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brainrotdoberealhuh · 8 months

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brain vomit

hi so i was thinking "wouldnt it be cool if there was a dpxyj comic and then my brain started to vomit idea so i'll just leave em here

AU where danny’s parents finding out he’s ghost dosnt go too well and he ends up running away and ends up joining the young justice team or just a general crossover between dc and the young justice

*phantom planet isn’t canon at least not until later

*danny probably gets adopted by bruce

*there is also the route of them not hurting him but telling him to leave, maybe the GIW convinces them to work with them and haunt him later on or they help save him from the GIW but he decides to stay with the team since they are his family now and the fentons still hurt him and did hunt him like the GIW

*if we go the reveal dosnt go well route then danny probably wont be very trusting especially with the heroes since they work with the government and the anti ecto acts exist, he’ll probably meet them ad help them the disappear after

>danny runs away with his bags and after flying for a long while lands on a random roof cuz he’s drained and tired, he just collapses and wakes up some hours later (its night) he flys again and looks for abandoned buildings till he finds a place, he takes his essentials out then phases the bags into the roof so they’re hidden and finally it sets in and he breaks down for a while till the fenton-phone he has rings and he gets surprised then answers and immedietly sam and tuckers swarm him with questions if he’s okay and what happened so he tells them and now that you mention it he has a wound from before that he’s yet to treat, he’s been so emotionally and mentally drained he forgot about it, they ask him and he says he honestly dosnt know he just flew as fast as he could and tucker says its probably for the best if he dosnt say just in case the call is spied on and sam tells him to take care of his wound and to rest and to check back with them and danny agrees and they tell him they’ll update him on how things go with his parents and amity and with that the call ends with cyas and take cares, after the call ends danny just sighs and gets up to grab a bag from the seilling and takes his medical supplies and starts to take care of his wound then decides to sleep

>danny meets the young justice while they are on a mission fighting near a warehouse with a part of it having collapsed from a explosion which is what caught danny’s attention while he was flying around to clear his head even tho he’s supposed to be resting since he’s still healing, he floats there watching while invisible for a little bit before seeing one of the team members in a very tight spot and he freezes the goons which surprises everyone then he goes on to freeze some more goons, the team is confused and the goons are confused so they start shooting frantically and randomly yelling for whoever it is to show themselves and danny gets hit with one of their attacks which surprises him and knocks him out of invisibility for a bit (maybe a energy or electricity based gun), he quickly goes back into invisibility saying “that was uncalled for” and he freezes them then says “cya” to the team before flying away while someone from the team calls for him to wait

>danny goes back to his hiding place and lays down “man I probably shouldn’t have done that”

>somethings happen and danny meets some justice league members (batman-superman-flash-wonder woman-martian manhunter), usually he would be very excited but he was very nervous. What if they decided he’s a threat or worse handed him over to the GIW and they notice his nervousness, for a while he’s a honorary member and is hesitant about joining the team but after a bit he opens up abit and tells them about the ghosts, anti ecto laws and the hunters and ofc batman hears about this and begins investigating and talks to danny about them to get more details (the team and JL think danny Is a full ghost at this point)

>danny gets captured by the GIW (his parents either help capture him or help save him, maybe by giving the GIW location or info to the team or just busting the place with the help of jazz and sam and tucker, tucker would probably hack the JL\ team computer to give them the info) danny getting saved by his team shows him that they genuinely care about him and he accepts them as his new family, after recovering he’s abit nervous but he tells the team about the fact that he’s half human too and his parents, they tell him they understand and that they cant wait to meet him other half

>the JL come to check on danny and how he’s doing and to give him an update on how things are going with taking the acts down, they’ve arranged a conference which superman will be taking care of and they want danny to be there to represent the ghosts and answer at least some questions to at least shut some mouths and satisfy some minds which danny reluctantly agrees to go to, he lets superman talk before joining him on stage and talking aswell, after its done superman puts his hand on his shoulder and tells him he did well which calms danny’s nerves abit >in the end the acts get taken down, danny joins the team and smiles sadly at the place he’s bee crashing him throughout all of this before taking his bags and flying to his new home. Then maybe a special with the phantom team meeting the YJ team or at least them visiting danny since its been a while and also danny chewing out superma cuz of how he treats conner at the start and the team meets dani :D (that is a very important part idc >:D 2 in 1 gremlin backage baby)

note : idk if i'll expand on this but i really hope i do xD maybe even draw a comic of it myself if my self confidence dosnt get in the way or at the very least turn it into a fanfiction.

also english isnt my first language so uuh sorry for any spelling mistakes

any ways.....what do you guys think of the idea of a comic crossover between dp and yj or dc in general

(i did not reread this before posting it :'>)

#dp x dc #dp x dc au #danny phantom

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thebunztalk · 9 months

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Mimic story in sb theory!!!!

Uh spoilers maybe…it’s been 3/4 weeks tho

Before I start, I wanna say that I don’t believe Tales From The Pizzaplex is FULLY canon.

Yes, Mimic does exist but I don’t think his backstory and personality from the TFTP is canon, maybe there’s some aspects that Steelwool put into game!Mimic.

The proof for this, is that game!Mimic is slow. When Cassie gets chased by Mimic, she runs but her stamina drops faster than Gregory and runs slower while Mimic is even slower than Cassie. And book!Mimic hunted a group of teenagers which are faster than Cassie and yet Mimic killed the group like it was nothing…

Another proof is in TFTP, book!Mimic rips people heads and limbs off and in Ruin, Mimic’s jumpscare shows him grabbing Cassie’s head to rip her.

But when you actually look at both Mimic jumpscare

It looks like he’s trying to wack Cassie on the head instead of trying to grab or rip her and for the Mimic jumpscare without the suit, it looks like he’s putting his hand on front to Cassie’s face instead of his whole palm.

I also don’t believe GGY is canon, I mean sure, amnesia is a thing and Gregory could forgot about what he did

but then again…him being NATURALLY good at computer tech and hacking doesn’t really match to SB taken from his dialogue…

“I don’t know, it looks pretty complicated…”

It’s not that complicated actually, it’s just so much memorizing.

OK! Now let’s get officially started.

Staffbot Silo/Post it room

In my theory on Mimic, I said he’s the one writing these notes, Vanny created him for the purpose of a physical body for Glitchtrap but didn’t work, him kicking Freddy out of the main system and Mimic spying on Gregory through the caution bots/Patpats.

I’ve also talked about Mimic is the one scattered the retro cds for Gregory to find and him waiting in the fake Michael’s living room for Gregory to come see him because Mimic wants to get to know him better.

And from what you guess on the title, I want to tell about Mimic’s story before SB and in the middle of SB but let’s talk about this first.

Specifically the language. In TFTP The Mimic, a young kid named David and book!Mimic decides to make a hand sign language for Mimic to communicate

and when their father wrote in of what the language looks like…it looks like the image that I just showed you. Hopefully! I dunno, I never read TFTP but from what people said, the writing is very similar to the wall code.

Since I said that Mimic’s backstory isn’t canon how does this work? Well I said Vanny could’ve created Mimic and she is very smart, Vanny could be also the one created that hand sign language for game!Mimic to communicate better. But why?

Because in Ruin, you reach closer to the underground, Grimic’s voice sounds less human and more of a bunch of words that stuck together and when Cassie meets the real Mimic, he doesn’t speak (other than “I’m Gregory”) so that’s why Vanny created that language and in the notes you can read that was talking to someone. Like this

Now, was Mimic got put in the endo warehouse?

Maybe. Maybe, after Vanny realized that Mimic is its own being, she putted him in the warehouse with the other endos and from their walk/run cycles, it looks like they have a mimicking feature of their own…that they able to copy the Glamrocks’ AI and the wall/door to teach them. My proof that Mimic was there.

This would make sense, in a way that Vanny is trying to make Mimic just like Glitchtrap.

So I said in the beginning, that Mimic’s run cycle is very slow and he doesn’t copy the Glamrocks’ or Gregory’s.

So maybe Mimic is a slow learner when he was in the warehouse and from the post it notes, his writing is progressing to be a more steady one. So he just needs to take his time on learning how and what is surrounds him and that causes him to be a slow learner (autistic robot real).

Vanny notices this and decides to move Mimic down to Staffbot silo so the employees won’t get suspicious about Mimic and to learn at his own pace and give a lifetime supply of post it notes to Mimic.

From the look of the room, Mimic has been in the Staffbot silo for a while and he has of a more developed mind but he is still a child, he just wants to be grown up.

Connecting Caution bots

While Mimic have been staying in the Staffbot silo, employees starting to get a little too close to the truth then Vanny kills them, with her recent action being the message “All staff meeting”. That also happened to Glamrock Bonnie.

He must’ve trying to investigate about all the strange stuff that happened like the disappearances of children and the staff. The question is who Vanny used to kill Bonnie? Was it actually Monty? Roxy? Prototype Freddy? Or Mimic. If Mimic killed Bonnie, he either gotten pressured or told to just “decommission” Bonnie by Vanny. In the end, Mimic able to connect to the Patpats or he already did get connected and they’ve decommissioned Bonnie because he got to close to the truth.

Which I wanna say that the reason why, Bonnie’s eyes stopped glowing when you deactivate the Patpats is because Mimic must’ve felt guilty about killing him and decided to connect Bonnie with the Patpats too.

The start of SB

Mimic saw Gregory at his stay in the Pizzaplex through the Patpats. Mimic watched Gregory a few times when he’s trying to be in shelter, Gregory must’ve been staying in the Pizzaplex for at least two days that Mimic gets curious about him and his behavior.

Sadly, that has to end when Gregory gets caught by Vanny or Vanessa BUT Mimic has a plan, he wants to help Gregory get out of this mess then Freddy had an error moment when he saw Gregory and Vanny/Vanessa in the crowd but then he had full shut down because something kicked him out of the main system. Mimic kicked him out. That distracted Vanny/Vanessa that Gregory able to get out of their grasp.

Mimic wants to know Gregory more so he can’t just leave then he knows how to make Gregory stay little longer. Make a scavenger hunt! That’ll keep him busy. Mimic leaves the Staffbot silo but when he got out, he crashed into a bunch of boxes

He tried to put boxes in its place but he doesn’t have the time do this right now. Mimic searching for something to use in the scavenger hunt.

Now the retro cds can only be found by using Roxy’s eyes and since the Glamrocks and Mimic is connected to the AR system, Mimic could have found a bunch of data that’s complied into a cd and somehow Roxy’s eyes can make it into a reality.

Mimic found the retro cds through the AR world and scattered all of them in the Pizzaplex for Gregory to find.

Fake SL living room

Mimic is staying in the fake SL living room while Gregory’s doing his 6 hour adventure. He’s been watching Gregory in security cams and Patpats through the TV. Why did I said he watching Gregory through the TV?

Because in ruin, we can see a security footage of Gregory and Vanny so there’s a possibility that Mimic can see Gregory like this too.

Now does Mimic just sit and wait for Gregory to come and that’s it? No. I’m sure, Mimic helped Gregory along with Freddy but how?

The messages

Throughout the game, you can collect messages in the shape of a duffel bag that can help you or for lore reasons. So how Mimic can send the messages despite that in game, you’re collecting them yourself? Simple, that’s just a game mechanic.

In one of Freddy’s unused dialogues, he mentioned about one of the messages on how to get to the catwalks. So in game, you have to collect the messages but in story, Gregory got messages at random times but in certain places. And there’s this one place where you get the “PQ 1 maint” message. The first message that Gregory founds out about PQ

The same place where you can find Bonnie in Ruin (I’m on the 10 images limit but you know what I mean).

If Mimic send all of those messages to Gregory then why he sent the message about PQ despite the arcade machine could free Vanessa.

Maybe the Bonnie and all Staff meeting incident made Mimic realize something that what Vanny’s doing isn’t good or normal. Maybe he wants to free Vanny because he knew something was wrong and the only way to do that is playing PQ but it didn’t exactly work…

(I think the “HI DAVE” and “Better Employees” message was a message misread speedrun send accident or Mimic thinks it would be funny)

A challenge message

Back to fake SL living room, there’s this message behind the TV and I said that the language was created by Vanny so ONLY Vanny and Mimic knows about this language but what if i told you Mimic1/Glitchtrap also knows about it.

When you think about the translation of the message, it sounds like a taunt, a challenge.

Taken from the quote

“Break and mend, i built the breath. They hunt now, drawn to life. Not real, still keen. And frit and fraught with thought and zest and gest no blunt woes. Dodge, duck, flash, shoot, crawl, run, crash the vile band. Cry not, try not, do not hold out hope, no. Your life, your aim will save those with soul.”

“I built the breath. They hunt now”

That would make sense for Glitchtrap because he built the virus and Vanny put that into the Glamrocks causing them to be aggressive. Obviously, this message is for Gregory but it’s not message…it’s a challenge. A challenge for Gregory. Glitchtrap is taunting him to fight through the night and destroy the Glamrocks which Gregory did just that.

But how Glitchtrap able write that challenge despite he doesn’t have a physical body? Mimic also got affected by the virus in which cause Glitchtrap to control him and wrote that message. So here’s what happened

Mimic was helping and watching Gregory through the TV then he got glitched and errors, he dropped his popcorn (yes, I think Mimic was the one who carried two popcorns and eating it) Glitchtrap took control and wrote that code then he leaves and Vanny founds him.

Vanny hides Mimic to somewhere below the Staffbot silo and that place is Freddy Fazbear’s pizza place, that’s where Mimic’s story ends and y’know how it goes next,

Gregory and Freddy goes to Fazer Blast and Vanny disassemble Freddy, Gregory plays PQ 3 and freed Vanessa and which also “freed” Vanny and they eat ice cream together with Freddy being a head and Mimic saw that and he’s all sad, the 3 star fam are gone for awhile then they came back with Vanny created MXES and modified the AR world.

