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#do i have the energy to figure out what exactly isn’t working? nope.
kurticus · 1 year
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Monitor Duty Company
“So I have been meaning to ask, what exactly are you?”
Danny was floating through the open space of the Watchtower bridge. Idly tossing a fist sized red bouncy ball with a yellow lightning bolt pattern off of the gray metal walls. The question came from the red speedster, Flash, who was lounging in the central chair of the room with his feet propped up on the control panel. Supposedly Flash was watching those monitors. But despite this being the third time Danny had visited the space station, he’d never seen Flash monitor anything. He just made conversation and told stories that Danny could not decide if he believed or not.
The question caught Danny as he sent the ball flying. He fumbled and twisted upside down as he barely caught the ball on its return. Nervously he straightened and replied, “What am I? Uh. Kind of a deep question isn’t it?” 
Flash waved his hand dismissively. “I mean the ghosty stuff. Not really my area of expertise. But you don’t strike me as a ghost.”
“Ha. Not ghostly enough for you?” Danny put his hands over his head and made his eyes glow. “Am I not spooky enough?” He waggled his fingers for extra effect.
In a blur Flash was standing next to him, giving Danny an over the top examination. Half bowing as he hummed in consideration. Then in an instant he was back in his chair spinning slightly. “Nope. Kid you don’t seem like a ghost at all.”
Danny let gravity find him again and drifted back to the floor with a light thump. He stood up straight and eyed a glance at his reflection in one of the grand windows of the space station. His hair was still white and he radiated a soft glow. Slightly annoyed, he asked, “What do you mean?”
“I have met ghosts. Sometimes they seem like normal people. Sometimes they are invisible voices that try to creep you out. Sometimes they turn into monsters and throw cars at you. Heck we have a part-time leaguer named Deadman. Nobody can see him at all until he decides to take over someone's body. I’ve never seen a ghost shoot lasers or make glowing shields like you do.” 
Suddenly a pencil eraser from somewhere on the nearby desk bounced off Danny’s face. Danny flinched and rubbed where he’d been hit. “Ow, stop that!” Looking back he saw Flash toying with a pencil innocently.
“Besides,” Flash continued, pointing the pencil at the ghost boy, “You are solid. Lots of spooky things have to work to be solid. You default to it. You gotta choose to go through stuff like J’on does. So I figure, not a ghost. Am I right?”
“Well, I am a ghost.” Danny tossed the ball back to the speedster. “But that is kind of a blanket term that gets complicated fast. Lots of things call themselves ghosts. Technically speaking, I am an Ecto-Entity.” Danny pronounced this with formality and a stiff back. Thinking of the way his parents said it. “Also more politely known as a Ghost of the Infinite Realms.”
“Infinite Realms huh? Sounds spacious.”
“You have no idea.” Danny picked his foot up and tucked it under himself. Then slipping past gravity he pulled the other foot up so he was sitting on nothing with crossed legs. Drifting slightly he continued. “Also called the ghost zone, it is an endless dimension of energy and emotion that exists in the shadow of reality. Basically emotions and memories from this world can imprint on the energy of the ghost zone. Then that energy forms stuff like me.” 
“So,” Flash smiled. “Just to be clear, you aren’t some creature that escaped from Hell to haunt the living?”
Danny flashed a crooked smile and shifted his eyes to a bright frost blue. “Keep the jokes up, I know how well you handle iced floors.” Still drifting lightly while sitting in air, Danny softly blew air at Flash. Dusting him is a light coating of frost and snow. 
“Cute.” Flash shivered slightly and brushed a few snowflakes from his shoulders. “So not the exorcism, don’t go into the light kind of ghost?”
Danny thought back to the flash of pain and light from the accident. “Uh, well… There can be some overlap…” 
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This conversation takes place after Danny has worked with the Justice League a few times and built some trust. Flash, after learning of his love for space, invites him to spend time at the watchtower. Giving him someone to talk to during his shifts on monitor duty.
I haven't written much myself, but there have been so many great posts lately about Danny interacting with the DCU. I might have to start my take as well.
Plus the question of how the lore interacts between the different shows is really compelling to me.
Let me know what you think. I haven't written much so I am sure there are plenty of pointers I could use. Hit me.
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howlingheartdemigod · 5 years
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Prompt: someone dangerous has taken Beau prisoner, and the M9 have to break in and get her back. Bonus points for angry/worried/protective Yasha and Beau being quietly surprised that anyone thought she was worth rescuing (gotta love negative self talk). Thanks!
Oh boo you know I’m here for some negative self talk. thank you for the prompt i really do love it
tw for mentions of violence, mentions of death, mentions of injuries
title from a poem by Christopher Poindexter
“I loved the wayshe touchedme
What more canI say?
her hands weremade from the thingswe all have trouble believing.”
Trouble Believing
The cell was small and dark, the air stale, smelling of piss and death. Bruised and bloodied, Beau was trying to accept the fact that she was going to die there. In addition to being generally horribly beaten, her nose was bashed, wrist probably broken, arms rubbed raw from the rusty manacles they’d put on her. She was fairly certain that her ribs were broken as well, and to top the Sunday of shitty things, she was becoming more and more lightheaded, like the air in the room wasn’t enough. Like she couldn’t get a breath right. Every gasp was a struggle, ripping through her painfully.
It had been days, probably. She’d been in the dark and the cold for so long, with no evidence that the sun even still existed, that she wasn’t totally sure. They’d tried beating the answers they were looking for out of her at first, and it had been a little easier to mark the days then, considering they stuck to some idea of meal times. But three went by, and they realized that she wasn’t going to talk, and had added starving her to the mix, coming in to tempt her with food, or kick the ever loving shit out of her, but she refused to break.
It helped that she didn’t know what the fuck they were asking about, shouting about some book and a thief. Sounded like The Cobalt Soul collecting intel, taking something with dangerous information out of the hands of those who would use it for chaos instead of order. Unfortunately it wasn’t her intel. So she was of no help to these brutes.
She kept thinking of her friends. Kept praying they knew she hadn’t abandoned them by choice. Kept wondering if they had mourned her loss. Kept hoping she’d get to see Mollymauk when this was all over. 
And, inevitably, without thought or permission, her mind wandered to Yasha. Yasha who she loved. Yasha who she was too much of a coward to say anything to. Yasha who wasn’t even with them when she was taken. Yasha who would never know how she felt. Yasha who wouldn’t know she was dead for who knows how long, days, weeks, months maybe. Yasha who would never feel the same anyway. Who she was abandoning just like Molly had. Like Zuala had. She knew it was selfish, feeling how she felt, but she would have liked to say it, just once. It would have been nice to say.
There was a ruckus outside the door, loud shouting, the sound of a body being slammed to the floor, and the cell door opening. Must be a new round of beating coming for her. The guys who came in for that tended to swing on each other just as often as they did at her. When this all had started, she made a point of pushing to her feet, straining against the chains, trying to fight back. She didn’t have the strength for that now. She closed her eyes, curling into the corner. Maybe they’d think she was dead. Maybe if they did they’d leave her alone to rot.
She heard the door swing open, heard an oddly familiar reedy gasp of shock, heard steps draw close. Just whens he expected violence, soft, almost scared hands came to cradle her face, turn her away from the wall.
“Oh, Gods.” Beau knew that rasp, that accent, that beautiful incredible voice. Her eyes flicked open to see the most beautiful sight she had ever seen kneeling in front of her.
Yasha, eyes dark pools, incredible skeletal wings extended from her back, the ends of her hair turned black, was there. She was right there. She was real. “Yasha?” She rasped softly, the word straining her.
“Hush, love.” Yasha said softly. Beau watched the ends of her hair return to normal, watched her wings return to her body. Yasha’s hand moved over Beau’s body searching for injuries. Beau’s eyes tracked her, feeling warm white healing energy radiate from her hands over her ribs.
“Why?” Beau asked. “This is… So dangerous, you shouldn’t have…”
Yasha looked up to Beau’s eyes, head tilting. “You think we would have ever left you?”
Beau swallowed, and Yasha turned her head, calling behind her. “Jester, she needs healing.”
Beau looked past Yasha for the first time, seeing Jester standing behind, looking relieved, and beyond her, Caleb and Nott both looking grateful, but antsy. Jester came over, kneeling next to Yasha.
“Fjord and Caduceus are keeping a clear path out. Nila came with us. She walked us through a tree.” Jester explained, a little smile coming to her lips.
Beau stared at Jester, feeling the green healing light course through her. She took a breath, ignoring the sting of her bones resetting, ignoring the odd sting of the skin knitting itself back together, focusing on the fact that her friends had followed her into hell. “Jester, this is… these guys are dangerous.”
“Those guys are dead.” Caleb intoned from behind. He had a wild look in his eye, a shake to his voice, a twitch in her finger tip. There was the smell of smoke in the air, Beau realized, that hadn’t been there before.
Before she could fully process what he’d done for her, she was being lifted off the ground. Yasha’s strong arms were around her, cradling her. She felt all too weak and all too safe for her liking, but couldn’t really bring herself to care. They were here, they were protecting her. She was safe. After days of not sleeping, not eating, fighting to keep upright through beatings, after all of that, she was safe.
Beau curled into Yasha’s hold, closing her eyes, and letting the world fall away, content to focus on the pounding of Yasha’s heart, and the fact that she smelled more like home than any building ever could.
Beau didn’t realized she’d fallen asleep, passed out really, until she woke up in a warm soft bed, sore beyond words. She cracked open her eyes in the streaming mid morning light, cutting through the open window like a blade. She hummed her protest and squinted her eyes shut again.
“Oh, thank Gods, you’re awake.” The soft rolling tone of Caduceus voice came rolling across the room tp her, and filled her with joy. She didn’t think she’d hear that again. She tilted her head in the direction, giving a little smile. “Don’t strain, I’ll come to you.” She watched the Firbolg stand, a tea cup in his hands, and move carefully across the room, taking big steps over bundles on the ground.
Not bundles, she realized quickly, people, friends. Fjord, Caleb, and Jester were all spread out on the ground. The door to the room was open, so she could only assume Nott had tiptoed out for whatever reason, maybe to get food, hopefully to get food. Beau had never been so hungry in her life. Beau turned her head a little more, and found that Yasha had fallen asleep sitting on the floor, head tilted back against the frame of the bed. She wanted to wake her, tell her to rest in some way that wasn’t going to give her neck problems, but she didn’t want to pull her from sleep either.
Caduceus came to a stop, sitting on the edge of the bed. “You still hurting?” He asked, voice low enough to keep from waking the others.
Beau cleared her throat a little, trying to match his quiet. “Yeah.” she admitted, “I’m hungry as all hell. And thirsty.”
Caduceus nodded. “I’ll get soup on soon. No more injuries though?”
Beau stretched a little, testing things out. “Wrist maybe. But it can just heal, don’t waste your magic on me-”
Before she could finish talking Caduceus had reached to put a hand over hers, warm pink energy radiating out. She felt her bones set back in place. “It’s not a waste.” He replied, giving a little nod.
She stared at him, heart squeezing with concern. “You guys shouldn't have come. Those guys were bad news. It was stupid and dangerous to come after me.”
Caduceus blinked a few times, frowning. “But you would come after us. You already have come after some of us.” He pointed out. “We couldn’t leave you behind, Beauregard. We could never survive it.”
Pink eyes radiated warmth, then Firbolg pushed to his feet. He picked his way across the room, towards the door. Beau looked around, eyes trailing on the now stirring forms of her friends, and let that roll over her. She looked to Yasha, who had awoken, and was staring at Beau with tears in her eyes.
‘ Could never survive it,’ rang in her ears, forcing a nasty truth to surface. She’d been so ready to die for her friends she hadn’t even considered needing to live for them.
A moment of time passed, and her friends all woke, each one checking on her. A while later, Caduceus and Nott returned with food. Later still, once there was food in her, someone explained to Beau that they were in Nala’s tribes new home, they’d been kind enough to welcome them in their time of need for helping them in theirs.
Beau nodded, telling herself she’d have to thank Nala. That she owed her big time. She looked around at her friends, something hard blocking her throat. “You guys shouldn’t have come.” She said. “It was…”
“Beau.” Jester cut her off, a spark in her eye that told Beau that going on was a bad idea. “We aren’t going to leave you behind. Ever.”
There was a moment of quiet, when Beau tried to digest that, tried to understand that, btu she just couldn’t. Beau dropped her eyes, feeling the bed next to her dip. A large pale hand laid over hers. Beau flipped her hand into Yasha’s grip, and threaded their fingers together.
Caleb cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should let Beau rest.” He suggested, standing, shuffling towards the door, waving the rest of them out.
Beau didn’t really want to be alone, but she didn’t want to bother them either, not after all the trouble they went through. Gradually, they all trailed out. Gradually, Beau and Yasha were left alone. She expected her to follow, she expected to be alone, but Yasha stayed. She swept her thumb along the back of Beau’s hand, letting out a little sigh.
“You okay?” Yasha asked, eyes scanning Beau’s form. Beau kept her eyes on Yasha, her heart pounding in her ears. Yasha looked up to meet her gaze when Beau didn’t respond. “Beauregard?”
“I’m… It’s...” She said, shaking her head. “I… I didn’t think you all were going to come. I thought I was going to die there. I thought...”
Yasha lifted a hand to Beau’s cheek. “Why would you ever, even for a moment, believe that I would let you be left behind?”
Beau felt tears track down her cheeks before she even realized they’d started to pool in her eyes. “I’m not worth this much trouble.”
Yasha’s head shook, and she leaned closer. There was something earnest behind her gaze, something honest and desperate. “You are worth more than the world. If you were ever taken from me again, I will happily tear it apart to get you back.”
Beau let out a broken breath, collapsing over, her head falling on Yasha’s shoulder.
Yasha held her, leaning them both back into the soft bed. “I’ve got you.” she heard Yasha promise. “I’m here.”
Normally, when Yasha promised that, Beau would wonder for how long. Normally she’d scan the sky for clouds. But this time, she just tucked her nose into the crook of Yasha’s neck and breathed her in, smelling rain, and lightning, and lavender, and home.
Beau woke hours later, as the sun was setting, and she was curled into Yasha’s side. Which meant Yasha was still there, leaning against the headboard, fingers carding through Beau’s hair. It was new, it was unexpected. They didn’t do this. They danced around the issue. They didn’t talk about it. Beau didn’t push her to talk about it. It wasn’t important, really. Beau wanted to say something, but she was plenty happy with how things were. No need to complicate it. But this, the touching, the waking up in bed, the kind words Yasha’d spoken it was all new, it was all complicated. Beau stretched, and moved to sit up. “Hey.” She said.
Yasha moved to help Beau sit up, a small soft smile coming to her lips. “Hello.” Her fingers skimmed over Beau’s wrist, no longer broken, but faintly bruised, then up her arm, like she was trying to commit her to memory. Her fingers stilled to hold the back of her neck, but her eyes kept moving. Beau watched her, tracking her gaze as it skimmed over her shoulder and down the line of her back. Watched it come up the curve of her waist, and then caught on her jaw. Then she moved to her face, smiling a little when their gazes caught, before scanning down, sweeping over Beau’s cheek bones, tripping on her nose, settling for all too long on the smirk on Beau’s lips. Beau would  have returned the favor, but she didn’t need to. She knew Yasha like she knew her own reflection.
Yasha sighed, hand drifting down her arm again. “I’ll go get Caduceus, you should eat.”
Beau flipped her hand to grab Yasha’s, gaze pleading. “Not yet.” She was scared, terrified, that Yasha would have to  go again, that The Storm Lord would call her away. She understood why, understood that the sort of saving he’d done for her wasn’t something that could be ignored. Beau was thankful, even, to him for saving her. For keeping her alive. For bringing her onto the path that let them meet. But just once, she felt like being selfish, she felt like keeping Yasha as long as she could. She tried to convey all of that, with a gentle squeeze of their tangled fingers. “Stay.”
Yasha looked down at their entwined hands, nodding. “I will.” the promise wasn’t forever, Beau knew. Forever wasn’t something Yasha could give yet, maybe not ever.
Yasha swallowed, eyes trained on their hands. “I… I was so terrified. I followed the call of the Storm Lord, and… normally he leads me to people who need help, or people who have hurt others, so when he lead me to the Nein... He lead me to our friends, and I looked around, and you were gone, and I just… was so terrified that this was a mission of vengeance. This was going to be taking a life for the life they took from us. I told myself it wasn’t but… I thought you might be gone. I thought I may have lost another love of mine. And then I realized that despite all my work, all my trying to distance myself from you all, from you, Beauregard, it was too late. But it’s… It’s not something… It’s not fair to you, because I can’t… Zuala was my wife, and I’m not… I have not healed from that loss, and I don’t know if I ever will in a way where I can love you how you deserve. It is not fair to you to ask for you to wait.”
Beau stayed quiet through her words, she listened. Then she nodded a little. “It’s too late for me too, Yash. I thought I was going to die in there.” Beau said, tears coming to her eyes despite herself. “You know what I kept thinking of?”
Yasha shook her head.
“You.” There was a moment of pause, of Beau watching Yasha take a broken breath, then nod. When spoke again, Beau’s voice more earnest than she remembered she had the capability for. “I’m… I’m not good at waiting, but for you, I can. For you, anything. So, take your time. If you ever get to a place where you can love me how you’d like, let me know. If you decide that…” Beau sighed, dropping her own eyes to their hands. “If this aint it for you, that’s fine too. But, as long as you need, I’m here.”
Yasha’s gaze lifted, and Beau tilted her head to meet it. There was something defiant behind the multi colored gaze. “What if I never make up my mind?” She said, a little bit of a challenge to her tone, like she was trying to get her to reconsider.
“That’s fine.” Beau shrugged, regretting it with how it strained her sore form. She bit back the pain and focused. “Yasha, you’re it. This is enough for me. How ever you want me.”
Yasha stared at her. And Beau almost wanted to kiss her, to hold her, to feel her heartbeat against her fingertips. But she realized she was content holding hands. She would have been content just seeing Yasha with her own eyes.
Yasha nodded, squeezing their hands. “You should eat. I’ll go get something.”
Beau nodded her agreement, but didn’t let go. Yasha’s thumb traced a scar on the back of Beau’s hand, and they fell silent, feeling the one point of heat, of contact.
They stayed like that, quiet, content, until Beau’s stomach growled loud enough for them to hear, causing a roll of laughter through them. Yasha got up, and moved towards the door, only breaking their touch when the distance between them grew too far to reach. “I’ll be right back.” Yasha promised, looking over her shoulder.
Beau gave a little nod, a smile on her lips. “I’ll be here.”
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violettelueur · 3 years
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— JUJUTSU KAISEN EPISODE TWENTY ONE || JUJUTSU KOSHIEN
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↳ featuring : basically everyone at this point from jujutsu kaisen
↳ warnings : mention of violence + mention of injuries + EXTREME grammar issues
↳ form : story
↳ published : 20 april
↳ pronouns : she/her
↳ word count : 4.4k
↳ synopsis : within the jujutsu world, there were three famous clans to be aware of, the Kamo clan, Zenin clan and the Gojo clan. However, unknown to many sorcerers there was one last family that was known to be apart of the three, only for them to disappear after the golden era leading some to speculate that they had died in battle after the sealing of ryomen sukuna, but....
↳ previous episode : nonstandard 
↳ next episode : jamais vu
↳ barista’s notes : let me admit, i ain’t confident in this chapter since i started school again, but i hope you enjoy this episode and thank you for being so patient with me as i try to fit tumblr into my schedule with school ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ
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BEFORE READING, I NEED YOU TO BE AWARE OF THIS:
1. the whole story belongs to Gege Akutami and the credits go to them and them only.
2. the spell curses used belong to Tite Kubo due to them being the ‘Kidos’ being used on the manga and anime ‘Bleach’ - but none is mentioned in this chapter.
2.5. for the ‘cursed spells’/kidos (bleach) i will link this video here and tell you the time stamp to check out what i am intending to show - remember i add a few twist here and there by adding the katana to link with Y/N’s cursed technique : hopefully this video is slightly better...
Destructive Curse Spell Number Thirty-Three : Sokatsui (6:00-6:07) (blue lighting explosion - Itadori Yuji)
3. if you are confused on anything, please don’t hesitate to message me since i know this whole thing is so confusing.
this is Y/N outfit when she came into the baseball game (blame twitter)
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“How much longer are you going to stare at her? It’s creepy”
Snapping out of his daze, Gojo quickly looked up from your sleeping figure to find his stoic student (who was now sitting up) looking at him with a deadpan expression before he turned to look at your sleeping figure as well with somewhat of a worried expression, wondering what caused you to be knocked out since what Fushiguro could recall was that the last time he saw you, it seemed like you were well and confident before he was carried away by Panda.
“Is it bad to worry about my daughter?” Gojo questioned with a hint of a teasing tone before looking back down at you with his small smiling turning into a straight line.
“Student to be exact, but I guess not after what the curses were after,” Fushiguro quietly mentioned causing Gojo to once again, look up to view Fushiguro with a confused expression painted on his face, trying to convey that he didn’t have a clue on what his student was trying to say. “The special-grade was after L/N...but I don’t know why,” Fushiguro instantly declared as if he was answering to his teacher’s perplexed expression leading to Gojo sighing in frustration before taking one of his hands out of his pocket to stroke your hair as if it would bring you some comfort in your dreamless slumber as he then processed to remove his other hand from his other pocket to reveal a carton of orange juice before placing it on the bedside table.
“Is that so?” Gojo asked rhetorically, before making his way towards the door since he was informed that there was going to be a meeting with the Jujutsu Tech principles and sorcerers that were involved with the whole Exchange Event incident.
However, before he was able to grab onto the handle, the wooden door violently flew open showcasing his other students Itadori and Kugisaki on the other side with a box of pizza in hand leading Gojo to smile at them both.
“Oh Gojo-sensei! What are you doing here?” Itadori asked once he comprehended that it was his teacher blocking the way to see his two other classmates.
“Ah~ I was just visiting Megumi and Y/N before I go, make sure to not make too much noise, I’m sure Y/n would really appreciate it,” Gojo answered with a cheerful tone, leading Kugisaki to tilt her head to the side to realise that you were sleeping - much to her disappointment.
“She’s still recovering?” Kugisaki then questioned, leading her teacher to look at her before explaining that you were knocked out due to using an excessive amount of cursed energy within a short amount of time causing Kugisaki to nod to his little lie since he didn’t even know why you were extremely distraught when he came to collect you.
“I’ll be going now, so see you later~ don’t wake up my precious daughter!” Gojo states with a playful tone, before waving his hand to all of the first-years leaving them to themselves with a warm box of pizza in hand.
