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mrpenguinpants · 3 years

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Spider’s Thread [Reverse AU]

Possessive Red Xiao x Reader

Word Count: 2.5k

Commissioned for: @profoundwitchsalad

Art Credit: @ruoyeahs

Warning: Unhealthy relationships.

Prompt:

“You’ve ruined my life because I have a warped idea of what love is and I can’t live without you. But now you’re trying to leave me and I won’t allow that. You left me alive. You have a duty to live for me and by me. I’m not letting you go.”

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Xiao Semi Series

[ Friendship ] [ Falling in Love ] [ Cuddles ] [ Protective ] [ Affection ] [ Jealously ] [ Opposites Attract ] [ String Of Fate (Soulmate) ] [ Fainting ]

Link to original posts: [Red! Xiao.] [Reverse AU]

[Masterlist]

Alatus was once told a story by his Master. A sinner who falls into hell is rewarded for his only good deed, choosing not to kill a spider. As his reward, a thread is lowered down for him to climb out of Hell. In the end, the sinner remains in Hell because he kicks aside others and the thread breaks. Alatus doesn't remember why his Master told him this story but he still empathizes with the sinner. He would have done the same or asked for this 'saviour' to extend their hand down instead. That way he could pull them down.

"Xiao? Are you okay?"

He slowly opens his jade eyes to see you hunch over, peering down above him, eyebrows furrowed together in concern as you reach down and softly tap his temple. He allows you to take a moment to do whatever you want with his face before he reaches up to grasp at your wrist gently, holding back on his want to rub circles into your skin. His reminiscing can wait for now.

"What is it?" he asks curtly, sitting up and resting his elbow on his raised knee. You pout at his curt tone but shrug it off as you take a seat next to him and lean your shoulder against his. You dig into your bag and pull out slips of commission papers and hand it over to him to read through what needed to be done today. A few Hilichurl camps needed to be taken care of, sabotaging a slime balloon, all tasks that seem mundane to someone who fought in a war. As he's preoccupied, you take a moment to look at Xiao's face. He's just the slightest bit unnerved whenever you do this because you always seem to know what's bothering someone.

"Were you dreaming of her again?" you ask quietly. The silence is a good enough answer but you nod understandingly. You never knew his Master personally but you did fight a long strenuous battle against her. From one look you could tell she was a manipulative and cruel woman. While it may not be very kind to say, you were glad that with her passing, Xiao would be free from her physically. But mentally...there were still some things to work out. But Xiao was a very reclusive person, especially with his emotions, so pushing him any further would only make him irritated and closed off.

"Venti and Zhongli are joining our party for a bit if that’s alright. They'll help out a lot with our commissions and travelling. I like Liyue a lot but climbing mountains stresses my shoulders out," you laugh as you change the subject to something less depressing. Standing up as you dust your clothes off before turning to Xiao and holding your hand out for him to take. He stares at it hard for a few moments before huffing and reaching over to clasp your hands together.

It has been so frustratingly peaceful since the war ended. He's not used to it and he can still feel the lick of cutting winds and the heavy pressure of rocks against his body when he sees the bard and funeral parlor consultant just on the horizon. If it were up to him, he wouldn't play nice with these two Archons but they're important to you so he bites his tongue until he tastes blood. He knows the Archons do the same. As soon as the two of them spot you both, Venti is already rushing and tackling you to the ground in his excitement.

"Traveler! I haven't seen you in ages. You need to come and visit Mondstadt more," Venti cried into your shoulder as you awkwardly patted him on his back. Always with the dramatics but you cared about Venti all the same. Xiao scoffed before flicking his jade eyes to meet gold as Zhongli stared down at him cautiously. Since the war ended, everyone seemed to have this warped idea that Alatus had some vendetta against the Gods and Celestia but he was fighting because he was told to.

"Xiao. It's good to see you again," Zhongli said to him. Xiao just nodded in acknowledgement. Even with this new mortal form, Morax never bothered to change his eyes. His gaze alone held the weight of the mountains he had thrown. If Xiao hadn’t been under one of them before, he might have crumbled under the pressure.

"Alright alright, Venti. I promise I'll drop by sometime this month but we still have commissions to do!" you laugh as you haul the bard onto his feet and swat his cape down from the speckles of dirt. He grins cheekily at you, linking pinkies with you to seal your promise, before suddenly lighting up as if he just remembered something.

"Actually! Before we start anything, I need to speak to Mr. Zhongli and Xiao. Super important archon things, you know?" Venti nodded to himself as the two mentioned people stared at him with varying levels of confusion. But Venti just waved their worries off and linked his arms with both men as he dragged them off to a more secluded corner with a surprising amount of strength, “We’ll be right back!”

"Do what you need to do but don't take too long," you called after the trio as you trailed off to the side, messing with your bag of commission papers and gear. Xiao hated that. He knows that these two Archons are your...friends.. but shouldn't you be a bit more cautious? Just because they have mortal forms doesn’t make them human, it doesn’t make him human either.

"Hey, there's no need to look so scary. There really is something important I wanted to talk to the two of you about," Venti speaks up as soon as you're out of earshot. It still gives Xiao whiplash whenever he drops the persona and switches back to Barbatos. "Since Morax is the only Archon I trust with this information and, while I don't trust you one bit, you're the one that's with her all the time you should also know. She's ascending to Celestia."

Barbatos gauges both of their reactions. Morax seems visibly surprised, his eyes slightly widened a fraction, while Xiao has no idea what that means. His Master didn’t exactly give him a history lesson on Celestia or Archons, just pointed to who was his enemy and dealt punishments when he failed.

"And what the hell does that mean?" Xiao asks as he crosses his arms. Venti appears for a second as the bard pouts before continuing.

"It's like I said. A mortal who performs great, heroic feats can ascend to Celestia and achieve godhood. Where they will watch over their people from above. I've only seen this once before so it took me a while to recognize the signs. But 1000 years ago, I helped a woman named Vennessa with her ascension and with the traveler's recent actions with winning the war. Well, you don't need me to explain the rest," Barbatos finishes. Zhongli simply hums as he cups his chin and absorbs what's just been heard. He doesn’t seem troubled by the news at all.

"Have you told her about this?" Zhongli questions as he looks towards the direction that you left. Venti shakes his head. “That would mean that she would vanish from this world."

“I know she loves this world. Whether she wishes to ascend or not isn’t my choice but I want her to continue her travels with that beloved smile on her face. But if she does choose to ascend, she will need our help," Venti stares at the two of them in a mix of pride, sadness, and determination. "Can I count on you two for your help?"

It's a complete white noise in Xiao's ears as his surroundings fade out. He thinks he can see Zhongli nod to Venti wishes, the ever calm smile on his face to match the cheery grin on Venti’s. What, now you want to become a God? Leave this world behind? That’s not funny. You made him give up everything. While in your eyes, your blinded hero syndrome, you think you've liberated him from a soulless conquest but he still has nothing. You still took everything away from him and your only compensation was to have him by your side until he left himself. But now you want to leave without a warning? That’s not fair. You don’t get to take back what you owe. He won't allow you to leave him behind.

“Did something happen? Did Venti say something unnecessary again?” you ask out of the blue. Zhongli and Venti had returned to their respective regions once your commissions were all finished. Since the three of them disappeared to talk Archon business, Xiao had seemed even more tense and aloof than usual. As if he was out of it? You knew that everyone was still suspicious of Xiao and they were angsty to leave you alone with him, but you knew Xiao would never do anything to hurt you. When he doesn't answer, you slowly reach over and you subtly nudge his head up onto your lap and look at him curiously. Before reaching down and cupping his cheek. He leans into your touch before turning his face into your palm and leaving a soft kiss. It makes you giggle at the ticklish feeling as you look at him so softly. It annoys him.

"You were never connected to the war and yet you fought against us anyways. Even when I killed so many people, why did you choose to spare me?" he asked as you blinked at him before giving it some serious thought. He went on a rampage and almost destroyed the world. It was fun. He doesn't have any regrets at all because he hated humanity. His own Master was human after all. But then you appeared and stopped him. A random outsider that wanted to play the hero. He thought it was cute. Perhaps he had underestimated the lengths someone would go to to save the world they loved but when he fell defeated at your feet. He said that this wouldn't change a single thing. He would still scorn humanity and what they did to him. He was so sure he would die there but you chose to extend your hand down to him instead despite what your companions felt. Even when the war ended and he had nowhere else to go, you offered him to travel with you. Nothing changed about his mentality, every person that chose to talk to him was quickly scared away with piercing eyes. Every conversation started would end in silence. Every touch would be met by the tip of his spear. But you would link your hands together with his and smile brightly, and he would always end up forgetting his trauma for a moment. You’ve... become precious to him.

"I love this world and everyone in it. You are a part of that world even if you tried to destroy it. It...didn't seem fair to leave you behind when you've suffered just as much," you finish but it only seemed to spark a wave of deep anger inside of Xiao. He quickly lurched up, almost knocking your forehead with his, before grabbing the scruff of your shirt collar and yanking you forward.

"Cut it out with that "love of everything" crap. It's revolting. So you're saying the people I killed weren't worth avenging? Do you think I'm so weak that I need protection? It's one thing to try and please everyone but at least have some awareness would you?" he snarled as he pushed you to the ground. He knew he was being harsh on you and you had every right to walk out and abandon him but you didn't. Of course, you wouldn't. You needed him as much as he needed you. You just reached over and tenderly reached your hand and placed it next to his. Damn it, why is he always the one stuck worrying about you.

