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silvergreenseraphim · 6 months

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Angeal and Sephiroth (And Genesis?)—Dissidia Opera Omnia—Part Two

Hi there hello, I am terribly sorry for the wait, friends! I was pretty sick for the past week or so, but have recovered now! On that note, let’s dive in!

—

Angeal must come to terms with Sephiroth’s transformation.

We begin with Cloud meeting with Angeal after the group decided to take on Sephiroth. Cloud asks Angeal,

“Are you okay? I know I explained everything all at once…”

Angeal says,

“You mean about Sephiroth? It’s just…even though I saw it with my own eyes…it’s hard to accept when told the truth/facts. I’m sorry for slipping/showing weakness…just listen—“

Cloud stops him and says that he doesn’t mind being the one to tell Angeal everything that happened. Angeal also doesn’t need to worry about being stoic in front of someone that isn’t his direct student/cadet like Zack was.

Cloud then explains that he had become a soldier because he admired heroes like Sephiroth, though in truth, there were no heroes in the end because of Sephiroth’s transformation.

Angeal notes the following,

“Huh, just like my close childhood friend (Genesis) and Zack….all the kids my age looked up to him then, so that’s why I always thought I’d treat him like a human being…”

Edit: Small translation mistake I may have made, but initially I thought Angeal said that, “He did not want to change his own attitude/way of being” in regards to how he treated Sephiroth. However, it seems my pronouns were misplaced, and Angeal is talking about Sephiroth. He says that he wants to change Sephiroth’s attitude, as in, he wants to turn Sephiroth’s heart back to the way it was.

Cloud says that he himself can’t forgive Sephiroth, but he can’t deny Angeal’s feelings on the matter, and that he understands because of receiving certain thoughts and emotions for the old friends through Zack. Cloud also graciously tells Angeal to not worry telling Zack about how much he is struggling. Cloud will cover for him, and Angeal is grateful.

Cloud then leaves Angeal, who stands and contemplates Sephiroth once again…he thinks to himself,

“Sephiroth…did you come to know of your birth? I had Genesis at that time…but you…”

Sephiroth himself suddenly appears from a portal and begins to battle Angeal. They cross swords in the manner they once did in the training room, which shocks Angeal. He realizes Sephiroth’s fighting style hasn’t changed despite so much time passing, and wonders if they are sharing the same memory.

When they separate, Angeal appeals to Sephiroth’s honor by saying,

“Sephiroth! You surely had your pride and honor as a First….and we’ve both done horrible things, so let’s bear this despair together!”

The fight continues and the others rush to help Angeal. He is still calling to Sephiroth, saying,

“Sephiroth, what is the point in destroying this world? What would be in that for you?? If this is Jenova stealing who you are, then I’ll bring you back!!”

But Sephiroth merely laughs and says,

“I already have your answer. If it’s “me” that is here, then that means I chose it. I didn’t choose you, Angeal. All I need is Cloud. I don’t need you.”

This was a loaded statement, but in summary, Sephiroth is saying that he chose to do what he is doing, where he is appearing, etc..

His will is seemingly one with Jenova’s in this story, and furthermore, he only needs Cloud in order to be rooted to the world.

This calls back to the notion of “As long as Cloud remembers Sephiroth, Sephiroth will exist.”

Cloud and Cloud’s memories are Sephiroth’s link to existence.

He doesn’t “need Angeal” because Angeal is one of Sephiroth’s “inconsequential memories” that he cast into the Lifestream…

The next part is hard to translate, but Zack essentially tells Angeal that the person they are facing is simply not Sephiroth anymore, and is merely wearing his face, in a way. Rufus fully believes that it is Jenova, and that they are the same.

Cloud readies himself to fight and declares that Sephiroth will be stopped, who responds with a taunt like, “Come and try!”

Meanwhile, Angeal is in disbelief. He says,

“Sephiroth…are you….really nowhere (in there)? Did you truly abandon your pride as a human and embrace this power…?”

After the boss fight that takes place here, Sephiroth struggles to hold his ground and angrily declares,

“I’m not going down…”

The group responds with a power-charged Cloud, who receives an energy crystal boost from Rufus.

With his buffed sword, Cloud prepares to end the weakened Sephiroth. He strikes and a bright burst of energy surges forward, but Angeal’s heart gets the better of him.

Angeal rushes forward and jumps in front of Sephiroth, taking the hit for his old friend and falling to the ground in pain.

The others are petrified and Zack runs to Angeal, screaming that,

“Angeal!! It’s not Sephiroth! You know it’s not him!”

Angeal says,

“I know…I understand…Indeed, his form/body may be Jenova’s but his heart and will might still remain…”

With this, Angeal stands and turns to Sephiroth, finally getting his deep regrets out. He says,

“We were the same…and I’m sorry for letting you suffer alone…”

But Sephiroth has no memory of this pain and his old friend. He says he “doesn’t know this unpleasant sight” in reference to Angeal and tries to attack again, but Zack fights him off, saying,

“Sephiroth! I know my words won’t reach you…but listen to Angeal’s calls…don’t leave that to the monster!”

Sephiroth merely brushes Zack off with one of his “puppets and traitors” accusations and vanishes, but before his voice fades entirely….he says,

“You see, Angeal….dreams and honor were fleeting/not enough…”

Angeal gasps in realization and says,

“Sephiroth….so it’s true…”

Sephiroth’s real voice seems to slip through—the angry, hateful part of him that threw away his memories and aligned his will with Jenova’s. The part that rejected mankind willingly and grew cold with fury.

Angeal understands that his old friend’s pride as a human was lost and the Sephiroth he once knew is dead. All that remains is the monster.

Side Notes:

I am working on the third part to cover the third act. So far, it has been denial for Angeal and in this chapter he reached a small form of acceptance at the bitter end. Now he must prepare to fight his friend and say goodbye.

My translations may once again require some edits later, but for now a lot of contextual information has helped them make sense, even if getting them to translate perfectly has been difficult.

Angeal finally is confirmed to be the one that likely influenced Zack to treat Sephiroth as a person, another human, instead of a hero only to be admired. Angeal doesn’t want to abandon this, and clearly Zack tends to feel the same way. Angeal never idolized Sephiroth, but merely saw him as his good friend. Zack followed this example.

Sephiroth doesn’t remember Angeal, or is at least actively suppressing the memories while he tries to eliminate him. However, his agitation is evident, as he cannot fully erase his emotional state. Part of the hatred that keeps his own will alive likely includes anger and feelings of rejection in regards to his old friends. This emotion seems to bleed through his words, whether he realizes it or not.

Angeal would have taken a bullet for Sephiroth. Now we know. This broke my heart. He could have died by absorbing that energy burst from Cloud, but he threw himself in front of his friend anyway, even despite knowing that Sephiroth was not the same. Angeal loved him so much, and his line, “We were the same…I’m sorry for letting you suffer alone” was utterly weighted with regret and pain. These poor boys are killing me 😢😢

I’ll see you guys next time!

#dissidia opera omnia #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #japanese translation #ffvii #crisis core #angeal hewley #sephiroth #zack fair #cloud strife #rufus shinra #genesis rhapsodos #jenova #final fantasy vii

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reinieseason · 7 months

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i’m just gonna inform dump about mariejordan au ideas i have in my head that i don’t remember where they came from they’re probably pulled from other people and my love for other media and so they rattle in my brain

1. fake dating where jordan strikes a deal with marie to have her fake date them to bring their rating up totally not because they want to just date marie but don’t know how

2. marie kills rufus with the cocksplosion because the cocksplosion ends up because a headsplosion in her panic and now with jordan as witness (and arguably accomplice (tag team cocksplosion)) , they have to work together to cover up the murder (kill your gays? no, killing gays)

3. not necessarily an au but marie and jordan sparring, end it with the iconic, chest to chest, on the floor, “i win”, and then boom! make out!

4. godolkin university top 10 trip to europe, marie and jordan get lost and have to make their way back to the group (race against time because they’ll be leaving soon maybe?)

5. super powered baby is lost and now they have to work together to handle this kid with a weird handful of superpowers while trying to find their parents or guardians

6. canon divergence universe wherein marie helps save jordan from luke when he was choking them (or not that depends) vought actually chooses jordan and marie to be the “guardians of godolkin”. now they have to navigate this new world as they’re propelled to heights of popularity. also some fake dating / vought pushing an implied relationship, and then angst it with their notion of what a superhero needs to be comes crashing down and they have to deal with the reality that their dream isn’t what they thought it would be (this is for me who wanted marie to admit in the interview and was so bummed when she didn’t)

7. two professors students TAs like imagine jordan and marie as two TAs with professors that hate eachother but work together and so they have the same feelings of hatred toward the other cuz they’re rivals too idk

8. an alternative universe where marie and jordan are assassins haha either they have to kill each other or they work for the same agency and are forced on a mission together

9. not gonna elaborate but figure skating and hockey idk i have no elaboration for this one it just exists in my brain

10. okay i have a sports au problem i admit it but … hear me out volleyball-

#gen v amazon #gen v #marie moreau #jordan li #marie x jordan

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lunamaraproject · 4 months

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LUNAMARA: Fragments [3]

🦢

“What’re you doing?”

Felix doesn’t startle - Elsie is hardly the most stealthy in her approach. He pulls himself bodily out of the large filing box he was halfway falling into, having to unstick a stray notepaper from his long hair, and turns to smile at the young girl.

He would never call her that out loud, now that she’s reached that particular age where a youngster insists they’re grown enough and hates to be treated like a child. To do so would be inviting her wrath, which in turn would mean Rufus’ wrath, and Felix can’t afford that.

“Sorting through some old historical documents,” Felix replies, holding up a few sheafs of paper. “Though, it hurts my soul a little that items from my youth are now called ‘historical documents’.”

“Well you fought in the war, you must have known you’d be making history,” Elsie says, sitting on the edge of the box in her wide, poofy skirt, quite unlike the typical style of courtly formal wear. Her moonlight silver hair is worn in two buns on either side of her head, which always makes Felix think of those adorable ‘bear’ animals from the surface. He knows that if she let her hair down and dressed appropriately, she’d be the spitting image of her mother the Queen. Perhaps that’s why she never does so.

“Actually, at the time, I was more worried about where the next meal was coming from. We were on the surface, and there’s no manna there, so it was quite nerve wracking,” Felix chuckles, turning the old scraps over in his hands. “And I wasn’t the only one. We don’t have many official documents left from that time, since all of them were digital, and the systems are down or gone now. Mostly just these letters sent to home by soldiers, or other odds and ends.”

“Hmm,” she kicks her feet back and forth, craning her neck to look at what’s in his hand. He shows her, though her face immediately twists in a frown when she realises it’s in Common. He should really teach her how to read it, but they have other priorities than learning nearly-dead languages. “If there was no manna, what did you eat?”

“Surface substances. They grown on the plants, and sometimes it’s the plants themselves. I was somewhat loathe to eat any of the moving, breathing creatures, but the humans weren’t, and nor were most of my comrades by the end of it,” he tucks the sheets into a pocket in his tunic, and glances around the cavernous shelves of the palace archives. “It tasted amazing.”

“Tasted?”

Felix smiles at her, chuckling. “Surely when you were very, very small, someone brought you something from the surface to eat…? Someone devastatingly beautiful…?”

Elsie looks thoughtful, then snaps her fingers in realisation. “Oh, yeah! Cassius brought me that thing! An ah-pull!” “I did! I brought it!” Felix whines miserably, hanging his head by her knees like a forlorn pet. “I can’t believe you forgot my thoughtful gift! My beautiful apple!”

“Oh please, I was like, 25!” Elsie huffs. “How am I going to remember one gift from a century ago!”

Felix clutches his chest. “So cruel! I got that apple from one of the last attempts to reclaim the surface! I almost got chipped! Look!” And he hitches up the edge of his tunic to reveal…

“...I can’t see anything,” Elsie declares, squinting at his thigh.

“There! This hairline fracture!” he pokes pointedly at the thinnest, most nigh-invisible line just above his knee, showing the faintest glimmer of orange fire-opal bright crystal underneath. “Never been the same since!”

When he raises his gaze, he’s met with the patented ‘Totally Over It’ Elsie look. “How can you be so old and such a whiny baby at the same time.”

“Ack! You’re too cold, Princess Elsennae!”