Now here is the interesting part

A story about a Mother and a Son

I’ll tell you one thing…there is not a single mother and son duo in the FNAF franchise. So either the mother and son is most likely a metaphor or it’s about Vanny and Mimic.

“Now i will tell you a story about a Mother and a little boy who lived alone in a cabin in the dark woods”

Vanny and Mimic lived in the Pizzaplex which they hide in dark places and the animatronics there seems aggressive.

“There was a monster in the woods but the Mother caught it and kept it locked in the basement”

The monster is Glitchtrap. Tape girl and Vanessa tries to trap Glitchtrap in different ways but the one thing about tape girl, that she had the option to delete her audio logs that was used as Glitchtrap’s hiding spot but she never deleted them…

“The monster always made scary noises at night. But the Mother would tell the boy not to worry because it could never get out. Then she would sing the boy a lullaby to sleep.”

The virus affected Glamrocks is seen killing their targets through the Patpats, Mimic asked Vanny about the disappearances but she told him not to worry/gaslighting him to not think about it.

“One day, the monster stopped growling. Instead, listened and learned the lullaby.”

Glitchtrap watched Mimic and learned the language that Mimic communicates with and used it to write the message.

“The next day when the Mother went out to find food, the monster sang the lullaby from the basement. The little boy heard the lullaby and opened the door…”

When Vanny got “freed”. The 3 star fam came back to the pizzaplex and put MXES in the underground.

MXES who is oddly similar to Glitchtrap is now the monster luring Mimic to the underground and trapped him there.

But wait…

Did MXES lured Mimic?

From most people’s theories, Gregory lured Mimic there because Mimic wants to meet Gregory. But what if Mimic’s messages to Cassie IS true.

In his first dialogues to Cassie, that SOMETHING grabbed him and he’s under the raceway and when MXES first appeared, Mimic told Cassie to “stay away from that thing”.

Then when Cassie talks to Mimic in the Monty gondolas maintenance room, Mimic said this

“I’ll explain it all when you get here. That thing is back! I gotta hide!”

It’s the fact that Mimic sounds very genuine when he’ll explain about how he can see what Cassie’s doing and he called someone “that thing”.

Was he referring to himself or to MXES because it would make sense that MXES is physically near Mimic.

Now, the very last thing to talk about

The elevator ending

In the chase scene, Mimic kept trying to run to Cassie. Maybe the reason why Mimic knocked Cassie out of consciousness was because he was desperate to have company especially when Gregory said that he’s been trapped for really long time.

Then if Mimic cut the elevator (as in destroyed the conduit) either he didn’t think that the elevator would fall or he’s so desperate that he’ll let Cassie get hurt on the way down…but I think I’ll choose that first one.

Conclusion?

Mimic is so tragic actually…same thing with book!Mimic. Anyways

AlsoiheadcanonedVannycalledMimicJimmysoMimic’sactualnameisJimmy

This theory is helped by @chaosnightgal

#fnaf #fnaf sb #fnaf ruin #fnaf mimic #fnaf vanny #fnaf vanessa #fnaf gregory #fnaf glamrock freddy #fnaf cassie #tales from the pizzaplex #who is tragic and who is a liar #fnaf tftp #fnaf theory

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bettyweir · 8 months

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I need 2 make like a LIST of mbav lost media. im just gonna keep piling on the more i remember:

A Doug Falcon hawk video at the beginning of the original PC game "Humans vs Vampires" when you visited the offical website (mybabysittersavampire.com)(Only screenshots exist)

Every in between cutscene in previous game. (a few are known in low quality)

I could go on about the game honestly.

Video footage behind the scenes on "Fanged and Furious" aka "Evil Car" warehouse. It was footage of Cameron Kennedy + Atticus Mitchell who was eating a banana. (fan discussion + a B&W gif are all that remain)

Interview were Vanessa Morgan tells a story of how a Rat Peed on Her while recording the movie. (we have a deadlink + summary of the article)

The original "Evil Car" script, leaked online hasnt been found since (check the rbs/notes)

#lost media #mbav #this is just off the top of my head... will add onto if i remember more

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spookyboywhump · 4 months

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Hello hello :) I have a new OC and I’ve written a new Thing. This was really fun to write and explore some stuff with I enjoyed it a lot and I hope y’all do too

Word Count: 2,832

CW: pet whump, dehumanization, casual discussions of selling human people, mentions of blood

***

Some pets got sold to nice, loving, owners. Owners who would dote on them and spoil them rotten and make them believe that being a pet was the best thing to ever happen to them. Others would be sold to cruel owners, who sadistically tortured them for their own amusement. In some rarer cases, the pets would be returned, and in the most disappointing cases, the pets would never leave to begin with.

That is where she found herself.

She was twenty years old when she went in, signed all the papers, and gave up her identity and life as she had known it. She’d been starting to think there was a good chance she was no longer twenty, but it was nearly impossible to keep track of time there, among the rows of cells holding anywhere from one to three people, there weren’t any windows, and there certainly weren’t any clocks where they could see them. The few hours they had to try and sleep when the lights went out didn’t help when the days blurred together, but she didn’t care anymore, she’d long since given up trying to tell how long she’d been there, it didn’t matter when she had reason to believe she’d never step foot outside the dreary warehouse again.

She watched several other pets come and go, she’d watched owners come and look around, she’d been seen by countless of them at this point, but she was simply never “the one”. She tried to ignore how that hurt, the feeling that she was quite literally worthless and nobody seemed to want her. The workers commented on it too, how she’d been there so long, how they were sure she would’ve sold sooner, eventually “so” long turned into “too” long, like she was doing something wrong by not being right for anybody, and she’d lost sleep fearing what would happen to her when they were done waiting for her to sell.

That dreaded day came eventually, she was grabbed from the cell and roughly led away, through a door to the back hallways. She hadn’t even known this area existed, dread weighed heavily in her stomach as she couldn’t stop her imagination from coming up with the worst possible scenarios, all the horrible ways they could choose to finally dispose of her. She’d told herself she wouldn’t fight it or beg for her life when this happened, but she couldn’t help it, tears welled up in her eyes and she began to drag her feet, her heart pounding in her chest.

“P-please- I- I know I’ve been here a while, I’m sorry, maybe I just- just need more time?” She stammered, her voice cracking as she spoke.

“Shut up and keep walking.” The staff member ordered her, he sounded irritated with her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t- I don’t want to die, please, just give me more time!” She cried, stumbling along after him as he pulled her harder, but her pleas fell on deaf ears, and when it became obvious begging wasn’t going to save her, she broke down sobbing. No point in trying to save face if she was just going to be killed anyway, she didn’t care enough anymore to try and cling to her pride.

She was still sobbing when she was pulled into an office and pushed to her knees, she heard the door shut behind her and she kept her head down, letting her messy, knotted hair fall into her face. The staff member stayed behind her, she was too scared to look, convinced she was about to be “put down” like an unwanted animal. She’d heard of it happening before, she didn’t want to believe it but it seemed all too real now.

“Goddamn, what did you do to her?” She was startled by a familiar voice, she’d been so worked up she hadn’t realized they weren’t alone in the room. She bit down hard on her lip to quiet her sobs, hesitantly looking up. In front of her stood Mr. Whitaker, from what she understood, he was in charge of all the staff there. She was familiar with him only because he was around so often, speaking with the staff, inspecting the cells and the pets in them, they were always very attentive to him and some of the pets who had been brought back would call out to him, though they were often ignored. He’d never once given her a second glance in all the time she’d been there, but now he was eyeing her carefully, which only made her more nervous.

“Nothing!” The staff member said defensively. “She’s just being overdramatic, she’s usually a lot quieter than this.”

“I-I’m sorry…” She whimpered, lowering her head again. She didn’t want to cause any problems, and she really didn’t think she was being dramatic, she was just scared.

“Look, sir, she’s been here over a year now and still hasn’t sold, she’s taking up space in a cell that could go towards much more profitable pets.” He told him.

“And why is this something I have to tend to?” Mr. Whitaker asked, he sounded bored of this conversation already.

“I was told not to dispose of the products without checking with you first.” The man explained. “I’d just put her down at this point, clearly she’s not going anywhere, we can stop wasting our time with her.”

“Put her down? That’s not fair, she hasn’t done anything wrong. She’s a pretty girl, I don’t know why nobody has picked her up yet, but I don’t think it’s enough to get rid of her over.” Mr. Whitaker said. Something about his words felt oddly reassuring to her, like maybe she wasn’t completely worthless after all.

“Then what do you suggest I do with her?” The worker sighed. Mr. Whitaker seemed to hardly be paying him any attention, instead he knelt down, tilting her chin up and forcing her to meet his icy blue eyes. She was still biting her lip, still blinking back tears, but he didn’t look angry or mean, he just seemed to be studying her face.

“Put her to work.” He said after a moment. “I’m sure you all could use another hand with the upkeep of the place, she can help with mealtimes, keeping things cleaned up, I’m sure you can find something she can help with.” He said, and he smiled at her, it was far more condescending than kind, but he was sparing her life, and she was so grateful for that she didn’t care how he looked at her. “You can manage that, can’t you?” He asked, and she nodded quickly.

“Y-yes- yes sir!” She stammered, her voice still cracked, she knew she sounded pathetic but she didn’t even care.

“Good girl. Now stop crying, it’s not a very good look on you.” He said, standing back up, and she nodded, trying her best to wipe her tears away. She wasn’t scared anymore, all she felt was relief, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “Keep her in one of the private cells, she’ll remain here. Just give her some orders and I’m sure she’ll obey, it doesn’t sound like she’ll cause you any trouble.” He told the staff member.

“Yes sir, if that’s what you think is best.” The man said. He seemed unsure of this, but people didn’t tell Mr. Whitaker no, it didn’t matter what this man thought of the decision. She was pulled to her feet again, led down the dimly lit hallways until they stopped in front of a door, this one solid metal with a small square window, unlike the barred doors of the public facing cells. She was let in and she found it wasn’t much different from the cell she’d spent all her time in before, just away from other pets and browsing owners. She kind of liked the idea of having some privacy for the first time in a year.

The man left her alone in there, she was told she’d start her new role the next day, and she might want to rest up before that. Her heart was still racing, she’d been sure that she wouldn’t even see the next day, and though her goal had always been to be sold, to have an owner, she also liked the sound of having a job to do, of being useful and helping out. She could do chores, she could work hard and earn her right to stay there, the more she thought about it, the better she felt. She knew that she’d be okay, she’d just have to work hard to ensure that.

***

Months had passed of this arrangement, she settled into the routine rather quickly. She’d be let out of her cell every morning and put to work with the rest of the staff, taking orders from them and tending to whatever needed to be done. Sometimes that meant helping to feed the other pets still up for sale, they were all only fed once a day and it was practically just scraps of food, and some of the other pets were mean when she came into the cell. Some just called her names, but others bit and snapped, twice now she’d been knocked down by a pet attempting to escape. She’d been upset at first but by now she didn’t hold it against them, she understood that not everybody walked into this willingly, but it was probably her least favorite job to do, the other staff were better prepared to handle pets like that and she felt it should be left to them.

Sometimes her job entailed running errands for the staff, running back and forth across the building to bring them items they needed, taking messages from one person to another, whatever was asked of her, she did it quickly and without complaint. Most of the time though, her job just entailed a lot of cleaning. Tidying up the offices of the workers, cleaning the shower rooms, scrubbing blood off the walls of cells after punishments or fights broke out, and of course cleaning the absolute worst part of the building, the training rooms.

Not all pets endured this personalized training, it was something added at an extra cost from what she’d heard, but the idea of it terrified her. The rooms were down the hall from where her cell was, she could hear the pets screaming at all hours of the day, and she’d started gagging the first time she’d been ordered to clean one. She was no stranger to blood, but from what she saw she could only imagine the level of brutality the poor pet had faced, she wouldn’t believe they had survived that had she not seen them herself. She had to wipe down the weapons used on them too, and organize them neatly for the next session. She could be happy never touching another blade again.

Despite the rather obvious downsides to it, she had grown comfortable in this situation. She knew what to expect, she was very rarely hurt, she was fed daily, and some of the staff even seemed to take pity on her. Over the first few weeks some of them began to bring things to her cell, changes of clothes, a cot and a blanket so she wouldn’t be sleeping on the cold floor anymore. She appreciated it all so much. She saw Mr. Whitaker more often while she was working, he’d pet her hair and praise her for working so hard and doing a good job, which always put her in a good mood. Sometimes he brought his pet with him, a tall, scary looking fighting dog. She’d never seen the dog fights but she’d heard all about them, she had so many questions for him but never got close enough to ask. One day Mr. Whitaker came alone, and he left with a small red haired boy who’d only been there a short while. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel somewhat envious of him, though she was comfortable, it never stopped her from wondering if things could be better with an actual owner.

She still hasn’t given up on that thought by the time the day came around, it was always in the back of her mind. She was on her hands and knees, trying to clean up blood splattered into the walk way. A pet had attacked one of the staff members, they’d been returned a couple times and this time came back with sharpened fangs, sharp enough to tear about the staff member’s arm pretty bad before being shocked until they went still. After that they were dragged off through that door to the back hallways, it wasn’t hard for her to guess where they’d been taken. It wasn’t her job to focus on that though, it was her job to clean up. She heard footsteps coming towards her, stopping a few feet away from her, but she didn’t look up. She’d learned that as long as she was quiet and kept her head down, people would say absolutely anything around her, as if she wasn’t even there. Sometimes listening in on the conversations around her was her favorite part of this arrangement.

“That’s really all we have, ma’am, but I can let you know if we receive any new ones in the upcoming days…” A staff member was saying, they sounded nervous.

