#but they’re such shithead kids and i still find them intimidating in so many ways | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 3 years

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I’m sorry, but can I just go on a little rant about the Louis, clouis, and the Clem comic...?

I didn’t really talk about Louis in my overall review of the comic because I wanted that to be more contained to the content shown on the pages, Clementine’s relationship with AJ, and her as a character.... but the more I think about these comics and Louis, the more frustrated I become thinking about what Clementine abandoning everyone would do to him.

[... okay it’s not little anymore since I guess I can never just do anything simple when it comes to Louis, sorry my bad]

So, no surprise, we all know the comic’s bullshit by now. Clementine leaving everything and everyone behind because she’s not happy is dumb, AJ just letting her go is dumb, and Clem going to the mountains on crutches and a peg leg to find this so-called happiness is dumb.

Now that we’ve established it’s dumb, I wanna talk about Louis because I got a lot of built up feelings about how bullshit this storyline is with how Clementine would not only abandon AJ, but also abandon Louis.

Because let me tell you..... his heart would be broken beyond repair and I need to talk about why.

Sigh.... so.... muh boy.

Before he met Clementine, Louis was this laidback, irresponsible, but caring and musical person who kept his head down to avoid conflict and never looked at the future. He was the kind of person who took things one day at a time, saw survival as a day-to-day task, and said that the future doesn’t exist, there’s only today. You get the point, he was never too concerned with things because they always seemed to work out, and if they didn’t, then that sucks and that’s why we should appreciate every day while we have it.

Louis is shown to be charismatic and friendly, he spends his free time playing piano and card games, but no one really takes him seriously. Not even Marlon, his best friend for 8+ years. While he doesn’t seem to be on bad terms with anyone [including Aasim, they just act like people who disagree with the other’s point of view and have had the same argument many times, but that doesn’t mean they hate each other, y’know?] he also doesn’t appear super close with anyone outside of Marlon and possibly Violet, but even then.

Marlon’s shown to have little faith in him with the way he talks about if Louis will even show up to hunt. He has a controlling grip on Louis that’s prominent during the confrontation scene when he uses intimidation to try to convince Louis to not interfere. Oh, and there’s the fact that Marlon’s been lying to Louis for the past year about the twins and then continued to lie to his face about what really happened to Brody... which isn’t great when you consider how Louis was the only one who had blind faith in him as a leader and, according to Marlon, was the only one who couldn’t see how pathetic he always was.

Violet, while having a few more nicer moments with him than Marlon, still invalidates him and his feelings several times throughout the first half of the game which makes me wonder how close they ever were, or at least if Violet ever considered him a close friend to begin with. And no, a small monologue in the dorms doesn’t make everything better or confirm they were brotp the whole time... especially when once they’re on the boat, Louis might as well not exist because Violet can’t be bothered to acknowledge what happened to him or inquire about how he’s doing. I guess she just didn’t have time react while standing in her cell for several unbothered minutes-- no wait, it’s she already reacted off screen. Right. Good writing is good.

What I’m getting at here is that even though Louis is surrounded by people who he genuinely cares about, there is an argument to be made that he’s a lonely person. Hell, he’s aware of his loneliness when he says that no one hears past his music and jokes. I mean, how many nights do you think he spent by himself playing the piano because no one wanted to hear it? Are they like Violet and crack jokes about how he doesn’t have actual talent? Probably, given that someone literally carved “you suck at playing” onto the side of the damn piano.

Oh, and let’s touch on that backstory of his. Louis grew up wealthy with two parents who loved him and each other, and they gave him anything he wanted except singing lessons. Louis says he wanted to be a real musician. But I guess his father didn’t like that idea and told him no, with the [as Louis puts it] dumb dad lesson of, “You get to be happy, or you get to be rich, can’t be both.” ...which is interesting given that Louis and his family were stupid rich but also.... were they not happy? well, that doesn’t make sense because little Louis knew that if he broke up their marriage, they would be hurt.

So yeah, Louis was so upset that his father continually refused to let him take singing lessons that he broke into the man’s credit cards and faked an affair, which led to his parents divorcing... and then he spit his father’s words back in his face.

Then they dumped him at Ericson. And the walkers came.

There’s so much to unpack from the story he tells that it could be it’s own analysis, but basically.... Louis is aware of why what he did was fucked up, and he carries it with him every day.

He regrets what he did, chews himself out for being such a “vindictive fuckhead” [and the amount of force used in that line tells you a lot, like how it’s not the first time he’s chastised himself like this] and he admits that he doesn’t even know the person he’s talking about. Yet, he still sees himself as bad, saying that they [I assume the staff] told him and the other kids they’re bad people. I don’t doubt that Louis internalized that which played a huge role in the confidence and self-esteem issues he has during tfs.

Anyway, I’ll come back to this later, but when you take that amount of guilt and regret, and mix it with the fact that they dropped him off at this school that was supposed to make him better.... then the walkers came and those teachers, staff, and headmaster? Gone. Left a bunch of kids to fend for themselves, with the exception of Ms. Martin [but given how she looks when we find her I doubt she lasted that long] and I cannot imagine how horrifying that was for all of them. The dead are up eating people, and if you die you become one of them... and the people you thought you could rely on just fucking left you to die at this school.

Every kid in that school has trauma and abandonment issues from before and after the world went to shit, every last one, and Louis isn’t the exception here. Over the years, a lot of kids died and they’ve all seen horrible shit. They all knew they were never going to see their families again, and as far as we know, no one came to get their kids at the beginning. They had to find ways of coping while trying to survive, and all they had left was each other.

Louis copes with music and games and jokes. He’s built up this persona where it seems like he’s unaffected by the comments the others make, that the death and suffering he’s gone through is in the past, that he is confident and open to those around him.

But then Clementine and AJ show up, and Louis grows close with both of them. They had immediate chemistry upon first meeting, he was the one who looked after AJ since it seems like everyone else saw him as a little terror, and he went out of his way to be kind and make them comfortable.

When they go hunting with him, Louis and Clementine have a moment after taking care of the walker where they lower their guards a bit-- Louis gives her more in-depth reasons for his views of survival, and going off her expression, it gets to her and makes her think.... but they’ve know each other a day and he’s not quick to infodump his life story or let her in, so he cuts the conversation short.

Then we have the Marlon confrontation scene that I have gone over so many times in the past. I won’t dillydally with it too long but..... Clementine appeals to Louis, who curls in on himself because of the control Marlon has on him. He wants to help, and hell, he knows this is wrong but he’s so used to not getting involved that he gets defensive.... plus, he’s known Clementine for two days, and he’s known Marlon for 8+ years.... he wants to believe Marlon but you can tell he doesn’t want this, either. It takes Clementine talking to him to give him courage to stand between her and Marlon’s gun and it’s a lot.

AJ shoots Marlon and everything goes to shit, and Louis is a goddamn mess. His best friend was murderer right in front of him, so add that to the trauma list, and he’s overwhelmed with all these feelings that again.... they keep getting invalidated by Violet because “Marlon was a liar and murderer, therefore you shouldn’t feel bad about his death. Get over yourself, Louis, you can be such a shithead sometimes.”

Oh yeah Vi, I guess he should care more about two people he’s known for a total of two days rather than for the safety of the people [including you] he’s grown up with and cared about for 8+ years.... makes sense.

So yeah, little to no support during this time. Alone again.

And just because I have to make this clear so no one gets a hair up their ass-- both Louis and Violet are wrong here. Kicking them out isn’t the solution, but neither is acting like AJ was right to commit murder just because it was Marlon.

But plots gotta plot, so they get voted out and you can see that Louis is conflicted about the whole thing. He wants them gone, but at the same time, he knows what kicking them out means. You can see it on his face that he’s not okay with kicking them out. He’s hurting when he’s there in the dorms telling them how the vote went... he literally doesn’t know what else to do. He just knows that everything hurts, Clem and AJ caused it, and he wants the pain to stop. He even tries to justify it to himself by figuring that they’ve done this before so they’ll be fine. Not a great thing to say, Lou.

Anyway, we know the story, Clem and AJ come back and Louis once again sees the consequences of acting out of pain.... AJ is shot because Louis was hurt and he made a bad decision that he’s gotta live with.... something that he’s done before, and this affirms to him that he’s bad. He wishes he could take it back, and goes as far as to admit that to Clementine during the archery scene.

By the way, credit to him for his apology to her. It’s rare in these games that Clem gets a genuine apology from someone who hurt her and doesn’t turn around to repeat the hurtful behavior, y’know? Plus, I can think of plenty of characters who owed Clem an apology in the past or if they did apologize, it was half-assed.

You can feel how conflicted he is with this whole thing-- learning who Marlon really was and what he did, feeling something for Clementine before everything went down and not knowing how to handle those feelings afterward, caring about AJ and understanding why he thought shooting was the best choice but still hurting that his friend is dead....

And the thing is.... Louis forgives her for so much, as she does him, and through all of that bullshit, they manage to develop that strong connection that turns romantic. Louis lets himself be fully vulnerable with her and is honest about his feelings, how she listened when no one else did and seeing him for more than just the persona he put on.

This works on Clementine’s side, too. Clementine has been through her own fair share of bullshit-- trauma, abandonment, loss, injury, you name it. She’s made mistakes, done terrible things, and has been in enough groups to know that romance usually ends in heartbreak.... and yet, she’s willing to open herself up to Louis and admit she feels a lot for him.

Is it a little rushed? Yep. Could it have been handled better? Of course, most things this season could’ve, but what we got was pretty good.

So Clementine and Louis are romantically involved now, the raiders attack, and she saves him... and boy does Louis feel guilty about that one, too. He feels bad enough that he questions why she would pick him because he can’t fathom his life being worth saving over another’s. He doesn’t see himself as useful, and even though Clementine is literally his girlfriend at this point, his self-esteem is so all over the place that he can’t understand why she would have him at her side.

And when Clementine tells him that he’s too important to her, he’s too baffled to even give a response. He looks at her in disbelief like he wasn’t expecting her to say that. But this shows that at the beginning of their relationship, he still doubts himself, and through her working with him, he begins to build up that strength in himself.

He becomes brave enough to share what got him sent to the school with her, and he plays Don’t Be Afraid for everyone at the party and like.... for once, everyone is listening to him. Really listening to him. They’re not talking shit about his musical skills, they’re not ignoring him or the feelings he’s putting into the song, they’re sitting there with him and I just..... if you watch him, you can see that his eyes get pretty glossy throughout the song. The moment meant something to everyone.

There’s also the fact that Clementine asked him to come with her and AJ onto the boat, and to be the one in charge of the bomb... that’s a huge responsibly and he feels the pressure of that. He starts to panic a bit about if he can do it, because what if he fucks up? What if he gets them caught and makes everything worse? What if something happens to Clementine and he can’t do anything about it?

She’s there to reassure him that she believes in him, and that he can do this. They’re going to get everyone back, and he needs to focus... then he asks her to slap him which why would you? that’s dumb, so Clementine smooches him instead and like.... he physically relaxes into her because he’s comfortable and trusts her in this situation.