“Ugh, stop! Stars, can you be any more embarrassing?” she shoves his shoulder, though with no real force, and stands up, dusting off her skirts. Certainly, this room isn’t the cleanest. “I’m going back upstairs, come find me if you discover anything actually cool or useful.”

And with that summary end to the conversation, the last of the royal family of Lunamara marches her way out of the archives, leaving Felix in the dark, surrounded only by the history he himself is a part of. He smiles, and tries to remember what an apple tastes like.

Maybe one of the files in here will describe it.

🌗

More from LUNAMARA:

Fragments [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]<-- More every Thursday!

Comic [Prologue]

Art by Luka (http://nousanti.tumblr.com/) Story by Pidge (http://pidgestories.tumblr.com/)

#lunamara #lunamara project #nousanti #pidgestories #artists on tumblr #felix cygnus #princess elsennae

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altocat · 7 months

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Ok, part two of Angeal and Sephiroth Dissidia Angst Chapter, haha.

After Angeal begs Sephiroth to talk to him and explain…Sephiroth remarks that he threw all his unnecessary memories into the Lifestream, and that Angeal is just “noise” to him. He has no memory of what Angeal is referring to—their friendship and all.

Angeal is too wounded to fight anymore, so Sephiroth battles the other characters for a moment and gets his power crystal. He is still upset though, even if he doesn’t realize why and just nopes out of there with his muhaha evil power.

There is a cute Zack and Angeal reunion right after, where Zack notes that Angeal is injured because he protected everyone like usual. Angeal warmly reaffirms Zack, but at once he goes straight back to talking about Sephiroth. He says he needs to follow him because he has so many questions to ask.

The others are worried about Angeal’s wound, but Zack only asks that if he does chase Sephiroth down, Angeal has to bring him along because he doesn’t want to be left behind. Aw.

Cloud interjects though and asks if he can talk to Angeal about the “present Sephiroth.”

We flash forward to a group meeting, and Angeal is STILL saying he needs to find Sephiroth. The others demand he take a moment to rest and heal, and that he shouldn’t take such a huge responsibility on his own shoulders, but Angeal is not having it.

Suddenly, Rufus of all people comments that he thinks he knows what Angeal is thinking about—that he wants to see if “The present Sephiroth is the real Sephiroth and not Jenova.”

Rufus brings up the Reuinion theory and all that, but Angeal actually says that,

“No, that’s Sephiroth…I know it. Someone with a will as strong as his couldn’t fully lose himself, even if he has changed. All his cruelty…it was his will…”

Angeal says this with a very downcast and heartbroken demeanor, like it seriously hurts for him to say that. Somebody asks, “Wait, you know Sephiroth?” and he says,

“He is my best friend. Always has been.”

OUCH.

Vincent actually asks,

“If he had someone like you…why did he end up the way he did?”

Angeal doesn’t reply and I can’t imagine he was feeling anything but guilt in that moment for obvious reasons. Then Cloud remarks,

“Well, Sephiroth did seem upset by Angeal’s question/questions. It’s worth a shot to find him”

So, they all agree to go hunt our silver boi down.

Finally, to close off the angst fest—we have a small scene where Sephiroth is alone with his crystal and is seemingly okay until bam, he gets a wave of memory come over him that causes him to stumble for a minute. He freaks out and that’s where the “Angeal? Genesis??” scene happens. He can’t believe it and starts trying to suppress everything, talking to himself through out.

He says,

“No…what is this memory?? Angeal? Genesis?? Did Angeal bring these back? I thought I threw them into the Lifestream. No, I need to get rid of them. They get in the way of “me.”

“….that’s right…get rid of what you don’t need. We can cut out this one too….that man’s entire existence…yes…”

It really sounds like he does have a fractured consciousness and is talking to different parts of himself/maybe Jenova, but damn…he also is fully being affronted now with his past and it’s obviously messing him up. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thank you for this, Translation-Anon. Thank you so, so much.

I'm in actual agony right now.

#asks #ff7 #ffvii #final fantasy 7 #crisis core #sephcanons #sephiroth #angeal hewley #dissidia opera omnia #I mean FUCK #*heavy breathing*#(It's just a stupid mobile game it can't hurt you)#(((IT CAN)))#genesis rhapsodos

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bloodynereid · 7 months

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Reapers & Ravens

<< prev | chapter v | next >>

pairings: jordan li x oc

tw: mentions of rape (i kept it the same as in the show btw), mentions of experimental pills, erasure of memories, canon typical violence, mentions of sex, mentions of drinking, a whole lot of swearing, death/murder, RUFUS

description: the story of a girl. a girl cursed by compound v to live a life without touch.

a/n: so... this one is slightly lazier than normal sorry about that, my brain is not functioning at it's best right now... so you'll notice that i borrowed a bit more of the show's dialogue/scenes than normal. i'm going to try and be more creative next chapter i swear. hope you enjoy this chapter and lmk ur thoughts <3 asks are always open & lmk if you want to be added to the taglist.

As lightly as I possibly could I pushed Jordan slightly off me and sat up, clutching the sheet to my chest. Okay so never been in this kind of situation. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. Fuck yeah definitely freaking out.

I brought my hand up to my face to examine the diamond casing once again. It wasn’t fading. There was also the foreign feeling of a second power invading my brain. It felt spiky, like walking over pine needles with bare feet. I gently moved my finger over Jordan’s skin. Nothing. I felt actual skin under my nerves. Woah. The familial thrum of my power seemed to be dulled and less… itchy?

As I was examining my hand the door slammed open with a bang and two shocked faces appeared, corresponding to Andre and Cate. I felt Jordan jump up in bed next to me and clutch the sheet to their chest.

“Fuck sorry! Sorry. Wait Vic?”

“Andre! Come on. Sorry about him.” Cate said with an apologetic smile on her face as she shoved Andre away from the door and closed it behind her.

“Uh- wait Vic? What the fuck happened to your skin?” Jordan asked as she turned to me and looked at me all strangely.

“I have no idea! Look, touch me.”

“Uh, I don't think that’s a good idea.”

“Oh don’t worry I’m not going to absorb you. Here.” I offered my forearm to them and she just raised her eyebrows before slightly poking the casing with their finger.

“Woah.”

“I know right!” I said giddily and smiled up at them.

“Uh, we should probably get changed.”

“Right yup.” I turned my back to them before hearing her also shuffling in the bed. Wait… I had been so caught up with this whole weird skin deal that I didn’t realize I have no idea how I got here. I can’t even remember if I slept with Jordan or not… I mean that one is self explanatory actually.

As I felt the fear and worry start to creep up on me I also felt the tingly feeling in my brain recede and the familiar signature of my power starting to take over. Shit what had I done to keep this power this long? Wait, how did I know I could do this? The… uh something to do with Cate and Luke? Who’s Luke? I rubbed my temple with my now very normal skin.

What the fuck was going on?

“Hey Vic I think- woah what did you do to your skin?” I slightly turned to see that Jordan was now fully dressed and was holding my pair of leather gloves in their hand. She had a slightly horrified look on her face and I looked down to my hand to confirm their suspicions. The power had faded and now I could just feel glimmers of it in my brain.

“Oh, I think the power faded.”

“Huh?”

“Honestly no fucking idea. Could you pass me my shirt from over there?” I asked, pointing to the white long sleeve shirt I don’t even remember putting on.

“Yup sure.” They tossed it over to me and I sent her a grateful smile before turning back around and resuming my silent freakout.

“Uh, Jordan?”

“Yup?”

“Not to be awkward or anything but I don’t remember anything from last night.”

“Oh thank god. I don’t either.”

“Really?”

“Yes really.”

“I’m not going insane then?”

“Not unless we are both going crazy.”

“I guess we uh.” I shift my gaze back to the bed and look back at them with a smile growing on my face. A similar little smile blooms on theirs when she catches my eyes again.

“Yeah.”

I picked my way through mounds of discarded things from the party. After getting changed and having a kind of awkward goodbye with Jordan, I was trying (and failing) to find Gemma. If she even was at this party. God, how much did I have to drink last night?

Not finding Gemma anywhere I decided that the next best thing was to try and find Emma or Marie. The crisp September air bit at my exposed cheeks as I ran my hand through my messy hair. Everything seemed to be overloading my senses but strangely enough my powers were almost tamed. They weren’t desperately seeking out life forces like they usually did. Huh.

“Holy fuck Emma?” I exclaimed when I ran over to where Marie was staring similarly astonished at a, well, giant Emma who was covered by a tarp in the pool.

“Heyyy Vic.”

“Are you okay…?”

“Huh oh fine. Just need to find a place to puke.” I turned so I was staring at Marie and shrugged my shoulders.

“I think I have an idea.”

After getting Emma to a relatively normal size and getting her all cleaned up, with a bunch of random clothes and stuff we found lying around, we started scrolling through TikTok. Well Emma did most of the scrolling since my phone seemed to have disappeared from existence.

“Oh my god! You kissed Jordan!”

“Right yup.”

“And you didn’t tell us?” Marie exclaimed in an overly dramatized offended tone. Emma had a similar look of exaggerated betrayal all over her face before we all dissolved into laughter.

“Fuck off, as you’ve seen we were a little busy. And where were you last night huh Marie?”

“I was about to ask the same question.” Emma and I both stare Marie down with some of the most intense stares we can muster.

“Not answering that question.”

“Aww come on.” Emma continued scrolling as I leaned over the side of the couch, stretching my arms and making the vertebrae in my spine crack.

“Oh… shit.” I look over to where Emma had another TikTok on except this one was of her… naked. Chugging beer.

“At least you’re… trending.” Marie said in a gentle tone, trying to comfort Emma.

“For flashing my giant white ass to the world.”

“Did you know… that you could like do that?” I asked as I started picking at the clasp of my gloves. I was starting to feel restless and fidgety, something was off. It was like my power was trying to speak to me.

“Yeah I was wondering the same thing.”

“Oh uh yeah ever since the Buster Beaver incident.”

“The what? You know what, that's none of my business.”

“Trust me you do not want to know. My mom called me a monster and then made me swear to never do it again… which is why this is going straight to voicemail.” Emma answered as she held up her ringing phone and pressed decline.

“That’s really fucked Emma, I’m sorry.” I said as I leaned in and rubbed her forearm. “Welcome to the horrible parents club.” I added as she just rolled her eyes playfully and smacked my hand away. Then we proceeded to try and coerce Marie into telling us what she did last night but she quickly refuted any and all advances.

“Emma!”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” I exclaimed as I jumped slightly from my seat, in the window to the porch thing stood someone who felt vaguely familiar. He had curly brown hair and was wearing a gray jumpsuit.

“Are- are you okay?” He stuttered out before he went around the window and into the little enclosed area we were all sitting- well I was sitting in, Emma and Marie both jumped up when they realized he was coming in.

“I was totally out of line and I’m so sorry that I left, especially after you literally stopped me from doing something absolutely horrible. I-I’m fine now though, and I know this sounds kind of creepy but I was so happy to smell your vomit because it meant you got away-” He stopped in the middle of his rant when he realized that none of us had a single inkling about what he was talking about.

I felt like I could trust him though so when his gaze shifted from Emma to me, I gave him a little smile which he must have taken as an invitation that I remembered him.

“Vic? You know who I am right? We spent months together, I literally saw you last night.”

“Months? Look umm dude, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t remember you at all.”

“Vic? Emma? It’s me, Sam. From Th- The Woods. You saved me.”

“Look, Sam, hey. That’s your name right? Maybe you saw us on the news, TikTok or something? Right?” Marie said, as calmly as she possibly could even though her undertone was very clearly ‘I AM SEVERELY FREAKED OUT RIGHT NOW.’

“TikTok?”

“You don’t actually know us.”

“Marie… I don’t think that’s totally true.”

“What?” Everyone turned to look at me with wide eyes, except for Sam who actually looked grateful.

“I don’t know about you two but there’s definitely something there.”

“They got to you, they made you forget.” Sam exclaimed as realization enveloped his face, but now it was my turn to be confused.

“Who are they?”

“Sam, are you running from someone? Is someone after you?” Emma asked cautiously.

“There are people at that school. People that don’t want you to know about me or the truth and you can’t trust anyone.” Why did I have a feeling that I have had this conversation before? Something was definitely up and it wasn’t a hangover.