“Really? What about that one?” A woman asked, but she didn’t dare look up from the mess, if she couldn’t stop herself from getting her hopes up then she could at least try not to look as desperate as she felt.

“That one?”

“Yes. She can clean? I was telling you I needed a lot done around the house, she would do nicely.” The woman said, and she paused, all her attention on this conversation now.

“Well, she- she’s really not for sale.” The staff member explained.

“She’s a pet. You sell pets. Do you really think Mr. Whitaker would be happy to hear you’re turning down a sale?” The woman asked, sounding irritated.

“No ma’am… I’ll uh, go speak to someone about her, okay?” They said, hurrying off and leaving her alone with the woman. She finally raised her head as she stepped closer to her, to see a well dressed, dark haired woman with cold gray eyes looking down at her.

“Do they regularly have you doing chores around here?” She asked, and she nodded quickly.

“Yes ma’am… I um, I do a lot of cleaning up, and they- they usually tell me I’ve done good. Mr. Whitaker has said I do good.” She said, hoping that would earn her some credit.

“Has he? That’s interesting.” She said. “Tell me, do you know how to cook?”

“No ma’am…” She glanced away from here, almost feeling ashamed. She’d never learned beforehand, and she certainly hadn’t been given the chance to learn here. “I-I can do other things though, whatever you ask, I help the staff all the time in different-“

“That’s enough. Whatever you don’t know can be taught to you.” She said, cutting her off. “I expect you to obey me if I take you from here. I don’t want to be dealing with any escape attempts, no matter how unlikely it is you could manage to get away.”

“Of course. I-I volunteered to be here, I… wanted this…” She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. She had no intentions of trying to escape, she had nothing to go back to anyway. She wouldn’t have stepped foot in here to begin with if she’d felt she’d had any other option.

“You’ll also be expected to respond to the name I give you, understand?” She’d never really thought about having to change her name, it was never even used around this place. She hoped she would like whatever was picked out.

“Yes ma’am, whatever you want to call me.” She said, and she thought she saw a hint of a smile on the woman’s face.

“Very well then. I’ll be taking you home, I think you’ll suit my needs just fine.” She said, and she couldn’t help but grin.

“Y-yes, thank you ma’am.” She could see the worker coming back towards them from behind the woman, she was certain that this was it, she was finally going to leave this place, she finally had an owner.

She didn’t know what to expect outside of what she was told, but she was looking forward to it. Of course she felt nervous, it would be a big change, a lot of new things to learn, but she wasn’t as worried as she was excited to finally step outside again, to have a home and a purpose. She’d work every day to earn her right to stay there, she’d been doing that for months, all she could hope was that this would be the solution she’d been looking for all this time.

#whump #my writing #my oc’s #Eve #Natalia #Cain #pet whump #dehumanization #this was fun I’m quite happy with it #Eve is precious to me I love her already #even if she technically hasn’t been named Eve yet

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nekoannie-chan · 7 months

Text

Not an alliance

Title: “Not an alliance”

Ship: Raven Darkholme & Erik Lensherr (Work).

Word count: 511 words.

Rating: Teen.

Square: G3 “Shapeshifters”.

Summary: Can mutants have an alliance with shapeshifters?

Warnings/Tags: Shapeshifters, argue.

A/N: This is my entry to @marvelrarepairbingo @marvelrarepairs MarvelRarePair Bingo Round 2 2023. Annie MRP-066.

You can read it on Wattpad and Ao3 too.

@saiyanprincessswanie

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics to be posted on other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other's people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and are not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

Add yourself to my taglist here.

My other media where I publish: Ao3, Wattpad, ffnet, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter.

If you like it, please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

Tags: @sinceimetyou @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad @navybrat817 @angrythingstarlight @shield-agent78 @charmed-asylum @caplanbuckybarnes @sapphire-rogers @nana1000night @talia-rumlow @writingshae @alexxavicry @azulatodoryuga @daemonslittlebitch @chaoticcollectivenightmare @endlesstwanted @chemtrails-club @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @here4thefanfics @theestorm @patzammit @kmc1989

Erik Lensherr walked through the shadows of the city. Despite his fame as a mutant leader, he preferred to remain hidden on certain occasions, especially from those who could use his power against him. However, that night, something caught his attention. So, he chose to enter that dark alley.

There, in the shadows, stood Raven; her yellow eyes met Magneto's, and a sinister smile came across her blue face. It had been a long time since they had last seen each other, but the connection between them was still strong.

Magneto and Mystique sat in a corner of the alley, reminiscing about the old days and catching up. As the night progressed, they began to talk about their current lives. They discovered that they had both found a new purpose in fighting for mutant rights. So perhaps they could become a team again. Erik had heard a rumor that some shapeshifters who were supposedly causing trouble could also be useful to them in making things better for mutants.

As soon as he told her about it, she started telling him what she knew about them. He listened to her attentively while his mind kept thinking of all the endless possibilities there were.

So, they decided to thoroughly investigate the existence of these rebel shapeshifters and their possible connection to the mutant cause. Erik knew that, if they could convince these shapeshifters to join their fight, they could accomplish what the mutants were afraid of.

Following the clues Mystique had obtained, she and Magneto went into the darkest corners of the city. Eventually, they found a small group of shapeshifters gathered in an abandoned warehouse. They were beings of different shapes and sizes, but as soon as they noticed the presence of the mutants, they became defensive.

They distrusted the mutants and were not willing to form an alliance with them or with anyone different from them; they wished to keep their identity as well as their existence secret; they did not want to be persecuted like the mutants.

On the other hand, Erik was beginning to lose patience; he did not like their refusal to participate in his plans. Frustrated by the shifters' refusal, he decided to try to persuade them in another way.

It didn't work either; the shapeshifters were adamant, and they didn't want any interaction or alliance with the mutants or humans. In fact, the atmosphere was starting to get tense, and threats to attack the mutants and declare war on them began to appear.

Erik and Raven decided it was time to leave, but not before Erik swore mentally that if those beings ever needed help, he would make sure they did not get it from any mutant, as well as that at some point he would make their existence public; they had been wrong to refuse, and he would never forget it.

On the other hand, Raven began to talk to him about new plans. Since their alliance had been renewed, they could do many things with their team, and she already had the next targets.

#mrpbingo #marvel rare pair bingo #erik lensherr & raven darkholme

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brian-in-finance · 1 year

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Video 📹 Forget Me Not Gin Instagram 14 August 2020 (Caitríona posted it 11 August 2020)

The Staff Canteen GrilledLIVE Podcast, streamed 11 April 2023, recorded 8 March 2023 in Glasgow Apple Spotify

Cara Bouchon, Host: We’ve been drinking some lovely wine whilst we’ve been sat here, but Caitríona, you have your own gin, just staying on tipples, Forget Me Not Gin, correct? What made you want to do that, and you’ve done a batch, are you doing another?

Caitríona Balfe, Guest: Yeah, we did one batch. We are in the process of getting it up and running again. Obviously the pandemic happened and Brexit happened… when we did our first batch… Why did I want to do it in the beginning? We were talking, me and my husband*and a friend** of his who’s in the hospitality and drinks business, and we were talking about the Arts and how it’s been so underfunded here, abroad, everywhere I travelled. Governments are slashing support for the Arts left, right, and centre, and we were talking about “what if we did something where we could use a percentage of the profits to give back, and that the whole ethos of the brand would be that it’s about getting artists to help?” We would fund them, we would support them, and in their turn we could have artists use their art and promote it.

We were just riffing and we were “let’s try one batch and see what happens.” We did something like 2000 bottles and it sold within a day, and were were “that’s kind of cool, let’s go and do more of this.” And when we did that, were were able to take the order, ship it, get it to anywhere in Europe within two days. And then Brexit happened, and it was like, “well you can’t do that.” And then to ship to the U.S. there’s a lot of complicated loopholes because there’s a very strange system in the U.S. that still exists since prohibition. And then I got pregnant, so you can’t really be flogging booze when you’re pregnant, so we just put a pause on everything. And we’re about to launch… well, I don’t want to give a time because there’s still stuff we’re sorting out, but we’re going again. It’s coming soon. Forget Me Not is not (forgotten).

Cara: Why gin? Is gin your favourite drink?

Caitríona: Look, I’m somebody who likes a lot of drinks, but gin is something I think you can play around with the flavours in a really interesting way within a very short space of time. Obviously, if you want to do a real whisky or things like that, that takes a long time to get them aged and all of that.

I love a gin during the summer. So it’s about being able to… hopefully we do this one, our staple, and then I would like to do interesting flavours. The idea is to build special batches and stuff like that, make it something that’s a little bit more unique and have artists come in, or have people come in, to put their stamp on it as well, and work in conjunction with people.

And we’re working with SWG3***, we’re going to fund artist spaces. We’ve done it with our last batch. We’re going to do that continuing, and we hope to do those projects in various different countries as well.

It’s to do something fun. I like to do things like this in terms of it’s an interesting outlet for me in a different type of creative way, and it’s also something where I can invest in stuff I’m interested in and help in a way.

I’m not necessarily… I’m not going to take over the gin business for the rest of the world. It’s fun.

FMN DRINKS (UK) LIMITED, incorporated 14 December 2022. Directors: Caitríona Mary Balfe, Duncan Glen Frew**, Anthony Gerard McGill*

SWG3 Studio Warehouse***, Glasgow

Photo: Forget Me Not Gin on Instagram

Remember… it’s to do something fun… and it’s also something where I can invest in stuff I’m interested in and help in a way. — Caitríona Balfe

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infamoussparks · 7 months

Text

Chapter 1: Sparklers & Secrets

Approx. 5,300 words; 35 minute read.

Someone below started clapping and another group of students started laughing loudly. The three heroes peered over the ledge in half supervision and half pure glee in the moment. This was so much better, so much bigger, than they could have ever hoped for. It meant so much to all of them.

“Two whole damn years. Can you believe it?” Hazel eyes scan the grounds as the sun casually dipped below the horizon in the distance. Fetch was seated on the top of the concrete border that ran along the rooftop of the warehouse. A half-full bottle of beer was beside her on the ledge and her boots gently tapped against the wall as they dangled over the edge. The soft, warm breeze of the final summer evening played with her hair, toying with her fringe as it fell over her eyes. She was focused on the people below who were laughing and enjoying the summer air as they played and chatted with one another.

Delsin sat beside Fetch, facing away from the commotion below and gave her a soft smile. He took a long sip of his beer and softly chuckled in response, “Two years… how the hell did that happen so quickly?”

He brought his free hand to his head and adjusted his beanie in place. It was a staple of his wardrobe despite the warmer air and made him easily identifiable to the group gathered below. The school had done well, pulling in people from all over with powers looking for protection and guidance. Fetch knew that Delsin wasn’t sure he was the best at either of these things on his own, but with Eugene and herself by his side the three “Heroes of Seattle” had somehow managed to provide all that and more. It didn’t get better than this.

Eugene opted not to sit so close to danger and instead was seated in a fabric camping chair that was set up on the roof. He dragged it close to his friends and put himself in charge of beer counting to make sure no one had too many and ended up with several regrets come morning.

“It’s been a great two years, though. This feels like a new beginning.” Eugene raised his bottle and nodded toward Delsin who nodded in agreement. Eugene had really come out of his shell with the school under his belt and he was sitting there in a casual gaming t-shirt, no longer hiding within an oversized hoodie. Fetch figured his confidence shift happened due to how good it felt to be looked up to by everyone here.

The school went unnamed, but it was theirs. The outside was painted with murals of powers and people long since gone but never forgotten. Spray paint and neon intertwined throughout the outside and inside of the main building, adding a personal touch and a reminder that conduits were just normal people with extra abilities. It helped to really keep the students and members of the school at ease and feeling as though they were a part of something amazing, safe and welcomed to be themselves at every turn. It was the small things that mattered most, it seemed.

And those students were so amazing. Ages ranged from teens to adults. It was a very diverse collection of people all pulled together because they had abilities and needed help with accepting them, or using them, or simply needed a place to crash after feeling unsafe for just existing as they were. Some of them didn’t even want anything to do with their powers, but being here was important to them in other ways and so, they stayed.

Everyone who stayed at the school had a small, dorm-sized room to themselves. The rooms were narrow but not claustrophobic and they were all wiped down to a neutral slate in between students. They included a desk, chair, bed and a decently sized closet, with enough room for a small couch or a few beanbags if the students decided to purchase extra furniture. Students could do anything they wanted to the room–rearrange the furniture, paint the walls, plaster them in posters, hang their powers on display–anything goes. The only rule was no demolition. The rooms were a reflection of the people who lived within and it was always a fun way to get to know someone by simply visiting their domain. Common restrooms and bathing rooms were found within each hall of dorm rooms.

The hallways were named after things that mattered most to Delsin, Fetch and Eugene. They had a wing all to themselves upstairs and tucked away from the main lobby, each with their own room and private bathrooms. They also had a shared space on the second floor that was a meeting room to discuss any upcoming classes or issues with students in private. Occasionally things came up, but mostly the school was a positive and fun place to attend.

As for classes, Fetch mostly taught combat–how to wield and defend yourself with your abilities; Eugene taught technical advancements–how to think beyond your powers and use your environment for a more tactical experience; and Delsin taught acceptance–how to love your powers without getting too cocky about it. Between the three, they had a balanced day of classes that focused on what they wished they had learned growing up with abilities instead of having to run, hide, or fight to be understood. They also made sure to include a little of the average core classes (English, Math, Science, History) into their lessons as well, but they could weave that in as needed and it was never the true focus of any class. The school was more a haven and less a high school.

