#back on topic now. pointing at him. wow that little guy is so haunted and also a haunting in and of himself. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

botwstoriesandsuch · 3 years

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Heya!! Kip here! The @memorabiliazine preorders have just shipped, which means we can share our pieces now! I wrote this piece back in February, after theorizing about the presence of Robbie's Telescope being present in the Royal Tech Lab in Age of Calamity. So without further a do, here be my little essay/fic on some old ruins, or more specifically, its:

Cause of Destruction

The storm had come too late. Thankfully, it was all devastated.

She continued to run from the screaming.

The Sheikah woman headed for the hills, brittle trees littering the eastern side of the Lindor mountain side. If she hurried, she could meet up with the others who had—

A distant crack of thunder melded with the collapse of stone; she makes the mistake of glancing back.

In the greater horizon, the shadow of Hyrule Castle looms over a conquered dusk. A shrill cry—something between a roar and a whine—escapes from the cloudy malice beast that enshrouds the Hylian monument. But that was just the backdrop, the canvas for contrast. Closer still, in the billowing grass of North Hyrule Plain, the stormy winds cut through fog and smoke like a dagger.

In the opened wound, the faint silhouette of a building glows.

Blue.

She keeps running.

The color might have at one point been appealing—the symbol of the Royals, the pleasant hue that cloaked a perfect morning. But tonight it just haunted her...chased her...reminded her of the terrible deed that was done.

A horse came over the hills.

“HEY!” a man shouted, mounted on a grey horse. “MA’AM! HALT, PLEASE!”

Crap. She sucked in a breath through her teeth, clutched her limp, burned arm, and kept moving. I just need to reach the trees.

But the chase seemed over before it had even started. When she had first started running from the blue, some wandering captain had stopped her to ask what was wrong. There was a strange kindness in his striking eyes, a forgein concept in this land now stricken with grief, death, and paranoia. In her haste—and possibly shame of what she had done—she had just pushed the captain away and fled. Very inconspicuous…good job me.

Now it seems he had found her again. Any other day she might have commended him for his kindness in checking with some random Sheikah, during the end of the world no less.

But tonight, well...there’s a sliver of her that might have preferred death.

The woman tripped on a divet in the earth, crashing down on one of her badly burned legs, and hissed at the pain. The rain had muddied the path, and was staining her once white clothes a disgusting marron. The pounding of hooves grew closer, until they halted right next to her ears.

A pair of leather boots crashed into the mud.

“Ma’am, don’t get up. You’re injured. Please.”

The clang of metal armour accompanies the voice. Oh he was a captain alright, equipped well for the apocalypse. His metalspear and armour adorned in—

She looks up.

Blue.

A slight frown.

The man tries to help her to her feet, watching to not clutch on the wounds on her right side. “Whatcha doing all the way out here? The nearest settlement is a ways away.” The captain lifts up one of her arms, and his eyes widen just a bit. “Dammit...those burns look bad. We might getcha some aid...there’s a laboratory place nearby that I’m heading by, just due east and—”

“...Lab?” The woman can’t help but wonder aloud. No...you idiot, you can’t be serious.

The captain smiles again. “See now, that’s why I was so eager to catch your attention. You’re running in the wrong direction.” He points in the direction she was running towards. “Up where you’re going is just mountains. There’s a fancy smancy lab a bit south that could help patch you up better than—”

“If you head to that lab, you’ll die.” She lets the words linger for a moment. “Unless, of course, that was the desired plan for the evening.” The woman laughs to herself, but the sound is empty and dry.

He frowns. “...What?”

She’s silent, gears turning in her head. Goddess...how do I say this without—

She points east, the rain pattering on her outstretched sleeve. “Tell me, Captain. What do you see over there?”

The man pauses, his face contort with confusion. He follows her hand and stares at the blue.

“...North Hyrule Plain. Some building glowing blue over there…I’m assuming that’s the techno-wizz from the L—”

“Lab, yes. That would be the Royal Ancient Lab. Though I’m afraid it’s not glowing from ‘techno-wizz’ or anything of that sort, dear captain.”

She crosses her arms, turning to look away from the blue and hugging her knees. “It’s currently burning to the ground.”

An ugly pause, as the man seems to take a moment to digest this. He flickers his gaze between the Sheikah and the distant blue building.

“I-It’s...It’s raining though—”

“Blue flame, I’m afraid, is a bit more resistant. Plus, it’s been burning long before the storm came through.”

“What...I…” The captain sits next to her, plopping into the mud in disbelief. “I was really thinking that...why would…”

He turns to her, his eyes are stormy grey, with faint specks of blue, like embers. The captain’s tone is gravely serious. “Miss, why was that lab destroyed?”

The question catches her off guard. Her jaw’s clenched, but she breaks their staring contest and hides her surprise with a shrug. “Same reason as every other disaster today. Calamity Ganon destroyed it.”

There’s a crack of thunder, and the ground shudders at her lie.

“...No.” the man mumbles.

“Look, I know it’s a lot to process—”

“No, I mean,” he stands, hand reaching for his back, “that’s not what actually happened, is it ma’am?”

Crap. The Sheikah holds her hands in the air. “If this is about me shoving you earlier, I was just a bit—”

“Aw now don’tcha worry about that, I took no personal offense.” He scratches the blond stubble on his chin.

“Now the thing that I do find some mighty fine offense to, is the fact that there’s a good lick of a chance that I’m currently speaking to an arsonist traitor.”

There’s a BOOM, and in the distance, another large piece of the Royal Lab collapses into the earth. The blue grows brighter.

“Me? What in the name of Hylia are you—”

“Let’s not play dumb, ma’am. Trust me, I’m a sucker for some pleasantries and small talk, though I’m afraid addressing the fact that you burned down the nearest safe haven for miles is gonna take priority here.”

The Sheikah woman just fumes, attempting to get up in the captain’s face. “How DARE you accuse me of—”

She’s cut off by the shing of metal cutting through air. The captain twirls the spear on his back and points the end right at her neck, resting just below her chin. She scowls, but puts her hands in the air.

“You just don’t understan—”

“That’s a mighty fine torch you got there…” He clicks his tongue.

Both hands grip his spear steady, ready to pierce flesh at any moment. The captain gestures with a wink to the torch attached to her waist. It seems to still smolder slightly with faint blue embers.

The captain looks between the torch, and the blue fire in the horizon.

“Yes, a mighty fine torch indeed.” He presses the spear tip a bit further forward.

“And it’s glowing a familiar color.”

Cause of Destruction

An Analysis of the Destruction of the Royal Ancient Lab

By Dr. J Kippers

(But please, Kippers was my father, call me Kip)

So heroes are a thing, huh? Who’da thunk it! One minute, I’m continuing my travels, studying some cool rocks and bricks in Hyrule Field. Then the next, a giant malice pig appears and fights some teenage boy wielding a glowing stick. I definitely wasn’t cowering behind the ruins of a garrison bathroom while that all happened, and I definitely was doing some cool badass fighting moves with my...pen, to help that knight and save the world and stuff. Makes for a pretty cool story, yeah? HA, Traysi would kill for it…

But enough of my daring, slightly exaggerated, exploits. It’s been a few weeks since the world’s settled down from the Calamity’s defeat, which means I had prime time to settle back into my hometown, and put my years of travel and research to paper!

I spent the majority of my life studying the history of Hyrule as it fell to the Calamity 100 years ago...and with the world now revitalizing, it’s just prime time to get myself out there! Research wise, that is!

At first, I didn’t really know what to write, cause WOW there’s just so many topics to choose from. Plus there’s a lot on the line here, gotta make a good impression for whatever new kingdom that Princess Zelda’s got planned. She seems the scholarly type, yeah? I’m thinking I could snag some Hyrule history teach’ position at a rebuilt university or something… Princess has got an awful lot of focus on the reconstruction of different village ruins. Which is fair, cause who better to know how to rebuild these places than the people who were alive to see them in their prime!

And you see, that’s where my journey of knowledge began! People with first hand knowledge of the events of distant past are alive? OH a historian’s dream…my soul swells in happiness. Plus, I also got my researcher brain a-tingling. My dad’s friend’s cousin’s neighbor’s grandma’s dog’s breeder knew Dr. Robbie back in the day, so Sheikah tech is basically in my blood.

With these passions rejuvenated I had my goal! Publish some revolutionary new theory that combined my awesome knowledge for history, archeology, and tech! And what better place to see that than, (duh) the Royal Ancient Lab Ruins.

Now, there doesn’t seem to be much in these ruins…it’s absolutely barren. No weapons or treasures to be seen. Just your run-of-the-mill ruined ruins, destroyed long ago by the Calamity. And that was the end of the story.

At least that’s what I thought until I did a little more digging. See, as I was doing some additional research, I stumbled upon this old history/research book stored in the Kakariko archive. I have no idea where it came from...it’s titled...C-Caa...Creation? Creating? Creating a...Cham...it’s kinda faded and hard to read. But anyhow, this weird little history book was written by some guy named “Nine-tendons.” If someone out there has a copy feel free to hit me up, but for today’s sake title and author don’t really matter. The point is, one of the quotes in that book describes the ruins like this:

Royal Ancient Lab Ruins

It is thought that these ruins represent the ancient relic research facility that was under the direct rule of Hyrule Castle, but only the outer walls remain. There is no trace of the building’s interior, let alone any research materials.

The thoroughness of its destruction feels intentional. [Page 396, Cr_ating a Champ___, Nint__do.]

Now I’m not too familiar with the work of whoever Mr. Nin-Ten-doves is, but I strangely trust their word on the topic wholeheartedly. Call it a feeling from the divine if you must, but they’re right! It seems so much more obvious in hindsight.

My adventures into the other various ruins across Hyrule always gave me something to work with. The world is just crafted for exploration. Old treasure chests, weird rocks with a tiny talking tree fairy underneath. Hell, even a monster or two was always happy to inhabit even the smallest of ruins I’ve entered. Yet, there is absolutely nothing of prominence to be seen at the ruins of the Royal Ancient Lab. And I’ve double, triple, and quintuple-checked!

Why are there no rusted weapons...or treasures...or any records or evidence of anything, other than some crude stone walls and a rock? That kind of destruction is just unnecessarily absolute, even for the Calamity.

According to detailed drawings/notes I have in my records of Historical Works during the Age of Calamity (HW AOC for short), the Royal Ancient Lab was nearly three stories tall, with a royal blue ceiling, complete with a basement level, and an upper telescope! With even the smallest of structures (like simple ranch and village ruins) still standing today with plenty of artifacts, why is as great a structure as the Royal Lab so desolate?

Intentional, intentional, intentional...that word ran through my head for days, weeks, months even. Why would the Royal Ancient Lab be destroyed intentionally? Did the Calamity see it as that major a threat? No, that wouldn’t make sense, the movements of Calamity Ganon that day clearly show his intention to use the Sheikah power against the people of Hyrule. An Ancient Lab would be a major benefit, if anything…

So, surprising as it may be, the current prime suspect for the destruction of this lab would actually be…

The Sheikah just glares. “Well...what gave it away?

He shrugged his shoulders with a half smile. “Deductive reasoning, with a hint of some good ol’ luck perhaps.”

“Listen, I know this looks bad, but you have to understand—”

“Oh I understand quite well alright.” The captain gives a wink. “I try to be humble, but Mama always did say I was the smartest cookie she knew.”

He rests the end of his spear on her collarbone, the threat clearly still present, but it gives him the freedom to pace and wipe rain for his soaked blonde hair.

“See I know that Calamity Ganon’s corrupted every bit of Sheikah tech from here to Lurelin. I know that he’s been targeting Hylian settlements. ‘Seen it myself when some monsters and Guardians destroyed my regiment and post at Maritta Exchange, just a bit north from here. I know that the only reason the other settlements, like the Rito and Zora, are still standing is because Ganon’s focusing all his forces on finding and killing the Hylian Champion and the princess. And finally I know that because of that, there is not a Guardian or monster around for many a mile. I mean, just lookie over there.”

The woman turns her head, and sure enough, the plains are barren of all life. No movement of machine or beast or person.

“And now my assumption was—and do pardon me if my monologue is redundant to your traitor ears—that the nearest place of safety would be this royal laboratory of technology. It’s Sheikah run, so it wouldn’t be immediately targeted. Plus the last thing the Calamity would want is for his personal army of destruction to be...well, destroyed. Ifs I was them evil cloud demon thing, I woulda wanted the lab with all my corrupted techno babble soldiers to be kept in peak condition. However…”

The captain turns to the right, staring at the blazing blue building in the distance. “...That does not seem to be the case.”

The Sheikah opens her mouth to speak, but he holds up the spear again. “Now I’m thinking, the only reason someone would go about destroying that lab, would perhaps be to kill some people, no?”

“We didn’t—”

“Getting rid of the people who could possibly reverse the Guardian corruption...now I suppose that might be a good evil plan.”

“It was for the be—”

“Ma’am I’m all about looking on the bright side of things, but,” the captain flicks his head in the direction of the blue, “This ain’t exactly the light a’ hope I was wanting.”

“Maybe not, but—”

“So,who are ya? Yiga?”

“No, it’s—”

“Solo treason then. You getting revenge on someone ‘round here? A noble? The King? Or perhaps you’re just the sadistic type with the whole—”

“NO!”

The outburst surprises the both of them, and he hold the spear to ner neck firmly. Another crack of thunder reminds them of the silence that’s endured. The Sheikah finally sighs.

“Perhaps by definition I am an arsonist and a traitor, but for one thing, I wasn’t alone.”

The man’s eyes shine curiously, but she continues.

“I will gladly die alongside them, as my actions have only been for the benefit of Hyrule.”

The rain’s tempo quickens as she gets on her feet, but the captain doesn’t strike. She stares him down, eyes hidden behind strands of white hair.

“My name is Atsuko, a devoted researcher at the Royal Lab, and you may kill me if you think it just.”

Ok, now I know what you’re all thinking. You’re thinking “Kip! Why are you writing this official research paper like some drunken bar rant? How the hell are you gonna get noticed at this rate?” or “Kip! The hell are you thinking?? Sheikah destroying the Ancient Lab makes absolutely no sense?!”

So to that I say, firstly, uhhh you’re welcome for not being a boring posh, snobby lecturer.(Learned to value a personality over fancy words; lessons my granddad).

As for the latter, you are quite wrong my dear friend, quite wrong indeed. It makes an absolute butt-load of sense, and I’m gonna prove it was them, here and now! I mean that’s...kinda the whole point of an essay, yeah?

My fellow archeology, history, and tech lovers, not only do I know who is responsible for the Royal Lab’s destruction, but I know the true reason why and how! Let us start at the beginning!

What exactly is the lab, and what was its purpose? Well, as the name implies, it was a Sheikah-run laboratory under the hand of the royal family that researched and experimented with Ancient technology. Again, looking at references in HW AOC, I can place not only Guardian models and Ancient weaponry at the lab, but also the existence of blue flame lamps that seemingly powered the facility.

As we all know, it’s tough to mess around with Ancient parts without blue flame, which is the prime energy source for the Ancient Sheikah. Such are the existence of today’s Hateno and Akkala tech labs, located near blue flame furnaces. However! This brings into question exactly why the Royal Lab was constructed where it was…

There are only three places in all of Hyrule with natural blue flame deposits, or otherwise called “Ancient Furnaces.” That would be in Hateno, Akkala, and within Hyrule Castle itself. So why is the Royal Tech Lab so far from these Ancient Furnaces?

To answer this question, might I direct your attention towards explosions. That’s right folks, I’m talking bombs! (Please take this moment to imagine me creating an accompanying explosive sound effect with my mouth)

Some time ago, as I was analyzing the blue flame lamps in Deep Akkala, I ran into that hero of legend face to face! Nice guy, quiet and charming type. Smelled strangely like apples and burnt guts.

Long story short, I traded my entire supply of Hot-Footed Frogs and arrows for a chance to mess with his Sheikah Slate for a bit.

So during that brief period of research, I discovered that while Sheikah tech is usually well controlled—with bomb runes only going off on command by the push of a button—there is an exception! Bomb runes instantly react with blue flame, just one touch and they’ll instantly explode! Try it out yourself! Er, well. Ok, maybe not. Don’t do that, legally I’m not responsible. Plus, it’s not like any of you folk out there have access to bomb runes or a Sheikah Slate that you can play around and test it out for yourself like it’s some virtual game that you can switch around in your hands.

Bomb runes are giant bundles of compact Sheikah tech. When in contact with a pure blue flame, they go boom. The process with the Sheikah Slate must simplify this process with a remote button, but as I’ve discovered, the process can be hastened by chucking a torch around.

I call this phenomenon of blue flame reacting destructively with Sheikah technology a “blue combustion!” I’m creative, I know.

I imagine, any experimentation with weapons that harness, compress, or just generally mess with Sheikah tech and lasers, must be conducted in an environment that prevents blue combustion. You don’t want pure blue flame touching stuff. Otherwise you go kaboom.

Now I couldn’t get a hold of Dr. Robbie or Director Purah myself, something about how they “don’t know who the heck” I am, and “you’re trespassing please get off it’s private property,” or something of the sort, I’m not really sure. But even without their testimonies, you’ll notice that their large tech labs are constructed a distance away from the actual Ancient Furnace. They aren’t right beside it. If they were, you risk losing a limb to a blue combustion. That is also why blue flame lamps exist: to stagger the distance between the flames. And thus is why the Royal Lab isn’t nearby an Ancient Furnace.

Yet even so, the distance the Royal Lab has from an Ancient Furnace might still stump you, because even compared to the Akkala and Hateno labs, it is very very far. But here’s the kicker, my dear curious readers and poor editor, the reason for this extreme distance is because during its prime, the Royal Ancient Lab housed a large portion of the Guardian army and weaponry. It needed more distance because its contents accumulated a much larger space. I can prove this not only by descriptions shown in HW AOC, but also by notes/drawings shown in the archive called the Backgrounds of Technological Wonders, or BOTW for short.

Both these sources show that while Guardians were tested and stationed in Hyrule Castle, the number of Guardians at the castle was probably only in the one hundred mark or less. Now that may seem like a lot, but remember, hundreds of Guardians were dug up, as especially shown in the famous Sheikah tapestry of 10,000 years ago. Arguably even thousands, considering that tapestry is a simplification.

So if we can only account for only a portion of the Guardian population at Hyrule Castle, where are the rest? Scattered across different garrisons perhaps, sure. But they’d mainly be in the facility where each of the Guardians were constructed and given power, the place full of the most talented Sheikah researchers, a location that would still be in decent proximity, but still a safe distance from the castle should an emergency arise: the Royal Ancient Tech Lab. That’s where most of Guardians are.

Now, why is this important? Why did I just spend a few paragraphs talking about blue flames and Guardians and locations when this is about the lab’s destruction and demise?

It’s because this is my sure fire way to prove to you that the Calamity did not destroy the Royal Lab.

The Royal Ancient Lab was constructed specifically to create the best Guardians and technology to beat the Calamity with.

It would have been constructed specifically to avoid any fatal blue combustion accidents.

And it sure as hell wouldn’t have been purposefully destroyed by the Calamity, the one entity who would benefit from its existence.

The lab was decimated by a blue combustion, no question. There isn’t anything as powerful as it that could destroy a place so completely. And now knowing the factors surrounding the lab itself, we know that if it was destroyed by a combustion, it was not because of an accident.

It could only have been done purposefully, by the only people who would know the Royal Lab’s weaknesses.

It could only have been brought down by the Sheikah researchers.

So now, the questions of exactly how and why remain.

The captain just stands and ponders.

“Ma’am, I must confess that I don’t find the science of the destruction nearly as interesting as exactly what made you decide to do it.”

“It’s like I said,” Atsuko clutches her burned arm, “It wasn’t just me. Really, now, you’re too kind to give me so much credit.”

The spear end moves closer to her neck. “Alright alright alright, sorry, pal. Look I have no idea if you’re even believing all this right now, but you have to trust me that our actions were of the best intentions.”

The captain smirks. “Do tell?”

According to BOTW, the Ancient Arrow was developed by Dr. Robbie as one of the most powerful means of combating the Calamity itself. In fact, according to research I’ve found in that CAC book by Mint-en-do, I can place the exact time for the development of this weapon, which I can use to glean information about it’s properties.

Ancient Arrow

Perhaps forty or fifty years after the day of the Great Calamity Robbie, the lead Guardian researcher, created the first weapon that was effective against the mechanical monsters: the ancient arrow... Flames come out from the burner like bit [of the Ancient Arrow] and form a blade. [Page 388 and 178, Cr_ating a Champ___, Nint__do.]

The arrow instantly vaporizes whatever it comes into contact with, tearing apart the subject by the molecule, and sending them to non-existence. The description of the weapon implies that it is the pure energy of a blue flame, and built quite differently than other Sheikah weapons.

And the difference definitely shows. I’ve handled a few of these puppies myself, and let me tell you, they get the job done. While an Ancient sword or axe will certainly do some damage, a single Ancient Arrow can take out a Guardian, or even a Lynel in one hit. I heard that they could even do major damage to Dark Beast Ganon itself!

Now, why do I bring this up? Because this Ancient Arrow proves that the Sheikah 100 years ago knew about the dangers of blue combustion.

An Ancient Arrow is clearly the result of intensive research into blue combustion, it is literally a pure blue flame on a stick pumped up with some Ancient Tech. It vaporizes whatever matter it touches and it ceases to exist.

Hmm...would be a fine explanation as to why the nearly three stories worth of stone and ceiling in the Royal Lab no longer can be found.

And why wasn’t the Ancient Arrow developed sooner? It’s because no one thought to purposefully cause an event that would destroy everything until they were forced to on the actual day of the Calamity. It’s because it took even the most brilliant of scientists half a century to even contain a feat of destruction into a single arrowtip? Yes...when you lay out the facts like that, it seems to make sense on the timeline.

Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to the question of “why?” Let me rewind to an earlier point. Where are the thousands of Guardians in Hyrule?

Yes, a good hundred or so could be found in Hyrule Castle, and the majority were in the Royal Ancient Lab. But today, where are they? Records in BOTW cite only 157 Guardian remains in all of Hyrule. 157. How? That’s impossible. Witnesses and notes in HW AOC prove that much, much more existed. And what’s more is that we know that the majority of those Guardians were at the Royal Lab, but there are no Guardians, active or otherwise, to be found there. There is nothing.

It’s almost as if all those Guardians were vaporized, they ceased to exist one day.

And you know what.

They did.

(Please take this time to imagine me winking)

There’s some theme or metaphor here about the Royal Ancient Lab, constructed in the blues of the Royal family, ironically being destroyed by the blue combustion—but what do I look like, a writer? Find your own secret to life, here’s the blunt of it.

The Sheikah knew about the dangers a blue combustion could do, but on the day of the Calamity, they used that knowledge for the better. Seeing the corrupted Guardians in the distant castle, it is my belief that the researchers there purposefully brought the blue flames—that they had so carefully separated outside in the lanterns—in contact with Ancient Technology. Things not only went kaboom, but the actual matter ceased to exist. A giant Ancient Arrow.

Thousands of Guardians, hundreds of blades and weapons, and honestly, probably even lives, were gone in an instant. The only remains of the carnage would be the aftermath of blue flames that spread across the remains of the outer walls.

The Sheikah did this because it would save the most lives. That’s hundreds and thousands of Guardians and machines that wouldn’t fall into Ganon’s clutches, hundreds of souls saved. Did you know that today Hyrule Ridge, the home of the Royal Lab, has zero Guardians? Did you know that the lands near it, Hebra and Tabantha, have the lowest Guardian sightings in all of Hyrule? Even less than the Gerudo Desert. And I cite this all based on my hours of research and facts laid out by BOTW, HW AOC, and the divine work by Mr. Nin-ten-do

But even beyond that, how do I know, in absolute 600% certainty that the Sheikah were in complete control of this destruction? How am I so sure that the Sheikah that day had fully planned the intentional obliviation of their lab?

It’s because...I lied earlier.

There is actually one relic that survived. One little monument of the Royal Ancient Lab Ruins. One object giving physical proof of this theory.

One artifact that would have been impossible to preserve if the Sheikah hadn’t planned it all. I mentioned it briefly before, if you paid attention. Yes! This object is present in both the Royal Lab, and a tech lab of today. You could see it for yourself, if you pay a visit to my dad’s friend’s cousin’s neighbor’s grandma’s dog’s breeder’s Sheikah researcher pal...

“Dr. Robbie’s telescope.” Atsuko pointed to the scattered trees in upper Lindor, “Some other scientists took it up there to preserve it. It’s the only reason we were able to see the initial Guardian corrupting in the distant castle, and how we were able to adapt to the situation and act so quickly.”

The captain glanced at the western mountain. “So you were running up there to meet with them?”

“The wilderness is pretty safe at the moment. And we’re hoping eventually we could take the telescope to another lab where we could possibly continue research. I mean just today from the combustion, Dr. Robbie had this idea for some fancy Sheikah dagger to kill Guardians.”

Silence.

“OK listen, that’s...that’s all I’ve got. You can head up there and confirm the story, or just kill me now, take your pick. Waiting for judgement here.”

More silence. The rain falls harder.

“...I’m—”

“You can call me Cian.” The captain does a little bow. “Captain Cian Kippers, at your leisure.”

Atsuko raises an eyebrow. “Like the color—?”

“Sp-Spelled differently! There’s an “i” in there, and perhaps it’s ironic to the situation, but I figured if we’re gonna be traveling up there together you should have the courtesy of knowing my name.”

She just sputters for a moment. “So...you—”

“I trust your heart—I like to think I’m good with character—and I believe you’re a good person doing your best in the world. As unfortunate as circumstances may have been.” He twirls his spear before fitting it on his back. Cian extends a hand to her which she takes. “People like that are getting rarer by the hour, so I don’t think I should be adding to the death count.”

“So…” she gets on her feet, cocking her head, “You...you believe me then?”

He chuckles. “Well, I didn’t kill you did I?”

Atsuko laughs quietly. “Your mistake…”

“...No.” Cian places a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiles, as if to say that somehow everything was gonna be alright.

