 hours of sleep over two days.
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purposelynana · 2 years
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Vegas And Pete, An Essay.
Genuinely I did not watch any KinnPorsche before episode 12. I tried to watch episode 1 and then nah I just couldn't take any of that seriously. Then, I decided to just saw it through GIF and clip which scattered around Tumblr and Twitter. But episode 12 is really the one that changed the game for me.
It's always fascinating to watch a broken relationship. That's why, subjectively Love Mechanics is such a dear to my heart. Because its depiction about love is truly ugly. Because in real life those unfortunate situations could happen to you despite its trigger warning. It sparked discussions whether it was about the stupidity surrounding its characters, or perhaps the plot which is closer to makjang rather than an actual young-adult romance show. To me this kind of tropes is constantly evolving and left me with so much new perspective.
And then came, episode 12 of KP. We came so far from dead-fish kissing era. KP's love scenes already proved that. But there was something different in Vegas and Pete, something sinister lurking behind the shots and lighting. Everything was designed to be weird and strange. And hell, I can't stop thinking about it. It seemed like a B-movie because of the Dutch angles, but at the same time the lightning and its colors reminds me with Wong Kar Wai's stuff. Okay. This sounds like a complete bonkers. It was by no any means that this series is an outstanding piece of art. It still has plenty of problems but that particular scene, it did something to me. It was so unsettling and yet, we kept watching it to kill time. Why? Is this some kind of foreshadowing? Is it me being dramatic ass bitch? After all this is just some tv-show that will probably gonna sit comfortably at the back of my mind.
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In addition of the technical aspect of the scene, we moved into a rather controversial point and generate its own conversation revolving that. Which is the treatment of BDSM practice. Yep. People have their own takes, it's fine. A lot of discussion narrowed to one specific thing. Trauma can lead someone to their preferable sexual activity but I dunno I'm not a psychologist and certainly not a BDSM practicer. Yet, it was rather engaging to find discussion and people trying to give their analysis for that matter. And to me, it felt like I was gaining new knowledge.
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Vegas is still maddening piece of shit. The series didn't walk away from his horrendous attitude that had been portrayed in the novel. But the screenwriter clearly removing a few harmful traits which makes him yeah not so far from redemption, even though, subjectively, he doesn't need any redemption arcs. What for? We love a character who's proud being a bad guy.
Meanwhile, Pete. Ah Pete. What a treat to get something as complex as him. If this is called VegasPete The Series, it would be wonderful to see what makes him, him. Is it child abuse? Is it the days that he spend during Vegas' captivity? What is it? What is it that makes him entrancing? Because to me he never stood out, he was lurking in the back, and the choice of production team to made him as invisible as possible paid off because by the time he was on his own story arc, he was explosive.
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Oh God.
The acting, oh my god. Rarely I found a pairing that complete each other in terms of acting. The last time is definitely Ohm and Nanon. And now this. Whatever BoC did on their workshop, it worked. My god. I was bawling to see the emotional scenes. I was relieved when finally they got their happy ending. I was mad because maybe I'm not going to see such a brilliance in a long time. BIBLE BUILD RULESSSSSS!!!!
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In conclusion, it seems conflicted for me to recommend KinnPorsche because as a whole series this is not the greatest thing out there. In fact, I have so much disapproval towards everything except the cinematography and how they handled VegasPete. It felt like all over the place. It appeared to be that the 3 directors who helmed this, never consulted with each other. So, sometimes it did sense like 3 different series put into one.
Now I wonder someone on youtube make a VegasPete cut. Come on universe do your thing.
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a very suitable song for vegaspete indeed.
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cosmicyeen · 3 months
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Sudden desire to ramble out of nowhere BUT I've just come across a conversation people are having about AI images, and how some artists are feeling demotivated because they'll never be "as good as the AI," and that was a shock to me. I don't think I've ever looked at AI art with any kind of jealousy, nor with disappointment at not meeting that "level," even though the images are otherwise aesthetically good to look at.
So of course I wondered, why didn't I have that reaction to what is objectively technically proficient imagery? The desire to have my art look a certain way has always been with me, especially when I was learning as a kid, and admittedly I do still look at others' art with envy at times.
But, by default my brain never looked at AI art with anything other than the depth I might look at a billboard ad with. I see more or less pleasing images, and nothing to prop them up.
This isn't to say I think I have some superior viewpoint here; if AI art had been a thing when I started out (or even if i had just not found a different mindset around art as a whole) I likely would have felt that same kind of demotivation.
I'm also not saying art needs to mean something explicit or profound every time, the whole "AI images as "real" art" thing is a fascinating discussion imo, but whether one considers it art is also not really relevant to my point here.
This is more an explanation of a mindset I didn't realize I had been building, and it's kind of nice to look back and realize how my mind's changed over the years I've been drawing. There were probably two main points where this happened.
For one thing, the things I value in art are different, and thus my taste has changed. I used to wish my art could be hyperrealistic, and this is fine as a goal of course, but it wound up being a goal I drifted from over time as I found less and less satisfaction with just repeating images in front of me. I noticed realism suddenly having value to me not for what it perfectly reiterates, but for how much time and raw skill it takes to get to that point. Nonetheless, I wanted to keep going, to make my *own* images, to see what rules I could break and reinvent for myself.
Same goes for the art of others; I value the skill I can see behind each line, and I wonder what each stroke and dot and color choice means and comes from, what they choose to add and bend and leave out instead of just mimic.
The other, and main underpinning of this mindset finally happened when I got into spinning and fiber arts. I used to prefer the look of chunky "homespun" yarn and weavings, not understanding the appeal of the otherwise-visually-boring-threads of uniform thickness I would see. But, after I got into it and saw how much time and raw skill it takes to spin yarn, and I saw others share their skeins of a uniformity and lightweightness that I still havent gotten near skill-wise, the once uninteresting fiber arts began to suddenly become so much more interesting to me.
Chunky and art yarns are still good, don't get me wrong, but they're just the beginning now. Lace, something I never thought twice about, suddenly became a baffling complexity of knots and loops.
Embroidery, defined not just by the final image, but by every stab of the needle and pull of the thread.
A uniform white rag, now known by the patience needed to clean every fiber, spin every thread to such a light weight, and align it all perfectly on a loom.
Every line in a drawing, a shape someone has drawn a thousand times before, honing muscle memory and understandings of balance and color and contrast in both conscious and unconscious ways. As far as I'm concerned, the imperfect circle someone has drawn a thousand times is more interesting than the perfect one, and every perfect circle takes on a life of its own when used as a tool and not an aspirational goal.
Somewhere along the line, I began seeing a kind of awe in artwork that I can only describe as an awareness of the crystallization of time. And I think that's why AI images don't give me any sense of insecurity as an artist
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kyovtani · 3 years
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𝐌 𝐈 𝐍 𝐄 — 𝐊.𝐊𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢
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↠ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: kyoutani kentarou x female reader
↠ 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: smut, fluff, angst if you quint; biker!kyou, badboy!kyou, good girl!reader, college!AU
↠ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 4.8k
↠ 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: swearing, heavy dirty talk & degradation, praising, semi-public sex, dom!kyoutani, sub!reader, DD/LG (daddy dom/little girl) dynamics, daddy kink, spitting, choking, possessiveness, unprotected, creampie
↠ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: after keeping quiet for months, you finally lose the last bit of patience you had left after having to watch your boyfriend‘s ex-fwb flirt with him right in front of your eyes…
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There were quite a few emotions you could name, which you happen to dislike for different reasons.
Most of the time, you managed to skillfully ignore and suppress them. Not the best coping mechanism, but after years of being neglected by your parents, it was the only way you knew how to even handle your own emotions.
However, there was nothing you despised as much as the feeling of jealousy.
The disgusting taste coating the muscle of your tongue in a way which leaves your whole mouth numb before it slowly starts spreading through your whole system. It feels like a literal disease; clouding your head and your rational thinking with its poison in the span of a solid second.
You absolutely hate the heaviness on your chest and shoulders it came with because no matter how hard you try to calm yourself, the feeling of being suffocated becomes nothing but worse.
Most of the time, you don't have to deal with jealousy of any kind; mostly because Kyoutani Kentarou, your boyfriend of three years, has never once done anything to make you doubt his loyalty. Which is probably why the bitterness of it hits you so hard when you stumble across a scene which seems a tad bit too familiar for your personal liking.
One of those scenes happens to be the one in which Kyoutani‘s ex-fuckbuddy throws herself at him without a hint of hesitation.
You simply can't help it.
The way she looks at him — with so much admiration and fascination gleaming in her disgustingly pretty eyes — basically leaves you no choice but to grow incredibly insecure about every bit of your existence as the urge to claim what‘s yours takes over in an almost animalistic way.
If the intense fire of jealousy wasn‘t burning so deep within your chest, the feeling of pure hatred towards the brunette would have been the main focus of your attention. But unfortunately, you have to deal with this weird inferiority complex before you can even think of anything or anyone else.
With a deep inhale and a quick sip from your beer, you continue to observe the conversation between your boyfriend and his ex-bootycall.
You can feel yourself growing more and more uncomfortable, nervousness and anxiety crippling up your spine as you watch the pretty girl place her hand on Kyoutani‘s tattooed arms before she lets out a loud chuckle at something he says.
It takes you a lot of self control and willpower to not just walk up to her and push her away from your boyfriend, who obviously doesn't seem to mind the constant skinship with the girl in front of him.
After what feels like an eternity of not being able to shift your gaze from her, you finally get yourself to look at your boyfriend and just as usual a loud sigh falls past your lips at the sight of him.
Black leather adorning almost every part of his body, starting from the heavy boots on his feet to the fitting pair of pants and the jacket. The fabric hugs his muscular thighs in just the right places and you absolutely love the contrast between his dark clothes and his beautifully sun kissed skin. Dozens of chains are dangling from his earlobes, adorning his pretty neck as well as his hips and you sigh at the way a jolt of arousal rushes through your body.
You’re very well aware of how obvious you are being but at this point you can't get yourself to care about it anymore.
Kyoutani is your boyfriend and although most of his fellow biker friends are incredibly sweet and welcoming towards you, there are still a few who just can't believe the so-called “Mad Dog” has settled for someone so different from him.
But again, you don't really care.
Kyoutani has proven to you that nobody‘s opinion matters to him; emphasizing his lack of interest by provocatively going against every single thing your father says about him in order to break you guys apart.
And you try to focus on his words; you really do. Yet – it’s so hard with some of those other big, mean looking bikers staring at you with nothing but disgust and hatred in their eyes every time you step into their local bar.
However, usually Kyoutani also doesn't leave your side for most of the time; he absolutely hates his people‘s attitude towards you. He has made that mistake once, and he’s determined to never do it again.
But, for the first time in quite a while, Kyoutani has decided to leave you to yourself at their regular table, only wanting to get another round of drinks before he runs into the sweet-faced girl and gets caught up in a rather heated conversation.
And as you watch the scene in front of you unfold, the urge to get up and just punch her right in her pretty face absolutely overwhelms you, but for now she hasn’t crossed any lines besides some unnecessary touches so for your own sake you try to keep it down.
Mostly for your boyfriend's sake because you don’t want Kyoutani to think that you don’t trust him.
Of course your desperate attempts of staying calm haven’t gone unnoticed by your attentive boyfriend. You know he has seen through you as easily as he always does but you refuse to acknowledge it — or him in general. Because as soon as you meet his gaze, he is going to give you this one specific look; the one where his pretty eyes are narrowed and one slit eyebrow arched up to make sure you get the hint. And of course it doesn't take long until he finally gets you to look into his burning eyes; the pretty brown surrounding his iris filled with nothing but this certain kind of tenderness and affection.
You scoff at his reaction, absolutely despising the effect your boyfriend’s gaze has on you despite usually enjoying the way he was literally devouring you alive. Now it just makes you feel weak and helpless; as if he was taking away the last bit of your barely existent willpower to fight the jealousy.
“Kyou!”, the girl in front of him suddenly screams, more than just loud enough for you to hear and at the sound of his nickname leaving her lips, you can’t help but ball your hands into tight fists in hopes of not letting the anger get to your head.
“I’ll let you go back to your little pussy cat, don’t worry. Just give me another minute to finish my story. It’s not like she isn't clinging to your ass all day anyway, so she’ll be fine with being away from you for a few minutes”, she says and runs a hand through her short, black hair; her words sending another burning jolt of jealousy and annoyance through your body.
“Yui”, Kyoutani says and rolls his eyes, running his palm over his freshly dyed, silver buzz cut before his fingers come to play with the cigarette behind his ear, “stop talking about my girl like that, you know I hate it when you guys act like this.”
“Oh, come on, Kyou”, Yui scoffs in response, “this goody-two-shoes is seriously not worth your energy. You‘ve been fucking her for years now, aren‘t you tired yet? Knowing you the way I do, she probably can‘t even take your cock, let alone your cute little habits and all that, so why are you even wasting your time on her?”, she casually continues, her tone oozing with derogatory and the harshness of her accusing words irritate you in a way you‘ve never experienced it before.
And when your head starts spinning, you skillfully pushed your anxiety all the way back in your head and focus everything on the boiling anger clouding your mind as you stand up and finally walk up to her.
“And there she is, daddy‘s little girl! Hi, Y/N!”, Yui chuckled, mockery evident in every single one of her words. But all you do is smile back at her and try to stay calm but as soon as Kyoutani places his ring clad hand on your lower back, you feel a rush of confidence hit you.
“Hi, Yui”, you reply and take a step closer to your boyfriend, kind of to show her who the fuck he belongs to but also because his presence never fails to make you feel safe and secure.
“You know, I find it really funny how you‘ve been telling my boyfriend that I‘m a waste of time ever since we’ve started dating but you‘re the one who hasn’t gotten over your little friends-with-benefits bullshit in three ears and are still dying to jump his bones”, you push your lips into a fake pout and tilt your head to the side as you watch her expressions change the moment she processes your words.
“Yeah, he might be wasting his time with me but at least he gets to fuck me in the meantime, whereas you…”, you smile, wrath and every bit of hatred you feel for her gleaming in your gaze, while you successfully force her to maintain the eye contact. “Whereas you...you haven‘t gotten laid in three fucking years because you‘ve been hoping for him to come back to you”, you sigh and take a deep breath before you reach into Kyoutani‘s pocket to pull out your panties and hold them up for her and the whole bar to see.
Light shame has shivers running down your spine but you know you can’t back off anymore; you have gotten a little too brave so now you have to pull through with it – no matter how much you want to hide your face in your boyfriend‘s chest.
“And as you can see, I‘m always ready to give him just what he needs”, you add with a proud, shiteating grin, Kyoutani‘s strong gaze burning into your side and despite dying to know what he was thinking you don’t have the chance to even shift your gaze away from Yui‘s flushed face for a a moment.
“Oh, by the way, I can take his cock and of course this also includes his – how did you call them – cute little habits? So, as you can see, you really don‘t have to worry about my boyfriend”, you continue and hate just how much you enjoy seeing the black haired girl in front of you get more and more uncomfortable.
“Right, daddy?”, you say and finally shift your gaze to the tall male on your side.
And it‘s then that you realize his hand has wandered to your waist; his grip rather tight as he obviously tries to maintain his composure.
“Right, baby”, Kyoutani‘s voice is even deeper and raspier than usual, his tone a mere whisper to avoid giving away just how much your little scene has gotten to him.
“You let her call you that?“, Yui suddenly hisses, her eyes moving to roam Kyoutani‘s face as you push your panties back into the pocket of his heavy leather jacket, “you hated it when I did.”
“I also never once kissed or fucked you without a condom but I let her spit in my mouth and fuck her raw”, Kyoutani replies casually, his lewd words sending jolts of arousal right between your legs, “I think this says a lot about how different the two of you are, doesn‘t it?”
“Oh, fuck you”, Yui finally spits at you, shaking her head in pure disbelief before she turns to your boyfriend again, “and fuck you, too. I hope you‘ll be happy with your little toy and don‘t even think of crawling back to me when she leaves you for some kind of rich business guy who can actually offer her something”, is the last thing she says before she brutally grabs her bag and storms out of the rather crowded bar.