"Then you want to protect me, right? Then don't break your promise. You left me alive which means you have a duty to live for me," he takes your hand in his and squeezes hard. Digging his nails into your own until crescents appear and tiny specks of blood appear so you know he's serious. He doesn't care how you interpret his words, just so long as you never leave him.

"Don't die on me, Hero."

It's been a few hours since the conversation so it's pitch black outside but Xiao was never one to sleep. Even if he could, his mind is too loud to fall asleep too. He's startled when you melt against him fully asleep. Honey smooth as you curl up to his warmth and cling to him like moss to a rock. He can feel his cheeks start to flush as his heart begins to pound against his chest. He can't breathe as his world is filtered through each beat that drums against his ears. He's not sure if there's actually something wrong with him or if it's just been a while since someone got so close and his instincts haven't left.

He's just realized it. He's feeling pain. The feeling in his chest is black but he can't claw it away. It's strange in a way that he can't explain it, that he's never felt before, that he's never felt the need to experience. His life had been warped by battle and a constant push to submit to his Master. They are all things he knows but the gentle words that come from your mouth, the bright eyes that hold the world, the horrible ice-hot feeling inside of him is so foreign yet too easy. He doesn't like it.

It makes him feel...clean in a way. Enlightened perhaps? His Master is long gone and it's like you said. He's free now. Free to make his own decisions and live his life how he wants to. He carefully turns over so as to not startle you away as he really looks at you. You look so peaceful in his arms, eyelids shut without worry, face slack without nightmares, breathing so softly against him. If you weren't so close to him that he couldn't feel the rise of your chest, he wonders if he would think you were dead. He stares at the lock of hair swaying back and forth with each breath like a starved man. The strange feeling doesn't stop. He hates it. It's everything that goes against him and what he knows and everything he should want. He's supposed to be the villain in your story, he should kill you right now-

"Xiao..." he hears you mumble beside him as you lean further into his arm. Damn it. How low is he going to go?

“What are you thinking about now? You just need to think about me. Don’t think about anything else...but me” Xiao sighs before he wraps his arms around you and pulls you into him until you're snug against his chest. Close to him, where he can touch you, where you belong. Not with Morax or Barbatos. Not with humans but beside him. He closes his eyes and nuzzles his head into your hair and he stares off into the distance. The feeling never leaves him for the remainder of the night.

"Ah! There you are. I was running around crazy looking for you," he turns his hair to see your flushed form pulling yourself up onto the mountain cliff, "When I woke up I couldn’t find you anywhere! You gave me a scare there."

He hates you. He hates you.

Words of his previous master ring in his ears, almost as if her very soul is wrapping around him as she whispers in his ear how weak he is. Ones with power that refuse to take what they want because they rather live in the comfort of nothing. Be greedier, take what belongs to you.

"Xiao?" you say as his piercing eyes stare directly through you. His Master always told him that she loved him. Even if he hated her he still clung to that false love. Of being wanted. Isn't love for a single person vile? Would feeling such emotions for one person instead of "everyone" bring you down to reality? It's not fair that you've crawled your way into his heart while you walk along in bliss. Now that he thinks about it. It was so simple. He just needs to monopolize your thoughts and love. This time it won't be as friends.

"I love you."

He'll pull you down to where he is. You extended your hand down to hell so it's your fault. He'll drag you down kicking and screaming if he has to. You left him alive. You have to live for him and by him. He's not letting go.

Reblogged for extra notes

[taglist] <- if you want to be added, please read this first.

@hanniejji@duxastaroth @unionwitch @musekala @sunnshiii @stanzastic @akaasea @xoneaboveallx @adoring-ghost @asheseiler @sakari-shi @dilucsz @dai-tsukki-desu @thicmitten @upsetpotatoo @htnicayh @genshins1mpact @morthecreator @aanne2601 @aklxojjk @fulltimeventisimp @mitsyua@laic2299 @diesekimo @duhsies @creatorofstars @zalladane @itchichan @sweeti-pie @curiouslilbeast @momos-peaches @adeptitao @youaskedfurret @snowy224 @mayumintsu @tigerpriestess @yuu-yuukurotsuki @legionqueensav @eva-0403 @blanktide @pancakiee @castinluckgamer @dazqily @jaybobistired

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peterpparkerwrites · 2 years

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revelations - part two

a/n: currently on hiatus - look at my pinned post for more info! this fic has a lot of parts so I’ll have it scheduled to post twice a day - once at 11:00 AM PST and once at 5:00 PM PST warnings: language pairing: peter parker x reader word count: 2.4k summary: peter hates the idea of soulmates. he certainly can't afford to be with his soulmate when they do show up, not when there's a chance he won't come home one day from being spider-man. he can't do that to them, he can't lose someone he loves and he can't have them lose him - he saw what it did to his aunt may when his uncle died. but meeting your soulmate is inevitable, and it's not always so easy to avoid what the universe wants to happen

masterlist ~ requests are closed ~ part one / part three

taglist: @lilbeatlebear @somefuckshit1 @hufflepuffseeker

"What about Thunder?"

Spider-Man's question made her roll her eyes, shaking her head at the fifth suggestion he made in the last few minutes. He had taken it upon himself to come up with her superhero name, wanting to have something to call her when they were out patrolling.

"I feel like that's taken," she chuckled, "Uh...maybe Strong Girl?"

"That just sounds like you're entering a weight-lifting competition," he snorted. "How about something not related to your powers, like...Night?"

"What if I kick someone's ass during the day?" She asked teasingly, knowing he was rolling his eyes.

"Okay, okay, no Night then. What about-" He paused, the back of his neck tingling as he whipped his head around, mask eyes squinting.

"What is it?" She asked quietly, looking in the same direction as him.

"Let's go find out," he held an arm out and she let him get a hold on her before he jumped off the building, her arms wrapped tightly around him so she wouldn't fall.

Despite doing the partner thing for a little while now, she still wasn't used to the feeling of flying through the air. It did get more fun the more they did it, but her stomach still dropped whenever he dipped too close to the ground or a building before shooting a web. She was a bit convinced he did it on purpose sometimes to mess with her, but she didn't give him the satisfaction of saying anything about it.

"I must say, it's nice to have a human GPS for searching for crime," she quipped, causing him to huff in annoyance as he landed them in an alleyway.

"I'm more than just a crime tracker," he gestured to himself, "Clearly."

"Whatever you say...Siri," she laughed, wishing she could see the annoyed expression she knew was on his face.

Honestly, it shocked both of them that they got along so well. They hadn't been working together but maybe two weeks, but they were already like close friends. They made a routine and adjusted to each other's fighting skills, and soon enough gave the little jokes and banter that built into a friendship.

Peter bit his lip, ignoring her teasing and looking around for whatever caused his senses to go off. "There's like...nothing here. Maybe I landed us in the wrong place-"

Both of the heroes tensed when a scream pierced through the air, neither of them hesitating to head for the sound. They paused outside an alleyway where they heard a man's voice demanding something.

"There," she whispered, pointing to where the voice was coming from. He had a gun to a woman's head as she appeared to be begging him about something, but even Peter's amazing hearing couldn't pick up what she was mumbling. "I think he's mugging her."

"I'll go up first," he said quietly, nodding to the building behind the man. "You can sneak around and tackle him when I distract him."

"Sounds like a plan," she shot him two finger guns as she quickly moved to the building, swinging herself up as quietly as possible, thankful again for the super strength making this easier.

Peter waited until he saw her give him a thumbs up from the fire escape ledge before jumping down in front of the man and woman, crossing his arms.

"What's up, guys?" he asked cheerfully, barely glancing to see his partner sneaking across the fire escape, her dark suit blending her in well even if the man looked up behind him.

"Stay out of this, Spider Guy," the man threatened, his gun still on the woman.

"Come on, man, you know that's not my name," he whined, urging the girl to hurry up. He could tell the man was trigger happy, his hand shaking the gun a bit. "Can't we settle this like adults? It doesn't look like this nice lady likes having a gun pointed at her. Why don't you point it at me instead?"

The man hesitated, then shrugged, "Fine by me, it'll get rid of at least one of you hero wannabe's."

He swung the gun around to Peter, but before he could even think to pull the trigger, he was knocked face first on the ground. Peter let out a sigh of relief as his still-nameless vigilante friend grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind his back, pinning him down.

"What was that about hero wannabe's?" She asked sweetly, pressing her knee into his back a little harder as he winced in pain.

Peter laughed a little before turning to the frightened woman, "Are you alright, ma'am?"

She nodded before backing up, not saying anything before turning and fleeing. Both of the heroes could tell they still weren't exactly accepted in Queens yet and it was clear even after being saved, the lady was a little nervous around them.

"Can't win 'em all," Peter sighed, walking up to them. He nodded at his partner to get up and he shot a web at the man's hands and legs so he couldn't move, telling Karen to call the police.

"We should get out of here before the police show up," he glanced up, "Don't want any misunderstandings."

"Yeah, let's go," she wrapped her arms around him and he swung them away, leaving the man to be dealt with by the police.

"No mysterious bruise today, hm?" You asked in a teasing tone as Peter sat next to you at the lunch table, arriving a bit earlier than usual.

"Guess I finally became balanced," he replied sarcastically, but he was glad he wasn't showing up with anything worse than a few scratches. Ever since he started patrolling with the new hero in Queens, he hadn't gotten as hurt. Having a partner worked extremely well for the both of them, it turned out.

"You've been acting weird lately," he changed the subject, giving you a look. "Are you alright?"

He didn't really care if the question was abrupt, but he was starting to get concerned at how distracted you seemed all the time.

