#and settles on probably the furthest thing from tears of enemies

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

The Librarians S01E05 And the Apple of Discord.

#the librarians #jenkins #ezekiel jones #mr drake #john larroquette #john harlan kim #cary-hiroyuki tagawa #dragons...honestly #i love how you can see the gears turning in jenkins' head #and settles on probably the furthest thing from tears of enemies #unless there's a link i'm missing #ghostly'sgifs

[lonelypond]

BETWEEN US

NicoMaki, Love Live, 3.6K, 1/1

Summary: Nishikino Maki and Yazawa Nico have many challenges ahead, but they get through them together.

Between Us

Is this what love is? Not a fire that bites painfully but two people laying so close to feel every breath, hands nearly touching, eyes on the brilliant stars opening themselves up suddenly, sure enough to share truths they speak into the night, this solitary space, this private moment between them.

Nishikino Maki spoke first, always the more impatient, curious about Yazawa Nico’s state of mind. “What do you want to do, Nico-chan?”

“Nico wants to show everyone that little and cute can be strong, sexy smart, talented, funny, hard working, successful….I’m tired of how the world treats cute girls like Nico. Nico is a star.” Nico flung her arms out, to encompass the sky. “They should be in awe.”

I am, Maki said to herself, and then thought, why not say it out loud. This was all new, why not be bolder.

“I am.”

Nico squeezed Maki’s hand, a reward for honesty. “What do you want to do, Maki-chan?”

No one said Maki’s name like Nico. It had been Maki’s anchor through the continuing craziness of Muse, Eli’s taskmaster torture, qualifying, Honoka’s collapse, then starting over, right as they discovered these new feelings, a gift from all they’d been through.

“I want to use the Nishikino fortune for new things, good things, to stop propping up out dated ways and awful people. I want to find new ways to help…” Maki was a person of specifics and she had a list. “Girls, gays, empaths, people fighting bigotry, neurodivergents, water protectors,” Maki thought of Rin and giggled, “furries, us, our friends, the world.”

“Maki-chan will do great things.”

“Once I’m 30.”

Nico Yazawa considered. This was so new and 14 years from now, when Maki was a doctor and her trust vested, seemed as distant as the nearest star Nico could see. But Nico knew naming goals was the first step to achieving them, even if it seemed a wild fantasy.

“Nico will be there.” Not flashy, just quiet determination.

Nico heard Maki gulp. She was probably tearing up and couldn’t speak. Nico didn’t really expect her too. Sharing was such a new trust. But Maki’s hand carefully kept precise palm to palm contact with Nico’s. That said everything.

“Marry Nico.”

Maki sighed. “No one can know.”

“Okay.”

YAZAWA NICO FINISHES FIRST INTERNATIONAL TOUR WITH SPRING SPLASH IN HONOLULU

NISHIKINO MAKI BEGINS RONIN YEAR SOLO WORLD TOUR SURFING IN MAUI

Sunrise. Quiet beach. Her own choices. Is this what contentment felt like, Maki wondered. Finally, moments of quiet to listen for the important things. Leaning against her duffle and board, dressed in a striped rash guard, bright lavender board shorts, and a faded denim “You Are On Native Land” cap, Maki stretched, watching the horizon as a lone speck appeared in the distance, jogging toward her, not actually growing much as the distance closed, Maki thought with a private grin. Nico, running in an oversized hoodie and bikini bottom, gasped dramatically, reaching a hand for the water bottle Maki held out as a lure.

“Still running 5Ks every morning?”

“10K when I don’t have a concert or rehearsal. Nico is a boss.”

“Umi would be proud.”

Nico dropped and did ten fast pushups in the sand next to Maki, “Not if Nico told her it was only to make girls swoon.”

“Girls?” Maki arched an eyebrow, hand sweeping through her hair.

“Girl.”

“Fiancee.”

Nico laughed, rolling toward Maki, pulling her down into a playful, sandy kiss. “Ready to upgrade to trophy wife?”

“Yes.”

But there was no hurry that morning. Both had put their other lives on multiple 15 plus hour flights and fallen briefly off the grid to sit side by side on this hidden beach, the tide surging, a rare treasured morning to share.

“Went to the symphony last night. Monica Mancini sang, Henry Mancini’s daughter,” Nico hummed the Pink Panther theme, “Nice voice, more your thing than Nico’s though. She sang a lot of Johnny Mercer. And some new stuff. Nico was taking notes.”

“You’re great on stage Nico-chan, but I guess you can always learn from other performers.”

“Nico is learning songwriting.”

Maki pushed against Nico, “Going to try to get me to put Nico Nico Ni to music again.”

Nico’s mood turned serious, “I miss watching you play.”

“I miss playing.”

“When Nico gets her penthouse, there will be a baby grand.” Nico let her hand settle on Maki’s, “Working with a portable keyboard now. And Umi’s giving me advice, so many books...I’m so busy reading, there’s no time to party.”

“Good.”

“Hey, do you have any plans tomorrow night?”

Nico stared at Maki for a moment, but there was only earnestness in the amethyst staring back, “Not since you got here.”

“I’ve been talking with some of the elders, volunteering on Maui, learning about healing plants, and aloha ‘āina.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s really cool. I’m going to get Papa to invite some of the teachers and doctors I’ve met to give seminars for us. Aloha ‘āina means so many things, but it’s mostly being determined to take care of each other by taking care of the land. It’s very land based and tradition based, here in Hawai’i,” Maki picked up a handful of sand, “but it’s caring and not soft...exactly...when you meet Kai, he’ll explain it better. We’ve been invited for dinner, his uncle plays the ohe hano ihu.”

“What’s that?”

“ A nose flute, not for big concerts, more personal...Kai says his uncle has so many stories about it being used in courting rituals.”

“Is Maki-chan taking notes?”

“Maybe.” Ah, Maki’s sexy, best musician in the world grin. Nico missed that one a lot on the road. A killer cute band was no replacement for the brilliant, lovely pianist who’d so boldly wrapped Nico’s heart in music.

They were in the teasing phase now. “Do you have to keep courting a cute girl after marriage?”

Maki shoved into Nico again, “Well, duh…”

Joint laughter, rolling out to meet the tide.

“We’re getting married.” Maki said quietly.

“Just need to take our passports to pick up the license and go to the shrine. We filled out everything else online.” Nico glanced at her bare legs, “And Nico brought a kimono. Although Maki-chan looks sporty cute just like she is.”

Maki had a far off look, not paying much attention to Nico. Happy to wait ‘til Maki drifted back to the beach, Nico was going to enjoy memorizing her favorite scenery, Maki’s beautifully expressive face, now relaxed and open, thoughts waves and clouds in constant motion. Nico knew the solitude here allowed Maki to relax, there was no family pressure, their phones were off, nothing on either of their schedules for at least the rest of the week. A rare moment to sit with each other, sharing this beauty.

NISHIKINO REAL ESTATE GROUP BUYS LARGE LUXURY TOWER NEAR NISHIKINO MEDICAL CENTER

SUPERSTAR REFUSES TO GIVE UP PENTHOUSE APARTMENT TO NISHIKINO HEIR

Fast food. School girls lingering from Otonokizaka. Two people shoved into the booth furthest from the door and windows, sitting on the same bench, hip to hip, back to the rest of the room.

“So many memories in this place.” Nico unwrapped her burger.

“So many french fries.” Maki dipped a sample french fry in her chocolate milkshake.

“Another meal Nico paid for. You got rich not paying for food.”

“Hey! You were too proud to let me pay.”

“Nico is still too proud.” Nico tapped her fingers on the table. This late afternoon, for this clandestine meeting, they’d allowed themselves the indulgence of wearing their braided gold and platinum wedding band, Maki added the simple diamond Nico had bought her for their engagement.

“Is this going to work? Us actually living this close together without rumors starting?” Maki had been worrying. So many comments in the press and on social media.

“Everyone already has us at war. Nico’s a selfish poser, Maki’s a spoiled brat. Enemies to lovers.”

“Not funny, Nico-chan.”

“Nico will throw a huge party before I leave on my next tour. My new landlord will threaten very publically to throw me out of the building. Everything will flare up, but Maki-chan will continue to do boring future doctor things and by the time Nico gets back, all anyone will be talking about is Nico’s new album.”

“They’re not boring future doctor things.”

“No, they’re smart, saving the world future doctor things and Nico is so proud.” A quick kiss on Maki’s palm.

“Meanwhile…”

“Meanwhile, Umi and Eli install a secret hatch above the decorative staircase centerpiece of your expensively designed main room.”

“I’m going to miss you, Nico-chan.” Sadness.

Time to change the mood. Nico dipped a french fry in her strawberry shake and fed it to Maki. “How’s studying going?”

Maki leaned, chin in hand, frowny. “I could be more motivated.”

“So B?”

“A minus.”

“Nerd.”

“ ‘s dull." Maki said, chewing slowly. "But have to stay on track with the family benchmarks.”

“Yeah.” Nico decided to talk about happier things, “ooohh, did I tell you Eli’s setting up a foundation for Nico as her graduation project. We’ve already donated tickets to queer youth groups in every city on the tour and Nozomi’s setting up mentor programs.”

“Expect a large anonymous donation.”

“Expect a large not so anonymous thank you.”

“I’m just proud that you’re doing things to actually help people. I want to do more.”

“You’re studying to be a doctor, Maki-chan. That’s hard. Nico’s got it easy. All Nico has to do is” Nico went into her signature gesture, “Nico Nico Ni and everything gets brighter.” Nico suddenly remembered she shouldn’t have let her catch phrase out full voice during what was supposed to be a secret meeting, but this was a low traffic period so no one seemed to notice.

“I couldn’t get that out of my head, the first time I saw you do it. It was annoying.”

“But you loved Nico.” Nico snuggled closer, enjoying a chance to feel Maki next to her.

“But I loved Nico, all of Nico, the bold, brash, terrible liar, the kind, caring sister, the determined ally and friend, the hard working and talented performer.”

“Nico wasn’t a liar, Nico was an optimist.”

“Private chef,” Maki cough giggled.

Nico grabbed the french fries as Maki reached for another one, “Confiscated for cheekiness.”

“Give me those.” Maki grabbed, Nico dodged, french fries flew loose and they giggled their way through the next few minutes until Nico leaned forward to whisper in Maki’s ear.

“So are your parents still in New York City?”

Gulping, suddenly completely flustered, Maki nodded.

Nico bounced up, offering a gallant hand, “Nico will walk you home.”

“Fancy.”

“Only the best for Mrs. Yazawa.”

“That would be Mrs. Nishikino.”

“We’ll wrestle. Nico will win.”

“Optimist.”

Nico’s hand on Maki’s waist was a gentle guide into the autumn night, two hats pulled down, two collars pulled up, Nico in a mask to protect her voice. “Wait and see.”

Maki leaned into Nico. This night, unlike too many others recently, felt just right.

HEAD OF THE NISHIKINO MEDICAL GROUP COLLAPSES, HOSPITALIZED

NICO NI NEW YEAR’S CHARITY CONCERT SELLS OUT IN MINUTES

Nico had never been so sick. She’d lost count of the medicines she was taking to sleep at night, and then the additional ones added to get her through tonight’s concert. Then she could rest. Go to her Mama’s house and get babied for a bit. Maki had been so sad at Christmas, with too many family obligations to fly to Los Angeles. Nico had gotten through their Christmas Eve quick chat and then collapsed, barely moving until yesterday’s rehearsal, which wiped her out.

Pounding on her hotel room door. What the hell? Phone pinged, the Maki-tone.

“Open your door, Nico--chan.” Maki sounded angry. Was she pounding? Nico felt even fuzzier, slumping to the door, opening it to fall against a tall, angry Maki, beanie over her hair, sunglasses, and a mask.

“Nico-chan?” Now Maki’s voice sounded tearful.

“Hi, Mrs. Yazawa.” Nico croaked out, hoping to make Maki at least giggle.

Strong arms swept her up, Maki striding across the room, putting Nico gently down on the bed, Maki immediately examining every bottle by Nico’s bedside, “What kind of quack put you on all this?”

“Don’t know.”

“Don’t know? You don’t know.”

“Trainer found ‘em…recommended.”

“You should be in a hospital.” Maki’s voice broke.

“Concert, charity, millions. Nico Nico Ni.” Nico had no idea if what she was saying made sense.

“Cancel. Refund. I’ll make a bigger donation.”

“Nico is a trooper.”

“Nico is a zombie. What the hell kind of irresponsible moron gave you all this?” Maki crashed all the bottles to the floor. “Did they inject you with anything?”

“It’s LA, Maki-chan, the beautiful people never stop.” Nico coughed. It hurt like 50 Umi arrows to the chest, “Nico is a beautiful people.”

“Nico-chan…” Maki was kneeling next to the bed, desperation and weariness lining her face. She’d never travelled well, Nico realized.

Nico managed to flip so she was on her side, managing to smile at Maki, “Hey pretty girl.”

“I am going to sue that quack into despair and destitution.”

Nico blinked, suddenly aware that Maki should be in Tokyo. “Why are you here, Maki-chan?.”

“Hanayo heard a rumor…”

“Did anyone see you?”

“I don’t care.” Maki’s head dropped to the bed, “Papa collapsed...and you’re like this and hiding it from me…and letting some greedy idiot try to kill you...if anything happens to you, Nico-chan…” And the tears, Nico could feel them as she reached for Maki, hot, heavy, rolling off pale cheeks.

“Nico will be fine.”

Maki shook her head.

“Look at me, Maki-chan.”

Maki raised her head. Her eyes were bright. She was always so bright, so caring, her native prickliness a fortification against all the emotions Maki didn’t know how to process.

“I will be fine.”

Maki surged up, her arms drawing in Nico, whose heart was really not rested enough for tackled into bed by the redhead of her dreams. “Maki-chan, you’re going to hug Nico to death.”

“Don’t say that.” Maki’s arm twitched for a minute like she was going to shove Nico away, but then Nico found herself pressed as closely as she’d ever been against a clothed Maki, which would have been amazing if she could breathe. So Nico let a cough out and Maki loosened her hold.

“Let Nico sleep.”

“Okay. But I’m not going anywhere.”

Nico had closed her eyes, muttering, “...love you.”

“I love you too, Nico-chan.”

A-RISE STEPS IN AT LAST MINUTE FOR NICO NI

NISHIKINO MAKI CHECKING OUT STANFORD RESEARCH FACILITIES, POSSIBLE PARTNERSHIP

Nico is officially spoiled. Another morning waking up to Maki curled up by her side...She’d shipped everyone else back to Japan, tour over, a solid break until Nico’s doctor cleared her for rehearsal. Nico sat up, teasing tumbles of red hair, Maki had been very clear that Nico had to clear the steroids out of her system first. But at least Maki hadn’t banned other forms of exercise.

“I’m not asleep, Nico-chan.” Maki mumbled, sounding totally still asleep.

“Thanks for coming to rescue Nico.”

“Don’t make me do it again. I might have to go back to school.”

“I thought you were joining the Board Of Directors ahead of schedule?”

Maki opened her eyes, stretching, “Order pancakes. And bacon. And orange juice. And muffins.”

“Brunch in bed.”

“I’m not leaving until I have to.”

Nico reached down to kiss Maki’s forehead, “It’s been nice having you here.”

“Then come home.”

“Nico is working on it.”

Maki raised an eyebrow. Nico sounded excited. “Is there something I don’t know about?”

“It was supposed to be your Christmas surprise, but Nico’s agent was still negotiating.”

What could Nico’s agent be negotiating that would be a Christmas surprise for Maki?

“I’m going be the main character in a TV drama, based in Tokyo.”

“Really?”

“Really. I didn’t get to be there when your Dad ended up in the hospital and I’m so sorry…I knew you needed me, but...this is our life...” Maki nodded as Nico gestured at the hotel suite, continuing, “And I knew you were going to be super busy with family stuff so I pitched an idea and two production companies jumped on board. Nico is taking a paycut and ownership, but all you’ll have to do is come upstairs and Nico will be right there, at least for six months.”

“Nico-chan…” Maki sat up.

Nico put her arm and pulled Maki in, Maki dropping her head to Nico’s shoulder, “We get through the tough stuff together, Maki-chan. We always have. I love you.”

“Love you.” Maki was falling asleep again. Nico would add coffee to their brunch order. Maki had to be awake enough to sneak out and catch a plane.

YAZAWA NICO TO STAR IN DOCTOR SMILE

DOCTOR NISHIKINO MAKI TAKES OVER FAMILY MEDICAL PRACTICE

If she didn’t have Nico, Maki would probably just live with a grand piano, a huge bathtub, and a couch to eat take out on, Nico thought as she sank into lavender scented steaming water.

“It’s not funny, Rin. And I don’t need weekly updates about who Nico’s kissing on the show.” Maki sounded aggravated. Nico giggled. She’d come home early from a weekend meet the fans event and snuck into Maki’s luxury tub to recover. Candles were lit, Idol music popping.

“Wait a minute, Rin. I think…” Maki’s steps sounded hasty and she was suddenly in the door of the bathroom.

Nico winked. “Hi Maki!”

Maki made a grumbly noise and turned sideways, “No, I’m okay, Rin. There’s just a surprise in my bathtub…” Maki glanced at Nico, “Rin says hi. And you have to stop using my cases, Nico-chan.”

“Did Rin say that? And who says Nico does?”

Maki glared, “Where do you even get your information?”

Nico raised a finger to her lips and winked.

“And that red wig. It’s awful. People think you’re making fun of me.” Maki listened to her phone. “Shut up, Rin.” And the phone went in her coat pocket.

“What did Rin say?”

“Nvermind.” Maki muttered.

“Maki-chan…” Nico splashed at Maki.

“No one would ever call me Dr. Smile.”