And as you watch her stomp away, the heavy, almost unbearable weight on your shoulders as well as your chest vanishes just like that; the feeling of being suffocated following right after.
However, you can't help but let her words echo inside of your head; the thought of Kyoutani actually thinking you‘d leave him for someone like your father has thousands of thoughts running through your mind.
With a soft pout on your lips, you go back to look at your boyfriend only to be met with a gaze so strong you feel yourself growing tiny underneath it‘s strength.
“Don‘t”, Kyoutani is quick to stop you as soon as he watches the way you open your mouth, making you gasp softly before you slowly press your lips into a thin line, “I don‘t care about anything that bitch said because just like everyone else – she‘s irrelevant”, he adds and pulls you flush against his chest with a low grunt.
You nod, appreciating his attitude now more than ever because you genuinely dont want him to let her stupid words get to him. So, with a soft smile on your lips and a relieved sigh, you take his handsome face into your palms and enjoy the feeling of being so close to him.
However, just as you try to go in for a kiss, Kyoutani pushes his thigh in between your legs, casually pressing his throbbing cock against your thigh as he tightens the grip on your waist.
You let out a shaky breath, the leather of his pants so close to your uncovered and incredibly wet cunt and for a good second you forget about your surroundings.
“Kenta-”, you whisper against his lips and try so hard to not just grind down on his strong thigh.
“Just — follow me to the fucking toilet, princess”, Kyoutani groans against your mouth before he inhales your scent and then suddenly pulls away, making you tumble against his chest.
With every step, another jolt of arousal and excitement shoots through your body, gushing out of your sensitive hole and wetting your panties to the point of discomfort.
As soon as Kyoutani opens the door to the washroom, he makes sure it’s empty before pushing you in with a deep sigh.
A shiver runs down your spine and a tiny smile forms on your lips as your boyfriend locks the door behind him and doesn’t even hesitate to turn you around and push you up against the wall. His pretty, tattoo clsd fingers find their way around your throat almost automatically and the contrast of his cold rings against your burning skin has you whining softly.
"Oh, baby", he grunts, "my pretty, littleangel girl", Kentarou presses his strong body harder against yours, his hips firmly grinding his hard cock against your ass, "you just made your Daddy really proud, do you know that?"
His voice is a mere whisper, his free hand finds its way underneath your short skirt and you shiver at the feeling of his strong fingers digging into the soft flesh of your thigh.
It takes you a hot minute to collect yourself and process his words because of all the arousal running through your blood and clouding your mind. You’re already so deep in the haze of your lust that even thinking about the possible consequences seems impossible.
Kyoutani slightly tightens his grip around your throat and easily elicits the sweetest moan from you; at this point you’re literally dripping down your inner thighs.
“I shouldn‘t be surprised because after all you are my good girl, right?", he growls and pushes his free hand in between your legs, cupping your drenched cunt and lazily sliding two of his fingers over your wet slit.
“Do you want me to tell you a secret, baby?", your boyfriend whispers into your ear, his hot breath fanning the skin of your cheek and sending shivers down your whole body.
“Y-Yes, please, Daddy”, you reply with the back of your head pressed against his collarbone and your lids fluttering close as Kyoutani applies just the perfect amount of pressure on your sensitive clit.
“Look at my good girl using her manners for me, so polite, so sweet”, he chuckles, “yet nothing but a fucking whore”, before he starts rubbing hard circles into your swollenbunde of nerves..
You start squirming underneath his strong grip with his fingers firmly wrapped around your throat and one of his digits teasing your clenching cunt in an almost mocking manner.
"Daddy”, you whimper softly, “I wanna know the secret, please”, you push your forehead against the cold wall and let the contrast of its temperature to your heated skin slowly cool you down in.
“I fucking love it when you get all possessive of me, angel baby”, Kyoutani grunts into your ear and plunges two of his thick fingers into your tight pussy.
Both digits slide right in without any problems because of how wet you’ve gotten from just his few words and the little bit of teasing.
And just as usual, your lovely boyfriend doesn’t even give you any time to feel ashamed of just how worked up he’s gotten you as he starts finger-fucking your hot cunt with practiced flicks of his wrist.
A row of loud moans falls past your lips, followed by quite a few whines and barely audible sobs.
“I just wanted to bend you over the counter and fuck you right in front of everyone, that’s how much your little scene turned me on, princess”, Kentarou moans and almost desperately rubs his clothed erection against your ass.
You feel yourself clenching harder and harder around his fingers at the sound of his words, his raspy voice never failing to make you lose your mind.
Kyoutani keeps up his rhythm as he shoves his fingers inside of you, curles them up in just the right way to make sure he hits your sweet spot with every single one of his harsh thrusts.
And in combination with the squelching sound of your juices, you find yourself approaching your high a lot faster than usual.
Of course your boyfriend absolutely loves the way your eyes keep rolling into the back of your head and how you can’t even form a proper sentence because of how good he’s making you feel with just his fingers.
After watching you claim him in such a lewd yet possessive way, he hasn’t stopped thinking about just how badly he wants to sink his cock into your tight cunt and fuck you absolutely senseless.
It took him a few minutes to decide whether or not he wanted to fuck you on his bike in the back of the bar before he came to the conclusion that the toilet would be the best place for the first round of many.
Kyoutani would never openly admit it, but the thought of you loving him so much that you’ve felt the need to mark your territory — as wrong and objectifying as this may sound — makes him incredibly happy.
He knows that you love him; you’ve never once done anything to make him doubt your feelings ever since you’ve started dating, yet to see you get so possessive over him reminded him of just how wanted he is.
And as he watched you go off on the girl he has never cared about at all, Kyoutani wanted to give you the world. As much as he loves degrading you, tonight he wants to reward you for being so, so good to him.
So, different from what you are used to, your boyfriend doesn’t stop thrusting his long fingers into your throbbing pussy as he feels your orgasm approaching; the spasming of your sensitive walls and your shaking thighs giving away just how close you are.
“F-Fuck, Daddy”, you breathe and wrapped your hand around the one he has firmly wrapped around throat, “I‘m going to cum.”
“Yeah? Pretty angel’s gonna cum for me, hm?”, Kyoutani sighs and picks up the pace of his movements, a deep grunt falling past his bit swollen lips at the sound of your sweet little sounds, “and I‘m not going to stop you, baby. Because you deserve it, pretty girl. Nowbe good for me and cum all over my hand.”
However, as you move your hips to meet his fingers, you find yourself craving more and although you know you could easily just cum from his fingers, you wanted to take what you could get now that Kyoutani was so willing to give you just what you want.
“Daddy, may I ask for something, please”, you whine, tears pricking at the corners of your eyes as Kyoutani contiues to fuck you, his thumb grazing your clit every now and then to prolong the approach of your orgasm just a little bit more.
Your boyfriend smiles into the back of your neck, his rapid breaths hit your skin and easily show you how much he was enjoying this, too.
“Go ahead, angel”, he says softly, “you‘re being so good for me today, I have no choice but to make tonight all about you”, his words confirm your thoughts and you quickly wrap your fingers around the wrist of his hand which is nicely nudged in between your legs.
“I want to cum on your cock”, you whisper and try to face him, “a-and I want to look at you”, not really daring to pull his fingers out of your clenching hole as you wait for his response.
Kenta gulps harshly, his adam‘s apple jumping and his eyes slowly fluttering close as your words reach him.
“Everything for my good girl”, Kyoutani gulps harshly before he finally pulls his hand away from your cunt and your throat and then takes a step back to give you enough room to turn around.
His eyes never once leave yours, his gaze so strong you don’t even dare to breathe as he looks at you even when all you want to do is to look down and watch the way he finally pulls out his precum dripping, rock hard cock.
There is no exchange of words, only one of soft gazes when your boyfriend lifts you onto the sink, pushes your skirt up, and makes you spread your legs with a soft slap to your inner thigh.
You feel your pussy clenching around nothing in such despair, you would have felt embarrassed if it wasn't for all the excitement rushing through your body.
Kyoutani tilts his head to the side, taking in the sight of eagerness gleaming in the pretty color of your eyes but also the soft tenderness of your love lingering in your expressions.
You’re very well aware of his leaking tip smearing his precum all over your inner thigh; so close to where you need him the most, but all you can focus on is just how close he is to you.
You love the way his scent is surrounding you, easily pulling you behind walls of comfort and happiness. And when he wraps his arms around your waist, you feel at ease, as if you had just entered the familiar walls of your home.
Kyou lines his cock up with your entrance before he slowly pushes his tip in with a deep grunt leaving his throat his lips as close to yours as possible; you can literally taste him on the tip of your tongue as he shamelessly moans your name.
It takes him a couple of minutes to bottom out because no matter how many times he has fucked you already, it would always remain a tight fit.
You gasp at the stretch, yet the painful sting quickly turns into waves of pleasure as you both try not to move before you’ve completely adjusted to his size.
The feeling of finally being filled to the brim again after craving him like a starved woman, you can’t help the sounds leaving your lips.
"Fuck, that‘s my good girl", he grunts into your mouth, pulling himself out of you before his hips snap back, thrusting his whole length into your sensitive cunt with such force, you feel yourself slowly drowning in the waves of your pleasure.
"There’s no pussy I'd choose over this sweet cunt, baby. You're always so, so tight and warm for me, taking me like you were made for my cock", Kenta keeps the praises coming as his thrusts pick up their pace and his deep grunts and groans fill your ears, you can’t help but clench around his length.
"Look, you're so close already and it's not even been a minute", he whispered, "what a dirty little whore you are, huh?", Kyoutani groans and drives his cock into you a lot faster, a little less controlled yet still so, so deep you can literally feel the tip of his huge cock nudge the entrance to your womb with every single one of his thrusts.
Tears start streaming down your cheeks as the pleasure overwhelms you in the most beautiful way possible and with a soft sob of his name, Kenta looks at you again.
Your hazy mind is too slow to process everything fast enough when Kyoutani pulls you into a passionate kiss which ends up in a clash of teeth and tongue and spit dripping down both of your chins.
And as if he could sense it, Kyoutani pushes his hand from your waist in between your legs. He pulls away and gathers the saliva in his mouth before he lets a thick drop of his spit fall onto your already drenched folds. He starts rubbing it into your clit with firm circle motions of his fingers, his eyes never once leaving your face as he watches you basically run towards your high.
“Cum for me, pretty girl”, Kyoutani whispers against your lips, his thrusts now deeper and harder rather than fast, making sure to hit every single one of your spots with the tip of his huge cock, “make me yours, baby. Cream all over my me and show me that my cock was made to fuck your pretty pussy only.”
And with those words the first wave of your orgasm crushes down on you.
You tumble over the edge so abruptly, you stop breathing for a whole second, your sight starts blurring out and turning white, then pitch black as a bunch of jolts from the aftermath of your orgasm break down onto you.
And it doesn’t take long for Kentarou to follow you; the tight walls of your cunt spasm around his throbbing cock so tightly, he feels himself growing dizzy from the lack of oxygen.
Just as usual, despite your post-orgasmic state, he makes you tilt your head back before he spits into your mouth and has you look into his eyes as you swallow every single bit of it without even batting an eyelash.
Kyoutani cums with a row of deep, choked out moans as he paints your cunt in the different shades of creamy white with his thick cum.
With your arms tightly wrapped around his broad shoulders and your forehead pressed against his chest, you watch your boyfriend pull his cock out of your still lightly spasming hole before he collects the mix of your releases on the tip of his fingers and starts smearing it over your lips before going in for another hot kiss.
You whine and whimper into his mouth at the taste of your own and his cum start coating your tongue and despite how lewd the whole act is, you found yourself craving for more.
“Fuck”, Kyoutani suddenly chuckle, his whole body vibrating at the sound as you lazily look up at him, “I love you so fucking much, princess”, he whisper and pressed a soft kiss to your forehead. You tried your best to smile at him, your brain slowly taking in the sight of his flushed cheeks and blown out pupils.
“You‘re mine, Kyoutani Kentarou”, you mumble and pull him into another hug, the urge to cuddle after such an intense high overwhelming right then and there, “and sharing is not even an option. Just for your information.”
“All yours”, Kyou whispers and interlaces your fingers with his before he pulls your hand to his lips and presses a firm peck to the promise ring (his initials engraved to the front of it) on your middle finger, “always and for as long as you want me to be, my love.”
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「𝐀/𝐍: This is a little sequel to "of cigarettes & love confessions" but can be read separately. Of course this is also a reuplod from my old blog (@/starboybokuto) I hope you guys like it and pls feel free to leave feedback if you did xx zade」
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Oh ho ho ho prepare thyselves, I have some thoughts about Loki's appearance in the latest What If... episode
Let's jump into this.
Okay. So Loki shows up with an (if not the) entire contingent of Einherjar and the Warriors Three (Four, really), giving the same damn speech he did during Infinity War, minus the "Odinson" portion.
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Okay. So Loki shows up with an (if not the) entire contingent of Einherjar and the Warriors Three (Four, really), giving the same damn speech he did during Infinity War, minus the "Odinson" portion.
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This isn't a mistake. Loki, at this point, damn well knows who he really is and why. And assuming that events up to this point follow the same trajectory as the "sacred timeline" (does anyone else think the "Watcher" is just Kang hanging out with a bowl of popcorn overlooking the multiverse because that's how I'm reading it...) Anyway, assuming everything we see in the first Thor movie holds true up until Thor's murder...
And that's just the thing, isn't it? It's Thor's murder that is the "nexus event." Loki comes screaming down to Midgard, apparently having secured the loyalty of all of Asgard as its acting King (he's still holding Gungnir, after all) so something must have gone on behind the scenes for everyone to start trusting him. Even when they obviously know he is Jotun.
AGAIN, HE LEADS WITH THE WHOLE JOTUNHEIM THING. Doesn't deny it, proclaims it in front of the entire Asgardian army. This...this is a very different Loki than we saw in the first Thor movie. Whatever shame he held about being Jotun, he's at least come to partial terms with it. And it's not the reason he ends up taking over Midgard/Earth (more on this later).
Loki isn't on Midgard because he wants a kingdom. He's the "rightful" King of Jotunheim, not the actual one. And he's actually quite forward about the fact he's rallied the entire Asgardian army to avenge his adopted brother's death. He loves Thor that much. (As if Asgard would deny him this. Of course not, they'd want their "pound of flesh," or more, just like Loki does.)
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Remember the Loki series? When Classic Loki just wanted to see his brother again? This is the same thing.
Now here's what I find really fascinating.
When Loki goes for his show of strength, when he declares he will reduce Midgard to ruins (specifically, "ash and ice") if he doesn't get the "pound of flesh" aka the entire corpse he deserves (and just...the meta of this...the pound of flesh being a reference to Merchant of Venice and Tommy H being a Shakespeare expert is just perfection on every level)
Anyway, Loki goes for the bloody Casket of Ancient Winters.
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Again, Loki has Gungnir, which is not only a weapon no one would laugh at, but a symbol of the Asgardian monarchy, and yet he takes them all out with the Jotunheim Casket. I mean, fascinating. And Loki doesn't turn blue while handling it, which I believe (contrary to some internet opinion) means he has mastered the Casket as its wielder. Meaning he's come to terms with his identity. Even if he still hates Odin, who may be dead or alive at this juncture (Frigga is most definitely alive, or else Loki would be having a breakdown). I find this choice utterly fascinating.
So I want to reiterate that through this entire exchange, Loki is on Earth for a single purpose: vengeance. He wants his brother's killer. He shows no signs of desire to take over the planet, to subjugate its people, and he has never met Thanos (in any iteration) because he never let go on the Rainbow Bridge. It's not until later, not until Hank Pym spills some beans regarding Fury, that Loki seems to switch tracks.