Also, he loves her and cares about this mission enough to cover himself and his fancy jacket in walker guts.... sure, he complains while doing so but how else is he gonna cope with rubbing rotten guts on himself to blend in with a herd of walkers?

Skipping ahead so that we’re not here all day, I wanna talk about the walk back to the school because it’s one of the most important clouis moments in the game and a huge reason that solidifies why the comic is bullshit.

Louis went off on his own to go out and find them. He didn’t know where they would be, he just knew that he had to go out and find them after making sure everyone was okay back at the school because he couldn’t bare the thought that he had lost them. And the way the AJ gets so excited to see him? and the group hug??

At this point, Louis has grown so much as a character. With Clementine by his side to support him, he’s grown stronger and more reliable. Remember how he never thought about the future? Well, now he is because his relationship with Clementine has given him a reason to long for a future. He talks about building this imaginary house with her, one he knows they can’t physically build... but it’s his way of saying we can build a home together, that he wants a future with her and AJ and everyone else. It’s such a personal conversation that flows so easy between them. Louis is more comfortable talking to her about things from his past, which is something he didn’t want to do back in ep1.

He confides in her how he’s feeling after he shot and killed Dorian, he tells her that having a home means protecting it and I just.... it’s so good, okay? And from Clementine’s side, you can feel how at ease she is with him, too. Just the way she smiles at him as they’re walking? like he’s the cutest thing and she’s so happy to have him with her?

But then we gotta deal with Minerva’s crazy ass on the bridge and well, AJ shoots Tenn and Louis is having flashbacks to Marlon and it’s not great. That’s a whole thing, and he ends up separated from them while escaping.

We don’t get to see Louis’ reaction to Clementine getting bit and losing her leg since I guess that puts a damper on the overly happy ending. But, going off of what we know about him and what I’ve explained [which isn’t even all of it, this isn’t a full Louis character analysis. if it was, it would be much longer and in multiple parts... believe it or not, I’m trying to not make this too long and only sorta failing...] we can get an idea of how he would react.

Um, to say he was upset is an understatement.

Because remember, he had no time to think and climbed over the fence, thinking he could get them to climb over and they could get away, but it didn’t work. He ended up leaving them in order to save himself since walkers were closing in on him.

But you know that he’d blame himself for the bite. A lot of, “if I had just stayed” and “I should’ve climbed back over, I should’ve stayed with you.” I’m sure there were points where it looked like Clem wouldn’t make it and I can’t imagine how much hurt he went through watching her suffer and heal from losing a leg like that.

Not only that, but knowing that AJ was the one to do it? And him thinking about what Clem’s death would do to AJ after all this? There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Louis would take care of AJ if she died. He cares about AJ, and he loves Clementine, so he be there for both of them, even if he’s still hurting from Tenn’s death.

However, Clementine didn’t die. She survived the bite and amputation, and when we flashforward, she and Louis are still happily together. Louis is right there next to her at dinner, and he’s the one to help her with her crutches. He’s there to go over future plans to meet the traveling caravan, and Clementine wants him to be the one to go.

Oh, and Louis once again forgives AJ for shooting Tenn, claiming that he understands that AJ saw something that he couldn’t. Like with Marlon, he’s not happy Tenn’s dead but he can see why AJ did it to save his life.

I just..... happy ending. Clementine and Louis are together and she’s truly happy to have found a home for her and AJ with him at Ericson.

....But then the comic thought it would be fun to say “nah.”

The comic isn’t canon, I’m still insulted that it would ever consider itself as such, but even so I can’t help but feel so frustrated about how this would destroy Louis.

He finally found someone he would consider his best friend, not just his girlfriend. She saw past that funny man persona and he trusted her enough to let her past this wall he built around himself. He let himself become vulnerable around her, he named his song after her. Their initials are carved into his piano with a heart surrounding them. He loved her.

Clementine left him feeling loved, something he probably hasn’t truly felt since he was a little boy with his parents before their divorce. She loved him even after hearing his past because she knew that wasn’t him anymore, and she helped him build the confidence he needed to step up. Because of Clementine, Louis wants to enjoy every day while also looking at the future. He isn’t lonely anymore, he has her and AJ. He’s truly happy.

So to tell me that Louis would wake up one morning only to have AJ tell him that Clementine’s gone, she’ been planning an escape without telling anyone because she wasn’t happy...? I’m sorry, but if you think that wouldn’t leave Louis absolutely devastated, then you know nothing about him as a character.

This idea is just.... look, Louis is perceptive. That’s a big part of his character, he’s perceptive of those around him. If Clementine was showing signs of being unhappy or depression, he would see it. He would notice a change. He would be able to tell if something was off, and he would ask her about it. Louis is the type of person to ask you what you need. What can he do to help? What do you need to feel better? And if you don’t know, it’s okay, he’ll help you figure it out in any way possible.

Plus, the comic suggests that there are times where she went off on her own but came back [probably doing her escape prep ugh] and you expect me to believe that Louis wouldn’t notice that or wonder what she’s doing? Wouldn’t sense that something’s going on?

After she’s gone, he’s going to blame himself for not being enough. He couldn’t make her happy and he was a fool to think he ever could. AJ lost the only family he’s known since he was born because Louis couldn’t help her, couldn’t do anything to stop her from leaving.

And for him to realize that she didn’t love him? Clementine, the girl he thought the world of because of how strong and confident and in-charge she was, because she saw him for who he was..... she left him, abandoned him... and she couldn’t even be bothered with a goodbye.... that says that she didn’t care all that much about him in the end.

You KNOW that he would think he had this coming, too. How could the universe allow him to fall in love and be happy with someone who loved him back after what he did to his parents? He would feel so heartbroken that he would see this as some sort of karma for breaking up his parents happy marriage as a kid years before he ever met Clementine and before the apocalypse.

I fucking can’t.... I don’t have the words to fully explain how much I hate this. Louis wouldn’t be okay afterward, and I doubt he’d ever fully recover. I wasn’t joking when I mentioned before that Louis would stop playing piano. How could he sit there and play when I he can see is their initials and remember the night she confessed to him? When he named his song after her? Clementine left and took the music with her because Louis wouldn’t have it in him... something that he used to cope would be ruined and that’s just.... it’s fucking awful.

Not only that, but now he has AJ who I assume is hurting just as much [though the comics inaccurately assume he would just let Clem go sooo... yeah] and he would be the only one Louis would really talk to about it, but then again.... what if AJ doesn’t wanna talk about it? What if AJ starts to act out and things just become terrible and Louis is just too overwhelmed?

I just.... UGH. That’s how I feel. UGH.

Clementine from the comic? Not her. She would never fucking do this to Louis, AJ, or anyone else at Ericson, and you would know that if you played the tfs.

Sigh.... sorry, I just needed to get this all out. I haven’t seen anyone talk about how Clem leaving would affect Louis and I’ve gotten some asks/come across some posts about Louis that have left me incredibly annoyed.... well, I was annoyed before because of the comics, so my annoyances with those things were only heightened. So yeah... I wanted to talk about Louis’ character in hopes of explaining why he would be so hurt if this comic was canon.

Which it’s not. So it’s fine.

How are we all feelin’ at this point, by the way? I know I’m not the only one still annoyed with the comic, so I hope y’all are doin’ okay. Hope you’re stayin’ chill and thinking about your faves to help cope with this mess hahaha

#twdg louis #twdg clementine #twdg clouis #twdg aj #twdg marlon #twdg violet #clouis #twdg #sometimes i just need to talk about louis okay #one day i'll do a full character analysis that goes over everything #but today isn't that day #long post

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sarcastically-defensive17 · 4 years

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Stone cold- B. Hargrove

Contemplating a pt.2. Let me know if y’all want a second one!! Hope you like it!

For the lovely @winter-captain-01!!

Original story by sarcastically-defensive17

Y/N was rough.

She was the type of girl to punch a guy in the face if he dared touch her ass without her permission.

She was the type of girl to give as good as she gets, against both men and women.

She was dangerous, she was intimidating, and she did it all with her staple black heels on her small feet.

Yet still, Billy couldn’t get enough of the girl who challenged him every step of the way.

Their first meeting sent his heart rate skyrocketing along with his anger levels.

She had parked her Canary Yellow ‘57 Chevy Bel Air a tad too close to his Camaro and without looking he flicked his half done cigarette right on to the hood of her car.

She saw red when she saw him do so.

Naturally, she picked the cigarette up, ensuring it was no longer burning before proceeding to crumble it into his perfectly combed mullet.

He felt the crumbles hit his scalp, still slightly warm from being lit and he turned to thump whoever had the audacity to try something smart with him. Until his eyes fell on the girl.

The first thing he noticed was the height difference. He concluded that the only reason she was able to stretch her arms high enough to reach above his head was on account of the high stilettos her feet were resting in.

“Who the fuck do you think you-“

“Listen here, asswipe,” she snarled at him, stepping a fraction of an inch closer to appear more threatening. Despite the further incline the action placed on her neck. “That ‘Bitch’ crown on your head isn’t too heavy for me to knock off, so flick a dart at my car again, and it’ll go flying.”

Billy smirked at her, rolling his tongue along his teeth in a way he knew captured many girls in the past.

Not this one.

Y/N turned on her heels, sauntering back to her car.

Billy shamelessly watched her behind and her legs as she walked, mind racing with all of the ways he was going to get her to fall to her knees for him.

She turned her head as she opened the door, noticing his gaze. She whistled loudly, snapping his attention from her ass to her face, where he was met with the sight of her middle finger.

Billy practically groaned at the sound of her Chevy starting up, and speeding out of the school parking lot.

What he didn’t notice was the same car stop at the middle school where his sister went to retrieve a certain curly haired boy.

And his friends.

She leaned her head out of the window, eyeing the group.

“Turd burgers!” They all peaked their head up at the sound of her voice, knowing it well. “Asses in seats, feet better be clean.”

She leaned inside, pulling a stick of gum from

The center console and popping it into her mouth as she watched the four boys wave goodbye to a girl.

They climbed in and she remained, skateboard in hand and a frustrated expression on her face.

“Whose that, Dust?”

“That’s our friend, Max,” he announced.

“She’s awesome! Total badass,” Mike continued, stating her name at the same time as his friend.

She looked at her little brother before turning back to the girl whose hair was as fiery as as a sunset.

Y/N eyed her with concern before whistling to her the same way she whistled at the asshole who threw the cancer stick on her car.

She gestured her head to walk closer and the girl obliged, a weary look plastered on her freckled face.

Y/N definitely didn’t miss the way her little brothers face brightened when Max walked near.

Nor did she miss the same expression on Lucas’ face.

“You alright, kiddo? You need a ride?” Max turned to see that most of the kids had piled into their own parents’ cars, or the bus.

The girl huffed, standing on her toes to peak over the car towards the high school.

“Thank you, but I’m okay. My asshole brother should be here soon. He’s meant to pick me up.”

Y/N fixed her with a look, frowning.

She was tough with people her own age and older, but she had a soft spot for kids.

“Okay, but if you need a ride home any day, let me know.” Max nodded softly, a small smile on her face. “Lord knows I need another female around with these dorks.”

