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ilikekidsshows · 3 years

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how much do you think Adrien and Marinette's relationship developed from season 1 to 3 ?

Very well, as a self-professed connoisseur of all things slowburn, let me go over the Adrinette development that has happened in the show up until the season three finale and educate this fandom on the subtle beauty that is the Adrinette arc. This is gonna be long, because, apparently, there's a lot of material to cover, because this relationship can fit so much development into it.

Let's go in chronological order (as far as I can tell). In 'Origins', Marinette first started becoming a stuttering mess around Adrien when he opened up to her about how he wanted to make friends, becoming infatuated with the sensitive side he showed. Meanwhile, Adrien is excited over the prospect of having made a friend.

In 'The Bubbler', Marinette only manages to get out an awkward "hey," at Adrien and Adrien mimics her, in lack of a better response. He barely seems to know her at this point.

Marinette begins her infatuation with Adrien by simply thinking about him and fantasizing about him. In 'Stormy Weather' we hear Marinette's daydream, fully fleshed out on the details of what their children should be named, but not sure what their pet should be. Adrien seems pleased to see Marinette, but doesn't seek her out, also maintaining some distance.

Then comes 'Mr. Pigeon'. Adrien finds out Marinette is into designing and is taken aback by her verbal floundering. He also didn't know Marinette's last name. When he introduces Marinette to his father, there's an awkward silence after, like he'd finished the sentence too early, because he did, he never said her last name. Adrien knew Marinette existed, and was interested to know more about her, but that's it. Meanwhile Marinette speaks complete nonsense to Adrien, unable to remember what words even are.

In 'Evillustrator' Adrien seeks Marinette out of his own volition, having the perfect conversation starter in her encounter with Cat Noir. He wants to know what she thinks of him. Meanwhile, Marinette manages to get full, coherent sentences out, but keeps saying contradicting things. Adrien responds to Marinette with a drawn out "okay," starting to learn to just go with it and, at the end of the interaction, pats Marinette's shoulder companionably as he leaves. He thinks they're familiar enough for him to touch her casually, he was just waiting for the chance because he’s so touch-starved.

'Horrificator' doesn't actually show Adrien and Marinette interacting directly outside the acting scenes, where Adrien is very receptive to having Marinette as his co-star, but Adrien gets to see Marinette at her best, helping people out and solving problems. This episode is where Adrien starts to form his opinion of Marinette as someone dependable.

In 'Animan', Adrien knows Nino likes Marinette and is fully supportive. He's convinced Marinette would be receptive to Nino just acting natural and not doing anything special, so he thinks Marinette is a kind and warm person. He has no reason to think Marinette is into him instead. Marinette fumbles around Adrien again, and this time Adrien doesn't react at all: he's used to it.

In 'Kung Food', Adrien rushed to help Marinette the instant he heard from Alya that Marinette needed help. Marinette manages to get her meaning across even as she fumbles. When they have a discussion about Marinette's uncle, Marinette doesn't stutter once, and Adrien holds Marinette's shoulders when he comforts her. They managed to keep to casual interactions during the episode because they have other things to focus on.

In 'Gamer', Adrien is very casual around Marinette, inviting himself over to practise the game and being pretty frank about his insecurity as Marinette's gaming partner. Marinette responds first in a way that devalues Adrien's feelings ("No, you're amazing, I'm bad"), but eventually gives Adrien the lucky charm as a gesture of accepting him as her partner, a gesture Adrien will treasure for several episodes to come. Also, this episode has more casual shoulder-touching from Adrien to Marinette. (Aside note: Cat Noir later mimics Tom's body language in the episode, so Marinette's parents really made a first impression that stuck.)

In 'Volpina', Marinette shields Adrien from Fu's suspicions, but does briefly entertain the thought that Adrien might be Hawk Moth. This could be part of her catastrophizing or realizing she doesn't know him well enough to know for sure. Marinette also saves Adrien from his father, for Adrien's sake, not even revealing her own involvement in the matter to get closer to him. Marinette just wanted to help him out.

'Despair Bear' has Adrien protect Marinette from making a scene and making herself look bad, something he'll do again later in 'Chameleon'. Adrien sees it as his place to interfere for Marinette's benefit in this way and he thinks about the possible repercussions Marinette might have gotten from accusing Chloé publically without evidence. Adrien also instantly gets the idea to ask Marinette to dance when she bumps into him and decides to just roll with him when Alya arranges them into the typical "slow dance" position. At the end of the episode we see the first instance of Adrien invading Marinette's personal space by leaning in to talk to her. All in all, Adrien is just very comfortable around Marinette in this episode.

'Gigantitan' is more about Marinette learning not to overthink, something she didn't entirely learn as she prefers to abort the entire mission rather than enter a scenario with Adrien she hadn't considered. But we see Adrien offering Marinette a ride home even when his bodyguard is impatient. He really wants to do a favor for her.

'Riposte' has the second attempt from Marinette to simply spend time with Adrien, after 'Gamer'. She went into a lot of effort to learn fencing on time for the try-outs. She accidentally compliments Adrien to his face, who is very grateful for the nice things Marinette said about him. Caught off guard, Marinette fumbles once more, but manages to recover. Adrien laughs in enjoyment of the occasion and Marinette shares the laugh. Adrien keeps showing how comfortable he is with touching Marinette when he tutors her. Meanwhile, Marinette is very flustered, but manages to focus on what she's doing, doing well enough for Adrien to notice.

Adrien also questions Marinette's call as the referee, not concerned with Marinette's possible negative reaction and Marinette does respond honestly, showing Adrien that he can trust her judgement. Adrien also gushes about Marinette to Kagami, when he insists that Marinette didn't deny her the point to be mean, and the affection in his glowing endorsement has Kagami immediately note that Adrien likes her a lot.

In 'Befana' Adrien admits that he always carries Marinette's lucky charm with him, which inspired him to make one for her as a gift. The episode even ends with him looking at his own charm fondly, as the narration brings up "the person giving (the gift)", signalling that Adrien is specifically thinking about Marinette, who gave him the charm.

When Adrien asks Marinette for a safe place to hide in 'Gorizilla', Marinette gets over her stuttering very quickly when she realizes Adrien is in trouble to help him. Even in the subway Marinette is able to focus on Adrien possibly getting into trouble at home instead of getting flustered again. Adrien sidesteps the concern by playing the situation down, reminding Marinette that he does, indeed, always carry the lucky charm he got from her with him. At the movies he's more upfront to her about the restrictions he's placed under and why the movie is so important to him. Also, at no point does he point out Marinette is in her PJs, even though he definitely noticed. He probably just thinks it's a Marinette Thing.

'Frozer' has Marinette go all out for Adrien's sake, not because she wants to be with him, but because she wants to see him happy. She gives him advice on how to pursue another girl and asks Luka out on a double date to be there for him. On this occasion Marinette also shows how she's not as selfish over Adrien here as she was back in 'Gamer', when she was very willing to rob Max of something he really wanted in order to spend more time with Adrien. Meanwhile, Adrien gets distracted from his actual date when he wants to make sure Marinette is okay. When Plagg accuses him of "going after Marinette", Adrien is surprised by the suggestion, and assured Plagg that Marinette is just a friend.

An interesting thing to note is that Adrien actually sounds uncertain in 'Frozer' when he calls Marinette a friend, the one time he does so (at least in the English dub). This is why, when Marinette asks him to go skating with her sometime, he does entertain the thought of it just being just the two of them (aka, a date). However, when Marinette assures him it would be a friendly outing with other people too, the moment passes, and Adrien forgets his doubts and agrees to a friend outing. Plagg put the idea in his head, and Marinette could have sealed the deal. This is another occasion where Adrien pats Marinette's shoulder.

'Troublemaker' is the episode where Marinette's self-sabotage really gets going, when she "reassures" Adrien that she'd never consider him attractive in a romantic way ever. Meanwhile, Adrien once again invades Marinette's personal space and implies he doesn't mind modeling if it's for Marinette as he invites her to a photoshoot and says he's glad to have her as one of his fans.

In 'Style Queen', Marinette is actually open with Adrien about her insecurities and Adrien reassures her, and he supports her in 'Queen Wasp'. He also says he'd be able to model for her if she made it in the business, repeating his desire to model for her specifically that he first stated in 'Troublemaker'.

In 'Reverser' Marinette panics when suddenly encountered with Adrien and having to explain what she's doing, but Adrien gets the gist of it, having learned to interpret most of the word vomit Marinette produces and astutely claims: "That's typical of you," about Marinette helping someone out and offers his assistance if she needs any.

In 'Maledictator', Adrien is brave enough to let Marinette know he disagreed with the reason she and everybody else was happy. He doesn't pretend to be fine with the "good riddance, Chloé '' party because, just as Adrien knew, Marinette doesn't judge him for being sad to see Chloé leave.

In 'Heroes' Day', Adrien admits he came to the picnic to tell Marinette just how highly he values her. He shows how much attention he pays to all the times Marinette has helped their classmates and gives the iconic line "You're our everyday Ladybug". Marinette manages to gather up her courage to kiss Adrien on the cheek in response. This is also a notable moment when Adrien opts out of the usual shoulder pat, implying the gesture is something Adrien does to cut away the physical distance between himself and Marinette, since such a thing wasn't necessary in 'Heroes' Day'. (This boy is touch-starved, guys!)

In 'Chameleon' Adrien starts trying to play mediator between Lila and Marinette but, when that didn't work out, he once again protects Marinette from making a bad call with an opponent out to wreck her reputation, but he also acknowledges that Marinette had been wronged and decided to personally support her by sitting next to her since she'd been having such a tough time that day. He just wanted to support her like a friend would.

'Backwarder' has Marinette try to take the easy route of confessing through a letter, which predictably ends up not going as planned. But, as Adrien said, he spent all weekend making sure he could help Marinette with something he thought she really needed help with. Adrien just really wants to be able to do things for Marinette.

'Weredad' gives us an interesting glimpse into how Adrien views Marinette in relation to romance, noting that he "didn't think Cat Noir was her type". He's most likely referring to Luka, since he's the only guy Adrien has seen Marinette with, and Luka is quiet, contained and thoughtful, nothing like how Adrien presents himself as Cat Noir. However, since Adrien doesn't consider himself a candidate, he does most likely consider himself more like Cat Noir than Luka, aka, not Marinette's type.

'Desperada' has one of Marinette's worst freakouts in a while. Adrien showed up suddenly, and Kagami challenged her directly by saying: "Are you here to watch your boyfriend practise?" Marinette also tries to shoehorn Adrien into every situation, be it a guitarist or superhero, possibly as a subconscious attempt to gain more control of the situation with Kagami. As Tikki said, Marinette has a troubled heart in this episode.

'Chrismaster' shows off the fact that Marinette has tons of presents prepared for Adrien in advance for different occasions. These were most likely prepared during the early stages of her infatuation, when she was admiring him from afar and fantasizing about him. Making presents "just in case" fits the fantasy model. At this point, she’s embarrassed over having done it.

In 'Startrain', Adrien immediately relaxes into sleep as well when Marinette falls asleep on his shoulder. This boy is touch-starved, guys, and Marinette's touch in particular calms and soothes him. Similarly, when Marinette wakes up in the middle of their nap, she settles right back to continue sleeping, no panic in sight.

'Stormy Weather 2' shows Adrien connecting Marinette's handwriting from the note on his homework with the valentine he got, and all of the misunderstandings together convince him he was mistaken. "She's just a friend who loves fashion," Adrien says with a downtrodden face, disappointed that Marinette couldn't care for him as more than "a friend who's also in fashion". He thinks of Marinette insisting that she'd never be into him, and of Marinette and Luka skating together, with obvious chemistry between them. And, in the end, when he says it's just someone with similar writing, he sounds wistful.

'Party Crasher' has Adrien insist Marinette is one of his guys, clearly missing her when he's hanging out with his school friends. In fact, when she does show up unexpectedly, he looks very pleased.

'Puppeteer 2' is an episode that sets up obstacles for Adrinette in addition to the misunderstandings listed in ‘Stormy Weather 2’. Marinette finds out Adrien is in love with someone else, and Adrien tries to share more parts of himself with Marinette, only for it to end very badly. Adrien has been getting braver about expressing himself to Marinette, but it's mostly been his opinions so far. In 'Puppeteer 2' Adrien tries to joke around with Marinette, only for Marinette to end up mortified and crying. This convinced Adrien that there's a part of him that Marinette won't be able to accept so he'll have to hold back with her.

Meanwhile, Marinette overcorrects because Manon, as kids are wont to do, keeps airing out all of her dirty laundry regarding Adrien, and so she convinces Adrien he's lucky she even kinda likes him. Adrien connects this with the fact that apparently his sense of humor is something that Marinette hates enough to cry over it.

The rest of season 3 stays on the course set by ‘Puppeteer 2’. Adrien still cares about Marinette immensely, even if he's convinced she doesn't like him nearly as much. He puts himself on the line to protect her from Lila in 'Ladybug', and neither he nor Kagami consider Marinette's presence on their outing third-wheeling in 'Heart Hunter'. Meanwhile, Marinette is pulling away, convinced Adrien and Kagami are the perfect match.

There you go, that's the Adrinette development, broken down step by step, during the first three seasons. As you can see, it's actually quite a lot, and some people might even notice more development tidbits.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #adrinette #lovesquare #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #ml meta #long post #popular

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uwuwriting · 4 years

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Bakugou and Todoroki w/ future kids but they meet the reader first

Request: I know you just wrote the future kids thing but I never see the reverse scenario happen where the kid meets the reader. But maybe because they're young or the reader isn't with the boi (Bakugou in this case who doesn't have a hero name yet and maybe the reader doesn't either) The kid keeps saying his parents hero names until he finally runs into Bakugou. The kid didn't realize the reader was the mom until they stood next to Bakugou. - anonymous

I really enjoyed writing the future kids requests mainly because they were the cutest along side some dad requests I got recently. So I chose these two since we don’t have hero names for them and you didn’t specify any characters so yeah. If you want me to write for others please don’t hesitate to ask. Love yaa.💖💖💖

warnings: fluff, some mild panic

Bakugou Katsuki

-You had gone shopping with Tsuyu and Ochako but had parted ways when the girls had been called in from their agencies.

-Making your way back to the dorms, you were vibin along with your music when you felt a small tug at your pant leg.

-Looking down you were met with a pair of small e/c eyes staring back at you with a few stray ash blonde locks swaying along the autumn breeze.

-The little figure stared at you for a moment, a poker face adorning his features before he spoke.

- “Excuse me, do you know where the Ground Zero agency is?”

-You had never heard of such an agency and kneeling down you looked at the small boy.

- “I’m sorry sweetheart but I don’t know an agency by that name. Who are your parents? Maybe we can find them.”

-The boy looked at you with confusion and some irritation sprinkled on top, for a few moments before letting out a sigh and telling you that his parents were pro heroes.

-His mother apparently was on a mission across seas so they couldn’t really contact her but his dad, the number two hero , Ground Zero would definitely help.

-At first you thought that the boy was confused since the number two hero right now was Hawks and you didn’t know anyone by that hero name.

-And you told the boy that he was wrong but he was adamant, insisting that his daddy was number two.

-When you mentioned Hawks he titled his little head to the side and said rather matter of factly that Hawks had retired long before he was born.

-That was weird to say the least.

-With everything that the boy told you you were beyond confused and you decided to take him to Aizawa, thinking it was the best course of action.

-Offering the boy your hand he hesitantly took it saying that his mommy always said that he shouldn’t trust strangers.

- “But you look very familiar so I trust you. Kinda.”

-And with that you walked hand in hand to the dorms with the intention to find Aizawa in his room.

-Along the way however you heard yelling coming from the common room and you mentally prepared yourself for the tantrum that Katsuki must be throwing in there.

-Halting your steps you leaned down to the boy ready to prepare him for what was to come only to be met with an ecstatic little human chanting ‘daddy’ under his breath.

-His eyes were practically shinning while he was making mini hops here and there, trying to mask his excitement.

-If you were being honest he reminded you of yourself when you get fired up but his appearance practically screamed Bakugou at you.

-You have had a crush on Katsuki for some time now but you’ve attempted to drown your feelings and save yourself the humiliation and heart break.

-Key word: attempted.

- “You excited there kiddo?”

-He looked up at you with a large smile on his tiny face.

- “That sounds like my daddy! Mommy always says that shouting might be part of his quirk and every time she says that, daddy and I need to tickle her until she takes it back.”

- “Well if your father is anything like the baka you are about to meet than god help your mother.” you mumbled under your breath, the boy too excited to pay attention to you, as you pushed the door open and stepped inside.

-You made to walk to Aizawa’s room when his voice boomed through the room.

- “Oi this isn’t a nursery. What are you doing?”

- “Shut it Bakugou!’

- “Did you kidnap the kid? ‘Cause it seems that he’s trying to get away from your dumbass.”

-He wasn’t wrong.

-The boy was trying to leave your grasp that you had unconsciously tightened when you started talking with Bakugou.

-The little boy looked back at you and mouthed ‘That’s daddy!!!’ before prying your hand off of his wrist and running to the couch that Bakugou was sitting.

-He looked at the child with a scowl on his face, his eyes darting over the boys’ features noticing some resemblances to himself but also some of your characteristics.

-The kid certainly had his hair and face structure but his eyes, nose and mouth were all you.

-And don’t get him started on that cute grin he had on his face that was a carbon copy of the one you have.

-Bakugou hated to admit that he had a crush on you.

-You had caught his eye when you had roasted him during your first week of school and you two had been bickering back and forth ever since, feelings starting to develop on both sides but neither of you being brave enough to actually confess.

- “Y/N why the hell is your brother looking at me like that?”

-At that the boy snapped his head to you, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape the grin he adorned just a few seconds ago being replaced by a really confused look.

- “He’s not my brother, I found him! Now if you’ll excuse us I have to find Aizawa and clear things out.”

-The boy didn’t move an inch as you approached him, his eyes fixated on your face and as you leaned forward to grab him he wrapped both his arms around your neck and manhandled you onto the couch, making you fall on top of Katsuki.

-The blushes on your faces were legendary.

-The kid was staring at you two and suddenly jumped on top of BOTH of you making Katsuki groan.

- “Mommy, mommy i thought you were in America with auntie Mina! Why did you pretend you didn’t know me? Why is daddy so small? Where are we?”

-Bakugou was staring at the kid shooting question after question as you on the other hand were on the brink of passing out from the word mommy.

- “Oi, oi slow down. What’s your name shrimp?”

-He looked at Katsuki with a frown before roll his eyes and answering.

