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#but the forsaken are like... old school evil

catindabag · 4 months

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TBOSAS on Crack short take (60)

*That dreaded PTA meeting* Read [this] & [this] first.

Prof.Sickle: Welcome, welcome, dear parents to our annual PTA meeting-

Nero: *barks*

Prof.Sickle: Ms. Price, please tell your dog-

Persephone: He’s a werewolf.

Prof.Sickle: Right. Please tell your “werewolf” to stop barking when I’m speaking-

Nero: *barks again*

Persephone: Sorry, Professor. My poor daddy’s just nervous.

Nero: *howls*

Persephone: And hungry.

Drunk!Casca: *sees Nero Price howling like a madman* Shoo, you pesky mutt! No rabid dogs allowed in my prestigious school!

Nero: *growls at Casca*

Persephone: Sir, I wouldn’t say that if I were you. You do know that my father bites, right?☺️

Drunk!Casca: Are you threatening the amazing Dean of this school, little girl?!

Persephone: Do you want to be the next ✨Maid Stew✨?☺️

Drunk!Casca: Go away, you canniba-

Coryo: Sir, please calm down-

Drunk!Casca: Crassus, you’re here?!

Coryo: I’m Coriolanus.

Drunk!Casca: My Snow Angel, my love, crazy Nero Price and his evil spawn are bullying me again!😭

Strabo: Lol. This is why my dearest Crassus Snow chose me instead of marrying a loser like you, Cassy~.

Drunk!Casca: Shut up, you boyfriend stealing Plinth!

Strabo: Jealous?😏

Drunk!Casca: F*ck you and your guns! I was my Snow Angel’s favorite lover, you scum!

Strabo: That’s a lie. I was my Snow Bae’s favorite lover~.

Coryo: Here we go again.😞

Hilarius: Cool. I’m recording this.

Drunk!Casca: Go die in a ditch, you stupid rock hugger!

Strabo: Are you gonna cry, Cassy~?

Drunk!Casca: You eat sh*tty rocks for breakfast!

Strabo: Says the one who can’t even hold a drink to save his sh*tty reputation!

Drunk!Casca: You’re the one with the sh*tty reputation!

Strabo: You’re just jealous that my dear Snow Bae said that I was always better in bed than you!

Drunk!Casca: You lie! I’m the better TOP!

Strabo: No, I’m the superior TOP, you fool!

Drunk!Casca: Your blood money can’t even fix your family’s terrible fashion sense!

Strabo: You’re just a bitter old man who can’t tie his own laces!

Drunk!Casca: That doesn’t even make sense! You’re older than me!

Strabo: That’s great! That’s good news! My dear Crassus likes to date older District men like me anyway!

Drunk!Casca: That’s fake news! My Snow Angel only dates successful Capitol men like me!

Strabo: Keep swimming in denial, Cassy~!

Drunk!Casca: You’re just f*ckin’ jealous that my lovely Crassus lost his precious virginity to me!!

Pres.Ravinstill: That’s kinda hot.

Coryo: FML. Now I have to bleach my ears.😔

Strabo: Clearly, that was my darling’s biggest mistake!

Drunk!Casca: That was a blessing in disguise, you fool!

Prof.Sickle: Will the both of you shut the f*ck up already?!

Drunk!Casca: But-

Prof.Sickle: There are children present, Cassy!

Drunk!Casca: What children?

Hilarius: Me! I’m baby.

Apollo: I’m also baby.

Felix: I thought I was baby?

Pres.Ravinstill: That’s incorrect. We all know that I’m baby.

Prof.Sickle: Sir, shouldn’t you be in the Presidential Palace busy ruling and running this love forsaken country?

Pres.Ravinstill: Well, Sickle, shouldn’t you be holding a PTA meeting right now?

Gaius: Sick burn, bro!

Vipsania: Wow. He really just said that.

Coryo: And in front of us.

Androcles: Your crazy granduncle is really brave, Class Pres.

Felix: I just hope he won’t be thrown out the window.😑

Pres.Ravinstill: Hey, Sickle, do you want me to apply cold water to that burn-

Prof.Sickle: Get out.

Pres.Ravinstill: No. I’m staying right here-

Prof.Sickle: I don’t care if you’re the f*ckin’ President! Get the f*ck out, you dinosaur!

Pres.Ravinstill: Not listening~!

Prof.Sickle: I’m calling the Peacekeepers-

Pres.Ravinstill: Is it a sin for a poor old man like me to have a one day off from work?!

Prof.Sickle: Sir-

Pres.Ravinstill: I want a break too, Sickle!😭

Felix: Gran Gran, you’re always on break.

Coryo: So who’s running the country right now, Class Pres?

Felix: I thought you knew, Coryo.

Coryo: Knew what?

Felix: That my crazy granduncle’s 2 dozen Bichon Frisé puppies are the ones ruling our poor nation.

Festus: Well, that explains why our country is going to the dogs-

Coryo: Literal dogs-

Felix: Puppies, Coryo. Puppies are running this country.

Coryo: Well, that checks out.

Festus: At least they’re cute.

Clemensia: Then who’s the Capitol Mayor?

Felix: Boa Bell the Cat.

Clemensia: Our Mayor’s a cat?!

Juno: To be fair, Clemmie, we all voted for Mr. Bell’s cat to win-

Dennis: As a joke, Phipps.

Juno: But here we are, Fling.

Apollo: With no regrets!

Diana: Best Bell Boa Bell~!🥳

Mrs.Anderson: Andie, they do know that my camera crew is live-streaming this meeting, right?

Androcles: Mom, please stop embarrassing me.

Mrs.Anderson: 50 bucks~.😏

Androcles: Not enough~.

Sejanus: Hey, Babe, want some garlic flavored popcorn?

Coryo: Sure, Babe.

Festus: Yo, Sej, pass me a bag too!

Sejanus: Here, catch!

Festus: Thanks, bestie.

Prof.Sickle: Now, where were we?

Clemensia: PTA meeting.

Prof.Sickle: Oh, yeah.😞 So. . .

Mrs.Cardew: Just tell us what we want to hear, Sickle.🙄

Prof.Sickle: Mrs. Card-

Mrs.Cardew: It’s ✨Mama Cardew✨ to you.💅

Prof.Sickle: Ugh. Why did I even take this stupid job?😩

Domitia: Professor?

Prof.Sickle: Yes, Domitia?

Domitia: Can I feed my emotional support cow outside?

Prof.Sickle: Where’s your father?

Domitia: The cow-

Prof.Sickle: Please, Tia, don’t tell me that you forgot to inform your old man again-

Domitia: My dear papa is currently busy swimming with the chickens again, Professor.

Prof.Sickle: *sighs* That fake farmer wannabe accidentally locked himself in the chicken coops again?

Domitia: Yeah.😞

Mr.Heavensbee: *is wearing a stupid disguise* Cool. What happened next?

Prof.Sickle: Who are you?

Mr.Heavensbee: I- I’m Hilari’s favorite uncle.😀

Prof.Sickle: But Hilarius doesn’t have an uncle.

Mr.Heavenbee: I’m twice removed.

Prof.Sickle: Mr. Heavensbee-

Mr.Heavensbee: Who’s Mr. Heavensbee? I’m not Mr. Heavensbee-

Prof.Sickle: *points at the poor bastard* Who the heck invited this skirt stealing creep inside my school?!

Drunk!Casca: This is my school!

Prof.Sickle: Shut up, Cassy!

Mr.Heavensbee: Hilarius-

Hilarius: It wasn’t me!

Mr.Heavensbee: Coryo-

Coryo: Heck, no! Get away from me, you creep!

Mr.Heavensbee: Felix-

Felix: I’m calling the National Security!

Mr.Heavensbee: Clemmie-

Clemensia: Ew! Don’t call me that!

Mr.Heavensbee: I just wanted to take some cute photos!😭

Felix: and flip our f*ckin’ skirts!

Mr.Heavensbee: That’s right!😀

Coryo: Go burn and die, you perv!

Mr.Heavensbee: But I brought candy!

Sejanus: Get away from my Coryo!!

Felix: *is now on the phone* Hello? Is this the National Security?!

Coryo: *takes the phone from Felix* Mr. Heavensbee from the House of The Queen Bee is currently committing a heinous war crime in front of the President’s favorite children!

Mr.Heavensbee: Bringing candy is not a war crime!😭

Hilarius: I’m telling mother!

Mr.Heavensbee: No! Don’t tell that she-beast!

Hilarius: I’m so telling mother right now!

Mrs.Anderson: Yassss~!! Keep fighting, you guys~!

Androcles: Mom!!😫

Mrs.Anderson: Andie, stop acting like a little fool! Your dear mama’s viewership ratings are up in the sky right now!🥳

Prof.Sickle: I’m so gonna quit next year. I’m so gonna quit next year. I’m so gonna quit-

Mrs.Monty: *suddenly walks in* Hi, besties!

Palmyra: Mama?🥹

Mrs.Monty: I brought pies-

Florus: Nope. Not today, you witch! *jumps out the window*

Prof.Sickle: Mr. Friend!!

Florus: *broke a leg but is still alive* Those evil pies can’t catch me now!

Clemensia: I’ll call the medics.😔

Tigris: So. . . How’s life?

Prof.Sickle: This meeting is over.

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eighthdoctor · 4 months

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What D&D alignments would you assign Sylvanas and Jaina, and have they changed since the fall of Silvermoon and Theramore? I think Sylvanas is and always has been lawful evil, her sisters just never noticed.

I think there comes a point in character complexity where alignments no longer make sense.

We'll use my latest D&D character Max as an example.

Max started out as Lawful Good. In a lot of ways Max also finished as Lawful Good. He's the archetypal Good Kid TM. Does things because they're right, not because they're easy. Helps little old ladies cross the street. Explained to an NPC that the party was helping to fight a coven of night hags (which we were wildly under leveled for) because how could we not try to help? That kind of good. Very anxious, very prone to rule-following behavior. Hates disappointing others. Saved the world through the power of friendship and idealism.

Max also spent over a year lying to his family, working as a small time conman and revolutionary instead of going to bard school. He has absolutely no problem using serious mind magic on people he thinks have crossed a moral line--the only reason I didn't take geas (which lets you curse people, like fairy tale curses) was I didn't think it would be useful in the Faewild. He did have and used Suggestion multiple times.

He is rule abiding but not necessarily law abiding, and absolutely broke into a man's house and was willing to falsify evidence if we couldn't find what was needed. He didn't kill but again, was willing to, the country's ruler if it came to that (it didn't). He sold his freedom to an archfey for knowledge. He could lie well enough to defeat just about anyone's checks, and did, and used exact words to get away with aforementioned breaking-and-entering to the cops.

To a cop friend.

To his employer.

So Lawful Good? Or Chaotic Neutral? Certainly the Summer Queen didn't like him very much (before he rewrote her mind to forget about him + the rest of the party) and might call him Chaotic Evil.

Here's what I think:

Jaina is, fundamentally, someone who tries to do The Right Thing. What is that thing? She's willing to put in the energy to find out. She wants to be a good person, she tries to be a good person. She also has been repeatedly traumatized, has repeatedly had it demonstrated to her that many others are not working in good faith, and can be skeptical and caustic as a result. She's had periods where--thanks to the trauma and the ongoing betrayals--she's decided that The Right Thing is meeting violence with overwhelming violence. Is that Good? Or Evil?

Sylvanas is, fundamentally, someone who tries to protect her own. She has a fairly expansive (and fluctuating) definition of 'her own'--those she's oathsworn to, of course, but also those she's taken even tenuous responsibility for. The Dark Rangers, the Forsaken, the Horde--also the sin'dorei, seventy Gorean women, and three kittens. And Jaina. What will she do to protect them? Anything. Again due to repeated trauma and betrayals, she sees threats where none exist and reacts acccordingly. Evil? Or Good?

Did these change with traumas? They certainly got more extreme. But all available evidence is that pre-Third War, Sylvanas wanted to protect her people and Jaina was dedicated to doing the right thing.

It's just the details that get tricky.

#asks for ts #Anonymous #the power to manipulate belief

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lemonhemlock · 1 year

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Bestie expand your thoughts more on this!

https://at.tumblr.com/lemonhemlock/do-you-think-greyjoy-will-succeed-in-taking/nrryawkbqc7q

I'll start by saying that I haven't read The Forsaken. Not because of spoilers, because I already heard some things that happen in the chapter, but I wanted my first experience reading it to be within TWOW (look how that's going so far).

So what I'm about to say is mostly vibes and guesswork. But Euron is a genuinely terrifying character and one of the properly, old-school evil ones in ASOIAF. Like, there is no moral ambiguity here. The man wants to turn himself into a god and will stop at nothing for it. Euron says a lot of crazy ass things like how he visited both Asshai and Valyria and, though it's tempting to label it as bullshit, he does seem to have collected very rare artifacts like his Valyrian steel armour (??) So I would be inclined to believe him.

In any case, Euron has figured out something, some recipe to a transformative ritual. He has imprisoned priests from different religions onboard his ship and he intentionally impregnated Falia Flowers so as to use their unborn child in this upcoming blood ceremony (king's blood is known to be powerful, as Melisandre tells us, and Euron has been elected king by the kingsmoot).

Euron has had weird dreams/visions since he was a child and there are theories saying those images were sent to him by Bloodraven, who might have wanted him to be a Bran-like figure, but dropped his arse because he was way too deranged. There are also parallels between him and the Bloodstone Emperor, who is known to have caused the Long Night. One worrisome thing is that the Horn of Winter is also in Oldtown, having been brought by Sam, so it's very important that Euron NOT get his hands on it. But then again - why did George bring the Horn all the way down to Oldtown if not for this very purpose?

It's interesting that both the Hightowers and the Greyjoys are associated with Lovecraftian imagery. For the Greyjoys it is more obvious with the krakens, the tentacles and the Drowned God, but Oldtown is in a part of Westeros surrounded by places with selkie and merling legends, like the Shield Islands (north-wise), the Mermaid's Palace (Island of the Arbor). Both the base of the Hight Tower and the Seastone Chair AND the buildings in Asshai seem to be made from similar material (??) - fused black stone.

I have no idea what's about to happen - a believable theory would have been that Euron would raise the Deep Ones out of the sea, but I think George shot that one down (dunno whether he was lying or not). Another would be that Euron is going to blow the Horn of Winter and bring down the Wall. I've seen people link him to becoming the next Night's King, but I'm not really sure he is connected to the Others in a meaningful way like that. His symbolism seems to be more kraken/sea related.

The problem with Euron is that, while he is not the Final Boss in any way, he is a very dangerous distraction and could pose a fuckton of problems. Oldtown falling would be catastrophic for the fate of Westeros. This is why this fandom needs to cut it with the bullshit and start stanning Lord Leyton and Malora ASAP, since they're the last defense against the coming of the storm. Sam is also in Oldtown and I doubt George is going to kill him, so that gives me a little bit of hope that maybe Euron will be defeated.

There is also the fact that Leyton & Malora have been preparing for this for 10 years now. They must have something up their sleeve. Oldtown should be, by rights, a source of great magical power, with the High Tower, the Citadel and the Starry Sept there - so magic + science + religion combined for one last face-off against the dark. It's pretty romantic. It's pretty valiant.

Perhaps there was a reason why George placed the dragons Tessarion and Morning in Oldtown, after all. Maybe their remains or eggs will come in handy in the fight against Euron.

#ask #anon #euron greyjoy #house hightower #oldtown

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jomiddlemarch · 8 months

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let's call this a win-win

Part 2

Meghan figured she’d be holed up in the cabin they’d given to her for an infirmary, reading old copies of whatever magazine had made their way to her, Seventeen and Cosmo, Bassmaster and and Runner’s World washing up like the scrum of sticks and leaves on the shore of an eddying brook, playing endless games of solitaire on limp cards, cleaning up cuts, dabbing on ointment, bandaging ankles, for the entire duration of the summer, which would make any encounters with Joel Miller few and far between.

She had been wrong.

To be clear, it wasn’t that he was constantly right there when she turned around or looked up in a classic stalker-y kind of way or that he was seeking her out with increasingly inane-frivolous-nonsensical medical complaints requiring her assessment in a pathetic stalker-y kind of way or even that he just seemed to appear when she’d just thought of him, how deft his hands were ladling out a rainy day dinner of beanie-weenie or strumming his guitar in the firelight, in a telepathic mind-control stalker-y kind of way.