Nico guffawed, slapping water everywhere. “I miss Rin.”

“If I had Umi’s bow, I wouldn’t.”

“You love her.” Nico leaned back, watching her wife, who had flopped on the nearby chaise. “So who thinks Nico is making fun of you?”

“Papa.”

“PFfffffff…who cares.”

Maki glared, ‘“We’re trying to keep his stress levels low.”

“Red headed doctors are the best.”

“But I like your hair; it looks like you.”

“But our daughter will look like Dr. Smile.”

That threw Maki’s train of thought completely askew. The closest she could get was imagining Cotaro when she first met him with bright red hair.

“I wonder if our children will look like you? All your siblings do.”

“And they’re cute. But our children will be NicoMaki cute. I’ve seen your baby pictures, you were adorable.” Nico leaned back, smiling up at Maki. “Nico can’t wait to have a family to come home to.”

“You have me.”

“And I love it.” Nico blew lavender scented bubbles at Maki, “But you, me, the cutest children ever in the universe, and Christmas morning.”

Maki couldn’t keep the huge grin back. “I can tell them all about Santa-san.”

“But we’re not spoiling them too much.”

Maki pouted at Nico.

Nico giggled, “That’s what our parents will do.”

Maki got up, taking off her coat, sliding out of her jacket, unbuttoning her shirt halfway and slipping out of her pants. Then she sat on the edge of the tub, feet in the water, toes teasing Nico’s legs. “You’re going to tour less, right.”

“Nico’s not touring now. You’re going to cut down your hours, right, Maki-chan.”

“Just started the search for an Executive Director. And put the LGBTQ+ Health Centers proposal on the fast track.”

Nico leaned over, her chin on Maki’s thigh, “We’ve worked really hard for this.”

“We have.”

“I think Mama knows.”

Maki laughed, “It was that morning she surprised us at breakfast, wasn’t it?”

For once, Nico was the one blushing. “Nico needs…” Nico’s arm slipped under Maki’s shirt, a casual touch on Maki’s back, “more elegant pajamas for entertaining company.”

“No you don’t.”

“You like it when Nico borrows your shirt.”

“No, I love it when Nico-chan borrows my shirt.”

“Nico loves your pajamas.” Nico’s fingers started tracing patterns.

“Ha!” Keeping her cool with Nico this close had always been impossible so Maki just lowered herself into the water, pausing for a messy, wet kiss, “Let’s skip dinner.”

NISHIKINO MAKI AND YAZAWA NICO: DETAILS OF THEIR WHIRLWIND COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

The interviewer leaned forward as Maki ran a hand through her hair. She was relaxed in a light gray Tadashi Shoji corded lace sheath dress, and confidently answered her question, “It was a long day, my eyes were so tired everything was blurry and I got in the wrong elevator. Nico had just gotten pics of the Ayase twins and we started talking about high school.”

“Talking?” Nico snorted, standing behind Maki, hands in the pockets of bright pink Victoria Beckham trousers, the matching blazer falling open, “It was all Nico’s sex appeal. Nico is irresistible.”

Maki leaned her head back, a private smile for Nico, “Nico is irresistible.”

“Is it irresponsible to take so much time off from your responsibilities to take a world tour honeymoon and then start a family?”

Nico chuckled, her hands on Maki’s shoulder, “We’ve planned carefully. And they’re our businesses. Nico never understood people working themselves to death, not taking time for family. We want to change corporate culture.”

“You’ve always been ambitious, Nico. What’s your next project?”

Nico winked, “That’s just between us.”

“No hints for our viewers, Maki?”

Nico leaned down, arms around Maki’s shoulders, whispering something in her ear. Maki’s full, flaring blush could have been a picture from high school. The interviewer laughed.

“Nice to see you two worked out the Penthouse Wars.”

“Nico is a reasonable person.”

Maki threw back her head, laughing, “Sure, that’s why.”

“Well, Nico is certainly a top…”

“Nico-chan!”

“I love you, Maki-chan.” Giggling, Nico kissed her wife’s cheek.

Nico might have been the only one to hear Maki’s muttered, “I love you, Nico-chan.” But it had always been true.

A/N: Another AU Yeah August request, it started out as Married Rivals, but I was reading a Dolly Parton songwriting book and in the songs about love chapter there were these lyrics from "Between Us":

In our love let's share a friendship between us Always close enough to talk things out Let's be honest with ourselves and each other And our love will never know mistrust or doubt

So I just started writing conversations.

#NicoMaki #Nishikino Maki #Yazawa Nico #married #married life #fluff #minor illness and angst #au yeah august

[black-streak]

Waiting for the Worms - Vera

Part 12

Aka, I have no control over myself and SOMEONE on discord maybe urged me on a little. One of these days, one of you are going to ask about the titles for these and I'm going to refuse to answer. Woah, someone remembered that Jason's body was dipped in a crazy pool and he hasn't experienced that before! How fun.

CLOSED beggars: @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Jason knew those eyes, had been haunted by those eyes for months now. Felt the absolute need to protect them from the horrors of the world without a second thought. And now they were in front of him, real and alive and coming from the face of a young, tan skinned boy with pitch black, course looking hair that fell in a rumpled mess across his face, quietly calling out Marinette's name. The name he spent the better part of three years responding to as though it were his own.  But that didn't make any sense, he'd never met this boy before. How did he know her? Was this a repressed memory of hers that her body somehow stored all this time and was trying to inform him of over time? Was this the work of the fear toxin taking hold and showing Marinette's worst fear? That also made no sense. He'd known her since she was six and she'd never mentioned this boy. It also couldn't explain the simplicity of the sight before her. Nothing fear inducing was actually happening. Except he felt on the edge of a panic attack anyways.

Could it be that his worst fear was this boy because of his reoccurring presence in his nightmares and the idea of this being a real child who's gone through so damn much it reminded him of himself, it scared him half to death? Or the fear that perhaps he had truly gone insane and the dreams were an indication of the war he raged inside himself?

Lifting his hands up to his face to block the images, he took note of the size, the coloration, the scaring. This wasn't how Marinette's hands looked. Those weren't Marinette's arms. Looking down, he knew that he shouldn't sit this tall or be this broad or have that long of legs. Nothing made sense anymore and as the hysteria set in, green edged his vision.

"Marinette? Mari? What's happening?" The voice drew closer, sounding concerned and hinting at the slightest touch of nerves.

"Venomous green. Electric, neon. Like Plagg."

That wasn't his voice, was it? He spoke, but that voice was too deep, too husky and masculine to be right. Nothing was right. This felt wrong and yet exactly as it was meant to all at once and he didn't understand. The bright green closed in on him and he felt himself tremble.

"It's the pits, Marinette. You've dealt with them, remember? You know how to fight it, how to calm yourself," the voice stayed where it was at, but he was sure if he looked up, those haunting jade eyes would be right there, staring into his soul.

How could he calm himself? The nightmares never talked to him like this, never told him to calm himself, to take control. He'd never dealt with the green overtaking his vision, not since the very first dream well over a year ago. He never fought it, what was this kid on about? Why was his mind screaming at him? He wanted to lash out, to hit and fight and attack, but his instincts yelled to protect the child and nothing else was here. Grabbing up another knife, he slammed it down, surprised to see it hit into a cushion that landed under his hand right as he moved. 

"Deep breaths, counts of seven with me," the voice was closer, counting for him and he followed without thought. His thoughts narrowed into the numbers, the screaming dulling down to a soft roar in the background, the green settling down until it disappeared entirely and still the counting continued on until his breathing became his own.

"Back with me?"

"What the fuck is going on?" He hissed out, fear and nausea piling up.

The kid's eyes widened and then narrowed as he backed up, grip tightening on the blade still in his hand. He opened his mouth and hesitated for half a second before he asked, voice demanding and sharp, leaving no room for argument, "Jason?"

Jason reeled back, having not heard that name since the accident, "How do you know that name?"

"She's been going by it for as long as I've known her."

"Who?!"

"Marinette."

His breath caught in his throat, shoulders dropping from their defensive hunch, unable to speak for a moment. He stayed still, processing as the boy across from him moved around the other side of the kitchen counter, swiftly grabbing the knife block and dropping it off on the counter furthest away from Jason.

"How?"

"She told me she woke up in a grave. Had been in there for quite some time. Dug out and landed in a coma for a year. My- Talia found her after she woke up. Took her back to the league and dropped her in the pits. That was about-"

"A year and a half ago."

"Yes… how do you know this?"

"Saw the acid green at night, didn't know what it was."

"She mentioned the connection cutting when she died. I guess the pits could have healed that as well."

"And she met you about nine months ago, then. Or at least something significant happened. I recognize your eyes." 

"I might have approached her around that time, I suppose."

"How old are you?"

"Seven."

"Fuck kid, tell me half of what I saw wasn't real?"

"Depends on what you saw, but I would assume so."

"Fucking hell. And so what, she just up and ran? Took you with her? Mari's alive? Been alive all this time and I didn't know?"

"Something like that," the kid slid closer, carefully prying the knife from his hand. Realizing he still held it, had thrown one at the boy only minutes before, he abruptly let go, letting it clattered onto the counter below where the kid swiped it off and put it with the others out of immediate reach. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes as he came to terms with Marinette's state of living. Dug herself out of his grave? A coma? Talia. He couldn't wrap his brain around it. If the dreams were all visions, his sweet little soulmate had killed. Had fought for her life so often it felt like routine. Had suffered and lost so much, had seen this child going through the same things and put her foot down. Had ran for her life, kid in tow, no guarantee of survival, while he lived with her parents. No villains to defeat, no league to push him or force his hand. He hadn't even been grateful. Just depressed and angry while she went through a hell ten times as brutal. From the look the kid gave him, she didn't even talk terribly of him like he deserved. Otherwise he was sure the kid would have that knife worked up to his throat by now, demanding her back. Granted he didn't look happy, but his stance wasn't openly hostile yet.

Shit, he didn't deserve her and yet joy spread through him like a whip. She was alive. She was okay and had a little family of her own and had moved on through it all and he felt so damn proud and joyful to know she was alive all this time. Despite the horrible circumstances and atrocities she obviously faced in her time as him, she had been alive and not taken to an early grave. She turned seventeen last week no matter what body she did so in. The Joker hadn't taken her from him despite his best efforts. She was too strong, too persistent and capable. Marinette was alive and the pure happiness that shocked him to his core left him shaking and breathless.

"Calm down, you'll work yourself up again. She never told me you were an emotional mess."

"Shut it, kid. You would freak out if you found out someone you thought dead for three years was alive too."

"Tt. You won't survive a week with the madness."

"The madness? What's that supposed to mean?" Jason felt his hackles rising and had to remind himself of the emotional lockdown from his time fighting Hawkmoth to stamp it down. The kid obviously meant a lot to Mari and he wasn't about to make an enemy of himself.

"The acidic green and screaming in your head I had to talk you down from? That was an aftereffect of being dipped in the Lazarus pit. Marinette has no problem controlling it now. Should have known it wasn't her the second you couldn't force it into submission yourself," the kid gave a haughty sneer, turning his nose up.

"And the first time it struck her? Did she have such control then?"

The boy seemed to wilt at that, looking down in shame, "No."

"What happened?"

"I made a mistake. Someone almost got to me and she lost it. Killed everyone in the vicinity."

"And that was towards the beginning?"

"No. She wasn't allowed in the training room with me until she had the madness locked down. It wasn't even our first mission together. It was my fault she lost control. She would've been fine had I not messed up."

Jason immediately felt bad for chastising the kid for his attitude. He obviously felt uncomfortable looking at a familiar face and yet talking to a virtual stranger.

"Hey, relax kid, I'm sure she doesn't see it that way and wouldn't want you to either. She probably just did what she thought necessary to protect you, even if you don't agree with her methods. Trust me, I'm familiar with them," he offered with a self deprecating chuckle.

The boy seemed to soften, looking at him with curious eyes, "You really are her soulmate," he stated, almost coming off as a tease, "It's Damian by the way."

"Huh?"

"You've been calling me kid for the last half hour. My name is Damian."

"Whatever, kid," he smirked as Damian's lips twisted in annoyance, "Wait, did you say half hour?"

"It took a while to calm you down," he shrugged.

Suddenly it hit Jason where he had been. What had been happening that sent him into that panic.

"Fuck!"

The kid startled, looking at him like he lost his rocker, which okay, that was fair.

"What now?"

"The place I was at. It got attacked when we switched. She had to have taken in some fear toxin, who knows what type of effect that has on her!"

"Attacked? She'll be fine, Marinette's the beat fighter I know," Damian seemed to calm at that, almost offended at his inferring her inability to handle the situation.

"Was she exposed to fear toxin in the league?"

"Fear toxin? I'm not sure what that is, but her immune system was adapted to handle several poisons. Every league members' is."

"You mean this body was. This body's immune system was adapted."

That seemed to throw him for a loop, stiffening up, but he persisted, "Her mind has taken on the chaos of the pit, surely fear pulsing through as well couldn't be worse."

"As well! Her soul was in that pit, not just this body. Meaning the madness probably latched on to her soul as well. In an unadjusted body, with the jolt and panic of being launched into her old body in the middle of an attack with fear toxin coursing through it."

The air about Damian seemingly crashed around him and the small shoulders begin to shake as reality settled in, "she's going to lose herself again, isn't she?" He half whimpered, trying to push it down to sound less weak infront of Jason, but he was obviously afraid. Jason flinched, remembering the kid's age once more and that he probably should have just agreed to keep him calm. 

"We'll track her down. You can ground her, you're good at that, right?"

He nodded, "Can't you just switch back, instead? Give Marinette back?"

"It doesn't work that way kid. You can resist the tug when it comes, but you can't force the tug itself."

"Give her back! She's probably a mess right now, I need to help her!"

"I can't, kid. I'm sorry. We'll find her though, I promise. I know where she is. Where are we? The faster I can map out a route, the sooner you'll be with her. Tell me and then get changed, we'll leave now."

As the kid ran to what was presumably his room, rambling out an address, Jason was surprised to realize how close they were. Marinette lived in Gotham. He shouldn't feel so surprised.

He forced himself to the other room, rummaging through a drawer until he found clothes to shove on and walked towards the door, Damian running up behind him. As his hand touched the doorknob, his mind yanked him back and without any warning, he was thrown into Marinette's body once more.

#jasonette #maribat #ml x dc #WFTW #part 12 #yall are spoilt by me #i didnt even give this a once over #its just being tossed into the world now

[grim-faux]

10 - Run Rabbit

The man from the chair closed the door brusquely on my feet, causing me to scrunch up uncomfortably.  After I came to, I lay for less than fifteen minutes, I know this because I kept checking the camera, which I still clutched to my chest.  Probably not good for it, but it wasn’t soaked by my coat which had barely begun to dry while I lay in the dust.

 I NEEDED a few minutes to reset, for the throbbing in my side to settle in as the dry air took away the icy coil in my joints.  My eyes shut for a few minutes at a time, micro naps.  I swore I had slept for hours but when I checked the clock in the visor only minutes had passed, I wasn’t concerned with nodding off for an extended length of time, in truth I didn’t give a damn.  Maybe I didn’t care anymore if I sank into a deep slumber and never woke up, giving in to whatever demented plans Mount Massive had for my person.  Never waking up was the more pleasant way to end in this place.  The way out.

My mind began to clear as my senses tracked the air around me.  Strange sounds seeped into my skull, the muffled sobs of a man, hissing pipes, distant shrieks of some lost soul.  I felt my body shift and realized I was trying to push myself up, I wasn’t fully conscious of this but I was getting up.  A rough sigh escaped my throat as I moved, cradling the camera against me as I reached out with my other arm to push against the wall.  When I felt I could rise without collapsing, I pulled myself up all the way and took some small steps to get my balance in order.  I barely recalled the camera in my hands as I shuffled it between my palms, the functions still worked as I flicked through them assuring that no moisture had gotten through the seams.  A few new scraps were visible along its side where I had pressed it down onto the grate when I…collapsed.  There was a small gap in my thoughts that felt peculiar, a dark memory with splashes of terrifying images.  I shut my eyes and pressed my hand against my face. 

Everything from the dark depths felt like a loose blur, even the dull throb in my side was difficult to recall unless I made an effort to remember exactly what had happened.  It was painful to turn, I was stiff from lying in the cold dust for that short time, but I pulled my shirt out of the jean band to view the damage.  A small patch of skin was already turning a dark maroon and bluish shade, the colors seemed to be spreading.  Lovely.

A plate on the wall read Male Ward.  This didn’t feel like progress, but I suppose it was in some morbid media.  This wasn’t surviving, more along the lines of delaying the inevitable.  Somewhere, I’m not sure if I was hearing things or what but it did sound like soft sobs, but as I concentrated on the noises, they faded.  Maybe I was imaging things.  I couldn’t deny that my thoughts were not working well, my mind felt numbed while simultaneously elevated with the prospect of moving on, an off kilter clash of emotions.  I’d go as far to say my filter was busted, everything I was experiencing, what I was thinking….

I had to keep grasp that something was now wrong with me and the only way to fix that was to escape, I could recover from this with time.  But right now, time was my enemy.

The air was dry, and felt dusty and thick, I snorted a bit to clear my nose of the grime and turned the corner.  A large pipe ran along the upper wall, another water pipe, similar to the one spilling all over the basement.  The corridor I currently stood in extended some distance, there was a lot of steam in the air wafting off the surface of warmer pipes.  The opposite wall had a passage a few feet down that could lead to another room.  I doubted this, the entrance was arched and no door was visible, nor hinges, just shadow within.

Maybe a restroom?  I hadn’t seen anything close sense the showers, and that was something I needed.