- “Bakugou Tatsuo you old man.”

-They had to bring you to Recovery girl because you passed out and both Bakugou men were panicking.

Todoroki Shouto

-You didn’t know what hit you really.

-You were lounging outside on your balcony enjoying the view the dorms gave you when you heard shouting from above you before you were frozen in place and a little ball of red hair came tumbling down the ice slide.

-It almost slammed against your glass door but stopped just on time, shaking the frost from the red locks.

-As the child turned to you, her eyes widened and she quickly let out a string of sorry’s as she defrosted you, messing up her words many times and confusing the r with w.

-It was the cutest thing watching this five year old at best trying to melt her ice, her chubby hands resting on the iceberg as her nose scrunched up in concentration.

-Eventually the ice melted and you were set free, rubbing your arms for some warmth as you looked at the child on your balcony more closely.

- “I’m so sorry miss, I didn’t see you!!”

- “Well you were falling from the sky so I find it logical.”

-The little girl fidgeted with her fingers looking around in pure confusion, her lower lip trembling at the unfamiliar scenery in front of her.

-Despite the clear panic in her gaze she held herself together, dawning a poker face soon after and looking at you straight in the eyes, her gaze feeling awfully familiar.

- “I’m Rei. Nice to meet you.”

-She extended her hand and you were taken aback from her manners and the fact that you were being owned by a toddler.

-Taking her small hand in yours you shake it and lead her inside, placing her on your bed and sitting across from her on your chair.

-You stared at each other for a solid five minutes before you broke the silence with some basic questions.

-How old she was, how she got here, where are her parents.

- “A kid got his quirk and things got out of hand. But my daddy will know what to do!! He’s a pro hero.”

- “Oh what’s his hero name? Maybe I can take you to him.”

- “Icyhot, he has an agency in the city but I don’t know how to get there.”

-At the sound of that name you were confused again.

-Icyhot is Bakugou’s way of mocking Todoroki, your long time crush, and as far as you know there is no hero with that name,

-As you looked at the girl again you saw some similarities with Shouto.

-The hair and the poker face along with her quirk and some of her mannerisms scream Shouto.

-Even though her hair was the same color as his, she looked like you when you were around her age.

-Pushing your confusion in the back of your mind you looked at her again.

- “Is you daddy Todoroki Shouto?”

-You wished that your first time referring to Shouto as daddy would be under him other circumstances.

- “Yes!! Do you know him??”

-Oh you knew him alright.

-Nodding you sat up and extended your hand to the little girl, who grabbed it with no hesitation, and led her out of your room.

-And so the mad hunt for Todoroki began.

-Along the way Rei would tell you all kinds of stuff and share funny situations that her and her twin sister got themselves into.

-Apperantly, Rei had a twin sister Ren and a younger sister who was recently added to the family, Ru.

-You had been running around the school grounds for like an hour and you could feel Rei getting tired as she slowed down after a while.

-She didn’t complain though. she just kept talking about her family and how her mom stayed at home for the last few weeks.

-She was the cutest thing you have seen in a fat while and you could say that you were more than jealous of her mother, whoever she was.

-As you rounded a corner your eye caught sight of a head with vibrant red and white hair.

-And there stood Todoroki in all his glory holding a little girl of his own in his arms, this one with snow white hair.

-The moment Rei saw them she made a mad sprint and literally tackled both of them to the ground, the twins hugging each other like they weren’t suffocating Shouto.

-You rushed to them, kneeling beside Shouto and prying the twins off of him, giving him a weak smile as you helped him up.

-As you two stood there, the twins looked at you and something clicked.

-Both of them smiled to themselves and hugged you, nuzzling into yor side as Todoroki stared at you.

-You all agreed to go to Aizawa or Recovery Girl to see how to get them back home.

-As you made your way to Aizawa’s office the twins were whispering to each other not as quietly as they thought.

- “Mommy is really pretty.”

- “Yeah and daddy has that smile on his face.”

-You both became a blushing mess unbeknownst to them.

-You sure as hell had a lot to talk about after this.

-And you’d finally get to call him daddy.

TAG TEAM AY:

@brattyquirks , @the-arcana-fan-fic

#todoroki shouto #shouto x reader #todoroki x reader #mha todoroki #todoroki shoto x reader #domestic todoroki #mha bakugou #bakugou x reader #domestic bakugou #bakugou #todoroki #bnha

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aflyingcontradiction · 3 years

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The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 138 - The Architecture of Fear

Elias: Don’t forget, I – (handcuffs rattling) – am still living at Her Majesty’s pleasure, due in no small part to your actions.

Leave it to England to come up with such charming euphemisms for being in prison.

Elias: Don’t forget to keep in touch, Martin. There are so many people in here, but without one’s friends… It does get rather lonely.

Oh pfff, what a time to make referential puns.

I’m sure you recall what happened with the Reform Club, but you may be unaware of some of my other experiments below the very streets of London. Places I have tried to cover with churches, of all things, in the faint hope that… perhaps the site of our Saviour will be enough to contain them. - Statement of Robert Smirke

Hm, so this is interesting, I remember a variety of churches being mentioned but the only ones I can recall right now are the one in "End of the Tunnel" and the one mentioned in connection with the People's Church but I vaguely remember there were others... man, I'm going to have to do a THIRD relisten eventually, aren't I? I keep forgetting things, there's so many small connections.

I know you say the Flesh was perhaps always there, shriveled and nascent until its recent growth, but to grant the existence of such a lesser power would throw everything into confusion. Would you have me separate the Corruption into insects, dirt, and disease? To divide the fungal bloom from the maggot?

I like that TMA explicitly brings this up because I've definitely at times gone "Hm, these seem just different enough..." I do, however, find it amusing how absolutely INCENSED Smirke is at the mere idea that someone may quibble with his categorisation of things that are, perhaps, not quite as categorisable as he would like to think.

I stop, and look up at the sky, that empty black nothing, and I see the edges of the horizon becoming a dull white. I cannot understand what I am looking at. ... And then the sky blinks.

I love the use of short simple statements like "And then the sky blinks" to create a sort of "climax" to the scenario. (I've said this before, haven't I?) It really helps paint the picture.

I have been watched for some time, now, since shortly before the dreams began. It was subtle at first, easy to ignore and dismiss. What possible harm could there be in the idle glance of a footman, staring at you as you leave your home? And no doubt the shopkeeper is permitted to watch whomsoever he pleases within the confines of his own establishment. (...) But what is not to be dismissed is when your driver, on the long road from London, takes his eyes from the horses and begins to turn his head, slowly at first, but with a clear determination, inch by inch without ceasing, neck cracking and skin stretching, until his whole head seems as though it were placed atop his shoulders in reverse by some careless sculptor. (...) Since then, I have attempted to avoid such situations, and have traveled primarily by the railway – but, even then, it seems I cannot avoid the ceaseless gaze of those silent figures who gather along the side of the track to stare at me as I pass.

So this is an absolutely terrifying image, but when we first listened to this, my partner and I were too busy joking that this is basically just the experience of taking public transport - or existing - in Germany. The German stare. It's a thing. I catch myself doing it too and I hate it. The Eye could infect the entirety of Germany and we probably wouldn't even notice the difference...

I fumbled desperately for a match, and, finding one in my nightgown, I struck it in a panic, casting a sudden light on my surroundings. Laura’s face was inches from my own, her eyes staring into mine, so wide that they seemed to take up half her face or more, bulging grotesquely from their sockets.

What can I even say about this scene except AAAAH?

My impression of this episode

The pre-statement dialogue is yet another example of Elias being compellingly bastardly and therefore rather fun to listen to. Smirke's statement is interesting in a "What does it all mean" sort of way, but much of it wasn't particularly memorable, though the image of Smirke being "watched" by the coachman and his daughter really, really was. And the confirmation that Martin is at least attempting to do some sort of double-agent-y thing was an important moment.

#tma relisten #the magnus archives

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kastle09 · 3 years

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Principles: States of Play and Transition

This is a new sub category of articles describing very fundamental topics of how I think about games in a very abstract manner. As different as fighting games are in mechanics and scope, once you strip those things away what's left to observe are the underlying aspects. I wanted to talk about concepts that have application to any fighting game you play.

It's definitely something that you feel more than you can describe to someone so in that vein I want to articulate a new concept which I will describe as “The States of Play”. If you really boil down to it, at any point in a round I believe you are placed into one of five states.

The 5 States

The five states are as follows:

True Neutral - When neither player has advantage and neither is forced to initiate

Offense in Neutral - When neither player has advantage but you have to initiate.

Defense in Neutral - When neither player has advantage and your opponent needs to initiate.

Offense in Pressure - When you have advantage and have a set offensive plan

Defense in Pressure - When the opponent has advantage and you need a set defensive plan

Understanding which state you are currently in can inform your decision making and recognise what options are currently available to you and which aren’t.

True, Offensive and Defensive Neutral

Neutral gets used as an all encompassing word, but it can be broken down further as even if both players are playing “in neutral”, they aren’t always concentrating on the same aspects.

For instance a player who is Defensive in Neutral has more of a mind for things like Anti Airs, Dash checking, Defensive whiff punishing etc

Conversely a player who is offensively minded is looking for opportunities such as dash pressure, spacing traps, jump/divekick pressure etc.

All of these tools at a players disposal encompass neutral but which you are focused on and which you can kind of ignore because the state of the game can be dependent on a variety of factors.

I'd say it's actually quite rare where the state of play is truly neutral (for reasons I will go into soon) and in fact the shifting to one of the other types happens quite quickly whether it's due to health differences, meter advantage or character toolset.

When understanding what state of neutral you are in it, it helps to ask yourself the question:

“If the timer ticks down, and the neutral continues to be played in this way, who will win first?”

So let's look at some scenarios and apply this question.

Scenario 1: Mirror match, Life Lead

Let's say it's a mirror match but one player has a life lead on another. Just based purely on attrition as each side whittles the other down evenly, the player with the life lead is going to win as they just have more of a resource to maintain the status quo.

Therefore the onus is on the opponent to try and make something happen and initiate to change that variable.

Scenario 2: Grappler vs Zoner

So in a scenario where a character has a clear advantage over the other in neutral we can tell as soon as the round start bell rings, The character more dominant in neutral is automatically assigned to be “Neutrally Defensive” and the opponent is “Neutrally Offensive”.

The example of a grappler vs zoner archetype represents this in the extremes by the fact that often the grappler does not want to spend any more time in neutral then is required whereas a zoner is the opposite of that.

But now let's say it's later into a match and through exchanges the grappler has a life lead over the opponent, even though the zoner is stronger in neutral, They can no longer win by trading the same way.

Now we are in a scenario where the onus is on the zoner to initiate and the grappler is allowed to let the opponents come to them. The roles of each player are now reversed.

Scenario 3: Playstyles affect

This time, instead of thinking in terms of character, we are going to look at it in terms of how the players themselves can affect this dynamic.

If a person naturally tends towards being more offensive regardless of the matchup or resources at present he is evidently forcing an opponent into the compliment.

Think about a lot of beginner or intermediate level matches where it's common to give the advice to “let the opponent hang themselves”.

In other words, if they are taking all the risks, we don’t have to do anything but play reactionary and punish the over commitment. The reason that kind of blanket advice is effective despite matchups is the opponent is clearly not playing the matchup so it is no longer relevant.

Having said that, characters can still have an effect on playstyle match ups. Let's imagine a match between two defensively minded players who carry identical skill sets and play styles but one player has a character much more suited for that type of play then the other.

Just because the character has the tools to play strongly in that way, even if each player gets the same opportunities in neutral and captalise on them identically, the output of the stronger neutral character may be unequivocally higher than the other just because that character is able to produce more in each scenario. Either the opponent has to work even harder for the same reward or move to a different approach, one more suited to the character strengths.

Pressure as the Attacker and Defender

When I use the term “pressure” what I really just mean is spots where one player has frame advantage over the other. These are spots that just mean someone has an advantage and therefore definitively, Someone is attacking to maintain or get value from the situation and the other has to defend and escape.

As we know, there are a number of situations that this could represent but surprisingly, the decision making can be remarkably similar depending on the game. “A +2 situation by any other name would smell as sweet” you might say.

For instance in Street Fighter, a knockdown and an air reset after an anti air are remarkably similar situations even if we don’t internalise it as such. In both spots the rock - paper - scissors game of meaty vs throw vs shimmy is identical.

What's even more interesting is it's a spot where a player's default decision making can be so different despite that similarity. Someone may play close attention to how they act on wake up but autopilot during air resets for example. The biggest difference that sets these scenarios apart from neutral offense and defense is that it's far less free form. Usually there will always be a selection of very specific “correct” responses that each player needs to select from. This is a big benefit to players who thrive in making players ask the hard questions, shoving a multiple choice question in your face, that if you get wrong they get damage, oki and the ability to shove another one in your face.

If neutral is a mind game of intentions that leave a backdoor to remaining safe, A pressure scenario is like reaching the end of the poker hand, the River card has just been flipped and each player has to show their cards and live with the decision (There you are Cam, that was for you).

The Transition

So now that we have talked about the states, the final thing I want to touch on is how these interact when we have to quickly switch from one state to another and there are a couple of things to note. You will notice that however a player is playing in neutral (defensively or offensively), either situation can produce a pressure situation that gives them advantage. Whether I offensively whiff punished by setup or baited an opponent into over extension defensively the result has led to the same Attacking pressure. What this tells us is states aren’t linked in a circle only leading from one to the next. It's possible for these transition to happen from any state to any other in the flash if the opportunity presents itself.

I don't have to be aggressive to get an advantageous position; in other words.

The other interesting thing about this transition phase is the psychological aspect it presents, with particular focus on the difficulty of task switching. It's something that becomes most apparent when you watch someone play vs when you actually have to play yourself.

Think how much easier it is to anti air when nothing happens in the few seconds prior, vs when you have just whiffed a button.

What you may feel as an obvious error is actually a really difficult skill that needs to be trained and its difficulty can be explained when your brain had to transition from a state you were thinking about opening someone up to then having to mentally switch to defending in neutral.

In Football(Soccer), there is a well known concept that one of the times a player is most vulnerable is when they have just gained possession of the ball.

They have just expended energy in the challenge, still trying to get the ball under control, and haven't fully grasped where other players are on the pitch (teammates and opponents alike).

Tactics have been developed specifically on speedily identifying and defending in a manner to panic the player on the ball and regain position as quickly as possible and the same is true for fighting games, as possession in soccer is analogous to gaining the plus frame advantage once again.

Conclusion

It's an interesting experiment to see if when you play you can identify the states for your game. Not every game has the same neutral, or attacking defending options, but I think the broad strokes are there whether it be traditional 2D, anime, 3D or teams.

This is a concept that I'll probably refine in future as I consider it more and if I need to include or trim anything so if you have any thoughts Id like to hear them and improve what is this first draft on the States of Play in fighting games.

#esports #fighting game #theory #fundamental

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clansayeed · 4 years

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Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ― Chapter 25: The Faceless

PAIRING: Kamilah Sayeed x MC (Nadya Al Jamil) RATING: Mature

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Destiny II, part 1 ⥽

While struggling with nightmares of lives she’s never lived, a shadow from the past looming over her city, and the proposed idea that her life may just be a little bit too weird to handle alone, Nadya makes sure to tell herself that everything is perfect just the way it is. If only. When the self-proclaimed King of Vampires (and Maker of her sometimes-girlfriend and always-boss, can’t forget that little tidbit) Gaius Augustine returns intent on claiming Manhattan as the throne that was promised, she and her friends find themselves forced into the task of saving the world. But with millennia-old vampires and an Order of hunters on their heels as well as allies hiding catastrophic secrets at their backs… it won’t be an easy task. Too bad destiny didn’t exactly ask for her input.

Bound by Destiny II and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing dramatic retelling project of the Bloodbound series and spin-off, Nightbound. Find out more [HERE].

TAG LIST: @googlesentmehere, @cess02

*Let me know if you would like to be added to the Destiny II tag list!

⥼ Chapter Summary ⥽

A shocking confession leaves Nadya confused and Serafine on edge. But now isn't the time for them to be divided. When a hidden threat makes itself known, the only way they're getting out of the City alive is together... or not at all.

[READ IT ON AO3]

“Cynbel, please let her go.”

It’s not her lack of oxygen that has them on edge. Serafine is a vampire, she doesn’t need to breathe. But something about the sight of her slender neck and how fragile it looks in his broad palm makes Nadya — at the very least — starkly aware of how easily he could separate her head from the rest of her.

Jax is still as stone in her periphery but Nadya hears the all-too-familiar hiss of his katana handle dislodging from the sheath. That very sound has saved her life more than a fair few times but now, of all times, it only fills her with dread.

“Don’t Jax — he doesn’t…” she wishes she hadn’t looked back to see Serafine’s nails digging long red grooves into the pale arm that holds her captive; it’ll haunt her for years to come, “he doesn’t…”

What? He doesn’t know what he’s doing? That’s too tall a tale, one even Nadya herself can’t muster the energy to believe. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

She took everything from him. He’s just returning the favor.

“This isn’t what I wanted… if I had known… if someone had told me this is what I’d learn…”

Nadya almost throws her heart up on the ballroom floor. “Cadence?”

Nothing makes sense. Nothing made sense when she woke up the first day she knew vampires were a real, actual thing and they just haven’t made sense every hour of every day following. Even more now when she takes into account where she is — what she is notwithstanding. And all this happening right in front of her isn’t the exception.

But she knows what it looks like when Cadence is… overtaken by something out of his control. It doesn’t look like this.

With literally no confidence in what she’s doing or that she’ll survive the sheer idiocy of the attempt Nadya starts slowly moving towards them.

Adrian practically chokes. “Nadya—what are you doing?”

“Get the fuck over here—” hisses Lily, too. But the only one who actually does anything is Jax. Classic Action Man.

“Don’t you d—” Jax’s words get cut off, like most angry declarations do, when the back of Nadya’s hand collides with his face. Not that it was her complete intention but it does the trick and gets him to back away. Still she can feel him fuming behind her; hear the full whistle of his sword meeting the open ballroom air and every time his teeth grind together as he thinks up new ways to drag her back just as she ends up too far out of his reach.

“I can do this.” Nadya reassures them, even if she sounds a little meek doing it.

There has never been a point in her entire life where Nadya was taller than the next average human. She has a dozen more things wrong with her to have a complex about; her height is not one of them. But standing at his back Nadya can’t help but feel smaller than she really is. He’s not just tall now, is he? He’s weighed down with thousands of years and no guilt to speak of.