She earned a smack to her shoulder from her little brother as payment, and a chorus of offended exclamations from the boys in the back.

“Catcha, kiddo,” Y/N winked at the girl, not leaving until she waved back and stepped away from the curb.

When she did, the Chevy was pulled away from the curb and sped away.

The next day she left the school with intentions of dropping her (basically adopted) kids at the arcade while she makes a beeline first the record shop.

Her and Dustin were in need of some new albums, and she wanted to find something for her mum.

What she didn’t expect was to run into a certain curly haired asshole in the rock section.

“Well,” she heard from behind her, far too close to her ear. “If I had have known you’d be here, I would have dressed nicer.” Y/N turned to meet Billy Hargrove, standing way too close to her with a smirk plastered on his face. “Or I would have dressed down. Whatever you please, princess.”

She rolled her eyes at the wink he sent her, turning around.

“Call me that again, Hargrove, and I’ll shove your mullet down your throat.”

“Then what should I call you? You haven’t told me your name,” his smirk was still in full force, as well as the pinch in his brow. He didn’t like when people were rude to him, but he felt the challenge in the girl, and it was drawing him in.

“Y/N.” She huffed, “I would love to stay and chat but, I actually wouldn’t.”

She want to walk away, only to be stopped by a hand on her wrist.

“Well, Y/N,” he loved the way her name sounded on his tongue. “How about you and I catch up soon? Spend a little time together?”

She scoffed, laughing obnoxiously and pulling her wrist from his grip. Thankfully, she had already paid for her vinyls and was free to leave.

“Call me when you get an attitude adjustment, asswipe.”

She quickly hustled back to the arcade, as fast as her heels would allow and found comfort with the fiery headed girl.

“They’re still trying to beat your high score, huh?” Y/N chirped, tossing a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

Max made a sound of acknowledgement, watching them with tired eyes.

“Gets a bit boring when you’ve got the high score on the decent games,” her smirk was proud, and awfully familiar in manner to Y/N, but she chose to ignore it.

“Here,” Y/N nudged the shoulder of the girl, “come have a look at the records I bought.”

Max’ eyes lit up. She loved the arcade, but she simply wanted to be at home.

The desire in its own was unnatural to her, as she despised being around Neil, but she was worried about her mum. And her step-brother.

The night before was rough. Billy had gotten into it with Neil because their ‘father’ had put his hands on Max’ mum.

Billy didn’t like that one bit and stood up for the woman, only to earn a visit from Neil’s belt.

Y/N let the boys know they would be outside, before leading the girl to her car.

They sat for who knows how long talking, and Max quickly grew to admire the older girl.

Y/N was halfway through a story detailing the time her and Dustin had a three-hour-long marathon of some dancing arcade game she couldn’t remember the name of, when a blue Camaro pulled up.

Both girls ignored the sound of the engine, as Y/N continued her wholesome story.

By the end of it, she was so tired that her little brother (who was half the dancer she was) ended up whooping her ass.

The only thing that caught their attention was the sound of a husky voice that had Y/N groaning in frustration.

“Well, well, well,” Billy said. “If it isn’t the stone cold broad herself.”

“I feel like every time you open your mouth, something else boring comes out,” Y/N whispered, throwing her head back to the sky.

“Keep telling yourself that, honey.” Billy maneuvered around Y/N, heading to stand next to Max. “You ready, shithead? Neil gets home soon, so we need to be back.”

“Yeah, sure,” Max answered after a minute. Her eyes were downcast in fear, and Y/N found herself wondering if she was afraid of the man standing next to her.

The realization clicked in her head. “Oh! He’s your brother?” Her tone started off high, lowering as she got to the end of her sentence while her face shifted into a frown.

“Step-brother,” Max and Billy said at the same time.

Y/N nodded, looking up from her position seated on the hood of her car, as she saw the door to the arcade open.

She shouted loudly towards the opening, catching the attention of the four boys to signal their leave.

“Alright, Maxie, gotta give you something before you go,” Y/N stood before reaching into her car, bent over the window. She could feel the way Billy gazed at her backside. She handed the girl a piece of paper with a number scribbled on the side. “That’s my number. You need anything, or a lift to school just give me a ring.”

Max fixed her with a small smile. A grateful one that shone through her eyes.

“Where’s my number?” Billy winked at her.

“Stare at my ass again and you won’t have fingers left to dial anybody,” Y/N halted her words to look the man up and down. She couldn’t deny that she liked what she saw, but she refused to allow her mind to wander. “Or to flog your log, asswipe.”

“Ooh, feisty. You get more attractive as the days pass,” Billy winked, turning around and nudging his sister again. “In the car, shithead.”

The boys piled into her car, and she sped off as soon as they were all clear of the road.

She was flustered from Billy’s words, and annoyed at the mullet headed man.

Days passed, random calls from Max, and requests for a lift to school when Billy was unavailable.

Y/N didn’t know what was meant by the term, but whenever he was unavailable, he was also absent from school.

She hated herself for caring what happened to the boy, but she found herself developing an attraction to him.

According to Max, her obnoxious step-brother had developed quite the infatuation with the older Henderson.

Despite this, Y/N was still shocked to great extents when her home phone blared to life at 3AM one Saturday morning, and Y/N answered in a bleary state to her soft sobbing on the other end.

“Y/N?” She heard a masculine voice that she instantly recognized to be Billy. Her heart race picked up. “You busy?”

#billy hargrove angst #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove oneshot #billy hargrove #stranger things #dacre montgomery

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 5 years

Text

Follow Me Home (Part 7)

Summary: Dean, the reader and Hawkins arrive back in Lawrence but it looks like Jim’s already in town...

Pairing: Cop!Dean x reader

Masterlist

Word Count: 6,000ish

Warnings: language, kidnapping, brief violence

A/N: Enjoy!…

______

“Zeppelin,” said Dean as you hit the edge of Lawrence a day later.

“Motorhead,” said John from the passenger seat.

“Zeppelin.”

“Motorhead.”

“Well, you apparently have two psychopaths for fathers Y/N,” said Dean with a chuckle.

“Zeppelin is not the greatest rock band of all time. Get your facts straight kid. They’re good but not the best. Motorhead is so much better,” he said, turning around in his seat, raising an eyebrow at you. “Get in on this and don’t tell me you’re into just pop rap crap.”

“You’re both wrong. AC/DC,” you said. Dean held up a finger, cocking his head, John shrugging. “That’s a band right? Something about thunder?”

“Yeah, something about thunder,” said John with a smirk, Dean chuckling as he drove. “How’s the memory doing, kiddo?”

“Pretty good. The music helps. Still don’t remember Monday night but there’s less gaps, I know random stuff. Work, college. Apparently I also have had a lot of boyfriends,” you said, John and Dean frowning. “I’m just messing with you. Only a few and none particularly long.”

“Thank god it wasn’t three girls,” he said, shaking his head. “Granted, I missed a lot.”

“If you could not punch Dean anymore I’d appreciate it,” you said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, giving Dean a smile. “So how many girlfriends have you had, Dean?”

“You don’t get to be the scary dad intimidating his daughter’s boyfriend. I’m still on the fence about arresting you for all of the break ins,” said Dean.

“There’s got to be some kind of perks to my daughter dating a cop, right?” he said with a smirk.

“We’re barely calling you John. You got a ways to go before you get to dad status I’m pretty sure,” said Dean.

“So they’re all there in town?” you asked Dean. “Lila and Luke and Kyle?”

“Yeah, Sammy said they’re at the station. The boys got in this morning. We got a lot to get through so we can hold off on meeting them if you don’t want,” said Dean.

“I don’t know if I want these people’s first impression of me to be…” you said, glancing down at yourself.

“They don’t care, Y/N,” said John. “I promise. But whatever you want is okay. Mom and I waited a long time. We can wait a few more hours.”

“I just want to say hi quick,” you said.

“We can do that,” said Dean. “We’ll just-”

He slammed on the brakes and all three of you felt your seatbelts snap you back. Dean put both hands on the wheel, John breathing hard. You shook your head and were about to ask what happened when you looked through the windshield.

“Is that what I think it is?” said Dean.

“It looks like a police barricade,” said John, glaring at Dean. “I thought you trusted me.”

“That’s Lawrence City police. I’m chief over at Midland. Different force,” said Dean.

“So people that Jim can get to stop me without even doing a thing himself,” he said.

“Dean what…” you said, spotting two cars block the road behind you.

“Play his game,” said John, opening the glove compartment and grabbing a pair of zip ties. “Pretend I’m the bad guy. I won’t say a word. If he still thinks you’re on his side, it might buy you some time.”

“But…” you said, Dean nodding back at you.

“Sorry but I got a new plan,” said Dean. “Everybody hold on.”

Dean floored it into reverse, the car flying backwards through a narrow gap before he spun it around.

“What the…” you said, Dean taking a deep breath as he took off.

“I was really good at all of the driving courses at the academy. Broke a few records. Better than these guys I bet,” said Dean, taking a right and trying to take the long way around to Midland.

“What the hell are you doing!” shouted John. “Jim will-”

“There’s a very good chance that the second you were in custody, somebody that isn’t a cop slips in and kills you off too. She just got her parents back, her family back. I’m not having that taken away so fast,” said Dean.

“I don’t matter! She does! I thought we were on the same page!” shouted Jim.

“Dad,” you said, John’s head whipping around to you. “We trust you. Trust us. Please. It’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know that,” he said.

“My entire life has been a lie it tuns out. But I trust Dean and his brother and his force. I trust you too so listen to me. Calm down and we’ll get to the station and we’ll find a way to catch Jim,” you said.

“Drive faster,” he said to Dean. You felt yourself slip back in your seat more, Dean crossing the yellow line more than once as he drove.

“Ha,” said Dean as you heard sirens in the distance. “I knew those suckers wouldn’t catch up.”

You held onto the door as he turned the car down a side street, the station showing up in the distance.��

“Dean!” you shouted, John echoing the sentiment when you saw a city police cruiser come out from a side street right behind you. “You were saying?”

“Shit,” said Dean as he drove. “John, you got to run inside. Y/N, you too. Tell Sam to lock it down the second you’re inside. The building will lockdown before the city cops get here. I’m probably going to get my ass handed to me but as long as you two get inside, it’s fine. It’ll give us enough time to explain it all.”

“What’s the-” you said before Dean nearly plowed into the front of the building.

“Go! Now!” he shouted. You and John ripped off your seatbelts and sprinted out of the car, the siren going off loudly as you heard shouting.

You heard a car crash behind you and you spun around, John nearly at the door.

“Y/N!” he shouted as you saw an officer holding up a gun at you.

“Tell Sam!” you said, positive making a move for the door would be a bad idea. “Go! I’ll be fine.”

It was hard to hear over all of the noise but you heard metal clank against the ground. Looking over your shoulder you saw a wall of metal had come down over the front door, John nowhere in sight.

“Ow,” you groaned as you were shoved to the ground by an officer. Less than ten seconds later you were cuffed and hauled to your feet, plopped down on the sidewalk as a grunting Dean was sat next to you.

“I thought I said both of you get inside,” whispered Dean.