So Fury and Loki strike a deal and Loki (illusioned as Fury because that is most definitely one of the powers Loki has) outs Hank Pym as the murderer of the proto-Avengers, who is on a revenge tour due to his daughter's death during her SHIELD days (which was likely an alt-universe Bucky Barnes/aka the Winter Solider seeing as it was in Odessa and that's just an entirely different story to deconstruct).
But here's the interesting part:
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Remember, Fury is not Fury here. I doubt the real Nick Fury would ever refer to Thor as a "Prince of Asgard," and so we know this conversation is happening between Loki and Hank (and wow, I a) never thought I'd type that sentence and b) I cannot believe Marvel got bloody Michael Douglas to play this character, holy hell).
But the important thing to remember here is Hank's point of view. The way he casually says Fury would have recruited Thor for his initiative. Hints that if Fury had done so, he would have considered Thor as an expendable hero. Outright says he would prefer Fury's death over Thor's and this is the moment I believe Loki decides to conquer Earth. Because he cannot trust these warring factions and his brother is dead because of it.
And Loki wipes the floor with Hank. Think about it. Hank has managed to kill all of the Avengers minus Steve Rogers (only due to the fact Steve was doing his popsicle impression at the time). He managed to kill Thor.
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And Loki destroys him within a few minutes. I mean, what a testament to our deity of mischief.
But has Loki really gotten his pound of flesh? Hank is taken away, not dead. Thor is still gone, forever. And there was enough logic in what Hank said during their confrontation (after all, Loki would know about being used as a weapon, or at the very least a means to an end. He had that conversation with Odin. He will not stand to see it repeated with Thor). There was enough in that exchange with Hank, there was enough in the negotiations with Fury...that Loki directs his army (his legitimate army who does not rebel against him) to take over Earth in what we can only assume is a mostly peaceful coup (minus some frigid temperatures here and there, but you know, we can just say Loki was counteracting global warming at the same time.) No Chitauri, no Thanos, no utter craziness.
Just...retribution on this planet for making Loki lose what was dearest to him.
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h0neypjm · 3 years
Text
Confident 02 | jjk
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↳ Summary: After giving Jungkook the best suck of his life he’s left wondering if what you said was true. Was it really your first time? ‘Cause Jungkook thinks you might’ve lied.
↳ Pairing: Jungkook x Reader
↳ Genre: Smut, fluff, angst, college au, fuckboy! jk, our fav cheeky virgin reader!
↳ Rating: 18+
↳ Word count: 8.8k
↳ Warnings: swearing, mentions of past toxic relationship, mentions of being pressured into sex, mentions of body image, mentions of stds, Jungkook being very confused, no smut in this part
↳ a/n: here it is !!! thank you for all the love for the first part, i hope you enjoy this part ! please feel free to leave any feedback <3 
↳ Series: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04
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Previously...
“She said it's her first time.” He pauses, looking up at his friends' concerned faces. “I think she might’ve lied.”
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“I’m sorry, what?”
Jungkook groans, cradling his head before banging it on the table. The utensils on the table rattle and clang, bringing unwanted attention to his mini breakdown. Taehyung is quick to place his hand under Jungkook's forehead just as he goes in for another blow. “Ok, Jungkook- Jungkook!” Jimin giggles beside him. “Fucking stop, people are staring.”
Jungkook pauses and subtly peeks out of his long bangs, checking to see that Taehyung’s words were indeed true. He breathes out and sits up in his chair, fixing his shirt to play off that he wasn’t just having a mental meltdown.
Jimin rolls his eyes, “soooo are you gonna talk now, cause’ I have a horrible headache and you’re really not helping.”
Jungkook nods opening his mouth to speak. “Alright so uh, I met a girl last night and-”
“I thought you went home?” Taehyung shoves Jimin’s shoulder and Jungkook glares, “yeah, well that clearly didn’t happen.” He rubs his temples, “could you do me a favour and let me speak first, and then you can ask the questions. Ok?”
The two boys nod, settling into their seats as Jungkook delves back into his story.
“Alright so anyways, I saw this girl and like, I haven’t ever seen her before? She was literally perfect”. He exhales looking at nothing at particular as he continues. “Gorgeous face, prettiest lips and oh! speaking of her lips, God the way she sucked-”
Despite what Jungkook said earlier, Taehyung feels the need to intervene. “Ok as much as I love a good suck myself, I need you to stop here, we don’t need the graphics.” Jimin nods in agreement even though it’s clear he’s not paying an ounce of attention. Jungkook smirks at the memory, but it soon drops as he remembers one tiny detail. He places his hands on the table, total seriousness etched onto his face. “But here’s the kicker, she said it was her first time.”
Confusion. 
“So did you or did you not take her virginity?”Jungkook crosses his arms. “No, after that she just up and left.” “Wait, fuck”, Jungkook suddenly realises, “I didn’t even make her cum”, he groans and Taehyung bursts into laughter. This finally garners Jimin’s attention, his dazed eyes squinting. “Who’s the girl?” Jungkook sighs, “if you were listening before you would’ve heard me say that I don’t know her.” Jimin leans forward,“well can you at least describe her? I pretty much know everyone who attended the party”
Jungkook doesn’t have to think that hard. “She was wearing this plaid skirt and like a white top-” Jimin’s eyes widen, “Holy shit, Y/N?! Man, Jin’s gonna kill you.” This makes Jungkook pause, thoughts running back to the text he had received from Jin. “Wait, they’re not a thing are they?” Jimin chokes, “God no, they’ve been family friends since like forever, Jin’s practically her protective older brother.”
That explained his text earlier. Jungkook furrows his brows, more questions beginning to arise and spill out of his mouth. “How come I’ve never met her and if she’s a virgin, then how- how did-”, Taehyung cuts in, “dude she’s done other things before.” More confusion. “And how would you know that?” Taehyung smirks, shrugging as he gets up out of his chair. “I'm gonna get a drink, Jimin, you want anything?” God, his head is spinning. “Sure, you know my usual.”
It was the way Taehyung spoke too casually, like your lifestyle choices were common knowledge. How the fuck hasn’t he met you, yet his friends seem to be well acquainted with your existence? “What the fuck was that look?” He focuses on Taehyung from where he orders his drinks. “Did you see it Jimin? Kinda sus.”
Jimin remains nonchalant, blowing a strand of hair out of his sight before answering one of Jungkook’s urgent queries. “Jin never introduced you to her because well…” He looks Jungkook up and down with an unimpressed look. “You would get your grimy hands on her immediately. And Then after that, It’s like she never existed ” Jungkook opens his mouth, rebuttal on the tip of his tongue. “Don’t argue with me boy, the second you met her, you already wanted her on your dick, did you not?”
Jungkook is shocked to say the least, jaw hanging open as Taehyung makes his way back to the table, drinks in hand. “Oh God, what did you tell him?” Jungkook slams his fist on the table, yet again grabbing the attention of people around them. “That is not true! I have standards, and what about you two. You guys are just as bad.” He points accusingly at the bruises peeking out of Taehyung’s loose shirt, “Look at Tae! Those hickies are probably a combination of the three girls he fucked last week!”
Jimin doesn’t want to get kicked out of the cafe, so he attempts to calm down a soon to be raging Jungkook. “Look, to put it nicely, you’re a heartbreaker, you lead girls on whereas Tae and I actually tell people we’re not interested in anything more than a hookup.”
Jungkook seems to understand where he’s coming from. He can admit, he does have quite the reputation if the amount of times he’s been slapped in the face says anything. But now, with this newfound information, he can also admit that you’ve certainly intrigued him, that was for sure.
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Jungkook wants to see you again.
Not for a rump in the sheets, but rather a friendly conversation. 
It was just his luck that he had heard through the grapevine that you had been invited to one of Jin’s small pool party get togethers. If Jungkook was being honest, he’s quite excited to be within your vicinity again but he knows he needs to keep his cool. Especially after the series of death threats and slaps on the neck from Jin. He shudders at the memory.
And so, Jungkook prepares himself more than he usually does. He wants to do it right this time. No flirty teasing, just friendly innocent conversation. He makes sure to carefully pick out the right swim shorts that display the thickness of his thighs. Not for any sexual gain, more so to show off the hours spent at the gym in hopes that maybe he can get you to become more interested in him as he is to you. He sounds desperate, and he’s sure you’re not that materialistic, but he has this nagging want to impress you somehow. He huffs and does a few pushups, for extra measure of course.
He’s not sure as to why his brain decided to make him act this way. You’re more or less a stranger to him. However, when Jungkook begins his short journey to Jin’s house he really lets himself think, which usually isn't a good idea. 
Jungkook doesn’t know you, but you’ve definitely left an imprint in his mind which makes you all the more fascinating. It’s news to him that you seem to be very close to his small circle of friends which is probably thanks to your deeply rooted friendship with Jin. That new piece of information had been bugging him since the day he met up with Taehyung and Jimin. Surely his reputation couldn’t be the only reason why you’ve never met him. Right?
Parking his car in Jin’s enormous driveway, he makes his way up to the grand front door. Sometimes he wishes he could live a life like Jin. He grew up being fed with a silver spoon his whole life. Having everything paid for instead of rolling in the miseries of college student debt.
Once Jungkook makes his way into the large house, he sets down the drinks he had brought onto the kitchen counter and watches his best friends goof around and enjoy the summer sun with a warm grin. He chuckles quietly when Jin pushes Jimin and his perfectly styled hair into the pool. Jimin screams a slur of curses while Jin quickly runs beside a sleeping Yoongi for protection.
Slipping out of his loose oversized shirt, Jungkook scans the entirety of Jin’s backyard, looking for the face that has been haunting him since that fateful night. She’s not here. He reexamines the pool seeing nothing but the chaotic mess of his favourite people, and he sighs. Just as he prepares to step out into the blazing sun, the sound of his stomach growling stops him in his tracks. 
Thinking about you made him nervous. So nervous that his stomach couldn’t bear the thought of breakfast. However, after the realisation that you hadn’t arrived just yet, makes him do a full one eighty, long strides taking him to Jin’s expensive fridge.
His head is already deep into the fridge when he hears the sound of the sliding door opening, revealing a dripping Jin with a small scowl on his face. It seems Jimin finally got his revenge. “I’m starving you got any leftovers?” Jungkook queries, his head popping out from the cool air of the fridge.
Jin grabs a fresh towel and whacks it against Jungkook’s naked back. “What’s the point of even asking when you’re already going through my damn fridge!” Jungkook flashes Jin an innocent grin and glows when he discovers a small bowl of Chinese takeout. 
It very quickly dawns on Jungkook that in order to enjoy a nice warm meal, he would need to heat it up. His stomach all but roars, not used to the lack of food in its system and Jungkook wants to cry. He wants to cry and it's not from the angry hunger pains, but rather something extremely laughable. He has to use a fucking microwave. 
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You’re running late, there’s sweat running down your brow and you feel like your arms will fall off any second. The weight of snacks and alcohol you had brought making you stagger as you finally enter Jin’s enormous home.
The one and only thing that’s on your mind is the refreshing feeling of slipping into Jin’s pool while sipping on an iced beverage. This motivates you enough to put all the strength left in your exhausted being to speedily walk into the kitchen and throw everything onto the counter. 
“AHH FUCK!” You flinch at the sudden scream, hugging your body protectively. Jungkook slowly pops out from behind the other side of the counter, his doe eyes big and wide. “You fucking scared me Jesus!” He exclaims, running a hand through sweaty bangs.
The air had escaped your lungs long before you could utter your next sentence as the sight before you has you freezing. There he was, Jeon Jungkook in all his glory. Tanned skin and taut muscle sculpted by the Gods. You didn’t mean to stare, but how could you not! Your eyes had a mind of their own. He’s glorious, every single part of him, and you’re not even afraid to admit it. Your eyes are quick to eat him up, tracing the art staining the whole of his right arm and you wonder what every swirl of ink means to him.
Jungkook coughs awkwardly, going in to scratch at his neck. You imagined he would tease you about your obvious ogling, but it never came. Strange. “Why were you hiding?” You ask, dropping your gaze from his body in order to arrange the snacks into neat piles, using it as an excuse to slowly step closer to him. “Oh! Uh-”, he scratches his head, looking down at his feet before jumping five feet into the air, a startled gasp leaving his lips when the timer of the microwave goes off. 
You burst into laughter and Jungkook flushes in embarrassment. Jin had told you about Jungkook’s embarrassing fear of microwaves but you never thought you would see it first hand. You hold in the laughs that tickle your throat and try to settle him down by lightly touching his shoulder. He flinches at your touch.
“Are you okay?” You’re really close to him now. Your chest is practically pressed up against his and Jungkook gulps. How was it possible that you could look even more stunning than the last time he saw you? Your cheeks are glowing from the soft golden rays of the afternoon sun and the way you look up at him, your soft smile curling makes his head spin.
“Yeah, I’m good”, he breaks eye contact in embarrassment. “Sorry, just uh, microwaves are scary you know?” You giggle up at him. Is this really Jungkook? The Jungkook you’ve seen flaunting a new girl every week just to abruptly break her heart when he can’t promise anything more than sex? 
You’re not complaining, he’s quite adorable like this.
You’re not too sure why his personality has the sudden switch up. It could possibly be the fact that he’s with his closest friends and doesn’t feel the need to put up his playboy persona. Although, the way he blushes when he looks at you plays a different story. Do you make him nervous? Surely not, if the memories of that heated night are anything to go by.
“So uh, are you gonna head into the pool?” His empty stomach is long forgotten as he gestures to the large backyard, you nod up at him excitedly. It’s then Jin decides to bust back into the kitchen, a stern gaze set on his face. “Y/N, can I speak with you for a minute?” Jungkook cautiously takes a step away from you, your bodies no longer close to each other and you notice this with a small frown.
“Yeah, sure”, you relent walking over to Jin who places a protective arm around your shoulders. Unknowingly to you, Jin traps Jungkook down with a hard stare and signals Jungkook to go outside, to which he accepts with a nod.
“I know what you’re gonna say, and no I do not see him like that”, you cross your arms defensively. Jin sighs, “I just don’t wanna see you get hurt again.” He places his hands on your shoulders, full lecture mode on. “Let’s face it, you’re a hopeless romantic, I can’t trust that you won’t do something stupid, but you and Jungkook… You’re both important friends of mine and-” 
You’ve heard his overprotective brotherly speech plenty of times, “I know, and I’m so thankful that you’re looking out for me. I just don’t see the harm in befriending him, you’ve never let me speak to him before.” Jin releases his hold on your shoulders to fix the mess of his wet hair, “and there's a reason for that.”
Why was he so damn hard-headed. Jin loves Jungkook like he loves his family. It just didn't make any sense to you that Jin could approve of their friendship but when it comes to you, he completely shields you away from any interactions with the so called playboy. 
“When are you going to stop protecting me from boys?” Jin senses your frustration immediately. “I may be younger than you, but I’m also an adult just like you. An adult that can make her own choices.” You exhale slowly, “You’ve let me befriend your whole group and they’ve been nothing but wonderful to me, I don’t see the wrong in getting to know Jungkook.” 
Jin lets his guard down. You do have a point, maybe he was being a little too overprotective. He gives you a soft smile, you look away. 
“You’re right, I am in no position to dictate your decisions and who you choose to hang around with, it was wrong of me to treat you like that. Jin looks out into the pool, watching Jungkook tackle Taehyung. “I’m sorry I was a bit too harsh, Jungkook’s a good kid, he just got into the wrong crowd at first. Although, you gotta promise to tell me if he hurts you, cause he knows I’ll beat his ass.” 
You laugh accepting his apology, “are you sure about that? He’s a literal muscle pig.” You both begin to make your way outside and Jin shoves you slightly, “hey! You know I’m right.” Jin shakes his head and brings you into a comforting hug. “Yeah, yeah whatever.” He rolls his eyes, you beam up at him and together you walk out into the warm sunlight.
It hadn’t even been a second since you stepped outside, and already Yoongi’s long term girlfriend, Jieun is squealing your way. “Y/N! I’m so happy you're finally here, the amount of testosterone out here was starting to make me feel faint.” You giggle at her exasperated tone, pulling her into a tight hug. 