Halfway to the dark opening, a shout crashed throughout the corridor.  A hostile, angry and familiar voice.  Shit.  Hopefully there was room inside, there was no place out here to hide.

This was just as bad as the corridor, a dark passage that went nowhere.  I spun back as my new friend ducked into the space, a bar held high in his hand.  I staggered away throwing my arm up to fend off the attack, my other hand held the camera which kept me from running into a wall.  Somehow, I managed to stumble out of his path through an opening I had missed, I whirled about and ducked the instant before the bar clattered against stone wall where my head had been.

“Get back!  BACK!”

I bumped and pushed away from the wall to retreat in what I decided, was a better direction than the other way.  As I cleared a thick vapor cloud nothing lay ahead but a solid brick wall, and a plaque I briefly glimpsed as I dashed sideways beneath another archway, then a sharp turn that led through a narrow corridor.

“Stay away!”

I grazed the walls with my elbows as I rushed, trying not to stumble on my feet when they scuffed the sides, my eyes fixed on the large crates coming into view.  It looked like I had a path on my left, unless it was blocked.  To hell if it was blocked, I’d tear through it.

The pipe glanced my shoulder, enough to topple my balance.  My shoulder slammed into the brick wall and I shoved myself away without missing a step, just had to keep on my feet and moving.

It was a rather sharp turn, then barely a step or two, I pushed off a wall that suddenly materialized in my face and bolted right.  Long lumber was scattered on the floor, I teetered over to reach a gate blocking the hall.  The other guy wasn’t as graceful, he had a misstep and fell sideways smashing his face on the wall and tumbled head over heel.  As he babbled something about demons in shadows, I tried the door.  Locked.  Of course it was, that was its only purpose.

There was another archway I had bypassed in my haste.  Quietly I moved around a wheelchair and stopped.

A man in a tattered straightjacket sat in the furthest corner, beside the steps I had raced down.  I hadn’t seen him in the rush, but now in the interlude I could make out…it did sound like he was crying.

I looked from him, to the man lying on the floor with the bleeding head, his eyes bobbed drunkenly.  It was probably best if I left it all as it was.  I couldn’t risk the running guy waking up in a worse mood than he already was, especially if he decided I was the cause.  I kinda was, but I didn’t ask him to chase me.  

My only option was down a spiral corridor, receiving that familiar humid draft with old blood.  So much for escaping the sewers.

So much for escape, period.

A plaque met me face to face as I stepped off the steps, labeling the Male Ward with an arrow of guidance.  Since when did reaching the Male Ward become my priority?  I turned and peered through a large tunnel, its draft intermixed with foul sewage and the musty chill of the asylum.  The water was diluted with blood, but it seemed free of the slaughter that had been present in the other channels.  Everything was getting flushed out.  My unease persisted.

I passed by some boxes of equipment and garbage on my way, a place to duck if I suspected I wasn’t alone.  A few steps down the tunnel and a figure darted out.  I paused, but it looked like another man in a straightjacket, only he was dragging his sleeves after him.  He could be dangerous if he got those tatters tightened about my throat, I continued at a slower pace listening as the soggy sleeves grew fainter and fainter.

As I turned the next corner, he sprinted just out of sight into another passage.  I turned back to see where he had come from, but there was only the remains of another collapse.  He might’ve dug through, explaining his loose coat, or he had been hiding there.  It was possible that I startled him.

That was nice for a change.

The path he had rushed into was bare of working lamps, I needed to take a moment to change out batteries.  I felt in my coat pocket, a hard knot forming in my throat.  I was all out!  To be absolutely certain I fixed the camera in its pack and pulled everything out of my pocket, but there were none.  Just my pen, notepad, and that damn granola.  I fixed everything in its place and turned out my pockets, knowing damn well if I found one in my coat, it had been soaked to hell.  I had a better chance at ruining my camera than anything else.

I froze when my hand brushed the case.  My nightvision was low on power, I couldn’t change the fact I had wasted the batteries.  Carefully I brought up the camera and checked through the visor.

The tunnel banked to my right, with no alternate paths, just the straight tunnel and a large pipe escorting me along the ceiling.  It was terrible, I could scarcely make out the obvious surfaces as the light dimmed but I could perceive more than the naked eye.  I just needed to be extra cautious and listen.  Something was in the air, that sweet and pungent reek of soured meat.  Immediately I felt sick to my stomach, maybe with the low visibility I’ll bypass whatever’s there without knowing it.

At some length I stopped, certain I had heard something.  That whooshing…hiss sound.  A sharp movement, then screaming echoed through the corridor.  With a soft whimper I stepped back, unsure where to go or what was happening.  Eventually the noise died away, with a final ear splinting wail and the hall was silent.  I had nearly forgotten I wasn’t alone.  I wondered if I was now?

I had turned the NV off, aware I needed to conserve the cameras power, but mostly afraid I would see something accompanying me in the dark.  I let out a shallow breath and resumed my course, forward, to whatever awaited.

I never found the fellow in the jacket.  The tunnel came to a dead end with only a high water barricade, which I squeezed through with little effort.  After that short break, my side and shoulder felt somewhat better, but still complained when I strained them too much.  My leg had stiffened somewhat from where Chris had raked me, sloshing around in the sewers had given some infection no doubt.

That horrible sour reek hit me in full force, and I physically winced from the odor.  In the same instant hot steam gushed out from burst pipes in the water systems at my backside, I stepped away receiving an overbearing singe along my upper back.  Damn faulty pipes, old building.  It felt normal to complain about something so trivial.

A few pipes connected overhead, one shot straight forward along the tunnels ceiling.  I followed it, venturing into the dark without the NV due to an apparent light source in close proximity.  As with it, the origin of the foul stench.

I wasn’t surprised by my findings.  I might’ve actually been concerned if I found nothing, and my mind would have fabricated horrible images to pacify itself.  The corridor ended with a large grate, and to my left awaited a door with a glass window.  I peered inside and brought up the camera to film the gore.  I imagine this was about the worse I had found, worse than the tunnel of blood and ruptured innards.

“I thought this sewer couldn’t smell any worse.  Hundred of bodies crammed into a room, thousands of flies.  Is this the Priest’s “way out?’”

What had that lone man in the room been trying to write down in his final words?  It was, “…let there be no dreams.  The only hel—”  Was he trying to say, ‘The only help.’ He could want, to some extent.  Or was he stating, ‘The only hell. I want.’  It could go either way, but I didn’t know his past, his history, what he had been through.  I only knew he had been dying when he wrote his message, and had ceased to hear the Walrider.  Because his therapy wore off.

This couldn’t have been the Priest’s way out.  Or, could it?  He was a crazy fanatic believing in something….obviously evil.

With nothing more to note here, I returned to where I entered from.  Some steps patiently awaited my attention, with a plate labeled Male Ward mounted to the side.  It led up to a spiral stairway twisting into a dry, cool room, or hall.  It had no obvious exit, unless I found one.  The gate was blocked by beds, metal trollies, and what looked like gurneys.

A metal cabinet sat beside a chute in the floor, that looked traversable.  It didn’t appear to be too heavy, it was filled with propane tanks.  I fixed the camera in its hoister and braced myself on the gritty floor, and pushed.  After some effort, and a growl for drive, the heavy cabinet shifted and grated across the sandy floor.  I cleared it from the vent enough that I could scoot through without trouble, the sight of splattered blood did not comfort me, neither did the visible legs of the person in the next room.

Another patient, bundled up to his chair.  Looked as though someone tore a sheet apart and tied him up in it, then tied that to the chair.  He sat there, dazed and unaware of my presence.  Why did for some of these people they insisted on covering their faces with any manner of material?  He had what could have been smocks at some point, cut up and wrapped over his head and jammed into his mouth.  As before, I didn’t remover anything.  There was usually a good reason to bind a man’s mouth in an insane asylum, I just didn’t want to think about why.

A pool of blood had gathered under his seat, but it wasn’t his.  Overhead, in the wooden floor boards was a large crimson shape.  As I watched, the light dimmed startling me, but it was only a surge.  I didn’t need to use my nightvision in a tiny room.  I didn’t want to be in a dark room with a man muzzled.

I pulled the door open slowly and checked out, panning over the visible corridor and walls before I slipped out and shut the door behind me.  Another featureless dim corridor, ruble and debris from boarded up doors lay discarded on the floor, the reek of neglect.  A pallet leaned against the wall, and there was another door directly to my left.  For the moment, all was quiet aside from the drip of blood within the sealed room.

While it seemed calm, I had to take care of something.  Nearly eight hours without a bathroom break, and this place had gone to hell anyway.  I still felt the need to justify pissing on a wall.  Damnit.  There was some privacy in the shadows, I didn’t feel like someone was going to stumble upon me and get ideas.

Really, this place could go fuck itself.

I took care of matters.  End of story.  There was a door not far from where I was, and I think I died a little inside when I opened it.

Blood was on the floor, beneath a broken chair, I turned the NV on the wall and found some inspiring words.

“The harder I try to escape, the further I get into this god awful place.  Like fighting a tar pit.  They’ve been torturing people in the basement, and by method.  Written on the wall – “FINGERS FIRST.  THEN BALLS.  THEN TONGUE.”  Somebody’s managing the torture, instructing them.”

I think this is the epiphany of why I need to keep my mouth shut around the variants.  In fact, I could write a whole book about what not do if you’re trapped in an insane asylum.  For starters – First rule, don’t talk to people, they’ll eat your tongue out of your throat.  Number two, don’t mess with them, they hate that and they’ll make it clear by murdering your ass.  Three, don’t be a woman, or any gender, or dead.  They will do terrible things to your corpse.  Or worse, they won’t kill you.  And four, everyone is your enemy, even if they sound sane, by now they’re not.  They’re in the insane asylum for a reason, and chances are you’ll figure out why in the brief moment before you’re dead, or regretting your remaining sanity.

Game over.

I continued down the hall, certain I heard something rubbing against the door that separated me from the trapped man.  Ignoring it, I took in my surroundings, first noting a path on my left that led up darkened steps.  I passed it to explore what else might be available, batteries I hoped.  The hall led through shadows, towards a light spilling from an open room.  As I neared my skin ran cold, the cacophony of struggle and banging came from the room.  Across the way at the halls end was a door, compromised by boards nailed over its frame.  The door had a meshed window, which revealed nothing but another obscure hall.  I peered around the frame carefully, wary of the noise.  At the rooms far wall stood another large cabinet filled with pipes, braced against the door.  It barely budged as someone from the other side hammered away with their body.  The door splintered and cracked under the force but held.

On the floor lay a clothed patient, scars up his exposed arms and over his face, some fresh and seeping gray ooze.  He was curled tightly near the floors center, quivering.  I don’t know if he blocked the door, but that seemed most likely the case.

I abandoned the room and backtracked through the corridor, returning to the doorway I had skipped, before whoever tore through and began hunting around.  Across from it was the broken gate piled high with tables, a gurney, and beyond this the area I initialed entered through.  Good to know I was getting around.

The gate and door that greeted me at the steps end was locked.  I tried to force the handle but the bolt was fitted tight, I wouldn’t get through unless I could pick a lock.  Should’ve had someone teach me.

Reluctantly I returned downstairs to the room with the door, and the invading guest.  I leaned around the frame, but the onslaught had gone cold.  The man still lay on the floor in shock, completely unresponsive to my entrance.  I walked around quietly, checking the room thoroughly before I dared look at the door.  A camera sat near the furthest corner on a table cart, its lens shattered but thank everything it had batteries.  Two, which was better than the dead one currently in use.  I fumbled to switch them quickly, relieved to find the first good on power.

The door had been silent for some time.  No guarantee whoever was on the other side had departed, or that there was any place to go once the door was open.

I put myself between the cabinet and wall, braced myself with one foot then pushed, until the heavy toolshed had been moved enough that the door would swing open.  I peered through the crack before I opened it wide and stepped through.  I took one last look at the trembling figure on the floor before shutting the door.

The hall to my right ran to a dead end with two locked doors, a few boxes and trash lay discarded along the wall.  I attempted to break the glass with a pole I picked up, but it was that shatter proof stuff that you hate when your life is in peril.  I didn’t want to make a fuss over it either and draw attention to myself, boxed in this way.  Seeking an alternate route would be a better use of my energy, and I could always come back.  Though there didn’t seem to be much on the other side of that dingy glass.

The other end of the hall was nearly identical, a dehydrated mop bucket and its stiff mop leaned against the brick.  I wondered where they mopped in this place, the bare cement?  Another boarded up door awaited but across from it the plate of a vent had been torn off, and a soft coil of rich spoil met my senses.  I leaned over to check before venturing further, it wasn’t far to the other side and a good fourth of the room was visible.  There were beds and curtains.

I crouched down and shuffled through, I lowered the camera when the reek of stale urine and soured meat blasted me in the face.  Where the fuck was I?  This was worse than the prison block, as bad or worse than “Feast of Flies.”

As I stood up I could see why.  My eyes watered, the filth and decay was so strong.  The curtains had been drawn around where each bed was situated, I couldn’t see the flies yet but I could hear the hum of their wings beat as they fought over their victims.  A lone gurney sat near the rooms center, a pile of guts had spilled to the floor beneath, and crusty blood stained the filthy mattress.

I thought I heard someone scream in the distance, but if I listened I could hear weary voices emerge from behind the drapes.  Whispers, barely audible over the thousands of flies present.

“Too alive.  Too alive….”

I moved across the room, trying to avoid the horrendous wall of stale rot.  These people were still alive in here, or somewhere between life and death.  A hellish limbo.

“Can’t sleep.  Wernicke’s waiting for me there.”  Again, the belief that Wernicke was dead somehow, yet still performing his experiments.

Were these people amidst experimentation when the shit storm occurred?  Or was the experiment still going on, now, as I stood here?  Was it still happening?  How long ago since Murkoff’s fall?  Obscure dates, faulty facts, I doubt even the scientist had kept up with it all.

I set my hand on the curtain of one patient, debating on drawing it back to view what was left behind.  It was tempting.  But the humane side of me decided no, I couldn’t bear it.  Instead, I recorded what was available, the disrepair of the room, broken tile, filth stained floors, the hundreds of insects everywhere.

At the back of the room, in a corner was someone that had been dead for a good deal of time.  The body spread on a bed with most of the flesh from the legs and abdomen removed, his head missing, what was left of him, an oozing mess of jello and maggots.  I looked down as my shoes crunched large roaches, eagerly chewing up the dripping puss.  If I wasn’t pale at this point, I had to be ghostly by now.

Beside the corpse was a small table, a folder labeled Reports with a few pages spilling out on the surface and onto the floor.  I picked up one curious to what this was about.

PATIENT STATUS REPORT

By Rick Trager

This patient also, unfortunately, didn’t make it.  I tried my best, but I’m just a doctor, not a miracle-worker.  And I’m pretty new to this whole “doctor” thing, so I’m still working out all the kinks.

Anywhoo—somebody’s gotta cut the fat from this PROJECT WALRIDER disaster.  We’ve been bleeding money ever since this thing went tits up on account of that Billy kid.  But I’ve managed to slim back personnel by more than eighty people.  Which means short term savings in salary and long term savings in pension and health care costs.

And I’ve been figuring out a lot about biology.  I was on the fence about it before, but now I can say with absolute certainty that a person can’t live without his kidneys.  You learn something new everyday.

What the fuck was this?  What sort of PHD graduate didn’t know basic human biology?  You could learn that shit from Discovery channel.

I didn’t like the frivolous undertone of this note.  It was all sorts of demented.

I tossed the page back with those on the floor, and gave the room another once over.  A set of boarded doors sat near the morbid memo, and through the windows I could view a man sitting – was tied – to a chair.  I crossed over to a sink beside a bloodied gurney, a table cart was left near it and ghastly red stains had been cast over the cold gray wall.  I avoided a pile of intestines quivering with pestilence below, I just needed to clean some of the grunge from my hands and get a bit of water to wash out the residue.  My hands shook under the frigid water of the tap, I rubbed them till the gray water had cleared and gazed a moment more as I lost myself to the repetitive action of washing hands.

The whimpers of men dying, unable to die, wrapped around my senses as I stood watching the water dry on my skin.  Smalls cuts had appeared where I had fumbled against sharp metal edges in the dark, little things I missed in my distracted state.  It didn’t bother me, I was accustomed to this rough treatment.  What did bother me was how steady my thoughts had become and how I was still staring at my hands as people around me suffered.  I wanted to help them, I wanted to do something and pull them out of this festering wound in hell, this was the whole reason why I came here in the first place.  But I was now unsure in what way to pursue this goal.  There was no help for these people.  There had never been a way to help them in the first place.

After a short argument with my better judgment, I decided to climb up into the open vent above the blood drenched bed.  

“No more dreams.  No more…..”

Thudding along as quietly as I could, I felt my path rather bother with the camera.  I was in no hurry, there was also the batteries I was desperate to conserve in future.  The thin strands of light spread out in my path and I kicked out the vent, wincing when it clattered against the hard floor below.

I dropped down over a mess of innards, they squished underfoot as I pin wheeled my arms out to regain balance and step off them.  I was in the room with the man, in the chair.  That was about it, aside from some solid steel cabinets streaked with blood, papers scattered over the floor, along with guts and pieces of people….

The man in the chair gave a loud gasp once he detected my presence and began thrashing, I stepped away fearful he’d break his restraints.

“Meat!  Want meat!  Want meat!  Meat!  Meat!”  I took another step back, dubious on my next course of action.  Sudden thuds came from the direction of the room I had just occupied.

Two patients now struggled with the fortified door, crashing into it with their bodies in an effort to tear it down.  They would succeed, and I would be killed.

A way out!  To where?

At the rooms side was a large cabinet filled with heavy tools, locked tight.  But it was shoved against a door.  I launched myself at the box and pushed, shoving with all that was worthwhile in me to get it out of the way so I could flee this room before they smashed through.