                                                 ꕥ
“Next up are the casualties: three second-grade sorcerers, one semi first-grade sorcerer, five assistant supervisors, and two cursed storehouse guards. They’re all sorcerers who were standing by at Jujutsu High and working separately from Gojo-san and Principal Yaga. We’re waiting on the report from Ieiri-san, but we’re nearly certain it was the work of the cursed spirit that Nanami-san encountered before,” Ijichi explained as he was looking down at the document sheets he had in hand to inform all the sorcerer that was in front of him about the situation at hand.
“Tsk,” Gojo tutted in annoyance while leaning against the door with his lower face tucked into the collar of his sorcerer uniform.
“Do you think we should share this information with the students and the other sorcerers?” Utahime asked as she turned to her colleagues.
“No,” the Kyoto principal: Gakuganji quickly answered, as the fellow principal from Tokyo: Yaga explained that it was better for this information to be among the higher-ups as he didn’t want to cause anymore panic to the students residing in the area right now as well as not wanting any of the curse users in their captivity to know that a few special-grade objects that been stolen from the school premises.
“Has the curse user we captured spilled anything?” principal Yaga queried, leading Ijichi to explain that it wasn’t hard to get the certain curse user to talk at all since he was quite cooperative but all they managed to receive was irrelevant information that was deemed somewhat unhelpful to them.
“However, he claims that he only participated in the attack because he was ordered to as part of a deal,” Ijicji added, before informing everyone about the monk that the curse user was talking about when he was interrogated.
“An androgynous monk kid with a bob cut? That ring any bells?” MeiMei asked, as she turned her head slightly to peer at Gojo, who was right behind her.
“Nope! We sure he’s not spouting bullshit? Is there any sorcerer skilled at getting confessions?” Gojo answered before asking his questions since he knew he couldn’t be too sure if the curse user was even telling the truth in the first place.
“How did a cursed spirit and outsiders get through Tengen-sama’s barriers in the first place?” Utahime questioned, as she was still confused on how so many people were able to get in without any problems and alerts.
“That was probably the work of the special-grade cursed spirit the students fought, that one has a unique presence. Even though it’s a cursed spirit, it’s incredibly close to a natural spirit. According to Aoi, it was able to hide among plants and was quite burnt from a few techniques like wood would be, and Tengen-sama’s barrier doesn’t function against plants. Tengen-sama’s barrier puts all its power into hiding, not protecting, so once you get in, it’s kind of weak,” Gojo answered his colleague with an explanation that led the whole room to turn completely silent for quite some time.
‘Are they worried about Sukuna’s Finger enhancing Yuji’s potential? Or are they trying to enhance themselves? Why would they need Y/N then? Something isn’t sitting right’
“For now, let’s be glad our students are safe,” Utahime mentioned with a calm smile presented on her face as there was one calm and good news that they would celebrate on.
‘Safe? How long until Y/N is going to stay safe? For how long?’
“But it goes without saying that the exchange event is now cancelled,” principal Yaga informed everyone as he turned to look at the fellow Kyoto principal, who was sitting right near him.
“Hold on, that’s not for us to decide, is it?” Gojo asked in a light tone, causing everyone in the room to look at him in confusion since they didn’t know what they meant by it not being their decision.
                                              ꕥ
“When did you start getting along with that gorilla?”
At this moment, Itadori and Kugisaki were sitting next to each side of Fushiguro’s bed, as they were visiting both you and him, while all of them were munching on the pizza (which only had a few slices left) that was currently sitting on top of Fushiguro’s legs.
“Well, we got along, but like...I remember what happened, but I wasn’t exactly myself then…” Itadori answered in complete uncertainty as he didn’t even know the answer himself, causing him to scratch his head in confusion.
“What, were you drunk?” Kugisaki questioned in confusion since she was expecting a confident answer from her classmates.
“You believe I could’ve been drinking liquor in this situation? I’m shocked,” Itadori mentioned before looking down with somewhat of a disappointed look that his owl friend thought of him like that. “But I’m glad you and Y/N weren’t seriously hurt, Fushiguro. You’re able to eat pizza now, too” Itadori stated with a smile on his face as he turned to look at the shikigami user before turning his head to see your still sleeping figure on the bed behind Kugisaki causing her to turn around to check if you had woken up yet.
“Come on, bring me something easier to digest,” Fushiguro replied since he was still recovering but nonetheless, took the food that was given to him.
“No complaining,” Kugisaki answered back before taking another bite of her pizza slice before snatching the box away from Itadori, who was about to grab another slice, due to her wanting to save the last remaining two slices of the cheesy food for you.
“Apparently, I got off easier because my cursed energy was all dried up, Ieiri-san was still able to fix me up as soon as the roots were removed, but I didn’t know Gojo used up so much cursed energy as well, Gojo seemed really worried when he went to Ieiri-san,” Fushiguro explained before turning his head to glance at you.
“Huh, so that’s a thing that can happen?” Itadori questioned.
“You fought against them, didn’t you? Also, did you see the flowers right above us when we were in the veil? They were so pretty!” Kugisaki commented, before looking up as if she was going to answer who was the person was that released the technique.
“Flowers? Oh, you mean the pink ones?! Kugisaki, those were so dangerous, didn’t you see the blue lighting explosion that happened right after?! It literally gave the curse a whole gash across its body!” Itadori exclaimed in shock causing Fushiguro to remember the array of flowers that were hanging in the sky when Panda was carrying him just before he crossed the veil.
“It was so beautiful though, I hope to see them again, I wonder who it was?” Kugisaki questioned before finishing off the last piece of pizza.
“Itadori, you’ve grown stronger. Back then, we both said our convictions were proper ones, I still think that’s true. Or, put another way, we’re both wrong,” Fushiguro mentioned with a low tone, causing both Itadori and Kugisaki to look at him as he was talking.
“Huh?” Itadori uttered in a confused tone, while Kugisaki processed to rest her face on the palm of her hand with a small pout.
“Some questions don’t have answers, you know. You’re thinking too hard, you’ll go bald,” Kugisaki mentioned.
“That’s right. There is no answer, it’s just whether or not you can accept it. But there’s no accepting anything if you can’t have it your way. Weak sorcerers can’t do that,” Fushigurp replied back causing the whole room to go silent as they were beginning to process what Fushiguro had said in his mind.
“So I’m going to become strong, too. I’ll surpass you in no time,” Fushiguro declared as he turned to face Itadori with a look of determination.
“You never change,” Itadori responded with a small light giggle.
“Don’t just move the conversation forward without me, we need to catch up with him and Gojo,” Kugisaki mentioned with annoyance painted on her face.
“That’s my brother’s friends for you!” 
Suddenly, the first-year trio rapidly turned their heads forwards to suddenly discover Todo sitting down right in front of Fushiguro’s bed with a smile on his face as he nodded proudly of the conversation that he had interrupted.
Unexpectedly, Itadori rushed towards the glass sliding door next to your bed and opened it with a loud bang before swiftly sprinting away from Fushiguro’s room as fast as a cheetah, only for Todo to follow behind him yelling out where his brother was going.
“I’m grateful to you, but give me a break!” Itadori screamed, causing Fushiguro and Kugisaki to look at the scene with deadpan shocked faces. However, what they didn’t seem to notice was you softly groaning at the loud noise that was happening right now leading your eyes to slowly open but quickly close due to the bright lighting in the room right now.
Hesitantly, you slower opened your eyes again to see a maroon coloured ceiling before blinking a few times to focus your sight, causing you to gradually sit up on the bed you were laying in as your looked down onto your lap leading your hair to cover your face away from your classmates, who now finally noticed that you had awakened from your slumber.
“Gojo, you’re awake!” Kugisaki announced with a smile on her face, yet that smile slowly disappeared once she noticed how you weren’t answering her at all, but rather you kept silent as your hand began to bring itself to your forehead as if you had a headache.
‘So loud…’
After sitting in silence for a while, you noticed that you were wearing a long white button-up with some black Adidas shorts leading you to wonder who changed you since Kugisaki was the only one to ever see you in your undergarments since she was always the one barging into your changing room to throw more clothing pieces for you to try. However, that was one minor inconvenience to think about right now.
Slowly, you turned your body around (so your back was facing Fushiguro and Kugisaki) before placing your feet down onto the wooden flooring, leading Fushiguro to worry about you falling since you had been asleep for quite some time, yet for some reason, you couldn’t hear him at all.
Steadily, you began to stand up with your hand on the mattress to keep some stability in case you did stumble back before you began to make your way towards the gap of the glass door that Itadori and Todo left through before gently lifting your head up to admire the clear sky from above.
‘It’s warm…’
Casually, your body began to lean on the side of the door to give yourself some support as you began to brisk in some of the light warmth the sun was giving you as if that was enough to bring you the comfort that you wanted right now before noticing how the wind was slowly picking up.
“Gojo, you would really get back in bed, you’re still in the healing process and it’s quite cold,” Kugisaki mentioned as she stood up to come to collect you and guide you back to back. However, for some reason, something was telling her to stop as she noticed how you were not listening to anyone at all - or, you just didn’t hear them as it seemed like your hearing was blocked for any human to human communication.
Instantly, the wind that was picking up suddenly blew out a large gush causing some of the leaves from the trees to violently ruffle from its branches while your hair was now messily blowing in the wind as you leaned against the side closer to maintain your footing before you steadily noticed a few pink petals making their way towards you from your right side causing your eyes to widen in shock.
‘There’s still some more?’
Slowly lifting your hand to the sky, you lightly felt the petal grazed your fingers ever so slightly before they slowly become disintegrated to a flow of cursed energy they were made out of causing Kugisaki to look at them in amazement as she stood by your side, as she realised that more was coming towards you both as if you were a magnet to them leading her to come to an assumption that you were the one that cast the flowers back when she was in the veil with the other students and teachers as she remembered that Gojo mentioned that you had used a lot of cursed energy.
“Pretty…” you softly muttered with a small but disheartened smile, trying to hide the emptiness that your heart now had to endure.
“Right,” Kugisaki answered back as she leaned her body on your side while continuing to admire the small flower show that was happening right now causing you both to not realise that the person behind you had his eyes widened as if he had just remembered something that he had completely forgotten about.
                                              ꕥ
“So anyways, a lot happened and some people died, but how about it? Want to  continue with the exchange event?” Gojo asked all the students who were in the room right now...well all of them minus one.
“Where is Gojo though? Shouldn’t she be here?” Fushiguro asked while standing here the staircase as Kugisaki and Maki began to look around the room to see if you really weren’t here with them causing him to look at Fushiguro, scared about his perspective skills.
“Ah~ about that, she’s moving her stuff from her dorm to my clan’s estate for her safety!” Gojo announced before clapping his hands to the side like he did when you first came into Jujutsu Tech leading everyone in the room to widen their eyes at the news since it was quite unexpected since you seemed like the type to reject the idea since Tengen’s barrier was helping you to be protected - but for you, it was easier for you to hide your family heritage if you weren’t in the dorms much to your dismay.
“I don’t know what to say about it…” Itadori muttered as he was thinking of an answer for both the continuation of the Kyoto Sister Exchange Event as well as your sudden move away from the Jujutsu Tech student dorms.
“Obviously...we continuing it, of course,” Todo declared, causing Itadori to suddenly tense up as he steadily backed up near Gojo to have some coverage and security.
“Your reasons?” Gojo asked as he turned to look at the Kyoto student.
“First, only those with a connection to the dead have the right to mourn them, it’s not our place to butt in there and second, if people have died, that’s all the more reason we need to become stronger, besides if it weren’t for the flower technique back then, we wouldn’t have been able to cause more crucial damage to those cursed spirits. Acquired strength comes from the accumulation of results. Tasting defeat and savouring victory is what leads up to grow, the most important part is for those results to exist,” Todo explained as he became to recall the blue lightning that damaged the special-grade curse to a massive degree which was enough for him to gain the upper ground during his fight leading Gojo to internally smile at the information.
“Todo-senpai’s surprisingly reliable,” Miwa whispered to her classmate Mai.
“Reliably crazy,” Mai answered as she rested her head on her knuckles.
“Third, when a student feels like they weren’t able to bring out their best, it hangs over them until they die,” Todo mentioned with a confident smile.
“How old are you?” Gojo suddenly questioned, as Todo wasn’t even as old as he was and the Kyoto student was already talking about ‘hangs over then until they die’.
“I’m fine with that,” Fushiguro mentioned.
“We’ll win anyway,” Kugisaki stated with confidence.
“It sounds stupid, but he has a point,” Kamo replied with calmness.
“Why don’t you rest, Kamo-kun?” Nishimiya mentioned as she stared at her classmate with a fed-up expression due to the bandages wrapped around his face.
“No objections here,” Panda declared as he was answering for the second years in the Tokyo side.
“Salmon~” Inumaki replied back.
“Will we draw lots for the individual battle pair-ups? I want to see Gojo beat Todo’s ass again,” Maki asked before mentioning you since she wanted to see you in a proper fight rather than the million of practice rounds you had with her causing Kugisaki to smile at the thought as well.
“Huh? There are no individual battles this year,” Gojo unexpectedly announced, causing all of the students from both Tokyo and Kyoto to become extremely perplexed.
“I hate routines, you know. Every year, we put the competition methods in this box and open it on the day of,” Gojo explained before tossing the wooden box to Itadori, who looked up for his permission to take out whatever was in the box which he was granted when the teacher nodded at him.
Reaching into the wooden box, Itadori’s fingers felt one single piece of paper within the box before he carefully took it out to see what was written on it, only for him to blink that the wording in pure confusion.
“Baseball?!” Principal Yaga exclaimed in confusion leading Itadori to suddenly discover that both principals from the Jujutsu Tech schools were peering over his shoulders, causing Gojo to walk out of the building with a pleasant smile on his face.
Once outside, he could hear the commotion from behind as he stretched his arms happily before placing his hands in his pocket as he noticed you were standing in front of him with some distance, while one hand on your hips and the other holding a familiar carton of orange juice that he remembered leaving on the bedside table when you were recovering.
“Going home?” he asked before making his way towards you.
                                              ꕥ
Currently, you were walking towards a certain baseball field after finishing some moving your items to the Gojo clan’s estate with an outfit consisting of a simple white button-up shirt tucked into a long black skirt paired with black heeled ankle boots that you decided to wear for the first time since they had been sitting in the box for quite some time after you had brought them on your last shopping trip with Kugisaki.
From what you could hear from the distance, there seemed to be a lot of shouting going on meaning someone didn’t know the rules of the game or they just been called out and the player wasn’t having it at all.
Opening the metal gate, a few people began to notice you coming into the field leading some of your Tokyo classmates to greet you while a certain black divine dog decided to leave it’s owners side to rush to yours before sitting down in front of you with what seemed to be a happy look on its face causing a small smile tp quickly appear on your face as you began to pat its head.
“Hi there,” you greeted it, causing the dog to bark back at you while its tail continuously thumped the ground as if to express the happiness it had when it saw you.
“Shouldn’t you go back to Fushiguro to play the game?” you questioned it causing it to whine slightly before listening to you as it got up and turned back around to head towards Fushiguro, leading you to look at the side to see if there were any seats for you to sit on.
“Ah, Gojo! Are you going to play baseball with us?” Itadori asked cheerfully, causing you to smile back at him before rejecting the offer.
“You guys already started, so there is no point in my playing, but thank you for the invite,” you stated before quickly taking a seat on the bench behind you as you patted your skirt to stop any creases that were going to appear before spectating the game that was happening in front of you right now.
After a while, you had to admit that watching everyone from Jujutus Tech play baseball was certainly more interesting than the actual official game themselves on the TV screen you see from time to time, while Kugisaki throwing her helmet to the ground after the whole pitching machine incident to everyone being shocked at Momo catching the ball on her broom leading Itadori and Inumaki to shout to Todo being hit by Maki’s pitch leading everyone to encourage her further.
‘What a mess’ you thought with a grateful expression on your face that you weren’t playing in his game for the second day of the Exchange Event.
“Are you okay?” someone suddenly asked, causing you to snap out of your thoughts to look to your right to find Fushiguro looking at you with an unreadable expression on his face. 
Unable to say your answer, you nodded at him before turning back to face yourself forwards as you gradually began to recall some of the events that had happened for the past few days before your head steadily placed itself on the middle of your chest as the empty feeling was somewhat still lingering - like as if something was dragged out of your soul.
‘1000 years ago…’
“Yeah...I’m fine,” you answered slowly as more information began to recall in your mind. From how you were sealed a thousand years ago only for the same sealed to be opened fifteen years ago leading to where you were now...surrounded by people that could potentially either keep you safe or do something that had many outcomes, especially with Sukuna residing within Itadori - with relief he didn’t know anything about your real birth.
‘Should I tell Gojo?’
“Gojo...I wanted to ask...have we met before? Like before we met in Sendai?” Fushiguro questioned you with a stutter causing your eyebrow to crook up in confusion leading Kugisaki, who was next to you to look at you with the same confusion.
“No, we never met before, you drag,” you answered, still perplexed on how he came up with a question with such an obvious answer leading you to lift your hand to flick his forehead for such a stupid question.
“Is that so?” Fushiguro muttered under his breath before looking up in the sky with amazement at how far Itadori had hit the ball with his bat while you and Kugisaki did the same.
‘Tiger of the West Middle...still lives up to that name’
Unexpectedly, you heard a childish giggle leading you to turn your head to find Gojo passing the school principals while using his infinity to keep the ants below his feet safe to which caused you to scoff in amazement at how lacked he was to use his technique all the time.
“Let’s go home Y/N!” Gojo shouted, causing you to look at him with a crooked eyebrow before scoffing once again at his playful behaviour.
“Let’s go home,” you whispered under your breath before everyone in the first year stood by your side and followed you out of the field to have a conversation with you before you left to go back to the Gojo estate.
‘Home huh?’
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© violettelueur 2021 : written and published by violettelueur - do not steal or repost
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peachy-rambles · 3 years
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Pirate Techno and ocean god philza, where philza gets hopelessly endeared to this terrifying pirate because he doesn’t hunt magic creatures or disrespect the ocean like most pirates. While Techno is not understanding why the ocean is always smooth for him or why most dangerous sea creatures leave him alone
Anon, did you read my mind because only a few hours before you sent this, I was gearing up and forming thoughts about a pirate AU!
Techno is one of the most feared pirates roaming the seas. He's fucking massive, towering over everyone and is frankly very terrifying. He's scruffy (as pirates are), with a beard and a long mane of pink hair. He also wears an eyepatch due to one of his eyes not working/missing and has a massive scar on that side of his face going over his hidden eye. No ones ever seen him with his eyepatch off so they don't know if he's missing an eye or it just doesn't work, and they don't know how he received the scar (there's lots of rumors and stories, but Techno never comments or gives hints). He seems mostly human (besides his height, which no human could ever achieve that height), but he has tusks potruding from his mouth that hint at his non-human heritage.
(He's a bear, ok? He is not a twink in the slightest, he's a massive fucking bear pirate)
Techno is an incredibly impressive fighter, capable of dual weilding swords (as well as being able to dual weild a sword and a pistol, although he favors swords more), and is merciless, earning him the nickname "the Blade". It's said that you never want to meet the Blade in battle, not if you don't want to die a bloody death.
Many assume that because of his great reputation, Techno is the captain of the ship that he sails on, but he isn't. The Captain of the ship is in fact a pirate named Puffy and Techno is her First Mate.
They work well together, Techno having joined Puffy's crew years ago under mysterious circumstances. He has great knowledge of the sea, knows the best places to sail and what places to avoid, not to mention owns countless stories and old books/maps from explorers past (including info on buried treasure they once hid away). Again, no one knows how or why Techno joined and why he's so knowledgeable, he's just a giant mystery. Literally.
With all the mystery surrounding Techno and his terrifying appearance/reputation, people would be shocked to learn that Techno actually has quite the gentle soul. He is quiet and shy, usually standing in the back of the crowd and observing. He respects the ocean and all of it's creatures, including the magical ones. He'll go out of his way to help baby sea turtles make their way to the ocean after just hatching on a beach, or will ignore the familiar flash of a mermaid's tail in the water (despite knowing a live mermaid could sell at a very hefty price).
He doesn't let others see this side of himself, not even Puffy or their crew, and keeps up the facade of the mysterious terrifying Blade.
One night, Puffy and their crew come across another pirate ship and a battle breaks out. It's just their luck that a massive storm hits at the same time, and it quickly turns into a fight for survival.
Somewhere in the chaos of it all, Techno is knocked off the ship and falls into the dark ocean depths.
It isn't until after Puffy and her crew manage to make a hasty retreat from the other ship, attempting to find smoother waters, that they realize Techno is missing. They search long and hard, but they're never able to find him and assume he's dead.
But he's not.
Techno is, somehow, alive and wakes up on the beach of what he assumes is a deserted island. He immediately sets the work, making himself a little shelter by a group of trees and exploring the island for food and fresh water.
He is unsuccessful and he goes to bed hungry very paranoid The entire night he stays awake, unable to fall asleep because he can't help but feel like he's being watched the entire time.
The next day, he goes out searching for food and water again, but fails. He has no such luck the third day and he is getting desperate because he knows he needs to find fresh water soon.
The fourth day when he wakes up, he is startled to see a pile of fresh fruit and a glass bottle with what he assumes is water sitting innocently next to him in his shelter.
Techno comes to the natural conclusion that he is not alone on this island and someone has been watching him, and for some reason left him food. Techno considers the fact that maybe it's poisoned, but he hasn't eaten or drunk in days and he knows he needs it. He eats the food and drinks the water, and it's the best thing he's ever tasted (SO much better than the food they ate on the ship).
He doesn't die, or feel sick afterwards, so that's a plus.
With newfound energy, he goes explorint that day and is finally able to find a small river with fresh water on the island, along with some native fruits.
Several days pass, and Techno continues building on his shelter and makes some attempts at fishing, but he isn't exactly the best.
When he wakes up to a huge pile of fish the very next day, he's somehow not too surprised.
This continues for a while, Techno searching the island and exploring more and more each day. One time, after Techno attempted (and failed) to hunt down a wild hog, he walked back to his shelter only to find the very same hog in front of it, dead.
Techno examines the animal, and realizes very quickly that a human didn't take it down. No, a creature or a monster must have, judging from the bitemarks on the back of the hog's neck.
Techno is now very concerned as to who or what exactly was also on this island with him.
He knows building a raft would not be a good idea, that he's most likely drown or starve at sea if he made his out there on a little raft. It was better to stay on the island, where there was food and water, and hope someone found him. In the meantime, he started to create weapons - simple things like small knives and spears.
Whatever was on this island, if it decided to hunt Techno down, he wasn't going to go down without a fight.
After completing the spear he made and lamenting on how he missed his swords one night, old rusted sword appears in his shelter the very next day. Perhaps once it had been beautiful, but now it was dull and fairly useless to him.
Techno is just completely confused at this point and maybe loses his mind a little bit.
He begins talking to himself out loud, speaking about how he misses human contact and would like to just have someone to talk to about all of this.
He does not at all expect a voice to answer him back.
"You can talk to me, if you want."