“The cop was too fast. At least John got in. Jim won’t do anything to me. I think,” you said.

“Be careful,” said Dean as an officer shoved his shoulder. “Fuck off, Paul!”

“What the fuck are you doing running around with a criminal like that, Chief?” said Paul.

“It’s complicated,” said Dean, the both of you hauled to your feet as a swarm of new cars hit the end of the parking lot.

“I bet,” said the officer, nodding at his partner as they shoved you in the backseat of their vehicle. You saw Paul punch Dean in the face, just in time to feel something hard hit your own. You gasped and fell down in the seat, something dark and heavy tossed over you. “You two don’t move now.”

“I have a feeling we’re not going to the station,” said Dean, the officer shouting outside about having runners. Two car doors opened and slammed shut, the car quiet for a moment before it took off. “Guys don’t do this. Jones is a bad guy.”

“He’s a very wealthy bad guy,” said one. You and Dean shook off the blanket and sat up by the time you were down a different road.

“He’s going to kill us,” said Dean. “Do you two really want that on you for a little bit of money?”

“I wouldn’t call five hundred grand a little bit of money,” said the officer.

“Each,” said the other. “The guy just wants back his daughter. We know you’ve been lying to her. She’s got freaking head trauma. You’re lucky we don’t kick your ass ourselves for what you did, Winchester.”

“He didn’t do anything, I swear,” you said, the officers rolling their eyes. “I swear! Don’t do this!”

“We’re fucked,” said Dean, kicking at the back of their seats. “These are two of the dirtiest cops in Lawrence. Shit, Y/N. You fuckers. Don’t be idiots. He’s going to kill us, both of us. You’re shitheads but not murderers.”

“Remember when you filled up my locker in high school with-”

“For fucks sake Ron! For the last time that wasn’t me and it was fucking tenth grade!” said Dean.

“It’s five hundred grand Dean. They don’t give a shit,” you said. You slid over on the seat and rested your head on his shoulder. Dean parted his lips but you moved your hands to his own, sliding your switchblade over to him. “We’re on our own.”

He nodded when you looked up at him, Dean pretending to sigh as you leaned forward, quickly seeing that you’d cut nearly all the way through the ties. A sharp tug would be more than enough to break free.

Fifteen minutes later you stopped at an old farmhouse, the officers shoving you and Dean out of the backseat and into a barn before leaving.

“You ran off on me, Y/N,” said Jim, a scowl on his face as he walked out from the shadows.

“Jim, I say we let bygones be bygones. We got a huge problem,” said Dean. “Hawkins is here. He found us in Seattle. We’ll admit, you freaked us out with the whole drugging thing but we got sloppy and he found us and he caught up to us just outside of Lawrence and-”

“Dean. You’re not as good as coming up with stories as I am. Don’t insult my intelligence,” said Jim. He walked over in front of you, kneeling down. “The real question is what kind of lies having you been telling my daughter.”

“What? You’re my dad?” you said, a flash of confusion on Jim’s face almost making you smile. “What?”

“What happened to her?” barked Jim. “She was getting better last I saw her.”

“Don’t,” you mumbled, Jim cocking his head at you.

“I said what happened,” said Jim.

“...Hawkins caught up to us like I said. She...she hit her head in the scuffle. She’s not been great and then one of those cops just hit her again so for all I know, she’s even worse,” said Dean.

“You’re my dad? What’s...where’s my mom?” you asked, glancing around, trying your best to look as pathetic as possible.

“I thought you were going to protect her,” said Jim. “Look at her. Made her a liar like yourself. I know you’re lying, Jane.”

“Fine. My name is Y/N,” you said, Jim smirking as he stood in front of you. “Asshole.”

“You’re stronger than you look,” he said, pushing up his jacket sleeve, showing off a few long and nasty nail marks that dug deep into his skin. “Hurt like a bitch. I grabbed you from your motel room that night. One little knock to the head. You woke up as I was hauling you through the woods out there. You put up a hell of a fight, especially for a brain damaged person. You took a dirty shot and by the time I was on my feet, you were gone. I thought I was so fucked when I couldn’t find you again. Then you showed up on the news, came right on home to me. I almost killed you two at the park but she was so...naive. You had no idea what had happened. I still had my little girl. Until of course the cop over here had to ruin everything. So I’m going to offer you a choice. You can either both die, or I can have my little girl again and maybe get you a friend.”

“What?” you said, Jim walking over to an old tool bench and picking up a hammer.

“I figure a whack or two will make you two nice little stupid things that will forget all about this. We can either go that route or you die,” he said.

“I’ll die, thanks,” you said.

“I second that,” said Dean.

“Figured you’d say that,” he said, walking in front of Dean. Jim brought the hammer down fast. Dean dodged most of the hit thankfully, only getting a scrape on the cheek as he rolled out of the way. When he got to his feet, his hands were in front of himself and he was holding the knife out.

You both froze when you heard a gunshot ring out. Jim hit the ground and Dean held up his hands, your own going up after you broke out of the restraints. You slowly turned around, dropping your hands when you saw a few officers and John holding a fancy looking gun.

“Sniper school,” said Dean.

“Sniper school,” he said. John handed the gun back to an officer and you saw Sam pull up in a car. “Your little brother almost didn’t believe me.”

“We’re glad he did,” said Dean as Sam walked over and gave him a hug. “Don’t go mush on me. You gotta go arrest Nelson and Brooks from the city.”

“You serious?” said Sam.

“Yes! Now go. My head is still throbbing,” said Dean, rubbing his sore temple as you walked over.

“At least I know my birthday,” you said.

“Cute,” said Dean, both of you watching John almost step forward. “I think you can give her a hug.”

“Thanks,” you said, meeting John halfway there, almost getting lifted off of the ground. “How’d you convince them to give you a gun?”

“Best shot here,” said Sam as he rolled his eyes at his radio. “The dumbasses are on the run.”

“Hey Irv,” said Dean, cocking his head as an older man in a city uniform entered the barn. “Want to go catch those two crooked city boys for us little hick town cops?” said Dean with a smirk.

“Never gonna hear the end of this am I,” said Irv as he shook his head. “Yeah, we’ll get ‘em. This is gonna be a fun court case.”

“I’m sure it will be,” said Dean, John finally releasing you, rubbing his hands up and down your arms.

“You okay?” he asked as he stared at your cheek.

“Yeah. Ironically the hit to the face helped some,” you said, turning towards Dean. “You used to let me win at hide and go seek when we were little.”

“Yes, I did,” said Dean. “Let’s keep the head injuries to a minimum though.”

“I’ve got to agree with that,” said John. “You sure you’re okay?”

“She used that switchblade to get us both free and bought us some time playing dumb. I’d say she’s doing a lot better than expected,” said Dean.

“I could really go for some McDonald’s actually,” you said. Dean smiled, John raising an eyebrow.

“Uh…” said John, looking at Dean.

“The girl likes her breakfast foods,” laughed Dean.

“It’s dinnertime,” said John.

“All day breakfast,” you said.

“Told you she’s fine,” said Dean, handing you back your switchblade. “Want to head to the hospital now?”

“At least I’ll be wearing pants this time,” you said. John blinked slowly, looking between you. “We’ll explain on the way.”

“Hey,” said Dean, rattling his fingers on your hospital door as you changed into a pair of sweats from the police department a few hours later, almost midnight by the time they were releasing you. “Ready to head to the station?”

“I think I already gave my statement like fifteen times,” you said. Dean smiled as he came in, your rain jacket tucked under his arm.

“Your family’s staying at the Marriott but they’re still at the station. We don’t have to do this tonight if you don’t want,” said Dean.

“Is John in trouble? For killing Jim?” you asked.

“It’s a little messy since he’s not a cop but given the circumstances, he likely saved both our lives by taking a shot no one else could have made. Given his service record and everything that went down, they’ll let him go without any charges,” said Dean. “There’s a lot of stuff to clean up, a lot of people your...people Jim paid off. John’ll get a clean record by the time it’s all said and done. Oh. There is one slight benefit to this situation, Ms. Jane Jones.”

“What?” you asked.

“Jim. He was your dad. He’s got a will. It seems that in the heat of the moment and all, he never removed you from it. You’re set to inherit an assload of money,” said Dean with a smile. “I get the feeling the Hawkins family doesn’t have much. Maybe you’ll be able to help out your folks a little.”

“For sure. This has been the longest week of my life but I got a few good things out of it,” you said, ripping off your hospital band. “You. A nice inheritance. A family. I know it’s late and I’m nervous but I want to meet my family. My real family.”

“Alright,” said Dean, holding out a hand. You slid yours into it and gave him a smile.

“Will you stay?” you asked. He kissed your temple, smiling back at him.

“Yes, I will be there with you, sweetheart,” he said. “You don’t have to do it on your own.”

“Thank you, Dean.”

“Alright, guys,” said Sam as he opened up the conference door at the station half an hour later. You saw John, Lila, Luke and Kyle all sat around the table. “Take as long as you need.”

Sam gave you some privacy as Dean slipped in behind you, standing by the door as Lila stood up.

“Hi,” you said. She practically sprinted over and tackled you, squeezing you far too tight. “Mom. Air.”

“Sorry,” she said, barely letting go as she gave you a big smile and kissed your cheek. “You grew up so pretty. Did you see her eyes, John? They’re just like yours.”

“I saw Lil,” he said with a soft smile, turning his head. “Boys. You want to say hi to your sister?”

“Hi,” they both said as they stood up, both a bit nervous looking.

“Hey,” you said, Lila walking you over to them. “Luke and Kyle?”

“I’m Luke,” said the shorter one.

“I’m Kyle,” said the other, smirking at his brother. “He’s short.”

“Am not. I’m like six foot, freak,” said Luke.

“Boys,” said Lila.

“Sorry,” they both said.

“So you’re like not dead?” said Luke. You smiled and nodded. “Cool.”

“Beats the alternative,” you said, looking around. “So...this is weird.”

“To be honest, Luke and I always thought you were dead,” said Kyle, turning to Luke. “Sucks for you. You gonna get middle child syndrome now or something?”

“You took one psych class last semester and now you’re a know it all,” said Luke. “Our brother is kind of a dorky loser just an fyi.”

“Says the guy who plays dungeons and dragons,” said Kyle.

“I saw you looking at the rule book, dork,” said Luke.

“You both kind of sound like dorks to me,” you said, both of them giving you bitch faces. “We done with the awkward crap now?”

“Twenty bucks she thinks you’re the bigger loser,” said Kyle.

“Deal. Christmas we’ll have an official ruling,” said Luke.

“Is this what it’s like having brothers?” you asked Dean.

“Pretty much,” said Dean, John standing up and walking over.

“Look at ‘em. Already trying to be their big sister’s favorite,” he teased.

“I’m not really used to this big family thing,” you said as Lila gave you another hug. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get used to it though.”

“Well Thanksgiving is next week and we will make all of your favorites,” said Lila.

“Mom’s side of the family is pretty big,” said Kyle. “Hey, can we like surprise everyone that Y/N’s actually alive?”

