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#anyway sorry my roommate is talking to me but she's also making food and talking abt her highschool fling with a girl older than her

theloveinc · 7 months

Note

You have plagued my mind with sugar daddy Bakugo. He would 100% help you with your math and study. He would prob be up your ass about your grades too. Would def encourage you to write a bad review on that one professor you have that just sucks - doesn’t include any PowerPoints for their lectures and gives the least amount of instruction.

In sugar daddy Bakugo I trust

GOD he's so, so good to you but sometimes he's really acting your FATHER or something. Not that you want to give him any babies yet, but he really needs a real child or animal to coddle so he can leave you alone when you want to do something your way, like study tomorrow and not tonight.

(I imagine there are moments when you're out together, when he's on his real sugar daddy shit; taking you out shopping before taking you out to dinner, when you're staring at a menu full of entrees that cost more than, idk I'm not rich... and he's looking over his own to ask, "how's that paper you were writing, baby?"

AND IT'S LIKE, can't you just have one meal together without homework coming up? Without responsibilities??? Like how that shitty knee of yours, daddy? You're not asking him that!!!)

And it's so ridiculous, you complain about one thing, and there he is with RateMyProfessor DOT COM up on his screen like........... it's not that deep!!! It's not!!!!!!! Even if it is sweet of him to want to resolve things LOL. Natural complainer.

(You make a point to tease him about it one day, saying "thanks, dad" when he reminds you about that one semi-important assignment you have due at the end of the week, and the back of his neck is getting SO red as he reaches out to try and stop you from slipping away all giggly.

Definitely gets you spanked a bit that night but jdl,fkasdjfa IT'S TRUE!!!!

#bakugo #then u go thru a phase where u get a dog or a cat and he's ignoring you for like a week #and u miss the attention kinda #IDK LOL #anyway sorry my roommate is talking to me but she's also making food and talking abt her highschool fling with a girl older than her #so im trying to be nice LOL #so tags are shot again #but ur soooo right #caitie things #gen #kacchanofbakugous #sd au

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descendant-of-truth · 1 year

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Y'know what maybe I'm not done talking about Journeys queercoding actually. maybe I do wanna work out my literary analysis muscles for the sake of Pokemon protagonists. why not

To clarify, this isn't about me personally enjoying the ship between Ash and Gou. I do enjoy it, but I'm making an argument for potentially deliberate queercoding in the writing, I'm not necessarily just here to gush (though that may be a side effect)

I'm also a firm believer that actions or behaviors that we typically think of as romantic are only made romantic if that's how the people involved feel about it. I don't think romance is the only possible way to interpret their relationship.

But when it comes to predicting where a story might be going next, or figuring out what the writers are intending to hint at us, I gotta pull out my textbook of Romantic Tropes first to see what fits the bill.

And I'm sorry, but even if it's not the intended interpretation, you can't include all of these scenes:

...and assume no one in your audience will think there's anything romantic happening here.

Of course, those are just the obvious visual interactions between them that can come off as romantic, to say nothing of the symbolic visual hints; the no less than four rainbows they've been under (one of which was reflected in Gou's eye), the two sets of heart-shaped pokemon that swam past them in a single episode which also had them falling under a rainbow, stuff like that.

But even all of that is pretty surface-level stuff. If the writing doesn't support a queer reading very strongly, then my argument for the queercoding being particularly intentional would fall flat.

Thankfully, the writing does support a queer interpretation, so I'm in the clear! Since breaking this part down will take a lot longer, I'm putting it under a cut.

So, right off the bat we've got the basic setup for the show. For the first time, the focus is primarily on Ash and one other person, as opposed to two or more people... despite having a third person in Chloe, who could easily make this into a trio dynamic, considering she's friends with Gou from the start. But they choose instead to make the core of the show about Ash and Gou.

This is even reflected in promotional material, where they'll often be placed closer to each other than Chloe:

Them being roommates is something I usually bring up as a joke, but it is worth noting anyway simply because it's another way the writers have decided they're going to spend almost all of their time together when they really didn't have to.

But now we gotta get into the real Writing Choices(TM) that are the meat and potatoes of this analysis, such as: making brief allusions to the idea that they might like other guys, too

One way to build up a character's orientation is to show them being attracted to people in shorter instances before giving them a main love interest. Think Luz from The Owl House; she had expressed attraction to both boys and girls before she got a girlfriend or started wearing a bi pin.

Likewise, this is Ash when he's thinking about Leon after seeing him battle for the first time:

I kid you not, he keeps up this blush and zoned-out expression for a solid minute, so caught up in thinking about how cool Leon is that he doesn't even think to eat the scones in front of him.

Now, Ash is a person frequently characterized by his love for food, and in previous episodes he had expressed a particular adoration for Galar scones, so this is pretty unusual behavior for him.

So unusual that it's. literally never happened before, to the best of my knowledge?? I don't think it takes much analyzing to realize that, even if it was brief, you could easily take this as Ash having a celebrity crush on Leon.

(There's even pink flowers in the background but that's probably less important)

Meanwhile with Gou, his "setup crush" in this scenario would be Horace. These two have a whole episode dedicated to their first meeting and the bond they forged, and how that turned bitter on Gou's end when he gets stood up right as he thought he was finally making a friend.

What sets this up for a romantic interpretation is largely the framing of things towards the end of the episode:

"Why do I keep thinking of him" is historically not the most platonic thing you could be bitterly thinking to yourself while you remember stargazing with someone, even if I do stand by my statement earlier of nothing being inherently romantic by itself

The end of the episode also implies that the feeling is mutual, if this shot is anything to go off of

(It's just a very shoujo manga-esque frame okay there's no way I wasn't going to point it out)

And the ending scene is two Celebies looking down happily at the two of them while the narrator talks about how pokemon form "many different kinds of bonds"

Many kinds of bonds, huh? Wonder what he could possibly be implying there

Okay so we've got orientation buildup, next in line is this. suspiciously consistent trend of characters who are close to Ash telling Gou to take care of him, or even going out of their way to test him to make sure he's good enough to be his rival or friend.

Gou himself even echoes the sentiment completely unprompted once, which says even more to me that they're trying to make a point out of this:

And here's the thing. None of the other companions have ever undergone this sort of treatment. Nobody questioned whether or not Ash's friends were good enough to hang out with him before, so why now? Why Gou? What makes him different?

Kiawe is relatively easy to explain because (from what I can tell) he's just Like That about rivalries, but why the addition of describing a rival as "the person closest to Ash"? Why does Gary suddenly care about the quality of Ash's buddies when that was never really a concern for him before?

Well gee I don't know about you guys but to me, this feels like the trope where someone's friends and family all start scouting out the guy they're interested in (or who is interested in them) to make sure they won't like, break their heart or something. And despite my best efforts, I'm struggling to see how this wasn't the writers' intention behind these plotlines.

Gou telling Ash's mom that he'll look after Ash on two separate occasions as opposed to the initial one also feels like an easy parallel to someone promising their love interest's parents that they'll be a good partner.

To my understanding, that isn't traditionally something friends also have to promise, even if there's more justification here as Ash and Gou are traveling around and getting into chaotic situations regularly.

So, with all this in mind, it kind of reframes the stuff I mentioned earlier, doesn't it? The blushing, the hand-holding, the spin hug that I'm never getting over, the frequent appearance of rainbows and the heart shaped Pokemon (Luvdisc if you were wondering)... it feels a lot more intentional once you take into account the bigger themes in the writing.

And once you start looking, it keeps piling up. The way Gou hurriedly says that he totally didn't want to help Ash out or anything after Scorbunny gives him a knowing look, like how most tsundere tropes tend to play out:

Or the specific way Gou is taken aback by one of Ash's compliments before trying to play it off by looking cool, only to be comically shocked when Ash gets distracted by something else:

I could go on but I'm running out of image space and I think you get the idea.

Ash's side of this whole thing is admittedly a lot more subtle than Gou's (*cough* because he's arospec) which is why I haven't gone over it much - my aim with this post was not to go too far into speculation territory - but we at least have marketing on our side for that

Gee Ash how come Animedia let you feed Gou two pastries

Anyway, in conclusion: I ran these two through the literary queerometer and the results were positive, thanks for coming to my TED talk

#pokemon #pokeani #anipoke #pokemon journeys #ash ketchum #pokemon gou #journeyshipping #satogou #analysis #meta #Can you tell I started this at a reasonable nighttime hour and finished at 3am #XD #TAKING THESE SCREENSHOTS TOOK SO LONG #especially since I had to backtrack and edit for a lot of them #Finding the animedia posters in decent quality wasn't exactly a cakewalk either

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painted-bees · 6 months

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Weeeeeeee binge reading the Cortes blorbos to see if I missed anything (which I did lol, greatly enjoyed reading the new-to-me posts!) and I'm curious how Raf and Margie went from hey-come-crash-at-my-place to cool-I-live-here-now. also what was going through Margie's mind the first time she stayed at Raf's place? If he'd openly told her she could stay as long as she liked, how come she left before he came home from work? also did she talk about it at all at their next jam session?

(sorry for Wall of Text I didn't realize I had more questions until I started typing them out haha)

Yay!! I am so happy!! Thank you for going through all that Q vQ <3!!

In honesty once Raf realizes she's unhoused, and consequently invites her to crash at his place for the first time, he becomes kinda very "pspspsps🤌" to Magritte ever since, in effort to entice her to just--stay. Largely because he reads her as being very trusting, naive, and vulnerable, and really doesn't trust the world with someone like her. Magritte herself isn't as naive as she is in his imagination, and objectively, he does know that, but his brain naturally comes up with the worst-case scenarios for everything. Still, his paranoid nature also doesn't allow him to be wholly straightforward with her. He's unable to just tell her point blank "hey, make my place your own alright? I just want you to be safe." He can't, because if things ever go sideways and he suddenly wants her out, he wouldn't really be able to create that distance anymore without looking like kind of an asshole for doing so. So, he avoids making that commitment while trying to entice her to take it from him anyways.

It doesn't work lmao

Until this point, Raf has always been the 'skittish' one of the two of them, but when it comes to staying in once place for long, Magritte's own brand of protective skittishness emerges. And it's completely different from Raf's.

Magritte has become aware of the cycle that's repeated ever since she's started couch surfing and relying on the charity of friends + acquaintances. She's a fun, sweet, bubbly, cute person with a bit of a quirky vibe, and so things always start off fun and well enough. But inevitably, her presence becomes a strain. And her lack of contributions to the place she is staying at becomes a point of resentment. And justly so, she thinks. Try as she might, she's not a very clean or hygienic roommate--quite the opposite, to a degree that she knows should be more embarrassing to her than it for some reason is. Sporadic showering scheduel, forgotten plates of rotting food, unwashed clothing on the floor of her room for weeks...She leaves lights on, turns thermostats up too high, forgets to clean up after herself, when she does shower, she stays too long and uses up all the hot water. When asked to do favors, if she cannot preform them as soon as they are requested, there's a high likelihood she'll just forget to do them. None of these things on their own are a terrible deal-breaker...but when it's all of these things, often...and then the rent is due and the electricity and water bill is high, and Magritte's response is "Sorry, sorry! I can buy you lunch if that helps, I'm sorry!"--you know...it gets kind of...upsetting. And friends eventually come to resent her before they gather the courage to tell her that she's gotta find somewhere else to live for a while.

If she doesn't leave before things accumulate to that point, then she loses friends.

Raf has already proven that he's very protective/defensive about his space and his privacy. By the time Raf invites her to stay the night at his place, she's still trying to figure out his boundaries--and from her perspective, they seem to shift around a lot in unpredictable ways.

She likes the relationship she has with Raf. Their Thursday night jam sessions are the one thing she looks forward to the most every single week. She doesn't want to do anything to compromise that.

That first night Margie crashes in his guest bedroom, it's just really good timing and she's really happy to have a comfy, warm bed to sleep in. They get home some time around 1am, and both just...go to sleep almost as soon as they arrive at his apartment lmao. But she's awake as soon as she hears him up and about because she's worried that sleeping in will make her seem like a lazy, bad guest. Also, free coffee....... And they have a really nice, casual chat over breakfast about just...stuff haha.

Raf invites her to stay as long as she wants, but she leaves before he gets home because she doesn't...know when he'll be back, and what if she lost track of time and he comes home to a mess? What if she breaks something? What if she impulsively eats all the stuff in his fridge? What if the neighbors complain to him about the music?? She leaves his place shortly after he leaves for work, once the temperature warms up a bit outside. Because she not confident in her ability to take up only a 'polite' amount of space in his home. So she'd rather just--not.

And--she doesn't want to spend too many consecutive nights, because...then why wouldn't she just stay the whole day, too? How does she explain that she doesn't want him to dislike her for having the habits and manners of a gross little goblin creature? lmao

Raf's automatic assumption is that Margie doesn't like staying at his place cuz she just doesn't like his place. Maybe it's boring, maybe the smell of weed keeps her away lmao. But then he begins to realize how she literally won't do anything unless he's there to tell her she can. Like she's afraid to just make herself at home. And it's...fair. The few times she does attempt to own her space, his instinctive reaction is to point it out to her in one way or another, because the paranoia nips at his heels with "she's getting too comfortable". He's quick to correct himself or assure her it's fine, actually...but he gets annoyed at his own kneejerk responses.

Finally, after a few months of fruitlessly trying to encourage Magritte to treat his apartment as a place she can fall back on and stay in without worrying about imposing, Raf just...gives her a set of keys, "Here's your keys".

And Magritte slides them back over to him, "That's super sweet of you, but you'd get so sick of me, so fast haha."

Raf, a little stung by the outright rejection is just like, "Nah, I don't think so." and Magritte is like, "I know, but you gotta trust me."

She gives him the full lo-down on how this kinda thing has always gone in the past, her terrible domestic habits, her penchant for neglecting responsibilities and failing to deliver on favors. She can't even offer to contribute to rent in any reliable way, because her income and spending habits are so consistently inconsistent that she can't even promise herself that she'll eat two to three meals a day.

There are other people and facilities that she can lean on that would hurt her less if they decided they had enough of her.

She really, really, really doesn't want to screw things up with Raf. She likes hanging out with him. She doesn't want him to grow sick and resentful of her. In an effort to lighten the subject, she concludes it with "yanno, too much of a good thing, haha."

Raf has never wanted to scrunch someone up into a little ball and slam dunk them into a warm, cozy, protective little pillow fort so badly in his entire gd life lmao For someone who is so paranoid of being taken advantage of, he's really taken off guard by this kind of...idk, preserving refusal? On one hand, it's a really considerate gift, an expression of "I like you, not the favors and resources I can extract from you" he's never really had to navigate before. On the other hand, wrt the situation, it's extremely fucking frustrating lmao.

Raf admits that he worries about her probably more than he ought to, and he'd really appreciate it if she could just...oblige him on this. He promises to tell her if he ever feels like he'd prefer to have his space back, and that he'd do so well before it ever risks compromising their friendship. Because just as much as she likes hanging out and playing music with him, he enjoys it, too. It's not just her who's worried about ruining a good thing. "Just stay. One month, and and we can see how we're feeling about it after that. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out and we can still meet up to jam every week. But, if you stay here, we can play music any day we want."

She might have refused if he hadn't thrown in that last line.