Techno quickly grabs his spear and keeps it held tightly in his hands, "Whose there?"
He glances around, trying to find the source of the voice but all he sees is the beach and the trees from the forest.
"Where are you? Come out!" he demands.
".....I would prefer not to."
'Prefer not to?' Techno mouths to himself before letting out a growl, "Why not?"
There was only silence, until eventually the voice said in a much quieter tone, "...I'm shy."
Techno is dumbfounded and can only let out a, "Heh?"
He tries getting more answers from the voice, but it doesn't respond, whoever it was seemingly gone.
Techno doesn't sleep that night, wondering if any of that had been real or simply all in his head.
The next day, he doesn't leave his shelter and instead merely sits there, waiting.
Until, eventually towards the end of the day...
"....You didn't go out today."
Techno glances around, but again he sees nothing but beach and trees. Not a single person in sight.
"Nope, I didn't," he says with a sigh.
"Why not?" the voice asks.
"I was waiting for you," Techno responds back simply.
".........Oh."
Techno waits a few moments for the voice to speak more, but when it doesn't, Techno decides to ask a question.
"Are you the one who gave me the food and water?"
"Yes."
"And hunted the boar?"
"Yep! A big strong man like you needs lots of meat to survive, right?"
Techno pauses, unsure how to process that statment before clearing his throat and asking, "You gave me the sword as well?"
"I did! Did you like it? I tried to find the best one in my collection!"
"It was rusted and dull, but I appreciate it, I guess," Techno admits.
"My collection" so whoever this was had a collection....whatevet that meant.
"Oh. I could-I could...give you another sword if you like! I know how much you like your swords!"
"....What do you mean by that?" Techno asks and let's out a sigh when there's no reply.
When he wakes up the next morning, he indeeds find a sword. It's not the best, but it isn't dull and seems to be well taken care of, so there's that at least.
"Thank you," he says outloud and is surpised when he hears a quiet, "You're welcome," in response.
Days continue on (Techno figures he's been on this island for about a few months). Most days, Techno finds himself talking to the voice. It never stays for very long, but it's....friendly, at least.
"Are you real?" Techno asks one day, lying down next to his shelter and looking up into the clear light blue sky.
"What do you mean? Of course I'm real," the voice replies, letting out a quiet chuckle (it's light and sweet, the sound falling sootbingly onto Techno's ears)
"Well, I can't see you, for one," Techno says, "For all I know, you could just be a figment of my imagination."
"I'm real," the voice says, their voice clear and strangely assuring.
"Then, could I see you?" Techno asks.
".....I don't know."
The voice is silent the rest of that day. As well as the day afterwards, and the day after that. A whole week passes by before Techno hears the voice again.
"I don't want to scare you," it admits.
"Why, do you look scary?" Techno asks. He's working on another spear (his last one broke the night before) and casually listens as the voice speaks.
"To most, yes."
"You gonna elaborate on that or just keep being mysterious?"
Silence.
Techno sighs, "Mysterious it is then."
The voice continues to talk to Techno once a day, but it doesn't go back to the subject of it's appearance or showing itself to Techno. Techno doesn't push either. Instead, they just casually converse, the voice asking what Techno is doing that day and Techno replying.
Sometimes, Techno will talk about his and Puffy's crew, some adventures they went on and the treasure they found or silly mishaps that happened to them.
Sometimes, the voice brings Techno their own treasures from their "collection" - pieces of gold, old enchanted books, jewelry and sometimes just random things from the ocean like a pretty shell or rock.
Techno appreciates it all and grows a whole little pile or treasure in his shelter.
And sometimes, when they're talking, Techno will catch a glimpse of....something hiding behind a nearby tree or rock in the forest - a flash of gold here or the very tip of a swishing tail there.
Whatever it was, it wasn't human.
Techno tried not to worry too much about that and never mentioned anything to the voice, worried he might scare them off again by mentioning their appearance.
One night, when Techno is just beginning to drip off to sleep, the voice appears for the second time in the same day.
"I like you, Techno," the voice says, "A lot. Do you-do you like me?"
Techno thinks the question over before nodding, "I think so, yeah. I mean, I don't know you that well and you're kinda just a voice, and I don't know if you're real or not, but yeah you seem nice."
The voice laughs, seemingly endeared by Techno's words. "That's good, I'm glad. Good night, Techno."
"Good night."
The next morning, Techno wakes up and finds the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen laying there next to him, watching him warily with bright blue eyes.
They have long blond hair with a crown seemingly made out of coral atop their head. Massive golden wings potrude from their back, completely smooth and sparkling in the early morning light, looking as if seemingly made of silk.
Then there was the tail.
The creature has no legs and instead has a long thick fish tail of some kind, beginning at the bottom of their torso and unable to fit completely in Techno's shelter, extending out into the beach outside.
"....Hi, Techno," the creature says, in the voice that Techno had become so familiar with in the last few months.
"Hey," Techno says and reaches out, placing his hand on the side of the creature's face, cupping their face gently in the palm of his hand, "You're a whole lot prettier than I imagined."
The creature flushes a pretty pink color, almost matching the coral it wears atop of their head.
Techno suddenly realizes how close their faces are to each other and the creature seems to realize it too before they move closer, placing their lips on Techno's in a kiss.
Techno kisses back, pulling the creature closer to them and enjoying the little pleased chirps they make as he kisses them.
They eventually seperate, Techno lying back down and the creature placing their head on Techno's chest, seemingly content to lay there in Techno's arms.
"I'm Philza, by the way," the creature says.
"Philza. That's a nice name-" Techno starts to say before his eyes widen and he remembers where he's heard that name before and who exactly it belonged to.
Philza.
Philza, the ancient ocean deity that supposedly ruled the seas and was the protector of all the creatures who lived in it, who called it home. Philza, who was said to be a terrifying monster and could strike fear into the bravest men, who devoured the hearts of men and could sink even the sturdiest of boats in the blink of an eye.
Philza, whose name had been forgotten and lost for centuries, was nothing more than an old legend - a myth.
Except, apparently not because Philza was currently curled up on Techno's chest, pleased chirps escaping him as he reached out to place his hand in Techno's, intertwining their fingers.
Philza, an ancient and all-powerful deity...and Techno had just fucking made out with him.
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makeste · 3 years
Text
BnHA Chapter 294: A Half-Assed Escape
Previously on BnHA: Mirio was all “SURPRISE I’M BACK THANKS TO OUR RESIDENT SEVEN-YEAR-OLD WHO RECENTLY EARNED HER BACHELOR’S OF BEING A TOTAL BADASS.” Kacchan was all, “you know what, Dabi’s been trending long enough, time to remind the fandom what a real G looks like,” and he blasted his little bleeding body back into the fray and was all “FROM HERE ON OUT CALL ME DYNAMIGHT!!” Mirio was all, “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, you’re serious,” and Kacchan was all “!!”, and so that’s the story of how my son got murdered twice in one day. Meanwhile in the Todoroki Drama Zone, Deku was all “STOP MURDERING MY FRIEND” and Dabi was all “THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS” and fandom had a whole big debate about Whether Or Not Dabi Trying To Murder Deku’s Friends And Mentors Is Any Of Deku’s Business, which went exactly how you think it went. Anyway, so then Deku yelled at Dabi, and Endeavor was all moved by his manly words and randomly went to go uppercut Machia in the chin. And, seeing as how the Momoserum finally chose that exact moment to kick in, Machia is now down for the count.
Today on BnHA: The Miriosquad handles the Nearly High End Noumus, freeing up Jeanist to jasphyxiate (okay that one doesn’t really work so well) the rest of the League. Compress is all “TIME FOR THIS MILD-MANNERED SIDE CHARACTER VILLAIN TO SHINE”, except that by “shine” what he actually means is “use his quirk to punch a literal hole right through his own ass to free himself.” The rest of the chapter is basically just a back and forth between him and Jeanist, with Jeanist trying to recapture him, and Compress repeatedly thwarting him by chopping more holes out of himself because HE’S FRESH OUT OF FUCKS, AND THE ONES AT THE STORE ARE ALL SOLD OUT, MOTHERFUCKERS. Anyway, so with Compress basically dying and all, Horikoshi is all “you know what that means”, and delivers a freshly-baked villain flashback revealing that Compress is a descendant of Harima Ouji, a.k.a. the Peerless Thief, a.k.a. some famous guy whom Gentle mentioned this one time for like two seconds back in the day. The chapter ends with Compress finally demasking himself and dumping Tomura back onto the ground, a.k.a. The Worst Possible Place For Tomura To Be. ( •﹏•)
WHY IS CRUST HERE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
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-- OH WAIT, SHIT. OH
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AIZAWAAAA you’re alive and receiving medical help thank GOD. HOW MANY EYES DO YOU HAVE. AND MIRKO!! HOW MANY LIMBS DO YOU HAVE, OMG
so is this Aizawa dreaming about Crust’s final moments, then?? jesus. with All Due Respect to Crust’s memory, does Aizawa not already have enough misplaced guilt on his conscience as it is?? “nope, we’re gonna keep piling it on. that’s all he is now. three limbs, an indeterminate number of eyes, sexy hair, and Guilt” well shit
motherfucker y’all really out here placing an oxygen mask on Gran Torino’s corpse. fucking shounen characters. each one comes with a lifetime warranty
DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOWING THESE CLOSE-UPS OF HAWKS’S UNCONSCIOUS FACE ALL WHUMPED OUT AND EXHAUSTED. HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS ARE WE GOING TO GET. ARE YOU PLANNING ON KILLING ME WITH THE UPCOMING CONVALESCENCE ARC, BECAUSE IF SO, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL ME AHEAD OF TIME SO I CAN MAKE A WILL
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for a moment I considered going back and checking my previous recaps to count how many times I’ve already made a joke about Dabi’s fire incinerating Hawks’s wings but not touching so much as a hair on his five o’clock shadow, so that I could calculate whether or not I could possibly get away with making that same joke one more time. but then I realized I could just do it in this kind of roundabout way I’m doing right now instead. so there you have it
FFFFFFFMT LADY AND MIDNIGHT NOOOOO
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PLEASE BE ALIVE. PLEASE RESPECT THE SIGN ON THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THE ONE THAT SAYS “NO LADY CHARACTERS ALLOWED TO DIE”, WITH THE FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM “AT LEAST NOT UNTIL HORIKOSHI GIVES US LIKE TWENTY-SIX MORE OF THEM FIRST IF THAT’S THE WAY HE WANTS TO PLAY IT.” IT’S A GOOD SIGN, PLEASE RESPECT ITS WISHES!!
so anyway though, Jeanist is giving a speech about how god knows how many people all worked together to bring Machia down. and now RHA is getting in on those fabric puns too, I see. “A SINGLE STRAND MAY BE THIN BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A STRONG ROPE” oh so you think you guys are funny eh? I’m a frayed knot
MEANWHILE EXCUSE ME BUT WHY ARE YOU FUCKING CRYING BLOOD, HOLY SHIT
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fffffff. so much for him taking over as the Number One once all this is over. so let’s just recap real quick, because Horikoshi has long since made it clear that one of his plot goals for this arc is to wipe out every single member of the Billboard Top Ten. so how we doin?
Endeavor - was just figuratively eviscerated in front of the entire nation by his homicidal zombiepunk son. also burnt half to death and possibly down a lung. will almost certainly be forced to retire after this one way or the other
Hawks - lying prettily in a medical tent. wings status: gone. hair status: still perfect
Jeanist - WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS FINE BUT APPARENTLY HE’S OUT HERE DYING, JESUS CHRIST
Edgeshot - MIA, last seen fighting Re-Destro. I really want him to have kicked RD’s ass because fuck that guy, but realistically they probably fought to a draw at best
Mirko - alive but in critical condition and missing something like 1.5 limbs
Crust - dead, currently haunting Aizawa’s traumatized dreams. now he’s gonna be triggered the rest of his life by people giving him the thumbs up, THANKS A LOT
Kamui Woods - was set on fire which is His Weakness. thoughts and prayers
Wash - last seen floating hospital patients to safety as Tomura’s wave of decay descended towards him. probably dead ffff
Old Man Samurai - haven’t seen this fucker in a hot minute, who even knows where he’s wandered off to
Ryuukyuu - currently being treated for her wounds, looked pretty bad off. but it’s hard to tell how hurt she is since most of the injuries were acquired in her transformed state. SHE BETTER GET WELL SOON
anyways, so yeah. so much for the top ten. guess that’s another reason Horikoshi brought Mirio back now, huh
so there’s a big panel of everyone fighting the Noumu while Machia lies there all “blurgh.” good riddance my dude. it took like twenty chapters and a hundred people to stop this guy so I really fucking hope he stays down. you’ve had your fun
anyway so Jeanist is sending another steel thread towards Dabi! and he’s all “just a bit more!!” fklklj this is gonna go real well isn’t it
meanwhile Mirio’s fighting a Nearly High End with all of these weird rock formations jutting out of its skin. go on and kick his ass then, Mirio
“each of these guys is probably just as strong as the Noumu from Kyuushuu” hold on I thought Ujiko or Tomura or someone said that wasn’t the case? not that Mirio would know I suppose. anyways let’s just hope he’s wrong cuz if not these kids are probably screwed
kLSDKFHLSKHGLKLK OH MY GODDDD
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IIDA FUCKING TENYA YOU’RE A PEACH. THINKS THE NAME IS OUTRAGEOUS, CHECK. USES IT ANYWAY, CHECK. “JUST BECAUSE I DON’T UNDERSTAND DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T BE SUPPORTIVE.” WHAT A CLASS ACT
AND KACCHAN IS RESPONDING WITH AS MUCH DIGNITY AS HE CAN MUSTER
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WOW, SON. IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR TORSO, OR SOMETHING!! although listen up, real talk, the fact that Kacchan of all people can’t muster the energy to yell at someone questioning his ability to kick ass is HIGHKEY troubling and we may be in need of an intervention here soon :/
now Jeanist is finally turning his attention to the League! was... was it not already on the League. omg
ACTUAL SCREAMING AHHHHHH FUCK FUCKLK LK AHHLKHKFFFF
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hey so um. what the actual fucked up hell. my soul left my body. imagine if you saw the reflection of this panel on your bedroom window. you would never sleep again
OKAY RHA TRANSLATORS ARE YOU HAVING YOURSELF A LAUGH AGAIN
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THIS CANNOT BE WHAT HE’S ACTUALLY SAYING RIGHT. BUT IT’S RIGHT IN THAT UNCANNY VALLEY OF NOT BEING QUITE SURE, THOUGH... ( ゚д゚)
(ETA: just a next-day clarification here, apparently my sleep-deprived ADHD word-skipping brain completely skipped right over the “a” in that last panel, so what I read was, “and Shigaraki’s limp noodle.” so yeah, the moral of this story is always read the speech bubble carefully before you start making running jokes throughout the rest of your post, folks.)
oh wow he’s really freaking out lmao
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to be fair though, I’d argue that Dabi has gotten pre-tty close at this point :’) thrilled for him, really I am
but anyway, well then figure something out you big dramatic robot-armed fiend. didn’t you just say you could touch your own ass? can you not just Compress yourself to break free?? does it not work on you? or would you be stuck afterwards lol
(ETA: I was picturing him compressing his entire body at once, not just chunks of it. ghhhlkh.)
um
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holy shit Jeanist. are you stupidly trying to cut off their air, or are you going for more of a sleeper hold (jleeper hold??) thing instead. the latter would be way smarter and faster and probably safer as well just saying
but unless Spinner is just being super dramatic, it sure looks like he’s fucking strangling them djslkjlk. this will certainly cement his popularity among the villain stans. good thing you’re not running for office any time soon bud
anyway so I have no idea what these guys are trying to do now. what is this
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do you even have till the count of 5 at this rate. I mean
OH MY GOODNESS
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HE’S REALLY FUCKING DOING IT!! HE’S COMPRESSING HIS BUTT!! OMFG. TOMURA HIDE YOUR NOODLE!!!
WHAT THE FUCK
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DID YOU COMPRESS A PIECE OF YOUR OWN ASS. FUCKING WHAT. PUT THIS MAN’S PICTURE IN THE DICTIONARY NEXT TO THE WORD “LOYALTY”, HOLY CRAP
HOLY SHIT COMPRESS
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“HOLY SHIT DID THAT GUY JUST PUNCH A HOLE THROUGH HIS OWN ASS IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS VILLAIN PALS. FUCK IT, HE DESERVES TO ESCAPE”
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jeez, talk about... A HALF-ASSED ESCAPE ATTEMPT :D :D :D hahaha. but real talk though, Horikoshi has clearly never tried to leap twelve feet straight up in the air multiple times in succession with only half his glutes though. everyone, I regret to inform you that this panel right here on the left may be slightly unrealistic
also where the hell is he going to go?? did you pack a jetpack away in one of those little marbles sir. and what about Dabi?? and Skeptic too, I guess, but we don’t really care about Skeptic
(ETA: at this point I had to stop reading for about two hours because I had to go out and take care of something; that’s also why this is being posted later than usual lol. anyways so where were we.)
oh my lord
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the existence of a translator’s note here implies that the earlier line about Compress being able to reach Tomura’s junk was not, in fact, ad-libbed. hmm. hmmmmmmmm
anyway so now he’s grabbing Compress again because OF COURSE HE IS, so now we’re right back to square one! except now Tomura and Spinner are secured inside of little marbles, and presumably Compress is the only one who can release them
oh nevermind he’s just maiming himself again instead, SHEESH
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Skeptic a man is dying please have some goddamn respect
so, uh. is he gonna die, though??
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I really can’t tell wtf is going on here, this is the most confusing the art has been in a while. Horikoshi put all of his spoons into that creepyass close-up panel earlier, that bastard
OMG WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS
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DON’T FUCKING TELL ME THE “COMPRESS IS RELATED TO THIS THIEF GUY FROM OLDEN TIMES” THEORY IS ACTUALLY TRUE WHAAAAAAT. OH SHIT
so apparently Harima was a Robin Hood type guy who stole from... heroes?? wtf. are heroes the 1% in this scenario. y’all didn’t have any Fortune 500 CEOs to steal from?
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THAT’S THE BLOOD THAT FLOWS THROUGH YOU, OH SHIT. and in a related oh shit, the fact that we are getting a Compress flashback now of all times doesn’t bode super well for him. ffff
MEANWHILE THE TODOROKIS ARE STILL TODOROKI-ING
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listen here boy if you touch one freaking hair on Shouto’s candy cane head I swear to god --
WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY!!!
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SHOUTO NOOOOOO. WTF YOU’RE LITERALLY THE ONE GUY WHOSE WEAKNESS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FIRE. DABI YOU SHIT, YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF!! I’M PRINTING OUT A COPY OF THAT COMPRESS PANEL!!! KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THAT BEDROOM WINDOW YOU PUNK!!!
SO NOW POOR SHOUTO IS UNCONSCIOUS AND FALLING!! SOMEONE SAVE HIM!! WHO CATCHES THE CATCHER
COMPRESS LITERALLY HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IS HAPPENING
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PLEASE DON’T CALL TOMURA LEADER OF THE “PLF” YOU KNOW I CAN’T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU DO THAT. ARE YOU DYING. ARE YOU JUST A FUCKING HEAD NOW WTF
(ETA: “masks are removable, makeste” you know what it’s been a long day okay lmao. or I suppose Compress is really the one who is lmao.)
GASPPPPPP
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okay. okay. looooool okay then
WHY WERE YOU COVERING THIS SEXY MOP OF HAIR UNDER THAT HOOD YOU TOOL. IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED SO GOOD WITH THE TOP HAT. I’M SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW
as if it wasn’t enough for him to demask himself, he also had to get all shirtless and then do this weird attempt at a sexypose too huh
hard to say exactly how much of his torso is currently missing, but safe to say that’s proooooooobably not good. :///// fuck
on the other hand, Kacchan also has a torso hole and he’s still flying around like he just drank a dozen red bulls, so
this man lost his ass and he’s still out here monologuing like it’s the last two minutes of The Prestige. one might say he is monologuing his ass off
so he let Spinner and Tomura free, but is Dabi still trapped in his marble?? wasn’t he all on fire and stuff?? hopefully he can still turn off his quirk in there because if not that’s a pretty fucked up way to die. somewhere out there Snatch’s ghost is all “YEAH I’LL SAY.” oh how the turntables
last but not least, sooooooo. Tomura. back on the ground. that’s. um. ...shiiiiiiiit
601 notes · View notes
starkrpro · 2 years
Note
tony falls in love with ghost peter, who’s haunting him merely out of boredom
LMAOOO i love this so much
•tony notices one night that his lights are flickering
•his tech is messing up but j.a.r.v.i.s lets him know nothings wrong
•and of course he couldn’t have programmed anything that DOESN’T work that’s not like him at all nope no way is it his fault
•then he sees a figure in the corner of his eye walk past him
•“if anybody’s there, i’m gonna give you about 10 seconds to reveal yourself or else i’ll start blasting away”
•a boy with bambi eyes and somewhat of a transparent body shows up in front of him, grinning ear to ear
•“who are you??”
•“i’m peter, but im not really anybody anymore”
•tony’s annoyed because of COURSE it’d be him who has a fucking spirit up his ass
•and peter’s always pulling shit like hiding tony’s tools, turning the lights off, messing up tony’s coding when he isn’t looking
•the boy’s amused and entertaining himself all the time
•he doesn’t show himself too often, but when he does tony has a hard time grasping the thought that somebody as gorgeous as peter would be…dead, and not exactly unhappy about it either
•tony searches up the kid’s name, finds out he died in a plane crash with his parents
•“are you seeking revenge out on me or something?? wtf is this supposed to be dude??”
•“not at all!!! you’re just so easy to aggravate. besides, i have nothing better to do and you’re encouraging me”
•“how am i encouraging you??? i want you out of here.”
•no he doesn’t
•“no, you don’t.”
•“well, what can i do to get you to leave?”
•“nothing, sir. i like it here. you talk to me, you pay attention to me.”
•“then i’ll just stop giving you the attention you apparently crave.”
•yeah, turns out that’s a horrible idea considering the next day he walks into the lab and finds it completely destroyed, something is making one of his suits move on their own, and it takes him a few minutes to comprehend that peter is inside it
•“god, you’re a brat. get out of that thing before you hurt someone.”
•the suit opens up and peter proudly walks out of it with a sigh
•“how the hell are you able to do all this? if ghosts were always this destructive, you’d think there would be more sightings”
•“i had a lot of energy when i was alive. oh, and i was spider-man. sort of brought those things with me to the afterlife.”
•tony thinks he’s kidding but he once again does his research and spider-man randomly disappeared after the same night peter died
•peter starts helping him with ideas concerning nanotech
•the boy is a borderline genius, and that’s saying something coming from tony
•although he’s a little shit he is also very polite, and reminds tony to eat and drink water throughout the day
•“why am i the only person able to see you?”
•“you’re the only person who i want to see me.”