It was just nice.

Sometimes, she lollygagged over her morning coffee and Joel didn’t exactly rush off to his next repair.

Sometimes, he found he was walking in her same direction and fell into an easy gait beside her, for all that he was at least a foot taller than she was. The trees loomed, but Joel never did.

Sometimes, he held the door for her when her hands were full or pulled out her chair at the table the staff sat at for meals, the almost old-fashioned politeness of it somehow part and parcel of the camp itself, though Meghan suspected he’d do the same back home in Texas, though he thankfully never called her ma’am.

It wasn’t just nice. It was very nice. Very nice indeed.

So sue her, she liked him. (Actually, the camp’s malpractice policy was skimpier than she’d anticipated and she devoutly hoped there would be nothing worth litigating in her work, since she was not getting paid especially well to begin with and Ellie’s new school had a uniform policy so extensive that even Old Navy and Lands’ End were unlikely to keep her from racking up some credit card bills in the fall well before Meghan had to ante up for the field hockey team equipment and the God-forsaken trumpet Ellie had decided to play, an evil glint in her eye.)

After all, why wouldn’t she like Joel? He was competent, intelligent, uncomplaining, a good listener, a devoted father, a guitarist who more than delivered when he played at the campfire—and that was before she considered how absolutely smoking hot he was in worn jeans, work boots and what seemed like an infinite supply of plaid shirts and grey tees, but which was probably about five and she’d just lost track. She’d never met a man who looked better with a scruffy beard, so much so that she wondered if she’d even be attracted to him if he ever shaved properly. (She would, who was she kidding? Those eyes and that lower lip and that ass…)

He also always smelled good, which given the limitations of their bathing facilities, the lack of AC on hot days and the general organic funk that seemed to cling to everyone after their first dip in the lake, was impressive. And irresistible.

She was resisting though, a little. She hadn’t thrown herself at him or ever found she needed to reach something in the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet when he was repairing the rotting window trim on the infirmary, bending over to showcase her natural assets augmented by the squats her best friend Alex swore by (Meghan was less convinced, but best friends did what they had to do and she herself never shut up about calcium.) She hadn’t let her hand linger on the salt-cellar or ketchup bottle when he asked to have it passed and she certainly hadn’t requested he play “Make Believe” or any other Rodgers and Hart love-song around the campfire (though the temptation to ask for “Blue Moon” once she’d discovered who wrote it was huge, even more so when she found out there was one coming up in August.)

She could have convinced herself it was all coincidences and hormones, a commodity Camp Firefly had in spades, though not emanating from Bunk 3, except for the fact that Joel hadn’t let her.

“So, here’s the deal. I like you and I think you like me. As Sarah would say, like that,” Joel announced as they took a mid-morning coffee break from her Thermos, the merry sound of campers with first swim distant, mingled with some birdsong.

“Um, that’s quite direct,” she said.

“Yeah. Because I’m a grown-up,” he replied, smiling. “Tell me if I’m out of line. I won’t bring it up again.”

“No?” Meghan knew she was partly stalling for time and that Joel probably knew that as well, but it didn’t hurt to push a little and see what he said next. Grist to the mill, Alex would say, as if Alex were not in a perpetual pitched battle against carbs and wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near a gristmill unless arson was involved.

“No. Because I respect you and myself. And my whole ego isn’t tied up in whether you feel the way I do,” he said. Meghan had to do her best to raise an eyebrow, because Joel was starting to sound unreal, like someone’s concept of the ideal man, not Plato’s, because even Philosophy 102 had taught Meghan that Plato had maybe spent too much time in a cave, away from sunlight, at least for her taste. “I mean, I also won’t spend all my free time replacing the perfectly adequate wood trim of this cabin’s windows or discovering that the floor near the back door is warped and ripping it out and asking you to hold the level 12 hours a day.”

“You’re making this hard,” Meghan said. “Because I do like you but I hate unnecessary renovations that take forever. Could we hang out without wood being involved?”

He grinned then as the words hung in the air for a moment and she blushed, she could feel it, red as a cartoon beet, not a real one. She tried a combo shrug-head-toss that would have been more effective if she’d put her hair in a ponytail instead of braids but from Joel’s expression, it was good enough.

“I had to play to my strengths,” he said.

“I’m not reciprocating with an unnecessary physical and don’t try to tell me you sprained your ankle or something,” she said. “I have standards. Ethics. I’m a goddamn role model.”

“And I’m not interested in you playing a sexy nurse in a skimpy costume,” he said.

That was when Meghan’s brain sort-of shorted out and she heard herself saying Holy shit before she could have thought about stopping herself.

“What about a walk around the lake later?” Joel said. “Or we could take a canoe out. Stars are bright up here, brighter than Austin, and the moon’s nearly full.”

“Yes,” she said.

Yes, she said when he looked at her before taking her hand in his.

Yes, when he rowed them into a cove and the moonlight was silver in his dark eyes.

Yes, just as he leaned in to kiss her, waiting to hear her first, and again into his ear before she kissed the side of throat, waiting to hear him moan.

She wasn’t disappointed.

#tlou #tlou au #summer camp au #joel/ofc #nearly everyone lives #fluff #romance #rom-com #humor #the last of us #in keeping with my approach to ofc #my ofc has a best friend #tessa-quayle #writing for your best friend #always requires the appearance of one in the fic #included the moodboard this time #I'm learning!#giving joel miller a break

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agentnico · 9 months

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Resident Evil: Death Island (2023) Review

Two Resident Evil projects in one year?? Well then, Capcom really is tickling my guilty pleasures recently. The Resident Evil 4 game remake was nothing short of stupendous and proved how game remakes/remasters should be handled (looking at you Rockstar Games). Now we have a new RE 3D anime release that follows the Infinite Darkness Netflix mini-series from a few years back. Hopefully a 2 for 2 for Capcom this year?...

Plot: D.S.O. agent Leon S. Kennedy is on a mission to rescue Dr. Antonio Taylor from kidnappers, when a mysterious woman thwarts his pursuit. Meanwhile, B.S.A.A. agent Chris Redfield is investigating a zombie outbreak in San Francisco, where the cause of the infection cannot be identified. The only thing the victims have in common is that they visited Alcatraz Island recently. Following that clue, Chris and his team head to the island, where a new horror awaits them.

So evidently the most significant selling point of Death Island is that it is the first proper time it teams up the five main recurring characters of the RE franchise - Chris, Jill, Claire, Rebecca, and everyone's favourite rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy (one must mention the S.). Yes, some of these characters paired up during the infamous Resident Evil 6 - though the less said about that game the better. Regardless, Death Island finally gives us the whole team united! See this as an Avengers-level team-up movie for the Resident Evil universe. In a nutshell, this is a big moment for RE fans around the world. So Capcom better not do a Marvel Phase 4 & 5 and betray their fans' trust, right??

Resident Evil: Death Island seems like a missed opportunity. It had all the pieces that could have come together to create something truly special, however, instead the final result is a bit lazy. Don't get me wrong, if you're a fan of Resident Evil, and to be fair if you are not a fan of RE then neither this movie nor review should be interesting to you as this really is a feature-length piece of fan service. As I was saying though, as an RE fan, there is plenty to enjoy. The zombies are gory and vile; the lickers are back being as horrible as ever - I am so glad I was not holding the controller this time. Seeing our heroes together was of course entertaining, with stand-outs being Jill and Leon. I don't believe we have ever seen Jill in this badass form. She kicks ass more so than she's ever done in the games, and then Leon as per usual throws around some absolutely hilarious quips and one-liners, reminding us all why he is one of the franchise's favourites. Also must give props to the animation. We've come such a far way since the first time around when we saw our pixelated heroes enter that forsaken mansion. The computer graphics are honestly really sharp and impressive, with the creature designs, and especially during the action sequences with the use of slow motion there is some serious ass-kicking on display.

That being said, Death Island is missing something very key - emotion. I say this fully aware that we love RE for the horror and the cheesiness of it all but with all our main heroes in one movie I sort of expected to care more than I did. The thing is, the animation style of Death Island is not really capable of accurately conveying real human emotion, so wherever we have the quiet moments when we are having a break from the action, the dialogue between the characters and a scene involving the main villain exposing his convoluted plan of destruction in a slow and tedious manner comes off as really dull. Also, the premise is ridiculously simple. Our heroes go to Alcatraz (some old-school Call of Duty: Black Ops - Zombies vibes going on there). They fight some monsters, kill the main monster in the end and Bob's your uncle. There's hardly anything else to it. Speaking of the final creature they battle - the heroes look cool fighting it and apparently pulling our rocket launchers (obviously) and weapons of mass destruction out of butt-fudge nowhere, but alright, I'll just assume the Merchant from Resident Evil 4 was hiding behind one of the crates selling them some rare things for a high price. However, the creature itself, though it looked cool, did not do anything? It hardly fought back, just spent most of the time moving around slowly and staring our heroes down. Why? Like this is Resident Evil for crying out loud, we want to see our heroes kick butt of course but we also want to see the monsters fight back and be massive and intimidating. But nope, this dude just slithers around a little and takes it like a pu**y.

So the verdict. Resident Evil: Death Island certainly has its moments of entertainment, and of course seeing these legacy characters team up is wonderful, however, the movie lacks energy. When the action is there is bloody good fun, but there are too many breaks in between where characters talk and it's no fun. And yes, the endlessly monologuing baddie is a bore and his motivations? My gosh, what a wuss.

Overall score: 5/10

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rosesmith18 · 2 years

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(PnF)Headcanon #22 CAU: Evolution

Hey, sorry it's been awhile, anyway; CAU: Evolution. I wanna just share some jotted down ideas about the Candace Against the Universe movie and how it helped to main characters, Candace Flynn & Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, evolve in my headcanon;

First, Candace Flynn, I wanna talk about how she changes after the events of the movie starting with giving up busting her brothers! I know she canonically does this in 'Quantum Boogaloo' but, that episode is a bit outdated from the shows suggested new canon, so I'm ignoring the original and rewriting it for my headcanon. So instead of that being the 'giving up busting' moment for adult Candace, I'm having CAU be when teen Candace gives up, and decides to start enjoying her brothers inventions more openly. This is also when she starts to gain more self confidence, and showing more of an enthusiastic, less stressed interest in her boyfriend and school life. She's still a young girl, so she'll still have moments of stress concerning everything, even wanting to bust her brothers but, this is the time for new problems; like trying to get into college, hearing more on her friends lives and helping her brothers into middle school! Now, Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, she didn't get a lot of time in the movie considering it was Candace focused but, I think there were plenty of hints that it should be a big part of her life too. She survived a strange alien planet all on her own, trained a dragon and started this movie approaching Candace about Candace's problems. I think by the end of the events of this movie, Vanessa would also have a lot more self-confidence in her own way, and since we didn't get to see it, I wrote the following fanfic draft concepts;

"That's it!" Vanessa shouted as she came to a gradual stand still. She was so done with running today, honestly she was done with running her entire life. From her dad's weird habits, her parent's divorce, from her laughing classmates, from her feelings, and most of all from EVERY SINGLE THING on this gosh forsaken planet. She didn't care if running from a deadly, carnivorous, alien dragon wasn't the time to be having a breakthrough. She was having one gosh damn it! Standing her ground, Vanessa turned on her heel to face the mighty beast, and with a shout; "SIT!" Halted the beast in it's tracks. Looking deep into the monsters eyes, Vanessa let out a much needed sigh of relief. It had worked. Her mother's sage advice had worked.

Charlene's sage advice to thirteen year old Vanessa; 'Vanessa, one day your going to have to stop letting life pull you every which way, and decide once and for all what matters to YOU. And, when that day comes I want you to look life straight on with everything you've got, and say it like you mean it. Cause that's the only way you get anything in this world. By taking it.' "Vlorkal." The dragon replied with interest. "Your right, I would look like a lunatic riding around the streets of Danville on an alien dragon. But, you know what? I've decided I don't care. Not just about the riding a dragon thing, but everything. Thanks to you, Vlorkal. I've decided. I'm going home riding a dragon. I'm going home and telling mom I will take cooking classes with her. I will invite Lacey over to meet Norm." Vanessa said with a new sense of vigor. "Vlorkal?" the dragon added, with curiosity. Vanessa shrugged, feeling she owed her new sense of self that much. "Ah, what the heck, I might even let dad teach me some evil science...Wow, maybe I should ask Candace what's going on more often?"

P.S I headcanon this movie takes place in the summer of 2009 after the original series in summer 2008, so several things have happened before this movie, especially for Vanessa;

- Vanessa got into the O.W.C.A intern program

- Vanessa broke up with Monty(who started dating Carl)

- And, Vanessa father finally moved back into his own place after the events of MML(Milo Murphy's Law)

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This extra section I just want to spend some time detailing some tweaks to the girls outfits to emphasize their new found confidence/laid back-ness. Not a complete clothing change since they still have growing to do but, a few small changes.

Candace: I'm imaging a hair cut about to the end of her neck instead of at her shoulders with a more intense curl up from the back-maybe she curls the bottom of her hair now. A new skirt that goes up to her waist and reaches her knees with buttons in the front. Keep the iconic red shirt but, give it extended, slightly hanging sleeves. Her white flats can stay but her red socks can have some black polka dots and be folded at the top. She can also start painting her nails baby blue to match her eyes, and wearing a light bit of blush.

Vanessa: I think she would look good and a bit older if her hair was up in a ponytail more often-just a casual mid-ponytail with some strands free in the front. Give her some small gold colored button stud earrings, and some darker eyeliner at the top of her eye. Get rid of the leather top in exchange for a red blouse with transparent, short sleeves and a black collar. A black leather skirt with gold colored buttons that's just a few inches above the knee but, accompanied with black leggings. Keeping the iconic leather, high-heel boots.

-Vanessa's outfit change likely appears more drastic since her original outfit kind of looks like one cohesive piece of clothing but, I tried to keep in the spirt, cause I love her style.

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Anyway, that's all I have for now! If you have any questions about my thoughts or suggestions about storylines or clothing let me know.

*Vanessa & Candace belong to Dan Povenmire & Jeff 'Swampy' Marsh

#pnf #phineas and ferb #cau #candace against the universe #vanessa doofenshmirtz #candace flynn #headcanon

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smokeybrandcompositions · 2 months

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Exodus

I just read an article claiming that the biggest migration of people out of Christianity is happening in real time and find that hilarious. I’m on record as to being areligious but, as a youth, I was raised Christian. I think it was Southern Baptist but I can’t remember. It’s been probably thirty-five years since I’ve set foot in a church for worship. I questioned my faith early on after seeing things in my church, which didn’t jive with the word I was being taught. I’m talking hungry people being turned away, even though we were having a potluck dinner at the time. Threats of corporal punishment if my five year old ass didn’t stop being a five year old during a three hour long sermon. I lost my faith when my grandma died. I prayed every day, pleaded with the higher powers that be, to take away my grandma’s cancer and, for a time, they obliged. A handful of months later, they found a tumor in her head mind she was dead within months. I was eleven or twelve and didn’t understand what metastasization was so, to me, that sh*t was a purposeful “act of god.” This omnipotent being, chose to give us false hope by taking away my grandma’s lung cancer, only to move it into her brain and take her from me. That sh*t went against everything I was taught growing up and it made me ask “Why.” I spent the next half decade of my life chasing that answer but I never found it. The closest I got was “God’s plan is not for us mere mortals to understand.” That’s bullsh*t. That non-answer forced me to look outside the Christian doctrines and I fared no better there. By the time I left high school, I was fully agnostic and leaning toward being outright atheist but my mom wanted me to give the church another shot. There was no way that was going to happened, I had already forsaken anything organized, but I opted to study more. Maybe I could find something in the word to care about, to build some semblance of spirituality around. I’m, like, seventeen now and, let me tell you, the next two years were a whirlwind of knowledge, surprise, and offense.