#Hi-Note #rafael #magritte

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luaspersona · 1 year

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fic teaser | kim taehyung

pairing ↠ himbo!taehyung x reader (f. reader) genre ↠ college!au; holiday!au; smut; one-shot; humor summary ↠ after making some terrible memories together, Taehyung wants nothing more than to never see you again; and he was pretty much succeeding until — after a minor accident — he finds himself having to spend Christmas alone with you in the middle of nowhere. rating ↠ +18 teaser warnings ↠ nothing explicit; profanity; nudity; mentions of sex; mentions of bondage; mentions of puking.

complete work warnings (full warnings on the post) ⇝ alcohol consumption; sexual tension; religious jokes; minor accident; very minor parent issues; second hand embarrassment; pov switch; explicit smut: masturbation, orgasm denial and control, edging, dirty talk, pet names, soft dom!taehyung, switch!reader, fingering, oral (f. and m. receiving), unprotected sex, praise kink, light spanking, a splash of degradation, begging; overstimulation, multiple orgasms, squirting, creampie, rough sex, aftercare.

release date ↠ released. teaser word count ↠ 0.8k estimated reading time ↠ 2 minutes

note ↠ so i had the idea to write a holiday!au for tae’s birthday around three weeks ago and just now finished the outline lol 🤡 i’m still working on it, but i decided to drop a little something so you can have a taste! the teaser happens a couple months before the actual fanfic, so it’s not christmas here yet lol sorry, i promise i’ll plan better the next time (i probably won’t tho). note² ↠ wanna thank @imakeamess for the BEAUTIFUL BANNER, i know i was all over the place but you were able to create the most amazing art for me, so thank you once again🥺 note³ ↠ special thanks to @uarmymoonlight for helping me come up with the story and patiently listening to me rambling about this fic nonstop, i love you! and @vsualitae for helping me find inspiration and letting me spam his dms with this lol note⁴ ↠ also, merry christmas for those who celebrate and happy holidays! hope you all have an amazing year ending and an even better new year🎄

if you wanna be added to the taglist just leave a comment 🥰

When Taehyung was eighteen years old, he told a slightly less experienced Jungkook that girls have a secret sweet spot on the back of their knees.

Yeah, pretty shitty, he knows, he knows— but!, in Taehyung's defense, Jungkook was too damn innocent for his own good and he obviously didn't expect that Jungkook would take a whole ass year to google it. How hard is it to differentiate a freaked out face from a fucked out face, really? It was only like, 30% his responsibility.

Clearly, though, the universe wasn't as understanding, because now Taehyung is pretty sure that he’s cursed.

Whenever he’s feeling like he’s hot shit, life finds ridiculous and absurd ways to humble him — being extra careful to guarantee Jungkook front row seats.

Fair enough. Taehyung has no problem owning his stuff, and he didn’t really believe all this karma shit anyway.

Except when it came to you.

“Shit.” Soojin curses, hands stopping in their search for her keys.

“What's wrong, babe?” Jungkook frowns.

“Can we maybe go to your place? My roommate had some work stuff to prepare and asked me to give her some space this afternoon.”

Taehyung groans “Soojin, we live on the other side of campus and I'm starving.” He punctuates this by lifting the food bags in his hands.

“But she's been super stressed lately, I don't wanna add to that.”

“We won't! We can be quiet, baby.” Jungkook reassures.

Soojin chews her bottom lip. “You sure?”

“Promise.”

Taehyung nods. “She won't even notice us.”

Soojin sighs. “Fine.”

“Also, it can be a great opportunity for Tae to finally meet her.” Jungkook turns to Taehyung. “She's painfully your type, man.”

“Don’t even think about it! My roomie is not interested in Taehyung’s fuckboy ways, Kookie, she’s a pure soul.” Soojin protests.

“Baby, that’s slutshaming. Not cool.”

“What? I'm not a fuckboy. I'm just a very good boy who likes to give people what they want, nothing wrong with that.”

Soojin rolls her eyes, then finally opens the door.

Barely they step into the apartment, though, the three of them freeze — somewhat distracted by the sight of a blond man standing in the middle of the living room, covered only by a blue underwear and a trail of purple marks on his neck and collarbone.

And damn, what a fine man that is. Taehyung had never seen such pretty pouty lips before and he can't help the sudden wish to add a couple of purples to that soft skin himself.

“What the hell?” Soojin's question prompts the man to cover his crotch with his hands. Pitty. “Who the fuck are you?”

“So, I found these old ropes in the back of my drawer, but I think they can hold—” you stop talking once you enter the living room, seeing a hell of a lot more people than when you left.

Jungkook snickers, glancing down at the rope still in your hands. “Pure soul my ass.”

When your name drops from Soojin’s mouth, something snaps in Taehyung’s mind. You see, he isn’t dumb by any means, but Taehyung sure sometimes is slow.

To be fair, he’d spent so much time trying to forget everything about you and the day you met that it’s only natural that he would take some time to recognize your face from his days I wish I hadn’t woken up archive.

But the way your fingers tighten around the knots before you hide them behind your back? Shit, how can he forget the way those fingers felt entangled in his hair that night? The way you made him groan against your neck whenever you pulled a bit too strong?

And your thighs? Fuck, they are so much prettier than he fantasized they’d be, barely covered by the oversized shirt you’re wearing. Taehyung almost has to stifle a groan because holy fuck how he wishes he could’ve seem them — felt them under his palms that night.

“Is he your work thing?” Soojin sarcastically points to the man’s general direction.

“Yeah, sorry about that, Soo, I just wanted to— Taehyung?!”

He grimaces, eyes immediately darting away from your form as he clears his throat, letting out a silent “hey.”

“You know each other?” Soojin frowns.

“We uhm… we met at—” you stutter “we met once. At a party.”

Soojin is silent for a moment, before her jaw drops “Wait— is Taehyung the puke guy?!”

The blue underwear man looks at you immediately. “Did you puke on him?”

“No! No, of course not, Jimin, it was him who— I mean, uh” so this is what humiliation tastes like? “Nevermind.”

The sudden sound of Jungkook’s laugh erupts beside Taehyung, and the boy takes his hand to his stomach as he leans forward. Taehyung is sure he’s never seen Jungkook so happy.

It takes around a minute for Jungkook’s laugh to turn into light giggling as he tries to catch his breath.

“She’s the girl you puked on? No fucking way, man.”

Well. Yeah. Karma and shit.

READ THE COMPLETE WORK HERE

note ↠ lemme know what you think 🥺 links ↠ navigation | masterlist | join my permanent taglist

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cornflowershade · 6 months

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pheem though. he's so. he's so. !!

when they decide to stay at the club, before any of them can exchange words or get to know each other at ALL

he's immediately at the guitar like, Nice found my new gig!

once they start talking, his first order of business is finding out who lives alone and then he immediately asks a girl he's never spoken to if they can be roomies

next day he's immediately offering to be his new roommates wingman (feat. these two great lines)

[we'll skip the part where he turns out to be a genius evil mastermind or whatever. i do not trust him but also i trust him the most. does this make sense?? -> (ok half true i probably trust Tam more. but Pheem makes me feel the most at ease??)]

soooo anyhow after he moves in with May, in the MIDDLE of a conversation— (no like literally no beat, just as a response to something very unrelated being said to him)

Guitar Boy mode activates & he picks it up and starts playing Hook at May (yes we remember you were in msp <3)

followed by what has to be. just. sorry. my favorite set of lines from him in these first two episodes [delivered with a tone of genuine excitement and eagerness]. he's so weird for this i love it:

(literally this is so unintentionally funny)

[girl give him a break my boy is obviously neurodivergent and trying his best. love their dynamic btw she's so unimpressed LOL]

anyway then he agrees to Stop Being Weird (lovingly, not possible) and proceeds to Stop Being Weird™ by leaving and coming back with food he has apparently pre-prepared, announcing it very formally and then making a quizshow out of it

which has to have the best conclusion ngl

your honor i adore him

#i hope he keeps randomly playing the guitar at any given moment LOL. also that last one... yeah i'd probably make a joke like that too.#wednesday club #wednesday club the series #satang kittiphop #mine #pheem wc

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afreakingdork · 1 year

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Weak Spot - Chapter 15

RotTMNT Donatello x Reader

Warnings: Aged-up Turtles, Romance, Meet Cute, Villain Donatello, Cussing, Crushes, Xenophobia, Fear, Intimidation, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Love, AFAB Reader, Vaginal Sex, Sex Rough, Sex, Penis In Vagina Sex, Creampie, Teasing, Scent Kink, Sexual Tension, Breeding Kink, Slice of Life, POV Second Person, Reader-Insert

Synopsis: Though it hadn't come easily, as these things rarely do, you found yourself in a whirlwind romance with a handsome and mysterious mutant. His idiosyncrasies had been easy to ignore as attraction grew into something more. However, will love endure when the unknowns about him end up being far darker than you ever considered?

Some light housekeeping so hopefully it's a little more clear what this fic is about! If you ever have notes for me, feel free to send them over!

Also available on Ao3

First 💜 Previous

They Were Roommates: Weather!

Phone Guy: Five day says we should be clear.

They Were Roommates: Schedules!

Sink: Open or requested off and granted!

They Were Roommates: Equipment!

Nervous Nell: Uuh, I’m ggonna drive up to see my parents and get their canoe! I’ll have to meet you there, but I’ll get a coooler and girlll stuff…

They Were Roommates: Food!

You: Car Beta will be hitting a store en route

They Were Roommates: Those unaccounted for!

Phone Guy: We got everybody except Travis.

They Were Roommates: You know what that means?!

Phone Guy: Lake day

You: Lake Day!

Sink: Lake Day!

Nervous Nell is typing…

They Were Roommates: Hey!

Nervous Nell: Llake day, yup!

They Were Roommates: What is up with you?

Nervous Nell: Sorry, lookin out my window. My gf said she was close like 20 mins ago...

Sink: No.

Nervous Nell: Huh?

Sink: No siggys at lake day!!

Phone Guy: We said no to making siggys a thing.

Sink: Ugh

Sink: No SiGnIfIcAnT oThErS at lake day.

Nervous Nell: Sshe gonna come up to my parents house though!

They Were Roommates: She ghosted you dude, move on.

Nervous Nell: Don’t say that!

They Were Roommates: Too late

They Were Roommates: Actually…

Nervous Nell: Yyeah?

They Were Roommates: I move to make an exception for Y/N’s boyfriend.

You: What?

Nervous Nell: Hhow come-?

Sink: We don’t do this! People break up too often and it ruins the memories.

Phone Guy: Just say photos. What is wrong with you?

You: Hey! This wasn’t my idea!

They Were Roommates: Did you all know Y/N had a crush on the Jolly Green Giant as a kid?

Nervous Nell, Sink, and Phone Guy are typing…

You: OPEN YOUR DOOR

You: I JUST WANT TO TALK

They Were Roommates: Help! Someone’s trying to break in!

Phone Guy: Oh no

Phone Guy: Think of the collateral damage.

You: Why the hell would you say that?!

They Were Roommates: Because you didn’t deny it and now you’re freaking out so, guess what?

They Were Roommates: You played yourself!

Sink: jalfkhsdfads

Phone Guy: Archived*

Nervous Nell: Hhe’s a mutant, right?

You: Yeah

You: He is.

You: Is that a problem?

Nervous Nell: Iit’s fine! Uh I didn’t mean for that to saound bad!

They Were Roommates: I think what he means is he’s curious to meet one.

You: Donatello isn’t some experiment gone wrong. He’s not here for you to study. He’s a person.

Nervous Nell is typing…

Sink: While he digs his grave, what’s up with this double standard Cor? You’re the one who came up with the no sigs rule!

Phone Guy: That’s worse.

They Were Roommates: Founder’s rights.

You: Why are you doing this?

They Were Roommates: I think he’s gonna stick around. He needs a serious group vetting.

Sink: We’ll I’ll be damned. You’re willing to stake lake day on this?

They Were Roommates: I’m that serious.

They Were Roommates: That’s the vote.

They Were Roommates: All in favor?

Sink: Hell alright

Phone Guy: I don’t care

Nervous Nell: I mean, yyeah. I’d like to meet him

You: It’s up to him.

They Were Roommates: He’ll say yes

They Were Roommates: Anyway, moving on!

They Were Roommates: Nell, what were you saying about your ex?

Nervous Nell is typing…

Standing outside of Donnie’s door, you pressed your palms into your eyes until they stung. You’d been buzzed up automatically by that digital check so he must have known you were out here. You could almost imagine him looking through the peephole and wondering why you were struggling. Not wanting to keep the figment waiting, you blew out an irritated breath and knocked.

There was a pause before the door opened which had you second guessing yourself.

You watched as Donnie left the thing open and wandered back inside.

“You okay?” You followed after him and closed the door behind you.

He held up a finger before it returned to his desk so he could type something out on his computer. It was the first time you’d seen the thing active. The many screens glowed purple and seemed to hold a multitude of windows. Trying to take in as much information as possible, you went to study a prominent list when the whole system shut off.

He turned to you. “Final preparations complete. You were saying?”

“You can always say no. Change your mind. We can spend the day together; just the two of us.”

His snout scrunched slightly. “I know you heard what I just annouced.”

“Yeah, I just…” You looked away and then back. Donnie was wearing a black, high-necked rash guard that perfectly concealed whatever was under those bandages of his. Below that he had a pair of surprisingly casual black board shorts with a purple band that matched his bandana.

“This is suitable attire.”

“That’s not what I’m…” You clicked your tongue. “My friends are a lot.”

“You’ve both told me and I’ve seen as much if your roommate is any indication.”

“I know…”

He folded his arms. “Is this an insinuation that I should decline?”

Your eyes shot to his face. “What? No!”

He shifted his weight to one hip. “Do you think I’ll demean you in some way?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what is your concern?” He unfurled and closed the distance between you.

You looked down at your ragged shoes. “I…”

His feet shuffled into view and you caught the purple flip flops there.

“You look cute.”

“Y/N.”

“It’s hard to explain!” You brought your head up only to loll it back. “I’ve known most of these people for a decade at this point and they’re weird! They’re going to be watching you like a science experiment and I was sure you were gonna say no on principle when I asked you to come. Except…. You didn’t! You said yes and then we did all the crazy preparation and suddenly it’s day of and my idiot roommate is downstairs waiting in a car she borrowed through like five different connections and you’ve got on this adorable outfit and I just-!” You wound down and let your lids drop. “I want them to like you like I like you.”

You felt a hand on your shoulder.

You let its weight linger before you opened your eyes.

Donnie was waiting with what seemed like a patient gaze. “You misspoke. You certainly don’t want them to like me in the same way you do.”

You swatted at him.

He dodged easily by only moving his upper body while his feet stayed planted.

“Stop making light of my worries!”

“A logic query then?”

You frowned.

He went ahead anyway. “If they were to dislike me after today, would you stop seeing me?”

“Never.”

“Would that effect your relationship with them?”

“No…” Your mouth curled up into one corner. “Well… they’d probably do that thing where you secretly hate your friend’s partner, but never tell them to their face cause they’re so deep in it so instead you always try to change the subject and talk about anything but-”

Narrowly missing biting your tongue you realized your folly.

You’d insinuated Donatello was your partner.

Peaking at Donnie, he seemed to be processing your statement.

It was both happiness and discontent.

You both wanted to finally have a label, but also didn’t want to rush and ruin the one you could have.

“Sounds like a tiring exercise of moronic social convention.”

“Yeah…”

“I planned to elevate this by impressing them for your sake.”

You blinked.