“Uh, let’s give everybody a heads up. I’m sure it’ll still be a surprise,” said John, your gaze going back to Dean. “Your boyfriend can come too.”

“You have a boyfriend?” asked Lila as she looked back at Dean. “Oh, he’s cute.”

“He looks like he got the shit beat out of him,” mumbled Luke.

“He’s a good guy,” said John as your stomach grumbled. “You ever get those pancakes?”

You shook your head, Dean chuckling.

“I’ll be back with some grub for you guys. Y/N, call me if you need anything,” said Dean.

“I will, Dean.”

“You sure you want to be here tonight?” asked Dean as you stepped out of his bathroom after your shower, nearly three in the morning by the time you left the station with plans to meet up for lunch the next day.

“Yeah. Those guys are exhausted and I need a minute to decompress,” you said. You fell down onto his bed, curled up in one of his t shirts. Dean grabbed your shoulders and tucked you into his side, his lips pressing against your temple. “My parents said I could live with them if I wanted.”

“You don’t need to make any decisions right now,” said Dean nuzzling his cheek against yours.

“I don’t know where home is anymore,” you said as you lifted your gaze to his. “Here. Seattle. Kansas City with my parents. My whole life has been…”

“Why not all three?” asked Dean. You cocked your head and he chuckled. “You’re loaded now, Y/N. I know you liked Seattle. But I know you want to be close to your family. Live in all three if you want.”

“What’re you going to do?” you asked.

“I liked Vancouver.”

You laughed and he gave you a sweet kiss, giggling to himself.

“Sorry. I had to. I’m a Kansas boy though. This place ain’t perfect but it’s my home,” he said.

“What do you think I should do?” you asked.

“This is going to sound a certain way so try not to take it like that,” said Dean. “But I think...you should take a breather from this place for a little while. Go home to Seattle, figure out work and all the stuff with Jim. Find a place you actually like, somewhere you can watch the rain. Then go home to your parents, meet your family. You and me, we’ll be okay. It’ll give me some time to plan the perfect date.”

“I’m not so helpless anymore, Dean. I can remember most everything now and the stuff I can’t, I don’t think it matters,” you said. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want.”

“If there’s one thing I am absolutely positive about sweetheart, it is that you have never been helpless. Even when Jim attacked you back on Monday night, hit your head so hard you couldn’t remember, you still outsmarted him. You got away. You’re not helpless and that’s not why I like you,” he said.

“I know why I like you,” you said. “Because you never made me feel like some weak victim. We were partners.”

“I don’t really know why but you made me feel safe. I get what your dad was talking about back in the hunting cabin with your mom. She made him feel better. I get that,” he said.

“You want to come to thanksgiving?” you asked.

“Only if there’s pie,” he chuckled.

“I love baking on a rainy day,” you said.

“I think we’ll have to make a few trips up to Seattle,” said Dean, sighing when his phone rang. “That’s my dad.”

“Go ahead,” you said, Dean reaching over and picking it up.

“Hey dad,” he yawned. “How was the vacation?”

“It was great. The dehumidifier is overflowing,” he said. You laughed when Dean rolled his eyes. “Is this funny to you?”

“Dad, I’ve had a hell of a week,” said Dean, throwing an arm over his face, his smile poking out from under it. “I will take an overflowed dehumidifier any day.”

“Dean. You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow. I promise,” said Dean.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“Mhm. I’m beat so we’re going to head to bed. I love you. Say night to mom for me,” said Dean.

“Love you too, Dean,” he said before Dean hung up.

“He didn’t sound mad,” you said.

“He’s not, not really,” said Dean as he tossed his phone down and turned off the light. “Dad’s are funny sometimes. You know...my dad’s name is John too. He was a marine actually.”

“I bet they’ll get along great,” you said, snuggling down into the pillows. “I’m exhausted.”

“Can’t sleep though?” he asked. You nodded your head and felt his hand on top of yours, your eyes flickering up. “How about a head massage?”

“That sounds pretty good,” you said, turning into his touch.

“Relax for me sweetheart. It’s over. I promise.”

Four Days Later

“Hello pretty girl,” said Dean when you answered the phone. You smiled and walked over to the window in your apartment. “How’s it going?”

“It is absolutely pouring outside,” you said. “I got the last of the boxes packed up in my apartment. There’s a cute little vacation house I was thinking of checking out after lunch before my flight back. It’s near the water. Maybe you could come visit over the holidays.”

“I could certainly do that,” he said. “We still on for your parents place for Thanksgiving tomorrow?”

“For sure. I...I was doing some thinking on the plane ride up here,” you said. “About what you said about living different places.”

“Oh yeah? You figure that out already?” he asked.

“Not at all,” you said, Dean chuckling into your ear. “I’m still learning my brother’s favorite colors and sports teams. I got a long ways to go before I feel like I have a handle on things again.”

“Well, they’re from Kansas City. I’d say the Kansas City Chiefs are a safe bet,” said Dean.

“Thanks, genius,” you laughed, plopping down on the window seat. “I realize now why I don’t have a lot of friends up here.”

“Jim wanted you all for himself,” said Dean. “You know, you can stay in Seattle if you want, sweetheart.”

“I’ve discovered in the day that I’ve been up here that I like Seattle a lot more when you’re here too,” you said.

“You know...the house I’m renting...there’s room for two if you know anyone looking for a roommate,” he said.

“You have a two bedroom house, one of which is acting as your office and is filled with boxes,” you said.

“Like I said, plenty of room,” he said and you knew he was smirking on the other end.

“Well if you’re gonna twist my arm like that,” you laughed.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

“Yeah,” you said. “I got dinner with my old boss yesterday and he understands why I’m leaving the firm. He said he’d write me a recommendation for anywhere I wanted to work.”

“Well that’s good. Still, weren’t you planning on taking a little time off to get to know your family? Your brother’s are on winter break soon aren’t they?” said Dean.

“Yeah. I think I’ll hold off until the new year before I think about a job again,” you said, resting your head against the window. “It’s really coming down out there. I think I left my raincoat at your place too.”

“No you didn’t,” he said.

“Yeah I-” you said, a knock coming at your door. “There’s someone at the door.”

“Maybe it’s the cops,” he said as you stood up.

“I hope it’s not Broch,” you laughed. “Guy’s an ass.”

“A total ass,” said Dean as you walked over. “I’ll call you back.”

“Okay…” you said as you put your phone away. You pulled open the door, biting back your smile.

“Hi,” said Dean, his raincoat soaked, your own tucked under his arm.

“How the hell did you get here?” you asked, Dean stepping inside and giving you a kiss.

“Plane. Broch’s big case turned out to be something after all,” said Dean. “Plus you sort of forgot your coat at home. I had to bring it up for you.”

“I missed you,” you said.

“Me too,” he said, chuckling when you hugged him and got your shirt wet. “Can I take you to lunch? I hear there’s this cute little vacation house for sale. Maybe we could check that out after.”

“I’d love to,” you said, running a finger down his jaw. “How was the plane ride?”

“I went to the doctor, got something for it. Way better this time around,” said Dean. “Gonna have to get used to it at some point considering I see a few trips up here happening.”

“We are pretty far from everything, Dean,” you said. “We don’t have to travel this far again.”

“No we don’t. But this is where I let myself fall for you. I like it here. And I’d like to take you back to that pretty park sometime soon,” said Dean. “Without the threat of dying hanging over our heads.”

“That would be nice,” you said, looking him up and down. “You know...I haven’t had sex with you yet.”

“Is that an invitation?” he laughed as you started to tug him back into the apartment. “I thought you were all done packing.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to have sex and then go do that other stuff?” you teased.

“Oh no,” he said, slipping out of his shoes, dropping his jacket on the floor while you pulled him back towards your bedroom. “I am perfectly okay with all the sex.”

“Good because I remember how amazing that mouth of yours is,” you said, grabbing his flannel and pushing it off his shoulders.

“I’m using more than my mouth this time,” said Dean. “I’m assuming you have-”

“Fuck,” you said, dropping your head against his chest. “Where are those condoms we bought?”

“Pretty sure we left them in the rental car at that rest stop,” he said.

“We are so having sex tonight after we fly home,” you said.

“Well...nothing says we can’t have a teaser,” said Dean, resting his hands on your hips.

“We could definitely...ah crap,” you said, running your hand over your face. “I may have forgotten that my parents are in town and I promised I’d meet them for lunch at noon.”

“Guess we’re gonna have to raincheck yet again on some fan freaking tastic sex,” said Dean.

“Sorry for riling you up. I don’t want to be late. They’re only a tad bit paranoid. Understandably,” you said with a smile.

“There’s plenty of time for us later. So what are they in town for?” asked Dean.

“Some of that clearing up my dad’s name stuff. They’re also a wee bit paranoid to leave me on my own since I wasn’t hanging out with you. I barely convinced them to get their own hotel room,” you said.

“I can’t imagine how they feel,” said Dean, touching the end of your braid. “Or how you feel.”

“Strangely, okay. I remember getting more and more suspicious of Jim over the past few months. It was little things I started to put together. He was actually quite controlling. I never realized. I always thought he was just an overprotective father,” you said.

“Back in that motel room when we met your actual dad for the first time, you knew Jim’s story was bullshit, didn’t you,” said Dean.

“After he stopped kicking your ass,” you teased. “But yes. Something about the way he looked at me, was towards you, it was strange.”

“He loves you. Like I said, I can only imagine what seeing you again is like for your parents,” said Dean.

“Are you close with yours?” you asked.

“I butted heads with my dad when I was younger but we worked through it. I think I know why you’re probably doing okay though,” said Dean.

“Why’s that?”

“You were raised by two crazy people, Y/N. But your real family, they’ll love you the way people are supposed to. Unconditionally. I think you know that deep down you’re better off,” said Dean.

“I know I am,” you said, Dean brushing his thumb over your cheek. “It’s fading away.”

“Battle wounds,” said Dean, bumping his nose against yours. “Want to head out?”

“You coming with?” you asked.

“Obviously. Wherever you go, I’ll follow,” he said.

“Good. We have a knack for finding trouble,” you said.

“Probably best to stick together then,” he said, brushing his lips over yours, delivering a soft kiss. He cupped your cheek, your hands settling on his chest, griping into his shirt. You smiled as you broke apart, Dean returning it.

“Let’s go get some lunch, super cop,” you said.

“After you. Jane,” he said with a smirk. You went to whack him, Dean laughing as he grabbed his flannel and jogged down the hall.

“You better run, Winchester!” you said, laughing as you followed him out. Dean was already in his shoes by the time you grabbed your purse off the counter. He handed you your jacket and you slipped into it, taking a deep breath.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

“Yeah. I’m okay, Dean,” you said. “I’m finally okay.”

______

#supernatural #spn #dean x reader #dean winchester #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #dean #winchester #dean spn #au #series #cop!dean x reader

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stilwaterskeeter · 5 years

Text

Rewriting Saints Row IV

Hi this is my absolute least favorite game of the series and I kind of hate it! But here I am regardless putting my time and efforts into making an entire post dedicated to what I like and (in my opinions) how to fix the parts I don’t like...