"Never been better," you grinned at him, hoping it didn't seem forced. Lately you had been over thinking too much about Peter and your soulmate and with everything else going on, you probably looked a mess.

"Hey, guys," Ned sat down on the other side of you, "They're serving pizza today!"

Peter chuckled, "It happens every Friday, Ned."

"Still something to be excited about," you pointed out, grinning a bit when Peter rolled his eyes. "Better than Meatloaf Monday, that's for sure."

"Amen," Ned mumbled, glancing between you two. "You're early, Peter. I thought you were supposed to meet with Mr. Harrington?"

Peter's eyes widened almost comically, "Oh, shit! I totally forgot, I'll be right back!" He got up and practically ran out of the cafeteria, dodging Flash when he stuck his leg out to try and trip him.

"Damn, he's fast," you laughed, turning to Ned, who had a small smirk on his face. "What's with the look?"

"Don't be dumb," he wiggled his eyebrows, "You totally like Peter."

"What?" You choked out, giving your friend a wide-eyed look. "Why-how did you get that idea?"

"Come on, Y/N," Ned chuckled, "You don't exactly hide it. I'm a little shocked no one else has noticed your pining."

You glared in his direction, not quite meeting his eyes and just staring at your plate dejectedly, "Is it really that obvious?"

"Only cause I'm your best friend," he grinned, "But don't worry, Peter doesn't know. He's oblivious and besides, he has too much other stuff to think about than realizing that."

"Can't believe I'm actually grateful to the Stark internship for distracting him enough," you rolled your eyes, "You won't tell him, right?"

"Not my place to tell," he gave you a look, "But it's just Peter. You should tell him."

"I can't do that," you laughed nervously, "Don't be silly."

"Why not? I've seen how he looks at you, Y/N. I don't doubt that he has feelings for you too."

You hesitated, knowing Ned was sincere by his expression, but you still doubted it. If he really liked you, wouldn't he have said something by now? Before his internship you might have thought so, but lately he was so focused on other things you didn't even dream that he could like you back.

"Let's forget about it, Ned," you decided, grabbing your bag, "I'm gonna leave early, I'm not really hungry anymore. Just keep my secret for me, okay?"

"I'm keeping too many already," he muttered, but you didn't hear. "Sure, Y/N. But you really should tell him. I think it'll work out well if you do."

"Mhm," you waved to him goodbye and rushed to the hallway, biting your lip as you thought about what he said. Maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to tell him. If he rejected you, you knew he would at least be nice about it. And if he didn't...

"Hey!" A voice broke you out of your thoughts as you saw Peter jogging up to you, a bit breathless. "Sorry about that. Mr. Harrington wanted to talk to me about this year's decathlon meet ahead of time to make sure I could go."

You smiled at him before remembering your talk with Ned, your mood souring a bit. "It's fine. I wasn't feeling well so I think I might go home early."

He raised an eyebrow, "Really? Should I walk home with you? I can ditch last period-"

"Oh, no, you've skipped so much class as it is," you laughed, "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow?"

"Sure, sure," he gave you a little worried look, but didn't question it. "Feel better."

You nodded and turned, heading for the exit. Never before had you ditched class, but you needed a distraction from the overwhelming feelings lately about Peter before you burst and spilled everything to him.

It wasn't like it was the only secret you were keeping from him, anyway.

Much later in the day, Peter having almost forgotten about the strange look on your face when you left school early, he and Queen's other vigilante were just finished with a small ATM robbery (deja vu much?).

As soon as he landed them on the ledge of a tall building, they both sat with their legs hanging off, slightly out of breath from fighting multiple masked guys and escaping before the police showed up.

"Go team!" She gave him a high-five once she caught her breath, Peter ignoring the funny feeling in his chest when he laughed at her comment.

"Man, you should have been out here fighting with me long ago," he chuckled, "Why did you only start now?"

She shrugged, "I didn't really notice my powers until recently I guess...maybe they get stronger with age? That would be weird. But the incident was years ago but I only noticed them when I broke my door off the hinges a few weeks ago."

"That's better than how I found out," he snickered, "I passed out for like twenty hours and then woke up with abs."

She choked, "Excuse me?"

"I'm not kidding!" He said defensively while she laughed, holding her stomach in a familiar way that Peter couldn't quite place. "I used to be a twig!"

"You...you're saying that...a spider...gave you abs?" She said in between giggles, "I'm sorry but that's hilarious."

He shrugged, trying to keep the grin off his face, "It's the truth. And of course when I tried to get out of bed in the morning and my sheets were stuck to my hand."

"I'm never complaining about my powers again," she sighed, "But hey, you still have the human GPS thing going on, so that's cool. Can I start calling you Spider-Siri?"

"I'm starting to regret this partnership."

"Oh, don't be like that," she bumped shoulders with him, grinning, "You can't be the only one with jokes."

"Guess not," he chuckled, glancing at her. Not for the first time, he wondered what she looked like. The only trait he could tell for sure was her skin tone, which he only saw when he patched her up a while ago. She wore gloves and a mask, the only other thing poking through was her H/C hair when it wasn't covered completely by a hood. She was almost as covered as he was.

"Are you checking me out?" She asked in a teasing tone, snapping him out of his thoughts. Oh he was so glad the mask covered his face, or she'd poke fun at his red cheeks too, probably.

He snorted and looked away, "Yeah, I can't exactly see what you look like, so no."

"You can admit it, Spidey, I won't judge," she laughed while he shook his head.

"Yeah yeah," he rolled his eyes, "I was admiring your suit, actually. Did you upgrade it recently?"

"I did, glad you noticed," she grinned, her tone sounding excited, "I was getting annoyed with how tight it was around my arms and how the hood kept falling off, so I made a few modifications."

"Looks cool," he commented, glad for the subject change, "Sometimes I wish my suit wasn't this tight, too."

She snickered, "I don't know, I think it suits you pretty well."

"That was lame," he said, but he couldn't help but laugh, "Like really lame. I expect better than that in the future."

"I'll try and think of a better one for next time," she replied, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them as they stared out at the city. They fell into a comfortable silence, the only noises coming from cars far below.

"Hey," he spoke after a few moments, crossing his arms, "How about...Shadow? For your superhero name?"

She thought for a moment, nodding, "That's not a bad suggestion coming from a guy who calls himself Spider-Man."

"Hey, no shitting on my name, it's good!" He protested, throwing his hands up while she laughed.

"I...I actually like it. Shadow..." she liked the way it sounded, her lips turning up in a grin. "Makes me sound mysterious and way cooler than I actually am. I think that's the one."

"Okay, Shadow," Peter smirked a bit under the mask, offering his hand as he stood, "Ready to go finish the night out?"

"Sure thing, Spidey," she took his hand as he pulled her up, nerves in her stomach when he jumped with her off the building, swinging up just in time.

#peter parker x reader #peter parker reader insert #peter parker fic #spider-man x reader #spider-man fic #spiderman x reader #peterpparkerwrites masterlist #my writing

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etherealluminescence · 3 years

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GN!MC forcing conquering the demons into Pacts

Quick tags for those some people who reblogged my other post pt 1, I know I have a lot more but these are the only ones with comments on the post. @chalcedear @undertaker-02 @the-mexican-writer @mammonkinnie

Lucifer

You had spent countless hours against Lucifer, trying to fight him and force him into a pact. No matter what you did, it seemed like you failed.

It took you a long time to realize, but you had to train to beat Lucifer. And that you did. You knew how terrifying his power was as all the demons told you, so for a week straight you intensely trained until you were ready.

Lucifer was already on edge noticing you didn’t try anything, but he knew you wouldn’t give up, which was when you decided to strike.

He easily dodged your initial flying kick when he entered the room, but you grabbed onto the door and swung back around, kicking the tip of his head before he backed off.

He was now ready to dodge, believing that tour strategy was only to catch him off guard, but he was wrong.

When you landed, you dug your foot into the ground and threw yourself at him, but as he moved to the right, you used the shelf behind him to catch yourself and kick off it and nailed a kick straight to his head.

It was now or never as you began throwing heavy punches, trying to get him into a chokehold while he was prying you off, struggling a little as you bit onto his fingers or wings. You even bit onto his horn to stabilize yourself and kept punching.

By the end of it, you had quite a few bruises from his harsh grip, but he had a black eye and his feathers were all over the floor, you’ve won.

He probably could of killed you, but he didn’t want that, so he accepted his loss, glaring at you when you dug your heel into his stomach as Satan clapped and Belphie got out a trophy to hand you.

His pact was now your’s and you were going to flaunt it. He’s alright with the fact it was you who forced him into a pact, but it majorly hurt his ego that you were superior to him.

Mammon

You had recently arrived in the devildom half an hour ago and did not feel welcomed, in the slightest.

You tried to be nice to your guide, but he brushed you off and left you with Levi, or he intended to.

Levi gasped as he watched you tackle Mammon who tried to run off, and elbow him in the jaw. When he fell to the ground you kicked the life out of him muttering out “I tried to be nice to you fucker, if one of us is killed today it’s you.”

Levi was obviously bewildered, but took the chance to tell you to make a pact with him, his biggest mistake in his lifetime, all the poor demons in the future.

Mammon was crying a little as you forced him into a pact, and pulled him up with one hand, making him face Levi himself.

Mammon is 100% nicer to you because you’re scarier than Lucifer, and also because you genuinely treat him with respect now that he’s nice to you, something he’s not used to. Super happy to be the first ever demon you’ve conquered.

Leviathan

You had decided to do things the non violent way and participate in the TSL quiz, until Levi turned into his demon form and tried to kill you.