“Eye for an eye, they will also be under my observation.”

“Hey-”

He leaned into your space and you moved with him as if he shifted your gravity field. “For as much a chance that they look down on me, I can do the same with the company you keep. You should be more concerned with what will happen if I don’t find them to have your best interests in mind…” He trailed off and his arm lifted.

“You don’t get to decide that.” Against your words, you tipped to make yourself more accessible to him.

He arched a brow as if that were a challenge before straightening up. His extended arm came into view and he plopped a black sunhat on his head. A chin cord dangled down with a purple bauble landing just below his throat.

Your mouth crinkled at the sight.

“My bags by the door.” He rounded you and you burst out laughing.

“You look like you’re dressed for three different occasions!”

“Do you want to know my additional reasons for accepting?” He looked back at you caustically as you turned.

You fought back the giggles. “Of course.”

“I consider this a type of day off which is not something I indulge in.” He shouldered his bag. “To this end, my attire communicates such.”

You nodded and chewed on your lips to keep anything else from coming out.

He opened the door. “Conducting multiple studies, one such research includes the art of relaxation. Thus I am immune to your mockery.”

It was just absurd enough for you to momentarily forget your worries.

“All business on your vacation!” You tittered and headed out into the hall.

“A vacation is an extended period of recreation.” He corrected you before locking the door.

Something about the way he said it this time made it click for you. “You studied.”

“That was implied, yes.”

“No.” You headed towards the elevator with him in tow. “You studied how to chill.”

He was quiet and when you glimpsed back at him he was staring at you as if he didn’t see the point in your reiteration.

“You’ve never had a day off?”

“Not by human standards.” He pressed the button. The elevator arrived quickly and you both boarded. “For most of my life I was not afforded the luxury. Hence, I don’t see the need. I either work or don’t.”

You watched him quietly out of the corner of your eye.

“That better not be pity.”

“It’s not.” You hummed as the bottom floor dinged. “I just got my assignment for today.”

He lingered where you stepped out.

“I’m gonna make sure you have the best break possible!”

At least, that’s what you meant to happen. You, however, had no control over your friends. Your roommate, as usual, was the worst of which. As soon as Donnie came close to the car, she split the two of you up. She had argued it had to do with his size and directed him to the front seat next to her. Taking the seat behind him, you watched in misery as she immediately began to quiz him. He seemingly took her questions in stride until she grew tired of his unflappable nature. As the vehicle made two more pick up stops, she switched to blasting music. Songs were sung in purposefully broken keys as you exited the city.

Donnie checked out somewhere along the way and stared out the window. In the backseat, one of your friends had found an old slot machine handheld game and had roped you into cracking its simple code. The music came down to a manageable volume and soon lax conversation matched the tone of the drive. The sun beamed in with a gentle warmth that carried early morning light. It also forboded the blistering turn that summer would take it. Chatter went on peacefully as you heard your roommate murmur to Donnie about an exit. He had his phone out and helped direct her. You tried not to gawk at how normal they suddenly seemed to one another.

A turn off was eventually achieved and you passed through a station to park at a lake. Everyone made the mad scurry out of the vehicle to stretch they legs before rounding up to gather goods. Your roommate yelled on her phone as Nelson was nowhere to be seen. Her shouts summoned the secondary vehicle’s crew and your other group of friends came over from where they had parked on the far side of the lot. Introductions were exchanged before a flurry of things happened. You tried to keep track of Donnie, but your friends caught him and you in separate conversations. It lead to you, several people apart, heading down a path.

The lake came into view and stretched out into separate sections. Ample spring rain meant the forest flanking it was lush and there were families already set up in small groups. Standing fisherman dotted one far off shore, while little kids splashed each other on a closer one. Your group commandeered a pavilion and stuff was strewn about as people claimed their spots. The casual nature of the yearly outing meant that everything ran on a relaxed familiarity.

“Where’s the cooler?!” One of your friends plopped what seemed like a dozen grocery bags on the metal table.

“Nels said he was close!” Your roommate grouched.

“Guess, we’ll start cooking just in case!” One of your more relaxed friends stood. He whipped out a pair of sunglasses that were hanging from his tank top and donned them. “Chemical time!”

Though he were at least four people away from you, you saw how Donnie perked up.

“Wanna join me?” It hadn’t seemed like your chill friend was paying attention, but he turned around o zero in on Donnie.

Donnie excused himself from whoever he was talking to and wound a path over to the man. “I’m intrigued by your word choice.”

“Then you’re gonna love what I’m about to cook up! You see, as a grill master, I’ve refined my process to a science-!” Your chill friend pointed towards a public grill stand with a roll of aluminum foil as his septer. He then lead the charge with it and Donnie followed with tight posture.

“Worried?” You heard a voice a little too close and soured.

“I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t interfered.” You turned towards your roommate.

“Relax, look at him.” She gestured with her chin and you turned to see Donnie nodding as your chill friend did something to the grill with a brush. “He’s not a kid. He’s doing fine on his own. In fact, the only way he could have bigger daddy energy was if he had a stupid blob of sunscreen on his nose.”

“Did someone say ‘daddy’?” A friend who was splayed out on top of the table looked over the edge of his glasses.

You stewed at the thought.

“Update your prescription, damn!” Your roommate pointed towards the grill.

The table friend hummed appreciatively. “I do love a man who can start a fire. Oh! And is good with tongs.”

“Can you not make tongs sexual?” Another friend on their phone didn’t even look up.

“Anything has an inherent eroticism if you use it right!” The table friend crawled over to the phone one and purred in their ear. They were promptly abandoned as the phone friend stood and walked away.

An obnoxious ringtone sounded.

“Nels!” Your roommate snatched your wrist without answering her phone.

“W-wait-!” You tried to look back at Donnie, but you were already being dragged out into the sun.

“Beta got the food, Alpha gets the stuff. That’s the deal!” Your roommate pulled harder.

She only allowed you to wrench yourself free once you fell in line. “I should at least tell Don I’ll be right back.”

“Ugh, stop! He’ll survive without you for two seconds!”

“I don’t get your deal.” You huffed and rubbed your wrist. “You want to vet him. You want nothing to do with him. You want to see how we interact. You keep splitting us up!”

“That’s the thing.” She rounded on you with a finger pointed at her forehead. “I’ve got the big brain here. You gotta keep ‘em guessing. You can’t be too obvious or they’ll catch on!”

“I literally told him that you were going to vet him.”

“And you think I didn’t account for that?” You roommate rolled her eyes away.

The parking lot and specifically Nelson’s car came into view.

“Look. Stop thinking about it and enjoy lake day. Everything else is my priority, not yours.” She jumped a few steps forward and shot you a smile before running full force at Nelson.

The man yelped and the two rounded the car twice before your roommate caught him with a noogie.

Hauling what teetered on camping equipment, the three of you eventually emptied Nelson’s car and returned to the group. Keen on canoeing, Nelson ran around making a checklist of who would go out as he proclaimed that only one person at a time was safe. Somehow you’d ended up third on the list before you’d even managed to make it over to Donnie. He was still at the grill which had been foiled up in a bizarre way.

“So if we move this part here, then we could actually smoke whatever meat we want!” Your chill friend shifted something with a spatula.

“A fascinating application of architecture.” Donnie hummed with a pack of hotdogs in hand.

“We got the cooler filled with ice.” You announced your arrival with the phrase you were told to pass along.

“Sweet.” Your chill friend bobbed his head. “I’m gonna go see what we got and set up a cooking schedule.” He held out his hand and Donnie passed him the hotdogs. “You got the fire, Colonel Dee?”

Donnie nodded easily and the man left.

You folded your hands behind your back to keep them from nervously fidgeting. “’Dee,’ huh?”

“That is the first time he’s used it.”

You nodded and fought against the creeping awkward air.

“You have a different question.”

“I’ve been told I’m worrying about you too much.” You grumbled and stepped away as a gust blew smoke in your direction.

Donnie moved in time and adjusted the foil which you now realized was protecting the flame from the wind.

“If you could give me some kind of answer…”

“You haven’t asked anything.”

“I guess… that’s right.” Your brows came together in frustration.

“Outward appearances haven’t indicated you were worried.”

You looked at him.

“So far I’ve recorded your catching up with friends, a multitude of inside jokes, and that you’ll soon be taken out on the water.”

On the nearby shore, Nelson pushed off the canoe with its first passenger on board.

“You heard all that?” You looked away and wondered why you couldn’t defeat this odd shyness.

“It’s your day off as well. You’re allowed to enjoy it.”

You were struggling with that concept. “But-?”

“Your friends have been tolerable. Kaleb, in particular.” Donnie nodded back to where your chill friend was laughing heartily at something. “I prefer to keep to myself, but just because I shun the company of others does not mean I don’t know how to keep it.”

You nodded.

What about all this was throwing you off?

“Though it hasn’t been without its challenges.”

“Oh?” An odd flicker in your chest reduced the load there.

Why did that make you feel better?

“On the walk up there were a few tone-deaf comments.”

“Oh.”

“Microaggressions. It is a failing of society.”

“Should I talk to them?” You looked towards the pavilion and tried to pick out who had done it.

Donnie shook his head. “I suppose one would be curious where my ears are.”

You blinked.

Donnie prodded something in the grill.

“Was that…?”

He glanced at you for a moment.

“I never actually asked so how did you know..?”

“I was not referring to you.” He raised up and looked down at you.

“It seemed like a call out!”

“’A guilty conscience needs to confess.’” He narrowed his gaze lethally.

You felt the weight of it and resisted squirming. “I just wondered where they were...” You trailed off but the oppressive stare pricked at your skin. “I’ve gotten close! I didn’t see anything so I was curious! I was waiting for a better time to ask!”

“Tympanum.” Donnie finally broke away to tend to the fire. “They’re in the same place.”

You repeated the word in your head several times in an effort to commit it to memory.

“Broadly speaking, you have my species. I’m surprised you haven’t looked anything up.”

That would have been a smarter thing to do.

You laughed nervously.

He shook his head at your hopeless case.

You fell into a comfortable silence and the wind carried on it the sounds of cheery conversation.

Out on the lake, Nelson paddled the boat in a curve towards the tree line.

“Y/N!”

You broke from where you were staring at the orange dot and turned back to see a friend waving a Frisbee at the pavilion.

“You game?!”

A confirmation ran to your lips before hesitation caught it.

Donnie gave a loud dramatic sigh that made you jump. “You’re being obnoxious.”

You gave him both a glower and a pout.

Through his irritation you saw a flicker of something else. You couldn’t place it as he descended upon you. The brim of his hat knocked your head before his lips pressed a quick kiss into your temple. He then dropped near your ear. “Go. Enough of this. I am enjoying myself whether you chose to believe so or not. I will signal you the moment that is not the case. Otherwise, I am going to continue to discuss engineering with Kaleb as he is already heading this way. Then I plan to run samples of the lake water.” He leaned back enough to monopolize your gaze. “Thorough enough?”

“You’ll have fun testing the lake water?” You bit back a brighter smile.

It had helped.

“Immensely.” He rose up and gave your back a gentle push.

“My man!” Your chill friend approached with open arms stuffed with packages. “Fire’s looking hot!” He then shifted his gaze to you. “Love this guy. Try to keep him around; I’d love to hang out again!”

“I’ll try…” You gave Donnie one last glance which he ignored.

Your chill friend set the bags down to rifle through them. “So, tell me more about this explosive compound you created?”

As you walked away you heard the faint sounds of Donnie infodumping. Smiling to yourself, you picked up to a jog where your Frisbee friend met you half way. The two of you chatted there before they reared back in a surprise throw. Running to catch it, a game picked up as a few other friends joined. The canoe returned and there was a trade off. You eventually headed back to the pavilion and ate chips while watching Donnie squat by the water��s edge. His existence seemed to spurn on a couple of your friends who tore their excess clothes off while mad dashing towards him. They splashed near him, but not close enough where he’d have gotten wet. He spoke to them when their heads resurfaced. They seemed to find whatever it was funny.

An ice cold soda touched your cheek and you screeched. Laughs were rounded and you eventually accepted the beverage. Bugs chorused the tittering and the sun gave a lazy hum. Eventually the canoe returned from its second journey and you were summoned by Nelson. You followed him out and saw that Donnie had his feet in the water. A few more of your friends had taken the plunge and were routinely yelling things. You and Donnie shared a glance as you boarded the canoe.

“Steady!” Nelson said more to himself before he pushed off and hopped in.

The light glistened off the water and you had to turn away.

“Mind if we go into the brush? I think I can open up a path!”

“Sure, I guess.” You resisted the urge to turn around just in case it upset the balance. You could feel the gentle rocking as Nelson paddled expertly. “How’ve you been?”

“Eh…” You sensed him shrug. “I got the official break-up notice yesterday.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Nah, Cor opened my eyes to it so I had warning.”

The shade of the trees loomed welcomingly nearby. You watched the way the water parted by the canoe’s bow. “You really liked her though. You were gonna introduce her to your parents. That sucks.”

“Yeah…” He pulled the paddle up and you glided for a moment. “This is helping.”

“Good.” You chanced back a smile. “When’s the last time you got out like this?”

“Too long!” He smiled back and thurst the paddle back into the lake for a hearty push. Overhead you broke through the trees and the shade gave a comfortable drop in temperature. “Since my parents are from the area, we used to do it all summer long. Since I moved to the city I haven’t been able to come out as much as I’d like.”

“That’s always the way.” You hummed and watched how the leaf litter floated on the surface until the bobbed ripples from the canoe disturbed them.

The two of you continued to chat as Nelson shared stories from his childhood. Eventually, you floated up to where a fallen tree blocked the path. Moving as if it were second nature, Nelson maneuvered the canoe right up beside it.

“Alright, let’s see!” He dug into the supplies stored in the stern and pulled out a small hatchet.

“Uh!?” You straightened anxiously.

He gave you a dumbfounded look. “This is standard equipment. Calm down! It’s for this exact purpose.” You watched as he then tied the canoe off to the log before raising the axe up high. He brought it down and started chopping away. “In case you get stuck!” He yelled over the loud slashing.

The canoe rocked and you held on as he hacked at the log. Eventually he neared the water with his cut and it started to splash algae sludge at you. “Nelson!”

He didn’t slow.

“UGH NELSON!!” You screamed as a blob of green landed on your arm.

“Huh?” He stopped the suddenly silence meant his voice was way too loud. “What was that? Oh, ew!”

“It’s getting all over me! Stop!”

“I’m almost through…” He raised the hatchet again.

“No!” You waved your hands. “I’m good!”

He frowned and started to undo the ropes. “I guess I’ll open up the path for the next rider.”

“Thanks.” You responded dryly.

“I made good progress though!” He stored the axe and then gathered up the paddle.

“I’m sure you did great.” You rolled your eyes.

He turned the canoe so it was facing the opposite direction and pushed off the log with an audible thump. Again, you studied the way the boat cleaved the otherwise still water. The sun poured overhead as you left the trees behind and you squinted at the pavilion. There was some sort of tag game happening there so you traced over to the water where people were floating lazily in comparison. A particularly hard to miss green man was absent. You held tightly to your seat to keep from rising up.

No matter where you searched, Donnie was nowhere to be seen. It cropped up nervous memories of the grocery store and you fidgeted to get your phone.

“Don’t drop it!” Nelson chirped behind you as if he were the pinnacle of help.

