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nctsjiho · 3 years

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JiHo vs Geo (NCT JiHo’s Duality)

Fan Video by ‘NeoVerse’ on Youtube

(indented text = comments added by the maker of the video, in this case NeoVerse) So we all know JiHo. One of NCT’s rappers and dancers. She’s always portrayed as cool, confident, intimidating, so for today, let me introduce you to Geo.

The cute, easily embarrassed 00 liner, whom everyone in NCT (and the fandom) has a soft spot for. Though whenever Geo comes out she’s usually getting teased by the boys...

^^ Let’s get started!

[JiHo Vlive ft. Taeyong & Taeil 190407]

“So we’ll be in America soon for the second leg of the Tour.” Taeyong said. “Are you excited?” JiHo asked looking at the oldest of the three. “Yes, we’ll finally get to see all our overseas fans. And we’re even going to see Johnny’s home-”The 3 of them looked off camera once loud noise started to fill the room. The voices obviously belonged to Dream. Taeil and Taeyong shrugged it off and Taeil continued to talk. The noise wasn’t too loud, but it was still a bit distracting non the less.

JiHo continued looking off camera every once in a while. It looked like she finally made eye contact with one of the young boys, because she squinted her eyes a bit more and suddenly the room became silent besides for Taeil talking. The girl gave the tinniest nod before looking back at the camera and joining the two other men in their conversation.

In the background you could hear a door close just after a few silent “sorry’s” were heard.

JiHo: the NCT member who can make Dream, who never stop talking, shut up without even saying anything. The power this girl has

[‘NCT - RESONANCE Pt. 2’ Departure Ver. Jacket Behind the Scene]

Loud cheers filled the echo-y room as JiHo walked in. All the 23 boys were already in their spots, but the girl had walked in late (for an unknown reason). She hides her face in embarrassment as she approaches Renjun who was standing on the far right side of the bleacher-like structure. “JiHo needs to go up one level!” One of the staff members yelled.

JiHo gets up on the structure a hand helping her up, it was Johnny. As she stands up completely she notices she is standing between Johnny and Sungchan. “Please tell my I’m not standing between these two giants.” She looks in the direction of the staff, face full of concern. Her comment causing almost everyone to laugh. “Why? Don’t you like standing between us?” Johnny teased poking at her side. She squints her eyes at the taller man, triggering a few more laughs out of him.

The director instructs the girl to stand between Ten and Shotaro on the other side of the structure and she quickly walks over to them, almost tripping on her way over, where Ten greets her with a big hug. “Ah so cute~” Mark cooed, looking at the embarrassed girl.

[NCT World 2.0 ep 4]

It’s really no secret that JiHo is a very athletic person. She works out and tries out new sports for fun. So even though she might not have the strength as her male colleagues (well most of them, sorry Kun), she was definitely one of, if not the most, agile members in the group.

When they announced the next game, JiHo’s team mates had look slightly worried. The vault was already at 1.70 m which was already taller than her, though JiHo would never openly admit that.

It’s only when the vault is at 2 m high that the members realise the smaller girl had cleared all the previous heights successfully. She’s now standing at a couple meters away to sprint towards the vault.

“We didn’t expect JiHo to make it this far.” Defconn commented. “She’s definitely an ace.” Kim Hwan, the other presenter, added.

We’re talking about the same JiHo right? This girl can literally carry her members on her back!

“Wow~ Look at noona’s face.” Jisung pointed out to his team mates, who unfortunately didn’t make it. The girl had her eyes set on the vault. Completely focused she put up her fist. “JiHo, challenge!” Her first few steps were big but slow, then her pace started picking up, until she had reached the vault.

“Ji-” The camera picks up the shocked faces of the boys as her team members jump to her aid. JiHo was laying on her back on the blue mat, the vault in pieces all around her, with one of the pieces almost making its way towards the girl’s face. Thankfully because of the concerned boys’ fast reflexes they helped avoid a big accident.

“Are you okay?” Johnny asked now that they were standing again. “I think I can make it though...” She furrowed her brow, shocking the boys with her comment. Despite all the boys’ protest JiHo was one again standing at the starting position to run towards the vault.

Taeyong stood up in a panic. “She isn’t going to try again right-” “JiHo, challenge!” And without a second of hesitation she ran towards the vault, 5 boys ready to save her in case she was to fail again. Once her feet hit the mat she looked at the camera with a smirk on her face and a fist in the air. She had cleared the vault.

“I swear to God her confidence is going to be the dead of me.” Taeyong let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

[NCT World 2.0 ep 2]

JiHo’s challenge was to do a rope skipping routine. Since she has been rope skipping for as long as she can remember, it wasn’t really that hard. The challenging part came from that she had to learn a specific routine and execute it perfectly within 10 minutes.

After 3 minutes she had the short routine down, some moves were slightly more difficult, but nothing she couldn’t do.

“JiHo, challenge!” She yelled out. She pulled of the routine effortlessly. Or that’s what she thought at least. Everyone had jumped to their feet, cheering JiHo on those who never saw JiHo rope skipping completely in awe at what she just pulled off. “Let’s go-” Mark had yelled, just before the lights turned red. “Mission failed.” The deep voice boomed over the speakers. Everyone stunned, they could’ve sworn she just did it right. But after review JiHo realised her mistake.

She stood closely to Jaemin’s seat who asked her if she got the routine down now. JiHo nodded while she absentmindedly swung around the jump rope. A particularly hard swing causing the rope to round her back and hit her left arm harshly. The loud sound of the rope hitting her skin was accompanied with a wince at the sting. Jaemin had jumped up asking if JiHo was okay. The girl had slapped her hand against her reddening skin before she started whining that it hurt.

Jaemin took the opportunity to baby her. “Aigoo~ You need to be more careful.” He said rubbing her arms, before pulling her into a hug. The boys who sat a bit further away had started laughing once they realised the girl was okay. “Jaemin-ah, they are laughing at my pain.” She pouted and the boy pulled her closer, glaring at the other members.

Yangyang... I saw you laughing at our baby girl...

[NCT JiHo notices SASEANG at the Airport]

In the shaky fan video with not much context you could see NCT at the airport. The reason why they weren’t moving unknown. The only thing you could tell from the first half of the video was that NCT was standing in the middle of a clearing in the airport with tons of fans surrounding them.

Jeno and JiHo were standing next together, being filmed by the fan. She kept on glancing in a particular direction. At some point Jeno leaned in to whisper something in her ear and she shrugged in response, her body seemed a bit tense.

After another couple of seconds went by, JiHo suddenly starts moving in the direction of the fans - the same direction she kept glancing at. This caused the fans to start screaming and a body guard to quickly try and catch up with her.

It isn’t clear what’s being said, but JiHo exchanges some words with a male fan. She then puts her hand out, the fans around her going quiet. The man hands JiHo his unlocked phone and she starts scrolling through it. With a bitter look she hands the phone back, grabs her own, takes a picture of the man and then leaves. Once she reaches the boys again an indifferent expression remains on her face. Jeno’s hand massages the girl’s shoulder but she doesn’t seem to relax until they are able to leave the airport.

Apparently the male “fan” was a sasaeng and on his phone were pictures he had taken of JiHo and the rest of NCT (?) during their overseas schedules in places no fans were allowed. She deleted them and taken a picture of him for the security, possibly also for the authorities.

[NCT 127 fan event @ Capitol Records]

After everyone had gathered on stage, it was time for each member to introduce themselves. JiHo was last in line and when she started talking in her mic, it was clear that her mic did not work. The girl looked back at the staff, but they didn’t seem to notice directly, so she turned to her right and grabbed Doyoung’s mic. He didn’t let go of it, causing the girl to lean in towards Doyoung and start introducing herself. “Hi! I’m JiHo.” She giggled slightly embarrassed, which emitted a chorus of “awe’s” from the fans.

Later on in the interview, now with a working mic, the question “Who is the most attractive member of the group?” had been asked. Some members had answered already but the interviewer asked JiHo’s opinion. “Uhm...” She hummed as she looked over her members. “I think everyone is very attractive.” She gave as her final answer which left everyone a bit “disappointed”. A fan interjected, yelling, “We all know you think it’s Jungwoo!” JiHo’s face turned the brightest shade of red as she looked at the audience in shock. Everyone at the event had burst out laughing and JiHo sank back in her chair.

[NCT JIHO Choreography | More Than That (Lauren Jauregui)]

JiHo’s know as a bit of a tomboy. I mean she hangs out with dudes pretty much 24/7. So when she dropped this video, let me tell you, we NCTzens were shook.

As the music starts playing the lights slowly turn on. JiHo is sat in the middle of a dance practise room in a chair, head tilted slightly backwards, exposing her neck.

The camera comes closer and JiHo makes eye contact with it, her mouth is slightly agape and she stands up. She hits every beat, dancing in her own, cool style, nothing very girly or sexy, until a certain line comes up.

“I got a situation, I can tell you wanna know“

She brings her clasped hands up, stretching them out above her hand, before pushing her right hip out circling it from the front to the side. She lets her hands drop back down.

“How you can take an honest girl and turn her to a”

Her facial expression turns more cocky. Her left hand goes down the side of her body onto her left thigh while she moves down to an almost squat position. Her right hand comes up from her chest to her neck at the end of the line where the singer lets out a gasp.

Turn her to a WHAT? Explain Lim Jiho! Into a what exactly?!

Stan twitter of course went crazy at the sight of their tomboyish, innocent girl choreographing such a seductive dance. Besides those two lines, most of the dance was just her usual boyish hip-hop style. But the whole vibe of the song, along with her facial expressions had caused such beautiful chaos. Also JiHo in those sweatpants and a sports bra/crop top was something NCTzens weren’t ready for yet.

[Weekly Idol ep 410]

This is probably my favourite JiHo moment ever. For a bit of context. The people sitting down on pillows have to come forward for the members they want to be partnered with and show their charm. After everyone has “seduced” the sitting member, they must close their eyes and if their rose gets picked they are partnered up.

The reason I like this so much is because JiHo was already pouty since Doyoung and Yuta were both seducers as well so there was no chance of partnering with them, but she really wanted to team up with either of them.

After Mark danced to ‘Pick Me’ (and JiHo did everything in her power not to cringe, she failed), he turned around to see which members would come over. When he turned around he saw 4 faces. Those of Doyoung, Jaehyun, Yuta and JiHo. The last two he didn’t expect to come.

One by one they all had to explain why they picked Mark. “Dude, honestly I just don’t want to be picked last.” The girl said in English sending Mark into a fit of laughter. They than had to show show their charm through singing, dancing or acting cute. Once it was Doyoung’s turn, he started dancing to ‘Pick Me’, just like Mark did earlier. “Oppa! I wanted to do that.” She said annoyed to which Doyoung looked shocked. “You were going to dance to a girl group song?” She just rolled her eyes.

Once it was her turn the host had encouraged her to dance to ‘Pick Me’ like she initially planned. “If you do it better than Doyoung, you will have a better chance.” One of the boys had reasoned, that was enough for JiHo to stand up.

She patted down her sweater before getting “in the zone” and she started dancing and singing the song as if it was her own. Some of the boys started cringing at the unfamiliar sight of their female member acting girly and cute, willingly. Then the camera shows Yuta and Jungwoo who were clearly enjoying the show and Taeil smiling fondly as well.

omg this is peak Geo behaviour <3 How is she this cute? Is she really a member of a mostly male group?

Cut to JiHo getting rejected right after Doyoung gets rejected. They sit back next to Johnny, the girl’s head resting on Doyoung’s shoulder. “I guess dancing to that song wasn’t the way to go.” She sighed.

This time it’s Jungwoo’s time to choose a member. He danced to ‘Havana’ to which everyone joins in. Once seated it’s time to start the next round. When Jungwoo faced the group again everyone, including JiHo has come forward.

Johnny danced and Jaehyun and Doyoung sang for Jungwoo, then it’s the girl’s turn. “JiHo! Aegyo!” Haechan yelled and before she can say anything, Yuta agrees. She looks at Jungwoo with a sigh. “Oh it doesn’t look like JiHo really wants to team up with Jungwoo.” Doyoung teased. JiHo quickly dismissed his claim, poking his side which had him twitch.

“Oppa... I think we could make a really good team.” She said with her face rested in her hands. Than she points at her heart. “It would really hurt right here if you reject me.” At the end of her sentence she stands up and throws her rose away. Everyone is dying from laughter or second hand embarrassment. The girl takes a few deep breaths to calm down and she sits back down.

ngl even though that was very cringy, how is JiHo this good at aegyo? I’m sure Jaemin would love it...

They have to make eye contact with the Jungwoo now and once it’s JiHo’s turn she locks eyes with him with ease. Her eyes never faltering which intimidates Jungwoo a bit. “JiHo, you’re supposed to make a connection, not scare him away.” She swats Doyoung’s arm at his remark.

Guess what. Our poor girl was rejected once again

JiHo stands up with her cushion and walks back behind the line. “I danced for you!” She points at Mark. “I acted cute for you!” She points at Jungwoo. “And this is what I get?” The girl actually looks a little agitated which prompted in Jungwoo hugging her and apologising, but she pushes him away. “Whoever my partner is, he and I will end your team.” She threatened while raising her brow. But she only manages to look cute, because she still has a pout very evident on her lips. The tall boy cooed at her and patted her head before walking back to his chair.

Finally Taeyong takes his place on the seat. Once he turned around he could only see Jaehyun and Doyoung sitting back at the line, making a heart with their arms together. A look of despair washed over his face for a quick second before he realises JiHo wasn’t there anymore.

“Where’s JiHo?” He asked and the boys motioned him to turn around once again. When he does he finds JiHo holding her hands up in a heart above her head. “I’ve been rejected twice by those men there.” She points towards Jungwoo and Mark. “And now Doyoung has betrayed me as well. So please be my partner.” Her tone is slightly sad and Taeyong nods and pulls her into a hug.

My heart! :’( She wanted to be in a team with Doyoung from the start, how could he betray JiHo like that!

“Let’s win this!” JiHo yelled, a smile finally finding it’s way back on her face after she found a partner.

That was all for today’s video! Thank you so much for watching!

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Side Note: This post is inspired by a post by @nct-aria. They’re an amazing NCT addition blog, which I definitely recommend you check out.

#jiho.video #nct 24th member #nct addition #nct fluff #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct female member #nct extra member #nct additional member #kpop!addition #kpop!oc

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pure-kirarin · 3 years

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Zoro x dancer reader

lofi-coffee said :hey! i just came from your zoro hc’s hxbsjxb which was absolutely *chefs kiss* btw! do you so scenarios? if so could i request a scenario based off of the “good dancer” hc, where hes admiring his s/o dance and she pulls him out to join her? he stumbles, its a lil messy, but who tf cares bc they’re happy and that’s all that mattersplease + thank you. hope you have fun writing it!💕

Thanks for your request and for your feedback ! It makes me so so happy everytime someone reads what I write...Because I never expected that anyone would read my work ! I wrote this and I hope that you like it...I had fun writing it but I don’t know if it’s what you expected or wanted hahah. ~ I love tension uwu Ps: cool tumblr name ;w; <3 (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡ **************** How could she move her body that way ? It was almost indecent. That's what was going through Zoro's mind as his sight was hanged to your body. He was sitting there, away from the dance floor, drinking glass after glass of beer. He was lazily looking at you while enjoying his drink. Damn, what a good dancer He was quite entertained by your figure, gracefully moving to the sound of the music. He was in this little bar in Dressrosa, finding his way to it to enjoy a drink before the execution of the plan. The other strawhats were each discovering this rather charming city. Dressrosa...The city of passion, he smirked a bit, looking at you he was begining to understand why it was called that way. The ladies were good dancers, not that he cared about dancing much but...He had to admit that he loved getting entertained while drinking and you were quite the entertainment. Was it the drinks or was it his mind playing him tricks ? Because he was damn sure that it was as if you were the only one on the dance floor... Some soft bachata music was playing. At first, he could only see your back moving sensually. When you turned around, he swallowed pretty hard, both your eyes met and you weren't one to look down. You continued dancing while looking him in the eyes with a little smile on your face. He rised his eyebrow, she's not intimidated ? Good. He smirked, amused by your attitude. You were certainly aware that you were the star of the show. You didn't have a partner either, isn't bachata supposed to be a social dance ? Zoro didn't dwell on these thoughts, he just wanted to enjoy his night, his gaze attached to your body. The swordsman being a bad dancer wasn't going to say nor do anything. He just wanted to look at you and to drink a lot. He didn't want anything from you, in fact, you seemed surreal and he thought for a second that maybe you were the fruit of his imagination and that of the dyonisiac beverage. Maybe if his fingers caressed your hair, you'd vanish in smoke. He turned his face towards the barista, making a sign with his hand to ask for a new drink while his glass was still half full. His eyes then switched to the dance floor and you were gone, just as the music stopped. You vanished. He let out a sigh, were you really just a hallucination ? He thought his tolerance to alcohol was impeccable. « -Hey, are you going to join me or are you just going to look at me ? Your voice was smooth and sensual. Zoro looked from right to left, ah, you were talking to him, after all, you noticed his gaze. -Hm ? He grumbled, amused but not impressed, not yet. -God. Don't react this way. Your eyes almost poked a hole through my body and now that's all you say ? » Zoro thought that you were quite aggressive in your advance. He wasn't going to deny that he was indeed looking at you. He didn't feel shy, he just looked and you couldn't blame him for it, not when you danced in that way. He looked you right in your eyes, looking for an answer, what did you want from him ? He was surprised of finding amusement, challenge, almost like you were defying him. He wanted to see how far you were going to reach. -I'm drinking. He waves his glass. You were aware of your charm and you knew that the swordsman found you attractive, otherwise he wouldn't look at you this way. But how could he devour you with his eyes and act so ininterested ? Your ego couldn't handle his attitude. You came to him by yourself and he was letting his « chance » go. Didn't he know how many other guys dream of dancing with you ? But you were drawn to this stranger, to this man that you have never seen around. His look when you were dancing caught your attention, it wasn't just a look of lust, it was a mixture of appreciation, fascination and desire. You wanted to know why he looked at you that way. You snatched the glass off his hand and drank its content in one go. He looked at you surprised. Wild. He thought to himself. He was starting to get interested in you. Could you be entertaining in more than one way ? You put the glass on the zinc quite violently and then you hold his sleeve really tight, pulling him a bit. «- Now you don't have an excuse. You dance ? He appreciated your boldness, however, what he didn't want to admit is that he is a really bad dancer. He was content just looking at you...But now you were defying him with that look of yours. -It wasn't an excuse. -Then what ? You're scared that I'll stab you or something... ? -Me ? Scared ?..Don’t make me laugh.” You giggled. Zoro knew about this « rumor », about Dressrosa's women being extremely passionate, stabbing their lovers if they ever cheat...What were you implying ? However, his swordsman pride didn't let him lose to you. He groaned and got up. You had a victorious smile as you held his hand, bringing him to the dance floor. The music started slowly and you knew that he didn't know how to dance Bachata. He was awkward and stiff and you found that to be cute. You wanted to dance with him because you knew that anyone could dance bachata, especially when you were leading. The music started and you put your arms around him. « -Eh...What are you doing here ? What am I supposed to do exactly.. ? You chuckled -It's bachata...here... you took his hand and placed it on your waist and the other one on your back. Don't worry, just follow me...anyone can dance. Place your leg between mine... -what ? -Trust me...Come on...Do it.. Zoro blushed a bit, he wasn't used to all of this dancing thing...it was silly, he just wanted to admire you while drinking but he was too proud to admit that he is « scared » of dancing, especially when you defied him with your fawn eyes. He stumbled, stepping on your feet making you let out an « ouch ! » of pain. His movements were so stiff, and honestly, he was just bad that it was almost cute. You expected a sensual dance, like bachata usually is but his hands on your skin were so tense. -Follow the music...Follow my body. » Some curious looks were on you, you looked amazing together even though the dancing was bad and messy on his part. Your grace almost made up for his false move, honestly all he had to do was to hold you close to him sensually but even something that simple seemed complicated to the swordsman. It was very endearing...Charming. You danced for a little while, following the rhythm of the music. -Oh god...you are worse than I expected...You said, provoking. Zoro was getting impatient and pulled you closer to him very aggressively. You were startled and stopped dancing. The swordsman had this aura that was pulling you towards him like a magnet. His look, the same one that he has earlier while looking at you...It was so intense, you wanted his eyes on you...You were dying out of curiosity for him. « -What's the matter now ?...I thought that you were a good dancer.. A smirk on the lips, a hot touch on your waist and you were already far, far away... -I...I am. You just startled me ! » You tried to hide your embarrassment but he read through your game. He was just as curious for you as you were curious for him. He wanted to see more of your dancing...And dance with you in many other ways. You passed the test, you looked resilient enough to put with his detached attitude. You also weren't scared of looking silly as seen from your little dance with him. The music stopped another time and he gave you a big smile now, he had to say that he didn't expect that he'd have such fun dancing with you. -Thanks for this dance, you said, ready to part ways. As your were turning back, he held your wrist pretty tight, startling you once again. You locked eyes with him, you thought that he didn't want anything more. He let go of your wrist then looked left, then right, then back at you. -Now that you showed me how to dance I'd like to show you something I'm good at... He scratched the back of his neck while saying this, always looking somewhat detached but also sure of himself. You were surprised but appreciated his honesty, after all, if it meant having those eyes look at you one more time...Why not ? -Haha...I'll be the judge of that. » You put your index finger on his chest then turned back. That night was the night when you met Zoro around a dance in the city of passion. It was also the starting of a passionate love story between both of you. Your love came in waves, just like a bachata dance, sometimes you pulled and sometimes he did, it was sensual, a bit awkward and messy at times but it was for sure passionate and enjoyable. ************ Please feel free to give me feedback and don’t hesitate to drop in my ask box to get to know each other =) I’m new to this fandom and I appreciate everyone already. ^-^ <3

#zoro x reader #one piece imagines #onepiece imagine #onepiece scenarios #one piece x reader #onepiece x reader #roronoa zoro #roronoa zoro x reader #onepiece fanfiction #onepiece

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bcdrawsandwrites · 3 years

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Fandom: Return to Oz

Rating: T

Genre: Angst (with a happy ending)

Characters: The Wizard of Oz, the Gump, Tik-Tok, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, Princess Mombi, Princess Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, and Dorothy Gale

Warnings: Gun violence, character death, isolation, solitary confinement, dissociation, neglect, child abuse, OH GOSH THIS COVERS A LOT OF TRIGGERING TOPICS BUT IT’S ALL CANON

Description: "The last thing I remember is walkin' through the forest and hearin' a loud noise." "His Ma-jes-ty the Scare-crow locked me in here and told me to wait for you." "Well, my mother built me to scare that awful witch Mombi..." It was all only a glimpse of what they went through. Dorothy may never know the full stories, but they would not forget.