Taking up his challenge, you fearlessly walked towards him as Mammon was trying to tell you no, and you caught his punch.

It pushed you back a little bit, but you caught it and twisted his arm, and proceeded to beat him up in a one sided battle.

It’s not that he was weak, or others were helping you, but you genuinely managed to fight back and beat him so hard that it looked like his entire left arm was broken.

Lucifer was kinda pissed you broke his brother ngl;; but Diavolo is like it’s self defense?? And Lucifer is just like what human fights a demon across the room in self defense.

When Levi is begging for mercy he is reminded of what happened to Mammon and the rumors, accepting defeat, you make a pact mark with him, he’s kinda pissed though, like highkey.

He thinks that you probably think of him as a trophy or something to collect, based off the rumors. You probably don’t want to have a pact mark with an otaku, you just want to show off your strength.

He soon changes his attitude towards you when you show interest in him. You’re just genuinely a nice person and a caring older sibling figure, but will fight for the sake of peace and safety.

Now he’s just jealous that you spend more time with Luke than anyone else.

Satan

He offered you a pact mark easily because he wanted to piss off Lucifer, especially when you tried to give him a black eye from the pillow fight.

Very angry and disappointed when you said no, but then surprised when you said you’d beat the shit out of him instead, fair and square.

He knew you fought well, but are you sure you want to fight the embodiment of wrath himself? And you’re just like yep, the small tiny you, so confident.

He didn’t take it too seriously despite seeing the actual proof multiple times, and he watched you used his messy room to your advantage, even using the bookshelves to help you get air.

His ass was easily kicked even when he was serious. “You know, after facing both Levi and Beel, you aren’t much of a challenge.” You casually said as you formed a pact mark with him.

Slightly irked by the comment but delighted to be apart of your fan club, probably yells “BEAT THEIR ASS!” On the sidelines.

Pisses Lucifer off whenever you two fight and Lucifer gets an injury from you, and asks if Lucifer ever wants ice, just to be a dick.

Diavolo and Satan are in the fan club which PISSES Lucifer off when the two are in front of him discussing how you will one day (undoubtedly) beat Diavolo.

Asmodeous

You made a pact with Asmo after accidentally beating him up, he was begging for mercy and you kind of felt bad.

You insisted it wasn’t on purpose and he kind of avoids you for awhile after the pact mark. He’s glad Solomon isn’t like you, otherwise the devildom would cease to exist.

He’s eventually fine with you, and loves to take photos of you and Luke together acting like siblings because it’s the cutest thing. Although demons are scared of you they do kinda admire you, and seeing you soft with Luke is good for his devilgram.

Soon treats you like a friend instead of a monster that just so happened to kick his ass and make him beg.

You’re so tiny that it’s kinda cute and he nearly forgets someone like you is violent and scary so when he took you shopping and someone shoplifted, he was concerned for your nails after you disfigured them.

Will 10/10 treat your tense muscles and let you soak in his tub.

Beelzebub

He’s seen you fight before but damn he couldn’t believe it. You’re just so smol?? Couldn’t he crush you?

Lesson learned as he was knocked out after he broke your room. You didn’t want to hurt Besl since he was always courteous with you, so you knocked him out quickly.

He doesn’t remember more than you launching at him and the feel of his wings being tugged and his neck suddenly throbbing.

Mammon who watched beg for Beel’s life on his knees, asking you to spare him. You just nodded and waited for Beel to wake up before making a pact.

When he makes one, you give him some custard you asked Mammon to go out and buy really quick, you said please, and Beel is just so happy!!

He tried to kill you and he feels so bad but you’re just so kind!! Wants to protect you so bad but knows you’re just so badass so he instead helps you care for Luke.

Belphegor

You’d definitely be lying if you said you didn’t see it coming. His brothers had already tried to kill you, he was locked in an attic, and not to mention he gave you a weird vibe, you would of left him alone if you weren’t a nice person.

He tells you thank you for freedom and transforms, ready to kill you. No one got in his way and instead said “good luck Belphie” or “Nice knowing you” so he thought they wanted you dead.

Then he hears Beel say “I don’t want you to die, Belphie” and he is so confused? As he aimed his attack and you just end up punching him square in the face.

Afterwards, you kicked him in the stomach and grabbed his tail, swinging him into a wall, and knocking him over and over and over.

He is out cold, so when he wakes up and sees everyone congratulating him on surviving, he puts two and two together.

You were sitting on top of him and demanding a pact mark, and he unwillingly gives it to you after you nearly rip out his horn.

Pissed off and scared of you, slightly, but more impressed by the fact that even Lucifer struggles with you. When he finds out about the sheer amount of pact marks you have he’s starting to wonder when humans got so strong? And it became an endless spiral of him being pissed off.

Don’t worry though!! He eventually gets used to you.

Diavolo

Super happy it was finally his turn!! Like you did it, congrats, wants it you’d like some tea and what kind of attire to wear for his asskicking.

Is absolutely not looking down on you, he genuinely believes you’re strong. Because of that, he’s just so excited to face you. You beat both Lucifer and Barbatos, the majority of RAD, and you’re such a cool person!!

When you approach him you looked so badass. “Aye, prince of kiss my ass, I’m here to claim you once and for all and become the new ruler of this place.” You yelled out as you kicked down the door to his office.

The first time you two fought, he won. You had a lot of bruises, but managed to rip out some of his hair, at least. He finds it admirable how you still kept going despite him clearly hearing a rib break.

SUPER excited to tell Satan about it!! Hopes Barbatos recorded the fight so he could broadcast it at RAD during an announcement or something, but Barbatos rejected that idea.

Poor Diavolo only wanted to be included in this ass beating trend, but super happy when you return three days later and try to beat him up again, you even changed up the way you fight!!

You won’t ever know this, but one day he purposely changed his office’s layout to benefit your fighting style more, so when you finally beat him he was so ecstatic, his lips were bleeding but he was laughing, congratulating you and couldn’t wait to give you a pact.

Oh boy was he SO happy when you flaunted it, and sat in his desk chair with a hand on your chin, giving an order to Barbatos who recorded it, acting as if you really were the ruler of the devildom.

“Could you get some bandages for your former ruler, please?” You asked, feeling accomplished that Luke was officially safe during his stay in the devildom, and Diavolo was just swooning.

The public is 10/10 avoiding you because they are SCARED for their life. The people are convinced you’re like a nuclear weapon against demons.

Barbatos

He knew one day you’d defeat Lucifer, but it was so quick. You only needed a week of prep time?

Steps up his game a bit, because after two weeks of training you approach him ready to fight, and he can sense you’re not the same.

As he uses his tail to put you out of the room, he automatically feels your sharp teeth digging into his tail. He can withstand it no problem, until you literally rip a bit of his tail chunk out.

You didn’t let go even as he flung you off his tail, and you even dug your nails in. He showed no expression, but it was genuinely painful as you climbed his tail onto him, his tail no longer as useful because he was very sure you would rip through it.

His fighting against you one on one went well for him, he could see and easily predict your moves easily, until you head butted him and began every trick in the book.

From kicking, punching, biting, scratching, you name it, you did it. He was finally at your mercy when you were cover in both your own and his blood, while he was sure his tail was missing some pieces, and you were absolutely not letting go.

He’s 100% convinced you’ve gone feral in a span of three weeks, but that’s okay. The only thing stopping you from fighting the prince was now defeated, and he apologised to Diavolo frequently, who was only super excited in return.

Don’t worry you apologised for his tail and helped him with his job for awhile, totally not to also study Diavolo in his natural habitat.

First time you’ve ever seen him smile so soft was when he got his ass kicked so hard by you that his tail went chomp chomp.

Luke

Surprised pikachu face.

He understands you beating up Mammon,, and maybe some lesser demons,, but did you REALLY defeat Lucifer, Barbatos, and Diavolo.

Surprised pikachu face as you shrug and say “yeah I guess. I’m the ruler now, do you feel safe yet?”

Lucifer yells out you’re not the ruler just because you formed a pact with Diavolo, but you ignored him and smile at Luke, patting his head.

Luke is just nodding like “I’m safe!!!” While in his head he’s like WOW whaT PLEASE EXPLAIN.

Luke constantly calls you his older sibling now, tells daddy Simeon ALL about it, and brags about you to the demons who even look at him.

Praise this precious baby as he makes you all the sweets in the world. You’ve literally defeated demons of all sorts, even the most powerful, and all you want is to see him smile.

Will probably cry.

#obey me #obey me swd #obey me shall we date #obey me hc #obey me headcanons #obey me headcanon #obey me barbatos #obey me diavolo #obey me lucifer #obey me asmo #obey me mammon #obey me levi #obey me Satan #obey me beel #obey me belphegor

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mikwrites-archive · 3 years

Text

like a movie.

pairing: lee juyeon x reader warnings: none genre: highschool au, football player ju, pining, ju is innocently shy, this is literally so cheesy its like a bad teen movie so read at your own discretion HWJBSJDF wc: 2.3k

a/n: hello !!! i am back and with a fic no one asked for and just ju brainrot n word vomit <3 a lot has been going on lately but i’ve broken my writers block mainly and hope to be back posting soon hehe !!! i hope you’re all doing well <3

Summer was over, and suddenly you found yourself forced back into living.

Or dying.

When you’re in your last year of high school, it’s difficult to tell the difference, though the presence of your best friend Kevin makes it all the more bearable.

Sometimes.

“Have you seen Juyeon?”

“No.” You pointedly give Kevin a look as you fiddle with your locker, and he holds his hands up defensively.