“Yeah, yeah.” You brushed him off and unlocked in. You had no new notification of mention. Frowning, you felt Nelson pull the paddle back before there was a soft bump to the canoe. “What… was that?” You held your phone close and tired to peer over the edge without moving much.

Nelson’s silence spoke odd volumes as the boat came to an abrupt halt. Looking around wildly, you found your captain sitting calmly with a smile on his face. Scowling, you looked back toward the water and caught two green hands holding the deck. Realization dawned on you as Donnie’s head surfaced.

“Hey!” You exclaimed and had to force yourself to stay put.

Donnie let go and swam towards to you. “Greetings.”

“What are you doing?” You chuckled and felt a grin way too big split your cheeks.

“Swimming.” He then disappeared back under the water. It was just murky enough along with his black clothing that he disappeared.

You rounded on Nelson. "You stopped. Is this an ambush?"

He held his hands up with the paddle in tow. "What!? No! It’s a reflex! You watch the water for threats and safety! I clocked him and the others near the beach so I saw when he dove. There were then signs that he was coming this way!"

You narrowed your gaze.

"Honest!" He then lowered the oar and seemed a little sheepish. "He's a turtle, right? Do you know what kind? He swims so well..."

You weren’t sure if that was something you were allowed to share. Before you could decide, you heard a little splash and looked over the other side of the canoe to find Donnie there. "I'm guessing the water tested good?"

"Passable" Donnie bobbed for a moment and then ducked again. You searched around curiously until you heard him somewhere behind Nelson. The canoe was set into motion and smoothly shot towards shore.

You disembarked and turned to address Donnie, but found him already floating out a ways.

“Now he could definitely get that log out of the way…” Nelson mumbled to himself before stepping right up to the water’s edge. “Uh! Donatello!”

Donnie easily changed position and looked over.

“Want to help me open a path!?” Nelson pointed to the trees.

“Not particularly.” Donnie responded plainly and disappeared under the water.

“Dead!” Your roommate cackled loudly. “Shot down twice in one week!”

“Not cool!” Nelson stormed towards the pavilion with the paddle in hand.

You heard ensuing chaos and, not wanting to participate, decided to walk the shore to your floating friends. “Hey!”

There was a three person chorus of recognition.

“How’s the water?”

“Amazing!” One of your friends floated up onto her back.

“Get your Olympic swimmer beau to give us rides!”

“He ignores us when we ask!”

You laughed. “Yeah, I doubt he’ll do that.”

“Get in! I bet he will if you’re around.”

“I’m not so sure.” You smiled more to yourself.

“Food’s ready!!!” Your chill friend’s voice interrupted with a boom.

There was splashing as everyone made a rush to get out of the water.

“Think about it, Y/N!” A wet hand made a pass at you that you dodged.

“Yeah, no!” You felt a presence behind you and turned to find Donnie watching casually. “Hi.”

“Are you going to greet me every time we’re separated for more than a few minutes?” He tilted his head and you watched a string of water bead down his chin.

Oh.

You shot your gaze elsewhere.

Now was not the time.

He moved and you watched as he picked up a folded towel from where the sand slowly morphed to ill tended grass. You swallowed hard as he wiped himself off and the muscles in his arms bulged under the clingy wet rash guard as he did so. “Shall we?” He gave you a knowing grin.

“Y-yeah.” You shot past him towards the pavilion.

This strange bashful plague whenever you got close to him was wearing thin.

Joining the group, you were welcomed heartily with a saved seat for both you and Donnie. You were both placed center stage, but found, much to your relief, that you weren’t the pinnacle of conversation. You secretly adored the fact that they’d paired you off. It gave you a chance to absorb as much information about Donnie’s cook-out eating habits as you could between the pinballed talking points. The flow dictated the two of you were pulled in different directions as conversation divvied up.

You might have mourned the loss had Donnie not caught you hand under the table. It was just sly enough that no one took notice. You tried not to give it away to the friend you were talking with and mentally excused the red on your face to the sun. The group gorged and, with the moment of respite, grew sluggish from the many activities. The fractured parties shifted around to include others and Donnie politely excused himself. You watched idly as he drifted back to the water and disappeared into its depths.

You realized his highly aquatic comment had not been a fib.

Someone tugged at your sleeve and you realized you’d missed what they said. Mumbling apologies, you jumped back in until everyone digested and spread out. A small group decided to explore the far side of the lake and departed in an expedition to find walking sticks. Others had settled into mobile gaming at the table while Nelson picked up canoe rides again. You stood, just under the shade, and looked out at the water. Donnie was floating on his stomach adjacent to where some of your friends were lazing on the beach. You shifted awkwardly before shrugging out of your shirt. You set it with your stuff and removed your bottoms which covered the swimsuit you had underneath.

Looking back out, Donnie hadn’t moved and you sort of wish he’d seen the reveal. Shoving those disruptive feelings away with the others, you reminded yourself he’d seen you in far less. Departing, passing goodbyes chased you from those left at the pavilion. You strode up to beach before kicking your shoes off. You then toed into the water. “It’s warm…”

“Sun!” One of your friends mumbled drunkenly from where her feet were buried in the sand. “It’s so nice.”

“It cools off if you go out some.”

“Such a perfect day.”

You lingered with them in their sun bleached moment before you heard the gentle rustle of waves. Donnie’s form traveled smoothly over. “Are you getting in?”

“Thinking about it.”

He hummed and sank down until only his eyes were above the water.

“Watching me?” You took a step forward bringing the water up to your ankles.

His chin rose to reveal his mouth. “Yes.”

You smiled and moved until the lake lapped at your knees.

He floated as close as you imagined he could with his height. “I’m logging this look to memory.”

You bit your lip. “I was hoping you’d notice.”

“I always do.” He disappeared under the depths as soon as you looked up.

Smiling ruefully, you moved against the weight of the water until you dipped into its embrace. You then wadded out until you were able to comfortably stand up to your shoulders. Donnie hadn’t surfaced and you spun around causing ripples to cascade away from you. You hadn’t given it much thought until now, but it was clear he could breath underwater to an extent.

There was a tap to your leg and the weight of the touch had a signal to it that it wasn’t meant to be scary. You searched the water, but your movement had kicked up silt and made it opaque. A distinct hand found its way around your waist you and you looked towards that direction. It wasn’t until its twin joined that you realized he was behind you. You heard the water breach as he came up.

“I’m going to pull you.”

You nodded and your feet left the bottom of the lake. His arms encircled you until you were pulled into his plastron. Beneath you, you could feel the way his legs were keeping you both smoothly afloat.

“They’re watching…” You mumbled much quieter than you meant.

You actually hadn’t checked.

It wasn’t just your body that was swimming.

“I’ve done nothing inappropriate.” He disappeared from your back and you wished you hadn’t mentioned it. “Arms out.”

“They’ll come up with something…” You obeyed.

He gave the handhold on your waist a tight squeeze. “I don’t understand why your friends trigger this embarrassment in you. You are otherwise shameless.”

“N-Not true!” You turned to try and see him, but he ducked away.

“Kick, I’m going to let go.”

“Hey, I’m not done.” You heard a splash that said he dove and sighed. You kept yourself afloat and did a little circle to look where he’d just been. Below you, you felt a skim around your feet. Kicking out, your toes slid along his rash guard. Wondering how deep this part of the lake was, you gave up on searching with your eyes. Closing them, you waited with heightened sensitivity for him to return. He did so somewhere around your thigh and, from the graze, you could sort of tell that he had brushed against you with his snout. He then curled expertly around and did so to your other leg.

The light touches had filled your head with effervescence. He continued to swim around you in tight knit circles until his head breeched the surface around your front. Against the cool water, your cheeks burned and you sank down to put them out.

Why couldn’t you just enjoy this?

He’d handled the day with such ease.

Unaware, Donnie watched with a carefree expression and something about it registered in your brain.

He wasn’t his usual restrained self.

At least, not the prior version; the one you’d met.

He’d held himself differently in front of your friends, but nowhere near how cold he’d initially been to you.

It made you self conscious.

Was it you?

He’d said a few things about acting and you weren’t sure why you’d originally been excluded from that if this is how he could be.

You’d technically won out in the end, but the victory currently felt hollow.

Returning your attention, Donnie relaxed nature seemed mocking. It was happy in a way you’d yet to see him. It contrasted the version of pacification that was brought up by sex or exhaustion. This version of Donnie was alert, but didn’t have the usual barriers up. He ducked down and from the streaks of water he swam away. It reminded you of a dolphin.

Startling, the water lapped at your ears and drowned out your concern.

He was being playful.

As if caught in the flow of a tide, the worry receded and what washed back up felt very silly.

Regardless of its origin, you were being gifted a unrestrained version of your partner.

This had been your plan for the day, even if you hadn’t been the one to set it into motion.

You could share your worries later, for now you were overcome with affection.

You swallowed the excited sound that rumbled in your throat. Swimming towards where he had gone, you felt him slide up beside you. He got ahold of you and took over steering. A noise of surprise weaseled its way out of you as you shot forward faster than you could imagine going alone. There was a polish to the way he swam that signified he was one with the water. Changing direction with little whiplash, he drove you both back to where you could stand before depositing you there. You then watched as the ripples seemed to indicate he traveled to the other side of the lake.

“See what we mean?”

You turned to the voice and found your friends had waded back in.

“Catch him at Sea World!”

“Wouldn’t that mean salt water? He’s a turtle. Isn’t that bump on his back a shell?”

“There are saltwater turtles.”

“Literally sea turtles.”

“Oh! Huh! That makes sense.”

“I’m glad he’s having a good time.” You softened and watched Donnie meet up with the group who had made their way to the other side of the lake.

“Who wouldn’t? It’s a perfect day!”

“He’s a weird one, but in a good way.”

You nodded.

“Rich coming from you!”

“Hey! What do you mean!?”

“You know!”

One of your friends ambushed the other and dragged them down. It quickly devolved into a dunk and splash war with no clear winner. Eventually a failed game of Marco Pollo tried to catch its footing, but your chill friend approached with the cooler rolling behind him. He started floating drinks out to those in the water and that became a game in and of itself. Arguing and laughing ensued.

The sun tilted overhead and your fingers signaled the start of pruning. Twirling in the water, you found Donnie floating on his back and soaking up the rays. Even from here you could tell his face was utterly serene. Sharing a parting look with your friends, you swam over to him. He peaked only to seemingly confirm who it was before letting his eyes close again. You came up near his torso and studied the way his body moved with the current. “You float so well.”

Instead of opening his eyes, one of his brows came up in a way that signified he thought that was obvious.

“Yeah turtle, ha ha. It’s been the talk of the town. I meant on your back. You were floating the other way earlier.”

He gave a little understanding nod. “It is easier the other way, but as long as I adjust the air in my lungs and find a balance point, I can sustain any position.”

“The air on your lungs…” You thought it over as your arms swayed to keep you afloat. In doing so you watched Donnie gingerly bob and with his size and straight posture, he almost looked like a pool toy. “Will you stay up if I lean on you?”

He nodded languidly.

Tempering your excitement, you swam closer and chose the flat of the plastron around his stomach. You were careful and he dipped as you threw your arms over him. He quickly righted and, with a little adjusting, you eventually came to fold your arms under your head. The dark color of his rash guard had absorbed the sun’s rays and made him a basking platform. Lulled by it, you closed your eyes.

In a pleasant way, you felt time tick by as the sun lapped at your back. Here and there you’d hear commotion from the beach, but nothing seemed pressing enough to move. You idly wondered how far you’d drifted when those thoughts seemed to simply trickle away. The gently rocking of the waves filled your ears and the warmth of the sun cradled your body. You weren’t sure if you completely drifted off when Donnie brushed a hand over your shoulder.

“Hm?” You couldn’t be bothered to make full words.

“We’re being waved over.”

“Tell them to hit snooze.”

He chuckled. “It’s your roommate.”

You sighed and pushed off your rock. You sank for a moment forgetting you needed to propel yourself. Darting back to the surface with a gasp, you watched your roommate laugh from the shore.

You played up your scowl so she could see it.

Regaining composure, she wiped an eye. “We’re heading back!! Let’s go, turtledoves!!”

You grumbled.

“Agreed.” Donnie swam around you. “However, if we leave now, we’ll just make it back to the city before dark.”

That didn’t seem right, the sun had only just barely tipped from overhead.

Squinting up, you found it had sank three quarters of the way through the sky. “How long have we been out here?”

Donnie hummed as if he didn’t care and there was something about that lackadaisical side to him that shot you through the heart.

“Why do you live in the city?”

He skimmed to your side in thought.

“You’re so much happier here.”

He slowed into a drift. “Work. Convenience. Mutant Epicenter. Take your pick.”

That third one had you tilting your head.

He ignored it and did a lap around you.

“It just seems like-”

He slowed, curious.

Clapping echoed from the shore. “Chop, chop! You’re going to do your part packing up! Don’t try to get out of it!”

You sighed.

He found your hand underwater and tugged you along slowly.

“We should come back here though.”

Donnie focused on swimming.

“Just us.”

He didn’t look back. “Not here.”

“Oh.” The shore was getting closer and closer.

In a smooth twirl, he pivoted to your side. “I can show you somewhere better.”

There was a veiled nature to his statement that said it meant a lot more than he was letting on.

“One day.” He seared a look into your eyes before resuming his tugboat position.

You tried to place it as the water lapped at your throat.

Was it that it hinted at a time frame?

Did the location itself hold some importance?

You had that and a million more questions by the time you reached the beach. Donnie grabbed you your towel before he got his. Even then, you struggled with the sand as you put your shoes back on. There was a metered chaos to the pavilion as everyone tried to rightfully gather what was theirs. Snacks were fought over and eventually goodbyes were had. Hugs promised a repeat next year and you parted to your respective vehicles while splitting the loads that would go inside them. Your roommate helped tie the canoe back onto Nelson’s car before she came around and pointedly shooed Donnie to the backseat.

She gave you an approving nod, which you took with a surprised blink. She then slipped around to the driver’s side. You timidly translated it to Donnie who had seen the display and, in a show that said his reserved demeanor was returning, stood stoic. Crawling into the car, the radio was turned down low and no one spoke as exhaustion crept in. Your third backseat companion fell asleep as soon as a long thoroughfare was hit and you slumped back to fight your own eyelid battle.

Donnie nudged you and you resisted falling into him as your hair was still wet. Not realizing that was his intention, he shifted to giving you a tug by slinging his arm around you. You tipped into him and looked up to find him staring out the car window.

“Why go back?” You kept your voice as low as possible both to mind the passengers and to keep the conversation just for his ears.

He didn’t look away. “There is more in the city now than what I listed previously.”

“Like what?”

You watched as he blinked slowly before turning to look down at you.

Your stomach flipped.

He seemed satisfied with your reaction and started to move his head back.

“You’re different.”

“How so?”

“Then when we met…” Exhaustion brought about loose lips, but not coherency. “With everyone… Were you just…?” You lowered your gaze to where his hat sat in his lap. “What’s real?”

You jostled as he snapped towards you.

When you didn’t look the arm around you folded at the elbow and a hand wrapped around your forehead. He then used that appendage to pull you back so you were forced to look up at him.

“This is real.”

His voice was too loud, too clear.

You could feel your roommate looking the rear-view mirror.

He wouldn’t want that kind of attention. “Donnie…”

“No.” His voice was again forceful. “I need you to know that.”

You nodded and he evaluated you harshly. “I’m sorry…”

“For what?” The weight of his hand lessened and his voice lowered.