Access to the rooftop was forbidden to the students, but that didn’t stop them from sneaking up there while testing their abilities. Delsin, Fetch and Eugene controlled the rooftop space and used it now as a place to just relax and quietly celebrate their accomplishments. Fetch smiled softly to herself watching the group below her now. Powers were flared now and then, but never in a way that seemed dangerous or alarming. It was a different experience for her to be in a place where powers could be used freely and in such a safe environment. She felt like Brent would be proud of who she had become afterall.

Suddenly, Delsin stood up, “Shit! I almost forgot. I got you both something.”

Fetch glanced over her shoulder at him and adjusted herself to now be sitting sideways on the ledge, one boot on the roof while the other still dangled off the edge. She nearly knocked her beer off and onto the rooftop, but luckily Eugene grabbed it seconds before disaster. He handed it to her with a lopsided grin.

“My hero,” Fetch joked as she took the bottle from him and raised it to his before taking a sip and tossing Delsin an expectant glance. “What you got for us, Smokes?”

“I’m glad you asked, Fetch. First, hold these,” and Delsin tossed a flat, narrow box to her. Fetch snagged it from the air easily enough and then placed her beer on the rooftop beside her foot to better examine the box.

“Sparklers?”

“Yeah. Well, I mean, I figured we could light them as a toast to everything we’ve built. Together.”

“I won’t complain about lighting things on fire.” Fetch winked at Delsin while removing two sparklers for herself and passing the box to Eugene. Eugene fished two out for himself and passed the box back to Delsin with an underhand toss. Delsin caught it without seeming to think about it and grabbed two for himself then he placed the box on the gravel of the rooftop.

The three friends brought the tips of the sparklers closer together and Delsin cleared his throat.

“To everything we’ve built, everything we have and whatever the future holds,” With a snap of his fingers simply for flair, embers of smoke summoned and worked their magic to light the six sparklers in a bright flare of light. Eugene grinned like a child and Fetch laughed out loud at the sight, “Most of all, to us.”

“To us!” Eugene and Fetch chimed in. Fetch traced the letters U-S in the air using her sparklers, sparks leaping and dancing on the slight breeze in the growing dark of twilight. Eugene seemed to be inspecting the process of the soft flame swallowing the ignited fuel for the sparklers.

“One more thing… hold out your hands.” Delsin reached into his pocket, both sparklers slowly burning down between the fingers of his other hand. Fetch and Eugene exchanged a curious glance before shifting their sparklers into one hand and holding the empty one out as instructed. Delsin found what he was searching for in his pocket and with a grin dropped something into each of his friends’ hands.

“What… is this an emblem?” Eugene was holding the small gift in his fingers, using the light of the sparklers to get a better look.

Delsin nodded, that grin still plastered on his face, “Yeah, exactly! I thought we should give something to the students to make them feel like more of a part of this wild idea of ours. And it will help us identify them on and off grounds.”

“I’m impressed, Smokes. This is really cool.” Fetch was holding it up and out over drop to the ground below without fear of dropping it. The emblem was a small, silver piece that had a pin back. The back was engraved with three initials and a year–“D, F, E - EST. 2023”--the year the school opened. The front was engraved and embellished with a design that featured a spray-painted star with a smaller star cut from the middle and two wings on either side–one resembled her neon style and one clearly looked like Eugene’s video wings. It was about the size of a half dollar, around 1.2” or 3.05cm, and it was perfect. Eugene and Delsin attached their new emblems to their shirts and Fetch pocketed hers for the time being.

“The sparklers are almost out.” Fetch sighed softly, slowly waving hers through the air. Delsin sat right beside her, his shoulder bumping into her knee playfully.

“Got plenty more where those came from.”

Eugene joined the two on the ledge, but sat so his back was to the drop below. He scooped the box off the ground and handed it to Delsin, “Are we lighting them all tonight?”

“Sure, why not? This is a celebration, after all. Let’s light it up!”

Fetch laughed again and snatched the box from Delsin, “Okay, but I gotta see if I can light ‘em with neon.”

“Maybe I’ll move the fire extinguisher closer.” Eugene chuckled as Delsin groaned and rolled his eyes jokingly. The night was rung in with good beer, bright sparklers and enough contagious laughter to be caught by the students below.

“Paging Doctor Hutch. Doctor Hutch to Maternity.” The loudspeaker announcement echoed in the silence of the small, dark office which had seemed like as good a place as any to get some breathing room at the moment. That didn’t last long.

“If they keep calling me this often no one is getting any results back today,” the words a hushed chuff below Dr. Rosaline Hutchs’ breath. No one else occupied the space with her and she wasn’t exactly upset at being continuously pulled from her research, it was simply the workflow of the day. She pulled back from looking into the electron microscope long enough to blink her green and gold flecked eyes, pull her reading glasses from her hair and made a recording on a chart that lay in her lap. That was all the time she allowed for herself and her work. Then she was standing, placing her clipboard down on her desk, smoothing any wrinkles from her doctor coat and repositioning her glasses so they hung neatly around her neck from a dainty string of pretty beads.

She didn’t need to lock up behind her as every office, lab and most hallways were only accessible with a badge, so once the door latched with a satisfying click Rosaline was off toward the maternity wing of Seattle Children’s Hospital curious to see what type of situation she’d encounter this time.

She didn’t have to wonder for long as upon swiping her badge and entering the quiet, yet busy maternity ward, a young nurse with excellent taste in scrubs (today they were light blue with doodles of puppies and kittens all over them) immediately met her with a bright smile and a clipboard of her own.

Rosaline returned her smile and gave her a quick nod as she stepped away from the main hallway and more toward the wall, not wanting to hold up the flow of people rushing here and there, “Nurse Smith.”

“Doctor Hutch, please. Call me Meg.” Meg Smith was a newer nurse, full of potential and a passion for her job. She was quickly becoming one of Rosaline’s favorite people to work with within the hospital–her energy was infectious and kids of all ages really loved Meg.

“Alright, Meg. What am I walking into?”

Meg checked the clipboard before passing it over to Rosaline, “Super anxious mother, room 301. Newborn is a preemie in NICU and stable.”

“What about the father?” Rosaline had her glasses back on, peering over the chart and flipping the pages to ensure she had a decent glimpse of everything before her. A strand of auburn red hair fell loose from her tight bun and she absently tucked it behind her ear.

“Out of the picture. Or so I assume from what the mom has said.”

A soft tsk fell from Rosaline’s mouth as she gave a slight frown to Meg and removed her glasses, “We should never assume…”

Meg instantly cringed at the disapproving look, pleading her defense in a rush of breath, “I know! I know, but I just overheard some things and I…”

“Smart girl,” Rosaline smiled softly, hoping Meg understood her stance on this matter. Sometimes it was best to follow your instincts instead of the rules. “Thank you.”

Meg immediately brightened again, her smile giving her dimples and she started walking toward the room at a quick pace, “I’ll introduce you.”

“Please. It makes it a lot easier for everyone.” Rosaline followed closely behind Meg as they wove between staff and patients toward their destination. Meg rapped on the door with her knuckles before opening and entering the room. It was a standard hospital room for new moms and contained everything needed for both mother and baby while both were monitored before being sent home. The mother here was sitting up in bed slightly and seemed relieved to see Meg.

“Ms. Rogers, this is Doctor Hutch. She runs our Discovery Department and I know you had a few questions for her. If everything is okay, I’ll leave you both to chat in privacy.” Meg swept through the room, her eyes darting between machines, charts and Ms. Rogers. It looked like a normal conversation, but Rosaline made a mental note of how astute Meg was and noticed that the young nurse was checking all the vitals with a quick glance. It made Rosaline proud knowing that Meg was doing everything right without so much of a fuss nor prompting.

Ms. Rogers adjusted her position on the bed and looked simply exhausted, “Yes, everything is fine. Thank you. Hello, Doctor Hutch.”

Meg nodded and left the room and after the door latched Rosaline approached the bed with a soft smile.

“Hello, Ms. Rogers. Congratulations on your new baby boy.” Rosaline reached out one hand to shake Ms. Rogers’ hand. This was how it started, how Rosaline worked her magic. Ms. Rogers extended her hand and it was wrapped in a gentle handshake that then turned into a comforting handhold. Rosaline left the handhold relaxed in case Ms. Rogers pulled away, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t happen. Her internal clock started ticking down.

“Thank you, Dr. Hutch. I’m just so…” Ms. Rogers hesitated and took a calming breath, seeming to steel herself.

“It’s okay. I understand. How can I be of assistance?” Five seconds down. Five to go. Rosaline took her own quiet inhale. This was second nature to her now, but meeting new people this way always made her a bit nervous. It wasn’t the people per say, but their stories that brought them to her.

Ms. Rogers blinked back tears. New mothers were always this way–so much was happening to their bodies, their minds, their souls–it was hard to stay neutral after such an emotional experience from giving birth. Bringing a new life into this world was hard no matter what lens you looked at it through. Rosaline gave an encouraging squeeze to Ms. Rogers’ hand and the mother seemed to find her words.

“My son. I need to know if he’s… one of them. I just… I’m so worried. His father may have been one, but I never knew for sure and I… I don’t know what I’ll do if, if he’s…” Ms. Rogers stumbled over her words, but they were out now and Rosaline didn’t flinch nor react beyond a genuine comforting smile. Enough time had passed and she saw what she needed from this worried mother. Rosaline patted her hand and let go.

“My testing isn’t covered by insurance but I can perform the test immediately if you consent. I’ll take a small sample of blood–no more than a pinprick–from your son’s large toe and then I can have results for you within a few hours. I’m a tad backed up in my lab, I’m afraid.”

“Yes! I mean, please. I’ll pay out of pocket, I just.. I have to know.”

“I’ll have Meg bring you the forms to sign and then I’ll collect the sample. I’ll be as quick and painless as possible.”

“Thank you. I’ll wait for the results.”

Rosaline nodded and said her goodbyes then left the room, signaling to Meg who was already headed over with her clipboard and paperwork, “Thanks, Meg. I’ll wait for the official signature.”

Meg disappeared into room 301 and Rosaline leaned against the wall around the corner from the room, replaying the conversation in her mind. Ms. Rogers was so frightened for her son to be “one of them”, to be a conduit. It broke her heart. This child who was fresh to the world was already being judged and having decisions made based on something he had no control over, based on genes that may never activate in his life. Regardless of whether or not the absent father truly was a conduit, it was clear only to Rosaline that Ms. Rogers was not one. The aura she saw after ten seconds of skin contact was white, and after years of fine tuning her ability she knew without a doubt that Ms. Rogers was not only not a conduit, but that she didn’t carry the gene at all. Maybe her son would be spared as well.

“Doctor Hutch? I have the paperwork,” Meg’s approach pulled Rosaline from her own head and she offered Meg a grateful nod.

“Which NICU room for her son?” Rosaline took the paperwork and placed her glasses on, peering through the few pages to make sure all the signatures were in place.

“NICU 3-B. He’s a real cutie, you can’t miss him.” Meg was practically swooning.

Rosaline found herself thinking that Meg would make an amazing mother someday when she was ready, “Thank you. I’ll go now and run my tests. Hopefully, I’ll have time to complete this one before I’m paged again. It’s been a busy day.”

“It has! Good luck with the tests.” Meg waved and then was quickly summoned back to the main desk to assist another patient. Rosaline returned the wave, removed her glasses and headed to the NICU.

The NICU was a quiet space full of machine beeps tracking oxygen, blood pressure, heart rate and emergencies for the smallest of babies who were born too early for a variety of reasons. Nurses sat nearby every block of rooms taking turns with monitoring the babies, changing diapers, feeding, holding them and comforting them in the times that their parents were unable to be with them.

It was a tense place, but the nurses here were the best of the best. That was partially thanks to Rosaline and the funds she donated to the hospital after her research paper on identifying conduit genes had won a prestigious award that came with more money than she knew what to do with. The award was earned after years of intense research on the topic at hand and years of fine-tuning her own abilities. The Seattle Children’s Hospital was ever so thankful and they restructured the maternity wing, adding a brand new NICU center to the hospital as well. Rosaline’s only request was that they didn’t name it after her. The hospital board agreed but only if Rosaline would join their staff. And that was how she moved from Boston, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington to continue her conduit gene Discovery Department, staffed by only herself. The pay was wonderful and she was able to continue to refine her skills and powers at the same time. As they say, it takes one to know one, and being a conduit identifying other conduits was her secret gift.

Meg was right about the baby. As soon as Rosaline found his space, she could see he was precious. He was swaddled tightly and according to his charts only two weeks premature, so he didn’t have as many red flags to watch for as some of the others in NICU care. The blood sample was absolutely useless to her, but Rosaline had to keep up appearances and she prepped for it regardless. She gently unswaddled the baby enough to free one tiny foot from the warmth of the blanket.

“Sorry little one. Forgive me?” Rosaline quickly pricked the baby’s big toe and squeezed a single drop of blood into a small vial. The little bundled baby hardly stirred in his sleep with the swift prick of pain, then Rosaline was back to adjusting his foot into his blanket, cooing softly to him to relax him further into his deep slumber. After the paperwork was done, the sticker placed on the vial and the vial safely dropped into the pocket of her doctor coat, Rosaline cleaned up her small mess and then returned to the baby in 3-B. His hand was out of the swaddle due to stickers in spots that the machines had to read. Rosaline placed her index finger against the palm of his hand and he instinctively curled his fingers around hers. It was always her favorite moment of this job–it was her sign of comfort and her reassurance that this was what she was meant for.

She silently counted to ten in her head and watched as the aura began to shift and appear around this new, tiny human. It was white at first but within a few milliseconds it shifted to a cream color–a clear indicator that this baby did have the conduit gene. Whether or not it would activate was unclear and Rosaline was still working to try to figure out how exactly to see this future state, but just like illness or cancer sometimes you don’t know until it makes itself present. At least she didn’t see any colors indicating either of those for this newborn. With a soft sigh she retracted her finger and left the NICU, headed back to her office just outside the maternity ward.