•tony starts noticing how peter’s eyes twinkle when he’s excited
•he starts getting him things to do, including a few books peter never got to read before he died
•peter never holds any resentment over what happened to him
•it brings tony a sense of relief that once he dies, there’s a chance he could still be with peter with zero regrets
•but peter never acknowledges the possibility of them being together, or doesn’t want to
•“you should just go with the flow of things, mr. stark. stop worrying about what happens when you’re gone, you have to live in the moment. enjoy life. i’m speaking from experience.”
•but tony doesn’t understand why it has to be like that, since ever since he’s started communicating with peter he’s been between life and death itself.
•how could he enjoy life, when death was looking over his shoulder every second of the day, looking as pretty as it did?
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fa-by · 3 years
Note
hi F! Please do an analysis on Lauren’s new song While I’m Alive! She said on her instagram that it was directed to “someone” at first 👀👀
Hi to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 and for sure. No problem, in fact, I'm sorry for the delay 😅
So. While I'm Alive is part of the Femme it Forward's all-female album called Big Femme Energy, Vol. 1. Laur wrote it long before she was part of this project, and yes, she said she wrote it with a person in mind by turning a vent into art because tired of the way she was/is treated:
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This person, in my opinion, is 100% a shark. And this also responds to another ask I've recently received:
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Hey to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Yep, Laur wrote it for someone among the higher ups and therefore it concerns her career in particular, but she also applies it to other situations in her life in general.
Now let's move on to the interpretation.
Verse 1:
“Don't say I'm too loud when I cry out what I've held inside
I wanna know why they tried to take me and bury me alive”
The music industry is dominated by men. Gender inequality, sexism, and ageism reign supreme. No matter how much harder they have to work in order to succeed, women are anyway either sidelined, or supervised by men. Why? Because there’s a huge disparity between men and women, especially due to the way the public perceives their success and power. For example.
A man is praised for performing on stage with just the guitar. A woman who does the same, however, not only is she criticized for being too lazy and boring for not having made the performance more lively with a choreography, but she’s also criticized for what she was wearing. Same woman who gets criticized when she instead performs with a choreography because she wasn’t good enough. A woman who can’t be a drummer because it’s a thing for men, and if she persists in wanting to play, it’s not because it’s her passion and she’s pursuing her dream, no; it’s because she wants attention 🙄. A woman who can’t have a good idea about a song because, what can she understand about music, right? 😒
Unfortunately, it’s all a double standard. Women work harder than men and they then get questioned whether their success is deserved. One way or another, women are constantly being torn apart. Reason why Laur begins the verse by already letting us understand how put down she is by the sharks, followed by a question that actually doesn’t represent a real request for information, but that implies a predetermined answer.
“'Cause who am I to think that I have a right?
Or decide to know what I need, right?”
She's sarcastic of course. Since they've always told her what to do, how to act, and how to feel, here she's including a couple of examples among the thousand and more things they always have said and say to her. Because who better than her knows what's best for her? The answer is her. Especially when these orders, because they're orders, are imposed on her to make money with her career and not for her sake or because they care about her as a person.
“It's in the way, I talk and I walk away
From what you made me”
By ‘what you made me’, she refers to the way she was before. The person who was forced to accept everything she was told to do and therefore she couldn’t be herself. The person they made her become, and she didn’t like that person. Now she no longer wants to ‘submit herself’ and accept everything just for money and fame as she did in the past because she was legally obliged and not to do so. She did it many times especially when she was still in the group, but unlike in the past, she luckily no longer has the same kind of obligations. So if she doesn’t want to do something now, she simply doesn’t. She says no to what she doesn’t accept and walks away from that (I talk and I walk away) by not caring if she doesn’t have the same success as before because she prefers not to have that kind of success anymore but to remain herself, rather than have it and be just a product (what you made me); a different person from who she really is.
Verse 2:
“And I know this is all too familiar
Feel the motive behind all that fake love”
In Olivia Rodrigo’s voice 🎤: 🎵 Did you get deja vu, Laur? 🎶 No, but all joking aside. By ‘I know this is all too familiar’, she means what she has already experienced in the past and which she has once again found herself in front of. Once out of both Epic/Syco and Maverick, she believed she would’ve be dealing with better people, but it wasn’t like that. She realized that those kinds of people are everywhere because it’s the music industry that’s like that. The problem isn’t the single label or the single management team, it’s the entire industry. The problem isn’t the surrounding, but the people who are in it. Not all of them luckily, but most of them unfortunately.
By ‘Feel the motive behind all that fake love’, on the other hand, she describes precisely that kind of people. The fake ones who first treat you well because they want something from you, and then show themselves for who they really are when they don’t get it and try to hinder you, punish you, destroy you, and ‘bury me alive’ (verse 1) because of it.
So. Although I said it playfully at first, these two sentences go perfectly well together to describe the sense of deja vu that Laur felt.
 
*Small note* In the next three sentences of the verse, I will use these ‘---’ to complete her sentences as if I were Lauren to give you my interpretation. I’ll then continue as I always have. Oh and, she’s talking about her music here.
 
“I can’t take all these unsolicited opinions --- Nope, not anymore. I don't want them. Thanks, but no thanks.
Go ahead and be the scared ones --- with someone else who’s ready to tell you yes to everything and who doesn’t have a vision on how they want their own songs. Someone else who has no problem being a marketable product/puppet.
Either way, I’ll get it done” --- with other producers, songwriters, collaborators, etc., of my choice.
 
“I’ve been told I’m too much
Too proud, too cruel
Too wild, difficult to be around”
Let’s also add too confident, too sincere, and too honest from the people who mocked her at school before she became famous, shall we? Or maybe too fat, too arrogant, too full of herself, too whore, and all the other things said by the haters over the years? 😒😒😒🙄🙄🙄
I was being sarcastic of course, guys. I mean, can our girl ever have a break?
“With too much to say
Never in the right way
So, what’s the right way?”
Rhetorical question here because the right way is exactly the way she is. She has no intention of behaving in the ‘right way’ they want because it would mean not being authentic and automatically it would no longer be the right way because she would be fake.
Chorus:
“If I can’t be me
Who do you want me to be? (Who do you want me to be?)”
I love, love, love, love this. For real. It’s so powerful. And it doesn’t surprise me that this part along with the rest of the chorus is repeated four times, because it’s the most important part and it encloses the whole song perfectly.
“‘Cause if you can’t see beyond your gaze”
Behind their ideas to be the perfect product without looking at the person and their feelings.
“You don’t phase me and I don’t trust you anyway
‘Cause runnin’ through life, I figured out time
Don’t wait for no one”
After all these years and precisely because of what she’s been through, she realized she can’t wait for them to see it the same way she does or for someone to ‘save her’. She prefers to ‘save herself’. Therefore, she will continue to be wary, not to trust, and above all, to remain authentic as she says here:
“So while I’m alive, I’ma just be me (I’ma just be me)
Whoever that ends up being”
And that's it, dear Anon 😉 This song is dedicated to one particular asshole who gave her the idea, but mostly, it's dedicated to all those assholes who tried to tell her what kind of music she should have made, how she should have behaved, and how she should have felt. She decides for her, and she doesn’t care if she doesn’t have the same success anymore. Just like she doesn’t care about all the rest like the expectations and superficial perceptions they have of her that are completely wrong.
I hope you enjoyed it, and I wish both of you Anons and everyone else reading this, a beautiful day ❤🥰🤗
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thebeautyoffanfics · 3 years
Note
hello!💙💙i hope im not bothering you but may i get a tsukasa or mitsuba x reader where their s/o loves to draw but never lets them see and one day they steal their s/o sketchbook and dont see any drawings of them and the boys are a lil dissapointed but their s/o has a secret sketcbook that they always keep with them filled with the boys portraits?? it would be rlly cute!!(feel free to ignore tho!)💙💜
tsukasa yugi x gn!reader, mitsuba sousuke x gn!reader
a/n: no worries, you aren’t bothering me at all!! This is a super cute prompt, so thank you so much for requesting! (i love writing mitsuba too,,, just gotta love the sharp-tongued, short-tempered characters <3)
warnings:
word count: 1,471
Tsukasa Yugi <3
He thinks the fact that you can draw is super cool!! Probably more so than you do, to be completely honest- he’s extremely enthusiastic about it, but that also means he’s extremely annoying about it.
Lots of “let me look, let me look!!” “I wanna seeeeeeee,” “(Y/N), pleaaaaseee, what’re you drawinggggg?”
“Tsukasa, I love you, I love you very much. But, I promise you, if you don’t shut up and let me draw in peace-”
“:((“
So, of course, if you don’t let him see it, our gremlin of a boy is going to look through it one way or another. Pestering you relentlessly didn’t work, trying to slip it casually into a conversation didn’t work, so! You leave him no option!
One day, when you’re minding your business in class, Tsukasa checks your locker. Maybe, just maybe, you left it in there?
Hmm… empty- next stop!! Bookbag!
His eyes practically lit up, his expression excited, practically screaming “found it!!”
Tsukasa would open the sketchbook, silently wondering what on earth you could have drawn. His only experience in art was… well- with things that weren’t intended for art. It wasn’t ever proper “art” either. Just a lot of smearing. But anyway-
A part of him sort of hoped it would be something with him. Maybe even a little doodle, it didn’t have to be a fully colored, lined, amazing piece. Just little doodles, cos you loved him so much, and he infested your mind like the little parasite he is… y’know….
So, as he flipped through the pages, admiring your style- amazed with every little doodle, every little pencil marking, every little detail- he kept an eye out for anything that could have even vaguely resembled him. Yet, once he reached the end, he was rather certain that there was nothing. Tsukasa felt a bit disappointed, pouting despite the fact that you weren’t there to see it.
“Tell me how I knew you were up to something,” You sighed, looking at the boy seated next to your bookbag, the last pages of your sketchbook flipped open. He ignored the comment, placing your sketchbook to the side, then hugging you. You returned the hug, giving him a confused glance.
“What? It’s nothing incredible, but was it that bad-? I don’t even know everything that’s in that, so-”
“You didn’t draw me :(((“
“You didn’t ask me to???”
Still, you couldn’t help but laugh, well aware of the other sketchbook you had stored in the more secure part of your bookbag. Patting his back, then letting go of the hug, you bent down and grabbed your sketchbook and bag. Replacing the sketchbook he had flipped through, you then reached in and grabbed the other.
Somewhat embarrassed, yet know he already found out about your artistic abilities and would probably be glad to see himself, you handed him the sketchbook. “I’ll have you know, I’m not exactly overjoyed with you right now. But, since you’re a sneak, I’ll let you look at that one.”
Tsukasa opened the sketchbook with renewed energy, excited to see what was inside it. Was it him?! Did he actually infest your mind?!! Was he a good model??
Uncharacteristically, his face was slightly warm as he looked over the first page. It started off with a fully finished drawing of him- a very strong start, if he did say so himself. Not only was it him, it was awesome.
He flipped through the rest of the pages, happiness and excitement practically radiating off of him. You could have sworn you saw his eyes sparkling.
“THAT’S SO COOL, (Y/N)!!” Tsukasa would yell after shutting the sketchbook, throwing his arms around you happily, making sure that the sketchbook didn’t get damaged as he did so. “You did draw me! You drew a lot of me!!”
“Ahah- yeah. You’re… cute, after all. Why wouldn’t I draw my boyfriend?”
Mitsuba Sousuke <3
Nosey little dude, but on a more casual level than Tsukasa.
“I’ve shown you my pictures, so you should show me your drawings.”
“That makes sense,”
“So, show me.”
“Nope!”
“(Y/N)-”
Though amusing, Mitsuba will start to pout after a while. “Tch- it’s not like I wanted to see it anyway. It’s probably lame.”
“Awesome then! That doesn’t make me want to show you any more than I previously did~!”
Insert Mitsuba sticking his tongue out at you-
Still, Mitsuba does understand where you’re coming from. After all, he never shows you pictures he’s taken of you. Therefore! It’s only logical that you wanted to draw his cute face!! He muttered this, crossing his arms, yet pretending that it was no big deal to him. Nope, those little comments and attempted glances were nothing-
“Mmh? You’re cute, yes.”
“That’s not what I- whatever, pervert. It’s clear now. You don’t want to show me, ‘cos there’s raunchy art in there! Pervert! Creepy, you’re so creepy-”
“Then aren’t you a pervy creep for wanting to look in my sketchbook?”
“I-”
Mitsuba may have not talked to you for the rest of the day- but it’s fiiiine, he’s fiiiiiiine.
Especially since, by the end of the next day, Mitsuba passed your locker, planning on returning to the class from a bathroom break. As he glanced over at your locker, not fully shut because of your bookbag shoved into it, an idea crossed his mind. It wouldn’t take long… a little peak wouldn’t hurt. Just to make sure his s/o wasn’t a pervert, of course! Not out of personal interest!
So, he grabbed your bag, rummaging through it until he found a well-used sketchbook. His interest peaked, as he grabbed it, opening it up and flipping through the pages.
Some of the pieces were similar to pictures he had given to you, but he didn’t spot anything of him. Sure, your art was impressive, and he was rather content finally getting to see it, but-
But where was his cute face?? Not even his name??? No dreamy “(Y/N) Sousuke” written? Nothing.
Well, it’s not like he cared anywa-
“Really, Mitsuba? You needed to use the bathroom?”
“AH-” He yelped, shutting your sketchbook, as if that would make it seem like he wasn’t just flipping through the pages in slight awe. “Shut up, pervert! I went to the bathroom, I just- you were being suspicious.”
“By drawing?”
“YEs.”
You laughed lightly, though embarrassed as you took the sketchbook from him, putting it back into your bookbag. To be completely honest, your heart was beating a bit faster, slightly nervous that he found your art ugly. It wasn’t anything in comparison to his pictures, you thought..
And, when you turned around and caught a glimpse of his slightly disappointed face, your heart beat even faster. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” He said, somewhat defensively- well, that much was normal.
“Sorry, it’s probably disappointing- I know my art isn’t the greatest, but it’s definitely improved over time. There are things I need to study, but-”
“Hey, don’t assume I’m upset with your art, dummy. It’s…” He blushed slightly, looking away from you and shoving his hands in his pockets, “it’s really cool. I’m impressed.”
“Then why are you pouting?”
“I’m not pouting.”
You raised your eyebrows, making Mitsuba flush further, opening his mouth as he thought of what to say in response to that expression. “I just- well, you were weird about it, so I figured there was something about me- something weird or suspicious. But, it’s all perfectly normal.”
It took a moment for you to get behind his words- but, after getting behind Mitsuba’s extremely indirect way of saying things, you understood what he meant. He wanted you to draw him. After processing that, you bit your lip, wondering if you should actually show him your other sketchbook… a glimpse at his slight pout, though it was now confusion at your conflicted expression, you turned around, rummaging through your bookbag.
Then, you pulled out another sketchbook, and pushed it against his chest. “Since you’re so insistent. Just go ahead and look through it, I guess.”
It was Mitsuba’s turn to raise his eyebrows, as he took the sketchbook, and opened it up. His face burned, as he flipped through the pages. They were… filled with him. It genuinely made his heart pound, looking at the array of doodles, line art, and fully finished pieces- occasionally, a small heart or smiley face would be doodled alongside them. If he didn’t find your art incredible before, he definitely did now. Of course, he’d never admit it to your face, but his expression was enough for you to understand.
“A-ah… gross- idiot. Of course, I should have known a pervert like you would draw such a cute face. It’s obvious.”
“Right, right. Honestly, just give me a penny each time you call me a pervert, I’ll be rich in no time-”
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internalsealpanic · 3 years
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What’s Wrong with Superman?
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Summary: Flyman is a really stupid name.
a/n: I got a little excited so here’s my entry for @redhoodssweetheart​ ‘s writing challenge. If you’re a fic writer, I highly recommend joining.  This is for Quotes #1 This fic is based on the Superman Man of Tomorrow movie so it may not make sense otherwise.
Warnings: Reader is a bendy person so the physical descriptions will be weird and there will be some nsfw language but nothing happens.
masterlist
"What's wrong with superman?"  You ask, raising your feet up over your head and resting them against Clark's wall. The blood rushes to your head but you couldn't find the energy to care, not when the work day had you drained and aching. You're just happy to stretch your limbs and contort in angles that would loosen them. You need to convince your supervisor to transfer you to a different division.
"It's kinda..."  Clark waves his hand. "Yanno..."
Eloquent. You raise a brow at him telling him exactly what you thought about his solid argument.
"How about Flyman?" He says quickly.
"Ah yes, like the illustrious Batman but somehow worse." You say, turning onto your belly and nearly knocking over the things on Clark's bedside table. You shrug innocently. You shift, putting your feet over your shoulders as you think. "How about uuuuuh Captain Barbel?"
"Why?"
"Cus the guy could chuck them at people real easy." You answer simply. Clark really can't tell whether it was your excessive fidgeting or your monumental leap in logic that entertained him more.
He snorts, "That sounds like a dumb gimmick."
"So is being called Flyman." You huff.
"Careful, you're gonna hurt my feelings." Clark huffs in return, shaking his head as he grabs your favorite mug and one for himself. He has no idea how this specific mug was lucky but he's learned not to question a scientist's superstitions. Though he suspected it had less to do with actual superstition rather that you didn't want to admit that you just found the little cow-shaped mug adorable. He'll have time to tease you about it later. For now, he had to figure out this conundrum.
"If I was concerned about that, I would have pronounced Kansas properly by now." You say, sitting up to face him properly.
"What would you call him? Seriously." Clark says, resting against the kitchen counter. He's watching you with a hint of fond frustration. His leg bounces against the floor, fingers tapping on the linoleum countertop.
"Hmmmm," You purse your lips and lean forward- elbows on your lap, fingers laced together, and chin resting on your hands.  "Wonder Man?"
Clark's handsome face breaks into an incredulous smile. "Pfft, you’re joking right?"
"I have never made a joke in my life." You grin, taking the cup of coffee from Clark and scooting over to make room for him. You shrug. "There is a reason I'm not in advertising but seriously I think you should just go with superman."
"And give Lois the satisfaction?" Clark asks over the rim of his mug. He raises his brow.
"Think about it."
"Rather not."
You push on, ignoring him."If you popularize it, guess who gets the credit?"
"Are you telling me to steal?" Clark gapes at you and the mischievous glint and his blue eyes make laughter bubble in your chest.
You blow out a breath into the neck of your sweater. Well, his sweater up until 2 months ago. "Nope. You're the one interpreting it that way."
"Your boss is rubbing off on you."
"Oh, don't remind me."
"How about Captain Marvel?" He suggests, wrapping around his arm around your shoulder. You can smell the caramelized sugar in his coffee. You blanch.
"Oh. So you want a lawsuit."
"No..." A complicated expression takes over his face. His lips purse to one side as he thinks. You wait patiently for his answer, snuggling up to his side.   "How's it working at star labs by the way?" He says finally and you just had to love the clumsy way Clark tries to redirect conversations. He needs to get better at that if he wants to be a reporter. Then again, he's never failed to get an answer out of you with the earnest look in his eyes.
"I'm supposed to be in the engineering division, yeah?"
He nods before resting his face in your hair.
"Yeah, yeah. Him. Blegh." You wrinkle your nose and stick out your tongue, waving your hand in the air as if to shoo a thought away.
"But they stuck me with checking on that asshole biker wannabe..." You sigh.
"Lobo?" He asks, his voice rising a bit. Clark's grip in the mug tightens a bit but he has enough presence of mind not to break the mug.
"Well, did he say anything?" Clark asks, adjusting his glasses.
You squint. "My name isn't going on the paper."
"It won't." He says flat and steady. And you know you can trust him because, well, it's Clark.
You give him a crooked smile. "Nothing useful really. How much patience do you have for shitty pick up lines?"
Clark stiffens. "He was hitting on you?" He squares his shoulders. You see his jaw tighten and you think you can hear him grind his teeth. God, he's cute when he gets like this.
"He was hitting on anything with two legs."
And he was. Well, not really. You honestly couldn't really tell what his category for this thing was but you're pretty sure Clark doesn't care. He seems to care more about the fact that Lobo was hitting on you judging from the way he's borderline pulling you into his lap. You, frankly, were more concerned about what weird category you fit in to catch his eye.
"Maybe if I go with you next time..."
"You're cute Clark but I'm not sneaking you in there for a story." You pat his cheek.  Clark pouts at you. You try your best not to squeal at how cute he is. You fail.
"Let me come in with you." He presses.
"Honestly, it’s fiiiiiiiiiiine. Nothing I can’t handle."
He still looks unconvinced.
Clark buries his face deeper into your hair. "Hmmmmm, he sounds like an a- a jerk." He grumbles into your hair. You will get Clark to swear at some point.
You're extremely amused by Clark's behavior.  You wrap an arm around him. "Clark, he is quite literally contained in a cage I helped design. He is not getting out."
"Should I tell him I have a boyfriend and show him a picture of you?"
Clark's face goes ashen.  "Don't tell me you've done that before." That would explain so much.
"Then I won't." You laugh. That sound sends butterflies fluttering in his stomach no matter how many times he's heard it.
"I’d still feel better if I could come with you." He sigh. You would be lying if you said that you wouldn't feel better with Clark accompanying you. Sure, he wasn't Heracles but Clark was no pushover contrary to the shy demeanor. But... admitting that kind of thing was... not something you're comfortable with or used to so you let it settle like the cheap coffee in your mug.
"It’s really not necessary."  And Clark knows from the frequency of your heartbeat that you're lying. He knows you well enough to let it go. You kiss his cheek.  "But thank you, you’re disgustingly sweet."
You kiss him again. "Sides, I think he's just bored." Your eyes brighten, a memory resurfacing. Clark watches with interest, knowing there's a 50-50 chance that it's something like the material of Lobo's shoe. "Get this he says that superman guy is a kryptonian. Sadly, when I asked him the typical anthropology question he made farting noises." You tilt your head. "Well, he did say they were a good lay and... well the super guy was hung."
Red blooms on Clark's cheeks as he sputters out a response. You squish his face with your hands. You love messing with Clark way too much. You really should feel bad that look on Clark's face was priceless.
"Oh relax Clark, we both know my type is small town dork and not man from the moon." You giggle.
Clark kind of hates you sometimes.  He hates how easily you throw him off balance. Clark rights himself but he can't quite get rid of the blush dusting his cheeks. "Did he say anything else?" He asks, face still squished.
Unable to stop your giggling, you put your hands away. "Well, he called our mystery streaker a pretty boy."
"Very relevant."
"Yanno..." You drawl, taking Clark's glasses off. "yanno if you push that hair out of your face you'd look pretty good too."
Clark swats your hand away. You pout at him.
He looks at you wearily. "I like my hair how it is." He mumbles, fiddling with it.
"I'm not gonna cut it you dork. I just want proof that you have a forehead." You say, brushing some of his hair out of his face. Clark really does scream handsome when given the chance.