“I was just asking! Everyone’s been talking about how he glowed up in the summer. And you know how he doesn’t post much online, but I don’t see why people are suddenly surprised. Juyeon’s always had good looks. But I guess it’s like you magically become hot when you’re on the football team or something.” Kevin sighs, and you muffle your laughter.

“Stop talking so loud!”

“What? Afraid that someone will hear?” Kevin wiggles his eyebrows. “That J-Juyeon, hey!”

“Kevin, that’s not funny, I swear-” the words die in your throat as you turn to see Kevin very much standing beside Juyeon. He wasn’t wrong when he said Juyeon’s always possessed a dreamy visage; you remember clearly in elementary school whenever he was in your classes, how many students would vy for his attention, and as much as you wished to as well, you’d always shyly skirted around the competition as Kevin jokingly put it.

You’re quick to bury your face back into your locker as you place your belongings and books as slowly as you can while they converse.

“How was your summer?” Juyeon asks, and just hearing his voice makes your face flush, flustered.

“Good! We,” Kevin grabs your arm playfully, and you cringe, clutching the locker door to continue hiding, and Kevin relents. “Had lots of fun! How was yours?”

They converse casually for a few more (excruciatingly long) minutes, until someone else calls Juyeon over, and leaves you back with Kevin.

“So?” What did you think?” Kevin smirks. “Do you agree? You barely looked at him, maybe I should call him back over-”

You punch his arm, hard, while swinging your bag over your shoulder, and Kevin cackles despite the pain you inflicted on his arm.

“You better sleep with one eye open tonight, Moon.”

“Saw you talking to Kevin and you know who earlier.” Hyunjae nudges Juyeon in the ribs, as they walk to the football field, grinning as Juyeon shies away embarrassedly.

“Just Kevin. I don’t think they wanted to talk to me.”

Hyunjae is silent, thinking, before he speaks up again carefully. “Y’know, for someone as handsome as you are Ju, you’re pretty easy going.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Juyeon, someone asked you to marry them back in elementary school and you just said okay.”

“What else was I supposed to say?”

“No?”

“Okay, fine. But I don’t see what this has to do with anything right now.” Juyeon huffs.

“You’ve liked them for years now. But I mean… you’ve barely even tried to tell them.”

“Maybe I will.” Juyeon replies defensively, and Hyunjae tries to hide his smile as Juyeon stalks off, annoyed by his friend’s insinuations.

“Did it actually work?” Changmin sidles up to Hyunjae once Juyeon is out of earshot, and he grins, shrugging.

“No idea. We’ll just have to see.”

“So mean.” Changmin snorts. “Making him upset to chase after them finally.”

“Hey! He needed a little push, and I gave it to him.” Hyunjae exclaims seriously, and Changmin shrugs, chuckling.

“Better hope it works.”

“Kevin, I’m not gonna fight you over this again, you already know that I-”

So absorbed in your conversation with Kevin, you aren’t paying any attention to what’s going on in the grassy field that you both walk across to access the shorter route home until it’s too late.

“Watch out!”

The shout comes closer than you’d like, and you barely have time to turn and determine the source before you’re tackled to the ground.

Hands come to shield the back of your head, arms caging you in, and you can only squeak as you hit the grass, eyes shut.

“Are you okay?”

Concerned eyes peer down at you as you crack open your own, eyes that were all too familiar.

Lee Juyeon.

You can see Kevin in the corner of your eye, biting on his fist as he’s torn between horror, concern, satisfaction, and excitement. You can hear the football team getting closer, Changmin already stooping to pick up the ball in close proximity to you.

“You couldn’t have just tried to catch the ball instead of tackling them to the ground, Ju?” Sangyeon snorts, and Juyeon flushes.

“Uh, right. But I didn’t want to crash into you, so I thought...” he trails off, scratching the back of his head as he lifts himself up, and you follow quickly.

In your haste, you’re almost blindly scrambling upwards, resulting in knocking heads with Juyeon, a resound thunk that has everyone wincing.

He yelps, flopping to the side, and you clutch your head with one hand and Kevin’s extended one with the other, stammering apologies as you absolutely make a run for it.

Juyeon doesn’t move, eyes blankly staring at the sky, as the team peers at him, grinning.

“Nice one, Ju.” Hyunjae chuckles, and Juyeon groans.

“Shut up.”

“Is your head okay?”

“For the third time Kev, yes, I’m fine!” You laugh as he hands you another ice pack worriedly. “It’s just a little sore.”

“I can’t believe he caught you like that, you should’ve seen it.” Kevin snorts after a few moments of silence pass. “It was like a romance movie.”

“I should’ve stayed to see if he was okay, but everyone was staring.” You sigh, and he pats your head comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, I asked Changmin and he said that Juyeon’s alright. Aren’t you lucky you have such a wonderful best friend who has all these connections?”

“You’re just as awkward as I am, don’t try to fool me.”

“Yeah, but…” Kevin hesitates, and you look over at him curiously, urging him to continue. “You’re sometimes too scared to get over being awkward, y’know? And then that means you don’t get out there as much, or have that many friends, or-”

“Okay, I get it.” You snort. “But I don’t see how Juyeon has anything to do with this.”

“Because you’ve liked him since elementary school, dummy.” He rolls his eyes dramatically as you pout. “And we’re almost done with high school. I think you should tell him.”

“Easier said than done.” You sigh. “You think everything’s like the movies Kev.”

“Oh honey, you’re the main character of your own life, so it might as well be a movie to make it more fun.” He snickers as you roll your eyes. “Okay, then at least talk to him without running away?”

“I don’t run away.”

Kevin glares at you.

“You refused to go to that new ice cream shop over the summer with me because he worked there! And you always excuse yourself to go to the bathroom whenever we bump into him in public, and after today at the football field, do you need me to go on?”

“No… but I don’t know how to talk to him.” You whine, and Kevin smiles triumphantly.

“That’s why you’ll be coming with me this weekend to the arcade. All the boys will be there.”

“Did you plan this?” You glare, and Kevin gasps in a way that answers your question.

“Never!”

“Sure.” You grumble sarcastically, though not denying his eager offer, and Kevin smiles.

When the weekend comes, you couldn’t be more nervous.

You tell yourself it’ll be easy enough, eleven of them total, and only one of them you had to subtly avoid. Yet somehow you seemed to always end up beside or in close proximity to him (due to the proud teammates of his).

“Sorry about the other day.” Juyeon offers meekly as you’re all entering the arcade, and you laugh awkwardly.

“It’s alright. Thanks for uh, catching me.”

“No… no problem.”

“I, uh,” you try not to choke on your saliva as you realize how close Juyeon is walking beside you. Being a large group, it was instinct to pack together in places you couldn’t all roam around. His hand brushes against yours, and it’s for a split second that your fingers link together before Kevin excitedly points you towards the claw machine.

“I saw that.” Chanhee sighs sympathetically, patting Juyeon on the shoulder, and he all but wilts, running a hand through his hair. “Try winning them something from the claw machine maybe. Kevin sucks at it.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Juyeon murmurs, but Chanhee knows he’s discouraged, despite his pure attempt.

“C’mon, I’ll go make Sunwoo buy us slushies.”

As Juyeon walks with Chanhee, he doesn’t notice your glances at him.

“Why do you look so shaken up?” Kevin blinks as he finally notices your wide eyes as he tears his gaze away from the stuffed prizes.

“I think… I think Juyeon tried to hold my hand.”

“He what?” Kevin chokes, and you shush him.

“He tried, before you pulled me away to the claw machine, which you know you suck at!”

“Go back, oh my god, go back!”

“Go back where?” You hiss, and he thinks.

“I dunno! Pretend you want a stuffed animal prize really bad or something, that usually works in the movies!”

“This isn’t a movie!”

“You know what this means?” Kevin stares at you excitedly. “He likes you!”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” You flush, glancing around to make sure no one was in earshot of Kevin’s ecstatic voice. “Maybe he just accidentally did it.”

“I bet he’ll confess to you today.” Kevin announces surely, and you bite the inside of your cheek.

“Whatever you say, Kev.”

It was quite the contrary.

Instead, the rest of the day, Juyeon barely interacted with you, besides awkwardly stilted conversations in which Juyeon believed you didn’t like him, and you were just confused.

Juyeon’s ready to leave it all behind him until he walks into the locker room before practice a few days later.

“Juyeon.”

Slowing in his tracks, he scans his surroundings, each of his team members sitting solemnly on the benches, as if waiting for his arrival. He glances at the clock, seeing he wasn’t late to practice, and furrows his eyebrows.

“Y-Yes?” He answers reluctantly, feeling very much uncomfortable with their stares, a thin sheen of sweat breaking out on his skin.

“Sit down. We have something very important to tell you.”

He takes a seat next to Sangyeon who patted the empty space, looking back and forth warily at the surrounding boys.

“Juyeon, they like you.”

Juyeon sits there pensively, and everyone holds their breath.

“No.” He shakes his head, and everyone explodes at the one syllable.

“What do you mean no? We just told you!”

“I knew we should’ve made the PowerPoint, I knew it!”

“We’re not tricking you this time, it’s not a prank!”

“I just… I don’t see it. I mean, they always avoid me, or never say anything to me, and whatever I try to do, it never works.” Juyeon frowns, and the team deflates slightly.

For Juyeon’s innocence had multiple facets, both positive and negative; whether it was him using it to sweet talk his way out of an escalating situation, increasing his gullibility or easily upset emotions, or using it as a factor of his curiosity and hard work, it also often blinded him in the signals he received from others.