“For doubting you.”

“Reassurance, as discussed, is ongoing and mutual.”

Your lids were growing heavier by the second. “Then why are you…?”

Different?

You weren’t sure you could finish the thought.

“You.” He whispered into your ear and the tone of his voice lulled your eyes closed. “You’re the answer.”

The orange hues through your lids danced as the last thing you saw before you drifted off.

#rottmnt #rottmnt donnie x reader #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt x reader #donatello hamato #donnie x reader #rise donnie #rise donnie x reader #rottmnt donatello #rottmnt donnie #me #fanfiction #my fanfiction #weakspotfic

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crystalninjaphoenix · 6 months

Text

Types of Voices, Kinds of Silence

A JSE Fanfic

SepticHeroes AU: Part 24

First Part | Previous Part

It's time for another part :D I'm excited for this one, and even more excited for the one that'll come after this. No spoilers tho :)c Anyway, summary time. When talking with his fellow Heroes, Jackie realizes something that makes him reconsider everything. But then he has to go meet with Marvin and decides to bring something along. Meanwhile, JJ gets a visitor. And yeah. Have fun with this! :)

===============

It was a cloudy day. Not great for flying, Jackie always preferred warm sunlight to counter the cold wind, but flying was the best way to reach the hidden entrance to the League Lair, and so he flew. He wasn’t too excited to talk with Lorelai and Josh. They just wanted to help, but this was... a complicated situation. Not to mention Marvin had demanded he meet him later, too, so he had to keep this talk short so he could get back to Daindover in time.

He touched down near the hidden elevator, took it down, and ended up in the Lair. It was pretty quiet today. Not a lot of Heroes or League employees around. There were probably people in the kitchens, making food, but he couldn’t see them.

“Jackie!” A couple pink sparklers shot into the air, completely unnecessarily. Jackie could easily see Lorelai and Josh—both in casual clothes—sitting in one of the lounge areas.

“Over here!” Josh added, also completely unnecessarily.

Jackie grinned a little and headed over, taking a seat on the sofa next to Lorelai. “Hey guys. You both look really serious. I feel like this is an intervention.”

“Well, we just want to be sure everything is alright,” Lorelai said.

“Is t’ere anyt’ing you need to talk about?” Josh asked. “Lorelai said you were out on patrols already. Really, man? You jus’ defeated a strong villain! You deserve a break.”

“Well, I... I like going out on patrol.” Jackie shifted awkwardly in his seat. “It keeps me busy. A-and I did take a break.” If one could call lying in bed all day after he discovered JJ was a supervillain a break. That probably wasn’t one. That was probably something else. “Besides, I haven’t been going out as much as she thinks I am.”

“Hmm.” Lorelai pursed her lips and leaned back against the sofa.

“I’m serious, I haven’t been.”

“You were really out of it t’at night you caught the Puppeteer,” Josh said. “You said somet’ing about him controllin’ you? And... your friend fallin’ off a building?”

“Yeah... What does that have to do with patrols?”

“I mean.” Josh laughed. “T’at’s a lot to happen to you. It can be hard to... process it.”

Jackie blinked. “Alright...” This was weird. He was suddenly regretting coming here. “Look, I uh... I did come here to talk, but... I dunno.” He stared up at the ceiling. “I think you guys are making some assumptions.”

“Oh. Uh, sorry, we didn’t mean to,” Lorelai said. “I just—I guess we just... you’ve been acting a bit off. We’re worried. And like I said on the phone, we’ve been where you are, so we can... talk about stuff, if you want.”

“Hey, what if we get somet’ing to eat?” Josh suggested. “Somet’ing to break the tension a little bit.”

Jackie smiled faintly. “That’d be great. Nothing too heavy, though. I have to fly back home and heavy stuff makes flying suck.”

A few minutes later, they had their food. Jackie grabbed some fries and a bottled water, not really all that hungry, while Lorelai got herself some sushi and Josh got a deli sandwich. A real variety of foods were served in the League Lair. To a certain extent. “Okay, we’re starting again,” Lorelai said. “You go, Jackie. We’ll listen.”

“Right.” Jackie stared down at the table idly, using one of the fries to flip another over. He really wasn’t that hungry. “It’s... yeah, I guess getting controlled and almost having my roommate fall off a building fucked me up a little. But... that’s not... the main thing.” He looked up at the two of them. “You know the guy who turned out to be the Puppeteer? I... knew him. Know him. I mean, before all this. We... were friends.” Are they still friends? Against all odds, Jackie wanted to be. He knew there had to be something more going on with JJ.

Lorelai dropped her sushi. Josh’s eyes widened. “...Oh,” he said.

“That... that would be... that would complicate things,” Lorelai added.

Jackie nodded. “It... really does. I just... I just can’t see him...” He trailed off. “You guys are Heroes. Have you guys ever... had something like that?”

Lorelai shook her head. “No. Shit, Jackie, I can’t imagine... I’m so sorry. You must be devastated.”

“More confused than anything, really,” Jackie admitted. “I don’t understand... i-it’s the why, I never used to be so bothered by the whys of villain’s motives, but—but—Does he even have one?! Did he tell the police anything?!” Probably not, considering how they didn’t even know Jameson couldn’t speak.

“Jackie, I get where you’re comin’ from.” Josh leaned back in his chair. “D’you remember t’at Hero I said you reminded me of? Marvin, the Light Phoenix? He... I-I’m not s’posed to say t’is, but... he went rogue. Killed a villain even after we’d had him in prison.” He shook his head. “I’ve been wonderin’ the why of t’at for years now, but I guess t’ere’s no askin’ him now t’at he’s gone.”

Jackie bit his lip. Marvin wasn’t gone. Marvin was alive, having faked his death to escape the League from tracking him down. He did kill that villain—what was it? Right, Hellferno, how ridiculous—but... when he’d told Jackie the why that Josh was so confused about, it... made sense. Jackie wasn’t sure it justified murder, but he understood it. “You two were pretty close, huh?” he said slowly.

“We were.” Josh nodded. “Which made it all the stranger.”

“You didn’t... see any signs?” Jackie asked tentatively. From what Marvin said, he’d tried everything to get justice for his only family left. And he’d tried everything to cope with the loss.

“Hmm... I s’pose he did go after the villain he killed with a lot of force,” Josh said. “The two of them were sort of nemesises. Nemesi? Ah, who gives a shit. My point bein’, he prob’ly let the rivalry get to his head.”

Jackie frowned. That wasn’t what Marvin said. And though, intellectually, he knew he shouldn’t take the word of a villain and admitted murderer over a fellow Hero... something about this situation didn’t sit right with him.

“You okay, Jackie?” Lorelai asked. “Thinking about something?”

“I just... it’s...” Jackie decided not to bring up that he talked to Marvin and he’d given him a different explanation for why he went rogue. That would just lead to a whole can of worms he wasn’t prepared to deal with. “I still don’t understand. Everyone has to have a reason for doing things. Even if the reasons suck.”

“Sometimes you don’ get the reason, t’ough,” Josh said gently. “Sometimes you jus’ have t’learn t’live with it. It’s hard, but ye can’ drive yourself crazy wonderin’ why every single villain and rogue and petty criminal does what t’ey do. You’ll never reach the bottom of t’at barrel.”

“...but in this case, it’s my friend,” Jackie emphasized. “You must have wanted to know why Marvin killed a man.”

“Course I did!” Josh snapped. Then he sighed. “Sorry. I jus’... Don’ put yourself t’rough meaningless worry.”

“Yeah, Jackie,” Lorelai said quietly. “Take all the time you need to process this, but don’t dwell on the past.”

“Why do you make it sound like he died?”

“Oh, uh, sorry, I-I didn’t realize I was doing that.” Lorelai looked a bit embarrassed. “I guess... it is a death of sorts. A death of your relationship. I heard they were sending the Puppeteer to Byrthon Vault. You don’t get many visiting hours there. So... you’re probably not going to see him again unless there’s some emergency. I’m... I’m sorry to be so blunt about that. It sucks. But it’s... it’s the truth.”

Jackie flinched. He’d been trying not to think about that particular detail. Again, he understood why Jameson would be sent to the Vault from a practical standpoint. He’d controlled an extraordinary number of people for a super with mind-control abilities. For so long. Across an entire city. And with powers that were... really hard to fight against. Jackie remembered that vividly. But... did JJ really deserve to be locked away in a place like that? A place where none of his friends would see him? Not even Schneep, his family? Personally, Jackie didn’t think JJ had caused nearly enough damage for that. “Yeah... I still don’t like the comparison to death, though.”

“Sorry,” Lorelai mumbled. “Only trying to help.”

“I don’ t’ink either of us are t’at good at t’is,” Josh admitted.

Jackie laughed. “You’re trying. I can tell you care, too.” Then he sighed. “I don’t like the Vault thing. I get it, but I don’t like it. Maybe at the trial I can make a case for a lower security prison.”

Lorelai blinked. “They’re having a trial?”

What? “Uh, yeah, of course?” Jackie said. “That’s kind of how it works?”

“Oh, I figured t’ey woul’ skip it,” Josh said casually. “Villains don’ usually get trials.”

Jackie felt the ground tilt beneath him. If he was standing, he surely would have staggered backwards. Or fallen over entirely. “Wh-wh-what do you mean?” he stammered. “Of course they get trials. You can’t just... not give someone a trial.”

“Of course you can,” Lorelai said. “It’s in the Super Laws. Clause 5. ‘If a super is found too dangerous or too great an escape risk, they may be shipped directly to a prison for holding.’”

“Yeah, I—I know the Super Laws!” Jackie shouted, panic in his voice. “But that—that’s supposed to be used for security! They have to have a trial later, that clause finishes with something like ‘trial may be held while said super is in secure custody,’ it’s not—it’s not supposed to say that you can sometimes skip trials altogether!”

“Well... why would you hold it if you know they’re guilty?” Lorelai figured. “There are a lot of witnesses to a lot of villain cases. Super fights are usually very public, you know. If it’s so public, everyone knows what they did. In this case, hundreds of people can attest to the Puppeteer’s crimes.”

“I—yes, but—but—” Jackie was shaking, gripping the edge of the table like he would fall over if he let go for even a moment. “But that doesn’t mean—there are all sorts of—of nuances to crimes and charges and—and the trial is where it all gets decided for sure. It’s where the guy being charged gets to try and defend himself. You can’t just throw someone in jail without giving them a chance to defend themself!”

“Villains are very tricky, Jackie, ye know t’is,” Josh said. “If ye give t’em a chance to defend t’emself, t’ey’ll wriggle out of the appropriate punishment.”

“I-I don’t—I don’t—” Jackie shook his head. He felt sick all of a sudden. “I-I have to go.” He stood up and started walking away.

“Hey!” Lorelai picked up Jackie’s fries. “What about your—”

“I have to go!” Jackie shouted. The air around him blasted outward, a shockwave of wind that knocked over a couple chairs. Before Lorelai or Josh could say anything else, he hurried out of the Lair, towards the elevators.

He had to get back to the city, he had to get to the police station, he had to talk to the detectives, to Ace, to whoever was in charge of this case—and he had to talk to Jameson again before it was too late!

===============

Jameson knew they were going to move him soon. He hadn’t heard it or anything—he hadn’t heard much about anything, being stuck in the same cell for the past four days—but it just made sense. Honestly, he was sort of looking forward to it.

...No. He wasn’t. But it would be something different. He hadn’t expected boredom to play such a large role in being arrested. It wasn’t the worst part, but it was definitely the part he had to deal with the most. Right up there with inconvenience. You don’t realize how much you depend on your hands until you can't use them.

Jameson sighed, looking down at the cuffs. He wanted to get out of here so he could get these off more than anything. They couldn’t leave them on him while in prison, right? They were property of the police station.

“Jamie.”

JJ gasped and jumped, looking around. What was that? Was it his imagination? Was he finally going mad from isolation? He could see the whole cell from where he was sitting on the bed and he didn’t see anything in it or through the window.

A person snapped into view, warping the area around them with their strange color-shifting clothes. Wait a second—“Jamie!” Schneep said, lifting up his goggles to show his eyes. “Ah, it is so good to see you. Hold on a moment.” He reached into a pouch on one of his belts and grabbed something. While JJ was busy processing that yes, his cousin was really here, his cousin had really broken into a police station, Schneep unlocked the cuffs. “Okay. Good. How are you feeling?”

JJ flexed his fingers and winced. They’d been curled up for so long that moving them hurt. But he had to get over it. What are you doing here? he asked Schneep.

“In a moment, we can spare one to talk about how you are,” Schneep said.

I’m fine, Henrik. Bored. And scared, but he wasn’t going to tell him that. What are you doing here?

Schneep scoffed. “Getting you out, of course!”

JJ’s eyes widened. Excuse me?

“We do not have long,” Schneep said hurriedly. “I used one of Firewall’s Scramble Sticks to shut down the camera system, but they have definitely noticed. Here.” He reached over his shoulder into the backpack buckled to his costume and pulled out a heap of cloth. “Change into this.” He shoved the cloth—the clothes—at Jameson. “I cannot make you invisible but I can make sure you are not suspicious.”

Henrik, JJ signed. What in the world are you doing?

“I just said, I am getting you out of here!” Schneep repeated insistently. “I heard them speaking on the way down here, they are moving you to Byrthon Vault tonight. We have no time. I should not have delayed as much as I did but you will not believe how hard it is to find one of those Scramble Sticks on the black market—”

JJ shook his head. He pushed the clothes back at Schneep.

“Oof!” Schneep, not expecting it, took a couple steps backwards. “Okay, okay, I get it. I will go unlock the door from the outside while you change.”

Schneep, no, Jameson signed.

“What do you mean? The door only unlocks from the outside so I have to go back out anyway—”

I’m not leaving.

Schneep stared at him, unable to comprehend what he just saw. “Heh... I-I must be rusty on sign language, I thought... I thought you said you were not leaving.”

I did say that, Henrik, JJ said firmly. I’m not leaving. I can’t just break out of jail.

“Of course you cannot break out of jail, that is why I’m breaking you out of a police station.” Schneep grabbed Jameson’s hand and pulled him upright. “Come on. Maybe you can change in the bathrooms if you don’t want—”

JJ yanked his hand free. I can’t go.

“Yes you can! It is quite simple, people do not look at faces as often as you think—”

Henrik, I’m not going to leave.

Schneep stopped. He gave a nervous little laugh. “I... do not understand. You cannot possibly want to stay here. They are sending you to jail, Jameson. You do not belong there.”

You can deny it all you want, but the truth is that I do, Jameson said. I did commit a couple hundred super crimes. I think each person counts as their own incident even if I wasn’t personally involved in giving them strings.

“Okay, fine, but you do not—you do not deserve to be there!” Schneep stammered. “You are a good person, a kind person. No matter what you’ve done, I believe that.”

Jameson smiled sadly. I did try to do the right thing. He really did, even if it was too late by that point. But Henrik, think about this. If you break me out, our lives are not going to be normal. I’m going to have to go on the run. And you too, if they realize your involvement.

“Do you think your life will be normal in prison?!” Schneep cried incredulously. “Jameson, at least on the run you will be free!”

But for how long? Jameson sat down again. I will not use my powers again. They only hurt people. And I am not exactly capable outside of them. Eventually, the police or a Hero will find me. And we’ll be right back where we are.