There's a flicker of recognition in the back of your mind that has your pulse quickening. Clark can already see the pieces falling into place, your mind whirring to get the answer.
His mind sprints to keep up and counteract the flow of your thoughts. Clark leans forward and kisses you softly. Without needing to open his eyes, he knows your mind is short-circuiting. Affection was a sure-fire way to get your mind to slow down. It was dumb but you really should be allowed to be dumb sometimes. Especially now when Clark isn't exactly sure how your feel about the mystery streaker.
You laugh your easy chirpy laugh sure but that didn't guarantee you were on board with an alien of all things. He wasn't even sure if you would think of him as any more than a test subject. No, he knew you too well to think that but there's still some part of him that isn't entirely sure and it scares him.
"Behave," he says, his face in a grin. The expression lights up his face. The smug satisfaction of finally catching you wrong-footed fills up Clark's features and shapes them into something borderline evil. "Tell me more about Lobo and his ramblings."
You shake your head. You mumble some version of “I always behave”.  You know Clark's hiding something from you. You can see it in the delicate way he's looking at you. You purse your lips deciding whether this is a good time to push but in the end, you decide to let him keep his secrets for now. If Clark of all people has a reason to keep a secret then it must be important. You brush your lips against his before laying your offer on the table. "A kiss per story."
Clark stares at you. "I can live with that." Clark huffs, adjusting his glasses.
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thegrinningkitten · 4 years
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Apple Incident FAQ
Putting it together in this form to better organize all the questions I’ve gotten.
Obligatory disclaimer: All of the things written here are applicable only to my interpretation of DreamTale and do not reflect the canon version of the story in any way. DreamTale belongs to Joku.
= General lore (how everything functions and stuff) =
• DreamTale is treated as a part of UTMV.
• Dream and Nightmare aren’t monsters. They’re actually balls of energy inhabiting solid bodies. Consequently, they’re physically stronger and more resilient than monsters are. Their bodies also won’t dust if they die.
• Consequently, the twins don’t have monster magic. So they can’t form any projectiles until they consume the apples. The only type of magic they’re capable of is the one that allows them to manipulate the motion of their bodies (and some objects, as seen with Nightmare and the throwing knife).
• The twins can’t sense other people’s emotions until they consume the apples.
• The apples don’t produce the energy of feelings but “cleanse” and redistribute it. They actually work as an essential element in the cycle of feelings, and without them the emotions’ “efficiency” will eventually fall to zero. However, they aren’t an infinite energy source; they collect, manage and expel existing energy instead.
• Nightmare before the Incident and corrupted Nightmare are treated as the same person in this AU. There’s trauma and a variety of ailments setting those apart, but he’s the same person at his core.
= Comic-related questions =
• Why the villagers wanted the apples in the first place?
Dream described them as a magical source of positive energy. How exactly they work isn’t quite clear, but whoever has them probably gets to be happy for the rest of his life, right? :D
• Was the whole village in on the plan to steal the apples?
Nope, only the three attackers plus the bunny, who was their accomplice, and the family member she’s heard talking to off-screen.
• What’s up with the tea party? Why were they trying to drug Dream?
The plan was for the twins to come to the “tea party”, where the bunny would drug them, and they’ll just sleep peacefully while the trio takes a few apples. In the end, no one was supposed to get hurt.
• Why did it take so many cups of tea to effect Dream?
The tea is supposed to work on monsters — and affect monster souls and monster magic — and Dream isn’t a monster.
•  What did Dream do with the last golden Apple?
Ate it, thinking he’d be able to keep it safe from the “attacker” that way.
• Why did Dream become a statue?
Basically, that’s what happens when positive energy violently clashes with negative, and they rapidly cancel each other out.
• Is Dream conscious inside the statue?
Not entirely. He’s in a dream-like state that can be affected by the fluctuations of energies around him (so, pretty much he’s seeing a vague continuous nightmare). However, he isn’t conscious enough for time and reality to register. Let’s be real, otherwise he’ll end up completely insane by the the time he breaks out.
Does Nightmare think Dream is dead or does he know that eventually Dream will be un-petrified?
Nightmare doesn’t know anything for sure, but he hopes Dream is still alive. Otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered taking the rest of the black apples. It was initially a protective act rather than a vengeful one.
• Are there villagers that survived/didn't go on this punitive crusade? Or did Nightmare finish them all off and leave an empty world?
Yes, there are those who survived. The mob shown in the comic isn’t the whole population of the village. There are people who were lucky enough to be rescued early, and then there are rare few that Nightmare spared — and they got rescued after that.
Other than that, the world left behind is devastated and soaked in negativity, with zero intelligent life present (except for Dream).
= Future story =
•  What does Nightmare do with Dream's paralyzed stone body after the attack?
He lets it be. He starts visiting it a few centuries later, even tries to free his brother, but is ultimately unsuccessful.
• How long will Dream stay stuck in stone?
Just like in canon, it’ll be 500 years before he ends up free.
•  How does Dream get revived from stone?
Simplified answer: Core Frisk gets help in taking the statue to a highly positive AU, where Dream’s energies are finally stabilized, and he is naturally freed from stone. Inside corrupted DreamTale the energy of the golden apple is in constant conflict with the surrounding negativity — which maintains the state he’s stuck in. (Just to clarify: general, directionless negativity alone isn’t enough to turn him into stone again.)
• What is Dream’s reaction to Nightmares corruption?
Very unsure, actually. It takes him a little while to figure out the goopy monster is even the same Nightmare, and even then he has trouble telling whether his brother is still in there. It messes with him a lot.
• Is Nightmare angry at Dream? Will they become enemies when Dream breaks out of his stone prison?
While I could spend a long time just explaining Nightmare (rationalizing his behavior and his story is a huge part of why I even ended up making this alternative interpretation), the simplified answer would be... Nightmare, the way he is with all the black apples and corruption, sees any kind of positivity as a threat. Positivity literally hurts him. Depending on how strong it is, it could bring unease and nausea or it could result in excruciating physical pain. And his natural instinct (especially early on) is to destroy the source of pain.
Dream just happens to be one of the brightest, strongest sources of positivity, so he’s just... a natural threat, so to speak. So the animosity Nightmare experiences towards his brother is directed at Dream as an entity, not as a person.
• So Nightmare's fully corrupted now? There's no way to bring him back?
The only way that wouldn’t end up in an absolute disaster would be extracting his apple “soul” (killing him in the process), merging it with Dream’s “soul” and replanting the Tree of Feelings from the resulting “seed”, which would pretty much just restart the cycle.
• Would anything significantly change from here on out from the canon, or would there be subtle changes?
That’s a question I struggle to answer simply because I’m not sure what’s canon anymore.
Technically, this whole thing with reinterpreting DreamTale started with an alternate multiverse I call SpectrumVerse, but that’s a huge different thing for discussion. I can talk about it, if anyone’s interested, but I don’t think this FAQ is a place for it.
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miss-tc-nova · 3 years
Text
Fools on the Dancefloor - Xehanort x Eraqus
So this was my first fic for the Checkmate zine before I settled on the piece that I did actually end up making. I hope you enjoy because I definitely enjoyed writing it. 
Music Inspiration: Slow Dance cover by Ashestoashes
~~~~~
               “Yo, Fleetfoot!”
               When the pillow—his textbook—flies from beneath him, there’s a heavy THUNK and the boy in white jolts upright in shock. He finally comprehends the pair off to the side and gives his friends a cheesy smile.
               “Hey guys. What’s up?” he greets, rubbing at the spot his head met the table.
               Bragi snickers, but Vor is a little more serious. “You know Master Odin still expects you to know the stuff you sleep through.”
               That goofy grin replies, “I haven’t flunked out yet.”
               “You’ll be close if you keep drooling on your book.” Bragi’s upper lip curls back and he’s no longer keen on holding the text. “Gross! How can you catch up when you can’t even read the material anymore?”
               “It’s a talent.”
               “Whatever,” Bragi scoffs. Little Vor giggles behind her fist while the unimpressed boy throws his arms behind his head and leans his chair back on two legs.
               “Are you guys ready for the banquet this weekend?” the girl asks.
               “Not really,” Eraqus grumbles.
               Bragi groans along with him. “Man, don’t we already do enough to celebrate the Scala founders? We already got the festival, the show, and the lantern thing. We really gotta add a bunch of dumb speeches and some hokey pokey? Why are we even going again?”
               “Because Master Odin wants us there representing the future of keyblade wielders,” Vor sighs. “But I have to agree, it’s a little overkill on the celebrating.”
               “Some representation we’ll be when only Fleetfoot has fancy feet,” the red-head huffs. “The rest of us’ll be out there steppin’ on toes and Xehanort will probably be flat on his face.”
               Eraqus tilts his head. “You don’t think he can dance?”
               “Era, not everyone has your prestigious upbringing,” Vor reminds firmly. “It’s a miracle the rest of us have some basic understanding of formal dancing, but Xehanort came from a world completely different than ours. And from the sounds of it, he wasn’t exactly popular there.”
               The thought interests Eraqus; finding something Xehanort can’t do is pretty rare. “Yeah, but Xehanort learns pretty quick. We’ve spent most of our lives learning to use a keyblade but he caught up in less than a year.”
               “That’s true,” Bragi agrees. “It’d probably take him less than an hour to master the waltz or somethin’.”
               A hand slams down on the table, startling the boys enough that Bragi topples backwards. “That’s it! Eraqus, you should do a dance class,” Vor says excitedly.
               “D-Dance class?” Eraqus stammers. Even Bragi, once he’s shoved himself off the floor, gives her a skeptical look.
               “Yeah. Even if you try to help Xe, he’s not gonna accept it if he’s the only one. So what if we all went? Besides, I know I’m a little rusty.”
               Granite eyes look to Bragi who shrugs. “I got the gist of it, but my folks never made me learn so I guess I’m in.”
               Teaching Xehanort to dance—now that’s something Eraqus might enjoy. At first, his relation with the new-comer was adversarial, but as their competitions became more and more ridiculous, something stronger grew between them. There’s still a rivalry, but Eraqus began to notice a magnetism drawing him to his friend—a desire to be in his presence as often as possible. Outside that presence, he felt like he was lost in a fog. He spent his life navigating only what was right in front of him, but when Xehanort came into the picture, that smog rolled out and everything seemed clear. The pressure that comes with prestige fades, that outcast feeling he couldn’t shake slips away, and the jubilant act he used to put on becomes real—he’s truly happy when Xehanort is around.
               Dragging him from his contemplations is the creaking door; in steps the very person that has no issue overriding Era’s thoughts.
               “You guys do know class ended like thirty minutes ago, right?” he states, shifting the box under his arm.
               Bragi rights his toppled chair. “Yeah, but we decided to hassle Sleepfoot here.”
               “Guess what!” Vor shouts, hopping closer to Xe. “Eraqus is gonna teach us all to dance!”
               Well, he hadn’t actually accepted yet, but he can only meet that inquisitive glance with a fool’s smile.
               “You guys have fun with that.” The dismissal is so easy it pricks at Era’s ego.
               “So then you don’t mind looking like a clown at the banquet?” Bragi says with his signature smarmy grin. Silver eyes narrow at the offender. “Unless you can actually dance—in which case, show me wha’chu got.”
               Before Xehanort can retort, Vor tugs at his haori. “Come on! We’re all doing it. We’re supposed to be representing our school—we can’t be stumbling around.”
               Once again, he looks to Eraqus as if he’ll get an answer but Era’s being dragged into this just as much as he is.
               “Ugh. Fine.”
               “Great! We’ll do it tomorrow night after dinner!” the girl announces. “Bragi, come with me! We gotta find the others!”
               “Alright, alright.” There’s a clear difference in the enthusiasm and energy, but the two scurry off.
               “Those two are up to something,” Xehanort murmurs, watching the door close.
               “You think so?”
               “Yeah…” The suspicion fades when the youth in black turns back to Eraqus. There’s something soft there that churns at Eraqus’s stomach. “Anyway, chess?” he offers, holding up the box.
               “Oh, right!”
               The boys settle into their window seat, basking in the sunlight and pushing pieces across the board. Eraqus’s game isn’t up to par—his mind distracted with tomorrow’s endeavor. It’s fleeting, but there’s also the thought of Xehanort looking down at him, smiling, slow dancing. There goes any productivity he had any hope of having today.
~~~~~
               Class seems like an eternity and Eraqus can’t even nap through it this time. There’s a strange excitement concerning his dance class bubbling in his brain. He has a habit of half-assing things that involve effort—usually just getting by—but he’d actually spent time last night rehearsing what’s been drilled into his head since he was little. Even his daily chess game with Xehanort can barely distract him from his impatience, earning him a lecture from the boy who won’t accept an easy win—let alone two days in a row.
               Eraqus has never been early in his life for anything, he was even born a week late, but today is different; today, Eraqus scarfs down dinner like a starving man and rushes back to the classroom lugging a record player he’d borrowed from the Master. His heart is only just starting to slow when the door opens.
               “I told you guys he’d be here,” Vor says loudly.
               Urd smirks. “Now if he could just be on time to class.”
               Eraqus laughs. “I had to get the record player running.”
               “Oh my gods, he’s even prepared,” she gasps. “Did Hermod hit you too hard in class today?”
               Not thrilled with the subject, Hermod urges, “Alright, stop teasing him. The banquet is tomorrow so let’s get started.”
               The shortest classmate hurries forward. “Psst, Xe’s been grumbling about this all day, so you gotta give him lots of encouragement,” she whispers louder than necessary.
               “Okay?” Era agrees questionably. Standing straight, he notices how awkward Xehanort looks just being here, not even meeting anyone’s gaze. “Um, okay. Everyone partner up.”
               Vor hops beside Bragi while Urd nudges Hermod with an elbow; that leaves Xehanort—the person who needs the most help—without a partner.
               Eraqus glances around. “Wait, where’s Baldr?”
               “Said he already had plans to hang out with his sister,” Bragi answers.
               “Oh…” Well this un-evened the odds, granted they were already playing with some strange odds with four boys to two girls without the dance teacher, but at least even numbers made it possible to practice in pairs.
               “Guess I’ll just sit this one out,” Xehanort says, not at all irritated with the situation.
               Eraqus glances to Bragi and Vor who wave him on enthusiastically. While he may have been a bit enamored at the thought of dancing with Xehanort, he figured it would be in fleeting moments of demonstration, not being partnered for the whole thing.
               “Uh, no. It’s okay…I’ll be your partner.”
               The pair gives him thumbs up but Xehanort looks less amused. “Seriously?”
               The teacher shakes the doubt from his head. “Yeah.” He motions for Xehanort to approach. “Come on. I’ll do the girl’s part.”
               Cautiously, the boy in black comes closer. Trying to conceal his nerves, the expert props up his partner’s arms in the correct position and slides in to take the girl’s stance. As soon as Eraqus’s hand meets Xehanort’s bare arm, the latter recoils.
               “Nope! No! Uh uh! I’m out!” Xehanort blurts out, attempting to flee the situation.
               “Ah! Wait!” Eraqus snags a fistful of black fabric. “Come on. You didn’t even get to the first step. It’s really not that hard.”
               “I think I’d rather just make a fool of myself.”
               “You’d…rather be made fun of than dance with me?”
               The response comes harshly. “That’s not what I said!”
               The fabric creaks in Eraqus’s grasp while he lets his eyes plead for him. Somehow, in spite of Xehanort’s stubbornness, it works and the reluctant boy turns back with a sigh.
               Surprisingly, the class moves forward quite smoothly. Having done this before, the others require only some refinement on their moves while Xehanort is quick to catch on as always. The muscles in Eraqus’s face begin to ache from his uncontainable grin. Even as he’s correcting minor mistakes, his thoughts are teeming with the moments he’s got Xehanort’s hands on him and the static that buzzes across his skin where contact is made
               Currently, Eraqus is in the middle of teaching the pairs how to dip.
               “The girls should have most of their weight on the outside foot but the guys should still be holding them up somewhat.” Just as Eraqus begins to lean back, he remembers something. “And the guys should never—”
               The end of that sentence was ‘lean over their partner’ which is exactly what Xehanort does. This shift in weight unbalances the boys and down they go. Air promptly evacuates Era’s lungs as he’s squished between the floor and his partner.
               “Are you okay?” Hot breath ghosts across Eraqus’s nose.
               “Yeah,” he chuckles softly, the embers of a fire starting between his shoulder blades. Those silver eyes are so pretty up close, easily mesmerizing Eraqus.
               Xehanort helps the boy back to his feet, but as he does, there’s a disturbance that tugs the teacher’s attention to the far side of the room.
               “Shhh!” Vor hisses. She and Bragi are in the middle of harassing the other two, ushering the unwitting pair towards the door.
               “Hey!” Eraqus exclaims, starting for their friends. “What are you guys—”
               His steps halt when the grasp on his hand doesn’t release. With caution, he looks back at his fingers, still linked with Xehanort’s. His eyes trail up the opposite arm to the boy’s face, who refuses to make eye contact. Still, there’s the faintest dust of pink across his nose.
               “Show me that one again,” he murmurs.
               It doesn’t matter that Hermod and Urd are protesting or that Bragi and Vor are shushing them; absolutely nothing in this moment could tear Eraqus’s attention away from Xehanort. Without a word, he resets his stance, nudging Xehanort to take the lead.
               It’s a little strange to be playing the girl’s part in such a formal dance—having been unwillingly taught to be a leader his whole life—but Eraqus ignores discipline. The lesson forsaken, he lets his body react to the signals Xehanort gives while his mind soaks in this little bit of bliss.
               Having long forgotten their lesson, the pair slow dances for some time before Xehanort speaks with a crooked grin, “I told you they were up to something?”
               Eraqus laughs in response. “Do you think we should tell them we’re already dating?”
               “Nah, this is more entertaining. Besides, they deserve a little suffering for trying to meddle. Bunch of conniving foxes, all of them.”
               “Us too?”
               “Especially you.”
               “Me?”
               A spark shining in silver eyes expresses that adoration Eraqus used to confuse for less amorous feelings. Knowing what he does now, that look makes him feel so light.
               “Hiding all your talent behind that clown mask.” Xehanort’s words hold insult on the surface, but beneath them, in that husky tone, is that admiration. “The skill, smarts, wit…all on top of just how damn gorgeous you are.”
               Heat surges into Era’s ears. Afraid of turning into a real clown, he let’s his gaze fall to their feet. However, at the insistence of the hand at his back, the gap between them closes. His brain stutters briefly before the calm washes over him. The warmth against his cheek, the steady heartbeat against his ear—Eraqus soaks in this incredible comfort.
               While the music floats through the air, the boys continue to softly sway. This would never fly at the banquet; they’re expected to be polite gentlemen and dance with all the girls—that and Eraqus’s parents would never condone this. He’s supposed to be a proper heir who will continue the family line. Xehanort though, he makes it so easy to forget those responsibilities. Besides, they’re perfectly alone right now, no prying eyes, no forbidding parents; the only thing Eraqus has to do right now is enjoy the moment.  
               “It’s getting late,” Eraqus murmurs, noting the moon lighting their tranquility. “I didn’t even get to teach you Scala’s traditional dance.”
               “Now you decide to be responsible?” the other teases. “Why dance at the banquet tomorrow when we can dance here all night long?”
               That brings a flutter to Era’s heart and, from the sounds of it, Xe’s too. “You know the Master is still gonna expect us to be there.”
               “So what?”
               This boy could make every one of Eraqus’s fake smiles real, all with very little effort. “For once I won’t be the biggest fool in the room, not when you don’t even know the basic step of the Choros Lucis.”
               “Oh you’re still a fool; you just happen to be a fool with fancy feet.”
               “I guess that’ll make us just a couple of fools on the dancefloor, huh?”
               “Sure, but probably not because of the dancing.”
               Confused, Eraqus lifts his head. His question dies on his lips, sentenced by a simple kiss that awakens an avarice in the boy. His hands leave their positions, snagging silver hair and preventing any escape Xehanort may have considered. This is everything he’s ever wanted; his whole life, he’s been starved for this unconditional affection. It swells so strongly in his chest he might burst—with a scream, with tears, he doesn’t know. All he knows is that he’s in love.
               For a while, the taller boy indulges him, but does eventually manage to break away, smirking at the resulting pout.
               “That’s why we’re fools.”
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palmett-hoes · 3 years
Note
per your post "every single one of the monsters is autistic and/or adhd" will you elaborate on that?, if you do i will love you forever (not that i wont if you dont do it)
oh boy i would love to!!! unironically nothing brings me more joy than writing long, convoluted character analysis posts
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okay so i’ve written several posts before about why andrew is autistic. his moral code, the roundabout way he communicates, his body language, his stimulation-seeking behavior, his strict adherence to transactional deals, the emphasis on honesty, and a dozen other details. at this point i just take andrew being autistic as fact, not just an interpretation
h o w e v e r  i also hc that andrew is dyslexic, which is also a neurodiverse condition
- - -
similarly, i’ve seen more than one person interpret kevin as autistic, and i absolutely agree that it fits. not just the hyperfocus on exy but mostly the way he communicates. he’s very indirect, especially in his affection but very direct with his opinions. he tries to be helpful in a material way to the people he cares about, even if he comes off as negative. he wants the people he cares about to be safe and successful so he pushes them to work hard and reminds them in measurable ways how to stay healthy. he doesn’t factor in a lot of room for emotions, so instead he focuses on quantifiable things that he can improve. i personally act very similarly. approaching someone emotionally is hard for me, so when the people i care about have problems all i can think to do is try offering solutions, check up on their well-being, etc. practicality instead of conventional sentiment is extremely common with asd
- - -
so now let’s talk about neil. i had to think on this one for a WHILE but ultimately came to the conclusion that neil is adhd, probably hyperactive type. 
like obviously neil is high energy. i would say he probably does the most exercise of anyone on the team. morning run, morning practice, afternoon practice, night practice with kevin and andrew, plus he doesn’t have a car so he runs to class (on a BIG ass campus), and goes for an extra run when he feels stressed. that’s... insane, honestly.
neil reminds me SO MUCH of this post that goes:
“Was just informed by my mom that I do in fact have ADHD and the reason I thought I didn’t was because ever since I was seven whenever I got super energetic my mom would have me go chop wood so now when I’m feeling The ADHD I go chop wood”
(phenomenal post) and that’s neil to a t. tell me this isn’t exactly how neil handles his problems and also exactly what mary would have had to do to keep her unmedicated and very energetic son focused on the task of staying alive
neil also definitely has that ADHD on/off switch with his interest. the obvious being exy which is like the definition of a hyperfixation, but you can see it in other things: the way he runs totally hot or totally cold with people, his complete disinterest in his schoolwork, the way he can’t seem to sit still long enough to follow movies. but then there’s also the hyperfocus. doing the same drill for hours on end. watching exy game after exy game. staring at andrew until time falls away
what’s more, neil on many occasions shows racing thoughts, both in an anxiety way (and anxiety often goes hand-and-hand with adhd) but also as a way to quickly and accurately take in details about people to build a character profile of them. this is what allows him to connect with the foxes, how he manages to get through andrew’s puzzles, and even how he knows what to say in order to knock riko down a peg. his brain just works so fast and it takes in a lot of very specific details and disparate information to make connections.
but also like,, neil has a HUGE problem with time blindness. like the instant he didn’t have his mother around to manage and direct him anymore he lost all sense of time. he stayed in Millport for a YEAR. and what did he keep telling himself during that time? basically “i really need to move on, but not just yet.” for a YEAR! then he gets to palmetto and he’s like “i’ll cut and run in a month or two” then he doesn’t “i’ll be gone by halloween” wrong again “i’ll leave by the raven’s game” nope. like,, the boy just has NO sense of time and he can’t seem to make himself DO anything outside of an externally enforced schedule. and even then,,, HE HAD 48 FUCKING DAYS TO FIGURE OUT SOMETHING TO DO TO NOT GET MURDERED! 48 WHOLE DAYS. he didn’t make a plan, he didn’t write down any letters with goodbyes, he didn’t GO TO THE FBI LIKE HE’D INTENDED TO THE WHOLE TIME! nah he just made out with andrew and when he finally got to zero he was just like “ah shit, that was fast. oh well guess i’ll die” and that’s time blindness, babey!