Now she needed time to figure out how to tell Ms. Rogers that her son was a carrier. Inside her office she left the lights off and sat in her chair, glasses pulled back on to look over the charts on her desk, on her clipboard and in her pocket. Sometimes this job was heavier than it had any right to be. She reached out her right hand toward her microscope and felt a familiar pressure in her fingertips, like a magnet being pulled to its polar opposite. A soft glow of yellow shifted from the microscope into her fingertips. It took seconds to drain the small device and seconds more to shake the glow from her fingers and blink it away from her eyes, but it was done and now Rosaline had refueled her abilities. She was thankful she didn’t need much power to do what she did and even more thankful that her eye glow was controlled so she didn’t give herself away while using her powers. But reading cells at a magnified level was still tiring and having to deliver news that she needed to mentally prepare for was often exhausting.

She left her office a few minutes later checking her reflection in her desk mirror before finding her resolve. She bypassed the main desk in the maternity ward and knocked on the door before entering room 301. Ms. Rogers seemed surprised to see her back so soon and Rosaline handed her a formal letter, breaking the news in a comforting tone of voice.

“Your son is a carrier, however, this does not mean that the gene will activate. This letter is a formal record of his results and a list of things you can do to help prevent activation, although that is not guaranteed. I’ve also included a name and extension in case you needed to speak with our Adoption Specialist.” It was all formalities and facts, but Rosaline delivered them with a soft grace that seemed to resonate well with her patients.

Ms. Rogers nodded and a single tear slipped down her cheek, “Thank you. Bless you, Doctor Hutch.”

“It will not be included in his file, as this test is confidential. I know you’ll do the right thing for both of you. He’s a beautiful baby.”

“I… yes, thank you.” Ms. Rogers would have to take it from here, so Rosaline said her goodbyes and offered her contact information. Then she left Ms. Rogers’ room and tried to block out the sound of sobs as the door closed behind her.

Rosaline decided to take a loop through the hospital before returning to her office. It was good for her to get some extra steps in and it always helped to reset and clear her mind. She took a moment to get herself a coffee from the breakroom before stopping by her favorite window beside the maternity ward waiting room. The day was looking warm and sunny for once, the fog from the morning heat had long since lifted and the hope of an overcast autumn day was long over. She sipped her coffee and found herself daydreaming about her weekend hot yoga plans. She deserved it after this week.

After a moment of lingering, she paused at the doorway of the waiting room, watching some home design show playing on the television. As she pulled her focus away from the interior design mess happening on screen she nearly walked into a small child who was standing directly behind her. The little girl looked up at Rosaline with large, gray eyes and immediately raised her arms as though she wanted to be picked up.

Rosaline gave the child a confused look, eyes narrowing as she scanned the waiting room for any distraught parents looking for their missing daughter. Her ears perked to listen for any calls of names that could help better direct her to the parents and return the child. But after a minute of seeing nothing out of the ordinary nor hearing any names being called in worry, Rosaline suddenly felt uneasy.

The small girl tugged at the bottom of the doctor coat that Rosaline was wearing, getting the doctors’ attention again. She repeated the action of asking to be picked up without words or sounds, a pink blanket in one fist while the other one was open and shut, open and shut, trying to signal in her own way. Rosaline glanced around again quickly, then placed her half-empty coffee cup on a nearby table before kneeling before the little girl. She wasn’t wearing any socks or shoes, her platinum hair was up in two lopsided pigtails full of wavy curls and those eyes suddenly looked so scared and sad.

“Hey there. I’m Doctor Hutch. What’s your name?” The little girl just shook her head and pulled her blanket to rest against her cheek. Rosaline sighed quietly and decided to try a different tactic.

“Do you see your parents? Can you show me where they are?” This seemed to work as the child gave an enthusiastic nod before pointing toward the main hospital entrance.

This was very strange and Rosaline stood to get a better look at the main doors. Again, she didn’t see anyone who looked to be in distress over missing their child. She hated to ask more questions, but the little girl was still pointing to the sliding doors, “They’re outside? Are you sure your parents aren’t inside with you?”

Now the child was back to asking to be held and since Rosaline saw no other way to traverse this strange encounter, she obliged. The quiet child rested her hand on Rosaline’s as though to calm and praise the adult for understanding her request. Once she had the little one in her arms, Rosaline noticed a note tucked into the chest pocket of the overalls that the girl was wearing, the outside of the note simply said, “READ ME”. She shifted the child to sit on her left hip and moved her glasses into place. She pulled the note from the pocket to read it, hopeful that the parents’ information was included so she could track them down.

Dear Reader,

Please take care of my baby girl. Her name is Calypso, she is four and she is very special. We are in danger and I don’t have much time left.

Caly, sweetheart, Mommy loves you so much. No one will ever hurt you again. I’ll make sure of that. Be brave, be good, stay safe. I love you.

Rosaline could feel her heart drop into her stomach, unable to believe this was happening. This child, seemingly abandoned at the hospital. What was going on? Where was her mom now? What was the protocol for finding an abandoned child here? Would her mom come back for her? A zillion questions without answers rushed through her head, her coffee forgotten and her mind now cluttered with something new. Maybe she should go visit the Adoption Specialist for advice on who to contact for this sort of thing? She read over the letter again, scoffing at the word ‘special’. We’re all special until we’re not, Rosaline frowned slightly with the thought.

“Oh, dear. Calypso, right? Can I call you Caly?” The girl nodded and seemed suddenly very tired, her eyes fluttering as she rubbed her cheek with her blanket and her other hand idly rubbed the back of Rosaline’s. This was when it struck Rosaline, when the doctor truly saw Caly through her own, special eyes. There was a glow around the girl, her aura bright from the contact of their hands. The color reflected off Caly’s black and white striped shirt and suddenly pulled Rosaline to full attention.

Her aura was yellow. And yellow was the color only reserved for active conduit genes. But this child was four years old… no conduit on written record had ever been so young. Rosaline’s voice was a hushed, worried whisper as Caly rested her head against the doctor’s shoulder, “Oh, Caly… you are a special girl…”

#infamous fic #infamous second son #infamous sparks #delsin rowe #fetch walker #eugene sims #doctor rosaline hutch #calypso #infamous oc #new conduits

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bitacrytic · 1 year

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Overheat [36 & 37]

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“I’m so sorry,” Pete repeated.

Vegas didn’t know what to do, so he pulled Pete into his arms, rocking him slowly as Kinn shrugged.

“It’s fine.” He scoffed. “When this is all over, I’ll get my lick back. Don’t worry about me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Someone was watching him.

Pete didn't know for sure. But ever since his meeting with Porsche, Vegas and Kinn, he got the sense that someone was following him, watching him, cataloging his every move. His mind kept going back to the day he was kidnapped. That was when it had all started.

With Wan and his video. It would have been so easy to draw a line from Tawan to Wan, seeing as their names sounded alike. Pete wanted this to be over so badly that he was slowly beginning to convince himself that that was enough proof. But then he'd remember that the man they'd let go of, had run to Tod. And then another voice in his head would remind him that both of them were probably in it together.

And if they were in it together, Tawan’s father had the resources to put a tail on Pete and Tod had the resources to hack into public cameras to spy on Pete. In which case, they must already have known that Pete had flipped and was feeding them fucked information. Which meant that, any day now, his video was going to be released.

He woke up every morning, checking social media for the video. And with each morning that he found nothing, the eye on his back seemed to grow stronger and stronger. A whole week after their meeting in Kinn’s hospital room, Pete hadn’t heard anything. He wondered if he should allow himself to breathe. If he should calm down and let Vegas and Kinn solve it, just Porsche had said.

Or if he ought to do something, himself. After all, he’d learned pretty quickly in life to depend on no one but himself. And Kinn. He’d grown to depend on Kinn. But Kinn was angry with him. There was a chance that Kinn wasn’t doing things in Pete’s best interest.

Not that Pete didn’t deserve it.

After dinner, that evening, as he was on his way back to his room, Vegas called.

“Are you busy?”

“No, not really.”

“I’m following a lead. Would you like to come?”

In twenty minutes, they were stationed outside an abandoned warehouse, perched on the roof, across the street from the main entrance. Vegas came, armed with a camera and a pair of binoculars.

“You take this,” he said, handing the binoculars to Pete. “If you see anything sketchy, let me know.”

While Vegas took pictures of cars that were coming and going, and also pictures of anyone entering or exiting the warehouse, Pete surveyed the area, extending the binoculars as far as it could go.

“What are we doing here?” Pete asked.

“Nop heard chatter from two different gangs that were meeting here. Which was strange, on its own. But the further he looked into it, it wasn’t really the whole gang. It was just one person or a couple of people from most gangs.” He sat up, dropping the camera for a moment. “Gambit is a new company. I’ve known from the beginning that we’re dealing with new people. But maybe I was half right.”

“What do you mean?”

“I monitored Tod this whole week and I’ve got nothing on him and Tawan. They’ve never met. They don’t do business together and Tawan doesn’t even fit Tod’s type.”

“Right,” Pete agreed. “Alpha business man. Which, Tawan is not.”

“Exactly.”

“But we saw the prisoner go straight to him.”

“Probably the same way the gang members from other gangs are meeting here.”

“You think someone is picking members that already belong to existing gangs?” Pete asked.

“Sounds like it to me,” Vegas replied, holding up his camera and taking more pictures as more people arrived. “With these pictures, we can know which gangs have been compromised.”

“Wait, so does that mean Tawan is doing this all alone?”

Vegas sighed. “Kinn seems to think Tawan has nothing to do with it. Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe Kinn is right. But right now, I’m not trusting anybody. Even Tod, for all I know. I mean, he doesn’t have to meet his partner to get the job done.”

True, Pete thought. They could be following the right leads. Or they could have missed the real mastermind, just because they were following the obvious.

Beside him, Vegas pulled out a packet of suppressants, popped one tablet out and swallowed it. Pete cringed inwardly, wondering if he should shut the fuck up and mind his business. He knew he should. He really ought. But before he could get a proper hold on his tongue-

"You had one of those at breakfast," Pete said.

"Yeah, so?" Vegas asked, returning the packet to his pocket as he picked his camera again.

Pete reached over and pressed the camera back down. "You had one during break and one during lunch. It's barely past dinnertime and you're having another. That's four doses in less than fifteen hours, Vegas. What's going on?"

"It's nothing."

They'd only known each other for a few months, and in that time, they hadn't always shared the heaviest of secrets with each other. Pete had been careful not to ask for too much that would set off warning bells in Vegas' head. But the few times he'd asked, Vegas had been forthcoming. He'd spoken to Pete in honesty, opening up like he couldn't wait to share his world with Pete. Like he couldn't wait to have Pete understand whatever it was he was asking about.

"I know you have no reason to trust me-"

"It's not that."

"Then what's going on? Suppressants are three times a day. The rate at which you're taking them, you'll take at least two more doses before the day runs out."

Vegas' lips trembled as he bit them, a frown appearing on his face. He looked at Pete and for a second, Pete was sure he saw the same tenderness that used to be in Vegas' eyes when he looked at Pete, before.

"It's stupid. Ken thinks I'm stupid."

"What is it?"

Vegas sighed. "I was..." he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I was waiting for the cycle break that’s coming up soon."

"Why?" Pete asked. "You're not in the production. You can have your cycle whenever you want."

Vegas gave Pete a tired, exasperated look. “I was waiting for you, dumbass.”

The insult didn’t stick. If anything, it came out soft and indulgent, almost like a term of endearment, in the way his eyes lighted, looking right into Pete’s. Too many things were happening all at once. He was sure Vegas had just said he was postponing his rut, so it could coincide with Pete’s heat. He had just said… while looking at Pete like that. He’d just said…

Pete’s mouth went dry as his throat nearly clogged up from his heart shooting up from his chest. Considering what they’d just been through, the fact that Vegas wanted… Vegas was putting himself through the discomfort of extending his rut, just so they could spend their cycles together. Pete’s head swarmed with possibilities as they sat there, in the shadow of the boulder, staring into each other’s eyes.

He wanted to kiss Vegas, but he didn’t know how appropriate that would be. They were in a shaky place and Pete was being careful. But there Vegas was, offering a kind of permanence that Pete had never had in his life. He’d never even thought he’d want to mate with someone, let alone, do it with a member of the mafia. With a man he’d only known a few months.

And yet, here he was, contemplating spending the rest of his life with this man. Giving up all other possibilities for love by accepting and giving the bite. The bite, oh god, he thought, feeling giddy and confused at the idea of wanting it. It was such a silly idea. Pete was an omega and a career-driven actor with a bright future. He’d always shied away from shared cycles because people didn’t know he was an omega. That was a secret he was going to take to his grave.

He never imagined meeting someone who knew what he was, but wasn’t threatened by the fact that he was an omega who was also working. Someone who was romantically interested in Pete, but didn’t treat him as less. Because that was when they acted differently. Pete was a human being. Pete was a person. Until someone wanted to fuck him and suddenly, he had to know his place. Even when they thought he was a beta.

None of that had happened with Vegas. Pete couldn’t even look back on their interactions and pinpoint the moment when Vegas had found out that he was an omega. Because Vegas’ behavior never changed. Pete was Pete before Vegas knew. Pete was still Pete after.

“Say something,” Vegas said, as worry etched into his face.

“Oh,” Pete said, snapping out of it. “You wanted us to… to mate?”

“What?” Vegas asked, sounding confused. “No. No, we were going to use mouth guards. I just wanted us to spend the cycle together. Get to know each other and clear the air between us, you know?”