“So you are giving up?!” Schneep grabbed Jameson by the shoulders. “You are—you are resigning yourself to this?! Jameson, think about this! I have heard terrible things about Byrthon Vault. Things that the public does not know, only those who have been in its walls and escaped. You—you cannot go there! I-I cannot—I cannot go there! There are no non-League visitors allowed, and they have infrared cameras so I cannot sneak in.” His grip tightened. Jameson saw tears lining his bright blue eyes. “Please, Jamie! I-I cannot lose you!”

Jameson felt something crack in his chest. He looked away from Schneep, hiding the tears clouding his own, identical bright blue eyes. I’m sorry, he said.

“That is all you are saying! That is all you have been saying!” Schneep shook him. “Jameson, please! Tell me—tell me it was not you!”

You’re asking me to lie to you, Schneep, Jameson signed slowly.

“Jameson...” Schneep’s voice cracked. “I... I...” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Please come with me.”

JJ shook his head. This has to happen, Schneep. It HAS to. For everything to go right, it had to happen like this. He hoped. He was depending on someone else’s word, and it was the word of someone he didn’t trust at all. But... it was worth a shot. It was his only shot. Have you... talked to Jackie? Since yesterday?

“What? No, not really,” Schneep said, confused.

Talk to him. He glanced at the camera in the room. Ask him about my apartment. A lot of my things are in there, you know.

“What...?” Schneep narrowed his eyes. He knew this was strange. He knew Jameson was hinting at something.

Didn’t you say there wasn’t much time? JJ reminded him. If the cameras come back online and they see you in here, the police will certainly have a field day.

“Stop signing so many long sentences! Are you doing this on purpose?!”

JJ gave him a wane smile. You were always smarter than me.

Schneep looked at him, frustrated and sad at the same time. “Jameson... you won’t get another chance. I told you I cannot get to the Vault. I... W-we will never see each other again.”

Jameson took a deep, shaking breath. Then I guess this is goodbye.

Schneep stared. He shook his head slowly, disbelievingly.

I love you, Jameson signed, giving him as bright a smile as he could manage.

“I... I love you too,” Schneep whispered. “Ich liebe dich. But... this cannot be goodbye.”

Unless you want to go to jail as well, it is.

Schneep stood there, frozen. Then he slowly looked at the camera. He pulled his goggles back on. “I am not giving up, Jameson,” he said. “I am not giving up on you, even if you have. Goodbye. But I will see you again.”

Jameson said nothing. Just smiled and nodded.

Schneep picked up the disguise—he’d dropped them at some point—and the cuffs key. Then he turned and walked towards the cell door. He passed through it, vanishing halfway.

The smile immediately faded from Jameson’s face. He looked at the cuffs on the bed, dread pooling in his stomach. But this is what he chose. Though it didn’t feel much like a choice at all. Slowly, he picked the cuffs up and snapped them on, silencing himself once again.

===============

“What do you mean I can’t?!”

Jackie probably looked a little insane to the poor receptionist at the police station. He’d flown so fast that he was actually out of breath. His hood, usually weighted down to prevent it from moving too much during flight and combat, had fallen down, showing his wild hair. And he admitted it: he was leaning way too far across the desk. “Mr. Windstorm, please calm down,” the receptionist said.

“I am calm!” Jackie shouted. Aware of how not-calm that made him look, he took a deep breath and leaned back. “I just—I don’t understand! Why can’t I see him?”

“The Puppeteer is a high-risk individual,” the receptionist said carefully, slowly folding his arms. “We cannot let anyone, not even a Hero, see him without prior notice.”

“That’s not a thing! That’s never been a thing!”

“It’s written in the Super Laws, sir—”

“Fuck! Yeah, I know.” Contrary to his protests, Jackie knew that ‘prior notice’ had been a thing for a while. Something about abuse of power. He didn’t really pay that much attention to that section. “You can’t make an exception? I promise, this is really important, I-I have to see him!”

“Sir, I’m sorry, but—”

“Hey kid.” Jackie turned around and saw Ace standing nearby. He jerked his head to the front doors of the station. “I want to talk to you. Outside.”

Jackie nodded slowly. “Okay.”

The two of them walked outside, standing on the steps to the station. Jackie looked up into the cloudy sky. Ace did as well. “So,” he said. “You were trying to see the Puppeteer?”

“I have to,” Jackie said.

“Why? What’s so important?”

“I...” Jackie’s hands were shaking. Why were they shaking? He grabbed one with the other to make it stop. “Ace did you know... Did you know villains don’t get trials?”

Ace looked at him. “So. You didn’t realize, then.”

“H-how the fuck was I supposed to? I’m always too busy to attend the trials, so I just... I guess I assumed they happened. Because why would you assume they don’t?”

“Have you ever seen or read of a villain trial happening in the news?” Ace waited. Jackie shook his head. “Exactly. They’ve been skimping on that for a while.”

“And you’re okay with that?!” Jackie gaped, stunned.

“No!” Ace snapped. “By god, I’m not. And not everyone in the justice system is, either. But the problem is it’s never up to them. It’s up to the League. They control everything related to supers, including the trials. Police gotta get permission from them to even go through with it. And they don’t want to go to the effort when there’s a Super Law that lets them go ‘yeah, the guy did it,’ and throw them away.”

“That’s not... what that law is for...” Jackie said haltingly.

“It’s not. But it’s easier that way.” Ace shrugged. Jackie knew that Ace was an older guy, but in this moment, he really looked his age. “And the people in the League who want to change it? They find it’s harder to do that than expected.”

“I can’t... I-I thought...” Jackie’s voice gets quieter. “I thought... at the trial, I could... make a case...”

“For the guy who controlled two hundred people? He’d need a hell of a lawyer. But, they do exist. And Heroes’ words mean a lot.” Ace looked Jackie up and down. “Why’d you want to make a case for the guy, anyway?”

“Cause he... he deserves it,” Jackie said softly.

“Mmm.” Ace nodded. “A lot of people do.”

Jackie stood there quietly. He kept staring at the clouds.

“You need anything, kid?” Ace asked.

“No, I’m... I’m good.”

“Okay. You know how to reach me if I can help you with something.”

“Yeah.” Jackie took a deep breath, and jumped into the sky.

===============

There was still some time before he had to meet Marvin, but he wasn’t sure what to do in that time frame. He ended up just... going home. Lying on his bed in his room.

“You okay bro?” Chase asked, gently opening the closed bedroom door. “Have you been in here all day? Oh. No, you got your costume on.”

“Yeah... I told you I had that meeting with the other Heroes, remember?” Jackie asked, staring up at the ceiling.

“You did? Must’ve slipped out.” Chase tapped the side of his head. “Dunno why I didn’t write it down. Uh... did it go well?”

“...Not... really.”

“Oh.” Chase paused. “Do you... want to talk about it?”

“Later,” Jackie promised. “It’s all... a bit real right now.”

“Yeah. Of course.” Chase nodded. “I’ll be here when you need me. Anytime.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” And Chase slowly closed the door.

Jackie stared at the ceiling for a while longer. Then he turned and looked at his desk. The Puppeteer mask was sitting on the edge where he’d left it. Come to think of it... had it been a good idea to bring that home? What if there was a self-destruct in it or something? Idly, he reached out his hand. A gust of wind pushed the mask towards him. It also knocked down some pencils and a notebook, but whatever. The mask flew right onto the bed, where Jackie picked it up and examined it. Not much space for a self-destruct. Probably.

He couldn’t believe Jameson had worn this. Not just for the reasons he’d been dwelling on the past few days. But also... This was a strange detail to focus on, but JJ didn’t strike him as being into tech. He understood the need for a vocal synthesizer, but he could’ve just thrown on a cloth mask. Why go to the effort of stealing an LED mask?

An idea struck him. Marvin had that friend, right? The Dismantler, she’d called herself. Jackie didn’t really want to bring her into this for no reason, but... maybe she could check this mask out? Just in case?

When it was time to go, Jackie changed out of his supersuit into the outfit he wore last time he went to the secret diner and shoved the mask into a backpack. Might as well as him to bring it to her.

He remembered the way to the bar with the secret meeting place perfectly. And this time, he managed to get the coded message right. He descended the hidden stairs and walked into the diner. It was still so weird that a place this normal-looking was beneath a sketchy bar.

Jackie scanned the drawings of the walls. Villains drawn as heroes. He’d thought it was so strange last time he came here. It was still strange. But... somehow he could understand it more.

Someone whistled. Jackie jumped and looked around. Marvin was sitting in one of the booths just like last time, dressed in his Spitfire Cat costume. He looked annoyed. Probably because he was right in Jackie’s line of sight in the almost-empty diner, and yet Jackie hadn’t noticed him. Sighing, Jackie walked over. “Hi,” he said, sliding into the booth.

“Hey.” Marvin glanced him over. “You look kinda out of it.”

“Oh really? I wonder why. It’s not like I’m fucked up from finding out of my best friends has been mind controlling people this whole time.”

“Hmm.” Marvin paused, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward. “I’m not... good with shit like this. But... sorry. It... sucks.”

Jackie sighed again. “It does, yeah. And he’s... he’s not even going to get a trial... probably. Th-they’re going to skip it. Just throw him in the Vault.” He looked down at the surface of the table. “I didn’t... know about that. But everyone is acting like it’s normal.”

“It’s not,” Marvin said firmly. “Or at least, it shouldn’t be.”

“Did you know about that?” Jackie looked back up at him. “From your... past?”

Marvin glanced around. “I was probably the same as you,” he said carefully. “I didn’t think about it. Didn’t check the trials out so I assumed that justice was served properly. But... when you start looking into stuff, you see things like this.”

Jackie laughed. “God. Yeah.” He shook his head slowly. “I don’t... I-I don’t know...” He trailed off.

“Don’t know what?” Marvin prompted in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“I don’t know a lot of things. I just... I-I don’t want to just throw people in prison. I mean, when you’re a kid imagining you’re a Hero, you throw the bad guys in jail straight away because you don’t know about stuff like that. Or if you do, it’s boring. Then you grow up and you learn about everything, and it’s kinda just there, and you still don’t think about it that much unless you’re in the system that deals with it.”

“Heroes are in that system.”

“Well—I—I-I mean more directly!” Jackie said defensively. “The point being, you don’t realize how much something is needed until you think about the implications of not having it! Like—like—ugh.” He put his head in his hands. “Jameson should get to speak for himself. I don’t think they asked him about anything at the station, they didn’t even know he couldn’t talk. And yet—and yet if they don’t ask him what he has to say for himself, and if he doesn’t get a trial where he can do that, they’re just—I know he literally has no voice, but he should have a metaphorical voice! A-and probably a bunch of other people should too. You and Schneep both sat me down and explained everything, a-and if either of you get caught, you won’t be able to do that!”

Marvin nodded. “Fucked up.”

“It is! It’s so fucked up, a-and I didn’t know about it! I didn’t know that I was—that I was part of this!” Jackie shuddered. “I’ve put so many people in jail. Did any of them get to say their piece?”

“Some of them did,” Marvin said. “The ones who weren’t supers.”

“I’ve still fought a lot of supers!”

“Yeah.”

Jackie stared at him. “Are you going to—to say anything?”

“Look, Wind—Look, Jackie.” Marvin’s face beneath the mask softened a bit. “I’ve been where you are. Yeah, you didn’t know. Doesn’t change that it’s fucked up. But... it’s not really your fault. You didn’t directly lock them up. At most, you’re guilty of negligence.”

“I don’t... want to be guilty of that...” Jackie whispered.

“Good.” Marvin nodded sharply. “Then stop being guilty of it.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means take some fucking action, you idiot.”

“Oh, what? You want me to kill someone?”

“No.”

“Then what do you want me to do?!” Jackie demanded. “I’m not going to be like you! I’m not going to—to go breaking into buildings and burning documents and stealing stupid symbolic shit that means nothing!”

“Alright, fine, don’t then, but do something!” Marvin snapped.

Jackie made a frustrated noise and leaned back in the booth. He stared up at the ceiling. He was just one person. What could he do? In all his time as a superhero, he’d never felt so... unsure of his impact.

Maybe...

Maybe there was one thing he could do.

One person he could help.

“Jameson said there was something in his apartment,” Jackie said.

Marvin tilted his head. “Something? What is it?”

“I don’t know. I went to talk to him at the police station and he kept being cryptic and hinting I should check out his apartment. There was a camera in the room so I guess he didn’t want the police to catch on? Maybe?” Jackie shrugged. “I don’t know.” He tilted his head back down to look at Marvin. “I think... I’m going to check it out tomorrow. Do you want to come?”

“...yeah.” Marvin nodded. “I’m just as confused about him as you are. He didn’t seem the type for all this. And, well, I’m not too good with reading people’s faces, but even I could tell he looked all guilty after we took that mask off.”

“Mask!” Jackie sat up straight. “Wait a minute.” He took his backpack off and reached inside, pulling out the broken Puppeteer mask. “I-I was wondering if you could get that friend of yours to look at this?”

Marvin blinked. “Why do you have that? You don’t keep spoils, do you?”

“No, I don’t, it’s just—The guy who owns SepTech, Dr. McLoughlin, he wanted to thank me for defeating the Puppeteer so he said I could take part of the costume.” Jackie frowned. “I don’t know why he had the costume in the first place, but in any case, I just kind of... took it?”

“He had the costume because SepTech works with the League,” Marvin muttered. “Companies like that will examine villain tech or suits before sending them off to the League’s Storehouses. You know. Just in case there are trackers in it. The League doesn’t want villains finding the Storehouses. Which, I will admit, is probably a smart thing to do.” He paused. “What’s not smart is taking something that might have a tracker to a hideout like this.”

“Look, I had no way to contact you or your friend, my options were limited,” Jackie said defensively. “Can you just give that to her? The Dismantler?”

A head popped up from behind Marvin. “He won’t have to give it to me!”

“Oh sweet holy fuck—!” Jackie started, dropping the mask.

Marvin twisted around in the seat. “Gwen I told you to—” And then he stopped, glancing back at Jackie.

“He can know my name, it’s fine.” The Dismantler—Gwen adjusted her position, now leaning over the back of the booth. She was wearing the same outfit as last time: a black face mask and a black jacket with handmade silver circuit patterns.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Jackie asked, surprised.

Marvin sighed. “She kept asking me if I was going to meet you again,” he muttered. “I kind of... promised she could come if we ever met in person somewhere not-dangerous. And, ah, someone else, too.”

“I suppose that’s my cue.” Someone else appeared and turned around. A South Asian woman with long black hair, wearing an orange T-shirt with yellow flame designs. She smiled at Jackie. “Hi. Nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” She got out of the booth and walked over to stand next to him, holding out a hand. “I’m Kanchana Yang, I run HAUC.”

Jackie took the hand slowly, shaking it. “...Hawk?”

Kanchana took a card out of her pocket and showed Jackie. “Henches Against Unfair Conditions.” The words were printed red on white. Next to them was a red shield design with a white hawk picture. Kanchana quickly put the card away. “You saved some of my people by defeating the Puppeteer. I understand that you’re feeling some conflict about who it was, but you really did help a lot of people. Thank you.” Behind her, Gwen muttered something about “Chana’s customer service face,” and Marvin tried to hide a smile.

“...you run a henchman order,” Jackie said.

“Yep. Can I sit next to you?”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Jackie scooted over to make room for her. “So... were you two just... crouched in the other booth the whole time, or...?”