“But we can trust you…?” I heard Marie ask incredulously.

“No, no you’re right. I’ll figure out a way for you to remember.”

“Remember what?”

“That you’re a hero. A real one.” Sam said to Emma before he disappeared as quickly as he came back in.

“Well that was fucking crazy.” Marie uttered into the now nearly silent room.

“Definitely. He’s kind of cute though.”

“You guys ready to head out then?” Marie asked as she started gathering her stuff from around the room.

“Uh not yet, you guys go ahead. I have to go find my phone.”

“Ok cool. Byeee.” They both called out as they made their way around the house and I just started looking under random piles that kind of smelt. Ugh.

The whole room contained multiple phones but none of them were mine. Fuck! I then decided to continue my search out in the woods… maybe that’s what that Sam guy was talking about. The minutes dragged on and still I couldn’t find anything. I mean it was quite literally near impossible to find- wait.

Behind what looked like a bush were a pair of sneakers sticking out, kind of like if the Wicked Witch of the East wore Converse and my phone was lying right next to one of the shoes. Ok so that’s fucking weird. I quickly jogged over, grabbed my phone and was about to turn to go when I caught a weird sparkle in the corner of my eye.

Turning around I crouched down next to the body which I had just assumed was some drunk dude who had crashed after the party. What I didn’t expect was that the man was not only not breathing but also covered in the same diamond shell that had covered my body just an hour ago.

Shit. Not again. How the fuck did I even do that? Goddammit. I pull out my phone and start dialing the number of the “clean-up” crew my dad had given me.

“Hi? Is this Bob?”

“Yes, how can we help you today?”

“There’s a mess outside of Dusty Warren’s house near Godolkin University.”

“Very well, Miss. The mess should be taken care of in the next few hours.”

“Wonderful. Thank you.”

“Of course.” The line clicks off and I take a deep breath in before my phone starts vibrating in my hand, making my already seared nerves jump.

I quickly tap the accept call button and Jordan’s voice fills my ear as I start trekking back to the house. Leaving the body with an anxious look behind me.

“Yes you answered! You found your phone then?”

“Yup, anything you need?”

“Yeah we figured something out, just wondering where you had disappeared off to.”

“Aww you don’t have to worry about me.”

“I’ll always worry about you, sweetheart.” The pet name made stupid little butterflies explode in my stomach, especially when it was said in that tone of voice.

“Flirt.” I laugh out when I suddenly spot the group all gathered, looking all serious about something. “Hey you guys.” I said as I stopped the call and everyone turned to look at me.

“Vic! I’m in awe that you’re still standing up.”

“Hey Dusty! Good to see you man.”

“You too, I’ll leave you all to it.”

“How do you know Dusty?” Andre asked as I walked over to stand next to Jordan, who looked at me with their sparkling eyes and a charming smile.

“Connections.”

“Right…”

“So what exactly have you found out?” I asked as I swapped Jordan’s drink from his hand and took a sip as they looked at me mockingly offended.

“You blacked out last night right?”

“Yup… and this has to do with what?”

“Well we all blacked out, and not just last night but the past few days as well.”

“Fuck you’re right! I literally know all of these random things but I don’t know how I got to knowing them.”

“Exactly! And look what I found.” Cate held up her phone and showed us the video of the creepy guy from…

“Isn’t that Rufus?” I asked and looked closer at the phone screen. “The dick explosion dude?” I turned to Marie who had a slightly sheepish look on her face.

“Yeah.”

“Well it’s not like he didn’t deserve it. So what’s our plan?” I say as I rub Marie’s shoulder through her shirt, she gives me a grateful smile as we make our way to the variety of chairs littering the back patio.

“Nothing really, just find the fucker and…” Jordan said as they settled down next to me on the couch.

“I- uh met him in Intro to Psych. He said he liked my gloves and… I woke up three days later in a random bed with a camera pointed at me. He saw I was awake, smiled and said: ‘Make this weird and I’ll wipe you again.’” My heart fell, of course I had had my handful of experiences with men like Rufus, as many people have but those were times that my powers protected me. God Cate.

“Holy fucking shit. Cate, did you tell anybody?” Marie asked as I saw Jordan’s hands tighten into fists on their jeans, quietly I slipped one of my hands to entwine our fingers. They rewarded me with a squeeze back and I zoned back into the conversation.

“... Rufus had me on tape consenting. It doesn’t matter, I don’t even remember it so…” I saw a few tears start coming down Cate’s face and I felt that I could fucking kill that bastard in that very moment.

“Your body fucking remembers.”

“Are you okay?” I asked as I titled my head to look at Cate more directly. Her eyes looked void, like all emotion surrounding the situation was being pushed down.

“I should have known better… and now I do. This is exactly what he does.”

“I get that he’s coming back for me for revenge but what about you guys?”

“I mean we did help…” I said as I motioned between me and Jordan, before turning to look at… Andre who wasn’t in his chair anymore.

“Where’s Andre?” Jordan asked.

“Oh shit he’s going to kill Rufus.”

“I say we let him.”

“Vic!”

“What?”

“So look I know we kind of well you know.” I smirked mischievously at Jordan as the sunlight hit their stuttering face just right. Even in the current situation he always made me feel all sparkly? Yeah, sparkly.

“You mean the fact that you said you wanted to kiss me and then we slept together?”

“Uh yeah. All I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to make this weird.”

“What do you mean by making it weird?” I asked as the smile dropped from my face. Oh no.

“Well we were high and the douchebag totally mindfucked with us.” Oh so they’re breaking up - wait no that isn’t the right word for it. We were barely in any kind of relationship!

“No god you’re totally right. Wait… that’s Rufus right? Is he talking to the dean?” I felt a strange scratching in my left shoulder, one that definitely wasn’t associated with my power because that was mostly hyperactive in my hands at the moment. Weird.

“We should go talk to her right… explain the situation?”

“Jordan, I don’t think we should talk to Shetty.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a feeling okay? Shit.” I look down at my phone and see the familiar digits of the clean up crew. I spy Marie walking over to us and look at Jordan apologetically. “Look, why don’t you go to him with Marie, I have something I need to take care of.”

“You okay?” Jordan asked as they eyed my phone, I quickly hid the screen and smiled tightly. Today was not my day. Honestly, this week has not been my week.

“Yeah. See you in a bit? I was going to hang out with Cate later if you want you to join?” If they were going to friendzone me at least I’ll be nice about it.

“Oh sure.”

“Cool bye.” I turn and start jogging over to one of the secluded shadowed corners of the building, but not before I hear Jordan uttering a string of curses before waving Marie down.

“Yes?”

“It’s done. Payment can be sent to the established Venmo.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you.” The line clicks off and I start figuring out the charges with a sigh. I wish things were different.

I walk into my dorm room with a defeated goran and sink down into Gemma’s bean bag as she looks up from where she was doing her nails.

“Finally. I thought you died or something.”

“Why didn’t you text me?”

“Because I knew you lost your phone after you went all diamondy.” She said as I cracked open my eyelids to look at her now black hair.

“Your hair?”

“Yeah I change it a lot, you should probably get used to that.”

“Honestly I think any hair you choose would look good on you.”

“Aww thank you. So how was your night?”

“You didn’t stay?”

“Nah, parties are like my thing usually but with the whole Emma thing I’ve kind of been exhausted.”

“Wait what Emma thing?”

“Uh I actually have no idea. Wait, I wanted to ask about that. Do you also have weird ass gaps in your memory?” She asks as she brings up her hand to scratch at her left shoulder.

“Yeah we all do.”

“We as in…”

“Cate, Jordan, Andre, Marie and Emma. We think it was Rufus.”

“Eww that guy?”

“Yeah that guy.”

“Fucking hell.”

“So… I thought you should know that I slept with Jordan.”

“WHAT?” I jumped from her insanely loud shriek and let out a laugh when my heart beat went back to normal.

“Yeah… but then they kind of got all friendzoney with me this morning. I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, do you like them?”

“Yes, of course I do. They’re like my first actual crush in a while, but now I’m thinking that maybe it’s about my powers. Like what if they don’t want to be with me cause I might accidentally kill them? We also can’t really do physical intimacy! I have no idea how I did that last night.”

“Woah, that’s a lot and maybe you should unpack some of that in therapy but did you ever think that maybe it’s also something that they are dealing with. Have you explicitly told them that you like them?”

“Well not really. I did tell them that I really wanted to kiss them though.”

“Jesus Christ, Jordan isn’t a mind reader! At least I don’t think they are, you never really know with supes. Anyway… what I mean is that you need to tell them or else how will you ever get out of whatever situationship you currently have going on.”

“God Gem you’re literally the best. Thank you.”

“Of course! That’s what best friends are for. Plus I’m just that great.”

“Yeah you are.”

I sat cuddled up next to Cate under a mound of blankets as we watched some of Soldier Boy’s old movies. It was nice to just have a moment to stop in the midst of all this fucking chaos.

“Ok you have to say, even if he did kill Queen Maeve, Soldier Boy is one fine ass man.” Cate said as she took a sip of the wine bottle we were passing between us.

“Yes, thank you, someone agrees!. I mean those muscles and that face.”

“I know right. I’m so glad Andre and Jordan aren’t here to hear us right now.” We burst out laughing and focused back on the movie when the door was harshly pulled open and I looked back to see Marie with a frantic look painted all over her face.

“Cate? Vic? Do you know where Andre is?”

“Marie? Holy fuck are you okay? Here come in.” Cate said as she jumped up from her seat and I picked up to pause the remote on the interrogation scene. The door closed behind Marie and I joined the pair after pushing off all the blankets. That’s when I noticed it. There was blood coming down from near Marie’s collarbone.

“I am not okay. Everything has gone to hell! I know how this sounds but… they put trackers in us.” Marie’s distressed voice dropped to a whisper at the end of her statement.

“What the fuck do you mean trackers?” I asked as I subconsciously brought my hand up to my left collarbone.

“Here, sit down. Who the fuck is they? Did Sam come back?” Cate asked as Marie sat down on one of the black cushioned chairs. My head was spinning, something felt way too familiar, almost as if this situation had happened before. Trackers?

“I- I don’t know but…” Marie opened up her hand and in her palm, in a pool of blood laid the tracker. All broken but very recognizably a tracker. Jesus Christ.

“This was in my neck.”

“Oh my god.” Fuck the room was starting to wobble, my power was thrumming in warning. Something was really, really wrong.

“I think this is way bigger than what we thought it was, I think something really fucked happened to us and now… I think Dean Shetty is a part of it.”

“Do I have one too?” Cate asked frantically as she pulled her hair back. Marie extended her arm and started to do whatever she could do with her powers. I was so focused on my own thrumming in my brain that I didn’t notice when Cate enveloped Marie’s forearm with her hand and put her other hand on my cheek. Instead of human skin I felt her power coursing through her, my own was trying to fight against it but it strangely surrendered.

I felt so damn weak, my eyelids fluttered close and I let out a harsh breath before feeling myself collapse. Fuck.

I blinked my eyes open as a yawn left my mouth. The side of my head was nuzzled against Cate’s shoulder and I saw the end credits rolling on Red Thunder.

“Hey you’re awake.”

“Shit I’m sorry I fell asleep on you.”

“Oh don’t worry about it. How are you feeling?”

“Fine, much more relaxed. I can’t believe I didn’t finish the movie though.”

“Eh, even if Soldier Boy is hot, he’s not the greatest actor.”

“Agreed. I’ve got to go meet Jordan but I’ll see you later?”

“Of course.” A sad smile blossomed on Cate’s face that made me furrow my eyebrows.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, fine. I promised to go see Andre so…”

“Oh yeah I’ll leave. Thanks for the movie and nap Cate!” I said as I started exiting into the hallway.

“Anytime.” I smiled and waved as the door shut behind me and I turned to go down the hallway when I realized Jordan popped up from their seat on the floor and smiled over at me.

“Hi.”

“Hi. You really didn’t have to wait for me.”

“What? Of course I did. Plus I was having a good conversation with Maverick.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah.”

“So… I know I said that this whole thing was sort of a big misunderstanding but I was wrong and I would really love to-”

“Wait, backup a minute Jordan. When did we talk about this?”

“What do you mean? When we were looking for Rufus and you had to take a phone call?”

“What phone call? And Rufus?”