“Juyeon, they’re just nervous to be around you! Like how you are with them!” Eric explains, agreement rising in the room.

“So you’re saying since they like me… they keep avoiding me?” Juyeon squints.

A pause ensues as they puzzle his words together.

“Yeah, basically.”

The dubious expression still lingers and Sunwoo gets up, sighing.

“Alright then, let’s make a bet.”

Juyeon raises an eyebrow.

“Fine. I’m listening.”

“Well, that was a fail.”

“I thought we could win!” Sunwoo pouts, and the team groans.

“It was a good try.” Changmin laughs, and Juyeon smiles. Sunwoo had bet the success of their football game upon Juyeon’s confession, only to lose by three points.

“It’s okay. I’m gonna tell them anyways.”

“Huh?” Sunwoo blurts confusedly. “But you won?”

“I know.” Juyeon grins sheepishly. “But I can't help thinking maybe you guys were right, since you’ve never steered me wrong before, and I can at least try to tell them.”

“Took you long enough. All this work to make yourself sound like a cool teen movie protagonist.” Hyunjae snorts, and Juyeon flushes as everyone laughs.

“Let us know how it goes!”

Kevin sends you a text to meet him at the football field, telling you he’d forgotten his sweater there, and amidst your cursing at your friend at his forgetful mind, you almost don’t realize the figure waiting for you isn’t Kevin.

“I like you.” Juyeon blurts, and you blink, not having any time to say anything.

“I- what?”

“I’ve liked you ever since that day in elementary school when I fell and you gave me a Hello Kitty bandaid because I was bleeding.”

You remember that day, shaky hands handing over the emergency bandage you kept in your bag as Juyeon accepted it thankfully, giving you a charmingly toothy smile that had your heart fluttering.

“I honestly don’t really know what I’m saying right now, I had a plan but I can’t really remember it now, so I-”

“Juyeon.” You cut him off, and his mouth snaps shut. “Breathe.”

He inhales. Exhales. You do the same to bolster yourself.

“I… I like you too.” You admit, and silence falls for a few moments before Juyeon laughs.

It’s a laugh he can’t hold back, bubbling up in his chest, and you find yourself joining him.

“What… what do we do now?” He gasps between giggles, and you’re wiping at your watery eyes with an airy shrug.

“Go on a date, losers!” A voice shouts down, and both of you look at the bleachers, where everyone stood up, cheering. “Kiss!”

“Were you guys there the entire time?” Juyeon calls out, and you shake your head embarrassedly at their reply.

“Duh!”

#lee juyeon x reader #lee juyeon imagines #juyeon imagines #juyeon x reader #tbz imagines #tbz x reader #the boyz imagines #the boyz x reader #the boyz x you #tbz x you #lee juyeon fluff #juyeon fluff #juyeon fanfic

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fantastic-bby · 3 years

Text

Pairing: Reader x Jisung (ft best friend!Jeongin and Minho)

Word count: 1.4k

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Jisung finds both you and your rainbow sneakers adorable but doesn't know how to ask you out.

Prompt: Fluff - 3. I like your rainbow shoes

Warnings: -

A/n: this was very roughly edited but I wanted to post it before I forget lol

Masterlist

[11:58]

“I like your rainbow shoes,” Jisung chuckles the moment you step into the dorm. You look up at him before down at the rainbow painted sneakers that you were in the process of taking off, cheeks reddening as you stare at them. “Oh! No, I didn’t mean to fluster you or anything, I just thought they looked cute.” He clears his throat awkwardly, suddenly feeling guilty about accidentally embarrassing you.

“I just wasn’t expecting anyone to really notice it, but thank you,” you quickly reassure him as you place them on the shoe rack by the front door.

“Jeongin mentioned that you were coming over. He didn’t mention what time. If I had known, I would’ve actually put on something less messy.” His hands gesture to his outfit that just screams ‘lazy day in’ with the basketball shorts and the oversized white T-shirt with a cartoon cat printed on the front of it.

“I’m only here for a moment. He promised that we’d actually get to hang out today since you guys have been so busy with work and all,” you laugh awkwardly, hands clasped in front of you and your weight shifting between your feet when you realise that Jisung’s blocking the main entrance into the dorm. You can’t actually get in unless he moves, which leaves you just standing with your lips pursed into a straight line while you stare at him.

“Oh! Jeez, sorry,” Jisung quickly moves out of the way, his face blushing madly. “I-I uhm..”

You take a few steps past him, “it’s okay. I didn’t really know how to say it either.”

“(Y/n)!” You turn just in time to catch Minho as he crashes into you, surprising you from the impact and bringing you to the ground with him when he just decides to fall. You fall onto the ground with a groan, the dancer barely making an effort to even get off of you while you try to squirm your way out from underneath him. “You’re here! We haven’t seen you in so long!” he exclaims when he lifts himself up.

“Blame Jeongin for not inviting me over more often,” you quip. Jisung extends his hand towards you to help you up. “Thanks, Ji,” you hum, hands brushing over your clothes while he helps Minho up as well.

“We’ve already said that you’re free to come over anytime you want. You have all of our number. You're our friend now, too,” Jisung reminds you. Your hands pause for a moment when you remember that you do, in fact, have all of their numbers because Hyunjin insisted on bringing you into their group chat after your best friend had introduced you to them a few months back.

“That… that is something that I forgot,” you sheepishly admit.

“You should come over whenever we have movie nights. We usually just order food and watch whatever we feel like because Changbin hyung lets us use his Netflix.” Jisung’s offer makes you tempted. You’ve always wanted to spend more time with them, but since you were Jeongin’s friend first, it feels intrusive for you to be in their space.

“Where is Jeongin anyway?” Minho questions when he realises that Jeongin still hasn’t left his bedroom.

“He said to just let myself in around now,” you mutter as you look at your watch to check the time.

“I’ll go look for him.” The older male leaves you with Jisung while he heads in the direction of Jeongin’s bedroom.

“What were you guys planning on doing?” Jisung asks once Minho’s gone.

“Jeongin wants to try out this new café a few minutes from here. He said they have really cute cakes that he’s pretty much dying to try out,” you explain.

“Ah.” He’s pretty sure he’s heard the maknae mentioning it a couple of times before, but no one in the group was too keen on wanting to check out the new café since Jeongin’s food standards were essentially “if edible, then eat”. Another thought pops into Jisung’s head that has him turning to you, “are you guys going to the arcade? Minho hyung and I were planning on going there later.”

“Mhm,” you hum. “We haven’t been to the arcade in ages with how busy Innie’s gotten, but maybe we’ll meet you guys there after we’re done at—”

“I’m up! I’m up!” Jeongin’s whines cut you off and the two of you turn to the distressed voice of the man to see Minho dragging him out of the bedroom.

“(Y/n)’s already waiting for you,” Minho scolds when he stops right in front of you and Jisung.

“I was just taking a small nap,” he grumbles before turning to you. “I swear, they like you more than they like me.”

“(Y/n) actually likes us back, so…” Jisung snorts, earning a cheeky giggle from Minho and a glare from Jeongin.

“Were you waiting long? I accidentally fell asleep while scrolling through my Instagram.”

“Not at all,” you shake your head with a reassuring smile on your face. “I was just talking to Jisung about how he and Minho might be going to the arcade later so we can meet up with them there after lunch.”

“We’re going to the arca—Oof!” Minho’s rudely interrupted by Jisung’s elbow digging into his stomach to stop him from talking and he immediately catches on. “O-Oh, yeah, Ji and I were planning on heading to the arcade,” he wheezes out while holding onto his now aching stomach.

“You didn’t tell me that,” Jeongin pouts. “If I had known, then I would have invited you guys out for lunch with (Y/n) and I.”

“Decided it just now,” Jisung hastily says. “Don’t worry. We weren’t really planning on leaving until like an hour or two from now.” The younger man eyes him skeptically before turning to you.

“Sungie hyung is weird,” he mutters as he takes a step closer to you. “Let’s go before the café gets full.” You nod and turn to follow him out. Jisung and Minho watch as you do, waving when you turn around to wave them goodbye before leaving the dorms.

“Is that really your way of asking (Y/n) out?” Minho snorts once you’re out of ear-shot and the door’s closed.

“Well, can’t exactly do that when you’re tackling them to the ground, now, can I?” Jisung scowls as he turns to look at him.

“Maybe next time just text them and go ‘hey, let’s grab some lunch together’ or something. Like you said, they’re not just friends with Yeni anymore.” Minho thinks it’s comical how Jisung has been trying to ask you out for months but keeps bailing at the last minute.

“I’ll figure it out eventually,” he rolls his eyes. “It’s not that easy. What if they don’t want to go out with me? I’ll just end up—” Jisung almost chomps on his tongue when the front door swings open and you’re rushing back in.

“Have you guys seen my house keys? I think they may have dropped out when Minho crashed into me,” you ask as you look around on the ground. Minho looks down at his feet and immediately notices the sleeping Kirby keychain that’s clipped together with a Shiba Inu keychain and a set of keys. He picks it up and extends it towards you. “Ah, thank you,” you let out a sigh of relief as you took it from him. Minho takes a step back and pretty much shoves Jisung in your direction, stopping you from leaving the dorms out of surprise.

“Jisung here has something to ask you, right Ji?” He gives the rapper another nudge and Jisung’s scowling at him while he turns to look at you.

“I-uhm…” he clears his throat, struggling to actually get the words to leave his mouth. It’s funny how he struggles with words when he writes lyrics for a living.

“Yes, Ji?” Your voice coaxes him to continue and he’s clearing his throat once again.