“My intention.”

#Memorabilia zine #botw zine #botw theory #botw fanfiction #botw #breath of the wild #legend of zelda botw #loz botw

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darker-soft-starker · 4 years

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Starker High School AU, Pt 3 (Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 4, Pt 5)

-----

There were two things in life that Peter was unequivocally certain were true.

Number one was that Monday mornings were a universally despised, unpleasant experience that no weekend could ever ease the pain of having to endure.

And number two: Sit-ups were a specific and profound mechanism of torture that no person should ever be required to engage in, recreationally or mandated.

Of course, it would be just his luck that the two were combined on this very Monday morning.

It was cruel and unusual is what it was, Peter thought, hands curled at his temples as he pushes himself into a sitting position, falling back onto the dewy grass with a thud that steals the breath from his chest.

Bucky, holding his ankles, encourages him to complete his set.

“I can’t,” Peter gasps, his stomach trembling as he pulls himself up again. “I - oh fuck - I hate this. I hate exercise.”

Bucky squeezes his ankles tighter. “C’mon, Parker, only three more. You can do it.”

Peter shakes his head, even as he pulls himself up again with a pained groan.

“No, I can’t. Make it stop.”

“Two more. You got it. Sit-ups are not the boss of you.”

“Yes - ahh - they are!”

“One more!”

Sweat pours down his neck and his muscles protest as he pulls himself up for the last time. He gets probably only most of the way up before his gravity slams to the ground.

Bucky slaps his bare calf encouragingly as Peter stares up into the glaring morning sun, arms splayed out, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. Oh, god. Never again. That was the worst.

Covering his eyes with his quivering arms he wonders if maybe coach will indulge him just this once. Maybe he can stay here until training is over, perhaps curl up into a ball and try to blend in with the grass so that no one sees him or subjects him to any more exercise.

Except Coach Danvers is already yelling at him to get off the ground and get moving.

He smacks his hands over his ears but it’s no use.

“Get up Parker, last warning!”

“Respite!” He yells back pleadingly, curling in tighter upon himself. “Please!”

Her whistle pierces the air.

“Now!”

Coach has been on edge all morning. Her harsh has turned razor edged in the face of their upcoming match against Kingston this Thursday, reminding the team of her expectations, tolerating nothing other than complete dedication.

Which, whatever.

Peter’s dedicated, okay? It’s Monday. He dragged his ass out of bed to be here at an unholy hour, exhausted and bloated from his indulgent weekend, didn’t he?

Erring on the margin of spite towards Danvers and self motivation, which he suspects is her aim, he pushes himself back up. Taking each of Bucky’s ankles in his grip, he starts counting as Bucky begins his set.

Not that he needs the assistance, Bucky proves his strength by ripping through the set like a bull stampeding through a brick wall. He doesn’t even break a sweat. Dude’s crazy athletic.

It’s really not fair.

As he mentally counts the reps, Peter thinks Bucky’s the kind of fit that Peter both hoped and never hoped to be. He’s effortlessly capable at any physical task, but he works hard for it, harder than Peter would ever dream of working, dedicating hours to gym time and conditioning. Bucky’s not even out of breath when he strikes up conversation.

“How was your weekend, PP?”

“S’okay. Played Mario Kart with my Aunt all weekend.”

Bucky grins as his upper half rises to meet his knees. “Oh, party animal. She doing okay?”

“Yeah, she’s good,” Peter grins wryly, taking one of his hands from the other’s ankle to push the sweat-damp hair from his eyes. “Kicked my ass though. She always takes Toad.”

“Switch?”

“Nah, GameCube. How was your weekend?”

“Boring. Parents were home all weekend and wanted some ‘family time’.”

“So, you just watched The Voice all weekend?”

“Yup.”

“Nat sneak in after?”

“Yup. How’d it go with Stark on Friday?” Bucky accepts Peter’s hand as he finishes his set. Peter pulls him up and pats him on the back.

The set off in a jog to complete a lap of the field, Coach yells that only five minutes are left, urging them to pick up speed. Peter’s lungs burn when he speaks.

“It was fine.”

Bucky looks at him dubiously, flyaways whipping at his face.

“Well not like, fine-fine, but no bloodshed. See? All limbs intact.” He holds his arms out mid-sprint.

“Wow, so you’re basically best friends now.”

“No.”

“Did you hold hands and braid each other’s hair?”

Incensed, Peter shoves at Bucky to the sound of his snickering,

“Ew, stop, I just had breakfast. Look, the first experience was painful enough. Can we move on? I really don’t want to talk about it.”

---

“And then he hit on my Aunt,” Peter complains in the showers, soaping up his chest. “Literally right in front of me. Who does that?”

“Did she flirt back?” Bucky asks, dipping his head into the spray.

“What? No. He said he was just trying to get under my skin,” he puts his head beneath his own shower head, the water pleasantly lukewarm against his heated skin. “I mean, what kind of psychopath does that?”

“Yeah, but your aunt is super hot though,” Wilson says to his right. “Stark’s an asshole, but he’s not crazy.”

There is a general murmur of agreement around the showers.

“I’m going to need you all to shut up right now,” Peter warns, turning to point at them all. “Keep my aunts name out of your mouth while you’re washing your balls, alright?”

“You heard him, move on,” Rogers cuts in, offering Peter a sympathetic smile.

He nods gratefully as conversation quickly turns to girls, grades and the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays. There was a reason why Peter was on Roger’s side all these weeks ago, he thinks, observing how the entire team respects his command without query. The guy was just interested in doing the right thing, and that’s pretty cool.

By the time they’re all dried and dressed, the topic is forgotten, much to Peter’s relief. He’s nearly late to first period though, too busy watching Wilson and Barnes smack each other with wet towels and attempting to tame his unruly curls into something resembling neatness. He’s not proud of the amount of gel it takes, but it’s what he’s got to work with.

It’s not that he’s obsessed with his appearance or anything, but he has a routine that he sticks to. Gel and lots of it.

Once, in third grade, Flash pulled one of Peter’s tightly coiled ringlet between his fingers, pulled on it and said oink. Peter still had some lingering baby fat at the time and so, as cruel as children can be, Peter was donned Piggy Parker for a time afterwards. Sometimes Porky Parker. They’re friends now, but the oinking and snuffling that followed him around the playground still haunts him.

Anyway.

On the way to first period Rogers walks alongside him down the hall. They have English together, but usually make their way separately. It kind of weirded Peter out for a moment because while they’re team-mates, they’re not really friends.

“Heard you got paired with Stark for an assignment,” the other boy says, his wry smile caught between amused and sympathetic. “That’s shit luck, Parker.”

“You’re telling me,” Peter agrees, waving to Ned and Betty as they pass. “Dude’s a freakin’ prick.”

Rogers bumps their shoulders together.

“You said it. Want me to have a word with him, get him to back off?”

“Nah,” Peter shakes his head. “I can handle Stark, he’s just some bored rich kid looking for a fight. Besides,” he gives Rogers a once-over, “pretty sure you’re supposed to keep your distance after your last brawl with him.”

“True,” he concedes, clamping Peter’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze as they stop before their room. “But we’re a team, alright? Just say the word and I’ll encourage some sense into him. Promise to be gentle.”

Peter clamps his hands over his heart with a flair of drama, despite being truly touched. “You’re my hero, Captain Rogers.”

Rogers rolls his eyes and shoves him into the classroom.

“Alright, smartass. Let’s go.”

Inside, he smiles sheepishly at Mrs Perez who glowers at them for their lateness and takes his usual seat between Clint and Shuri. He signs a good morning to the former and smiles at the latter, who is staring down at her desk with disdain.

“What’s wrong?” He nudges her chair with his foot to grab her attention.

“The curriculum.” She raises her head and points to the board miserably. It reads Lord of the Flies.

Oh, great. He could use the nap.

Peter smiles sympathetically, opening his nearly full notebook up to a blank page. “How was your weekend?”

“Meh.”

“Meh?”

“Mmm,” She nods, gesturing airily. “You know, eh. Oh, oh! I heard you spent the weekend getting cosy with Stark,” Shuri follows, pretending to search through their textbook. “Wow, that’s a three-sixty, PP. Didn’t know you had it in you.”

“What?” Peter hisses, voice lowering when their teacher looks around as roll-call commences. “That’s not -- ”

“Parker!” Perez yells for roll call.

“Present!”

Shuri snickers as Peter’s hand shoots up.

Lucky for him it’s the last he hears of it.

Kinda.

---

His next class is Bio with MJ who, thankfully, says very little through class. She inspects him with bleary eyes when he enters, nursing a coffee in her hands, always earlier than Peter who has to come from the other side of the school.

Peter’s grateful for the reprieve. When she does speak to him, it’s to borrow a pen or to offer him a sip of her coffee. It’s not a lab class today, only note-taking and listening to their teacher drone on about plant anatomy in the same monotone, so he accepts the bitter black coffee without hesitation.

It’s only then that he ventures to initiate conversation.

“So,” he begins precariously, doodling in his notebook, “how was your weekend?”

She shrugs, appearing more awake than earlier. “It was okay. You?”

“It was okay.”

And that was that, he’s relieved to note, companionable silence falling between again as they turn their attention to their teacher again. It’s not until they’re packing up their books at the end of class that MJ speaks to him again.

“See you at lunch?”

“Yeah, dude. Save us a table?”

“You bet. Oh, and by the way, I heard Stark is gonna be your new step-daddy. Congrats.”

Peter groans.

“How do you -- you know what, no,” he says, pulling his backpack over his shoulders and making a x with his arms. “Nope. No more talking about Stark, he is persona non grata. I’m traumatised enough.”

MJ pushes his glasses up after they slipped precariously down his nose during his declaration. “You’re so dramatic, dude.”

He bumps their shoulders together on the way out of the room and shakes his head.

“Why do people keep saying that?”

---

Ned texts him during recess; Peter is taking an extended break in the bathroom despite not needing to be there, but he’s definitely not hiding, nope. He’s just chilling in the cubicle.

< heard stark spent the weekend < lol wtf < plz verify < actually i don’t want to know < no wait i do tell me < dude

< hello?

----

Traitors, all of them.

He wonders if he should leave this school and start anew elsewhere.

---

Here’s the thing.

As much as Peter loves his friends, he has limits to how long he can spend with them before needing a time out.

They’re his motley crew of village idiots. Some he’s known since first grade, like Ned and Flash, others only since he came to the school and subsequently, the football team.

This school headhunted him because of his academic merit. With his pursuit of scholastic excellence - and the fact that some of his best friends would be attending the school, he applied for and was awarded a scholarship. It was a no-brainer - he had big dreams and even bigger expectations of himself to achieve them and he wanted May to be proud of him.

Which was why when it was suggested that he try out for JV, having exhibited some physicality during gym class, he decided to give it a try. It would look great to have on his applications, he was assured.

So he did. Somehow his wiry frame and years of gymnastics was considered an asset and he was promptly recruited by Coach Danvers. At first he deeply regretted the additional commitment -- the early hours, the soreness, adapting to the internal culture within the team. But he’s persevered and he’s glad that he did.

And for the most part, he copes okay. He can juggle football obligations and after-school activities and the odd tutoring jobs here and there and stay sane, right?

Sort of.

Because as grateful as he was for his broad circle of friends, Peter was still, at heart, an introvert. And right now, his social energy is running on fumes.

It’s because of this - and nothing to do with the relentless questions about Stark - that Peter retreats to the library at lunch that day.

Nestled away in the dusty, back corner, near the collection of old encyclopaedias that nobody reads, are an assortment of bean bags. It’s away from the main area, quiet and disregarded by most. It used to be a thriving recreational area way before Peter’s time, but there wasn’t any maintenance to it over the years. Now the bags are old, terribly lumpy and are speckled with suspicious stains, the fabric is thinning and aged. Most people purposefully avoid the old rec area, which is why Peter likes this spot best. It’s his secret hiding space.

He prepares to disassociate for the next forty minutes by getting comfortable on his favorite bean bag and popping his earphones in.

Next, he retrieves his slightly soggy ham-tomato sandwich from his bag and takes a large bite after unwrapping it. The first burst of tomato hits his tongue at the same time as the music begins.

Ah, to be alone.

Closing his eyes, he allows his body to sink into the bag and for his thoughts to wander freely.

Of course, because his luck is as poor as he is, his seclusion lasts all of three songs before someone else enters into his space. Well it’s not his space, technically, but it should be.

When Peter creaks an eye open to see who is intruding he’s surprised to see Thor perched on the bean-chair opposite him. They catch each others stare and smile.

Well, alone time is overrated.

Maybe his luck isn’t down the drain after all - because this is his opportunity to prove he isn’t a total fumbling loser. He doesn’t know which deity he pleased to be alone in a quiet corner of the library with Thor, but someone up there is clearly looking out for him.

He wants to say something, to strike up a conversation that might make Peter seem cool and only casually interested - something that would make him sound both smart and like, available.

But not too available.

With little success, Peter wracks his brain for the best opening line but frets because he’s ever been cool or collected a day in his life. And great, now he’s just been sitting there smiling for like two whole minutes like an absolute weirdo. Come on, Parker, say something!

Thor acts well before Peter has the chance to say anything, pointing at him, his mouth moving with words Peter can’t hear.

Realising a moment too late that his earphones are still playing music from his phone, Peter hurries to tug them out if his ears, smacking himself in the face in the .

“Sorry, I was --” Peter gestures to his ears, hands shaking, cheeks going hot. God, Thor is talking to him. Him! Peter Parker! “Sorry. What did you say?”

“I said I like your shirt!” Thor replies, way more loudly than what would normally be socially acceptable for a library, but Peter does not care. Thor likes his shirt.

“This?” He asks, gesturing downwards to his shirt where crumbs are dusted at the collar. “You like Nirvana?”

“I do not know Nirvana,” Thor smiles, “but it looks very cool. Peter, right?”

“Uh yeah,” he nods, face positively flaming because again, he knows Peter’s name. Quickly sweeping the crumbs from his shirt, he extends his hand out to the older boy who shakes his hand. Holy shit. Be cool. “I’m Parker -- I mean, Peter. Yes. Nice to be here. I mean, nice to be speaking. To you.”

Even as Peter’s arm is roughly jostled with Thor’s exuberant hand-shaking embarrassment crawls up his neck, and he wants to disintegrate into the bean bag where no one has to witness his persistent, glaring awkwardness. Palms sweating, Peter has to bite his lip to stop himself from commenting on how big Thor’s hands are.

Stop it, he scolds himself, be normal, play it cool.

“Thor, right?” Peter asks, as if he didn’t doodle their initials together in his notebooks. “You were at training last week.”

“Yes, you fell on your face,” Thor nods, gesturing to the yellowed bruising on his jaw, “I saw.”

“Oh, okay, so you saw that! Uhh -- ” Peter waves a hand at his face, laughing nervously. “This? It’s nothing. I’m totally fine.”

“You are clumsy,” Thor states, not unkindly.

“Well, no -- I mean, yes --” Peter tries to come up with an explanation, but falls short. “I’m not always a klutz, promise. Just sometimes.”

“Happens to the best of us. Well, not myself, but you know, generally speaking. In any case, I’m happy to see you’re okay.”

Thor unzips his backpack then and from within it retrieves a truly gargantuan protein shake, followed by a sub wrapped in foil so large it could be the same size as Peter’s forearm. Sneaking a look down at the remainder of his own lunch, his pickings look pretty slim in comparison.

“Sorry,” Thor says. “Just peckish for a snack.”

Peter watches, dazed, as the older boy consumes half his sub in a single bite, washing it down with several mouthfuls of his shake.

A snack.

“You’re fine. Anyway, football isn’t really my forte,” he admits after a moment, drawing his knees up. “I mean, I’m okay at it and I like it, but it’s not really what I’m best at, y’know?”

The blond boy nods, “I’m on the varsity team,” he proclaims, wiping his mouth. “Whatever that means.”

His accent is so thick it takes Peter half a moment to figure out what it was that he said.

He’s not sure if Thor is being serious or not but the one question Peter has is why is he so fucking cute?

A silence follows, albeit not an awkward one. It gives Peter the opportunity to inspect the older boy, nearly a man at his height and stature, of course helped along by the generous distribution of facial hair across his lower face.

“Uh, did you play football back at home?” Peter asks, keen to keep conversation going. “Soccer?”

“Oh yes,” the boy nods. “Soccer, tennis, volleyball. Water polo. Badminton.”

“Wow,” Peter blinks, “that’s a lot of sport. You’re like the whole Olympics here.”

He’s awarded with a lazy grin for that comment. Thor, to his credit, doesn’t appear to be boastful about his physicality, seemingly a result of his passions instead of a product of vanity.

“Close enough, I suppose. What else do you play, besides football?”

“Uhh --”

Oh god. How is he supposed to respond to that when the idea of doing additional sports outside of football is abhorrent? He can’t tell Thor that. Surely he can fake a common interest. Think of something, Parker, think, think.

The first bell rings, saving him from having to provide a potentially humiliating answer, seeing as all how all that could think of was chess, or PC. Both of which are true and accurate, but not exactly something he thinks that would make him appear more attractive or endearing.

Thank god for fifth period.

“To be continued?” Peter asks as he picks up his backpack, just a little hopeful.

There’s an awkward bit of shuffling as they rush to get off the sagging bean chairs, moment filled with odd squeaks of polystyrene as they attempt to stand.

Thor nods and to Peter’s surprise, doesn’t immediately rush to get away from him. There’s an awkward bit of shuffling as they rush to get off the sagging bean chairs with, odd squeaks of polystyrene as they stand. Instead, he accompanies Peter all the way out of the library, walking alongside him into the main hallway where a flurry of students are intersecting to get to their next class, walking alongside him.

Heads turn to watch them as they depart the library and enter the halls. For a moment, as kids part like the red sea to make way for them - for Thor - Peter wonders if this is what it’s like to be famous. Or to be on the arm of someone famous. It certainly feels like it, because even though the revere isn’t for Peter specifically, it seems like the weight of everyone’s awe is on them.

He doesn’t like the attention. But he likes Thor.

To his delight, the older boy follows him to his locker. Embarrassingly, it sticks when Peter tries to open it, as it usually does. He struggles with it for long, humiliating moments before Thor opens it with one hand.

“Thanks,” he says, blush creeping back up his neck. “You’re like, crazy strong, dude.”

Thor flexes and inspects his own bicep, as if seeing it for the first time.

“Perhaps,” he concedes, smiling roguishly. “Back at home I used to lift my brother for weight training.”

“You what?”

“A story for another time,” Thor shakes his head, shuffling closer to be heard over the traffic of students. “Anyway, I should be going. But there was something I have been meaning to ask you, if I may take a moment --”

Peter freezes. Oh my god, this is it, he thinks.

It’s happening.

“-- seeing as you and I have similar interests and we seem compatible, it would please me greatly if you would agree to --”

Heart racing, Peter turns, a fervent yes already on his lips.

It dies when there is a loud call of his name in the hall.

“-- Hey, Parker!”

Whatever Thor was going to say wilts at the interruption, seemingly forgotten as he waves at the intruder. Peter turns to see who called out for him and instantly wishes he didn’t.

Heart dropping to his stomach, he squeezes his eyes shut and sighs.

This is his luck.

Never has he wanted to melt into the floor and die like he does right now as Stark approaches the pair in quick strides.

Hands shoved into his jean pockets, Stark’s wide eyes dart between them inquisitively, a shadow of a smirk crossing his face, disappearing just as quick.

“Well, pardon me. I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Tony places a hand on his heart and leans on the locker next to Peters. “Thor, barely a pleasure as always.”

“Stark,” Thor nods.

Tony simpers, smile saccharine sweet and gestures to an uneasy Peter.

“I am just so sorry to intrude, but would you mind if I spoke to my husband here? He’s such a slippery one, aren’t you, sweetums?”

Thor looks between them, head going to and fro like a pendulum.

“He’s not my husband,” Peter rushes to assure, acutely pincered between Thor’s confusion and Tony’s mischief. “I mean he is, but it’s for an assignment. We’re not really -- it’s not real. I don’t like him.”

Tony exhales heavily, looking at Thor with dismay. “That’s not what he said in our wedding vows.”

Peter wants to punch him in the throat.

“I understand,” Thor smiles, patting each of them on the shoulder. He dips his chin and catches Peter’s eye. “To be continued?”

“Y-Yeah,” Peter nods enthusiastically, probably too enthusiastically, he thinks, as his aim is to pretend to be cool and disinterested, but he doesn’t even care because maybe not all is lost after all. “To be continued. See you.”

All of the pomp bleeds away from Tony as Thor walks away, his posture turning into a slump against the locker.

The smile drops from Peter’s face. He sends Tony a heated glare as he retrieves from his books, shoving them into his bag.

“What do you want?” he grumbles, slamming his locker shut. “You have the worst timing, you know that?”

“It’s part of my charm,” the other boy shrugs. “What can I say, I’m delightful.”

“You’re deplorable.”

Tony gasps in mock offence. “Deplorable? Good lord, Parker, is that any way to speak to your husband?”

“If the shoe fits,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Look, I have to go to class. Say what you want or move out of the way.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Oh, don’t be like that. C’mon, what were you and He-Man grunting about, hmm? Grr, me big, you tiny?”

“Unless you have a point,” Peter asks, pointing to the main hall, “I’m leaving.”

Tony puts his hands up in surrender, however the glib expression doesn’t quite leave his face. But at that moment Peter doesn’t have it within him to care, he’s not here to entertain him and sooner they get this over with, the better.

“Alright, alright, buzzkill. Come outside, I have to talk to you about the assignment.”

Peter looks at him, perturbed.

“I need a smoke,” he explains, tutting at Peter dispiritedly. “Also, don’t lie, I know it’s your free period.”

He doesn’t wait for Peter to respond, heading straight for the double doors that lead to the courtyard at a sedate enough pace for Peter to follow. Nonetheless he jogs a few paces to catch up after debating whether or not it was a good idea to follow or if he should hide in the boys bathroom.

Again.

It’s fairly chilly out, the wind whipping through his clothes. He wishes he had a scarf or gloves or something, opting to shove his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and hooking the hood over his head.

“How do you know it’s my free period?” he queries loud enough to be heard over the wind.

“Because,” Tony turns to walk backwards, the breeze whistling around them, “it’s also my free period and you always stink up the library so I can’t go there,” he rounds the corner to lead Peter to the shaded area behind the auditorium where a few students are lingering, most of them smoking.

“And you take the best seat. Personally, I think it’s selfish. I can’t possibly sit there after your ass has warmed it.”

Willing himself to not rise to Tony’s level of pettiness, he crosses his arms over his chest as they come to a stop. The wind is at full force now that the surrounding buildings aren’t taking the brunt of it and it is cold as all hell, although Tony’s in a black t-shirt and doesn’t look affected at all, probably because he’s cold-blooded or warmed by hellfire.

Tony cups his hands over his lighter to protect the flame from the breeze, struggling briefly to light his cigarette. Once the end is properly alight, Tony takes a drag while staring at him.

His hand comes to rest at his thigh, smoke rising idly from the cigarette. After a moment, he exhales the smoke in Peters direction.

“Wow. You’re disgusting,” he waves his hand in front of his face to dispel the smell. “Don’t you know second-hand smoke can kill?”

"Yes. Do you want a drag to speed up the process?”

“Don’t be a dick,” he says as Tony seems to find himself funny, offering up the cigarette in jest. Peter has half a mind to snatch it out of his hands and stomp on it. “I know that’s hard for you.”

“I’m joking, okay. I thought the wind would redirect the smoke. My bad.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure. Anyway, the assignment? Still waiting for whatever was so urgent."

Tony takes another drag, flicking ash to the ground before answering.

“I booked an appointment with a realtor for tomorrow after school.”

That has Peter’s curiosity piqued. “Really? Where?”

“LIC. One of the agents has agreed to be a reference so our domestic nightmare can be officially documented. Yay, go team.”

“Yay,” Peter deadpans. “What time?”

“Appointment’s at four-thirty,” Tony retrieves his phone from his pocket and hands it to Peter. “Give me your number and I’ll send you the details.”

Peter accepts it with a grimace. It’s warm from Tony’s body heat. Ugh.

“And now you can say: ‘thank you for being proactive, Tony, you’re so much better than me, Tony’.”

“Thank you for being proactive, Anthony, even if you’re a self-aggrandizing jerk,” Peter mutters, voice getting progressively more sarcastic.

A wide smile blooms on Tony’s face, clearly pleased with himself.

“You’re welcome, Parker.”

He is going to let that one go, Peter decides, feeling magnanimous on spite of the circumstances. He’d never admit it, but he’s kinda surprised by Tony’s apparent initiative, and even genuinely a little grateful that the other boy has arranged this so quickly. Or even that he thought to arrange it at all - field research was one of the highest scoring components on the rubric for this assignment.

Eyes flicking up for a moment, he assesses the other boy. Maybe he’s not as much of a slacker as Peter thought he was.

Tony, slumped against the brick wall, rubs his stomach and burps quietly.

Or maybe he is.

Nevertheless, Peter types in his details and saves his contact in Tony’s phone as Your Better Half.

Peter isn’t too much to look at, he knows, but he’s not the weak link here.

Tony accepts the phone back and wipes the touch screen on his shirt before pocketing it.

“Alright then, meet me after school tomorrow in the parking lot. Don’t be late,” he flicks his cigarette to the ground and steps on it to put it out. Tony bends at the waist then to pick up the stub, clutching it in his fist for later disposal instead of leaving it as litter.

That surprises Peter a little, it’s more thoughtful, conscious a gesture than he would have expected to come from Stark. Not that he’s ever personally seen such behaviour from him, but it wouldn’t be a stretch with his devil-may-care attitude. Would it?

He’s about to make mention of heading back inside when Stark takes two purposeful steps towards Peter, bridging the gap between them.

Peter freezes on the spot, breath caught in his chest as Tony brings them nose-to-nose.

He flicks his eyes down at Tony’s lips when his solemn expression morphs into an impish smile.