“Holy fuck, he fucking wiped you again.”

“Did what again?”

“I’m going to murder that motherfucker.”

“Woah Jordan, not that I’m always willing to help with any murderous tendencies that you may be harboring but what are you talking about?”

“Do you remember today at all?”

“Uh I mean I remember- what the fuck? I remember bits but…”

“Yeah, that's what I thought.” She started walking off down the hallway as I stood there baffled. My power thrummed in warning.

“Wait! Jordan. I’m coming with you.”

We were back at Dusty’s house. This day was feeling really fucking off and strangely cyclical. I followed behind Jordan and was busy texting everyone after Marie had joined our little expedition and somehow took out fucking trackers from our collarbones. When we got to the double set of doors, Jordan, very hotly, pushed through them and strode into the room.

“Rufus… time for a chat.” Marie and I followed behind Jordan and saw a rather terrified looking Rufus standing with a can of something and a slice of pizza in his hands.

“Look I haven’t done shit! Why the fuck do you guys keep stalking me?” Then Rufus decided to do the idiotic thing and tried to start running, Jordan created a force blast that sent him into the wall and Marie pulled him towards us. I started taking off my gloves and crouched down next to him… but not too close, didn’t want to get affected by his fucking pheromones or whatever.

“Hi there Rufus. I heard you decided to fucking wipe me again, which is honestly not a very nice thing to do. So if you don’t mind please answer Jordan’s questions or you will die a slow and painful death as I suck out the living energy out of every single one of your tiny cells one by one.” I said with a saccharine voice and a smirk on my face.

“Why did you wipe Vic and Marie again?” Jordan asked from behind me.

“Ok Jesus, fine, you crazy fucking bitch.”

“Wrong answer.” I start to inch my fingers closer to his face as his eyes grow wider and wider.

“Sorry! Oh god please don’t kill me. I swear I have been here all night, I have no idea how I would have had time to wipe you. My powers involve being close. Please, I swear on my life. Look Dusty! Ask him.” I looked up to see that Dusty was doing a hit of some kind of powder.

“Yeah man, I mean I’m pretty hopped up right now but that seems about right.”

“Fine, that just means I don’t get to kill you tonight.” I said as I stood back up and walked over to Jordan and Marie, who had mirroring looks of awe and in Jordan’s case, maybe a little bit of lust.

“That doesn’t mean you’re innocent though.” Jordan said as she held up the little device we each had in us.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It was implanted in our fucking necks!” We then heard vibrating from Marie’s phone and the second I turn to look at her, I hear Jordan shift behind me and push Rufus back into the fucking wall before ambling towards him.

“Ok wait a second. Jordan chill. Let me do this.” I said as I grabbed the arm of their coat and once seeing his nod, I turned towards Rufus and narrowed my eyes. I lean my hand towards his neck as he tried to get away when-

“It’s not him! It’s Cate.” I pull my hand away from Rufus and look over to Marie who was holding up her phone like a lifeline. Just as I was about to open my mouth to respond a loud bang was heard and a beer cask was thrown through the door and into Rufus. Following the metal cask Andre stormed into the room, making his way directly towards Rufus.

“Andre! Andre!”

“Calm down.”

“Wait, wait, wait.”

“Move the scumbag is mine.” Andre starts throwing a pair of gardening shears towards Rufus as we all try to run in front of him to make him stop.

“It was Cate!” Marie screams, making Andre stop in his tracks and look at us incredulously.

“Bullshit. Cate would never do something like that, she’s not a monster.” He sends a trowel this time and I’m almost tempted to reach out to stop him when I realize I had abandoned my gloves on the carpeted floor.

With so much temptation my power was itching like crazy under my skin, I knew I didn’t have the pills on me since I had left them on my bedside table after taking them a few hours ago. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Andre, they're right.” Cate’s soft voice echoes through the room as we all turn to look at her as she steps through the rubble. Andre has his arm outstretched as he holds a shovel close to Rufus’ throat.

“What?” Andre drops the shovel with a metallic bang and looks back at Cate.

“I’ve only ever wanted to help and protect you, I just wanted to make things better.” She smoothes her hands over Andre’s temples and they stay there for a few seconds before Andre stumbles back and looks at Cate with utmost betrayal.

“Andre, please you have to understand-”

“You are a fucking monster.”

Jordan puts an arm around my shoulders as we watch Andre walk away as Cate stands there crying. My power echoes in warning. Fuck. What did she do to us?

A few hours earlier…

“I want the girl. Marie. She doesn’t know the full scope of her powers yet.”

“You aren’t the only one interested in her, you know? She has a benefactor, which means she is off limits to you.” Shetty starts to walk away from Cardosa when his second request makes her stop.

“What about Victoria? I never finished with her.”

“Huh now that…”

The conversing voices fade into whispers as the sounds of crying and screaming intensify.

this is really not my best work UGH i apologize. also i barely edited this so if there are spelling mistakes pls lmk i will be eternally grateful

taglist: @neapolitantoebeans @scorchedfangirl @losers-club6 @vvyuqi @bubblebuttwade @fix5idiots @ponypickle @nellyboosworld

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whump-in-the-closet · 3 months

Text

A Good Day

this has been in my drafts for ages so voila

cw: messed up superhero agency and what happens to those who don't make it through training, minor whump (implied), crying in the backseat of a car, mostly just introductions to the characters, which are two brothers who've adopted this ex-hero-who-ran-from-training and the agency will do anything to get him back, also angst and scarring

____

Today is going to be a good day.

Teddy digs a hand into the cracked leather of the armrest, picking at the plush inside. He watches the blurring sky from the car window.

He needs it to be a good day.

On the radio, a song he doesn’t know is playing. The volume is set far too high. It’s blasting a hole through his head and he reaches over to turn it off, but stops when he realizes the teenager in the backseat mouthing along with the words.

If only excitement was infectious.

All Teddy can feel is panic. Today is going to be good. It’s going to be great…going to be good….

He sinks back into the seat, pulling the plush completely out of the armrest. He rips it into smaller and smaller pieces. Finding something to direct his growing anxiety on helps, a little.

The car slows at a stoplight, and his brother checks on him. “Teddy?”

Teddy waits, drawing the moment out until the light turns green and Elias has to keep his eyes on the road again. He brushes the last of the plush off his pants. “I'm good?” It comes out all wrong, like a question.

Any confidence he had earlier leaves then and now. Teddy picks the plush up from the floor of the car and starts to tear at it again. He keeps his eyes steadily on the window, watching the buildings fly past.

Billboards.

People.

So many people.

Elias lowers the music. “You want to do this,” he repeats, confident “You’ve only been talking about it for the past three months.”

Teddy finds an unshredded piece of plush and rips it with a vicious twist of his fingers. “This was a bad idea...I’m not good enough.”

Shit.

He hadn’t meant to say that aloud.

Elias turns the radio off. Click.

Shit.

“I think you’re good enough,” he says.

Cut out the emotional sap.

But Elias goes on. “The Glenn Symphony won’t even wait until the end of the audition to hire you.”

“There’s tryouts after the audition too. Another round.” Teddy points out, vindication sharp in his mouth.

Elias lifts a hand off the wheel to wave his brother's concerns aside. “Which you’ll do amazing at. Don’t shake your head at me– Stop– you’re going to blow them away. You’ll go into one of your little trances and you’ll forget there are people even watching.”

Teddy’s fingers still. “I don’t go into a trance.” He just forgets about everything and everyone around him and it’s just the music– just the music— all around him, until he sees the notes playing under his eyelids….

“You’re going to do great.”

The banter goes on, and on, until the nervousness seeps out of Teddy’s voice. He smiles as the back-and-forth continues.

In the backseat, the kid laughs brightly, his voice charred and raspy enough to sound burned.

He talks in a slow cadence, testing the words before he says them. “I’m getting deja vu. But,” he points at Teddy and Elias, “the roles were switched.” Dark hair falls into his eyes as he leans forward between the seats.

“Yeah, I thought I would be sick at my audition.” Elias pauses for breath, then dives back into the conversation, “And Teddy, told me ‘you’re gonna be fine’. And? You were right.”

Rufus-- the teenager--jabs Teddy in the shoulder. “Your audition is going to go just as well.”

Elias turns again. “You tell him, Rufus.”

Teddy sighs. “If you guys say so.” He doesn’t sound convinced.

He doesn't feel convinced.

He doesn't want to be convinced.

“Good," says Elias, "Because we’re here.”

Teddy’s stomach drops as the car pulls into the parking spot. With the jolt of the stop, Teddy’s stomach drops even further. He freezes over his seatbelt, catching sight of the massive Art Center.

“Can we go in with you?”

Teddy wishes his brother could come. But the restrictions said only the applicant could meet the audition committee, so he shakes his head and unbuckles his seatbelt.

“I’ll see you in half an hour?”

Teddy nods. “Half an hour.” He shuts the car door behind him and stares up at the glass pillars of the entrance. The world seems to spin, for a moment. Unconsciously, he fidgets with his tie and buttons his suit jacket. Then his gaze is pulled to a billboard stationed above the building.

A girl with a halo of pink hair surveys a depiction of the city from the sky, stars swirling at her feet. Her skin bleeds into the night around her. Her eyes are alight with white flames.

Guardian Angel, they call her.

Protector of cities.

She’s a hero, a legend, a god.

Above her are the words: Savior. The heroes of tomorrow, today.

Teddy looks away, at the car, as it pulls out of the parking lot.

The Guardian’s eyes don’t leave him until he’s inside. Even then, he can feel them boring into the back of his head. They don’t leave him as he shakes hands with the audition committee. He can still feel them when he wipes his sweaty palms on his pant leg. Only when he sits down at the piano, with the black and white keys shining up at him, do the eyes of flame fade from his memory.

The half hour goes by in a blur.

The piece he’s memorized for this audition is his personal favorite. As he plays, all else drains away. He’s not on a stage anymore, he’s back in the apartment, and there’s no one watching him.

He feels good.

The nervousness vanishes.

Stage lights are blinding but the music drowns it out. He’s doing well, he knows it. The piano is deeper than his own and he is able to bring out sounds he could never replicate again.

He smiles, leaning over the piano, acutely aware of the tension in his hands as he holds a long chord, and playing the melody faster.

Just a little faster than the four four time required.

It feels so good.

Teddy finishes and stands. The committee promises that the callbacks will be within the week, and a few smile.

He smiles back, fidgeting with his tie. The music is gone, replaced with uncomfortable small talk. Teddy nods, and says thank you so many times, he thinks he’ll be unable to say anything else the rest of the day. He’s saved by a text from Elias and it takes all of his self control to not run from the building.

Teddy doesn’t look at the billboard, in fact, he does his best to forget it's there. He gets in the car, keeping his back to it.

Elias pulls down his sunglasses. “The piano man survived!”

Rufus leans forward, shoving the last bit of an ice cream sandwich into his mouth. “How’d you do?” At least that's what it sounds like. Teddy can’t exactly tell– Rufus’s mouth is completely full.

Teddy laughs. He can’t help it. It’s over, and he’s out of the auditorium, and as Elias drives forward, the billboard is gone.

Teddy pulls off his tie completely and lets it fall to the floor. “I survived, yeah. I think it went well.” He’s distracted by the assortment of wrappers on the floor. “Did you guys get me any ice cream?”

Rufus hands him a bar.

The taste of chocolate and vanilla pushes away the last remnants of the burning eyes.

He leans back in his seat, sunlight playing across the bridge of his nose.

Some of the vanilla trickles over his hand, sticky.

Even stickier when he licks it off.

It’s melting all over his hand when he hears the sirens.

Loud and shrill enough to cut through metal. The sun is still bright, but the temperature drops all the same.

Police cars have surrounded a house set by the road. Their lights flash red and blue and red again, bright enough to blind the whole street. Someone is dragged out of the house, the door hanging slightly off its hinges.

It’s kicked and the door falls off completely, slamming into the porch.

Someone is shouting– cursing. Cursing Savior. It’s loud enough to be heard over the sirens.

Elias’s hands clench over the wheel and in the backseat, Rufus turns to stone, silence creeping up and strangling all three of them.

“Get in the backseat with Rufus.” Now. Before they see him.

Teddy says nothing and crawls over as quickly as possible. He moves to sit on the side closest to the window, shielding Rufus with his own profile.