Beta Readers: @jaywings and also my sister!

Notes: THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH RTO FICS OUT THERE AND I MUST RESOLVE THIS IMMEDIATELY also this is a multichapter fic but it’s all complete, so you can read the whole thing under the cut!

—~~~—

Chapter 1: On a Hunting Trip

For a land as fantastical as Oz, it could be dreadfully boring sometimes. Though Oscar chalked it up to how much time he had to spend holed up in the palace, dodging probing questions and pretending to have magical powers. A great deal of his time here had been spent coming up with his dazzling effects to keep the Ozians (and the Witches) wowed (and keeping... other meddling Ozians out of the Emerald City), but goodness knew he could use some leisure time.

So that was what he was out doing now, tramping through a nearby forest with a rifle on his shoulder. He'd bartered it off a local Emerald Citizen, who had little use of it, but who had much appreciated some delicacies from the palace kitchen.

Of course, he knew that one of his own citizens would be more than happy to give him whatever he asked for. But Oscar had elected to leave in disguise, informing his attendants that he would need some time alone in perfect silence and was not to be bothered for any reason... while he changed into a green hunter's outfit and sneaked out the window.

He'd never been much of a hunter back in America, but as a boy he'd once gone deer hunting with a friend. He recalled it being an exciting experience, trekking through the wood and tracking an animal to bring home for supper. Though in the end it had been his friend to do the deed, for at the last minute his will had failed him, and he could not bring himself to shoot the beast.

You've too soft a heart to kill a hart, Pinhead! his friend had teased, much to his embarrassment.

"A hart, maybe," Oscar muttered, "but wait till I bring back a magical beast from this country!"

It wasn't until he'd spoken those words that he realized he had no idea what sort of monsters lurked in these woods. He'd heard talk of terrible lions here, and even enormous beasts with the heads of tigers and bodies of bears--kalidahs, they called them. What if he met one of those monsters, rather than a beast of prey?

Crunch, crunch.

Swallowing a yelp, Oscar spun around, pointing his rifle this and that way, eyes straining to see what sort of creature was lurking in the shadows of the forest. What had he gotten himself into? What hellish monster was treading through the fallen leaves of the forest bed?

Crunch, crunch.

The sound was closer, and Oscar stood stock still. But the sound drew no farther than that, and he risked to creep closer, tip-toeing through the undergrowth. In the stillness, he could hear the soft breathing of a being much larger than himself, and held his breath as he poked his head around a tree trunk.

There was a clearing ahead, and within it, a pond of crystal blue-green water (so he must be closer to Munchkin country right now). And before the water stood an enormous beast, albeit not one quite as frightening as he expected.

It was tall and broad, almost reminding him of an ox, but its legs were longer, and its head looked to be more like an elk. Bizarrely, its tail consisted of a great deal of feathers like a rooster, and its entire body was green.

Stooping down over the water, the beast kept its mouth near the surface, but it did not drink. Rather, it seemed to be regarding its own reflection in the water. It hadn't seen him at all.

Some of the tension eased from Oscar's body as he watched this strange creature. If it hadn't been for the feathers and green complexion, he would have entirely mistaken it for an American animal. And while its size was intimidating, it was clearly not a predator, as far as he could tell. (But then, Oz was a strange country.) He very nearly turned and left before he remembered why he'd come here in the first place.

It had only been to alleviate boredom, not out of a true desire to hunt, but it seemed to be a waste to come out all this way to return back empty-handed. At the same time, what would he even do with a beast like this? It wasn't as though he needed food, when his own palace was well-stocked. Perhaps its fur would be valuable? But then... for what? No one had need of any riches in this place. Perhaps he could use it for a--

Crunch crunch crunch crunch--snap.

Something was rapidly approaching him, and fear bolted up his spine, causing him to raise his rifle. Simultaneously, the beast raised its head, ears perked, and Oscar had no time to think.

BANG!

The creature stumbled backward, but whatever was behind him had quickened its pace. Oscar spun around, aiming his rifle, and a human-sized shape jumped back.

"Woah, there! Woah!" the woman cried, holding up her hands. "Watch where you're pointin' that thing! I was just wonderin' what you were doing out here."

"Ah," Oscar breathed, lowering the gun. "Sorry, ma'am, you startled me."

"Bad thing to be startled when carrying one of those," she said, gesturing at the weapon. "You could've hurt someone or--"

She froze, staring at something over his shoulder, and without another word ran past him.

"Now see here--" Oscar turned to follow her, but stopped.

The creature he'd seen earlier was now lying still on the forest floor, and the woman was kneeling next to it. "You've... you've killed it!"

The sight sent a tremor up his spine as he realized what he'd done, but he couldn't balk now.

"Well, yes," Oscar said, shrugging widely as he stepped closer. "Do you think I wear this hunter garb and carry this rifle for fun?"

Running a hand through the beast's mane, she glared at him accusingly. "What would you hunt a gump for?"

For a moment he thought the woman was insulting him until he realized that must be the name of the creature. Thinking quickly, he pointed at the gump's lifeless body. "I'll have you know, ma'am, that a gump possesses many important magical properties!"

"You needn't kill it, then!" the woman cried. "If you should need its magic, you need only ask it for help."

...Oh, right. Ozian beasts could talk.

Shaking himself, Oscar stood his ground. "Ah, but you see, much of a gump's magic is only usable when it is dead. I had planned to bring it to the Wizard, but I suppose if you don't want him to do anything about the Wicked Witches--"

The woman's face had gone several shades paler, and she stood upright. "No, of course! I'm sorry, sir, I-I didn't..."

He stepped closer, examining the fallen gump before grabbing one of its legs. "Well, don't just sit there. Help me get this beast back to the city! The Wizard is quite a busy man, but I'm sure he'd forgive your interruption if you gave me a hand."

"Yes, of course!"

The woman took the gump's other hoof in her arms, and the two struggled to lift both appendages up over their shoulders as they hauled the beast's carcass back through the forest. All the while, Oscar tried to hide his relief that his bluff had actually worked.

But then, of course it had. These simpletons believed anything they were told if you spoke with authority. They weren't too far off from Americans, in that regard.

As they walked, the woman stared down at the gump's hoof, feeling it with her free hand. "I'm sorry," she mumbled again. "I hadn't known..."

"Now you do," Oscar said, still staring ahead. "I tell you, this beast will be more useful to this country in death than it ever was in life."

Chapter 2: On a Mission

Every so often, someone stopped screaming.

The sound, or increasing lack of it, did not alarm Tik-Tok. Nothing did, nor could it--not even the frightened Emerald Citizens rushing past him or looking for a place to hide--for he was a machine, and was not capable of emotions such as panic or fear.

Nevertheless, the change informed him that he needed to be faster, as he marched through the city, past the statues of people dancing, playing, reading--statues that had not been statues a mere ten minutes ago.

The ground shifted beneath his feet, and Tik-Tok bent down to see a grotesque figure claw out of the stones beneath him. At least, that's what he had assumed at first, only to quickly realize (for his think-works were fully wound) that it had not clawed out of the rock at all--it was the rock. It opened its mouth, snarling at him, and he merely swung his body to the side, striking with a closed fist. One of the creature's fangs chipped off, and it sank back into itself with a defeated howl.

More snarling joined the increasingly-quieting screams, and there was suddenly a great crack.

Tipping his body back, Tik-Tok spotted two more of the rock creatures atop an arch, ripping a massive emerald from the keystone of it. They, along with the gem, merged with the stone pillars again just as the arch crumbled.

"Tik-Tok!" a metallic voice cried, not much farther away. A familiar roar cried out with it.

He moved his feet as fast as his gears would allow, passing the destroyed arch and around another corner, where the Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion were facing two more of the rock creatures. While the Emperor of the Winkies was not a machine as Tik-Tok was, he moved much like one, swinging his axe in swift, strong arcs, yet unable to hit the monster before him.

The sight of the Tin Man using his axe in such a way might have startled Tik-Tok, had he been capable of such an emotion.

"These creatures are the ones turning everyone to stone!" the Tin Man shouted, sparing a quick glance at Tik-Tok as he continued to fight. He raised his axe to deliver what may have been a killing blow. "You must stop them befo--"

The creature reached out.

And the Tin Man, in a mere instant, became a stone man, unmoving and still as the rest of the statues.

There was a slight hiccup in Tik-Tok's gears that prevented him from acting immediately. At the same moment, the Cowardly Lion let out a mournful yowl and raised his paw to swing at the creature before him.

The rock creature touched him, and the lion became a lifeless stone, his great paw still raised in the air.

Remembering his speech-works, Tik-Tok took a step forward, stomping one foot against the ground. "Stop this," he demanded, and the rock creatures turned to him. "You will no long-er hurt an-y more of the peo-ple here."

Growling, both creatures sank into the ground, only to emerge directly in front of Tik-Tok, both of them reaching out with their talons. The stone claws clinked harmlessly against Tik-Tok's copper casing, and he spun his body, striking them both in their heads. With another howl the monsters retreated, melting back into the stone beneath them. Now that they were gone, Tik-Tok could see the stone statues that had once been the Emperor of the Winkies and the King of the Forest.

"Everyone, I think I've found a way to--oh--"

Scrambling steps skidded to a halt somewhere behind him. He could hear these softer sounds, he realized, for the screams had grown more distant. Turning his top half, he saw the Scarecrow standing behind him, his painted gaze turning from one statue to the other.

"I-I'm... I'm too late..." the Scarecrow said, his tall frame sagging.

"Your Ma-jest-y." Tik-Tok clunked a hand against his helmet in a salute. "I am at your ser-vice."

Shaking himself, the Scarecrow stumbled up to him, but his smile did not return--an unusual sight for the ruler. "Right! Tik-Tok, I've found a way to contact Dorothy."

"Dor-o-thy Gale from Kan-sas?" Tik-Tok blinked, adjusting his vision as the King of Oz neared him. He'd heard of this Dorothy and how powerful she was, but his think-works could not work out how a small human girl could be strong enough to destroy not one, but two witches.

"The very same!" The Scarecrow's smile returned, if only for a moment. "But we must hurry!"

"Hur-ry to where--?" Tik-Tok began, but the Scarecrow was already pushing him somewhere.

"It might be too late for me now," the Scarecrow went on. "They're turning everything living to stone, but they don't want to do that to me. I think it means they want me for something..." His straw rustled. "I don't know what. But I do know they can't hurt you."

"That is cor-rect. I am not a-live, and ne-ver will be."

"But you can wind down," the Scarecrow added seriously. "And when you do, they can harm you. I need to keep you safe."

Disloyalty was not a command found in Tik-Tok's gears, but he couldn't help but protest: "But I am the Roy-al Ar-my of Oz. It is I who must pro-tect you, Your Ma-je-sty."

"Not right now." The Scarecrow guided him down a narrow alley and stuck a hand into his jacket, fishing for something in his body. "As Ruler of Oz, I command you to turn your protection to Dorothy once she gets here. She'll know how to help us! She's done it before."

A strange request, but Tik-Tok could not argue. "When is she to ar-rive?"

For a moment the Scarecrow faltered, but only a moment as they stopped at the end of the alley. He retrieved a key from within the straw of his body, and stared down at it. "I don't know."

A threatening rumble of stones echoed in the distance behind them, followed by another chorus of screams, and quickly he stuck the key into a hole in the wall. In a moment, the wall swung open, and the Scarecrow urged Tik-Tok inside.

Tik-Tok did as he was instructed, marching into the room and observing it. There was nothing there, however, but dusty walls and a dustier circular window that faint light shone through.

The Scarecrow stooped down, placing a cotton-stuffed hand on Tik-Tok's chest plate. "Stay here, and wait for Dorothy."

The polished gems of Tik-Tok's green eyes stared into the painted blue eyes of the Scarecrow. Though both were man-made, the Scarecrow's face was wrinkled and worn with worry... and an unspoken apology.

"Stay here," he repeated, and hurried out of the room. With a great scraping and a slam, the door shut behind him. The key was pulled from the lock, and through it, Tik-Tok could see the Scarecrow stumbling away.

For lack of anything else to do--other than conserve his gears--Tik-Tok stood perfectly still in the middle of the room.

Echoes of stone crumbling, unfamiliar creatures snarling, and rocks shifting filled the air outside, and the screams were finally silent.

---

"Your Ma-jest-y!"

Tik-Tok's voice echoed slightly in the tiny chamber, but it sounded quite loud compared to the utter silence outside.

Occasionally he could hear squeaks of wheels, and even rarer occasions he could hear the screech of a Wheeler. What they were doing in the Emerald City, he wasn't sure, but his think-works were sure enough that the fact that they had not been turned to stone was not a positive one.

But in the moments he could no longer hear them, he raised his voice:

"Your Ma-jest-y! I be-lieve that some-thing is wrong!"

And he did--something was wrong.

Several days and nights had passed since the Emerald Citizens had turned to stone, judging by the light from the solitary, circular window in the cell. It had been eight days and nights, to be exact, and Tik-Tok had remained still the entire time, hardly willing himself to think other than to observe the time passing. After all, the Scarecrow had commanded that he wait until Dorothy arrived, and he would not want her to have to wind him up too much so shortly after meeting.

But now that it had been over a week...

Tik-Tok could not worry, but he could be aware that things were not going as planned. The Scarecrow had not been sure how long it would take for Dorothy to arrive, but surely he had not expected him to wait this long. He would have said so, if that were the case. While the Scarecrow lacked perfectly-functioning mechanical brains, he did have wonderful brains given to him by the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He was the second-best thinker in Oz, next to Tik-Tok himself.

"Your Ma-jest-y!" Tik-Tok called again. "You must o-pen the door!"

He had tried on his own, but there was no knob--seemingly no way to open the door from within. He had pushed, but it would not give, and Tik-Tok opted to preserve his action.

"I be-lieve I can find this Dor-o-thy on my own, if you o-pen the door!"

Dorothy Gale was in Kansas. And he knew where Kansas was--it was not in Oz. He would have to cross the Deadly Desert, which he was perfectly capable of doing, for its deadly sands could not turn his unliving copper into sand.

"Help me, Your Ma-jest-y, please! Come bac--"

Tic-tic-clunk.

One of the three keys on Tik-Tok's body ceased turning, and his voice-works ceased functioning.

Tik-Tok's voice joined the silence around him.

---

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp.

Five paces toward the door.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp.

Five paces back.

It had been thirty-three days--just over a month since the Scarecrow had left him here.

Alongside the squeaks and cackles of the Wheelers outside, Tik-Tok could occasionally hear the distant sound of a musical instrument--a mandolin. It was not an instrument that could be played by the Wheelers, but to whom it belonged, he could not say, for he could not speak.

But even then, there was still the occasional silence, usually at night. It was then he chose to fill the silence with his pacing, his great feet stomping into the ground beneath him. He did this not because he missed the usual cheerful noise of the Emerald City, for he could not miss anything, but to keep his gears from rusting and keep the dust out. Even though each step he took wound his action down slightly more, it would at least prevent him from locking up entirely, even if he should be wound up.

He hoped Dorothy would be here soon.

But at this point, he was no longer sure what "soon" was. A month ago, he had estimated that she would arrive within days, if not hours, and that the matter would be resolved quickly. Now, however...

The Scarecrow had indeed admitted that he hadn't known when Dorothy would arrive. But surely, surely he would have been wise enough to send for her quickly, or to ask her to arrive swiftly.

Tik-Tok paused.

They're turning everything living to stone, but they don't want to do that to me. I think it means they want me for something...

...If he'd asked her at all.

His think-works must have gotten dust into them--he had not once considered that the Scarecrow could have been captured before he was able to summon Dorothy. If that were the case, then what was he to do?

He could not continue to wait for her--he must try to open the door on his own.

Tik-Tok turned himself around to face the door, and took one step closer.

Tic-tic-clunk.

And now he could not move, except to turn his head and blink. The rest of his body remained as still as the statues outside.

---

Ninety-two sunrises. Ninety-three sunsets.

He had watched the sun rise and set through the window. He had heard the Wheelers shriek to each other every day, and heard them racing throughout the town.

Every so often he allowed himself to blink to clear the dust from his eyes, so he could continue to observe the passage of time.

Sometimes he heard voices--not the ones of Wheelers. Sometimes it was a soft-spoken voice he'd never heard before, other times a harsher, snarling one that had a great wickedness to it. Other times he would hear familiar voices, ones he'd heard around the city before. He would wonder, in those moments, if things were going back to normal, if someone would open the door, if he would be wound up soon, but then he wouldn't hear the voice again for some time.

---

Ninety-nine sunrises. Ninety-eight sunsets.

...No, one hundred. One hundred sunsets, for he'd been let in here during the day.

He allowed his head a short shake--he had to keep track of time. He had to watch the light.

At one point he heard a soft, gravelly voice within the city, followed by a short discussion that he could not make out, for the Wheelers laughed and howled all the while. Still he strained his aural gears--linked to his think-works--to try to make out anything that would be helpful.

"...has not escaped..."

"...no sign of anything..."

"...has not spoken--"

There was a great crash, followed by shrieks of laughter from the Wheelers, and another voice shouting at them.

Who was it who had not escaped? Had they been discussing him? Or perhaps the Scarecrow? Or... had they captured...

...someone...

...there was someone he was waiting for. What was her name?

No, it didn't matter. Forcibly he slowed his think-works, only allowing them to sense the change of day and night.

---

One hundred and twenty-one sunrises. One hundred and twenty-twenty sunsets.

The room was very dusty, and he could no longer turn his head. He blinked again to clear his vision.

There was shrieking outside, but he couldn't remember why. He almost raised his voice to demand who they were, but he had no voice to do such.

But he was smart. He understood things. He was a machine. He knew why he was here.

He was here to wait. But to wait for what? He couldn't remember.

What was he counting for?

---

One hundred two hundred five hundred-ed-ed two.

Scarecrows and Wheelers, rocks and statues, girls and ladies and rooms.

A scream outside! He could not scream. Where was outside? Where was he? Was it light or dark?

What is light for anyway? He forgot. His eyes could not open and he could not see. What did he have to see? Who knew?

Statues and stones, silence and screams.

Never never never never never coming back.

Taken here, went away, left forever and ever.

Ever, ever, ever, turn turn turn, wind wind wind.

Tick-tick-tick.

Tic... tic...

Clunk.

Chapter 3: On a Whim

"...peaugh!"

"Oh! Don't yell at me like that, please! I'm not deaf."

He paused, taking a moment to consider the fact that he existed.

There he stood in a dusty, dull room, with walls and windows and other things that seemed to be full of... holes, as though they were missing something. He wasn't sure what. In fact, he didn't quite know what he was, other than that he was taller than everyone else around him. Everyone else, that is, being... a very angry-looking woman in a very pointy dress, and a much shorter girl, a little over half his own height. The former was holding a tin can of a sort with a label that he couldn't read, and she stared down at, her rage giving way to amazement.

"It... it worked!" she cried, still far too loud for his own ears. (Did he have ears?) "It worked! Hah, that magician didn't fool me after all!"

"You're still yelling!" Wincing away from her, he suddenly felt his balance shift, and he began to topple. "W-woah...!"

Quickly the shorter girl stepped forward, catching him before he crashed. "Be careful," she said, her voice wonderfully soft and far more pleasant than the other person's. "I'm afraid I didn't build you to move, since I didn't know you would be... alive, later." She set him back upright, bracing him back against the wall he'd been standing against moments ago.

"You made me?" he repeated, holding one wooden hand against her shoulder until he was certain he was steady. "How did you do that?"

"I just put some wood and a pumpkin together, and dressed you." The girl stole a glance at the older woman, who was muttering to herself as she looked over the can. "And then I stood you here, against the wall."

He tipped his head, which, it seemed, was quite large. "What for?"

The girl leaned closer, lowering her voice. "To scare the witch, there, Mombi." She looked pointedly at the woman and then back at him. "I stood you in a place here, where you would meet Mombi face-to-face. She was scared... but then she was angry. She nearly destroyed you with a stick."

Shuddering, he cast another fearful glance at Mombi, who was hurrying away. He wasn't entirely sure what "destroyed" meant, but he didn't like the sound of it. "Sh-she did?"

"Yes, but then she decided to test that Powder of Life on you. She sprinkled it on, and... you came to life."

"I'm very glad for that," he remarked. "I quite like being alive."

The girl smiled up at him, and he decided he quite liked that, too. "I like your being alive, as well."

"We're agreed, then!" He tipped his head another way. "Do you... have a name?"

"Ozma," she said quickly, and stole another glance in the direction that Mombi had walked off to. "But that's not important."

"Do I have a name?"

At that, Ozma looked down, her face turning a slightly pink shade. "Yes... Jack. Jack Pumpkinhead. I might have given you a better name, if I'd known..."

"Jack Pumpkinhead," he repeated, then nodded. "Yes, I like that. And... you made me?"

"Yes I did, Jack."

"Does that make you my mom?"

Ozma took a step back, as though caught off-balance, as he had been before, and he held out a hand to steady her. But she smiled, putting her hand over his. "I suppose so. You may call me 'Mom' if you wish."

Though uncertain why, he felt the name brought a great deal of comfort to him, and it pleased him to say it. "Okay, Mom."