Nonchalantly you peel off your flowy sundress, it’s stickiness from your sweat making you cringe. “I missed you last week, why didn’t you come to class?” Jiuen pouts, “I'm sorry bub, I somehow caught a cold, but I trust you have some notes for me.” 
The way Jieun flutters her lashes at you innocently forces a roll from your eyes. Slathering sunscreen onto your arms, you reprimand her, “I swear you’re only using me for my notes, you literally never listen in class! Can you get my back please?”
She hums while you turn around, her small hands kneading sunscreen from your shoulder bones to the small dip in your back. Jieun continues to blabber on about the joys of life, not even checking if you’re listening to a single word she says. Instead your eyes are zeroed in on a certain someone.
Your staring is blatantly obvious but you don’t care. It’s only when Taehyung spots your burning gaze with a small smirk does he signal Jungkook to turn around to meet your flirty grin.  
Holy shit
The sun does a real great job of highlighting the gorgeous curves of your body adorned in quite possibly the smallest baby blue bikini he’s seen on a woman. Your breasts practically spill out of the tiny triangle cups and the pretty colour compliments your skin beautifully. 
Whilst Jungkook can admit you have one of the hottest bodies he’s seen in a while, his eyes surprisingly don't linger on your delicious curves for too long. Instead, he finds himself utterly enamoured by the way your eyes crinkle slightly when you smile prettily at him, your cheeks glowing with it. 
It suddenly dawns on him that you are the first girl that has truly enchanted him, and no, your ridiculously gorgeous body had little to do with it. 
Jungkook does not mind this change one bit. 
So, instead of staring at you like a gaping goldfish, he matches your flirtatious body language with a boyish grin and a small wave. His previous nerves dissipating only to be replaced by confidence and polished charm. He doesn’t want to scare you off with his sudden look of epiphany just yet, but the new unfamiliar feeling you give him is surely doing exactly that.
“My, my, Yoongi wasn’t lying.” Jieun stifles a giggle when she notices how Jungkook’s attention has steered towards you and only you. You’re quick to turn around, brows furrowed. “What are you on about?” 
“Oh you know… You and Jungkook”
You grimace, tired of the repeated topic of conversation. “Just because I sucked his dick once does not mean we're a thing” 
“Oh really? He’s asked me an awful lot of questions about you I was beginning to think otherwise”
“Wait, really?”
Jieun has the widest cheshire grin plastered on her face, it's starting to look quite unsettling.
“Really.”
You’re thoroughly shocked to say the least. You thought your fast, fleeting blowjob, sort of, was nothing special. A usual escapade to get his daily fill. Ordinary. Unmemorable.
However, it seems to be quite the opposite.
Jieun grabs your hand and swings it back and forth, exactly like a mother would do, although she’s merely two years older than you. “I know Jin’s been up your ass about Jungkook and frankly I don’t blame him he’s still a little shit from time to time but, he’s actually quite fun to be around and honestly I think his playboy tendencies seemed to dial down a bit since he met us.” The two of you giggle quietly amongst each other, quick feet making your way closer to the pool to avoid the scorching pavement.
Your toes are the first to dip into the pool and you practically moan at the cold water melting away the blistering haze that sticks onto your skin. The water is icy at your waist and you love it. “So my advice would be not to worry about him, instead it's his little army of plastic bimbos that you should watch out for.” 
“Ahh, internalised misogyny. We love to see it.” 
Jieun acknowledges you with a hum as the two of you float around the calming abyss. She then swims closer to you, nodding her head into the direction of a lonely Jungkook, who lazily stares at your alluring form. “I think your loverboy over there wants to talk to you.”
Jieun swims away before you can protest, leaving you to face the handsome man before you. His eyes are round and docile, yet his stare is tantalising, it pulls you in as if he’s slowly reeling you in with a rope. 
The water delicately ripples around your body when you approach him and you internally sigh in awe at the striking features of his stunning face. You want to use this opportunity to finally get to know him, and perhaps form a new friendship. 
You take note of the lack of Jin’s hawk-like eyes or for better the lack of any eyes on the two of you. You’re alone, huddled into one of the far corners of the pool, your conversation private, just for two pairs of ears. 
You open your mouth to speak, “So-”
“I-”
An uncomfortable silence stills the air and you both halt your words to giggle quietly amongst yourselves. God, this is awkward. 
“You go first”, You offer, tucking a wet strand of hair behind your ear. Jungkook follows the subtle movement of your fingers before taking a deep breath. 
“I feel like we should discuss the elephant in the room”
You're stunned. “Huh?”
“You know… That Friday night?”
Of course you knew what he was referring too, yet you wondered why as you honestly didn’t think that night had much impact on the man. 
With a raised brow you ask, “What about it?”
“I’ve just had a lot of... thoughts”
You scratch your head feeling puzzled. You’re sure Jungkook has had better blowjobs in his lifetime. Hell, Jungkook did most of the work that night. “Do you usually discuss the past hookups you have, or am I just lucky today?”
You’re teasing him, nevertheless Jungkook tilts his head back towards the sky. All he wants is clarification, only this conversation is heading down an awkward path, so he decides to spit out what’s been bothering him for the past few days.
“Okay listen, I know this is odd to say, but ever since that night, It’s like I can’t get you out of my head.”
Your ego inflates at his statement and you smirk. You knew you could suck dick well, but according to Jungkook you seem to have quite the talent.
You smile proudly, “damn, look at me go, I can’t believe I have the campus playboy wrapped around my finger.”
Jungkook scoffs, both in annoyance and embarrassment because shit, he could have worded that differently, now he sounds like the clingy girls he fucks.
“Yeah, yeah let’s not pretend like I was the only one enjoying myself here. Weren’t you the one practically begging to be touched?” 
You’re amused. “Weren’t you the one who couldn’t make me cum. Yet came from their own handjob?”
Jungkook tongues his cheek and looks away. The way you speak so casually intimidates him. No girl has ever spoken to him this way, in fact, Jungkook’s the one who usually likes to tease. He can slowly feel the creeping heat alighting his cheeks and God does he hope you don’t notice.
You patiently wait for Jungkook’s reply, a sly grin adorned on your pretty face. However, Jungkook doesn’t say anything, rather he frowns and immaturely splashes water at your face. 
“Jungkook!” You sputter, wiping at your face to rid of the chlorine in your eyes. “What the fuck was that for?”
He shrugs, “sorry my hand must’ve slipped”
You don’t take that for an answer, your petty nature crawling out as you splash him back harder than he had done. “Hand slipped, my ass.”
You cross your arms smugly, a small laugh blossoming out of your mouth when Jungkook cutely rubs at his eyes. 
It’s after a minute when you realise Jungkook hasn’t stopped furiously rubbing his eyes. The circular motions of his hand move so intensely that it begins to look painful and irritating. “Fuck, it stings”, he exclaims in agony.
Shit, you inwardly curse, gently touching his wrist, concern lacing your features because you didn’t think getting chlorinated water in one's eye would sting that much. You analyse his facial expressions closely and you wince at the redness surrounding his eyes from his harsh rubbing. 
On the contrary, Jungkook knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s competitive and won’t back down from a fight, even if it’s just fun banter, so he continues his little scheme just for the fun of it and hides his small grin under his large hands.
You’re now slightly panicked, “fuck, Jungkook I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit the water that hard I-”
Jungkook cracks.
Ever so slowly, he peeps his eyes out at you and watches with a mischievous smirk as your face morphs from alarmed to annoyed in less than a millisecond.
You tighten your grip on his wrist and attempt to slap his hard chest with your free hand, however Jungkook’s reflexes are fast and he grasps your hand tightly, a teasing glint in his eye. 
“You little shit-”
All of a sudden a loud holler is heard from the front door, rousing a relaxed Jin out of his chair as he sprints while simultaneously yelling at the ruckus being made. It’s then a stampede of both familiar and unfamiliar faces come crashing in. Some jump straight into the pool to cool off from the blazing sun while others rush to the table of assorted alcohol, desperate to get an ounce of it in their system.
Word seemed to go around about Jin’s supposed small get-together unbelievably fast, causing the once tranquil Kim Seokjin into a raging volcano. 
You’re pressed right up against Jungkook’s solid chest and he surprisingly pays you no mind, even though your perky tits are deliciously pushed up perfectly against his body. Jungkook’s eyes are not settled on them, rather he pays close attention to the amount of people dangerously plunging into the pool at a fast rate.
Jungkook protectively hugs your shoulders to shield you from the rowdy party goers who definitely do not understand the definition of personal space. Your heart swells when he then delicately places your head in the crook of his neck and wraps an arm around your fairly exposed body, essentially guarding you from frantic wet limbs and ignorant individuals.
You feel comfortable and safe, so comfortable that you wouldn’t mind staying like this for a while if it weren’t for the throng of college students delving into the cooling water. 
Jin’s house begins to fill with unexpected guests very quickly and you wonder how Jin is handling the situation. You suppose not very well when you see him whipping people with towels, red ears making an appearance and his booming voice following him.
Jungkook wants to get out and he’s sure you feel the same way which is why he smoothly slots his hand into your own, long fingers wrapping around your hand to carefully pull you through the growing crowd of people in the pool.
Whilst pushing past a variety of college students you are met with many stares, even worse, numerous envious eyes and whispers of possible gossip. You try your best to avoid their gazes, the hard stares reminding you of the last time Jungkook held your hand to push through groups of people. 
Water drips down the curves of your body and lands in little pools around you when you step out of the pool. At this point you’ve garnered even more turning heads that examine every inch of your skin closely. Their stares itch your skin and you feel akin to an animal kept in a zoo enclosure, curious eyes breaking down your confidence, you want to hide. 
You usually like to pride yourself on your confidence because you know you’re hot and you know your worth. It had taken many failed relationships to build up your self love and nourish the scars and memories of questioning if you’re good enough. 
You fight on and squeeze Jungkook’s hand, mostly for some sort of reassurance. It shocks you when he astonishingly squeezes back and softly rubs his thumb over the back of your hand. It’s almost as if he knows how you’re feeling. 
You glance up at him shyly. Jungkook keeps his eyes straight ahead. He smiles a different kind of smile than the one he had directed to you a few hours ago. His lips are in a permanent smug smirk. His usual playboy smile. He flashes it at everyone as if he’s asking for their approval and even goes in to high-five a few people who are unrecognisable to you. You soon realise that this is what Jungkook thrives on. People, validation and his notorious reputation he’s created for himself.
Jungkook lights up at the presence of crowds, flirty smiles and people calling his name, whereas you want to crawl into your skin and run away because from the perspective of outsiders it looks like you’re just another one of Jungkook’s flings that will soon be forgotten by next week.
Well, you hope you won’t turn out to be one of them.
At last you find yourself away from the heart of the party, your dress in hand but your body still wet nonetheless. Jungkook is in the same state as yourself, droplets of water dribbling from his dark hair and onto the timber flooring. He leans into your ear, “I’ll go get us some towels, stay here.”
He’s gone before you can reply, making small conversation when he passes by various people, his boisterous laugh echoing down the halls. 
You’re alone now, and defenceless at that. There’s not many people you know here, besides the few odd people you share a class with and some sleazy frat boys that hold a similar reputation to Jungkook. You want to find Jieun so you can hug her or maybe ask her if she can take you home, but she is nowhere to be found.
Fuck, You remember leaving your bag on the kitchen table, unsupervised with many personal belongings stowed away inside. Using your dress to cover the most of your exposed skin like a blanket, you stride over to the kitchen and sigh in relief when you find your bag untouched and in perfect condition.
Snatching up your bag, you grab your phone and immediately text Jieun to find out where the fuck she’s hiding, but there’s a part of you that knows she’s probably fucking Yoongi somewhere. Traitor.
Jungkook finds you to be in a completely different part of the house than where he asked you, one towel wrapped around his neck and the other draped over his arm. You haven’t noticed him yet, your frantic fingers texting a treacherous Jieun, “princess, didn’t I tell you to stay put?”
You’re startled. Switching your phone off you stick your arm out, waiting for Jungkook to pass you the towel but he doesn't. Jungkook gently pushes your shoulders so that you turn away from him and carefully wraps the towel around your body like a cape. You hold the edges of the fabric to help him hug the towel around yourself, keeping it tighter to your body.
Your voice is quiet, “thank you.”
Jungkook leans down to meet your face, “What was that?”
Even though Jungkook had been in the pool longer than you, his cologne still sticks to his skin and you kind of want to breathe more of it in, but that would be weird.
“Oh, I said thank you.”
You’re close to him again, although this time he towers over you with a look almost identical to a predator meeting its prey.
Jungkook’s eyes flirt around your face and descend. He shamelessly drinks up the swell of your breasts and whatever skin is visible amidst the fluffy towel around you. It’s strange. You had noticed Jungkook doing the exact same thing when you were alone with him. The difference though was that his looks were cursory as if he didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Now, It's like a new persona had taken over him and he was ready to pounce at any sign of a green light. 
He’s stuck in a trance, fuckboy tinted glasses fogging his vision.
You force out a giggle and playfully shove his shoulder, “my eyes are up here, you know.” 
His reply comes lighting fast, he’s definitely been in this position before. “I know, just admiring them.”
Jungkook wants to hit himself the second his reply spewed out of his mouth. He desperately wants to reassure your unimpressed (though also very cute) face, because goddammit he wanted to be respectful. Jungkook knows he has a tendency to slip into a new personality when the right amount of people hyped him. Call it being two faced, he knows it's one of his fatal flaws. 
“I'm sorry.” 
He says it genuinely. 
Jungkook only just got to properly meet you, he doesn’t want to give you the wrong impression! He can admit, your first ever official meeting (moreso hookup) wasn’t ideal, yet the way Jin dragged him through the mud undoubtedly made him understand that you weren’t the type of woman that should ever undergo the treatment he puts his hookups through. Scratch that, any woman shouldn’t be treated the way Jungkook treats them.
You're now fully covered under the towel, not a sliver of skin on display. You don’t know if his apology was genuine. “It’s ok I guess, I expected nothing less from you anyways.”
“Right.” He’s messed up.
You clear your throat, “I’m gonna go get changed, maybe look for Jieun unless-”
Jungkook finishes your sentence, “-she’s fucking Yoongi.”
You exhale, “yeah.”
“Jeon Jungkook!”
The voice makes you halt at its familiar tone. Jungkook doesn’t notice your growing panic as he too freezes in his spot. 
No, it can’t be.
The world plays in slow motion when he walks into your line of vision. His assertive stride, smug smile and sharp eyes.
Jeong Suho.
His name explodes inside of you like a blistering fire yet your heart feels ice cold. He is the very man you have spent weeks trying to avoid and even more trying to get out of your head.
The world plays at a normal speed when he approaches Jungkook. Their facial expressions are the same, the way they greet each other is the same. They’re practically the same breed of fuckboy, born from the same mother.
“Been awhile since I’ve seen you around.”
Jeong Suho was a person that Jungkook didn’t really mind, In fact there was a point in Jungkook’s life where he would’ve considered Suho to be one of his closest friends. They were two peas in a pod freshmen year of college. Never giving a fuck about their education and always present for any opportunity to get completely wasted with as many girls they could possibly seduce. Nowadays, Jungkook would rather keep his distance from him.
On the contrary, you were one of the many girls that had fallen deeply for Suho’s alluring charm. You fell so hard, you thought that maybe just maybe there was a possibility that you could secure a future with him. Obviously that was not the case.
You thank your lucky stars that Jungkook was there to distract Suho while you make your haste escape. All you need to do now is somehow locate an unoccupied bathroom, preferably without having to walk in on someone getting it on, and then you could get the hell out of there.
You must admit, you look quite ridiculous right now. Navy blue towel wrapped tightly around your body, your small head peeking through. You could probably pass as some form of E.T cosplay right now. You don’t care if you look rude, pushing and shoving whoever stands in your way. You only have one goal and you’re so so close to succeeding-
“Wait, Y/N! Is that you?”