“It was Gwen’s idea,” Kanchana said.

“Marvin said we should try to stay out of sight!” Gwen protested.

“I didn’t mean hide in the other booth when I said that,” Marvin sighed. He looked at Kanchana. “And you didn’t have to go along with the idea.” Kanchana just smiled.

“Anyway.” Gwen walked around the bench and slid into the booth next to Marvin. “Mask. Gimme. Please.”

Jackie handed it over. “Uh... Dr. McLoughlin said some things about it. Stuff about how... there were sensors hooked up to read the facial expressions the wearer made. A-and the vocal synthesizer was connected to that, too. It was added later. Uh... of course, all the sensors broke when I... punched him in the face...” He felt really bad about that now that he knew who was behind the mask the whole time.

“Hmm. Hmm.” Gwen turned the mask over in her hands. Her eyes began to glow white, and the mask was dismantled, shattered screen lifted off the surface to show all the various tiny computer parts inside, which then came apart in turn. Jackie stared in awe, but Marvin and Kanchana were used to this by now. “Huh.” Gwen frowned, and the mask reassembled itself.

“What is it?” Marvin asked.

“There are face-reading sensors, yeah, and they’re broken... but not by the punch.”

Jackie blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean someone disconnected everything. Probably around the time they inserted the synthesizer. It is really great work, though, you probably wouldn’t even notice how deliberate it was unless you were an expert.”

“But... the screen made expressions,” Jackie recalled.

“It did,” Marvin muttered, backing him up. His eyes were narrowed in suspicion. “If the sensors haven’t worked this whole time, how is that possible?”

“Oh, someone also inserted an external connection drive,” Gwen explained. The LEDs and vocal synthesizer are connected to that. They were probably controlled remotely.”

“Remotely?” Jackie repeated.

“By someone else,” Kanchana said quietly. “Someone other than your Puppeteer, someone who was probably far away.”

“Yeah, I bet that’s it!” Gwen nodded. “They also put a couple cameras in there, just under the surface of the screen. And there are tiny, tiny microphones here.” She tilted the mask to the side, indicating a place about halfway down. “Kinda near where your ears would be.”

Jackie’s stomach dropped. “You mean... someone else was seeing everything JJ was. And they were talking to him. And they were controlling what the Puppeteer said and what expressions he made.”

“Mm-hmm.” Gwen nodded. “No tracking devices, though. So that’s good.”

“What... what does this mean?” Jackie whispered.

“Sounds like someone was giving the Puppeteer instructions,” Kanchana mused. “And making sure he adhered to them through the cameras. In a sense, that person would be the real Puppeteer. Your friend was the body, but they were the voice.”

Marvin laughed. “It’s kind of funny. The Puppeteer was just someone else’s puppet all along.”

“Do you know what this means?” Jackie grinned, eyes alight. “It means Jameson wasn’t just evil all of a sudden. He was just—just working for someone! I mean, the why is still up in the air, but that would get him a-a reduced sentence for sure under the Super Laws. We just need to—”

“Present the evidence at a trial that’s not going to happen?” Marvin asked.

“I’m going to make that trial happen, I don’t care what I have to do to get it!”

Marvin blinked, surprised. Then a wide grin spread across his face. “Exactly.” Was that pride in his voice?

“Um... Isn’t it strange, though?” Kanchana poked in. “You said that this Dr. McLoughlin told you the sensors were controlling the face and voice. Wouldn’t he have known about them being broken beforehand? And about the cameras and microphones and... what was it, Gwen?”

“External connection drive,” Gwen said. “And I dunno. Maybe not. Those were all really well hidden, little tiny-tiny parts. Maybe no one but a technopath would notice.”

Marvin’s grin vanished. “Still... Kanchana’s right. That’s... strange.”

“I can ask him about that,” Jackie said. “Maybe he was just going off the mask’s blueprints or something. It was made by SepTech, after all.”

“Or maybe he lied,” Marvin pointed out.

Jackie blinked. “Okay... but why?” Then a thought occurred to him. “You’re not suspicious of McLoughlin, are you? You don’t think he’s involved?”

“It’s possible.”

That was true. “But it’s also possible it was a mistake,” Jackie said. “I-I’ll ask him about it. He could be a suspect, he could just be lazy.”

“Mm.” Marvin nodded. “Anyway. We should figure out some way to communicate now that we’re not using emails.”

Right. That was the original purpose of the meeting. “Well I’m guessing you don’t want to use phone numbers or any sort of software,” Jackie said. “So we’re left with in-person meetings.”

“I do know where you live,” Marvin mused.

“Don’t sound threatening like that, Marvin,” Kanchana said.

“Alright, fine, if you need to reach me you can come to my apartment,” Jackie said reluctantly. “But where do I go if I need to reach you?”

“If you’re asking me to give you my home address, no.”

“Well that’s not fair, is it?”

“It’s safer.” Marvin paused. “You can go to my work. You already know what my day job is. Hang on, I’ll write down the address and my hours.”

After a brief exchange in which Marvin handed over a napkin with some writing and Gwen talked a lot at Jackie about how it was cool that she’d met him twice, Jackie stood up and said goodbye to Marvin and his two friends. This was... a strange meeting. But a productive one. This information about the mask and what it implied was a huge breakthrough. Finally, Jackie had something to grasp onto.

Now he just needed to check out Jameson’s apartment as he requested. All four of them would be going tomorrow. Even though Jackie hadn’t yet heard from Schneep, he knew he would want to be there for this. And so would Chase and Marvin.

Maybe whatever they found there would be enough to tilt the scales. Maybe he could save Jameson.

But that still begged the question...

Who was the voice of the Puppeteer?

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #jacksepticeye au #jackieboy man #jameson jackson #dr schneeplestein #marvin the magnificent #brigid writes fanfiction #septicheroesau

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jaspersenpai · 3 months

Text

!Eeveelution Explore Beyond your Limits!

Chapter 2 [A Unfamiliar Ribbon]

[Few hours go by . . ]

Mike begins to wake up as Laz comes over

"I'm sorry that happened to you, also sorry for gaslighting you.."

I massage my cheek where I got punch as I sigh

"It's okay my fault I made you do that, where is our step sister anyway"

She finishes making food, although why is she making so much?

"Uhm Step-sis why are you making so much today?"

"Yeah you going to a party after this?"

We both say confused by this, but shrug at it and think this is free

"Don't you dare touch it, we have a new roommate coming here and welcome her. She's.. a old friend of mine who came to the island planning to stay with us till family moves over here in a year or two."

Right on time too, as all three hear the knocking

"I'll get it!"

I shout rushing over to open it

"Hel—"

Slams the door on her as ribbons slip around the doorframe and strap him onto the door letting herself in

"You live here?? Omg :D!"

Happy Sylveon noises as she snuggles him

"What was that slam abo—"

Sees her best friend for some reason snuggling Mike

"You two know each other?"

Mike sighs

"We used to date..."

"Until he had to move, so we broke up! So now we are friends!"

"Then stop snuggling! Also we only dated because your dad was willing to give us a temporary home until I inherited my parents wealth."

She let's go and everyone watches him getting ready to head out.

"uh where you going?"

Karen tilts her head unsure what's up with him right now

"I'm going out for a stroll, I'll be back for dinner. She can stay next door with you for the meantime till we settle her in alright?"

He smiles at her, but it made her uncomfortable about something as he shuts the door and heads into town towards the Guild. Once inside he headed over towards the billboard for today thinking about taking on easy missions, rumors start to be heard abit more loudly. As a Pikachu approach him not trying to be hostile.

"Hey Mikey. Boss needs you, also stop taking missions you are too high level for. You're a SS adventure do your job."

"Mind your business.."

Mikey says heading down towards the Boss which is a Doctor Lucario.

"Ah hey Mikey glad you can make it I wanted to talk with you about something"

Mike would look at him to give full attention.

"I'm listening what is it?"

Lucario would sit down and stare at him

"Wild pokèmom are hoarding the dungeons, but killing them don't spill blood. We've lost pokèmom seems like the old dungeons that were easy gotten harder."

Takes a sip of his coffee.

"Your new job is to Patrol the town until we figure a way to invade those dungeons again, we've heard a rumor a Sylveon has been spotted murdering pokèmom without remorse. Do you understand Mike?"

"Yes sir.. but why haven't we caught that Sylveon?"

The Lucario sighs

"I don't know kid.. we have 12 Sylveon in this town alone, we cant investigate them and cause public panic alright?"

"Alright, fair enough."

Later that day he would arrive back to his treehouse heading down to the kitchen.

"Yo guys! I'm ba—"

No one in sight let alone a open fire just chilling there, goes shutting it off as he walks around the treehouse trying to not let go of his guard.

"Laz! Karen! Sylveon where are you?!"

He would go into Karen's room and immediately runs towards Laz room hoping nothing happens to him, but as soon he opens the door he would be struck by a shovel knocking him out as the Sylveon gives a grin smile.

He opens his eyes and finds his step-family and looks around, sees the Sylveon and eyes widen as he muffles "no!! No!! It can't be!"

"oh please be quiet. I'm still the same girl, I'm just a cannibal and obsessed to eat you."

Mike would gulp and tries to think I'm what to do in this sort of situation, he is just being wrapped by her ribbons than the others did she expected me to wake up this early or was planning to do?

"So who's first on the menu? I got ideas and I'm very happy to try em! Maybe we should try Mike!"

The others would move trying to find something to make her not do it, though it isn't working and begin to tear. Mike just closes his eyes acting like he accepted his fate.

"Wonderful! Less struggle more I get to eating you all!"

She pulls him close and moves the ribbon from his face as he uses Frost breath right at her face. Causing her to scream at the top of her lungs letting go of him, as he Quick Attacks her and slams her onto the wall making her drop some blood?

"Your not disappearing??"

He yells at her and knees down towards her.

"I'm real... I just ate pokèmom and couldn't stop.. so I risk it to eat you three, didn't expect my ex was a high level.."

He sighs and as he unties everybody else, as he ties her up.

#furry #writers on tumblr #parody #fanfic #pokemon

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showerbong · 6 months

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i could eat tuna out of the can every single day if it wasn't for the mercury. seriously I love it you don't have to get out any tupperware and you can recycle the can when you're done. so you can feel like a GOOD PERSON doing GOOD in the world even though you're like gobbling down essentially cat food over the saucencrusted stove in your slovenly sweatpants in your uncared for apartment that you pay way too much fucking money for (but you don't really have the upfront cash that it would take to like move and also you would rather be in credit card debt than live with a roommate at this point). i have discovered recently that shredded slow cooked chicken breast is a nice alternative to exceeding your mercury allotment, though it does, rather unfortunately, require Tupperware. I usually just pluck little pinches of chicken shreds right out of the container in the fridge and drop it in my mouth like grated cheddar.

i am doing exactly this when you call. i feel like kendall jenner the week before the victorias secret fashion show, where she only eats like boiled chicken breast and cries a lot. "cccheay" I say. "what" you say. "sorry im just chewing." the chicken is stringy and kind of styrofoamy. it's getting packed down into a tacky fibrous ball into one of my back molars. youre just talking about your day and i want to pay attention, i do, but i just keep watching this insta reel montage of like 30 peoples reactions to this girl i VAGUELY knew from boston's pregnancy announcement. the reel is just like unrelenting clip after clip after clip of her like having drinks with another couple and passing them an "auntie & uncle" keychain or like her sitting on a couch with a couple of girls who open a card and start crying or her watching her father unroll a worlds best grandpa T shirt. all of the clips are overlayed with this insane song called moments to memories and there's no original audio, just exceedingly ordinary absolute amazement on each of their faces. i guess her husband like secretly filmed them all.

i guess i bring all this up because i have this girls desk, which like isnt that weird but i can't stop thinking about it. im staring at it right now, the desk, as im eating these dry chicken shreds with my fingers and you are on the phone talking about your day. all of the books i was supposed to read but didn't are sitting on top of this pregnant girls ikea desk that's in my living room but also in my bedroom since i live in a studio, and there's only one working hinge left on the little desk cabinet and i think the inside is stuffed with old magazines, but the thought of opening it to even see what's in there makes me nauseous. this girl was dating the roommate of my ex, which is how I met her, back when I was still dating my ex. and then when she and her bf, my exes roommate, you get it- so when they moved in together she had to get rid of all her like college era slovenly ikea furniture so she gave it to me for free. i think my boyfriend and i screamed at each other when we got it stuck at an angle in the bend of the staircase trying to lug it up to my 3rd floor apartment.

anyway the girl was nice but incredibly ordinary and just kind of unexciting. she asked me what highlighter i used no less than 6 times. for whatever reason i am currently convinced that she despises me and has told everyone we ever mutually knew that im an evil lying cunt with weird pussy lips. even though in reality i don't think she even remembers me, which infuriates me even more, so i like her post and then go through her profile and like the one before just so she's reminded that I exist.

i also cannot for the life of me remember if she's adopted or not, idk there was something weird at one point she had said about her parents, but this was in the middle of covid when i knew her so it could also have been that her parents are just old. it was either really old or adopted. so I find her wedding photos on her page and im just zooming in and out with my sticky chickeny fingers comparing her nose to her "dad's" nose and idk for the life of me i can't figure it out

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btsqualityy · 2 years

Note

This one is a long one i am SORRY

This is set not too long after when Pooks and Ji-ae first met. After their first encounter, she would come by the honey shop often to buy lavender oil for her roommate who used it to help her sleep. Each time she came back, she’d stay longer than the last time, because her and Pooks would talk until one of them would painfully have to leave to get back to work or class. One thursday she strolls in and stops where she sees Pooks stacking boxes of honey behind the counter and shyly waves.

Ji: Hi YoonWoo,

Pooks: Hey Ji-ae, how you doing?

Ji: Good, good. My roommate finally told me to stop buying her lavender oil, because she has enough to open her own store now 😂

Pooks: Oh so you admit that you were just using that as an excuse to come and see me? 😏

Ji: I- no! You’re the one who would always tell me to come back! Anyways, are you coming to the homecoming game tomorrow? Football isn’t really my favorite, but i always go for the hot chocolate at the concession stand, plus my friends practically drag me along too 🤭

Pooks: Ah, sadly no. The school we’re playing against is known to trash the town for their homecoming rituals and i told the grandmas that id stay here to protect the store in case they tried anything,

Ji: Aw, that’s really sweet of you Yoonwoo.. they’re lucky to have you.

Pooks and Jiae smile at each other like 2 lovesick puppies before they say goodbye and break away. The next night, the store is empty and ready to close in the next hour. Pooks looks up when he hears the bell from the front door signaling that he has a guest. Ji-ae walks in with a cup of hot chocolate in both hands and her arms filled with snacks.

Pooks: Ji? What are you doing here?

Ji: We we’re losing the game last time i checked and i couldn’t help think about you being here by yourself with no hot chocolate, so i brought you some, it’s probably cold by now but it’s still good i promise! Oh! I brought snacks too.. i figured we could just hang out until you lock up?

Pooks stares at her for a second and swear his heart skipped a couple of beats, he’s also just realizing how red her nose gets in the cold, and how adorable it is.

Pooks: That’s really nice of you Ji, thank you ☺️ Here, come sit behind the counter with me, i have an extra chair,

Once they get settled behind the counter, Pooks takes his jacket from off of his chair and drapes it over her shoulders.