The first thing I learned about was the fact that apocryphal texts exist. I remember my grandma talking about the Dead Seas Scrolls; a bible older than any known at the time of discovery, which told a different version of the bible we use to worship currently. How is that possible? Isn’t he bible the word of god? Isn’t it all supposed to be the same thing? No! Christianity started out as a series of f*cking cults. All religions do. When one reaches critical mass, they become religion. That said, these cults, while still telling a similar story and preaching a similar gospel, are still different enough to become sects. They are Christian, yes, but not THE Christian, you know? Among these sects, was one called the Gnostics. They sought to quantify the word of Christ through observation of the natural world and common goddamn sense. The Dead Seas Scrolls are Gnostic Texts. These texts have a variety of different Books in their bible, a ton missing from them modern version we use today. Just a sprinkling of such includes: The book of Mary Magdalene. The Book of Judas. The Book of Thomas. The Book of Secret Paul. The Book of Bartholomew. These text paint a radically different view of Jesus and his life. The Book of Mary Magdalene posits that Mary of Magdalena was not a whore, but the daughter of the shipping magnate who controlled the port city of Magdalena. Not only was she basically a princess or socialite, she was the wife of Jesus, his first confidant, and person who bankrolled dude’s journey to spread his word. Far cry from a whore who washed Jesus’ feet, right? The Gospel of Judas basically says that Judas and Jesus were in cahoots about his crucifixion, that it a was necessary to shake his other followers out of their blind worship of the Evil God, because there was two. Or how about the book of Enoch, which basically said none of this matters because, at the end of times, everyone gets a pass. There are so many contradictory Gospels out there, it’s ridiculous. But they’re Gospels, right? They are the word of God, right? Then why haven’t I heard about them until now? Who said this Book was more true that that one? Well, I have an answer for that, too.

Once i learned about the Council of Nicaea, that was it for me. Christianity was bullsh*t from that point on. Whenever some overzealous church person gets after me about my indifference to their faith, I ask them if they know what the council of Nicaea is. They rarely do. Way back in the olden times, something like three hundred years after Jesus got crucified, Constantine the I and a bunch of bishops, got together and basically decided what books were canonized and what books were not. Basically, the king of the Holy Roman Empire, got a bunch of bishops together, and decided what Christianity was going to be going forward. They literally picked from hundreds of Gospels, chose the ones they liked the most (the ones which fit their agendas and made it easier for them to rule), and made that sh*t into the Holy Bible. That’s right, the bible as you know it, in all forms since AD 325, has been a straight of tool of propaganda. It was designed to placate, denigrate, and distract, the everyday man from the harshness of the world with promises of everlasting life, if you could sustain an entire, mortal lifetime of cruelty. I mean, the Epicurean Paradox, alone, was enough for me to basically write of a god, but this Nicaea business? How can you know about that and still be pious? How can you absolutely know, that your book of worship was curated by the social elite specifically to placate the serfs, and still act like it’s the word of your profound deity? At that point, everything is suspect. God doesn’t lie but men do and your bible, your direct tie to the word of god, was crafted by men. Men with vested interests in keep you subservient and docile. You are sheep to be kept, sheparded in flock buy Jesus or, rather, the Holy King, himself, Constantine. Followed by whoever else would have the audacity to co-op thump that bible with zealous aggression. I, personally, find that sh*t offensive and, apparently, so do a lot of people.

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smokeybrand · 2 months

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Exodus

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pico-digital-studios · 3 months

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Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Many Alike

After a rather heated battle between Bently Forceloyed and Benjamin in the expansive dreamscape shared by Boyfriends, Benjamin backed up, worried for Bently.

Benjamin: I get you're upset, but hurting me isn't going to resolve your problems!

Bently: You're just saying that to break me, aren't you? You're saying that just like EVERY illusion that pathetic curse threw at me to crush my hopes!

Benjamin: H-Hey. I'm the REAL Benjamin. Not an illusion, not some tactical hope-crusher. Would I really be trying to help you if I was fake?

Bently: I... I guess not, huh.

Benjamin: You... must've been through a lot in your world, huh? If you need to, please explain what went on. I'll understand and I'll offer my support.

Bently: A-Alright, then. I'll explain it for you...

Bently's storyline started during More than One Universe.

Bently: If you're really my old self, you remember the whole push to cure all those interdimensional evils, right?

Benjamin: I do, yeah.

Bently:

Alright, so, that attempt to possess you from that horrible Puhoi curse? Well, I got off worse. I was forced to watch everybody I loved and cared for die, and I was isolated alone in my mind with no salvation. I was given a second chance, yes, but I was forced to leave my universe and integrate into a completely new one, and a new name; Bently Forceloyed.

I wasn't alone there, though. On my way in, I met a sweet young kid named Livie, who was like a little brother to me, and I also met my new girlfriend, Isabella Fondsmith. I had a good life ahead of me, but it didn't change the fact that I was still stuck with that god-forsaken curse.

In my dreams... well, more like nightmares, given their nature... I met Audrey, who was stuck there as many more before him, and he eventually broke out into my apartment, still horribly scarred from it all. No matter what he said to me about the curse, I just could NOT see it as any "gift", and just didn't want to heed that call of heroism again.

I ended up getting school to meet new friends, got a rival out of Koda, who's quite akin to Pico, and me and Livie, who's really willing to help others just out of the goodness of his heart, had to look after Audrey consistently because of that curse. It got to the point that I got Audrey to the house of a younger friend named Otto for residence.

I f-feel that was my worst mistake ever, even after the time I stopped a war from breaking out... Audrey was really down when I saw him again after two months, and... and I felt like I had just d-dumped him! I have r-reconciled with him since, but... I feel a-ashamed to call myself a f-friend towards him, even if he doesn't look d-down on me for my actions...

Benjamin: H-Hey, Bently, you're NOT useless.

Bently: (tearing up) Y-Yes I am! I've been stuck in shame for s-so long that I CAN'T see any l-light at the end of the tunnel, OR t-take that first step to peace! (feeling down) T-Those illusions were right, w-weren't they...? I'm just weak, p-pathetic, unable to truly h-help a close one, a-and a walking piece of m-misery... (looking up glumly) I c-can't choose between living my l-life as I want to o-or needing a friend t-to rely on me for w-who knows how long...

Benjamin, concerned, walked up to Bently.

Benjamin: Bently, listen. I know how horribly you've having it at the moment, and I can still relate. The harsh truth is... a friend can't rely on you forever, though I'm sure Audrey understands. You've done the best you could for him, and I'm sure he couldn't ask for anything more from you.

Benjamin: Besides, you're a better person than you think you are, Bently, hero or not. Whatever aspirations you want in life, you CAN achieve it. You just have to take that first step to finding it, and you've got your friends there to support you through it.

Bently teared up, hugging his original counterpart tight while quietly sobbing.

Bently: I-I'm so sorry...

Benjamin: Hey. I got you, don't worry.

They parted their hug as Grace and Isabella arrived next to the two.

Bently: Wait, Isabella? Is that really you here?

Isabella: Of course it's me, Bently. After what happened before, I got worried.

Benjamin: Yeah, I forgot to mention; this dreamscape's shared by any Boyfriend's crush or supporting companion, too!

Grace: What happened?

Benjamin: Well, Bently here's been going through a lot in his universe, and he's been in self-loathing from it.

Isabella: Hey, Ben?

Bently: Yeah?

Isabella: I know you've been going through a lot in those three months, but hero or not, you've still got a happy life to live, especially after you and Audrey reconciled. Besides, no matter what, you'll always have friends like me around to help you!

Grace: She's right, Bently. You've got so much ahead of you, so don't waste the opportunities you have.

Bently: Thanks... all of you. Heh, I feel a lot better after all of that. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding there, Benjamin.

Benjamin: Nah, it's all good! I'm kinda used to it.

Grace: So, what's your new home like, Bently?

Bently: Honestly, it's just amazing. I can show you these pictures of me, Isabella and our companions while we talk about it. I won't do it too long, though. I am gonna have to wake up shortly.

Benjamin: That's alright. It's been great meeting you, Bently. And besides, maybe one day we could meet in person!

Isabella: Hehe, that'd be wonderful!

And with that, they got to talking about Bently's new home in Dimension URB-2023, showing these pictures along the way:

Bently himself (the swap-in for BF)...

Isabella (based around GF, to idolising Bently's singing voice and becoming his girlfriend)...

Livie Vernal (based on Skid, being a cheerful child who's always there for Bently)...

Koda Terrafirm (based on Pico, a government agent trainee who's Bently's friendly rival in their universe)...

Otto Maypole (based on Pump, loves spring and is Livie's best kid friend)...

...and Bently's school teacher, Aiobhe Goodwin.

(All pics made with Picrew)

#sonic exe #sonic the hedgehog #spider verse #sth #sonic #sonic fandom #sth au #sonic au #spider man #friday night funkin #new identity new life

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corniebooks · 1 year

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Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

3.0

Lessa can talk to the watch-weyr and is longing for the day the evil Fax is vanquished and run from her realm. When the dragon men come on the search for women to replace the woman who rides the queen dragon, Fax is conquered and not knowing what comes next she goes with the dragon men and becomes the rider of the next queen.

The long held traditions of dragons and dragon riders had been fading and so when the threads begin to fall again and destroy the planet, they need more help than one dragon weyr can give. Lessa feels like she is the one called to save her planet.

I think this was a book I picked up and moderately enjoyed in middle school. But wow the misogyny is strong in this book, the leading man shakes the leading woman too much and refers to having sex with her as effectively rape. Luckily that last part was off screen. All a product of its time.

The cool part is the world building. A neighboring planet, when its orbit comes close to theirs, send spores that feed on and destroy everything on Pern. Since this is a fifty year event every couple hundred of years, the culture has practices and songs and tapestries to help remind the people what to do. In Lessa’s time people have forsaken the old ways and broken traditions, leaving them in great danger. Of course the only solution to the threads is dragon fire.

#book review #dragonflight

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irrfahrer · 2 years

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75. What is your favourite fairytale?

"Ah, fairytale- does as fairytale counts a story that is over 4000 kriffing years old? I mean most kriffing fairytales are just overly romanticized fables to bring the moral home to keep your little pups from doing stupid stuff, but honestly its pups, pups always do kriffing stupid stuff, so why kriffing bother Bachmann, but anyway. Some fiarytales are just overly romanticed old stories with a lot of generic pictures added to make everyone able to feel recognized in it, so why shouldn’t count a kriffing 4000 year old story count as a kriffing fairytale." Ziv looked as if she had bitten on a sour fruit with her ears pinend back, her eyes narrowed to thin slits and her fur bristled. She looked tierd, the skin surrounding her eyes under her fur was dark, almost blackish.

“So anyway, its not my favorite story, but it kind of is the story of my kriffing life or more accurate the story that haunts my Kriff-up of a Life like a kriffing Ark dog until I am crying and screaming and still have to go kriffing on raw. I know, sounds sexy, but it really kriffing isn’t. Just imagine you are a swet little flower living in a greenhosue perfectly adjusted to all your needs and you even have a kriffing sweet friend around who understand you although you have no kriffing vocal cords to talk, in fact you two just share your thoughts and emotions with eachother, best friends, true kriffing relationship goals. Then just som kriffing furred Sociopath who really stretches the not-very-social-radius of sociopathy, breaks in, slaughters every kriffing gardner inluding pinning one of them with a spear four times my kriffing height to a tree- which you all feel because you are a telepath and also fungal network is a kriffing thing for plants- and kidnaps you and your friend to haul off the kriffing planet on a kriffing freezer of a planet that really does not feel nice as a kriffing flower.” Automatically she lay a small paw on her chest where under her tunic the pendant lay secure against her chest, keeping it safe and protected.Against the fur of her chest she felt the sapling shift in the pendant, leaning against her chest lik a child leaning against a parent with tiered closed eyes.

“And as soon as you are on that planet you are kriffing nuked with negative emotions, pains and kriffing evil thoughts because that planet happens to be a school for some very kriffed up people, but don’t worry, you are one hour later thrown and dissolved in a kriffing cocktail of chemicals and feel yourself every second of it kriffing burning up until your body is gone. But while your body is gone your mind is still there and not only that but your mind is turned into kriffing spores that latch on every living thing around them, take root and grow in those systems until all you hear are the kriffing agonized screams of all those minds tortured, suddenly caged inside a overtaken body and with only the only aim to spread more and eat,eat,eat. And you are panicky and in pain and try to find your friend who for sure is yet not infected and you find her but then you are overtaken by the screams because thats all thats filling you up and you can not even run away becaus you are the stuff that is running everyone mad. So yeh, you yourself are nolonger there, yet you can also not escape and all you do is scream, scream, scream and grow,grow,grow and eat,eat,eat. Then you are left alone on that kriffing freezing planet and even your friend is gone until half the planet is blown up, yet since you are spores you are also left there between all those bad thoughts and dead, rotten body and every sane is gone and had left you behind on the Force-forsaken-freezing-icecube that is a plant.”, Ziv lifted her small paws, shaking them as if she was celebrating yet her voice could not be any less enthusiastic: “Hoo-kriffing-raaaay.”

She pinned her fluffy ears back, whiskers bristled like from elctricity. Suddenly she felt very, very tiered as she started to massage the dark circles under her eyes utterly exhausted: “And here you have the all-so-kriffing-beautiful stuff I am dreaming about regulary because that little flower hanging around my neck” not on a theard, a theard was easily to rip. It was a chain, a chain around her neck: “- happens to have a gentic memory and sorts through it in my sleep when my kriffing mindshield is down. Yeh, my life is kriffing kriffed up, just blast my head away al-kriffing-ready. Whats the moral of the Fairytale? Do not Kriff with Sith-alchemy, its bad for sweet little telepathic flowers.”

#I wrote my bachlor thesis about faorytales :D #okay actualyl it was the dvelopment or morals after Kohlberg and the role of fairytales in it after the example of red riding hood #IT COUNTS AS 'ABOUT FAIRYTALES' !#thanks for the ask anon <3 #headcanon

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tendertokyo · 3 years

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My take on NCT at Hogwarts

what is it with me and being active on this god forsaken app all of a sudden... anyways, i know that we've thrown jk rowling in the garbage but listen i can't just throw away my whole childhood for one stupid rich white cis woman. also i have no idea what's going on with the neos but when do i ever? alright here we go

taeil: he's giving me frustrated hufflepuff, like he really wished to be in gryffindoor but it didn't work out. think he'd be a halfblood and have a pet toad. likes to visit hagrid for tea sometimes. simps over some bad bitch in slytherin, really thinks she's into him too, everyone tells him she's way out of his league. broke his wand twice already trying to open a can of sardines

taeyong: also strong hufflepuff energy. he's the keeper and captain of their quidditch team and a prefect too, picked purely cause he's good with kids. walks around without his scarf in the cold winter because he wrapped it around ten's neck one morning and nagged on him for not taking care of his health properly, never got the scarf back and doesn't mind. i feel like snape would intimidate the crap out of him, like he would not be able to stay calm during his classes rip. he'd be adored by all the other teachers though, especially flitwick who believes he's really gifted in charms

johnny: a gryffindoor pureblood and keeper and captain of the quidditch team. always the one who tries to talk things out with mcgonnagall when they pull some stupid shit and get caught, never successful. has the marauders map and likes to throw underground raves in hidden rooms and tunnels. buddies with peeves and the house elves. buddies with everyone actually. and regardless of liking him like that or not, every girl in school has fantasized of fucking him in the quidditch locker room showers ooooop-

yuta: omg the heartbreaker of the school. a halfblood slytherin prefect and beater. snape's favourite student, like he gets whatever he wants from that man without trying. everyone is lowkey into him cause of his hot and mysterious vibe and there are so many rumours about his sex life circulating around, but no one actually knows if he's seeing someone. people also speculate he's a metamorphmagus but no lol he just dies his hair a lot. has a pet cat who's mean to everyone except him and mark. likes to explore the forbidden forest cause he's a weirdo

doyoung: a ravenclaw pureblood who hates quidditch, only shows up for taeyong's matches and nags him afterwards if hufflepuff loses. he's the headboy and happily uses his title to threaten haechan. hates divination with a passion and idolizes mcgonnagal, as he should. knows everyone's bussiness in the whole damn castle, never starts drama but almost always ends it. used to tutor some younger students but they quickly realised he's a mini mcgonnagall and zoomed straight outta there. snape lowkey wishes he was in slytherin but don't tell anyone

kun: gryffindoor headboy, probably the calmest person in that entire house and the only one who can kinda control the chaos. if yangyang or hendery annoy him too much he'll give them the wrong password on purpose, mcgonnagal has this unspoken respect for him for that reason. feels really bad for the house elves and wants to help them as much as he can. known as the dad or daddy of gryffindoor, depending on who you ask hehehehe

ten: the artsiest ravenclaw but fucking terrible at riddles, so he's always stuck at the door unless someone let's him inside lmao. is super into divination but purely for the aesthetic. never wears his uniform properly, always wears taeyong's scarf and lots of witchy jewelry. started a dance club in the room of requirement, loves hogwarts halloween with his whole heart. set a classroom on fire once and managed to sneak away undetected. always hooks up with someone at johnny's parties

jaehyun: the fucking fratboy of gryffindoor. he's a halfblood and a chaser on the quidditch team. left so many girls on read oh my god. sneaks alcohol and weed into school, coorganizes parties with johnny, yuta and mark. people think he's this hot bad boy or some shit, lol no bitch he's a dumbass don't waste your energy on a doofus like him, have you heard his laugh he sounds like a 45 year old man. mcgonnagall doesn't trust him at all, always looks at him with shifty eyes. the fat lady flirts with him everytime he approaches the commonroom door

winwin: on the snobby pureblood side of slytherin, like he gives off really judgy vibes. is in ten's dance club, there's a rumor going around that he's an animagus 'cause he moves gracefully like a cat or smth, but he isn't he's just really talented. spends most of his time in the owlery petting birds. the bloody baron freaks him out, most of the ghosts do. tried to be a big brother figure to renjun and chenle but they bullied his ass like crazy so he dropped them like hot potatoes

jungwoo: the most confident gryffindoor y'all. he's a muggleborn and a chaser. has the cutest pet owl, is really into care of magical creatures. snape hates him because he's too "sunny" of a person. wild at parties but looks fine in the morning somehow. the biggest flirt you'll ever meet and has so many bitches wrapped around his little finger lol, there's a rumor going around that he's real beast in bed. awesome at dueling, uses his cute airhead shtick to apsolutely destroy people. can you tell i love his pisces ass?