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let’s move on to nicky. 
now i think it would be really easy to say nicky is just adhd because he’s high energy and forgetful but tbh,, i don’t think that’s all of it. like if you really look at nicky’s character and especially at his problems, he has asd problems just as much as he has adhd problems.
so nicky is dual diagnosis asd and adhd. also nicky reminds me a lot of a girl i used to know who was autistic/adhd
so, adhd:
very generally speaking, ppl with adhd will struggle with sitting still, listening to and following instructions, planning/organization, following a schedule, and some social boundaries like “appropriate” times and topics of conversation
i would say you see hints of this with nicky. he’s definitely a rambunctious personality, constantly on the move, constantly stimulation seeking. he’s very tactile. he likes to dance, he likes to party, he complains about it but he’s an elite-level athlete. he’s also decidedly very chatty, and doesn’t seem to really pay attention to what he’s saying. he distracts himself and the people around him have to keep him on track. he has some trouble with boundaries. he’s a little all over the place. he’s almost a bit of an adhd stereotype
also one thing i find interesting is that when neil sees him in the library doing work neil is surprised to see he’s capable of that, especially bc when we see the upperclassmen doing work they generally do it in their dorms or on the bus and/or with other people around. that hyper-social nicky would be alone in a quiet place is weird. but this is like the most common tip for dealing with adhd. don’t do it in a familiar space. have a designated space and time to do work. limit distractions. just a lil detail
so now, asd:
in all honesty, most of nicky’s actual problems in the narrative could be viewed as stemming from asd symptoms. his number one issue being that he has a lot of trouble with nonverbal cues (and tbh, verbal ones too). the twins are mostly quiet. andrew especially (when he’s sober) communicates primarily nonverbally, and nicky seems to have a lot of trouble with this. despite knowing them for the longest on the team, nicky honestly seems to have the least insight into the way either of the twins actually thinks or processes things. he loves them, and he’s very forgiving of them, but he fundamentally doesn’t understand them. 
the twins, andrew especially, put up a LOT of nonverbal boundaries, and nicky sort of inadvertently keeps trampling all over them. he’s touchy in a way they don’t like. he talks a lot about their personal lives to other people. he treats them like they’re joking when they’re serious. etc. and like,,, you kind of get the sense that the upperclassmen feel similarly about him. beyond the homophobia, beyond the fact that he’s loyal to andrew, the upperclassmen still treat him with this sense of,, bafflement, i suppose? it’s clear that they don’t really understand him and he doesn’t really understand them. although, nicky IS curious about the upperclassmen, while the upperclassmen are pretty dismissive of him. it reminds me of when my sweet, floppy dog tries to play with my cat. their body language is different; they’re each receiving different signals than they believe they’re sending out
only,, nicky loves people!! he likes being around them, he likes talking to them. he’s interested in their lives and stories, but it’s very clear that he can’t read between the lines on people. he has an incredibly hard time with people who expect their actions to speak for them, which is most people, but is especially his cousins.
actually this is very much also an issue that i have: things need to be spelled out for me. the way i deal with it is i ask a lot of questions. ‘how do you want me to react to this potential situation?’ ‘what are specific things that make you most comfortable?’ ‘please explain to me exactly how you feel and what has prompted those feelings?’ and i’m always communicating vice versa like that with other people. a lot of specifics in both questions and answers
and the interesting thing is, when i was skimming through the books reviewing dialogue styles for another ask, i noticed that, actually, nicky DOES do this. with neil and the upperclassmen, nicky asks a LOT of quick, clarifying questions. things that ask after tone, that ask after intent. it’s kinda sad that he does this for communicating with acquaintances, but with the twins, the people he’s closest to, he makes a lot more assumptions. and i’m really proud of nicky for having this coping skill, because i can’t imagine it’s something he grew up doing. there’s no way he was raised in an environment that fostered this kind of open communication so it must have been something he learned about much later, probably in germany with the kloses, which would also explain why he’s a lil imperfect about it
---
now last but not least, aaron
this is another one i had to think through for a long time before it felt like it fit
much like how i felt that it would be easy to read nicky as simply adhd rather than also asd, i think it would be easy to say aaron is autistic simply because he is quieter, less rambunctious. however, i actually think he’s adhd, likely primarily inattentive type
in all honesty, aaron’s #1 character trait for the first two books is basically that he’s disconnected. detached. separated both from his family and his team. not in the same forcefully apathetic way that andrew is, more,, spaced out. he’s just kind,, there. not really paying attention to what’s going on, tuning in every once in a while only if something really catches his eye/ear then tuning right back out again. just sits in his corner and plays on his phone. and the thing is, from the moments when he does tune in, you can tell that he actually does care. he backs nicky when seth insults him in tfc, and we know he cares deeply about andrew even if he’s become disillusioned with their fraught relationship. he even hangs with his family, doesn’t seem to really try and slip away to other friends besides katelyn, he’s fine spending his leisure time with the monsters. so it’s not totally apathy, he’s just,,, tuned out most of the time
and, yea, that sounds like adhd. it’s not the type that most people are familiar with, and for a lot of people this causes it to slip under the radar. it can make it hard to get help or a dx because it doesn’t fit with how adhd “should” look or how someone “should” act, but difficulty focusing your thoughts and staying in tune with the current moment is absolutely part of adhd
addiction is also a huge problem for people with adhd. a lot of stimulants affect people with adhd very differently than neurotypicals, especially in small doses, and an adhd kid who’s struggled their whole lives with the disorder might try speed or god-forbid meth or fuck even coffee and suddenly find that things are a lot easier for them. they start to self-medicate, they don’t actually know what they’re doing, and then they’re addicted, and everything spirals out of control. we don’t know too many details about aaron’s addiction other than that his mother enabled him, but wouldn’t this fit? it’s also an explanation for aaron still taking drugs at eden’s, given that cracker dust seems to be a mild amphetamine. (aaron talk to betsy about the neurocog and get an actual prescription please)
(total throw away but aaron plays videogames and videogames are like,, adhd culture)
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luckysliceofbread · 3 years
Text
Genshin Characters Reactions to you having the powers of someone from another world
(Aka: yet another excuse to talk a bit about Honkai imapct)
Tw: talks about fighting but I think that was a given, swearing
Oh also just know that I’m barley ever serious, it’s not enough to be a whole crack fic buuuuuut...
Quick explanation/ the best explanation I can make about Honkai imapct and how the fighting stuff works:
People called Valkyries are trained to fight these things called Honkai beasts and use these things called “battle suits” to fight them, but there are the gods called Herrschers, they don’t count as Valkyrie’s but some fight Honkai beasts.
One person can have multiple battle suits and depending on the battle suits, they can control elements, there are no elemental reactions, but the elements are still in the battle suits.
I’ll assign you a random battle suit, with pictures of said battle suit and the stats, of course (Although the weapon stats are the stats of the weapons when you first get it).
Oh, and I should also add:
SP is like the energy that’s used for ultimates.
Some cost less than others some cost more. You get SP from hitting monsters and stuff.
Now onto the headcanons!
Prolog:
You loved Genshin Impact, playing the game when you felt like it, trying your hardest to get a good team and then build them up, you hated the constant grind, but you put up with it because you were having so much fun playing the game.
Recently you’ve heard about another game MiHoYo released a few years back, Honkai Impact 3rd, you saw a video of one cutscene from inside the game and immediately went to download the game.
Now you’ve been playing for a while and you’re also having a pretty great time there too, you’ve pulled for quite a few characters and found it fairly easy to build a team.
One night, you stay up to late playing Genshin and you wake up literally inside Teyvat. You soon discover that you have the powers and abilities of the Valkyrie you were building up.
Cool part is, you look exactly like the Battle suit, the only things you kept were your skin, eyes, hair colour and body shape, pretty cool that you somehow magically also took their fighting reflexes, fighting style, weapon and powers/abilities.
(No seriously, fighting like the Valkyrie does in the game feels like second nature to you.)
You spend a few weeks in Teyvat, and make quick friends with a few people, however you only tell one about- uh- this mess.
Albedo:
Battle suit: Stygian Nymph
Let me clarify that the more SP Stygian Nymph has during her ultimate increases her damage output. That’s why she’s op.
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Oh wait that makes a lot of sense.
He knew you came from another world, you told him that
But to also imitate that person’s abilities?
How interesting
He studies you a lot, asking questions about the Valkyrie herself
You tell him that Seele (the Valkyrie that uses this battle suit), also uses her ‘other self’ to fight in battle, but you haven’t tried to summon her because you literally have no idea what would happen
Which is pretty reasonable
Albedo asks you if you’re okay with trying it out for the reasearch
You go “fuck it” and call upon your ‘other self to lend you their strength’ just like Seele does
It works, but you still have full control, no ‘other you’ sadly
You test out the fact that your sythe had turned into these giant floating claws and tenticals
You have SO MUCH fun bulling the hilihurls
Poor them
Then after clearing through many, many, many camps (listen this battle suit can solo anything), you remember Stygian Nymph’s Ultimate
You figure that you’ve definitely maxed out your SP and that the damage is going to be humongous
So you go to bully that poor cryo flower (I forgot what it’s called)
Albedo is unsure, but after you tell him that this battle suit has solo fought a god, a killing machine, a giant dog and more stronger things in Honkai impact, he agrees, completely ready to step in, only just in case though
You just run in, and Albedo goes to find a safe spot to sit down while he watches you fight for a while
He’s like ‘this’ll probably take a while’
So it took less than a minute
You used your ultimate when the boss slouched on the ground
That flower is very dead
You collect your rewards and leave
Albedo’s like wtf was that
You’re like idk man, I had a lot of SP
wtf is an SP?
Aether:
Battle suit: Herrscher of the Void
Side note: you also evade and float around like HotV I just couldn’t find a way to bring it up here without getting off-track.
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This is the only acceptation to the ‘your eyes stay the same too’ bit
Your eye colour looks the exact same now
Aether looked you in the eyes and went ‘hey that looks like the person who kidnapped my sister’
He attacked you and you were like ‘Aether wtf’
You tried explaining the situation as calmly as you can while almost being stabbed
He calms down a bit and is like
“So, can you use her powers?”
“The Herrscher of the Void and that unknown goddess are probably not the same person.”
“Oh.”
“But I’m pretty sure they’re like, alternate universe counterparts?”
“Really? Cool.”
You joined his party after a few weeks of Paimon BEGGING Aether to just “Invite y/n, already!”
Paimon is getting tired of watching your semi-awkward interactions
So they hope bringing you on the team will stop making things so awkward
It kinda worked?
After gaining enough SP you used your ultimate, knowing that the missiles(?) couldn’t hurt anyone on your team
You scared the FUCK out of everyone
I mean you helped a lot but like
Give a warning please
Wait no he’s not mad at you don’t feel bad
Xiao:
Battle suit: Motolov Cherry: Augment Core
Let me tell you what an augment core is. I don’t know if they have a canon explanation because I skipped a lot of the HI3rd text, but it’s like a battle suit inside a battle suit.
They usually work similarly but in this case the battle suits aren’t very similar.
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The way he met you was unique
He heard a ruckus around Wangshu inn and went to go see if it was trouble
It was but you were taking care of it
He was about to leave because you looked more than capable of handling this
But then he saw that you dual-wield greatswords (or claymores, as they’re called in Teyvat)
You were just flinging them around like it was nothing???
Curious, he stuck around to watch you fight from afar
Then you used your ultimate
Great, now there’s even more pink and blue paint every—
Wait what it all disappeared after the fight wtf
See, the thing is, you actually expected him to be there
That’s why you were clearing out any remaining hilichurl camps around the inn
But you didn’t tell him
So now your talking
You trust him a lot, considering you literally lured him out to talk to him
He sticks around, and of course he asks questions
“Are those horns?”
“Uh, I think?”
“You think?”
“How do you dual-wield strange looking claymores, and then fight with them like they’re regular blades?”
“They’re not actually that heavy.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you can hold one to test it out.”
He then dropped it on the ground, and fell down with it
Obviously it was kinda funny, but this is Xiao, so you try to hold back your laughter in order to keep Xiao as your friend
He then disappears out of embarrassment
You make a mental note to visit him at the inn sometime
Oh, and don’t forget the Almond Tofu
Venti:
Battle suit: Starlit Astrologos
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Yeah she’s a support-dps
She’s my child and I love her
So it all started when you went to the adventures guild to find a place to stay
That’s where he heard you say “I have an anemo vision, but it’s in my coat.”
He surely didn’t remember giving you a vision, he’d definitely remember someone who looked as pretty as you
You got away with it and you were allowed into the adventurers guild!
Suspicious, he goes all like
“Hey, I couldn’t help but over-hear that you have an anemo vision! Let’s be anemo buddies!”
After he says that your just like oh no he’s on to me
You feign obliviousness, pretending like this man isn’t the literal anemo archon, and you agree
So you’re doing a commission and he tags along
Mainly because he doesn’t believe you have anemo powers and he waits for an excuse to come from you
“I’ll stay a bit behind and shoot a bit.”
“Ok, be careful.”
“I will.”
You dig your weapon into the ground, it made a musical bum sound
Wait do you actually have anemo powers
You used your charged attack and deal MASSIVE amounts of damage
And you use your normal attack to heal yourself when you get hit
He’s already amazed
Then a hilichurl is about to attack you from behind, but he can’t shoot it in time
Luckily, you dodge it in time, activating your ultimate evasion
Now, ultimate evasions differentiate from different battle suits
But the most common one is literally stopping time
But an extra thing this battle suit does is release a large burst of wind at the enemy who cause the evasion in the first place
Venti is so confused because he can move, you can move, but the hilichurls are slowed down by a lot
You yell at him to come step in the formation on the ground after time stops
So you continue attacking the hilichurls, and Venti makes his way to the small formation on the ground
The entire time he’s like
‘What the fuck, is y/n actually a human? What’s happening??’
Time goes back to normal and he steps in the forma— AAAAA EVERYTHING IS FROZEN AGAIN
Then the cherry on top to the cake of confusion was your ultimate
Hoo boy
Your ultimate is a giant formation with a tornado inside it
“Ok what the fu—“
After that you tell him that your from another world and about the whole situation blah blah blah
“So, you come from a different world, and then you took the powers of someone else from a different world?”
“Yeah, she’s like, really strong.”
“Is she a god?”
“Nope.”
“Then what are the gods in that world like..?”
“You don’t wanna know.”
“I wha—“
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moonbeambucky · 4 years
Text
Hey Neighbor (Part 14)
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader, Billy Russo x Reader Word Count: 6039 Warnings: fluff, light angst, mentions of cheating
Summary: You had a plan and then life came along with one of its own. With your future almost derailed you worked hard to get yourself back on track and finally everything seemed to be going right… that is, until your new neighbor moved in.
A/N: Major cringe warning everyone.. I can’t wait for your reactions! 😂 A huge thank you to my wonderful beta Sam @buckyofthemyscira​​​​ Feedback is always appreciated! 
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PART 13 | HEY NEIGHBOR MASTERLIST
Bucky pulls off his headphones, pressing a finger to the keyboard to stop the music he’s reviewing, taking a moment to pinch between his brows. He gets up to stretch his legs, grabbing the empty beer bottle along with him for the short walk to the kitchen. He tosses it in the garbage with the rest.
He doesn’t like drinking this much but lately he hasn’t been feeling great. His music has been stagnant, devoid of life and energy. Thinking about it only makes him feel worse, a painful reminder that deadlines are coming up and what little he’s created is absolute shit.
The knob squeaks as he turns the faucet, letting the water turn to liquid ice before he runs his hands through them, splashing it up against his face. He hears the hiss of the pipes next door and his heart sinks.
It’s Y/N’s shower. He looks towards the wall wondering if she’s alone, quickly shaking the thoughts out of his mind. He shouldn’t care if she’s alone or not. She’s in a relationship and it shouldn’t matter.
Bucky tried really hard to not think about her. He promised himself he would get out there and find someone and well, it hasn’t exactly worked out. In the last three weeks he’s been on a dozen dates. Most of the girls could barely hold a conversation, while the others were less exciting than watching paint dry.
He fucked a few of them even though he said he wouldn’t. That wasn’t the point of these dates but Bucky needed the distraction. It was hard hanging out with everyone, it didn’t matter if Y/N was there with Billy or if they were not; Bucky wasn’t sure what was worse.
Over the last few days he has been messaging someone new who’s been doing a pretty good job of keeping him entertained. Bobbi, she works at a gym Uptown. She’s worked extremely hard for her body and flaunts it in most of her photos and sure, Bucky would love to hit it but there’s something more that keeps him drawn in.
She’s so direct, talking to him as if they had known each other for years. He loves checking his phone to see her latest message, a smile already stretching across his face when he sees a long text about something that happened at the gym. Apparently a lot of characters workout there and she has an endless list of horror stories she couldn’t wait to share with him.
They planned a date for the end of the week and Bucky was very excited to finally meet her. It was promising, the idea that he could be happy with someone just like… just like everyone else.
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You hug yourself a little tighter as you walk down the block, feeling the cool breeze move right through you. Billy seems to be in his own world, his head gazing down to his phone as it had been through most of dinner. You didn’t voice your annoyance though because it would only make things worse.
Billy’s been in a bad mood ever since the Feds came knocking at ANVIL’s door. A few former employees were recently involved in a string of armed robberies and Billy was questioned about it. Word got out and he lost a big account as a result.
Obviously the situation is upsetting but it’s not just that, Billy’s been distant lately. You’ve been spending a lot of time together but maybe that’s the problem, the honeymoon period might be over. You know it’s a normal part of any relationship but the idea that things could change so drastically doesn’t make you feel great.
“Hey watch where you’re going,” an unfamiliar voice barked.
Your head turned quickly to find Billy getting in the face of the stranger he apparently bumped into.
“What did you say to me?” Billy’s dark eyes sharpened like a bird of prey closing in on its target. His nostrils flared as he snarled, staring down the other man until he backed away with his tail between his legs. Billy looked him up and down, a smug smile creeping across his face in silent victory.
A heavy arm fell around your shoulders as Billy pulled you closer to him when he began walking away.
“What the hell was that?” you asked after a long beat of silence.
He faced you with the same incredulity he gave the man before. “That was people knowing better than to get in my way.”
Your stomach churned with unease and that silent alarm inside you was going off. You needed to get away from Billy, for tonight at least. By the time you got to the front of your building you figured out an excuse you hoped would work.
“Hey so, I promised Elena I would head in early tomorrow. Paperwork’s been piling up and medical records have been on our case about it. So, can we raincheck this?” You smiled, using your best doe eyes to seem sincere about it.
Billy stared you down, looking for the slightest crack in your expression. It was something he had always done, reading people, checking for lies. You know it’s a product of his upbringing, with so many broken promises made by a faulty system.
“Yeah. Yeah that’s fine,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Remember I got us Knicks tickets.”
You nodded in agreement, gasping slightly when he caught you off guard by his kiss. It was the last thing on your mind but you gave in, opening your mouth to his forceful tongue. Anything to keep up appearances, for tonight.
Billy watched you enter the building and you waved back at him right before you disappeared for the hallway, finally able to take a breath. On the way up to your floor you wondered if you should talk to Wanda about what happened. It was kind of late though and even though she would want to hear everything about it you didn’t want to disturb her.
As you approached your door you looked towards Bucky’s. Maybe he could give some advice from the male perspective. Then again you didn’t want to bother him either. Bucky’s also been pretty distant lately and you’ve barely seen him in the past month. Maybe everything’s changed, your relationship, your friendships. Change is supposed to be good but this felt all wrong.
You couldn’t find a comfortable spot on your bed, tossing and turning, kicking off the covers, pulling them back up again. Nothing seemed right. There was too much on your mind and you couldn’t relax.
“Shut up brain, just shut up!” you begged out loud, grabbing your phone to find something to distract yourself.
Scrolling through your playlists you tried to find one that wouldn’t give you the urge to stay up and sing along, and then you stopped on the perfect one. It was Bucky’s playlist, Greatest Cinema Scores. Grabbing your headphones you laid your head back on the pillow as John Williams carried you to dreamland.
You groan, rolling over to one side. It’s still dark out. You don’t want to look at your phone but you give in anyway. Two in the morning. At least you still had a few more hours of sleep. Your stomach spasms forcing you to get up, hurrying your paces to the bathroom because the weird rumbling has you convinced you might not make it in time.
It’s five past two in the morning when all hell breaks loose. Hell translating to everything you’ve eaten this evening coming up and out of you from both ends. It’s not pretty. Tears are streaming down your face as you puke into the garbage can you’re rapidly filling, trying to catch your breath in between painful heaves. The other end isn’t much better, hot liquid expelling itself from your body; stomach cramps, body spasms all doing their part to add to the mess.
Ten minutes pass by the time it’s safe to leave the bathroom. Your throat burns with the remnants of vomit, your ass is on fire and you curl back into bed, brushing aside the tears from the corner of your eyes. Your reprieve is short lived as your stomach grumbles again and you rush across your apartment, giving yourself over to the porcelain throne.
More comes out of you than you’ve taken in and you wonder about the science of it all. When will it stop? Dinner was simple, a glass of wine, a small house salad, chicken parm and some vegetables that come out whole as you peer into the soupy garbage held out in front of you. A whiff of the stench makes you gag again setting off another round of vomiting.
Everything hurts. Tears burn hot against your skin as you cry alone, half naked and in need of a shower at this point to clean yourself up. Elvis died on the toilet, is that how you’re gonna go too? It seems entirely possible at this point.