This is also written to match by SRTT post rather than the base canon for the games! Which literally changes nothing but Johnny is already known to be alive before this game, so yknow...

This is also a HUGE post whoops

And again, this is just for fun. Don’t like it? Don’t interact with it. I’m not forcing you to read this. That being said, I do like discussing this kind of stuff so I totally up if you wanna just talk about alternatives or how you think things would play out and stuff

Plot/Story Specific Changes:

President’s Cabinet:

Fuck Keith David! Get him out of here! Leave sir! Go back to your movies!

Johnny Gat is our new Vice President because we know regardless of his skill at the matter, The Boss would make him his VP

This also gives Ben King a lot more reason to hold it against The Boss that he isn’t the VP, because at least before Keith David was a likable actor and had his own skillset for the role. Now it’s Johnny fucking Gat who has all the diplomatic and political tact of a shoe

The Boss’ dream isn’t some stupid 50s sitcom, that was so dumb, hardehar 50s is so nice and polite my ass

I think shit like meeting Julius, the boat explosion, Dex’s attempt to kill them, Magarac Statue blowing up even if they tried to go there, Johnny bleeding out after the fight with Jyunichi, and probably much more are better suited pieces to a much larger much more intimidating and genuine nightmare sim that would have broken The Boss inevitably

All the times they almost died because they weren’t quick enough, all the times they just barely saved their friends? A lot scarier than “oh noes I cawn’t kiww anybodwy uwu” crap

Zinyak doesn't really destroy the Earth

First of all: I don’t think he’d waste so many potential assets over the folly of one idiot

Second of all: The man’s supposed to be like a genius of sorts? So I find it ridiculous that he doesn’t have the ability to hide the fact that Earth is Actually Totally Fine from an idiot like The Boss

Third of all: To avoid Kinzie being oh so smart and debunking Zinyak’s scheme- She’s absolutely distraught when the Earth blew up and surprisingly caught up in her emotions, a pretty new thing for her. So I think it’s plausible she would bee too caught up in the moment to do much and afterwards is too caught up trying to help The Boss find and rescue what they believe is the last hopes for humanity

Kinzie doesn’t save anyone before The Boss, she goes straight for The Boss and before trying to go to Earth, they rescue Johnny Gat

Kinzie was prepared prior to saving The Boss with a few locations already in mind that she found as she was looking for them

One of which obvs ended up being Johnny

Another of which is a Surprise Prison that will help us later

All she knows is that it’s definitely based from Stilwater in ye olden days (first game, not actually ye olden days lmao) so she was assuming it was definitely either The Boss or Johnny

(Spoiler it’s Lin)

Additionally: The sim we do activities and hang out in isn’t Steelport. It should have been Stilwater and you know it.

After the Earth is “destroyed” and The Boss needs to go back into the sim and start recruiting people, Johnny steps in a lot when discussing who to save next

Sorry Matt, your rescue is getting pushed back a little

Johnny’s very adamant about not saving Matt first, “We are not saving that little goth punk whatever kid before we save our girl and Pierce. I don’t give a fuck that you’re president, I’m impeaching you, we’re saving Shaundi next. Not Matt.”

Shaundi’s nightmare sim stays relatively the same, but maybe polish up the writing better

I like her nightmare and the angle, but the writing just felt very,,,awkward to me?

She was supposed to be hung up on feeling helpless and the fact that she felt that because she was always “the damsel” and in need of protection, that Johnny was gone

But the writing kind of just skimmed over that

Then they save Pierce because, yeah, they give him a lot of shit, but he’s one of Johnny and The Boss and Shaundi’s closest friends and Johnny’s already made it clear they’re not saving anyone else until they got both Shaundi and Pierce back

Then you have the 3 rescues that you pick the order for

Asha

Ben

Matt

Then comes the replacement for Johnny’s canon rescue; It’s Lin’s Rescue Now

Kinzie isn’t sure who it really could be because they already have The Boss and Johnny, and they’ve already identified which sim is Ben’s

She asks Pierce and Shaundi for help trying to identify the sim while Johnny and The Boss are fuckin around in the sim

Neither of them have a clue who it could be

But both of them recognize the invading gang members in the sim as Westside Rollerz members so they recommend asking Johnny and The Boss about it

Johnny and The Boss have a moment of “Holy fucking shit, there’s no way” “It couldn’t be her, could it?” all the while the rest of the crew is just like “Any day now, who couldn’t it be?”

Lin’s nightmare sim is the events following up to her kidnapping and then the moments before Zinyak got her when she was in the process of drowing

A street race where some shithead Roller sabotaged Lin’s car so she had to forfeit midrace and then some guys kidnap her

I was figuring you’d be racing to catch up to her and then the race ends for you when she has to pullover

And then a brief cutscene of her trying to fight of some Rollerz goons while The Boss is locked in their car and can’t get out no matter how hard they try to break the window or bust it open

Then a followup cutscene Lin and Sharp arguing about The Playa not arriving to her rescue

“It appears to me like your little friend won’t be joining us. Oh well, we’ll take care of them soon enough. For now, just you will have to do.”

“Could your head be any further up your ass? Get on with it already, I’m getting bored here.”

And a short line from The Boss like, “What an asshole, jokes on him I wasted that son of a bitch years ago. And I’m not leaving without Lin this time.”

The last part is a timed boss battle with Sharp

Kinzie’s trying to do her tech thing and find a workaround to save Lin from drowning while The Boss fends off Sharp and miscellaneous goons

After Lin’s rescued and Sharp is dead, she steals the gun from The Boss in a cutscene and empties it into Sharp

“I have been waiting too fucking long to do that.”

There’s a brief reunion scene between her and The Boss

“Man, you don’t know how glad I am to see you.”

“Oh. My. God. You can fucking talk, that’s almost as crazy as the fact I’ve been living in this hellhole for years....You look good, did you do something to your hair?”

“You have no idea, Lin. You’ve missed a lot.”

“Nothing we can’t talk about over a beer after we get out of here. Speaking of, you got a plan for that or-?”

Kinzie chimes in, “I do.”

Kinzie isn’t the one who defends Matt when he says the mission is a bad idea because that was dumb and out of character, agree with him maybe, but not defend him

Instead of Keith’s betrayal/loyalty mission/whatever; We get Lin going into the simulation on her own to try and save Donnie after having Matt find his sim for her when The Boss pushes off saving Donnie as something to do later since Donnie’s not exactly useful in a mission like saving the universe and destroying Zinyak

“How do you even know he’s not dead? What makes you think Zinyak even abducted him?”

“Because I know he’s still alive, and Matt found him.”

“Look, we’ll take care of this after we end Zinyak. There’s no cars for him to rig or information to leak to us with these guys.”

“There’s gotta be a fucking reason he got abducted, playa. He’s worth saving.”

Johnny chimes in, “We’re not saving your stupid boyfriend right now, Lin. We have bigger fucking problems to deal with.”

It just progresses into a whole fight and the others are kind of just like....”Holy shit....there’s three of them now.” until Ben King steps in and tells them to all shut the fuck up

“Listen, Lin. We’re going to get your boy, but we aren’t doing it now. It’ll be the first thing after we kick Zinyak’s ass.”

The Boss chimes in, “Who said anything about the f-”

“I said...it’ll be the first thing we do, got it?”

Donnie’s nightmare sim is The Boss attacking his garage but Lin never shows up and instead he gets “killed” and then it’s The Boss harassing him and attacking him to get him to rig the Brotherhood vehicles and for the location of Carlos and Maero threatening him and ultimately “killing” him as well and then repeat

Bet The Boss kind of feels a little bad about always picking on him now, huh

Lin is at least, she feels guilty about setting up the raid on Donnie’s garage in SR1 and then just feels really pissed off about The Boss going after him more in SR2

Eventually The Boss shows up to help and with some hacking skills(TM) is given their superpowers and Lin is given powers as well to save Donnie

Obviously he can’t believe Lin is fucking ALIVE let alone just SAVED his ass

“Y-You’re alive? But Mr.Sharp killed you! A-And I let him! They found your body in the river and-....where the hell have you been for so long?”

“Listen, Donnie, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Are you sure? Because Earth got invaded by aliens and I’ve been dying repeatedly everyday since.”

“Shit, yeah. That son of a bitch, Zinyak, saved my ass from drowning back in Stilwater. This asshole over her saved me from that.”

“I bet their to blame for all this! It’s always their fault! Ultor, STAG, Gangstas in Space, Cyrus Temple, they’re the fucking president now can you believe that?”

The Boss chimes in, “I’m standing right fucking here! And for your information, I happen to be an excellent president!”

“Now’s really not the time, playa.”

And also that The Boss also SAVED him

“I thought you fucking hated me, I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m only here for Lin.”

“Oh.”

Okay I lied, Zinyak DOES destroy the Earth for realsies

But only towards the end of the game, like following up to the boss battle

He reveals like

“Oh, it seems you haven’t learned your lesson then. I suppose I’ll have to really blow up your pitiful little planet then? Such a shame really, humanity could have been quite useful to the Zin Empire, but one must cut’s one’s losses sometimes. Their certainly not worth the trouble your putting me through here.”

This gives him time however to have abducted more people, including like Oleg, Viola, Donnie, etc etc etc

Fuck the Enter the Dominatrix DLC

Yeah it’s funny and all but like, where’s something actually interesting and additional to the game?

Replace it with DLC where you rescue like Viola and Oleg and stuff instead

Viola’s nightmare obviously would have to do with being stuck working for Killbane and probably have a boss battle where you fight simbane after he tries to kill Viola as well after having killed her sister

Oleg has a few options I think but the most appealing idea to me is a nightmare about him trying (and failing repeatedly) to escape the KGB

Character Specific Changes:

There really isn’t much to be put here shockingly

Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this but I think they should have expanded on the jokey romances more

I’m not talkin’ like full on bioware romances, just yknow maybe a little more than a single repeatable scene that varies from being shockingly indepth (Johnny) to just a fucking joke (Kinzie)

Maybe like add in a decision for a difference between just like casual sex or an actual romance with the characters

If you pick an actual romance then there’s random little banter lines about it when you have homies and maybe a few lines in some cutscenes or smth, nothing huge

Like say, you have Pierce and Shaundi as homies with you:

Romance Shaundi:

P: It’s about damn time someone did something

S: What are you talking about?

P: Uh, you and The Boss? Duh

S: Oh my god, shut up

P: Took ya’ long enough...y'all only been eye fucking each other as long as I can remember

S: Shut up, Pierce!

P: Chill! I’m happy for you, girl! Don’t attack me!

Romance Pierce:

S: So...you and The Boss, huh?

P: I already don’t like where this is going

S: I’m just surprised is all, you’ve been into them since like day one

P: No. I haven’t.

S: [snorts] Yeah, right. You used to get so upset when-

P: Shut up! They’re standing right there!

Or uh Pierce and Johnny:

Romance Pierce:

J: Hey, man, I’m proud of you for finally tellin’ The Boss how you feel

P: Wh- I didn’t- I’m not the one who-

J: But if you ever even think about hurting them [cocks gun] I won’t hesitate to put a cap in your ass

P: Man, calm down. I ain’t gonna do shit, jesus

J: [laughs] I’m just messin’ with you, Pierce. I’m not gonna shoot you.....Unless...