lucas: a hufflepuff halfblood and beater. wannabe fuckboy but can't because he cares too much lol, those muscles are made of feelings dawg. hits on every girl he sees and is almost always successful 'cause we're weak for cute and sweet himbos. is the biggest show off on the quidditch field and has his own fan club. really into care for magical creatures, like literally wants to befriend every single one of them, hagrid has to pull his ass away from them before he gets hurt rip

mark: a gryffindoor prodigy, a muggleborn and a chaser. the most stressed prefect you've ever seen. mcgonnagall has a soft spot for him and everyone knows it. snape dislikes him but respects him because he's fucking brilliant at potions. a lot of people like him and are into him but he doesn't know how to respond to them lol socially awkward king. plans parties with johnny yuta jaehyun and ten, is always roped into the dreamies schemes against his will. no one can fucking tell if him and haechan are on good terms cause they're at each other's throats all the time, but slobber all over each other like crazy when they get drunk

xiaojun: the most emotional ravenclaw. a halfblood and a prefect. he dated a girl for a long time and she broke his heart, moped about it in the prefect's bathroom for ages. lowkey believes she cheated on him with yuta but isn't sure, is extra weary around him though. says he's done with love but then simps over a new girl every two weeks smh. no one understands how he's such good friends with hendery and yangyang, like the combination of the two of them is a recipe for disaster. whenever they rope him into their bullshit, he always manages to drop their asses in the perfect time and doesn't get caught. many portaits are jealous of him 'cause he has better bone structure then them lol

hendery: the best definition of a gryffindoor. comes from a rich pureblood family, is a beater on the quidditch team. he's the life of the party, man. out of all the students he hates, he is the one snape hates the MOST and he's so proud of that. a really fast runner so he never ends up in detention 'cause it's just too hard to catch him. buddies with the ghosts and hagrid. tries really hard to impress girls, it only works half of the time when he's not being too intense

yangyang: also a gryffindoor pureblood, tried out for the chaser position but didn't make it, is still bitter about it. has a really fucked up owl that always messes up his letters. constantly in detention, like he's cleaned that entire castle by himself 43 times already. also in ten's dance club, also really good at dueling when he actually tries. really into muggle culture, explores it in his free time and shows everyone cool, new music he found all the time. gives kun daily headaches cause he's way too energetic in the morning

shotaro: imma say he's a hufflepuff but don't quote me on that cause i don't know him that well. he seems like he'd have lots of friends though and would be in ten's dance club

sungchan: don't know him well either so i'll just say gryffindoor??

renjun: i'm torn between ravenclaw and slytherin, gonna go with slytherin for him. he's a halfblood and a prefect, also uses his title to threaten haechan. loves defence against the dark arts anď herbology, might become a healer someday. gets tricked by the moving staircases all the fucking time, ends up at madam pomfrey's way more than he likes to admit. likes the slytherin aesthetic but can't stand the evil stereotypes. most people think him and chenle are brothers, wants to strangle chenle when he plays into it. once told the bloody baron to fuck off, no one dares get on his bad side since that day

jeno: pureblood hufflepuff prefect and a chaser. he's the cute, athletic guy everyone has a crush on. is on snape's good side 'cause he likes cleaning up his brewing station after finishing the task the lession is about. is the best flyer in the entire school and has the best chance of getting scouted in the future, everyone knows it but if you mention it to him he blushes like crazy. i feel like he's been in many fwb situations but they all ended well because he's a gentleman

haechan: a slytherin through and through. halfblood and seeker on the quidditch team. thought he was gonna be prefect and was hella pissed he wasn't chosen, i mean hello you're a snake who would want to give a snake authority goddamn it. also always complains during quidditch matches, calls everything a foul just 'cause he wants to win. puts up this persona of the mischevious slytherin boy but it falls flat on it's ass because he's peeves's favourite target

jaemin: a muggleborn hufflepuff, because of that reason he's sworn to himself he'll take care of jisung like a mother. a chaser on the quidditch team. such a sweetheart my gosh, like that dude is always so happy, unless he hasn't drunk his 6 cups of coffee. speaking of, mcgonnagall and pomfrey worry for his health like crazy but won't admit it. excells at care for magical creatures and charms, horrible at ancient runes like he didn't think there'd be so much math involved. girls are also crazy into him but he's such an introvert, the thought of someone wanting to be around him so much scares him. still flirts with everything that breathes lol

chenle: a slytherin and a pureblood, from one of those rich old families. because of that people expect him to be a lil brat, turns out to be the coolest guy you'll ever meet. he's friends with everyone regardless of house, a chaser on the quidditch team, known as the one who scores the most points in a game. he's great at defence against the dark arts and transfiguration, is thinking about becoming an auror 'cause that dude fears nothing i'm telling you. was made a prefect instead of haechan, rubs it in his face like crazy, but ultimately just let's people get away with stupid shit like "haha nice one, respect". memorized all the secret passageways of the castle in his head, helps johnny, mark, ten and jaehyun with their parties. pisses off filch like no other, was in detention all the time with yangyang until they realised how terrible it is when the two of them are in close contact lol so he gets let off the hook all the time. also fucking flirts with everything that breathes, the biggest fucking tease like you never know what he means smh

jisung: jaemin's muggleborn hufflepuff son, though most people are surprised he isn't in gryffindoor 'cause god the reckless shit that boy pulls... always late to breakfast with his uniforn all messy. people think he's very innocent but like his bestfriend is chenle, so how pure could he be. he's a seeker on the quidditch team, goes extra hard during hufflepuff-slytherin matches 'cause he wants to knock haechan off his high horse. blushes like crazy whenever he sees a cute girl which only gives chenle more reason to tease him 'cause he's a lil bitch like that. is the star of ten's dance club but has tripped and fallen down multiple flights of stairs, this kid's a walking paradox

to conclude:

gryffindoor: johnny, kun, jaehyun, jungwoo, mark, hendery, yangyang, sungchan

hufflepuff: taeil, taeyong, lucas, jeno, jaemin, shotaro, jisung

ravenclaw: doyoung, ten, xiaojun

slytherin: yuta, winwin, renjun, haechan, chenle

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amphxtrite · 3 years

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2 • Hideaway.

chapter summary: Cedric finally catches the chance to talk to you, hidden away in the shelves of the library. What starts as an innocent attempt to befriend you ends in your walls crashing down, but Cedric is willing to change and listen.

series summary: alone almost everyday from the moment you were born, thrown to the side by everyone in society because of who your parents were and who you were said to be, a death eater. Your parents were to of the most powerful dark wizards ever known and because of that you were shunned everywhere you went. When the hufflepuff golden boy sees you for the first time and falls, but is he willing to be judged, feared, and hated, and how far will he go, To Be At Her Side.

warnings: swearing, flashback, breakdown, mentions of wanting to be dead.

taglist: @mullthingsoverinthehotwater @hoe4cedricdiggory @queenl04 @persephone-archives @0niko-san @annasdani @joalinbenefits @awritingtree

word count: 2.2k

enjoy <3

__________________________________________

Hideaway.

a place used as a retreat or a hiding place.

The Hogwarts library was a grand room, filled top to bottom with books of all kinds; Fantasy, romance, science fiction, history, anything you could imagine, could be found in the pages of a thick leather bound journal or thin paperback with a cracked spine.

Most students took the library for granted, preferring to spend their time at Hogsmeade or around the lake, but for you, anywhere with too many students was a disaster waiting to happen.

The library was your hide away, a retreat from the prying eyes of the student body. A place you could smile, read and do whatever you pleased without judgement. Madam Pince had practically left this place for you to roam, she was far enough away where you could be at peace from her constant shushing, and because of the lack of students most days, it was usually just you.

The past few months, you’d been slipping into the deep bookshelves to hide yourself, immersing yourself in the text of the wise witches and wizards who had come before you, reading their stories and spells and learning all they knew.

Your safe space became the closed shelves, home smelt like old books and wood, tranquility came in the form of muggle stories and old journals.

While you sat stowed away in a far corner of your hideaway, eyes scanning over the stories of old Greek heroes, Cedric sat in the great hall, eyebrows furrowed in worry.

He had barely seen you since the incident in potions all those months ago, winter had arrived, and he felt strange saying it, but he missed you.

He missed the girl whom he’d never even spoken to.

He missed your eyes filled with strength, holding yourself with pride despite what people believed.

He missed your hair that frames your face so perfectly.

He missed you although he barely knew who you were, and he wanted to see you more than just a quick glance in class before you disappeared through the door.

Cedric wasn’t proud of it, but he began following you after your last class with him, to see where you snuck away to.

The first couple tries resulted in him losing you through the crowd, but he’d managed to catch you slipping into the library on a Saturday morning during breakfast.

His hand hovers over the door knob, mentally debating if he should enter, try his luck at talking to you.

It was Saturday, Hogsmeade weekend. No one was going to be in the library today, he should be alright.

Pushing open the large door, Cedric readjusts his eyes to the dim lighting of the library paired with the bright white light streaming through the windows.

He made sure to be quiet, closing the door and slowly walking through the room, using his lightest steps in hopes not to be noticed.

Pince must’ve been at breakfast because besides the small ruffle of pages being turned in the distance. The library was completely silent.

A small yellow light flickered in the corner of Cedric’s eye, guiding him as you lay unaware, nose stuck in a book.

He follows the sound of paper being turned, and light breathing.

He begins his ascend up a stairway to the second story of the library and through the shelves where he saw the flicker of light.

His heart began to rush as your breathing grew closer. His hands were clenched into fists and his face was flushed. This was it, he was finally going to talk to you.

You sigh in content as you set down the muggle classic ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’ You lay for a couple moments just staring at the ceiling as you shook your head, maybe you didn’t have it as bad as what others dealt with in the muggle world.

You sit up and pick up the small novel, slipping it back into place on the shelf.

“Harper Lee. I’ll have to read up on her.” You mumble to yourself as you skim the old spines.

Your thoughts are cut short when a shiver runs down your spine and you sense a presence behind you. Swiveling your body, only the sight of rows upon rows of books make themselves present, but you knew better than to believe you were alone.

“Who’s there?” You ask no one in particular.

You’re about to open your mouth again, when a mess of brown hair, pokes out from behind the science fiction shelf.

“H-Hello.” The boy spoke, finally revealing himself from the shelf.

You recognized the boy as the one from your classes. The one you gave the note too.

He doesn’t give up does he?

“If you’re here to make a snide remark, please leave me alone.” You sigh, pulling a random novel from the shelf as you turn and retreat back to your spot.

“I-I would do no such thing.” the boy states, beginning to follow you. “I’m Cedric, Cedric Diggory. We have potions and transfigurations together!”

“I’m aware.” You nod, trying to ignore him.

You almost felt bad for the boy, Cedric. He obviously hadn’t planned this far and his mind was frantically searching for words.

“Look I’m sorry for coming around like this I just-.”

“I don’t need your pity Diggory, now please just leave me be.” You remark, sitting on your blanket laid neatly on the floor.

“No please, y/n right?” Cedric smiles extending his hand.

“I know you know my name Cedric. Everyone at this bloody school does.” You hiss, voice laced with venom, surprising Cedric and causing him to step back.

You don’t mean to be cold, but you were not in the mood to make friends. This was bound to end in disaster, and you didn’t need to add another person to the long list of failed attempts.

“I-I understand, I was just-.”

“Oh that’s rich.” You scoff.

Cedric can see your attempt at being rude, but for some reason, he isn’t hurt by it.

Your eyes are jumping around him, refusing to meet him. Your leg is shaking up and down anxiously. Your hand is massaging the area on your chest your locket should be.

You were nervous.

Cedric takes a deep breath, refocusing himself.

“Look y/n, I just wanted to talk to you, try and become your friend.”

Your eyes flicker down, doubt and fear swim through them as you shuffle away from Cedric, trying to make yourself as small as possible, hoping he’d grow bored and leave.

“W-Where’s that locket you always wear?” He attempts, only causing you to flinch back further and drop your hand from your neck.

“None of your business Diggory.

Cedric wasn’t about to give up, and he took a seat on a chair at a desk not too far from you.

“I-I’m not interested in making friends.” You murmur, cursing yourself for your voice, cursing yourself for being weak.

“There’s no need to be afraid, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

Your mind is thrown into a distant memory that haunted you, and your head begins to spin.

The horrid day the aurors surrounded your house.

Your parents clutched you close to them as the wizards holding wands to their throats ripped you from their grasp.

“Take the child for a moment.”

Unfamiliar arms encased you before placing you on the carpet, leaving you as you bawled for your parents. You could only see them being disapparated away as your mother's locket appeared in your hand. Your last piece of her and your father.

The large boots of ministry workers and auror’s stood before you, discussing amongst themselves what to do with you.

“There’s no need to be afraid, I’m not here to hurt you.” One remarks, lifting you up, but holding you an arm lengths away.

“There’s no way people will be safe around her.”

“Her parents have probably already brainwashed her.”

“Can someone shut her up?!”

That was the last thing you heard before the sleeping charm was cast on you.

Your vision goes red, your fists clench and without thinking you pull your wand from your pocket and stomp forwards.

“You said you wouldn’t hurt me, but you ruined my life! You’ll never know what I fucking went through because of your ignorance. I was a child you asshole, I was three and you fucking took my parents from me and left me to die at that god forsaken orphanage!” You scream, eyes clouding with tears as you press your wand closer to someone’s neck, but it slips your mind, who.

“They may have been evil, but they were all I ever had! You should’ve just killed me there, it would’ve been better than living this life!” You rage, bringing your wand to meet their neck.

Cedric stands with his hands beside his face in surrender, his breathing heavy as he watches your grip on your wand tighten and your tears stream down your face.

“Y/n, I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. P-Please don’t hurt me.”

Cedric’s eyes squeeze shut and after a couple moments of silence the sound of wood cluttering on the floor signals him to open them again.

Your hands fly to your face as your legs fail you, dropping you to the ground as you back yourself into the nearest wall, tucking yourself into a ball.

“I-I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry.” You sob, pulling your hair and using your palms to wipe the tears.

“Y/n!”

“No! Stay away from me! I’ll only make it worse.” You sniffle, trying to escape Cedric’s gaze.

“Please just leave me, I’m a monster Cedric, leave before I do hurt you.” You sob, hiding your face again.

Cedric ignores this and slides to the floor next to you, pulling a handkerchief from his book bag and holding it to you.

“No, y/n it’s not your fault. I made you remember something. Didn’t I?” Cedric sighs, sitting in front of you.