Elias speeds up.

Rufus is trembling as Teddy wraps his arms around him, pulling him close. Dark braids shield his eyes but he’s whispering something over and over again.

Rufus, who had been laughing and joking not a moment before, presses shaking hands together. He buries his face into Teddy’s shirt, and Teddy brushes back his hair, holding him tight. The word Rufus whispers is a plea.

All it takes is a moment for the day to fall apart.

One moment.

“Please please please please–”

They’ve driven past the house, but Rufus continues to tremble. And beg.

The begging is worse than anything.

Vanilla and chocolate drip over the leather seats.

Savior. The heroes of tomorrow, today.

#whump #whump writing #angst #whumpblr #whump community #troy talks #whump scenario #hero whump #mostly just thoughts and plot #teddy is a musician and elias is a dancer #guess whats going to happen to them #they're going to lose the most fundamental aspects of their personalitiessss #oh teddy likes to play piano? good luck with broken fingers #>:)

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radiostranger · 2 months

Text

supernatural finale first time watch thoughts:

THE DOG IS BACK YES

sam would be a jogger idk it makes so much sense

“HOT! bread”

dean is so me attempting to clean

honestly i could watch a whole season of this domestic shit just add castiel back in and id be content

no dean. don’t “got something”please don’t “got something”

oh it’s a pie fest. carry on (badum ch)

cas mention :’)

oh no it’s the barn i know what’s coming i hate it dean pls drive away

and you know what?? WHAT IF THAT NINJA STAR HAD SAVED DEANS LIFE SAM HM?? LET HIM HAVE HIS NINJA STAR

this looks like the lazarus rising barn🤧

i see the rusty nail i see it and i hate it

who the fuck is jenny

oh no here it comes

“i always looked up to you” “i’m so proud of you” “i cant do this without you. i don’t want to” and what if i spontaneously combusted rn hm? what then?

i hate this show. no one look at me.

is rufus married to …. aretha… franklin ?? am i dumb or is that what they were insinuating

CAS HELPED ??? CAS. HELPED????? IS HE ALIVE ??? HOW DID HE GET OUT OF THE EMPTY I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

THE ORIGINAL LICENSE PLATE

the blurry woman™️ is eileen bc i said so. them not showing her at all in the last two episodes was cruel

WHAT TUE FUCK IS THAT WIG

i deserve reimbursement for having to watch that

oh what hi jensen and jared and crew 🤠

andddd cut :(

final thoughts: okay as much as i don’t love that ending and it felt kinda cheap and not great writing wise it’s not assssss awful as i expected from the way people talk about it but also i don’t have the background of watching the show for 15 years. plus i knew most of the spoilers so it’s hard to say what i actually would have thought if i saw it the way intended. main takeaways:

1. wtf did castiel not show up in heaven hm ??

2. i’m pissed they didn’t include at least a tiny mention of eileen :( all that set up for her and sam relationship just for her to die, presumably be brought back to life but not even mentioned??

3. i need fix it fics. immediately.

#supernatural #spn #dean winchester #spn fandom #castiel #sam winchester #spn finale #supernatural finale

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mariejordans · 6 months

Note

No, but honestly, people keep saying that Cate forced them to do things or forced their behavior at the party, and that's not a thing I saw happen. I didn't even see the notion of it happening. The closest thing to that happening was Jordan saying that they weren't acting like themselves because they got mind raped, and that is not a confirmation. Especially considering that we've seen Jordan presume things.

Cate doesn't start forcing them until she takes her dark turn, and unless they give me some receipts, that's what I'm sticking with, because that's what I saw.

exactly bc if cate really had compelled them into doing drugs and hooking up at the party, don’t you think the writers would’ve thought to mention that in the text? like they went out of their way to explicitly state that cate wiped their memories, it makes no sense that they would just gloss over and not even mention it if she had forced them into doing all that shit at the party.

to me, jordan saying all the stuff about being “mind-raped” and not acting like themselves to marie was a defense mechanism. they were still unsure and insecure about where they stood with marie and if she was comfortable being with them in both genders. they were trying to give marie an out and trying to protect their own feelings by essentially “rejecting” marie first.

also, at the time when jordan used that phrase, they were both convinced that rufus was the mind wiper, and compelling two people to hookup for his own amusement is something rufus would absolutely do! he has canonically sexually assaulted, or attempted, two girls on campus, probably more, it makes sense that jordan would assume that’s what happened. bc, to jordan at that time, that is more believable than marie willingly being attracted to both of jordan’s genders.

honestly, this all just comes down to people wanting further reason to hate cate. which, idk why, considering i feel like there’s plenty of other things you could go after her for. personally, they could never make me hate cate. she’s done some terrible things and i’m not trying to defend that, but she’s such a compelling and interesting morally grey villainess that i have to stan. the cunt factor alone is enough for me to like her honestly, so i’m so there for her villain arc idk…

#also slightly off topic but i need ppl to stop comparing cate to hl she is nowhere NEAR the levels of evil that man is #gen v #gen v asks #gen v rambles #cate dunlap #marie moreau #jordan li #limoreau

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holylulusworld · 1 year

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Girls like us

Summary: Trusting people is not your strong suit.

Pairing: Dean Winchester x fem!Reader

Warnings: angst, language, mentions of a shitty father, fluff

A/N: Loosely inspired by Zoe Wees’ “Girls like us”

Divider by @firefly-graphics

“It feels like I am an ant, and they are burning me with a magnifying glass. Every time I feel like people judge me for my appearance, my clothes, the way I talk...simply everything about me,” you’re fidgeting in your seat, nervous to tell the therapist about all the things keeping you from opening up to people.

“Why’s that?” the therapist asks. “Can you tell me more about it?”

“Maybe it’s because I never was one of the pretty and popular girls. You know, it’s hard if you don’t fit in. Judging looks, hushed words. Little giggles. I know all the signs of rejection.”

You bite your lower lip, chewing on it. “What can you tell me about your childhood?” she asks, tapping the end of her pen. “Y/N we wanted, to be honest, didn’t we.” She points out as you try to avoid talking about your past. “I can’t help you if you don’t open up to me.”

“My dad was absent most of the time,” you shrug. “Mom worked her ass off to make sure I and my siblings won’t starve. She was tough in her way. I admired her for being a father and a mother to me and my siblings.”

You run your fingertips over one of the scars on your arm. It calms you.

“What can you tell me about your father? Why was he away so often?”

“He traveled a lot for his…job,” looking at your shoes you try to find a way to not tell her about your father’s possessiveness or that he couldn’t keep a job to save his life. Not that he tried, though. “I guess he was more interested in his job than his family.”

“Y/N, you told me about your mother, your siblings, and your life. But you still avoid talking about your father. I think he’s the key,” she looks at you, demanding answers you can’t give to her.

“He’s not,” you huff. “Do you know why I feel like this? I was an outsider, an outcast, the one not fitting in all my life. I always struggled to keep up with everyone’s expectations. I feel like I’m not good enough every time I try to fit in.”

“Do you have anyone in your life?” she asks. “Someone loving you. Or a friend supporting you? A colleague maybe.”

You smile now. Warmth washes over you as you remember someone is waiting for you to come back. Someone loving and supporting you.

“Yes, I got someone in my life,” you smile now. “He’s always there to pick me up when I fall. And he’s there to listen to my rant. If I need a shoulder to lean on, he’s there too.”

“That’s good.”

“He’s my best friend, my confidant and so much more,” she nods knowingly as you wrap your arms around yourself. “I-“

“Y/N, that’s progress. We should come back to this at our next appointment,” you’d like to roll your eyes. Of course, she stops right when you are about to get to the core of your trust issues.

The fact that no one ever stayed.

Your father left to hunt the evil. Your mother grabbed your siblings and ran when the monsters your father hunted broke into your house, seeking revenge for their fallen friends.

She just left you there, for the monsters to feast on.

Their bad luck Bobby Singer and Rufus Turner followed them to your house. You survived the night, and your family too. But you never looked at your mother the way you used to.

“Sweetheart, what do you want for dinner?” Dean calls from the kitchen at the bunker. “Baby? Are you okay? How was your spa day?”

“I-“ you tiptoe toward the kitchen. Dean doesn’t know you are seeing a therapist to not dump all the shit weighing heaving on your heart on him all the time. “It was nice, I guess. I’ve missed you, though.”

“I’ve missed you too,” he flashes you a smile melting your heart. You don’t know it, but Dean followed you the first time you went to see your therapist. He didn’t want to spy on you, just make sure you are safe. “How about my infamous bacon burger?”

“I’ll love everything you make,” you walk inside the kitchen to stand behind Dean and wrap your arms around his waistline.

“Bacon burger and salad it is,” he says. “Do you want to have a bubble bath while I prepare the food?”

“No, I want to help you,” Dean hums when you hold him a little tighter.

“You can cut the onions,” he chuckles when you hiss. Dean knows you cry like a baby if you cut onions. “Fine, you can take care of the salad.”

“Did I ever tell you that you are my haven?” you hide your face in his back and close your eyes.

“You’re my haven too, Y/N,” he softly says your name. “Do you want your bacon extra crispy?” You nod, but don’t let go of Dean.

He closes his eyes and enjoys feeling your body pressed against him.

One day you will tell him about all the things from your past you still hide from him. Just not tonight…

Tags in reblog.

#dean winchester #dean winchester x you #dean winchester fanfic #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester SPN #Girls like us #Supernatural fanfic #dean x reader #dean x you #dean x y/n

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dailyy-me · 7 months

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I recently read The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Wow.

Just, wow.

(Please don’t read if you don’t want spoilers, I’m not going to hold back on my rant so read at your own risk).

I’ve read a lot of peoples reviews for this one because honestly it was hard to make up my mind about it as a whole. At the end of the day, I think my only problem with the book was the point of view from the creator of Death Cast. While it was really interesting to see and learn about his life, it didn’t reveal any relevant information we didn’t already know or any new information we needed. With that being said, it’s probably one of my favorite books now.

Adam just loves to intertwine the lives of his characters. And he does it so seamlessly. Nothing feels forced or awkward. And if it feels too coincidental, isn’t life that way too??

The fact that he wrote about little Rufus and Mateo was a genius way to give us more from those characters without disturbing the events from the first book. If anything, it’s helped us understand even more why they were the way they were and appreciate how much they managed to live with all of it on their backs.

The whole story reads like a romantic tragedy written in the stars. And the fact that one of the characters is named Orion and the other Valentino is absolutely wonderful. Their story isn’t perfect because if it was they would’ve grown old together and they would get to keep loving each other for far longer than they got. That being said.. it is a beautiful story. Adam was able to, once again, raise the questions about mortality and how people live their life, but this time with new perspectives than last time. Reading about Orion's pain of constantly HAVING to think about death and the very real consequences a simple fun outing with his sister could have was eye opening to me. In the first book, I couldn't understand how anyone could wish for a service like Death Cast, but after truly listening to Orion it made sense to me. I truly felt his fears, and worried for him along with his sister. It was also refreshing to see Valentino struggle with religious trauma while still having love or maybe just curiosity about God in a manner that seemed relatable to me. How his parents reacted to him coming out is a huge fear of mine. Reading about it happening to him was truly heartbreaking for me, and his questions and struggles resonated with me deeply.

I would also like to say that Adam surprised me a little when he was able to point out how grief can be a little selfish and how caring about someone so much can create distance between two people like it did with Orion and his sister (I’m so so glad that the characters were able to work through that so quickly because they both needed each other at the end of this story). The way he swirls coincidences and consequences is truly a whirlwind most admirable when you’re right smack in the middle of it all.

(Talking about the ending next, so this is your second warning.)

Honestly speaking, I still don’t know how to feel about the ending. And the feeling of uncertainty towards my feelings is exactly how I would want someone to feel at the end of my own story. I don’t know that I would be okay with someone being happy about how my life ended. I don’t know that I would want them to hate it either. So having the constant debate and conversation feels more comforting than anything else.

(Last Spoilers warning frfr bc the ending was AN EXPERIENCE I do not wish to take from anyone).

Having Valentino give Orion his heart felt like a declaration that love will always live within the stars. And I absolutely love it. Adam, I thank you for this story and these characters.