“Dude, what -- ?”

While Peter is distracted, Tony’s hands dart out to grip the strings of Peter’s hoodie, tugging them until the hood shrinks around his face.

“Do me a solid and try to wear something that doesn’t make you look like you’re a step away from lining up at a soup kitchen, okay? Y’know, something nice.”

Peter smacks his hands away furiously, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as Tony backs away, snickering.

“You really get off on being a prized piece of shit, don’t you?” he mutters, somewhat self conscious as he tries to correct the hood. “Poor jokes, that’s real nice. Sorry not all of us were born wearing Balenciaga.”

He continues to struggle with it as they move away and head back towards the main building, pushing it off his head altogether.

“Calm down, Charlie Brown, it’s not that deep,” Tony says drily, although his flippant demeanour softens significantly. “I have no doubt that you’d still manage to look like a hobo even if you were loaded, okay. You just have that grubby vibe.” Tony claps his hands together. “So, tomorrow. Meet me in the parking lot. Yes?”

Inside, away from the wind, Peter is still helpless to quell the hurricane that is Tony Stark. He gives him a tired thumbs up.

With that Tony sets off in the opposite direction, leaving Peter to wonder what the hell just happened, and what his life has become these last few days.

“What a jackass,” he says to himself.

Now alone, he rubs his hands up and down his face, fruitlessly attempting to scrub away the memory of Tony close to him, eyes warm with mirth, the heat of his body up close and the smell of nicotine on his breath as he quite literally tugged Peter’s strings. It takes longer than he likes to will the image away and to calm the furious beat of his heart.

Furious; a feeling Peter is becoming progressively more familiar - and uncomfortable with.

Ben used to say that being angry at someone was allowing them to take up space in your head, rent free. He was right, because it never served Peter well to house animosity when acceptance was kinder to his soul and psyche, and to others -- but he can’t help it with this guy. Tony Stark is like an ear worm of the brain. He has this completely obnoxious way of making himself front and centre despite Peter’s best efforts to cast him to the sidelines.

While he’s willing himself to move on his phone vibrates inside his pocket with a new message.

> ur not my better half, loser > why r u like this > nvm i already know lol. > remember, don’t be late 2morrow

Peter, just a little satisfied with himself for getting under Tony’s skin, saves his contact as Tiny Stank and types back quickly, eager to get back to his seat in the library - assuming Stark hasn’t already occupied it - and make the best of his remaining free period.

< whatever helps u sleep at night < also, plz lose my number after this is over

> way ahead of u, princess > say hi to aunt may for me

Ugh, Peter cringes, pocketing his phone without replying.

That guy is the worst.

---

tagging: @bylerboyfriends, @ravens-starker-stuff, @starker-rays, @ironspiderstarker, @muse-of-gods, @notfor-temporaryuse, @tabbycat1220, @sugarfreecult, @rebel13lion39, @plueschpop, @spideravocados, @jellybbunny, @booktrashme, @elfkido, @mycatislickingmybedsheets, @queerghostboyo, @disneyprincessdominatrix

#starker #ironspider #high school au #tony stark x peter parker

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chibinekochan · 3 years

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How to become a Demon Ruler 105

Part: 01 I 02 I 03 I 04

GN. Reader insert

taglist: @ayesha95 ; @nomnomcupcakesworld ; @fex-phoenix ; @depressed-bixch ; @kitsune-oji

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I feel ready for my dance lessons and to just end this day.

"I'm glad to see that you are still so motivated." Barbatos seems to misjudge the source of my motivation but I take the compliment with a smile regardless.

"I'm trying my best but I have to warn you. I have two left feet." I feel slightly ashamed of that.

"I'm certain that we can fix that with enough practice. Let's move to the practice room." Barbatos seems to have zero doubts. I follow him but I still have concerns.

The ballroom is exactly what I have expected. It's a seemingly endless room, with a lot of glass on one side.

Barbatos turns the music on. It's waltz music.

Barbatos comes back to me, he stands right in front of me. “First, the hold. Place your left hand on my back."

I step closer to him and a bit awkwardly place my hand on his sturdy back.

He seems pleased enough. „Now extend your right arm.”

I extend it and he takes my hand in his. I'm painfully aware of how close our bodies are right now.

I feel him squeeze his arm around my waist.

This is very embarrassing but also somewhat nice.

"Please relax." Barbatos has a very soft tone.

I had not realized how stiff I am. "I'm just a bit worried that I will hurt you." Just the thought of stepping on his foot mortifies me.

Barbatos gives me a soft laugh. "There is no need for you to concern yourself with me."

This makes my heart ache for some reason. "Too bad, since I won't stop being concerned for you." I point a little to underline my sentiment.

"How very kind of you." He shows me a genuine smile.

Once again I find myself blushing. This is getting very troublesome.

"Shall we start then?" Barbatos reminds me why we are here.

I honestly had forgotten for a moment." Y-yeah."

"Very well, take a step back," Barbatos tells me what to do and I follow his lead. He softly pushes me. I take a step back and Barbatos follows me. "Now a step to the side, feel how I lead you." His hand softly pushes me to the side.

"Now a step forward." His hand on my back gently pushes me the right way.

Barbatos nods with approval. "Very good. Now I will count until we are in sync. One…two…three…" We both go through the motions, very slowly. I'm just focusing on the steps. I glance down to see where my feet are.

"Please look at me master." Barbatos notices right away. His words are very effective. "Sorry..." I look right into his eyes. I almost stumble but his hand keeps me sturdy.

After this, our lesson runs pretty smoothly.

I'm pretty exhausted but it wasn't as bad as expected. It must be that Barbatos is an excellent teacher and that he didn't even flinch when I accidentally stepped on his foot.

"You did very well. After all this hard work you have certainly earned your dinner." Barbatos praises me once again.

"It's all thanks to you." I know very well how lost I would be without him. Quite literally.

"You flatter me too much master." Barbatos smiles.

After a break in the library, I decide to go alone to the dining room. I can't forever rely on Barbatos to bring me everywhere.

He looked like a sad puppy. I kept being strong.

So now I have a map of the castle and enough time to find my way in this maze.

With huge relief, I find my way.

Barbatos seems equally relieved to see me.

"Welcome. I heard you decided to come all alone. I'm glad you found your way." Diavolo seems cheerful as usual.

"I'm glad too. It was the right decision to not send a search party just yet." Barbatos remark leaves me unsure whenever this is supposed to be a joke or not.

"I'm an adult and I can handle myself." I'm not quite sure that they know that.

"They grow up so fast." Diavolo seems a bit sad.

"Yes, they certainly do." Barbatos nods with a sad expression.

"I was already all grown up when I came here." I can only shake my head and start to eat. Both men laugh.

Once again Diavolo seems pleased that I eat so healthy. I don't give it much thought, since somehow this is very nice. I might start to like this place after all.

I feel pretty satisfied and plenty filled with my favorite dessert.

"What are you planning to do this evening?" Barbatos knows already that my tasks are all done.

"I will take a bath, relax and sleep." Honestly, I'm too tired to even think of anything to do.

"That sounds great. You deserve the rest after all the training you did today. Barbatos told me about your magic reading. It's marvelous, to say the least." Diavolo approves and then he mentions the earlier incident.

"I'm not sure about that. To me, it looked like it just broke." I feel like the picture of that golden pot smoke will haunt me tonight.

"It was a magical item it's incapable of simply breaking." Barbatos seems sure of it but to me, the item looked utterly unimpressive.

"It's certainly impressive. Nobody ever broke it, not even Lucifer." Diavolo seems to remicense over something.

"Lucifer, like the devil?" I'm very confused.

"The devil? No, he is a fallen angel that is now a very high ranking demon." Diavolo seems confused.

"I guess humans got some stuff wrong." I can only shrug. I have much left to learn.

"We will cover that topic in tomorrow's history lesson. Actually, he will attend the party in six days." Barbatos uses my interest to plug more lessons.

"Wow, that is kinda scary…" I flinch a little.

"Don't worry Lucifer is a great guy. We are great friends. He will love you." Diavolo seems to have nothing but good things to say about Lucifer.

I'm not sure how to feel about this.

"There is no need to trouble yourself with this. I know you will do great at the party." Barbatos gives me some encouragement. It's sweet of him, even when I'm not particularly worried about making a great expression.

"Thank you. I should go to my room now." I feel suddenly very sleepy. This whole day was just a lot honestly.

"Yes, that seems a wise decision. I would be mortified if you would find yourself sick." Barbatos nods and seems sad at the image of me getting sick.

"Don't worry I'm a weed." I laugh.

"Nonsense if you are a weed then I'm a pickle." Diavolo shudders at the thought.

"You don't like pickles?" I find that very surprising.

"It is a huge issue." Barbatos shakes his head."Regardless let me accompany you to your room." Before I can object to that Barbatos` motions with his hand. "I don't accept any objections."

With that, I get silenced.

So once again Barbatos escorts me to my room, but this time I walk beside him.

Somehow this makes this feel much better to me.

"I'm sorry that I went over your head but you are tired and I don't want to strain you by having to walk around for hours before you reach your room." Barbatos has a sad expression. Almost like that happened.

"I understand, you are just worried for your master. I'm very grateful for that." I smile at him to assure him.

"I'm glad that you see it that way. I know that I must seem harsh to you, but let me assure you that I care greatly about you." Barbatos offers me the softest of smiles.

I can't help but smile at this. "I know thank you for your support Barbatos."

"I will continue to support you, even if it should take my life," Barbatos states this so casually and yet full of sincerity.

"I don't want you to die for me." I'm confused and this is all I can muster to say.

"I'm just saying that if you would require my life then I would gladly offer it to you." Barbatos doesn't miss a beat.

I can only hope that such a day will never come. It would break my heart.

"There is no need to be sad, master," Barbatos speaks softly, he must see my distress.

I can't add anything to his words. "I should go and take my bath now. Sleep tight Barbatos."

"Rest well, master." Barbatos waits again until I close my door.

When I'm in the bathtub I decide to order Barbatos to never die for me. I'm sure he will do it if it's an order.

With that thought, I go to bed. More or less ready for whatever the next day will toss at me.

#how to become a demon ruler #demon ruler 101 #obey me fanfic #obey me diavolo #obey me barbatos #obey me reader insert

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samwrights · 4 years

Note

I’m sorry but ukai with a breeding kink😳yes PLEASE

I swear I saw another ask that asked for Ukai with an impreg kink

*ahem* anyways—WOW this one was a doozy but holy shit did I have fun writing it. 11k words you guys. 11. K. It is a lot so grab some cocoa or coffee and a blanket because this is a read. It even has to be split into two parts because I hit the fucking text limit, BUT this also means there is no actual smut in this portion. You can find that here.

If you guys need some ear candy, I recommend the following:

Day N Nite (Crooker’s Remix) by Kid Cudi

Pursuit of Happiness (Extended version with Steve Aoki) by Kid Cudi

Breaking Me by Topic

C’Mon by Ke$ha

Flannel by The Cardboard Swords (it has to be sad somewhere)

Magic in the Hamptons by Social House

Fun fact: Ke$ha was actually the primary inspiration for this fic and for DJ!Ukai. God bless her.

Warnings: language, nicotine and alcohol consumption, implied drug use, implied emotionally abusive relationship, breeding/impreg kink, dirty talk, rough sex, risky sex, road head, slight dub-con, praise, multiple smut scenes, 3rd person POV reader-insert—because the word ‘you’ just didn’t seem to fit.

Without further ado, please enjoy the filthy depths of my brain followed by a relatively happy ending that I’ve titled, “Between the Lines’” :-)

“You’ve been more tired lately, and you’re showing up right when practice starts. Is everything okay?” Was the question that Takeda had asked Ukai Keishin that haunted him for years to come. Sure, he had wanted to gain more independence from his parents, wanted to start being more adult-like and take over the mortgage and the bills so his parents could finally rest. At the age of twenty-six, it seemed like a good idea at the time. With four years passing, however, Keishin was so damn tired, but it wasn’t like he could just stop working.

He was still tending to crops every morning, tending to the shop, coaching for Karasuno, but in the four years time, he had adopted one more job on the weekends—Ukai Keishin was a local nightclub DJ. He’d discovered the job opportunity one fateful night that he was out with his friends from the neighborhood association. To this day, he was still unsure of why he was approached with the job, especially considering he didn’t know the first thing about being a DJ, but the woman who had offered him the position had taught him everything he needed to know.

It turned out that he had a natural affinity for the position, seeing as he was still at it years later under the alias Spira. Ukai kept telling himself that he would quit the gig eventually because there was no way he could continue working four jobs—it was inhuman and the money didn’t even really matter to him. Okay, that last one is a lie; his DJ gig has been a substantial contributor to his savings funds to the point where he was even able to afford a newer, larger, (and slightly) used SUV in full compared to his tiny, old yellow beater. Even his mortgage bills were starting to look less daunting with the current cash flow.

Who needs sleep anyway? Ukai survived and thrived off of nicotine and caffeine anyway. Besides, sleep was the last thing on his mind whenever he set foot into the club. It was impossible to think of anything other than the writhing bodies of sweaty, young adults that were already drunk or high or were practically fucking each other with their clothes on. Perhaps that was part of the reason Keishin felt the need to quit this job—he was envious. Envious of the fact that he never got to indulge in his youth like these kids did; he started working and helping his family out right away after college. Sure, he went out here and there, but these twenty-something-year-olds were living their best life, while he was thirty and catering to their whims.

To say he was a bit bitter would be an understatement.

Bitterness aside, however, it did him good to see the youth enjoying exactly that—their youth. They got to do as they pleased between exams and becoming functioning members of society and, while he was jealous, Ukai was proud to be able to contribute to their pleasure.

He’d arrived to the club early, as he often did, to try to grab a drink before he was due for stage time. Ukai was thankful the bartenders knew him enough that he didn’t have to verbally order considering the music was too loud to hear him in the first place. A rum and coke manifests itself in a small, plastic cup that the blonde raises in thanks before weaving and bobbing around the various partygoers. For the most part, he’s successful in dodging the flailing bodies as he mutely notes the very upbeat remix of some female pop artist playing.

But only remotely successful as Keishin attempts to salvage his drink from spilling as he raises it over his head as one of the partygoers is pushed into him. “Hey, careful!” He snaps toward the younger, [hair color]ed woman. She only looks half-offended by the scolding, but otherwise unperturbed. If anything, the dominating expression on her face was confusion.

“Coach Ukai?” He’s surprised to hear both his given name and his title, let alone coming from a club patron, as they all knew him as Spira. Recognition slips his mind entirely—he’s never met this girl in any way that he can remember. Certainly, he would never forget crossing paths with this beauty, even if she was dressed in a similarly juvenile fashion to the other ravers. Tight crop top tee cinched together by a knot at the midriff, with army green high-waisted shorts attempting to cover the bare skin, face painted with makeup, glitter, and sweat; even underneath the garb, she brought forth no recollection. “Uh, d-do you remember me?” It’s a challenge to hear over the music, but she presses forward close enough that her lips are right in Keishin’s ear.

“Can’t say that I do,” he yells right back into hers.

“Karasuno class of twenty-twelve, I was Sugawara’s girlfriend.” Oh.

Oh.

Now he remembered, vaguely, but he doesn’t ever remember her looking like this. The last four years had been incredibly kind to her, in more ways than one. Back in her Karasuno days, [name] had always looked pleasant, for lack of better term. But there was always a lifeless, matted, dull glaze to her eyes that screamed she was searching for something more. While it was still somewhat present, there was a substantial joyous air around her. It looked good on her. However, as much as Ukai wanted to stay and admire, he had to go get set up for the evening. Or rather, that was the excuse he used when he said he would catch her after the show. “[name], did you know who that was?” The woman in question gives a nod, confused at the sudden star struck gawks that her friends held.

“Uh, yeah? My ex-boyfriend’s volleyball coach?”

“No dude, that was the DJ, Spira.”

“What?”

Being the closing act meant a lot of different things to Ukai Keishin. On the negative spectrum, it meant he was going to have to tend to crops as soon as he finished cleaning up his set. That also meant he wasn’t going to get to go to bed until nearly eight in the morning after his shift at the farm. Yet, for him, the positives greatly outweighed the negatives. For Keishin, watching the audience lose themselves in euphoria, albeit probably a drug-induced one, just hit different for him. It was a sense of satisfaction that only came from a select few activities, with coaching volleyball being the other major contributor. There was just something about the way the crowd was overwhelmed and screaming the second underground remixes of old Kid Cudi tracks with his own twists overtook the speakers that granted Keishin a sense of enlightenment.

For him, being a DJ allowed an audience to flow and vibe with the journey of his life and all its constant up and down motions while under the guise of anonymity. As Spira, Ukai opened up the complexity and conflicting feelings of his inner mind and brought it to fruition through his mixes. He felt that in his soul, he’d done his art of storytelling justice. The audience felt it. Hell, his mom at home probably felt it. Perhaps it was one of the main reasons this dingy, hole-in-the-wall club kept asking him to come back every weekend.

His mind wanders further as he clutches an electronic cigarette in his hand, mixing beats on the turntable while taking hits of nicotine in between. He wonders if the girl he had ran into just a few minutes prior had been frequenting here as often as he had. Then, thinking back to what little information she supplied earlier, Ukai’s mind drifts off to the former third-year setter from when he first started coaching. Sugawara was a nice boy with a firm, almost parental, hand that walked dangerously along the lines of being a partner and being a control freak. When it came to his relationship, things had to go his way. And while his girlfriend that came to every tournament was much more outspoken yet easy going, she was opinionated and didn’t shy from confrontation.

Now that the coach had given it more thought, it was a wonder that one tolerated the other at any point in time. If anything, Ukai imagines the two of them would typically be at each other’s throats. From the few times he had interacted with her, she was always more free spirited and couldn’t be weighed down by any one else’s opinion, but seeing her now was different—she was in her element in the dingy, dark club with the glitter on her cheekbones refracting light off of her face. There was laughter and true, unabashed joy on her face. She had a light of her own—like she was ray of sunshine in the center of a storm.

Three hours past midnight when the club closed was always Keishin’s sign to leave, regardless of the countless attempts to attend the after party he’d been invited to. He had to go to work, after all. Sure, a part of him had always been a little green with envy at all the DJs that got to hook up with club patrons after, but after being at this gig for a few years, he figured that the right girl for him would eventually come to him if he continued working on himself. After all, he didn’t want to just have a string of one night stands with a bunch of fresh adults that could barely function after the small drop of Malibu rum—he was too old for that.

“Uh, coach?” [name] felt strange calling him that, but she didn’t feel familiar enough with him to address him otherwise. He was halfway in his car, the blonde ready to leave for the weekend to go back to his regular day-to-day work. “You coming to the after party?” [name] asks when Keishin only looks at her in question, cigarette hanging betwixt his dry lips.

“No, I actually have to go to work right now.”

“Oh,” she doesn’t mean to express her disappointment, but it slips anyway, “guess I’ll catch you later then?”

“Uh, yeah.” A tight lipped hybrid of a pained grin and grimace crosses her wet, gloss covered lips. Without another word, Ukai closes his car door, a little more brusquely than he intended to, before backing out and leaving the young woman to her own devices. His mind wanders once again with him humming absentmindedly to the soft acoustic punk playing over the car radio. His eyes are focused on the passing greenery, the cars that are weaving and bobbing off the freeway—hell he even noticed the way the tendrils of the sun are just barely starting to peak over the horizon because it reminded him of her. A thought he banishes immediately because he feels creepy for even thinking that.

Yet no matter how much scenery flitted through his honey eyes, his mind keeps traveling back to one thing, or rather one person, only.

Goddammit.

On Monday’s practice, Ukai Keishin’s mind is flooding and drowning in memories of his first year as the volleyball club’s coach. It was as if his mind was coercing him to attempt to reach out to the girl that plagued his mind for the last forty-eight hours or so. Though, he had no way of contacting her. Instead, with every step along the wooden floors, he can remember the way she would walk Suga to practice, almost physically seeing her standing in the doorway to kiss the third-year setter goodbye. As if he could see her sitting underneath the third window from the left, quietly doing homework and exchanging small talk and airy laughter with Kiyoko and Daichi. As if he could see the same sunny smile she gave in the audience from Saturday night at the club between the lines of the woodwork in the floorboards.

It was a repeating pattern day in and day out that was beginning to make Ukai question his sanity.

“Hey, man,” his assistant coach and fellow Karasuno alumni, Tsukishima Akiteru, places a hand on his shoulder and looks at him in worry. “Are you okay? You’ve been out of it all week.” In what world did a week translate into three days, the older blonde coach didn’t know.

“I’m fine, just tired,” Keishin all but bites back. He didn’t want to admit his conscious had been running rampant with thoughts of a girl he’d briefly met at a club. It felt almost as disturbing and perverted as it sounded in his mind.

“The team’s worried about you. Why don’t you take an early weekend and get some rest? We’ll see you back on Monday, yeah?” Normally, Ukai would have vehemently refused. However, his circumstances were far from normal and he was gracious for an assistant coach he trusted wholeheartedly to do the work that needed to be done. And so, Ukai heeded Akiteru’s advice and went home before practice even began on Thursday afternoon.

It was slightly disorienting for him to go home and nap, but he was incredibly thankful for the gift. Waking up just before he was technically supposed to start his shift at the shop, Keishin jumps into a cold shower to bring him to life before heading downstairs. A bellowing yawn passes his lips through his teeth as he starts his evening. Maybe his team was right—he really did need a break. Thankfully, he knew that the second the doors to the Sakanoshita were locked, he was done for the evening and wouldn’t need to reawaken until three the following morning. Just a few more hours until then, he thought.

With it being a slower evening as well, Ukai was able to kick his feet up on the counter as he always did, pull open the newspaper from earlier in the morning and casually flip through. Briefly, he considers giving up one of his four jobs because this was something he missed doing. But consideration aside, he was far too in love with the cash flow and the thought of paying off his mortgage to entertain the thought for long. Maybe one day, he would finally sell the Sakanoshita store or quit helping on the farm—

“You still work here?” Huh. Her voice sounds different when it isn’t drowning under the speakers of a nightclub.

“I do own this place, you know.” Ukai snarks at the woman who’d been consuming his brain for the last week. She looks different without glitter reflecting off of her unreal cheekbones or the heavy layers of foundation and eyeshadow. Even more than before, Keishin definitely recognized [name] now. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Shopping,” she snorts as if it were the most obvious thing, “why else would I be at a store?”

“Dunno, maybe you’re just here to see me.” Ukai responds without skipping a beat, turning the page of the paper to play into his guise that he wasn’t the slightest bit surprised at [name]’s presence.

“Uh...actually...” her voice is quiet, prompting the coach to quirk a brow and fold up the paper he was now pretending to read. It wasn’t like he could focus on anything right now outside of the woman standing before him, spearated only by a thin counter. Without talking again, his brown eyes lock with hers, silently goading for her to continue speaking. “I-I just...I don’t know. It was just really weird to see you at the club and then to find out that you’re Spira on top of that. I haven’t seen anyone from Karasuno since I graduated and—“

“Woah, kid, breathe.” Ukai interrupts her before she can continue spewing word vomit at a hundred miles an hour. “So what if I’m Spira? Though, you better not tell anyone that. My stage name is a secret between us, alright?” For a moment she’s quiet, gears turning in her head. The secrecy didn’t make sense to her because, if anything, he should be proud of the fact that he’s rather well known in the underground electronica scene. Or at least, she was in his stead, because [name] would have been proud of Ukai regardless of whatever occupation he held.

She supposed it came with the territory of having an unrequited crush on the coach years ago, that continued well beyond high school and even university, back when she was still dating Sugawara Koushi. It was the reason she had even bothered to come sit in on his practices and partially the reason she would come to his tournaments and matches. Not that she didn’t want to be supportive of her then-boyfriend—it would have been a fight had she not—but seeing the hot older coach was definitely a bonus in her book. “But why?” She offers, not wanting conversation to end despite her not having actually bought anything.

“If the school ever caught wind of me doing that, I could lose my position as the coach. Some shit about Karasuno’s image or whatever.” [name] gives a small nod, fidgeting subconsciously, as an attempt to shake her nerves and anxiety, by sifting through various candy bars that were in front of her before grabbing her favorite. Without a second thought, she peels the wrapper before placing the candy between her lips, the puffy pink skin greatly contrasting the chocolate coating. “Ya gonna pay for that, kid?” Ukai irks, his honey brown eyes steeling over in irritation. The nickname she’s given hits the final nail on the coffin and seals away [name]’s trepidation. Instead, her own sass comes out to join the fun.

“Nah,” she hums playfully, the chocolate-covered wafer cookie crunching between her teeth. “Quit calling me kid, coach. I’m a lady,” the irony isn’t lost on either of them as she speaks with her mouth full.

“Still a kid, kid. And quit calling me coach, I’m not your damn coach.” The familiar, grumpy attitude of his brings [name] back to the Ukai she knew back in high school. In a mix of nostalgia, warmth washes over her as the haughty tone in his voice sent shivers down her spine like it did a few years back.

“Sure thing, coach,” she teases again before tossing the wrapper of the stolen candy bar into the nearest bin. “You’re at the club tomorrow, right?” The question adds a bit of context and confirmation to Ukai—it seems she knew when Spira was performing, meaning she must have been a patron for a decent amount of time. Part of him wonders how she never realized who he was before, another part wonders how he’s never noticed her considering she could make all traffic stop if she stood in the middle of a freeway. At least, that’s what looking at her did to his heart.

“Yeah?”

“Maybe this time, you’ll join us at the after party.” Without another word, [name] pushes herself away from the counter she’d been leaning on while talking to the blonde man. With Akiteru giving him the weekend off, he actually entertained the thought of attending this time. Even if her invitation was rather blasé and indirect, he didn’t see the opportunity of him attending one presenting itself any time soon. He may be old, by his own standard, but there was a unknown allure to the thought of showing up to a wild party with a woman that was so adamant of his attendance.