“Does it matter? I could have killed you! I’m just like them.” You shout, turning away from the hufflepuff as he turns with you.

“Y/n, look at me. Please look at me.” Cedric pleas.

“You’re afraid of me, admit it.”

“Y/n, I-”

“Admit it Cedric.” You cry, pushing yourself farther away.

“It's not your fault I made you cry y/n. I’m sorry.” Cedric apologizes, gently pulling your hands away from your tear stained cheeks.

“D-don’t touch me. I could have hurt you Cedric. I can’t forgive myself for that.” You whimper, turning your head to avoid his kind grey eyes.

“I’m fine y/n, look at me. You didn’t hurt me, just scared me is all.” Cedric smiles, attempting to reassure you.

“What have I done?”

Cedric’s smile drops at your comment.

“Y/n.” Cedric lifts his hand to wipe the tears from your face.

“No, please don’t.”

Cedric sighs and drops his hand, opting to take your hand into his instead.

“You could never hurt me y/n, please don’t do this to yourself.”

“Oh it’s too late for that Diggory. I’ve been doing this my whole life.” You smile incredulously.

“I’ll always be the daughter of the l/n’s. I’ll never be able to change that. And you saw what I did. I’m just like them.”

Cedric opens his mouth to deny your claim, but you cut him off.

“You know what's funny too? I still miss them, I still wish they’d come to hold me, but I guess that’s just the childhood loneliness talking.”

“Y/n.”

“How could they bring a child into this world after everything they did and expect it to be okay? How could they leave me here?” You whimper as a fresh wave of sadness hits you.

“I’ve been alone everyday of my life Cedric, treated like an animal, a threat, a monster.”

You take a deep breath and allow the tears to flow freely.

“I feel like I’m just payment of a debt my parents owe, l-like I’m nothing.”

Cedric listens intently, slowly stroking the back of your hand and offering the handkerchief to you again.

You shake your head.

“I-I’d like you to go now.” You mumble, retracting your hand from Cedric’s warm grasp.

“Please don’t push me away y/n. If you don’t want my pity I understand, but I really do want to be your friend.” Cedric smiles gently and extends his hand out to you.

Your eyes flash in fear and doubt again, but you accept his outstretched hand.

“You understand how hard it’s gonna be for me to trust you?” You state.

Cedric nods his head.

“You’re not going to be afraid to be seen with me in public?” You push, remembering the first day he saw you.

Cedric freezes for a moment, knowing what you’re referring to, his head fights with his heart, but he knows his answer. He pushes his own fear aside and smiles.

“Why would I? You’re my friend now right?” He chuckles, earning himself a small grin from you.

“You have a beautiful smile you know.”

Your eyes lift from their spot on the floor into Cedric’s bright grey ones.

“T-Thank you.”

Cedric nods, sitting in peaceful silence beside you as you slowly catch your breath.

“Any chance you’d like to meet here tomorrow?” Cedric suggests, scratching the back of his neck.

“I-I’d like that.” You smile, sniffling into your sleeve.

#cedric diggory #cedric diggory x reader #harry potter imagine #cedric diggory imagine #harry potter #cedric diggory fluff #cedric x y/n #cedricsbrowncurls #angst

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bethanydevos · 3 years

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“Tough Times Don’t Last Long” by Justin March

“Tough times don't last, tough people do.” Iowa State Head Football Coach Matt Campbell

I love watching College Gameday on Saturday mornings. The camaraderie between Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack, and Lee Corso is always entertaining. Chris "The Bear" Fallica chooses what he deems to be educated, well-though out picks for the weekend, and there are always surprises as the crew goes from city to city to have the fans enlighten us on their rich traditions and humble opinions. There are always famous alumni from the schools that join the program, there are hilarious, creative signs in the crowds, and there is a strong sense of community no matter where the show ends up each week. But my favorite part of the show is the time they spend to share a heartfelt story about overcoming obstacles and persevering from one of the school's "super fans" each and every episode.

As I was taking in the entertainment this morning, I found myself encapsulated by a story about an Iowa State diehard fan named Nick Bassett. Nick is a 29 year old season ticket holder who has been in a wheelchair since the age of 10. This spring, after fighting a horrible infection in his legs, he found out that they would need to be amputated. I am sure the news was like a punch in the face, but Nick's attitude and perspective was an inspiration to his community and even caught the attention of Iowa State's Head Coach Matt Campbell. On the eve before Nick's surgery, he received a call from Mr. Campbell and listened to these encouraging words..."Tough times don't last, tough people do." Nick told Matt that his goal was to make sure he did everything possible so that he would be able to take the field for Iowa State's first home game this season. And wouldn't you know it, as the Gameday crew was sharing this story to all us football fans, Nick entered the stage and led the crowd to an Iowa State chant that would make even the hardest heart melt. When asked why he felt it was so important to enter Jack Trice Stadium and be part of that first game this season, Nick humbly stated, "If my story can inspire just one person to get off the couch and go on a run or try and better themselves in some way, it just makes everything all the better."

Wow! That should make you want to get up and shout for joy! And on the 20th anniversary of 9-11, I found this story to be the perfect fit. Yes, we endured some tough times when we were tragically attacked that fateful day, but our nation proved to be strong. We came together as one, our first responders rose to the challenges ahead, and we persevered as we proved to the rest of the world one horrendous day would not destroy us. And now, 20 years later, our college football players, who were not even old enough or were not even born when this tragic event occurred, are standing up to honor the fallen and rejoice with their survivors because they understand that "tough times don't last, tough people do."

We were never promised that life would be perfect. We were never promised that we wouldn't endure sorrow and pain. But we were promised that we would never be forsaken or left behind. We were promised that if we have a strong faith, believe in the Bible's messages, and carry out God's will for our lives, that the tough times won't last, but we will. There will be mistakes made along the way, we will stumble and fall, and there will be times when the world feels like it has taken everything away from us. But with God by our side, we are encouraged to remember that the tough times won't last. We will stand again, we will persevere, and we will celebrate with our brothers and sisters when we rise above the evil forces that try to bring us down. And when our final day wipes our body from this earth, I pray that we will rest with the assurance that the tough times didn't last, but we did because we walked with Jesus and brought others closer to the Father.

#perserverance #bethanydevotionalwritings

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neuroticpige0n · 4 years

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Chapter 2 of “And The Leaves Would Grow Again”

Coming Through and Once Again

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26089138/chapters/64388188#workskin

“His hair is soft, like those clouds up in the sky, and his eyes reflect the illumination of a thousand fucking suns..”

If the blueprint had been a little more obscure, the sun would rise from the West and set by the East. Certainly, if life had been a little harsher, the rain would fall more often and the rooftop would have its gutters leaking water drops under the grey sky. The stooges of class 2-A wouldn’t climb up every day, their respectively vibrant personalities (and I would personally exclude one of them, looking into the definition of ‘vibrant’) and their strange ways of tricking teachers into letting the school building be used as their own little treehouse up in the clouds mash up to create what could have been the best memories of the seventeen years of life spent by Oboro Shirakumo.

“He does look nice- I suppose.”

The boy was something of a legend between everyone that had the honour to have known him. If I had been any more poetic, I could barely attempt to describe him as “an academically flunking star in a plain of hundreds and hundreds of what could have been blackholes, fleshed out meteors and planets.” And perhaps, the two idiots that orbited him were somewhat reflective, somewhat.. Impressionable towards their glowing peer. They would always hold up, far from anyone that strayed away from his light, far away from those who would stone the sun instead of bowing down before its heaviness. Perhaps, those two were merely his moons. Perhaps, they would be the one keeping his light alive when he wasn’t there anymore.

“Pfft- what are you on about, Yamada?”

The crow-like teenager propped himself on his elbows on the ground of his dorm room, watching his blond friend as he worded his uncertainty out with the same old, unusually theatrical meek mutter. It would never fail to bring a smile to his face, at least a crafty one as he narrowed his eyes, watching his friend rest on his side, facing away from him. Shouta had grown into this sort of cold affection as a kid, but actually practising it with his friends had rooted on him. Made him likeable among the others, and not only the ones he showed his true colours to. Lucky was he about actually having the stamina to keep up with two restless morons. Or whatever you could call them. Tactlessly, he took another swig from the beer bottle in his hand as he waited for a response, which arrived pretty quickly after his question.

“You know- It’s pretty clear that you like him so much.”

“Of course I like him. He’s our best friend, loudmouth, you like him too.”

“No- uhm! like. Not like that.”

This made so much sense in Hizashi’s head. The way Shouta spoke about their friend, his hair and all. His stupid soft floaty hair or whatever. Oboro this, Oboro that. Something was building up inside him whenever he heard about it, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was. He liked Oboro too, very much- but it could never reach the level of Shouta’s slightly tipsy speech about him. Sure, what a beautiful fella. What a nice guy. A true delinquent hero. Hizashi was about to explode from the knot inside his stomach that kept getting tighter and tighter every second he spent with his friend now. If he didn’t have so much alcohol in his system, he would possibly crumble under the pressure of his own confusion and stress. Yet, snapping him out of his thoughts was Shouta’s delayed answer, which sounded more serious than he thought it would.

“Oboro? I mean, not really. He’s a really cool guy, but he’s not exactly my type. He’s not uh.. annoying enough.”

Annoying enough- what? My god. Suddenly, Hizashi’s stomach would drop so abruptly. What did that mean? So far, the only thing he knew about Shouta’s bedroom preference was that he was kitchenware-sexual or whatever, but the two had never really had that conversation about romance and sexuality. Hell, he didn’t even know why he had opened this type of conversation out of nowhere, and he was quite sure that Shouta felt the same way. He didn’t really know what it was that undid his limbs right now, but he laid on his back again, glaring at Shouta as he murmured. “People that are your type? Who is your type if not him? I couldn’t possibly see you going on and on about anyone else.”

“Well, I like someone else. Don’t even try to read my lips and try to understand who it is, but I could almost say that he would outdo our dear Shirakumo if he spoke a little less and smiled a little more. It’s just.. refreshing, really. Refreshing my ass- Infuriating is the word.”

That was a dear laugh, oh dear Lord. Hizashi could almost swear that this rare Shouta smile surpassed the magnificence of any of those stupid Christmas lights to hang from the gutters around December’s time, for whatever reason. He didn’t even know, you couldn’t tell him that, but his heart held this value so dearly that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt him, not today and never, ever. Everything clicked all of a sudden. The cocky, loudmouth bother could sense his own frown turning upended. As Shouta smiled, Hizashi could see a faint luminosity shine inside of Shouta’s cornea. Was it the sunlight? He reached his hand and poked his friend a few times, before the loner faked an exaggerated scowl, looking like the most dignified bastard on the goddamn planet.

The sun would never fade away. The night would arise, and the black fog of the evil would cover the face of the earth. But when the morning comes, the awakening light would be brighter than any eye had ever seen before.

October 16th, no school, work until midday. 7AM.

“Himiko Toga. The doll girl with amber eyes. Toga-chan.”

“Uhm.. Ocha-chan.”

God, it felt like forever since she felt something so profound birth inside of her. That sweet rush of shivers down her spine, that determination for absolutely nothing at all. The music inside her head, that romanticization. It had been far longer than years since Ochako had these feelings pent up inside of her. She could have sworn that she had replayed the same moments inside of her head so many times by now that she had her words memorized. She had imagined different scenarios where she’d fantasize about how it would have gone if she was a bit earlier to find her, or if she had said something slightly different. Ochako could have at least flirted with her. All she had done was to prevent her from taking over the conversation. She could have danced with her, danced on her- But who was she kidding? She had never learnt how to dance or flirt with someone, so much for all those teenage years she spent learning useless algebra.

“What are you inside your head about, Ochako?”

When you thought about it, the girl didn’t even know her name. Ochako possibly repeated Himiko’s name about a thousand times by now, it simply rolled off the tongue. The girl’s bold behavior, her lack of recognition for danger. Or the lack of- care? A combination of a lack of care towards her high functioning recognition for danger. Something in all of that had stuck in Ochako’s mind ever since she and her friends stepped out of that god forsaken gay bar. She didn’t exactly know what it was that had captured her so easily, but there was something in her that stuck in her mind, pulling her to that bar once again. She was thinking of what all of this meant- trying to lay it off as a simple admiration. The questions she had answered back in the club by Himiko’s side could really easily answer all of these things she had begun questioning, but it would be far too easy to call it a crush. There was some flesh in there that she didn’t exactly understand, some sort of codependency. It floated somewhere in her subconscious mind that there was something off about this, but there was a driving force that kept her up to be willing to see this girl with twin buns and a taste for adrenaline.

“The girl with twin buns and a taste for adrenaline.”

“Are you listening?”

The sudden remark had disrupted Ochako’s stream, which resulted in her getting a bit rosy in the cheeks. Oh dear- was she zoned out? She was suddenly left facing two of her friends once more, sitting by the breakfast table. The concerned looks had remained the same, but they were more skeptical too this time, as if they were trying to understand what all of this talking was about. Izuku, in difference with Tenya, actually knew what she was talking about quite briefly, and that even brought an amused expression to his face. Izuku had only seen this type of senseless rambling once, and that was when she had a crush on him. When you thought about it, it was very funny that Ochako had been ranting about her crush to her crush without giving out a name, even more hilarious on the behalf of Izuku’s oblivion. Regardless- he thought that this was quite strange of her, he hadn’t seen her so worked up about anything ever since high school had ended. It was simply too nice, really. Izuku was still a bit worried that she was falling too easily for a girl that she met in a club, and club-relationships weren’t supposed to last that long by nature, but he would support her feelings as long as they lasted. They were best friends after all, it would mean that he’d be by her side for any struggle like she had been by his side for all these years during high school.

“Uh- sorry! I wasn’t, it’s really early. Could you repeat that?”

“Ah, it’s alright! Iida-kun wrote in the groupchat that the reunion could be over in our apartment, so I was asking you if you could buy Kirishima’s cake? Maybe some booze?”

“Yes- that would be alright, I’ll do that when I’m back from work?”

Izuku readjusted on his chair before looking at Tenya, looking as puzzled as he could on why Ochako was constantly murmuring and fidgeting. It certainly wasn’t usual to Tenya, who was devoid of that sort of empathy. It made Izuku smile to himself. When Ochako left for work, Tenya and Izuku were left eating their breakfast. There wasn’t really a conversation at first, as Izuku was still thinking about what Ochako was going through. I mean, if he hadn’t known what Ochako was going through, he would also be confused by his friend’s strange antics. Questioning one’s sexuality though, that was hard. He could remember when he had figured out he was bisexual, he didn’t even feel ashamed of it. That lack of shame caused him to put himself in a situation where he’d tell everyone without any sort of caution, which everyone could expect how that ended in a slightly homophobic country like Japan. Even his classmates in 1-A were sort of shocked by the news, as they all were all work and no fun during their first year and they didn’t really have the time to question those types of things. It wasn’t like he was the only LGBTQ+ person they knew; some of the others in class 1-A were also open about what they liked, and Mirio and Tamaki, two of the most successful students of their high school were clearly something more than just friends. Their homeroom teacher and english teacher were another thing to talk about. But most of them would expect Izuku to be either more closed-off or mindless about his sexuality. He was even remotely bullied, had dick jokes from some of the upper class students, strangely even one of his own classmates that was infamous for his disrespectful comments about the girls around, but his success in his classes had him sort of invincible among the others. Slowly, his classmates had also started to come out to him and to each other and queerness was more or less accepted around in their year. It was a shock for him too that he could only figure out what Shoto felt when he was a senior, and that was when they started dating. Lost in thought, his subconscious had him calling for Tenya to ask him about something he had been wondering for some time now.

“Tenya?”

“Yes, what is it?”

Izuku arched his eyebrows a little, leaning forward and clearing his throat before gaping his lips to speak. He wanted to be sort of careful-like, knowing that Tenya wasn’t exactly good with personal questions. He didn’t have many things asked of him, especially when he was the type to keep his problems to himself in order not to be a burden to anyone else. Izuku had made the mistake of not questioning a suspiciously emotion-filled smile Tenya had given off in the past and it ended up turning into something of a self-destructive fiasco. Ever since then, Izuku had gotten to know him better, and he knew when and what was to be questioned. He planned his words in his head before he could let out the query. “So- Were you and Hatsume Mei ever an item? Did you like, date?”