The doors crunched, splintered and gave.  Just as I moved the container its last inch, I flung the door open and slammed it shut as I stumbled away.

“We’ll flank that piece of shit!”  “Fuck!  Fuck!”

Damn it all, what was this?  What had I gotten myself into?  I tore through the next room, hall, I’m not sure.  Shelves lined the walls, I tried the first door on my left – jammed tight.  Didn’t bother with it, kept going straight and found another door left ajar.

I barreled into it with my arm, cracking the brittle wood it against the wall so it bounced back.  I saw one of the patients nearly at me as I flung the door in his face.  A hospital bed was stationed near center of the room, I hurried behind it and flipped it over on its side.  I coughed at the sharp pain in my chest, but blocked it as I shoved the flat side up to the door.  It thudded and opened an inch but that was the extent, the bed was pinned against it.

“Go ‘round!”

I flipped another bed onto it, and spun about to a medical cabinet that had fallen across the door.  I wriggled my fingers over the side and pulled it out enough that I could fit my chest between the wall and the obstruction, then shoved the two apart so I could pry the door open just enough to squeeze out. 

“There’s another door!  This way.”  I paused for an instant to make sure the camera strap over my hand was secure, if I needed it I betted I wouldn’t have the chance to fumble with it.

“There he is!”

Fuck me!  Fuck this!  Fuck them!  I twisted around, spying them at a door already tearing at it.  Not that way!  I sprint in the opposite direction scanning the walls with my eyes, my heart racing.  I needed no more incentive, this place was fuckin evil!  Nuke it from orbit!  Something!

The light through this corridor was bad, but not terrible that needed to risk the camera.  The metal bars of a trolley glinted in my path, easily sprint over in my good effort to stay ahead of those psychos.  Two doors came into view, the one ahead was way over there, the one at my immediate left looked more inviting.

I swatted the door open and paused, staring at the bloated and gray body torn open on the autopsy table.  It was a fleeting moment, a reminder of my fate if I was caught.  I swung the door shut at my back and began pushing an equipment cabinet against the door, until I caught sight of the open vent on the far wall.

“Death and taxes!  Death and taxes!”

I didn’t worry over the bloody footprints that led towards the vent, I threw myself up into it and made the hasty trip to the other side.

“Doctor!  Doctor Wernicke!”

I slipped out turning to head right, until the door erupted and a variant crashed out into the opposite wall.  I pivoted and stumbled, falling to my hands and knees before I had clawed up to my feet and renewed my pace.  They were screaming for the doctor, for Walrider, and every manner of insane thing that seemed to generate their personal hell.

The hall ahead was blocked, crammed with metal shelves and broken beds.  In the corner of my eye I noted a cracked doorframe, I skid on the dusty black and white tile as I made the sharp right through what appeared to be an old office.  Glass windows made up the walls, they’d hold off kittens I’m sure.  Some of the windows were broken, but I doubt it’d slow down barefeet.

I sprang over a crushed desk, the wood gave out and I tumbled, tucking in my arms until I flipped over onto my feet and charged away.  A broken bookcase was directly in my path and, to where…I wasn’t certain.  I did this odd maneuver where I shoved my hands through, and pulled my body the rest of the way and kind of somersaulted, reaching my feet and resumed my sprint unbroken.  I heard someone not far behind crash into the bookcase and what remained of its contents plop against the floor.

My path came to a dead end.  A large gap between me and presumed safety, only a sheet of plywood bridged a fourth of it.  The sudden commotion at my back caused me to jerk around as one of the scarred patients tumbled down from climbing the bookshelf, and hurried at me with what looked like a machete.  I bolted, racing to the end of that board and leapt over the black gap. 

And fell.

I choked as I hit the edge and skid backwards, a horrible screech came from the camera still in my hand, as my arm ground over the floor.  I dug my fingertips into the concrete and dragged myself up.

“You slippery little whore.”

I kicked my feet against the rough side until I had my arm braced under me enough to haul my knees over, and scrambled away from the edge.  I collapsed, panting.  Not so much the exertion, but the stress and the fear.  I had barely escaped with my life.  That was too close, there was too many of them too outrun and hide from all at once.

I picked myself up and dusted off my coat, it had a bit of mud still stuck to it from the dampness but it was beginning to dry out and crumble away.  Probably didn’t matter.

It looked like there was a gate here at one point, the metal frame remained - and a floor too.  Where had that gone?  Was the metal grate along the wall, the floor?  This mechanism probably made sense to the staff of the asylum, like the purge chambers.  The gap looked deep, but I wasn’t interested in finding out how deep.

My body still quaked, I had temporarily eluded my pursuers but the silence and sudden calm unnerved me.  Where had they gone?  I was paranoid that I’d turn the next corner and run smack into their midst, I couldn’t waste time here.  I put the camera away fearing the risk of breaking it rather than using it, but if there was an area that I did need it, I reasoned I’d have a chance to reach it before I was located.

I crept to the end of the corridor and heard a racket that chilled me.  A door in my path had looked inviting at first, but the abrupt crash and the shriek of commands came through strong.  I took one step back…

Dead end, move.  RUN! 

I sprang forward skimming the corner as I took the hall.  The barrier shattered away soon after.

“You can’t hide!”

I passed under a section of pipes, through a dark hall and into another segregating of rooms or offices.  I skid into the door blocking my path trying the handle, it turned but the door was a stubborn piece of shit.  There was no visible reason why it wouldn’t open!  I whirled about checking my pursues, nearly upon me.  On my left was another door boarded up tight, but there was a space left open at the top. 

The variant swung at my face with his fist, the instant I ducked down and shot towards the door.  I clambered up the boards that would have prevented my access, and slid across the frame to the other side, throwing myself down into a wild dash.  The room was some sort of class, or instructional area, I didn’t get a good look as I breezed through.  The variants were using their weapons to dismantle the door, the screech of strained wood echoed in my skull as I turned the next corner.  It was impossible to put enough distance between them and I.

A sharp right and I raced full down the dark hall, staggering when I stepped on some books and papers missed in my panic.  I vaulted over a stack of large desks and came upon a door left ajar.  I rammed into it with my shoulder and found it to be another dead end.  Some sort of transfer, receiver station.  A store room for perishable goods and an inactive dumbwaiter.  I bolted out back into the dim hall, to the gate at the very end of my path.

It was locked.

“He’s got nowhere else to go!”

I examined the area carefully forcing my mind not to panic.  The gated door and lock, above there was no place I could climb or squeeze through.  This was what I had feared.

My eyes stung as took I step back and gave the gate another look over, I wiped the moisture away but nothing had changed, there was no way around.  This can’t be it, this can’t be the end.  I won’t accept this!

I spun about and dashed back to the open door and slammed it, just as the variants had caught up.  I grabbed the handle and pressed my shoulder into the brittle wood, they were fighting to turn it from the other side and force their way in.  I couldn’t keep this up for long, though they had a difficult time organizing themselves between forcing the door and bashing it down.  I needed to get away from it and search the room, but there was nothing in the immediate area I could use to jam the lock.  I doubt it would hold them off for very long, but I needed that time.  Just a second, a moment, a breath.  I wasn’t ready to let it end here!

I was budged off the door as one of the madmen slammed into it, I quickly replaced myself and gripped the handle.  My eyes frantically searching the shelves for something solid, even a can of cold gravy I could use to snap the handle off.

“Who’s down there?  You’re not one of them, are you?”  I stared at the machine at the other end of the room, suddenly alive and speaking to me.  “Quick!  Get in the dumbwaiter if you want to live!”  I gawked, stupefied as I actually witnessed the little elevator descend into view.

What was this?  A prayer answered?  My mind playing tricks on me?  Was I already dead?

I shook my head to clear the daze and lunged at the lift.  The door behind me took little abuse before it splint apart, and the variants came pouring in.  I shoved the gate up and crawled inside, just before my leg was grabbed the door snapped down and I held it there just to be certain, until I was raised high out of sight.

“God damnit!”  The patient smashed something against the grate, but I was headed up.  Very little they could do unless they attacked the key panel, but even then they couldn’t reach me.  I let out a shaky breath as I tried to wrestle control over my thudding heart, the vibrations pulsed hard on my sore ribs.

This was it, no more sewers, and I had been heading to the top floor to get my bearings straight.  From there I would be able to get around and figure out exactly where I was, or find some way out.  But I didn’t feel the swell of euphoria I had anticipated, something dark clouded the back of my mind and I let it brew there.  The reality of my situation began to sink in, as the walls of the elevator seemed to tighten a little more around my shoulders.

Who exactly was my mysterious liberator?  A normal person, alive after all the hell that consumed this place?  Seemed unlikely, but he sounded sane enough.  Fourth rule though, he’s insane even if he sounds sane.  Trust no one but the dark.  Good motto.  Kept me alive so far.

The lift traveled up a few more feet before it reached the floor and stopped.  I shifted to view the figure that stood beside me as the gate slid open.

“You made the right choice, here, buddy.”

#miles upshure #outlast #outlast fanfiction #outlast novelized

[glimmera]

A Night in the Fright Zone

The breeze is warm. She didn’t expect that. Every time she’s been here, it was a harrowing, chilling experience. Colder than Bright Moon, which was something of a feat. But here, it’s warm. Perhaps it was a shift in the wind. Maybe the Fright Zone was always warm, and it was just the cold steel sapping the heat from the place. Maybe Glimmer just felt an errant opposing breeze brush past their campfire. But the breeze here was still warm.

It’s odd to think a place like this could hold warmth. Usually you don’t associate ‘Fright’ with warmth so much as blood-boiling adrenaline. But here she was. And there they were. Sitting around a campfire in the heart of what was once their mortal enemy’s base of operations. Glimmer could still see the false memories and the projected reality brought about by Hordak’s portal around them. That’s where the world pretended to be Bright Moon. That’s where she glimpsed the ghastly image of her father, who was desperately trying to tell them he was still alive. That’s where the world began to crumble as the illusion fell apart.

Looking up, the stars are visible overhead. Before, the floodlights had drowned everything out. Even the air just smells... clean. Natural. Free of the corruption that had plagued this land before. Like a new face on an old enemy.

Glimmer glances over at Catra, wrapped tight around Adora’s frame on a cot nearby. That’s right... this is where these two grew up together. This is where Shadow Weaver fled to, before she corrupted their childhoods. This is where Scorpia and her family had once lived in peace, before Hordak arrived. This is where Glimmer thought she had selfishly sacrificed Entrapta’s life for her bullheaded invasion plan. This is where she had betrayed them all by building intelligent drones for the Horde.

Adora and Catra probably have fond memories of this place, despite what Glimmer remembers. They probably remember playing about as children, hanging from steel girders and hiding among the support beams. They probably shared laughs here, joking among their comrades who swore to destroy Glimmer and the rest of the other Princesses.

The campfire burns low as the lot of them migrate to their chosen sleeping quarters. Of course, Adora and Catra retire to their old bunks... or bunk, really, given Catra never slept in her own. Entrapta slips off into Hordak’s lair, where she built some of her finest devices. Glimmer and Perfuma... just stare into the smoldering embers, feeling out of place here. It’s hard to be in a place that was committed to killing you, after all.

But despite it all... Glimmer is at peace. She remembers the pain, the anguish, the conflicting feelings all wresting her thoughts from each other in an instant. The betrayal, the heartache, the redemption... it all started here. In a place stolen by someone whose home was stolen from him. A place where abuse found its start, and its rebirth over, and over again. A place where... things were set right, once and for all. Where the courage of love finally overcame the power of evil and torment.

Glimmer huddles close with Perfuma, letting her try to nestle under her flowing cape. It’s a tight squeeze and there’s an obvious height difference, but the warmth is welcome all the same. She looks back up at the stars just as Perfuma dozes off, wondering if perhaps on a particularly bright night, Catra and Adora... and maybe even Shadow Weaver were looking at the same stars Glimmer was all those years ago.

It becomes overwhelming to her, just how much she misses Bow. She didn’t realize how long he’d been gone until now. His work helping reparations in the other kingdoms was important, but... Glimmer had never felt this alone before, despite being surrounded by her friends. The tears are few, but welcome. Fresh starts were hard. Everything was so different now. There’s still a rage there, bubbling close to the surface. A rage that still wants revenge for everything they put her through. An anger that had almost consumed her to the point of destroying their entire planet. A burning spite that had sought solace in the arms of a weapon that had almost ended the world. A pain that... had been tempered. By redemption. By friendship. By love. By... Bow.

She leaves Perfuma with the cape. Glimmer can’t be around anyone else when the flood comes. She doesn’t want anyone to see her weakness. She wanders into the Horde compound.

The halls are eerie and silent as Glimmer haunts the place. She could pick just about anywhere to cry, but everywhere just felt too exposed. Too open, despite the thick steel walls. She meanders deeper into the compound, as her vision swims.

The cadets’ quarters was as suitable a place as any. It was furthest from the main atrium, probably just to further remind the grunts of their place. Glimmer settles down against a steel door, oddly the only one not covered in creeping vines. She lets out a muffled whimper, and then a sob. Her face turns red as she tries to keep it in, her lungs and nose betraying her. She’s allowed to continue until a voice speaks up from behind the door.

“Everything okay, Sparkles?”

Glimmer opens her eyes in shock, quickly wiping the fluid from her distorted face. She sifts through the cocktail of mixed feelings in an instant, as she was accustomed to, and thinks for just a moment before composing her reply. “...I miss Bow. He’s only been gone a week, but. I just. Really miss him,” she replies, an odd comfort reaching her in the sincerity.

There’s a silence between them, as thick as the door. “Have you ever felt like... you never really knew how much you loved someone... until they were gone?” Glimmer asks, a tremble in her usually brash, headstrong voice.

“Yeah. I have,” Catra replies, also shockingly sincere.

“There was this one time when I didn’t see Bow for a month growing up. He was attending a research camp hosted by his dads, and it was out in the forest so he couldn’t visit me in the palace the whole time. I still had my mom and the other palace staff, but... it felt like part of me was missing. I felt only a little guilty trying to convince him that research was boring, since thankfully he agreed. I think it might have been dumb luck that he picked archery to focus on, since that gave me an excuse to see him to return his lost arrows. But ever since then... I never really thought about what might happen if I didn’t see him again. I just... decided I wouldn’t be apart from then on. Is... is that weird?” Glimmer asks, holding her knees up against her chest.

There's the slightest sound of shuffling behind the door. "If it was weird, that'd make me weird. So since I'm not weird, no." There's an extended pause before she speaks again. "When we were kids - it was stupid, but Adora started to get along with the other kids. Better than me." Catra laughs, her breath short and exhausted. "There was this girl - Lonnie. Her and Adora were getting along really well and I thought that they'd be better friends or something. I got scared that Adora would ditch me. I think it was one of the first times I... scratched Adora. But I didn't want her to leave me. I think, even then I kind of, knew I loved her. You know? And I got scared she wouldn't love me or something."

“I... think I get that. I really do,” Glimmer replies, after listening to it all. “I felt the same way after Frosta’s Ball, when Bow was hanging out with Perfuma all night. I thought he... wouldn’t have time for me anymore.” The two of them sit in silence again, like they had aboard Hordak Prime’s ship. “Catra?” Glimmer speaks, after a moment. “Yeah?” Catra answers. “Can I sleep in your room tonight? Not to intrude, just... to be nearby.”

There’s a longer silence. The door slides open, causing Glimmer to fall flat on her back. Catra looms over her, a smug but knowing look on her face. She extends a hand to help her up. Glimmer takes her hand and gets to her feet, dusting herself off. She shuffles into the cadets’ quarters to see Adora, still sound asleep in her bunk. There’s a Catra-sized indentation in the sheets.

Glimmer decides not to say anything else. It’s not the time. Not now. She looks around and climbs into the bunk across from them as Catra settles into her usual spot. This bunk was well used, spare scales left behind by whichever reptilian cadet had used it last. The name ‘Kyle’ is etched into the bottom of the bunk above her. Hopefully Kyle the Lizard had survived the war and was doing well for himself.

The room is thrown back into a comforting pitch as the steel door closes automatically. Inside is a pure silence, devoid of the usual hum of the compound. Glimmer pulls up the thin, almost threadbare sheets and closes her eyes. There weren’t even any windows to let the starlight in. Glimmer usually found it hard to sleep without even the stars to keep her company. Maybe that was just the life of a Horde cadet. But with the sound of Adora beginning to snore and Catra beginning to purr... Glimmer finds no issues falling asleep.

#((IM SORRY)) #((A GHOST OF TEEN ANGST POSSESSED ME AND MADE ME WRITE THIS)) #((CREDITS TO HIMYNAMEISCATRA FOR CATRA'S PART)) #Scene

[oliverwxod]

Bodyguard (part 6) - Bucky Barnes

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings: mention of death, swearing, smut

Summary: Tony Stark is a very rich man and with that came a lot of enemies. After a tragic event Tony decides himself and the people most important to him, especially his daughter, are in danger. He hires personal body guards. Bucky Barnes is assigned to Y/n Stark, the most troublesome, reckless Stark that there is.

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8

Masterlist

It had been a couple days since James had taken Y/n to the train station coffee shop. Since then, the mood between the two had shifted slightly. They still didn't talk much, but every so often they would catch each other's eye, smiling softly at each other. 

The tower was a hive of activity. People starting early so they could finish early. Tony was holding a party at a venue down town in the evening. He had decided to reward all the staff for working so hard and in result causing the profit margins of the company to soar.

 Y/n was sat in one of the labs, Bruce across for her and James standing guard next to the door. They were working together on a new innovation idea Tony had, he trusted them both to do a good job.