"You! What are you doing?" an unfamiliar voice snapped.

Both Jack and Ozma turned to face the new person, and Jack did so quickly enough to throw him off-balance once again, so his mother had to grab hold of him to keep him upright. The new person was another woman, who wore a strikingly similar dress to the one the witch had worn moments ago. If he didn't know better (which, he didn’t know much), Jack would think it was the very same dress.

"I was only talking with Jack, Mombi," Ozma replied, and Jack looked down at her in surprise.

"Mombi? I thought you said that other woman was Mombi."

"She is, but she has different heads. She's wearing head twenty-two right now." Ozma paused. "Her original is..."

"Head thirty-one," Mombi snapped quickly. "And just what do you think--"

"Where does one acquire different heads?" Jack interrupted, not keen on listening to Mombi's grating voice.

At that, Ozma gently pulled him away from the wall, helping him walk across the dusty floor. Walking was a new activity, and he found it did not come naturally to him, his long, thin legs wobbling all the while, but his mother kept him steady as she brought him to the window. Outside was a desolate gray place, with ruined buildings and walls and statues all about. In one spot, he could see a group of statues dancing, but without heads. "See there," his mother said, pointing at the group. "That's where she got them. Some of them, anyway."

Jack stared down at the statues, not fully understanding, but nodded nonetheless. "What a lot I'm learning today!"

"Enough of this!" Mombi snarled, suddenly between them. "What's the meaning of this? You're not seriously growing attached to this stupid pumpkinhead you made, are you?"

"I should hope so," Jack protested before his mother could reply. "She's my mom, after all."

"She's your--?!" Mombi looked from Jack to Ozma a few times before settling a glare on Ozma. "No, I won't allow it."

Jack stiffened. "What? Won't allow what?"

"It won't hurt anything," Ozma protested quickly, taking a step closer to Jack. "I can watch over him, and--"

"I told you you were never to talk to others like that!" Mombi snarled, and grabbed Ozma by the wrist.

"L-let her go!" Jack cried in protest, reaching out to pull Ozma away.

Mombi yanked her out of his reach, but otherwise ignored him, glaring down at the girl. "You know what I told you. Never speak to another person, never communicate with them--you are never to make yourself known to another person, ever. Not even your name!"

Had Jack not been so frightened in that moment, he would have thought it strange that his mother had, indeed, told him her name.

"Let me go!" Ozma shouted, pulling herself against Mombi, but the witch only growled at her, tugging her away and hurrying down the hall.

"Wait, no, Mom!" Jack cried. Shakily he moved to follow them, but without his mom's support, his body toppled and crashed to the floor with a great wooden clatter. No pain came with it--though he wasn't entirely sure what pain should feel like to begin with--but he did feel his wooden joints start to jostle loose. He tried to move his limbs in a way to crawl after them, but only succeeded in scrambling uselessly on the dusty floor.

"I'll be all right, Jack!" Ozma called out to him as Mombi carried her down a corner and out of sight. "I'll get us help!"

"You most certainly will not!" Mombi growled, her voice reaching a rather terrifyingly low pitch. Before Ozma could say anything in reply, there was an explosively loud KRACK-OW that rang throughout the palace, and within Jack's hollow head. Something about the sound filled him with terror, and he threw his hands over his eyes, wailing.

Only moments later everything was still, and Mombi gave a satisfied humph before her footsteps came back down the hallway. Jack shakily raised his head, only for his wooden body to seize up in fear. "Wh-where's Mom?"

Mombi did not answer, only marching up to him and regarding him with an expression he could not read (or see, for from his current angle he could only see the train of her dress, and it was hard to tip his head up further).

"Excuse me, Miss Mombi," he said, trying to push himself upright, "Where is my mom? That noise was very loud, and I-I'm worried about her."

Without a word, Mombi suddenly stooped down, grabbed Jack's left wrist much in the way she had Ozma's, and yanked.

"Oh!' Jack cried, immediately hating the pull on his arm, and even more the way it made his legs drag. He fought to put his feet beneath him, but Mombi did not wait, dragging him in the opposite direction she'd taken Ozma. "W-wait! I'm not standing yet!" He scrambled his legs, fighting to right himself, but Mombi was moving too quickly for him to do so. Then, realizing what direction they were taking, he fought all the more to get to his feet. "W-we're going the wrong way! This isn't where you took my mom!"

Still Mombi remained silent, hauling him down the hallway and finally toward a great spiraling stairwell, which she wasted no time in storming up, taking no mind for the way Jack's feet kicked and dragged behind them.

"Wait, no! P-please, let me get to my f-feet!" he whimpered. When she still would not answer, he looked back down the stairs. "I-I miss my mom. She liked answering my questions. C-could you please take me back to her?"

At one point Jack's right foot caught badly on a step, momentarily trapping him and causing Mombi to stumble. She braced herself against the wall before she fell, and turned to glare at him.

Jack didn't understand why she was so angry, but he took the opportunity to finally get his feet beneath him. His right leg, however, felt wrong--it was loose at the knee joint, and that worried him. "Miss Mombi, when we get to the top of this place, c-could you please bring my mom back, so she can--"

And again Mombi resumed mounting the steps, barely giving Jack time to match her pace. To his alarm, he found he couldn't, for her body was not built as awkwardly as his was, and once again his legs gave way beneath him.

While Jack had decided he did not much like shouting, he couldn't help himself: "PLEASE!" he cried over the clatter of his legs banging against the stairs. "I'm going to come apart!"

But at that moment, his legs finally stopped banging against things, for they had reached the top of the stairs. Here Mombi paused again, and Jack was finally able to get his legs beneath him, though his right one was wobbling terribly. "A-are we done moving around, Miss Mombi?" he stammered.

Now Mombi threw the door open, and once again began dragging him, though he fought to walk along with her, even as he felt the ropes that held his right leg together loosen further. He barely had time to look about the room around him, which was full of a lot of very, very dusty things. Mombi dragged him a short distance, then with a great amount of force, threw him into a corner.

Jack cried out as his wooden back slammed against an old sofa, jarring his whole frame terribly and nearly knocking his head off. Dazed, he reached up to touch his head, only to find that his left hand was missing--it had fallen off entirely, lying on the ground next to him. Turning his head, he found the same fate had befallen his right leg, which was lying a short distance from his body. "Wh-what was that for?" he whimpered. "You haven't told me why you're so angry with me, much less said anythi--"

In a moment Mombi was storming toward him, her eyes wide with anger, and at once he wished he hadn't spoken at all. "Shut up, you worthless pile of firewood!" she snarled, leaning down into his face. "You existed only so I could test my Powder of Life on you, and nothing more, and I can very well take that life away."

"NO!" he wailed, kicking his remaining leg to push himself further backwards. "Please don't do that!"

She pointed a finger in his face, and he stilled. "When I come up here again," she said lowly, "I'll chop up your stupid smiling head and make a pie of it, assuming it doesn't spoil first, and that will be that for you."

With that, she spun around and left the room, pausing only to give him one last glare before shutting the door.

Jack remained very still for some time, until an irritating clattering noise made him realize he was trembling.

"Th-this... has been quite an existence," he finally said, once he was quite sure Mombi could not hear him. "I wish I knew what I've done wrong..."

Remembering what the witch had told him, he decided that while he wasn't quite sure what a pie was, he would very much like to leave here before Mombi returned to show him. Bracing his hand against the floor, he tried to raise himself up, only to remember that he could not stand on one leg. He would have to tie it back on, if he could.

He tried to reach for the detached leg, and realized another problem--one of his hands was missing, and since it wasn't attached, he could not move it. He strained to reach for it for several minutes, but it occurred to him he had no way of tying it back on. While he was quite sure he could figure out how tying things worked (he could see the method his mother had used when he observed his own joints), he could not do it with only one hand. He needed use of both limbs in order to tie his missing limb back together.

As it was, he could only sit in that corner, his back against a sofa, his missing parts just barely out of reach.

"...I miss my mom," he said quietly, bowing his head.

She had told him that she would get help, so maybe she would be here later. He hoped she would... he did not like his body being broken like this, and not being able to move, and he wasn't sure when Mombi would come back.

And so he waited, sitting there in the stillness of the dusty room. Part of him wanted to call for Ozma, for he wasn't certain she knew where he was... if she was anywhere. (Mombi was a witch, after all, and that sound he'd heard... had she used magic on his mother? Magic was what brought him to life, but what if it could be used to take someone away, too...? What if she had become a statue, like the ones outside?) The thought, however, of Mombi hearing him kept him quiet.

But... Ozma had said she would get help. She had to. She had to.

She had to.

He kept that thought, repeating it in his mind... until he realized that it was very dark in the room, and growing darker. Something within him--the magic, he supposed, or perhaps the seeds in his head giving him basic knowledge--told him that this was night, and that the outside world alternated between the light of day and dark of night. Even so, the darkness chilled him--it was getting to the point where he could hardly see. What if Mombi came back, and he couldn't even tell?

Forgetting his fear of alerting the witch, he raised his voice again: "Mom!" he cried. "Mom, where are you?! I-it's dark here!"

But his voice only echoed slightly in the crowded room, and he heard no other sounds.

His fear left him undeterred. "Mom, have you found help yet? I-I want to get out of here!"

There was still no answer, other than a quiet wind from outside.

"Mom..." he whimpered, and finally fell silent.

Maybe his mom wasn't coming back after all.

Epilogue: On a Hope

Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock...

The thought jumped into Tik-Tok's head, in the midst of the blankness of non-functionality:

How long has it been now?

He'd lost track of time, he realized. This was not good--something had clearly gone wrong with his mechanisms. He tried to open his eyes, but his lids were still too heavy.

"Huh. I wonder what he's thinkin' about."

The unfamiliar voice echoed in the room, but with his eyes still firmly shut, he could not tell whom it belonged to.

"I'll wind up his speech," came a softer voice, "and maybe he can tell us."

Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock...

His head turned slightly, suddenly able to, and his eyelids finally lifted.

"Maybe he can tell us what happened to the Emerald City."

Blinking once, twice, to clear the dust from his emerald eyes, Tik-Tok began to stammer as his speech-works came back to him: "I--you--uh--come back--Your Ma--"

A young girl with dark hair in twin braids stood before him, regarding him with awe.

"...Good mor-ning, lit-tle girl."

---

It had been a long time--Jack couldn't be sure how long, though, since he'd stopped counting. The thought of how many days it had been since he'd last seen his mother only made him...

He put his hand over his chest, where he felt the sadness the most, and wondered if that was what pain was.

He only had a little dust on him, though--not nearly as much as the things all around him. The giant head above him, the plants, the portraits, and all the other things--he'd taken the time to look at them all, for lack of anything else to do. He'd stopped calling for his mom, too--it felt pointless.

And then the door opened.

At once he threw himself back, his head hitting the couch behind him. He scrambled with his leg, at first, and then decided staying still was better, staying quiet was better. If Mombi couldn't hear him, maybe she would forget about him.

But Mombi didn't come into the room. Instead he heard soft footsteps, as well as two voices. One was harsh and grating... but the other was... soft. Soft and... comforting.

Just before him, he could see a young girl staring at some portraits on the wall. A young girl... that was about half his height.

"...Mom?"

---

"...peaugh!"

"Peaugh?!"

"That's it!"

He blinked a few times, taking in his surroundings. Why wasn't it daytime? And... this didn't look like the forest. It looked... nothing like the forest. That was odd.

There were also a couple other people around him, both of them quite excited. One was a tall man that he was pretty sure wasn't a normal Ozian, and the other was a little girl.

"What's going on?" he asked, trying to turn his head and finding it oddly difficult, so he swiveled his ears instead. "Where am I?"

"Getting out of here, I hope!" the tall man exclaimed.

"Jack's right," the girl replied. "We're in the palace, but we need to get out of here."

That didn't answer much.

Feeling the need to stretch his limbs, he did so, only to find them... a great deal shorter than they should be. And more numerous. He didn't recall having more than four feet in anything other than height.

Normally he quite liked looking at his reflection, but at the moment, he felt grateful that there was no pond nearby.

The girl was suddenly in front of him, looking him in the eyes. "You're gonna help us escape, okay?"

While not in pain, he felt... out of sorts. Even so, there was something about this girl that he felt drawn to... not that he was in any position to argue, anyway.

"Okay, I guess so."

The girl smiled, and he felt a bit better.

He wasn't quite sure what was going on, but whatever happened, he was pretty sure he could trust this strange girl.

#jack pumpkinhead #tik tok #the gump #dorothy gale #return to oz #my art #my writing #fanfic #scarecrow #tin man #cowardly lion #mombi #ozma #so glad to finally get this posted

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ackermansupremacy · 3 years

Text

More marley kids headcanons because i’m still distraught

The sheer amount of content that i could write for them is a s t r o n o m i c a l

Gabi

•An animal lover!

•Has a really big intimidating dog like a rottweiler or mastiff that her friends are lowkey scared of

•But it has some headass name like ‘Fluffy’ or ‘Princess’

•Or something oddly human like Joe or Robert LMAO

•She drinks a lot of energy drinks so shes up until like 3am blasting music

•I saw another post saying that they could see her being a kpop stan and i SEE IT

•She would be a boygroup stan and would stan NCT

•She would really like Gorillaz too Rhinestone eyes would be her JAM

•When shes not playing roblox shes plays things like overwatch and league of legends until the sun rises

•Yet somehow shes still full of energy the next morning??

•Her deepest secret is that she has a wattpad account and randomly publishes stories and never updates them

•She also reads like,,,1D fanfic and would never admit it

•Her walls are covered in doodles in the spaces between her miscellaneous band posters

•Shes the kind of angsty kid that acts like she doesn’t like you

•But honestly? You’re her role model

•She really admires you :)

•Especially if you’re a single parent

•Whenever someone asks she always says

•“I wanna be just like my mom/dad when i get older” :)

•She’ll never admit it to you, but she just wants you to be proud of her

Zofia

•She strikes me as the daintier type but like at the same time not really??

•Shes definitely no stranger to fun

•She loves amusement parks and its one of her favorite places to go

•Surprise her with tickets to disneyland and she’ll cry

•She enjoys fashion but dislikes makeup so shes never really bothered trying to get good at it

•I think she has like, two different types of music she listens to

•She likes classical music when shes trying to focus on things like her hobbies or homework but indie music is her go to

•Mozart, Bach, Beach Bunny and Melanie Martinez being some of her favorites

•I think shes artistic too

•Her room always smells slightly of acrylic paint

•Her room is always really clean

•Other than that one single moldy coffee cup... iykyk

•it has a black and white minimalistic aesthetic

•But her walls have her favorite pieces that shes hand painted framed

•Along with a Van Gogh tapestry next to her bed

•A simple girl, she has a pink betta fish

•It probably has some fancy long name

•Like Elizabeth or Charlotte

•The tanks is perfectly matched to the aesthetic of her room

•She would take such good care of it it would live way past the life expectancy

•She probably takes some sort of martial arts class as well

•Like judo or karate and shes REALLY good at it

•Trophies and medals are all over your house because shes so proud of them

•She just keeps making you proud huh

Falco

•Oh this sweet child

•Hes so gullible

•Hes really smart but he just...believes everything Colt tells him

•And he always finds out its not true the hard way

•It would be dumb stuff that would send him into a crisis too

•Like Colt once told him that if he wasn’t asleep by midnight he would die or something and he actually believed it

•So when he couldn’t sleep he started saying his goodbyes to everyone LMAO

•After a teary eyed conversation you had to convince him it wasn’t true and made Colt apologize

•That gave him trust issues

•As i said in a previous headcanon, I think he would play a lot of instruments

•Piano, guitar and the cello are among his favorites

•He has the most diverse music taste out of all of them

•Its mostly mainstream music though

•He would just hear a song on the radio or on tik tok and would add it to his playlist if he liked it

•Resulting in the most random music

•From bands like coldplay, to doja cat, to cardi b to occasional kpop...

•His dirty secret is that he really likes boybands

•He loves backstreet boys, one direction and 5sos

•Gabi found out and made fun of him for it so he never told anyone after that

•His room is pretty bare and empty other than mass amounts of instruments

•Most of them he never even plays anymore

•He def has empty water bottles everywhere

•But the little bit that he does have in his room is organized chaos

•“Do you have a paperclip?” “to the left of my keyboard pedal on the floor” “Bro...”

Udo

•B-Babie...

•One of his favorite things is watching a good mystery show or movie, especially the classics like Agatha Christie’s mysteries

•He loves writing them too!

•He takes it very seriously and probably has a mystery novel in the works that he plans to publish when he gets older

•Hes really passionate about it if you ask him about it he could talk about it for hours!

•He has a chameleon or a snake or some other reptile

•Gives it a cute name like Henry or a fandom name like Dobby

•Or something unique nature related like petrichor

•Its his lil buddy it always rides around on his shoulder :)

•His music taste is also diverse

•Zofia introduced him to indie music and he loves it

•He loves bands like The 1975, The Neighbourhood and Jack Stauber

•But his all time favorite band is The Beatles

•His favorite song is Beautiful Boy by John Lennon because it reminds him of when you used to sing to him when he was a little kid :)

•He collects The Beatles posters and vinyls and displays them on the walls in his room

•His room is pretty cluttered with things like clothes, books and school supplies strewn about but his desk is always spotless and organized

•Notebooks with story ideas, his laptop and a gaming controller being the only things on it

•His deepest secret is that he struggles with anxiety which makes him pretty clingy to you :(

•And he doesn’t want to keep sleeping in your bed like he did when he was little so he has a playlist of all the lullabies you sang to him when he was younger

•And he can’t sleep without it :(

•Hes not the most athletic, but I could see him joining the soccer team Falco and Gabi are on just for fun and tries to convince Zofia to join too

•Kinda sad but i think he cries himself to sleep a lot and doesn’t really know why

•Sometimes when he feels really really sad he comes into your room and you watch tv together until he falls asleep

•And hes v tiny so hes easy to carry into his room

•Hes my precious boy I love him so much :,(((((((((((

******

I have two more things I wanna publish for these absolute jelly beans before i take a break from writing for them unless y’all wanna request more hahahahaplzrequestthingshahaha

#snk #snk imagines #gabi braun #falco grice #aot #attack on titan #aot udo #aot zofia #snk udo #snk zofia #snk headcanons

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smallheathgangsters · 4 years

Text

Second Youngest | Part Three

A/N: The final part is finally here! So sorry for the longest wait ever, but I do hope you enjoy and that I didn’t disappoint you. Lots of love! xx

Tag List: @sophieshelby @annabethgranger123 @marvelschriss @bloodorangemoonlight @chill-bee @savannah-elliott @the-number7 @mayakblack @thekillingjoke-haha @soleil-dor @theshelbyclan @erinwhelan99 @saniyaah @loveforweasleys @livingforbarnes @multi-fandom-iimagines @lovemissyhoneybee @peakyblindersengland @lucillethings @callmesunshinexx @simonsbluee @anyasthoughts

Shelby!Sister Reader

Word Count: 2483

Type: angst

---------------------------------------------

Alfie. What a man. Impressive, but so scary and intimidating at the same time. Thinking about him sent shivers down your spine, although you were never sure if in a positive or negative way.

He clearly wasn’t a good man. Not to his employees, not to his business partners, not even to himself. To you though, he was strangely kind. Kind in a way that meant he didn’t yell at you the way he yelled at Ollie. Or how he asked you to do something instead of demanding it. They were subtle things, gestures that might not stand out very much. But that didn’t mean you weren’t able to notice and appreciate them.

You’d been afraid that life would go downhill again after it had just gotten better. Your former boss was a lovely man and he had treated you more than well. When Alfie stepped into the room and introduced himself to you, your heart had sunk. He had seemed violent and messy and anything but a serious, successful entrepreneur.

Luckily, it had turned out better than expected. You knew he was into the same shady business as your family and that his ethics were more than questionable. It was painful for you to watch how he treated people, though over time you got used to it, especially since he spared you. Not once had he raised his voice at you. He even complimented you from time to time, mentioning your hard work and that he appreciated your commitment.

Of course, you would have preferred staying with your old boss. He didn’t make your skin crawl every time he entered the room. His tone has always been cheerful and motivating, the work had been morally a lot less worrying and the office had been filled with sunlight and cute little plants. Alfie’s place was dusty and dark, and you were often working by yourself.

Still – it was a hundred times better than what you had to endure in Birmingham. With your family.

Every day you wished you could write to Finn. Sweet, sweet Finn. You missed him so much. But you had to make sure that no other family member found out where you were located. And the last thing you wanted was your little brother getting in trouble because of your foolishness.

It was a stormy Thursday evening. There was still so much to do, the paperwork piling on your desk, waiting to be taken care of. Alfie hadn’t been around all day, but Ollie had come by more than once to bring you more assignments. You sighed and looked out of the tiny window up in the corner. Your office room was located underneath the bakery, hidden away from daily life and anybody who could be suspicious about what was going on behind the flour and eggs.

Suddenly, Ollie poked his head through the door frame.

You let out a scoff, loud enough for him to hear.

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to bring you more work,” he defended himself, lifting his hands as if he was surrendering.

“Sorry,” you mumbled, leaning back into your chair and regretting that you had made your annoyance so obvious. Ollie was a nice guy and he asked you if he could help you with your papers every single day. Even though you declined every time, you very much appreciated it.

He leaned against the frame and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s okay, I understand. Today was stressful.”

“Are you done?” you asked your colleague.

He nodded. “Joining me? We could get a drink somewhere.”

You let out another sigh and shook your head. “Not today. I need to get a few more things finished up before I go. I really don’t want to stay longer tomorrow.”

Ollie chuckled. “I understand. Have a nice evening, Y/N.”

He waved at you politely and then left, leaving you behind your desk with your typewriter. Before getting back to what you had been working on, you lifted your head and studied the clock. It was already seven. You decided to stay another hour.

Eight o’clock came around faster than expected. You had managed to do half of what you’d intended to, but you were starting to get incredibly sleepy, so you knew you would only start making mistakes from now on.