“Me- her? No, not really. We barely even talked outside of our firsthand bickering, but I think she’s a nice girl. She is very smart, I admire her level of skill. She gave me a call the other day and told me that she had gotten into a prestigious engineering school though, and I couldn’t be happier for her!”

Izuku crossed his arms on the table, his facial expression turning more baffled into the conversation. “Oh, that’s.. great. But, and you don’t have to answer me if I’m going too far, I’ve never seen you date anyone. Was there a reason for that, or did you never think of dating in that school environment, or..”

Tenya fiddled with his fingers and tilted his head slightly as he thought of the answer to that question. It was true, he had never dated anyone in the school or outside. He had never thought of it either, but it wasn’t because he was so busy from school or because he wanted to keep everything to himself. “I guess I never really had what you call ‘crushes.’ I’ve never felt that kind of attraction, and I don’t think I ever will! I value my friends a lot, but romance or sexual relations are not on my watch as a person. It’s okay though, I accepted how I felt that way! It’s not like I didn’t accept it before, but- Am I overtalking?”

This was a whole new vision for Izuku. He had never seen someone with no sexuality at all before, but this didn’t change how he felt about Tenya at all. He was still the same person for him, and him fitting in that rare demographic only made him more interesting and being the highly analytical person he is, he wanted to learn more and ask more about how his life differed from the others on the sexuality spectrum. It was for another day though, Tenya had a certain limit of tolerance when it came to invasion of privacy. He decided to let lone of Tenya’s last question, but answer briefly. “So, you are aromantic asexual?”

“Upon thinking of the meaning of those words, I guess I am!”

“I am happy you told me now! I mean, it is better to know what your friends are into before setting them up with the wrong people- or in your case, setting them up with anyone.” The two laughed it off, and that sort of became the first ever casual coming out Izuku experienced, after his own. But Izuku didn’t bully him or neglect him like the treatment he received back when he was just a kid, he welcomed him with open arms.

***

The shame-like feeling could be explained by mentioning how Kyouka had never been exactly used to getting dolled up for special events like this, for she had lots and lots of other things that caught her interest and occupied her time. Staying with people that she didn’t know half of the time, not really having a job besides the band she worked with taking stage in those newly opening indie bars around where she lived. She didn’t have an idea of a stable life, most of the time, it could be said that she lived paycheck to paycheck. College was too much work, it was also too much money. She sort of knew what she had to do, and that was enough to live with. The idea of actually studying for college without a clue of her future was somewhat more unsettling than the idea of being homeless a few days a week until her band gets their pay from one bar or another. She travelled with a former classmate by the name of Tokoyami, who also played guitar for her band. Unfortunately, he had to visit his friends back where they hustled, and he wouldn’t make it to Eijirou’s birthday reunion. Kyouka could have sworn that she wouldn’t come back to this city without him.

Yet, here she was, looking for a last minute birthday present to spend the only money in her bank account on. She didn’t want to embarrass herself, and another thing was that she didn’t want her friend to assume that she didn’t care about him. But frankly, the only thing she could do to buy a present as expensive as the others’ would be to spend all of her food and accommodation money on this. Her only hope was that Tokoyami would have some money for the duo to live on, or they’d have to spend another week by the parkside. It was a sweet memory that they even had police called on them by the rich folks around once. It was somewhat uncomfortable to be woken up by the police pouring fountain water on you, especially for her friend, who was quite fond of his personal space. If that were to happen again, they could even have to pay fines for it. But, you know. Fuck the police.

Holy shit- She didn’t remember what Eijirou liked. That was embarrassing. Kyouka hadn’t been around her friends for so long, she only remembered so many things remotely. It wasn’t like she was thinking of that when she came to the city either, her mind was completely swamped with other things that she’d rather not disclose. Crocs? Did he like red crocs? That wasn’t a good enough present though now, was it? It could have been a good joke of a present, but not enough for an actual apprising of gratitude for his existence. Maybe if she could remember anything else..

“Jirou-san? Is that you?”

“Huh?”

The moment Kyouka turned around was when she faced an uncannily similar young woman in a red-tinted, floral sheath dress, complimenting her body perfectly. Look up. If she could stare up respectfully towards her face from her body, she’d see her hair in a tightly and neatly done ponytail, the dewy-eyed smile and the clear reddening on her cheeks. She was bashful in a way, but stood with a clear, erect posture. You could tell that she was noble from the way she had her chin up, wearing her dress with a self-assured, yet highly modest attitude. Kyouka could feel her cheeks heating up in the presence of her friend Momo, who she hadn’t seen for such a long time. This girl- uh, woman now, definitely brought a sense of grace to every room she walked in, and it was quite a mystery to Kyouka as of how she did that, but the way she presented herself would never fail to cause Kyouka’s head to spin. When she could break free from the trance could she lay a word, her hands shaking behind her back.

“Yao-momo! What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m looking for a present, which I assume you're doing?” She slightly brought her hand to her lips as she giggled at the absurdity of the question and the nervousness that came with it, told easily by the other’s voice, but wouldn’t let her eyes part away from Kyouka after her laugh faded away. Under Momo’s glare, she almost felt like she was being held captive, like she couldn’t move.

“Y- Yes! I was looking for a present, but I’m not the best at remembering my friends’ interests, let alone actually having enough money to buy them..”

This confused Momo a little, especially because of how different she was financially. She had almost forgotten that Kyouka wasn’t as supported as she was, and that was the way it had been during their high school years. She, alongside Shoto Todoroki and Tenya Iida were the rich kids of that class, but their intentions were never to hurt anyone there, strangely enough. Shoto hated his dad and didn’t claim the money he had, and even spent his money on other classmates that were struggling financially. Tenya was extremely modest and he didn’t really care about the money he had, he would never show off with that money. His friends had the idea that he was slightly innocent, and didn’t really understand how having more money could create a class difference. Surely, he was best friends with the poorest girl in class, who he would often help when she was short of money. Their fellow comprehension and sensibility towards economic differences helped them bond between class differences, and Momo wouldn’t ask for anything else. Besides, she would rather die than be stuck with only rich people around her. Those people had her sentimental nature suffering for years on end. When her confusion disappeared, she raised her finger, responding back to her friend’s worry.

“Don’t worry, we can buy our gifts together! I tell you what- You don’t even owe me anything back, I’ll help you buy whatever you’d like!”

Kyouka felt a tiny weight in her abdomen after that offer, which she’d usually panic and reject in order not to be rude, but it was true that she really needed that money. She was frozen in confusion, and it wasn’t too soon that her face had gone entirely red. What was she supposed to say? She was only upset at herself for mentioning that she had a problem with paying for her gift. Momo though, could understand that this was stressing her out, and she ended up placing her hand on her shoulder before putting on a comforting smile and speaking up to calm her friend down. “It’s okay, we can go to a cafe afterwards and you can tell me about how you’re doing! You’re with Tokoyami, right?”

“Yes, no! No but like- Yes, not like that.” Kyouka panicked as she tried to explain the situation, completely messing it up once again. Was the weather too hot today? Oh gosh.. She had no idea why she was so frustrated with herself, but she soon stopped herself from talking, glaring down as she thought about what she was trying to say. Did Momo always have such a nice smile- Okay, no, okay. She sighed in disappointment and fiddled with her fingers as she attempted to speak once again.

“Like, we are not dating. We don’t like each other like that. He’s like- my best friend. He is with Shoji now, so I’m single.”

Momo placed her hand on her chest as Kyouka answered properly, her eyes widened and her eyebrows heightened with shock. Was that true? Momo would expect Kyouka to have a girlfriend by now, especially being the badass she is. Kyouka was just so awesome. She could play all this music, and she was so cool in her eyes. When they were still studying, it made Momo so happy that Kyouka thought she was “super punk rock.” Kyouka was the definition of cool, and she didn’t even know about it. And the fact that there wasn’t a queue of guys and girls wanting to date her was just mind-blowing to her. She remembered that Denki had a huge crush on Kyouka when they were freshmen, it was often embarrassing for both sides because of how much he messed up trying to pursue that relationship. He was very respectful when he got rejected by her, and that sort of helped them remain close friends. They were punk buddies, they could find a Black Flag record and listen to it for hours together. He had gotten off that crush soon anyways- there was clearly something else that occupied him for the last two years. Momo would love to be as close as they were with Kyouka, but they had parted ways after high school. It seemed like the unlucky fate of everyone that found each other cool during high school but never had the courage to get closer than the “very good friends” level.

Momo was single as well, but she didn’t think that way about herself. She had gotten into that high school with word reference letters from big names, but was both astounded and defeated by the performances of the ones who had barely even gotten in. It was a huge disappointment for her, as she had the idea that she’d at least be one of the good ones. Academic success obviously wasn’t everything, but the way she was proven wrong felt like everything she thought she was good at could just be her lying to herself. That included her smarts, her ability to make friends, her appearance.. Her confidence had dropped immensely, but she was getting help for it. Her homeroom teacher had encouraged her to get help from some therapy, the school counselor and that had been going on for several years now. The cost was all on her now, which she paid by working in her parents’ company, climbing up the stairs as she learned how the business world worked.

“I understand.. Well, boys are a headache. Do you remember Itsuka Kendou from the B class? The big sister? We are opening up a company together in a few years, and I could say that it is a feminist statement, you know? Two women up there, rivaling men.” When Momo finished her statement, she added a little wink, which made Kyouka’s heart skip a beat. She must have been doing that on purpose, knowing how many explosions she could create on her heart. Kyouka, with the heat of the moment, smiled meekly and tugged her hair behind her ear before murmuring. “Those men need a lot of work to do until they can climb high enough to be your rivals, Yao-momo..”

Momo thought that Kyouka was just so sweet. She giggled at her shyish statement, narrowing her eyes before tilting her head to the side and biting the inside of her cheek. “So! Do you want to start shopping?”

“Yes, let’s start shopping!”

***

Fumikage Tokoyami had been sitting in front of that flat door for approximately five minutes now. The same wooden door that was painted in a different shade of dark green every year, out of the fund shortage and the lack of a consistent officer to check on the clownery. And every single time Fumikage visited the flat, the door would reek of the paint that still wasn’t dry on the wood (out of the amateur thick layer of paint, he was assuming), and he had to cut himself short in order to remind himself not to touch the paint. He remembered so many times where he’d gotten his hand or shirt on the paint and had to strip naked the moment he went inside. Regardless of how he dealt with paint, the door’s paint was already sort of damaged. There were so many writings on it by now, it had become like a shared property between the commoners that just liked sabotaging and vandalizing, and the actual owner of the house, who wasn’t that much different from a commoner in his treatment of the house, sharing their taste of sabotaging and vandalising. The house had a general condition of a dying man’s months old hospital bed, which could sort of display a minor idea of the resident here that was being dealt with.

But the paint wasn’t the only thing that kept Fumikage from getting in, it wasn’t even close. He’d get in regardless, he could even jump in from a window if he wanted. There wasn’t that much of an intimacy problem here. The problem was a cloud of anxiety that was hovering over him for absolutely no reason right now, as if someone was holding him from doing so. It was helpless to explain without the context he had been in, but I could only foreshadow it by saying that the case was nothing less than his fear of a possibly blown-out magnificence clouding his vision. And even worse, the idea of that being disclosed was just as bad of a threat to his mind as the former. Here’s the thing: Tokoyami was broke as fuck. He had been this way for the last three years of his life, where he kept hopelessly wandering. His friends had warned him, his teachers had warned him, but being an ineffable bastard wasn’t too easy either. After so many years, he had decided that he would finally let his guard down and talk to someone about it. It was a movie tradition that one’s life would suddenly blossom after the protagonist had one old wise man talk to him about their childhood trauma. Well, Keigo Takami wasn’t an old wise man. He was a twenty-seven year old deadbeat that had lived through basically every sort of shitty situation that comes to mind, and had gained more connections than he even really wanted, to the point where his only close friends were either an entire convention of flat earthers or a criminally wanted group of first degree arsonists. But Fumikage wasn’t exactly the protagonist either. If anything, he was one of those characters that had a half-assed character arc before getting killed off in the third movie as a tearjerker. It didn’t really matter at this point if they both got what they wanted. But hey, once again, he had ended up, once again, sitting on the stairs that climbed into the house door, smoking his brains out impatiently, and slowly rocking back and forth as he tried to close his eyes, hoping that this time, it would be different, that maybe he would have more to offer than himself with his nicotine addiction and not more than an adequate amount of money for a daily meal sequence on his bank account.

“Tokoyami?”

But it just never came true.

“Kid, is that actually you? I haven’t seen you in months, my god! Could you have at least texted?”

The man standing casually in a morning robe at 12PM, a mug in his hand and a very, very comfortable smile on his face. It took a while for Fumikage to actually turn around to look at his face, especially around his eyes- yeaaah, he was higher than a kite. This man could have been the most comfortable man in the world. He wasn’t exactly living in high class luxury after all, but he wasn’t really complaining as to how his life had gotten either. Clearly, he was happy in his own bubble of weed, low rent and coffee. Red around his eye sockets, dead knuckles, his blonde hair slightly messed up from perhaps just nearly waking up? Fumikage actually felt as if he had woken him up and it was a pretty shitty thing to do- and that made his decision to visit even more regrettable. The moment he would open his mouth to say something, he’d bury himself in more and more of his shame and feel too irrelevant to lay a word. Okay- this time was all or nothing, he would talk and get his ass handed to him if he needed to.

Eventually, he decided that he’d get in without a word, his chin down, which the man examined. Fumikage was always so sad when he visited. He would pretend to be happy or whatever, but it wasn’t hard to understand that something was keeping him under the weather. This time, it was like he wasn’t even pretending. Keigo absolutely hated when he couldn’t make people happy. Especially someone as close to him as this kid was, since he would empathize with this boy a lot. He slowly managed to get out of the way for him to enter the house, closing the door behind him and speaking very quietly as the duo walked into the kitchen, both of their eyes apart from each other.

“What’s up with you? Why are you so down again? Is it your boyfriend or?”

“No, no, Shoji and I are fine. I’m fine. Let’s just sit.”

It was hard. Talking and emoting was really hard. Fumikage was absolutely enraged at himself for the way he was with emotions, how absolutely cold hearted and unbreakable he was, but he also really wished that everything emotion related wasn’t so necessary in one’s daily life. Some weren’t built to talk, and some were built by life out of having the necessity to talk. Only if people attempted to communicate less, his life would have been a lot easier than how it was. But this was really the only reason why he was here anyways. Nevertheless, Keigo wasn’t really answering, and he wouldn’t talk until Keigo was really ready for this conversation. That could be only by relying on his own instincts.

They sat in the kitchen together as Keigo prepared tea for the both of them, the silence louder and bitter than any word Fumikage was preparing himself to say. He could feel this lack of communication drill into his head now, as if it would have been better if he knocked it out the moment he arrived into the house. That way, it would also be easier to run away after his speech was finished. He wouldn’t face any consequences whatsoever. Dang it! He wished he could think of that the second he arrived. This didn’t last very long though, as the moment Keigo had the tea ready and served, he turned a chair away and sat backwards, directly staring into the eyes of the younger man. This was meant to explain to him that there was no way out of this. There was no way he was letting Fumikage get away with an inability to communicate his feelings.

“Spill.”

Fumikage took a deep breath, gathering his fingers together under the table. God, would this be so awkward for the other. It wouldn’t be- he knew it- but he still had this remote anxiety that this time would be different. Here goes nothing. “It’s just.. I’m so broke all the time. I’m homeless sometimes too. I can’t see my boyfriend for a half of the year because he lives in an entirely different city and I don’t even have the money to travel there. My classmates are having a reunion and with all of our money collected, Jirou and I could only have enough money to send one person there. She was willing to stay with me because ‘it would be unfair’ but I knew how much she wanted to go, I lied and told her that I had some friends to visit.”

Keigo chuckled in pity for a bit, his eyes narrowing in care as a half-smile was formed on his face following the chuckle. When Fumikage’s sudden pause ended, he sighed again and his voice got a bit more quieter, they were more like murmurs the way they had ended up. “I don’t think I have anything to give you. You took me under your wing when I first met you, and you basically raised me here and there. But I don’t think I have anything to return to you and make you all proud. Everytime I come here, I’m still broke and homeless and unhappy as fuck. Can’t even buy you weed.”