“W-Would you like to grab lunch? Sometime? With me?” Once Jisung’s managed to force the words out of his mouth, he’s squeezing his eyes shut tight out of both embarrassment and the fear of your reaction. Your voice, though, makes him open his eyes once again because you’re chuckling softly.

“I would love to.” Jisung feels his entire body lighting up. “Just text me when and where because if I leave Jeongin waiting any longer, he’s going to have my head.”

“Sure!” he blurts out, head nodding ecstatically. “We can—uhm—I’ll just send you the details.”

“Alright, I’ll see you guys later,” you wave as you turn towards the front door.

“Later…?” Jisung trails off softly before it clicks in his mind. “Oh! Right! Later, yeah. We’ll see you at the arcade.” His nervousness makes you smile as you leave, not without muttering a ‘cute’ under your breath that makes Jisung’s entire face burn up while Minho stifles a laugh.

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ashthewaterghoul · 3 years

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“Living Happily - A Wolfstar One Shot”

TW - physical assault, blood, discrimination, abusive family, homophobia and transphobia.

“Fuck!” Remus shouted as he threw the letter across the room.

“Remus!” Sirius said bouncing a baby Harry on his lap. “He’s starting to repeat things now, you need to be careful.”

“Another rejection! Because of ‘who I am and how I choose live’. I didn’t choose all this! Why are people like this?”

“They just don’t understand you, and that scares them.”

“It’s a good thing your family is so wealthy, we’d be on the street without that money.”

“But we’re not, and never will be. Hopefully I’ll hear back from the Ministry soon, and then you will get a job and we will be living happily.”

“Moo Moo.” Harry said reaching in Remus’ direction. Whenever Remus was down, all he had to do was look at Harry’s face, not only would he see the cute little boy, but also two of his best friends. He was identical to James, but he had Lily’s eyes. Keeping Harry safe was something that kept Remus going, providing for Harry the way his parents did.

The next day, Remus woke up early and went to the muggle shop down the street to get a few things. On the way back, he heard some whispers down an alleyway, he kept his head down and tried to continue home, but then the group of men charged out and tackled Remus to the ground. He knocked his head hard on the ground which winded him. As he gasped for air, he was beaten up by the men for what seemed like forever. Punch after punch, and kick after kick. After they were finally done, one of them spat on Remus and said: “Fucking disgrace”. They walked off like it was nothing.

Remus could barely find the strength to stand. He slipped on the milk which had burst out of the carton, falling once again to the floor, face first. His face was dripping blood as his nose had just broke. He limped his way back home, it wasn’t far but his weakness caused him to take a lot longer than it should, holding onto lamp posts, bus shelters and walls for support.

Sirius was in the kitchen feeding Harry when he heard the door open.

“Hey, Rem. Shop alright?” He looked over and his smile quickly faded as he saw his boyfriend bloodied and bruised.

“Holy fuck! Sit down.” After Sirius’ abuse from his mother, he knew something about healing. He sat down by Remus and started cleaning his wounds, wiping away the blood and healing him.

“What was it about this time?”

“I don’t know.”

“Was it muggles or wizards?”

“I don’t know, barely got a look at them.”

“This is why I tell you to take your wand with you!”

There was many reasons Remus could be a ‘fucking disgrace’, he was a half-blood, bisexual, dating a boy from the Black family, a werewolf and a transgender man.

Remus had been at war with his gender for as long as he knew. His parents always supported him, but they all knew it would put another target on his back. When his friends found out at school, about everything, they couldn’t have been happier for him. Sirius would help him bind his chest, James would be like his Mum telling him to take his hormone potions and Lily would always sneak him menstrual products. Whenever he tried out a new name they would always respect him and correct others, and when he decided on ‘Remus’, Sirius gave him the money to legally change it.

“Moo Moo okay?” Harry asked from his high chair.

“I’m just a little bit hurt.” Remus said.

“A little?! Remus you look like hell.”

“Thanks babe.”

When Sirius was done healing Remus, Harry lay on the sofa, cuddled up next to Remus and fell asleep, softly snoring. He looked at Harry’s little round face, he was so young and innocent, it only strengthened the part in Remus that made him want to protect him.

A thud by the window told them that the owl had just dropped off the post. There was today’s Prophet and a letter for Sirius.

“It’s from the Ministry!” Sirius said excitedly. As he read the letter, it was evident from his facial expression that it wasn’t good news.

“Dear Mr. Black,” he read aloud “We regret to inform you that your application for the muggle relations internship has been rejected. We think that given your family’s history, it would make muggles and muggle-borns feel unwelcome and unsafe.”

“That’s fu-, I mean, that’s messed up, Pads.”

“I always thought my family would haunt me, but I didn’t think it would be like this.” He said, collapsing on the armchair.

“Well, that’s another point for Team Gets-Rejected-For-Things-We-Didn’t-Choose.” Remus said “What jobs are going in the Prophet?”

“Not much, shop workers, DADA professor, and-“ Sirius’ grey eyes were fixed on one point.

“What? What did you see?”

“A position for a Healer at St. Mungo’s.”

“Well, you’re great at healing me, I reckon you go for it.”

“What about you?” He said tossing the paper at Remus. “Anything you like the look of?”

He scanned the section “The Ministry want someone to mange the werewolf registry.”

“Perfect, I reckon.”

“Perfect” Harry repeated, waking up from his brief sleep.

They sent their owls with the applications a few hours later, and sent a third one to put Harry in a day care. They both got owls of acceptance a few weeks later. Sirius started to change the implications associated with the Black name. For the first time since it’s inception, the werewolf registry was finally in order, and due to Remus’ seat of power, werewolf rights were finally on the rise.

Sirius and Remus adored Harry, but they had wanted their own biological children since their time in Hogwarts. Neither were getting younger, but they had to hold off until their jobs were stable.

“Someday, we will have a our little family.” They would say to each other “We don’t need another Sirius though.” Remus would add on. Their dreams were realised a couple years later when Remus gave birth to a set of fraternal twins they called James and Lily.

Over the years, they had experienced so much hate because their sexualities, Sirius’ family, Remus’ gender and lycanthropy, but the Lupin-Black household couldn’t even think about that when they finally had the family they had wanted since they were 15, fantasising in Gryffindor tower, smoking by the open window or curled up together on one of the tiny four poster beds. They were finally living happily.

Hello! This was my first go at writing a character as trans and I would really like it if you could tell me how I could improve in the future! Please interact with my posts as much as you can and please leave any feedback or suggestions for future fics. You can also follow me on Instagram if you want @siriusly_a_jedi. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it❤️

View all my one shots here

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kanmom51 · 3 years

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JM JK timeline.- my observations how they grew over the years Part 3

Disclaimer: these are my own opinions and conclusions. Feel free to disagree, but hate or aggression will be unacceptable.

This is coming out so much longer than I anticipated, so I decided to post this in a couple of parts.

2016 was a big big year for Jikook. There is sooooo much content out there, I just can’t refer to everything. I had to pick and choose, hope I did so wisely. No Twitter, no song recommendations (they may or may not be relevant, but I decided not to go there).

2016 part 1

End of 2015 was the beginning. Both JM and JK were putting out feelers, trying not only to figure out what this thing between them was, but also how far to take it. I can only imagine they were filled with the excitement that the attraction was mutual, but there were (and sadly still are) so many obstacles to face.

What does it mean for the band? Do the others know? Do they let them know? When do they let them know? How does it affect the others? And I am sure they also faced the fears of what happens if it doesn’t work out.

I know they were young, and when you’re young you take more risks, you think things over less, but I’m sure those questions did cross their minds and did affect their relationship over the years.

So, end of 2015 was putting out the feelers, testing the waters, and 2016 was when they stepped up a gear, jumped into the water, so to say. There is a clear shift in their behaviour. We see all the changes that occurred in late 2015 and so much more. They are closer, touchier, slightly bolder.

There are the stares. JK at JM. JM at JK. Both at each other. These aren’t just one looking at another. These are just something special. You can see the attraction, the adoration in their eyes, on their faces.

2016 is the year where we also start to see the shift beyond ‘skinship’. The ‘skinship’ is still there but there is so much more. There are moments when it seems like they are afraid to touch, so we see all those little touches, light brushes, micro touches, almost touches. On the one hand they can’t keep their hands off each other, but it’s gentle, hesitant, like it’s something to hide. If this is only ‘skinship’ what is there to hide? Why the hesitance?

JK and JM were always close. But now JK lets us see it. Prior to 2015 he shied away from JM’s touches, his closeness, his forwardness, his shamelessness (as JK himself put it). From 2015 that started to change, and we see it even more in 2016. Not only doesn’t he shy away, but he also initiates this closeness. He is not afraid anymore to show just how important JM is to him, how JM is his anchor. JM is there to calm him, to sooth him when he is nervous or anxious, to be happy for him, to nudge him on to push him to do more (like speaking at award shows) and to support him and compliment him when he does.

Through the year we can also see a push and pull in the relationship. They are getting their footing within the relationship. Setting the boundaries. This is a process, and it takes time. JM is JK’s elder. What does that mean for their relationship? Does JK have to come whenever he is summoned? Does JK have to keep calling JM hyang? JK starts being defiant. Sometimes calling JM without the honorifics. There are times that it bothers JM, but sometimes he loves it. They are working into a relationship – are they on equal grounds? This is something they are working through.

2016 is the year JK comes of age. A most significant right of passage in SK culture.