No, Cadence isn’t. Remember that… she has to remember that.

Steeling herself, Nadya reaches up and out with a hand that has no business being that steady when she’s ready to jump out of her own skin… and lays her palm on his back. Even she’s surprised when she sighs in relief. Nothing’s changed yet; Serafine looks ready to claw him down to the bone in the next second or two. But somehow Nadya just knows this isn’t the nightmare scenario they really should have prepared for.

“I’m sorry I called you Cynbel. You’re not him, Cade.”

“On the contrary.”

Nadya’s brow furrows with resolve. “Let her go.”

“Why should I?” before Nadya can even open her mouth, “This is who I’m supposed to be, isn’t it? This is what’s expected of me…”

Serafine’s hands fly to her neck, wiggling two—three fingers in a gap that definitely wasn’t there before. She’s getting through to him. Weirdly, and pretty much solely on luck at this point, but she is.

She takes a moment, puts on her brave face, and presses her hand down hard enough for him to actually feel her touch.

“But is it what you want to do?”

She’s waiting for him to speak when she sees it; the barest flicker of his head from side to side. Whatever came over him to begin with is sucked out into the void just as fast. Cadence recoils far across the room before Serafine’s knees even hit the ground.

Adrian’s at her side immediately. “You’re okay… you’re okay…” Crooning in her ear, kissing the droplets of sweat from her temples and holding her so tight Nadya can see the strain of it on his muscles from here but if their situations were reversed… well she doesn’t comment, leave it at that.

“Adrian —” the woman hiccoughs his name; like there’s no other word that could even compare, “— Adrian I…”

“It’s okay. You’re safe.”

“Non, mon amour… none of us are.”

Serafine’s in good hands — some of the best and Nadya has personal testimony to back her case. But she still lied, and some part of Nadya can’t help but wonder what else she’s hiding behind the psychic walls she knows about and maybe the ones still there just out of her conscious reach. So she doesn’t feel any guilt about turning away from them and running across the room, leaping over broken hunks of wood and a few husks of armor until she’s skidding on her knees along the flagstones to where Cadence sits, huddled. His knees pressed to his chest and a not-so-strange emptiness in his eyes staring through her, rather than at her.

Nadya’s watched herself in the mirror too many times not to know what a panic attack looks like. Immortal or not.

“I’m not him — I’m not him I swear —”

“I know you’re not.”

“But I am. Somewhere I can’t reach — like an itch inside of me and all it takes it one little scratch and suddenly — suddenly I don’t know where I am, or what I’ve done, and there’s always so much blood…”

She tries to laugh it off, “well you are a vampire…” but that’s not helping so probably best to pretend that didn’t happen.

Sometimes all that can be done is nothing at all. So Nadya just sits there. Pulls her own legs up against her chest (though that’s more to keep warm than anything) and rests her chin on her knees while Cadence mumbles whatever he needs to tell himself to calm down. Some of it she recognizes; a litany chant of “I’m not him, I’m not him, I’m not him,” while others are languages she’s heard but doesn’t know, and a few she’s doubtful have been languages for a long time.

Twice Nadya glances over her shoulder and through her hair to check on the others. The first time Adrian and Serafine are right where she left them. The next; they’re gone. Jax and Lily are either too smart or think she’s too dumb to be left with him on her own and, sure, that’s fair. But hopefully the smile she tries to offer them conveys just how much they really mean to her.

A loud thud makes Nadya jump in her boots. Whirling her head around to see Cadence finally easing up in his limbs and a large crack in the stone where the crown of his head decided to take a break. Besides his closed eyes and absolutely no breathing whatsoever, though, he seems relatively unharmed. Physically, anyway.

But he’ll talk when he’s ready. She just waits. and waits. and has an awful lot of time to think about certain things while she’s waiting and none of them are exactly pleasant. Unfortunately the stretching silence is more than ample opportunity for Nadya to finally understand exactly what happened back there.

She kinda wishes she hadn’t.

When Nadya finally looks up again she’s met with the familiar sharp scrutiny of Cadence’s stare. Small blessings. But unfortunately that means no more waiting around.

“You know… don’t you.”

A long, stretched silence. Like Cadence would rather have waited out the decades it took for Nadya to grow old and wither and die just so he wouldn’t have to give her an answer.

Maybe that’s why she’s so surprised that he actually does. His voice so quiet; a whisper on the wind.

“I had my suspicions.”

“Since when?”

His eyes narrow in a glare. “Oh, not long. Just since Valdas showed up on my office doorstep with a bouquet of orchids in one hand and dinner reservations in the other. So… late May, early June?”

“Alright, cool it Sassmaster General. It’s a valid question.”

“… Fair enough. There’s a litany of other small things… ones that could be coincidence on their own but trying to call them that when put together just made me realize I wanted to stay ignorant. Can’t really do that now though, can I?”

Nadya can’t help the frown tugging at the corners of her lips. “Then… why ask me to help you figure it out? Why come all the way upstate to tell me I’m your ‘last chance?’”

Amused, Cadence huffs a wheezing, heartless little laugh. “Because that’s exactly what you were. I never lied — I swear to you on that. But so long as there was even the slightest lack of proof… so long as Kamilah Sayeed bit her tongue in her fear rather than confront me, or Valdas skirted around real truths and didn’t actually know what happened during the War; I could pretend all the signs pointing to me… were meant for someone else.”

With a long groan Nadya leans back, propped up with her palms on the dusty floor and head angled up to the dark-stained ceiling. “Well that’s… great.”

He arches a thick brow. “What is?”

“Oh, you know… Listening to you has me realizing that I owe pretty much everyone in my life giant apology fruit baskets when all this is over.” Rolling her head back to attention; “Because if I sounded half that delusional I have literally no idea how they put up with me.”

It’s more meant to settle her nerves than anything else but hey, the fact it gets the barest quirk of a smile out of him is just a bonus.

“I’m lucky there. Most of the time it’s only Kathy who has to. And she’s contractually obligated, so…”

“Yeah, but she’d be there anyway.”

“You know… I don’t think you’re wrong there.”

His dry laughter doesn’t last long. In fact, it dies out right in the middle — like a scratched record. Nadya looks up to see something pained crossing over Cadence’s expression, making him bite at his lower lip until he’s wiping blood from his chin before it stains his sweater.

“What do you know about him, Nadya?”

She doesn’t need to ask who.

Cadence finally looks her in the eyes again and immediately Nadya wishes he hadn’t. The pain bleeds from him into her soul in scalding waves of despair. “Have you shared in any of his memories? I’m… I’m so sorry if you have. Because from everything I could uncover, he was not the kind of man that someone like yourself would want to get to know. Not in the intimate way the Bloodkeeper can.”

“‘Someone like myself?’”

“Someone good. Someone kind, and caring, and empathetic, and filled with a desire to put their goodness out into the world and who always seeks out the chance to do better — to be better.”

And doesn’t that make her laugh. Nadya can’t really help it.

“Well that’s kind of loaded. You make me sound like some kinda altruistic angel. I’m definitely not.”

“You are compared to him,” the vampire insists; so fiercely and like the louder he speaks the more she’ll believe him — in a way she kind of does, “hell—everyone is compared to him. That’s what it looks like when you put an ordinary person side by side with a monster.”

Nadya thinks back; back to the memory Valdas had used her to relive, to the portraits hanging in the Musea Sanguis and in Marcel’s library, and then back farther still. To things she doesn’t remember—couldn’t be remembering, not with her own mind—times of strange, chaotic confusion. Where the rest of the world was full of noise but muted; empty and hollow and devoid of the things Nadya filled her existence with the most.

Life. Longing. Laughter. Love.

Them.

And all of it gone. No, not gone… something can’t be gone if it never existed in the first place. That’s what makes their arrival so jarring; so violent. Like a knife to her middle and the blade is made of something she needed but could only accept in a terrible, traumatizing way.

Before she knows it, Nadya’s crying. And not even Serafine’s kind of silent, lovely tears either; where she’s shrieking like a banshee but still somehow perfectly pristine. She’s heaving sobs and holding her sweater sleeves to her nose to keep from looking like a snot monster and thank god Cadence is there to hold her glasses to keep her tears from staining them all up. But they sting and burn in her eyes and she misses them so—so much it hurts—so much it’s going to crush her—so much she would rather be anything but conscious if it keeps her from feeling the ache of being apart from them—

He waits until all that awfulness is reduced down to, like, a two to hand Nadya back her glasses. She takes them gratefully, voice thick with a stuffy nose, and wishes there was any way in the world she could play this off as cool.

“Do you want to…”

“It wasn’t me,” Nadya clarifies before Cadence can even get the question out, “I mean… it was me, but it wasn’t… me. Anyway that doesn’t matter.”

He looks doubtful. Glances at something over her shoulder and Nadya’s sure she looks like a real mess but she’s grateful, for once, not to have someone else to shoulder her burdens. They’re never going away. She needs to learn to deal with them by herself too.

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure,” —a beat— “about that. But I’m not sure about what’s gonna happen going forward.”

His shoulders slump. “Right. Because I…”

“… attacked her, yeah.” Nadya groans and pinches the bridge of her nose. “We really have to stop trying to die before we even make it back up top.” We’re doing Gaius’ work for him.

“It won’t happen again, I assure you.”

Now it’s her turn to look doubtful. Cadence takes it in stride though; like a good trooper. “Honestly,” he continues to insist, “I… will admit I was a little out of sorts back there but, no offense, she’d done the very thing I was hoping no one would ever do.”

“And how can we be sure you won’t…” What’s a nice way to mime slamming one of the most powerful vampires in the world into the wall like she was a rag doll?

“Ah,” he clicks his tongue, suddenly unable to look Nadya in the eyes, “I see what you mean. Well luckily… there’s a simple way to avoid all of that trouble. I don’t fight, I don’t black out.”

Simple, he says, and even shrugs his shoulders like they’re talking about the freakin’ weather, or what to order for appetizers. And very much not about his tendency to go Ultimate Street Fighter on anyone who so much as looks at him the wrong way when he’s like that.

Though… it does tug on a few lightbulbs in her head. “When you saved us in the alley… that was you…”

He nods and finishes it for her; “— avoiding conflict, yes. As far as I can tell, brains over brawn is the best way to go. It doesn’t always happen; my blackouts. But there’s always the risk.”

Nadya sucks her bottom lip between her teeth. “And… if it were to accidentally happen anyway?”

She really doesn’t like the way Cadence’s face falls. At least he’s being honest though…

“As far as I’m aware, and I use the term loosely, Kathy is the only one who can bring me out of those… fits.”

“‘Fits’ being flashes of Cy—” But there’s suddenly a hand over her mouth that’s keeping her from saying the name. Cadence levels a stern frown right in her eyes. The intensity of it both jarring and a little cool at the same time.

“Please… for my sake, and yours, and probably everyone’s. Don’t… don’t say his name.”

“Just in case?”

“Just in case.”

Okay that’s… maybe half of one of their problems solved. Nadya can only hope that wherever Adrian and Serafine are they’re talking, you know with their mouths, and not… anything else. Adrian would vouch for him, right? He knows Cadence pretty well — he’s always at least liked the guy.

Cadence offers Nadya a hand and helps her up. All the color drains from her face in that exact moment; which is just bad timing more than anything.

“Are you alright?” he asks, that same concerned frown back in place like it had never left.

“Yup, peachy keen.”

Note to self!! Do not bring up Adrian’s weird One Nighter with the Bad Guys!!!

When the pair come back up on Lily and Jax, her friends exchange dual looks of ‘yeah, we’re not buying this.’ And it’s sweet — they’re sweet. The best friends a girl could ask for, really. Well… a best friend and a loose acquaintance who happened to be handy with a super sharp sword.

Before they can say anything though Nadya holds up her hands and takes the floor for her own. “Yeah, it’s weird — and yeah there’s a lot that still needs figuring out. But he’s still Cade, he’s still our friend… he’s just more our friend on the sidelines than our friend on the front lines. At least until we get back up to the surface and find this stupid Tree. Okay?”

Neither of them respond. Not an option. “I said o—kay?”

Lily sighs and nods… then leans in none-too-subtly. “This isn’t a Voldemort-and-Quirrell thing, is it?”

And Nadya can say it is with full confidence that she shakes her head. “Think Jekyll and Hyde.”

“You know I can hear you, right?”

They look up into Cadence’s not-at-all amused frown. Well… at least some things were kind of normal still.

Or they were.

Until a loud, hollow groan echoes across every wall and ceiling beam she can see.

GGGGHHHHHHRRRRRR…

Lily (rightfully, even if it stings) glances down at Nadya’s stomach. She throws her arm over it self-consciously. More than a little offended but fear is rapidly overtaking every other emotion she’s capable of.

“Was that —”

“No!”

GGGGGGGHHHHHHRRRRRR…

“Are you s—”

“It wasn’t my stomach, Lil’.”

Who groans beside her. “You couldn’t have pretended with me for like… a minute?” Touche.

GGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHRRRRRRNNNN…

By the third time nobody is moving. Necks craned up to the rafters, flashlights moving this way and that desperate to find the source. Even though, by that third time, they all know a universal truth.

That the noise—whatever it may be (that isn’t Revenge of the Canned Beans)—is way too loud to be coming from inside the Manor.

But not too loud to be echoing on repeat around the cavern just beyond the door.

Way to go Nadya. You just had to jinx it!

Like a group of teenage mystery solvers their gangs collide smack dab in the middle of the front foyer. Adrian and Serafine on one end, Nadya and the gang on the other; and for a brief moment the eerie howling in the distance is forgotten in the face of their more recent… revelations.

Serafine reaches up to her throat unconsciously. The sight makes Cadence swallow and avert his eyes.

“Bigger problems, guys.” Nadya stresses; emphasis on the stress.

Adrian’s frown deepens. “You heard it too then?”

“How could you not?” Jax looks to the gaping space that used to be the front doors as he says it. They’ve barely given it a thought since their arrival. But now… all Nadya can see is a giant hole in their defenses.

Tch, what defenses?

Nobody asked you.

All together (though with Serafine pointedly on one end and Cadence on the other — no complaints here) they empty out of the King’s Manor and into the cavern. The damp air leaves a chalky taste on her tongue, but taste isn’t the sense she needs most right now.

No one moves.

No one speaks.

Nadya doesn’t even give herself the luxury to breathe.

Finally, Lily breaks the silence; raising her voice to be heard over the nearby waterfall. “I can’t tell if I’m just hearing the echo in my head or…”

“I don’t understand…” While the rest of them look around aimlessly for any sign of the disturbing noise’s source, Serafine knows these caverns well. Eagle-eyed her head darts this way and that; locking on to the staircase they arrived from as well as others in the dark too dim for Nadya to see.

Jax scoffs. “What’s not to understand?”

“The Knights collapsed the old districts during their purge. Our path was the way through which I escaped; but the rest have been sealed off ever since.”

“But isn’t there even the slightest chance one of the tunnels could have been discovered?” asks Adrian, whose shoulders slump when she shakes her head.

“Non, not this far down.”

GGGGGGGHHHHHHRRRRRR…

Nadya’s stomach sinks. No matter where they look it all rings the same. The noise is coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once; reverberating through the stone until it isn’t just one sound, but a legion.

This time, Jax doesn’t wait until it fades to voice his frustrations. “Maybe back then it would have been, but we can’t rule anything out.”

“You think we did not anticipate the City lasting through centuries of innovation?”

“Well I sure don’t think a bunch of Dark Ages scavengers anticipated the light bulb.”

“Jax —”

“No, Adrian, he’s right.”

“I don’t recall asking your opinion, Monsieur D’or.”

Senseless arguing. The untraceable growl like an ever-present white noise. It all fades to wordless noise; something Nadya can hear but doesn’t take the time to process.

And through the cacophony of it all she hones in on one sound.

Dainty, whimsical laughter.

She looks back over her shoulder to the Manor’s depths. It suddenly seems so dark inside, which makes sense seeing as they—and their flashlights—are all out here. But the cavern has a natural glow to it. Phosphorescent mushrooms, maybe. Or the way their LEDs catch and sparkle all the way down the waterfall overhead.

It makes the way back in look like a yawning abyss. Beckoning her, calling out for Nadya and her alone.

She allows her feet to carry her back inside; trusts them to guide her to where she needs to be. Every step forward and the laughter grows louder — is joined by the ancient whine of a bow on strings and the pipes whistling in the background. Music fit for a grand party.

Nadya surprises even herself when she isn’t startled by the movement out of the corner of her eye. Maybe because she’s pretty sure at this point her eyes are about as untrustworthy as the rest of her senses. This is a memory. She’s certain of that. What she isn’t certain of, though, is to whom the memory belongs.

Their group is small; no more than five or so, all dressed in dark and rich fabrics and all wearing some form of mask. She only sees half a face; nothing more… and nothing less. Odd, translucent figures flit around them like they exist in some kind of bubble but those never last. Other than Nadya they are the only ones in the foyer but that’s in the here and now. Wherever they really are — whenever they really are — they are huddled away from curious attentions.

The closest figure to her is a man with eyes hidden with a more traditional mask design. If only that did something for bottom half of his face turned down into a frown so sour Nadya feels her own lips start to twitch.

“There’s an awful lot of Faceless here tonight,” says the sour-faced man; turning his nose up at party guests Nadya can’t see, “I would not have wasted my time with such a disparaging lack of prestige.”

Nadya’s brow wrinkles in confusion. Whatever that means. But by the way his entourage reacts he’s speaking boldly and way out of line.

“Really, Marquis?” asks one of his entourage in scandalous whisper.

“I would think not showing your face would be far worse.”

“Indeed.”

“Yes, yes.” Agreement ripples out among them in hushed tones. Nadya can’t see his eyebrows behind the mask covering his forehead but his eyes are definitely narrowed.

“So quick to judge me — yet I’m eager to see how many of you survive the waltz with such slim pickings!”

A woman passes by close enough for Nadya to imagine the tickle of lace trimming on the back of her hand. The Marquis’ crowd parts, unbidden, and allows her to settle at his side. Somehow Nadya knows before the woman even opens her mouth that she is the source of the ghostly laughter that drew Nadya in.

She regards the Marquis with cool expression defined in a waxing crescent of thin silver plating contoured perfectly to her every curve. The gathering shifts dynamics. No longer do they hang on every scathing insult from the Marquis. They would much rather hear what she has to say.

“Indeed Marquis,” comes her soft reply; her voice melodic and darkly alluring, “I share your sentiments. Of course, with the weight of prestige carried by one such as yourself you must not be worried about the inevitable tilt in scales this night.”