That’s the cue. “Do you think I am not proud of you the way you are? Have you even seen what I look like?” This really was a valid thing to be worried about, Keigo would also be worried about this if he was the one in Fumikage’s situation. God, he probably didn’t have the words to end his worries by whole but he supposed he could do anything in his power to reduce them to a little. He kept that compassionate smile on his face and shifted himself on his chair, rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke. “Of course I am not glad that you ended up so unhappy, that would be the very least of my wishes for you, but that is my only concern for you. I don’t really care if you never find a stable job or make a family. I would be happy for you, but it’s not like you are a disappointment in my eyes just because you’re lacking a few.”

Fumikage’s chin raised slightly, relieved that there wasn’t any awkwardness about him talking about how he felt. For some reason, he thought it would be weird for him to tell Keigo how he felt, as if he'd get mad or something. Logically, Keigo most likely couldn’t get angry. He just physically couldn’t, that man was the word definition of “chill” in the dictionary. But it was quite impossible to prevent yourself from feeling that anxiety when such a sensitive subject was acting up. When Fumikage looked up, his eyes had diverted directly to Keigo’s face, who still kept that gentle look on his face, which was, frankly, quite comforting for him once again. Keigo himself was also amused by this. He had no idea why the kid thought he was disappointing him. Still, he was quite happy that Fumikage had chosen to share his feelings with him, he was always happy to be a mentor figure to this kid. He knew that it was quite rare for him to talk about these things, and it made him feel special that Keigo was the one he had chosen to do this with. And still, Keigo wasn’t that successful after all, he couldn’t expect Fumikage to be much different from him. He had always supposed that success wasn’t at all important when you couldn’t fly free. Freedom was the most valuable thing life had granted to the ones who had no choice but to get back up after they had been beaten down. He felt like there was a common sort of understanding between the duo from the friendly looks exchange.

“Keep your chin up, hey. You and Jirou can stay with me as long as you want if you’re homeless again. Now, drink your tea. I’ll show you off to my friends tonight.”

Fumikage never had a family that supported him, not a biological one anyways. It was either shattered or torn apart, taken away from him in one way or the other. The plans he made were always thrown away, the opportunities he was given, he had given up on. But it didn’t have to be this way. These things, they seemed to be looking up for him. It wouldn’t always be like this, and it didn’t mean that this talk would change everything so quickly. It would go down and up, it would transition mercilessly. However, the trust in Keigo’s eyes was pointing at a light Fumikage hadn’t seen in years. The absurd, ridiculous light you could see in the silence of the eye of the hurricane. The first ever sunlight to break through before the clouds broke apart.

“Yeah, okay, alright.”

***

“Hey, Mina, could you be any slower than that ?!”

This was the last summer class 1-A would be spending together. The last one, after those three years that had built a line of bonds so special and memorable that, it almost felt like a total idiocy to let this go. You couldn’t help it, though. You couldn’t help but feel that something would be downhill from this. When all of these people had gathered up, spending time on such a summer that wasn’t anything to waste, something in Mina’s head would tell her to stop. Take a look, a mental image, and hold onto it for as long as you can. This was the last time she would see them so close. What was it after that? All of them parting ways. They’d talk about reunions but a reunion meant that crowded, yet so empty, that awkward, yet falsely hopeful room. The wish that a crowd of stale adults could go back to that idea of the teenage dream they were lucky to live through. It was looking into the eyes of your best friends but seeing nothing more than dozens of identities, struggling to crawl their way out of their anxieties. Give it a year or two, they’d be completely different people. With different friends. She could just see it.

“You guys can go, I’ll catch up!”

“Okay then!”

So, take a look, a mental image, and hold onto it for as long as you can. You couldn’t ever see this much happiness with two of your eyes ever again. Mina sighed as she looked behind her friends. A guess was a guess, but it would be fun to shove it in people’s faces if it came true. A win-win situation. Or something like that in the lowkey. There were some things she knew, though. They were clear, even if they weren’t always spoken. Momo would go off to become a businesswoman, be a badass one, if you will. Kyouka, Fumikage and Mezo would definitely all end up around the same place. Eijirou and Katsuki would move in together for sure, even though she couldn’t really tell where they’d be. Denki would try to move in with them. That was a failed attempt right there, even Denki knew that it was impossible. Izuku and Shoto, Ochako, Tenya, Tsuyu, whatever, that certainly was a group. She didn’t see herself a future. Nothing with any of them. They all had chances to grow out in little groups. She was entirely left alone after these moments she was wasting.

“Hey, Mina, I waited for you!”

Huh?

“Okay, Shitty Hair, now make a wish.”

“Wish.. hmm. I wish for a-”

“Do not fucking tell us! Do you even know how birthday wishes work?!”

The sound of nostalgic laughter had filled the room so easily, as if nothing had changed, as if it was all the same as they left it. ‘Shitty Hair,’ huh? It was weird to see that Katsuki had kept that. Shouldn’t have they gotten married by now or something? Mina didn’t know if Katsuki called his boyfriend by that name back at home, but it was certainly funny for all of these people gathered up in the kitchen of Ochako, Deku and Tenya’s flat. She actually had most of these futures correctly, in a funny manner. People always assumed that Mina was subjective as hell, but she knew her friends and she knew where things were going when they escalated.

It would mean so much if she could have fun herself, right? Soon, the laughters would turn into conversations, the music would open up. There would be a certain number of “chug! chug! chug!”s followed by a Katsuki lecture at Eijirou about drinking safely, or actually grabbing the drink from his hand in order to maintain that drinking safely. Yet another set of “chug! chug! chug!”s, Katsuki not being able to reject any challenges and shotgunning three cans of beer to spite.. literally nobody. That man was a closeted nerd, but he couldn’t handle a dare, whether it was responsible or not. Not only that, but the wretched place added to the atmosphere. Watch it, this flat was crumbling from side to side, clearly afforded with student money. Tenya would never settle to live in a flat he bought with money he didn’t earn on his own. But it mattered to people. Houses could really change with the people in them, no matter how depressing they are. Laughter could turn a shed into a goddamn mansion, hell if this place was even better than a shed. The night has slowly spiraled away from Mina’s predictions of how it would be. So many were still up dancing, and some had gotten squiffy and settled down a little. The balcony and there was its group of people who were wasting their lungs away. You know, she had facetimed many of these people on her own and seen them in misery, and tried to use that to justify her own fears, but it was like they had become these children again the moment they reunited. Something in her head told her to join their fun, but then something was telling her not to. As if it was just.. Disrespectful? In a way?

This all was very fresh for the crew. They never had a reunion with drinks, as most of them were only recently legal. They wouldn’t care about what was legal if it was a bar, but actually buying drinks and walking under the influence was a new ability that they had acquired. They had an appreciation for this type of party though, the stress seemed to really go up after school had ended. Laughing at your pain was already quite common in 1-A, especially when they were still all together. They’d gather in the common area and do all of their homework. Some would even cry out of stress, especially Deku and Ochako, but it wasn’t that hard for any of them to make the others laugh. It was dark humour, but it still was, regardless, a defeated type of affection. Like a common understanding of the pain and the willingness to face it together. It was sort of nostalgic, thrilling even. When the night was about peaking, Mina found herself sitting by the door, further away from action. That never used to happen before.

“Why are you alone?”

“Hey.” Mina sort of chose to keep the question unanswered, and let the conversation go its way. She didn’t want it to lead somewhere she didn’t want it to go, and that could certainly be respected. She was sure that Katsuki would be understanding about it, as he had those moments as a kid where he’d rather be left alone. This wasn’t that sort of situation for her, but some questions weren’t meant to be answered until conversation had matured enough. Their mutual comprehension after so many years helped Mina communicate with her friends without using so many words. Katsuki nodded relatively, before sliding down and sitting on the floor with her. As soon as he was on the floor, he mimicked her, drawing his legs to his chest. Soon, Mina was handed a red cup semi full of a mystery drink, which she appreciated by shining out a half smile. She really wasn’t fooling anyone today.

“Don’t you enjoy the party?”

Huh?

“Don’t you enjoy the vacation?” Sero, no one other than Hanta Sero would actually sacrifice their fun to stay behind for the others. At least not for Mina. The signature plain smile on his face remained alongside the question he asked, not out of little to no empathy, but for a hope to actually have Mina mirror his happiness. Hanta did more for people than most people did for him, but he didn’t really care, he liked seeing a smile on people’s faces. Mina assumed that was why he was so close with Denki, he was more or less always happy. It was an angelic preference for mediation in a way. A good one, though. Certainly a very selfless one. He was clearly out of breath, as if he ran back to her, but he wasn’t really trying to hide his exhaustion. The classic old spontaneous boy. His antics made her smile a lot sometimes, especially after those little actions and details that highlighted how easy-going he was. Still, his quick question deserved an answer, and she felt like he hadn’t done all this running to be shut down and pushed away.

“No, no! Just a bit bugged that it’s almost over, you know.” Mina spoke, looking away from her friend. She didn’t want to look dependent or anything, or clingy, or whatever embarrassing feeling it was that kept her from appreciating her friends so vocally. She was almost clear that Hanta wouldn’t be the one to judge, but you couldn’t shake a fret off like that. “Don’t worry about it though, I’m probably just very anxious out of nowhere. As if we will grow apart, you know, aha.” God, this was awkward. It was somewhat true that Mina always had friends, but they would mostly be boys, both during middle and high school. But clearly, she was pretty iffy about talking to boys about feelings. Only Eijirou maybe, but that was because she had known him for the longest time. They really didn’t have anything to hide. But girls just made it easier somehow, she felt like she didn’t really have to make anyone uncomfortable when she talked to girls about her feelings. So, it was a slight surprise to see, when she had the courage to look back at him, that Hanta wasn’t uncomfortable with her sharing her feelings. She wished she knew a way to make this slide better.

“I mean, I get how you feel. But we won’t all disappear, you know? We’ll be one call away! Plus, I still don’t know what I’ll do after this break, I’m also still sort of questioning my future too..” You could see Hanta rubbing the back of his neck as he talked, quietly sharing Mina’s worry. It was sweet. He could jump from one emotion to another so quickly while still displaying a sort of big brother maturity some of his friends lacked. It was a skill or whatever. “But hey! Look at it this way. If you need someone to live or travel with until you find out what you want to do, I’m always here! I believe in us!”

“Mhm, oh yeah?”

Mina giggled ever so briefly as she responded to his awkward enthusiasm. It was so strange, the angle they stood at. The light was coming directly behind Hanta, as if the light was outlining his figure and shining from his behind into Mina’s eyes, making it hard for her to see him too clearly. A golden hue fell upon him, his shadows lightening in her eyes. What.. was this? Her stomach sunk so far, but her limbs had become lighter than a feather for that sole instance. But the view of the sun and the boy in front was somewhat dream-like, blurry in its sharpest edges. All of the flags in her head waved white for a single second as she felt that this was a much more magnificent concept to her. She wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh, too. All of this was attacking her from such a soft, indescribable spot that was absolutely so ridiculous. She was so damn heavy, in an unease trying to keep herself up. And something inside her head was telling her that this was permanent. This was reality, more than anything she had ever felt. That sort of feeling got her to think so mindlessly that she moved a single muscle, Sero could even disperse into the afternoon sky. Mina didn’t want this over, at all. If she could take a picture with her eyes, this was where. If she could save this moment and live it again a thousand times, she would enjoy every repeat of it. The thought of an angel looked to the bare human eye not much different from what she had experienced in a matter of the passing moments.

“Of course! I’ll always be here for you, Mina.”

Huh?

“No, no, not really. It’s fun, it’s not exactly my thing.”

“Well, it used to be.”

He wasn’t lying at all. Mina was genuinely so adventurous back in her days, and she guessed that she could still go out there and do her old thing. It kinda fit, like puzzle pieces. If she had reformed, the puzzle wasn’t complete anymore. They could pull her out and replace her with a different puzzle piece that did fit. But then the complete picture would be incomplete. She felt like she didn’t really have an out of this specific situation. It would be best to keep her quiet once again, because there wasn’t really anything she could say to him. There wasn’t a conversation anymore either, it was just a calmer Katsuki trying to get Mina to talk to him. It was almost ironic that an ideal high school conversation was the exact opposite of what this was. She didn’t want to remember that, so she drank from the cup in her hand. God knows what she was drinking. A fun game of “make me forget.”

“Look, I’m sorry I left you here. We just couldn’t stand to be around after-”

“Please just don’t say it.”

Mina took a deep breath as she leaned her back on the wall, grounding herself for a second. This was where the mountain peaked. She had heard that when you were so far up, near the clouds even, you could hear the silence. And the silence was just so, so loud. “I will go away for a while, y’know, maybe a few months. To somewhere around the Pacific. Look for a reason to stay.”

“Well, he’d be proud of you for that.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. He’d be thrilled at the idea of me becoming a total vagabond. As if I have the money to travel all that way.” The duo shared a quick chuckle, a tint of melancholy easily picked from both of their tones. My god, was this unusual. Katsuki actually being side by side with someone to witness their suffering. Trying to help in his own little unapologetic ways, even. It was clear that he was trying to keep himself collected, but Mina would rather have him put together anyways. Katsuki unraveling wouldn’t exactly be fun to watch for anyone in this party, they all had their respective experiences with something like that, but especially about an event so outrageously horrific. It was compassionate of him, but it could be told that he was also doing it for the sake of his own mental health. But you know, coping was coping, Mina wouldn’t be the one to judge anyone’s mechanisms. After they shared that moment of silence, Katsuki rested his chin on one of his knees as a sigh escaped his lips.

“What were you two doing together anyways? Were you dating or something?”

“I, uh..” That was hard to answer. There really wasn’t a true answer to return that question, and she didn’t know if she wanted one either. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel that way, but the way she had learnt to grieve was much different from what it would be if she actually was dating him. What the hell was dating anyways? Was it always such a clear difference to a very close friendship? Maybe a certification that you could fuck one person and no other? Mina truly didn’t know, and she didn’t want to care about it. No matter what she did, everything was in the past now, and there wasn’t a way to change that. “.. don’t know, really. Maybe?”

Katsuki preferred to keep quiet at that vague answer. It was more so that he didn’t want to get on her nerves or confuse her more, as he had been a victim of her wrath a few times during high school. Let me tell you, it was very far from fun, and the ones who had been there couldn’t have agreed more. Nonetheless, Mina wasn’t exactly in the mood to unleash the monster either, but Katsuki still respected her boundaries when it came to this soft nerve of a subject. “You know, Denki’s holding on fine. He seems to have gotten over it, and Hitoshi is doing his best to take care of him.”

“Pfft- Shinsou is willing to take care of Kaminari? Wasn’t the first thing he said to us ‘I will destroy all of you if you get in my way’ or some shit like that? You type of beat?”

Oh my god, yeah- that was embarrassing. Katsuki couldn’t hold in a sly smirk at the memory, followed by Mina’s giggle at her own joke. People really changed, huh. Katsuki himself had said some pretty cringy things in the past as well, he was very well immature, but luckily: His friends could actually let some things slide and put them in their goddamn past. It was a matter of transitions from a period of time to another, and Katsuki knew that he was so ready for a change when him and his boyfriend had decided to let this trauma stay in the past. Dealing with something like this was a massive pain, more than something any of those kids could handle, but it was reality, and you couldn’t reverse realities. That was why he was internally worried about how Denki was holding up, especially during a friends reunion. He really must have missed his best friend. Seeing him good had made everyone’s hearts blossom, since all of them had that subconscious concern that he wouldn’t be able to make it. The crew still had some things left connected.

“Come on, dance with us. You’ll be in Cambodia or something the next time you facetime me, I know you want tonight to be fun.” He slowly got back on his feet, trying his best to keep his balance after that hell of a conversation. No matter how much he complained and yelled, Katsuki had the emotional range of a carrot; any conversation that included an emotion more than anger and happiness, he was allergic to. When he managed to stand up after furious attempts at squatting back up, he stuck out his hand for Mina. She needed a dance, and a drink, hopefully. They both did.

“Fine, but just one dance. Then I go back to my depression corner.”