Mouth guards. Right, Pete thought. The things that alphas and omegas put in their mouths to keep from mistakenly biting each other. Pete nearly choked as his heart went tumbling down in his chest. How stupid was he to think that someone like Vegas would want to mate him? A lying, dishonest, untrustworthy piece of shit like Pete. Of course. He should have known. Vegas just wanted cycle sex. He wanted a wanton omega in heat who could give him unimaginable pleasure.

He didn’t want forever with Pete.

Pete shivered, feeling like someone had just doused him with cold water.

“You think I’m stupid, too,” Vegas said.

“What? No. Of course not.” He tried to laugh to dislodge the heaviness in his chest. He wished he could rewind the time to two minutes ago. Before he’d overestimated his value and started planning a life with a man who didn’t trust him. “You’re not stupid,” he said. “But, you should know though. I’m not having my cycle during the cycle break.”

“Why not?”

“I’m supposed to be a beta, Vegas. Remember?” he asked. “Wan may have forced me into a heat, two weeks before camp, but I was going to do it myself, regardless. I can’t have a cycle break while others are on break. I have to be visible. I have to go to meetings and show my face around other beta actors and employees. People have to see me moving around during the cycle break or else they’d start asking questions about me. I’ll get my next heat after the production is done.”

Vegas’ mouth fell open as he smacked his own forehead. “Ken was right. I am stupid. I should have known.”

“Hey,” Pete laughed, grabbing Vegas’ hands. “Don’t hit yourself.”

“I just thought-”

“I know what you thought. It’s okay.” And without meaning to, his treacherous mouth opened and said, “If you want, I can visit though. I can come see you during your rut.”

“Yeah,” Vegas said with a little nod. “I’d like that.”

Yeah, Pete thought, smiling even though dread filled his stomach. How could Vegas think himself to be stupid, when Pete had just committed himself to spending time with a rutting alpha? How couldn’t he see that Pete was the fool willing to put his life and career on the line for a man who didn’t trust him?

Spending time alone with Vegas in a rut? What on earth could go wrong?

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

They waited till the meeting was over and took more pictures. Vegas was sure he’d gotten everyone who entered the building through this entrance. He just wanted to be thorough. He hoped Kinn and Porsche were just as thorough, at the other entrance. Because they would be totally fucked if they missed even one person.

Two hours and almost a hundred pictures later, they packed up and started heading back to the hotel, where they met at Pete and Porsche’s room.

“Did you see any familiar faces?” Vegas asked as soon as they entered the room.

Kinn shook his head. “Maybe we’ll see better now we’re here. The screen was too tiny.”

“Tiny, how? Do you need glasses?”

“Memory card,” Kinn said, holding out his hand as Vegas gave it to him.

The room was dark and Porsche had already set up a projector on his bed that was screened against the wall. On Pete’s bed, Kinn’s laptop sat, waiting for Kinn to return.

“What…” Pete began. “What’s going on?”

“We’re making notes of the faces we recognize and cataloging the pictures as evidence for their gang leaders.”

“What makes you think the leaders didn’t send those people to represent them?” Porsche asked. “I mean, maybe they’re all planning to join up.”

“We’re not the only ones who’ve been hit in the past year. Nop said a lot of lower gangs have been losing territory, and a lot of the high prestige ones have been losing business deals. Leaders aren’t happy. They want to know where their leaks are.”

“Come. Sit,” Porsche offered Vegas.

Picture after picture, they marked the number, the face in the picture and the gang they belonged to. Seeing as Kinn had put in his card first, it was going to take a while to get to Vegas’ card. But that was okay. They had all night anyway. With Vegas offering commentary, while Porsche controlled the projector and Kinn took notes, Vegas couldn’t help wondering why Pete was so quiet.

Took him a moment to remember that Kinn and Pete were still in a weird place. And Kinn was sitting at the foot of Pete’s bed, while Pete had curled into himself at the head of the bed, placing his pillows between himself and Kinn like it was some worthy barrier. Wanting to comfort him, Vegas took off his shoes and slipped behind the barrier with Pete as Pete looked at him, startled.

“Shhh,” he said to Pete before turning back to the projector.

“Don’t do anything funky, over there,” Porsche said. “I know the room is dark and all, but we can still hear that shit.”

Vegas rolled his eyes as Kinn turned back to look at them with disgust in his face.

“Oh, for fuck sake,” Kinn said, grabbing his laptop and moving to Porsche’s bed. “Seriously, I’m in the room.”

“Don’t be weird. We’re not doing anything. Pete, were we doing anything?”

“No,” Pete answered, honestly.

“Yeah right,” Porsche said with a scoff.

“Can we get back to the business at hand?” Vegas asked, gesturing at the screen.

Porsche flicked to the next picture and Kinn sat up.

“Wait.”

“What?” Vegas asked.

“I can’t really see the face on that person, but I recognize that green and blue coat. Go back.”

Porsche went to the previous picture, but the person in the green and blue coat was still backing the camera. So Porsche went back about three more pictures before they found one where the man was facing the camera, but he wasn’t at the center of the picture.

“Can you zoom in?”

Porsche shifted the focus to the corner where the man was and zoomed in on the picture to reveal the face.

“Oh wow,” Vegas said, not even bothering to be surprised by what he was seeing.

“Who’s that?” Pete asked.

“It’s-” Vegas began to say as Kinn beat him to it.

“It’s Tawan. I recognized the coat because he was wearing it when I saw him a few hours ago.”

“You saw him today?” Porsche asked, a frown etched in his face.

“It-it wasn’t like that. I wanted to find out what he knows about his father’s activities.”

“I hope you didn’t tell him too much about what we know, given that he’s the fucking mastermind.”

“Porsche-”

“Please don’t defend him right now.”

“I’m not,” Kinn said, almost sounding like he was pleading. “We know who it is now. We have a face to put on the issue. I’m not going to defend him.”

“What did he tell you?” Porsche asked. “What did he want?”

“I don’t know. He’s never really asked me for anything.”

“Are you sure?” Vegas asked. “Because if he’s the mastermind, then I get why he sent Pete into my business.”

“You do?” Pete asked.

“He’s going after gangs. He didn’t need to send someone into the main family because he plans to marry into it. But he sent you to me.” Vegas turned to Kinn. “We’re family, but we don’t operate like it.”

“You’re right,” Kinn agreed. “Your father has been adamant about keeping the minor family’s accounts separate from the main family.”

“We run our own deals, our own territories. Even our allies aren’t always main family allies.”

“You’re like two different gangs with the same name,” Porsche said.

“Exactly. Even if Tawan knew he was going to become Kinn’s omega, there was no guarantee his power would extend to the minor family.”

“We know what he wanted me to do with you,” Pete said. “But what’s his plan with Kinn been? He’s been all over the place.”

“Kinn, please try to remember,” Porsche said. “What is the one thing he keeps talking about?”

Kinn shook his head, as his brows furrowed in concentration.

“He asked me to keep his father locked up.”

“What?” Vegas asked, sitting up.

“Yeah,” Kinn said with a shrug. “The councilman is in my basement.”

As Vegas laughed at the absurdity of it all, Pete said, “Is he going to try and frame you for kidnapping?”

“That won’t help him if he wants Kinn to marry him into the family,” Porsche offered.

“So what’s he been asking for?”

“I think…” he said, still looking unsure. “He’s mentioned my father a few times.”

“How?”

“When we were locked up, he pointed out that Papa knew where I was but did nothing about it. Then when we had drinks earlier today, he asked me to cut Papa off and take control of the entire family business.”

Vegas wasn’t sure whether to be pissed or impressed, so he settled on being both. Because Tawan was a fucking genius.

“He wanted you to cut out the most important person in your life,” Vegas said.

“What?” Kinn asked.

“Think about it. You don’t cough unless you discuss it with your father.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“He’s right,” Porsche said. “You’re an obedient son. You’ve always been an obedient son.”

“If I wanted to marry you and rule alongside you, I wouldn’t want your controlling father anywhere near our empire,” Vegas said.

“Wait,” Kinn said, turning from the projector to face all of them. “You’re saying he did all that… abducted me and kept me for a week, only to release me just because he wanted me to hate my father?”

“It worked, Kinn,” Porsche said. “That day I came to see you at the hospital, right after we got you back, I heard you speaking to your father in a way I’ve never heard you speaking to him before in my entire life.”

That was news to Vegas.

“You raised your voice at Uncle Korn?”

“It was a conversation.”

“Your father asked you to take an omega as a mate and you told him no.”

“Fuck, you heard that?” Kinn asked, looking distraught.

“You really told him no,” Vegas asked, wondering where the boldness had come from. Because it was an unspoken rule. Theerapanyakuls didn’t talk back to their fathers. Ever.

“He was being unreasonable.”

Vegas couldn’t stop his eyes from widening in shock because since when did Kinn talk about his father like that?

“See?” Porsche said. “Tawan already got what he wanted.”

“He made valid points.”

“I’m not disputing that,” Porsche said. “But if his goal was to sever ties between you and your father, he’s done well.”

“Why though?” Pete asked.

“Why what?” Vegas asked.

“He’s an omega,” Pete explained. “He had Phi-Kinn tied up and at his mercy. Why didn’t he just bite him instead of letting him go? Seems a bit convoluted for an omega who could control his alpha with a single bite.”

Once again, they were back at the same question that had plagued them since that first day at the hospital. Why hadn’t Tawan bitten Kinn?

Porsche smacked his bed as he sat up with a smile on his face.

“He’s not an omega.”

“What?” Vegas and Pete asked as Kinn looked at Porsche with worried confusion.

“That’s it,” Porsche said.

“That’s a pretty big leap.”

“It never made sense. He was in heat. He couldn’t control himself. Kinn, that’s what you said. If he had no control, then why didn’t he just bite you? At least, by mistake.”

“Why would he claim to be an omega and lose his job?”

“Because he was coming after you and we all know that Kinn only fucks with omegas.” Porsche jumped up from his bed. “I’m smart. Look at me,” he said, pointing at himself.

Considering the things they’d figured out about Tawan, it wasn’t so far-fetched to imagine that he’d hatched such a plan more than a year ago. Because Korn had started putting out feelers for Kinn’s mate, two years ago. The timeline matched up. He’d planned this whole thing and waited. If this went off without a hitch, Tawan Apinya would be the king of the Thailand underworld with a Theerapanyakul alpha on his arm.

“What about his pheromones?” Kinn asked. “He was feverish. He looked dead on his feet. He…” Kinn hesitated. “How come he was… open… down there? I never saw him prep himself. Not once.”

“Did he ever go out of sight?” Pete asked. “For more than a few minutes? Because you can prep yourself and use omega-treated lubricants to trigger an alpha, but also to keep it loose down there.”

Kinn sat, blinking steadily as a look of devastated horror crept into his face.

“What is it?”

“He locked himself in the bathroom for hours.” His voice trembled as he spoke. “He pretended that he was protecting himself from me and hid in there. The next time the door was opened, he was smelling like he was in heat, looking like he was in heat.” He looked at Porsche like he wanted to cry. “He… felt… like he was in heat.”

“Oh Kinn,” Porsche said, getting back on the bed and crawling to Kinn, just as Kinn got up from the bed.

“It’s not like I’m…” he rubbed his hand over his face. “I know where you’re about to go with this conversation, Porsche. Let’s not do that, right now. Please. I c-I can’t-”

“Okay,” Porsche agreed, nodding. “Alright. We don’t have to.”

Vegas could see that his cousin was a few seconds from breaking, but they had to push on. They’d made progress and none of them could leave that room without a proper plane, or else someone would go and do something to ruin everything.

“You have to play along, Phi-Kinn,” Vegas said.

“The fuck?” Porsche replied, eyes snapping to Vegas with anger. “He’s not going anywhere near that fucking snake.”

“I have to,” Kinn said, slowly sitting back on the bed.

“Listen to me-” Porsche said.

“He has Pete’s video,” Kinn said.

Porsche’s mouth shut, immediately.

“Phi-Kinn has to stay away from his father and meet with Tawan whenever he calls until we can find a way to get rid of that video and every single copy of it.”

“Until then, Kinn has to… he has to be around his… he has to talk to Tawan like nothing happened?” Porsche asked, horrified.

“It sounds bad, Porsche. But it’s what we’ve got.”

“I’m so sorry, Phi-Kinn,” Pete said, his eyes glistening with tears as he looked at Kinn. “Because of me-”

“Don’t even say that,” Kinn said. “You’re my prized jewel, remember?” Kinn tried to sound lighthearted, but it came out dry and pained.

“I’m so sorry,” Pete repeated.

Vegas didn’t know what to do, so he pulled Pete into his arms, rocking him slowly as Kinn shrugged.

“It’s fine.” He scoffed. “When this is all over, I’ll get my lick back. Don’t worry about me.”

Vegas was utterly relieved to hear that. Because if they were going into battle, he didn’t want a traumatized alpha at the helm. He wanted a pissed one that was out for vengeance. And judging by the look in Kinn’s eyes, Vegas was grateful that he was going to get the latter.