Or rather, adamant in his mind. Whether she actually wanted his company remained to be seen, but the curiosity was gnawing at him, and was something he would have to unearth sooner rather than later.

Having an entire night, or a day’s worth, of rest was a rather disorienting, yet pleasant feeling for Ukai. After tending to crops and returning home in the early hours of the morning, the blonde coach was able to catch a solid nine hours of sleep before his shift at the Sakanoshita store with another chance to nap before he needed to head to the club. Despite knowing he had the ability to do so before another restless night, his mind felt the need to keep him awake and alert. Even after showering and styling his blonde tresses into their usual mane—mundane acts that usually came to him automatically—he was hyper aware of the slightest unruly flyaways.

Ukai Keishin was nervous.

He didn’t know what to wear or if there was a dress code or if anything he typically wore would be deemed worthy of an after party. A part of him wanted to leave it alone and let him sport his usual white track pants and tight, maroon muscle tank, but that part of him immediately drowns in the ocean of his anxiety. Another string in his brain prompted him to dress up just a little bit to help him look the part—it had nothing to do with impressing a certain club patron, no—he tried to convince himself. A miserable attempt, but still one nonetheless.

Eventually, he settled on crisp, dark-washed jeans that hugged his muscular legs without being suffocating, paired with a vibrant, crimson muscle tee that hugged his biceps all the same. Ukai still felt a little out of place in the attire, as he often had back when he first assumed the alias Spira, but headed out the door of his apartment before his conscious could dispute it.

He was early again, even more so than normal. Desperate for a drink to calm his nerves and replace his blood with liquid courage, Ukai worms his way around to the bar, signaling the attendant for his usual. Rum and coke in hand, the DJ stands off to the side, hiding like a wallflower, while he studied the sweaty, dancing bodies. Did he know why he was looking for her—no. Maybe partially to tell her she owed him for the candy bar, maybe to tell her he was joining in on the after party this time around.

Maybe to just see her.

Keishin banishes the last thought with a shake of his head before skulking off to the attached patio to smoke. Pulling a cigarette from his pack and a lighter from his pocket, the flame torches the end of the filter at the same time the blonde inhales. Forcefully pushing the smoke out past his lips, Ukai takes a hearty sip of his drink until it’s nearly gone. He was going to need something stronger tonight.

“Is it that time already?” The older man’s head snaps to the voice that had been haunting him subconsciously.

Part of him wishes he didn’t look.

As if to play into her question, [name] checks the large, rose gold watch on her right wrist—an incredibly stark contrast to her outfit for the evening. Maybe it was a hunch when Ukai felt that he had been underdressed, as if his intuition knew that she was going to be dressed to the nines in a black skater dress. Even with a modest neckline, the lace cut out detailing on the sides of the dress accentuated her curves impeccably, playing well with the volume of the skirt, while the open back she was sporting dipped dangerously low.

It took everything in Ukai to not throw every milliliter of restraint and inhibition out the window and fuck her right then and there.

Taking a lengthy drag of his cigarette to hold himself back, Keishin inhales deeply, the smoke billowing past his lips emerging densely and grey in color. “I’m a little early—needed an extra drink today.” The man manages to choke out, downing whatever is left in his little plastic cup for added emphasis.

“Need another?” [name] chirps politely; almost too politely as if to deliberately dispute the salacious thoughts flooding the coaches mind.

“I can get—“

“I owe you anyway,” she reminds him, alluding to the candy bar she had eaten without paying for from the previous night. “Pick your poison.”

“Double rum and coke.” He concedes. [name]’s lips twitch upward slightly at the corner before she plucks the empty cup from Ukai’s hand. He doesn’t miss the way the shellac on her nails grazes against his skin, leaving the whispers of contact to run warm. Immediately, the blonde man uses the nearly dead cigarette between his teeth to light a fresh one—heaven or hell knows he needed the nicotine right now.

Given the silence, Keishin takes the opportunity to absorb his surroundings. From the general direction that [name] initially came from, she wasn’t around any of her friends or really anyone that he knew. That was good at least; there wasn’t anybody else that knew of his presence. [name] returns, two clear plastic cups in her hands and surrenders the darker of the two to the man awaiting. “Hold mine for a sec?” Without thinking, Keishin holds his cigarette between his left index and middle fingers, his drink in the same hand, while taking hers. To his surprise, she pulls out her own pack of menthols and a torch lighter, setting the leaves ablaze before taking her obvious vodka cranberry back.

“You took up smoking?” The older of the two asks in surprise, noting the way her lipstick leaves the slightest bit of residue along the brown filter. [name] gives a shrug.

“Surprised you didn’t notice it sooner, coach. I’ve been smoking since second year.” Ukai gives a roll of his eyes at the use of this strange pet name he’s been dubbed by her. But he thinks about it, thinks about how Suga must have felt probably knowing that she did. Thinks how it just added to this strange, sassy yet happy, wild and free exterior she now had. And [name] notices instantly the very same look Ukai had in his face when he was trying to strategize, trying to figure out a way to navigate a conversation with his team about becoming better—she knows what’s coming next. “Yeah, yeah, I know I should quit or whatever. Suga lost that argument a long time ago.”

“Can’t really tell you what to do when I’m just as guilty.” Ukai gives a laugh—one that is embedded with bitterness and envy at the mention of the third-year setter—yet is just as vivacious as he is. A sound entirely different than she’d ever heard leave his lungs before. She likes it.

After finishing his smoke, Keishin gulps down a hefty swig of his drink before patting [name] on the shoulder before announcing his departure. “I’ll see you inside,” the girl, woman, calls out thoughtfully as she gives a small wave with her cigarette filter between her fingers. Ukai doesn’t verbalize the same sentiment. He doesn’t want to slip up and admit he’ll be looking for her.

But it’s painfully obvious that he is when he takes over the booth. Unable to hide the fact that with every chance that he looks into the audience, he’s searching for that black skater dress that hugs her all too perfectly, [hair color] locks swaying as she moves in the crowd. Ukai can’t hide it at all—not behind the turn table or new remixes meant to get the crowd moving.

He can’t hide the urgency he feels to find her outside in the crisp evening air, smoking on the back patio of the club after his set. [name] is talking and laughing with her friends while thin grey smoke billows from her open mouth before her eyes land on him. Some of her friends take notice to the tension and their shared gazes, some of them whispering his alias in excitement. But [name] just smiles knowingly, if not a little cocky, because she can see that urgency, that desperation, that Ukai was trying to hide. “Wait, [name], do you know Spira?” A bystander asked. Clearly, they weren’t present the last time this was brought up.

“Yeah, I may have met him once or twice,” the woman in question snickers as she strides over closer and closer to the aforementioned DJ.

“Cute,” Ukai sneers teasingly at her jab before instinctively reaching for the half-gone cigarette she pulls to her stained lips. At first, she thought he was going to put it out, considering their little conversation from a few hours ago. Instead, the volleyball coach puts the filter to his own lips, noting the damp fabric probably from her freshly applied lipgloss, and takes a drag. It tasted like watermelons and mint.

“Cheeky,” [name] returns, plucking her cancer stick back from the blonde man. While her friends are still behind her murmuring about the familiarity between the two of them, Keishin and [name] are lost in their own little world. “So since your set is over, and considering you’re still here, I’m assuming you’re joining me for the after party? Or do you have to go to work again?”

“I told them I’d be out of town this weekend,” Ukai tries to play it off as nonchalantly as he could, ties to swallow it down his nerves with rum and nicotine. It proves rather difficult considering the coy smile on [name]’s face is wearing and cracking through his resolve rather quickly. But at least, to him, he could confirm his mind was not playing tricks on him and [name] was just as adamant about his attendance as he initially thought. Even more so with her next statement.

“Cool. Your car or mine?” It took him a minute to process her words even—lust thickening and constricting the flow to his brain at the vague question. Ukai was getting far too ahead of himself, but goddammit how could he focus when the fabric of her skirt hit her mid-thigh and framed her like a Venetian goddess—“I don’t mind driving there.” She adds to coax him away from his silence.

“Nah, I got it. We’ll take mine.”

“Lead the way,” [name] chimes sweetly as she wraps an arm around the coach’s forearm. The physical touch is everything he’s been fantasizing about for the last few days—hellfire and brimstone and sunlight and goddammit why did he wear jeans that were only getting tighter and tighter?

Ukai opens the passenger door to his SUV, supporting the woman as she clambered in cautiously so as not to stumble from her heels. Getting settled in, the coach surrenders his unlocked phone to allow her the entirety of his music library. The irony of the DJ surrendering DJ rights to the passenger was not lost on either of them. Much to his surprise, [name] put on soft acoustic punk as he usually did on his way home from the club. The kind of softness one would turn on to accompany the fragile pitter-patter of rain against the windshield. “Cardboard Swords?” Ukai asks in surprise, more than familiar with the band.

“Flannel is a favorite of mine. I’m kind of surprised it’s in your library.” She adds after she begins directing him to this evening’s party location. From the corner of his eyes, he can see the way her full lips are moving along each word with expertise. He sees the way her [eye color] orbs soften slightly and he can tell this song hits home for her.

She’ll never say why—she’ll never tell him this was the song that helped her move on from Sugawara Koushi while restoring her inner peace.

But Keishin is no fool. He can tell that this is physically hurting her—crushing her soul into the leather seat of his car and, instinctually, he wraps a large hand around hers that’s resting in her lap. “I came out tonight to have fun with you, so don’t you go getting sad on me.” He means each word with innocent intent, yet he cannot ignore the almost hidden, salacious drip to each syllable and neither can she. How could she when his touch sent volts of electricity through her skin?

“Right, right,” she says in a conceding tone, switching the audio to something much more upbeat and a little flirty. “Why did you agree to go out tonight?” If Ukai had an answer, then it died on his lips as he let go of [name]’s hand to reach for another cigarette. The process of lighting the tube, inhaling, and exhaling bought him an extra minute to come up with an excuse; her doing the same giving him another thirty seconds.

“I don’t know.” It’s a blatant lie—a lie that [name] believes all too easily—but Ukai can’t bring himself to admit the truth. He can’t admit out loud that she’s the only thing that’s been on his mind all week or that he jumped at the opportunity, created one even, to be able to have a one-on-one moment with her. Keishin can’t admit that he can tell there are intricate webs spun in her mind and that all he wants to do is untangle them one by one.

And he certainly can’t tell her that even the mere sight of her sends his brain into overdrive and all he wants to do is repeatedly fill her over and over with his seed until she is entirely his, inside and out in mind, body, and soul. There was no way in the nine circles of hell that Ukai Keishin was going to admit to his sinful thoughts.

“It’s just up here.” [name] points with gaunt fingers, cigarette between them as her voice is half choked from inhaling her own smoke. Mirroring the man’s actions earlier, she indulged in her own nicotine habit to quell the budding disappointment from Ukai’s lackluster response. They drove up a slight winding hill and as the trees pass by, the itch for her truth and her history was gnawing at him. He wanted to know why this rambunctious party girl invited him all week to these elusive after parties. Why Flannel ate away at her insides like it did his. Why did her and Sugawara breakup?

But he decides against it for the moment.

“Where are we?” Ukai asks. There’s cars all lining the sides of the road of varying worth—he felt even more out of place than normal with his older SUV, even if it was an upgrade for him, considering the large number of luxury vehicles.

“Bevelle’s house.” [name] says simply, pointing to an empty space in the streets as she throws the butt of her cigarette into the road. The casual way she name drops the owner of the club makes him gawk, catching flies in his mouth had there been any at the hour. With a satisfied, cheesy grin, she hops out of her seat and walks in the grass to meet Ukai on the other side as he clambers out of the vehicle as well. In familiarity, she grips into his forearm once again as they walk towards the forest mansion.

Keishin wasn’t sure what to expect when the two of them walked in, but a home full of people screaming his pseudonym and her name was not on that list. Younger hordes had surrounded [name], greeting her warmly and telling her how glad they were to see her again for the evening. Others were approaching Ukai, telling them how rare and a momentous occasion that the infamous artist Spira was amongst their midst.

“Glad to see you could join us, Spira.” His boss and club owner, Bevelle, approaches the mismatched couple. Bevelle was an alias used by the middle aged woman, her real name unknown to those that didn’t know her know her, and was once upon a time her stage name. While she had chosen a quiet location in the Miyagi prefecture, Bevelle was quite known in the underground scene. Granted, Ukai didn’t know any of that when he’d taken the job. If anything, it was all thanks to her that he was able to learn for his own success as well as granting him the opportunity to learn in the first place. “Good to see you too, trouble.” Bevelle affectionately goes to muss at [name]’s hair, to which she only replies with a cheeky grin.

“How do you know Bevelle?” Ukai presses his lips towards the ear of the woman still hanging onto him as she expertly leads the way to the kitchen. The car ride left her feeling slightly uncomfortable, ashamed even though she would never admit to that, and she knew she definitely needed a drink after it. Part of her was heavily rebuking herself for trying to pry into his mind by asking why he came along, even more so when she put on the one song that shattered her heart every time she heard it. It just excited her that he had it in his library, that he even knew who The Cardboard Swords were, and that he enjoyed the same obscure taste in music as much as she did.

“She’s a close family friend!” The chirp that [name] gives isn’t entirely convincing, like she isn’t telling the truth. Regardless, Ukai washes down his doubt with the beer he was handed, figuring she probably had her reasons. And as soon as the plastic is in each of their hands, [name] downs the contents immediately, hoping to drown out the nerves ebbing from her stomach with vodka. She should have been ecstatic—her old high school crush, her unrequited crush, was here with her, drinking side by side but she can’t help but feel the tension between them—sexual or otherwise.

Just as the two of them down their second round, a piercing voice cuts through the thicket of the masses, calling out her name and capturing her attention. “It’s your song! Come on!” A shrug and a smile crosses [name]’s features as she’s all but dragged away to a different part of the mansion. Much to his surprise, she grabbed onto Keishin to drag him along as well.

The two of them are presented with a myriad of sweaty, rolling bodies—much more gone than Ukai had ever seen at the club itself. It was oddly...sensual, if it could be called that, to see the fluid movements between party goers. Sensual, intimate, strange—all of them could be used interchangeably at this moment.

[name] is dancing with another woman, mouthing all of the words to the current pop song while bobbing and jumping around excitedly before her eyes lock on his. She’s in her element now. All sunshine and smiles like Ukai had seen from on occasion from years ago or most recently at the club, but they’re directed at him for once as she pulls him closer onto the dance floor. The taunting beats and repetitive call of “come on” and the way [name] loosely wraps her arms around his neck as she dances brings Ukai to the realization that this was the end of the line.

The end of the line, because Keishin can’t hold himself back anymore.

Not with the way her hips are grinding against is and she’s laughing warmly and heartily at his slight discomfort and her teeth are glittering off the lights in the dark room like stars in the night sky. Not with the way her head is thrown back and her dress drops low enough to flaunt the expanse of bare skin of her neck and collar bones that are just begging him to sink his teeth in. Not with the way her [eye color]ed orbs are locked with his as she sings along with the music, oddly enough alluding to some form of confession of her feelings.

He can’t fucking take it anymore.

The large hands he has on her hips move just under her arms to hoist her up, [name] instinctively wrapping her legs around his waist to keep her balance. Their eyes are locked, honed in on each other with the rest of the party melting into the background. With her deepest, most wild high school fantasy driving her actions, she grins. “Hi,” is all she says before Ukai cranes his neck back to cover her lips with his.

His kiss is everything she imagined it would be after years of pining. The smell and taste of smoke and wood floods her senses as his tongue laps at the watermelon lip gloss on her bottom lip before seeking refuge within her mouth. His hands, now wrapped around her thighs give intermittent squeezes, either to keep them grounded in reality or just because he needs something to clutch at—she’s unsure of which. In response, her manicured fingernails tangle into his messy blonde locks. Their kiss pours out their desperation, laying it all out on the table for the both of them to see clear as day.

The only thing that prompts them to break apart is the ending of the song.

“You wanna get out of here?” Ukai asks as he tenderly puts [name] back on the ground. As if he weren’t just making out with her moments ago, the motion is delicate and gingerly and almost loving.

“Not yet,” there’s a knowing, smug lilt in her voice as she turns on her heel and throw herself back into the throng of party people. Or rather, attempts. While she’s attempting to flee, Keishin snatches her wrist, pulling her closer until their chests are flush against each other.

“Nuh uh,” the blonde man tuts, “you’ve been asking me to join you at a party all week, now here I am. The hell makes you think you’re leaving my side tonight?” [name]’s grin only grows wider.

“I’ve waited for years for this opportunity, coach, so if you think I’m not gonna have fun with it, you’re dead wrong.” The word ‘years’ constricts the man’s heart—forces his pupils to blow into dilation with her modest, yet blunt confession.

“Years?”

“Years,” she repeats, “ever since that first practice you stumbled into the Karasuno gym as the temporary coach. Why do you think I came to every single exhibition match and tournament? Or came to study and do homework while you guys had practice?” This girl was grinding at every steel line of self-control that was left in Ukai’s body because every word spilling past her lips added an additional ten volts to the sexual tension between them.

“We’re leaving.” He bites out despite the delicate tone. Wrapping his hand around hers once again, Keishin tugs her along time dodge the party goers that threw the two of them curious glances, wondering why they were quick to leave shortly after their arrival. Just to tease him further, [name] almost wants to offer a rebuttal and tell him that they should stay longer and enjoy the show. However, she knows she’s done enough waiting and if he was taking her home, she wasn’t going to argue.

While urgency and desperation was their game, Keishin didn’t cut corners when it came to presenting himself as a gentleman as he helped [name] back into the car. Hormones be damned—he was still going to help a lady into the passengers seat. “You never did tell me why you finally agreed to come out tonight.” She says quietly, as if the two of them hadn’t been making out and dry humping a few minutes prior. “And it’s clearly not because you knew I had a crush on you all throughout third year—“

“Don’t act like you’re the only one with feelings in this.” Ukai grits out, speeding much faster back home than he did on the way to Bevelle’s house. Paying that no mind, [name]’s ears perk up at his own wayward confession. When she asked for clarity, a rumbling groan shakes his chest as he patted down his pockets in search for his nicotine sticks. “I didn’t recognize you the first night at the club because you look different now. Happiness looks good on you.”

“Happiness?” She echos confusedly, turning to face Ukai fully after lighting her own cigarette.

“You used to always look content back then—just barely content and nothing more. And I can’t stop thinking back to those days because you’re this ball of sunshine, kid, and I can’t stop wondering what the hell Suga did to you to dim your shine that badly. I haven’t stopped thinking about you all week.”

[name] is quiet for a moment at his own rendition, his own version, of a confession and she’s stunned. And she can’t tell if she wants to cry or kiss him because this is not that way she ever fantasized this conversation going. It was going better than she dreamed. Better, because the words that Ukai is saying adds an entirely new layer to his amped up personality—he wasn’t just the sexy volleyball coach that she used to pine over. He was a person with deep rooted feelings for justice in the sense of wanting to understand how someone could inflict damage to the innocent and he wanted to rectify said injustices. He wanted to know how someone like Suga could try to dampen her sunlight instead of allowing her to thrive and bloom.

She wants to kiss him, she decides, but since he’s driving, she settles for placing a chaste one on the corner of his mouth. “Serves you right,” she jokes when she pulls away, “it’s been a long four years for me. It’s your turn to suffer.”

“Trust me, this car ride is torture enough.”

[ next ]

#haikyu!!#haikyuu!! imagine #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagine #haikyuu oneshot #ukai keishin #haikyuu ukai #hq ukai #ukai x reader #ukai scenario #keishin ukai x reader #dj!au #haikyuu sugawara #sugawara imagine #sugawara koushi #sugawara x reader #nsfhq

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not-close-to-straight · 4 years

Text

100% Professional (Eight)

MASTERLIST

****************

"I'm surprised you wanted to meet here." Peter glanced around the coffee shop and then slid into the chair across from Wade. "Not that this isn't a nice place, it's just um--"

"--just that I usually don't take my fucked up face out into pubic places?" Wade finished, and when Peter's eyes opened wide in horror, Wade waved him off. "Don't, Pete. Don't stress out about it. I know that's not what you were going to say. It's my new thing, cutting people off with something self deprecating to take the awkwardness out of the minute. It's fine."

"I was definitely not going to say something about your face." Peter finished slowly. "I was uh-- I was going more for the 'wow Wade, I didn’t think hippies were your people'."

Wade chuckled and Peter relaxed a little more. "Yeah, this is a little granola crunching and Birkenstock wearing for my usual taste. Close to home though, and I'm too lazy to walk much further, so here we go."

"You're walking places now?" Peter smiled when a waitress put down a pot of coffee. "Since when?"

"Group therapy." Wade said shortly. "One of the guys said it helped to walk places because they could focus on the number of steps instead of who may or may not be watching them, and then once they made it about the halfway point, why bother turning around, right?"

"Group therapy." Peter repeated, obviously trying to find the right way to respond to that information. "So um-"

"I didn't ask to see you cos I wanted to talk about therapy." Wade interrupted. "Or about how I'm making an effort to better myself or anything like that."

"Then why'd you want to see me?" Peter poured a cup but didn't take a sip, just cradled the warm cup in his palms instead. "I can't imagine it's to ask me out on a date."

"No." Wade huffed a laugh. "Uh no. That's not it. But I did want to see if maybe you wanted to go to a movie or something, just as friends."

"Friends."

"Something's here, Pete." Wade drummed his fingers on the table, fidgeted at his jacket, scratched at the drawn on eyebrows. "There's something between you and I and even though it's pretty fucking obvious I might never be ready for actually dating, I don't want to lose you completely. So. Friends?"

Peter was quiet and Wade cleared his throat to add, "It's fine if you say no. I get it. It was a weird start because I was basically paying you to hang out with me, then it got worse when I had my breakdown and then it got weirder when I panicked about the date and stopped talking to you for a couple months and--"

He stopped when he realized Peter wasn't even listening. "Pete? What are you doing?"

"Hm?" Peter looked up from his phone. "Sorry, what?"

"You're not listening." Wade tried and failed to keep the shock and hurt from his voice. "Well shit Pete, I knew I made shit weird but I thought I deserved a conversation without the phone out, huh?"

"Oh!" Peter brightened into a smile and turned his phone around for Wade to see the screen. "The theater down the street as an all day marathon of old school horror films since it's Halloween next week. Sound good? They have that pizza joint inside and we could just eat pizza and drink beer and watch terrible horror films all day."

Wade blinked at him and Peter clarified, "I was listening Wade. There's something between and it might not ever be dating but I don't want to lose you either. So let's get some pizza and beer, talk through old movies and figure out when we're going to do it again."

"Just like that?" Wade took a sip of his coffee so it wouldn't be quite as obvious how badly his hands were shaking. "You don't have any questions for me? Or need to say anything?"

"How's your new massage therapist?" Peter pulled out a few bills and tossed them on the table, holding out his hand to help Wade up. "Do you like them?"

"They are 100% professional and very ugly." Wade confirmed. "Super boring and never lets their hands stray anywhere close to inappropriate."

"Wow, they sound terrible."

"The worst." Wade confirmed and when Peter laughed out loud, something wonderful loosened in his chest. "It's good to see you again Pete."

"Mm-hmm." Peter pushed Wade down the street towards the theater. "You buy pizza and I'll buy beer?"

"Sounds good."

****************

First it was movies, Peter and Wade taking advantage of all the Halloween hoopla to watch special showings of classic horror films. They laughed at the terrible effects and cackled at the cheesy lines and got into arguments about whether or not the always blond girl was only hired for the size of her rack or if there had actually been a screaming audition.

"There might have been some screaming but it probably wasn't for the movie." Wade decided. "I feel like her audition took place on a couch, ya feel me?"

"Oh ye of little faith." Peter snorted. "She's obviously talented and was definitely cast for her--" the woman on screen stumbled for no apparent reason and fell into a strategically placed puddle, soaking her white t-shirt clear through. "-- you know what? Comment withdrawn."

The movies were fun, and from there they moved on to grabbing lunch together a couple times a week. Wade got more comfortable using light make up to cover the worst of his scars, he manged to find eyelashes that didn't made him look ridiculous and his drawn on eyebrows no longer rubbed off if he wore a beanie, so he headed down towards the Daily Bugle on Tuesdays and Thursdays to meet Peter at a sandwich shop and talk about their days.

"J Jonah Jameson is without a doubt the crankiest guy in the world." Peter said around a mouthful of meatball sub. "His wife came in and gave him a kiss and he complained about how her chap stick tasted afterwards. He has a beautiful wife who visits him at work just to give him a kiss and he complains about her chap stick? That guy would piss off the Pope, I swear."

"I think the doorman in my building is sleeping with the receptionist." Wade said the next time around, picking at his Italian sub with a suspicious expression. "And I don't mean dating. I mean I went to take the stairs, heard noises I've only heard on the Discovery channel--" Peter snorted soda up his nose when he cracked up laughing and Wade grinned. "--so I took the elevator and lo and behold, no one was at the desk or the door. "

"Oooh sexy." Peter leaned over and snagged one of Wade's fries. "But I got one better. Gwen was protesting at Hammer Tech the other day...

*********

The only natural progression from lunch was dinner but Peter came towards Wade side of town for that so they could try a new Thai place one week and then something Greek another and repeat their favorite taco stand at least six times in between.

Sometimes they met at Wade's apartment and walked together, other times they just met at the restaurant and snagged a table by the window. Sometimes the conversation stayed to light topics, other times Wade would open up about what they were talking about in therapy, or Peter would talk about Gwen and Flash and things would get serious and thoughtful and Peter always had to stop himself from reaching out and trying to hold Wade's hand.

Things were bound to change at some point, they were bound to slip over that line from just friends and give in to the attraction still simmering beneath the surface and it was one night at their favorite taco stand that it finally happened.

"If this kills me, I'm coming back to haunt you." Peter warned as Wade handed him a spicy chicken taco. "I swear."

"Quit being such a puss and just eat it." Wade said impatiently. "It's spicy chicken Pete, quit staring at it like I'm serving you salted dog or something."