You pulled out the piece of paper from your typewriter, pulled open one of the drawers underneath the desk and placed it inside. Then you closed it maybe a little too forcefully, making you flinch at the slamming sound. You clearly were stressed, but the week was over soon, and you couldn’t wait to go on a relaxing trip to the countryside on Saturday. Have a picknick on the greenest field with the prettiest flowers. Enjoying the sun and gentle breeze. The smell of freedom and the calming tranquillity.

You sighed to yourself yet again, the images buzzing around in your head, and grabbed your purse. Your fingers rummaged around in it, trying to find the keys to the bakery. After a couple of seconds, they pulled out the cool metal.

You walked out of your office, closing the door and continued to the main entrance. You weren’t even halfway there, when you heard footsteps. Two, to be precise. Two steps into your direction.

You stopped in your tracks, your hand closing tightly around the keys, making them clink loudly. Slowly, you turned around, scanning the large hall.

Alfie had always promised to keep you safe. Or at least that was the reason he gave for why you were the only employee without a gun. He had said that you would never have to worry about anyone hurting you or even getting too close to you. And you had trusted him, hadn’t even questioned his decision. He had sounded so convincing, as though there was no doubt in what he told you.

Now, you regretted trusting his words. Because you knew you were the last worker to leave the shop and you were clearly not alone.

“You really thought you could outsmart us, Y/N …”

Tommy.

He had found you.

And with another step he slowly started coming out of the darkness. The distinctive sound of him clearing his throat gave you the worst case of goose bumps.

You were scared. So scared.

There was no way he’d let you go. Let you stay here.

There was no place for peace in this war. You had thought you had escaped for good. But apparently you could never escape the Shelby curse.

“H– How did you find me, Thomas?”

You could have slapped yourself right then and there. Your voice sounded pathetic and frightened. Not the impression you wanted to give off. Especially when facing your older half-brother.

He chuckled. To himself. Mockingly. “You chose Finn to help you.”

You gulped, your fingers closing even tighter around the metal in your hand, slowly beginning to hurt yourself.

“Finn only had to look me in the eyes once and I knew he was involved in your very clever escape plan,” he explained while taking another two steps towards you and fishing out a cigarette. He placed it carefully between his lips but didn’t immediately light it.

His eyes had always been very empty. Even today. Cold and empty.

The difference was, today they looked disappointed. And furious. Furious about somebody thinking they were smarter than him. Somebody thinking they could get away without facing the consequences. Somebody underestimating him. Gravely.

“And when I found out you were hiding in Solomon’s bunker, I knew I had to put an end to this foolishness of yours.”

You gritted your teeth and tried to move backwards, as discreet as possible, with a loudly thumping heart. The main entrance was facing your back and all you wanted to do was turn around and bolt. Out of the bakery and into the night. As fast as possible.

But you didn’t trust your brother. You didn’t trust Tommy not to shoot you. Because he obviously had no sympathy for you at all.

The clicking of a lighter filled the air and the cigarette between Tommy’s lips caught the flame. “A Shelby on the Solomon side of the business? You know I can’t accept that, Y/N. It’s bad for my deal and my reputation.”

You sucked in the cool air through your still gritted teeth. “Please just let me go home.”

You had wanted it to sound like a demand. But as you had expected, it had come out like a plea.

“I can’t let you do that.”

His voice was lacking every sign of emotion. Making it the scariest you had ever heard.

“I’ve done nothing wrong, Tommy.”

Another step backwards. How much more until you got to the door?

“Perhaps not maliciously, but you’ve caused a lot of trouble already and I don’t want to clean up your mess,” Tommy explained and took another drag of his cigarette.

All of a sudden, panic overcame you. Your feet started moving on their own, in direction of the exit. A rush of adrenaline overcame you, although that ended very promptly when you felt a strong hand wrap around your upper arm.

“Stop running away, Y/N,” Tommy’s growled. “I’m taking you home.”

“Home?” you yelped, struggling in his grip, trying to get him off. “Small Heath was never my home, Tommy!”

“So, you think the basement of this Jewish bastard is your home?” he huffed, tightening his grip even more.

You let out a desperate cry. “At least he made me feel welcome!”

“Shut up, Y/N,” you heard Tommy grumble, his voice coarse. Then, you heard the cocking of a gun. “I don’t want to shoot you. Please do as I say and come with me. Civil.”

Only a moment later you felt the barrel against your ribcage. Your heart stopped for an interval, trying to cope with the stress you were under. Your breath was shaky and your body stiff as a board.

“Please …” you begged again, tears forming in the corners of your eyes. You knew it was stupid to show weakness, but you just couldn’t deal with it anymore. With Tommy and his obsession with power and control. With the Shelby name haunting you. With the fact that you would probably never get away. They would always find you. They would always get you back.

Suddenly, there was a door being slammed. Both yours and Tommy’s head shot up.

“Thomas, fuck off.”

“Alfie, stay out of this.”

“Stay away from my employee.”

“I said stay out of this,” Tommy repeated, pressing the gun even harder into your side. “If I shoot her, she’ll be no use to you anyway.”

Alfie, who was stood in a doorframe slightly above the ground, slowly moved down the few steps, closer to the scene. “You’re not fucking shooting my employee.”

Even though Alfie was technically defending you, you despised how they both talked about you in the most objectifying way possible.

You began twisting in Tommy’s grip, trying to free yourself, since he was now busy with Alfie’s interference. But your half-brother wasn’t one to easily get distracted.

“I’m going to fucking shoot you if you don’t stop,” he hissed, now visibly angry. Tommy aggressively pushed you towards the large main door, trying to take you out of here and with him.

“Fucking get back here, Thomas!”

Alfie started getting pissed. And you knew, that meant nothing good was going to happen.

“I said stay out of this. This is about family, not about business! We can talk business some other time.”

With that said, he forcefully threw you against the steps leading up to the exit. You fell onto your knees and hands, scraping them badly. You let a sound of pain slip out of your mouth and immediately pressed your eyes and lips together, trying to suppress any more noise and tears.

Straight away, Tommy’s gun was on your body again. This time, right against your temple. “Don’t move.”

But why should you obey? What was the benefit of obeying him? You were terrified for your life, though you’d rather be dead. Rather get shot in the head than accept the fact that you were defeated. By your family. That they had ultimately broken you.

Your mind had no time to catch up with what happened next. The only thing you were more than sure about was that a gun was fired. And a heavy weight had fallen onto you.

The scent of cigarettes and musky aftershave crept into your nose, making you realise that it was Tommy. Making you realise that the pressure on your body was Tommy and the warm liquid spreading on your clothes was blood.

You wanted to scream. And cry. But every single sound you wished to make was stuck in your throat, keeping you from breathing properly. You weren’t only trapped underneath your dead half-brother. You were trapped in your own skin, unable to move and say anything.

“Get up.”

As if nothing had happened. As if Alfie had not just shot Tommy. Demanding you to get up, while he pushed away his lifeless business partner and offering you his large, dirty hands.

And you knew crying, not accepting his offer or resisting him would do absolutely nothing for you. This life didn’t give you a chance to breathe. Either you got over this evening right away or you’d lose everything you’d fought for.

And Tommy was not worth it.

Not even a bit.

So, you grabbed Alfie’s hand and let him pull you up. You accepted the handkerchief he held out and cleaned off the blood as good as possible.

“Alfie …” you said carefully, looking up at him cautiously. “Why did you shoot him?”

He frowned. “No one fucks with my business.”

You bit your lip and handed him back the cloth. “Wouldn’t it have been better for business, if you’d just let him take me?”

He shrugged, scratching at his beard. “Maybe,” he mumbled almost incomprehensible. “Your brother–“

“Half-brother,” you corrected.

Your interruption made Alfie eye you up and down. “… half-brother used to be my favourite Shelby. Though, y’know, that may have changed over the past few months.”

You snorted, almost a little too confidently. “You’ve only just found out about my identity, Alfie.”

Your statement made him laugh, confusing you.

“You really thought I didn’t know you were a Shelby?” he asked and stepped closer to you, piercing into your eyes with his. “I know a Shelby when I see one. Even the ones that are nothing like the rest of the pack. Your true nature sits deep inside you and always will.”

Then, he backed away before turning his back on you.

“I hope you know how to hide a body, Y/N.”

He opened the door to his office and let it slam shut. Leaving you alone with Tommy.

#second youngest #shelby!sister #shelby!sis #Tommy Shelby #thomas shelby #finn shelby #alfie solomons #peaky blinders

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fandom-necromancer · 3 years

Text

Feral for each other

This was prompted by the amazing @smolandangry001! This was fun to write but prepare for angst!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: unpunished police brutality if you think about it, violence)

[Part2]

‘Gavin, I don’t feel good about this.’ ‘I know, babe’, Gavin whispered sitting next to him in the car, watching the others already mill about busy making last preparations. He turned towards the android and tried to smile at him as reassuringly as he could. ‘I’m here, okay? I will look out for you. If you need me, I’ll be there.’ ‘This will be just another Ferndale incident’, Nines disagreed. ‘It was mere luck I didn’t...’ The android looked at his hands contorted to claws and there was horror evident on his face as if he could still see it. Very gently, Gavin took his hands, looked out of the front window and kissed Nines fingers as he was sure no one was looking. ‘Then we’ll be lucky again.’ He pushed Nines fingers close and gifted him yet another smile. ‘We will get this over with, we will both return home tonight. I promise.’ Nines closed his eyes, LED still settled on red when he finally nodded and waited for Gavin to step out of the car. He took his pistol, checked the magazine for the hundredth time and followed Gavin over to their meeting point with SWAT and the FBI team.

‘Any news?’, Gavin asked one of his colleagues, who just pointed to Agent Perkins, who was listening intently to his ear-piece. ‘Captain Allen and Sixty have already met and our favourite RK800 is currently passing through the intel. I bet we are clear to storm in a moment.’ Gavin nodded and watched the building in front of them. He knew why he hated undercover operations: If they went wrong, they went to hell immediately. They were lucky the gang thought they could get their hands on police information. It was the only reason Allen was still alive and they had someone to rescue. Sixty had successfully infiltrated the building and already incapacitated some of the gang-members, but soon it was time for the whole team to go in. And from Perkins’ body language, that moment wasn’t so far away now.

The man nodded and looked over at them. Gavin had never liked the self-righteous asshole, but he had to respect him for his competence in the field. ‘RK900, I want you with my men in the front’, he began to bark. ‘We went over this a hundred times, I won’t repeat myself. Stay with your teams, be careful and stick to the damn plan! We will get this man out alive and well!’ Nines already moved and Gavin fell in step next to him. ‘Reed! On your position!’ The Detective sighed and turned to Perkins. ‘Listen, my position is next to Nines.’ ‘We don’t have time for your rebellious body-cop act. Don’t make me regret agreeing to have you on this mission.’ Gavin clenched his teeth and looked at Nines, who gave him a barely perceivable nod. ‘Alright, listen here Perkins. You might have heard about the Ferndale incident?’ ‘I have, that’s why I want the RK900 on the team.’ ‘Then you might not know I was there too and was the only reason Nines didn’t kill his colleagues, too. So, I guess you would agree that the position I am most useful in is right at his side.’ Perkins watched him with narrowed eyes, but reluctantly nodded. ‘Fine. Stay with him. Don’t cause any problems.’

They joined the first team to enter and Nines sheepishly looked around, avoiding their eyes. ‘Hey, it won’t happen again’, Gavin mumbled under his breath, knowing only the android would be able to hear him. ‘It’s okay, I’m here.’ He couldn’t take his hand out here in the open and hold him, so his soft words had to suffice. The android’s LED turned from red to yellow at least, so that might have been a good sign. He wouldn’t have much time to do anything else anyways as they got the order to move out.

It was a short jog up the hill and down the other side to the building’s main entrance. Nines was in the very front taking the lead, Gavin right behind him and the rest of the team surrounding him. He was a good shot and well-trained, but he was seldom in the situation to actually pull it on people except maybe as an intimidation tactic. He really was mainly here because of Nines. He hoped his own words would prove themselves true and he wasn’t needed.

They breached the doors and were almost immediately met with gunfire they returned. With mechanical efficiency, Nines took out the more difficult targets, incapacitating them with shots in the legs or arms. He rushed in as soon as someone lost their pistol and took care of them with a well placed punch. Then the whole team hurried onwards before anyone could alarm someone, potentially making them harm or kill Allen in their panic.

They ran along the hallway, the sounds of their boots echoing back from the wall. Gavin saw Nines look back at him at least once and they both seemed to relax a little at that. But it wasn’t over yet. They entered yet another big room, Sixty’s intel helping them navigate. They turned right and ran on, only to be stopped once again. Maybe they had already discovered them rushing in or the sound of gunshots had alerted them. Gavin let himself fall back and covered their backs, only to be snatched, when he least expected it: An arm snaked itself around his neck and someone kicked the pistol from his hand. He began to struggle against the hold only to have the barrel of a gun pressed against his head. ‘Everyone drop their weapons and leave!’, the man holding Gavin demanded, but all that entailed was the SWATs to aim back at them. Gavin knew the statistics of a hostage surviving something like this, but somehow hoped they would change in his favour, when his eyes met Nines’. Oh no.

Nines stared at him, but only in the first moment he looked adequately panicked and afraid. Then a look of robotic indifference washed over his face as his body dropped processes active only to integrate with humans: His breathing and blinking stopped, and his stance changed to better supply the full strength and agility of a machine. Gavin swallowed hard and tried to calm himself down ignoring his surroundings. ‘Nines. Nines, it’s okay, calm down. They won’t harm me.’ ‘Shut up! We will!’ Gavin jolted his head and hissed: ‘Listen buddy, you don’t know what’s coming for y-‘ The pressure of the arm around his throat rose and let his words die in his throat. He still tried to look at Nines and contorted his face to something that should have been a calm smile. But he couldn’t control his heart beating in his chest and throat and his laboured breath.

And that action seemed to finally enable Nines’ protocols fully. The android smashed his shoulder into the side of one of the SWAT-members and ripped his weapons off his body to shoot them into the ambushing gang-members. With cold precision, one bullet after the next, the people fell to the ground, dead. RK900 had fired while running up to the man that held Gavin hostage. Now he stood in front of them and punched him in the face while at the same time forcing the gun out of his hand. The man fell to the ground, but the machine wasn’t finished yet, punching him again and again as blood already streamed from his nose. Gavin fell to his knees too, as the arm around his neck had vanished and gasped for air. He allowed himself just a second, before turning to the rest of the SWAT-team and signalling them to get the fuck out of here and continue with the mission.

They didn’t hesitate fleeing, seeing the android still punching the lifeless body of the man who had threatened Gavin. At the sound of their feet, the machine turned around, uniform splattered with blood and seemed ready to run after them not distinguishing between enemy and ally anymore but only analysing threats. As Gavin realised the android was moments away from sprinting off, he pushed himself in his way and held him by the shoulders, knowing there was no way he could actually prevent him from slaughtering his co-workers in this state.

‘RK900, stand down. That’s an order’, he said with stern voice, although he couldn’t hide his panting. ‘All enemies obliterated, disengage soldier protocols.’ The android blinked once, looking at Gavin, but still having that distant look on his face. It wasn’t over yet. ‘You did well, RK900, your target is safe’, Gavin tried to get through to Nines. And that made him blink once again, his LED turning red in an instant. Gavin immediately let go of his shoulders and took his hands. ‘Nines, Nines, look. I’m fine. I’m fine. Don’t worry, I wasn’t hurt. I’m not in danger anymore, I am fine. I am fine. I’m okay. You understand?’ ‘Gavin’, Nines answered, voice loaded with static. ‘Gavin, I saw you… You had a gun against your head and someone held you hostage and-‘ Nines lifted his hands to his head, but Gavin forced them to stay down and instead lifted his own up to make him focus on him. ‘Nines, it’s fine. I’m okay. I’m safe. That happened, but it’s over now. You saved me.’ ‘I… saved you?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Did I…’ He tried to move his head, but Gavin shook his head telling him not to. ‘Yes. You did. Like Ferndale.’ ‘Is… Did I hurt many?’ ‘You killed the ambushing gang-members. The rest of the team is safe. They are off to save Allen.’ ‘How many?’ Gavin looked around and grimaced. ‘Shit, I don’t know. Ten? It looks like more than ten.’ It made the android press his eyes together in pain.

‘Hey, it’s not your fault, okay?’, Gavin tried softly. ‘You were programmed like this. You can’t do anything about it.’ ‘I’m not programmed like this. It’s a malfunction because I…’ ‘There is no one around, Nines, it’s okay. You can say it. I love you too. We will get out of this. I will tell Fowler what happened, that it was self-defence. He will likely give us a pass. Perkins will be pissed, but the guy has zero authority and Fowler hates him. We will be fine, okay?’ Nines shook his head. ‘It won’t. I killed, Gavin.’ ‘You did and so did I on the job. Let’s just say that we will never, ever take a mission like this again.’ ‘I can’t Gavin, Sixty-‘ ‘Sixty’s feelings are his problem. They’ll just send more people. Also, I highly doubt your psycho little brother wouldn’t get Allen out on his own. Only you are important at the moment. And you will be fine. Come on now, let’s get out of here.’

They had barely made it back to the precinct and got Nines’ hands clean of blood and a new change of clothes, as shit hit the fan: Perkins marched up to Fowler’s office, who Gavin had already warned and informed of the situation. It didn’t take long for Fowler to stand up from his chair, so his table was the only barrier between him and the Federal Agent. Soon after the windows were frosted and all that was left was the muffled screaming coming from within.

Nines sunk deeper into his chair as Gavin tended to him, cleaning the joints of his fingers from blood. He had hit the asshole that had held Gavin hard enough to deactivate his artificial skin. Gavin should have been afraid, seeing Nines’ raw strength and fury, but all he could feel was worry. Yes, Nines could be shoved in the backseat by mindless programming that made him go full terminator, forcing him to fight until either everyone was dead, or he couldn’t function anymore. But when he was back in control, he was soft and polite and everything Gavin wasn’t. On their very first occasion the android had caught Gavin off-guard by reacting to his curses by apologising. He was the very first person that managed to make the precinct’s asshole feel sorry and ever since they had been the perfect team. More than that, actually, but they hadn’t told anyone they actually were in a relationship. Not yet, or maybe never.

It broke Gavin’s heart, he had forgotten for the longest time, seeing Nines like this. Ashamed of what he had done, full of regret and worrying for his future. Gavin couldn’t help but set the pipe cleaner aside and brush over his exposed knuckles. ‘It’s okay, Nines. It’s not your fault.’ ‘I know’, the android returned quietly. ‘But I should have known better.’ ‘We will next time’, the Detective reassured him. ‘If there is a-‘

‘There he is!’ The door of Fowler’s office opened, and Perkins hurried down the stairs, face red as a tomato. ‘There is the fucking killerbot you lunatics still let run free! What the fuck is wrong with you? Something malfunctioning? Some mis-wired connection? Or did you just finally decided to turn against humans, huh?’ Nines head dropped, and he pulled his hand out of Gavin’s. ‘I thought you were competent as they told me of Ferndale. But now I realised your damn precinct is just conspiring to keep a cold-blooded murderer in their midst!’ Perkins looked around the precinct that had fallen awfully quiet. ‘I guess it is convenient to have a tool to use when everything went to shit. Send the RK900, it will clear out an entire building, regardless of whether the people inside are criminals or civilians. We can always call on self-defence.’ He shook his head and leaned forwards, looking Nines straight in the eyes. ‘You know what? I think some of you would really have been better off being dismantled at the camps.’

Gavin had watched the whole conversation going down in shock. For once in his life he was missing the words to tell Perkins to fuck off. Because there were no words that would accurately describe what cold hatred he was feeling at that very moment. Silence stretched and with horror, Gavin saw how Nines nodded and hid his hands against his body.

That was it.

‘Perkins, you lousy excuse of a human being!’, he whispered, but in the dead silence of the precinct it was more effective than a scream. ‘You. Goddamn… Phck, I don’t have words for it. What is your twisted mind like that you think you can just say something like this? This android saved my life. And I specifically told you not to take him with you on the mission. But surprise: You cocksure bastard thought I was just some idiot that can be ignored. This is entirely on your poor judgement and you can’t weasel your way out of that!’ Gavin had to take a break to breath as the tension inside his body had made him talk a lot faster than healthy. Perkins used it to open his mouth, but before a word left his throat, Gavin was already back at it: ‘I don’t phcking care what the hell you have to say. You won’t get another chance at insulting my boyfriend, who just went through an event that was traumatic. But you didn’t think of that, right? Not even for a minute, you wasted a thought on putting yourself in his shoes. How do you think it feels to be shoved out of your own body because some asshole thought it would be fun to design a killing machine? You don’t know the first thing about the love of my life, this precinct or our past. So, I would greatly advise you to shut up, leave this precinct and go eat a double decker dick sandwich!’

Once again silence fell, and Gavin knew everyone including Fowler was looking at him. He didn’t care. Not one bit. He could only stare at Perkins unblinking, challenging him to back off. But he didn’t. Of course, he didn’t. ‘Or what?’, he asked with a sly grin. ‘You gonna let your rabid dog off the leash?’ Gavin didn’t hesitate. He had planned this for a while now and he really, really didn’t care anymore. He stepped back and took a swing at Perkins, landing his fist perfectly against his brow and nose to make him stumble back and holding his laceration at the temple. ‘Believe me, that you already did by insulting him. You shouldn’t fear Nines. I am the one that will kick your ass out of here if you are not leaving in the next five seconds.’ ‘You can’t be serious-‘ Gavin hit him again. The fact that no one had yet dared to stand up and intervene meant that most were on his side here. The Detective leaned down to him and whispered once again: ‘Five seconds. Leave. Now.’

Perkins snarled at him, but Gavin’s already lifted fist was enough to convince him in the end and he ran towards the exit, shouting something like: ‘This isn’t over yet!’