#kinnporsche #vegaspete #pete pov #vegas pov #actor au #omegaverse

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spilltheateeaz · 1 year

Text

ATEEZ’s treasures in the lore

I can’t believe I forgot to include these in the storyline posts because they’re so important

Hongjoong: ‘I don’t want to be forgotten as if I never existed’; Hongjoong’s family is scattered and he was living alone before he met the rest of ATEEZ. He wants to become a bright star that can be seen from everywhere, even more than the people he saw dancing under bright lights on TV, so that his family will notice him and get back together. After meeting the others, he felt like he had a new family, and a new home in the old warehouse they got together in. In the future Hongjoong wanted both his old and new families with him as they followed their dreams making music they loved

Seonghwa: ‘She, who was dancing to the beat’; Seonghwa saw a girl dancing near a store on one winter day/night. As he watched her, everything froze around him. The only sound he heard was the music coming from her headphones. She danced as if nothing mattered in the world, and nothing had power over her moves. Something changed in him, but he stayed still and couldn’t say anything to her. She dropped a bracelet with the engraving ‘Be Free’ which Seonghwa picked up. Since that day, he went back to the same place to see her again, but she never returned. And music never sounded the same to him again

Yunho: ‘Hey brother, you look like you are in such a good mood today!’; Yunho’s brother died in a motorbike accident. He had been a musician who was gifted in a lot of instruments, but the guitar was his favourite. For unknown reasons, his brother abandoned his dreams and smashed his guitar. After his death, Yunho hid the broken guitar because it reminded him of his brother’s broken side. When he met Hongjoong, he felt like his brother had returned to him; Hongjoong had his brother’s humane personality, was an artist, and even looked a little like him. Yunho decided to avoid thinking about the painful memories and focused on making his brother’s dreams come true, backed by the friendship of ATEEZ

Yeosang: ‘For the first time ever, I felt alive’; Yeosang came from a rich family. His parents expected excellent grades and forced him to join various clubs and extracurricular activities, like violin lessons. Whenever he felt stuffy, he would dismantle and reassemble appliances and instruments. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t good with mechanics. This was the only time he had control over, time that his parents didn’t plan. It was this hobby that led him to ATEEZ. One day, while he was walking past the old warehouse, Yeosang heard music coming from it. He got closer, and ATEEZ saw and approached him. They asked if he knew how to work a drone. From then on, Yeosang went there everyday. He started to love dancing and music, and he loved his new friends. He was no longer alone, and his dream was to continue their friendship. But he felt guilty towards his parents, and started thinking about backing away

San: ‘Every time I got closer to someone, I had to move’; San’s family was always moving. Each time he started in a new school, he would begin getting close to other students, and suddenly his family would have to move again. This time, however, it was a little different. When he first met ATEEZ, right off the bat he knew they were like him. He could talk freely to them about his feelings and perfect his dance moves. Seonghwa to him was a bit weird; Seonghwa wanted to do things HIS way, not the traditional way. San still loved him though. But then, his dad dropped a familiar but devastating bombshell: his family were moving again. San desperately wanted to stay at his new home with ATEEZ, and was puzzled on what to do

Mingi: ‘When I felt like dying, I would listen to music’; Mingi and his family lived in poverty. People looked at him as if he was an alien, and made fun of him, especially other students at high school. He had a constant feeling of wanting to die. Music was his only haven, his one and only relief. Throughout elementary, middle and high school, only one person talked to him and sat with him constantly: Wooyoung. Even if Mingi didn’t talk much, Wooyoung would always jabber on about his favourite dancers, or songs, or stories about the music team he met outside of school. Wooyoung had a unique laugh that always made Mingi laugh too, and he was the first friend Mingi ever opened up to. Because he spent a lot of time with Wooyoung, he gradually spent time with ATEEZ too. They didn’t judge him for his background, and it was freeing for Mingi. But he started to get scared that his new-found happiness would be taken away from him

Wooyoung: ‘Will I fail again?’; Wooyoung loved dancing, and practiced with another team outside of school and ATEEZ. He was pretty confident while practising, and videos of this went viral on social media. Loads of people and even big entertainment companies contacted him, offering him auditions. But in front of an audience, he lost all his confidence. He chatted constantly to try and mask his shyness and stage fright, and honed it as a defense mechanism. He didn’t care that people started to make fun of him. He met Hongjoong, Seonghwa and Yunho at a street performance. Wooyoung saw that they had expressiveness beyond dance techniques, and when he danced with them, Wooyoung wasn’t self-conscious and delivered his best performances. He had a performance with his old team, and when stage fright began to take over, he thought of ATEEZ and danced well. He dreamed of always dancing by their side

Jongho: ‘Is it okay to live like this?’; Jongho was an excellent basketball player. He had his life mapped out: winning nationals, becoming player of the year, and being the youngest national player. He had no other plans. But during one match, he had an accident that resulted in a leg injury. Doctors told him that he’d be able to use his leg just fine for daily stuff, but basketball was out of the question. Jongho begged the doctors for good news but unfortunately his dreams of basketball had to take a backseat. After meeting ATEEZ, he began to see that there were other things he could accomplish in his life, and felt grateful to the members for being his friends and guiding him. However, when Mingi began to get scared that he would lose their friendship, he told ATEEZ that their dreams of being together and making music was a luxury and the time they spent meant nothing to him. Jongho got mad and punched Mingi, but started to have doubts too. His dreams of music began to morph into his previous basketball goals, but he didn’t know which path to take

#ateez #kpop #ateez theories #ateez lore

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aceofwhump · 1 year

Note

hello my dear!!! how are you? hope the new year is treating you well 💜💜 I'm wondering if you or your followers have any h/c fic recs for Bucky or Hawkeye?

Hello nonny! I'm doing very well! So far 2023 has been pretty great. Three days into the new I got a call to interview for a job I really want, had the interview yesterday and it went really well. So I'm really hoping that I'll get the next interview and hopefully the job! I've been trying for a long time to get a job and already 2023 is treating me better at the job search than 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 lol. I hope the year is going well for you so far!!!

Anyways, yes I do have a few fic recs for you! Love both Hawkeye and Bucky whump. Good stuff.

For Hawkeye:

Teambreaking by Arkada: The Avengers are supposed to be a team, but when the team turns into a sexual relationship, Clint just knows everything's going to fall apart, because he's asexual, and suddenly the team is something he can't be a part of. Being alone is the last thing in the world he wants, and he'll go to desperate lengths to keep his friends with him.

Coming In by Arkada: Clint's asexual, and he's been putting himself in Medical to keep it secret from the Avengers. Telling them makes things worse before they're better.

SOS Hawkeye aka 1001 Ways to Almost Kill Clint Barton by Sandylee007: Exactly as the title suggests. A collection of (mostly) independent oneshots or short stories where Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye, nearly dies.

A Hawk's Freefall by Sandylee007: On a mission that was supposed to be routine Clint/Hawkeye ends up getting badly injured. Has luck finally ran out or will the team and his own stubbornness keep him hanging on?

Thin Ice by AisforAWKWARD: For JadenGrace1's prompt, "While rescuing Tony, Clint falls through the ice of a frozen lake, river, etc. Cue lots of snark, angst, and more snark."

The Best Laid Plans by flashwitch: So, Clint's been rescued. But it's not all hearts and flowers. He's struggling in the aftermath, and the rest of the team are all struggling along with him. Latest in the OCD Verse. Follows on directly from Break from Routine.

Friends Check for Bullet Wounds by Ezra Cross: utter, shameless, clint injury. It's been a couple months since New York changed everyone. Bruce tracks Clint down in his room one night and finds the archer in dire straights. terrified to move with a ten inch steak knife stuck in his chest, what will they do to save him? And what sort of pain has Clint been hiding beneath the physical?Team bonding, Clint!whump, Steve/Thor revenge

For Bucky:

Bullets and Bandages, Tanks and Tents by OneStepShort: “It’s okay, I got it.” Sam doesn’t really listen to him. “What are you gonna do, pull it out yourself?” Bucky doesn’t answer. Sam finally stills. “You can’t pull it out yourself.”

Acceptance is the first part of Healing by Laevateinn: "You good?" Wilson asks him, after he fought against eight men. "You okay?" Wilson asks him, when they get to Sharon’s house. "You hurt?" Wilson asks him, when they get out of the car. Yes, Wilson. All good. Now if the guy could shut up and carry on, that'd be great. Why would he be anything but anyway? It's not as if anything that happened that day hasn't happened before.

Rest by HeartoftheWizard: Bucky refuses to sleep. Getting electrocuted in the warehouse while fighting Walker brings back traumatic memories for him. He can only go without sleep for so long.

pitch black; pale blue by freakymcgoo: Sam desperately wants to shove the idea back under and forget it existed; the swell of rage and fear tailgating the realization that Bucky is the merchandise, and all the underlying reasons why that even makes sense. He wants to cling to the last shreds of his denial, hold his momma’s hand like a scared little kid again, because in no world should that make sense. ---- Before the deal at the bar begins, Selby requires a demonstration from the Winter Soldier. Sam doesn't take it well.

Masks Required by FalconEye: It’s just a piece of cloth, so why can’t Bucky just put it on?

i don’t need serotonin if i can just have your hand by cyanica: "Can I… Can I hold your hand?” He reached out, human and warm in the sunlight that shone upon Sam in a kind of iridescence that was all-consuming. His eyes were half-lidded and glassy, the twilight dawn breaking all over the atmosphere as he watched it devote itself to Sam’s presence like each spec of dust caught within the sunshine were fireflies addicted to his glow. “Something – something else to know what's real if I wake up and can't remember.”

Hold Me Close and Hold Me Fast by gr0gu:

It's all too much for Bucky. The lights, the music - if you can call this music, the bodies rubbing against one another. He feels claustrophobic and like his body is on fire. It's obvious to him what's happening when he feels throat is closing up and his palm begins to sweat. He needs to get out of here before he does something stupid. Something dangerous. or - Sam helps Bucky get out of his head by dancing. Feelings ensue.

a glimpse into the lives of Sam and Bucky by Shes_from_the_Twilight_Zone: The evolution of Sam and Bucky’s relationship (told in no particular order) as told through some angsty and fluffy moments/one-shots.

A Star in the Western Sky by juniperwick: Sam wakes up on the flight to Riga to find Bucky's not okay.

#mod replies #ask #mods fic recs #bucky barnes #clint barton #the winter soldier #hawkeye #whump fics

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thatoneao3author · 11 months

Text

fic excerpt - bright as the stars

here’s another excerpt from chapter one of my au, bright as the stars. ian’s an actor who hosts a space-themed kids show called Interstellar Ian

this scene shows svetlana’s role in this universe as ian’s hair stylist/makeup artist and establishes mickey’s existence in this universe. this is like, the end of a larger scene, but I don’t wanna give you guys too much. enjoy!

Svetlana seemed entirely unshocked when words bubbled out of the ginger’s mouth as if he couldn’t stop them, as if he couldn’t possibly stay quiet and let the lady do her job.

That’s something that came with spending your teenage years acting: you get used to always talking.

“How was your weekend?” Ian questioned. Lana thought about it before answering a question he didn’t actually ask,

“They hired a new boy to the set.” she said as if she were just remembering, “I was packing up my supplies on Friday and suddenly, this cigarette-smoking ukrainian man is walking around in blue suit much less glamorous than yours. He was rude. I didn’t like him.”

Ian furrowed his eyebrows. He was usually informed when they casted someone new, but it sounded like this guy wasn’t an actor anyways.

“Oh! It’s the new electrician.” The actor realized after a moment, “I heard a spotlight operator say that something wasn’t working right through last week. And they just finally decided to hire someone long-term for the job.”

Ian remembered how whenever there were technical difficulties on set, the tech crew worked to fix it and if they couldn’t, they called whatever number they could find on local advertisements. It was always a different person that came in, unfamiliar with the wires and lights and sets of the warehouse and always one step in the wrong direction away from knocking over thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

So, by the beginning of season eight, they finally worked out a contract with an on-call electrician that would be around to help with whatever issues arose.

And apparently, said electrician was a rude Ukranian with a nicotine addiction.

“He was handsome, though. Tattoos, dark hair…your type of boy, I’m sure.” Svetlana mused, “You are still sworn off men, yes?”

“That makes me sound like a loner or someone saving myself for marriage.” he groaned. “I’m just…not looking for anything right now, y’know? Especially not with anyone who works on this set. I can’t- and won’t, do that again. Ever.”

“It’s not much of a problem if the man isn’t your costar or boss.” Svetlana pointed out, “Fucking writer’s room boy didn’t have many consequences, no?”

“It’s still not a good idea.” Ian insisted, straightening up slightly when Lana tapped his shoulder. She was now adding some creamy makeup over his eyelids, glancing between the two in order to check if they were even, tapping away with brushes and the tips of her fingers.

“Plus, how do you know ‘my type’? I don’t think I’m crazy for rude electricians.”

Before Svetlana could even try to reply, he was rambling again.

“Men can’t get away with being broke, having a bad personality, and looking mediocre. If you check off all three boxes, you might as well give up on love, I think. Mean electrician checks off two out of three, and he’d have to be crazy hot to rebalance the scale.”

“And what boxes do you check off?” Lana asked, sounding amused now.

“None! I’m perfect!” Ian replied without missing a beat. He wasn’t truly that confident, but the mock-annoyed eye roll he earned from his makeup artist made his face light up.

Even though they had grown, independently and closer, over the course of five years, it felt like their dynamic had been more or less the same since season one. It was a playful thing, where Svetlana pretended not to care for him and expressed annoyance and Ian played into messing with her whenever he got the chance.

Maybe it was childish, but he loved it.

“Shut up and tilt your head back, orange boy.” she ordered, tugging on Ian’s hair gently. She somehow made the motion look rough, though.

Ian complied, smile clear across his face.

The freckles that had once been on his face then were long faded away, but he couldn’t help but compare that moment to one from his first days on that set, when Svetlana was brand new to this career and asking him if he looked okay every few seconds.

There was that same playfulness. That same smile. That building comfort they now had with each other.

Ian loved being Interstellar Ian, because it lead to things- to relationships, like this.

remember to follow me if you’re interested in this au so you know when i get around to posting the first couple chapters of this! feel free to reblog with thoughts and send any questions you have my way! thanks <3

#shameless #Shameless US #shameless fanfiction #shameless fic #ian gallagher #svetlana milkovich #mickey milkovich #gallavich #gallavich fic #gallavich au #Interstellar Ian AU #actor!ian gallagher #mickey is the electrician who works on his set #sneak peek!