Fuck.
Do you run? Maybe duck behind some poor innocent student looking for a good time? You huff, you're already sticking out like a sore thumb, there’s no use in trying to hide when the enemy has already spotted you. Even worse Jungkook motions you over with a wide gleaming smile. If only he knew how much you’re dreading this interaction.
Grudgingly, you walk over, looking like an irritated gremlin with your towel still firmly secured around you. Jungkook makes matters worse by pushing the towel off your head, releasing your scruffy ball of hair. You grimace. 
“I didn’t know you knew Y/N?”
Suho sends a smirk your way. You however, glower.
“Yeah we go way back, don’t we baby?”
You force a tight lipped smile, howbeit you look as if you have a mild case of constipation. 
“Sure.” It comes out rough through gritted teeth.
Suho notes your frustration, a sly grin carving onto his punchable face. He turns towards Jungkook, seemingly blocking you from their conversation, yet you know Suho wants you to hear what he has to say.
“You know it’s a shame. Y/N’s gorgeous, ten outta ten body, knows how to put it to good use, however she never let me fuck her. Don’t you think that’s weird?”
Jungkook stays silent for a minute, eyeing your shaking fists and angry eyebrows. Jungkook may be dumb, but he sure knows how to read a room, thus leading him to the conclusion that your relationship with Suho isn’t something you’re very fond of and that he should probably get you out of here.
“Uhhh no, that’s not weird at all actually. What I think is weird is the fact that you think you have this sick claim on every girl you’ve defiled and even worse, you’ve always had this strange need to chase after every virgin you see like some perverted cherry picker. Yeah, that’s weird.”
Suho laughs right in his face, spit grossly tickling his skin. “That’s rich coming from you Jeon, weren't you quite the cherry picker in your freshman days, no?”
Jungkook doesn’t know what he expected from this conversation. It definitely wasn’t this.
It's obvious that Jungkook isn’t a saint, he really fucking far from it. Although, one thing's for sure, it’s his absolute hatred for the way his brain was wired in his freshman year of college. Yes, Jungkook still remains as one of the standing campus fuckboys but he’s gained a few more brain cells since then. 
Jungkook opens his mouth to retort, only to be met with Suho’s back as he turns his attention towards you.
“Y/N, darling if I were you i’d make a run for it, ya know keep your chastity intact or whatever.” His smile is saccharine sweet, though his words are sickly sour.
The months of pent up anger stored within your being bubbles and overflows like a bad science experiment. You’ve quickly decided that now’s that time to expose the shitty excuse of a man, and quite frankly you don’t care that you have an audience. Actually, an audience would make this all the better.
Your finger is strong, pointing accusingly at his broad chest. “You know what you stupid motherfucker? Don’t waltz in here with that dumb smile of yours when you know you have some disgusting cheesy infection growing down there.”
Suho’s eyes widen slightly. It was no secret he was a walking STD, just about infecting every girl that was naive enough to sit on his dick. 
Everyone at the party has definitely stopped to listen to what you have to say. You even spot Jin from the corner of your eye sending you a proud smile. “And while we're on the topic of cheese, Learn how to wash your fucking dick!”
You don’t let him have a moment to speak, grabbing Jungkook’s hand and pulling him out of the house.
A few people applaud, some girls praise you on your way out. You give them no mind, you’ve had enough for tonight.   
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Jungkook starts his car, no questions asked. It’s obvious to him that there’s bad blood between you and Suho. What you don’t know is that Jungkook can also relate. 
Technically there was no bad blood between them, moreso the hurtful memories and manipulation Suho put him through. To put it simply, Suho was probably the worst influence Jungkook could ever have as a vunerable freshman. 
The crunch of gravel and soft melodies that spill out of Jungkook’s radio converse with eachother and fill the defeaning silence that sits between you and Jungkook. 
Jungkook doesn’t even know where he’s going, he just drives. 
Every so often he checks up on you from the corner of his eye. Your knees stick tightly together and point away from him. Your fingers curl and uncurl, leaving cresent moons in your skin. And to finish it off, your face remains still, hostility completely washing over your features. If Jungkook didn’t know any better he would think you’d jump out of his car and make a run for it at the chance of him stopping the car.
It’s seven sniffles later when Jungkook decides he knows where he should take you.
The night sky is clear and the stars burn brightly to accompany the full round moon. It’s the perfect setting for release and maybe a screaming session if you’re up for it.
Jungkook makes a stop behind a forest of tall trees and a dirt path. You sit up immediately. 
“Where are we?” Your eyes are rimmed with tears, “I want to go home.”
Jungkook shuts the engine off, “you never told me where you live.”
“Well you never asked!”
Maybe you shouldn’t have yelled because from the looks of it, Jungkook just wants to help you out and clearly you’re not being the friendliest right now. 
You curl back into yourself, “sorry”, another sniffle.
Jungkook brings your fists into his hands and warmly opens them up. You refuse to look at him, it doesn’t deter Jungkook one bit.
Tenderly he brings a finger under your chin, gradually bringing your eyes up to his. Jungkook takes his time with you, careful to not set you off until you’re face to face with his warm eyes. 
“I brought you here because it’s apparent we both need let out some pent up steam.” He drags his fingers delicately across the curve of your chin and back into his lap. His touch is fleeting, you miss it already. “I just thought you may want to vent or just shout out into the void, it’s up to you.” You nod, fully trusting Jungkook’s intentions. “And at any time you feel like going home just say the word and I’ll take you there, okay?” 
Your heart swells in adoration at his caring nature, though you can’t help but wonder how he can have such a sudden change in personality depending on where he is and who he’s with. It’s unnerving. 
Jungkook clicks his seatbelt off and heads out the car, “put your dress back on princess, I’ll be out here waiting for you.” You mutter your confirmation and do as he asks.
The cool summer air kisses your skin and runs through your hair as you step out of the car. Jungkook is already by your side dressed in an oversize hoodie with another in his hand as well as a fuzzy blanket. 
Jungkook steps closer to you, holding the hem of his hoodie to slip over your body. Without a second thought you raise your hands causing Jungkook to chuckle at how cute you look dwarfed in his clothes.
The same cologne you smelled on his skin earlier lingers on every fibre of fabric around you. His scent is everywhere, swirling around your head, instantly calming down your anxieties. You smile at him, “Lead the way Jungkook.”
Jungkook leads you up a small hill and you notice the trees opening up to display a lush field of grass. However, the sight before you leaves you in absolute wonder. You stand completely still and take it all in. 
The night sky is dark but the city below illuminates is beautifully. Your gaze bounces over all the buildings, skyscrapers and their dazzling bright lights. It’s peaceful up here, you decide as you take a glimpse of the hundreds of tall structures looking so tiny, so ant-like.
Jungkook is settled behind you, his legs comfortably folded underneath himself. He remembers what it was like the first time he saw the view, which is why he doesn’t blame your stunned silence and glazed eyes. 
“How did you find this place?”
You find your way towards Jungkook and plant yourself right beside him. “I don’t know, I was just driving aimlessly one night and found it, It’s nice right.”
You hum, “it’s beautiful.”
Jungkook murmurs in agreement as you lie down on the woolly blanket beneath you. The stars twinkle and glimmer amongst the deep blue sky, creating a serene experience. You shut your eyes.
“I hate him.”
Jungkook looks down at you, you don’t see him though. “Suho?”
“Yeah”, you exhale deeply, “I can’t believe I had to see him again.”
Although Jungkook knows you can’t see him, he swivels his body around to face you properly. “Did you guys date or something?”
You scoff, “pffft you know Suho doesn’t date anyone.” You open your eyes, meeting a pair of round docile ones. You continue, “Suho was the first guy who every gave me an ounce of attention. Before him guys never looked my way. Jungkook remains silent, letting you pour out what’s on your mind.
“Suho had me fooled, I thought I was special to him, thought he saw something in me that was different from the others. Turns out that was his game after all”
You speak so animatedly, your hands wave around in the air, your eyebrows scrunch when the memories come back to you. “It’s stupid really, how I used to gush to him about finding the one person in the universe that was created just for me. I guess he used this as my weak point.” 
Inhale, exhale. 
“He made me believe he was that special person for me, used it as an excuse to pressure me into sex.” A tear rolls down the side of your face, falling perfectly in a straight line. “I almost gave in, but something just felt so wrong. Every time I said no he would call me terrible names, tell me that no one would want me if I never gave them what they wanted. And I believed him.”
Another tear escapes your wet orbs, Jungkook is there to wipe it this time.
“I broke it off after I found out he fucked my roommate and gave her some disease.” You chuckle, “I guess I’m lucky I never let him fuck me huh?” 
Jungkook’s heart breaks at your saddened eyes and the way Suho treated you, he sweeps a stray hair out of you face. “I think you dodged a bullet there princess, what he did to you was pure evil, no one, and especially you don’t deserve that”
You sit up, wiping remaining tears and thanking him as you go, “It’s your turn now.” You pat his thigh, “tell me why Suho got you so riled up tonight.”
Jungkook shuffles in his spot, “It’s actually kind of similar to you.”
You gasp sarcastically, “no way he pressured you into sex too?”
He laughs, eyes squeezing shut, “No, no, nothing like that.”
You lean closer to Jungkook, giving him the same attention he had given you. “My father left when my mother found out she was pregnant with me, so growing up I had no male figure present in my life. My mother stopped at nothing to give me that to the point that almost every week I’d wake up and see a new man drinking out of my favourite mug. I didn’t mind it because I was only a child and some part of me always hoped they would stay, but they never did.”
“My mom was a hopeless romantic. She held so much sentimental and idealistic views on love that it stuck to me. She always told me that there was someone special out there just for me.” You smile at the similar belief, Jungkook sighs. 
“Cut to college, Suho was the first friend I made. I had no experience with girls whatsoever, and I still held on to my mother’s faith. Whenever I talked to Suho about it he would always shut me down or make fun of me.”
“He told me that all my feelings are bullshit, and that I only felt that way because I’ve never hooked up with anyone before. Next thing I knew we were going to parties every week getting absolutely shitfaced and fucking every girl I laid eyes on.”
You nod, listening intently. “And tonight, he hit a nerve. What he said made me realise that I’m just as bad as him. He moulded me into this person and now I have a reputation.”
Jungkook’s eyes drop, “he broke my concept of love before I even got to experience it.”
You never knew Jungkook was in a place like this. You always thought he was like Suho, built to break hearts and show no emotion when it came to love. Jungkook was nothing like that. His heart was truly big, desperately longing for someone.
Placing your hand on top of his own you comfort him as best as you can, “oh, Jungkook, trust me when I tell you this, the love in your heart is not broken. Think about it, most people you’ve met have been through college right?” He nods, “there are so many other people out there that you’ve never met, soon you’ll be able to find that someone and learn how to love. I know you present yourself as this emotionless playboy, but once you let that part of you go it’ll feel so freeing.”
Jungkook stares deeply into your eyes, he’s so thankful that he decided to bring you here, he can’t contain his happiness. 
“Can I like, hug you?” Jungkook asks shyly. You smile, and it’s so big and bright Jungkook might as well be staring at the sun. Before he knows it, you’re tackling him into the most wholesome hug he’s ever had. You’re warm and you smell like vanilla, It feels like home.
“Get up”, he says abruptly, extending his arm to pull up your confused self.
“What-”, Jungkook cuts you off, “have you ever just let yourself scream?”
Jungkook has intertwined your hands together, and your heart pounds at the realisation of how well they fit together. “Well, no but I assume that’s what we’re about to do right now.”
He pulls you closer to the edge of the small hill, the view of the city sparkles right in front of you. “On the count of three, one- two- three!”
You scream, you let it all out and God does it feel refreshing.
The two of you sound utterly insane, but none you give a single fuck. You scream until your lungs burn and your throat itches you to stop.
The volume of both of your voices ring out into the night sky only for the moon, stars and yourselves. The night is still young but Jungkook wouldn’t have it any other way.
With you he lets go of everything, all the past mistakes, all the hurt because at this moment he feels like he could fly, soar into the clouds. 
He feels infinite.
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Taglist <3 
@zibermuda @uskookie @jeonscandies @melaninkpops @apollukee @hollowtree10 @liliskies @madygswich @pjmochii @eggbutnotyolk @gyukult @yukiehyukie @purplepearl07 (couldn’t tag) @tae165 @youurkryptonite @94ser0da @french-myfries @zippytheshark37 (couldn’t tag) @we8joon @tearvantae​ @emrysts @inspinkyring​​
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genshin-impact-fics · 3 years
Text
Finding out You're in the Fatui
Characters: Jean, Childe, Keqing, Albedo, Diluc, Xiao
Diluc:
Whatever way he finds out he’s very upset; he trusted you, he fell in love with you yet now he finds out you’re with the enemy? He’s fearing that everything that’s happened between the two of you was a lie, that you just used him until you got what you needed. His brain is just in a storm of thoughts
He wants to believe that you’re good at heart, that all of this was because you didn’t have much of a choice. He’s going to ask questions, but more importantly he will offer you a way out: abandon the Fatui and just live with him he will vow to protect you and even find a safe area to work if employment was a concern of yours
If you accept his offer he’s glad that he didn’t have to lose you, he loves you too much and it’d be just too sad for him to have to cut ties with you especially since you’re the first one he’s felt such strong feelings for
But if you refused and you made it clear that you willingly joined the Fatui, he’s absolutely heartbroken. He’d probably start crying out of how painful the reality of the situation was and try to beg you to leave and stay with him. He does not have the heart to even consider having to fight you, he didn’t want to harm you yet here you were showing a completely different side to you that not even he caught onto
Xiao:
He is enraged at the new information when he finds out. He curses himself for being so blind and having trusted you as much as he did. How could he be calm about this; you played a hand in the fall of the archon he served under, the archon that saved him from his horrible past and gave him a new purpose in life. How could he ever forgive you for such a betrayal
Though he refuses to bloody his hands with those of mortal blood, he will lash out and attack you. His heart hurts as how could he let this happen, he loved you yet was this the world’s way of punishing him for his past he could only wonder
If you plea to him to listen to your explanation he’s conflicted; you were either telling the truth or you were lying to just buy yourself some time… But he stopped and kept a safe distance from you as though you hurt his trust in his heart he still very much loves you so if there was a glimmer of hope that you can be saved he would be willing to listen to judge for himself. His expression softens when learning that you essentially got forced and trapped into working in the Fatui and at that point he is willing to keep you with him which mainly consisted of you living at the Wangshu Inn with him
However if you confirm that you’re in the Fatui of your own choosing he’s hurt, but he’s already withdrawing his own emotions so it didn’t get in the way of his duties. You’re no longer the mortal he fell in love with, you were just another mortal trying to use him for your personal gain. He’ll warn you to never to return and that you are no longer permitted to call out his name because from that moment on you were enemies
Albedo:
Deep down he didn’t want to accept the possible fact you were potentially bad. There were small things you did or said that made him slightly skeptical of you yet he overlooked them because he was in love with you, there was something that always made him so curious and so fascinated with you. You never judged him, you were patient with him, as you even put yourself at risk with plenty of his experiments
Of course this conversation was in the privacy of his lab in Dragonspine, surely there was no need to have a big scene be made especially when he wanted to simply hear what you had to say for yourself. He’s very composed and calm for someone who’s feeling this pain in his chest at the fact that you’ve kept this from him for so long
If you were truly innocent it saddens him to hear how you were stuck paying off a debt that wasn’t even your own and that was the only reason why you were stuck in the predicament that you’re in. Surely there had to be some way to hide you from the Fatui right? Maybe not up there in Dragonspine since there were already so many of the agents scouting the mountains, but maybe he could ask Jean if you could stay with him; however, that then led to another possible problem. If he tried to explain the details the fact that you were associated with the Fatui, Jean might just want to arrest you for interrogation which he might have to simply keep that knowledge to himself for the sake of your safety
But at any time you're telling your story he will call you out on something if he feels you weren’t being truthful. Hearing that you were a third generation agent he came to understand that it was initially a family legacy to uphold; rather unfortunate but oddly enough he still didn’t look down on you for that. Of course he’s unsure of what to do as things are surely to be complicated now, but how could he come to really see you as the enemy when he loves you
Regardless of the case, he will continue to stay with you; however, he’ll take a few precautions to insure his own safety. He won’t be sharing details of things he’s working on, no more asking to help with experiments (unless they’re just something mundane and nothing too serious), but other than that he just can only hope that you will continue to be truthful from there forth
Childe:
You are his favorite and it’s very obvious to everyone in the Fatui. You are just about the only exception out of all the agents that he will go a little bit easy on when it comes to missions not going accordingly. He love you to bits and surely made sure that you knew he was serious about your twos relationship
You are not allowed to go on missions with the other Harbingers, Childe is very keen on having you accompany him and only him on missions. He also personally sees to your training because he sees the potential in you and it just seemed like the other agents who are in charge of training don’t seem to up to the level that best benefited you
You get spoiled a lot, he also makes sure to always praise you after any mission or task you do: you had a minor task to go collect a debt? Childe will tell you a job beautifully done. You were away on a big mission that had to do with looking for evidence of the whereabouts of another archon? He’ll tell you how proud he is and how much he loves you. He will make a request the Tsaritsa to bestow a delusion onto you; cuz surely if one of her Harbingers is speaking so highly of someone truly they are worthy of her gift
There was already so much to love about you already but ever since he found out how good you were with his siblings he knew that you were the one for him. He can trust you to look after his siblings to keep them safe since they already know that you are his significant other (but of course have no clue either of you work in the fatui). You two are in Liyue and Teucer suddenly appears out of nowhere: you’re already prepared to take care of and look after the younger brother. Childe just loves how good you are with him and it shows how much Teucer likes you too. Childe only wish that he could marry you the next day (something he says often to you)
Jean:
Needless to say she was distraught when she stumbled upon you speaking in a hushed tone with La Signora in the dead of night in an alleyway during her patrol. She didn’t know what to think but of course she wanted to confront you yet she’d stay hidden and wait till you were alone which didn’t help her spiraling thoughts wondering if you had been with the enemy this whole time and what the two of you had was just pretend to you
The moment the coast is clear Jean will come out of hiding and stand tall with her arms over her chest though the expression on her face does not match the rest of her body language. She knows she should keep this professional without getting her emotions involved, but how could she not when it was you; you were her lover so naturally she can’t help it
You knew you were in trouble as you could have hightailed it the other way, but you knew it would only make matters worse though also even if you had run now you’d have to face her eventually so what was the point. You answered whatever question she asked you; Though Jean did have a slightly difficult time being able to tell when certain replies you gave were possibly a lie. It pains her to have to consider breaking up because she did love you yet how could she love someone that could pose a great threat to her home that she’s sworn to protect; would probably have you put into custody for a while just to fully ensure that you weren’t just a spy or scheming behind the knights of favonius’ back
You of all people did Jean not expect to have such a high standing in the Fatui; you weren’t just some agent to be stationed there, you were a younger sibling of one of the harbingers overseeing everything the agents did. It made everything all the more painful for Jean as she thought she finally found someone who understood her and loved her despite her business along with her flaws, but she started to doubt your relationship. She’d have to take you in for further questioning to see what information you’ve leaked out, but when you made a run for it Jean knew she should chase after you yet… She let you escape, she didn’t want you getting hurt as for this one time will she let you do so; however, if you two crossed paths again unfortunately you’d give her no other choice but to warrant your arrest
Keqing:
She’s surprised at the fact that you’re associated with the Fatui, but of course she’s going to act as if it doesn’t bother her or hurt her in the slightest (though we all know just how badly she’s hurting on the inside). She knew it was too good to be true that you so happened to share the same ideologies and that you got along so beautifully.