Gavin couldn’t keep himself upright any longer and slumped against his table, slowly sinking to the ground. ‘Phck. I just punched a Federal Agent. I’m so damn screwed.’ He let his head fall into his hands. Then there was another one in front of his face, offering to help him up. It was Hank, Connor next to him. Nines was standing at his side too but looked more worried than comforting. ‘Don’t worry, Reed’, Hank laughed. ‘I did that too, once. Was actually quite satisfying as you might know now.’ ‘Yeah. I can still prepare to get my stuff and search for a new job now.’ ‘Don’t think so. You should have seen Fowler’s face. Don’t worry.’

Gavin turned around and looked Nines up and down, who in the end just stepped forwards and pulled Gavin in a strong hug. ‘Wanted to congratulate you two’, Gavin heard Connor’s distant voice. ‘Didn’t know you two were together.’ Both Nines and Gavin froze and looked at each other. ‘What?’ ‘You said he was your boyfriend.’ ‘I… did?’ ‘Yep.’

Gavin looked at Nines face that just pleaded him to go home and hold each other in the safety of their bedroom. It made him smile in contentment, because honestly, he would love to do that. ‘Yeah. I love him more than anything.’

[>next part]

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #God I loved writing this #I honestly thought I forgot to write but it worked out in the end #I want to write so much more #I have no idea how I will survive this hiatus but oh well...#I guess this counts as #the feels

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harcourtholmesii · 3 years

Text

An Officer’s Loyalty (Part 3)

Pairing: Medic X Reader

Words: 1408

Warnings:

- Swearing

- Some Gore and Body Horror

- Surgical/Medical Situations

- Some Slight Nudity (Half Nudity)

Enjoy!

The cool of the underground seeped through your uniform, even past the extra layer that was Medic’s coat. Probably the most high-tech part of the building, the basement level was a labyrinth of concrete, a dull grey with only a singular, painted red line that ran continuously across the walls on either side. It was quiet for the most part, save for the occasional groan of pipes and the flicker of the lights.

You had passed by many doors, but hadn’t been allowed to take in your surroundings properly. You had all but lost track of where to go when you passed the sad excuse for a kitchen. Your ‘escorts’, Heavy and Medic, had kept a quick pace as they led you into the depths of your new home. The belly of the beast, if you will.

Before you had left the billiard room and your interrogation behind, Medic had insisted that he take you to have your surgery completed first.

‘Vouldn’t vant to forget und zhen haff jou’re heart explode on zhe battlefield!’

It had been the first time you had heard him speak in his usual, manic glee since he had first found you and Spy in the mine shaft. It had been unnerving, but you didn’t feel like it was safe to, so quickly, go back on your agreement.

When he had started guiding you out of the room, Heavy had been quick to follow. You had never seen the two apart for long; perhaps because they had a history before their careers at Mann Co. or when they would have had to learn English for the job. Considering how often Medic’s tongue dipped back into his maiden language, you suspected he hadn’t spoken much English before his work at Mann Co.

Heavy hadn’t said much at all since you arrived, but he seemed less agitated by your presence. You still noticed how his eyes would occasionally glance at you if you trailed behind, but he didn’t do much more than slow his pace ever so slightly.

Finally, after too long trying to follow Medic’s quick footsteps, you came to two large doors, with a painted red cross upon them. Medic pushed them open easily and gestured for you to enter. You hesitated, on account that you had been expecting the medical bay.

Not a bloody slaughterhouse.

The medical bay still had some utensils here and there; a bonesaw or three, pliers, syringes, and a surgery table with a different kind of medigun attached to the roof, hanging down like some James Bond torture device. The drawers were in a disarray, buckets of blood, bones and feathers dotted the linoleum floor, and an open bird cage filled with pigeons and the occasional bird shit made you feel sick to your stomach. The remnants of the medical bay, surely, were not where you would be having this surgery?!

Heavy nudged you inside, and Medic moved about the surgery table, going to wash his hands in a bloodied steel sink. Heavy offered you an almost apologetic smile, as he took to sitting by the door and crossing his arms.

‘Bitte, haff a seat.’ The German rolled his head to one side, to gesture to the operating table. You let out a scoff.

‘You’re kidding.’

Medic turned to look at you, almost confused by your unwillingness to sit or lay down upon the surgery table. You looked back over the steel table, eyes landing on leather straps at about where ones ankles, wrists and neck might be. You cocked a brow, gesturing to the straps.

‘And, what surgery might need those? Or did you run out of anaesthesia?’

‘Oh, zhose!’ He almost laughed, the smile returning full force to his face. ‘Das is nozhing! Scout vas just moving around too much during his surgery, so I had zhem installed. Ve don’t haff to use zhem if you don’t vant to.’

‘That doesn’t answer my question about the anaesthesia.’

‘Ve don’t use it.’

What?

‘I said it before, and I’ll fucking say it again; ‘you’re kidding me?!” You stepped back, closer to the door, your legs shaking. Heavy had stood, but he didn’t seem threatening. He just seemed encouraging. You shook your head. ‘Like Hell I am going to let you cut me open like that! I’d rather be killed!’

‘Doktor does not use anaesthesia because it is not common.’

‘Excuse me?’ You turned on Heavy, giving him the most furious glare in your arsenal. Too bad that due to your lack of stature, it was nothing intimidating. You would have liked to see the big man show a hint of something other than indifference or great ferocity.

‘Vas Herr Heavy means, is das I do not often haff access to anaesthesia.’ You turned your furious glare back on the German, and much like Heavy, he didn’t even blink. ‘Razher zhan using it for all surgeries, I haff zhe medigun dull zhe pain instead, und save zhe anaesthesia for vorse injuries.’

‘How are your employers this…’ You dare not finish your sentence. The administrator had cameras everywhere, and you did not doubt that she, or rather Miss Pauling, would find a way to sneak a camera or bug into your opponent’s base.

‘And… you expect me to let you cut me open in this…’ You gestured about. ‘… In this mess?’

‘Vell, I haff never been too picky, und after zhe first surgery, I haff had few complaints. No one has gotten sick because of it.’ He assured. ‘If it vill make jou feel better zhough, I can keep zhe gloves on.’

You held back a retch. Your chest had tightened and you felt your lungs compress, as if trying to expel all oxygen. You felt some form of small relief when there was the snap of red rubber gloves, and Medic gestured once more to the table. You looked between Heavy, the way out and the crazed doctor, contemplating your options.

‘Do I need a surgical gown?’ The Medic laughed, a great guffaw of something almost sinister. You didn’t join him.

‘Nein! Of course not!’

You stepped hesitantly towards the surgical table and took a seat on the cold steel. You were shaking, goose bumps shuddering their way up and down your skin. You removed Medic’s coat and then, having thought about it, removed your own. The medical bay was even colder than the halls, and you brought your arms around you in a sorry attempt to trap as much heat as you could.

As Medic approached, you laid down, gripping onto the edges of the table. You didn’t want to give him an excuse to use the straps. Looking up at him, you could swear you had been thrown through time and space and ended up in a Twilight Zone episode. Some creepy, fucked up, science fiction-horror show, where you were the helpless victim. You hated it.

He reached up, first switching on the red, translucent beam of the medigun that hung above your head. The scarlet, smoke-like tail sunk low and into your chest; you could feel a warmth behind your ribs and a numbness run all across your body. Your fear still gripped as tightly to you as you did the steel table when Medic pulled out the saw.

He didn’t wait for you to shakily undo the buttons of your shirt, or remove the bandages underneath. He placed the bonesaw down and replaced it instead with surgical scissors, cutting the cloth open with a few quick snips. Despite the warmth of the beam, the cool of the room was enough to tense your body for the first blow.

The medigun’s powerful, relaxing beam did little to make the initial incision any kinder. You watched in terror and pain, eyes already filling with tears, as the saw split your skin straight down, from collar to naval. You tried not to scream, but you couldn’t hold back your cries when you witnessed the doctor holding your own heart in his hand.

Your head was spinning and your vision becoming dotted with black smudges. You felt a warm hand on your shoulder and a wet glove against your cheek before your brain overheated from the pain and stress.

You would have considered it embarrassing that you had fainted and your old team would never have let you live it down. You didn’t feel shame though when your world went dark, however.

Instead, it was anger boiling in your blood.

~~X~~

I just wanted to thank a couple of readers of this little series for their words and just wanted to say how thankful I am that they have been enjoying it!

One reader helped to motivate my interest in continuing the story when I was suffering major writer’s block, after they messaged me asking if there was more to come. I had no idea that anyone really read my Tumblr stories anymore, so I wasn’t expecting to continue, so I really appreciate the little boost.

And then the other was one reader who, after they reblogged the post, gave me a good laugh and reminded me how much I love this series, the Medic and this fandom simply by adding some amazing tags to the end! This was a little while ago, but I only just realised, and I loved it!

Thank you though, to anyone who takes the time to read my works. I truly appreciate it, and I am glad you have been enjoying yourselves reading them!

#fanfiction #fanfic #TF2 #Team Fortress 2 #Medic #Heavy #Medic X Reader #Canon X Reader #HarcourtHolmesII

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baseballbitch116 · 4 years

Text

Hot Encounters

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x reader

Prompt: Y/N and some of the others try to cool down on a particularly hot summer day - until someone ruins it

Request: Hello again ^O^ Can I request Daryl fluff where the reader says I'm so in love with you now shut up and kiss me? ( 35 and 34 prompt) maybe have Daryl be a bit pissy and jealous and the reader thinking hes adorable and says the prompts?

Word Count: 1777

Warnings: Confrontation, slightly jealous/protective Daryl, tiny bit of suggestiveness - sfw

A/N: Hey babe! Sorry this took so long to get to, I’m the worst! I really liked writing this, I hope you enjoy it!

Masterlist

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It had to be nearing a hundred degrees out today. The sun was beaming down relentlessly, not a cloud in the sky - making it the hottest day of the summer yet. You were busy most of the day, and just your luck it was all outdoor work. Everyone was dripping in sweat as you worked in the crops and on building up weak spots in the fences. Your hair was matted down to your face by the time that you finished. Rick decided to call it a day, seeing as it was unbearably hot and sunny. One of the woman from Alexandria mentioned that she was planning on swimming in the pond at the center of the community, which sounded like an amazing idea to you.

“Do you guys have any bathing suits or anything?” You question as you follow her alongside Tara and Maggie.

“Of course!” She exclaims, acting as though it is absurd of you to assume that they did not. You exchange a look with your friends, catching Tara’s smirk and Maggie’s eye roll, but remaining silent as you continue to follow the woman.

Apparently the community had some sort of “clothing bank,” where they kept any clothes that someone may want. There were dresses, shorts, bathing suits, socks, all kinds of miscellaneous stuff. Eventually you found a bathing suit in your size, a plain black bikini. The four of you changed and headed out to the pond with your clothes and towels. It felt very odd to be walking around in so minimal clothes - you hadn’t worn a bathing suit in so long now. You felt a little self conscious being so exposed, not missing the bewildered look Rick shot you guys when you passed him at the house.

You chuckled bashfully as he shook his head at you guys and headed inside the house.

You wished that Daryl would join you in the pond, but you knew that all the begging in the world would not get that man in there. You carefully dipped your feet down into the water, the mud squishing under your toes as you inch into the pond. The water was not as cold as you were expecting, but it was still very refreshing. The woman, Maria, dove into the water, splashing all of you in the process. “Oh my gosh!” Tara exclaims, jumping up and down in the water as she wiped her wet face off. You and Maggie laugh as she dramatically rubs her arms.

“It’s not that cold!” You taunt your friend with a smile.

“Oh really?” She counters, stalking toward you with an evil grin.

“No!” You shout, attempting to run away from her in the waist-high water. The four of you ended up in a splashing war, laughing hysterically and drawing the attention of the other residents. Eventually, Spencer Glenn and Carl joined in, stripping their shirts away instead of changing into suits. You were oblivious to some of the residents sitting out on their porches or stopping as they walked by to watch you guys.

After a while of splashing and dunking, Spencer suggested playing chicken. You were a little apprehensive at first but ended up agreeing. It was supposed to be Maggie and Glenn versus you and Spencer, with Tara, Maria and Carl sitting it out off to the side. You couldn’t deny that Spencer was a good looking young man, and his body certainly was nice - but you weren’t entirely comfortable climbing onto his shoulders. You worried what Daryl would think if he saw you in the compromising position, making you hesitant to play the game with him. You wouldn’t mind if Tara was your partner but Spencer was insistent - which made you even more uncomfortable.

“Oh come on Y/N,” He insists once again. Maggie exchanges a look with you, sensing your discomfort.

“It’s fine, we don’t have to play.” Maggie starts.

“What? You think I’m gonna bite?” Spencer asks, seemingly offended.

“It’s not that, it’s because I’m with Daryl.” You explain, hoping he will back off and understand. Instead, he rolls his eyes and catches an attitude.

“So? He won’t let you play a game?” He remarks. You raise a brow at him, not pleased with his tone. Glenn moves forward in the water closer to your side to face Spencer until he is interrupted.

“Hey!” You’d recognize that voice anywhere. “She said she don’t wanna.” Daryl growls, approaching you guys at the pond. He is wearing his vest and a black button down with the sleeves cut off, his hair greasy and body sweaty. Despite looking disheveled, he looks incredible sexy as he approaches you. You move to step out of the water and he reaches his hand down to help you out, which you graciously accept. You step up the slight hill, his large hand helping you up easily as his other holds your exposed back. You face him as you stand beside him, the humid air already heating your body back up.

“Chill out. It’s not that serious.” Spencer says. You don’t miss how he is clenching his jaw and tensing his muscles. You wonder whether he is flexing to try to look intimidating or if he’s just tense. Daryl moves to take a step forward but you react quick, grabbing hold of his bicep and shaking your head at him.

“Seriously, man? And you wonder why she didn’t wanna?” Glenn comments, shooting Spencer a look as he leads Maggie and Carl out of the pond.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted.” Maria mumbles as she exits as well. Spencer looks pissed off and you decide to get out of here before Daryl gets too angry. You give his large bicep a tug before leaning down to grab your clothes and the towel.

Daryl shoots Spencer one last glare before placing his hand on your lower back, leading you over toward the house. He takes the towel from your arm and wraps it over your shoulders, covering up your body as you walk. You smirk up at him and he only rolls his eyes, remaining silent. “I don’t trust that prick.” He mutters hoarsely as he steps up the porch, grabbing the door and waiting for you to walk inside.

You only smile as you walk ahead of him into the kitchen, tossing the towel over a stool before opening the fridge and grabbing a bottle of tap-water. You turn around and lean against the cool counter, eyeing Daryl as he stands there, shifting his weight and chewing on his bottom lip. You take notice of his eyes on you, nearly hidden behind his long hair. A smirk breaks out on your face as you set the water down, motioning him to come over with your finger. He stares at you for a moment before striding over to you, stopping a step away. You take his hand and pull him in so that he is standing directly in front of you.

You wrap your arms around his torso and look up at him with a smile. “I’m in love with you. Not him.” You say, looking up into his blue eyes, your arms holding him close. He stares at you for a long moment, a smile toying at his lips that he tries to fight back before dropping his eyes from the tension building. He does not touch you but does not pull away from your arms either.

Despite your time together, he would still hesitate in intimate moments like these. You remove your arms and grab onto his, wrapping them around your bare waist before placing your arms back around him, leaning your head into his warm chest. He leans his chin against your head and moves his hands to hold your waist more securely, hugging you back.

“He just wants to get into your pants. Ain’t no reason he needa be touchin ya.” He mutters in your hair. You roll your eyes and let out a laugh before leaning back to look up at him again.

“You’re the only one with that privilege, hun.” You respond, grinning when you see his gaze drop again and cheeks turn slightly pink. Daryl raises one hand to brush your wet hair out of your face, relaxing in your arms as you lean into his touch.

“Damn right,” He mutters after a moment, shocking you when he suddenly lifts you up by your bare thighs and places you on the counter-top, bringing you eye to eye with the archer. You grin and let out a giggle, taken aback by his burst of confidence. Daryl smiles lightly, a sigh for sore eyes, and you recognize the content on his face - goosebumps raising over your skin as he holds one large hand over your exposed hip. You lazily toss your arms over his wide shoulders and lean in slightly, a shy grin toying with your lips as you tempt him.

“You’re cute when you’re possessive,” you whisper, your face inches from his own. His blue orbs drop to your lips before looking back into your own eyes. He shrugs his shoulders before taking a small step forward, his body heat radiating off onto you. “Now, please shut up and kiss me.” You mutter with a playful grin, leaning in close enough that your lips are nearly touching, but not quite. You feel Daryl’s hot breath on your own lips, your heart racing in your chest as you look up into his eyes. You spot his lips curve back up into a content sideways smirk before he closes the gap between the two of you, finally pressing his warm lips against your own.

His lips are soft, unlike the rest of him, and move slowly against your own. You lean into his touch, melting into the slow, sweet kiss, his beard lightly scratching at your face - but you enjoy the combination of feelings. Your fingers tangle into his messy mop of hair affectionately, emitting a low groan from his lips that your own mouth captures. His fingers leave a trail of goosebumps as they climb up your bare hips to your waist, holding you close as he stands between your legs.

Daryl pulls away before things can get too heavy, resting his forehead on yours. “Yer gonna be the death of me, woman.” He mutters, making you giggle as he moves away enough for you to look up at his flustered face, brushing his hair out of his eyes. The way he looks into your eyes and leans into your hand is enough for you to know exactly how he is feeling. You know how much Daryl loves you...

---

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iceshard1011 · 3 years

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Sanders Sides (Web Series) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders Characters: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Self Confidence Issues, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Relationship, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders Angst, Sympathetic Deceit | Janus Sanders, janus is somft, Deceit | Janus Sanders is a Sweetheart, roman needs so many cuddles (as per usual), Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Needs a Hug, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Good Friend, they all love each other okay, possibly hinted future roman/virgil/janus?, Healing, ‘roman genuinely fell for janus before he realised he was being used’ hc squad raise your hand Summary:

Roman doesn't think organising a movie night should be this hard. Janus isn't sure that that's the issue.

2.4k word fic below :)

His first mistake, Roman believed, was letting newfound confidence get to his head. He could consider blaming Nico, and the well-started friendship he and Thomas were gaining. If he jumped through enough hoops, he could probably blame Virgil, for his quiet support and encouragement throughout the past few weeks.

Roman didn’t want to do either of that, though. He loved Virgil, and he was quite sure he liked Nico a whole lot too. Blaming them would not be fair nor helpful. Being practical was the best option.

Roman supposed thinking that way made a lot of sense, given whose door he was standing in front of, fighting with himself to knock.

Do it, he hissed at himself. It’s not that hard.

Plus, this was Logan, of all sides. More than enough times, Roman had certainly been offended and sometimes even hurt by the logical side and what he often had to say, but as of recently... Roman wrung his hands together. Roman hadn’t been a particularly dependable friend, either.

You owe him.

The spike of guilt that sent jolting through his arms propelled his hand forward to knock solidly against the door.

The door opened without much of a pause — Logan had always been organised and timely, not something that Roman could say for himself — and Roman was being looked at with mildly disguised contempt. Nothing new, there.

“Hey, Specs,” he said with a trying grin and small wave.

Logan straightened his tie. “How can I help you, Roman?” His voice was crisp. Colder than usual. Roman tried not to feel intimidated.

“I just... Well, I thought that we haven’t had a movie night in quite some time.”

Logan did not respond. Roman continued.

“And, you know, we have some popcorn that needs to be eaten.”

Logan did not leap forward to correct him that popcorn kernels that were packaged to be microwaved did in fact not expire or hold a due date to be consumed.

“I also thought we could probably eat some pizza, too, because,” Roman laughed, “who doesn’t like pizza, right?”

Logan did not laugh in return. In fact, he barely reacted at all, beyond a slight, irritated twitch of his eyebrows. Roman ducked his head, then, feeling suitably chastened.

“Figured… it would have been a fun idea,” he finished in a lame mumble. He waited for Logan’s door to close, or to be frigidly turned away. Instead, there was a quiet hint of a sigh, and Roman glanced up. The logical side had lost his mask of frosty indifference, but there were still edges around his eyes that looked dangerous. His shoulders had relaxed, though, and when he met Roman’s gaze, the creative side felt a little more welcome to be talking with his friend.

“I will be downstairs at seven o’clock, then,” Logan said. Roman lit up.

“Brilliant!” he said, a little too loudly, and lowered his voice. He nodded vigorously, grinning. “See you then!”

Logan paused for a thoughtful moment, before replying, “See you then, Roman,” and closing his door with a gentle click.

Roman turned and almost happily skipped down the hallway until he realised which door he had to head to next. He swallowed back any hesitance before it could creep into his muscles and halt him in his steps, and knocked on the light blue wood.

“Coming!” called Patton’s high, cheery voice from inside. Roman wondered if he was faking again today. The moral side had reverted back to repressing a lot of his less-than-ideal feelings, especially after tension in Thomas’ mind had skyrocketed. With the majority of Thomas’ sides suffering from the current events in his life, Patton had taken on the role of being the one source of optimism and happiness again. Roman wondered if it was for everyone else’s sake or his own, at this point.

The door swung open to Patton’s beaming smile. It looked a little less force than the last time Roman had seen him. How many days ago was that?

“Oh.” Patton’s breath rushed out of him, but before his disappointment could pierce Roman, he was smiling again, tremulous, his eyes slightly shiny. “Hey, kiddo.”

“Hi, Pat,” Roman murmured, then steeled himself. “Pizza and popcorn and movies for dinner at seven, if— if you wanted.”

Patton blinked then lit up like a Christmas tree.

(Fitting, Roman thought mildly.)

“Oh, that’s a great idea, Roman!” he said, and Roman felt his heart flutter happily. He wasn’t sure if Patton hated him yet, or still, but the look he was giving Roman made him think that maybe he hadn’t completely ruined his relationship with the moral side. He smiled.

Patton leant forward for a moment, as if he wanted to hug him, but then thought better of it. Roman instinctively wanted to cry a little, at that, but the cautious but loving hand-squeeze he got in place made things a little better.