#adam silvera #the first to die at the end #they both die at the end #lgbtq books #book reccomendation #book review #bookworm #book rant #OLG #valentinOrion

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bittersweet-innocence · 6 months

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(little bits with my characters that run around my head plus with a new OC)

Questionable Therapist: honestly, they are awful to you and yet you sit here and defend them like you have a gun to your head.

Questionable Therapist, shaking his head: did the Barbie movie teach you nothing? They are just Ken, they don’t have a good day unless you do so why have you let them kick you out of your house.

Reader: I thought that it was about romantic partners ignoring your boundaries and forcing you to change your life. Or just not taking no as an answer, like toxic masculinity.

Questionable Therapist: no, it was about friends.

A few months later

Reader: so I started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Questionable Therapist, staring blankly as he twirls his pencil between his fingers: we need to start putting limits on what you watch.

Questionable Therapist: for example, if you want kids movies, watch Across the Spiderverse. It has a great message about how friends can be and what they can do to you. Or SpongeBob.

Reader: SpongeBob?

Questionable Therapist: I’m convinced that all of SpongeBob’s friends hate him.

Reader, trying to use the bathroom as black paws scratch at the door and poke feebly under: …

Reader: Rufus, you’re not coming in here and sitting in my pants while I use the bathroom. Forget it.

Screeching on the other side of the door as Reader shakes their head.

Reader: have you seen the SpongeBob Hamilton animatic with Patrick?

Ghost Lover, considering their choices in partner: …

Ghost Lover: no, love, I haven’t.

(He watched over their shoulder in the wall as Reader watched it forty times in a row, tearing up at the AI voice and seriously worried for their health)

Reader: Babe, can I ask you about one of your purchases?

Sugarbaby: I thought this arrangement was that you wouldn’t question what I did.

Reader: …you’ve been custom made dildos. I can see the order details.

Sugarbaby, hamster wheeling every memory of meticulously measuring Reader’s junk while they slept, voice cracking: oh? That’s interesting.

Princess, playing coy: oops, I’m so clumsy~ perhaps you could carry me, my lord? Help me escape my bumbling feet?

Reader: you just fell into mud and scraped both your knees and your face on rocks. Are you okay?

Princess with tears in her eyes: please just pick me up.

(As a bonus)

Ghost Lover, making Reader seek out therapy for their addiction to SpongeBob Hamilton: I heard this therapist is good.

Reader: if you say so. Maybe some grief counselling could help me.

Ghost Lover: I wish you were talking about me and not SpongeBob dying in Hamilton.

Questionable Therapist, stepping out of his office: okay, hello new patient, I’m very excited to start our session. Come on in.

Ghost Lover, recoiling like a rabid raccoon: oh hell no, this man has twelve bodies buried in his backyard and he has a bigger dick than me, I can feel it.

#yandere #yandere oc #yandere x reader #yandere x you #questionable therapist #ghost lover #familiar #sugarbaby #princess #writing #original character

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invisibleicewands · 2 months

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Michael Sheen is tremendous as NHS founder Aneurin Bevan, even if the play’s fear of bio-drama cliches gets a bit much

The British, in case you hadn’t noticed, tend to get a little sentimental about the NHS.

So it’s understandable that playwright Tim Price and director Rufus Norris are wary of dewy-eyed hagiography when approaching ‘Nye’, a new biographical drama about Aneurin Bevan, the firebrand Labour health minister who founded the service. With the title role played by the great Michael Sheen, there is a danger of going OTT in having the nation’s favourite current Welshman star as the nation’s favourite historical Welshman. And so Norris’s production has a determinedly trippy quality intended to counter the cliches.

Billed as an ‘epic Welsh fantasia’, ‘Nye’ is largely presented as the stream-of-consciousness of an older Bevan, who is a patient in one of his own hospitals. There for an ulcer operation, he drifts in and out of the present and into recollections of his past, unaware he is dying of stomach cancer – something his MP wife Jennie Lee (Sharon Small) has determinedly kept from him.

Crowned by a truly uncanny wig, Sheen is a delight as the fiery but unassuming Bevan. He never at any point changes out of his red striped pyjamas, a pleasingly absurdist touch at the heart of Norris’s stylish production, in which the green hospital ward repeatedly dissolves into the past to the sound of wheezing lungs.

It’s otherworldly in places, especially the scene where Tony Jayawardena’s overbearing Churchill collars Bevan in the Commons and groups of teacup-clutching MPs try to eavesdrop, moving like insectoid predators under Stephen Hoggett and Jess WIlliams’s unsettling choreography.

Really, though, once you get past all the cool stuff, you’re left with a fairly conventional drama, jumbled up. Bevan’s memories of the past come at us in roughly chronological order. There’s a definite artistic licence at work as we see schoolboy Nye - still played by Sheen - overcome a bullying teacher and absorb his local library, hungry to find synonyms for words that trigger his stammer, setting himself on the path to becoming a great orator. But the meat of ‘Nye’ does lie with relatively factual accounts of incidents from Bevan’s life - his scenes in Parliament are particularly riveting, as he is doggedly determined to criticise Churchill’s wartime government, to the chagrin of his boss Clement Atlee (Stephanie Jacob).

I understand the logic in, say, not having Sheen simply parrot Bevan’s big speeches to rabble-rousing effect. But all the hopping around leaves ‘Nye’ somewhat lacking in connective material. It’s never especially clear, for instance, why Bevan is so much more radical and uncompromising than his Labour colleagues. It sometimes feels like we’re seeing his life on shuffle, when a straight playthrough might have said all the same things, but more clearly.

Don’t get me wrong, if it had been a balls-trippingly weird avant-garde odyssey I’d have doubtless been all over it. There’s a big mid-show song and dance number that hints at a much weirder production. Unfortunately, this production never emerges. It feels like ‘Nye’ desperately wants to avoid looking like an Inspirational Drama About The Founder Of Our NHS, but doesn’t have a clear formal plan beyond that.

However, if the whole isn’t quite there, most of the individual scenes are scintillating. And there’s no sense of embarrassment from Sheen, who is magnetic as Bevan - a decent, even slightly bewildered man, who nonetheless feels pathologically drawn to doing the right thing, no matter the odds.

#Michael Sheen #Nye #theatre #National Theatre #NHS #Aneurin Bevan #review

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watching-sam-and-dean-again · 7 months

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Season 7: Deaths Door

So, I’m watching a reactor who just got to this episode. Yes, this is another post based around reaction videos. No it’s not the same one I wrote about last time (if I have any followers who keep track). Yes, I have a reactors on the go currently, and sadly, two of them are on seasons I don’t like much (Season 7 and Season 15), so it’s a bit rough going right now.

Anyway, I think the episode where Bobby dies is a good one, though it is definitely sad. There are quite a few moments that really stand out for me. First, Dean punching the glass when the organ donor guy comes to talk to him while Bobby is still alive is really impactful. You understand and empathize with Dean so hard in that moment, and I think he showed unusual restraint in punching the glass rather than the man. My guy, what the hell are you doing asking someone about organs while their loved one is fighting for their life? Next, Sam pressing on his palm while he tries to wrestle with the reality of Bobby dying is heartbreaking to me. I think this is a moment that some people miss, but it hurts so much while it reminds me that Sam, while he mostly looks okay on the outside, is still dealing with the aftermath of his soul being locked in the cage with Lucifer for 180 years. The guy is struggling with reality on a daily basis, thinks he doesn’t have it so bad just because others experience "worse," and is now losing his surrogate dad. Finally, Bobby's memories of the boys being just totally average little moments of them acting like typical brothers is very wholesome. Though, I enjoy all of Bobby’s memories (Rufus!) and what they show us about Bobby. Really good episode overall.

Now, here is where my … problem (I guess I’ll go with that term) comes in. I like this reactor because they are entertaining, and they tend to try look at things from both brothers' points of view most of the time, but they said two things that irked me a bit while watching the episode, especially because they seem to be opinions shared by a lot of viewers. Obviously opinions are going to be subjective, so I don’t think this reactor is being unfair. I just don’t fully agree. First, they said that they feel especially bad for Dean in this episode because he has been through so much. Second, they suggest that Bobby's death might be harder on the boys because Bobby was more of a father to them than John was.

Please see my thought under the cut

So, tackling the first idea, I don’t object to feeling bad for Dean this season or the idea that he has been through too mich. At all. I object to the implied idea that he has somehow been through more or worse than Sam at this point in the show, and thus deserves more sympathy. Excuse me, but, what!? Let’s not delve all the way back through their history because that could go on forever, instead let’s just look at Season 6 and Season 7 (up to this point).

Let’s start with Dean. He experienced the pain of having a soulless Sam back, who didn’t particularly care about him. This is essentially one of his worst nightmares, so I understand him reeling from this for a while. He gained and lost a family, and picked up a heap more loss and guilt to deal with from leaving them. He was betrayed by his "best friend," who also hurt his brother just to stop Dean from interfering with his purgatory plan. He has to "deal with" Sam suffering from hallucinations. He broke a leg. He’s had to temporarily give up his baby. And now Bobby, his surrogate dad, is dying. These are all very hard things, and I truly feel bad for Dean having to go through them, but he’s also done things to add to his own misery this season, like kill Amy and lie to Sam about it and drink his face off instead of coping with his depression and guilt. Dean is his own worst enemy, and it sometimes affects the empathy I have for him.

Now, let’s look at Sam. Since Season 6, Sam has to come to terms with the fact that while he was soulless he did absolutely terrible things, things that he has to now remember and live with, even though in his normal state he never would have done them. He was also betrayed by Cas. First, Cas brought him back soulless, and while I don’t think he knew what exactly was wrong with Sam, he knew something was off and then proceeded to ignore Sam when he reached out to him about it. Then, he betrayed him by breaking his hell-wall just to distract Dean; he risked destroying Sam's mind entirely just to get Dean out of his way. Now, Sam is the one who is actually suffering from hallucinations, which have never gone away up to this point, rather he just learns to distinguish them from reality and go about his business. The show doesn’t remind us of this constantly, so I kind of understand audiences not actively thinking about this. Still, what Sam is experiencing in Season 7 is horrific. On top of all this, he’s worrying about Dean because of his drinking and depression. And now he too is losing Bobby, and he didn’t even have a sweet one-on-one memory to fall back on with Bobby unless he did and it just wasn’t significant enough for Bobby to remember. While Cas' betrayal probably hurt Dean more because Cas was closer to him at this point, what he did still has to hurt Sam, too; it even made him wonder if Cas brought him back soulless on purpose.

Now, my whole point with this is not that people should feel worse for Sam than Dean, but that it seems crazy to me to feel more empathy for Dean than Sam at this point. Dean has to worry about Sam's mental state, but Sam is the one living it. Meanwhile, Sam is worried about Dean's mental state, which is poor partially because of what’s happening with Sam these codependent boys have both been through way too much in the last Season and a half alone. Just because Sam isn’t as demonstrative with his emotions as Dean a lot of the time doesn’t mean he isn’t also in pain. So, I empathize strong,y with both of them in this situation of losing Bobby on top of everything else.

Finally, the idea that Bobby is Sam and Dean "real" dad is one I always take issue with. John is not perfect by any means, but he did love his sons. He literally sold his soul to save Dean. This is not nothing. Dean has fond memories of him, and Sam had a nice moment with him and laughed with him in "Dead Man's Blood." When John first sees his boys after months (years for Sam) apart, he hugs them both. This is not a dad who doesn’t love his kids. His harshness was a result of fear for the boys most of the time, not unlike how Dean treated Ben when he was worried about him and Lisa at the end of Season 6. I’m not saying this is right, or that he couldn’t be too harsh, but they are living extraordinary experiences. John raised his kids like soldiers, but if he hadn’t they’d probably have died sooner. And the fact that they called him Sir, didn’t mean that he was only a Drill Sargent to them. Moreover, even though John made a ton of mistakes, his death was absolutely devastating for both Sam and Dean. Bobby on the other hand, may have "adopted two boys" in his heart, but he wasn’t perfect either. He’s been harsh with both of them at times, sometimes fairly, other times not as fairly, and he clearly has a favorite, which isn’t ideal in a father figure. Yes, he brought Dean to play catch, but an uncle might do that too, and did he ever do something like that for Sam? I like Bobby, I really do, and I think he’s a good surrogate but he is not their "real" dad, either. And while a terrible blow, I don’t think his death has equal impact on the boys to John’s.