By the time the sun begins to peak out through the large buildings you’ve exhausted your body of all its worth. You’re shaking as you change into clean pajamas, crawling back into bed, barely having the strength to raise your phone to your ear as you leave a message for Elena, telling her you won’t be able to make it in today.
Sleep doesn’t come easy, not when you’re still getting out of bed every hour to get rid of every part of your insides. Isn’t it out of you already? You think back to dinner and the slightly pink chicken you thought at the time was your imagination or bad lighting. Dammit.
You text Billy, telling him you have food poisoning, hoping his seafood and linguine didn’t leave him in the same position you were currently in. After the hundredth trip to the bathroom you opened up your fridge looking for something. You squirm as you look at the orange juice, however tempting it is the acid would probably burn through you. Your mouth waters looking at the forbidden food, aka anything that isn’t a plain cracker. Do you have any of those? Nope. How is it possible you don’t have a single thing you could possibly eat?
The trek across your apartment and back to your bed seems like it went on for miles and now you shake with chills, wrapping yourself up in the blanket as you text Wanda begging for her to come over with Gatorade, ginger ale and crackers.
You whimper out loud as you feel your stomach gurgling, it wants another round versus the toilet where you’re going to lose. By the time you come out again you’re sweating, shaking on weak legs as you cry yourself to sleep.
In another hour you’ve woken up, thankful for the returned text that she would come by before heading to work. After your latest round in the bathroom you trudge to the front door unlocking it, and move to your couch where you plop face down. You text Wanda, telling her the door is open, and try to shut your eyes until the inevitable happens. Because you know it’s going to happen again. For some reason you’ve been cursed and there’s nothing you can do about it but suffer.
You aren’t sure of how much time has passed but you hear your door opening, bags rustling in hand and the tiniest smile spreads across your face.
“Wandaaa, my butthole hurts,” you whined, lifting your head up off the couch slightly to groan even more. “It’s like a volcano that’s erupting hot brown lava. There’s so much of it Wan. It won’t stop. My ass is vomiting shit.”
“Wow Y/N, that’s quite a visual.”
Oh no. Panic surges through you when you realize that was not Wanda’s voice. A weak arm pushes you up from the couch where you turn around to find Bucky somehow looking at you in the eye after he heard your very blunt confession.
You’re stunned into silence, not knowing what to say because you had just said far too much than you ever wanted to. Suddenly you feel nauseous again but for a different reason.
Bucky shifted one of the bags he was holding into his other hand so he could send a small wave in your direction, trying not to burst out laughing as he said, “Hey neighbor.”
“B-Bucky, what are you doing here?” you asked, sinking back down onto the couch because you couldn’t support yourself anymore.
“Wanda texted me, said she wasn’t able to get these to you before work.” He set the bags down, walking closer to you and crouching down by the couch. “Are you okay?”
Your head shook a little before you answered. “No. I think I’m dying. I’m puking up my organs.”
“Oh yeah? Which ones?” he chuckled.
“My intestines, definitely my stomach… maybe a kidney or two.”
He cracked a beautiful smile that somehow made you feel better just by looking at it. Bucky reached the back of his hand out to feel your forehead. You were a little warm but you didn’t feel feverish.
“Well I’m here now and I brought all the good stuff you need. Will you let me help you?”
Tears filled your eyes as you replied, and Bucky smiled again. He emptied the bags in your kitchen, taking out a bottle of ginger ale, Gatorade, crackers and some instant white rice.
“How about a little ginger ale to settle your stomach, yeah?”
Bucky brought over a glass that was less than half filled. Sitting next to you, he helped you sit up and you waited for the room to stop spinning before you took a few small sips as he told you to. Your hand was shaking and Bucky took the glass from you before you spilled it.
You didn’t think a few sips of ginger ale would be a magical cure but you wished it would. You felt so shitty… which seemed fitting, but it really wasn’t funny. You leaned against Bucky, closing your eyes as you sighed in frustration. It was comforting to feel his arm around you, and hear his whispers that everything would be okay.
“Are you nauseous? Do you need to…”
“I just don’t feel good,” you cried against him.
Bucky pressed his lips into a thin line, wishing there was something more he could do for you. When Wanda texted him he had shot right up, threw on clothes and raced to the store. He wished you had asked him, that you were as close as you used to be but he understands why you might not have wanted him to know.
The briefest thought about Billy crosses his mind. Did you tell him? Was he going to come in and take care of you? Would you shove Bucky aside if he did? But Billy isn’t here, and Billy isn’t important. Right now this is about you and doing whatever he can to help.
“Hey doll, do you want to try and eat something?”
You barely process the nickname as you think about how your stomach is feeling. It’s still too early to try and eat so instead you ask for some Gatorade, hoping that might make you feel a little better.
Bucky brings it back, along with a wet washcloth he places on your neck, feeling your skin prickle at his touch as he moves aside the collar of your shirt. It’s a nice relief for the short while it lasts. You head back to the bathroom again but at least you didn’t vomit this time. You’re thankful since you’re really not sure you have the strength to even handle throwing up anymore.
Back on the couch you lay your head down on Bucky’s thigh, curling your body into a fetal position as he lays a throw blanket over you. You don’t realize when you’ve fallen asleep but you wake up at some time later to find the sky is lit in a golden glow of the afternoon sun. Bucky assists you with sitting up, helping you quell the dizziness with more sips of Gatorade and ginger ale.
You feel brave enough to eat, hoping that one single cracker will not send you back on the hell ride through your digestive tract. Bucky can’t help but smile as you nibble on the cracker slowly like a hamster.
“What did you eat that got you sick?” he wondered.
“New Italian place on 23rd and 8th. Bad chicken. I mean, I thought it was good at the time but I don’t think I’ll be going back again.”
“Good to know. I’m gonna cancel my plans tonight,” he said, digging his phone from his pocket.
“Yeah, definitely go somewhere else.”
“No, I’m cancelling the whole date.”
Your head spun as you turned it too fast to face Bucky. “You have a date tonight?”
His head shook before he began speaking. “Nope, not anymore. I want to stay here and take care of you.” You began to protest but Bucky insisted. “Y/N, I really want to do this. Please, let me help you.”
The fluttering in your stomach made you wonder if you needed to rush to the bathroom again but it didn’t feel the same as before. Instead you smiled softly, thankful to have Bucky’s kindness. It was nice to know someone wanted to take care of you.
In the moment you scanned the table for your phone, remembering the text you sent out this morning. Billy still hadn’t replied. Maybe he’s sick too or maybe… well you don’t have the energy to think otherwise at the moment.
Your mouth is watering, craving anything and everything that you can’t have. Even the drinks have to be sipped slowly otherwise you’ll set your stomach off again. It’s so unfair. Why is this happening? And why is every commercial food related?
“Bucky, can you change the channel?” you begged.
He switched it to a show about animals, that’s fine, that’s… not fine. The TV shows a raccoon eating delicious red grapes and you feel the tears begin to flood your eyes. You huff against Bucky’s leg, not bothering to change the channel because there was no point. You couldn’t eat and you probably never will again. Was that being dramatic? Maybe, but right now you’re not in the mood to think sensibly.
“I feel bad askin’ but is it okay if I order food? I know you can’t have any and I really don’t want to make this worse for ya.”
Bucky is staring at you with big blue eyes, hoping his small request isn’t too much of an offence at the moment. You almost wanted to say no but you couldn’t, it’s not Bucky’s fault you ate bad chicken.
“Pizza? Really?” you whined after he placed his order.
His eyes grew big with panic and he was about to call back and cancel his order before you stopped him.
“No, no. I’m sorry Bucky. It doesn’t matter what you eat, I’m gonna want everything so enjoy yourself.”
You pouted, grabbing the throw blanket to pull it over your shoulder as you adjusted your position of resting on his leg, shutting your eyes until he got up to answer the door when the pizza arrived.
“That smells really good,” you said, frowning as Bucky opened the box.
He was hesitant to take a bite, feeling guilty as you looked at him. “Can I make you anything? Think you could handle some rice?”
Your head shook and you took out another single cracker, chewing on it slowly as Bucky sat down beside you with a few slices.
“I’m sorry Y/N. You’ll feel better soon, I promise. And when you’re up for it let’s get pizza. We still haven’t kept our promise.” Bucky’s mouth dropped open in response to your confused face. “Our pizza quest! Remember? Eat our way through the city to find the best pizza!”
“Oh yeah!” You smiled for the first time, bright and beaming across your face and Bucky was happy he was able to bring that out in you. “We definitely have to do that.”
The night continued with Bucky putting on Galaxy Quest for you both to watch. Halfway through the movie you went back to the bathroom, missing a call from Billy. Bucky couldn’t help but look over as your phone buzzed, seeing a picture of you and Billy smiling together.
A moment later a text came through and he knew he shouldn’t read it but he couldn’t help himself. Bucky looked towards the bathroom to check that you weren’t about to come out before he grabbed your phone, reading Billy’s text.
Billy: Wtf Y/N where are you? Did you remember the basketball game?
Bucky placed your phone back on the coffee table, remembering to unclench his jaw as your bathroom door opened. What an asshole. He didn’t even ask how you were.
“Your phone rang,” Bucky reluctantly said as you sat down again.
He watched as you read the text, typing back furiously. Another buzz and you were responding to Billy again, your face getting angrier the longer the back and forth messaging went on.
“I’m sorry, that was rude,” you said, tossing your phone on the table. “Let’s put the movie on.”
You got comfortable against Bucky, ignoring the buzz of your phone. The texts didn’t stop coming in and you tried your best to ignore it and pay attention to the movie but Bucky could clearly see you were upset.
“You can answer that if you need to.”
“I really don’t want to. Billy’s so concerned about wasting money on tickets, not once has he even mentioned the fact that I’m sick. Did he not get my messages?”
Bucky bit his tongue, not wanting to say something he might end up regretting, especially if this isn’t the end of you and Billy like he hoped. Why would he hope that? He’s dating now. Or at least he thought he was.
He cancelled his date with Bobbi tonight without hesitation, just so he could take care of you. She seemed cool about it, asking if he was free tomorrow and Bucky agreed to another date but the longer you stay curled up beside him the less interest he has in wanting to see anyone.
The warmth of your body against his lulled Bucky into a deep sleep. It wasn’t the most comfortable, slumped on the couch in a mostly sitting position but he didn’t want to move, not when you had fallen asleep before him. You were exhausted from everything you went through so your sleep was more important to him than the cramp that developed in his neck overnight.
You woke up, slowly opening your eyes, rubbing the sleep from them as you realized you weren’t in your bed but on the couch resting your head against Bucky. You watched the rise and fall of his stomach through the soft sweater he wore, the one that most certainly left tiny marks on your cheek from leaning against it.
Looking up at Bucky you smiled at the way his head was tilted to the side, eyes shut peacefully as small puffs of breath left his mouth. You thought about everything Bucky had done for you, what was supposed to be a simple task of dropping off ginger ale and crackers turned into his whole day being rearranged just to take care of you.
You wanted to do something nice for him in return, it’s something you’ll have to think about when your head’s not as light as it feels. Slowly you begin to sit up, taking a few sips of Gatorade from the bottle that was left on the table. You feel… better but still not great.
It’s daring but you aim to eat two crackers, hoping it won’t set off your stomach. It was grumbling with hunger but you knew better than to give in with actual food even though you were craving pancakes.
After sitting up for a while you didn’t think you felt dizzy anymore so you got up slowly. You felt the weakness in your legs as they carried you across the room but at least your trip to the bathroom was normal. A regular pee was a lot better than everything else that came out of you yesterday.
“G’morning,” Bucky said mid-yawn as you opened the door, seeing his sweater rise up to reveal a sliver of his toned stomach as he stretched his arms out.
“Morning Bucky.” You smiled as you made your way beside him again, reaching your arm across his stomach as you settled back against him, nuzzling your head on his chest.
Bucky loved this but absolutely hated that he needed to use the bathroom and therefore ruin the way you cuddled up against him. “I’m sorry doll. I’ll be quick,” he said, rushing up off the couch.
Doll. You liked that nickname. It was a little on the old fashioned side but it was endearing. Billy called you babe which was fine and all but it definitely didn’t have the same effect as doll. The thought of Billy made you roll your eyes. You would have to speak to him today but you really didn’t want to.
“Alright, where were we?”
Bucky’s voice rang out as he opened the door, walking back towards the couch. He moved his neck from side to side to crack it before he sat down again, letting you cozy up to him.
“How’re you feelin’ today?”
“Better. I think I might try some rice later.”
“Just let me know and I’ll make it.” There was no hesitation in his offer, just pure tenderness in wanting you to get better.
The morning was spent cuddling on the couch until Bucky’s stomach began grumbling worse than yours. He got up to make himself something while you insisted you weren’t ready for anything more than crackers and ginger ale yet.
“I’m gonna take your garbage out and head home for a quick shower. You think you’ll be okay? I’ll be quick.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Thanks Bucky.”
He was thankful you didn’t tell him not to come back. You seemed much better than yesterday and you probably didn’t need him but Bucky really didn’t want to leave. Sure he had work to do but this was more important. He wouldn’t have been able to get you off his mind anyway so he might as well be useful.
During Bucky’s absence you debated talking to Billy, knowing it would probably end up in a fight but you didn’t have the strength to do that yet. Besides, you hadn’t done anything wrong so there is no need for you to be chasing him down.
With the little energy you had you decided to freshen up. While splashing your face with some water you noticed the broken blood vessels in your eyes, the result of straining so much to throw up. Fun stuff.
It was a bit of a struggle to get undressed and changed into new pajamas and you had to lay down in your bed before the room stopped spinning. Thankfully Bucky had come back and was able to help you.
He handed the glass of Gatorade to you, rubbing slow circles of comfort on your back that seemed so natural for him.
“You need to eat something Y/N. Think you’re up for some rice now?” he asked softly, gazing at you with concern as he awaited your answer. You gave a simple nod and Bucky leapt up to get it started.
The burn of tears rushed to your eyes as you thought about Bucky. He was so eager to make sure you were okay, taking out your garbage that was filled with various bags full of vomit without hesitation, spending every minute of his weekend just to take care of you. He even cancelled a date.
Something inside your stomach twisted at the thought of Bucky actually dating someone. It’s not like him sleeping with someone was a surprise to you but apparently in the last month you’ve drifted apart from him, unaware he had started to date people instead of just sleeping with them. You’re not so sure why this makes you feel so… well, you’re not really sure how you feel about it but you know you feel something.
None of this should matter though. You have been dating someone for two months. Someone you thought you loved but this past weekend has taught you a lot about Billy. Not only has his change in demeanor put you off but the fact that he hasn’t shown any concern for you over this weekend really makes you want to end your relationship.
Bucky happily brought over a small bowl of white rice. There wasn’t much in there to begin with but you could only manage a few teaspoons before you had to stop. The worst part of it all is that you were so hungry but you really couldn’t eat much, and certainly couldn’t chance upsetting your stomach anymore no matter how badly you wanted to shovel the rice down your mouth.
The afternoon was spent on your couch again, cuddled up against Bucky as you continued to watch movies. His arm was around your shoulder and occasionally you felt his hand rub up and down over the curve of your arm. You smiled against him, letting yourself enjoy however long you could have Bucky like this.
In the back of your mind you thought about him dating again. Whoever he ends up with would be the luckiest girl ever, to have someone as kind and caring as Bucky take care of them as he has been with you. You chew on your bottom lip remembering the shared kiss on New Year’s Eve. Yeah, it was safe to say you would be completely jealous of any girl that ends up with him.
While attempting to have a little more rice you watched Bucky respond to his phone that had gone off a few times. It was hard not to glance over at him, imagining what pretty girl he was probably talking to.
What you didn’t know was Bucky was talking to a girl, Bobbi, cancelling the plans they had rescheduled for today. He didn’t bother to reschedule again and Bucky knew it was stupid not to but somehow the weekend he’s spent on your couch made him lose all enthusiasm for dating someone. Logic tried to reason with him, remind him that you were in a relationship but it was hard to deny the way he felt about you, how he’s been feeling for a long time now.
Bucky can’t stop staring at you, watching as you finish up the rice from earlier. He’s hated seeing you in pain but being able to help you this weekend has been such an honor.
As the sun set you realized you were not at all prepared to go back to work tomorrow. You probably could use another day off but since you weren’t throwing up anymore you wanted to at least give it a shot. Besides, Tony had been relying on you a lot recently with the logistics of getting The September Foundation prepared and you didn’t want to disappoint anyone.
“I need to take a shower.” As you stood up you felt a little dizzy and Bucky had his arms around you just in case. After a moment of a few deep breaths you felt a little better. “I’m okay,” you assured him.
Bucky didn’t quite believe that so he poured more Gatorade and handed you the glass.
“I’m not leaving you.” Bucky wiped his hand down his face realizing how forceful that sounded. “I mean, I won’t leave until you get out okay? I don’t want you to slip and fall or anything.”
“I’ll leave the door unlocked just in case but now I feel like I’ve jinxed myself,” you joked. Having Bucky hear your vivid description of shitting was bad enough, you really didn’t want him to find you passed out in the shower.
Bucky lowered the volume of the TV to barely above mute, wanting to listen out for anything out of the ordinary. He heard the shower turn on and a minute later the curtain pulling as you stepped in.
A text from Sam pulled his attention away from listening and he opened the message, his jaw clenched as he scanned the photo attached. It was Billy, with his arm around another girl. She was short with dark hair pulled into a bun, dressed professionally and Bucky questioned if he was jumping the gun at thinking the worst. Maybe she worked with Billy or maybe it was his sister.
The next text that came through proved his theories wrong. Sam captioned the picture of Billy kissing the girl with “Asshole.”
Bucky: I’m with Y/N now. She’s been sick all wknd I don’t think she knows about this.
Sam: Do you want to tell her or should I have Wanda come by? She’s ready to rip his head off.
Bucky: So am I Bucky: Fuck. Bucky: idk maybe Wanda should talk to her?
There was nothing Bucky wanted more than to tell you what an asshole Billy was but he didn’t want to be accused of using it to his advantage in any way. Bucky would be there with everyone else to support you through this but as a friend only. You deserved better than Billy no matter who you ended up with.
“Bucky!”
The sound of your voice in distress makes him pop up from the couch. He runs to the door, fear coursing through his veins as he hopes you’re okay. Inside the steamy bathroom he finds your head poking out through the shower curtain, the rest of it pulled close to your body not to reveal yourself.
“I forgot to grab a towel,” you said, smiling. “They’re over there.” A bare arm slick with water points behind him and he grabs a towel from a shelf. “Thanks,” you said, taking it from him, watching as he nods awkwardly before shutting the door.
Bucky’s cheeks are flushed from the brief humidity and the sight of seeing you in the shower. Well, not that he saw anything but just the idea of it has his heart racing.
Ten minutes later and you were out of the bathroom, changed into new pajamas, these ones covered with a cute cactus print, brushing through your still wet hair.
Silence filled the room as you finished your post shower routine of putting on a variety of moisturizers and facial sprays and Bucky felt like he had overstayed his welcome. You were winding down even though it was still early, and truthfully he had a weekend’s worth of work to catch up on.
“So there’s more rice on the counter, plus an unopened bottle of ginger ale too, and if you need anything else you know where I live.” He chuckled uncomfortably at his bad joke. “Really though if you need me please call me okay? I’ll come running.”
He didn’t mean to sound so desperate but it was true.
“Thank you so much for everything Bucky.” You threw your arms around him for a hug, melting deeper into him as he wrapped his arms around your body.
Neither of you realized the other didn’t want to let go but you made the move to reluctantly pull apart. Bucky had spent his whole weekend doting on you, you didn’t want to force him to stay any longer.
Bucky smiled as he gazed upon you, the way your eyes shifted down before staring back up at him. He leaned in slowly, pressing his lips to your forehead and a surge of electricity went racing through you. His kiss lingered and the longer he made contact with your skin the more you wanted to press your lips to his.
“Goodnight, Y/N,” he said, walking away slowly towards the door.
Your heart was caught in your throat as you locked it behind him, letting out a deep, longing sigh, and the realization that you might have feelings for Bucky.
PART 15
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lunarreaper-ut · 3 years
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How exactly did killer loose his arm? Was it cuz he got distracted or was it tactic to prevent something even worse?? ;-; how did nightmate take that sight? How did he get the idea to give killer some of his magic to make an artificial arm for him, did he knew it would work? Was it a hard or painful process for any of them?? (God i love the idea of killer getting a shadow arm from nm >w< makes him even cooler! Kyaaaaa~ still a sad thing tho uwu)
Was nightmare ever in the mood/need/curious to ask killer sing somehing (for him~)??
What ships will happen in kingdomverse??
Alsoo... Uhh dont know if thats an OK question but can they get pregnant? I wanna know if babybones are an possibility in the future? qwq
Ah yes... the Incident.
Allow me to explain the unfortunate event in which Killer almost failed at his job.
(This is gonna be heckin, and I mean HECKIN long. We got some worldbuilding ahead!)
How did Killer lose his arm?
This event happened several years after Killer began his duties as Royal Guard. Dream had already told Nightmare he no longer needed a Royal Guard, and Killer already expressed his wish to stay as one. Nightmare and Killer were frequently having their nightly visits, and things were going well.
One night, however, after Killer had returned to his room and the two had settled in for bed, something happened.
Now I haven't mentioned this before, mainly cause your questions have thankfully not uncovered it >w< During Nightmare's reign, there was much despair in the Kingdom. Negativity brings out the worst in people, as we're all aware I'm sure, and it's no wonder that some people would be driven mad by the results of Nightmare's actions.
Some people began to believe that if they worshipped Nightmare, they would be spared from his wrath and from the destruction his crafted creatures wrought. These people formed a cult dedicated to Nightmare, praising his actions and renouncing their loyalty to the Sun King. They called themselves The Corrupted.
Cults are a very hard thing to get rid of, especially if you weren't aware they existed. When Dream returned and cast Nightmare into the Void, the Corrupted hid themselves in the shadows, vowing to return only once their "True King" returns as well.
The issue arose when Nightmare did return from the Void. Nightmare, throughout his reign, was most often seen as his "transformed" self, and it was that self that The Corrupted worshipped, not Nightmare.
The Corrupted believed that they could bring back the "True King", and to do so they needed to remove the "Imposter King". The cult spent time learning the routines of the castle in order to break in to Nightmare's quarters when they were certain no one was around.
They had acquired a drug meant to incapacitate monsters and suppress their magic, and modified it to be several times as strong. Nightmare certainly wasn't at his strongest either, the Kingdom was a naturally positive place when Dream was around.
A few cult assassins threw a smoke bomb filled with the drug into Nightmare's room while he slept, and unfortunately it worked well enough. Nightmare wasn't unconscious, but he didn't have as fine of control over his magic or his own body.
The assassins came into the room, intending to kidnap Nightmare, but it's rather fortunate that Killer is a light sleeper, isn't it? Killer came into the room just as one of the assassins was about to grab Nightmare.