“I’ll be there,” Patton promised.

Roman nodded, stepping back once Patton let him go. “Good, then. Uh, yeah, good.” He turned to head down the hall but then paused and glanced back. Patton tilted his head imploringly. “I just, uh... good job, the other day. With, uh— when Thomas rehearsed what he was going to say to Nico, in the public bathroom.” He shrugged. “Even though... you know, he never actually got to say any of it.”

Patton looked surprised, but he recovered. His smile was gentler, this time, more genuine. “Yeah. Nico’s… Nico’s something special.”

Roman looked down and thought of sparkling eyeshadow. He hid a smile. “Yeah, he is.”

The final stop Roman had in mind before moving back downstairs to help with the construction of an epic pillow fort made Roman feel as if the floor was not beneath his feet.

He hadn’t bothered to think about trying to contact his brother. If Remus heard what was happening and wanted to join, he would anyway. It wasn’t much of Roman’s business. This whole idea had come to life when Roman had mumbled something about family nights, and Virgil, who had been lying on Roman’s bed while the creative side was splayed across the bedroom floor, had pointed out that it sounded like a great idea. This, unfortunately, only left…

Roman curled in fingers into fists to keep his hands from trembling. It didn’t work. Even as he raised a fist to knock on the door, he was quivering so much he feared it wouldn’t be loud enough.

He gritted his teeth and pushed through it, pounding on the door. The resulting gentle thunks didn’t seem to match up.

The voice from inside was muffled. “The door is locked.”

Roman paused. He almost turned to head back downstairs before he wanted to smack himself in the forehead and hated both himself and Janus for it. After the handle was twisted cautiously, the door creaked open. Roman peered into the room, unwilling to go in much further. He could vaguely see Janus sitting at his desk, back turned to the door. When he heard the door open without greeting or the sound of entrance, he sighed. Roman wondered if he expected a prank from Remus.

The deceitful side stood and turned for the door, but froze when his gorgeous — no, no — eyes found Roman’s face.

“You are not Patton,” he said. Roman tried to keep his expression neutral. Sorry to disappoint, he thought but didn’t say. He pulled away from the door as Janus approached.

“Family movie night,” Roman said. He stared past Janus’ shoulder, unwilling to look at the expressions dancing over the deceitful side’s elegant features, or the questions in his glowing eyes. “Downstairs. Seven o’clock.”

There, he told himself, and felt his rigid shoulders relax slightly. You’ve done it. Now he could escape back downstairs to the comfort of warm hoodies and murmured affirmations.

He didn’t get a chance to pull back.

Soft gloved fingers were curling, impossibly gently, around Roman’s own trembling hands, and the prince wanted to scream. Janus spoke, and for a moment, Roman thought he was being lied to again.

“I hope you’re angry,” Janus whispered, and Roman fought against the tremors in his hands. He wondered if Janus could feel them. He hoped not. “I hope you hate me. I hope that’s what this,” he squeezed Roman’s hands, and the creative side almost collapsed, “is. I hope to Thomas that you’re not scared of me.”

Roman didn’t meet his eyes. He stared miserably at the floor, dutifully ignoring Janus’ hypnotizing gaze burning holes into his forehead. Roman wanted him to let go. He wanted Janus to look away. He wanted to curl up in Janus’ arms and never leave.

He couldn’t answer. His silence spoke for itself.

Janus let go of one of Roman’s hands. He didn’t know what the snake was doing at first until he felt the barely-there whisper of gloved fingers caressing against his cheek. He flinched away. Janus recoiled.

“Roman,” he said quietly. Roman bit his lip. “Roman, can you look at me, my prince?” Roman closed his eyes.

A shaky sigh, and those hands clasped Roman’s again. When Janus spoke again, his voice was firm, but not uncaring.

“Roman Creativity Sanders.”

Roman still went tense.

“I know I’ve wronged you. You know that you have also wronged me, albeit on a much smaller scale. I doubt there will be a day I don’t regret hurting you.” Roman swallowed the whine beginning to lodge in his throat. Janus’ voice dropped to a whisper. “No matter what happens between the mindscape, between us,” Roman felt a cool forehead pressed to his, “I promise that you will never need to fear me.”

Roman’s eyelids fluttered. Janus’ breath warmed his lips. Roman worked his jaw a few times before he managed to speak.

“I fear what you’re capable of.” Roman wanted to hate how his voice cracked. He couldn’t.

Janus’ breathing shuddered painfully.

“In all honesty,” he whispered back, “me too.”

Finally, Roman opened his eyes again. He still didn’t look up. “Really?”

“Sometimes, yes,” Janus murmured. Roman sniffed, though he wasn’t sure why. Was he crying?

“I don’t want to be afraid of you,” Roman said, and it sounded like an almost-sob.

“I know,” Janus soothed. Roman had to actively fight the urge that told him to press himself against the deceitful side. “I know, darling. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, my prince.”

Roman bit his lip to keep himself from saying anything else stupid. Janus rubbed his thumb along the groves in Roman’s hands. He didn’t stay composed long after that.

“I’m sorry,” Roman blurted, the words spilling from his mouth like vomit. (That was a particularly Remus-like thought, he managed to realise, before it was overtaken by chants of evil twin evil twin evil twin). “I’m so sorry, it’s— I—”

Janus tried to hush him, moving his hands to rub Roman’s shoulders (except his hands were still squeezing Roman’s, and how did that work?) but Roman was blabbering over him.

“It’s all my fault, everything, Thomas, Patton, I— he should have gone to the call back, but I stopped him and—”

“Roman, my dear, please—”

“It’s a gorgeous name,” Roman babbled, and Janus paused, surprised. “It’s beautiful, truly, I— I’m so stupid—”

“Stop that.” Janus’ tone was snappish. Roman recoiled. A third pair of pairs moved to cup his face. “This is not your fault. None of this is your fault. Do you hear me?”

Roman couldn’t speak.

“Tell me, sweetheart,” Janus coaxed. “Tell me it’s not your fault.”

“I can’t,” Roman whispered.

It was silent. Roman wondered if Janus was getting sick of him, if he wanted to stop trying and go back into his room.

“Then I’ll stay with you,” murmured Janus, “until you can.” Roman trembled in his arms. “If you’ll have me, that is.”

“Please,” Roman whispered, and Janus ducked his head, as if trying to meet his eyes. “I mean— I— yes, yes, please, I—”

Janus’ — multitude of — arms encircled him further, pulling him forward to rub at his back and comb fingers through his hair and stroke his face. He hushed and hummed, his voice vibrating through his chest where Roman had rested his forehead.

Roman didn’t know how long the hug lasted, but eventually he felt the gnawing worry of what Virgil would be thinking if he didn’t return downstairs soon.

He leant back. Janus’ arms loosened compliantly but didn’t let go completely.

“What is it, my prince?” Janus asked, rubbing Roman’s shoulders.

“I should get back to Virgil,” Roman said, but his voice was strangely hoarse. He expected Janus to recoil, or grow tense, or even for his voice to betray hints of hurt. Instead, he only gifted Roman with a gentle smile. Roman didn’t look further up than his lips.

“Of course,” Janus said. “We wouldn’t want him to panic unnecessarily.” Roman tried to smile back but failed miserably. In return, Janus ran a thumb along his jawline. “Don’t try, sweetie. It’s okay. You don’t need to lie to me.”

Roman nodded, suddenly holding back tears.

“Would you like me to stay with you?” Janus asked, and Roman couldn’t understand why he was being so kind. After what Roman had done? Why wasn’t he being yelled at, snapped, insulted, shoved away?

“Not right now,” Roman said, and had to clear his throat to try to not whisper. “But… tonight…?”

“I’ll be there.” Janus nodded. “Save me a spot,” he added with a smirk. Somehow, it didn’t make Roman feel as if he was the victim of malicious flirting.

Roman nodded back and started to back up. Janus pulled back, his fingers lingering against Roman’s for a moment before retracting completely. Roman opened and closed his mouth a few times before he realised that he didn’t actually know what he wanted to say. He turned to make for the stairs.

“Roman?” Janus called after him. He paused obediently. “I’m not being true to my function when I tell you that: your bravery astounds me.”

Roman mentally paused, then, too, taking his time to pick that apart. Once he worked it out, he turned, his eyes wide. His gaze met Janus’. He couldn’t smile, but he knew Janus could see the gratitude in his bright eyes.

Janus winked at him, and it wasn’t flirtatious or mocking and it didn’t make Roman feel like he couldn’t stand. The yellow door closed, and Roman felt like he was filled with warm sunbeams. Virgil wouldn’t ask when he returned downstairs, quieter, but in a much happier mood than having left, but he’d study Roman in the corner of his eye until he was reassured that he was alright.

And that night, if Janus arrived, a little after Logan and Patton but before Remus, and inserted himself on the couch beside Roman to idly play with his hair while Roman melted under his touch, well, no one was going to comment on it.

#sanders sides #roceit #roman sanders #Janus Sanders #prinxiety #virgil sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #angst with a happy ending #romangst #cross posted on ao3 #platonic prinxiety

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eratobard · 3 years

Text

Preliminary Meeting

Fandom: The Witcher/Enola Holmes au

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes(Henry Cavill version) x John Watson(Joey Batey cast)

Rating: G

A/N: I did some research regarding autopsies during this time period, and information regarding the river Thames. I am not an expert, and really wanted to get their first meeting written without worrying about details too much. I apologize if some information regarding policework, etc. isn’t correct. I did the best I could with what information I had and with what research I was patient enough to do. Hopefully any errors I made aren’t too glaring to take away from the story. Enjoy!

~~~

There was a crowd of onlookers, as expected when Sherlock arrived at the scene of the crime. He moved past the police line, the officers at the scene recognizing him. It was fortunate. It wasn’t always the case, and he hated dealing with formalities. It was so tedious.

Lestrade greeted him as he approached the victim’s body. A woman. Late twenties, early thirties from what he could tell. They had pulled her out of the river. She had apparently drowned. He had wondered initially why he had been called on to work the case of a simple drowning, but from the overwhelming police force, and the expensive clothing of the lady, it was apparent she was someone or knew someone important. Likely, Lestrade wanted the case closed, and fast.

Having been preoccupied with analyzing the crime scene, he had initially missed the young man crouching next to the victim. He was carefully examining her head. Traces of blood still remained around a gash in her skull. The young man, a brunette, formally dressed, but nothing too expensive. Holmes noticed his suit was well pressed, and his shoes recently polished. His bangs were slightly pushed back, but kept falling into his face. The young man tilted his head slightly to keep his hair out of his eyes while he continued to examine the woman.

Lestrade turned back to the young man, “Find anything?”

He didn’t look up as he spoke, “She has a gash in her head, but it’s not deep enough to be the cause of death. It appears she drowned.”

Lestrade nodded, “So she fell in, hit her head on something in the water, and drowned? Easy enough case. Looks like we didn’t need you after all.”

The medical examiner opened his mouth, but Sherlock interrupted him before he could continue.

“She didn’t drown. She was murdered.”

Lestrade frowned as he turned to Sherlock, “You would say that, wouldn’t you? And why do you say she was murdered?”

“She was young, and fit. Even if she didn’t know how to swim and fell in the river, she could have put up enough of a fight to stay above water long enough for someone to dive in and rescue her.”

“The current of the river was strong, it pulled her under,” Lestrade reasoned.

The river Thames was known for it’s strong current, sucking victims under the water for days.

Sherlock shook his head, “This part of the river is calmer than the rest. It’s a straightway with no bridges or moorings to interrupt the river flow and create undertows.”

Lestrade frowned, “Then she drowned further down the river, and washed up here.”

Sherlock started to talk, but it was his turn to be interrupted.

“If I may?” the medical examiner spoke up.

Sherlock’s gaze turned toward the man kneeling before him. Bright blue eyes met his own. It sent a shiver down his spine.

“She was found in the river not long ago. According to my examination, taking into account the cold waters of the Thames, she died not long ago. Her body would not have had time to drift down to this part of the river between her time of death and discovery.”

Sherlock smirked as he turned back to Lestrade, “See? He’s joined my way of thinking now.”

“Actually,” the man stood up, grabbing a handkerchief from his pocket and using it to wipe off the victim’s blood from his hands, “I never disagreed.”

Sherlock raised an eyebrow, “You said she drowned. Did you not think it was an accident?”

The man smiled as he shook his head, “I said it appeared she drowned. I still don’t know the cause of death. I was going to wait to give my full results till I could perform an autopsy.”

Sherlock blinked in surprise then huffed a laugh. He shook his head, “My apologies, I had interrupted you before you could finish.”

The man shrugged his shoulders, “It’s of no import. As long as the truth is found and her murderer is brought to justice... if she has one.”

Lestrade groaned and shook his head, “I was hoping for an easy case… open and shut. Why can’t I ever get a simple case?”

Sherlock patted his shoulder, “Cheer up Lestrade, you have me on the case.” He glanced at the medical examiner, “and a competent medical examiner as well.”

“High praise coming from Sherlock Holmes,” the young man grinned.

Sherlock laughed, “You have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“It would be a shame to lose my advantage, but future interactions would be easier if you knew my name. John Watson,” he introduced himself. He held up his hands, “I’d shake your hand but… a handkerchief isn’t the best for cleaning up.”

Sherlock nodded, “I understand.” He looked John over, more closely this time. He noticed when John spoke to him, he was clear and direct. Sherlock appreciated how he also looked him straight in the eye. Due to Sherlock’s straightforward no nonsense nature, most people tended to avert their gaze in case they said something wrong. This man seemed to know of him, but gave no indication of intimidation.

Lestrade motioned to nearby officers to take the body away for further examination. He waved a hand at John, “This is our new medical examiner, as I’m sure you’ve deduced. Just started today.”

John tilted his head to move his bangs out of his eyes. He smiled as he kept eye contact with Sherlock. His hands rested easy in his pockets, but his posture remained straight. Formal, but comfortable. “Have you figured me out yet?”

Sherlock raised an eyebrow, “Figured you out?”

“My whole life story. Aren’t you able to glance at a person and deduce everything about them from their clothes, posture, etc.?” he was smiling, but it wasn’t mocking like he had seen others do when asking about his talents. John truly seemed to believe it was something Sherlock was capable of.

“You were in the military,” Sherlock started. “Your clothes aren’t new, but they are well taken care of. It’s not only out of prudence, but habit. You pressed your suit and polished your shoes in preparation for the day, as you were trained to do when you were an officer.”

Sherlock indicated to his hair. “You’ve been out of the military for several months, so your hair has had time to grow. You aren’t used to the new length… but you haven’t had time to cut it.” He examined John once more to determine whether he could deduce the reason for this. “You were injured? No, there’d still be visible signs if that were so. It has to be something detrimental enough to excuse you from military duty, but not inhibit you from working after recovery… you were sick. Most likely from enteric fever.”

“That’s amazing,” John laughed and nodded his head, “everything you said was correct.”

Sherlock felt his heart warm with the praise. He was used to receiving disdained grumbles or anger at how accurate his skills were. He found it odd that the man had such an effect on him, but he didn’t mind it.

“Alright then,” Lestrade sighed, “let’s get on with the case shall we? I have some very impatient higher ups who want this solved as soon as possible.”

“Right,” John nodded and headed toward the examiner’s vehicle. He glanced over his shoulder at Sherlock, “aren’t you coming?”

Sherlock felt his heart jump in his chest. He snapped his attention toward John, “I’m sorry?”

“Apologies if I’m wrong. I assumed you would want to come see the results of the autopsy,” John tilted his head as he continued to gaze at Sherlock. His bright blue eyes seemed to stare straight into Sherlock’s soul. It gave Sherlock a strange feeling.

“Ah, yes… of course, but I usually wait. The previous medical examiner didn’t appreciate me attending his autopsies.” Sherlock wasn’t sure why he felt embarrassed to share this bit of information.

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” John winked.

Sherlock tried to keep his face neutral as he felt his face grow warm. He nodded his head as he followed John to the car. To say it was going to be interesting to work with the new examiner was an understatement.