Anyway, that’s it on this one. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.

What are your thought any of this?

#supernatural #spn meta #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Bobby Singer #7x10 #Death's door #Castiel critical #mildly

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bloodynereid · 7 months

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Reapers & Ravens

<< prev | chapter vii | next >>

pairing: jordan li x oc

tw: mentions of migraines, vic is basically in huge amount of pain the entire chapter lol, mentions of kissing, flirting, mentions of death, murder, mentions of withdrawal, canon typical violence, swearing, FUCKING RUFUS AGAIN (can this man die already?), mentions of the supe virus, mentions of torture and supe experimentation

description: the story of a girl. a girl cursed by compound v to live a life without touch.

a/n: can't believe there is only one ep left ahhh. hopefully you all enjoy this chapter even if vic continues to suffer. it took a while to figure out logistically but i'm happy with how it came out. lmk ur thoughts (my asks are always open) and yeah, i'm very excited for you all to see vic's growing powers and i just love jordan <33

The sun streamed through the diner’s windows and the cooling sweet sensation of a strawberry milkshake filled my mouth. I could still feel how puffy my entire face was, my eyes stinged from how much I had cried the night before, after we had dispersed from Dusty’s house. I had gotten a quick call out to my clean-up crew to transport the body to the nearest morgue as a John Doe. Dusty deserved a proper funeral with his parents and sisters, I didn’t want to just leave him lying dead in his house.

As I stared blankly at the walls of the diner I remembered the warmth that Jordan had encased me with as I cried and screamed and tried to forget the horrors. Now, all that was left was a banging ache in the back of my head. Symptom of going off my pills, I guess.

“Hey.” I turn slowly to look at Jordan’s eyes, which were filled to brim with something akin to compassion and worry. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Just a little spacey is all. How are you?”

“Good, we- uh never had time to talk yesterday so-” Jordan’s sentence was cut off as Cate settled back into the booth and looked at us with a worried expression.

“Guys, Shetty can’t exactly meet right now.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Jordan spat out and I carefully placed my hand in theirs and squeezed.

“Jordan…”

“Where is she?” Marie asked in a calm voice.

“In the city, she said she had a meeting so she should be back later.”

“So what do we do?”

“I’ll go meet her and then when she comes home, I’ll make her tell you everything.” That line created scoffing around the entire table, as a sudden pain shot through my skull. I pulled my hand away instantly from Jordan and squeezed my eyes shut. The conversation continued on around me as I started to feel every single exhale and heartbeat of the diner.

“Stay out of our fucking heads, then maybe we’ll trust you.” Jordan spat out as they switched before he stormed out of the room.

“Jordan!” I weakly exclaimed and started to get up as another wave of pain nearly made me collapse.

“Oh fuck.” Andre exclaimed as he grabbed me by the elbows and lifted me up, I felt my head lull forward.

“I’ll go talk to him.” Marie said and I looked up at her with a weak smile.

“Thanks.” She walked out of the diner in search of Jordan as Andre eased me back into the vinyl seat.

“Vic? Hey, what’s going on?”

“It’s the pills isn’t it?” Cate asked, making Andre and I turn to look at her. She was sending me a worried look and smoothed one of her hands across the table to clutch mine. The meeting of leather and warmth made a little spark of comfort appear in my brain.

“What, Cate? Vic, what is she talking about? Do you need me to get you something?”

“No, Andre, please don’t.” I said as I clutched my eyes shut. I have never gone so long without those damn pills. A cold sweat started to appear on my neck and a sharp exhale left my mouth.

“Cate? What did you do to her?”

“Andre. Stop. She didn’t do anything. Ah fuck.” The second I uttered those words I saw Jordan burst through the doors in my periphery.

“What’s going on? Fuck Vic.” I met Jordan’s eyeline and smoothed my other gloved hand over his cheek, struggling to make a weak smile appear on my face. The banging in my head got louder and louder.

“I need to lie down.” My voice came out in a tone so foreign to me it was almost scary. I sounded so frail and breathy, what the fuck was going on with me?

“Marie and I can get you back, Andre and Cate, you two go to Shetty’s house.” The couple nodded before Cate gave my hand a last squeeze and walked out of the diner. Jordan carefully held me up and I clenched my fists, hard. The pain was getting worse.

“Okay, okay, woah. Come on, Vic. Just a few steps and we’ll be in the car.” I nodded slightly and took a deep breath before starting to walk.

“Hey! Is she okay?” I heard one of the waitresses ask.

“Yeah, just a migraine.” Jordan answered briskly as they pulled the door open and I stumbled out into the bright daylight.

“Oh that sucks! Have a good day though.”

“You too.”

“Jordan… it’s too fucking bright.” I said, with a pleading tone lacing my words.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”

After the most excruciating half an hour of my life, Marie and Jordan basically carried me into my dorm and laid me against the soft pillows. Gemma was nowhere in sight, probably on her way to class or something. I fluttered my eyes open and watched as Marie and Jordan had a hurried discussion before Marie left with a soft wave and a ‘get better soon’.

“What was that about?” I slurred out, trying to move my head to stare at Jordan as another stab of pain rang through my head. Ugh.

“Marie is just going to check out Shetty’s office.”

“Why didn’t you go with her?” Jordan’s eyebrows rose as an incredulous expression crossed her face.

“Are you kidding me? Have you seen yourself? You look like you’re on the edge of death.”

“I feel like it.” I said, snorting slightly. Immediately regretting the action as sparks zapped. “Ow.”

“You see?”

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t need to take care of me though.”

“Hmmm sure, you’re my-” Jordan cut themselves off and looked down at me. I smiled slightly, but it must have looked more like a grimace because Jordan instantly got up and started searching the room for something.

“What are you looking for?”

“Uh water.”

“Jordan, hey come back here.” I said as I pushed myself up from my lying down position. The effort seemed to momentarily make me black out but the second I came to, Jordan was sitting in front of me with an expectant look on her face.

“What’s up?”

“What exactly were you going to say before?”

“I- uh. Oh fuck it okay so I umm want to make us official. I want you to be my girlfriend. I really fucking like you and you’re stunning and smart and I know this is probably the worst time to mention this.” Jordan stuttered out, a smile blossomed over my face and forgetting about my migraine thing for a moment, I extended my gloved hand and Jordan quickly took the opportunity to clench it lovingly.

“You are a fucking wonder, Jordan. It would be an honor to be your partner, Jordan.”

“Fucking hell, I wish I could kiss you right now.”

“God me too.”

“Well when we figure this all out, I’m going to recreate our night together in so many more creative ways.” She said with a flirty smirk appearing on their face.

“Jordan!” They laughed and I stopped myself from joining in as another surging pain appeared in my skull.

“Okay we need to do something about this. Do you know how to fix it?”

“Take one of my Vought pills.” Jordan instantly pulled a face.

“Ok you’re not doing that… it’s almost like- WAIT I have an idea.”

“Woah what are you doing?” I asked Jordan as they suddenly stood up triumphantly and started scrolling through her contacts on their phone.

“I know a supe, he can basically speed up the body’s healing process.”

“Huh?”

“Well, you’re exhibiting symptoms of withdrawal. He always used to help us when we had hangovers and shit so I thought it would help.”

“Oh. Fuck! You’re so right.” The triumphant smile that Jordan’s face held was now reflected on my own. Holy shit. I may actually be okay.

As Jordan started talking to whoever this dude was, I carefully slipped my phone off the bedside table and adjusted the screen so the light wouldn’t sear into my eyeballs. Carefully dialing my dad’s number I slipped back into the pillows with a hiss and waited. And waited. And waited. Only to be finally met with the tone of some overly cheery woman who was definitely not his latest assistant, who I already forgot the name of.

“Hi! You’ve reached Adrian Oaks’ phone. How can I help you?”

“Put him on now, I know he’s there with you.”

“Oh please don’t take that tone with me-”

“Fuck you. I need to speak with my father.” After a few seconds of rustling, the baritone of my father’s voice filled my ear.

“You really shouldn’t speak to people like that, Vicky, it’s rude.”

“Oh go fuck yourself dad! I remember it. I remember everything, you sadistic cunt!” I basically screamed into the phone’s speaker, vitriol spilling over my words like poison.

“Now, now Vicky. I never-”

“Don’t you dare deny it. And don’t try to inform anyone, not Vought, not Shetty, NO ONE. Stay out of my life, dad.”

“But- yes, fine Victoria. If this is how you want to be, but remember this is really your fault. You did kill-” I quickly ended the call and blocked his number before throwing my phone towards the end of my bed. Jordan settled down next to me and laid his black hair against my pillow, before turning over to face me.

“Fuck my dad.” I said first, breaking the vaguely tense silence.

“Fuck your dad. You ready to go?” They asked as a hand came out to trace spirals on my clothed arm.

“I have to move?”

“Yes, you big baby. Come on.”

“Fuckkk.” Came out of my mouth as I slowly sat up and struggled to stand up, only for Jordan to instantly appear at my side to steady me. “What would I do without you?” I uttered out, making a flirty smile appear on Jordan’s face.

“I don’t know how you would function, darling.”

“Fuck you!”

“You already did that.” An outraged gasp left my body as I started smacking Jordan, only for him to laugh and start making their way to the door, basically carrying me.

As Jordan pulled open the door, a strange gust of cold air hit us and I peered through the doorway to find that the hallway had basically been transformed into a slip and slide but with ice.

“What the-” Someone whizzed past on top of a piece of cardboard, loudly shrieking with a bright smile on their face.

“Yo Jordan, Vic! Why don’t you join us?” The frustratingly familiar voice of Rufus called out from down the hallway. The fucking audacity.

“Really, Rufus?” Jordan asked sarcastically as he slipped a protective arm around my middle as we ventured out into the snow covered hallway. I concentrated on my feet to make sure that I didn’t slip, with how fucking unstable this migraine made me I would probably fall to my death if I made a wrong move.

“Ok fuck you, I was just being courteous.”

“I don’t think you have ever or will ever be called that in your life, Rufus.” Jordan uttered as a group of supes split open to let us through.

“What’s wrong with Vic?” Rufus called out.

“Migraine.” I weakly said at the same as Jordan uttered:

“Go fuck yourself!” A stabbing pain now ran through the length of my body, it was getting worse.

“Can we please get there soon?” I whispered as I bit my lip, trying to stop the onslaught of pain with pain that I could control.

“Yeah sweetheart. It’s only a few more minutes.” I nodded as Jordan cradled me closer to them, with an agonized grimace on his face.

After what felt similar to the hours of gruelling torture under Shetty’s eyes, Jordan finally pushed open a dorm room door and sitting on the floor was a man surrounded by a variety of textbooks and a highlighter between his teeth. Looking up at the sound of the door his eyes grew wide at the sight of me and he pulled out the highlighter and swept a hand over his long brown hair.

“Hi, you must be Victoria.”

“And you’re the man who’s supposed to help me.” I said, earning a chuckle from him as Jordan carefully eased me to a sitting position on his bed.

“I’ll certainly try, I’m Atlas. Jordan sort of told me what happened but I’ll still need you to fill in the blanks.” I sucked in a breath of air through my teeth, this would mean going against dad’s explicit instructions. The phrase that Jordan had uttered a few minutes ago floated through my brain: Fuck your dad.

“I- well, there’s these pills that Vought has been making me take since forever. I’ve never really known why, I don’t even know what they’re doing to me… but everytime I try to go off them it’s like my entire body fights it. My head is fucking killing me right now.” I said, uttering the words quickly almost in the space in one breath. Jordan settled down next to me and squeezed my shoulder in an effort to comfort me.

“Shit, okay. Well I guess I’ll just try to fix the headache first. Would it be okay if I touched you?” Atlas asked as he brought he held up his hands, I instantly cringed - I hadn’t realized he could die if I did this.

“Uh, what about my powers?”

“You can’t control them?”

“I’ve never really been able to do that.”

“What about Cate? She’s been able to touch you before.” Jordan said, her statement making my nod and I heard a sigh come from Atlas.

“Cate is way stronger than me, but I’ll try. Close your eyes Vic.” Atlas ordered, I quickly shut my eyes and searched out Jordan’s hand, clutching it in nervousness.