There was quite a few of them, as they'd been prepared for resistance, and though I hate to say it, they were skilled too. They weren't just some guy picked off the street and given a weapon, it was as if they'd been trained for years just for this moment.
It's likely they had been. Killer was having difficulties, but holding his own well enough. He would only really need to hold them off long enough for the guards to get to the room. Well, that's what he thought until he saw another assassin coming towards a practically immobile Nightmare, and he clearly wasn't intending to just kidnap the King.
Killer moved without thinking, and without his armor he was much more vulnerable to attacks... but getting injured wasn't an issue. He had to protect Nightmare at all costs, even if it meant he got hurt. That was the moment he lost his arm.
Killer didn't have time to register the pain, and slew the assassin who dared attempt to harm Nightmare. Killer was outnumbered still, and if he was having difficulties before, it was going to be impossible to hold out now.
He was lucky he didn't have to though, as several Guardsmen burst into the room. Seems they'd finally heard the commotion. The Guardsmen drove out the assassins, only managing to capture two. Killer was tended to, and he refused to leave Nightmare's side until the drug wore off.
How did Nightmare handle it?
Nightmare was half conscious in the moment, and so most of what he saw didn't register properly. It was only when the drug had worn off and he saw Killer by his side, sans one arm (Hehe), that it hit him.
Nightmare was angry first and foremost. He was angry it happened, angry Killer was dumb enough to get hurt, angry he wasn't able to resist the stupid drug, and angry that Killer seemed completely unbothered.
Nightmare didn't react well at all, and he ended up putting Killer on temporary leave. When Killer tried to refuse Nightmare said he was useless with only one arm, and Nightmare didn't need a useless Guard. Killer shut up pretty quickly.
Killer was still allowed to stay at the castle of course, but he was forbidden from coming near Nightmare's office, or taking part in any Guard duties. Nightmare believed that what happened was the stupidest thing Killer could have done, and refused to think otherwise.
It was during Killer's leave that Nightmare did research. He interrogated the cult members, and utilized glamours (Which we all know he's not fond of) in order to leave the castle without issue. Throughout his research, he spoke with the Court Apothecary regularly about Killer's injury. How was he fairing, is he at risk of dusting, is there anything to be done, stuff like that.
The Apothecary had made an offhanded comment that Killer is going to be without his arm for the rest of his life, since skeletons don't regenerate. Not unless he got enough magic to replace the missing arm at least.
He mentioned just getting a prosthetic for Killer, but that went in one ear and out the other, so to speak. Nightmare began to think about the suggestion (even though it was a joke). Nightmare had a large surplus of magic, and he thought about whether or not it was possible to somehow weave his magic with Killer's and form a new limb.
By the time Killer had returned to Nightmare, asking to return to his duties, the King had already figured out a way to properly do the procedure. He of course asked Killer if he would be allowed to do so, that he wasn't certain if it would work and that it certainly wouldn't be pretty.
Killer agreed without issue. The process was indeed a painful one... fusing Nightmare's magic with Killer's was difficult, and it was akin to taking a freezing cold needle and sewing a constantly shifting mass of energy directly to his soul. (Not actually how it worked, it's just how it felt).
The only reason Killer got through the procedure was because of Nightmare's intent. We all know that intent comes through to Monsters when involving magic, and Nightmare's intent made the process a lot less painful. Heal, fix, help, care, all those things came through to Killer.
It helped that Nightmare had a good relationship with Killer. His magic was much more willing to accept Killer's and vice versa. If this had been done between Nightmare and a stranger, it wouldn't have worked.
It took Killer a few days to work the arm properly. It was almost dead weight for a while. After that, it took even longer for him to properly fight with it, and longer still for him to be able to utilize the magic it was made with.
Has Nightmare ever asked Killer to sing for him?
Nope, Nightmare doesn't even know Killer can or that he has a good voice XD Killer has never sung in front of anyone, nor does he care to. It's just not something he does, but I imagine there could be a few scenarios where he gets coerced into it. Singing with friends, soothing a wounded animal (Yes Killer would do that, he likes small animals. They're cute.), that kind of stuff.
Nightmare's never had a reason to think Killer could sing. >w<
What Ships are going to be canon in Kingdomverse?
Well we've already got Cream, Killermare and Afterdeath as being confirmed.
Honestly I've kinda decided to leave the others more open for interpretation! If you want, you can say Errink is gonna happen, Lust could probably be someones s/o, it's all up to interpretation >w<
Theres quite the cast of characters in Kingdomverse?, and there might be more added later (if I can think of them), so honestly I'm sure there's no issue with some other ships coming to life!
Basically theres no other planned canon ships >w<
Can the skellies get preggers?
I don't see why not! Nightmare and Dream being immortals doesn't stop them from having kids, but I would say that if they did it would probably be through a different process than mortals.
I'd say that monsters need to make the conscious, or unconscious decision that they want a child or that they are ready for a child before they can have one.
Nightmare and Dream would probably be a bit difficult to have a child with purely because they have an immense amount of power and magic (even after a bond), so it might be a bit risky even for them to have kids.
(if any of you do make ship kids I want to see them though, I love baby bones >w<)
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itsoutrageouss · 3 years
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feel this? ☾ din djarin
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ONE SHOT
summary: You’re Dins fairly new travel companion on the crest, and the two of you still have a lot to learn about one another. You have always been bothered by vivid nightmares, something you fail to hide from the punctilious bounty hunter… 
pairing: din djarin x reader
word count: 3,9k
warnings: sleep deprivation/insomnia, angst
A/N: Hi! Just to be clear, this is definitely not to romanticize insomnia or nightmares (I suffer from it myself) it’s simply to show how important contact and feeling safe can be when you feel like this, and uh this is my first ‘official’ piece of writing with din so lmk what you think!
✰✰✰
Din subtly notices the way your energy fades as the days pass. At first he doesn’t think anything of it, you’re human and you get tired of course. But the way your words sometimes slur or don’t totally make sense; the way you blink with slow, heavy eyelids and the way your complexion is pale like porcelain makes him worry. It still isn’t enough for him to comment on it because he respects your boundaries the way that you have shown him you respect his, but he notes himself to keep an eye on you. More than usual, at least. 
You are heading back to Nevarro. All the collected bounties are proudly stocked in the carbonite and the foundling safe asleep. Din hasn’t talked since he threw the last and particularly loquacious quarry on board. You figure he’s exhausted, so you let him be in the cockpit as you go to the hull for occupation. Din has asked you to fix the heat sink and cooling radiator panels that seem to be faulting, so you might as well get to it now. As you make your way up the latter, you suddenly get a rippling flashback to last night.
Crawling up a wall, trying to escape. The images pierce through your mind, but you keep climbing, screwing your eyes shut tightly. Damn nightmares. Not only do they deprive you of a normal sleep schedule (which the kid does not help with), but you spend so much daytime thinking about them too that you are absolutely drained mentally and physically. You keep chanting how it’s gonna pass like it always does, but it doesn’t seem to do it.
There are only two sliding doors between you and The Mandalorian, and you make sure he hears you come up the latter so you don’t startle him somehow, and silently let him know what you’re doing. Hair drapes over your face, so you automatically gather it and tuck it away in less than two seconds; number one skill to have.
You begin to disperse the panels, laying out tools randomly and picking up different screws and components to get to the core problem. Your back is tense and rigid from the work, and you involuntarily feel your hands fumble and sweat as the metal parts slur in your palms, slipping out with loud clings against the silver floor. Another flashback of your hands slipping on the wall’s hot stone hinges in your recent nightmare makes you drop the wrench on your toe. Biting down on your teeth harshly you hold back a growl of pain, managing just to hiss like a Loth-cat. You blink rapidly down at the tools, but they still seem unclear and you can’t really remember their names. Instead of trying to keep going, you shamefully plop yourself onto the floor completely, letting your shoulders almost pop from their sockets in exhaustion. The biting cool metal wall hugs your burning skin, and you press into it impossibly tight to cool off. You keep looking at the parts sprinkled around you to remember what you are doing, but they swirl together and double until your eyes strain so much that you have to close them. Just a few minutes, is your excuse this time.
...
It has been approximately 15 minutes, Din thinks. He knows that you are trying not to disturb him and he appreciates it, because getting used to not only a child but another person on the ship everyday takes some time and space. But for some dumb reason he still finds himself hyper-aware of the fact that you are just pacing around or fixing something, and that makes him restless to get up. The pilot's chair creaks as he drags his tired body out of the cockpit, and he opens the door to where he last heard you going.
It takes him a second to understand what he’s seeing. The panels are open and exposed, different parts and tools scattered on the floor. And in between them you’re sitting against the wall with your eyes closed. You look pale, and your hair is disheveled around your shoulders. Sighing, he admits that he can’t keep avoiding the issue anymore. He stands awkwardly for a few more seconds, debating the best thing to do. He wants to let you sleep, that is his first priority, but he can’t have you sitting on the floor or leaving the panels wide open. So he decides to stand just a little longer as still as an actual beskar statue, and before he can make a better plan you are moving uncomfortably and kicking a few tools accidentally. His head snaps to you as your hands drop the components they were holding. “Fuck” you groan, your neck sore from the position against the wall, heart racing at the stabbing sound of metal against metal. Your eyes are heavy as they drag across the unfinished work on the floor, leading to a pair of boots. You slowly look up to the T of a visor that is burning into your skin.
 “Are you sick?” He asks, before you can open your mouth, which is completely dry. You wipe your forehead with your shirt, scrambling to your knees to continue the work. 
“Nope. Not sick. Just tired” you huff,  waving the tools around to seem casual. “You’re not just tired” he states, sighing your name in frustration when you don’t as much as gaze his way. “You can sleep in the hull if that’s better, '' he tries, still looking down at you with a stiff stance. “S’ not the bed'' you mutter, trying to pick up where you left off. Din doesn’t want to play a guessing game right now, his patience wearing thin over these past few days. So he just leans against the wall, his arms crossed daringly across his beskar covered chest. You feel his visor burn into your side, and you close your eyes instead of rolling them. “It’s just nightmares'' you admit, trying to shrug it off  “It will pass” 
“If that was true you wouldn’t be falling asleep every second there’s silence” that is the longest sentence you’ve heard from him in a while, and it isn’t exactly softly said. You just scoff at him “It’s not your problem Din, it’s mine” you glare at him with a frown, your tired eyes narrowing from his helmet and back down to the panels.  
But he won’t give up so easily now that he’s got you on the hook. He’s still trying to get a taste of how you two communicate together, and his responses aren’t always the best, he knows that. But you also know how hard he’s trying.
“It is my problem because it’s affecting your work” his static voice comes through, still not particularly gentle. This isn’t how he wanted things to go. “Well I’m sorry but I don’t know what you want me to do about it. Right now you’re the one affecting my work Mando” you bite back, your head shielded from his sight by the panels, to your advantage because warm tears are silently prickling the corners of your eyes. He’s silent as usual, standing so still that you think maybe he’s the one sleeping. Until he sighs again in discontentment and leaves. So much for confrontation.
Now he knows, at least. Knows that it isn't him or the ship that causes your sleep deprivation. But you only feel more frustrated with this; You have failed to keep it to yourself and managed to let it interfere with your work, which is the last thing you want. You have to do something about this problem, but how do you just stop nightmares like that? Sleeping in a new place, constantly on new planets with new people is too much ‘new’ and you can’t do much until you finally feel settled in this lovely wreck you call a home now. And you know that this frustration and stress is only going to pile on and infiltrate into your sleepless nights. Almost automatically your hand fists and punches the panel in front of you, feeling the dull ache like lightning from your knuckle to your shoulder, muscles rippling in pain. You are sure Din hears it, and you’re already prepared to say that you dropped the wrench or something, because you just can’t handle more of his disappointed sighs today. Rolling on those 15 minutes of sleep you finish the work hurriedly, now with an injured hand.
You are bored as fuck. Din and you haven’t spoken since the incident, just lulling around each other in silence. It’s tense. Usually it’s a comfortable silence you find yourself in, because you know that’s just his typical exterior and way of communicating. But now you know there is a reason why he’s brooding and averting, and the feeling is mutual; It’s easier to let it hang in the air, despite the heavy feeling on your shoulders. 
Your hands roam the food stash, your arms fully swallowed by the cabinet. You’re running low, but there’s still a couple of silver cans left. You haven’t dared to ask Din how far from Nevarro you are, so you just put one can out for him and one for you. He isn’t around, so you place the can between your lips, feeling a sharp pain in your teeth as you bite down on the cool metal. Quickly you drag yourself up the latter, and place the can with a spoon outside the door of the cockpit. Right there on the floor, like a fucking gift or something. You curse at your own feverishness, fingers flexing in a rhythm.
Why are you suddenly so uncomfortable? You don’t even dare to knock on the door anymore. Usually you aren’t scared to confront and push Din’s buttons, almost excited to test the tin-bucket man's limits when you can’t physically see them on his face. You decide to just leave the food there, taking your own can and snuggling into the little bed of yours. It’s crammed into a small storage room that Din has cleared out for you despite your protesting about the floor being fine on it’s own.
Din hears you crawl up the ladder, but then your sounds -that he knows so well- disappears. He can always hear you: the way you breathe, the way your clothes sound when you move, the way you walk and talk. It’s not intentional, but he can probably pick you out of a crowd of a million just by the sound of your existence. 
For a minute he thinks you might’ve fallen asleep again, and he unwillingly turns to leave the cockpit. He almost steps on whatever is in front of the door, eyes darting around with no aim. He picks up the silver can, staring at it for way too long. Are you scared to be in the same room as him? Are you mad? You’re probably mad, he figures. That wasn’t a tool that landed on the floor earlier, he has punched the wall too many times and immediately recognized the sound- as always. 
He guesses you’re asleep by now, the child as well.
And you are, but you’re running. In the middle of nothing, but it feels like everything. Dirt, or sand under your feet you can’t tell. Your head is aching with the voice of someone you can’t recognize. They keep telling you to run, chanting it like a curse, so you do. And something is behind you. It’s loud and fierce, and right there. And you’re too scared to crane your neck backwards to catch a glimpse of it. It never seems to get any closer or any further, as you keep running. The wall is there again, the one you have to climb. And it hurts to climb it, it’s too hot and too long and too slippery. Your hair plasters to your glistening neck, your clothes stiff and scratchy as you grab the stones that stick out on the wall. The stones are covered in ridges and holes, the crookedness making it a thousand times harder to get a hold of them. All your senses are sharpened yet everything is blurry and out of reach as you grab the stones in panic. But your hand slips right at the very top. Your feet are aching, and you watch in slow motion as your hand lets go of the last stone. Feel the rush of adrenaline spike as you fall down, down, down.
“Wake up!”
Din’s voice is desperate, even through the helmet's moderations you can vaguely hear it. He was just about to go to bed, and he heard you rustling on your thin mattress. Before he could consider anything you were screaming, loud and terrified. It echoed between the steel walls, and his heart immediately jumped in fear as he pressed the button to the door.
You are writhing on the floor, legs tangled in the blankets, chest heaving and hands grasping for nothing. His hands shake your shoulders roughly, but stops immediately when you open your eyes wide and alarmed, as you snap forward into a sitting position. You pull your knees up, looking like someone that’s just been punched in the gut. Your breaths are erratic between stuttering cries, and Din can barely recognize your otherwise so familiar sound. 
“Hey” Din keeps repeating, trying to make you feel some sort of grounding. His hand is tight on your arm, the other one caressing your back as you feel your shirt rubbing your skin. “Just a bad dream” you hear him assure you. But sound dazes in and out, battling with your heartbeat and the rush of blood. You gulp loudly, your breath evening out slowly in the pitch black cargo room. 
“Feel this?” His voice is a low rumble but calming, and you feel his hand press tighter to your back. You nod, still gasping as not to cry out again. “Focus on that” his hand keeps rubbing your back, rough but not uncomfortably, just enough for you to be unable to focus on much else. And you do as he says, following his commands blindly while still being half asleep. You focus on his hand. The feeling of the cloth against your back. The feeling of his thumb over your spine. You sit like that for a while. You can’t tell what’s what anymore, the silence and darkness warping time and dimension in your brain. What is the wall and what is the bed, what is you and what is him. But you can’t remember much after that. Din says something else, you can only hear the tone in his voice as something like worry or guilt, as your eyes become one with the darkness again. 
You don’t wanna leave the storage. It’s too embarrassing considering what happened last night. You get ready, pulling the sheets neatly around your small mattress, sorting out your things. You do everything until you can't possibly procrastinate any longer. The light makes your brain hurt, eyes shutting from the dull ache of it. It’s much later than you thought, or maybe you’re just already on Nevarro. It seems like a sense of time is still missing in your mind.
You quickly find your first excuse of the day; The child. He isn’t asleep, you can hear his small coos, and spot two floppy ears swaying from side to side. “Hey chomp” you mutter, your voice stumbling over itself, being hoarse and weak. He makes the most adorable sound at the sight of you, and your hands envelop and embrace him tightly like you haven’t seen him in ages. 
“Hungry?” 
He shrieks excitedly at that word and you chuckle while roaming through the last bits of food. Before realizing it, you’re standing at the cockpit door again, your brain already working its new everyday routine. And it’s too late to turn around because a little green thumb presses the door open like it always does. “Thanks” you scowl and say through your teeth but the child just gives a high five to your side. Din turns around fast. So fast he might  fall out of the chair, and your feet stutter to a halt at that. His shoulders immediately slouch when he sees you, turning slowly back to the view of blue and white lights. Not at Nevarro yet, then.
You glare at the back of his shiny helmet that reflects the colors in a whirlwind. He doesn’t move his head but he looks relaxed, not rigid like you’d think.  The child coos once more and reaches with small grabby hands for the food “Yeah yeah give me a second chomp” you mutter, whispering almost in fear of your voice cracking or scaring him.
The food is a cream colored goo, and it doesn’t look particularly tasty but the little green womp rat eagerly swallows it down as you lead the spoon to his tiny mouth. “Did I forget to feed you or something?” You ask him, stroking his tiny soft hairs as you scrape the excess food on his face into his mouth. Din watches you carefully, his helmet tilted no more than needed to catch the sight. You’re completely oblivious of his presence, either because you’re tired or because the child is craving all your attention. That’s until Din says your name, softly this time, like you’d break if he said it too loud. You don’t reply, but he sees you straighten your back as a way of letting him know that you aren’t completely ignoring him. 
“I’m,” he pauses, looking for the right words as his hand taps his thigh gently “sorry I got angry at you,” he stutters and goes silent for so long that you think he was done. You part your lips to reply but Din adds a tiny “it’s not your fault” before you’re able to. Your eyes narrow slightly, automatically cradling the child as he begins to sound bored. You can’t muster the way his helmet is observing every single movement you do, “I don’t need pity, Din. It’s okay.” Your voice is exhausted, and your eyes smile so gently that he wouldn't see it if he didn’t look so intensely at them right now. You still feel embarrassed of the way he caught you last night, and you’re trying your hardest to make it seem like nothing, assuring him that everything is okay even though it isn’t. But you can’t fool him, you’ve never been able to.
It’s night time again, and you’re only one day from Nevarro. Or so you think, you're in space so you have no way of telling but the day has felt endlessly long, so you decide to put an end to it. The white noise of hyperspace is still somewhere far off as you enter the cargo room. The air is cool despite being the very same for days. You gulp, hands smoothing up and down the side of your thighs as a way to calm yourself. Good thoughts. It’s just the Crest. The Child. Din Djarin. You. Nothing bad about that, quite the opposite actually.
Chanting that in your head, you lie down, feeling your back touch the floor through the thin mat. The only sound you can hear now is your own breathing, deep and shaky as your nails make little crescent moons into the skin of your thighs. You force yourself to shut your eyes, closing the galaxy off for a bit. It’ll be morning soon, is your last thought before giving yourself into the feeling of nothingness.
Din can’t stop thinking about it. How he had said that it bothered him that you were tired, when it clearly is much worse for you. He can’t stop thinking about the way your body shook as he held it, as your voice sounded so weak and estranged when he heard you or the way he held you till you fell asleep. 
So he does the most rational thing his mind can muster, and sit outside your door. As simple as that; no further plan than sitting. His legs stretched out on the floor, his helmet leaning against the wall underneath the button to enter the room, his armor discarded and ungloved hands in his lap. Maybe it was that same protective thing that kicked in whenever anyone even looked at the child, he doesn’t know. But it makes him feel just a little better, so he lets himself lull to sleep right there on the floor. 
That’s until his head bangs against the wall, metal on metal making a piercing sound. You’re screaming again. Or sobbing. Or both. His hand fumbles above his head for the button, and he almost throws himself into the room even before the door opens. Once again his quick reflexes come in handy. You are sitting up again, hunched over with your hands fisting the sheets and your hair draping your face wildly. He reaches out for you, but you violently flinch back at the sudden touch of someone you can’t see.
“It’s me. It’s Din” he assures, his hand suspended mid air, eager to comfort. You want to tell him to leave, that it’s okay but your throat is dry again and you’re too vulnerable to hide the fact that a part of you wants him to stay. A soft touch on your shoulder, so fragile underneath his coarse skin. “Lay down” he whispers.
Din is trying to be intuitive. He’s never been in this situation before but he’s skilled at acting fast and keeping cool so it couldn’t go that bad, could it? The way he sees the pure fear in your dim eyes makes him lose that part of his brain slightly though. You once again do as he says, finding comfort in his deep rumbling voice as you lay down on the messed up sheets again, greeting the suffocating warmth. He closes the door, shielding the two of you from any harm. The ‘mattress’ is barely big enough for you, so he settles on the floor again, right next to you. He stares to the ceiling, listening to your breathing as his head lulls in exhaustion. You hear him sigh again, but this time it doesn’t sound disappointed, more like he was feeling genuinely sorry for you. Your breathing doesn’t calm down the way he hoped.
“Hey” his helmet scrapes the floor as he turns his visor to you. Your throat is bopping and straining no to let out anymore cries, your eyes blinking rapidly in the dark. His hand envelops yours, his electric skin colder than your own. He’s only in his undershirt and pants, stripped as vulnerable as you feel right now. Your hand trembles in his but he grasps it tighter, inducing you to follow as he places it on his chest, pressing down firmly. “Feel this?” He asks again, and the repetitive question makes you feel at ease again. And you nod, not sure if he can see it. But he very much can, and doesn’t let go for a second. You feel the thrumming of his heart, letting it surge through your entire being. It’s beating faster than it should, but still slower than yours. “Focus” he whispers with a voice you have never heard before, so defenseless and tender. You nod again, closing your eyes shut to feel it clearer in your warm palm. Dunk Dunk, Dunk Dunk. The same rhythm in a constant, so alive and so exposed. You forget everything around you. Everything other than Din, as he takes you under his wing, shielding you from the cruel galaxy. “I won’t leave, I promise”
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