Ji: Oh, you don’t have to-

Pooks: Your nose is as red as rudolph, im not gonna let you freeze anymore, plus we don’t get our new heater until monday 😂

As time flies by, the two of them can’t seem to stop talking to each other. Making each other laugh, stealing glances at each other, and getting into heated debates on which snacks are better.

Pooks: You know what’s funny? My dad told me that my mom brought their first date to him too, because he was so busy working. She had food and everything because she was determined to spend time with him.

Ji: Wait… you think this is a date??

Pooks: I- I mean- 😳

Ji: Good, because it totally is a date-

That’s all Pooks needs to hear before he leans in for a kiss that she happily agrees to 🥰

I love this 🥹not Ji-ae being determined to spend time with Pooks 🥰and after that date, they’d be inseparable 😭

#adult pooks

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granulesofsand · 8 months

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🗝️🏷️ vent, discussion of luck, trafficking

Our system used to physically throw pity parties when we had a particularly bad time. We don’t have an oven to make the chocolate ‘world’s smallest violin’ cookies or a limp noisemaker, but this week would’ve qualified.

We ended up on the floor yesterday while moving dorms. Our cart lost a wheel and one of the energy drinks in there fell and spilled everywhere.

We had been staying in a temp dorm because our roommates were uncomfortable around us, and one of the prostaff had helped us with bedding then. That staff member passed by, grabbed us a napkin holder from the dining hall, helped us for a while and then had to leave. The last thing they said to us was “hope your week gets better!”

Our week has not gotten better. I dropped some photos down an elevator shaft and got stuck between the doors, had to wait three rounds for that same elevator to get back so I could grab everything I dropped that time, and promptly knocked a different cart off its wheels.

I had to wait to do laundry because apparently 6pm is prime time in the basement, and all of my sheets and clean clothes were sticky. I missed my therapy session that day, but I did get to eat twice after three days of just bagels.

Time is weird so idk if this was all the same day or not, but I also got to talk to the dean of students about why she thought it was okay to let my parents know I said I’d been trafficked (I included that they already knew and actively participated in that, but she didn’t hear that when the police told her).

She also told them I was ‘not grounded in reality’, which she never actually apologized for. She didn’t apologize at all. She did say that the staff would do the best to help me as an individual, but not at the expense of the community.

I made an appointment with legal services and I was told to go to the campus police, but I’m holding a grudge because they were snippy and tried to dump us in an empty room with no blanket or clothes besides what we were wearing.

Today I went to get my free bagel and coffee and the coffee leaked all the way down the seam in the cup. I put it in a second cup that it also leaked through and lost my phone in the process. I had to have those staff people looking for it because our sorry ass fucked up our back while moving. The phone was in a cooler for drinks.

At this point I was smelling like a cafe and took the bus to change, but it was packed full. I got on anyway because it’s upwards of 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The driver insisted everyone stay in the seat area, so I got the pleasure of fainting directly onto someone. They actually caught me, so that was good.

We had food garbage from what had spoiled while we were in the temp dorm, so I went around the residence hall looking for the big dumpster that’d been there for two weeks. It was gone, I just tossed what I had in a barrel bin so it wouldn’t rot where we sleep. I then fainted next to the garbage can.

It must’ve only been a few seconds but I skinned my shoulder on the ‘pick up after pets’ sign and there was a bee on my hand, where my ID and arm were dangling in the trash.

Our family will be visiting this weekend, couldn’t turn them down, and I’m doing my best to keep them out of the dorms.

How much shit can go wrong for one person before they die? We must be winning statistically to be so unlucky and yet only 1/4 the age we’re expected to live through. I should be able to put this on my résumé. I might do that if I can find prettier words.

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noro-noro-noro · 8 months

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just woke up brain dump sorry about the shit numbering as I remember something I just fling it down

1. the apocalypse?? the storm. my sister and my dad and mom and me all trying to go home from downtown ;+5 but the flood the weather the storm the debris from the sky the collpasing buildings the road in shambles. we walked instead to avoid the rising water even though it wasn't stable . the sky was dark. my dad ended up safe at home even though the rest of us were on the secons store of what looked like an avant garde clothing store. therre were huge things collapsed on the road and I was driving and walking under bc I just wabted to go home.

1.2?? the apocalypse more intensely. the sky was purple now we were on the roof I was separattfrom mom & sister it was otherprolle. some of us had psychic powers iof some kind. Elon wisk was there trying to launch stuff into the sky but it kept failing. it was making ??? mad. we were running and hiding scrambling avross the roofs and through the concrete all the light sources were a bright teal blue

1.5 ? I was watching my friend ride a merry go round and other things through hmy phone . it was chill and fun

1.7 at the end of a sleepaway summer campin the woods at a national park or something waiting for parebts to come pick us up . vibe shift I'm talking to a jp guy first I thought it was bc I won a commission from him but his engoish wasn't good so I was trying to communicate by seding pictures (I wanted him to draw kuroha) & then it turns out I won a trip ?? it was maras y8 btw the anime piano guy ive been listening to flor like a decade & he looked super young (like we've seen his face before but now he was just like a7/10 asian guy . actually he looked like a dude named Jeffery from . highschool maybe?? but iirc he was like the Kevin Nguyen fuckboy type LMAO idk I haven't thoughbt about him in a while wonder if he's on insta i just want to see what hes doing before going back to nit thinkijg abuot him ever again. anyway. guy had a blond Russian gf who had bad skin & was scared of squid) and also the Convo changed & now I won like...a trip to visit him or smth? also he spike some engljs h now and also understood some chinese which made communication easier and he knew my mom. and he owed my dad $225 ?? imf not sure how. one of my friends who was sitting at an adjacebt picnic table commebted on it after we settled the plans & stuff like damn how u know THE marasy & I had an answer at the time. and forgot. he also gave me food to take back to my mom and I did and she was kind of excited about it

??? krndhi yonezu was also in one of my dreams, I don't remember like which one or why he was there, or maybe this is a whole separate thing, but he was opening? he wasn't an area and I was surprised to see him, it was a place that for all accounts he shouldn't have been but there he was standing on a table or a small stage or something wearing like a tank top? I don't know from what I've seen him do his live shows and he usually dresses in that like extremely oversized fashion so I was surprised it was just a tank top and baggy jeans, just passed a car with the license plate hag never mind I misread it it's ha6

2. we all ended up on the computer lab doing our things..different time zones different people. I saw the ghost ? if my fresan year roommate bc I got notifications on old documents and opened them and suddenly she was there flickering and indodnt know what to say to her since we were hbotj shy and she she dropped our. there was bloos on her lips she'd had sirgeey. unsure if she survived. but the others could see her..we werebally waiting for the train to take us back home. it came through the center. her project was a circus gambling app called strom. a secret level stage 5 was unlocked by reassembling slicesf a half eaten apple. when I talked to her she said she was a ghost but how? they saw her. she became fast friends with this girl named Sharon who was rraunchy and talkes about sex. did she remember me too ?

#dreams

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shelivedthroughit · 3 days

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I hate my roommates

I know that hate is a strong word, that is why I'm using it. I am disgusted by them, they leave all of our shared living spaces dirty and the kitchen reeks of rotting food and garbage. I try to clean their messes, but there are 3 of them and 1 of me and they seem hellbent on making the place as filthy as possible.

One of my roommates decided to get a rabbit. This is a decision I supported her on as she often talked about how much she loved bunnies and how she always wanted one, stating on multiple occasions that she would do all her school projects on bunnies and knew all there was to know about the species. I didn't sense any red flags until she told me she intended to keep the bunny in a dog crate. Not just any dog crate, a chihuahua crate because "it was the cheapest one" she could find. Time passes and she gets the bunny. She keeps it in our living room in a cage. It makes a mess because it is going stir crazy and also starving since she was not feeding it enough or supplying it with any hay. She would get pissy at anyone who fed the bunny more because she claimed it was "getting fat."

Long story short, I have a pet bunny now. Don't get me wrong, I love my bunny. She is thriving now and lives almost entirely free roam in my room aside from when I am sleeping or out of the house, then she goes into her cage with plenty of hay, water, and enrichment toys.

This week, I am dogsitting for my mom's friend. I asked on my group text with my roommates for them to give my bunny pellets in the morning and make sure she has water. That's it, I didn't ask them to clean her cage or let her out as I was planning on coming back during the day to do so even though I don't have a car and will be paying out of pocket for ubers. The chat was radio silence. Not even a "sorry I can't do that," just no response from any of them. No one responded until I said that I was able to get my brother to do it as he lives about 5 minutes from us, then two of them wrote a half assed response saying they "could help butttt..." and listed off excuses. I didn't respond.

I left the key under the doormat for my brother. When I arrived at the apartment yesterday to check on my bunny, the key was no longer there. My brother took it without thinking. Ok, no big deal. I knock on the door. No response. I text the group chat that I'm locked out (something all 3 of them have done before), no response. I knock on the door more and text again. 2 of them respond that they're not home. I continue to knock. Then, the one who was here the entire time I was knocking opens the door and tells me that I "scared the shit out of her." This set me over the edge as this same bitch has woken me up in the middle of the night MULTIPLE TIMES by POUNDING ON MY WINDOW until I get the door for her. But of course me knocking on the door in the middle of the day after texting her multiple times is terrifying. My mistake.

Anyways,

I fucking hate my roommates.

#i wish i lived alone

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thought-bubble-doodly-doo · 9 months

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I see that you are going through a hard time but I miss seeing your art. If you have the time I recommend drawing how you feel and watching some complex ptsd crappy childhood fairy YouTube videos. Also, I believe this book called The Artist Way could help you out in your creative journey. Anyways, prayers for you and your well-being, my fellow Ryukishi07 fan.

I'm sorry I haven't been putting out art much lately. I'm going through the worst time in my life. I had a mental health crisis, and it caused me to hurt a friend of mine. They decided they no longer wanted to be friends, because they were too hurt and didn't believe we could have a healthy friendship after what happened.

Because of my mental health and my stupidity, I lost the best thing that ever happened to me. I have to live with the knowledge that if I had only done some things a little differently, I could still have them in my life. For the rest of my life I have to know I ruined my one chance of happiness.

We were friends for six years. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with them. We talked about becoming roommates one day, about visiting each other's countries, about writing stories together into our 30s. When I lost them, I lost not only my present happiness, but my future happiness as well.

I have no hope in ever being happy in this lifetime. One day I'll die and go to heaven, and then I can be happy but until then I can imagine nothing but misery and loneliness. I can only pray she changes her mind and comes back to me one day, but I begged her for 2 hours to reconsider her decision, and she seemed pretty final about it. She was my everything, and I know that's unhealthy. My codependence on this friendship was ultimately what tore us apart.

I want to make art again. I have so many ideas and wips, but I'm trying not to kill myself and bathe and keep food down. All of my energy is going into surviving right now.

It doesn't help that I got better at art for her. We used to do art trades all the time, and she was so much better than me, I actively sought to improve myself so I could be worthy of her. I had always liked art, but right now art is too tied up in my memories of her. Maybe it always will be. I don't know.

It makes me happy to know someone likes my art. One day I want to make art again. One day I want to make visual novels and animations and webcomics. But right now I just can't do anything but cry and miss her and pray and hate myself.

I'm really sorry. When I start posting art again, I hope you're still around. I hope I can still make you happy, but I always made art from a place of joy, and I have no joy with which to create right now.

Please keep me in your prayers. Pray for our reconciliation. Pray for my strength to overcome this or the patience to wait for her or a quick death. I don't know. And I'll try to make art again. And I'll try to watch youtube videos and reach that book you recommended. It's been showing up on my tik tok a lot lately, and I've been getting into reading again so maybe it's a sign.

Thank you for your kind words. I hope I can make art for you again soon.

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lifeofthesidecharacter · 2 years

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Oct 16th

Wow, so look who lasted 3 days without finding something to get high and bitch about. I’m honestly proud of myself, that’s kind of a record. I mean not that I didn’t smoke in these last 3 days, what am I? A barbarian? Sorry to all the barbarians out there, didn’t mean to insult you or anything.

“Sorry to all the barbarians out there”? Who are you? I’m sorry, but right now you’re getting the unfiltered and uncensored flow of my thoughts. Well, kinda censored because smoking always gets me kinda horny which is funny because I didn’t think it was possible with my meds.

Alright, too much information. I do realize that I could go back and edit this but let's be honest, people with adhd/add know that you only backtrack when doing something when it’s the sat or fucking gre. Not a random blog post that no one is gonna read.

Yeah, I know I’m talking like there’s a front-row audience waiting and begging to read about my inner ramblings. Trust me, I completely know that the only way I could get someone to listen to me ramble on would be if I paid them. It’s funny, my sister jokes that she has an automatic filter to tune me out whenever I speak. My mom also joked once that I was too loud when my meds were working and it was better before when I was sad so yeah.

Sorry for the random trauma dump but again no one is gonna read this. I have to let something out somehow to make it leave my mind and when I smoke and don’t take my Adderall, my mind goes a mile every 30 seconds (I know that’s not a saying but a mile a minute was too slow and a mile a second was too fast).

Oh yeah, I ditched the fun little creative writing style thing. I mean I might still write but like I can’t do that every time I have a ThoughtTM. And I might post what I write on here cause, you know, no one’s gonna see this (last time I promise (that’s possibly a lie)).

So Shego, how did you spend this joyous Saturday? Must’ve been a fun night if you’re sitting here writing at 3:27 am. Let’s see if I can get this straight: I woke up at 11:30, finished the half of Yours, Mine, and Ours that I had left after last night, watched half of the Wedding Crashers before finding it problematic, watched a bit of 17 again before getting bored, watched Despicable Me, watched 10 minutes of Death at a Funeral before getting bored, watched 5 minutes of Batman Begins before getting bored, watched all of It, watched 15 minutes of Fear Street before, you guessed it, getting bored, watched all of the Princess Diaries, and went on a cleaning rampage at 2 in the morning.

Eventful.

I know that’s a lot of movies but in my defense, I was tired after last night and I did a lot of work to make up for it.

Wow, even I can see the massive red flag in that. Why can’t I have a relaxing day without doing any work to make up for it?

Nope, not getting into that right now because it’s almost bedtime.

Anyways, I went through all of my mail, cleaned up my table, threw two giant trash bags that were stuffed with trash away, unloaded the dishwasher that my roommate shittily loaded with food still crusted on it and I had to rewash everything by hand to get it off on Thursday, washed our full sink of dishes, and went through all of my mail and organized it.

And then I realized it was 2:30 in the morning and I was sitting at a kitchen table alone (my roommate passed out on the couch, surprisingly not even waking up when I accidentally broke a glass) with music playing and a stack of unopened mail in front of me. The funny thing was that I didn’t have a breakdown. I didn’t freak out about being the ‘side character’. Because everyone’s a side character, right? Like in the Wedding Crashers, these two strangers are at people’s weddings. You would think the bride and the groom (mainly the bride) would be the main characters of the wedding and reception as it’s their big day and blah blah blah. But, they weren’t. Do you know who were? Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. They weren’t even the main characters of the wedding, though. No, it was Rachel McAdams who played the bride’s sister.

You can live your life to be the main character but at the end of the day, everyone technically is. And no one is. You’re going to have side-character days or moments but that’s okay. Because you’re always going to be part of the story.

Damn, I might have to change my tumblr username because I just solved the whole side character issue.

Shit.

#blog #lifeofthesidecharacter #misadventuresofshego #shego #october #fall #highthoughts #high #idk

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