The Marquis bristles. Nadya’s arms break out in gooseflesh.

“And what makes the great Duchess say as such?”

“Why my dear Marquis; they do, of course.”

The Duchess points a slender, silk-gloved finger towards the doors leading to the ballroom. She, the Marquis, his adoring fan club — they all turn to witness the arrival of someone Nadya doesn’t get to see. Whoever it is exists outside of what’s left of this memory.

They vanish all at once; the candle blown out by a wind both real and not that carries around Nadya and leaves her… wrathful? No, that isn’t quite the word she’s looking for. Whatever it is it’s something she’s never felt before — and that’s probably not a good thing.

The only thing that comes close is—

“There you are.”

Relief washes the worry away from Adrian’s face when he sees her. If she wasn’t still trying to put a word to this new experience of hers she’d probably echo the sentiment. But her stomach aches — like physically, painfully aches — and she has to rub her palms into her eyes as a wave of exhaustion makes him go temporarily fuzzy.

Hands fall protective on her shoulders. “Please don’t wander off like that again, Nadya…” And for a man without breath he sure sounds like it was punched out of him.

“Sorry.” But it isn’t a sincere apology as much as it is an automatic response. Nadya knows it; worse still Adrian knows it. His grip tightens ever so slightly.

“Adrian?”

“Did you find her?!”

“We’re… in here.” He calls out to answer, and not a moment later the others file into the parlor with varied degrees of relief.

They’re her friends. They care about her. So why does the sight of their faces fill her with a passionate rage?

Something is very very wrong.

“Who are the Faceless?”

A muscle tenses in Serafine’s jaw. The brief, accusatory glance she throws Cadence’s way is about as subtle as a bullhorn.

“Where did you hear that name?”

“That’s not an answer. Who are they?”

On either side of her, Adrian and Lily exchange looks of surprise — and mutually melt into concern. Sure, Nadya will fully own up to the curt, harsh tone she has right now but if they knew what she was feeling… if they could understand even a fraction of the pain roiling in her belly right now they might just be a little testy too.

Realization dawns on the psychic’s face way too slow for Nadya’s current temperament.

“You saw something… a memory.” —and is that a flicker of fear hiding in those eyes?— “What — or who — did you see?”

“Answer the fucking question.”

“Nadya.” And she’s acting like a jerk; she knows that. But the bewildered way Lily accuses her with her own name feels like a knife to the chest.

“What?!”

“No — that’s my question. What is the matter with you?”

Nadya opens her mouth — she can feel a whole litany of insults and jibes right there on the tip of her tongue — so she bites down hard enough to break skin to keep them buried where they belong.

“I—I don’t know…” her words muddled around the stinging cut, “I… I just…”

I’m so…

Dammit! What word is she looking for?!

“The Faceless were the lowest tier of our society,” answers Serafine; finally, “and by all accounts they were the majority of them as well. By our rankings they were forbidden to wear a mask — a status symbol — that would show their face. To do so was a grave insult, with graver consequences.”

“Tch…” Jax shakes his head minutely. “Ridiculous…”

“Think what you will. But they were the foot soldiers the night of the purge; the first to die… for their betters.”

Faceless.

Nameless.

Ageless.

The Manor is suddenly maddeningly quiet.

“Hundreds of them…” she whispers, “hundreds on either side. He hated being seen with them, near them, even far away. What does it matter though? Hundreds of them and he outranked them all… There aren’t enough bodies.”

Cadence sucks in a breath; his teeth clenched. He’s gone pale; as dead on the outside as he technically is inside. “There aren’t enough bodies…” he repeats, each word weighed on his tongue heavy with truth.

The rest of them join him as the historian spins in a wild circle rooted in place. They had pushed the skeletons and their armor aside after that first walk through the Manor’s main passages. It kept them from tripping over scattered bones in the dark. It kept them from having to think about the weight of lost life.

It wasn’t the Marquis’ laughter that drew her back inside.

Nadya looks down at her trembling hands and chokes on her own scream.

The sight is enough to send her into a terrified frenzy. The bulging twisting spiderwebs of black that were now her veins, of greying skin so fragile it feels paper-thin, of talons yellowing with age and crusted with layers upon layers of dried blood…

Forcing a ragged sob through her chest is the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. Like pushing a mountain through a molehill, or mouthfuls of blood down her gullet where her hungry eyes were too big for her stomach. “Getthemoffme —” she shrieks, “— getthemoffmegetthemoffGETTHEMOFF!”

She’ll do it herself if they won’t. Teary, bloodshot eyes falling on the sword just out of reach but strong arms stop her in her tracks; hold her back, stop her from getting rid of these awful—rotting hands—

“NADYA!”

Lily’s always been able to scream louder than her. So loud the echo of it rings high-pitched in her ears long after her best friend has stopped shouting her name. She clutches Nadya’s hands with her own; a horrifying sight. And no matter how hard she pulls Lily doesn’t let go. Adrian doesn’t release her from the captivity of his embrace.

The chill of Lily’s smooth skin burrows a home in her muscles and bones. She squeezes them tightly; bordering on real pain. But nothing is more painful than what’s to come.

“Nadi’…” the way Lily says her name; thick and haggard and with wet tears on her lips, “Nadi’ you’re scaring the shit out of me…”

Good! “Don’t look—don’t look at them. Don’t Lil’ don’t…”

“At what —” her eyes widen in understanding, “— at your hands? Nadya, look.”

She blinks back her tears, her apologies, her pleas of desperation… and sees nothing but her own hands — clammy and shaking but so very human — cradled in Lily’s tender care.

“I don’t… I don’t understand.”

“They’re just hands, baby girl.”

“No—no they were…” But were they, really?

Nadya keens and doubles over as another wave of something tears through her middle. Her legs are ready to give out. Adrian—bless him—is the only thing holding her up now, so she accepts it and sags against his chest too exhausted to move.

Adrian presses a tender kiss to her temple. His lips like a cool palm against her feverish fit of pique. But he’s shaking, filled with a fear all his own. He can’t swallow it down forever.

“Serafine,” he pleads against the shell of Nadya’s ear, “help her… please.”

It’s kind of him to ask, Nadya thinks wistfully, even if it’s too late. Three hundred years—left behind left in the dark—made to flee from the fire—abandoned forgotten sacrificed—scouring endless paths for even a drop enough to slake the thirst—forced to guzzle down the same taint in shared blood over and over and over again—too late.

She can hear Serafine’s somber voice, muffled through the skin tight and calloused over her eardrums. If only Nadya remembered words enough to know what she’s saying.

Words… Finally, an eternity later; she has the right word to describe the pain.

“She feels empty.”

They left her there. Insolent, vainglorious things — and they just left her. Abandoned her despite her prestige, despite her beauty and wit and charm; condemned her to twist and wither both alone and surrounded by her kind.

They let this happen to her. They let her delicate hands warp into talons and did nothing to stop her alabaster skin from greying with disease. They were content to forget her while her long hair falls out in clumps, while her own bone tries to break free from her skin and mars her with protrusions like horns for lack of success.

They honored her in wretched memory. As her youth peeled away, sinking in and hollowing out, until what they remembered and what was left was no longer the same. Until all that was left was an insatiable hunger. A starvation that consumed her — mind, body, and soul.

Her only companion… an emptiness inside.

Until now.

There aren’t enough bodies among the dead. Where did they go?

Stumbling—staggering—starving. Scrambling endlessly through winding passages, surviving on the eternal cycle of their Taint. Unable to find freedom in the tangible darkness.

They didn’t go anywhere. They never left.

Outside the ancient and hallowed walls of the King’s Manor, the horde growls. Louder than before; and now—knowing what they know—far more menacing.

“Lily,” Adrian reacts quickly, motioning for the younger vampire to help him as they both take up on either side of Nadya, their combined strength and her arms over their shoulders practically lifting her off her feet.

“We’re too exposed here. We need to get deeper inside.”

And judging by his tone he knows that his suggestion is less than ideal. But what other choice do they have?

“Do we have any idea how many there could be?”

“Don’t look at me. Those two were the ones here when it happened.”

“Technically —”

“Yeah, I included you in this. Don’t gimme that look.”

“No doubt there were a fair few of those left behind who thought Turning the enemy would be a final insult… but all it takes is one of those vile creatures to breed a swarm.”

There’s a long pause. Then— “Trust me,” says Adrian, “I’ve seen it firsthand.”

Lily wasn’t there that night. At the Musea. She had the pleasure of roughing up Nicole, not going head to head with the things vampire horror stories are made about.

“So… theoretically. How good are our chances?”

Adrian chooses not to answer; and in that moment even the tiniest flicker of optimism is snuffed out.

They regrouped in a second-floor parlor of some kind. Filled with more burned wood than the rest of the Manor and a misshapen, disfigured lump in the corner Nadya comes to realize is a pile of painting canvases. Stacked one on top of the other then set ablaze. Though the smell of oil and paint has long since seeped into the wood, potent enough to make her feel a little woozy, they don’t have any immediate plans to father elsewhere.

This parlor is the only one with a window facing the network of tunnels leading far to the north of Paris. Their only way out.

“We must assume we cannot go back the way we came,” Serafine admits gravely, “even if we managed to slip by a few of them without being heard no doubt the torches have long since attracted them like moths.”

Jax grimaces. “We practically rolled out the red carpet for them, is what you’re saying.”

Nadya doesn’t turn away from the window; doesn’t think she has the strength to do something so strenuous as turn even the tiniest bit. But she sees Serafine’s reflection clear as day, and the woman’s curt nod makes her heart sink.

They probably shouldn’t have put her on lookout duty, all things considered. Not just because every shadow she sees out along the rocks makes her blood freeze in her veins, though that’s definitely a factor.

If I can’t trust my own eyes… how can they?

Talk about being under pressure.

Jax looks at Adrian. “You guys dealt with something similar at that Ball, didn’t you? How’d you take care of them then?”

“We nearly didn’t,” Adrian admits, and it occurs to Nadya this is the first time she’s ever heard him talk about the attack at the Awakening Ball, “and when we learned it was someone from Vega’s Clan who smuggled the initial wave in, our survival seemed less like luck and more like just another part of his plan.”

“But you still fought them off, you still won.” The younger vampire insists.

Frustration starts makes Adrian’s replies terse and forced. “Yes, we did, but that was with the combined strength of the entire Council—including Kamilah’s two thousand years of experience—and more than several of North America’s strongest vampires.

“Not to mention the Trinity.”

The last part he says like more of an afterthought; quieter and more to himself. A muscle ticks in Cadence’s jaw but he remains otherwise silent.

“Then our course is clear,” Serafine steps between them; practically a whole different person than the woman in the ballroom, “we wait for their attack to gauge their numbers. Then we do whatever we can to break through to the Northern Quarter.”

There’s a weight to her words that has nothing to do with the literal Feral horde practically on their doorstep. They don’t have any other choice; not a one of them. They’re the only ones who know what weapon will kill Gaius and if that means only one person pries their way back up to tell the ones fighting back home… so be it.

“I don’t like the thought of waiting them out.”

“You do not have to like it. We have no alternatives.”

“Rrragh!”

Behind her Jax lets out a short growl of frustration. The very sound makes Nadya flinch on her stool; shoulders hunched and shaking like a leaf. The scuffled sounds of his frantic pacing stops immediately. She can feel his eyes boring into her back, watching; waiting for her to break like a little glass figurine.

She’s caught by surprise though when Cadence unfolds his arms and approaches with loud and purposeful strides. She hears every step until he’s at her back like a wall — or a shield.

On the other side of the glass the shadows shift again. Like they sensed the tension easing from her soul for even a fraction of a second and have to make up for the lost time in terrifying her. Nadya decides then that’s more than enough of an excuse to turn her back on them.

When she can finally meet her friends’ eyes she looks up to find Serafine studying her intensely. “Wh-What?” she asks, voice wavering.

It doesn’t help she’s still too scared to look at her own freakin’ hands.

“You were inside the creature’s mind.” Gee, thanks for stating the obvious.

“I know. I was there.”

“Perhaps you could be again.”

“Perhaps you could shut up.”

Lily quirks an eyebrow at her in a silent question. No doubt they’re all wondering just how much of what Nadya says and does is in fact Nadya Al Jamil… and how much is the twisted madness of a starving Feral. But they don’t need to worry; she’s pushed that thing as far out of her little personal space bubble as she could. That anger is one hundred percent hers, and one hundred percent warranted.

Cadence clears his throat over her head. “Well if it’s any consolation, Jax, it won’t be a long wait…” Unprompted, he’s taken up Nadya’s vigil; eyes so wide she can see a thin ring of white around his blue irises and focused far in the cavern’s distance.

The shadows are moving faster now. They scuttle like spiders around shallow cliffs and down the many many staircases, descending on them in a frenzied haze until there aren’t many of them, but instead one big mama shadow heading their way.

There’s no deluding herself now… those aren’t shadows.

#bloodbound #bloodbound fanfiction #kamilah x mc #adrian raines #choices fanfiction #bloodbound mc #mc: nadya al jamil #lily spencer #jax matsuo #serafine dupont #oc: cadence smith #fic: oblivion bound #oblv: bound by destiny ii #oblv: new chapter #; my fics

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emberphantom · 4 years

Note

Concept: Mac isn’t really in love with Dennis. He’s been faking the entire time as part of a bet/experiment as to whether or not he can make Dennis fall in love with him. As soon as Dennis confesses his feelings, the experiment will end and he’ll be debriefed. (Alternatively, everyone Dennis hasn’t known since school is actually an actor playing characters written by Dee and it’s all a Truman show situation to see how far they can push Dennis.)

I...wow. I totally think either scenario would COMPLETELY break Dennis. Dude is hanging by a very loose thread at all times to begin with but finding out most of everything in his life has been a complete lie? He'd snap. I mean look what happened in Broke Dee. That wasn't even supposed to be a prank on him and it fucked him up.

Okay and let's talk about the first one because that's super fucked up but I'm kinda living for it? It's definitely a role reversal for Mac and Dennis. Tbh I cannot see current Mac doing something like this but young Mac (s1-5), I'd buy it.

BUT there’s also no way Mac doesn’t fall in love with Dennis in the process and then feel guilty about the whole thing only to call it off once things get Too Real.

And whoops my hand slipped and I wrote another mini fic:

Him and Dee made the bet in high school because they thought it would be funny and Mac is all "Have you seen me? I could make any one fall in love with me." And Dee's all "Prove it."

Charlie doesn't know the full extent of it because I think he'd probably let it slip to Dennis.

So because of that, Mac has so be kind of subtle about it around the Gang. He turns it up a few notches when they're alone though. It takes forever. Like years. Because Dennis is stubborn and on a good day, has one (1) feeling.

Dennis graduates college, they get an apartment together. They buy the bar. Dee's wondering what the fuck is taking so long and Mac insists this is all part of his plan.

The Gay Bar Scheme sets Mac's progress back a bit, and he swears Dee did it on purpose to try to mess everything up. Stupid bitch.

It takes a while for Mac to get back on track. Dennis and Dee’s dad shows up one day out of the blue and actually sticks around. Mac starts banging Carmen. He sleeps with Dennis and and Dee’s mom which, he really thought would help move things along. It...did not.

The turning point Mac needs comes in the most insane and unexpected way. They get held hostage by the McPoyle’s in their own goddamn bar. It’s absolutely batshit.

There’s a real moment there where Mac thinks they’re not going to make it out alive. Mac tells Dennis he loves him, which Dee will argue later is against the rules of the bet, like watching Dennis’s sex tapes. Mac will tell her that there are no rules, that’s strictly for research purposes. He won’t tell her that, in that moment, he’d completely forgotten about the bet.

Dennis never mentions it. Hell, he barely even acknowledged it when it happened. Mac starts to think God is punishing him for everything. He knows it’s wrong and kind of gay but..it’s a joke. And Mac’s pretty sure God can take a joke. He plans on explaining the whole thing to him when he gets up there anyway. He’s sure they’ll laugh about it.

But Mac starts to notice something that makes him think God does have a sense of humor after all: Dennis starts touching him. Like. A lot. Like, more than he’s pretty sure he ever has.

They’ve always been inseparable but now it feels...different. They hang out all the time and when they’re not physically together, they can’t go even an hour without texting one another.

Mac starts to realize his evil plan is finally working.

He sits back and let’s Dennis take the lead. Mac’s planted the seed and now he’s got to just wait for the flower to grow.

He pretends not to notice when Dennis starts inching closer to him on the couch during movie night. He lets Dennis pretend to fall asleep on his shoulder.

During Charlie’s musical, Mac starts to lay things on a little thicker. He acts like he doesn’t realize how this is all coming off--like it’s all just him playing the character. (The boner he popped on stage is irrelevant. His body was also in character.)

Mac realizes he wants to kiss Dennis in the middle of a strangers living room in a house they’re trying to flip for a profit. Well--no wait. It’s Dennis who wants to kiss him, obviously. There’s no other explanation for it. You don’t just cup someone’s face like that, call them ‘baby boy’ like that if you don’t want to play tonsil hockey.

They pretend to be a couple. “Partners in Real Estate and Partners in life.” “He’s my bottom.” Dennis won’t take his hands off him. Mac’s got him right where he wants him.

That night, Dennis kisses him.

(It’s about goddamn time.)

Mac doesn’t tell Dee. She doesn’t need to know. Not yet. He wins the bet when the words “I love you,” un-ironically come out of Dennis’s mouth.

It’s surprising how much doesn’t change between them. Aside from where Mac sleeps, it’s really not that different. He’s just getting laid more and it...it’s fucking great. Mac thinks it’s probably because of all that adrenaline he gets knowing he’s winning the bet.

Everything’s going great until Dee finally catches on.

It’s a Tuesday. They just wanted a bowl for popcorn. They didn’t need Dee to stick her giant nose all up in their business.

“It's funny 'cause I feel like you guys are two codependent losers who are so wrapped up in each other that it's hard for you to see how pathetic your lives are. It's like you're an old married couple.”

They laugh at it. But, Mac can see the wheels turning in Dennis’s head.

Dennis takes too long at the video store and that’s when shit hits the fan. Yeah Mac panicked but that’s only because he really REALLY wants to win this bet. And he can’t do that if Dennis is fucking some video store twink.

They argue. Dennis wants to be left alone. Mac wants to know where this is coming from (he knows but he wants to hear Dennis say it.)

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what Dee said and I do think maybe we are spending a little bit too much time together.”

Son of a bitch.