"You off to the party tonight?" Bruce spoke making small talk, taking his glasses off and discarding them to the side. Y/n carried on working, not looking at him. 

 "No, I don't think so" she spoke distractedly. 

 "Why not?" Bruce asked a look of surprise on his face. He thought it would be right up her street.

 "You heard what happened the other day" she spoke. "He hates me".

Bruce stood up making his way over to her, his hand land on her shoulder making her stop working.

 "I can assure you that he doesn't hate you in anyway" he said, his voice kind like always. "You're just both dealing with things in different ways and he's worried about you. He always has been, ever since you were young" he said. 

"Tony loves you very much". He stated. Bruce was one of Tony’s dearest friends, who was always their to console the man.

 "Yeah, well not once has he shown that". She said bitterly. 

"I think you should go tonight. Show some support even if you don't want to. It would mean a lot to him" Bruce spoke, his eyes catching on something outside.

 "Have a think about It" he said before leaving the room, James opening the door for him. 

 She worked in silence for a while until stopping completely. Too stressed out to concentrate any more. She sighed quietly giving up, shoulders slumping.

 "James" 

 "Yes?" He replied. 

 "What do you think?" She asked.

 "Of?".

 "Should I go tonight?”. She asked, now turning around to look at him. 

 "It's not my place to say y/n" he spoke. 

She gave him a look. 

"Okay but if it was" she said raising an eyebrow at him expectantly. "What would you say?".

James sighed, a small smile. 

"I would say go. You know what you said about being on bad terms with family members and how you regretted it. Maybe it's a chance for you to build up your relationship with your father" he spoke. 

 Y/n was shocked that he actually cared to remember what she told him that night. 

 "You make a good point" she huffed. 

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

Y/n didn’t spend too long getting ready, not really caring. She decided she would make a small appearance for only a couple hours before she could leave and retreat back to the tower.

James was waiting outside her door, ready to escort her to the car that would be taking them straight to the venue in town. She knew once again there would be a lot of security there. 

When she walked out of her room, James made sure the doors were all locked, double checking them before nodding at her to follow him. They stood in the elevator side by side, a fair space between them.

The car ride was silent most of the way except for the vibrating sound of James phone in his pocket that he ignored. 

They both knew who it would be. 

“why do you never pick up?” Y/n asked him, softly. She didn’t think he would answer and she wished she didn’t ask but the words just fell out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

“all she ever does is shout at me.” he spoke almost tiredly.

“oh... well that’s shit” she said. James chuckled quietly, making her head whip round to face him. She didn’t think she had ever heard him laugh. It was a soft sound that she decided she would try harder to be the cause of it in future.

“yeah” he nodded agreeing.

“why?” she asked, taking the opportunity to talk to him while he was actually replying. James thought about it, questioning whether or not he should carry on speaking.  

“she... she doesn’t like my job. Thinks I spend too much time working” he spoke. 

“I mean... You do, but if it makes you happy then she should understand that” Y/n replied carefully.

“I think it’s more the fact that she doesn’t like me working around you.” he spoke. Y/n gave him a confused look. “she reads those magazines and has it in her head that i’m going to cheat on her”

It was silent as the fact that James had already done that settled between them. 

“well you did” Y/n spoke, looking away from him. 

“I know” he sighed. “she didn’t deserve that”

“if this job is really damaging your... marriage, maybe you should ask to be reassigned to someone else.” she spoke, tracing the side of the car door with her fingers to distract herself.

“do you want me to do that?” he asked quietly.

“do you want to?” she asked back.

“no”

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The party was in full swing and Y/n couldn’t help but be in awe at how Tony always seemed to choose the most glamorous venues. It was a marble hall, the ceilings high with specks of gold linings and marble statues. 

The people were just as glamorous. She could see Tony and Pepper talking to groups of people, laughing happily. Y/n didn’t know whether to go over and talk to them or wait until they came to her. James had taken position by the front door of the hall, telling her he would be watching out for any signs of danger and keeping an eye on her.

It was the furthest away from her he had ever had to stand on a job. The venue was huge. Security on every door and window, Steve was standing next to him, Natasha the other side of the door along with Bruce’s security guard Clint.

James watched as Y/n seemed unsure of herself, saying hello to some people in passing. She was nervous, he could tell. 

Y/n was trying hard to resist going to the bar and ordering alcohol. She didn’t want to drink and risk getting drunk and causing a scene. If that happened she could probably guarantee that Tony would never speak to her again. 

“you came” Bruce spoke approaching her. She could see Tony and Pepper on their way over, her breath hitching slightly in nervousness. “i’m proud of you kiddo” he said hugging her tightly.

“Y/n hunny, you look beautiful” Pepper smiled, holding her arms out for her. Y/n stepped into her embrace hugging her. She held on a little longer than usual, wanting to tear up. She was very thankful for Pepper. She was the only Mother figure she had ever had and she most certainly looked up to her.

“Y/n.” Tony spoke softly. He could feel his heart break at the sad look on her face when he met her eyes. Tony knew he should have found her sooner and spoken to her, but he had been trying to find the words to say to her, not wanting to make anything worse. “I’m so sorry” 

Tony didn’t expect her to throw herself into his arms, taken aback. He soon found himself melting into the hug, holding her tightly and kissing her on the top of her head.

“I want you to know that I would never ever wish it was you.” he said referring to her words the other day. He felt her nod against him as he closed his eyes, the feeling of having his daughter in his arms a rare occurrence. “you don’t know how badly I wish it was me instead of Jackson” Tony spoke, Y/n hugged him even tighter.

Across the room, Steve’s eyes caught a quick movement of one of the guests. Normally he wouldn’t think anything of it but everyone else was either dancing slowly or stood chatting. He made a move, silently walking in the direction, nudging James to get his attention on the guest. 

James nodded at him, eyeing the shifty looking behavior. How had they only just clocked it? With all these eyes around and all the extra security.

“go check it out.” James said to him. “i’ll alert everyone else” he spoke gesturing to the radio clipped to his suit jacket. 

“this is agent Barnes, we have suspicious movement on the left side of the room.” he spoke into the radio, short and professional. Masking the worry he was actually feeling.

James eyes flicked over to Steve and then the guest, eyes widening as the man had clocked that security were onto him.

Everything happened so fast, a gun was pulled out. James and Steve both shouting, several security guards running forwards to the left of the room. Guests screaming as a loud shot went off, followed by another and then another.

A familiar scream sounded as James pushed himself forwards running to the noise as guests ran past him the other way. He had his eyes locked on Y/n’s frame, she was clutching Tony, his weight held up against her as she tried to keep him standing. 

Was she hurt? the thoughts were running wildly through his head and all he could focus on was reaching her.

She was crying, as was Pepper. 

James reached them the same time as Steve and Natasha did. 

Y/n’s mind was fuzzy, trying to take in what was happening. All she could focus on was the sound of the shot, the screams the blood soaking through her dress and dripping down her face as she held her fathers slumped body in her arms. 

The flashback of being sprayed by the blood of her brother, played in her mind. She couldn’t help but compare the two. But now instead of Jackson’s blood on her, it was her Fathers, and her fathers limp body.

She didn’t know what was happening, until she heard the sounds of sirens and felt someone pull him away from her. An arm was wrapped around her waist, dragging her away and pulling her head into their chest so she couldn’t see what was happening.

The person who had hold of her was checking her from head to toe, hands on her head examining her, hands on her waist, turning her around to look. James sighed in relief when he found no traces of injury. He was worried the blood on her was hers.

“Y/n, I need you to speak to me doll” the sound of James voice was bringing her back to reality. 

“James” she cried, clutching onto his shirt tightly. She looked up at him to make sure it was real, to keep herself grounded in the moment.

“Tony’s still breathing, he’s being taken to hospital right now, it’s going to be alright, I’ve got you” he spoke softly, leading her out of the hall. 

There were paparazzi surrounding the building, along with police cars and ambulances. Flashes of light, white, blue and red. The sound of people crying, the paparazzi calling her name, trying to get her to speak to them.

Apparently more people than just Tony were shot, she knew one of those bullets was meant for her.

James tried his best to hide her from the cameras eyes, but Y/n looked up, watching a commotion of police officers tackling a guy to the floor. The man looked up, meeting her eyes as a set of cuffs were locked on to his hands. 

He smirked at her winking, creating a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. James stared at him as he moved his gaze onto him, his eyes staring blankly at him before he turned his focus back on Y/n. She could tell this wasn’t the end.

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

In the car back to the tower, Y/n hadn’t let go of James, crying into his chest. His heart really did go out to her. The amount of things she had been through and now this. No one ever deserved to see their brother murdered and their father shot in front of them.

“what if i’ve lost him?” she cried into his shirt, the tears had already soaked through to James skin, another heart wrenching sob filled the car.

“you haven’t, he’s still breathing. He’s strong, he will make it” he hushed, trying to make her feel better.

He held her all the way back to her floor, only letting go of her to search the place. She had stopped crying now, a blank expression on her face, as if all her hope and energy had been drained.

“you should probably shower and change clothes” he spoke, looking at her form, her dress ruined with blood, now dried into her skin in some places. She nodded but made no effort to move. “i’m just going to go to my room and have a quick shower, then i’ll be back” he spoke, making his way to the door.

“no” she spoke loudly and panicked. “please don’t leave me, you can shower in my room, i’ll shower after” 

He nodded making his way into her room and into the bathroom. Stripping his clothes off that were also wet with blood from where Y/n had been holding him tightly.

He stepped into the shower wanting to be quick, but the hot water was comforting the sick feeling in his own stomach. He wanted to help Y/n so bad, but didn’t know how to. 

The shutting of a door made his eyes snap open confused and alert, but then he saw Y/n’s figure in the bathroom, pulling at her own dress until she was bare. She stepped into the shower sliding in next to him.

“Y/n” he spoke softly. He shouldn’t let this happen.

“please” she spoke. Not really knowing what she was asking for, she just wanted comfort. 

James sighed quietly, opening his arms out to her. She almost fell into his embrace, clutching on to him tightly, his metal arm wrapping around her waist pulling her flush against his chest.

“we shouldn’t be doing this, not now” he spoke softly, but he let her lean more into his touch anyway. He maneuvered them so her back was against the shower wall.

“we shouldn’t” she spoke, reaching her hands behind his neck, pulling him down slightly so she could press her forehead against his. James leaned down taking the initiative, kissing her softly.

 “you’re fucking addicting” he spoke. “can’t get you off my mind”

“please, don’t leave me after” Y/n spoke stopping him from leaning in to kiss her.

“I won’t”. He spoke with such raw emotion. “I need you”

That’s all it took. Those three words coming from him would make her give herself over to him any day. She knew she shouldn’t be doing this, not when he had a wife, not when her Father was in hospital having surgery. She should be there by his side, but instead she was here. Getting lost in the feeling of James.

Thank you all so much for the support, it means a lot, especially your messages and replies, let me know what ya think!!! I read every single one of them! If you want to be tagged please inbox me, it’s easier to keep track of them that way, big love like always! xx

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[winetae]

⇾  city of stars | 01

⇁ female reader x yoongi ; female reader x taehyung

⇁ drama, slight angst || hollywood!au, actor!bts, enemies to lovers

⇁ 5.1k

. . .

When your childhood sweetheart packs his bags to pursue his dreams in the big city, the two of you promise to meet again once you’ve both become successful. Years later, you find yourself running to and fro auditions, desperately trying to make ends meet, while his face is plastered on every giant sized billboard in town.

↳  or; no one ever said the road to success was easy

a/n;  OR a new short series literally no one asked for

+ inspired by the movie la la land (2016) and the anime skip beat (2002) “mama didn’t raise no weak hoe, you gonna push it” – sassi’s words of wisdom and also the reason i finally finished this;; ily !!!! this is for u

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A beginning and an end—these moments bookend all your shelved romances.

Although the denouement may often vary—tears, a broken picture frame, a kiss—the origin story remains, for the most part, the same. But contrary to any of your previous encounters, Min Yoongi disrupts the familiar formula of exchanged hellos and awkward pleasantries.

Maybe it starts like this:

an ugly brown stain on your new white blouse, one iced caramel macchiato wasted.

In the movies, the guy offers his number and a free lunch to make up for his clumsiness, or gives up his hoodie to cover his mistake. The lead finds his efforts to earn forgiveness endearing, and soon enough, one date becomes two, two eventually turns to six. Somewhere along the way—between date number nine and eleven—he musters the courage to profess his love with a kiss, under the sleek blanket of a starry sky.

But this is not the movies, you are reminded, as the cold beverage clings to your skin and shirt unpleasantly.

“Motherfucker!”

It is not the most eloquent start, either.

You hope the sheer force of your glare has the power to pull an apology from his lips, but he stays still—completely indifferent to your plight.

“You should pay attention to your surroundings,” he drawls, unmoved.

Your immediate reaction is to scowl, brow creasing with indignation. If this had been any other day, you would have attempted to laugh it off because you’re no stranger to accidents. But today is D-Day: the start of pilot season and also your chance at finally landing a substantial role, something with more visibility and depth than the cheerleader #3 background character you’ve always been relegated to in the past. Today is supposed to be your ticket to stardom—the prized opportunity for your talent to finally bloom on center stage. 

But one glance down at your worn-in wristwatch and panic grips you, dousing you in a sheen of cold sweat, much more unbearable than the spray of caffeine that’s still dripping down your shirt. 

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this blunder will affect the rest of your day. You have two casting calls to attend from noon to four and there is absolutely no way you have any time to grab a change of clothes, especially if you factor in the perpetual traffic that clogs up the city streets. Your stress level is already at an all time high, nerves taut; the stain does nothing but add on to the overwhelming queasy feeling that swells in your gut like a balloon ready to burst. How are you supposed to impress the casting directors when you look like a slob? You can already imagine the offended expressions judging you before you even have time to open your mouth and deliver your well prepared monologue. A sense of utter failure stabs you in the chest and the high hopes you had for the day come crashing down in an instant.

You’re well aware at how much your future depends on how well you do today and the thought that one stranger and a cup of coffee could compromise this opportunity is enough to frustrate you to the point of tears. Maybe if your life was a romantic comedy, the scene unfolding in front of you would take a turn for the better. In such a clichéd scenario, you would expect the heroine to experience the Love at First Sight story archetype and throw away her dreams to chase after her soulmate. 

But Min Yoongi is not your knight in shining armor. On the contrary, he is the furthest thing from the Humphrey Bogarts and the Cary Grants that grace the silver screens with their imposing presence and charming smiles. Instead of igniting your insides with desire, the mere sight of him and his lazy smirk makes your blood boil in anger. If you weren’t so attached to your daily dose of caffeine, you would have made sure to drench him in your gluten free pumpkin spice latte. 

“Aren’t you going to apologize?” you snap, gesturing at the stain bleeding through the thin fabric of your shirt like a physical wound. 

“Aren’t you? The coffee around this part of town is more expensive than a pack of cigarettes, y’know.” His derisive tone infuriates you further; it takes a herculean effort to not shove his empty cup of coffee up his ass. 

Neither of you budge. 

He stares you down and, had you been a lesser woman, you would have caved under the intensity of his glare. Maybe even cried a little. Still, you hold your ground, refusing to let yourself be intimidated by his scowl.

“You realize you owe me a coffee, sweetheart.”

If anyone else had delivered the line, you would have thought it to be a poor attempt at flirting. However, he utters the phrase with so much contempt, you almost reel back, struck down by the look he pairs with it. 

“What?!” 

In retrospect, you should have been more mindful of your surroundings but your mind had been occupied, too focused on revising lines that you already knew by heart. You’re aware the blame can��t be entirely shifted onto you, not when he had been so brusque in his movements, and distantly it registers that you’re both getting heated over nothing. Be the bigger person and let it go, your conscious urges you.

Pursing your lips into a grimace, you adamantly refuse to compromise. The only way your day can go from bad to worse, is if you let a short man with a mean looking face push you around like his plaything. Your aversion is justified, you argue internally.

“I have an audition,” you insist, tone clipped, waving around your script, penned and colored in pink highlighter, as if to prove your point. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Well aren’t you special.” The man sneers, eyes narrowing into slits. “We all have places to be, princess.”

“An apology would be nice,” you grit out, still refusing to back down. The use of pet-names by this stranger only irritates your further, itching at your skin like a insect bite you’re unable to soothe over. “But you’re so uncouth, I won’t waste my breath asking for one.”

“Ouch.” His lips curl into a mocking smirk, “well, maybe if you ask nicely, I’ll give the princess what she wants…” 

You want to deck him. But your already limited time is running short, and another peek at the clock makes your fingers twitch around the cup of your drink, contents sloshing around, threatening to spill. 

First impressions easily make or break a career. First impressions can also ruin relationships before they have the chance to begin. 

Any other day, at any other time, you might have admired the slight glow of his peachy skin, or taken the time to appreciate how the lilt in his speech reminds you of home. 

Instead, you flip him the bird and slide your sunglasses up the bridge of your nose so as to signal the end of the conversation. You feel extremely childish, like the star of a young adult drama series, but that doesn’t stop satisfaction from settling onto your features, only partly hidden by your knock-off Gucci shades. But your pleasure is short-lived; his disgruntled expression stays imprinted in your mind long after your argument ends, to your biggest dismay.

.

.

It’s funny how a mere stranger is able to single-handedly ruin your day.

Something heavy and uncomfortable sits in your chest, like a ball of lead, and your script trembles in your hand.

You’ve barely made it to your first audition, copies of your resumé neatly tucked under your arm and script clenched tight in your fist, but the memory of the morning’s incident makes it impossible to concentrate on your forthcoming task. This, of course, only infuriates you further, because the last thing you need is for that asshole to distract you from the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. You inhale slowly, counting eight beats before exhaling, trying your best to clear your mind and focus on your day’s objective. 