She has put so much trust in you that she’s brought you up to the Jade Chamber with her to have peaceful tea time dates a couple of times before its destruction. Yet you made her look like a fool, as even if you never intended to hurt her or betray her, Keqing takes it very personally even if her love for you runs deep
Regardless whether or not you were good of heart that was trapped serving the Fatui or truly was lying about everything and using her that whole time she will coldly cut you off. She’s putting on her tough act saying how she simply cannot love a traitor that has put liyue in harm's way
It’s not until she’s alone or possibly just with Ganyu that Keqing breaks down into tears sobbing over her heartbreak. Nothing hurt more than letting you go, how she wanted to give you that second chance, but she couldn’t let love cloud her judgement, as maybe one day in the future you two could be together, but for now she’d need time to heal though she probably never really gets over you
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heavensgateiowa · 3 years
Note
I seen you mention latent homosexual Jason and if you're interested in further elaborating I would love to hear it
hello hi!
so i would love to someday write a full piece about jason grace with like. real textual analysis and shit but i'm letting my ideas fester first
i've also made a few posts talking about where he as a character is placed in relation to other queer characters (as nico's initial confidant and friend, as piper's comphet partner) and also his relationship to leo (and to percy lmao) already.
essentially, jason has, almost from birth, had his life controlled by jupiter, king of the gods and ultimate archetype of masculinity, fatherhood and virility, and juno, his wife, goddess of marriage. riordan's characterisation of both these characters deliberately skews negative, for a very specific reason: the series hinges on just how scary it is to have a parental figure reject you.
percy feels abandoned by the father he never knew at the beginning of the series. annabeth is desperate to impress her mother, and feels overshadowed and abandoned by the rest of her family. piper is completely disconnected from the idea of heterosexual love and traditional, eurocentric feminine beauty which she associates with her mother, and repulsed by the association while so fascinated by it and desperate for the approval associated with it that she seeks it out in the form of her relationship with jason. i could go on, and each of these examples probably deserves its own in depth examination.
but for all these characters, alienation from and abandonment by a parental figure is the ultimate evil, the thing they fear most, the most destructive force in their lives. it's a reflection of the adolescent experience which makes the books resonate so hard with young people. it's an example of the 'there is a dragon. the adults don't believe you when you say there is a dragon' philosophy of childrens books; it is so hard to articulate as a child the negative experiences you are having with a parent or caregiver, and even if you can articulate those experiences, who will believe you? certainly not the parent themselves.
jason represents all this in extremis. what if a child was taken from his mother and sister (the same thing that happens to nico, incidentally, only jason was too young to remember it and is therefore almost numb to the trauma by comparison because he has never known it any other way), and groomed to become a leader and a hero in such a way that he could never become anything else? jupiter and juno are villainised because they represent the ultimate evil of the series, parental neglect, abuse and control. the distant father, who says out loud that he will not give his son the attention, praise or affection that he so clearly needs as a matter of principle. the overbearing mother and wife archetype, who becomes an embodiment of both heteronormativity and control, those things being one and the same in jason's life. when he seeks control he also seeks heterosexuality.
conversely, when he gives up control, when he gives up his role as praetor, when he and piper break up, he stops seeking heterosexuality. i would argue this very slow slide begins when he sees juno's true form and starts losing his vision (god im so hazy on this point ive only read the books once sorry if i get this wrong). he is exposed to the 'true form' of the goddess that represents, to him, heterosexuality and control. he then loses his vision, and is given glasses (by asclepius the son of apollo dont even get me started on that particular train of thought). this represents a physical transition, a step-down from youthful masculine perfection into almost a form of old age.
this is jason’s attempt to reclaim his own life and agency, and it ultimately leads to his death.
there’s something very compelling in the accidental ‘bury your gays’ moment that happens in trials of apollo. riordan has talked about how, upon reflection looking at the first series, he realised that nico was a queer character.
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this is fascinating, and an excellent statement regarding nico, but the context of jason makes it all the more interesting. nico and jason are almost total opposites; nico is an outsider, a victim, associated with death and hell. he’s a lot more easy to shape into a queer narrative, where he comes out and is accepted within the group. instead, jason has spent his whole life on top of the world. a praetor, son of the king of the gods, the embodiment of strength and classical masculinity and heroism (but completely without agency). shaping a queer narrative out of that proves to be a great deal more difficult, and so riordan doesn’t. i don’t believe he intended to do this, i don’t think he recognised jason’s queerness for what it was, but he sublimates jason’s queerness into other things; he has jason fight for the underdog, like nico and the underappreciated gods. he has jason move from praetor to pontifex maximus, one of the only remotely autonomous choices he makes in the series. he has jason wear glasses with all they represent. he has jason slowly back away from heteronormativity, from jupiter and juno and all that they represent, from his failed relationship with piper.
but jason still dies. he fails to escape his fate, and dies the death of the very heroic warrior he no longer wanted to be. and his queerness dies with him.
there is so much more i could elaborate on, and someday i will, but this is already way longer than i meant it to be lol. long story short jason grace my beloved
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archived-kin · 3 years
Text
caught in a twin courtship
note from kin: i’m going to be honest i only really wrote this because the title is fun to say, so it isn’t as cohesive as i normally would have wanted to make it
(this is an au where the twins aren’t separated by the unknown god! instead, just their world-hopping powers were stolen, and that’s why they’re journeying to find said god - to get their powers back so that they can go home. i’ve also excluded paimon since i kind of forgot about her while writing this haha)
(this doesn’t follow canon at all since reader and the twins just kind of start wandering about after the dvalin incident rather than heading straight for liyue oops)
fandom: genshin impact
character(s): gn!reader, lumine, aether, diluc, venti, jean
pairing(s): aether/reader/lumine
warning(s): i don’t think so??
genre: fluff with a little bit sprinkling of angst
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you first meet the twins in the aftermath of the stormterror battle. it isn’t a glamorous introduction by any means - it’s pretty unflattering, actually - but it definitely makes a powerful first impression.
the group - aether, lumine, venti, diluc, and jean - are on their way back to mondstadt city, making small talk here and there, but mostly just walking in silence.
then they hear a yell in the distance.
jean and lumine both drop into a battle stances, venti leaps to hide behind aether with a very unmanly squeak of fear… but diluc, who arguably should have been the most alerted by this occurrence, just gives a resigned sigh and pauses.
a split second later, a figure comes speeding up to the group. you barrel up to diluc and immediately punch him square in the stomach, yelling “why didn’t you tell me you were going after stormterror?!”
aether and venti both give matching gasps of horror at the blatant disrespect, but diluc only shakes his head and catches your fist as it goes for another blow, this one aimed at his chest, and chastises, “calm down, i left a note.”
“i left a note,” you mimic, an absolutely awful impression that has you sounding more like a mosquito than the darknight hero, “fat lot of use that is when you aren’t even telling me where you’re going!”
diluc evades another jab at his arm and firmly sets his hands on both your shoulders, effectively anchoring you to the ground. you contemplate swinging your feet at his knees and knocking him over, or maybe shocking him with your electro vision, but ultimately decide that you might as well try to preserve what little dignity you have left in front of those three people you’ve never met before
so you stop with a defeated sigh and turn to face said three people to introduce yourself
it turns out that you’re diluc’s cousin and he’s been having to baby-sit you for the last few years after your own parents left on a ‘business trip’ to snezhnaya that they’re still not back from
you’re pretty sure they’re dead, killed by the fatui, and you say as much during your introduction without even the slightest sign of distress, which is a little unsettling
lumine’s first thought is that you’re quite the interesting character, what with the casual way you treat diluc, and how you don’t seem to question whatever situation lead you to meet in the first place
aether’s first thought is holy shit, they’re cute
one twin greets you in return with a lot more enthusiasm than the other, and venti the bard wastes no time in asking whether you have access to good master diluc’s wine storage
(you’d be shocked by the audacity if you weren’t just as bad as him when it came to shamelessness)
strangely enough, the fact that aether likes you so much actually makes lumine more wary of you than she was initially
aether trusts too easily, and from experience, that usually leads to disaster - and your flippancy regarding your parents’ apparent probable deaths rather inclines her to think that you might be a very dangerous person indeed
the three of you don’t see each other for a couple of days after that - you and diluc leave for dawn winery together, while the twins depart with venti to wrap their whole situation up, and jean returns to her duties in mondstadt city
all this time, apparently unbeknownst to even himself, aether keeps finding ways to bring you up in the middle of conversation
you’d only spoken to him for a few minutes and somehow that as enough to get him absolutely fascinated
lumine would be lying if she said she wasn’t still curious about you as well, but it gets annoying after aether somehow manages to mention how ‘mysterious’ your black cloak is in the middle of a conversation about why mitachurls are able to randomly set their axes on fire
luckily for these two, they happen to run into you the very next day!
you’re in the middle of taking out a ruin guard stomping around the thousand winds temple -  a ruin guard that the twins had been meaning to take down themselves, which is why they’re here in the first place
at first they move to help you, only to stop short and watch in awe as you plunge down at the ruin guard from atop one of the enormous pillars, your polearm held steady in your grasp as your entire body seems to spark and glow with a deep purple electro energy
the sharp blade of your polearm goes clean through the top of the ruin guard’s head and shatters its core, and it sinks to the ground with a massive thud that echoes around the temple ruins, massive wooden limbs twitching and jerking as the last of your vision’s energy disperses from it
aether and lumine are basically star-struck
from there you spot them and call them over for a conversation, show them how to take apart a ruin guard’s circuits to get at the good parts, and somehow end up agreeing to journey with them across teyvat in their search for an unknown god who stole their abilities to hop from world to world as well as their apparent true power that allows them to wield all seven elements at once
the details are a little lost on you, but what you’re hearing is that you get to go on a cool adventure with a cool gal and a cool lad, so you’re pretty much all for it
diluc isn’t too happy about you up and leaving without so much as two week’s notice (partially because he has literally no friends apart from you and he’d get lonely without his little cousin bothering him all the time) but you simply tell him to deal with it and go anyway
(you do give him a big hug and promise to visit, you’re not heartless)
from then on you, aether and lumine become a dynamic trio like no other
it’s actually pretty damn spooky how well the three of you end of working together
aether and lumine had long since formed a style of fighting that meant they made up for each other’s weak spots and could attack in perfect sync, but then you come along and somehow manage to make their already pretty flawless formation even better
is it witchcraft? they honestly don’t know
considering you fit so well into their battle strategies, it follows that you’d also slot perfectly into their every day life
lumine is cautious at first, wondering if your presence would disrupt her and her brother’s long since pre-established routines, but you fit in so naturally that it’s as if you were there all long
maybe it it’s this that makes both twins slowly start falling for you - the comfort of being beside you and the familiarity that you bring are things that they struggled to find, being trapped in a world far from their own with no way to get out, and they unknowingly latch onto you like drowning men clutching lifebuoys
aether is the most obvious about his feelings - he starts waking up earlier just because he knows you do, sitting beside you as you stoke a campfire and keep watch for any approaching monsters, making quiet conversation as lumine continues sleeping. he tells you stories about his adventures in other worlds, including an encounter with a rather bigoted individual who is the reason that he keeps his hair so long while lumine’s has been cut short
he even starts taking his hair out of its braid before he goes to sleep so that he can ask you to braid it for him when he wakes up
lumine is a lot more subtle
she finds excuses to stand closer to you when, deliberately brushing her fingers against yours when handing you something. she listens far more attentively to you when you speak than anyone else, and she smiles far more in your presence, hanging onto your every word and gazing at you so intensely that it’s almost unsettling
of course, the twins notice each other’s feelings pretty easily
at first neither acknowledges it - it’d be far too messy for both to accept that they’d both fallen in love with the same person, let alone actually admit this to each other
but it gets to the point where it just isn’t ignorable anymore, and finally the twins decide to talk
it’s about as civil and sensible as they could hope for with the subject at hand, and they eventually decide to talk to you about it
and so, we come to an ultimatum. what will your choice be?
if you reject both, it’ll be hard to continue adventuring with twins who can’t look in your direction. neither resent you, of course, but the atmosphere has become so stifling that they can’t even make eye contact
it’s as if an enormous gap has opened up between the three of you. the twins are avoiding each other as well, unsure of how to handle the fact that they’re both in love with the same person and have now both been rejected by that same person. if anything, they should be becoming closer out of solidarity, but it seems that they can’t stand to be in each other’s presence as much as they can’t stand to be in yours.