P: This is why I don’t tell you things, Gat! What the hell, man?!

Romance Johnny:

P: I can’t believe you and The Boss weren’t already fucking

J: Me neither

P: Didn’t you ever...yknow...like wonder? You never even thought about it?

J: Oh, no. I thought about it plenty. I wasn’t about to be the one to say somethin’ though

P: Did we finally find something Johnny Gat is scared of?

J: Fuck no, man, just after what happened with Eesh-

P: So...you were scared?”

J: No!

Lin getting to know everyone is a very big thing, like she’s suddenly surrounded by new people and everyone but Johnny and The Boss from before her abduction are dead

She gets along really well with Shaundi, Johnny (duh), Ben King, Asha, and Donnie (duh)

She gets along pretty damn well with Pierce too but it’s a pretty similar teasing relationship as Shaundi and Pierce and she gives him a hard time a lot

He gripes about how he has to deal with 2 Shaundis and Lin now a lot

She and Asha are pretty different but also pretty similar, they’re both really stubborn and dedicated to what they deem their “duties” but Lin still likes to let loose and have fun a lot more than Asha

A lot of their interactions consist of Lin trying to convince Asha to just let loose “a little” and have some fun

Asha for the most part wouldn’t ever really admit that she likes Lin but if pushed she’d definitely say something like “I definitely respect her. Maybe the Saints wouldn’t be as ridiculous and out of control if she was never taken from them before.”

Also because again you can pry wlw Lin from my cold dead hands we get this exchange:

“You know...you remind me a lot of one of my exes.”

“That’s...nice.”

“Stubborn, pretty, law-abiding, all work no play-”

“Is there a point to this?”

“Not really, I just keep thinking about it.”

“I see...and what happened to them?”

“She broke up with me for some prick named Blake...[laughs] So I broke his nose next time I saw him. Detention for a month, but definitely worth it to see her face.”

“No wonder The President likes you...”

She also gets along with Matt pretty well, having gone to him to find Donnie instead of Kinzie, although that was simply because she figured Matt would keep quiet about it and not tell The Boss, as well as Kinzie was already doing 101 things for The Boss at the time

She really doesn’t understand the whole Nyteblade thing but vampires are kind of cool she guesses and also it’s not like there’s a ton of shows or books left to entertain herself with, at least with Nyteblade, Matt’s got the memory of an elephant and probably totally recreates a ton of the episodes and key scenes because he is Absolutely That Guy first of all

She ends up getting pretty into it but if you ask about it she’ll shrug it off as simply because it’s “the only show left to watch”

Lin also remarks with Shaundi how she reminds her a lot of herself

“You know, I used to be some fun loving party girl myself.”

“Really? What happened?”

“Los Carnales and Julius fucking Little. Couldn’t go five feet out of my house without some assholes doing a drive-by or starting gang wars.”

“Oh...”

“Had to step up if I wanted it to stop, we see how well that turned out.”

“...Yeah....”

Alternatively to the nightmare sim swap I listed earlier...Johnny Gat would be The Boss’ husband in the 50s nightmare sim for sure

Kinzie definitely brings that up to Johnny if they’re both homies, especially if you romanced Johnny

Matt Miller and Donnie friendship when-

Turns out Donnie’s also a fan of Nyteblade

And Matt liked the Feed Dogs’ admittedly short lived time of activity

They both geek out of dumb shit and also talk about how fuckin scary The Boss can be and how lucky they are as some of the few remaining living members of gangs that The Boss fucking demolished

CID gets a lil more establishment

aka I mean he gets like a lil hologram of what he used to look like before becoming an AI in the zin system when he’s in the sim so he can hold guns and run around with you as a homie

also cut the whole thing of him trying to bargain with The Boss for “a woman” because that entire segment was weird and uncomfortable

#saints row #saints row 4 #johnny gat #matt miller #pierce washington #asha odekar #shaundi #zinyak #benjamin king #kinzie kensington #saints row lin #saints row donnie #stop talkin playa #rewriting saints row

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tarnishedhalo · 7 years

Note

☪

Five Times Our Muses Almost Hold Hands, and the One Time They Do:

I. HollowHe’s sitting there, head down, ends of his hair spilling over his hands, and for the first time Riley notices they are darker than the rest of him. Years of oil and grease and wrenches have built up callouses but it’s built something else. Shadows of all the things those hands are capable of that no matter how much pumice-soap he scrubs with it doesn’t wash away. Only closer inspection shows that there’s more. Hints of rust under his nails…no. Rust is a different shadow of red. Rust doesn’t leave someone scourged and empty. Rust doesn’t cause shoulders to shake. Hesitantly, Riley reaches out and Baz pushes him away, shakes his head. Saying with actions he doesn’t need this.

Riley nods and grabs whiskey instead.

II. Two Man TeamThe rain was coming fast, hard and heavy. A storm brewed in the background, lighting striking haphazardly in the distance. But the thunder isn’t from crashing clouds. Riley holds up a fist. Holds up a finger. Then two. Makes a fist, and he’s moving. Low crouch, rifle braced shoulder high. Kevlar soundless. They move and breath as one. Riley doesn’t have the luxury of wondering how exactly he’d gotten here, on this Strike Team. It’s a by product of too many late nights spent worrying. It’s because Baz is transparent as glass. When the younger walks into a room and looks around before his blue eyes finally fall on him, Riley knows it’s gonna be an issue some day. Riley’s not stupid. He knows that look well. And he loves the guy, really he does. It’s just…just…. So this is the best he can do.

Rounding the corner, he scans through the scope. He reaches behind his back. Hand glances off the fucker’s wrist, just shy of his intended target. There’s no sound over the comms, but he feels his head duck forward as the fucker tags his helmet.“Got this. Laying down cover fire. Go.”

III. Paradox

It was the turkey sandwich that woke him up.

He stares at the unholy alliance of bread, turkey, lettuce and cheese, thinking I’m stuck. Stuck in this perpetually shifting span of time, in which the same day is repeated over and over again. Like Groundhog Day which was a stupid movie. Only worse because time was actually continuing to move forward. Mondays became Tuesdays which turned into Wednesdays. Months still passed by synonymously with the changing of seasons. Children grew into adults. Adults still sank in their depression.Yet the events that occurred in each individual day were exactly the same. Every day Riley would wake up and go to work. He’d be stuck with the same case as the day before and the day before that. Then he’d eat lunch with people who talked in a language he did not understand. Then he goes home to a world that chooses not to understand. Sleep.

Rinse and repeat.But that turkey sandwich. Something inside of him had gone missing. The anger rises in response. He was sick of the sandwich. Sick of the watery-crunch sound the lettuce made when he chewed it. Sick of the cheese. Sick of soggy bread that almost dissolves in his mouth. The same thing he’s eaten for years now.

He averted his gaze and looked around. He saw fellow cops sitting at the same tables, wearing the same clothes, conversing with the same people about the same things. Amidst the sea of voices he could make out snippets of conversations he’d heard countless times before. All the meaningless gossip and small talk wrapped around his brain.His head begins to throb furiously, a circuit board overloading with too much data. Squeezes his eyes shut only to see the sickening mirrors reflecting infinity on the back of his eyelids. It was like someone had put the feeling of deja vu in liquid form and shot it through his veins. He gets up and sprints.

In the men’s room, there’s silence. He looks at himself in the mirror and his reflection stares back, seemingly surprised by direct-eye contact.“Are you done yet?"What?”“Are. You. Done. Yet?”“I don’t know what you’re talking-”

The mirror splinters in cobweb fragments.

He only just manages to throw his arm up to shield his face.

“"Fa'fuc'sake s'only a'sandwich, asshole. Don'want it? Don'eat it.”

If Baz only knew. His first instinct to grab the kid’s hand, make sure he’s real. But that’s a whole lot of crazy he doesn’t want to get into, because how do you explain Quiet, a mage’s version of metaphysical time-out for bad behaviour?

He eats the sandwich.

IV. Six

“Be there n'six”The last thing B says to him. He wonders, after six minutes has passed, if the shithead meant six hours, but somehow that couldn’t be right. He doesn’t remember there being a job out of town.

An hour later and he’s worried. Calls his cell, sends texts, wonders what else he could do. The worst part about it, Riley broke his word. Long distance knocking around the castle walls, even though he promised he wouldn’t. But the gates are all shut up, the windows bricked up and despite the power he commands, he can’t find a way inside.

And that sparks a wildfire of well…not jealousy exactly. Nor anger.

Hurt, asshole, the word your looking for is…hurt.Normally sleepers have little resistance to his magick, though Baz isn’t technically a sleeper. Nor is he awakened. The best way he could put it was the kid’s a kind of sorcerer, and that’s not right either. It is what it is, but the point was…to get around Riley like he’s doing… SOMEONE has to have shown him how. And that someone isn’t Beth because she couldn’t will her way out of a wet paper bag without him knowing about it.

So that means Baz has been hanging out with someone else.

Someone who’s deliberately shutting Riley out.He paces his way through a half bottle of Glen Livet before he switches to Vodka.Two hours.Three.At this point Riley’s grabbing his keys and his jacket, mentally composing a missing persons report for his missing person, because the inner cop won’t let this shit go.Throws the door open and there’s a strange collision of puffed up chests. There’s a spectacular display of juggling as the plastic sack hits the floor, ass over tea-kettle, though Baz manages to retain his grasp on the bottle, because of course he has priorities.

“‘Y'fuckin’ kiddin’ me? S'fuckin’ dinner, jackass.”The words don’t matter. Riley grabs his hands, and then takes it a step further by dragging the fucker into a hug, arms like vices around his neck and shoulders.

“Next time, fucking call.”

This is how Baz discovered Riley doesn’t do surprises well.

V. HettiquetteRiley’d heard, knew Beth and Jay went to these kinds of things in support of their friends, but it’s goddamn fascinating. Like if someone took Carnival and mated it with Mardi-Gras and somehow incubated the result inside of a Vegas Strip floor show. It was absolutely mesmerizing. And there’s a lot he didn’t inspect. There’s a man and his wife not far away, a group of teenagers. A couple wearing 'Theirs’ and 'Theirs’ tee-shirts that he makes a mental note to ask about later.

And Riley has to wonder if he’s even got a right to be here, that maybe his attempt to offer B moral support isn’t actually having the opposite effect, even if he laughed in his very Baz way over the 'Not Gay but my Boyfriend is’ shirt. Beth had given him one piece of advice before they separated for the day.

“No dare aks wen Straight Pride is. Jus’…no. If ya do… no gonna be let out of da hale wi'out woke adult supervision, yeah? An’ wha'evah ya do…no embarrass. If I hear ya make him uncomfortable….I will make YOU uncomfortable.”Then she vanished into sequins and feathers and flower crowns.She hadn’t needed to warn him.