Mac leaves and Dennis let’s him go. On the way to Charlie’s, Mac calls Dee and tells her that’s cheating--she’s not allowed to interfere in the bet. They had a deal. She tells him she can do whatever the fuck she wants then hangs up because something about her stupid cat. Mac stopped listening.

He’s at Charlie’s for a few hours when Dennis calls. He’s a Dee’s apparently and Mac’s heart sinks. She’s going to fuck everything up beyond repair. There’s no way he’s going to win the bet now...not because he actually really misses Dennis.

Mac’s resigned himself to the fact it’s over. The bet, his relationship with Dennis. It’s done. Bye. See ya. But then Dee calls him, and she sounds pissed off and stressed the fuck out. She tell him to be at this restaurant at this time for a “date with a beautiful woman with giant breasts”. Well, Mac thinks, at least she knows how to apologize.

He gets there early and sits down at the table by himself. He’s nervous, which is unlike him. He’s a badass, he never gets nervous. Mac tells himself it’s because he’s meeting a really hot chick, not because he’s not sure if he’s ready for this thing with Dennis to be over. He orders a rum and coke. Then another. Because alcohol solves everything.

Dennis walks in with Dee and Mac has never been so close to committing murder. What the fuck is she trying to pull?

Mac doesn’t have time to ask. She leaves in a hurry, muttering something about getting a bird.

“She looks like a bird.”

And...fuck. Mac missed Dennis so much.

They make-up and make-out on the way home. They invite Charlie and Frank over to watch a movie and once the Grusome Twosome leaves and they’re finally alone again.

It’s dark, it’s late and it’s quiet. Dennis joins Mac on the couch after he’s tossed some beer bottle into recycling. He’s looking at him like he’s seeing Mac for the first time and Mac feels his throat tighten.

Dennis starts talking, and Mac starts to panic. He thought he’d be able to see this moment coming a mile away but he’s not prepared for this. Dennis is telling him how sorry he is for everything. How he let Dee get into his head. How stupid it was.

How he realized the reason why he panicked so much was “Because I think I’m in l-”

“Dennis.” Mac cuts him off as everything comes crashing down on him all at once. His heart’s pounding in his chest, ready to burst through his chest at any moment.

He should’ve called this off when he had the chance. Dee definitely gave him a few outs over the years but he said No. When he made that stupid bet all those years ago, so young and so high, he never thought it would end up like this.

Mac didn’t think he’d be the one to end up falling in love with his best friend.

But, if he let’s Dennis say it, then what? They become a real couple? They tell the Gang so Dee can lay everything all out on the table. Tell Dennis that everything was just a big joke--even though it stopped being one for Mac longer than he cared to admit. Mac could deny his part in the whole thing, but Dennis would believe him.

So Mac has to let him off the hook now, by crushing his best friend’s heart into dust.

“I think Dee was right,” Mac says finally. He can’t even look Dennis in the eye. “I can’t--I don’t think we should do this anymore...”

To drive the final nail into the coffin, he adds, “Plus, y’know I’m not even gay.”

Dennis doesn’t say anything for a long time. Mac shrugs and tells him “Sorry.” Then he gets up and goes to his room, shutting the door behind him.

He calls Dee to tell him the bet’s off. To his surprise, she let’s him off the hook. Tells him it was about time he admitted defeat after all these years. Mac calls her a bird and hangs up. That night he goes to sleep alone.

The next day at the bar, Dennis unveils the D.E.N.N.I.S. System. It’s a low blow, but Mac deserves it.

They don’t check in much anymore. On movie night, the stick to their corners of the couch. Dennis marries Maureen Ponderosa and Mac thinks that means he’s off the hook.

Until they’re wasted and dancing and giggling back in their apartment and it feels like old times except Dennis’s wife is there. And he turns but then says to Mac, “I don’t love you Maureen. I...I never loved you.”

And Mac thanks God he called off the bet.

#sunny asks #oh hey did i write another minific? yes i did #macdennis

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arofili · 3 years

Text

saved post, ignore this

(don’t reblog this)

Smut4Smut Prompts

I didn’t intend to write an actual letter, I just wanted to paste my prompts into the description box for this exchange, but then I got long-winded (as usual) so here are the prompts that were too long for AO3 to handle! If the prompts did fit into the box they’re not going to be here, and I am not restating my DNWs/Likes/etc; that’s all readily available in my AO3 signup.

~~~

Canon Russingon Prompts

(These are optional - if you have a different idea, go for it!)

This is my “Russingon in canon” request, though if you’ve got a canon divergence AU, be my guest.

BDSM - A doms B into being nicer to/taking better care of themself: This just screams Russingon to me. Maedhros asking for Fingon to be cruel to him and Fingon using kindness as the greatest cruelty because Maedhros hates himself so much...

Character Bottoms Who Normally Tops, Character Tops Who Normally Bottoms, Role Reversal: I’m a sucker for role reversal, especially with these two. I lean toward Maedhros bottoming more often than not, but however you prefer their dynamic is completely fine.

Can't Stop Thinking About It - A Accidentally Sees B Naked, Can't Stop Thinking About It - A Hears B Masturbating and Moaning A's Name: I think I’ve written both of these scenarios for these two but I would LOVE to read another take on them! Mutual pining in Valinor? :)

Characters mutually pining finally get together and have amazing sex, Filthy Sex With Feelings,: I just love this in general, and Russingon having filthy but extremely loving sex is my very favorite thing <3

Characters Experiment With Sexy New Ways To Use Detachable Body Parts: Maedhros’ prosthetic. Enough said.

Characters React To In-Universe Smut Written About Them: Listen, someone has GOT to have written some Russingon smut in-canon, that’s just statistically likely. The sillier and less accurate it is, the better, especially if it’s countered with them having the kind of sex they prefer in...protest? Or maybe trying out some of the dumb things, lol.

Cock Slut, Slut Praising: bottom!Maedhros tbh.

Crown kink, Fealty, Throne Sex: The “Fealty Kink” tag is literally half Silm fics, and half of those are Russingon fics. Add some more?

Dom/sub - not 24/7 but reflecting RL power roles: Very much related to the above. Liege/vassal kink? Yes please!

Domesticity - Sex In Bed Before Sleep: Just. Soft married Russingon. ;-;

Devotion: THEY JUST LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH AND WOULD (AND DO) DIE FOR EACH OTHER. AHHH.

First Time: I am SUCH a sucker for first times. Could be their first time together at all, or their first time doing a specific sexual act, or their first time in a certain situation (post-Angband, post-rebirth, etc...)

Getting Together: Another thing I really really love in almost any form, especially if there’s been mutual pining before this.

Fluff and Smut: Russingon just loving each other SO DAMN MUCH...bonus points if there’s some baby Gil-galad fluff involved before/after the sexytimes?

Hurt/Comfort Sex: Their lives are so depressing that there’s so many times this could apply. Right before Formenos? Right after the Darkening or the First Kinslaying? Post-Angband/Ice? Post-Bragollach? Or any other time things get angsty (aka all of canon)?

Magic - using telepathy to cause other person to orgasm: Soul bonds. Dom Fingon. Yes please.

Morning After (Incredible Sex the night before): Fluffy good times. Maybe after their first time, back in Valinor?

Mutual Masturbation With Intent to Watch Each Other in Lieu of First Time Sex: Another fic I have definitely written before but would LOVE to see again! This would make the most sense in a LaCE context, I think.

Mutual Pining: I’ve mentioned this a billion times already, you get the idea.

Praise Kink: Maedhros has a praise kink, that’s just canon. This can be fun and slightly embarrassing in Valinor...or really intensely emotional post Angband. Or post-rebirth...oof.

Pregnancy - Sex to Conceive Heir: Just where DID Gil-galad come from, hmmm? (Trans mpreg is wonderful; I’m not interested in cis mpreg. Either one of them could be trans, I enjoy both.)

Reunion Sex: They’re basically in an LDR in Beleriand, give me some Fingon visiting Himring or Maedhros visiting Dor-lómin and just how horny and desperate they are for each other after being separated for awhile.

Scar Worship: Finno post-Angband finding Mae’s scars Extremely Sexy?

Secret relationship between members of feuding families: This is literally just canon. Lean into the Romeo and Juliet style Valinor shenanigans!

Sex After Taking Revenge on Someone Who Wronged Their Partner: Husbands who murder orcs together and then fuck while still all nasty from battle :)))

Sex Toys - Character Fucks Themselves on a Dildo While Performing Oral Sex: I just think Mae giving Finno a blowjob and fucking himself at the same time would be really hot, okay?

Size - Size Difference: I do love bottom!Maedhros, but I also love size queen!Fingon, and I think they both really enjoy the size difference :))

thank god you're/we're alive sex: I bet this happened SO many times after battles in Beleriand. This could also apply to right after the Darkening, and would be just HEARTRENDING right after the First Kinslaying...

Soul Bond - Sharing Physical Pleasure Through Soul Bond: I am very fond of this trope! Also like. Them feeling how much they are loved through each other’s eyes. Ahhh. But also like, Mae getting off on how good he’s making Finno feel. Or vice versa.

Character A hurts Character B (at their request) during sex but Character A immediately regrets it, Character Thinks Rescue Has a Price Tag, Sex gets paused to deal with PTSD then maybe returned to, panic attack during sex: These are some angstier options! I would love a fluffy/happy story (or a hurt/comfort story) but if you wanted to go a bit darker route here’s some ideas. Just. Post-Angband Mae with no self worth and/or consent issues, Finno having a hard time dealing with Mae being masochistic, Mae flashing back to Angband...all of these are some really juicy ideas.

~~~

Modern Russingon Prompts

(These are optional - if you have a different idea, go for it!)

This is my “Modern AU Russingon” request - though if you see a tag here that you think could be applied to canon, that would be awesome too.

Trans Male Character: Lots of these tags would have at least one of them being trans, which I’m also super happy to see in canon-compliant fic, but I know for me it feels a bit easier to me to write about trans stuff when I don’t have to worry about terminology not fitting the setting, so I put them here.

Cunnilingus to relieve period cramps, PiV With Trans Male Character, Sex Toys - Character Fucks Themselves on a Dildo While Performing Oral Sex, Sex Toys - Giving a Blowjob to a Dildo or Strap-on, Sex Toys - Strap-On: Just all some very excellent stuff if you want to go the trans route. I imagine the strap game would be next level with these two.

Characters mutually pining finally get together and have amazing sex, Filthy Sex With Feelings, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Getting Together, Morning After (Incredible Sex the night before), Mutual Pining, Praise Kink, Size - Size Difference: I requested all these tags for the canon prompt too, this is just the same stuff but modern, where they get to be dorky about how much they’re in love, minus most of the angst.

Character with Low Self-Esteem has Self-Worth Affirmed Through Tender Sex: ...but not minus ALL the angst. Just. Mae having had bad experiences in previous relationships and Finno being extremely tender and loving to him, AHHHH.

Getting off on how much partner trusts them: And this could be the other side of the previous request - Mae is trusting Finno even after all the bad stuff he went through and that’s very sexy to him.

Good Boy/Good Girl Kink: This could apply in canon too but if you want to do the trans thing, it could also be a gender affirmation thing.

Impact - Friendly ass slap unexpectedly turns character on: Mae is mortified that he’s into spanking, Finno is delighted.

romantic sex: This didn’t fit into the previous request but YES PLEASE. Just. They love each other SO much.

~~~

Russurgon Prompts

(These are optional - if you have a different idea, go for it!)

OKAY wow I love this ship, it’s so incredibly fucked up and angsty, hell yeah. This is one request where you really don’t need to bother with anything fluffy or a happy-ish ending, just go full on angst mode, please! Basically, I just think it would be very fun and horrible if Mae seduced Turgon for political reasons post-Nírnaeth when they’re both grieving Fingon :)))))

Character Bottoms Who Normally Tops: I can see Turgon having a hangup about bottoming...which Mae is fine with but one day they get into a Very bad argument and Mae like, puts Turno in his place. (No non-con though. Dub-con would be okay here.)

Characters about to kill each other decide to fuck instead: Kinslaying averted by sex!

Dirty Talk - Character A Gets Off on B Relaying Their Sexual Exploits: Just. Mae growling in Turno’s ear all the filthy things he would do with Fingon and Turgon HATING it and especially hating how hot it is.

Enemies to enemies who fuck, Enemies With Benefits, Frenemies with Benefits, sex between enemies, Sex between rivals: Basically all the same thing. These guys do NOT like each other but they’re fucking anyway.

Fucked with the hilt of a weapon: Look idk man just. Turgon being really mean to Maedhros after a post-battle argument or something?

Grudging/Horrified One-Sided Attraction To Someone Who Annoys You Deeply: I think this would be funny if Turgon realized he was into Mae (honestly, at any point in time, not just post-Nirn?) and that maybe the reason he was so mad about Fingon dating Mae is because he was jealous...lmaooo

Hate Sex Turns Unexpectedly Tender: Like. A moment of understanding between them. That they both refuse to talk about after it happens.

lord/retainer, Political Alliance Confirmed with Sex, Political Debate as Foreplay, Sex as a Negotiation Tactic, Sex As Part Of Diplomatic Negotiations: POLITICAL SEX. It’s showing that they’re serious about this alliance...nothing else, just that...right?

sex as self harm, Sex as Unhealthy Coping Mechanism, Sex as Grief Processing: This could work for both of them but I think it especially works for Maedhros. He unlearned a lot of fucked up shit with Fingon after Angband, but now Fingon’s dead and it’s all coming crashing back down on him...and Turgon hates him so much that if he can tell, he doesn’t care.

A using B as replacement for C who is not present: This is exactly why Mae would fuck Fingon’s brother.

~~~

Anairë/Fëanor/Fingolfin/Nerdanel Prompts

(These are optional - if you have a different idea, go for it!)

OKAY so I don’t like sibling incest EXCEPT for Fëanor/Fingolfin, pretty much, just because the love-hate stuff with them is SO juicy. But I also hate how most FëaNolo fics depict their relationships with their wives, so I would just love it if they were all a polycule or had a foursome or something that didn’t end up with Fëanor and Fingolfin leaving their wives.

Bisexuality: They’re all very hot and they’re all very into each other. Gender who?

Breeding Kink - as dirty talk without risk: Look Fëanor and Nerdanel had SEVEN kids, I think there was probably some kind of breeding kink there...Fëanor applying this to Fingolfin, though? That’s hot. Or maybe he’s dirty talking with Anairë while Fingolfin is Right There.....yesss. But again, no risk, because elf pregnancy is always very intentional.

Character A and Character B Mutually Pine For Each Other While They Fuck Other People Together: Fëanor and Fingolfin just absolutely refusing to acknowledge their feelings even when they’re having sex with each other’s wives.

Double Anal Penetration, Double Penetration - Vaginal and Anal, Double Vaginal Penetration: I just think it’s hot. You can mix up who’s penetrating who, give the ladies some strap-ons or mess around with gender, if you like.

First Time - Getting Pegged: Fëanorians get pegged, it is law, so probably not Fëanor’s first time but... Nerdanel pegging Fingolfin? Or Fëanor and Nerdanel showing Fingolfin and Anairë how it’s done? OR since let’s be real Fingolfin ALSO probably gets pegged regularly, Anairë and Nerdanel fucking each other while their husbands watch, and it’s their first time with another lady.

First Time Having Sex Postpartum: I imagine Nerdanel is unfazed by what pregnancy does to the body, but maybe Anairë isn’t, and her lovers all get together to show her how much they still love her after like, Argon is born?

Fucking Someone While Being Fucked By Someone Else: All the fun things you can do with multiple partners...

Grudging/Horrified One-Sided Attraction To Someone Who Annoys You Deeply: I must admit I missed the “one-sided” part of this when I picked this tag - but maybe they think it’s one-sided but it turns out that it’s not? Regardless, this is exactly how I see Fëanor and Fingolfin if they’re in a ship situation.

Sexy Shenanigans at a Masked Ball: Anonymity allowing a secret relationship to be slightly less secret!! Everyone is like “wow who is that tall fellow dancing with Prince Fëanáro?” or something like that!

~~~

Taeglin Prompts

(These are optional - if you have a different idea, go for it!)

Now this is my rarepair that I completely understand why it’s a rarepair, but also like MATCHING CURSED SWORDS. I generally think of this ship in the context of a “Túrin goes to Gondolin with Tuor” AU, BUT it could also be a “Aredhel and Maeglin go to Himlad, and then follow Celegorm and Curufin to Nargothrond and stay after they get banished” AU, but that’s a bit more convoluted. Or you can have them meet each other on one of Maeglin’s journeys away from Gondolin, or whatever other take you’d like to explore.

Both parties are pining for someone else: Túrin missing Beleg? Or both of them being in love with Idril and upset about her choosing Tuor instead, lol.

In Captivity Together, Bad guys think they made them do it but they really just enabled them: Túrin gets captured alongside Maeglin...or maybe Maeglin gets captured earlier, at the same time Túrin is after Amon Rûdh? (In that case it would probably just be “Bad guys made them do it” without the qualifier because they haven’t had the chance to Pine.) Basically, they finally have an excuse to fuck, and it’s not ideal, but hey they’re gonna take it.

Realizing romantic feelings mid-sex: “Oh FUCK I actually like this guy. Shit. Goddamnit.”

Mating Cycles/In Heat: Maybe heats are an elf thing, and Túrin remembers how Beleg would get, so he knows how to help Maeglin...and it’s not like Maeglin was going to ask anybody for help, he was just planning on suffering through it (again?)...

~~~

eta: an anon asked about smut likes and i was like oops i didn’t make that list so here’s some stuff i enjoy. otherwise just see the kink tags i requested

anal sex, vaginal sex, oral sex (basic but yknow)

fingering

frottage

very romantic sex (especially for russingon)

nonromantic sex (i like aro takes on characters)

trans characters whose gender is affirmed during sex

trans characters without much physical dysphoria

reunion sex

first times!!

hurt/comfort sex

political sex

fealty kink, liege/vassal dynamic

mutual masturbation

double penetration

russingon stumpfucking

dirty talk

healing from trauma through tender sex

dealing with trauma through rough sex

teasing, begging

dramatic miscommunications that get cleared up (such as mutual pining, very brief worries about consent, etc)

praise kink (especially for maedhros)

size kink (especially for fingon)

telepathy/osanwe

dom fingon/sub maedhros

hair kink

possessiveness but ONLY for russingon

sharing a bed

maedhros getting spanked......

role reversal, switching

#tmi anna #exchange letter

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wackygoofball · 5 years

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Slightly panicking and stressed but I have hope for Jaime on his own and Braime! what I'm worried about though is whether Brienne can see the truth behind what Jaime's doing? Do you think she either knows already or will eventually come to realise that maybe he hasn't just left her to be with Cersei but to end all this with Cersei? Would love your thoughts! And do you think that she'll go follow him to the south and forgive him? Sorry if you've already answered these questions!