~~~

A/N: I love writing for these two, especially with Henry Cavill’s version of Sherlock. I don’t know why, but a more emotional Sherlock appeals to me. Plus Joey Batey as a flirty John Watson seems to be my jam. I wouldn’t mind continuing this storyline if there is an interest, but for now it’s a one shot depicting their first meeting in my little universe for them.

~~~

AO3 | Patreon | Ko-fi

#the witcher #enola holmes au #sherlock holmes #john watson #sherlock x john #holmes x watson #henry cavill #joey batey #panerato writing

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putflowersinmyhair-callmepretty · 4 years

Text

The fate of a nun (Finan x OFC); part 2

GENERAL A/N: Hi there!

This story is my first attempt to write a fanfiction. English is not my first language, so feel free to let me know how to improve my writing/language skills 😊 I will try and post a chapter per week, let’s see how it goes! The story takes place in season 3 and you will notice that I have used some of the sequences and dialogues from the tv series, changing them to include my OC. I did try not to be too colloquial and informal with my writing -giving the time of the story- but I preferred to make it more enjoyable than realistic, same goes for Finan’s accent. I’m nervous and excited to share my work, hope you enjoy! Bacini, Cate.

A/N: Hi sweeties! I have received so much love already, this is really the best fandom ever! I hope you enjoy this character, you’ll be familiar with many parts and hopefully amused by Aoife’s twist on them, I do love her dearly. Also, I have decided to shorten the chapters cause they where way to long! Bacetti, Cate!

Summary: The life of the young novice Aoife completely changes when the Lady of Mercia arrives to the Abbey of Wincelcumb. Oaths, battles and love will turn her in a warrior.

General warnings: Violence, Blood, Strong Language, Smut, Fluff, Graphic description of violence

Chapter’s warning: Not really, blood maybe?

Words: 2213

Chapter One.

Chapter Two: Ale and Princes

There was no sign of nuns through the corridors while she run down the stairs, weapons tinkling under the new dress and cloak Aethelflaed had gifted her.She had washed herself from the dirt and the blood of the battle and was now looking like a lady. A tired, sad lady. Aethelflaed was waiting outside with the warriors, all of them already on the back of their mounts; in her left hand, the Lady was holding the bridles of Aoife’s horse. “You are a strange nun” Uthred stated “why do you have weapons and a horse?” “They were gifted to me years ago.” Aoife simply answered, jumping easily on her mount and patting her on the neck. “They are expensive gift.” the other Dane noticed, and she turned to shoot him a weak smile. “Someone really cared for me.”

Aylesbury, Mercia

They arrived at Aylesbury when the sun was setting, and Aoife thanked God when the route opened in front of them and, among the white of the snow, appeared the stone walls of Aylesbury. They rode among the tents of the soldiers and, at the doors, they were welcomed by a line of guards, shields and spears pointed in their direction. Behind them stood the tallest and scariest man Aoife had ever seen, who pulled out his sword when they came closer. Next to him, Aoife saw a somehow attractive man, with dirty blonde hair and an unripe face; she guided her horse closer to Finan’s, feeling unsafe under his gaze. “That’s Aethelred. Lady Aethelflaed’s husband” Finan told her, noticing who her eyes were following. It was all clear now, Aethelflaed have told her stories about the weasel that her husband was. He was the one threatening her friend and Lady’s life. Once again Finan had to stop her from throwing her dagger at someone. “You need to stop being so impetuous.” He snorted with a half-smile “You will put us all in great danger sooner than later.” She grinned “He would not be missed.” “He is a Lord.” Finan insisted “Stay nice and quiet, would you?” They watched in silence Uthred and Aethelflaed discussing with that mountain of a man and Aethelred, probably explaining the situation. Aoife couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but she didn’t care. She had never seen the snow outside of the property of the Abbey and it was nice how soft it looked over the walls of the fortress. She didn’t notice Finan watching her, smiling at her amazement; and he didn’t notice Sithric and Osferth staring at him, amused. Finan was known and, made fun of, for quickly fall in love with women and that pretty warrior nun was no exception, but Osferth was worried for the young lady’s feelings; Finan was also one to love you during the course of one night and forget about you the morning after. However, Aoife was innocent but no fool, and the monk was sure enough that she would reject his attempts. Or at least he hoped so.

It was decided that the outlaw Uthred and his companions could pass, but they had to leave their weapons outside. Finan tried to protest, but his words were ignored by the Lord, while his guard repeated the order slower, as to mock Finan’s intelligence. Guards were sent to collect their weapons and Aoife didn’t like the way her guard was watching her as a prey. “You done?” she asked harshly when his eyes fell on the modest neckline of her dress. He quickly left her side with a small bow and behind her back she heard the Dane, whose name was Sithric she had discovered, laughing. “You have a temper, nun” and he walked with her through the gates.

They were left as enemies outside the hall, Aethelflaed nice enough to choose to stay with them and not to feast with her family. Aoife, at her side, soon found out that she wasn’t the only one with a temper problem; Finan, who she was sure had a desire to die, not only stood his ground to the huge warrior, but also made fun of his orders. The men did not seem intimidated, though; he smiled menacingly to the Irishman and patted him on the chest. “Steapa!” Uthred intervened “Food and ale would be appreciated.” The warrior agreed and turned to enter the hall. “And Steapa! Good food!” Finan added, under the amused looks of his companions “Meat! And lots of ale.” Uthred pushed him playfully “He will have your head one day.” “He just has to try.”

Under the supervision of Steapa himself, the diverse group of outlaws and ladies were drinking and eating at the alehouse. Aoife had never drunk ale before and she was quite enjoying the sweet and earthy taste of the beverage that she was gulping down. “You should slow down.” Osferth suggested, over the chatter of the others “It is not the strongest, but it will confuse your thoughts.” She smiled sweetly “Thank you, Brother.” She had just discovered that Osferth was a bastard child of Alfred and she did know how it felt like to be an unwanted consequence of illicit love. She decided that he deserved to know that he was not alone and that there was nothing to be ashamed of. “Osferth” she called softly, and the monk turned to her with a smile “I just wanted you to know that I too am the bastard of a Lord and a maid. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You have claimed a family of your own. A family of bad smelling, brutish men, sure, but still a family.” The monk smiled widely and squeezed lightly her hand “I sure do. Thank you.” “That was very sweet.” a voice whispered in her hear. She turned around and almost brushed the tip of her nose on Finan’s. The man was sitting very close to her; she could smell the ale in his breath, but it wasn’t unpleasant. He was much taller than her, and he had dropped his head on his close fist to look at her. His eyes were not hungry, but curious and perhaps even sweet. He was so unbelievably handsome that she found herself at loss of words. She didn’t have to worry however, because who she assumed was a young Lord approached Steapa telling that an approximation to a Witan had been gathered and they were required. None of them knew what an approximation to a Witan was but they all emptied their cups and quickly followed Steapa inside the hall. It was a large room, warmed by a fire that burnt right in the centre. The floor was made of wood, the wall of stones. Aethelred was sprawled on his throne, at his left stood a young man and, against the walls the men of the Witan, priests and lords in their heavy cloaks, watching them enter the room with stern faces. Not a warm welcome. She didn’t need Aethelred’s comment to notice the absence of King Alfred; she had never met him, but she had heard great stories about him, and closing her eyes she could create an image of what it should look like. She was disappointed by his absence. “I am here in place of the King. I’m here to speak for the King.” the young boy stated, and Aoife could easily assume that he was Aethelflaed’s younger brother, Edward, the atheling of Wessex. Weirdly, all Aoife could think of was that he looked something like Osferth. Aethelflaed was invited by her husband to say what she had come to say. The men of the Witan received with suspicious her accusations of Haesten, who was a declared ally of Wessex. When the Lady explained how Haesten had threatened her life and Uthred had saved her, the one questioning her was her own husband. “I am at a loss, how is it that Uthred knew of this danger? How is it that he knew exactly where to find you?” “An irrelevant question.” Aethelflaed commented coldly; Finan and Aoife made eye contact and they had to look away to not burst laughing. A man of the Witan, old and unpleasant to the eye and the ear, supported Aethelred’s suspects with impossible stories of Uthred’s betrayal, about him planning Aethelflaed’s killing with Haesten, all to earn her trust and get once again close to King Alfred. It was such a fool story that Aoife couldn’t imagine anyone believing it. She couldn’t be more wrong. “A spy?” Aethelred insisted. “An assassin, even.” the man replied. Neither her nor Finan were smiling anymore, it wasn’t going as expected and Uthred’s patience was visibly running thin. “Should have expected nothing different.” he said, his eyes rolling in exasperation. Surprisingly, in the defence of the outlaw, Aethelflaed was joined by her brother. “Seems rather grand strategy, Lord Aethelred” he stated, turning to the Lord, “and for what?” “It’s here, among us.” the young lord, the one that had guided them to the hall, answered. “And under guard.” the atheling replied bluntly, “Then let us get to the truth of the matter.” an imperious voice resounded throughout the room. King Alfred had entered the room, and, despite his sickly appearance, Aoife could feel the power he exuded. He was surely a man of strong, uncompromising mind and where he lacked with physical strength, he more than compensated with great presence and spirit.

Uthred had then explained his intention to the King; in exchange of him saving Aethelflaed, he asked for one thousand men to attack Beamfleot and defeat Haesten. He was clever enough to point out that the fall of Beamfleot and Haesten would mean a great loss for the Dane army and consequently ensure peace in Mercia and Wessex, for a while at least. Prince Edward spoke in favour of the agreement, but Alfred, supported by the men of the Witan, decided not to trust the outlaw and declined his request. He then invited the Dane to leave as the free man he was in Mercia, but he would remain an outlaw of Wessex.

***

The group found itself once again sat around a table outside the alehouse. They weren’t pleased by the outcome of the Witan. For what Aoife could understand, it was crucial to reclaim the Dane seer, Skade. It had something to do with a curse she had casted on Uthred and that was apparently putting them all in great danger. Aoife was no one to discharge others’ beliefs; on the contrary it made her appreciate Uthred more. He had saved Aethelflaed despite the danger that his choice entailed. She was quite surprised by how much she was enjoying the warriors’ company; they were kinder that she expected and, usually, it was a pleasure to spend time with them. That moment was the exception, but she could not blame them for being quiet and angry. They had been left without hope nor plans; and even if she was confident that they would soon find a way to reclaim the witch, she understood their fears. She was the first to notice the priests approaching, behind them came Prince Edward. He sat down next to his sister, Aoife on his other side. He shot her a questioning look and she gracefully bowed her head; but it was clear that he had more urgent issues to address. Osferth, at Aoife’s other side, excused himself and left before she could even turn around; it was clear the situation was paining him greatly. Words of curtesy were exchange between the people; Aoife, who didn’t know neither the priests nor the prince, sat in silence. She could not help but laugh, however, when the priest, who had taken Osferth place next to her, kindly stated that he couldn’t waste his prayers for Finan, being that he already belonged to the devil. The Irishman’s eyes moved from the priest to Aoife, and a corner of his mouth curved upwards in a smile, hidden by his bushy beard. “Could well be right.” he admitted. The other priest urged to get to the point, considering the dangerous position the prince had put himself in; the statement caught the attention of the entire table. The first priest asked them all to appear uninterested, for the safety of the presents, and, as strange as it sounded, a heavy silence fell on the group. “How… how many men does Haesten have?” Edward finally asked. Aoife watched hope return on Uthred and Aethelflaed’s faces. “Maybe as many as one thousand.” Uthred answered. “And a fortress.” the prince recollected. “Beamfleot.” Edward asked how Uthred could be sure to defeat him when it seemed impossible to do. Uthred pondered his words, then answered calmly that a siege would require the sacrifice of three thousand souls; Haesten, however, wouldn’t resisted the opportunity to kill him and would follow him outside. Fighting on open ground would increase their chances of winning. Prince Edward took his time to think about it, listening patiently to the warriors’ advices. He then decided, with a proud smile on his young face, to grant Uthred five hundred men. He swore to be there, the day of the attack, hidden in the wood with his army of half a thousand men.

Aoife hand run on the blade of her sword.

Chapter Three.

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i-am-just-a-kiddo · 3 years

Note

ok so I tried to come up with three characters like you did for me but this was very difficult. so feel free to ignore some if you don't like it or feel like talking about someone else :'D but the beauty ghost/liu qianqiao (word of honor), yu tangchun (killer and healer, bc i know you like our opera boy) and seo moonjo (strangers from hell, bc i am always curious about you and this dentist lol)

Aaaah thanks for these! 💗 It’s been a joy to answer them, so I hope you can get through my ramblings about them.

Referring to Give Me A Character

and I’ll break their ass down:

How I feel about this character

All the people I ship romantically with this character

My non-romantic OTP for this character

My unpopular opinion about this character

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

My answers under the cut:

Liu Qian Qiao/ Beauty Ghost (Word of Honor)

How I feel about her: I love her and she deserves better. I’ve not finished the drama yet and I know surprisingly little spoilers about her. I just love to see her acting on her own accord, standing up for the person she loves. Being protective and so caring of Luo Fu Meng, it breaks my heart. From what I’ve seen, she’s gotten on my radar only recently - after they saved Luo Fu Meng from the prison, I got really excited to see more of her and them in general.

I think she deserves better than that pathetic man whose name I don’t bother to remember. I’m scared of what the show will do to her but I’m so excited to see more, especially now that Scorpion got them in his clutches? She’s on par with him and I’m curious which direction this will go. However, as with many C-dramas unfortunately, she does not really feel tangible to me? There is always something missing, just a small piece that will make her feel more true to me. Maybe the drama will deliver on that? I’m not sure what to expect.

All the people I ship romantically with her: Luo Fu Meng!!! Lesbian ghosts rights!!! Their recent scenes have been breaking me and I just want to see more of them. I want to know more about their past together, about their dynamic. Luo Fu Meng is her master but right now, Liu Qian Qiao is the one guiding and caring for her. It shows how equal they actually are, even if not in their title. Liu Qian Qiao’s devotion to her feels so burning and determined - whatever she has going on with that man just pales in contrast. She was ready to risk it all for her and she would never abandon her. She’s willing to do anything and I’m just praying for their lives - please don’t fuck it up, @ show writers.

In short, I just need more of them. Please.

My non-romantic OTP for her: I loved her interaction with A-Xiang a lot - she truly seems like an older sibling to her and it’s precious to see. I can see them being easily annoyed with each other but also fiercely protective of the other. I can see A-xiang being an unstoppable whirlwind and Qian Qiao trying to ground her, while being incredibly fond. I can also see A-xiang pulling her older sister out of her own head, grounding her and validating her? Tell her that she is more than she thinks of herself, and that she deserves a lot more than she allows for herself. I need more of their interaction because I’m weak for found family tropes and I need more of the ladies doing their own thing outside of Wen Kexing’s or someone else’s periphery.

Also I want more interaction with her and the Evil Bodhisattva???? The potential that friendship has? Please gimme.

My unpopular opinion: I don’t know any opinions? I’ve not yet dived deeply into the WOH fandom because I’m not done with the drama yet. I’ve generally seen little content about her and the other ghost ladies, which is a pity. Once I get there, I’m excited to dive into all the fandom has to offer.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I’m on episode 24, so I can’t really judge what the show is gonna do to her, but so far I wish for more depth. Less of that horrible man being affiliated with her. Less of her being subjected to violence. More agency. More of her and Fu Meng interacting, caring for each other, being in each other’s space. I hope her to survive and not be killed, so I’m crossing fingers.

Yu Tangchun (Killer and Healer)

How I feel about this character: OH BOY. I have freshly baked feelings about him, get ready. Warning for spoilers:

First of all, I always felt the drama did not dive into him as deeply as I had wished. Something was always missing there, but I can’t really name what. Maybe more depth, other than just being sick and out for revenge? He had more potential and I will get to it later. But from all I’ve gotten from him, I love how strong he is, and how much bravery there is in such a small body. He has his own mind and own agenda and doesn’t allow people pushing him around - I also love how deceiving he can be, even to his friends (namely Chen Yuzhi when he asked for that drug). He is a clever fox and I love that for him. Which also made him incredibly unpredictable to me in the beginning - I just couldn’t quite place him?

In the end, am just incredibly fond and he deserved so so much better than the show ever gave him.

All the people I ship romantically with him: Zhan Junbai, with all its flaws. From the first moment on, their tension just made me go ???????? the whole time. It was amazing and unsettling to watch, see its development and knowing this could not end well. A very delicious dynamic that always treaded the line of will they or won’t they (whether that refers to killing each other or otherwise). At some point I felt a little more invested into their plotline simply because it was so interesting and unpredictable. The mutual attraction is undeniable, which made what happened later even more heartbreaking and fucked up.

It could have never worked, even if Zhan Zhunbai had been less of a dick. They deserved a different ending - at least Yu Tangchun should have been the one to kill him, or at least they should have had a proper showdown together. After all - they were more than friends at this point.

My non-romantic OTP: I loved his friendship with Chen Yuzhi, but I must say I would have loved to see him more with Chu Ran! If we imagine a different ending, they could have bonded together so much over what Zhan Junbai did to the both of them. They are both so gentle and headstrong, I wish we had gotten more of them together. It could be relaxing and freeing for the both of them.

Also I’ve always wondered how exactly Yu Tangchun’s friendship with Jiang Yuelou worked? I think this got way too little spotlight.

My unpopular opinion about him: I have no idea what is popular and what isn’t? Maybe that I sort of enjoyed the idea of Yu Tangchun joining Zhan Junbai, even though I knew it wouldn’t happen. Let me dream, that could have been a different level of conflict.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Oh boy. Oh boy. SO MUCH. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t finished the show:

First of all, his ending?? It felt way too rushed and while not out of character, he deserved so much more than his death being an afterthought to the plot and a few sad gay flashbacks. The entire ending felt rushed and oh boy, could I rant about it here, but I will try and focus on Yu Tangchun. So yes, give him the respect he deserves.

Another thing which I have mentioned above is that I wished they had given him more depth? Just a little bit more other than the trauma and agony he went through. I also wish I had seen more of his opera and his story with it - how he got there, how he thinks about it. We only ever got glimpses and I get that a show can only focus on so much, but still.

I also wish his ending with Zhan Junbai had been different - in a sense that I wanted him to break Zhan Junbai, lure some genuine emotions on his face other than anger. I wish they had gotten more….closure? I don’t even know. It didn’t feel satisfactory at all. Zhan Junbai went through so much trouble to keep him and then suddenly he let’s him go and then he dies? It just went too quickly. If at least Yu Tangchun had been there to kill him in the end, or at least get some sort of closure. I’m rambling now because I don’t know what I wanted for them but it was certainly more than what the show gave me. I am so frustrated about the ending of the show, help me.

Seo Moonjo (Strangers from Hell)

How I feel about this character: Conflicted. That is the short answer to that, but of course I’m not here to give a short answer. Do I have to clarify that I do not condone the actions of a cannibalistic serial killer in real life? I hope not. Okay, let’s get to it then.

Seo Moonjo (or Mr. Dentist, as I lovingly call him) to me is incredibly intimidating. Part of it is that Lee Dong Wook does an incredible job at depicting him as charming and terribly unsettling at the same time. From the first second he shows up on screen, you feel this presence - and you feel intrigue and fear. Which is what Seo Moonjo wants, it’s what he preys on.

So when I think about how I feel about him, I think he is one of the best villains I’ve encountered recently, simply because he makes me feel the same way he makes Jongwoo feel. I’m very fascinated? I feel Seo Moonjo is a very lonely person, lost in his own ideals and morals. He has absolutely no sense of social propriety and does not intend to learn them. He’s so caught up in his own art and his desire for a certain life, it’s almost pitiful how much he desires it. But of course, once I feel a sliver of pity, he reminds me that he is - indeed - hell personified. I am still lowkey mad that he charmed me (why is being a villain so sexy smh).

Summing up, I love and hate him. What a creepy bastard.

All the people I ship romantically with him: Yoon Jongwoo, despite all the cruelty of it. I think comparing this show to NBC’s Hannibal is very valid, even though these two never got a proper development of their relationship like Will and Hannibal did. I absolutely think that Seo Moonjo is in love with Jongwoo and wants him to be his, wants to wrap him up in his life and make him the ‘perfect art-piece’ he had always wanted in his collection. No matter how sick it is, this obsession is probably the closest Seo Moonjo can get to feeling love - he does not know how else to love.

So what do I want for them? I want Jongwoo to get his revenge, to make Seo Moonjo suffer as much as he did. I want Jongwoo to see eye to eye with him so they can walk with equal footing. I want Seo Moonjo to realise that Jongwoo has as much power over him as he thinks he has over the other. After this, they can be murder husbands for all I care, in true Hannibal-esque fashion. The emancipation of Jongwoo needs to happen first, and Seo Moonjo needs to realise that he is not the invincible one in this relationship. After that, they can have a good time together, no matter how fucked up that time may look like.

Also, I am convinced that he ‘dated’ Yoo Gihyeok in a twisted way, before he went and fucked up his plans; and before Jongwoo came to cath his eye.

My non-romantic OTP: As mentioned above - Seo Moonjo is a lone wolf. Yes he had his pack and someone that guided him on this path, but none of them ever come close to him to see his heart. The show itself doesn’t give him much space to see a potential friendship except the one he has with Jongwoo. Jongwoo would be the answer for this as well. (also to be fair, I don’t wish anyone to be friends with him damn)

However, if I could explore more dynamics he has with other people, I would love to see it with Officer So. I think she is an incredibly interesting and strong character and the few scenes they had together were fascinating - she came as his patient and ended up being his enemy. In another installment of this show, I would’ve loved to see more interaction like that and see the development of them being pleasant acquaintances (and maybe Seo Moonjo realising that she too is worth his attention) to enemies. I want Seo Moonjo to find respect for her.

My unpopular opinion: I’m not into depicting him as fancy rich, as many do in fics. Yes he’s a dentist and surely has a ton of money, but I like the idea that despite this wealth, he would always be a shabby sort of person. Not decked out with a luxurious rooftop apartment and wearing dress-shirts every day and expensive watches; but rather using his wealth to make himself safe from detection, finding remote areas, buying utensils and appliances for his ‘art’. So no, I reject the vision of him lounging on the highest building in Seoul with a minimalist empty apartment. I see him in a ratty rundown but expensive old mansion/house that has many corners for his artistic endeavours. I’ve already picked the perfect house for him in Busan, on the top of a hill overseeing the city and the harbour.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I’ve mentioned it above, but I wish Seo Moonjo had gotten to feel more pain. We got Jongwoo’s liberation and Moonjo being proud of his ‘artwork’ while Jongwoo kills him, but that was not the revenge Jongwoo needed. In the end, Moonjo still lingers with him, as a constant presence, and he never got a taste of his own medicine. While watching this show, all I wanted was Jongwoo to break Moonjo’s heart. This would not make up the suffering Moonjo put him through but at least they would be equal. So I have my own revenge fantasy with this character that is more than ‘merely’ killing him. Being killed by Jongwoo just felt like an honour to Seo Moonjo and I’m not satisfied with that.

Phew okay I’m done! Thank you for giving me something to ramble about, it was a joy!!

#personal #answers #tag game #am gonna tag it like this #word of honor #killer and healer #strangers from hell

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pocket-luv101 · 4 years

Text

Ransom || Part 2

Fandom: Servamp Ship: KuroMahi Characters: Kuro, Mahiru

Summary: Mahiru is kidnapped by the mafia. He learns that Kuro is being forced to work with the mafia. He hoped he could convince him to help him escape. {KuroMahi, Mafia AU}

Part 1 || (Part 2) || Part 3

Kuro watched Cerberus dash across the room and chase a ball that Mahiru threw. The dog had been infamous for its temper and aggression yet it was nothing but docile now. It carried the ball back to Mahiru and nestled against his leg. Mahiru scratched its head and said, “Your leg has healed nicely. It’s a shame you can’t go outside and stretch your legs properly.”

While the guest room the mafia gave him was spacious and well furnished, it was still a prison for Mahiru. A week had passed since he was kidnapped and he was still trying to make sense of their motivation for taking him. One of the leaders claimed that his uncle was from a rival crime group. Mahiru refused to believe the man until he spoke with Toru.

He was given books to pass his time and they would help distract him for a moment. However, they could only keep him busy for a while. Mahiru thought of climbing down the balcony to try to escape but he knew he wouldn’t be able to run far. From the little he had seen of the headquarters, he knew there were men guarding the major exits. He could see the ocean from his balcony so they were no longer in his hometown, Tokyo. He wouldn’t know where to run if he managed to escape.

Mahiru gently tossed the ball in Kuro’s direction, hoping that he could start a conversation with him. Cerberus leapt after the ball and the dog almost crashed into Kuro in its eagerness. He managed to catch the large dog before either of them could be hurt and he handed the ball to it. “You still have a lot of energy. At least you’re not snapping at us anymore.”