the three of you still work together as seamlessly in battle as you did before, but once the final monster has been cut down and your weapons are sheathed, that connection seems to disappear again.
it’s aether who finally breaks the stalemate. he starts trying to start conversations as the three of you sit awkwardly apart from each other around a fire, and while the first few attempts end in stony silence and an awkward cough on his part, eventually you begin replying with some semblance of the humour you used to
from there things only improve - the three of you come to a silent mutual agreement to leave this behind you, and soon you’re all laughing and joking as you used to
lumine and aether both know that they cannot force you to love either of them, and they respect your choice. if anything, they’re the ones in the wrong for springing something like this on you so suddenly, and they start to feel a little guilty that they were essentially pressuring you into making a choice that you were never obligated to make
so they return to treating you as a dear friend, just as before. things are different now, of course, but they can only be grateful that you continue to travel with them and stay by their side; this situation doesn’t make them love you any less, even if you don’t love them in the same way.
if you choose lumine, aether will be understanding. the twins have been each other’s only support for longer than they can remember, and as the older brother, he’s well used to giving things up for his sister.
he’ll still be friendly and amicable, but he won’t seek you out as much as he did before. he starts braiding his hair by himself again, and stays in bed as late as he can every morning so that he doesn’t have to be face to face with you. just because he’s accepted this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt.
sometimes, when the sky grows dark and you and lumine have long since fallen asleep beside each other, he wonders to himself - why is it that he has to give everything to his sister? he’s given away so much, so why couldn’t the universe let him have this one thing?
but he knows, deep down, that this is nothing to do with the universe - you simply fell in love with someone that wasn’t him, his sister at that, and he’s struggling to come to terms with it.
he wants to hate you, hate lumine, hate the relationship that the two of you have formed, but he just can’t. he loves the both of you in different ways that are just as important as each other, and he can’t stand to lose either of you. he’d rather throw himself off of starsnatch cliff.
so he’ll smile and bear it, even if it’s a battle to keep himself from breaking down every time he sees the two of you lace your hands together, off in your own little word, so near and yet so far from him.
if you choose aether, lumine will become cold. at first, that is. she’s never been as empathetic as her brother, always holding grudges and developing dislike much more easily. it had taken a lot for her to open up to you in the first place, and now that you’ve rejected her, it’s going to take a while for her to return to the same camaderie with you that she had before.
lumine does not begrudge aether for being the one you chose. if anything, she’s glad - aether is always putting her first and himself second, and she’s happy that he has someone like you, who lights his eyes up in a way that she’s never seen before.
but our hearts often betray our mind, after all, and lumine can’t help but scowl and turn away every time she sees her brother wrap his arms around your waist or press a kiss to your cheek. despite her best efforts, all she can think is why? why did you have to choose him?
she can’t bring herself to hate you, though. as much as it feels like her heart is threatening to split down the middle when she sees you smile and is reminded of something that she cannot have, there is an equal joy in the fact that her brother can be with the person that he loves so dearly. if anything, the two of you deserve to be happy together.
lumine would never do anything that could take that away, and so she forces herself to accept it. it takes several days of tentative conversation and barely held back tears, but eventually the two of you seem to return to the way you were before - all friendly jabs and light-hearted banter and little jokes exchanged over crossed blades.
but lumine knows that your friendship can never be quite the same as it was before. she’ll forever be holding you at arm’s length, terrified to let you get too close lest you see how much your presence affects her. she can’t let you know how much she loves you because she will never be the one who links hands with you as you walk down a long, winding path, or the one who holds you close under a darkening sky filled with stars - because that person is aether, and she would sooner die before she takes her brother’s happiness away.
if you refuse to choose, the twins will be at a loss at what to do. they hadn’t considered this scenario - that you had somehow come to love both of them.
the confusion becomes joy soon enough, though. they realise what this means - they both love you, and you love both of them! isn’t this perfect?
neither are particularly thrilled at the concept of ‘sharing’ you with the other, so to speak, but in the end they both equally want each other to be happy as they want you to be, so the logical conclusion is that they both become your partners.
they’re not too sure how this should work, nor what sort of label to put on it, but they come to you tentatively with the idea anyway
to their joyous surprise, you agree!
and from then marks the point of no return…
aether is definitely the clingier of the two. once he realises that he’s allowed to show affection and be close to you for no particular reason, he won’t stop - it’s as if he absolutely has to be holding your hand or be standing or sitting  as close to you as physically possible. he’s always buying you souvenirs at every place you stop by, scaling trees to pick apples for you when you mention a craving for fruit, presenting you little treasures that he’s found with all the pride of a golden retriever.
lumine is a more subdued kind of partner, preferring to demonstrate her feelings with little things like making your favourite food for dinner or bringing you sprigs of flowers that she’s secretly been collecting in order to present you with them. of course, that doesn’t mean she isn’t physically affectionate at all - she presses perhaps even closer to you than aether when you sleep beside her, and somehow her hand finds yours at every opportunity she has.
the twins clash every now and then, as siblings often do, except that you’re usually caught in the middle. their arguments are little more than playful squabbles, though - things like play-fighting over who gets to hug you first after a well-fought battle, or who gets to hold your hand on the way to the next village (you have to step in and remind them that you do, in fact, have two hands)
in conclusion: why choose one when you can have both and prevent the unchosen from having endless amounts of angst?
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nightingaelic · 3 years
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Fallout New Vegas companions react to taking the Courier's place in Dead Money.
Arcade Gannon: Following the obligatory panic attack and subsequent state of dejection, Arcade would suck it up and start trying to get the heist done with as quickly as possible. He’d roll his eyes at Dean Domino, set aside Dog and God’s identity crisis for later and check Christine over for basic first aid purposes before trudging along toward the various goals set by Elijah. I think he’d opt for stealth over combat when encountering the ghost people out of a sense of self-preservation, but he would probably pocket some clothing and blood samples from any that Dog took down along the way to the casino. The story of the Sierra Madre would fascinate him, particularly the bits and pieces left behind by jaded treasure hunters and Elijah’s previous teams of victims. Arcade would see it as a microcosm of what’s happening in the wider world, a stellar example of partners turning on each other in pursuit of some perceived bright future attached to the hidden treasures of the old world. Vera’s desperate graffiti in her hotel room would speak to him most powerfully: LET GO. He would probably try to argue with Elijah about the viability of the former Brotherhood Elder’s plans, throwing some Latin phrasing in for good measure. No matter his level of success in this, Arcade would stow away as many gold bars as he could to lug home and use to sparingly and anonymously fund the efforts of the Followers of the Apocalypse. 
Craig Boone: During his first encounter with one of the ghost people popping up again after being downed by his sniper rifle, Boone would grunt in annoyance, swap his ammo for hollow points and switch from aiming at chests to aiming at heads. Ghost people bob and weave admirably, but Boone has a gift, and up until he actually got inside the casino, his main obstacle would be avoiding the noxious cloud. The holograms, on the other hand, would probably strike some fear into his heart. After all, how do you destroy something that bullets can’t touch? I don’t think he would put two and two together about the emitters until Christine or Dean pointed them out: From there, it just becomes a scavenger hunt to find the next piece of wall-mounted tech to shoot. Dean, Dog and God would annoy him, but he’d find a kindred spirit in Christine, and would appreciate her ability to convey meaning without words. Hell, he’s pretty good at that himself. Upon finding Elijah, Boone would immediately put a bullet in his head, look at the pile of gold for a few seconds, then walk away and out of the Sierra Madre without looking back. He’d never breathe a word of the place to anyone, but he’d track down all of the Sierra Madre broadcast systems one by one and destroy them, letting the desert swallow the place and its dangers for good. 
Lily Bowen: Grandma Lily wouldn’t understand why the angry man was so desperate to get inside the casino, but she’s more than familiar with being a forced follower of doomed causes. As such, she would be kind to her fellow captives, assuring Christine that she would be able to talk “when she’s ready,” admonishing Dean for his rude behavior and telling Elijah that he would catch more cazadores with honey mesquite than with vinegar. A trail of wrecked ghost people would follow her to the casino itself, but dealing with the holograms would be beyond her expertise: That part would have to be left to Christine or Dean. Elijah would receive a lecture once she made it into the vault, but she would probably let him live unless he attacked first. Dog and God, however, would earn the most care and compassion and even cause some introspection. Ultimately, I think she would help the two become one through intense conversation and shared understanding about what it means to be nightkin with no master, and once freed, she would take him to find a home in Jacobstown. 
Raul Alfonso Tejada: Upon waking up from being kidnapped by Dog on Elijah's behalf, Raul's immediate reaction would be something like "Again?" followed by "Carajo." Elijah’s insistence on pulling off the heist would annoy him, but Raul is constantly looking for something to occupy his unnaturally-long time on earth, and what is the Sierra Madre if not the Mojave’s most deadly time-waster? He would be sarcastic and exasperated for his entire time wearing the bomb collar, but would find ways to be tender and understanding with Christine, and patient and supportive with Dog and God - after all, he knows what it’s like to struggle with two sides of yourself. Dean, on the other hand, would vex him. Here’s another pre-war ghoul hung up on the promises and mistakes of the past, driven to the point of obsession where he can’t break himself out of the cycle. He can’t let go, and I think that doomed state of being would speak to Raul personally. I don’t think he and Dean would get along, but I don’t think they would have a final showdown in the Tampico either. Instead, I think Dean would watch Raul exit the vault’s elevator, flip one souvenir gold bar in his hand with a wry smile, then pocket it before walking out into the wastes, and the pre-war lounge singer would feel a twinge of kindred sadness before going back to rummaging through the casino’s secrets. 
Rose of Sharon Cassidy: Following a tense standoff with Elijah while refusing to do as he says, Cass would eventually relent and start dragging her feet around the villa to assemble the ragtag heist crew. She’d hold each of them at a distance, intent on getting herself out alive and refusing to be responsible for anyone else. Nods of sympathy for Christine, dry comebacks for Dean and a quizzical comment or two for Dog and God would be her limit, at least until they all encountered their turning points inside the casino. Each of them would grow her disdain for Elijah and his methods, but, like Raul, I think she would be most personally affected by Dean’s story. She might find herself arguing with him like the courier did with her, about moving on from failed pasts and striking out into something new. I don’t think she’d take the time to argue with Elijah, though, and would take the first chance she got to lock him in the vault forever. She’d make off with as much gold as she could, of course. 
Veronica Santangelo: The Sierra Madre would make Veronica's head explode, though whether or not Elijah could stand her mouth going a million miles a minute once she wakes up would determine whether that would happen literally or figuratively. Tons and tons of pre-war tech lying around! But it's all under a haze of collapsed support beams, toxic gas and ghost people that can jump around like grasshoppers. Father Elijah is alive! But he's trying to break into a casino to build an army of holograms, and he imprisoned Christine. Christine is here! But she's been maimed and abused horribly, and is trying to kill Elijah. I think Elijah would try reasoning with Veronica before threatening her into obeying him - though she would probably figure out how to get the collar off or render it useless within the first 24 hours in the Sierra Madre - but I don’t think he would be able to convince her that his plan to get inside the casino’s vault would benefit the Brotherhood of Steel. The revelations that Christine would bring - the Circle of Steel’s orders, Elijah’s crimes against travelers and treasure hunters, his orchestration of their breakup in order to bring Veronica to the Mojave with him - would probably leave her feeling confused and empty about the man she considers a grandfather figure. She would probably do her best to free Elijah from the casino, but would offer him a choice if she succeeded: Leave the treasures of the Sierra Madre behind and walk away from his accursed quest for power, or remain trapped with what he’d sought. Whatever path he’d choose, Veronica would part ways with him once the vault’s elevator ascended. She’d bundle up Vera’s dress, sigh heavily, then take Christine’s hand and walk away from the Sierra Madre forever. 
ED-E: Ironically, I think ED-E would be a good pick for Elijah to use as a pawn in his heist game, though it would be kind of hard for Dog to hook a collar onto the little robot. If Ulysses can speak to the courier through an eyebot’s speakers, then Elijah can probably do the same to his already-assembled team. ED-E doesn’t have a whole lot of personal motivation, so I think the bot would just beep and go along with whatever it was ordered to do. Christine or Dean would probably take the lead, and ED-E would zoom around the villa, dodging throwing knife spears and trumpeting his location without a care. Once inside the casino, ED-E would again defer to his leader’s orders, with the added benefit of being a robot keeping him from the holograms’ notice. If allowed into the vault, ED-E would diligently pick up exactly six of the gold bars and carry them home to the Mojave, where he would deposit them at the bewildered courier’s feet with a triumphant beep. 
Rex: While much easier to slap a collar on than ED-E, I don't think Rex would fare better than the little robot in terms of leadership abilities. As an ally to whoever gets put in charge, though, he would also be invaluable at sneaking around the Sierra Madre’s various threats, particularly the ghost people. He would take a special shine to Christine and God, who would recognize the canine as a fellow being exploited by powers out of his control. Rex would absolutely hate the holograms, who smell of nothing, and Elijah, who smells of desperation and indifference. He would completely ignore the gold bars. Once freed, he would whine and beg and nudge Christine until she relented and left the city of the dead, leading her home to the New Vegas strip and another woman whose scent told him of metal bunkers and longing. 
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theseerasures · 3 years
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a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride
honestly there is just like. no point as of Witch (if not earlier) in thinking about Marrow and Winter as following along the same defection path, and downright facile to compare the two in terms of who is “closer” to defecting and therefore “less problematic” (even setting aside that making value judgments along those lines in fiction is...never that straightforward), when the narrative has emphasized REPEATEDLY how they are on entirely separate tracks in terms of character and role in the Atlas military.
seriously, it’s like saying “this orange is bad because you can’t eat the peel like you can eat an apple skin”
so like, yes, Marrow is the one who has verbally expressed his misgivings, and has clearly articulated scruples (as opposed to just the dial-up noise) and will blurt them out any second now as soon as he gets a word in edgewise. but also: Marrow HASN’T gotten a word in edgewise (except with Winter, fancy that), and has done approximately fuck all to actually subvert the system that he is growing to hate. both his theory and lack of praxis are tied into Marrow’s relatively low, overlooked position in the Atlas system, and feed into the fact that for Marrow the project of Atlas is not personal.
Marrow joined the military on ideological grounds. he clearly does want personal connection, but that has been denied him at every turn, largely by his teammates, largely by his partner, all of whom use him to enforce their own struggles with the clash between political duty and personal grief. he has been alienated by the system he upholds, which started even before we meet him. this makes it much harder for him to rebel in deed, because he doesn’t have a lot of power to begin with and he knows the system will not protect him if he does; at the same time, that relative powerlessness and isolation keeps his investment in Atlas abstract, uncomplicated, and much easier to dispel. Marrow is still with Atlas because he has a job to do, because it’s his duty, because he is still clinging to the Atlas military’s illusory altruism. he wants Penny to come with them so she can save Atlas. his protestations at seeing Team FNKI, that they are “just kids,” comes from the belief that it is categorically wrong to send children into battle. what is keeping Marrow from defecting is belief, and once the belief is shattered--like, say, when his boss’ new ingenious plan is to Nuke the Poors--there is nothing keeping him around.
and once his path is set he will not waver, because Atlas, by design, has no hold on him materially or personally (outside of his own life, which he was already happy to dedicate to a cause). Marrow then, is the limit case of Atlas being hoist with its own petard: an exemplar for how it gives its people nothing while demanding everything, but also an exemplar for how quickly the entire system folds in on itself when the veil is lifted. when Marrow defects (and it IS when) it will represent Atlas as a whole defecting from itself, even if we don’t see it visually--from the civilians, to the enlisted soldiers, to perhaps even members of Marrow’s own team.