Sorry, first of all, I still didn’t really sleep more than an hour, so be sure to ignore the bits that get too rambly. I know I am rambling. But a fangirl is HYPED and full of feels.

As I said, this blog will remain angst free aside from the in-canon angst we are currently getting here. So no need to panic here - or bring panic, it all dissolves into endless HYPE once it cross the threshold of Wacky’s Tumblr.

We have any reason to hope. Filming suggests so as well.

I don’t think Brienne will be unable to see it. Everything is right in place, really. All it takes may be one conversation with e.g. her adoptive son or mayhaps even Bronn (he ships it yo). All Brienne has to know is that Jaime had more than one reason to act the way he did and say the things he said so she may come to understand what he was *actually* saying in the subtext.

I also think she has some kind of suspicion already. When she approaches Jaime outside before he rides off, she instantly knows what he is up to. She kept an eye on him, she surely noticed his growing distress at some point. Again, I don’t find that without purpose to the overall arc those two are going through. Brienne understands Jaime better than most people ever will. However, so does he understand her better than most people ever will, which is why he took the approach (when forced to improvise when he had to face her instead of going off alone so she may only realize he is gone by the time he is way out of Winterfell already) to attack her at her must vulnerable (again, not without purpose that this shot was of her in a robe/dress, not in tunic and breeches she could have thrown on just as quickly) and tell her those things she wouldn’t want to hear to drive her away and ensure she stays put in the North.

I am fairly convinced she will.

Again, never forget that we are in Beauty and the Beast territory when it comes to the tropes used for JB. Right now we are in the stage of the story where the Beast lets Belle go back to her family to resolve issues there. The next step is for Belle to return to the Beast. This is followed by a fakeout death and a happily ever after while the evil siblings preventing Belle from being with the Beast are punished and forced to watch Belle’s happiness as statues.

To me, that suggests a scenario whereby she will go to King’s Landing to find her man and confront him, yes. I think drama will be involved and we may have a close encounter with death, but ultimately, I really do not see a scenario whereby this will ebb into Jaime and Cersei dying together while Brienne never got the chance to even talk to him. Even more so since I am all the more convinced that Brienne may travel South already knowing that she may be with child. This all plays into the theory which I’m also a strong propnent of: that the big takeaway will be that Cersei is no longer pregnant/never was pregnant with Jaime’s child (I still think it’s a tumor, but that’s a discussion for another day, I am restraining myself yo) whereas Brienne will be. That would be the ultimate reversal for Cersei’s part of the prophecy the show bothered to include in a flashback, that of the Younger More Beautiful (Queen). Seeing that mannish woman she never even considered as competition have Jaime’s heart and that which she treasures most, children of her own… that’s just… epic material.

So yeah, I think the big takeaways from this episode is that Brienne is definitely not going to sit around at Winterfell for long and mope over how the guy she loved was a dick to her and left. Brienne is not the type for that, is she? She will feel hurt and she may be in need of a pep talk, but that one thing is out of question: She is in love with him. And I firmly believe that part of the big upshot of her arc is to choose herself and her feelings, to embrace that part of herself, and she can’t do that without the man, however annoying and difficult he proves to be at times. Brienne has to let go of the past (her oaths to Cat which she extended far beyond its freshness date because she didn’t know how to move on from there just yet) and so does Jaime. And isn’t that a beautiful parallel in itself?

Brienne learning the truth about this and confronting Jaime about it is central to their arc. Without a true declaration of love where they say the word, their arcs don’t even begin to make sense.

Thus, I think it’s only a matter of time until Brienne rides up as boldly as she can to King’s Landing to sweep her man off his feet, carry him out of the capital bridal-style and ensure he never leaves her side again.

#got spoilers #jaime x brienne #jaime lannister #brienne of tarth #anon #thanks anon

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ahs-honey · 5 years

Text

Learn Your Place - Part 1. (Wilhemina Venable x Reader) One Shot.

Part 1 / Part 2

A/N: hi, guys ! i just want to say a huuuge thank you to everyone who read / liked / reblogged my Cordelia Goode one shot. i was so not expecting anyone to like my writing, and the fact that some of you did is just mind boggling to me. this was really fun to write, but it’s really fuckin long cause i clearly don’t know how to shut up. i hope you don’t mind ! and if you do, please let me know so i can shorten my writing. thank you again !

Warning: extremely nsfw, like i went all out lmfao pls read at your own risk. (includes spanking / caning, slight (?) degradation, choking, etc). enjoy ! :)

"Ms. Venable?" you called, knocking twice on the door to the Outpost leader's office, the sound echoing through the abandoned halls in ripples.

The residents of Outpost 3 were currently in the main room, sitting by the crackling fire as the same old song tattooed itself into their heads. A dry conversation was beginning to flow between them; any thought that appeared at the surface of their brains was spoken out loud, giving them the momentary relief of focusing on something other than the tortuous music bouncing off of the walls.

Wilhemina had excused herself early from dinner — a rare occasion which alarmed you, her lover, which was exactly why you were now stood outside her office, waiting for a reply. You had briskly slipped away from the crowd of survivors, making up a quiet excuse which you were sure no one had even caught on to, allowing you the time to go attend to your girlfriend. Was that really necessary, though?

Deep down, you and Wilhemina both knew what was really going on. Ever since the tragic news had come along, informing the few survivors of Outpost 3 that the other Outpost's had been overrun, Wilhemina had not been able to get it off of her mind. Truth be told, it was stressing the woman out to the point where she was becoming even colder than before, knowing that the survival of the human race could very well depend on her ability to rule effectively.

Of course, no one had noticed the slight change in her personality. In fact, whenever the fierce leader's presence was lacking, the survivors would quietly joke that her recent behaviour was due to the woman entering menopause. And although it kept them humoured and entertained for the time being, you were definitely not the one to appreciate their humour. Sure, you sometimes dryly laughed along to avoid suspicion whenever you were made to spend time with the survivors, but times like this — where everyone was too engulfed in their gossip to notice your being —, you cherished with your whole soul, knowing that you could easily slip away from the crowd and discreetly fall into the comfort of your lovers presence.

Except this time, Wilhemina Venable wasn't open to having company.

"I don't have the time for whatever you may possibly want! Leave me be, for once. Miss Mead is quite literally just down the hall!" The woman had coldly yelled back, not bothering to even open the door. Rude on her behalf.

The singular thought of spending time with another human being made Wilhemina's temples ache with a dull pain. It was just too much for her to handle right now. She usually appreciated the companionship that you provided her with, but the only way the leader knew how to deal with stress was to shut everyone out and handle it on her own. It was how she'd always dealt with it; being HR and working for humanities most filthiest failures, meant that the red-head was used to seeking guidance from no one other than herself.

However, you strongly disagreed with the woman's ways, and so you stubbornly crossed your arms over your chest, knowing just the way to make Venable tick.

"V, open the door, for God’s sake."

From inside the room, came a cluster of shuffling noises, soon followed by the familiar sound of Wilhemina's cane tapping heavily on the ground. The noise crawled closer towards you, until it stopped all at once, as Venable unlocked the door before swinging it open in one swift motion.

The wooden entry-way briskly revealed Venable's strong demeanour. The stern gaze that was now comfortably occupying her face almost made you regress on the spot, yet you remained collected, biting your lip in attempt to ground yourself.

The red-head grabbed you firmly by the wrist and roughly pulled you inside the dimly lit space, shutting the door sharper than usual, before turning to you with a raised eyebrow. Fuck.

"V?" Wilhemina mocked, dumbfounded at the fact that you would dare to call her the nickname in a place where the possibility of getting caught was so extremely high. "Are you out of your god damn mind, (y/n)? What on Earth do you think you’re doing, coming to my office and daring to use such a word in public? Not to mention, even after I had asked you to leave." Her voice was raising by the syllable, and you knew it was mostly due to the stress. Venable was strict, sure, but this was pure anger and frustration.

The both of you had spent enough time together for you to be comfortable around each other and to know how to deal with most situations. However, right now, you didn't have a single clue on how you could help Wilhemina destress. After all, there wasn't exactly much that could anger you in an apocalyptic shelter, so the pair of you hadn't really dealt with frustrations before. Not this kind, anyway.

"Relax, V. There was no one around — everyone is in the main room," you calmly told the woman, who only scoffed at the fact that you had just brushed her off so casually.

"I suppose that makes it acceptable, does it?" Venable wondered, voice firm as she stood gripping her cane with both hands.

Her nails scratched the wooden top every so often — something you had always paid close attention to. A habit she developed, showing she felt annoyed or angry. "Fine. Go on, then. Go ahead and yell it down the halls, why don't you? But I promise you, it'll be the last thing you ever do."

The fury in Wilhemina's voice was more than evident, and it almost made you flinch at the sound of it. You had known the red-head held a coldness in her soul since the beginning of all of this. Hell, you experienced that coldness for a while, too. But never have you seen the woman this cold. It shifted something inside your mind, and a risky idea popped into your head. If this was what it was going to take, you were going to do it.

"You're acting like a brat, V." You took a small step towards the older woman, watching as a confused look washed over her face. Venable opened her mouth, yet couldn't find the right words to say out loud, and so, she stepped back reluctantly instead, following the current scenario out of pure curiosity. A quiet gasp escaped the red-heads lips when her back carefully came into contact with the wall, not giving her a means of escape, leaving her sandwiched between the stone and the warm body belonging to you.

"Is this what you need?" you asked, scanning the woman's unreadable face. Was it? You didn't know. But you were willing to try almost anything to get her to break for you.

Your voice took on a firmer tone, yet your face remained soft as you waited for some sort of reaction. "Do you need me to take control, baby?" Your knee suddenly found it's way in between Venable's legs, causing her cane to escape her grasp in slight shock, connecting with the ground in a sharp touch that failed to faze either of you. "You know, I could punish you, if that's what you need. The way you've been acting lately . . . it's so frustrating — you're frustrated. Let me take control for once."

There was a thick silence in the room, lasting no more than a few seconds before it was ripped to shreds by the sound of Wilhemina's dry laughter. And although the woman seemed occupied with her humour — her eyes glowing with a hint of amusement as her chest convulsed with sounds of fake joy —, it was quickly cut short.

She had snapped out of her hysterics within an instant, wrapping her leg around yours and flipping you both around, so that it was you who was now pressed in between the stone, cold wall and Venable's strong, lean body. A surprised gasp ushered out from your lips, but before you could fully register what had happened, Wilhemina had wrapped her slender fingers around your throat, cutting all of your ability to form coherent thought away, and establishing dominance.

As her right hand focused on adjusting the pressure of the grip on your throat, her other hand was placed flatly on the wall beside your head, supporting her weight without her cane. Venable made quick work of reversing the roles, roughly wedging her knee in between your thighs, forcing a breathy moan out of you and gaining your immediate attention.

"Who exactly do you take me for? Thinking you have the ability to dominate me — to punish me. It's - well, it's simply diabolical," Venable almost spat as her tone fell low and venomous. "You have gotten extremely ahead of yourself, and that petulant, filthy mouth of yours has now earned you a more-than-unpleasant sanction, so I highly suggest that you listen to me very clearly, little girl."

A small whine fell through your lips as you watched, with hunger, the way Venable almost growled in your face. The pressure of the older woman's hand on your throat made you panic slightly, yet your underwear was already beginning to feel wet with arousal as you barely struggled against Wilhemina's firm grasp. Utter betrayal of your own body. You were aching to grind into the clothed knee pressing against your core, but by now you knew not to push your boundaries, leaving you with no other option than to stay quiet and listen to the anger spilling out of the red-heads mouth.

"You are to never question my role again. Am I making myself perfectly clear, or must I spell it out for you?" Wilhemina asked, loosening her grip on your throat by miles in order to let you speak, yet not allowing the possessive hold to fall just yet. It was almost frightening how calm her tone was. If you didn't know better, you'd have started begging for forgiveness already. But you did know better. Well, so you thought.

Apparently, a desperate nod wasn't a sufficient enough reply for the older woman, and Venable was quick to correct your behaviour, as she finally disconnected her rough hand from your throat, only to swiftly bring it across your cheek in a sharp, unkind slap, pulling a pained noise out of you.

"I asked you a question, you little brat. Therefore, I require an answer."

"I'm s-sorry, Ms. Venable. Y-You're being perfectly c-clear," you stumbled over your words like a nervous wreck, engulfed in helpless waves of fear and arousal. Although you knew you wouldn't enjoy your punishment half as much as your mind enjoyed the idea of it, you couldn't help but feel hot and bothered in the moment, even if that wasn't going to help you later on.

"Good. Next time I won't be so patient in giving you a reminder." The older woman pulled away, stepping to the side as she remained holding onto the wall, watching as you panted with adrenaline and relief.

"Pick up my cane and hand it to me," Wilhemina's authoritative tone rang once again, and you followed through with her request almost immediately, pushing yourself off of the wall, uttering a quiet, "Yes, Ms. Venable."

You bit your lip as you grabbed the cane off of the ground and offered it to the woman as briskly as you could, ignoring how weak your legs felt and focusing on making sure you didn't mess up any further.

"Good," Wilhemina coldly praised, snatching the cane rougher than intended, causing you to flinch at the action. It took everything in the Outpost leader's mind not to let herself get carried away and revel in the power she currently held over you. She was more than angry, though. And those feelings always brought out her most creative ideas.

"Now, take off that repulsive piece of clothing," The woman sternly ordered. Her tone was harsh, yet the glimmer in her eyes and the way her lips lifted at the corners could be seen from miles away, and you already knew from that look alone, that the woman had something big in store for you. That was never a good sign.

Yet that didn't change the fact that the request was simply odd, and caused a wave of confusion to sweep over your features as you stared at the red-head in slight disbelief, not quite understanding why she'd order you to do something like that at a time like this.

"Are you deaf? I told you to undress. Do not make me repeat myself again." As she steadied herself with one hand using her cane, Venable used the other to snap her fingers in front of your face, pulling you out of your confused trance.

You blew out a barely-audible sigh before following through with Wilhemina's order and undressing till you were left in only your undergarments.

The look on the Outpost leader's face could've very well only been described as lust-filled, as she shamelessly let her eyes run up and down the length of your body, watching as your over-confident attitude fell off of you along with your clothing. She sent you a cocky smirk before walking over to the door and pulling it open. Oh, yeah. You definitely had something coming.

"After you," the red-head extended her right arm, indicating that she wanted you to leave the room as you were — naked. And definitely not prepared to do that.

"Ms. V-Venable, please. I - I can't go out there — not like this. Please, don't make me," you desperately begged, wrapping your arms around yourself as you felt the cool air floating in from the hall. Venable's office was definitely much warmer. It was a fairly large area, but it was still heaps easier to heat compared to the spacious halls, which always seemed to feel breezy no matter how well lit they were.

"Quite frankly, little girl, I don't care what you have to say for yourself. I've heard quite enough. Now, you certainly had no issue with humiliating me, so I suppose you don't mind me doing the same," Venable spat, tapping her cane onto the ground twice to reiterate her statement. "Step into the hall. Now."

You almost sobbed as you shuffled out of Wilhemina's office and into the hall, your bottom lip quivering and your eyes scared and alert, scanning the expanse for any sign of another being.

Thankfully, the two of you were the only ones currently occupying the area — for now, that was — and although you dreaded the idea of your punishment, knowing just how cruel your lover could sometimes be, you wished Venable had already dished it out, wanting nothing more than to get back into your clothing and away from this absolutely humiliating situation.

The sharp sound of Wilhemina's office door shutting pulled you out of your thoughts. You glanced over at the nonchalant-looking woman. Could she be any louder? Someone was bound to witness this, and you couldn't bring yourself to accept that. It just couldn't happen.

"Face the wall, Ms. (y/n)," Venable ordered, her tone obviously louder than necessary, a sick smirk playing on her lips.

Although the fierce woman had always thought she'd hate for anyone to see her lover half-naked, she couldn't deny that this excited her. It was the perfect mix of humiliation and punishment. Wilhemina knew regular punishments did nothing but arouse you, and so this was ideal. It was everything you wanted and everything you despised, in one. Almost torturous.

Once you were face-to-face with the dusty stone, Venable loudly made her way over to you, stopping at your left side and propping an arm on the wall, using it to aid her balance, cane in the other hand.

"Hands on the wall, too. You'll need the support," the red-head informed you, watching as you slightly furrowed your eyebrows, yet did as you were told nonetheless. "Good girl."

Good girl. That did things to you. Always, no matter what. Well, apparently that statement wasn't so true anymore, as right now, the praise only reminded you of the times Wilhemina said it with love and tenderness, not with coldness and regret. God, you wished she'd just call you that again. Maybe she would, but you knew it'd be a long while and plenty of pain before you'd even get close to hearing her whisper it with satisfaction. Fuck. Pissing your girlfriend off was the worst idea. Not only because she was your girlfriend, but because she was the fucking leader of the Outpost. Of course she was going to get carried away.

"Are you even listening to me?" Venable's voice dragged you out of your racing thoughts, and you mentally scolded yourself for getting so caught up in your mind. "For Heavens sake, could you be any more ditzy if you tried?"

Wow. That one stung at your soul. You cleared your throat, not turning your gaze away from the wall. "I'm s-sorry, Ms. Venable. I-"

"Shut your mouth already. I don't want to hear another word from you. It's my turn to speak now," the woman harshly countered, sliding her hand down the length of her cane until she could lift it with ease, before swinging it in mid air as if to taunt you. Fuck, this was going to be unpleasant. You already knew what was coming. Venable had never used anything other than her hand to hit you with, but you could already tell by her actions what was going to happen next. You must've really crossed the line this time.

"As I was saying — I'm going to spank you with my cane, and you're going to count every single strike as loud as you can. If you fail to do so, I will simply start over. I don't care who sees, and I certainly do not care how many times we do this. You will most definitely know your place after I'm done with you, and trust me, you won't forget it again . . . You are not to move from this spot. If I see that you have, I will start over. If I hear you say anything besides the number of hits you've received, I will start over. If your hands move a mere inch off of the wall, I will start over. Have I made myself clear?"

You whimpered, flinching as you felt the older woman's cane draw closer towards you with each swing, forcing a whirlwind of cool air to follow soon after. "Yes, Ms. Venable," you shivered.

"Good. Now count and don't fucking stop until I tell you to."