Mina laughed, which ended up in Katsuki ruffling her hair like a little child. God, had she missed all of the crap she wouldn’t take from these people. She had missed being with her friends, and funnily enough, she was definitely the one pushing them away. It was the way she imagined her future that made her do nothing to change it. She felt absolutely so defeated all this time that she wouldn’t even see the friends that encouraged her with open arms. Her pessimism fueled action was the reason why it all came true. Mina rubbed her knuckles and strolled the corridor. She had missed the sound of her friends’ laughter. She had missed how it felt like to be around people, and she had missed not isolating herself. This moment could be somewhat of a blend of so many emotions Mina had kept inside for a matter of years, but she wouldn’t trade any of it. It was time to stop neglecting some things that should have been addressed so long ago.

“Are you two leaving already?”

“Yeah.. ‘toshi had a few drinks, we gots to go home.”

Katsuki passed Denki, with a clearly very, very drunk Hitoshi holding on to his shoulder. My god. The boy couldn’t even walk properly. What was all of this anyways? He felt like he shouldn’t have gotten so amused by this image, but he had never seen Shinsou so out of control before. It was even more hilarious that everyone that was looking forward to this meeting was expecting Denki to be the one getting shitfaced after all, not the other way round. This really wasn’t the time, but it sort of entertained Mina out of her mind to see Hitoshi collapsing with every step, so Katsuki wasn’t the one complaining. With slower music starting in the background of Tenya’s low budget apartment, he pulled his friend into a slow dance. Eijirou gave a few subtle and ironic winks at his boyfriend, and Katsuki blew yet an aggressive kiss back. Whatever therapy did to him was somewhat working on that maturity. The old Katsuki would have flipped after irony was even in his sight. Nailed it.

Mina rested her head on her friend’s chest, moving from side to side with the music as the others could be seen picking each other up to dance. Izuku and Shoto moved near the windows as Ochako swirled Tenya up towards the counters. Eijirou was tipsy as hell, dancing with the cat that he had found on the street, and brought up to the apartment to celebrate his birthday with him. Kyouka even had the courage to ask Momo for a slow dance. You could hear the red-haired birthday boy complaining about how he was having his boyfriend stolen from him. It was funny. In a way that Mina hadn’t experienced for all these years.

“Get up, ladies. Someone should dance with the lonely birthday boy!”

“Shots high for the birthday boy!”

When she turned her head to the other side, her eyes drafted out of the windows into the night sky. Not only anything, but towards that one specific star that shone so brightly. This was something she had seen before, that she said she would rather forget. The feeling of being blown away so hard that you could almost float out of your body. That gentle paralysis, as if your touch could have it disperse into a million pieces. She knew, for a second, that the star she saw wasn’t anything all that common. It outshone every light in the city before her eyes that it was the only one sharing that sky tonight. Only maybe, could it have been an angel, but Mina knew she was ready.

Hanta Sero had died in a car crash on his way back to the apartment he shared with Mina Ashido, his girlfriend. He was only nineteen years old when he passed away. His body was buried where his best memories had been, the festival area near the U.A. high school.

And for that split second, she could swear that he was smiling at her. She smiled back, and turned away.

***

“Hitoshi, please- We are very close. A few steps.”

“Have I ever told you about that time Eri held my hand when she got scared of the thunders? It was so cute, I was like, so cute. She- She even hugged my whole arm.”

“Yes- yes, very cute- but let’s not start crying about it-”

God fucking damn it, purple boy was inexplicably tiring. Not only was he heavy as hell, but he was also completely unable to walk, moaning out random enigmatic crap most of the times he opened his mouth, and would go on the verge of tears every time anything even slightly reminded him of Eri. This would be very funny to watch if he wasn’t the one that threw up on the subway, threw up once again on Denki’s shirt, and had him stuck in the middle of the road at 3 AM. Only if he could walk, this would most likely be much easier than the way it was right then. They weren’t that far from where they lived, but it was still taking so much time to have Hitoshi go a few steps. The boy’s knees and hands were already covered in blood from all that falling down on the concrete, and he would yelp quite loudly every time he fell down once again. Giving the next-door neighbours so much to work with in the middle of the night, and giving Denki an opportunity to practise his argument skills against angry old Japanese ladies with rolling pins that had a stand-by lecture about how the new generation was so irresponsible with their partying.

“I.. what the hell, ‘toshi?”

He was genuinely in awe of this situation. Hitoshi had never been so out of control before, especially not next to his friends. He would drink around Denki, but drinking this much, and around the 1-A crowd? That wasn’t him, now. He would always be walking on eggshells around anyone that wasn’t Denki or Izuku, as if showing any sort of emotion would kill him. This took some courage, he’d admit that, but it wasn’t exactly the time to go all out like this. He was now wondering what had happened. Hitoshi was happy earlier before going to the party, so did something happen there? I mean, he was messed up, so there absolutely was something happening. So, what now? Would he even be able to have him spill it out when he was drunk- no- that was wrong- but letting him neglect the fact that Denki was upset with him would also be wrong as hell. He didn’t know if he had to let this slide.

Walking fast, carrying his very drunk friend clung over his shoulder, he was so lost in thought and worry. How the hell were they supposed to go to college tomorrow like this? Denki was trying his best to imagine a reason to call in sick, he didn’t think his grades could handle another absent day. This wouldn’t be a reason to fail a class. When Hitoshi had finally shut up, it was easier to carry him, as he was basically focused on his half-assed walking. Everytime he fell down, he would shut up and get back up. He could be sobering up, but that didn’t make the situation better. They kept walking, and Denki kept pondering with his own tipsy brain. He had no connection going on between his thoughts, but he could still think himself into insanity if he went any further than this. He couldn’t afford another slip. For the last mile home, he held his friend over his back and made him grip onto his shoulders. This was absolutely the worst night out of his life.

When they reached home with Hitoshi half-fainted over Denki’s back, you could sort of guess that they got pretty weird looks from those on the damn lift. Denki sort of felt like they should be asking themselves what they were using the lift for at 3 AM in the first place. It didn’t matter, though. The two never got along with their neighbours. It was either fighting or sex noises at five in the morning, and it wasn’t the best sounds to wake up to. Especially when they couldn’t sleep back, and they had to get dressed and sit awkwardly in the kitchen, listening to whatever shit that was going on upstairs. It would be cute- though. Not the “I owe them” level of cute, but it would usually have Hitoshi reddening out of embarrassment, trying to keep a straight face regardless. Denki knew that Aizawa also wasn’t exactly open with sex (Sex-Ed class was clearly such a painful time of the month for him) and it made sense why Hitoshi was similarly flustered. He didn’t know why he found it so cute. It made him smile to unfathomable senses. He felt his hands getting so warm around Hitoshi’s knees, a smile quietly placed on his face. The memories felt nice. It took him a few moments to get back to his senses, because this really wasn’t the time to be smiling, but Denki sort of managed to carry him back to the apartment door. This was a wild fucking ride, huh. He never wanted to do this again. He would do it for Hitoshi if he had to, but he was definitely hoping that this was a one time thing. The door was challenging as hell, though. He didn’t really know how to open it without letting his friend down on the floor.

“Hitoshi, can you stand up for one single second, please?”

“Mhm..”

Denki would take that as a yes. Fair. He didn’t think much of it, there was no other way to think of this in such a situation. He let his friend on his feet again, not without gripping under his shoulders to keep him standing. With his free hand, he grabbed the keys from his pocket and inserted it into the hole, attempting to pull and turn it a few times before actually getting it to open. This was the last time Denki was taking any sort of responsibility ever again. He would never, ever think of himself as a responsible adult, this was the hardest thing he ever had to take the responsibility of. And people still thought that he could actually be reliable to take care of himself. Hitoshi was right, Denki would forget to breathe if he wasn’t there. Not only that, but he hadn’t realized that he was barely ever standing at that point. He had forgotten about the fact that he was ever the one holding him up, so that went down a little. By ‘that,’ I mean Hitoshi. Hitoshi was the one going down.

“Shit! Okay- fuck!” Denki exclaim-whispered lightly as Hitoshi tripped and took a fall right next to the doorway, which ended up in him falling back onto his knees and hands. My god, those wounds needed attending. He didn’t know how to explain it to him the next morning, but he felt like there wouldn’t really be any retaliations to “you were drunk, you fell on the concrete countless times.” There didn’t really seem to be any farther carrying business than this. Hitoshi was still conscious, a little bit sober. He still couldn’t move that well, but he could pick himself up enough to lean over to the wall behind him. Denki had already gone in to get Hitoshi a blanket and cotton to clean his wounds with.

This was sort of nice. It felt bad to think about it, but he didn’t mind taking care of him in such times. It was usually in reverse. Especially after the whole thing with Sero, Denki had gotten drunk the night when he got the news, and a legion of times after that until his grieving was less prevalent. Hitoshi was the one helping him out during those times, when he knew that almost all of his friends were a little too depressed to talk someone out of misery. Denki recalled how bad it had gotten around the winter time especially, and genuinely appreciated how Hitoshi had been around to help him with his mood swings. He was sure that Hitoshi wouldn’t stay to listen to him rant for hours if he didn’t care. He wouldn’t sleep all that much or have nightmares, and that returned to him with his grades dropping so low, but his friend was always there to find a way to cheer him the hell up. Listen to his tantrums and all, call him out on his shit if he had to. He had no idea why everyone thought of Hitoshi as a heartless, or cold, or whatever type of person when he was much far from that. Sure, he was distant, but that had a certain limit. Like anyone else did.

“Hey- I’m back. Let’s clean up.” Denki sat down on the floor with the cotton and the antiseptic solution before gently wrapping the blanket around Hitoshi, who was semi-asleep, clearly exhausted, leaning down on the thin skin of wall behind him. He wasn’t talking, staring around, that specific expression on his face. He felt like his friend knew he fucked up pretty bad. Denki pressed his lips together, his head pillaged with sympathy, but didn’t settle to stop what he was doing. It was strange to just clean someone’s wounds. He hadn’t seen so much blood in a very long time, the last time was a tragedy. He didn’t want to think about it at all. After slowly pouring the solution onto the piece of cotton, he grabbed Hitoshi’s right hand lightly, opening up his palm with his fingers. It was.. warm. He had nice hands when they weren’t wounded. Denki didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed that earlier. He felt a heat sensation rush to his own hands as he cleaned up the cuts, with the teeny noises of pain his friend would let out regarding the antiseptic. It was a sudden urge he felt that got to him, as if he wouldn’t be able to get this close again and that he should hold onto it as much as he could. He didn’t know why this proximity was nice, but he got distracted from the idea soon enough anyways.

Hitoshi was still staring into the room with almost empty eyes, and that was what he had picked up on after that. He knew that feeling, sort of. When you were devastated, and you drank, you had that peak moment of reaching ecstasy. A dissociated feeling, more or less, it stopped the pain by something close to a whole. The problem wouldn’t be there anymore, you’d be on cloud nine but it never lasted, because you couldn’t just disappear as a whole. You wouldn’t really want to anyways. You would eventually drop off of your peak and end up in that shitty hole you were when you started drinking. The problem would heighten again. But this time, you couldn’t move your body under the influence. You would realise how much you had fucked up in the past hours, and what you would have to pay for because of your failure self-medication on this miserable injury that would possibly destroy you if you didn’t put an end to it somehow. Everything was so painfully real again.

Denki sighed. He wanted to know everything. After putting on the bandages around Hitoshi’s hands and knees, Denki leaned back on the wall, right next to Hitoshi. He genuinely didn’t know what to say. It was goddamn late as well- but he couldn’t give a fuck. If it meant to get him to talk, he would possibly stay up all night to do so. “Do you want to tell me how you feel, or should I get it out of you?”

Silence. Denki could predict that Hitoshi had gotten sober enough to talk without slipping back into nonsense, but kept his mouth shut about it for a while, perhaps to when he was comfortable talking about it. It was clear that he was miserable, there really had to be a reason for that. Hitoshi wasn’t the type of person to risk his life out of nowhere. The silence remained set on stone for the next few minutes like that, so much so that Denki could hear the clock ticking aggressively from the corridor’s wall, as if to lecture him about all the things that had happened that night. Goddamn, was the guilt overwhelming. It really was, he felt like this would never have happened if Denki wasn’t fucking around with the others. He should have been more careful with Hitoshi for sure. “You know when- you really want something. You really want it.. But then you know it’s so far. And then, you won’t accept that you want it.”

It was just mumbling on Hitoshi’s part, and trying to decipher this on Denki’s. What the hell could Hitoshi want? He was smart, he had friends, he had a job. Hell, he was fucking gorgeous, Denki had been saying that for years. There was nothing in Denki’s eyes that he could have been yearning for. He looked so sad.. It was hard to stand it. He suddenly could feel an inner urge to cry as well, but he tried to ignore it for the sake of keeping strong. It was clear that he was the one being held on at that moment. “And then, it just really hurts?”

Denki had this reasonable internal compulsion to stop all of this. He hated it and he couldn’t understand anything from it. Hitoshi was in pain, now too for sure, and there was nothing he could really do about it. But.. At least he was near? He wasn’t far where Denki could reach, he wasn’t dying or anything. He could suppose that going through pain was a tiny bit better than not being able to feel anything anymore. He reached his arm around his shoulder, hesitantly and gently, pulling him closer into the side hug. It was just so warm with him. So, very real. He didn’t know what it was, but there was something keeping the inside of his abdomen very, very warm. And it was even stranger, because he regretted everything building up to this moment, but he didn’t want this to end. He had so many questions to the sober Hitoshi, to fish for more hints on what the hell was going on, but these several seconds were to be spent carefully. They would never come back, and neither would the fluttering inside his stomach.

“Well, I think you can have anything you want, ‘toshi. You’re strong like that, yeah?” Naturally, Denki didn’t get an answer. His friend had fallen asleep leaning on his shoulder. It was sort of adorable- to be fair. He slept curled up like a cat, and that wasn’t a resemblance you saw every day. He didn’t even care if he didn’t get sleep if he could witness something like this. Pfft- he had never seen that guy sleep that well.

***

“We had the couch open for Kacchan and Eijirou-san, Tenya made all of your beds. Would you mind sleeping in Ochako’s bed for tonight?”

“I don’t mind, old memories and all.”

Izuku returned Mina’s giggle at the end of her words, slowly closing the door of the room where Tenya slept. This was just entirely new, especially with how rare nostalgic moments like these were to be seen. He was glad, though. It was a good type of change. He sort of knew how anxious Ochako was about seeing her friends all at the same time again. It was clear that Mina felt the same way about this, especially after the loss she had been through. Not only them, but he could imagine Denki or Kyouka feeling the same way. The way this situation had escalated had comforted him a little bit, he really had that fear that it would be sort of boring and no one would really end up having fun. That would ruin everyone he knew that already had horrible anxiety about this meeting. “So, we’ll take you three out for breakfast tomorrow morning. And you are leaving on Monday, yes?”

“That is about it, yes! Thanks, Deku, for everything.”

“We love having you here, it’s our pleasure.” Izuku opened the wardrobe to grab a bunch of bedcloth and hand them to Mina, before walking her over to the room where he and Ochako’s beds were. This was nice and all, you know, wistfully. He didn’t have this many quotas of freedom or ability when he was back in school’s dormitory, but it was similar to how it was in a way. They would still be helping each other with stuff like this when they were back at school. I mean, they would, but this was more.. adult. He was into it, it made him feel somewhat in control of things he was insecure about when he was younger. Subsequently, he was exposed to the sight of Ochako in her coats, walking near the front door. He could ask her for a reason about her going out at damn near 3AM, but he decided not to. She could be going out for a smoke or a brief walk. It was an exciting yet overwhelming night, it was possible that she’d feel swamped with thoughts. He went back to his regular business, all on about setting Mina off.

“Goodnight, Mina.”

“Goodnight, Deku-chan! You’re the coolest.”

And then, he undressed with the lights off, got under the sheets, and lied next to his boyfriend who was too intoxicated and tired to go back to his flat. Everything had fallen into place. It was approximately all well now. When it all wasn’t too well, there was a way out of it. Izuku knew that five seconds later, he could feel different, he could suddenly fall into that hopeless mood again. Just like all of his friends, he wasn’t invincible to sadness or hopelessness. He knew that he had people that held on to him, though, and he would rather keep his own pain on the down low to be able to help the ones that needed him. But, he would regardless appreciate this one second in which he could feed into his love of the moment. It was one of those rare moments, one might say. He was peaceful in the head. It was all quiet, finally.

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