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bonesandthebees · 2 years

Note

Okay, so the clinic one shot. I had to sit there for a full minute recalling the plot and characters so I could read because it’s been so long since I’ve read it. Anyway, it’s amazing how you convey the hero-villain dynamic. It’s one thing to know that the heroes do a lot of unnecessary damage. It’s another to see Wilbur being chased across rooftops with no way to defend himself or escape. It paints that constant fear they live in.

Because this is Dream, who has already killed a man and walked away without consequences. Dream who knows he can get away with it again. Dream who knows Siren is alone and can’t defend himself without his power and back-up will never get here fast enough. Dream who knows there are no p witnesses and this would be the perfect time to kill him. So he does.

And then there’s Wilbur realising Tommy is a good person and immediately becoming protective. Because being a villain (or associated with them) is dangerous. He would’ve been dead without Tommy. And it’s interesting to see that from the very beginning Wilbur knew how this would play out. He knew the kid would get dragged into being their healer so he tries to hide his existence without even considering that maybe that’s what he wants to do. If he saved Siren, knowing it was Siren, then surely he just wants to help people.

Also, Techno has to put so much effort into getting the tiniest piece of the puzzle. Which makes me think that Wilbur constantly downplays how badly he was hurt because he doesn't want the others to worry. So protecting the kid is just an excuse, but he’s just hiding the trauma of a near-death experience and trying to deal with it on his own. That’s not healthy.

Also, by the time Phil and Techno show up on Tommy’s doorstep, they know he saved Wilbur’s life. So, either he told them when he sent them to Tommy or he caved before that or they wrung it out of him because he clearly wasn’t okay. It’s good that it does get dealt with, even though it should be the go-to to tell them.

Lastly, of course ‘spend a year starving on the streets’ Wilbur instantly notices Tommy is too tiny and probably not eating enough, so as a thanks he takes him out for food. It’s a nice character detail that even though he has enough now he still knows the signs and he’s definitely ongoing to do something about it because he remembers what it was like.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed the clinic ramble. I did not expect this many thoughts, but here we are.

-🌲

lmaoooo I straight up had the main clinic fic open in another tab the entire time while writing that so I could make sure I was keeping my own story straight. in clinic, the heroes are far more corrupt as a whole compared to world forgetting, so it was interesting to go back to that dynamic! dream knows full well he can get away with killing a villain now, and it's been so many years since he killed hbomb that he's convinced himself it's all for the greater good now. you can see a stark difference in his behavior compared to when he first killed hbomb and how horrified he was, and now he just... didn't seem to care that much about killing siren. he was proud of himself, more than anything.

wilbur at first was very suspicious of tommy, but once he realized this random kid was telling the truth and he genuinely just wanted to help? wilbur can't remember the last time he met someone that wholly good, so of course he doesn't wanna drag him into shit if he doesn't have to. he owes tommy and he recognizes that, and doesn't want to get some random kid involved in this shitfest if he can avoid it

lmao yeah wilbur definitely has downplayed his injuries before so techno is very suspicious the whole time. later on in the story when wilbur eventually tells phil and techno the truth of that night, they all have a long family talk about "hey wilbur why the fuck did you not tell us you almost died that's not healthy are you alright-" (for reference, wilbur didn't tell phil and techno until that night at the warehouse when phil got injured. they needed a healer so in a rush he just kind of told them "oh yeah haha that night i came back with a stab wound uh fun fact it was way worse and I literally was about to die but some kid healed me so since we need a healer-")

yup. wilbur knows what it's like to be hungry, even if tommy isn't on the streets and isn't fully starving, he's still not eating enough and wilbur knows how to recognize those signs

so glad you enjoyed spruce anon!!!

#ask #spruce anon #clinic

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worryinglyinnocent · 2 years

Text

Fic: Diverging Paths (16/31)

Summary: Xerxes falls and the only two survivors walk away from the dead city.

Homunculus is keen to make the most of the new human body he now wears, and he goes out into the world, still planning his ascension to godhood as he strips away his vices and turns them into homunculi.

Van Hohenheim believes he has become a monster, and he hides himself away, befriending the other abominations of the world, failed human transmutations doomed to agonising half-life without the intervention of a Philosopher’s Stone.

Years later, Homunculus meets Trisha Elric and sires two sons with her before vanishing into the night, whilst Hohenheim tries to foil his doppelgänger’s schemes.

Years after that, Edward and Alphonse Elric are caught up in the middle of it all…

A Father-Hohenheim role reversal switcheroo, following Mangahood’s main plot with elements of ‘03, based on the premise ‘what if Father was Ed and Al’s father and Hohenheim was the one hiding under Central?’

Rated: Teen

[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] [Seven] [Eight] [Nine] [Ten] [Eleven] [Twelve] [Thirteen] [Fourteen] [Fifteen] [AO3]

Sixteen

“Well, that’s helpful.”

Four days had passed since the fateful meeting with their father, and having had time to decompress everything that had gone on, Ed and Al had made their way back towards Hohenheim to inform him of their latest predicament.

At least, they had tried to.

Ed stared at the blank wall at the back of the warehouse that housed Diligence’s garden and had, until now, been the way into the catacombs and their link to Hohenheim and the homunculi. The door that had once existed had now completely vanished, and Ed couldn’t even make out any telltale transmutation marks on the wall to show where it had been. Even if he had been able to pinpoint its location, he wouldn’t have re-transmuted it. Hohenheim had obviously sealed it up for a reason, and it would be a gross violation of privacy for them to simply make their own door into someone’s home and barge in unannounced. Although the homunculi had said that the brothers would know where to find them if they needed them, Ed supposed that there were limits, and he had to admit that rather a lot of people on the surface, including Father’s homunculi, knew about this access point now. It was better to be safe than sorry.

That didn’t stop him smacking the wall in frustration before picking his way carefully through the plants. They were obviously still well cared for, so the warehouse hadn’t been completely abandoned. Maybe if they hung around here long enough, Diligence would turn up with a watering can and would be able to take them down into the catacombs via one of the other entrances. Ed knew that they existed, but he had no idea where to begin looking for them. He knew that the colonel and Hawkeye had gone through a different entrance when they had followed Lust down, but from what had been said in the catacombs, it was likely that one would have been sealed up as well.

“What should we do now?” Al asked. “I feel so useless. We know that something terrible is happening and we aren’t able to do anything about it, not with the military breathing down our necks and Winry’s safety on the line. The final blood crest on Father’s circle will be cast at Briggs Fortress, but we can’t even go up there to warn them without attracting suspicion.”

“I guess there’s nothing stopping us from going there of our own accord,” Ed mused. “The bearded bastard did say that he would let us continue our attempt to get our bodies back, and we could always use that as cover. I’m not sure how we’d get into Briggs Fortress with that one though. And I definitely don’t know how we’d warn them without knowing who we can trust up there.”

“You’d hope that they were remote enough not to have been caught up in the corruption, but you never know.” Al gave a long sigh. “I feel so helpless and alone. We’ve got this terrible knowledge and we can’t do anything about it, and now the colonel can’t do anything about it either, but we can’t just sit back and let it happen. We have to do something; we have to try!”

Ed nodded. “There has to be something we can do. I just wish I knew what.” He snorted. “Maybe Hohenheim had the right idea, hiding out under Central and being able to come and go as he pleases. I’m kind of tempted to do the same. Guerilla tactics, you know.” He continued wandering along through the lines of plants, and he laughed when he found the tomatoes. “Yeah, there’s definitely some of Mom in Diligence. She always loved her tomatoes.”

“Yeah.” Al sighed. “Do you think that there’s anything in Hohenheim’s theory? That we might jog her memory if we talk to her?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s worth a shot. Honestly I’m still coming to terms with the fact that it happened at all and that she’s here in any shape or form. It’s strange, we would have given anything to bring her back, but when it comes down to it, it would have made life very difficult for both Mom and us if we had succeeded. I mean, everyone in town knew that she was dead. We had a funeral for her. We buried her. If she was suddenly alive again then everyone would know that we’d committed the taboo. There’d be no getting around it, and it wouldn’t exactly have been nice for Mom to have to stay cooped up in the house all the time in case anyone found out about her. What was that phrase Hohenheim used? ‘A fulfilling second life’. I don’t think Mom’s would have been if we’d succeeded. Maybe she’s better where she is here. She can build something new.”

“I think she wants to remember though. She knows that we brought her back. She knows that we loved her enough to bring her back but she can’t remember us. That must be horrible.”

“I guess there’s no best way to go about it.” Ed looked up sharply as the warehouse door creaked open, and whatever he was about to say next died on his lips as Diligence herself came in. She didn’t have a watering can, but it was obvious that she’d come to tend to the plants nonetheless.

She smiled. “Hello Edward, Alphonse. It’s good to see you. Tempe wondered if you might be here, given everything that’s going on.”

“Yeah.” Ed gestured behind him at the blank wall. “I guess Hohenheim’s not in the mood for house guests at the moment.”

“It’s just for a while,” Diligence said. “Father and his homunculi are getting a little bit close for comfort at the moment and we need to lie low. Humility’s the only one who’s out and about at the moment, apart from me coming to look after the plants obviously. Patience is going spare cooped up underground.”

Al laughed. “I can imagine.” There was a long pause then, none of them really knowing what to say, but it wasn’t awkward. Now that some time had passed and they were no longer reeling from the revelation of Diligence’s existence and the horror of learning what their father had done to Mom, it was easier to exist in the same space as her. Diligence hummed a little tune as she gathered her gardening tools, and once she was happily weeding, she spoke again.

“I take it from the fact you’re here looking for a door, you wanted to speak to Hohenheim, or one of us?”

“We need to pass a message to him, if you can? Our hands are tied at the moment, we can’t really do anything to help out with everything right now.”

“Ah. He’s got someone as leverage.”

Al nodded. “Winry.”

“I see. Humility reported similar news from Colonel Mustang. I’ll certainly pass on the message to Hohenheim. But speaking of Humility, I think he may have a plan for you. He’ll be along shortly, if you don’t mind waiting a while?”

“Sure.”

Diligence went back to her weeding, and they all fell back into silence whilst waiting for Humility to turn up. Al was the one to break it.

“Diligence, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Hohenheim said he thought that you might start remembering after you met someone from your first life.”

“Yes.” She sat back on her heels. “Things haven’t come rushing back in a flood, if that’s what you were thinking. I’ve always had little flashes. I’ve always known that I lived in the countryside, and that I loved plants. And I’ve always known that I had children. I’ve always known that you were out there, even if I didn’t know who you were. Everything is still extremely fuzzy, but it’s becoming clearer. I think right now, I’m more aware of how much I don’t know than I ever was. But I think that things will sort themselves out in time.”

Ed couldn’t help but smile. Although she still didn’t look quite right, now that he had spent some time with her, he could see that Mom was in there somewhere underneath it all.

“Do you remember…” Al trailed off. Ed wondered what he was going to ask and why he had to steel himself to do it. “Do you remember anything about our father?”

Diligence shook her head. “No, that’s one thing that’s remained blank. I remember being a mother, but I don’t remember being a wife, or there being a father in the picture.. I think, maybe, I don’t want to remember.”

Ed scoffed. “Yeah, I can’t say I blame you for that.” It would be really weird if Diligence did remember their father and found out that she’d been brought into her second life by his doppelgänger. Would that make life in the catacombs rather awkward? Ed pushed the thought aside. Everyone talked about the possibility of having an evil twin. In this case, it was clear that their father was the evil one and they’d stumbled across his good twin instead.

“Hey, Elrics.” Lieutenant Abrams waved from the doorway. “How’s it going?”

“Currently torn between feeling completely useless and contemplating trying to break into Briggs Fortress to warn them about what’s going to happen there very shortly, although we’re still not quite sure how we’d manage that.”

“OK…” Abrams raised an eyebrow. “Well, I do agree with the decision to go north. I think you’ll get a lot done there. Don’t necessarily break into Briggs Fortress though. I don’t want to have to scrape you off the ceiling. If you haven’t heard what they do to Drachman spies up there, then you don’t want to, believe me.”

Ed looked at Abrams through narrowed eyes. “What are you not telling us?”

“Nothing. Just that the north’s nice at this time of year and you’ll probably find something that you’re looking for up there.” Abrams picked his way through the garden, holding out a little folded note. “From Hohenheim, with his best wishes.”

It was a rough hand-drawn map of the Briggs mountain range with basic directions to what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.

“There might not be much you can do down here in Central, but if you drop off the grid a bit, you might stop feeling completely useless. It’ll mean cutting off a lot of communication with everyone down south; it would be too risky for you to stay in touch with the colonel. I’m heading up to Briggs soon and I’ll keep you up to date as much as I can, but you’d be pretty much on your own up there.”

Ed nodded. They could cope with being on their own. It had been just him and Al for so long that it wouldn’t be much different to normal.

“OK. Is Hohenheim going to give us any indication of what we’ll find up there in the middle of the snow?”

Abrams just laughed as he turned to leave them again. “Old acquaintances.”

“You know, I really don’t like the sound of that,” Ed muttered. Abrams either didn’t hear or pretended not to have done, leaving the warehouse and heading in the direction of Central Command. Diligence just laughed.

“Good luck, both of you, whatever you decide to do. And remember that you’re never really alone. You always have people fighting your corner.”

Ed nodded. It was a good thought to keep in mind, even if it wasn’t necessarily all that much comfort at the moment.

#FMA:Brotherhood #FMA Fanfiction #Edward Elric #Alphonse Elric #Trisha Elric #Fic: Diverging Paths

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