6… 7… 8

You repeat the process until your clenched muscles slowly relax and your breathing evens out. 

The role you’re auditioning for is a secondary character in a new TV series, set to debut in the fall on one of the main public channels. The scriptwriter has won half a dozen Emmys in the span of their short career, and from what you’ve been able to read of the script so far, the ratings will probably do well. There’s a good balance between the drama and the romance and to top it off, the dialogue is witty and gives you enough material to work with. For weeks, you’ve been preparing your role, even going as far as to memorize the other characters’ lines just in case they ask you to read for someone else at the audition. 

Up until yesterday you were still buzzing with excitement, confident that this job was the one that would finally jumpstart your career. But now, your thoughts are flooded with incessant “what if’s…” that are slowly poisoning your morale. You can already picture yourself announcing to your parents that once again, you didn’t get the part you were pining for… 

You hold in a sigh, not looking forward to that phone call. It’s hard to snuff out the smidgen of shame that grows with a pang in your chest whenever you speak to your parents over the phone. You know they patiently await news of your success, so you can’t help but feel like you’ve let them down when their inquiries are met with silence on your end. “The road to success is paved with sacrifices and failure,” your father reminds you often, as if sensing the heaviness that weighs down on your shoulders. 

When asked if you have adjusted to the bustling city life, you will always answer in the affirmative. Although the reply is mostly meant to reassure your concerned parents, separated from you by miles upon miles, you can’t help but believe the words you reiterate every weekend over the phone. After all, you’ve been here long enough for the sun to dust your skin gold, freckles blooming on your exposed shoulders. You’ve long since memorized the street names and adjusted your schedule to take into account the constant traffic jams caused by the heavy congestion. 

But it’s during times like these, when you’re sandwiched in an elevator with seven other girls your age, all with highlighted hair, professionally blow-dried to glossy perfection, that you realize how out of place you really are. You hug your handbag to your chest in an poor attempt at concealing the obvious brown splatter down your front. From the corner of your eye, you see someone raising their eyebrows in disdain, their expression visible in the elevator wall’s reflection.

She coughs, the sound catching everyone else’s attention. 

“You’re auditioning dressed like that?” her voice drips with faux sympathy and immediately embarrassment colors your cheeks. 

Remarks like this are to be expected, you suppose, but that doesn’t mean you’re insensitive to the comment. 

But before you have time to formulate a retort, a musical chime alerts you that you’ve arrived at the audition scene. Everyone files out and you shuffle after the rest, handbag still clutched to your chest like a physical shield. 

You’re told that the auditions will be one-on-one and that your name will be called up when the casting directors are ready. Sitting down in the waiting room only ramps up the angst that threatens to swallow you whole. 

The clock ticks by slowly, every measure of time filled with mounting dread. What if you blank out and forget your lines? You run through every possible worst case scenario, despite trying to distract yourself by playing piano tiles on your phone. It obviously doesn’t work and you’re just about to turn off your phone in a fit of frustration, when it buzzes in your hand, alerting you of an incoming message.

A smile pulls at your lips when you realize your best friend, Tina, had sent you a text to cheer you on. You can almost hear her voice as you read out the text, her accent bleeding through the words that light up your screen.

tina [01:23 pm] Smile like fucking Julia Roberts even if they shit on you. If they see you sweat, it means they win, k? 

tina [01:23 pm] You got this, bitch :)

Somehow the aggressive motivation encourages you more than any bouquet of expensive white lilies you could have received. She knows how much today means to you and how much you’re worked up over it. You tell each other everything, so she’s well aware that the desire for this job isn’t solely for monetary reasons. 

Your dream of being an actress constantly surprises people when you tell them. The word actress evokes images of glamorous movie stars and fearless individuals who aren’t afraid to push their limits in order to create art. Your far from fearless. In fact, it’s taken years before you finally gathered your courage and left behind your family to pursue your dreams. 

It’s not easy to lend your body over to your character, but it’s something you study relentlessly—pen stuck between your teeth to practice your elocution, spending your hard earned money to attend acting workshops on the weekends after your shifts end. You devote yourself to the craft, studying everything from   Lee Strasberg’s method acting to the Chekhov acting technique. But all of it never seems like it’s enough. It feels like you’re stuck in a swamp, and no matter how much effort you put in, it’ll never be enough to move forward. 

Suddenly, your name is called and you jump to your feet, adrenaline making your spine stand straight. You’re quickly ushered into the small room where the casting director and his assistant sit, hands clasped on the wooden table in front of them. Piles of papers are scattered in front of them, and you can spot headshots and crossed out names on a list.

At once, you can feel their serious gazes settle on the coffee stain that adorns the front of your shirt. You ignore the slight raise of their eyebrows and instead shoot them your best smile, the one you’ve long since perfected in front of the mirror in your room. 

You present yourself, words tumbling out through your strained smile. 

As you start to relax, muscles in your neck loosening, it’s easier to slip back into the role you had worked hard to perfect. Everything from your posture to the tone of your voice changes, and it’s as if you morph into an entirely new person. 

At least, that’s what you let yourself think. You’re so into the part you don’t notice they’ve signaled for you to finish prematurely.

“Very well.” A hand comes up in the air à la Simon Cowell, effectively putting a stop to your dramatic speech. You resist the urge to check if he has protruding nipples to match.

You halt mid-sentence, mouth slightly parted, the rest of your prepared phrase stuck in your throat. Aware that you must look like a poor imitation of a goldfish, your jaw closes shut with an audible snap. You glance at his name place card, squinting at the small embossed lettering, before he commands your attention with a cough. 

“So, tell me,” Neil continues, crossing his arms and leaning forward to stare you straight in the eyes. “What do you think love is?”

“What love is?” you parrot back, trying to mask your confusion. Is this a trick question of some kind? You fail to understand what answer he expects of you, so instead of answering verbally, you shift around on your feet. It’s hard to think properly when your entire career is on the line; one wrong answer and you can say goodbye to the role you prepared so much for.

“Yes. What is love to you?” He flips through your meager résumé, nodding in what could be either acknowledgement or dismal.

Sweat beads at your hairline while your entire body freezes up. What does he mean by “you”? You wonder if he expects you to answer in character or not… What would your character answer? According to the script, she’s a little airheaded, with no other purpose than comic relief. 

“Love is…” you trail off, suddenly overcome with a memory you believed to be buried in the recesses of your mind. The words trigger something within you, and for a second you falter, the rest of the room becoming but a faint buzz of static in your ears.

“I have loved you.” 

His words settle into your lungs like a cloud of smoke, making it difficult to breathe. You’re not sure what hurts the most—his apologetic expression or the way he delivers his confession with the utmost sincerity. The use of the past tense only finalizes the blow; the skin of your lips almost bleed from the force of your bite.

“Do you not anymore?” you croak, voice catching in your throat.

You hate crying in front of him. Years ago, whenever you scraped your knees after falling from your bike, you had always refused to shed any tears in his presence. It all flashes through your mind right then like a film stuck on loop— the packs of band-aids you carefully wrap around his blisters and the way his calloused fingers strum your exposed skin like his guitar in gratitude.

“Of course I do.” For the first time since your argument, he loses his composure, the harsh creases between his furrowed brows giving away how much the goodbye is affecting him.

A warm palm encloses your own and with a nudge at your chin, he forces you to meet his own gaze.

You wish he would release you from his hold—only because it would be easier to conceal the trembling in your jaw. He must feel the minute movements beneath the pads of his fingers; for a split second his mask falls, features stricken with grief.

“I’ll always love you,” he finally admits, the quiet confession ringing loudly in your ears.

The sentence echoes in the silence of the room, seemingly amplified by the memories of all the previous times he had whispered the same words, intertwined with soft kisses and familiar caresses. There’s nothing comforting about the admission now—not when it veils the finality of a goodbye.

“But?” you ask tentatively, readying yourself for another blow.

Your reaction, for some reason, seems to anger him, because his expression stiffens—muscles on his face crisping up, wall falling back into place. It’s always been difficult to read him when he closes himself off from you, but it never stops you from trying. You search his features, hoping to find some kind of sign that would clue you in.

“Please don’t make this harder than it is. I thought you, out of everyone in this godforsaken town, would understand me.” You blink, eyelashes damp with unshed tears.

“There’s nothing for me here,” he continues, softer now, glassy eyes not noticing the way you flinch at his words. “If I stay, I’ll never get anywhere. They say there’s more for me out there in the big city. And I know— I know it’s crazy and the competition is tough, but—”

There’s a pause as he gathers breath, your face still cradled in the warmth of his palm. From where you’re standing you can spot the beauty marks and scars that are sprinkled over his skin like tiny constellations. You think back to the time he was twelve and had nicked the skin right above his eyebrow during one of his baseball games. It all seems like a lifetime ago—before puberty had filled his gangling body with hard muscle—but you can still recall with vivid clarity the front he had tried to put up, his brow furrowed and jaw clenched. Much like now, you think.

“But I’ll never know if I don’t at least give it a try. I’ll regret it if I stay cooped up here, wondering every day why I didn’t swallow down my fear and pack my shit up. I know I’ll be miserable if I give up on my dream. You know that, right? It’s the only thing I have going for me. I’m not like you—I suck ass at math and science. I don’t have a future here so I’m going to where I actually have a chance.”

And maybe now is not the time, but it’s impossible to stop the envy from coursing through your veins. How lucky it must be to know what you’re good at and what you want, to be brave enough to leave everything you’ve known behind because you have something to chase after. Unlike him, you’re stuck at a standstill, with nowhere to run forward to and now the only thing grounding you home—gone.

“I have to leave, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, you’re right.”

The last thing you want to hear from his lips is an apology. It’s a painful reminder that there’s a world outside the bubble you’ve built for yourself, that everything around you is changing and you’re the only one stuck in place, unmoving.

In the end, you opt for honesty.

“Love is a promise. It’s waiting for the right person, no matter how long it takes.” Your voice is resolute, even as you twiddle with a ring on your index finger nervously.

“Ah, I see… I don’t suppose you believe in love at first sight? Or soulmates?”

You run your tongue against the inside of your cheek, still unsure what sort of answer they’re looking for. It feels like a test but Neil’s voice and expression give nothing away. Either way, you must have taken too long to answer because he clears his throat and rearranges the papers on the table in front of him, his assistant writing something in red ink across your résumé.

“That’ll be enough, then. Thank you for your time.” 

Maybe today just isn’t your day, you think grimly, gathering your things. The ring that sits on your finger catches the overhead light, shine momentarily blinding you. When will you be able to fulfill your end of the promise? Perhaps childhood promises are meant to stay in the past. You’re not sure why you stubbornly hold onto such words, anyway. 

.

.

The fight that usually lights up within you deflates. Most days, you’re optimistic, but today for some reason, things just haven’t gone your way. Ever since the damned coffee cup this morning, things have only been going downhill. Of course, it’s not fair to blame everything on what was evidently an accident, but it’s easier that way.

“On a scale from one to ten, how bad did it go?” Tina asks, pouring you a generous shot of vodka. Since you don’t own any shot glasses, you have to pry the bottle out of her hand because any more and you would think she wants you dead. “One being they occasionally zoned out during your monologue…”

She scratches her chin, trying to recall the worst audition story. “Ten being told you’re too ugly to read for the part. Although I have heard some disturbing ass stories that are definitely a fifteen or higher. You know Drew Barrymore? Heard she was asked to give herself the finger during an audition.”

“What?” you splutter, frown marring your features.

“Dunno, it was supposed to be a sexy scene but there was no one to read with her, so she had to act it out herself. Pretty w-weird. So she sucked her own finger while she acted out the blowjob. Or maybe I’m not remembering this correctly?” Her words are slightly slurred together, shoulders raising up into a shrug.

“Um,” you choke out, after knocking back your drink in one gulp. “Okay, well, it didn’t get weird. I thought it was going well but he cut me off before I finished and then asked me questions. I guess I kind of blanked out? I didn’t know what to say, so he must have ended up thinking I’m too daft.”

“Isn’t your character supposed to be a little empty up there?” she points at her head, one manicured finger only slightly missing her eyeball.

You’re not sure she notices the look you shoot her way, but if she does, she promptly ignores it in favor of reaching for the vodka bottle.

“Slow down or you’ll puke all over the carpet. Do you really want to add to our stain collection?” 

She huffs, pouting pathetically up at you.

“Spoilsport. Fine, let’s get drunk at a bar instead.” You’re convinced pretty easily because anything seems like a better alternative to spending the night cleaning up your friend’s vomit. 

You almost regret your decision because grungy bars aren’t your thing. Empty plastic cups litter the ground and faded graffiti paints the walls in squiggly streaks, and, yeah—grungy bars are definitely not your type of scene.

It’s nearing the one o’clock mark and you repress the urge to (kindly) throttle Tina and her group of friends who have dragged you along with them. Instead of sitting on your couch re-watching one of your favorite movies, you find yourself squirming your way through a crowd of sweaty bodies, balancing four cups in your hands and doing your best to prevent the cheap beer from spilling.

An elbow juts out, bony angle jabbing your side, and some of the froth overflows in splatters, coating your fingers in its stickiness. You mutter out a curse that gets lost, drowned out by an off-key acappella rendition of a Britney anthem, while you’re left to salvage the damage. There is a pause for breath onstage, and someone yells “Take the mic away from him!” in the background. Suddenly, it is chaos. Everyone howls out their own two-cents and the performer onstage redoubles his efforts in his attempts to drown out the noise with his song. 

For a reason you can’t quite understand, this place seems to be a hot spot for all the young, neighborhood artists; you spot a pair of guys in matching hoodies from the local film university at the bar, trying to pitch their idea to anyone drunk or interested enough to listen.

The cause of its unexpected success seems to be the open mic night event that is hosted once every week. Apparently, talent scouts are known to scour this area from time to time, and the promise of a success story attracts all the young and struggling artists, desperate to make it big. One of your friends has been raving about it for a little over a month, and even you’ve been curious as to see what it looks like. Your expectations fall short, but you won’t let that deter you from having fun. 

Well, fun isn’t easily found.

Tonight happens to be open mic night, which means you’ve already had to sit through half an hour of drunken poetry. You’re all for the creation of art through self-expression, but, well…. The intoxicated ramblings are amusing at best (the highlight so far being a short skit involving a plastic hammer and a beach ball) but the night’s entertainment is as gripping as a B-rate movie.

You let out a plaintive sigh, swirling the ice cubes in your cup with your straw, zoning out yet again when the next participant shuffles onto the small makeshift stage. You ready yourself for another five minutes of nonsensical babble, but instead you do a double-take as your gaze falls upon the man adjusting the mic stand, his shaggy hair partly obscuring his face from view.

Instinctively, your blood runs hot—something ugly rears its head as soon as you recognize the same face you’ve been cursing since your failed audition.

You gnaw your straw, working your jaw until it becomes just another useless piece of plastic.  

Although you’re not yet familiar with his name, you can’t forget the ugly lines of his face and the cold, dead look in his eyes. You don’t know why you thought he looked slightly attractive this morning because looking at him now only makes your lip curl in disgust. Why is his skin glowing? You’re convinced he must have dabbled glitter over his body to achieve such an effect. Who does he think he is, anyway? Kesha? Edward the vampire?

A nameless stranger—that is all he is to you at this point. And yet somehow he is also more than that.

Hate is a strong word. But as your attention focuses solely on his face, highlighted by the harsh glare of a spotlight, something within you boils to a tipping point.

A hush falls over the packed room as he clears his throat into the mic. Something about the sound bounces off the walls, makes several heads turn, snapping them out of their drunken stupor. As much as you want to tear your gaze from his figure, something about his presence on stage commands your attention. Unbeknownst to you, your breath is caught in your throat—anticipating his performance.

When he finally speaks, you can’t keep the astonished expression off your face. You’re not sure what you expect from him—maybe a dispassionate monologue on the benefits of caffeine or perhaps intoxicated words slurred together—but not this.

Impassioned dialogue falls from his lips, his face scrunched up. Words become bullets he fires into the crowd, his tongue twisting each of them with precision. You don’t know much about rap—only the try-hard images you see on television—but this is nowhere close to that. He quickly creates a story, raw emotion building with each stride he takes across the stage, and you’re unwillingly sucked into it. 

“There!” Tina nudges, voice somehow catching your attention. You fight hard to detach your gaze from the stage. It takes a moment to orient yourself, still reeling from the performance that’s still going on, but your stare finally falls on the man your friend is pointing at, huddled in one of the corners of the room, nursing a half empty cup of amber liquid. 

“That’s him! The guy from The Agency. He’s the one who comes here sometimes. I swear he was sleeping earlier but look! Whoa, this guy must be good to have gotten his atten—”

You tune her out, the anger that had simmered down now back in full force. Your day has officially gone to shit if the same guy from this morning is now being recruited by one of the best agencies in the world. Nope, this can’t be happening—you refuse to accept this as your reality. The many shots of alcohol blur your better judgement and you lick your lips in preparation for fucking war. 

Slamming your cup down on the table with more fervor than needed, you rise to your feet, a single thought coursing through your mind. 

Over my dead body, asshat. 

#for my sunshine child #!! #bangtanwriters-net #kkreationsnet #kwriterskollection #bts scenarios #yoongi scenarios #taehyung scenarios #bts angst #kpop scenarios #yoongi #taehyung #also s/o to my sister who yelled at me to finish this :")

[ateamforumsfanworks]

New to Intermediate Valkyrie Connect Player Guide by Maxx

06-04-2017, 08:55 AM

Originally Uploaded by Forum User: Maxx

New to Intermediate Valkyrie Connect Player Guide by Maxx This guide’s objective is to get you covered with all of the game mechanics, as well as giving you good information on how to spend your in game resources in the most efficient way. It’s a pretty long guide, and part or all of its content might get obsolete as the game gets updated with new content and new characters. Also, I won’t be explaining the very basics of the genre: this guide assumes you’re familiar with mobile gacha team based RPG’s. Please note: English is not my native language, so it might look a bit fuzzy here and there. Also, due to post character limits, it will be broken in different posts. If you don't like how this forum formats the guide, this link will provide you the original file, that looks tidier: [REMOVED] Lastly, this is not a wiki. It doesn't contain details on everything. This guide's focus is to get you to play the game efficiently, without wasting time and resources.