It might have been the over whelming spice, it might have been Wade's salted dog comment, but either way, Peter took a bite of the taco and promptly bent over trying to cough his lungs up, gasping for air and chucking the taco to the side so he could hold onto the cart and not collapse.

"Ignore him." Wade told the vendor. "He's a drama queen. Your food is delicious. C'mon Pete, you're embarrassing me in front of the taco guy, pull it together."

"I'm dying." Peter wheezed, clutching at Wade dramatically until the big solder finally laughed and hauled him up, pounding at his back good naturedly. "Wade, save me! Save me!"

Peter finally got his breath back, finally got over the eye watering seasoning and managed to breathe without wanting to choke and straightened up to his full height, wiping at his eyes and scolding, "Do not hand me something new to eat and then hint that it may or may not be dog meat!"

"Sorry, Pete." Wade grinned unrepentantly. "I'll wait until after you swallow it next time."

"Fuck me, I hate you." Peter coughed again and Wade rubbed at his shoulder. "Jesus, that was-- no offense man--" he waved at the taco vendor. "--but I'll stick with the usual if that's okay with you? Spicy chicken is not my thing apparently.”

"One usual coming up." he promised and Peter turned back to Wade, leaning in and resting his forehead on Wade's shoulder without putting any thought into the motion.

Wade apparently didn't think anything about it either, since he slid his arm tighter around Peter's back and held him close, turning his nose into Peter's hair and inhaling the scent of his shampoo. "Sorry about the fireball chicken taco." he muttered, then oophed when Peter pinched his side savagely. "Ow! Damn Pete! Let's work on a safe word before we start getting kinky!"

Peter laughed hard enough to make his entire body shake then, and neither one moved away until the taco vendor cleared his throat and announced, "I have your usual, Mr. Parker."

"Thank you." Peter reached for his food with one hand and linked his other fingers with Wade. "So, ridiculous chicken aside, what else do you want to do tonight? I hear they are putting up lights in the park since Christmas is only a few weeks away? That could be fun, or if if’s not fun, at least it will be sparkly which is just as good right?"

"Pete." Wade looked down at their linked hands and then up at Peter nervously. "What are you doing?"

"Oh." Peter dropped Wade's hand immediately, and even backed up a step. "Sorry. I just um-- sorry. I wasn't trying to pull anything. We're friends, Wade. Just friends."

"Just friends." Wade repeated and Peter added, "100% professional."

"Friends don't have to be professional." Wade pointed out, fighting a smile and the overwhelming flare of hope when Peter lit up into one of those beautiful grins.

"I guess you're right about that. Friends don't have to be professional." Peter inched closer, and then closer again and reached for Wade's hand. "This is okay?"

"Yeah." Wade swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, this is okay."

"Lights in the park?" Peter pressed at Wade's palm. "Or do you want to call it a night?"

"...I'm not ready to say good night to you yet."

"Oh good." Peter flushed a little when Wade squeezed his fingers. "I'm not ready to say good night to you either."

****************

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHAPTER!

****************

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#ncts fics #spideypool #peter parker #wade wilson

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wheelsupinhotch · 3 years

Text

the 1 -- Aaron Hotchner x Reader (Folklore Series)

Summary - After leaving the BAU for some years, you find yourself back in Quantico running into an all too familiar group of people and reminiscing on that all too familiar person.

Request - None! Part of folklore inspired series x Aaron hotchner

Warnings - Slight angst, fluff, swearing, reader goes by they/them she/her he/him etc.. pronouns! ( note - I haven’t had chance to proof read this yet so if I slipped up anywhere please don't hesitate to let me know!).

Word count - 2282

Pairing - Aaron Hotchner x Reader

Click here for Masterlist

Requests are currently open but expect a slight delay in writing them as I am working on this series currently! :)

NOTE - I haven’t spell checked this so sorry for any errors!

‘ i’m doing good, i’m on some new shit , been saying yes instead of no’

The crisp autumn air cascades itself around you as the bronzed painted leaves danced their way around you, echoing the sounds of chatter around you.

The city of Quantico almost mocked you as your found yourself following the haunted pathways through the city. A career in the BAU was a once in a lifetime experience but it always seemed so ironic to you that you could lose such great friendships and relationships just as quick as you made them.

When you left the BAU, you did not only leave a job but you left friends. You left him.

‘I thought I saw you at the bus stop, I didn’t though’

Memories of your time with Aaron flooded into your mind subconsciously, each one playing over and over again like a movie reel, with every glance of your surroundings echoing the words of your past. Finding yourself paving the way to the once beloved coffee shop that was your scared place every monday morning for the smallest ounce of motivation. Turning each street corners your eyes pulled themselves towards the nearby bus stops.

And there he was.

The man who was once your home, your safe place. Stood across from you but vanished in an instant when you realised it was a mirage created inside of your head. ‘Did it mean something?’ you ask yourself as you continue on to the familarty of the smell of brewed coffee and low chatter of the busy lives. Although it was a feeling you tried to shake off there and then, you could not help but to be stained with every good and memory you had with Aaron.

‘I hit the ground running each night, I hit the sunday matinee. You know the greatest films of all time were never made’

The way you and him would stay until the late ghostly hours of the night at the office, never completing the paperwork on time because you were so infatuated by each other. How most sunday afternoons were spent at theatres or at the movies, never really interested in what was playing, just longed to be near each other, to be loved by each other. Or how he would wake you each morning, peppering kisses along your cheek and shoulder, the comfort of his raspy breath uttering the words ‘morning’ had such an effect on you, it was a memory that marked your mind like a red wine stain.

But the good came with the bad. You tried to forget the memories of you coming home late from a case. How he would shut you off in the office until he’d finish. Or how you shut eachother out whenever frustrated by a case.

‘I guess you never know, never know and if you wanted me you really should have showed. And if you’re never bleed you’re never gonna grow and it’s alright now’

And Jack. You loved that child like your own, offering him a safe place that he felt comfortable in. But you were young, the idea of responsibility scared you. You can’t help but wonder if these were the factors that caused your relationship to suffice. But you never knew. Each day love grew distant from you and Aaron . ‘If you wanted me you really should have showed’. One of the last words you ever uttered to him before leaving Quantico.

Growing sick with regret you find yourself at the footsteps of the once familiar coffee shop. Bustling your way through the crowd an inwards, your greeted with a welcoming sense, almost as if the place longed for you to be there. As you stood at the all too familiar counter, placing your usual order, you make your way over to a small table at the back of the cafe, across from an all too familiar spot where the team spent afternoons unwinding from hard cases. What you had not comprehended was that that exact spot was inhabited the same people it was all those years ago. There he was.

Eyes interlocked all over you, illuminating your presence like the elephant in the room. A small smile found its way building on Aaron's face, almost like he had been longing for the moment you would walk back in ever since you left. Feeling far too exposed, you decided to make your way over to the table where you were greeted with delight and love. A feeling all too well recognised. The feeling of a family.

Rossi was first to break the silence. ‘Y/N, How have you been? What are you doing all the way over here in Quantico’. Feeling slightly overwhelmed you pluck up the courage to respond ‘Good, great actually. Strauss actually invited me over here for the weekend, Something to do with a case in New York,’ The team nodded in response with JJ interjects and saying ‘ Well, It’s so great to see you. We’ve missed you’. She remarked as her arms opened up into a hug. Deciding to sit down with the team, you found yourself between Garcia and Aaron. His presence still making you feel the same way it did all those years ago. Wanting to break the unbearable awkwardness that was building you stare ‘It’s so good so see you guys again, feels like old times huh.’ you say with a smile. It was not until that moment that all too familiar, deep voice ‘Yeah, the team felt empty without you Y/N’.

In a state of shock from the unexpected remark. You stare back into his eyes and reply ‘The same goes for you guys too,’. It was that moment that your eyes interlocked, every memory came flushing back to you.

‘But we were something don’t you think so?. Roaring twenties,tossing pennies in the pool. And if my wishes came true, It would have been you.’

“You know for a first date Aaron, you are quite the romanticist’ you remark. Aarons low chuckle filling the air as you walk around the park. Secluded away in your own world, completely besotted by each other. You felt the way his hand left yours abruptly, guiding you other to a fountain. Playfully rolling your eyes, knowing what he was suggesting. ‘What? Come on Y/N make a wish.’. He remarked playfully. ‘Okay okay’. Smiling to yourself both of you threw pennies into pool. ‘So, what did you wish for?’ Aaron questioned. Playfully poking his chest ‘Oh well if I tell you it will never come true’. Little did you realise your wish of you and him lasting a lifetime was a wish that would have never came true no matter how much you tried.

The flashback of your fond memories with him quickly transformed into some hellish nightmare.

‘In my defence I have none, for never leaving well enough alone. But it would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the one’

‘Aaron baby come on it's almost midnight, please come to bed.’ you beg of him, looking over at his desk that he’d been hunched over for the past four hours. Working a long case was never easy, and every now and then it took a toll over your relationship with Aaron. ‘Just go to bed Y/N.’ He snapped, with a realisation it was never his intent to talk to you in that manner as you saw the way his face dropped looking over at you in the doorway. ‘Fine Aaron’. you retort slamming the door behind you and walking to bed feeling frustrated and lonely. “Y/N…’ he shouts more lightly, an almost remorseful undertone to it’. Sighing, Aaron found himself turning back to his work, poking the drift that was building ever so much each day.

‘I have this dream you’re doing cool shit, having adventures on your own. You meet some woman on the internet and take her home’

Breaking yourself out of the daydream you found yourself, you found all eyes of the team on you. ‘So Rossi, anymore weddings?’ you joke lightly not wanting the awkward tension building any longer. The team letting out low chuckles between each other and Rossi playfully rolling his eyes at you. ‘No Y/N, If we are going to point a finger at anyone getting married it’s this man over here.’ Rossi remarked. Following his finger you found all eyes on Aaron. You wasn’t sure as to why it hurt when you realised they were talking about Aaron, but sill building a fake smile on your face. ‘You’re engaged?’ you ask almost disregarding the presence of the rest of the team with you, the question having an almost painstaking undertone to it.

‘We never painted by the numbers baby, but we were making it count. You know the greatest loves of all time are over now. I guess you never know never know, and it’s another day waking up alone’.

‘Uh yeah, recently. After well you know…’ Aaron stuttering trying to find the way to look his ex lover in the eyes and confess he moved on not so long after you left. ‘We set him up an online dating account’ Garcia interrupts, recognizing the growing tension between the two of you. Slightly smiling, the team almost afraid of how you were going to react to the news. You laugh lightly stating ‘Wow, online dating, I thought you would have never been the type considering the amount of killer unsubs lurking on there’. A low chuckle echoed as you sat back in your cheer not daring to make eye contact with Aaron. You weren't sure why it hurt so much, maybe you still had love for him after all this time. Sitting with a team of profilers, it was never easy to hide your pain but they silently recognised it between yourselves letting the topic of conversation drift away.

‘But we were something don’t you think so, Roaring twenties tossing pennies in the pool and If my wishes came true, It would’ve been you. In my defence I have none, for never leaving well enough alone, but it would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the one’

Trying to keep focused on the conversation Emily had begun. You found yourself once again daydreaming back to the time when you and Aaron were in love. A time when you thought it would have been forever.

Light groans leave your mouth as your naked skin is exposed to the bright sunlight of morning, feeling Aaron kiss along your neck as you snuggle yourself further into his chest, enjoying the welcoming feeling in his embrace. ‘Morning beautiful’ he whispered fighting between his morning voice he was overpowered with. ‘Morning Aar-’ you sigh contently. Enjoying the feeling once again, your bubble of embrace is broken up by Jack’s energetic self storming into your room shouting ‘Daddy, Y/N come on wake up its the weekend’. Smiling to yourself you both sit up in sync as Aaron plants a kiss on your forehead, engaging with his son.

‘I persist and resist the temptation to ask you if one thing had been different would everything be different today?’

Bringing yourself back to the oreset once again, your eyes drifted to your watch noticing decide and decided it was time to leave. ‘Guys it's been so great to see you all, but really I should get going’ you announce. Low sighs and hugs and words of goodbyes interact with you as you get up to leave. Behind you feel Aarons presence as he lowly whispers ‘ I’ll walk you out’. Not wanted to persist he follows you out the coffee shop door as you found yourselves stood in the streets of the city. ‘Y/N about what happened in there. The engagement its-’. You cut him off immediately stating ‘ Its okay Aaron, you moved on, things change. I’m happy for you really.’ Aaron almost unsatisfied with your response sighs and stares into your eyes. You open your mouth and almost as ‘If one thing had been different, would everything be different today?’ but stop yourself instead saying ‘I'll see you around Aaron’ opening your arms up for an embrace. A feeling that had not been felt in a long time. ‘Yeah, you too Y/N.’ he responded lightly as you depart ways. Turning back to look at him one more time and remembering.

‘But we were something don't you think so, Rosé flowing with your chosen family. And it would’ve been sweet, If it could’ve been me. In my defence I have none, for never leaving well enough alone’

Smiling to yourself as you sat around the table at Rossi's place. Finding yourself once again at one of Rossi's infamous pasta nights. Bottles of wine and rosé over the table and light jazz playing in the background. After an exhausting case, you all used this time to unwind. JJ with her husbands, Garcias and Morgans playful banter between each other other the table. A place where you felt content and happy. The way you sat next to Aaron as he kept his hand on your leg and arm around your chair every so often rubbing small circles on your back to make sure you were okay. ‘Well to another successful case guys’ Rossi hosts a toast as you all clink glasses together. Smiling between each other whilst Aaron placed a small kiss on your cheek.

Memories like this make you regret leaving, wondering if Aaron was the one and you just let him get away. Consumed with your own thoughts following yourself through the all too familiar streets of Quantico with your mind left wondering.

‘But It would’ve been fun if you would’ve been the one’

#criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds x y/n #criminal minds fanfiction #hotch #hotch x you #hotch x y/n #aaron hotchner #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch x y/n #aaron hotch series #folklore #fanfiction #reader insert #angst #fluff

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umihoshi-art · 4 years

Text

Urges (Fugo x Narancia)

Perhaps Fugo had known it all along. The moment he had seen this boy rummage around in a garbage can, it had pulled all his heart-strings. And it only went down hill after. In the way how the boy exceptionally loved pizza and orange juice. How he couldn't sit still when hearing music. How he couldn't sit still to start with. His complete incapability to solve simple math problems. His wide grin and boisterous laughter. Narancia was the biggest dumbass he had ever met. He wanted to punch him so bad. Every fiber in Fugo's body was practically screaming when Narancia so much as moved.

He couldn't keep his eyes off of him.

And that was what absolutely terrified Fugo. He knew himself, he knew that with one wrong comment, he'd absolutely butcher the other teen. He had kept this feeling with him for months now, just like how he had wanted to take the urge of stabbing his parents to his grave. But this was different from the feeling he had at that time. He couldn't place it. But it felt.... Good. Trusted. Comfortable. And oh so alarming. And because he hadn't told anyone about these feelings, not even Buccarati, he now found himself alone with said alarming person.

“boooooored...” Narancia moaned loud and obnoxious. It was raining outside and they were sitting house while Bucciarati, Abbachio and Mista were out on mafia business. In all honesty, the rain wouldn't have stopped Fugo from leaving post-haste, but Buccarati had asked him to keep an eye on Narancia, who was shot in the leg before. By the sound of it, the other boy was doing just fine, though. Fugo had retreated on the couch with a book. He lay slummed against the armrest, his long legs sprawled over the seat, giving off a big 'don't talk to me' aura that he had recently learned from Abbachio. But Narancia, being an absolute star in reading the mood, hated being ignored more then anything. “Fugo, I'm bored! Let's play a game or something?” he hung over the back of the couch, close to Fugo's face. Fugo clicked his tongue and moved his head aside to stay clear of staring at Narancia's disarming face. He pointed. “There's cards, go play Sollitaire. It'll teach you independence.” Narancia grunted annoyed. “you're in a bad mood, no fun.” And it looked like that was the end of the discussion, as Narancia backed away. “c'mon, I'm sick of sitting around all day. Let's go get pizza? It's just some rain and my leg's fine.” the boy moved around the couch and did something that made Fugo freeze over completely: Narancia sat on top of Fugo's hips, leaning over, trying to get his attention. “what.....are you doing?” Fugo heard himself say without breath. The letters in the book were dancing in front of his eyes. His knuckles turned white. This was bad.... “Own fault for hogging the couch~ I'll only make myself heavier if you're gonna be a wet sock.” Fugo didn't reply right away. He barely moved. All he could think about was.... the time this had happened before. “Get off...” he spoke darkly. But Narancia didn't get the message. “Feeling like doing something yet?” in the spirit of 'making himself heavy', he hopped his hips up and crashed them down on Fugo's. It took every ounce of self-control for Fugo to keep his retort at only grabbing Narancia by the throat and giving a good squeeze. “Get. Off. Now!” he was panting heavy. Gritting his teeth, his eyes unfocused, his hand was sweaty and shaking. Even Narancia noticed this was worse then Fugo's usual fits of rage. He replied more docile: “o-okay, okay... geez...” and got off him slowly, to not make any sudden movements. Both were silent for a good few minutes. “Sorry....” Narancia muttered in the end. Fugo swallowed, not looking at him. Still shaken, he got up. “Gotta shower...” “huh? You showered this morning..” Fugo ignored the other and paced over to the bathroom.

This was exactly the problem. If it had been anyone but Narancia, Fugo was sure it wouldn't have triggered anything.... probably... Then again, in their small company only Narancia would be enough of a clueless dumbass to sit on top of another guy. Taking a shower, he made sure to clean himself vigorously, until he finally managed to stop panting. In the process, the mirror received a good 3 punches and was broken beyond use. Fugo looked down at his hands. 'Disgusting....' he thought to himself. His mind was in turmoil. Because even if he tried to push it away with all his rage: it had felt good. He had wanted Narancia to stay. No... even, get closer. And a most disturbing thought haunted Fugo: It's happening again.

Fugo had never talked about what had happened in school to anyone, except for Bucciarati. He doubted if any of them would really understand it. It had never been about him beating up the teacher. It was more complicated then that. 'Justified self-defense' is what his parents had bribed the court into concluding. And so there never really was any examination of the case. Fugo hadn't been able to find closure of his feelings. And so he made a conclusion many abused youths would pull: 'It was my own fault...'

He finished up in the bathroom after just a little under 2 hours. But when he returned, Narancia still had visible marks on his throat. He was sitting on the ground, against the couch and was hugging his knees. His eyes looked rather misty. Fugo felt a flush of guilt and gulped. “I.....sorry, Narancia. I went too far.” Narancia looked up with a jolt. Fugo would have preferred him to look angry, or even scared. But the look on Narancia's face was filled with worry. He got up. “What are you apologizing for?? I'm the one who's sorry! What the hell happened? Did I do something bad?? Did I mess up?” Fugo felt his chest tighten and looked off. “it's... nothing, never mind it. Just don't do it again.” “Don't be like that! I won't understand if you won't tell me!” Narancia paced over, that worried look didn't leave his face. It really troubled Fugo to see that face from up closer, only increasing his violent urges again. He turned away. “Forget about it! I'm not mad at you, so don't bother.” “FUGO!!” Narancia clung his hands in the back of Fugo's jacket. He sounded beyond worry: he was desperate. His voice was pitched and shallow. “Please.... don't shut me out? Not you..... Slap me or punch me or choke me, that's all fine. Just, don't brush me off? Please? You always confront me, you look straight at me and you face me head on... that means a lot to me. I like that about you. A lot. So don't-.... don't act like I didn't hurt you when I did! I'd rather have you tell me to my face and give me a good punch to get it over with, then to hide it!”

It was happening. It was too late. Fugo's mind would go pitch black. If he'd come to, would he find Narancia's bloody corpse beneath him? But he felt strangely light. As if a weight had been lifted. As if he had crossed a line he had been so afraid of crossing. But now that it was crossed, there's no more point in fearing it. Fugo's mind was clear. And he knew exactly what he was doing. He stretched his hand out to Narancia, holding his face. And what he had been sure would have resulted in him beating the boy's lights out was anything but that: Fugo crushed his lips against Narancia's. It felt like the most natural thing he had ever done. It was vivid and mindblowing. The boy's lips were slightly rough and dry. There was a faint taste of the strawberry he had nicked from Mista some time ago. And it felt like they could bruise from the sudden impact. It were the longest 2 seconds in Fugo's life before his mind caught up with his body and he backed away, realizing what he had done. Both stared at each other, perplexed. Fugo covered his mouth with the back of his hand in disbelieve. And the most disturbing thought crept on him: 'Oh god. I forced myself on him.'

Fugo looked absolutely mortified. Narancia felt another large pang of worry, but... processing what had happened and how it had led to this, his face flushed and he laughed a bit. “oh-... was that.. why you were uncomfortable, huh? Pft.. Okay, that makes sense~” “I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to--” “wow, wow! What are you apologizing about now? I'm not mad!” But Fugo stepped back, lost in his own mind. Thinking fast, Narancia grabbed hold of his arms and kissed him back. Faster and more clumsy, but sincere. “There! Now we're even, right?” It calmed Fugo down slightly and he looked back at the other, remorsefully and unsure of himself. “It's okay. Don't worry.” Narancia tried to reassure him, but he had completely lost what could possible be going through Fugo's head. Narancia took a deep breath. He wasn't exactly used to being the responsible one with the braincell. “Let's sit down? Okay?” he took Fugo's hand and took him along to the couch. Fugo followed reluctant, absentmindedly staring at their linked hands. As they sat, Fugo hesitated: “I.... I don't want to shut you out...just, I.... don't know where to start. It's embarrassing and pathetic.” Brushing off the immediate link of kissing him equals embarrassing and pathetic, Narancia shrugged. “Let's face it. You and I both know I'm not the smartest. You've gotta help me out here.” Fugo showed a rare slight smile. Then took a deep breath. “There..... used to be a person I looked up to.” he spoke, but his voice sounded uncomfortable. “He... well... did something similar...” Narancia blinked a few times, trying to figure what the other meant. “What happened to him?” “I killed him.” Fugo stated, surprisingly matter-of-factly. “Okay, rewind that for a bit. How? Why?” “You know how I get violent, right?” “Yeah, but never without a reason!” Fugo frowned for a moment. He wasn't quite sure if he was worth of that trust. Narancia hadn't worded it as being a 'good' reason. That would have just sounded fake. But...... Fugo refused to believe it. He knew himself. He knew what he did. And he knew what he's capable of... He sighed, trying to brush off how heavy the topic actually was to him. “He came on to me.” He didn't look Narancia in the eyes. “So, considering I just came on to you, I felt bad and apologized. The end.” Against popular believe, Narancia wasn't entirely stupid, though: “But you were already acting off before you did that.” Fugo took a deep breath and closed his eyes. There was no way out of it now, huh? Perhaps..... he should put Narancia to the test. Despite himself, he felt a slight shimmer of fragile hope that maybe, just maybe, someone would understand. But he also braced himself for that hope to be disappointed. That was alright. Nothing would change. “a teacher at my school... he invited me over and-” his words stocked, trying to find the right way to describe it enough to make Narancia understand, but not to make it more dramatic and have Narancia throw pity at him. “-and approached me.” Narancia's face told him that wasn't going to cut it. “....sexually.” the other boy frowned, only producing a soft. “Oh....” Fugo quickly continued. “After that, he came to me again, suggesting we'd do the same thing. And then I beat him to death.” Fugo had rehearsed the reply people would give him in his mind over and over. 'it's not your fault, it was self-defense, you're the victim'. And maybe there had been a slight chance he would have believed that, if it hadn't been the exact arguments the court had been bribed in.... and.... “But..then why-...” Narancia's mind was racing, like there was something he couldn't quite lay his finger on. Fugo waited, patiently. But Narancia's conclusion startled him: “Holding yourself back...” it dawned on Narancia. “You were holding yourself back from killing him for all that time.” Fugo's shoulders sank. Yes.... that's what was eating away at him. If it really was something he didn't want, why did he let it happen? If he was going to kill him, why didn't he do so right away? He remembered the malicious whispers of his peers, saying he had been the one who was close to the teacher, he had been the one to seduce him, he had used the teacher to get good grades. And he believed them.... “That's right. I let it happen. I allowed him to do it, even though I could have stopped him.” Narancia stared intensely at Fugo. There was no judgment on his face. No pity. No disbelieve. Fugo had trouble reading that expression and so he continued: “And yet I mindlessly killed him. Just like I planned to mindlessly kill my parents, many times. You see? I don't actually need a reason. It might actually be that the people I care about have the highest risk.” Narancia grabbed a hold of Fugo's both cheeks, moving his own head back for momentum and headbutted the other as hard as he could. “YOU ABSOLUTE BRAIN FART! Isn't it obvious???” Narancia raged, trying his hardest not to wince at his own dumb action. “Auw, what was that about, you brat?!” Fugo took a hold of the back of Narancia's hair, just about ready to repeat the same dumb action. But Narancia yelled in his face before he could. “It's because you're A NICE PERSON!! no one in their right mind can just kill another person so easily! You held yourself back, cuz you're gentle! You're a better person than that piece of shit deserved you to be! What's wrong with that?!! You didn't want to hurt anyone and he used that against you!!” Tears started streaming down Narancia's face. Angry. Frustrated. But also a sense of adoration for the other. “Don't be a dickhead, saying you don't need a reason! You had it pent up more and more, over and over, until you couldn't take it anymore! Even when they took a running leap across the line. Damnit all, if that guy wouldn't be dead, I'd go out there and hunt him right now!” Fugo stared at him for a while, losing the girp on the other's hair. He sighed in slight defeat. Narancia's thinking was so simpleminded. But... he did feel better. It might still take some time for himself to believe it... but it was comforting to know that someone else believed in him.