I felt the contact of Atlas’ hands as he cradled my face. A cold tingly sensation started to spread through my body. My power had almost instantly succumbed to his. Weird. His powers almost felt like a soothing balm, a mix of eucalyptus and mint. After a few minutes he pulled away panting and I opened my eyes to see him rubbing his palms and looking at me in surprise. My headache had ebbed away, all that was left now was the emotional pain from the entire ordeal. Even my power felt less itchy than normal.

“Wow. What did you do?” I asked as a smile spread over my face, no longer hurting any of my nerves.

“I- well Jordan was partially right, your body was basically going through withdrawal but those pills… they were chemically changing aspects of your cells. Your power was basically being shackled almost. I could feel the Compound V in your blood fighting against the chemicals in your pills. No wonder you felt like hell.”

“I don’t know what to say. Thank you Atlas.”

“Of course, any time. You sure you’re feeling okay?”

“Still a little off but wayyy better than a few minutes ago.”

“Good, I’m glad. Now shoo, Jordan remember you owe me a favor.”

“Yeah yeah, Atlas. Thank you, really.”

“Of course.” Jordan quickly grabbed my hand and I waved at Atlas before shutting the door.

“Thanks for helping Jordan.”

“Well, I can’t have a sick girlfriend can I?” Jordan said as he squeezed my hand and we started making our way out of the building. Just as we stepped out into the sunlight and the loud calls of student protest, I heard Jordan’s phone vibrate. Fishing it out from their pocket, I saw the display flash with Marie’s name as Jordan accepted the call and put it on speaker.

“Jordan! Thank God you picked up. I found out a bunch of shit…”

“Hey Marie!” I chimed in from Jordan’s side.

“Oh my God, Vic how are you feeling? You sound better.”

“I’m way better thanks. What’s going on?”

“Fucking insanity. Shetty has been trying to make a supe virus, her and Dr. Cardosa are getting it to be more contagious. Her… daughter and husband died, I- I’m going to try and follow through with our plan Jordan but there’s too many damn security guards.”

“Wait, where are you?” Jordan asked as we started walking through the throngs of people.

“Right outside the doors of the auditorium that’s hosting Victoria Neuman.”

“Wait Victoria Neuman? Shit, this is what all of this is for.” Jordan hummed in agreement to me as they shifted and started moving more quickly through all the other students.

“We’re on our way Marie. I’ve got an idea of how to help.”

“Great, thanks. See you guys soon.” Marie ended the call and Jordan slipped their phone back in her pocket. We walked for a few more minutes until we finally spotted Marie.

“Marie, hi!” I yelled out and waved her over.

“Hi. Okay, are you ready?” Jordan nodded as a smirk appeared on their face again before turning over to me as Marie nodded and started making her way towards the double doors. “You trust me?”

“With my life.”

“Let’s go fuck some shit up.” A laugh bubbles out of my throat before I follow Jordan towards… the fucking girl who made that video about Emma. A rage started to build up in my hands. Oh this was so on.

“Hey!”

“You were that girl who fucking tortured Emma.” Jordan remarked with a sarcastic smile on their face.

“Oh no, I just gave her a plat-” Before she could even finish her sentence Jordan used their powers to punch her. A reverberation echoed through the entire throng of students. Jordan started to turn around when some random supe came at her. I stepped in between the two of them and placed a well aimed kick in the girl’s stomach.

That was when the absolute frenzy began. I had the advantage because every time a punch landed on any of my exposed skin, I instantly started to absorb that person’s life force - this made each supe wrench their hands away quickly and stubble back. Almost completely defeated.

After a few seconds of intense squabbling I felt a familiar hand grab my covered wrist and pull me away from the group. I turned to Jordan as we quickly fled the scenes, giggling in glee. I also felt so much more energized. The powers of three or four supes filled my senses and I felt so fucking free for once.

“You do realize that probably fucked up our rankings right?”

“Well, it’s not like rankings really matter all that much anymore, this school is quite literally trying to kill us.” Jordan said, making me snort and nod in assent.

After grabbing a milkshake from Vought-A-Burger, Jordan and I started to roam around campus. Watching as the protests continued and just trying to process what was going on. He also kept asking how I was doing, and I kept answering that I felt great. It seemed like Atlas actually fixed whatever the damage the fucking pills had caused over the years.

“Jordan! Vic!” We swiveled around to see that Emma was frantically waving us down. I jogged over to her, Jordan following closely behind.

“Woah Emma, calm down. What’s going on?”

“Have you seen Sam?”

“Oh shit.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? No, where the hell is he?” Jordan muttered, sounding completely exasperated. I understood that feeling exactly. What if something happened to him? He could be back in there… fuck, fuck fuck.

“I- I don’t know. I told him to stay in my dorm and- shit there’s so much security here. What if they found him?” Emma said quickly, tripping over her words and sounding more and more freaked out by the second.

“Then we’re in deep shit.” I said as I pushed a hand through my already messed up hair. This is bad. This is really, really bad.

“Ok, he’s got to be okay. Fuck, umm.”

I started twirling around and looking through the sea of people, trying to spot Sam’s familiar figure. The supes’ powers I stole had already faded and honestly none of them would have been of any use right now.

“Sam, Sam.” Emma uttered in awe, Jordan and I turned to look at the place that Emma started running off to. There stood Sammy… with Randy. When the fuck did they meet each other? After we watched them discuss something for a few seconds the couple ventured over to us and Sammy smiled at me.

“Oh my God, Vics! You actually look alive.”

“Haha, very funny, Sammy. You nearly gave us a heartache.”

“We have to get out of here now.” Jordan said with a worried tone in their voice. I nodded and Emma started to softly pull Sammy away from the crowd. I cuddled up to Jordan as we quickly walked out of there.

I felt the hot concrete make contact with my sneakers as they beat against the sidewalk. Just a few minutes ago, we had all gotten a text saying that Cate had Shetty. It was time. Approaching the slightly open front door I sent a nervous glance which mirrored itself in Jordan’s eyes. Something was up.

Surprisingly enough Shetty’s house didn’t look like some kind of evil lair, instead it was cozy. The paint on the walls was inviting and each piece of furniture looked worn-in nicely. It felt like a home.

When we finally found the pair, I started to pull off my gloves as I watched Shetty standing immobile in the living room with Cate. My teeth meet the creamy leather of the fingers of my gloves after I undid the buckles. It was a precaution, okay?

“Catey, are you okay?” I asked as I walked steadily over to the blonde, she smiled at my much healthier state.

“Hey, Vic. You look so much better.”

“Yeah, I feel it… oh shit, your eye?”

“Oh it’s nothing, she uh will tell you everything you want to know.” She said the last part of her sentence towards the rest of the group.

“Maybe you should get some rest? Lie down, maybe.” Marie chimed in, she had an uneasy tone weaving through her words.

“I feel absolutely fine, it wasn’t my powers which were fucking me up. It was those damn pills.” I could feel my eyes spark with rage as I got closer to Cate and smiled in sympathy.

“Hey Cate, listen to your friends, they care about you.” I turned to look at Shetty with a cruel twist of my lips.

“Do you even know what those pills were doing to her, to me?” I asked sarcastically before a soft hand held me back by my shoulder. Cate nodded in understanding when I turned to her before her gaze focused back on Shetty.

“Exactly! Now you had your chance to fucking talk, so how about you shut up and let us do some of it for once?” Cate burst out, making a triumphant smile blossom on my face.

“Please, Cate. I love you. You don’t have to do this.”

“Oh I know you love me but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a fucking bitch.”

“Cate, what the fuck is going on?” Jordan said, I almost forgot they were in the room. I turned to look at them as he watched Cate with a calculating look.

“Don’t worry, we’re on the same side, I promise.”

“Wait- uh can I just get like a quick Wikipedia summary of what you guys are talking about? Cause I’m really fucking lost.” Emma said from behind me.

“Tell them what you told me.” I listened with growing horror as Shetty explained the horrors that GodU had inflicted on young, innocent supes.

“I want it to spread across the globe, and kill every single one of you.” Fuck.

“Holy fuckkkk.”

“We don’t want to hurt anyone, you should know that.”

“Don’t you dare lie, tell her.” Cate said, basically spitting out the words.

“Homelander.”

“Wait what does this have to do with him? He like murdered one Starlighter at a press conference, not that that was absolutely horrible. But I feel like you’re taking it a bit far.” Emma said, I could feel my brain trying to work out the correlation but instead I felt my powers rev up. There was no stabbing pain this time, instead it felt like they were trying to reach out beyond the confines of my body. What the actual fuck?

“It’s the plane. Homelander killed your family.” Marie said in a horrified tone as realization overcame all of us.

“It’s not just him. Every single one of you leaves a path of destruction in your wake. You have ruined countless lives. Just look at what you did to your parents, Marie. And you, Victoria, do you remember all those bodies? All those lives lost just because you couldn’t get a handle on your powers.” I drew out a sharp exhale and stumbled back, my heart started to ache and with it my power was demanding blood. Just like all those years ago.

“But you never fucking helped! Do you think any of us asked for this?” I exclaimed, it’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. IT’S NOT YOUR FUCKING FAULT.

“Oh I know you didn’t but still… it’s your species.”

“Tell them what your last assignment was for me.” Cate uttered as Jordan squeezed my elbow, probably trying to comfort me but it was taking all my self-control to not just grab his face and drain them dry. Ugh, what was wrong with me?

“To kill everyone in The Woods.”

“Holy shit, did you?” Jordan asked, horrified, from next to me.

“No! Of course not. That’s what I’m trying to show you, that she’s the fucking monster. She wants to wipe us off the face of the Earth. They all do, that’s why we have to make the first move. It all starts with her.” Cate said as she twirled around to face Shetty.

“Wait, wait, Cate make me forget. We’ll start over, I’ll take care of you.”

“Oh shut up, shut up, shut up. Shut the fuck up!”

“Cate!”

“Indira.” I saw as tears were streaming down Cate’s cheeks and it took all of me not to grab her and give her a hug.

“It’s time.” I watched as Shetty brought up a kitchen knife as a horrified gasp left each of us. Oh fuck. Well… Shetty grabbed the kitchen knife and pulled it along the length of her neck.

“Oh my fucking God!”

“No!”

“Don’t help.” Cate said as I saw her reach down and grab Marie’s hand. I exchanged scared looks with Jordan as he flew to help Shetty. But then a kernel of callousness made itself present in my brain. Did I really want to help the woman who had brought me close to death more times than I could count? Sure, she had her reasons but Cate also had hers.

“Cate…” The blonde turned to look me in the eye and I brought an image to the forefront of my mind for her to read. A slight twitch of her lips and a nod broke me out of my stillness and I collapsed to my knees in front of Shetty.

“Cate, you don’t need to do this! We have Neuman.”

“We can’t trust anyone, all they’ll do is betray us.”

“Please Cate, let me save her.”

“I’m sorry you have to live through this again.”

I blocked out the outside voices and focused on Shetty’s waning life force. I brought my exposed hands closer to my face and I saw as she looked at me pleadingly. I could almost hear her asking me to make this stop.

“It’s okay, I’ll make it peaceful. I promise.” As Jordan heard my words, he looked at me slightly horrified but then their expression changed to one of understanding.

Dropping my exposed hands onto her face, I felt her life seep into mine. Without the pills I felt unchained and unfettered. Shetty died a few seconds later, feeling nothing but the shared euphoria that I seeped into her in return. Her energy and memories hit me like a freight train the second that she departed this world and went into the next.

Waves of pain, sadness and deep rage filled me to the brim, making me wrench my hands away and making a scream tear itself through my very soul. What was happening? Why did this feel so… heavy? This hadn’t happened before… the pills OH. I suddenly could feel a chorus of voices in my brain. Crying out for help. Some felt like they had been there for years.

“Vic?” I heard a familiar call of my name cut through the noise. Why did it make me feel all fuzzy? It didn’t make sense. A moment later I felt darkness envelop me and I felt myself fall through the vat of voices. Souls calling out into the void.

i don't give this girl a moment of peace do i? anyways pls lmk if there are any grammatical errors, i only looked over this twice so there may be a bunch of mistakes i missed. sry for that lol. hope you enjoyed <33

taglist: @neapolitantoebeans @scorchedfangirl @losers-club6 @vvyuqi @bubblebuttwade @fix5idiots @ponypickle @nellyboosworld

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