Before starting…

Ok, you just discovered about the game, or just downloaded it and wanted to know if it’s a good game you can settle in playing for a long time. So, here is what you need to know:

It’s a Gacha game. This means a few things, such as luck being an important factor in becoming stronger, whales being quite more powerful than free to play users (but in a smaller degree than many other games). Due to this, if you haven’t already spent a lot of time playing, you might consider rerolling (which means starting over again and again until you get a solid start from your first 10x summon), especially if you happen to be starting during the Star Party event, that takes place during the last 2 days and the first 2 days of any month. Getting the hero Urd at the very beginning would be a tremendous help.

The summoning rates are quite low, and aiming for a certain hero (especially the Star Party exclusive ones) can be quite a nightmare. Anyways, the amount of free premium currency handed out is not bad, and in the long run, eventually, even without spending a cent, you’ll probably end up having everything you need to create a good party.

When adding new heroes, most of the times they try to either add new mechanics, or to add a hero with particular skills, rather than simply releasing copies of obsolete heroes with higher stats (like in Brave Frontier, if you know the title). This means that, most of the times, a good hero will always be a good hero even when they add new ones.

All heroes can reach the same potential in terms of stars, but, usually, the most common ones (1star and 2star base rarity) have lower stats and/or less useful activated skills when compared to the rarer ones, although this can be compensated with equipment.

The game focuses more on team management rather than execution. You won’t be interacting much with your heroes when they’re actually fighting. Playing manually still helps even if the user inputs are very limited, but since it’s also a very grindy game (you’ll be repeating the same battles a LOT of times), most of the times you’ll be using the auto mode. Organizing your team composition, as well as which skills they’ll be using and in which order (through equipment management) is the real key factor.

If you’re fine with these points, then it’s a good game for you. It gets updated quite often with content, and, most of the times, there’s a cool event going on, still leaving you some short periods of nothingness where you can focus all of your stamina (the resource used for running content) for upgrading your heroes.

Game core mechanics

Team building

Ok here’s the drill. You’ll be heading a team of 5 heroes towards many challenges, and here’s how it works:

Classes: Positioning

There are 3 different hero classes in the game: melee, mage and rangers, and these will determine their positioning in your team. Melees stay in the front row, Mages in the middle row and Rangeds in the rear row. Other than this basic concept, heroes from the same classes have a positioning priority that is set in stone: you can’t move your heroes around as you like. But don’t worry, most of the times (though there are some exceptions), it follows this logic: within the same class, bulkier heroes tend to stay closer to the front. So, for example a hero who’s been designed to be a tank will always stand before a melee damage oriented hero, even if they both belong to the melee class.

Being in the front means taking all of the basic attacks, but many skills (both hero skills and equipment abilities) target other heroes. There are skills that target all the heroes in a given row, or a hero in a specific position (usually the furthest or/and the closest) and much more, but usually, your front most hero is the one who’ll take most of the damage, so you want a tank to be there.

The ideal party composition is this one: 2 melees (tank included), 2 mages and 1 ranged. The reason is related to what I just explained: there are skills that target specific rows (the closest or the furthest), so, in general, you don’t want to overcrowd your rows. For example, if you don’t have any ranged in your team, abilities that target the rearmost row will wreck your mages (such as Momiji’s). Bring too many melees and Gullveig and Freya will tear them apart quickly (they both target the closest row).

However, outside of arena, chances are that you know what the enemy will be throwing at you, so you can adjust your team accordingly. For example, Hrungnir, one of the connect battle bosses, has a skill that deal damage and paralyzes the closest row, and he’s also very weak to magical damage. For him, only 1 melee in your party (your tank) is perfect.

Classes: Roles and statistics

Heroes from the same classes can have different roles, and, especially for rangeds, this tends to have a great impact on how you should be gearing them.

Melees heroes divide in 2 categories: tanks and physical damage dealers. Tanks should be built with high HP, DEF and MDEF, while damage dealers should focus on ATK first, without completely forgetting bulk, as skills that target the closest heroes are the most common ones, not to mention Hel, a hero that can banish your tank for a while, leaving your next hero open to basic attacks.

Mages are mainly used for damage dealing, but there are some that mainly focus on support. Your damagers should prioritize MATK to enhance their performance, while support heroes need some bulk, just to ensure they’re not the first ones to die.

Rangeds mostly focus on offensive support (debuffing) rather than pure damage dealing and they can either rely either on ATK or MATK. Most of the times, if they use a Gun they use MATK, and if they don’t, they need ATK instead, but if you’re unsure, just check their skill: it always deals damage trough their main statistic. They are usually bulkier than mages, and also have a lot more speed. When it comes to gear, the more important their support factor is, the more speed you want to give them. If they’re more damage oriented, just focus on their attack statistic (ATK or MATK).

The important thing about this is determining whether a hero uses ATK or MATK. With only one exception (Loki), if a hero uses ATK, then equipping him anything that increases MATK is a complete waste, and same goes for MATK users: ATK equipment is a complete waste. This should address one of the most common error that new player commit: I’ve encountered countless mages equipped with swords and warrior rings, and people doing this error are what I look for when running the Valhalla Onslaught (more about this later).

While HP, ATK, DEF, MATK and MDEF are pretty self-explanatory, EVA, HIT and SPD need some clarification.

SPD (Speed) determines the amount of time a hero needs to take a turn. Basically, with more SPD, they’ll be performing their turns faster. This is unnoticeable at low values, but one you hit the several thousands, you can clearly see it in the battlefield. This stat is somewhat important when building a good damage dealer, but not as much as their main attack stat. If you’re trying to build a support and don’t really care about damage, then SPD is the most important stat, as it’ll let you cycle that character’s skills faster.

HIT and EVA determine your chances to hit with your attacks and evade enemy ones. However… they don’t apply to hero skills and limit bursts, and also, they only affect the damage component, as the secondary effects still apply regardless of whether the attack hits or not. This being said, these stats are nice to have, but definitely not something you should aim for.

One last thing about statistics: buffs/debuffs apply to the value you enter in battle with, which is the one you see when consulting your hero’s stats under the column “Total”. You can get these from equipment and other skills, and they have a cap.

Passive buffs you get from accessories can go to a maximum of 50% per stat. They last for the whole battle and can’t be canceled in any way

Active buffs you get from equipment or hero skills have a duration in turns, and have a cap of 50% per stat. The same goes with debuffs.

To make an example of how active buffs work. Let’s say that on turn 1 you gain a 30% MATK buff that lasts 3 turns, then on turn 2, you gain another MATK buff that lasts 3 turns, here is what would happen as the turns elapse:

30% MATK buff (first buff applies)

50% MATK buff (second buff applies, but stays doesn’t go to 60% since the cap is 50%)

50% MATK buff

30% Matk buff (the first buff ends its duration)

No buff (the second buff ends its duration)

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Elemental Weakness and resistances 

Just how it happens in many other games, this one also sports various elements. These are Fire, Water, Earth, Light and Darkness. However, resistances to those elements aren't fixed. To make it clear, if a Hero has a light elemental Hero Skill, it doesn't mean that he's going to be weak to darkness. Each hero has its own unique resistances, that you can check in their descriptions. You'll see 4 concentric pentagons there, that represent the resistance level. The second pentagon represents neutrality to a given element, so if the resistance lands closer to the center, it means that the hero is vulnerable to that element, while if it lands beyond the second pentagon, it means that it's resistant to it.

Star rarity frame color and level

Other than equipping them with gear, you can make your heroes stronger in 2 ways: by increasing its rarity level (the amount of stars, to make it clear), by upgrading their frame and by increasing its level

To add more stars to your hero, you’ll need its soul fragments, that you can get from summoning copies of the same hero and from running that hero’s own quest scenario. Adding stars simply adds to the hero’s base stats.

To improve its frame, you’ll need orbs, which you’ll gather from the main adventure most of the time. By improving a hero’s frame, you’ll unlock more equipment slots and add big bonuses to their stats.

In order to increase its level, a Hero needs experience. The exp you’ll get from normal quests is really little, so you’re better off running the Exp/Mana quest (ONLY WHEN IT’S 3x!!!!) or simply buying the exp with mana. If you buy it, remember that the first 20 levels are very cheap, but it ramps up quickly from that point.

Battle mechanics

Now that we have team building sorted and you know what stats to aim for when equipping your heroes, let’s see how battle works.

Turns

A turn consists of an attack action and a wait time

. All of the effects that “tick” each turn, be them a healing effect, or a crowd control effect (such as paralysis), or anything else, take place right after the attack action.

During the attack action, your heroes will perform their animation, such as swinging for a basic attack, or a different animation if they activate on of their equipment skills, or a (usually but not always) longer animation if they’re using their hero skill. If they’re using a skill (either their own hero’s or an equipment’s), they’ll shout the skill name at the very beginning of the animation. During this animation, if any of the following things happen, they’ll be interrupted, the actual attack won’t happen and they’ll go in wait time.

They get struck by a crowd control effect

They take a high amount of damage in a single hit (you’ll notice it as they’ll trigger an animation like they’ve been hit hard)

The enemy team uses its Limit Burst

The hero uses his own Limit Burst during the animation. If another ally uses a limit burst while the hero is performing his attack, it won’t be interrupted, and damage and effects will land normally right after the Limit Burst.

This is something that, of course, you can use to interrupt the enemy skills, especially when you’re running content in manual (mainly guild battles and Valhalla Onslaught). You want to avoid enemy Urd to use her completely broken healing skill? Throw your limit burst as soon as she shouts the skill’s name, and you’ll cancel it.

Equipment skills

When running an attack turn, Heroes will try to activate equipment skills.

At the first turn, they’ll be using the first equipment on their “Weapons/Armor” list. On the second turn they’ll use the second equipment and so on. This means that the order at which your Hero will use his equipment skills can be decided by putting the equipment in the right order.

This is VERY important when planning your strategy, as with this, you can decide when your party will go with burst damage, when you want your crowd control effects, when you want your tank to activate his healing skill and/or his barriers.

Of course, after the 4th turn, the cycle will start again from the first equipment.

Sadly, they won’t always use an equipment skill, and when this happens, they’ll perform a regular basic attack instead, that has a 30% chance to crit for more damage (and a possible interrupt to the enemy’s action).

Equipment skills do not have 100% activation chance. I do not have real numbers at hand, but based on my personal experience, I’d say that they start at roughly 30/40% at skill level 1, going up to 70/80% at skill level 5 (more on how to increase skill level later).

If an equipment slot is empty or still locked, that’s a guaranteed basic attack.

Hero skills and Limit Bursts

Other than equipment skills, you have the only 2 actions that require interaction from the player in order to be used (only when playing in manual, of course).

These are Hero skills and Limit Bursts

You can activate a Hero skill by tapping on his portrait once his gauge is full. When you do, you’ll force a new attack turn on your hero by either canceling its current attack turn or pulling them out from wait time, and it will perform the skill. Remember that animation time for Hero skills are usually quite long, and because of this they’re more vulnerable to interrupts at this time.

The Hero’s gauge fills automatically during wait time and during its attack turn, but only when it performs a basic attack. If he goes for en equipment skill, during the relevant animation, the gauge will freeze. The gauge also fills when the hero takes damage and when it deals a killing blow on something.

Limit Burst has its own gauge that fills automatically over time and gains a small buff when any of your heroes use their own Hero skill. By activating a limit burst, you’ll force your hero out of whatever he’s doing to perform the limit burst. If multiple heroes have access to the same limit bursts, those who weren’t selected to perform it will join, making it more powerful, provided they are not crowd controlled. The bonus is 10% to damage and 1% to stats buffs/healing effect for each hero that’s performing that limit burst (thanks to Rosa X Baldr, the game's wiki's author for this information), but the initial damage will always be calculated on the stats of the hero that was selected to cast the Limit Burst.

A small note on equipping your heroes Other than remembering to not stack up on the wrong attack stat, there are a few things to know. Even if they might look very obvious.

When choosing what items to slab on your heroes, you should think about what role they are performing. For example, your tank is there to defend the rest of your team, so giving him extra ATK is useless. Give him things that will actually help him to perform his role better.

Also, every 3 star rarity hero has access, or will have access (as soon as it gets released), to their own exclusive equipment, that comes in two versions: a 2 star rarity base that comes from mana summons, and 3 star one that comes from diamond summons, and you can have both the 2 versions on your hero. Most of the times (not always, especially for accessories), this is recommended, as, usually, the equipment skills on these pieces are very strong.

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

Game content

Now let’s talk about what you can do in the game, but before doing so, in case you already haven’t done this, open up the Ranking tab (it’s a button on the left on the main menu, it looks like a crown) tap and press follow to the top 30 players you find there. This will give you access to their mercenaries, that will make everything a lot easier, especially if you’re just starting out.

Adventure quests

This is the game’s main mode. It’s a lot of short battles that can be either 3 stages encounters or a single, big boss fight. Very easy at the beginning, but it gets complicated as you progress, although, with the help of mercenaries, you should always be able to complete at least with a 1 star rating.

Win with no losses for a 3 stars rating, 1 dead hero for 2 stars, and more than 1 casualty will net you a 1 star rating.

As a reward, you’ll get mana, quick tickets, gems (1 time only rewards) and, most importantly, orb shards, which are needed to strengthen your heroes and letting them use more equipment. Because of this, you’ll be playing these quests a LOT, as orbing your heroes is a very important step to make them stronger.

Arena and Grand Arena

This is where you face other players. Well, you won’t be actually facing them, but just their teams.

Since your opponent won’t be there using its own team, both you and the enemy will be forced on automatic mode, and you’ll simply have to watch the battle.

Grand Arena is the same, except you have 3 battles (so you need 3 teams), and in order to win, you need to be victor on 2 of these battles. Before every battle, you get to see your enemy composition and power score for each one of its teams (this won’t be true anymore once you’ll get past rank 100), so, by sorting your teams before each battle, gaining ranks will be easier than in arena, but for the same reason, losing rank will also happen more often.

When you win, you’ll switch ranking with your opponent if his score was better than yours.

Once you’ve earned all of the game’s 1 time only gem rewards, this mode will probably be your main source of gems later on. If you follow this guide (or if you simply are a smart player), you’ll probably end up within the first 50 of your battle group relatively easy, and as months passes, you’ll end up being just as strong as those whales who sit on the first spots.

Hero quests

Each hero has its own small campaign of 5 quests. By completing them, you’ll earn a handy 1 time only 330 gems reward, plus the access to the quests that has a chance to drop that hero’s soul fragments. This quest can only be run 3 times a day. If you only rely on these quests to upgrade your heroes, basing on my personal experience, I’d say that it takes roughly 110 days to bring a hero from 3 stars to 5, but of course this time can change depending on your luck. It’s a lot of time for sure, but remember, once it hits 5 stars, you’re done with him. The 3 times a day limit only counts for the same hero. To make it clear, you can run EACH hero’s quests 3 times a day, and my personal suggestion is to focus on multiple heroes, the more the merrier, especially if you have bought the 30 days energy pass from the shop. At the very beginning you’ll probably have to rely on mercenaries to clear these quests.

Connect Battles

These are tied to events, but since there's at least 1 available at all times, i didn't include this under the Events section. On these, 3 players fight united against a single boss, surrounded by crystals that have their own abilities on higher difficulties. By beating him, players will get connect tokens and boss specific tokens, which are used to buy equipment. Only one of the player pays the energy bill, while the other two can join for free. Obviously, the one who pays, has access to better rewards, such as the boss' soul shard, additional tokens and a ring that's used to resist the boss' aura on 7 stars difficulty. But still, when you have 0 energy, joining other players' connect battles is a great way to gain new equipments, and thus, get stronger. If you are interested in leeching connect battles, here's a few tips to find many of them:

Ignore the skull symbol on the bottom left corner when it appears. You don't know what boss it will let you fight, and at which difficulty, so it's often a waste of time.

If you're looking for 5 stars or lower battles, open up the chat, go to the connect battle tab and, from there, switch quickly from channel 2 to channel 10, until you find a battle you can join.

If you want a 6 stars or higher battle, do the same as stated above, except that you switch only from channel 1 to 2, and viceversa.Now, the real thing is that these battles have many different mechanics, that become more important as the chosen difficulty arises. For example, Marmalade puts to sleep all female characters, while Hrungnir gets healed if you hit him with physical attacks (those who rely on ATK), thanks to a barrier that's cast on him by the crystals close to him. Also, the crystals are extremely vulnerable to only 1 element, and almost immune to all others. This means that choosing the right team is crucial to getting the job done. Doing the battle on manual might also help, but since you'll be doing these extremely often if you want to get the relevant equipments, it's a lot better if you simply run them on automatic mode while doing other things in real life.

You'll find a full list of these bosses' abilities in the in-game help section (by tapping on the question marks found in the various menus), and unless you're fine with being a burden to the players fighting with you, I highly recommend you to read them carefully, and understand which heroes (and which with equipment) you should be bringing.

Guild Battles

If you are part of a guild, then you'll be doing these every day.

On this mode, all of the guild members can battle opposing guild members in order to find a route to the enemy guild crystal, that will award your guild with victory if it gets destroyed.