“But! But that was that and this is this!” Narancia continued. “hm?” Fugo blinked, not quite following. “You said you were coming on to me. And I made it even.” Fugo looked off and nodded a bit. “You also said you were sorry about it. You dun want to?” “That's not it! I just-” Narancia grinned. “...so you want to~?” “.....” Fugo's stomach stirred from the coy look Narancia gave him. He was slowly starting to differentiate the urge of punching someone from this urge of kissing the other. “Yeah...” he admitted and leaned in slowly. “If you're still bored, I know something.”

#pannacotta fugo #narancia ghirga #fugo x narancia #jojo no kimyou na bouken #JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken Ōgon no Kaze #jojo part 5 #Vento Aureo #jojo's bizzare adventure vento aureo #jojo's bizzare adventure #jojo's bizzare adventure golden wind #team bucciarati #passione #I'm a mess since Fugo's gone #fugone #fugonara

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p-artsypants · 3 years

Text

I Do...I Guess (6)

The Farplane

Ao3 | FF.net

I decided to change the way the Farplane worked, only for story purposes. You know, you gotta do what you can for the Drama™.

Also, I’m going to try to keep the lore the same, but it gets kind of confusing towards the end of the first game, so if I mess up or change something, I’m trying to have it make sense in my head.

Also, I don’t want to completely rehash the whole story the same way, except for the little change of Yuna and Tidus being married. But some of the events are going to be pretty similar and chronological. I mean, they have a path they have to go, and I really liked the story in the game. Why ruin a good thing?

The longer time goes on, the more we’ll diverge. I’m hoping this story will reach into X-2’s timeline, but the ending is still fuzzy. I’m not writing this ahead of time, like a smart person would. You’re getting it as it comes! Whoooo!

—

As they reached the gate to the Farplane, Auron took a seat on the edge of the ramp.

“I can’t go in.” He said simply.

Rikku took up the seat next to him and took a deck of cards out of her inventory. “We Al Bhed aren’t super big on the Farplane. We prefer to leave the past in the past.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s why you dig up all the Machina.” Wakka muttered, before being elbowed by Lulu. “Ow!”

“Behave.”

The gate to the Farplane looked like a wall of water, mirroring the side they were on.

Tidus hesitated outside, but Wakka and Lulu walked in without another thought.

“Are you coming?” Yuna asked.

“Uh yeah…”

And it felt like submerging underwater, but there was no wetness, just the sensation of moving from one world into the next.

The Farplane was vast and huge, teeming with life, despite being the land of the dead. Flowers covered the ground, and cascading waterfalls filled the sky.

The sun looked like a hole had been punched in the sky and light shone from behind. A rotting, swirling blackness gnawed at the edges, making the almost pristine world have an ominous air to it.

“Whoa.” Said Tidus.

“It’s so pretty,” said Yuna.

“So how does this work?” Tidus asked the more experienced party members.

“It’s pretty easy,” Wakka walked up to a podium at the edge of the platform they stood on. “All you gotta do is touch this sphere, here. Then, all the people in the Farplane that want to see you will appear. Then you get to pick who you want to talk to, and they’ll come forward, and then you can talk to them.”

“Have you done this before?”

“For sure, ah? Quite a few years ago, Chappu and I were talking about an old Besaid legend, the Melonheads. It was a group of people with swollen heads that lived in the caves down by the beach. Chappu never believed they existed, but me and some of the Aurochs were sure it was true. So when Lulu and I came through on our last pilgrimage, I asked the previous leader of Besaid about it.”

“And what did he say?”

“He didn’t know, so he called on his predecessor, and he called on his, so on and so forth, until we got all the way back to the war.”

“And?”

“And it was a bunch of bologna. It was some dumb joke from my grandfather’s era.”

“That’s really cool you got to solve it though!” Yuna chirped. “And you got to talk to the founder of Besaid! That’s amazing.”

“So who’s going first?” Tidus asked, glancing at the podium.

“I’ll go. I’ll show you how it works,” replied Wakka. He confidently strolled up to the podium, but paused with his hand hovering over the sphere.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just…got nervous, all of a sudden. I haven’t seen Chappu since…” he swallowed instead of finishing his sentence, and then pressed his hand on the surface of the softly glowing sphere.

The air filled with hazy figures, slowly solidifying into ghostly people. Details and faces appearing as they were before they died. About fifty in total, and mostly men.

Luzzu, a crusader that Tidus had met on Besaid, and travelled with the team all the way to Mi’ihen, was among them.

“Wow,” Wakka said with a little, sad chuckle. “There’s more here than I was expecting.” Then he spotted Chappu, and beckoned him forward.

“Hey big brodda! It’s been awhile, ya?” Chappu greeted with a big smile. Though he had the proud Besaid accent and boisterous voice, his sound was airy and wispy.

“Yeah. Yeah it has.” Wakka responded, without much enthusiasm.

“What’s with the cold reception?! Bummed because I’m dead?”

Wakka laughed slightly, unable to help it. “Yeah. Yeah man, that’s it exactly.”

“Well knock it off! The Farplane isn’t too bad, ya? I built a place down by the river, surrounded by flowers. We play Blitz all day, and never have to work. And the best part? No Sin! Sure, we don’t eat or sleep, but we don’t need to. So stop moping!”

“I just…miss you. Is all.”

“Yeah, I miss you too, eh? But time is different here. Not sure how long I’ve been dead.”

“About a year now.”

“Wow, a whole year! Feels like just yesterday, but also like I’ve been here for eons. It’s too hard to explain.” He waved a hand in front of his face, changing the topic. “What are you doing in Guadosalam anyway?”

“I’m a guardian again. This time, for good. Gave up the game. It was time to get serious, you know?”

“Who this time?”

“It’s Yuna, she’s finally ready.” He gestured behind him so that Chappu could see.

Yuna waved.

“Little Yuna is already on her Pilgrimage? Well, good luck! And I’ll save you a good spot!” He laughed.

No one joined.

“Hey Wakka,” Chappu grew serious. “You takin’ good care of my girl?”

“He bullies me,” Lulu answered.

“I do not! If anything, you’re the bully!”

“You need to be bullied. You’re too immature.”

Chappu laughed again. “I guess I got my answer.”

“If anything, I’m taking care of him.” Lulu added. “But he makes sure I’m staying safe.”

“Good, glad to hear it. I’d haunt Wakka if he wasn’t taking care of you.”

Lulu closed her eyes, and downcast her face, hiding her expression.

“I see Kimahri, and who’s this dude?” Chappu gestured to Tidus.

“Your long lost twin, ya? Gotta rub some tomato in his hair, but he could be you. I gave him your sword. I think he likes it.”

“Good! I certainly don’t need it here. Better he use it to keep Yuna safe.”

“You got it, Chappu!” Tidus gave him a thumbs up.

“I wish I could talk longer, but your time is precious. Just promise me one thing, Wakka.”

“What’s that?”

“Let me go.”

Wakka swallowed and shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do that yet, you know? For the longest time, I hoped…” he swallowed again, finding his throat too dry. “In my head, I knew you’d be here. They told me they found your body. But my heart kept hoping that they were wrong. But here you are.”

“So take this as closure. I’m fine. Great actually. I have plenty of regrets,” he glanced at Lulu, “but there’s no one in the Farplane who doesn’t have their regrets. I’ll learn to live with them. Or…die with them, as the case may be. But you still have time, and hanging onto me is going to drag you down.”

“Gee, when did you get so smart?”

“You learn a few things when you arrive here. Things that seemed important when you were alive suddenly aren’t anymore, and you get a look at a bigger picture. But I’m spoiling it for you.” He shot his arm out, giving Wakka a brotherly punch that he’d never feel. “Take care, brodda. Get Yuna to Zanarkand, and maybe coach the Aurochs again if you get back, ah? We got to win once.”

Wakka laughed. “We did win! This guy,” he pointed at Tidus. “He allegedly played for the Zanarkand Abes! He took us to the finals!”

“You for real? He’s from Zanarkand? We played them on this side not too long ago. Great team! They got some moves I’ve never seen before. Kicked our butts, they did!”

Wakka laughed, a real genuine laugh since they had arrived in Guadosalam. It was heartbreaking.

“Well, you better get off the line, before we talk about Blitz for three hours.”

“Yeah.” He sighed, and his shoulders relaxed. “I’ll see you around, ya? Next time, I might be on the other side with you.”

“You better be an old man.”

“No guarantees. You save me a good spot too though, okay?”

“Already did. It’s blocked out and everything.”

“Thanks. Well…bye Chappu.”

“See you, Wakka.”

And he removed his hand from the sphere. For a while, he stood there, staring at the place Chappu had been. Then he quickly wiped his face and turned to the group. “See? Easy as pie! Who’s next?”

Yuna avoided eye contact and twiddled her thumbs.

“Lu? You wanna go?”

“I have no one I want to talk to.” Then she considered a moment. “But, there is someone I want to see. Just to make sure they made it to the Farplane.” She approached the podium, and touched the sphere.

About the same amount of people appeared for Lulu as for Wakka, with lots of the same faces, including Chappu.

After a glance over the crowd, she frowned. “A shame.”

“You don’t see them?”

“No. But, they could just not want to see me. I wouldn’t blame them either.” She removed her hand and stepped back, leaving the podium open for Yuna.

“I guess it’s my turn, then.”

With the determination he saw her garner when she summoned, Yuna approached the sphere, and placed her hand on it. Tidus was quick to take his place beside her, for emotional support.

Many more people appeared. Maybe 200. Maybe more. It was hard to tell.

“Famous even in the Farplane,” Tidus joked.

“Hm. Many of these people knew my father, and probably would like to speak to me because of him. Or perhaps I met them once and made that big of an impact. It’s hard to know. But, honestly, I don’t recognize them all.”

But there, in the middle, stood her parents, arm in arm, reunited in death.

She beckoned them forward.

Immediately, Lord Braska’s face melted in adoration. “Is that my Yuna? My little girl?” His voice, like Chappu, had a wispy quality to it. The sound of someone speaking without vocal chords.

“Hello mother, father.” She greeted with a tearful smile.

“My my child, how you have grown. How old are you now?”

“17.”

“Ten years it’s been then? What are you doing in Guadosalam?”

“I’m on my own Pilgrimage to Zanarkand.”

Instead of beaming with pride, like Tidus expected he would, Braska frowned. “You became a Summoner? That’s…a fate I had hoped to spare you from.”

“You’re so young,” said her mother.

“I know. But, when you defeated Sin, you brought so much joy to Spira. I want to do so too. And it’s not your fault, but I think everyone expects the same of me.”

“I was afraid of that.” Braska lamented.

“I want you to meet my guardians!” Yuna interjected, before the man could blame himself further. She beckoned Kimahri closer. “This is Kimahri Ronso. Sir Auron met him on his way back from your Pilgrimage and asked him to find me. He brought me to Besaid and stayed with me ever since.”

“Glad to know Auron kept his promise to look after you.” Braska smiled.

“In Besaid, I met Lulu and Wakka. They’ve been like family to me. They practically raised me. And Sir Auron, we met up with in Luca. He’s outside, with Rikku!”

“Rikku?” Asked her mother, “your cousin?”

“Yep!”

This little tidbit of information did not escape Wakka. “Your who-what now?”

Yuna hunched her shoulders. “Um…Rikku is my cousin?”

“But…that would mean…you’re Al Bhed?”

Yuna’s mother spoke up. “Half. A summoner married to an Al Bhed is given no favors, even if he’s widowed. So, it’s not well known.”

“Summoner Braska married one…” Wakka shook his head in disbelief. “What a way to learn this information…”

“You’re not going to bail, are you?” Asked Lulu.

“No. Guardian through and through. Just…I need some time to process.” He held his head and muttered something that sounded like, “and I said all those things.”

“And who’s this strapping gentleman standing next to you?” Yuna’s mother asked. “I think you missed a guardian?”

“Oh! Of course. This is Tidus, Sir Jecht’s son…and my husband.”

THAT brought joy from the couple.

“You got married!” Her mother cheered. “That’s wonderful!”

“To the crybaby?” Asked Braska, with a smug smile.

Tidus rolled his eyes. “I’m not a crybaby.”

“There will be some hard times ahead of you, and having someone like a spouse to support you will help. It's a luxury I wish I could have had.”

“Actually…” She clenched her hands to her chest. “There’s something I need your advice on. One Summoner to another.”

“Whatever you need, My Love.”

Just that little nickname brought joy to the part of her heart that had desperately missed her father. “Did you ever know Maester Seymour Guado?”

He thought for a moment. “Lord Jyscal’s son? I don’t think I ever met him. He’s half human, half Guado, right? He’s a Maester now, hmm? Good for him.”

“Yes, he umm…he proposed to me.”

Braska laughed. “And you obviously told him you were married, correct?”

“Well, yes. But Tidus and I have only been married a few days. Well, Maester Seymour believes it would be best if we got our marriage annulled, and Maester Seymour and I wed instead.”

“He said that!?” Yuna’s mother gawked.

Braska, too, looked disturbed at the idea. “Why would he ask such a thing?”

“He said that…well, as a Summoner, it’s my job to bring joy to Spira. And a wedding between a Maester and Summoner would be a joyous occasion.”

“Sure,” said Braska. “Until they find out that you broke off your marriage of love for a marriage for politics.”

“That’s what Auron said!” Tidus interjected.

“And that didn’t convince you?”

Yuna blushed, embarrassed. “I know…I just…he’s a Maester, and he only has Spira and Summoner’s best interests at heart. He wouldn’t have asked if there wasn’t some good that would come out of it.” As she said it, she wondered if she really believed that. It was what she was trying to convince herself was really happening, instead of the gut feeling that hit everytime Seymour appeared. “Would he?”

Braska shook his head. “My sweet daughter, by bringing the Calm, I had hoped that I had paved a way for you to do what you want. I’m so proud that you’ve become a summoner. But Spira’s happiness doesn’t need to rest solely on your shoulders. There’s no reason you and Tidus couldn’t have a more formal and public ceremony to bring joy.”

Yuna looked over to Tidus, not having considered that at all.

“Yuna. As hypocritical as this may sound, promise me, you won’t let anyone tell you want to do in your marriage. You and Tidus are a team now. A team not even a Maester can break up. And that’s coming from High Summoner Braska.”

Yuna actually wept a few tears in relief. “Thank you, father. I needed to hear that. I was so concerned about Yevon and my duties to the Temples, that I forgot my duties as a wife.” She turned to Tidus. “I’m going to tell Seymour no.”

Tidus deflated like a balloon, relaxed and relieved. “Thank Yevon, right?”

“And you, Sir Tidus,” Braska said sternly.

Tidus straightened up.

“As her guardian, don’t be afraid to tell people to back off. It’s your duty. Your father was particularly talented in it. Although, best not use the same language and hand gestures he used.”

“I understand.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You’d get it. Yevon isn’t a thing in Zanarkand. Knowing what’s appropriate and would reflect poorly on Yuna…that’s something I’m trying to figure out.”

“Whatever you do, once Yuna defeats Sin, it all gets overlooked, or remembered fondly. So just do what you have to.”

“Yes sir!”

“Glad to hear it. Now, Yuna…there’s something you should know about Zanarkand.”

“What is it, father?”

Braska hesitated. “Did Auron tell you anything?”

“Um…not anything outside of my expectations.”

“Hmm. And you’re set on this Summoner path?”

“That's all I want.”

He seemed to think better of whatever he was going to say, and instead said, “well, I suppose you’ll find out when the time comes. In the end, it won’t matter.”

“In the end?” Asked Tidus.

Braska gave him a little look. “At the end of the Pilgrimage. It won’t matter. All she needs to do is defeat Sin.”

“Oh, sure. Right.”

Braska reached a hand out, touching the side of Yuna’s face, sending tingles over her cheek. “One last thing, my wonderful daughter. There’s no shame in abandoning the Pilgrimage. I almost turned back, and most Summoners do as well. I love you, and I will continue to do so no matter what you choose.”

“Thank you, father. It’s a blessing to know I have your support no matter what happens.”

“And Tidus’ support,” he reminded. “And he’s tangible.”

Tidus rested a hand on her shoulder, squeezing affectionately.

Wiping a tear from her eye, Yuna gave a curt nod.

“Good luck, My dearest daughter.”

“We’ll be waiting,” her mother added.

And Yuna removed her hand from the podium. She sighed, closing her eyes.

“Feel a little better?” Tidus asked.

“Yes. I had hoped talking to my father would give me clarity. And it did.”

“Uh…Yuna?” Wakka spoke up.

They were both prepared for Wakka to start interrogating her about her heritage, since that had to be on the forefront of his mind. Instead, he was pointing at the place Braska had been.

Yuna looked up, and saw a Guado man. “Lord Jyscal?”

Unlike Chappu and Braska, Jyscal looked…unwell. Dead and ghostly, of course, but he looked more gray, more tormented. He crooked a finger towards her, and beckoned her closer.

Yuna leaned in, nervous that a figment could appear without anyone touching the podium.

He whispered something in her ear. Something that puzzled her.

But before anyone could ask questions, he was gone.

“What did he say?” Asked Tidus.

“I…I’m not sure. I couldn’t understand him.” She lied. More than anything, she wanted to deflect from the news she had received. “Tidus, would you like to try?” She gestured to the sphere.

He considered it. “It couldn’t hurt right? Maybe I’ll tell my mom that I got hitched. She won’t believe me.” He laughed as rested his hand on the sphere.

Hundreds. Thousands of people appeared.

A city’s worth.

“Whoa…” said Wakka.

“Ah. Yeah…that’s what happens when you and your dad are famous, I guess. All my fans want to see me.” He frowned as he looked around, tears gathering in his eyes.

Children, young people in the prime of their lives, and his teammates. Friends he had eaten with just a month ago. They were all here, waiting for him.

“I…I changed my mind.” He removed his hand. “I don’t want to talk to anyone.” The ghosts disappeared, like a bad dream.

Wakka was staring at him, jaw dropped.

“What?”

“You’re for real? You’re really from Zanarkand?”

Tidus chuckled. “Oh so now you believe me?”

“Kind of hard to ignore the evidence! I don’t even know that many people!”

“I’m waiting for an apology.”

Wakka sighed. “Fine. I’m sorry for doubting you and calling you delusional.”

“Ahem.”

“I’m sorry, Sir Tidus.”

He smiled. “Hey, water under the bridge! Now, let’s go tell Seymour the good news and get the heck out of Guadosalam!”

Lulu spoke up. “Unfortunately, there’s a really bad storm in the Thunder Plains. We’ll have to stay the night here.”

“When is it not storming in the Thunder Plains?”

“Fine. Get struck. See if I care.”

Yuna led the party out of the Farplane, back to where Rikku and Auron were waiting.

“So?” Asked Rikku. “How did it go?”

“I’ve decided to tell Seymour no. Tidus and I are staying married.”

“Good!” She cheered, then tacked on, “Seymour’s kind of an asshole anyway.”

“He’s still a Maester. So you shouldn’t call him that.” Reprimanded Lulu. “At least, not in front of others.”

Wakka sheepishly approached Rikku and gave her a light rap on the shoulder with his knuckles. “Hey kiddo, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. We might disagree about things, but there was no reason for me to yell at you, ya?”

“Aww, it’s okay Wakka. It’s hard to fight against your whole worldview, right?”

Auron smirked at the exchange. “Let me guess. You found out about Yuna's heritage?”

Wakka might as well be as transparent as those on the Farplane. “Yeah well. Even if Yuna wasn’t half Al Bhed…it was still crappy to yell at a kid.”

Rikku grinned. “I’ll take it!”

The group then returned to Seymour’s mansion. Only to find the man in question missing.

“Lord Seymour has moved on to his temple in Macalania, as he stated you needed time to consider his offer,” said Tromell.

“He didn’t wait for the storm to pass?” Asked Lulu.

“Lord Seymour is not bothered by such things. But he assumed the storm and your late arrival would keep you here, and he has had two rooms prepared for you.”

Tidus and Yuna shared a look. Only two rooms?

“Whoo! Slumber party!” Rikku chirped.

Auron patted Tidus’ back and spoke softly. “I can see the anxiety on your face, plain as day. Lulu and Rikku will be with her. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Getting separation anxiety two days into marriage, eh?” Wakka chided. “It’s kinda cute.”

“Lay off. I’m just…pissed with Seymour, is all.” He muttered, only partly lying.

“If you are all set, I will show you to your rooms. If you will follow me.”

Tidus and Yuna fell into step with one another, as was a common occurrence as of late.

“Yuna?”

“I know,” she said with a sad little smile. “We should talk about it. But…I’m kind of tired. Can it wait until we have the privacy of our own room?”

That was such a gracious request, he couldn’t help but honor it. “Of course. Later. But, we’re good, right?”

“Only if you’re okay. I wouldn’t blame you if you were still mad at me.”

“It’s kind of hard to stay mad at you. It…kind of hurt, but I understand.”

She reached over and took his hand, squeezing it. “I never want to hurt you again.” This came out with so much sorrow in her voice.

He leaned in and kissed her cheek.

#Final Fantasy X #ffx #yuna #tidus x yuna #tidus #fanfiction #I Do...I guess?

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bforbbgirl · 4 years

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Traqué

Summary - a young woman’s life is thrown into chaos when someone from her past comes back,showing that he will stop at nothing to fulfill his darkest desires.

Warning - slow burn, language, mention of drug use, smut, themes of stalking and other tw things.

Purdue World Banking was one of the top banks in Los Angeles, used by some of the richest families and business tycoons from around the world. You were rarely phased by the uppity types that in through those doors, often times you plaster on a fake smile, handle all the checks and cash and then send them on their way like normal.

It was a boring job to say the least but it paid well, it also helped that you quickly made friends with two other clerks named Travis and Nikki, both of them made the long hours easier. Both their personalities mixed well, even though you were slightly quieter than than them, you still always had made and teased one another.

A light tap on your shoulder breaks you out of your thoughts, glancing to your right, Nikki wears a playful grin before her eyes flicker to the revolving doors, the tall, build man that’s been haunting your dreams for the last six month coming in. He walks almost with a cocky strut, his long legs carrying him with this air of confidence that you noticed the moment you’ve met him. It was at random that day he came in, you were still training still getting to know the ropes when he came to your window.

Being your first time left alone, you were a little flustered stumbling over the keyboard and Lewis was there, smiling sat sweetly and even cracking a few jokes put you at ease, it did help the fact that he was easy on the eyes too. After that day, he’s always made it a point to come too your line, he was always friendly and patient, sometimes you think he would prolong the conversation, not that you were complaining that much.

You feel your smile growing as he walks closer, pull his sunglasses off his face as his smile widens as well, “Hi there gorgeous.”

Your cheeks grow warm from the compliment and you playfully roll your eyes, continuing typing away on your on you keyboard, “good afternoon, Mr. Tan.”

Lewis smirks, leaning against the counter as he shakes his head. “I thought I said you didn’t have to call me that?”

You spare him a glance before going back to your desktop, you already had his information up on the screen ready to go but you actually liked to banter with him. Once he was done openingly checking you, he passes you a heavy envelope and his ID. He never really brought up what he did for a living and you never made it a point to ask him but you couldn’t stop your mind from wandering form time to time. After finishing up the processing and a few flirty exchanges, you expected him to give you his signature wink before disappearing out the building him but this time he stayed behind, talking to you more since it was relatively slow today.

“So, a new bistro just opened up a few blocks from here,” Lewis says, his fingers toying with the rim of his sunglasses.

You had your chin rested in your palm, taking in his appearance noticing the small tattoos on his hands and you often wonder if he had more. “Mhm, it looks good and the reviews have been hyping it up but its been packed there nonstop; heard you couldn’t even get seating outside!” Shaking your head, you mumble a complaint about LA being too much, earning a chuckle from Lewis before he looks back down, almost like he’s thinking something.

He soon clears his throat after a moment a of comfortable silence falls between the both of you, “well, if you’re free tomorrow night, I was thinking about checking it out and I’d love too have you come with me.” His voice was low now, holding your attention for a moment before you register what he had just asked you. Lewis just asked you on a date to one of the restaurants that you’ve been wanting to visit for the past two weeks now, you have had a crush on this man for a while now but couldn’t bring yourself to say anything, you try but fail to hide your frown and from the way his playful smirk slowly drops makes your heartache.

Realizing your answer without you having to say anything, you both try to apologize rushing it out at the same time to try and bypass the awkwardness of the situation and you couldn’t of felt even more worse.

“I-“

“Hey, it’s fine really I’m big boy, I can handle rejection.” Lewis says, standing tall and wearing that smirk that has your thighs pressing together. You were attracted to him, he was funny and cocky in away that any other man it would off doughy like, but with Lewis you just knew he wasn’t all talk.

So why were you hesitating?

You think back to last weeks session with doctor Moorse and how she’s been pushing you, at your own pace of course, to start to become more open to ‘putting yourself out there’. Besides Nikki and Travis, you didn’t know anyone in this city and you preferred to keep it that way but after some more convincing from doctor Moorse to at least try so that’s what you were going to do.

Quickly, snatch the receipt you had handed too him, confusing him as you write you number down before handing it back, finding the counter more interesting for the moment, missing a wide smile on his face when he sees your number.

“I’ll text you later?” his voice sounded hopeful and you nod, catching a glance of him before he leaves.

*************

You were nervous.

After Lewis had left yesterday, you had been a mess. A date!? You couldn’t even remember the last time you have even gone out on a date, it must of been years. At the thought, you feel your heart sinking to the pit of your stomach.

‘I can’t do this..’

You were already having second thoughts, you didn’t know if you were ready or not to put yourself back out there and you’ve been now sitting on your couch all morning battling all the ‘what ifs’. Your phone vibrated next to your bouncing leg and see it’s from Lewis.

Lewis: I’m excited for tonight! :)

A small smile tugs on your face, you’ve been texting back and forth a little since you gave him your number and it was nice, he was still being sweet and funny, you liked talking to him too but still, you couldn’t shake the voice in the back of your head warning you to not leave the house. Feeling like you were driving yourself crazy, you quickly dial doctor Moorse number, who picks up on the second ring.The conversation had taken up most of your day as by the time you had gotten off the phone with her, you only have an hour left to get ready.

“Don’t give him the power to control your life anymore, Y/n. He can’t hurt you anymore..”