NONE of the things i just mentioned really apply to Winter, because there is nothing about Atlas that is not personal for Winter.
i have no doubt that Winter is in some ways invested in same abstract principles that swayed Marrow, but that is constantly overridden by the fact that Winter has family at all sides of this, even before everything fell to shit, and the narrative will not stop reminding her.
“what about your sister?” “would you say the same thing if it was your sister inside?” her father was gunning for a seat on the Council. the man who took her in is essentially Head of State. Penny has made herself Public Enemy Number One, and Weiss is actively abetting her. even Whitley has now thrown himself into the fray, unbeknownst to her. and another person might be better at compartmentalizing all this the way Winter clearly wants to, and stick to the party line, but Winter cannot, because the more i watch her the more i’m convinced that the current crisis in Atlas is just a microcosm of the real issue, which is to say: everything is personal in Atlas for Winter, because everything is personal for Winter.
at a moment-to-moment level, and especially when backed into a corner, Winter defaults not to ideology but her tightly coiled lattice of personal relationships. and this makes perfect sense, because Winter grew up in a household where she had to perpetually crisis respond, and then she never stopped. Marrow does what he does because he believes in the dream, in making the world a better place, and therefore it is more difficult in some respects for him to defect, because it involves taking a long hard look at and then rejecting the structures he bought into and made himself complicit in. once lines are crossed and he DOES do that, though, he’s home free. for Winter, there are no lines to cross, because all Winter wants in the end is to throw her arms around everyone she cares about and drag them to safety. to keep them there, closely held, where she can see them and make sure that they stay safe.
but what’s tricky about Winter--what’s fascinating to me, what Jacques tried to beat out of her, what James alternately capitalizes on and tries to quash, what she resents about herself--is that in times of crisis (which for Winter is again ALL THE TIME), “everyone she cares about” becomes everyone, so that suddenly she takes a shine to the General’s war machine, so that she’s risking her life to give Penny and Fria a few more seconds of time, so that she’s stepping in front of Elm’s incoming fist, so that she’s letting JYR go rescue Oscar. Marrow has ideals he values, but at her core Winter has nothing but the people, who are real the moment she sees and feels them--real enough to defend, or defend against.
Winter jealously protects her web of people, but that web will also spiral out to infinity if she lets it--so she doesn’t. she has adamantly refused to move out of the mode where she lives present-by-present, only reacting to what is right in front of her, what she has been told, weighing her own life against the people who are closest, and no more. this is unquestionably a trauma response, but it’s also reinforced by 1) her choice to become a career soldier, and 2) the fact that Winter actually HAS quite a bit of power, and she knows that. but she has never trusted herself with any of it, largely because her hypervigilant response to situations has only ever been chastised instead of rehabilitated. Winter knows the weight of her name and her position, but she constantly tries to ignore it, or run away from it, so that she is only ever the heiress, the second-in-command, and never the Queen. she cannot be a leader until she is Good (that is to say, perfect and rational), so she tries to obliterate her power the same time she obliterates that pesky personhood: remaining still for as long as possible, avoiding situations that she knows will prompt action and choice, and when absolutely pushed to think through her power, moving the pieces around with extreme caution, hoping that the world won’t be burnt black by it.
Marrow and Winter are fundamentally at opposing ends of the personal-political bleed, and the story could NOT telegraph it any more clearly than their conversation in Witch, where Marrow makes a personal plea to Winter so that she can make a call far beyond just that, and she refutes him, by reminding him of his obligation to Atlas in the form of impersonal duty.
i’ll conclude by pointing out that there is something very interesting happening with Winter right now, that exceeds her power in-universe. because even as a Schnee, as Ironwood’s protege, what Winter can do is limited (partly because she limits herself), except for how the story has resolutely centered her actions and MADE them significant. in the course of this war Winter has let herself make exactly two choices--both of them noninterventionist, easily justifiable, and not meant to take any ideological stand--and they ended up altering the entire fabric of the war with Salem. all because she loved her sisters more than her duty. all because she was shown a slim chance to save the kingdom and a fourteen-year-old boy, and she thought just for an instant, what’s the harm
(and James Ironwood will never know. that even with his plan, his bomb, all his ships, all his soldiers...he was no match for her. his loyal lieutenant. the only child he will ever have, who has only ever called him “sir.”)
it is not about what Winter COULD have chosen in those moments, if she had the ability to stop Penny and Weiss from leaving, if JYR were even Oscar’s rescuers, in the conventional sense. it is about the fact that she DID make those choices, and the story has made them reverberate, in spite of the fact that she did not mean for them to. Marrow’s story is about being neglected and overlooked by the system, the moment of recognition that it needs you more than you need it, that there are so many more of you, and together you can stop chasing the dream and make your own. Winter’s story cleaves to the heart of not just Atlas, but the RWBY monomyth, which goes something like: stars are like us. the world was created because two brothers could not get along, and sundered because a woman could not cope with her grief. just because you move closer to the elite, to the center, to the top, to the sublime, it does not mean that you move farther from the fallible. we are all, at our deepest layer, people.
but the world does not tremble any less for it.
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Omega’s Observations
Request:  Congrats on starting the blog!! Pumped to have a new writer's work to read 🥰 If you need some requests, how about an echo/gn!medic reader who he develops a crush on, for a little of that sweet sweet mutual pining action✨ Dunno if you write pre-citadel or just BB echo, but I'm happy with either. Have a good weekend!! :) (@krussyfed)
Author’s Note: Whew! This took a while for me to get to a place where I felt good about posting it. Honestly, as most of my writing does, it got a bit away from me, but that’s because I love fleshing out a story, showing-not-telling, and building on events from the canon. But if I saw this through until the end, I probably wouldn’t end up posting this for months! So I hope what I have here is worth the wait, and if you want more, let me know! 
Story Notes: Unbeta’ed, no obvious warnings. 
🖑 🖑 🖑 🖑 🖑 🖑 🖑
Ask her brothers to describe her, and ‘still and quiet’ would not be two of the words any of them would use. 
Hunter would call her curious to a fault, then ruffle her hair to let her know that he meant it in the nicest way possible. 
Wrecker would boom with laughter, proclaiming her one of them (“Always ready for action and adventurin’! Let’s go get those gundarks!”). 
Tech would probably consider for a moment, then use a four-syllable word. Like effervescent.
Echo would call her young and energetic, but his brow would furrow as though this might be a bad thing. Then he would inevitably follow up with a reminder to stay within sight and keep out of trouble. She didn’t mind. She knew he just worried about her. Omega would always reassure him that she would keep close to her brothers. Of course, whether it actually happened was usually another thing. 
Crosshair, if he was with them, would probably call her troublesome. 
But really, this was a tactical advantage. Her brothers never expected her to be still and quiet, so she could settle in and be observant when it was least expected of her. 
Omega was actually quite accustomed to being taciturn, at least when she needed to be. Her time with Nala Se, after all, was mostly like this. 
Watching over like a stone guardian as Nala Se pored over the capsules containing her modified brothers…
...being as unobtrusive as possible during another endless meeting with Lama Su…
...laying noiselessly and without complaint as Nala Se inserted a needle into her arm for yet another blood sample…
 These days, Omega could be as boisterous and vivacious (two more words Tech had taught her) as she wanted to be, so long as there was no chance of enemies being around. The only time she was obediently still by choice during these times was when she was being treated by Y/N, Clone Force 99’s on-board medic. 
Again, this was mostly out of habit from her time with Nala Se, but it wasn’t as bad. For one thing, Y/N fielded all of Omega’s questions with unending patience. And their hands were less clinical, more gentle than Omega was used to. Nala Se was efficient, not a movement wasted in her examinations. Y/N, however, always offered a comforting touch on the back after a scary encounter, and would gently but firmly place their hands on Omega’s face to look her in the eye to assess emotional well-being. 
The first time Y/N had done this was on the Ordo Moon, as Y/N was finishing wrapping up Omega’s small scratches on her hands and knees from her misadventures in the underground tunnels. 
At this point, not used to such close eye contact, Omega averted her eyes and looked over Y/N’s shoulder for something to distract her from the unusual awkwardness she felt. 
Her eyes met Echo’s. 
Her awkwardness vanished as he seemed to startle, a faint flush appearing on his neck, as he coughed, crossed his arms, and turned away, suddenly much more interested in examining the ship’s ceiling than anything else. 
What an interesting reaction. Her brain filed it away, curiosity piqued.  
Then, over the course of a few weeks, Omega confirmed her suspicions. 
Echo was always watching Y/N. Echo liked Y/N. 
Omega caught him absentmindedly gazing at Y/N’s hands as they tapped thoughtfully on a datapad while Wrecker carried new medical inventory aboard the Marauder during a supply run. 
After Wrecker’s successful inhibitor chip removal on Bracca, and Tech volunteered to go next, Omega watched Y/N’s hands fly across the medical controls, fierce determination sharpening their features. Glancing up, she saw that Echo’s attention was similarly arrested, a look on his face that was bordering very close to adoration. 
He seemed most captivated by Y/N’s hands, however, whenever they were treating him personally for any ailments or injuries. Echo always sat pin straight, almost comedically robotic (it would be funnier, but his history brought a sort of cruel irony to the thought) and allowing Y/N to turn his body and maneuver his prosthetic arm however was needed without any fidgeting or complaint. 
But his eyes were another story. Darting back and forth everywhere their fingers touched, such a stoniness to his face that Omega was certain he was committing every graze, every feather-light touch, to memory. Y/N, as always, was so focused on the medical work that they never seemed to notice. 
Omega saw things, though. Echo was like Y/N’s shadow, often slipping into the same room or area Y/N was in, like a ghost. She observed with fascination how he always angled himself to face her whenever there was a conversation in the cockpit. It didn’t matter if it was just the two of them, or if the entire squad was there and discussing a mission, it was as though he had attuned himself to wherever Y/N happened to be and was drawn to them.
Like a sunflower always facing the sun. 
She saw in the field how Echo, not Hunter, was usually the one to call the Marauder to check in or alert Y/N to any injuries that would need to be treated when they returned. How the space between his brows would crease whenever they would radio in but only receive the static of communications interference. 
Or worse, no answer at all. 
Echo wouldn’t say anything, but Omega felt that her brother’s steps would quicken, just a little. And she wasn’t sure she was just imagining a sudden sense of urgency in the air as they completed the mission, with just a bit more efficiency, a bit more ruthlessness than was usual. 
Omega saw how Echo always let out a tiny breath in relief, as though he had been holding it the whole time, whenever they returned to the Marauder with its medic unharmed. 
And she would never forget that one time they had returned to the Marauder, doors blasted open, interior trashed, with no medic in sight and droplets of blood leading away from the ship. 
Omega had never been in war, had only heard about it passively from the conversations between Nala Se and Lama Su, then a bit more directly from her brothers once she was allowed out of the private lab. 
She had once asked Tech about the war, but his response clearly paled in comparison to the dark look on Echo’s face, as they battled their way through enemy after enemy to rescue Y/N.
Omega felt as though she understood war a little bit more after this. At least its motivations. 
It took longer for Omega to figure out whether her brother’s feelings were reciprocated. Y/N’s affection wasn’t as obvious, but the trick was to watch more for their actions than in body language. 
Since Y/N and Tech slept the least, they would swap bunks and so were usually on opposite sleep schedules. This meant that Y/N would stay up late into the night well after the rest of the boys had retired to their bunks, face alight in the glow of a datapad. They would concentrate fiercely, chewing on their thumbnail and pausing often to tap notes into the margins. 
Omega eventually managed to snatch and break into Y/N’s data pad, and saw that they were working their way through a series of medical journals, detailing the latest treatment for prosthetics. There were also several articles on treating post-traumatic stress disorder for former prisoners of war. 
Omega had even checked Y/N’s search history, and discovered that they had been using an encrypted channel to search for chatter on the whereabouts of the former 501st legion and its various members. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Y/N had much luck so far, but if the number of searches were any indication, they weren’t giving up. 
Omega wondered incredulously how none of her other brothers had yet caught on to the two’s clearly mutual affection for each other. Until she realized that no, they already knew.
Once, when Omega had offered Echo some of her Mantell Mix, Echo had sniffed it, much to her amusement. Her giggles subsided immediately when Echo murmured apologetically that he sometimes had trouble digesting pretty much any food that wasn’t nutritional paste, due to half his digestive system being completely artificial. 
Of course, this meant that he must have been experiencing constant abdominal discomfort, as they hadn’t had any nutritional paste on the ship since their escape from Kamino. Hunter once mentioned to her that even the plainest of rations seemed to bother him, but he gamely never complained.
One day, Hunter was giving out rations in the cockpit, and had already given Tech and Wrecker their usual. Then he pulled out a green, unlabeled squeeze packet instead of the usual rations bar, and handed it to Echo, who took it with some confusion.
“What’s this?”
“New brand. It should be easier on your digestive systems than the usual stuff. Tastier, too.” 
Echo glanced at the packet skeptically, unscrewing the cap and sniffing at its contents. 
“It smells...fresh?” 
“Try it,” Hunter urged him, to which Echo obediently tried a small amount. 
His mouth rounded in a surprised ‘oh’. Omega wished she could have captured the look on his face with a holovid. He stared at the packet in his hands, with a look that was a bit like wonder and amazement. 
This didn’t escape Wrecker’s notice, who immediately stood up in protest. “What? Why does Echo get something new to eat?” He glanced forlornly at the slightly crumpled, stale rations bar in his hand. “I want some!” 
“They’re too expensive for your appetite, Wrecker,” Hunter replied, just a bit too quickly, though none of the others seemed to notice. “Besides, you probably wouldn’t like it.” 
“I’ll be the judge of that!” Wrecker proclaimed, swiping the packet from Echo’s hands despite Hunter’s attempt to chastise him. Wrecker took a giant slurp. 
...and immediately spat it out, some of it splattering on poor Gronk. 
“Blech! That tastes weird.” 
“Probably because it’s made of fruits and vegetables,” Tech said dryly, “Your palette likely isn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate the subtle bitterness and natural sweetness that are characteristic of those food categories.” 
Echo eyed Hunter skeptically. “And we have the money to keep buying these?” 
Hunter hummed, closing the rations box and turning away from the cockpit. “Omega’s paying for it from her holochess winnings.” She startled at the sudden mention of her name. “We have extra to spare, for now.” Hunter subtly winked at her when the others weren’t looking. 
“Oh. Thank you, Omega,” said Echo, looking at her with true gratitude. Omega flushed a bit, but mostly because it actually didn’t have anything to do with her. She played along, however, and insisted it was no problem. It did seem to make him happy, so there was no harm in a small lie like that, right? 
She cornered Hunter later, though, and insisted on him telling her the truth. After wearing him down a bit, he finally relented.
“Okay, but you can’t tell the others, all right? Believe me, I’ve already tried to talk them out of it. But Y/N has been doing some medical work on the side, working at one of the clinics near Cid’s bar. They’ve been using the money to buy these.” 
Omega’s face screwed up in confusion. “Why can’t you just tell Echo that?”
Hunter sighed. “Because they don’t want Echo to know. Figures that Echo wouldn’t like them going out on their own to work in the slums for his sake. They’re probably right, of course.” He rubbed at his forehead, a sure sign of an impending headache. 
Omega frowned, then decided to go for it.
“You know they like each other, right?” 
Hunter blinked at her, looking surprised. At her determined stare, he gave a sigh and muttered something like, ‘I’m getting too old for this’. He proceeded to explain patiently to her that perhaps Echo and Y/N liked each other, but pointed out how awkward or difficult it could be to have a romantic relationship in such close quarters, especially when they as a team also had bigger things to worry about. 
It sounded like Hunter had given this exact speech at least twice before. 
So Tech and Wrecker knew, then, but were being polite about it (or, in Wrecker’s case, had probably gotten an earful from Hunter earlier about tact and ‘minding one’s own business’). 
Well. That wouldn’t do. 
By the time Echo got up the nerve to say anything, he’d probably be old! (Omega wouldn’t, but she tried not to think too hard about that particular fact.)
So, she began to scheme. Quietly. 
She had the tactical advantage, after all. 
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