On the guild battle map, there will be 3 lanes, and all of them will eventually land you on the guild crystal. Because of this, it's always better to focus on 1 of the lanes and destroy the crystal, and then, destroy the remaining lanes to get better completion %, for better rewards.

This mode has some special rules:

Once you use a hero, you won't be able to use it again, even if it didn't die in battle. Throughout the whole battle, you have only 1 chance of restoring all of your heroes with an easily accessible support skill, letting you use all of them again one more time.

Enemy teams won't heal up if you can't beat them in one try. If anyone faces them again, their hp will be the same they were left with at the end of the previous battle.

And a few tips for you:

Play these battles on manual, to take advantage of the interrupt mechanics. Use your Limit burst to interrupt dangerous abilities, and try to play your Hero skills when they're less likely to be interrupted.

Opponents can still heal during battle, so if your opponent has healers and you know you're not going to defeat him, try to use your Limit Burst right before losing, to prevent him from healing all of the damage before the battle finishes.

Tapping pause and leaving the battle discards any progress, just like the battle never happened. Useful if you think you've been unlucky. You can only do so when your heroes are still alive, when your last hero is playing is death animation it's already too late... be careful, this little trick is VERY important

As a reward from playing guild battles, you get both regular and special guild tokens. Regular can be used to get extra mana, while the special ones can be used to obtain powerful equipment.

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Events

Exp/Mana quest and Orb quest

Let me get straight to the important thing about these. These quests should only be considered when the recurring event that makes Exp/Mana 3x and Orb 5x is ongoing. If said event isn't running, just pretend they don't exist. Also, everything stated below is to be considered valid ONLY if the event is ongoing.

Both the exp/mana and the orb quest have race restrictions that change every day, with the exp/mana one having an “all races” entry on every Saturday. If you're having troubles clearing them, resort to mercenaries, but remember that, if you take a mercenary on the exp/mana quest, you'll be getting exp for only 4 of your heroes.

The Exp/Mana quest is a great tool to level up your heroes and gain a lot of mana in the process. For 30 energy you get around 11k exp per character, plus 3 or 6 medium mana bottles, which is a lot. Also, you can even get a nice stock of quick tickets if you run this quest for a while. I highly recommend running this quest rather than spending your mana to level up your heroes.

The Orb quest is a great way to get a healthy stock of the most used orbs. Run this a lot of times, and you'll be making those annoying purple planet orbs way more easily, and the same goes for wyrm orbs and many others.

On the Orb quest, only 1 race is admitted every day, so finding the right mercenaries to run them might not always be easy, but if you kindly ask in the various chat channels, you shouldn't have problems in finding them.

Valhalla Onslaught

This is one of the most rewarding events of the game, and sports some really great mechanics.

Basically, it's a an endless tower with endless floors, and you get a nice reward every 2 battles, and a very good one every 10 battles, which is at the end of every floor. Also, at the end of every battle you have a chance to get a chest that unlocks itself after some time (Clash Royale style). and here is how it works:

You don't need energy to run this. Instead, at the end of every battle, your heroes won't recover. Their Hero skill gauges will also stay at the same level as they were when the previous battle ended, and the same happens to the Limit Burst gauge, but you can heal them back to full hp and gauge for free every 10 hours, or whenever you want by paying gems (don't do that unless you're a whale).

This rule also applies to your enemy. If you can't defeat them on your first try, they won't recover, and next time you'll face them, they'll have the same hp they had when the previous battle finished.

Having multiple viable heroes is important here, but focusing on a strong all-round team might carry you further. Also you can use your friends' mercenaries here, who will help tremendously to keep your heroes in good health, or to simply solo some fights if you are a new player. You can use them only for 3 battles, but this counter resets whenever you clear a whole floor or you heal your heroes.

The battles here aren't fixed, you'll be facing other players' teams here, and if you don't like an opponent you can look for a new one as much as you like (the mana cost for refreshing the opponent is really small).

Let me tell you, finding the right opponents is the key to success in this event. Even if 2 teams have the same power score, it absolutely doesn't mean that they are equally hard to beat, and power score is the only thing that will be rising as you progress through the tower. Remember that you can also tap on the various heroes composing the enemy team to check their equipment. When things start to get harder, there are many elements that will make your battles tremendously easier, and finding them is only a matter of time. You don't need to have all of them present, but If the enemy's score is a LOT higher than yours, then you want to have as many of these elements as possible, and here's a complete list of them:

Heroes with bad equipment. Enemies with many stars and good frames but poorly equipped are a lot easier to win than teams with low stars heroes equipped with proper gear and an actual strategy. If they're using the wrong gear, it's even better. By wrong gear, I mean, for example, Mages with Warrior Rings (that boost their ATK, a statistic that's utterly useless for them)

Teams composed by only 2 or (quite rare to find but not impossible) 1 rows. This will let all of your skills that target a specific row to hit more targets. For example, if your Freya can charm 4 heroes, or even the full team when she uses her Love Machine, the fight will be super easy.

Teams composed by bad heroes. Let's face it, all of the 1 star rarity heroes do not pose much of a threat in PvP, even if they get evolved, and the same is true for almost all of the 2 star rarity ones.

Teams that DO NOT include healers (Urd, Baldr and, to a less extent, Luca), unless you're have access to branding and you're very confident with it. Healing can be quite powerful in PvP, but if you consider the special rule of this event, it's even more dangerous here. Your enemies won't heal up at the end of the fight... but this doesn't mean that they can't heal DURING the fight, and this can potentially wane all of your efforts if you already know that you won't be defeating your enemy at the first go.

Teams that do not include heroes that you know you're very vulnerable against. This include AoE heavy heroes that use an element you're terribly vulnerable to, and other heroes that use crowd control effects that might cause great harm.

You want to run this mode on manual mode, because, whatever level you are, you'll soon hit the point where, at least on the paper, the enemy is much stronger than you. And with manual, you'll have access to the following options:

Remember that your gauges will start from where they were at the end of the previous battle. This means that if the enemy is almost defeated, you shouldn't use your hero skills if you can afford to, in order to have them ready instantly for the next battle.

Watch the battle. Try to use your Hero skills right after most of the enemy hero have entered their wait time to minimize chances of being interrupted.

If there's a dangerous hero in the enemy team, remember that you can use your Limit Burst to interrupt its Hero Skill.

This is not related to the manual mode, but is still EXTREMELY important. If the battle isn't going well and you think you've just been unlucky, tap on pause and leave the battle. This way everything that happened during the battle will be discarded, and it will be just like you never fought. You can only do this while your heroes are still alive, you won't be able to play this trick while your last hero is playing is death animation. Be careful!

Let's talk a bit about the rewards.

Within every chest you'll be open, you'll find some Onslaught coins, that you can use to purchase event gear at the trader.

The final floor rewards work as follows: On your first 4 floors, you'll get rune equipment. On floors 5 to 10, you'll get an event exclusive piece of gear, from the floor 11 onwards, you'll only get coins.

The random chests work as follows: at the end of every battle, you have a small chance to get either a crimson or a ruby chest. Crimson chests need 1 hour and 30 minutes to open up, while Ruby ones need 10 hours. You can spend gems to open them instantly, but it's not really convenient unless you're a whale. You have only 3 chest slots, but all of your chests will be the opening timer, not just 1 of them. If you have all of your slots occupied, you should STOP progressing until you have at least 1 free slot, as you totally don't want to waste any of these chests. Inside these, you'll find mana, coins, and a rune equipment, with a chance of finding, instead of the rune gear, a very powerful, Valhalla chest exclusive piece of gear, and trust me, you want it. Obviously, ruby chests have better loot and better chances at the exclusive gear than the crimson ones.

Scenarios

We've had this kind of event only 2 times so far, but they might release more, so it's worth explaining.

It's a series of quests that look just like the normal story ones, but have some extra rules:

In order to get good completion rating, instead of just having to let all of your heroes survive, you have to meet some specific objectives, that are described at every quest. If you manage to get a 3 diamonds rating, you'll get an extra reward, that can be either a sphere, extra mana, some rune gear, exclusive hero soul fragments or equipment.

Some heroes have improved stats if used in this event. If you see 2 arrows points up on a hero's portrait, then all of its stats are increased by 50%. 4 arrows mean that they're increased by 100% (which really is a LOT).

These scenarios have always been a good way to get an exclusive hero plus a lot of gems and other nice rewards.

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Resources and currencies: where to get and how to spend them

Real money

First things first, let's talk about the in-game micro transactions. Obviously, I'll skip the “where to get them” part for this topic.

This game has a different approach to them when compared to other titles. Instead of giving you more when you spend a ton money, you actually have a better value when you spend small amounts. Not only this encourages light to moderate spenders to grab some packs, but it also decreases the gap between whales and f2p players. Mind you, the gap is still there, but it's not as brutal as in many other titles.

If you'll ever consider spending a bit of money on this game, I highly suggest you to get the 30 days energy pass. It's a total of 9000 energy given to you over a month, and it helps a lot. Other than that, all of the small cheap packs usually are a good deal, except those that contain rune gear, as ,somehow ,A-team thinks they have a great value...

Gems (Diamonds)

Gems are a limited resource in this game as they are the premium currency that you can either buy with real money, or gain by completing various 1time only objectives, events, your daily quests and from arena daily rewards.

One important thing is: NEVER spend them in the trader., traveling included It's absolutely not worth it. The soul shards you'll find there only belong to the most common heroes, and mana bottles and orbs are so ridiculously overpriced that it's way more convenient to simply use your gems to recharge your energy and get those by playing normally.

The main thing you should focus on is summons, with these 2 priorities:

Star Party. During this event, the game's most powerful heroes are available and you totally want those. Especially Urd. I'd say that, if you don't have Urd yet, this should be your only way of spending your gems. This is subject to change as more heroes get released, but at the moment she's incredibly good on all kind of contents, and chances are that even when new support heroes will get released, she's still be superlative on what she does.

Discounted summons. 1500 gems for a 10x summon is always worth it, and 2000 gems ones are still good.

Exclusive summons. Sometimes, banner exclusive heroes are quite good and might be worth a try or two if you want to get them. A good example is Ammaterasu, with her AoE fire elemental Hero Skill that's very good in PvP and incredibly good on Connect Battles where fire attacks are important.

If you feel like you have all the heroes you need, then using gems to recharge your energy is a strong option.

Mana

This is your main currency, and you'll get it from most of the content. You can use it to level up your heroes, evolve and upgrade your gear and perform mana summons.

There are 2 very efficient ways to get mana in the game:

Exp/Mana 3x event quest. If you actually need to level up your heroes that this quest gives, this is, by far, the most efficient way to earn mana. Remember that experience can be bought with mana, so every exp point you get here will let you save some of this currency

Connect battles (only if you host them). This is another great content to run if you need mana, and you get more connect tokens as a bonus. At 6 stars difficulty, if you don't have any hero to level up, it's even better than the Exp/Mana 3x quest.

The most important thing you can do with mana is mana summons, as this will give you access to nice special equipments and other resources, such as rune gear, spare low rarity equipment, and both blacksmith and soul tokens. To get the latter, you'll have to bring the 1 star rarity heroes to 5 stars first, but it shouldn't take you too much mana to do so.

There are times when performing mana summons is more efficient than others. If you own any star party hero, then you might want to summon when their special equipment is available, or if you'd like more rune gear to help up upgrading your gear, then you might consider waiting for the relevant event to be up (even if, until now, it's been very rare).

Other than summoning, using your mana to level up your hero is another viable option, as the exp/mana 3x event isn't always up, or you simply have only 1 hero that needs to be leveled up fast. Just remember that, while the first 20 levels are quite cheap, it quickly ramps up beyond that, and bringing a hero from lv 1 to 50 costs around 1 million mana.

Rune gear and spare gear: a brief guide to equipment upgrading

Gaining a strong piece of equipment is only the first step. Making it actually powerful takes some resources, and here's how to do it efficiently.

The resources you'll need are rune gear and/or spare equipments you get from mana summons that you don't need.

There are 3 ways to make an item more powerful.

Increasing its rarity

In order to increase an item's rarity, you need to reforge it, using the same item or a reforge (red) rune equipment at the same rarity level as an ingredient.

By increasing its rarity, you'll increase its base stats and both its level and skill level limit.

Note: Connect battle equipments require more of the just described ingredients than normal gear. From 3 stars to 4, you'll need 2 pieces, and from 4 to 5, you'll need 3 pieces.

This means that, in order to bring a 3 star base rarity equipment all the way to 5 stars, you'll need 4 copies of that item, while, for connect battle gear, you'll need 12 copies.

Increasing its level

Very simple, fuse your item with other stuff that you don't need and/or fusion (blue) gear to increase its level. If you use items of the same category as ingredients, you’ll get 10% more experience.

Anyways, if you're using fusion rune equipment, you should only use knives for weapons and armors, and rings for accessories, otherwise you'll waste them.

Increasing its skill level

Increasing a skill's level has 2 effects: it makes it a bit more powerful at each level up and, most importantly, it increases its activation chances.

There are 2 ways to do it.

The most common one is by using rune skill (rainbow) gear. Just like with fusion gear, only use knives with weapons and armors, and rings for accessories. Just ahead, you'll find a list on how many of them you should be using to increase your gear's skill level.

From level 1 to level 2: use a 1 star skill rune item (100% chance).

From level 2 to level 3: use a 1 star skill rune item (80% chance).

From level 3 to level 4: use two 1 star and one 2 stars skill skill rune item (100%), or three 1 star ones (90%)

From level 4 to level 5: success chances drop massively here, and reaching 100% chance is very though. So just use the best you have, but only do that if you have plenty of them.

The other way to get the job done, is to use, as ingredients, pieces of gear that have the same skill. Most of the times, this means using the very same item, but there are some exceptions, like, you can use those common blessed helms to increase your druid's cloak skill level as they have the exact same skill.

This mechanic will let you save some skill rune gear, and, most importantly, it will make all of 1 star rarity accessories quite good, as even if the actual stats they give are appalling even if you bring them at 5 stars, the passive bonuses they bring with their skill (and that can be leveled super easy by simply using the same items as ingredients during fusion) are pretty big, and shouldn't be underestimated.

Lastly, this is a great way to use your spare hero exclusive piece of equipments. If you want to save on skill fusion gear, you can use your spare mana summon versions of the item to increase the skill level on both the 2 versions of it.

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Tokens

This game features many different tokens obtainable from the various events, however, even with those, there are bad and good ways to spend them, so let's talk a bit about it.

Blacksmith tokens

You can get those by selling items you don't need. The only things you should sell are gold rune equipments (which serve for this only purpose) and 2 stars equipment that you don't need and you can't use to level up skills on other pieces of gear. Everything else is better used to upgrade your items.

At the trader, you should use these to buy any of these 2 things:

3 stars reforge rune gear. If you need to increase an item's rarity, this is more efficient than buying copies of the same item (this ONLY applies to item that have a base rarity of 3 stars)

3 stars base rarity items. Since they can be quite rare to find, if you see an item you want, feel free to get it. Keep an eye out for purity rings and winged helms, as they are very powerful and you might want more copies of them, to use them on different heroes.

If you have plenty of them, then you might consider investing a few to refresh the store in order to quickly find what you need

Soul tokens

You can get these when you gain soul fragments of any hero that you already have at 5 stars, and most of them will actually come from mana summons. You can spend them to buy hero souls and hero exclusive equipments.

First, NEVER use them to buy 2 stars base rarity hero souls or mana summon versions of any equipment.

I'd also suggest to not spend them on 3 stars base rarity heroes that might come out from your standard diamond summons, because eventually, you'll get all of them.

The real bread and butter here are the 3 stars version of these special equipments, and, if you have plenty to spend, soul shards that belong to event exclusive heroes that are no longer available. Yeah, they're quite expensive, but since there's no other way to get those, at least it will never be a waste.

Arena tokens

Earned by participating in the Arena.

At the moment there ways to spend them are very limited. You should spend these to get Senna or Tyr soul shards (these are the only 2 arena exclusive heroes), but once you have maxed both of them, you can freely spend them on orb fragments.

Friend tokens

Earned mostly by assigning 2 of your heroes to be the mercenaries that players following you can use, and you can get some extra small amounts by using other people's mercenaries.

Spend them to buy mana bottles.

Onslaught tokens

Earned by progressing on the Valhalla Onslaught, you should use those ONLY to buy this event's exclusive equipment. Anything different is a complete waste.

Connect and boss specific tokens

Earned by participating in connect battles.

Connect tokens should be spent only to buy bangles, powerful accessories with good statistic and very powerful passive stat bonuses as their equipment skill. Again, if you have plenty of them, you can also try to refresh the connect tab to help you finding what you need.

A note on bangles: they are quite rare to find now, mostly because the connect tab has limited slots, and boss stuff has more chances of appearing there, so if recently there have been multiple connect bosses available, you'll struggle finding those.

Boss specific tokens should be used to buy their equipments, since you can earn the soul shards easily if you host your connect battles.

Guild and Legendary Guild tokens

Earned from participating in guild battles. You can also get the regular ones by completing daily missions and if other guild members help you in the guild tab.

Regular guild tokens (the green ones) should be spent to buy mana bottles.

Legendary ones can be spent to buy powerful equipments, but it takes a lot of time to earn them and it requires your guild be at least at rank A. It gets a lot better if your guild hits rank S.

Credits

There's only one person that I'd like to thank, and it's the wiki's author, Rosa X Baldr. His wiki has been an immense help for me to know the various heroes' details, and get started with the game. You should consult it to check more detailed information about heroes, gear, suggested builds. You can find it on reddit.

I hope this guide will be helpful to make you an efficient player, and I thank you for reading.

Lastly, I'm not really bothered to protect this work with copyrights or this kind of stuff, but please, if you post it anywhere else, just state that you're not the original author.

Good luck!