You had repeated those words over and over to yourself while getting ready. Moorse reminded you that, you had moved all the way here to LA as a means to start fresh and that’s what you were going to do.

Smoothing down the front of the satin red dress you had tucked away in your closet, you had thought you’d never get to wear that again but glad that you were.

You and Lewis both agreed to meet up around eight and it was already ten minutes til; you had arrived a little earlier, taking a look around the area before you finally decided to park across the street since it’s free parking for today.

Soon, you find yourself walking the pavement towards the busy restaurant, hearing laughter and chatter from guest already seated, it doesn’t take you long to spot Lewis who was already outside waiting, chatting with the two younger men were parking the guest cars. As you make your way over, you can’t help but to take him in, getting the clear height of him. You knew he was tall but from sitting behind counter made it harder to fully take him in; his hair was cut and styled as the black suite and tie combo worked well for him, highlighting his muscular frame that, apart of you would be lying, if you weren’t even the slightly curious about how good he would look outside of that suite.

A low whistle comes from one of the younger guys, drawing Lewis attention to behind him and his jaw nearly dropped on the floor.

“Wow, hi..”

You couldn’t stop the grin from spread across your face as his eyes dance across your figure from head to toe, any other man and you would of squirmed in disgust but with Lewis you actually wanted his attention, wanted his gaze to stay focus on you and you had gotten your wish.

Dinner was going smoothly, after ordering a food and drinks, you had felt yourself becoming more and more comfortable with him as he was sharing more about himself and you were giving him bits and pieces but he didn’t push you to share more than what you were comfortable with. The more he spoke, the more you found yourself growing more and more attracted to him, from his ability to transition from one topic to another with ease, always keeping you on your toes with the flow on conversation. If he wasn’t filing in the conversation, he was attentive, listening and giving you his full attention and you find yourself liking it.

The waitress had finish clearing off the plates after dropping off new drinks for you both, you were only on your second glass which surprised you as well. Lewis had just got done showing you pictures of his dog when his phone vibrate.

“Maybe you should take it?” You had asked, throughout the night, his phone has been going off with notifications, you didn’t mind too much but he insisted on just ignoring it but now, a small curse leaves from his lips as he glances down at his phone before sighing.

“Uh, yeah it’s work I’m sorry sweetheart.” his voice showed a sign of annoyance, having to leave to take the call in the middle of his date wasn’t something he had wanted too do, in fact he was planning on ignoring the call all together but you insisted on him answering it. “I’ll be back.” with that, Lewis had quickly gotten to head out, giving a wink before you hear him answering the call as he heads out towards the front.

You take a sip from your glass of wine, glancing around the establishment at the other guest dining, watching the waiters and bussers moving about but one figure stops your gaze making your blood run cold.

‘No..’

Blinking a few times, you look back towards the other side of the room nearing the kitchen. Your mind had to be playing tricks on you, it had to be but as you glance in the same direction, he’s still there, only this time he was making his way through the crowd and towards you.

‘He’s not real..’

Two steps during into two strides.

‘He’s not real...’

He runs a hand down his chin as a wicked smile soon dawns on his face, his eyes growing darker the closer he got.

‘He’s not-’

You didn’t give yourself time to think, grabbing your clutch you move as fast as your heels would let you and you didn’t look back. The warm breeze from the summer night rushes into your lungs as you step out the restaurants, feeling like you were already out of breath.

“Y/n?” Glancing over to your left, you see Lewis standing with his phone pressed against his ear but he already looked two seconds away from ending the call. Shaking your head, you let out an shaky apology before taking back off towards your car as fast you can, fearing that looking back would give him time to catch you.

Ignoring your name being called, you make in towards the parking lot and frantically looking for you keys. Everything was felt like a blur too you as you piled out the parking lot, hands barely able to grip the steering wheel as you speed through traffic.

You dial the one person you knew, knew just how heavy this situation was. After the third ring, your sister had finally picked up, “Hell-”

“He’s back, Mya I saw h-him, I-I-”

“Whoa, hold on Y/n, what are you-”

You pull too a red light, a sob leaving your lips as you try to keep it together but you couldn’t. “It was him Mya, I saw him just now and-and he saw me.”

A sigh comes from the other end. “Y/n, are you sure?”

“Yes!” You shouted, wiping your tears quickly.

“Matt, he’s back!”

***************

Taglist: @royallyprincesslilly @chaneajoyyy @honeychicanawrites @munteanhorewrites @night-of-the-living-shred @fumbling-fanfics @crushed-pink-petals-writes @dc41896 @blackwomanwriter

A/N: So, i’m a dummy and accidentally posted this without finishing it so if you read it, i’m sorry lol. This is a new series that I have been working on for a while but just haven’t been able to write until now. English isn’t my first language i am sorry for the misspell of words.

If you would like to be tagged(or untagged), please let me know!!

#lewis tan #lewis tan x reader #lewis tan x black reader #lewis tan fan fic #au fic #lewis tan fanfiction #lewis tan imagine #lewis tan smut #lewis tan x woc #lewis tan x poc #lewis tan au #matthew grey gubler #au!

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ayankun · 3 years

Text

WandaVision episode 6

FIRST OFF

Whenever I go back to pause things for clues, and find exactly what I’m looking for, I don’t feel justified, I feel that much more insane:

It’s really hard to make out, but I had an alright look at it on my folks’ QLED, and it’s definitely a flying saucer doing an alien abduction on what looks to be a person inside an old CRT TV (with some kind of robot head/boombox on top???) There are secret aliens in this show, you guys, the facts don’t lie.

HmmmMMMM I wonder if Agnes is as innocent as she looks:

Also, I didn’t see that she was wearing the brooch in this ep, and I was majorly disappointed in that.

Two things here:

No, that’s not a twins joke.

Another Moonmen Confirmed

I know green is his color or whatever, but that hat is literally 10 years ahead of its time

Also, I took the playing-DDR-at-home scenario at face value, and only on the first rewatch did I realize it was a very pointed turn-of-the-century reference. I am an Old.

There’s a good, subtle Rule of Threes in this ep. The Setup:

The Sokovian Halloween flashback works on so many levels. It’s so funny:

The fact that they went trick-or-treating at all

The “speaking Sokovian”

The treat being a fish

They have to share the fish

The concept that this event gave them an infectious disease

“You probably suppressed a lot of the trauma” -- it’s a good sitcom joke but. the trauma is the joke. The joke IS THE TRAUMA!!!

Elizabeth Olson is a dream with all her wonderful faces she has this ep.

Vision’s unsettling passive-aggression-sitcom-cooperation whiplash is WOW, consider me unsettled!!!!!! “Be. Good.” UGH.

(Just noticed one here, but there are a number of continuity errors in this episode, enough to be distracting later on, and is this a deliberate choice? Please let it be deliberate. I didn’t watch a whole lot of Malcolm in the Middle, is it known for its continuity errors?

)

“It’s their first Halloween.” LOLOLOL they are TEN YEARS OLD and this is their FIRST halloween I LOVE IT

DOUBLE RED HERRING CONFIRRRRRRRRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agent Jimmy Woo accidentally identifying himself as the sassy best friend added 20 years to my life.

Found. FOUND. Not “created,” “manifested,” “willed into being using my insane witch powers.” Third Party Confirmed.

I like that it’s the 90s and we can swear on TV now. “Hell” “kick-ass” “damn it” “fu---dge”

I think the most biting part of Vision finding the whacked out folks is that the soundtrack just kind of ... ignores that anything’s wrong. Yeah, it’s kinda-spooky Halloween music, but it’s still 100% in-world kinda-spooky-sitcom-Halloween-episode music.

OKAY LET’S TALK ABOUT THE AD:

As a 90s child, let me tell you, this is a blisteringly accurate representation of children’s marketing from the period. The shark is wearing sunglasses AND he has a surfboard!!! And he’s selling you yogurt of all things!!!!! This is the supreme distillation of what being a child in the 90s was like.

How disappointed I am that they went with crab instead of lobster.

Heard it through the grapevine that this is a representative of Wanda’s imprisonment on the Raft. That happened in Civil War, right? So the next ad is The Snap? We’re running out of iconic decades, too. so, hold on, new thought.

90s: Civil War

00s: Infinity War

10s?????: Endgame???? or?????????

??: Whatever happened between Endgame and WandaVision, given that the ads are stepping forward through Wanda’s IRL life events!!

I don’t want to know how many episodes are planned/announced, but I don’t know what to expect from the format after they run out of decades from which to draw. Maybe there are only one or possibly two “sitcom” episodes left. Maybe after that it just breaks down and they can pick and choose from the worlds/styles we’ve already established. That’d be p neat. A very unique kind of chaos.

god she’s so cute

Okay, somebody explain to me Pietro. I honestly walked away from last week thinking he was just some townsperson chump, but then I was reminded that this is the Quicksilver actor from all those X-Mans movies I never watched, soooo people are saying Multiverse Confirmed? But, if this is X-Mans’ Pietro, then why did he die the same as MCU Pietro? Or is he literally MCU!Pietro’s corpse, given that he looked all dead same as when she saw Vision’s corpse? If MCU!Pietro, then why different face???

????????????????

Also I found him highly suspicious, what with all the questions he was asking. But the only sort of person who would truly want to know the answers to those questions would be someone who already had them ... so I think he was just asking on behalf of the audience, and the delivery was all wonked out.

Rule of Threes - The Reference:

Ok, real talk, whenever computers/networks/data/encryption/servers/mainframes et al come up in mainstream media, I just look away. I don’t need the kind of psychic damage that comes with such egregious mishandling of the topic.

That being said, does Hayward having eyes through the barrier mean that he could possibly be involved in getting it set up? Because look. If Hayward-after-Hayward’s-Villianous-Ends is one antagonizing force, then is there really room for the Third Party (Confirmed) antagonizing force that’s lurking in the negative space silhouette of the Inciting Incident? With Wanda as the Red Herring antagonizing force, that’s just. There’s just too many villains, alright? We gotta start merging these plotlines.

(then again, when I just said “eyes” I realize probably understanding the true nature of his new secret “CATARACT” project will clear a lot of things up. I’ll wait for enlightenment)

Agnes’ license plate in this episode is 0A1-B2C, which I think is a reference to the way reality is getting pared down to bare bones at the edge of town. Note that this is not the same license plate number as seen last ep.

ALSO, I drove home behind a NJ plate just an hour ago, and was staring at it for a long time, trying to fit it into the puzzle before A) realizing that this was Real Life and not part of the show and B) WTF is a NJ plate doing in front of me in California. In any case, I can confirm that NJ plates do not appear to have this number-letter repeating format.

So let’s talk Agnes.

Demonstrated knowledge of the situation in ways others haven’t (”There’s the star of the show” “kids, you can’t control ‘em”)

Shows up when needed most (explained as being Wanda’s doing, but is it)

When Wanda was having her babies, though, who was trustworthy enough to be summoned? Was it Agnes?

Wanted to babysit REAL BAD

Was in the opening credits framed possessively with the twins

Doesn’t appear to have an IRL identity according to Jimmy’s crime board

Keeps talking about her husband but we’ve never seen him. Highly unlikely that he’s real

Was the one to find Sparky “dead” - internet thinks she was lying to Wanda about how or possibly if he was dead (I’m trying not to read the theories, so idk exactly what the angle is there)

In an episode where everyone is wearing their original comic outfits, Agnes is dressed as (and laughs like!) a witch

She name-drops Wanda as the one controlling everyone; Norm (or the guy playing Norm) only said “she” and “her” -- meaning Agnes?

Naughty

So we’re 99% sure Agnes is Agatha Harkness, right? I never read no comics, so I’m taking the internet’s word for it, but from what I can tell, I think we must be right. If that’s the case, then I’m thinking it’s not impossible for her to be pulling some strings around here (giving Wanda a justification for her “that wasn’t me” doorbell ring, for example, and pulling a double red herring on the fact that she shows up whenever the narrative Wanda her nefarious scheme calls for it).

To devil’s advocate myself, though, we also have Monica’s word that it was Wanda in her mind, lessening the impact of Agnes falsely confirming what Norm only implied. Also she’d have to be acting for Vision’s sake (and ours) and, if so, then what did Vision’s brain-touch really do, and how did she know he’d find her there, and what did she intend as the result of that interaction etc etc.

If Wanda’s (or Wanda + Third Party Confirmed (Agnes??)’s) powers aren’t enough to sustain the simulation of life on the edges of town, how much worse is it going to be now that there is even more area to try to control???

I don’t know if this is strictly an intended read, but the idea of Halloween as a fun, scares-for-entertainment’s sake type holiday, the rounding off the edges of concepts like “skeletons and ghosts are what people are after they die, let’s decorate the town with them and have a good time” kind of is a haunting parallel to the nature of Wanda (et al) covering up the horrible truth of the situation with this happy-go-lucky sitcom glamour.

How much does one hate seeing Vision giving his life for the greater good (the greater good) for the second time? In other news, I think I’m seeing some specifically Mind Stone type energy-colors coming off of him, and very little Wanda type energy-colors. Third Party Confirmed.

Also, I was thinking from last week that perhaps Hayward’s Villainous Ends included capturing the reanimated Vision to be one of those Sentient Weapons his organization is all about, but I Do Not Think his reaction to seeing that sought-after prize disintegrate in front of his eyes really matches up with that theory. Again, will be patiently waiting for Jimmy to check his email to see what CATARACT is all about!

Rule of Threes - The Payoff:

Also, anyone ID the movie playing in the background?

Ok, final thought. I watched this about four times today, and on the big-ass TV at my parents’ house finally paused and got up close to see what that white shape is in the reflection. Thought it might be a skull, but, it’s worse.

These caps do not contain enough data to verify my claim, but I PROMISE YOU it’s a TV

A square old thing with a round screen and antenna on top.

I SWEAR to you, when I looked into the TV, into Wanda’s eyes, only to see the reflection of a TV, of her looking at me looking at her I had a visceral fear reaction. Like. LEGIT nauseous skin crawl.

(All the other episodes have ended with our POV as the fourth wall, from the general (or exact!!!) position their household TV is known to be.)

This is my favorite show Of All Time.

#WandaVision #1x06 #All-New Halloween Spooktacular!

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twiceblackvelvet · 4 years

Text

Whose Voice Is It Anyway?

A/N; this idea randomly sprung into my head at 2 am one night and has haunted me since. so i had to try and bring it to life. enjoy.

The white walls surrounding the closet area have become a well-known back-drop as of late. The majority of the videos created within this space usually include ridiculous dancing or lip-syncing to silly voice-overs, but today is more of a laid-back style of simply speaking to fans or anyone who happens to drop by the live stream. She gives herself a once over in the mirror and then on the screen before finally hitting the live option on her phone.

A few people immediately join and begin spamming the comment section with emojis, a few say hello whilst others flat out say “I love you,” which earns an internal chuckle for a response.

“Hello!” Jessica’s voice goes up a pitch with excitement seeing all of the people merrily interacting among themselves until random questions begin to pour in. “I’m at home right now, I just wanted to speak to you all, how are you guys?”

Light slow-tempo music fills up the silence around her, not wishing for the atmosphere to be awkward as she reads the many things flying up the screen too fast for her to be able to comprehend what most of them are saying.

“A new video? It’ll be out on Wednesday! Are you looking forward to it?” She asks after multiple people spammed about a new JessicaLand upload. A tonne of reassurances that people are indeed enjoying her content flows afterward. “I was so worried no one would watch but you all seem to like it a lot, it makes me so happy, in fact, we should probably change this!”

She shuffles around briefly with the camera not showing her arm stretching out for the device that is playing the background music until she pulls it into view.

“This music is too sad if we’re all in a good mood, let’s change it,” She readjusts herself upon seeing her reflection on the screen isn’t showing her face properly before speaking again. “Alexa, play happy music.”

The Echo flashes a blue ring around the top to show it has registered her request and immediately switches to a more upbeat pop song. The lyrics evade Jessica’s mind briefly but eventually, she catches onto which song it is and sings along to some of the words whilst reading the various comments.

“How are you guys?” She asks curiously. “Are you all taking care of yourselves?”

A stream of responses floats up the screen at a rapid speed, some positive, a few negative, and the rest not even answering the question and instead, hurling their own back toward her. A steady conversation ensues discussing the possibility of a new album, Blanc & Eclare’s latest collection as well as what Soojung has been up to recently.

The music playing in the background soon changes to a more doo-wop, R&B sounding melody with what Jessica thinks is a beautiful voice singing along to it. She begins to hum along with it herself mindlessly.

“Wow, isn’t this song pretty everyone? The voice is so beautiful, I could fall asleep listening to it.”

Her words are aimed towards no one, in particular, however, the startling response of people seemingly losing their minds after her compliment is rather confusing. Many people spam expletives, some simply repeat the word “omg” a bunch of times. Just as she’s about to ask what has caused this sudden uproar, it finally clicks when she sees her name repeated in some of the comments and her heart drops to the pit of her stomach.

Taeyeon.

Without even realizing it, she had not only managed to sit and listen along to Taeyeon’s voice singing beautifully without noticing who it was nor did her brain recognize the signature voice of her former group-mate, but she had complimented her in front of thousands of people. The first time she’s acknowledged her existence in years and it’s by far the most embarrassing way to do so humanly possible, Jessica thinks.

She quickly scrambles to change the song to something, anything other than what is playing, however, the damage if you wish to call it that has already been done.

As yet another airy pop song replaces the sweet tone of Taeyeon, Jessica is frozen in place and unable to figure out what to do or say next to everyone still collectively losing their minds over this brief interaction and nod to her former life.

Despite it being probably the worst way to move on from this blip, she decides to simply ignore it and pretend that it didn’t just happen with many witnesses who will no doubt rush to discuss it elsewhere and hopes that continuing the live will distract them from it altogether.

It doesn’t.

The conversation between herself and fans continues for another ten minutes, though, it’s a lot more difficult to find talking points now among the sea of people simply plastering Taeyeon’s name but she manages until it all becomes a little too much.

“I have to go now guys, but I hope you all remain well. I’ll see you all next time,” she waves goodbye to the screen and brings the live to an end with a deep sigh.

It doesn’t take long for both Jessica and Taeyeon’s names to trend on various social platforms, in fact, it’s rather impressive how quickly the news of it spread. Some fans initially couldn’t believe that such a thing would happen and put it down to people making something up to fit their narrative. However, when someone eventually revealed they had managed to screen record most of the live including what Jessica had said about Taeyeon, any and all doubts were put to rest.

In turn, it didn’t take much longer for news to reach Taeyeon either.

Sitting inside the back of a small coffee shop, hidden away enough that people won’t bother her with a manager flanked on the opposite side of the table. The steam from the warm drinks is Taeyeon’s only focus, watching it swirl out of the small cup forcing her to zone out a little.

“Taeyeon, look at this.”

The words alone cause a rush of anxiety to build up in the pit of her stomach, even more so once he places his phone in front of her showing the trending topics page. A headline reading ‘Jessica forgets Taeyeon’s voice’ sitting atop the page. She decides to read through the article, though she mentally refuses to acknowledge it’s because she’s intrigued. Instead trying and failing to convince herself it’s just because she has no idea what it could possibly be about, and yet, it makes her sad regardless.

It’s not that Taeyeon expected Jessica to remember what her voice sounded like after so long apart, but to have her forget it completely feels painful somewhere deep down inside in a place buried long ago and forgotten. The only saving grace being that Jessica complimented her before she realized who it was she was praising. Taeyeon chuckles to herself at just how air-headed Jessica clearly can still be at times.

The phone is quickly handed back to her manager as she scoops her own out of her jacket pocket. Her thumbs instinctively begin to type out a text message.

“How could you possibly forget?”

“Has it really been so long you don’t know what I sound like now?”

“Don’t you listen to my music nowadays?”

All of the possible things she could say to Jessica end up deleted. Her thoughts all begin to muddle into one until eventually, she closes the messages app after growing unsure of whether to bother sending her a text message after all of this time. She may not even have the same number. Instead, she hesitantly opens up Instagram, heads toward the story option, and snaps a picture of her coffee sitting atop the table. The pattern the barista managed to form being of a small heart.

She begins to type out a small message to go along with the picture and publishes it without thinking twice.

A few moments pass before the manager once again startles her out of her reverie.

“Do you know that you posted this?” He turns his screen to face her with the Instagram story of her coffee pulled up on it this time, pointing towards her words clear as day below the image of the cup.

“Yes.” is all she offers as a response and returns back to staring anywhere but at him or the phone.

“Don’t you think it will make matters worse?”

“It’ll be fine, it’s about time.”

The two names continue to trend with more and more people discussing the two former group-mates except now, more specifically, what Taeyeon’s words in response to Jessica could mean for them both.

“Your voice is still beautiful too.”

Jessica doesn’t see the story herself, not wishing to fall down the rabbit hole that is Taeyeon if she happens to look at the many pictures depicting her life now. However, she does see the many screenshots people tag her in for days afterward.

She would be lying if she said it didn’t make her feel all the things and more that Taeyeon now sings about.

Happiness.

#snsd #kpop #girl group scenarios #kpop scenarios #girls generation #kim taeyeon #jessica jung #snsd scenarios #snsd imagines #girl group imagines #taeyeon #jessica #taengsic #taeyeon x jessica #girls generation scenarios #girls generation imagines #snsd taeyeon #snsd jessica #jung sooyeon

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captainkappa · 4 years

Text

Fanfic :: Icebreakers

Me? Publishing writing? It’s more likely than you think.

But yeah, holy crap, I finished something! That hasn’t happened in a long time, so please enjoy this zukka modern au fic where they’re both attending college now!

While taking online classes, Sokka and Zuko are paired up for icebreakers.

Preslash Sokka/Zuko, college AU

AO3 link

-=-=-=-

Sitting down in front of his laptop, wearing the sweatpants and tank top he slept in, this was not how Sokka expected to start his third year of college.

Well, he didn’t expect be forced online for the spring semester of his sophomore year as well, so technically that was a bigger surprise. At least this time, he was better prepared and built his schedule with distance learning in mind; a film course for his last elective, two engineering courses that weren’t reliant on lab, and two math courses. He tried not to think about all the labs he would have to take in the next year and a half, but for now, it was worth it to have a manageable schedule during a pandemic. For now, he was content to live off campus with Aang. He could’ve stayed home with his dad and Katara, but because Aang didn’t have any family to speak of, the executive decision was made for Sokka to keep his lease on the apartment with Aang and video call with his family at least once a week to make up for it.

It wasn’t that bad. They got one of the few places near campus that allowed dogs, so Aang’s shepherd dog, Appa, made the whole situation less dreary. Plus, his elective was right after his thermodynamics course, which gave his more of a reason to get up for the 9 o’clock engineering course.

So, here he was, not listening to the professor go on about “unprecedented times” and “academic honesty,” the same things he’d heard in his earlier class. Glancing at his own camera, he saw Aang not so sneakily open his door. He quickly muted and took out one of his earbuds.

"I'm ordering groceries,” Aang said quietly, “need anything else?"

"No, just whatever I put on the list."

"Got it!"

Aang closed the door and Sooka turned back to the computer, unmuting himself. The professor was about to move on to syllabus, when Sokka noticed a white blur out of the corner of his eye. He barely had time to think about the fact that Aang hadn’t fully closed the door, when he was knocked out of his chair with a crash.

"No, Appa, no! Down boy!" He said, fruitlessly trying to get Appa down off him. Appa paid no attention, continuously licking at him.

From the one earbud still in his ear, he registered his classmates laughing and the professor asking, "Are you alright?"

Appa was still not letting up so he just threw up a thumbs up in what he hoped was in frame of the webcam. "Yeah, sorry about that. My roommate’s dog hasn't seen me since March. Let me just-" with a flourish, he muted himself.

“Now Appa,” he said, gently holding the dog’s face in his hands, “if this incident haunts me all semester, I’m only getting you kitty treats for a month.”

Appa’s tongue lolled out of his mouth, completely oblivious.

“Alright now, up! Up!”

That seemed to do the trick, or it was the whistle from Aang in the other room. Either way, Appa graciously got off Sokka, trotting out the bedroom door much more slowly than he’d entered.

Sokka righted his chair and settled down and saw that even though the professor had moved on, everyone was still giggling at him. He took it in stride, taking a bit of a stretch.

The professor soldiered on, explaining how she found PDFs of all articles needed for the course (sweet), how she got them all copies of the movies on her website, and the schedule for the semester.

"Ok, now that the housekeeping is over, I'll put you all into breakout rooms for ice breakers. You’ll be in a room with one or two other students. Tell each other your name, major, why you're taking the class, and a fun fact about yourself. You'll introduce each other to the rest of the class in 5 minutes."

Sokka sighed, having hoped that at least one professor would forgo icebreakers considering the online format for the class. No dice. He clicked on the breakout room pop-up and anxiously waited for the other person to join the group, looking at his camera in the meantime. It was only then did he realize he’d been sitting in class for half an hour with his ponytail all askew. He tugged out the ponytail holder, shaking his hair out and pulling it back up so the sides he’d shaven himself were on display.

He looked up and a second person had silently joined the breakout room. Sokka immediately recognized him as one of the students who initially caught his eye. He wasn't conventionally attractive, with the massive scar covering the left side of his face, but he was certainly striking, with his floppy black hair and short-sleeve button-up shirt. It must’ve been a trick of the light in his room, but it looked like he was blushing.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“I-It’s okay,” the other guy said, seeming a little bit distracted.

Sokka could guess he wasn’t a fan of being online, so he continued, "Ok, then I'll start. I'm Sokka, junior mechanical engineering major. This is the last elective I need, but really it was the only one available that wasn't too advanced. My fun fact is I invented submarines."

That seemed to snap the other guy out of his reverie. "I... what?"

"Well I thought I did. I had these whole schematics for underwater cars with telescopes sticking out from the top to look for ships, but then my uncle Bato brought me a book about submarines for Christmas and I cried for two days."

The other guy was silent.

Sokka grinned, "I was 4."