“He only needed to be taught how to direct that energy. I’m a vet but I’ve trained a lot of dogs. Cerberus, fetch the ball.” Mahiru clapped his hands twice and Cerberus obediently returned to his side with the toy. He watched Kuro from the corner of his eyes and thought of how quiet he was. He tried to speak with him several times so they could know each other more and build trust between them.

The day he was kidnapped, he had overheard Kuro’s conversation with his little brother. Will they leave us alone, Kuro?

His question made Mahiru think that Kuro was being forced to work with the mafia group. Whether the mafia was threatening his family or blackmailing him, Kuro was being held in the mafia against his will. They were in similar situations. Mahiru hoped he could convince Kuro to escape with him. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that Kuro was a private person. He understood why Kuro would be distant from him since he was a hostage. He didn’t want to give up though.

His thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and Mahiru knew that it was likely Tsurugi. He and Kuro had been assigned to guard him and they would take turns watching over him. Mahiru glanced at the clock and said, “You’re an hour early, Tsurugi. Are you trying to get more money with overtime? It’s not good to overwork yourself.”

Each member of the crime family had a name based on a Greek god to hide their identity. He befriended Apollo and learned that his name was actually Tsurugi. Mahiru considered asking him for help until he learned that he had been saved by the mafia. It was clear that Tsurugi saw the leader as a father and Mahiru couldn’t ask him to betray the man.

“Kuro is the one who has overtime today. Zeus and I are going out to… It’s a well paying job.” Tsurugi let out a hollow laugh and he looked away from him. The mafia family had a rule against involving normal civilians in their crimes. “Ares will be in charge until Zeus and I return tomorrow. You can ask Kuro for anything you need. I should get going since Zeus is waiting for me in the hall.”

“He’s here? I would like to speak with him.” Mahiru’s declaration shocked Kuro and Tsurugi. Most would be too afraid to face the leader of a mafia group yet he didn’t seem to be. He jumped off his chair and walked out of the room with Cerberus following close behind him. He spotted Touma smoking a few feet from his door and called to him.

Kuro quickly ran after Mahiru. He expected Touma to be angry that he would leave his room and he wanted to protect Mahiru from him. While Touma had given him a comfortable room and anything else he asked for, Kuro knew the man’s kindness had an ulterior motive. Mahiru’s uncle was a powerful man and Touma likely wanted to gain Toru’s trust through his nephew.

“Excuse me.” Mahiru stopped in front of the tall man. “I’ve wanted to talk with you about something.”

“If you want another book to read or a video game, you could’ve asked Hades or Apollo to purchase it for you. I told them to provide you anything that you need— within reason of course.” He added to warn him to think of his request carefully. Mahiru stood a little straighter and bit his lower lip. Touma towered over people and his height alone would intimidate most people.

“I want to take Cerberus on daily walks.” He did his best to keep his voice even to hide any fear he had. “The room is large and comfortable but it’s not good for him to stay inside all the time. He’ll become anxious. I only want to take him out to exercise. Of course, Kuro can walk Cerberus with me if you’re worried about me running away.”

Touma was silent and Mahiru was worried he would say no. Thinking simply, it would be too dangerous to allow him to walk through the building. He still wanted to try though. Mahiru didn’t know how long they would hold him hostage but he would go crazy if he was confined to the room the entire time.

“I don’t mind watching Mahiru while he walks Cerberus.” Kuro surprised Mahiru since he didn’t expect him to offer his help. He thought of the first day he woke in the prison. He secretly disobeyed a man’s order and didn’t handcuff him. “You said that we need to keep Mahiru happy so Toru doesn’t raid us in retaliation for taking him. We’ll stay within walls.”

“An hour. You can leave your room for an hour each day to walk the mutt.” Touma said after a moment. He took a long drag of his cigarette and then put it out. He addressed Kuro when he added: “Keep Mahiru away from the guard dogs though. He did threaten to use an army of animals against us. I expect a report when I get back too, Hades.”

“More work? Troublesome.” Kuro groaned and rubbed his neck.

“Thank you, Zeus. We’ll need a leash for Cerberus to make sure he doesn’t run off or attack anyone. He’s well behaved but I haven’t been able to fully train him. Can I borrow one?” Mahiru asked and Touma nodded. “May I also have my phone back so I can call my uncle? He must be worried about me. One of your men said that you sent him a message about my kidnapping. I want to talk to him.”

“You’re smart enough to know that I can’t say ‘yes’ to that.” He shook his head. Touma’s words were correct but Mahiru had hoped he could speak with his uncle again. He pushed away his disappointment and he focused on the small freedom he was given.

“Fresh air.” Mahiru took a deep breath once he was outside. The sun’s heat on his face was refreshing after staying inside for the past week. After Touma left, Kuro found a leash for Cerberus and they took him outside for a walk. “I was so excited about going out that I forgot to bring a ball for Cerberus to play with. Then again, he must be sick of playing catch all day.”

“You must be sick of playing catch too. You rarely ask for things. The only stuff you’ve asked for are for Cerberus.” Kuro couldn’t help but feel pity for Mahiru and his situation. He showed a brave face to others but he heard him cry during the night. “Even the books you have weren’t something you asked for. I brought them from home.”

“The books belonged to you? I really like the fantasy adventure series you gave me with the angel and the demon. They had a really cute romance. What do you think about the novel?” He asked. He bought books for Mahiru but he knew that they were only a temporary escape for him. Mahiru was a little surprised that he had something in common. He was happy that he found something they could discuss though.

“I prefer video games over books but my family could never afford to buy expense game consoles. My baby brother would ask me to read to him at night.” Kuro’s casual smile made Mahiru relax and they continued to walk down the path together.

Mahiru tilted his head back and watched the clouds above them. “Honestly, I was a little selfish when I asked Zeus if I could take Cerberus on walks. I didn’t know how much longer I could sit in that room. Thank you for what you said to Touma. You seem like the sloth type who doesn’t like to go on walks. Wait, that was rude to say. I’m sorry, Kuro.”

“I don’t mind. It’s true. My siblings always complain about how lazy I am.” Kuro said and he made a small chuckle. Then, he bit his tongue when he realized that he told him about his family. It was dangerous to tell Mahiru about his personal life but he accidentally slipped. “I’m sorry that I’m not much of a talker. This situation would be easier on you if you had someone normal to talk to.”

“I’m glad that you were the one assigned to guard me.” Mahiru stopped and looked up at him. “You were kind to me even before Zeus told everyone that they couldn’t hurt me.”

“I’m the least bad among a group of criminals. That’s not saying a lot.” Kuro chuckled at himself and there was a shadow of pain in his red eyes. Mahiru wondered why he joined the mafia family since it was clear he didn’t enjoy working with them. He could hear the regret in his voice but he didn’t know if he could ask him about it.

Ahead of them, Cerberus was barking at something in the bushes and Kuro placed a hand on the gun tucked into his belt. The dog had been calmer lately and it would only bark when a person approached Mahiru. He didn’t see anyone though. Kuro was worried that someone had broken into the mafia’s base and lightly grabbed Mahiru’s arm. “I’ll see what he’s barking at. Stay behind me.”

“Do you think it’s someone from a rival mafia group?” Mahiru asked in a worried voice.

Kuro didn’t answer him as he walked behind Cerberus with his gun. He didn’t see anyone hiding in the small bush and knelt next to the dog. He wanted to be cautious so he slowly pushed aside the branches. After a moment, Kuro’s shoulders relaxed and he holstered his gun. “We have the best security in the country but this little guy managed to slip in.”

“What is it?” Mahiru leaned over his shoulder to see a brown cat huddled among the leaves. He carefully slipped his hand under the cat and lifted it out of the bushes. Gently, he stroked his hand over its fur. Cerberus pushed its head against Mahiru’s chest and he wondered if it wanted attention. He patted its head. “You’re big and strong, Cerberus, so you should protect smaller animals like this cat.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you can truly talk to animals.” Kuro said when he saw the way Cerberus whined and laid its head on Mahiru’s lap. He had to admit that it looked comfortable. He turned his attention to Mahiru who was playing with the cat. Reaching forward, he petted the cat. “I can guess that you’ll want to take this little guy back to your room but Zeus won’t let us.”

“He said I can’t raise an army of dogs. He didn’t say anything about cats or other animals.” The corner of his lips lifted into a small grin. His brown eyes held a glimmer of mischief. “I can ask Zeus to buy me some video games to pass the time. Do you want to play them with me?”

“I didn’t think you were the type to use bribery. Can’t deal.” Despite the sarcastic tone Kuro used, Mahiru could hear a subtle warmth in his voice. “Touma lets you get away with a lot so I don’t think he’ll mind that you adopted another pet. I’ve overheard a little of Touma and Toru’s history but I don’t know much. Is your uncle that scary?”

“The only scary thing about my uncle is how bad his puns are. He raised me after my mother died and I’m so grateful for him…” Mahiru’s smile became sad as he went on. “Then again, I might not know him as well as I thought. He’s the leader of a crime family. I would’ve never guessed. He told me he was a pilot and that was the reason he was gone all the time.”

The past week had been stressful. Beyond being kidnapped, the image of his family was being shattered. The loneliness in his brown eyes tugged at Kuro’s heart and he wanted to reassure him. Without thinking, he placed his hand over Mahiru’s and squeezed it lightly. “He didn’t want you to know about that part of his life because he wanted to keep you safe. Your uncle cared about you— even if he kept secrets.”

“Thank you, Kuro.” Mahiru whispered to him and his smile returned. “What kind of video games should I request? I would like to buy a video game that we could play together.”

A new voice interrupted their conversation and sent a cold chill down Mahiru’s back. “Aren’t you getting too comfortable? What are you two doing outside?”

Mahiru hesitantly turned around to see Makabe behind them. The man was responsible for his kidnapping and it was apparent that he was ruthless. Cerberus must’ve sensed his fear since it started to growl at Makabe. Unconsciously, Mahiru shifted closer to Kuro since he made him feel safe. Kuro said, “Zeus gave us permission to go for a walk. You can call him for confirmation.”

“First Tsurugi and now you. I don’t know why Touma is choosing street rats over me. I’m his son, not you.” Makabe glared at Mahiru with resentment. “My plan would’ve worked if you stayed in that damn cell. Who do you think you are? I did my research on you and I know that you’re a bastard. You don’t have a father because your mother was a whore—”

“Cerberus, bad man.” Mahiru said the command in a low whisper and the dog vaulted forward to bite Makabe’s arm. Kuro placed his hand on his shoulder and he could feel him shake beneath his anger. He had seen different sides to him throughout their time together but this was the first time he became angry. He told him that his mother had died when he was young but it was clear that Mahiru cherished her.

“Get this thing off me!” He screamed.

“Enough, Cerberus, come back.” He relented but the tension in Mahiru’s body hadn’t left. The dog returned to his side and he hugged it. Mahiru closed his eyes and buried his face into its fur but he could feel a strong hand on his head. He knew that it was Kuro.

“Makabe, you should return to your work or Zeus will be angry with you. He’s already annoyed at your plan to kidnap Mahiru.” Kuro wrapped his arm around Mahiru’s waist and lightly urged him to stand. He wanted to take him away from the situation before Makabe could hurt him again. “Let’s go, Mahiru.”

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay out here, Mahiru.” Kuro stepped onto the balcony where Mahiru was gazing at the stars. He didn’t respond to him immediately but he did turn to face him when he stopped next to his chair. Looking into his eyes, he could see that he was tired yet he didn’t move out of his chair to return to the room. “Is what Makabe said still bothering you?”

“He already hated me and I just made it worse, didn’t I? He brought up my mom and I got so angry that I did something as stupid as attack him. I wanted to yell at him that my mother has nothing to do with this mess.” Mahiru started to rant. He curled into a ball and hugged his knees to his chest. “Then again, I can’t say that for certain. I was wrong about my uncle being a part of the mafia.”

Kuro knelt next to him and whispered, “You can ask him if I gave you my phone to call him.”

“You can’t do that without getting in trouble with Touma or Makabe.” Mahiru desperately wanted to speak with his uncle to answer his questions. At the same time, he didn’t want Kuro to risk his job after he had been so kind to him already. Kuro glanced around them and Mahiru didn’t know what he could be searching for. Then, he took his phone out of his pocket.

“Touma isn’t here and he won’t find out. This call can’t be long though. I can’t let your uncle track the number and risk the mafia’s safety. I already have a program on my phone to block a tracker but I want to be safe. I’m sorry that this is all I can give you, Mahiru.” He was taken by surprise when Mahiru leapt out of the chair and into his arms. He wrapped his arms around him and pressed his face into his neck.

“This is already so much. Thank you, Kuro.” He hugged him briefly and then leaned away from him. Kuro passed his phone to him and Mahru pressed his uncle’s number. As he waited for his answer, he leaned closer to Kuro and rested his forehead against his chest. He was able to smell the scent of roses in his hair. “If we sit close like this, people won’t see that I’m using your phone.”

#servamp #kuromahi #sloth pair #servamp kuro #mahiru shirota #fanfiction

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jadespeedster17 · 4 years

Text

Sander Sides AU - DanganRonpa

Gosh, I make alot of dark AU’s, I do have fluffy ones, but I find people like my darker ones. This one actually wasn’t my complete own, the girl that came up with most of it has been my RP buddy for a while. IDK if she has a tumbler, but on Wattpad she is known as Littlewolf65.

Anywho, this was a RP idea she had, and we hardly use it, so I’m posting about it because DANG, was it good. (If this gets taken down it’s cause she wanted it to be.)

But given neither of us really want to put in time and effort to writing up a whole story, both due to college and other projects we have going on, I’m posting it to the fandom. (Plus I had ALOT of other Au’s to write about if you guys ever want oneshots. Just leave a message or shoot me a ask for what kind of oneshot you want to see. :D )

Summary: Dystopian Future based situation. The world had pretty much fallen to despair and the ‘Tragedy’ has begun. Ring Leader of it is Thomas Sanders, the Ultimate Despair. Along with his six Sector Leaders, Thomas started pretty much the biggest class war seen in history. Cunning, smart, manipulative, and seen as the ‘leader’ to many, Thomas is not a man to take lightly.

Thomas Sanders: The main guy himself, in this one, unlike my other AU’s, he’s much more... hmm, not really ‘evil’ as he is manipulative. His ‘FamILY’ consist of six guys he all ‘save’ from their situations. Really he’s the Ultimate Despair due to the fact being a youtuber reached a point for him where he never felt much happiness in his life. Due to how hard life was already, not just for him, but others. But rather than fade out like most do in their despair, he took it and made something of it. Demolishing the class system and starting what is known as the Tragedy. Really, he humbles himself, he just whispered to the right people, recruited the right group, and the Tragedy just started itself. Oh, he does somewhat care of his sector leaders, even if it’s in a very twisted, emotionally manipulative way.

Logan Sanders: Background - Thomas’s first Sector leader, the Logic Sector, and the second largest compared the the Snake Sector. Since he was born, Logan Adam’s had alot put upon him by his higher class family. Expected to be the ‘Most Likely To Succeed’ student. Private school, tutors, nothing but the best for him. This family prioritized learning and academics over anything else, if their boy was not a prodigy, they’d make him one. One can guess as a result, this left Logan having to grow up much faster, never really had a childhood. Where he was forced to put his academics above all else, this left him unable to empathize or socialize properly. Feelings just get in the way of progress. He went into private school when he was a teenager, and culture shock was a thing. He shied away from people. Disliked them alot, and didn’t want his parents to punish him should ‘friends’ become a distraction. With no real empathy and emotions to call his own, Thomas found it real easy to fill that void with despair. Convincing our Logan to kill his family and free himself, Logan joined Thomas after that. Thomas treats Logan well, like he’s an actual person and talking to him as such. Something his family and others never did. His parents acted like he was a robot, and it became a common taunt used against him when bullied. “He’s a robot guys, not like he can feel the hurt in our words.” Oh the highschool drama, not knowing what real hurt is. Logan did enjoy torturing them, their despair felt great. Logan is a hard core believer in what Thomas says, that despair is the only real, tangible thing in this world to rely on. He’s a good example of this. Sector - The Logic Sector harbors from the best minds the Despair has. It takes up majority of the west part of the city, and is one of two ways to the main area where Thomas and them live. It’s meant to be like a maze, riddles, traps, not really designed to kill a person, it’s meant to test your mental capacity. Logan love logic puzzles, hence the name of the sector. Mostly it’s adults that live in this sector and help with making traps and weapons for the Despair. They are deadly, precise, and Logan is a very strict leader to his people. But with good reason, after all, if he left them to themselves, they might become like Patton or Virgil’s sector. There are many buildings here meant just for the torture and turning of ‘new members’. It’s neighbors are the Heart Sector to the right, and across from the main area and Snake Sector.

Patton Sanders: Background - The second man after Logan that Thomas recruited, the Heart Sector is his area. Patton lived in orphanage for a long time, always taking care of. Forced to take on a parental role to the younger kids very early, as he was the eldest. The owners were very uncaring, mostly in it for a check to spend on alcohol and drugs, and dolling up the place for each visit to get more money. Patton was up to his eyes in stress, trying to hard, but feeling like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. When Thomas found it, it took some convincing, but once he got through, he convinced Patton to kill the owners of the place. Even any kids that tried to stop him from doing so, after all, if they didn’t think their ‘Dad’ was doing what was right, then how can they be trusted? Something in Patton that day just snapped, but he hasn’t regretted it, he feels upset he had to kill them, but he easily waves it off that they just didn’t understand. It was better this way. Even in the Heart Sector he still is very much a parental figure. Taking care of the children of anyone who wanders into his sectors, ranging from ages 5 to 13. A few teens stick around and help their leader out before moving to other sectors later in life. As Patton despises most adults, finding them selfish and disgusting. Not that they last long when the kids all go in for the kill. One twisted little family there.

Sector - It’s two neighbors from the left is the Logic Sector and to the right is the Storm Cloud Sector. Given him and Virgil take care of the kids and teens they work really close together. With Patton as ‘Dad’ and Virgil as ‘Older Brother’. Across from it is the Imagination Sector. This sector is not as small as the Storm Cloud Sector, but not as big as Logic and Snake Sectors are. it’s a decent size through and a safe haven for kids, well... safe if your a crazed, insane, murder child. It’s as a ‘Wonderland’ to little kids, most people say to avoid it, especially the Hope Foundation, as harming children isn’t what they are about.Patton is very nice to kids and most teens, he teaches them to survive in this world and the things they need in life. Adults that he does like are often ‘Teachers’ in his sector.

Roman Sanders: Background - Oof, this one is a sad one. Roman and his twin Remus great up on the streets from a young age when they were abandoned at the age of 6. As they grew up, many kids came to see them as their ‘Heroes’. Something both twins took pride in, and vowed to help those weaker than them. When they are about turn 16, Thomas, about early 20′s this time, took them in and gave them a home. Though, as they lived with Thomas, their savior subtly would imply the other was unfaithful and planning something. He easily turned the brothers against each other with this, and sat back watching the sparks. A heated argument broke out, and ended with Roman killing his twin brother. Roman was crushed by this, and thus the despair settled in. Thomas comforted him afterwards, and something in Roman’s mind just snapped. There and then he vowed to be everyone ‘Hero’ in his sector, going into the deluded fantasy he was the ‘Prince’ or the ‘Knight in Shining Armor’ for them. Thus is where this sector comes into play.

Sector - The Imagination Sector neighbors are the Storm Cloud Sector to the right and to his left is the largest sector the Snake Sector and right across from the Heart Sector. This sector... oh boy, if you thought Logic’s sector is deadly then steer clear from Roman’s. These traps are designed to kill you slowly, I say slowly because Roman is meant to ‘save’ you like the ‘hero’ he is. For those who have read or seen Hunger Games, think of the traps like the Pods in Mockingjay. Thanks Logan, he’s the one who designed the traps, as a result very few know how to navigate the area. Safe for those that live there and the leaders. Roman and his Knights ‘save’ people from these traps. Though, not everyone survives these twisted games. Shockingly people enter because this sector actually holds the food source of them, well guarded and is the most abundant in resources. Something Roman takes pride in and defends ferociously. His Knights are a few select people who Roman and Thomas trust deeply, they are ruthless, and very strong. Dressed in reds and blacks and very intimidating, brainwashed all to hell. One thing to note, you better be VERY grateful to Roman if he saves you, because boy is just a ruthless. Not afraid to toss you back into danger should he think you are ungrateful. He works close with Logan, coming up with sick ways to trap people. And works alot with Janus in training people for the Despair.

Janus Sanders: Background - Say hello to another rich boy, and actually he’s the one whose dad used to ‘own’ most of the city. Having funded for most of the buildings, technology used, and owned the main company most worked for. But he was a rather neglectful father, cheated on Janus’s mother alot too, and mostly ignored his son from a young age. When Janus was older, about 16 or 17, a huge fight broke out between his father and mother. His dad pretty much was in a drunken rage, and Janus tried to defuse the situation. And the end result was he was burned on the right side of his face with hot water, deforming it slightly. His mother walked out, and his father said he was now ‘ugly’ to look at. Janus had alot of issues with self worth after this, as his father ignored him even more. Though he can see fine and talk, he still is very aware he looks like a monster. His father only ever gave him small jobs to do for the company, keeping his once handsome son out of the public’s eye. Out of sight, out of the way. When Thomas approached Janus, he wasn’t stupid, oh he knew what games Thomas was playing. But years of dealing with it ahd taken it’s toll, and Janus, though well aware of what Thomas was doing, didn’t care. He knew Thomas was only interested in his position and power. But, it was a chance, to get back on his father for it all. Sabotaging the city wasn’t hard, this is what happens when society relies too much on technology. The company took the fall out, and angry mob tore apart his father, the city imploded, and thus the Tragedy started and spread from there. Absolute anarchy. Janus found he agreed, despair was the only way, and it was wonderful. Still, despite knowing Thomas cared little like a actual person, Janus came to care for him. Even if it wasn’t reciprocated. More despair that way. Sector - The Snake Sector is the largest sector, making the parts the Logic Sector needs. Filled with the most cunning, manipulative, and feared people in Thomas’s Despair Army. Janus is their ring leader, and shows his little snakelings how to get by in the world. He enjoys it, showing them the skills to use people, to make things that work well to help you. This sector is the power source of the area, and is the second entrance to the main area where Thomas is. Janus is Thomas’s right hand, and is the one who helps with the brainwashing along with Logan and Roman, who he works close with. Though not confusing or deadly as the others, you can’t really trust in inhabitants who will lead you astray easily. Trust No One. And if you happen to get close to Janus, best be careful, because the final challenge isn’t easy, and many have died by his hand. It’s all a game to him, and Janus loves mind games.

Virgil Sanders: Background - His is possibly the shortest like with Romans. Simple enough, he was also abused, but his parents were much worse. Never having wanted a child, they would often lock Virgil in the basement with one dinky light that barely did anything and was prone to busting alot. He lived with the spiders there, and became scared of the dark and enclosed spaces. Though he was allowed the go to school, if he told anyone about his treatment, his parents easily deflected them. And he was punished harshly. As a result, he grew up rather small, he’s easily the shortest of all the leaders. While at school, he met a man in his 20′s. Thomas wasn’t like other adults, who listened, he cared, and he helped Virgil. Convincing the other to take his despair and get revenge. Helping Virgil kill his parents that night and hide their bodies. Not that they were ever missed, Virgil isn’t even sure if the police or neighbors ever even noticed. He ran away with Thomas, and he was the fourth person recruited. Patton came to care deeply for his ‘dark strange son’. And Virgil, who was affectionate and touch starved, soaked it all up, coming to care for Patton. Roman took on the role of ‘older brother’ fast, with Janus and Logan being ‘mothers’. Something Virgil came to adore. Sure, this family is twisted, but he’s never locked up, starved, or put in the dark again.

Sector - The Storm Cloud sector, is the smallest of all of them, and is mostly on the outskirts, how Virgil likes it. Neighbors to the right being the Heart Sector and the left the Imagination Sector. It’s the one of the three entrances into the city itself, and is the main main one into it. With two back door areas being the Heart and Imagination. Mostly teenagers live here in the brooding atmosphere and darken streets, who shy away when the sun is out. Which for the are they live in isn’t much. Virgil is the ‘Older Brother’ to them. A role he takes seriously as he doesn’t want someone to have to live as he did. Only the most unruly get that treatment, but shockingly he never has to give out many punishments. Working along side Patton mostly in taking care of the kids and teens, few adults live in his area. As, like Patton, he despises most adults. Virgil is very good with fears, and knows just how to push someones buttons. Oh he may look all soft and innocent, but like his sector, looks are deceiving. You’d think it’s just a bunch of teenagers being their usual selves in a ‘life sucks’ phase. But boy are you wrong, they are armed, they are trained the kill, and enjoy doing so to any who things their sector is the ‘easy’ sector.

And there you have it, let me know if you guys want any oneshots on any of my AU’s. Fanart is well needed. And if you like these AU’s, I might post some of my more happier ones rather than dark ones. Any questions? feel free to ask!

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