And with that, the red-head swung the cane up into the air before bringing it down onto your bare skin with little mercy. You jolted at the impact, a pained cry leaving your lips at the sharp sting. Tears formed in your eyes, yet you quickly recomposed yourself, remembering Wilhemina's rule. The impact had caused your muscles to jerk in surprise, and you had moved ever so slightly from your previous spot. Venable noticed. She squinted her eyes briefly at the sight, before humming in what seemed to be a satisfied tone. She was enjoying this. Of course she was.

"O-one," you counted, hoping it'd distract the woman from your visible movement.

Without warning, her cane flew down onto the smooth skin of your ass once again, emitting a yelp of surprise from you, your legs trembling as you forced yourself to stay completely still, not moving a limb.

"I vividly remember telling you to be loud, Ms. (y/n). Start over."

You couldn't hold back your tears any longer, allowing them to flow freely as you closed your eyes. "One!" You pitifully yelled, making Venable roll her eyes. However, she was satisfied with the volume of your voice this time, and decided to continue on with the punishment, lifting the cane and guiding it harshly down onto your already-red backside once, and then once more after that.

Your body shook as sobs spilled from your mouth at the ruthless, unforgiving hits Venable was delivering. "Two! Three!" You quickly cried out, not wanting to make the woman wait any longer. She had only just begun, but you didn't know how much more of this you could take. It was absolutely brutal.

Just as Wilhemina was about to dispute yet another relentless blow, she heard a shuffling noise echo from down the hall. The woman looked up, noticing that a Grey was stood watching the scene with frightful eyes, nervously picking at her nails. The Outpost leader chuckled darkly at the sight, which caused you to curiously look up, tears still streaming down your flushed cheeks.

The second your eyes met the watchful figure, your stomach turned, and you averted your gaze back to the stone wall immediately, too ashamed to keep eye-contact with anyone right now. The Grey briskly fled from the scene at your evident embarrassment, rushing back to the rest of the survivors and allowing for Venable to continue without distractions.

The next couple strikes were almost unbearable, and you were hanging on to every little thread of willpower that you had in you, not wanting to repeat the cycle of humiliation and pain all over again.

For the remainder of the punishment, you kept your eyes sealed shut, focusing on doing exactly as Ms. Venable had asked. Every so often, you would hear the sound of footsteps shuffling past you, but you never turned — you never looked. Not when you heard a gasp, and not even when you heard a whisper. Nothing in the world was worth getting distracted for.

Your throat burned as you wailed out yet another double digit, hearing as your own hoarse voice floated through the halls and kissed the deepest, darkest corners of the building. If anyone in the shelter wasn't already aware that you were being punished, they definitely were now.

"Mm, good girl," you suddenly heard the softest of hums leave your girlfriend's lips. She had said the praise so quietly, you were almost convinced that you had imagined it. That was up until you tearfully looked up at her face, seeing the satisfied smile that she was now wearing. "You took your punishment well, Ms. (y/n). You may drop the position — in fact, come and stand in front of me," the woman ordered in a more gentle, yet still firm tone.

You exhaled a sigh of relief, a single, final tear rolling down your cheek in the sheer happiness of your punishment being over. As your arms fell from the wall, the ache of holding them there for so long ran through your muscles, making you whimper as you turned your body to face the Outpost leader, who was stood watching you intently as she rested both of her hands on her cane.

The second you moved your legs, it became incredibly evident to you how wet you had become. Your underwear was soaked, and all you could do was turn bright red, hoping Wilhemina wouldn't pick up on it.

"You were right," your girlfriend spoke up, pulling you back into the reality of the moment as she looked down at you with a teasing smile.

"A-About what, Ms. Venable?" You shakily asked, scanning her eyes as they sparkled with amusement in the flame-lit hall.

"I needed this," she told you sincerely, before her teasing tone once again returned. "And if you prove to me that you are capable of behaving, then I will give you what you need, tonight."

You furrowed your eyebrows slightly. "What I need?"

Wilhemina chuckled with little humour laced in the sound. Her eyes glanced down the hall, making sure there was no one currently around. Once she was convinced that the two of you were alone, she pulled her right hand away from her cane, resting it on your stomach for a second. Her slender fingers danced down the curve of your skin, and without a single warning, she slid them past the elastic of your underwear, cupping your dripping centre.

The red-head couldn't help but moan at the mess she felt. You were filthy. She bit her plump, painted bottom lip, dipping two fingers inside of you without warning, and curling them slowly a couple of times. You released the neediest of moans as she touched you exactly where you needed her, making your body shudder and your knees buckle. But before you could fully bask in the pleasure, Venable pulled her fingers back out, bringing them up to her mouth and sucking them clean, not breaking eye-contact with you for a second.

You whined at the sight, wanting nothing more than for her to fuck you right now. That's exactly what Wilhemina would usually do when you took your punishment well, but you could tell by the teasing look on her face that this wasn't one of those times.

"You taste pathetic," Venable spoke in a harsh tone. "You cried and wailed throughout the entire punishment, and yet, you're undoubtedly drenched."

"P-please, Ms. Venable," you whimpered, getting more turned on with every word.

She raised an eyebrow, resting her hand back onto her cane. "Please? Would you like to be more specific? I don't have a single clue what you're asking for right now." Her words were roughly spoken, but you could see the small sparkle in her eyes, and the slight twitching of her cheek muscles as she resisted the urge to smirk at you.

"Touch m-me," you begged, resting your hand on top of hers in order to steady yourself. Your arousal was seeping out of you, and your whole body felt weak with it. This was torture. It was almost worse than the punishment itself.

"I most certainly will not."

At the sound of this, you pulled away from her hand, falling back and leaning against the wall as your knees couldn't hold you up for much longer. A shallow, pitiful sigh drifted through your lungs, making Venable chuckle in amusement.

"I thought I already made myself clear, did I not? You will get your reward, but only if are able to show me that you can behave yourself," the Outpost leader spoke clearly and sternly, making sure she wasn't misunderstood this time. "You're going to return to the rest of the survivors now, and you'll meet me in my quarters tonight — the usual time . . . Now, if you even think about disobeying me today, we will be going through this entire process once again, tonight. You will learn your place one way or another. Do you understand me, Ms. (y/n)?"

You sighed softly this time, nodding in agreement. "Yes, Ms. Venable." It was her way or no way, and you were too needy to be comfortable with not recieving any pleasure tonight.

"Good. I suggest you clean up before dinner — your arousal is dripping down your thighs, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if everyone could smell you from all the way across the building," Wilhemina stated before quickly leaning in and pressing a tender kiss to your forehead. "Don’t be late for dinner."

And with that, the red-head turned on her heel, swaying her hips as she left you standing flustered and wet in the middle of the abandoned hall.

#i cant believe i wrote this shit #this is filthy as hell #if anyone reads this in public i just wanna say how does it feel to be so brave bitch #wilhemina venable x reader #wilhemina venable one shot #wilhemina venable fanfic #wilhemina venable imagine #ahs fic #sarah paulson x reader #ahs-honey #tori writes #ahs one shot #american horror story fic #american horror story one shot #wilhemina venable fic

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imaginedanganronpa · 5 years

Note

Can you please do a scenario where Shuichi gets a like some dark magical artifact that gives him dark powers and he slowly gets corrupted as he enjoys his new source of power, dominance and control? The others try to stop him from slowly becoming corrupted, but he almost kills them. He’s only nice to Kaede and Kaito.

Corrupted!Saihara Shuichi Who Almost Kills His Friends With His New Source of Power!

Saihara Shuichi stumbled uponplenty of odd things involved with Cases – high demand Detectives like him seethe epitome of strange. Some were far worse than others, and some should neverbe touched or handled ever again…

When he was tasked with a Case revolving around the occult and dark magic, hewas a bit skeptical at first. Saihara doesn’t really have the platform todiscard a Case that is brought to him, though, especially those that are of utmost importance likethis one.

That’s where he first stumbled upon the ring attached to the corpse of a burn victim – at first, he originally assumed that it was an accident but foul playwas in the back of his mind. And somehow, the ring that the victim was wearingremained unscathed… generally speaking, even the most valuable materials and accessoriesshould receive some sort of damage when thrown into a fire. Saihara spent hourspouring over the details of this case, only to fall flat.

He did his own research and swiped the ring from the evidence lab, slipping iton his finger out of curiosity. But some things are better left untouched andSaihara definitely should have left this one alone…

The moment he placed the ring on his finger, a dark energy surrounded him andhe was overcome with the feelings of power and dominance.

Saihara could feel himself slipping into insanity, and before he completely succumbed to this new feeling, he attempted to remove the ring from his finger but it wouldn’t budge.

The next morning, his classmates could tell that something about him wasdifferent. The way he carried himself and his facial expression were much moreconfident and dark than normal. Ouma Kokichi was the first one to snap andpoint out the obvious.

“Oh, Shuichi~ something about you seems different!” He gleefully cheered as heapproaches the Detective. However, Saihara responds with lightning fastreflexes and wrapped his fingers around the shorter man’s throat, holding himagainst the wall as he struggled and coughed, his slender fingers trying to pry Saihara’s hand off of him.

His other classmates gasped and rushed to Ouma’s aid – when Kaito placed hishand on Saihara’s shoulder to try to relax him, he send theAstronaut flying to the other side of the room with just one glance. The darkstone in the center of the ring glistened as he did this.

Kaede seemed to take note of the ring’s glowing aura but kept her distance from her friend, fearing that the same thing might happen to her.

Meanwhile, Himiko does her own research on the ring itself. She could recognize the stone from one of her spell-books and spent hours pouring over its pages until she found it. The short redhead was alarmed by what she uncovered and immediately called Kaede to her home.

Apparently, the ring is a dark artifact that takes control of whoever wears it. Eventually, it drains its wearer’s energy until they crumble into dust and burst into flames…

The two girls looked at each other with fearful eyes, terrified of what may happen to their friend.

They spent the next few days gathering their classmates together to discuss what they found. Of course, there were skeptics like Miu, Rantaro, and Kiibo who didn’t believe a word they said. To their surprise, Ouma actually did believe them; typically, he would poke fun at them for something like this.

“It’s just that… his eyes looked different, it’s like I can still feel his hand wrapped around my throat. I thought he was going to crush my windpipe or something!” He exclaims as he rubs his neck with one hand, and for once, he seemed dead serious.

Himiko did her best to find a way to stop the ring from completely corrupting its owner. Everything seemed to have a catch, though. In the meantime, Saihara’s powers only grew more intense.

He became much stronger, faster, more flexible. He also gained some supernatural abilities, like how he threw Kaito into a wall without touching him. Saihara is also able to spark flames from his fingertips, but knows to be careful so he doesn’t end up like the last victim.

He could already sense that the others were trying to take his power away from him, but he fell in love with this sense of control. His peers quaked at his presence and took him seriously for once! Why would he give away that source of dominance?

How could he ever go back to normal after this?

A week has passed since he obtained the ring’s powers and Kaede asked him to meet her after school. Saihara hesitantly complied since he’s always had a soft spot for the blonde pianist. She didn’t tell him that Kaito was tagging along, mainly because he showed up last minute.

Himiko lingered just out of sight so she could overhear their conversation and cast a spell to reverse its powers when he wasn’t paying attention.

Saihara joined the pair with a welcoming smile. These two were the only people he was genuinely kind towards, since they had both been his best friends before he received this dark artifact. He also promptly apologized to Kaito for what he had done the week earlier.

He flinched at Kaede’s touch after she leaned forward and placed her hand on top of his gently. “Please, Shuichi, think about what you’re doing…” she says sweetly. He almost felt swayed by her words, but he didn’t want to, even if he could. All Saihara wanted was to be taken seriously.

“Come on, man,” Kaito continues, “we love you for you, and we’re scared of where this is going…” it was true, none of his classmates wanted him to become corrupted. But what did he care? Most of them never gave a shit about him, anyway!

His ears perk up when he sensed Himiko’s presence and then turned towards the wall she was cowering behind, lifting his hand and projecting flames in its direction. She screams and just barely misses his attack, although a flame lights the wall on fire. The short girl trembled as she fell to the floor and started to back away from the Detective.

“Do you think I don’t know what you’re trying to do?” Saihara sneers angrily, “if you try to stop me, you’ll all regret it.” He hisses at them before exiting, not bothering to put out the fire while he’s at it.

The three students look at one another, completely perplexed and unsure of what to do.

After this incident, the rest of their class finally start believing what they had to say. They tried setting up an intervention, which only ticked him off even further. With each day that went by, Saihara’s powers grew and became even more uncontrollable and pretty soon, no one wanted anything to do with him.

Kaede continued to treat him like she had previously, only because she still firmly believes that there was still the Shuichi she knows somewhere inside of there.

But the new, twisted version of himself gets fed up with their interventions, their pep-talks, their comforting words. He lets out a loud angry cry which immediately sets the classroom on fire. Thankfully, it was contained only within their class but caused the Ultimates to rush out of the building in a bewildered panic.

Kaede caught up to him as he sprinted away and clings onto his shoulder desperately. “Please, Shuichi! I know you’re still in there, please listen to me!”

He had just nearly killed his friends, including Kaede, and she was still being kind towards him? Saihara didn’t understand. He just wanted them to leave him be and let him enjoy this new source of power.

Saihara was growing stronger all the time and all it would take to kill them and put a stop to their madness for good would be one false move. Twisted laughter erupts from his throat as he feels his mind slipping out of his grasp.

He could feel himself slowly slipping into an unstable, corrupted mentality. But what did he care? The only people he had any compassion for were his two friends, and everyone else could go to Hell as far as he’s concerned.

The question lingered in his mind: should he listen to the others and try to contain, or even stop, his own power? Or should he bask in it while it lasts, even if it costs him his life?

Damn them for trying to take this opportunity away from him.

- Mod Rantaro

#danganronpa #danganronpa imagines #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 #ndrv3 imagines #shuichi saihara #saihara shuichi #saihara shuuichi

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haikyuu-imagines-and-others · 5 years

Note

Hiya I love your blog and writing and was wondering if I could ask for some scenarios with Oikawa and Hanamaki with the 7 minutes in heaven prompt? Many thanks

Oikawa’s been done love!! I’ll link the piece here tho for you :) And Hanamaki?? Sweet pink boi!! Love it! Thanks for the request, love! - Admin Satori

Oikawa Tooru: 7 Minutes in Heaven Here

Hanamaki Takahiro: 7 Minutes in Heaven

“Guys, I really, really don’t want to play. It’s not that serio- HEY!” The closet door closed behind you as you were pushed in.

Was someone already in here? You’d walked into the party late, you’d brought food to make up for it… so why were they punishing you?

“Seriously! Let me out of here, what the hell!” You slapped your hand on the door, hearing the laughter and mocking beyond the wooden barrier. They were definitely making fun of you, not only of your confusion but of the waver in your voice. Were you scared of the dark?

Not usually! But when it felt like something was watching you between the folds of clothes on either side of you? 100% you were terrified and wanted out right this second. You continued to slap your hand on the door, asking to be let out - but it sounded like their voices only got further away. Matsukawa calling a brief, “Don’t be rude!” From what sounded like down the hall to you.

Why this closet, too? Didn’t it have that creepy marionette doll thing that the boys would prank you with? Moving her around the house, making you think she was real and alive or at the very least possessed? You let out an uneasy whine as you slowly turned to focus on your surroundings, “Fucking assholes….” You whimpered quietly, under your breath - not wanting the creepy ass doll to know you were absolutely scared of it.

It was cool in the closet, as well. Dark and cool. Silent, too. You could barely hear anything over your hammering heartbeat, but you knew you were the only thing making any sort of noise.

Your hand tried the handle of the door, feeling your heart leap up excitedly when it turned in your hand. But when you pushed against the door, it didn’t budge. Had they put a chair in front of the closet? Wedging you in here? Another uneasy whimper pulled from your mouth, pressing yourself as close to the door as possible. Why was this closet so creepy?

Where was the light switch? You were scared to check the nearest wall, fearing you’d feel something that didn’t belong. Another body? The smooth surface of porcelain? You didn’t want to risk it. “Darkness my old friend…” Just below a whisper, it felt like your words were eaten by the unending void around you. “Guys…. Please… Please let me out of here?” No response, “Seriously! Come on! I brought you food and you’re doing this to me?” You shifted your weight from foot to food, “Guys?”

Still nothing. No one was out there. You were all alone in a closet.

Why did this feel like grade school suddenly? Because Mattsun was such an asshole he’d been pranking you and teasing you and joking with you for as long as you could remember. Him and Hanamaki!

Speaking of…. Hanamaki was usually your spokesperson…. Where was he to save you from the dark? Had you seen him when you’d come into the apartment? Had he been in the kitchen enjoying the party or…. No, you couldn’t remember seeing him.

Had he even showed up?

“Issei! Seriously! Let me out!! I’m telling Takahiro if you don’t!”

Still nothing. If you strained your ears, maybe some faint laughter from the rooms far down the hall? Had they even heard you? Or were they still laughing at your predicament?

… Did that jacket just move?

You strained your eyes to see, making out horrifying shapes and patterns in the process - your heart leapt into your throat. It’s not real. You knew it wasn’t real. You were just scared. Just paranoid. Right?

So why did you see hands moving towards you from the right?

Screaming, you pushed the hands away, banging on the closet door now frantically, trying to get away from whatever it was that was in here with you. Heart hammering, you only screamed louder when the hands grabbed your wrists and held them tight - cold hands. A ghost? A demon? Here to haunt you? To possess you? To kill you?

Then laughter could be heard over your screams of panic. Familiar laughter.

And the fear that had been bubbling over in your chest was quickly snuffed out. Only to be replaced with anger. Embarrassed anger.

“You…You should… ahahaha! You were so scar-ahahaha Oh, my god…” Hanamaki laughed in the darkness, quickly letting go of your wrists to brace himself as he laughed heartily at your expense. You were so scared. How lowly did you think of Matsukawa and your friends to think they’d put you in a closet full of danger? He only kept laughing.

You wanted to hit him. You wanted to make him pay for making you so scared. But you stayed silent. Not amused in the situation at all. Furious to the point of silence.

The laughter subsided for a moment, and his hands found yours once more - your clenched hands. You were pissed. Hanamaki’s laughs were intermittent, every few words laced with his laughter or his humor, “Oh, don’t be mad, ______. It was a joke.” More chuckles, at your fear, “Look, I saved you, just like you wanted me to!”