Despite everything that marks him as out of place, the people are welcoming. They’re warm and beautiful and the beer flows. Sees a couple people he would never have thought ought to be here. The only awkwardness is when he comes across Wojakovitz. Riley’s not usually intimidated but the rookie is six foot seven and about as wide across. Apparently, his partner…boyfriend… is a school teacher at PS 182. Good on them.At some point, in the bar later, Riley’s managed to hit his limit, and teeters his way over to Baz whose been strangely quiet most of the night, more so than usual. Arm around the younger’s shoulder, Riley leans down and lays his cheek atop Baz’s head.“C'mon asshole. Dance with me. This is a good song.”The look he gets from both of them would have curdled paint.

He asks twice more in variations.

Twice more he’s rebuked.So he sits down next to B and his hand falls to the other’s side. Trying not to make an issue of it, one pinkie curls around Baz’s and then Baz is up and muttering something about hitting the head.“Did I…say something wrong?”No one answers him. Not even his sister.

VI. The Hang of Thursdays

“Pick sum’m else dickhead. Shit’s kill yer dog depressin’.”

There’s a point where his face is pale and haggard, where lack of sleep has left him looking five days dead on a three day weekend, and the next line of the song stutters into a choking breath. He doesn’t imagine it, Baz’s mouth had moved, had formed the words and it’s stolen all of the oxygen from Riley’s brain. He doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry or …there was a phrase for this, they used to call it 'don’t know if he should shit or go blind’.

His hands tighten around the fucker’s, careful not to dislodge the IV shunt.It’s a process. Rough palms sliding against each other. Long, blunt fingers seeking the crevices between the other’s hand. The grasp is as tight as he can make it, a warning that if Baz slips out of consciousness, he’s dragging Riley’s two hundred and five pounds with him.Baz’s scarred and battered knuckles are brought up, pressed against Riley’s lips. They’re dry and chapped but gentle as Riley bows his head over their joined hands. It takes him long minutes to compose himself enough to actually speak.

“You EVER scare me like that again, fucker, and I will beat your ass into the fuckin’ ground. You hear me?”He doesn’t mean a word of it.His eyes squeeze shut, lines spiraling around the corners and for the first time since they’d gone and recovered Baz Barton, he can breathe.What he can’t do is let go.

#Thanks!B #Snarky and Clutch: The BroTP #Clutch| Baz Fucker Barton #BvO #The Man in the Black Hat|Answered Asks #lilxlionxman

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ipushedthewrongbutton · 4 years

Text

Skyrim is such a fun game??? But also surprisingly emotional

it’s been more or less since the game came out that i played it. I don’t even know how many years but long enough for me to not remember anything but the literal first scene, so i decided, since we’re in quarantine and all, this would be the perfect time to start over and finally at least finish the main quest. back when i first played, my english wasn’t great so i didnt understand upgrading or taking random quests from random npc’s so i mostly went along where the lil white arrows told me to go.

NOW THO, i can upgrade weapons, gear, i can actually understand alchemy and enchanting, i can do as many useless quests as i want and i have the internet at my disposal in case i was too stoopid to figure out the next step myself.

Started out great, clicked the wrong button while picking a name and so instead of pressing the backspace button, i confirmed my male breton’s name as Prisoner, for the rest of the fucking game. He looks like a sweetheart tho who’s always confused, thin and wiry, ponytail, can’t grow a beard to save his life but he has a scar under his eye. He’s amnesiac, was arrested at the border, has no fucking clue what he was doing there.

I didn’t wanna think up a backstory, hence...

I immediately decided, fuck it, i ain’t fighting this civil war, I’m a breton, y’all nords do whatever the fuck u want. And i stayed with that. I briefly thought about choosing a side depending on whose point resonated with me more. Turns out, neither point is entirely valid. One side has no respect of history and culture, the other side is racist. So Prisoner was neutral for the entirety of the game. Neither Ulfric nor Tulius got any attention from this homie.

What did receive attention tho was the main quest and boi, i know everyone hates chosen one stories. And they’re right. But man, i love chosen one stories. And my baby boi is the dragonborn and he’s like ?????? And everyone is like “you defeat dragons and you are the hero everyone waited for” and my dude is like ????? Ok??? Sure?????? And he just goes to places and helps as many people as possible on the way.

Fuckin, the best thing was sideplots happening BY ACCIDENT. Prisoner goes on a quest to murder a shitty orphanage keeper, goes to tell the kid who commissioned him, he feels pretty okay about it. Then he gets The Letter. “we know” with a black handprint. And the shit that left my body at that moment, could’ve started a new nation. I mean, i had a 35 damage weapon at that point and i had slain my, what, fifth dragon at that point so i wasn’t worried about dying from assassins but THE INTIMIDATION WORKED.

LITTLE DID PRISONER KNOW that this would be the biggest emotional rollercoaster in the goddamn game, no lie. Being the chosen one, sure. Defeating dragons that will cause the apocalypse, no pressure. Become thane of a city, aight. But THEN I GET KIDNAPPED IN MY BRANDNEW HOME AND I WAKE UP IN A SHACK WITH A LIL LADY TELLING ME TO KILL ONE OF THREE PEOPLE. THE FEAR I EXPERIENCED... but then they recruited me, and they’re all really cute colourful characters and we’re assassins and we’re the black brotherhood and we kill people for a living but we’re a Family. And my baby boi character had yet to experience anything like that. Sure the greybeards are mentor-ish but Prisoner never lived up on High Hrothgar amongst the old dudes. The blades did a roadtrip thing which was fun but then they kinda just squatted in their new headquarters and sent Prisoner on his merry way. But this, they had a sleeping place and a dining hall and a lil garden and the werewolf man gave me insulting nicknames and there’s a little girl who says she’s a vampire and to this day, I’m still not sure if she was telling the tRUTH OR NOT.

AND THEN, AND THEN, the whole emperor thing happens, right, and that’s fucking hilarious. Prisoner with a chef’s head, i was cackling like a madman. And then AND THEN, THE BETRAYAL. ASTRID SAYS there’ll be a surprise up on the lil walkway bridge thing. And then there’s no one. AND THEN THERE’S SOLDIERS TELLING ME THEY’RE AMBUSHING HQ. AND I LOST. MY. SHIT. The thing wouldn’t let me fat travel either because the soldiers kept chasing me and i thought i was gonna have to ride Shadowmere all the way to the other side of skyrim, hysteric and worried about mY FAmILy. AND THEN i arrive at hq and there’s on of them PINNED TO THE TREE and like, guys. Guys. I was crying and full on immersion, i was like “nobody leaves here alive”, it was horrific, I didn’t do any of the stealthing, i just ripped them apart with my draugr greatsword, i already leveled up to the point where i cut my enemies’ heads off, it was glorious. It was so emotional, seeing werewolf man get killed, HE GAVE ME INSULTING NICKNAMES OKAY, and then finding Nazir and then hiding in a fucking coffin with a corpse who’s then like, trying to sooth me?? it was so emotional and i was crying tears of goddamn grief, i was Prisoner and Prisoner was me. The line between fantasy and reality: gone. I had spent HOURS upon DAYS on this game at this point, there was no going back.

hoo

So then i killed the emperor, and the reacting of the land was “...hm?” And i killed the general captain dude personal, like, optional my ass, i was gonna murder that shithead optional or not.

So i bought a house. In whiterun. It’s called breezehome (that’s not a choice) and I instantly decided if i ever get my own place, I’m calling it breezehome. I really hesitated about getting a house, since Prisoner is a nomad and constantly on the road, plus, has a “””””home””’”’” with the blades and other places in other quests. But then i decided it takes too much frigging effort to get all my loot sold cus all the pawnbrokers are pawn broke (HAH) and i can only sell them like a few gems and that’s it. And i needed a place to store all that shit, plus, i was going nuts from my collection of keys on my person aaaaaand i needed like a drawer to chuck em all in. And so that’s what i diiiiiiid. I later got the place in solitude too to finish the thane quest there but i literally only used the mannequins in the basement for my brotherhood and nightingale outfits. Which i both have worn literally once and then i just went with my guild outfit. 46 armor is good fuckin armor and the best i owned the entire game. Added some fire resistant shoes and suddenly dragons were super easy to defeat. I also found dragonbane somewhere, i literally only used it to wack dragons when they run aground. Otherwise i switched between a bow and a greatsword, both with the power of stealing health. Glorious. I was invincible. Well, with that and the power of Strategically Running Away.

I thought it was weird my guy never got the choice of being a leader of literally anything. I mean, thane is an honorary title so you can do whatever you want and not get shit for it, like the privileged fucks we all are, but arch-mage when i only entered the school like last week? Head of the thief’s guild after going on 2 assignments, one of them being the chasing and murdering of the previous one? Never got the choice, was just like “you’re perfect for that” and me “‘I’m LITERALLY the least qualified person im this entire province!” Also i has a flute on my person at all times, bard’s college never taught me how to play it, the bastard’s, all they did was send me on errand in dusty cAVES. AT LEAST IN ASSASSIN’S CREED YOU HAVE TO CHASE THE SHANTIES IN ORDER TO PERFORM THE SHANTIES.

Then the husband thing.

I knew there was an option to get married and adopt. I don’t want kids, in game or out. But i am disgustingly lonely (especially after the massacre of the black brotherhood) in game or out, so i looked it up and SURE ENOUGH, SAME SEX MARRIAGE IS DELISIOUSLY LEGAL IN SKYRIM, OH BLESSED DAY. Things i learned with this: i cannot handle flirting. It was cute and Prisoner and Falkar are adorable but I CRINGE, A LOT.

Honestly, the most i personally had with this was envisioning Prisoner finally leaving for Sovngarde (after putting it off for as long as possible) and giving his final goodbye to his brand new husband like, caressing each other’s cheeks and holding each other’s shoulders, “i promise I’ll be home again soon” “and if you don’t, i will find you in sovngarde” “keep the hearth warm while I’m gone” “keep your sword sharp, you always forget to redo the enchantments” “‘don’t neglect the companions just because you wanna housewife” just sacharine as. Fuck. They were in bed togeher the night before, just talking about useless shit and holding each other t was very PG. And then after defeating Alduin, Prisoner finds himself back in Skyrim, relieved that it’s all fucking over at long fucking last, and he climbs on Shadowmere’s back, tired, and rides back home. When he arrives in Whiterun, tired and weathered, he spots Falkar just returning from a mission, he’s also travel weary and just unlocked the door to breezehome. He spots Prisoner and Shadowmere entering through the gates. They pause, they look at each other like they’ve been apart for years instead of days. Falkar drops his back, Prisoner gets off the horse and suddenly they’re running towards each other, till they smack together and they’re just holding each other, it’s the best hug ever.

Aaaaand that’s kinda where i left it. I have more companion missions but i physically can’t get myself to do them because i feel the story is over, there’s no point. I can also still pick which side of the civil war i wanna take but it would be extremely out of character now. it’s weird, i feel like crying again. I invested so much time in this story and these characters with so little effort. Cus usually, writing my own stories, it takes effort to develop and build them. Here, all i had to do was make choices and kill the bad guys. And I don’t want to say goodbye even though i feel like there’s nothing more to add.

#i ramble about skyrim and i become emotional multiple times #i miss skyrim memes

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