"Oh! I thought you were just weird." He said, before clapping a hand over his mouth. "No wait! I mean-"

"Nah, don't sweat it dude, that's why I tell that story the way I do, for the punchline! Don’t worry about it.

“Oh, okay.”

“Your turn!"

"Uh, well my name is Zuko Sozin, I'm a senior English major with creative writing and theater minors. I’m also taking this for an elective and my fun fact is… I hate fun facts"

He snorted, "Fair, but come on, you gotta give me more than that."

"Um... I’ve trained with swords?”

Sokka gasped. “Do you have them with you?”

“Yes?”

“Show me!”

Zuko’s camera shuddered as he moved his laptop to point at to another wall of the room to show two swords with curved blades leaning against the wall.

“That’s so cool!”

“Thanks, they’re dao swords.”

And then Sokka leaned back and watched Zuko go into the history of dao swords, how they were traditionally used, and how long he’d been learning them. It was like any awkwardness had left Zuko’s body and was replaced with this confidence as he went on about this topic that he clearly loved. It was endearing. As someone who frequently would break out into an enthusiastic TedTalk about what he was doing in his engineering classes, Sokka loved hearing about other people’s passions.

Then, as Zuko was explaining how dual-wielding was much harder than using a single sword, the pop up informing them they would be put back in the main Zoom call in a minute appeared.

“Oh, wow,” Sokka said, “time sure does fly, huh?”

Zuko blinked, “What-? Oh, sorry, I totally took up all of the time.”

“It’s fine! It was really interesting!”

A small smile appeared on Zuko’s face, “Really?”

“Yeah, I only recently started training with a sword.”

That spar returned to Zuko’s eyes, “Oh really? What-”

But then the video cut out and was replaced with a loading screen. Sokka cursed under his breath as he was put back into the larger Zoom call with all the other students in it.

The professor’s video lit up, “Okay, settle down everyone. Now, which group wants to go first?”

While the first group went, Sokka made the split-second decision to start typing in the chat. After double and then triple checking that he was only messaging Zuko, he hit enter.

hey, i know this is kind of forward, but I can talk more about my sword training after class, if you want? here’s my number xxx-xxx-xxxx

Sokka tried to focus on the icebreakers after, but his eyes kept straying to the chat. He and Zuko got through their ice breakers just fine, and Sokka’s fun fact got equal amounts of confused faces and laughs, which was his intention.

And then he was caught up in taking notes on the professor’s explanation of the homework for the next class and then the Zoom call was over. It was only afterwards, as he was replacing the piece of tape over the camera, did he realize he never got a response from Zuko.

He tried to tamp down his disappointment. He had come off pretty strong, he shouldn’t take it personally.

He had a couple of hours until his next class, so he pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it. He learned the hard way last semester to keep it on silent, and so he scrolled through Aang’s frantic apology texts over letting Appa get in the room, Hakoda wishing him luck for the semester, and Suki confirming their movie night after her afternoon class. He surprised that in between those texts, there was an unknown number from a couple of minutes ago.

Hey, Zuko here.

Sokka felt his heart stutter and a grin spread across his face as he typed out his reply.

hey! my last class of the day ends at 2, if you want to talk then?

He barely made it into the kitchen before he got a reply.

Sounds good.

Sokka couldn’t get rid of his grin as he typed out Zuko’s name into his contact.

Maybe there were some upsides to online classes.

#zukka #sokka/zuko #zuko/sokka #atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #zuko #my fanfic #kappa writes #im still astounded that i finished this

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a3hastakenovermylife · 4 years

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Hey there! Coming for the ask game for 2, 45 and 49 please💕 Hope you're doing well too love!

Oh, wow I really wasn’t expecting to get any asks!!!! Thank you so much!

2) Favorite Troupe

I love all of the troupes, I really do. However, I really am partial to Autumn Troupe. As much as I’d loved the upbeat nature of the story when it came to Summer and Spring Troupes, I am WEAK for people with complicated or dark past lives trying to turn over a new leaf. (and the idea that those dark pasts could come back to haunt them at any time and maybe pull the troupe into danger excites me)

Actually, I’m weak for Hurt/Comfort in general, and something about the whole way the portraits were set up and treated by the game left me with so much FUEL.

Like ok, TAICHI. I seriously love Taichi’s whole character arc, I also seriously love how protective Autumn troupe, and specifically Banri and Juza get towards him after they hear the whole story, ok. When Beni shows up at their closing night, and Taichi tries to stand up to him, and Juza and Banri chewing him out. That made me so happy, just SO happy.

I also love Juza, like the poor baby. He just wants some friends dammit. (I seriously love imagining what would happen if one of the punks who likes to target him took a cheap shot and went for Muku or Kumon instead. Can I see Juza in berserk protect mode please?). Also, he’s just such a sweet guy, I mean this figuratively AND literally. Give him all the pudding he wants, he deserves it.

Like the other troupes had one or two characters with traits like that, and I love them. It’s just that, as a whole, Autumn troupe really makes me happy

(like I was enamored with the idea that Citron was a runaway prince with spies after him for a while)

(Also does anyone else remember that scene that Misumi like got startled but the Director and pinned her in a hold for just a sec because I THINK ABOUT THAT A LOT)(wait a sec I remember reading that in game, I swear. But, I just reread the whole summer episode and I literally couldn’t find it? I’m afraid I might be going insane, now. )(Does anybody else remember this happening because now I’m really curious what chapter it was?)

(also my crazy imagination running away with the idea that Tenma’s dad literally punched him, though that was before I started reading the Rookie arc for Summer. I might still write something about them later...)

(Yeah, I really like Summer Troupe too if you can't tell...)

PLUS, their VOICES are so deep.

I love.

Every.

Single.

One.

Of their songs.

I could listen to Banri’s raspy friggin’ voice all day, and Juza’s deep voice harmonizes so well with Banri’s. I want to scream.

45) Did your favorite character/troupe change since you started the game?

Ah, well my favorite character and troupe pretty much changed as soon as I first meet a new character. At least with the first three troupes, I was always convinced that nothing could top how much I loved the previous troupe when I started a new chapter, but the game ALWAYS surprised me.

The only troupe that kinda disappointed me was Winter troupe, but that’s mostly because I’m not a huge fan of Tsumugi. Like I love him, I just feel that his character was not nearly as well developed as the other leads, in fact, I feel like Tasuku would have been a better fit for the lead of that troupe, he has a much more interesting character arc, especially when he has to confront the fact that he hurt Tsumugi and apologize to him.

I just always felt that if you took away his friendship with Tasuku, there wasn’t much to Tsumugi. His character is almost built around Takuku’s character arc and the rest of him just feels fake, I guess? Not that Tsumugi is faking it, just that the character traits they chose for him seeem like they have little to no motivation or reasoning behind them, so he doesn’t feel as real as the other leads. It would be fine if he were a side character, but not as the lead.

That’s why I’m a bit disappointed, like it would even be something if he showed more than token regret for leaving theatre for as long as he did, but he seems more upset about the fact that Tasuku is upset with him, than the fact that he quit doing what he loved for years. Like, it might be too similar to Sakyo’s arc in that respect, but I would have still been fine with it, especially because Tsumugi had his own reasons for leaving theatre, that are different enough from Sakyo's that I would have been satisfied.

Anyway, I’m getting way off topic.

My favorite character has waffled like crazy too, its just like the header of my blog says, I love them ALL. Its a bit overwhelming because I’ve never had this experience before, like I always latch on to a character or two and tolerate the rest for most fandoms I’m in.

Like, at first, I adored Tsuzuru, like he was so friggin’ relatable, and hardworking and earnest that I loved him, I also loved how he was the big brother character. Though, Itaru was a close second.

Then, it was Misumi. I got seriously obsessed with Misumi for a while, he was so adorable and honest, and oblivious sometimes that I also sorta related to him, plus his voice is so adorable. However, Tenma took over after I saw him get punched by his dad and he took over for that troupe from there. I didn’t really appreciate Kazunari until I came back and reread his parts in the story, I missed some of the nuance of his small arc in my first read through.

THEN, Autumn troupe destroyed me. DESTROYED ME, and I’m not even kidding. Like I literally hated Banri at first, though really, who among us didn’t at the start of all this. I mean he was such a little shit for like the first third of the Autumn Troupe’s arc. I was also on the fence at the beginning with Taichi, like I had like two SSR cards of him by this point so I knew who he was and he just seemed like an off-brand Kazunari to me, but that’s before I started reading so...

Anyway, but otherwise, right at the start of Autumn Troupe’s arc I had THREE FAVORITES just after auditions. I’d really been looking forward to Sakyo joining, because he was the first SSR that I’d gotten, and immediately I remembered him from episode one and I got excited.

Also, Omi just immediately appealed to me, the very second I first saw his dumb little confused face (you know the one), I was like ‘I love this man’ and that was the end of it. Plus, I was getting serious big bro energy from him. Juza also immediately appealed to me as well, he was just this intense guy but he was so earnest in the beginning that I really took a liking to him right off the bat. He just felt like a gentle giant, he looks scary but in the way he acted you could just tell that that wasn't really him.

49) Any favorite quotes/trivia?

(not sure how much of this applies as trivia, I think I’ll do my favorite quote post later tho, I just don't have time at this exact second)

I love Sakyo popping bubble wrap, just going to put that out there.

I love the idea that Itaru just uses Sakuya as his personal gatcha drawer, that's just so cute to me.

I love the idea that Tenma literally has no sense of direction.

I love the Mankai Mahjong Club, and literally everything it entails.

I love the Minagi family and I need more content with them, (thank you A3 anime).

BANRI AND TENMA GOING TO KAREOKE

(^^ I don't know why I love this but I do)

Muku and Sakyo reading Shoujou manga together. (It’s just too cute that Sakyo gave in after Muku started berating himself for even deciding to ask, I mean seriously it melts my heart every time I think about it.)

I think that's about it. Sorry this is so long, and my thoughts are definitely jumbled, because I should definitely be doing schoolwork right now...

BUT THANKS FOR THE ASK! I had a lot of fun answering these, and I definately went on a few tangents there, but I hope you enjoy it. If anybody have any follow up questions either that's cool too!

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steve0discusses · 4 years

Text

Yugioh S4 Ep 24: Someone Actually Called the Cops.

So recently I was like, “I should do something different than my usual” and I decided to open up a little thread for critiquing ppl’s short stories, and I kid you not, the very first story I got was someone’s Seto Kaiba erotica. Which, even in erotica form, did not have very much romance in it. So, now that Yugioh will apparently haunt my every waking move forever until I die, lets get back to S4. Lets desperately get back to canon. I miss canon.

Last we left off, Kaiba lost KaibaCorp...again. Really feels like he loses this company once every couple of years (weeks if we count season 1-3). Except, this time, Dartz didn’t read the fine print in the legal files that says the company must be run by a member of the Kaiba family. While that was a huge plot point with Pegasus, turns out that Seto and Mokuba’s memories have been blended so thoroughly, like a very fine Shadow Realm smoothie, that they just...forgot.

And like I’m positive that Roland remembers, but Roland’s not gonna say something and accidentally reveal he’s the 4th Kaiba brother and have to get abducted all the time and actually work for a living. Anyways, they forgot why Pegasus abducted them in the first place in Season 1, and honestly, so did the writers of this season 4 years later. Not like it mattered, because if Seto and Mokuba did take Dartz to court, the world would end before their case would even start.

Which is how, after one talk with Roland, Seto and Mokuba just sort of laid prone on the metaphorical ground and let it wash over them that yes, KaibaCorp is gone.

I really like this extra-long helicopter, PS.

Both members of Kaiba’s Sunglasses Army decided to align themselves with Kaiba, although honestly, I don’t think anyone else in this company has realized that they’ve been bought. It happened...1 hour ago. Like what do you even do if your company randomly gets bought in the middle of a workday? Like no lead up, no indication, just BAM you’ve been bought?

And if Duke works for Pegasus who got bought out by Dartz and then Dartz bought Kaiba Corp-------What does that make Duke? Is he gonna have to start wearing sunglasses inside?

Anyway, Roland knows better than to tell Seto Kaiba he doesn’t work for him anymore while still in the same helicopter as Seto Kaiba, who already crashed one plane today and will crash yet another plane before this episode is through.

(read more under the cut)

Seto decides to align with Yugi since he needs to confront Dartz eventually. Which is when we find out that Seto always planned to align with Yugi and was just giving him a really hard time.

Because over the last several episodes, Seto has had an entire team at this random museum in Florida in order to take some pictures (that really should have already been on the internet but wtv, it was 2003 so maybe it wasn’t?)

It’s like most of the way through s4 and the biker ninjas still send me. How did he make SO MANY biker ninjas? At what point was Dartz like...and now...all my mooks...will be ninja bikers. Or orcs. Mostly Ninja bikers.

Did Alister or the others ever tell him “hey, Master Dartz, I get that your 10000 years old but like...do you not understand what a biker is?” and was Dartz like

“clearly bikers are the most evil thing in the world, obviously.” completely unaware that most bikers are just 45 year old accountants.

In these scenes we also get a gander at their laptops and, if you ever want to see high level life crippling OCD anxiety in picture form, it’s illustrated very clearly right here:

Not only did they draw this keyboard in 1 pt perspective, they used like a ruler to draw all those letters so they were the same size. Some artist put so much time getting this nice and crisp and smooth...and then this happened.

And I’m pretty sure they died after that. I’m pretty sure this scene killed an artist.

It’s at this point that Yami kinda puts two and two together and was like “WE BOUGHT PLANE TICKET’S, YOU ASSHOLES.”

(It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen Mokuba smile like this, and it’s because he’s been hiding the fact for So Many Episodes that he and his brother prepped like hours ago to get this huge dunk on the rest of the party. He just wants to dunk on them so bad. Look at him. His company was bought today. BUT he gets to spend time with his bro dunking.)

Serious question, will Delta refund your flight if the Great Leviathan appears in the sky and tries to eat your soul to reboot the world from the ground up?

Of course not. They will never refund your flight. Trick question.

We switch back over to Rebecca and Duke, who have been absent from this show for so long, I actually forgot what Duke’s name was and had to think for like...5 entire minutes until I remembered that his nickname sounds like a poop and I was like “oh man, what name of poop would it be???” and then I recalled “Dookie. Yes. His name is literally Dookie. Wow that took way too long!”

Then we start a story arc I’d to call “My Kingdom For a Sharpen Filter” where, much like King Lear, the Yugi crew splays themselves on a battle field just strewn with different ways to sharpen an image, but can’t for the life of them use any other one, but the one deep in the heart of what is now DartzCorp.

And so yes, we are going to fly to San Fransisco, hop into ye Olde KaibaCorp, and log into proto-Noah in order to read a language that Arthur Hawkins can already read.

This is nonsense, but they put it there because it’s something to do. And honestly, it’s not a card game, so I’m down for this change-up. Lets go visit a version of Noah’s brain. At least they won’t drop an orichalcos for the 12th episode in a row.

On the way, Seto decides to try and egg on Yugi.

This backfires as you expect it will because Yami doesn’t freakin care. Like he’s not Yugi, he doesn’t care who the King of Games is, he harnesses freakin Dark Magic. The Wizard never cares if he’s King Arthur or not, and in fact, he probably prefers it....

..................Except in that spinoff where they had Yugi as a reincarnation of King Henry VII.

...................................................never mind.

And then Seto Kaiba says this actual line and I just...

WH.

WHHH

WHAT?

This entire show is just watching Yugi desperately cling to his scary ass hobbies. The tagline of Yugioh is “1001 reasons to go back to school and get a real job.”

What does Kaiba think Yugi does when he’s not around? Does he actually think Yugi attends school or sleeps at night or works an actual job? Like...he thinks Yugi has...NO HOBBIES.

Very interesting insight into what Seto considers a hobby and not hobby.

Especially since this Yami, who spends most of his spare time farting around his scary ass brain castle and getting lost. Occasionally he is forced on a date with Tea and wipes minds. That’s it. That’s all the things Yami does outside of hobbies.

Anyway, what is Dartz doing during all of this?

After this, Dartz pulls back the literal curtains on this room to reveal these candles that each hold the soul of someone he’s murdered.

There are not NEARLY enough candles for this segment.

A very brave man to have candles littered on the floor when his hair is down to his ass and all of his mooks have floorduster coats.

I really want to know what the local arts and crafts store thought when Dartz strode in there and bought every single tiny styrafoam skull during the Halloween sale and was like “can I put souls in these? You sell the kind I can put souls in, right?” and then immediately pulled out like a dozen 50% off coupons like a complete asshole.

Anyway, using this candle hocus pocus, Dartz uses the Orichalcos powers to take advantage of something Yugi did in the first episode. We distantly recall there was a giant eyeball in the sky--turns out if you bust up the eyeball with, lets say, a card that has a dragon on it, the eyeball will explode into many tiny Orichalcos pieces that will fall all over planet Earth.

So apparently Yugi didn’t save anyone at all when he busted that eyeball, because he instead set in motion Dartz’ evil plan to eventually use these many tiny Orichalcos pieces like the one seen here, to kill the hell out of people.

Good job, Yugi. Too bad you missed the Actual Bakura.

In fact, actual Bakura is probably the only one who survived this incident because I guarantee that Ryou Bakura is too busy eating all the contents of his fridge out of stress. He’s probably opened his window at this point, seen the crazy lights in the sky and in the street and was like “Blooooooody nope nopenopenopenopenope” and just locked the windows and doors, turned up Hercule Poirot to max volume, and stuffed his face with cookies.

(Or biscuits, I guess.)

WELL.

I don’t know how to tally that.

Yugioh not only broke the tally I was using to measure the distance they spent commuting this season, it also broke the tally on the amount of people who have died on this children’s show.

That’s a really big number.

We’ve had real duel monsters for a couple weeks but youknow...this time they’re extra, extra, extra real. More so than the last times. Also they’re all Orichalcos versions of their cards so their extra edge now. They’re the hot topic versions of what were already pretty hot-topic ass cards.

MMM. We come full circle, back at a dock, a warehouse, and some huge ass boat.

Right where we belong. Where all friends meet, where we can all finally be one.

Yugioh found one of the only cities that has a very famous and tourist heavy pier/warehouse district in it just so the Yugi gang could finally feel comfortable in their natural habitat. HOWEVER, there’s just one tiny problem in this scene, and it’s that it’s not overlaid with the actual soundscape of a SF pier, which is that of 100000 screaming seals

youtube

I don’t have a seal problem, you have a seal problem.

Anyway, the only healthy adults here attempt to follow the children into danger but someone on the animation team was like “we just lost the keyboard drawing guy to that capslock! We cannot lose any more interns to a crowd scene with 9 people in it and 2 dead bodies!” and they uh...

And we immediately eject Roland and whoever that weird sunglasses guy is out of the script. Mokuba gave them a longing glance as they helicoptered away. Maybe because he missed his Dad stand-ins that he went through such efforts to call in the first place. Or more likely, because Mokuba would have preferred to be on that helicopter and far away from whatever the hell is going to go down on this dock.

Honestly the rest of Joey’s storyline this episode is him going rogue because of Mai rage, and it both comes out of nowhere and also seems very on point for him.

Meanwhile, Rebecca’s unbridled rage towards Yami Muto is still low key hilarious to me.

Witness the only character here who thinks Yami should suffer actual consequences and witness Yami just appear to not give a single damn about it.

Nearly spat out my own drink watching this.

The...

...police...

...exist in this universe?

Anyway, while Tristan and Tea try to locate a payphone to dial 911, Seto and Yugi decide to invade Seto’s own company by going through an elevator that you have to reach through the sewers.

Straight up I don’t think SF even has sewers. At least, not in the sense that you can walk in em like New York or Paris or other cities that have sewers. Our sewer systems are very small cuz we got something called “liquefaction” which means our ground is so soft (and artificial--a lot of the land is fake), that when there is an earthquake, certain parts of the city will...liquefy. It’s Terrifying. We kind of...avoid going and building underground except in certain stable places. (like even BART gives me the heebies.)

I just have a very strong distrust of basements, caves and other underground places in general and it’s not because of spiders, or ghosts or whatever, I’m just afraid of faultlines. It’s like having an active volcano, but you just don’t see it, and we haven’t had a Big One since 1989 so...any day now (I mean, 2020 has been such redic content, that I think we’re finally ready)

Again, Japan has way more intense Earthquakes than we do, and yet they have a billion underground subways and very, very tall buildings, so like, this is mostly a big cultural difference between the two of us. And the bedrock. They probably have better bedrock than we do (honestly, I just have no idea).

MASTER HACKER SKILLS.

Almost as good as that time he hacked into Pegasus’ company by dropping a satellite on it. I’m starting to think Seto actually doesn’t know how to use a computer.

Anyway, Seto is faced with...real cards, real monsters, indisputable evidence, and he decides, it’s time. It’s time to finally face facts.

So, while these two are just flinging cards around willy nilly, Tea and Tristan are ...actually talking to police.

4 seasons. They’re actually doing it.

Although, TBH, they probably should have gone to the Japanese Embassy first? Just throwing that out there.

Ah Yugioh, the only kids show around that tells you point blank not to trust cops. Timeless.

U.S

In some weird underground earthquake hazard, Rebecca proves that she is smarter than Seto Kaiba. She’s maybe even the smartest person on this show. Nice that we gave her nothing to do this season but pine over Yugi who is already taken by Tea who he is also not even dating.

Not that I love Rebecca or anything, I actually have a hard time with her voice, but like...they really dropped the ball on Rebecca.

If she does end up joining Kaiba corp as their back up Felicity Smoak while Seto just runs around aimlessly punching stuff that really is just offbrand Arrow but with cards. And with slightly less resurrections.

So, lets get a gander at that computer.

We didn’t get to see Kaiba pull out 12 other discs to complete the installation process for these all these Hard Discs. Maybe the lure of throwing a very aerodynamic CD across the room like a paper card was so strong that his dev team forced him to switch to these defunct squares?

PS, I am a true millennial, OK? But, I don’t remember Hard Discs.

Hard Discs were SO long go. I stopped using these damn things in Elementary school. The last Hard Disc I ever touched was in college, when I had to put my art portfolio on a disc to submit it to my degree. I don't know even why. Everyone had a mac, so I knew no one’s computer in the department even...HAD a disc drive so it was like...whomst among you has this damn computer from 1997? Whomst among you is still using Windows 95? WHY would I put IMAGES on a floppy when I can just email them to you?

Anyway, I had to get a USB hard disc reader, and to get that reader, I had to call my Dad who had legacy software because he’s a computer engineer, and he had to mail it to me.

In that same portfolio review, PS, I also had to submit my portfolio as slides.

I didn’t even know where to produce slides so I had to ask all these old people and go to the last photo processing store on earth to get digital pictures turned into negatives and then turned into freakin slides.

SLIDES.

I honestly think they just did that to weed people out of the art degree.

Anyway, I tell you this story just to say that there is no way in hell that Kaiba was using a hard disc during the height of the CD era. We were CD or go home since 2000. We had pretty decent jump drives at this point. We had wifi. It was realllly bad wifi, but we had it. Your phone could connect to the internet. It would charge you 50 bucks, but it COULD connect.

Who on the Yugioh team DID this?

Anyway lets see these pictures that for which, we spent thousands of dollars in unused plane tickets, destroyed a Caltrain, killed 2 ancient Atlanteans (and their dog), killed 3 random mid-villains, walked across the entire Peninsula, crashed an international plane, and left both the plane and the train to rot gas fuel into the nearest lake which is right next to a ghost graveyard?

Yeaaaaaaaaaah!

Like he reads it and is all “They’re gonna resurrect Atlantis” and it’s like WE KNOW. Dartz and his hooligans have talked about starting their Utopia to reboot the world since Gurimo. Since Day 1.

Man.

Anyways, there was one plus to the pictures, and it was that Seto Kaiba recognized the Oricalchos logo.

just...

The Oricalchos logo is...

...This logo, Seto?

You...didn’t recognize...seriously? Not until just now? You have been inside of this logo, rearing to lose your soul to Alister 2 times, and he only recognized it...just now.

I mean Seto takes a while y’all. He’s a genius, but his memory is so, so bad, that he will Eventually get smart, but you have to wait until like episode 24. But he’ll get there. Just gotta be patient.

And, when he saw it, he wigged out in a way I wasn’t prepared for.

Y’all I feel like I’ve seen to many weird zooms on Kaiba’s crotch in this show. Or just in life in general, especially after that surprise fic. That’s all.

I don’t know why everything exploded, but maybe the logo is cursed in the same way as God Cards? I dunno.

Anyway, this is when Dartz shows up with his brand new dog.

So they run outside onto the roof.

Now listen, does every Kaiba Corp building need the same weird ass roof? Is it like a McDonalds?

Because I’m just picturing this type of roof in SF and I’m having a time.

Forgive me if I made this lemming joke already. He’s just stood on a cliff’s edge so many times I can’t keep up.

RIP Dragon Jet, who took us from S3-S4, you’ll always live on in our memory, you glorious, wasteful, beautiful death trap.

Seto and Yugi are fine by the way, they just kinda jumped out, as you do when you’re an immortal god possessing a small boy and a...whatever the hell Seto is.

It’s at this point we reintroduce Valon because Joey went rogue and has decided to take on Dartz by himself. This is what happens when Tristan leaves the party. You always need Tristan to hold back Joey by his armpits to keep him from fighting random people.

So I guess Valon’s gonna die next episode. That’ll be nice.

What’s great about this show is each arc is just watching each villain die. You know they’ll die. But...how much?

Anyway, that’s all for today. I’m still drawing a hell ton of stuff so I don’t know when the next update will be...but just now I haven’t dropped off or something. I’ll...eventually get to it.

And if you just got here, this is a link to read all of these in chrono order.

Anyway, I mentioned Hercule Poirot, (because watching a hell ton of BBC was how I spent time with my family when I was a kid, and my very Southern Grandma freakin LOVED Hercule Poirot) So here is the best subplot of that show, which is David Suchet eating stuff.

And which doesn’t want to embed for some reason. Probs can’t embed more than one video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17antzzJrzQ

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