A rush of blood warmed your cheeks. He’d heard you. He’d heard your threat to tell on Mattsun to him… How embarrassing. It wasn’t a stated fact that Hanamaki was always on your side, more of an unspoken ruling kind of deal…. And now that he knew you thought of it as a guarantee….. How much more fun would he poke at you?

“Fuck you, Hiro.” You muttered, pulling your hands free from his hold, blushing furiously as you crossed your arms, “I thought you were my friend.” He only laughed softly, knowing you didn’t mean it. You were just upset and embarrassed.

Hanamaki hummed, clear amusement heard in the tone of it - You wanted to push him away as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer to him, playfully trying to get you to loosen up a bit. You’d been really wound tight with fear, hadn’t you? “I am your friend, ______!” He chuckled, squeezing you in his arms, trying to chip away at the block of anger that had settled as your physical being. “You’ve heard of 7 minutes in hell, right?” He shrugged, and you felt his smile in the dark; he knew what he was asking. “That’s what this is! I got chosen, and I wanted to spend the 7 minutes in hell with you!”

You bit the inside of your cheek, struggling to find the anger inside you rather than the amusement of his ‘hell’ vs’ heaven’ change. He thought he was so slick, huh? So smart to pretend this game was supposed to be scary and not romantic or at least intense. Well, it had been intense…. just…. Intensely tense.

Instead of cursing at him again, you let out a heavy sigh, relaxing in his hold. Exactly what he wanted. “It’s not supposed to be ‘hell’, Hiro.. It’s supposed to be ‘heaven’.”

“Hm.. I don’t think so, ______. Because then I’d have done this wrong. And we both know, I’m never wrong.” The smirk in his voice was so prominent you could feel it. You couldn’t tell if you wanted to push him away or kiss him silly… Why did you want anything to do with someone so mean? Stupid crush’s. “And if I’m wrong… Then maybe I can make it right somehow…”

You scoffed, “I don’t think you can reverse a heart attack, thanks.”

He laughed quietly, the moment of fear and panic subsiding, your heart only remaining the same increased beat due to his arms still being around you - his chest now against yours after you’d uncrossed your arms. So very close. He was so warm. “Ye of little faith-“

“Don’t use ole English on me.”

“-I can add years to your life that the heart attack took away!”

Raising your eyebrow, you slowly wrapped your arms around him, returning his hug, feeling his heart slamming against his own chest pressed against yours. Well, sort of. You were tall enough to come to his chin.. So you could probably hear his fast heartbeat better than you could feel it… But you didn’t want to lay your head on his chest just yet…. He was playing more games, and you were interested in seeing what the end prizes were.

But adding years? “Oh, yeah? How so-“

You squeaked in surprise when his lips pressed against yours. You definitely hadn’t been expecting it, and the dark of the closet had given him enough cover to lean in while you were questioning his science. Though, it was dark enough that he was lucky to have landed on your lips. He’d been worried of accidentally kissing your nose or chin… that would have been awkward.

Sweet, soft lips moved against yours, and you quickly melted into the kiss - his hands holding you close. Then he was pulling away just as you were daydreaming of your future with him, smiling proudly when you rested your chin on his sternum, as if you were showing you were available for any more kisses if he so chose to give them to you. “Looking back on this will definitely make you laugh, so there’s your added years.”

A/N: Hanamaki is 1000% OOC and I have no idea how to fix it… so… hehe…. enjoy

#Admin Satori #Haikyuu!!#Haikyuu!! Scenario #Hanamaki Takahiro #Character Challenge!#7 Minutes in Heaven #7 Minutes in Hell

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yourwakingnightmares · 5 years

Text

Theo Raeken Character Study (Part 2): Theo and Tara

(Please be advised that, out of all these chapters, this will be the least canonically based, with the most amount of speculation and conjecture.)

Whatever else can be said about Theo Raeken, it can’t be argued that the moment he watched his sister die is easily the one that defines him the most; it was when he made a conscious choice to let his sister freeze to death, whether or not he understood the ramifications of that act (see Part 1 for more on that).

And yet, very few things I’ve seen actually look at the relationship between the two. I mean, I get it, there’s not a whole lot for us to work with; the scene of him on the bridge watching her, and what we see in the hospital being the only two time we see the two of them interact.

But, despite this, I think we can still make some conclusions of their relationship, based off of those two scenes, and based off of Theo himself.

(Please note: this post will be drawing heavily from the conclusions of Part 1. As well, canon seems to differ about whether Tara was younger, or older, with some sites/fans saying she was younger, and others saying she was older. I’m going with ‘older’ based off the fact that she looked to be at least prepubescent in the bridge scene, and 11-13 in the hospital scenes.)

Let’s start with the river and the bridge. How Theo ignores her pleading with him, calling his name. Theo never denies that he knew this would kill her -even when talking to Stiles, he never says, “I didn’t know!”, but rather, “I believed them when they told me she wanted me to have her heart.”

So, we could just chalk this up to Theo having a diminished empathetic response... But I believe there’s more to it than that.

If we run with the conclusions I made in the last post, we can start with assumption that, whether neglectful, or abusive, Theo’s early home life was fairly depressing, or emotionally unhealthy. So, we have two possible scenarios with Tara.

Either she was subjected to the neglect or abuse as well, or that she was exempt from it.

Obviously, if she was exempt from the crap show that was Theo’s childhood, that’s a very simple explanation for why Theo was so willing to let her die; if he was emotionally neglected, or physically abused, and she wasn’t, that would make it incredibly easy for him to rationalize, or justify her death as it ‘being deserved’. Or, in simple terms... Theo had all the bad crap happen to him, now it was Tara’s turn.

But if she was right there alongside Theo as it happened, we would (typically) expect to see one of three things. Either she would become a ‘fellow survivor’ (someone who understood), she would gravitate towards the ‘protector’ role as the older sibling, or that the two would develop an antagonistic relationship, i.e., ‘it’s me or you, and it’s not gonna be me’ mentality.

Let’s take those three things in order, and determine which would be the most likely, given what we know.

Well, right off the bat, I would discount the first one. If Theo viewed his sister as a fellow survivor, someone who’d been beside him through all the bad, it would have been harder for him to watch her die, i.e., he would have identified with her too much to simply watch her die without doing anything.

The ‘Older Protector’ one could definitely hold water though, especially given what Theo says about believing the Doctors when they say Tara wants him to have her heart. If Tara was constantly stepping in to protect, or take care of, her little brother, to a child it would make sense to take that a step further. Why wouldn’t she want him to have her heart? She’s always taking care of him, so if she wanted him to have her heart, it’s plausible to him. But, given Theo’s relatively handicapped empathetic response, it would be difficult to explain this, as having someone who cared about him, who protected him, who took care of him, would have filled the need for an example for empathy, i.e., Tara would have filled the void of someone to teach him empathy, simply by taking care of him.

Which leaves the ‘dog eat dog world’ scenario as the most plausible of the three. They were simply two kids existing in the same hellhole, neither one with a normally developed sense of empathy. This would lead to neither of them having a healthy empathetic response, and -since Tara was the older sibling -could easily lead to her repeating, or mimicking the behavior of their parental figures, and bullying, ignoring, or abusing Theo. Similar to the theory of Tara being excluded from the abuse, this could easily allow Theo to rationalize her death as ‘it was you or me’.

Since two of our theories coincide, allowing for a similar thought process, let’s run with those two (which have the same end result: being able to easily justify Tara’s death, either out of revenge, or necessity).

Next, let’s examine the hospital scene. The scene where Tara rips Theo’s heart out, over and over again.

Firstly, let’s point out that, aside from the initial ‘it’s my dead sister’ response, Theo doesn’t really show any sort of surprise; after the initial moment of panic, he doesn’t hesitate to try and escape. He never tries to reason with her, never says anything like, ‘this isn’t you’, ‘what are you doing?’, nothing. The only thing he says initially is, ‘wait, Tara, don’t’.

If they had had a healthy relationship -or even a somewhat functional one -we would expect to see him horrified at what his sister is; horrified by the realization of what he’s done.

Or... reasoning with her in an attempt to get it stop. But out of all the times we see Theo get his heart ripped from his chest, not once does he attempt to negotiate, reason, or even really beg, aside from his ‘wait, don’t’ one time.

Is it because Theo knows that the real Tara wouldn’t give a damn about him pleading? That trying to bargain/negotiate/reason with her had never worked before? That begging never stopped her when she was alive, why would it when she was dead?

Even when Theo finally surrenders, telling her, ‘it’s okay. You don’t have to stop’, it’s not a guilty look on his face; it’s the look of an absolutely broken person. Granted, yes, having your dead sister rip your heart out repeatedly in a nightmarish hell that you can’t escape would break even the strongest person eventually, Theo doesn’t curl up in a ball and cry; he doesn’t say this while he’s at a door, trying to escape, as a realization.

No, he comes out of the morgue drawer, already expecting what’s coming; he slowly drags himself out, and doesn’t try to hide, fight, or run. He simply waits for her to come in, after pulling himself to his feet. He waits for her to show up, and then says, ‘it’s okay. You don’t have to stop’.

He never talked to her before, beyond one brief ‘wait don’t, stop’; why those words? Why ‘you don’t have to stop’ now? If it was simply guilt, we would have expected that reaction far sooner; we watch her rip his heart out at least a dozen times, and it’s implied that it happened dozens, or even hundreds of time before Liam sets him free.

Even more telling, he’s still not asking for her to stop; he’s accepted that it’s going to happen, and he’s simply giving her permission. Telling her that killing him -which she’s already done, painfully, dozens of time -is okay, and she can keep going.

Clearly this wasn’t reverse psychology (hoping that, by telling her she didn’t have to stop, it would make her stop), since he didn’t react when she tore his heart out again. In that moment, when he finally breaks, he doesn’t beg, or plead, or try to manipulate; he simply gives up, and let’s her do what she wants.

Tying this back into our original suppositions about why he was able to watch her die, we could very easily relate this behavior to the ‘it’s you or me’ mentality; simply put, Tara won, and Theo lost. In essence, Tara (’you’) came out on top, so Theo (’me’) simply gives up.

We could also stretch it to fit the theory that Tara was exempt from whatever Theo grew up with; essentially, the bad thing always happens to Theo in the end, this is simply how it’s supposed to be, or even that this is his ‘punishment’ for the bad thing finally happening to her.

As a final aside, before I end this, I want to briefly attach Theo’s interaction with Liam, during their fight against the Ghost Riders in the hospital. Liam tells Theo that, “I think whatever happened, you deserved it.”

Theo’s response is a tight smirk, as he says, “Oh, is that right?”

If we’re supposed to believe that Theo finally accepted that he deserved Tara ripping his heart out over and over again, that he acknowledged his guilt, why does he reject the idea only a few days after coming back? Clearly it’s not a rejection of empathy; one, he wouldn’t care what Liam thought of him, and two, it flies in the face of his actions from that point on.

Of course, this could simply mean that Theo’s saying, ‘no one deserves that’, but again... it flies in the face of his previous behavior; if he thought Tara was justified in ripping his heart out, that she had every right to torment him, then he can’t turn around and say he didn’t deserve it.

Anyways... Like I said, this is the most ‘subjective’ part of the character study, as there’s simply not enough material to come to solid conclusions using canon. So if you disagree, or think something different, let me know! I’d love to hear it!

Part 1 Theo’s Childhood

Part 3 Theo and the Dread Doctors

#theo raeken #Theo Raeken character study #Teen wolf #tara raeken

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meztliel · 6 years

Text

Pokeshipping Week 2018

Day 6: Returning to the River Where They Met (from the optional batch of themes)

Takes place between episode #42 and #43 of SM. A kind of "what if" scenario.

I may also do a fic for "Role Reversal" but if I do it's probably going to be a day or two late :v

***

Ash breathes in contently as he gazes at the long stretch of stars nestled in dark blue. They're a bit brighter here, unpolluted by the artificial glow that drowns them out in larger cities. The air at home is crisper, too, not at all like the humidity that wraps his skin like a damp cloth back in Alola.

Right now, Ash feels very much awake, and it's not simply due to jet lag, though that is a huge part of it.

As he sits outside on his mother's porch, the day's events play out in his mind over and over again, already being filed under his ever-growing pile of treasured memories.

Kiawe on Charizard racing a Rapidash. His mother's unrivaled cooking and the Oak cousins' groan-worthy puns. Lana fangirling over Misty. Even Team Rocket's unwarranted interruption brings a smile to his face. Just like old times. Ash wouldn't change anything about today.

There's just something that's been bothering him. He can't quite name it, he only knows it happens whenever Misty is near him. Like an itch inside his chest that's impossible to scratch.

His heart jumps when he hears the back door creak open, expecting his mother to scold him any second for being up so late.

"Can't sleep either, huh?"

Not his mom. Misty.

His heart jumps regardless.

Her hair is down and she's in pajamas and Ash hates that the first thought that springs to mind is "cute."

She makes him scoot over to make room for her on the porch steps, and he scoots a little bit further when her sleeve brushes against his.

"So, ready to lose against me tomorrow?"

Ash snorts. "You wish. I'm a lot stronger than I was before we parted ways, you know. Like, really strong. And smarter."

He realizes too late that saying he's smarter makes him sound anything but.

Misty makes a noise through her nose. "Well, at least you haven't gotten dumber. You're still scrawny, though."

"Hey!"

Misty laughs, and despite that it's at his expense, Ash really likes hearing it.

A short period of silence passes between them, and though he wouldn't call it entirely awkward, Ash feels like there's something suspended between them that one of them needs to reach out for and tether to the ground.

"So, how come you're up this late?"

Misty's profile looks contemplative as she gazes at the sky. "Lately I haven't been sleeping much. I think it's the pressure of running a gym practically all by myself. You'd think that wear me out but it's been keeping me up. I slept better on the dirt when we were traveling together than I do in my own bed."

Ash remembers those days. He no longer has to sleep in a sleeping bag either, and he definitely doesn't miss the feel of the ground pressing roughly against his back nor the bug bites that made welts on his skin. But he does miss the sight of the open skies. He misses the whispers of air through the trees and the late-night conversations with his friends, most of those conversations between him and Misty.

Sometimes, when it was just the two of them, it would feel similar to how it feels now, the space between them filled with unvoiced, confused thoughts and feelings that remain unidentified.

"To help me sleep, know what I do?" Misty asks, cutting through his thoughts.

"What?"

"Go for a swim."

***

His feet are balanced on either side of Misty's bike as she pedals them miles away from his house to a place he hasn't seen in what feels like forever ago.

The sound of water falling and crashing on to heavy rocks fills his ears and soon enough he sees the river where they first met.

More accurately, it's the river he nearly drowned in and where Misty quite literally fished him out of, and despite that morbid backstory Ash still feels a sort of weird, nostalgic fondness as he nears the current.

Had he not jumped into this river he and Pikachu might have died, anyway. Torn to shreds by angry Spearow.

Sometimes he wonders if he didn't actually die that day and his corpse is currently entombed in those waters, if everything he's experienced since then have been dreams or the afterlife or his spirit carrying on the adventures he was meant to have in life.

He has had a pretty intense and somewhat surreal life, and it's sometimes hard to believe that some of the crazy things he's been through actually happened.

Whether he's dead or alive doesn't matter right now because the red-hot alarm surging through his body as he catches Misty unbuttoning the top part of her pajamas feels very, very real.

"Wait a minute! Hold on." He already has his eyes covered with his hand as he spins around to avoid seeing the rest.

"You're- you're being ridiculous," Misty yells, but doesn't protest his modesty any further as she presumably finishes stripping down to her bathing suit.

He knows that she has a tendency to fly out of her regular clothes and dive into the nearest body of water in her bikini whenever the mood strikes her. In fact, he knows she did so earlier with Lana because they told him about their swimming adventure right after they met up again.

But this... This is different. They're alone, in the middle of nowhere, during the dead at night, and nobody knows they're here.

It's a situation that his mother would call inappropriate, and it's got his nerves alert and on edge.

He hears a wet splash and a satisfied exhale, and then he hears her say, "Okay. You can look now."

From the shoulders down Misty is submerged in dark, silver liquid, looking up at him expectantly from below her dripping bangs.

Ash swallows. "Ummm..."

"Oh. Right." She gives him the courtesy of covering her eyes as he strips down to his boxers. The air has more of a bite to it out here, but before Ash can have any more second thoughts, he lets out a battle cry and cannonballs into the water.

His early anxiety seems to wash away with the steady current, and soon his muscles ease and relax into the cool water.

"So. You really caught the Gyrados that was in here?"

The same Gyrados that he saw when he dove to escape a flock of riled Spearow.

"Yep. I've caught a good number of high-level Pokémon here."

"Impressive," he admits. Before he allows his compliment to settle into her brain and further inflate her ego, he splashes her with water and yells, "Race you over to that rock!"

Even though he cheats with a head start and has improved as a swimmer, Misty still beats him to it.

She's already waiting for him on the large rock jutting out from the surface of the water, a triumphant smirk on her lips.

"Just the first taste of the defeat you'll feel tomorrow."

He means to retort with something as equally snarky, but he's short on breath and his pulse is beating rapidly, not showing any signs of slowing as he looks up at Misty.

The moonlight frames her with a soft, white glow and the beads of water on her skin seem to shimmer where the light hits them. His eyes chase a rivulet down its trajectory from her cheek to her chin before it falls and coalesces with the river.

He's captivated, and doesn't realize it until it's too late. She's noticed.

"Um, we should get back," he says, trying to keep his voice from croaking.

"Right," she agrees, coming down from the rock to follow him back to land.

As they swim wordlessly back towards where they've left their pajamas like candy discarded wrappers, Ash remembers something important he's been meaning to say to her since they returned to this river.

"Hey, Mist," he begins, pausing from emerging from the water to look her in the eyes. "I never actually said thank you for saving mine and Pikachu's lives. So, uh, thank you. A lot." Smooth.

Her smile is soft, with a hint of amusement in it that makes Ash's pulse stutter once again.

"You're welcome. But you know," she continues, her lips pulling wider from a smile to a grin. He inhales sharply as Misty draws closer, so close he can see a tinge of red drowning out the light freckles across her nose. "A more proper way to thank me is with a kiss."

Ash might as well be drowning right because he's completely robbed of air and in borderline panic as Misty parts her lips and inches ever closer to him.

He shuts his eyes, expecting to feel a press against his lips any moment now. Instead, he feels a light tap on his forehead.

"Just kidding," she says, sending his soul careening back into his body.

Misty may have saved his skin back then but just now she nearly claimed his life.

#pokeshipping #pokeshipping week #pokeshipping week 2018 #aaml #ash and misty #my fic #fanfiction

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