This is a year that gives oh so much Jikook content. The fan meets, the behind the scenes clips, the music awards. This is the year of BV1, several most conspicuous Vlives, including the Osaka Vlive and the famous Hobi Vlive. This is also when we got the notorious ‘Own it’ dance practice. There’s the famous “Manila Fight” – most definitely not something I am going to touch upon. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t. Maybe there was friction, maybe there wasn’t. I, for one, don’t feel like I have enough content to base a conclusion on.

2016 was a substantial year for the two. I’m aware that there is so much content out there, so I’ll only be touching the iceberg here:

Sapporo snow festival 7 Feb 2016 – JK joins JM in front of the camera – sending kisses to the camera but then leaning in towards JM. Did he give him a kiss? JM’s surprised reaction though...

7 May 2016 Vlive – JK an JM being all flirty.

12 May 2016 fan sign – JK trying to put a flower crown on JM’s head. The two in their own world, playing a game, JM lifting JK up in the air, stabilizing JK with his hand and making sure he doesn’t fall. Again, they are close, they are in their own world, doing ‘them’, no matter where they are. This is the same fan sign JM tells JK that he is sitting in the wrong place, and his place is next to him.

Moments in BV 1 –May 2016.

JK sleeps in lounge room on sofa with JM, instead of on a bed with Suga. JK fell asleep, and JM sets him up with a pillow and covers him up.

JK’s coming of age day Vlive.

The famous JK JM discussion about men checking out their selfies (we can see how JK is still struggling with his ideas or conception of what is appropriate, ‘right’ behaviour for a ‘man’).

JK’s “he’s driving me nuts” over JM lagging behind (Hobi’s reaction to JK’s rant is priceless), but still stops to wait for him all the time.

The hand wrestling (JM losing every single time, and JM ignoring poor Jin when he offers to hand wrestle with him – was it really hand wrestling or hand holding?).

JM misplacing his phone, and JK backing out of going all ‘hidden camera’ on JM, showing him he has the phone the minute he sees him.

JK’s “I will sleep here with Jimin” in the camper. JM playing footsies with JK’s crotch (JM playing footsies seems to be a reoccurring theme).

JM feeding his Kookie (So, what’s new?).

JK’s coming of age performance. This is a big one for me. It’s JK’s song choice and him asking JM to do it with him. The song JK chose to dance to is Park Ji Yoon’s Adult ceremony:

Hey you, why are you hesitating? I know you want me

Right now in front of you, I know what you want,

What you’re waiting for, just come here

I’m not that little girl,

You used to know anymore,

I’m a woman now

I’m thankful that you’ve waited for me

Now I’ll become a woman at your kiss

I’m not a little girl anymore

Don’t hesitate any longer

As much as you waited, I’ve waited for this day too

Give me twenty stems of roses, so I can feel your love

As I wait for you, I close my eyes

Hey you, I want to give you permission to give me your love

Teach me how love is so sweet and fragrant

It was hard looking at you suffering and waiting

My heart even hurt

But now came the day

where there is no reason

to wait anymore

I’m not a little girl anymore

Don’t hesitate any longer

As much as you waited, I’ve waited for this day too

Give me twenty stems of roses, so I can feel your love

As I wait for you, I close my eyes

https://lyricstranslate.com

The song’s message is clear. Is it a coincidence JK chose JM to dance this with him? I don’t think so. The Bangtan Bomb (21 Sep 2016) with their practice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4oIpsRemPA .

You can tell JM knows exactly how this looks like being all shy and flustered during the rehearsals. The members reactions during the dress rehearsal also are pretty telling. Who is JK sending this message to? JM? Us?

13 July 2016 JM and Jin reacting to Minwoo & JK’s celebrity bromance. JM taking it a bit far there, expressing his jealousy and how JK doesn’t treat him the same, saying he has no feeling for him. Seriously JM? I kind of wonder here whether JM is trying to down play what’s going on between the two, or if he is genuinely jealous, maybe because he feels that JK is holding himself back with him, especially in front of the cameras or around others. We do hear later in the year JM’s frustration that JK doesn’t say he loves him (Jin eats Vlive).

OK, now for the famous suspicious as Vlives. I will tackle them just a little bit. I am not going to analyse them, there has been plenty of that going around. I do, though, want to talk about them just a bit.

As far as I am concerned, both Vlives don’t prove the relationship between the boys. They most definitely are very suspicious though.

The Osaka Vlive -12 July 2016, when Tae surprises JK in his hotel room - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjjAbQLXrEM . JK is undressed, lights are dimmed, he has loud sultry music playing, makeup is smudged, he’s acting pretty suspicious as a whole. I think that reaching a conclusion that JK has someone in the room with him is not far fetched. Someone he obviously doesn’t want the camera to see. Is it JM? We really can’t know. I have seen analyses that hear him calling out JM’s name when Tae’s at the door, or pointing out JM’s phone or clothes and shoes are in the room. To me that is outright speculation. But I do believe someone was there, someone JK didn’t want to show up on camera.

A question I ask myself, though, if it wasn’t JM in the room, is why JM is obviously pissed at Tae the next day, when during his Vlive, he repeats several times not to let Tae into the room for the live? Is it connected? That’s for them to know, and us to probably never find out.

Then there is Hobi’s Vlive, 13 Aug 2016. Hobi starts his live, saying how hungry . This is an important piece of information to remember for later on. He goes to JM’s room. It takes time for JM to open the door, Hobi finally pushing himself in, saying how he is going to show off JM’s room. Only thing is that they stand at the entrance, then walk slowly into the room, not turning the camera away from their faces, all the while Hobi looking worryingly into the room. It seemed like he was looking at something inside the room.

The camera is turned into the room, avoiding certain areas. They come into the room to discover an enormous amount of food, and JM explains that he is starving and that’s why he ordered so much. When Hobi entered the room he asks JM what he was doing, and he answered that he was boiling water for ramen. So he was going to eat all that food and ramen by himself? They converse, and then V comes. At some point V takes JM’s ramen, after JM stated it was his manager’s (is this the same manager JM checks out during his future live?), and leaves the room. Then Hobi says he’ll go and leave the camera with JM.

The question I ask is, why did Hobi, who was really hungry, leave JM’s room when JM, obviously, had enough food for two? We saw JM eat later, and he most definitely didn’t finish all the food he ordered by himself. Then, before Hobi leaves JM with the Vlive camera, he goes to the bed, where JM is lying, and starts teasing him being all handsy with him and going: “Oh Jimin, oh jimin” – what was that about?

JM is left alone, also managing the camera, not showing the whole room. The whole time he is acting funny, grinning to what looks like someone off camera, seems like he talks to something/someone off camera, the whole vibe is that he isn’t alone in the room. But the definitive proof that there was someone in the room with him was when at some point the camera is facing JM, who is sitting next to the tv. Then, something happens.

Is it a ghost? Is it a plain? No, it’s super JK… But seriously, there was someone in the room, someone who’s reflection we got to see in the tv.

To sum it up, here too JM is not alone in the room. Is it JK? That we don’t know for sure. Suspicions are high, but that’s what they are - suspicions. He does, at some point talk about inviting other members to join him (why didn’t he ask Hobi to stay and eat with him?????), and gives a pretty lame explanation as to why he isn’t calling JK to join (stating that he doesn’t listen to him anymore. Again with this JM?).

A question I ask myself is why is it always those two that seem to have someone hiding in their room during the lives????

14 Aug 2016 upload of ‘Own it’ dance practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMprwPSFLyU .

This is private dance practice, just JM and JK, at what looks like late at night, lights dimmed, to a highly explicit song. It’s filmed by them, as we can see them cutting and returning to the camera from time to time. During the dance JM clearly has an erection. He is aware of it, looks down at it, points it out to JK, and at some point changes his shirt to cover it up. They don’t stop dancing. They don’t stop recording. They are clearly having a good time.

This clip is uploaded to BangtanTV in 2016 and is still there. I can reassure you that both JM and JK are aware of what is seen in this clip, and still this clip was uploaded, and is still online. It’s more the atmosphere (alone, dimmed lighting) and the choice of song to dance to that indicates the high level of intimacy and the feeling is that this is just something ‘more’.

To be continued...

#jm #jk #jimin #Jungkook #jikook are real #kookmin #jikook #love and support jungkook #love and support jimin #love and support jikook #love and support kookmin #jikook timeline #jimin and jungkook love each other #vlive

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Risk”

Welcome back, everyone! I have a lot of mixed, complicated feelings about today's episode and I'm already sure this recap will miss a great deal that should be said. There's a lot to digest, we need some time to do that, so until things have settled I think that the one, entirely confident claim I can make here is that our writers weren't BSing the fandom on twitter. The last few days have seen a number of big claims made regarding "Risk" —

— and whatever else we might have to say about the episode, it certainly delivered in terms of shocking content. From confessions to reveals to a new plan in place, there's a lot to unpack.

So let's get started.

Our first shot is a problem.

I don't want it to be! But I've got to work with what I've got. We open on Salem's flying monkeys — or gorillas, if we're being technical — and my immediate thought is where in the world they came from. I mean, obviously I know where. We ended Volume 6 with the post-credit scene of Salem adding wings to an army of Beringels, Hazel commenting that she'll lead the invasion herself. When Salem arrived at the end of Volume 7 and we picked up where we'd left off in Volume 8, the fandom was obviously expecting an attack led primarily by flying, transformed grimm. That didn't happen. For ten episodes the plot forgot that the Beringels existed, focusing instead of the Hound, the grimm soup, then the Whale, then the ground grimm the Whale was producing. Months back I encountered a number of posts asking, "What happened to the resource we know Salem brought to this fight?" and those questions are partly what inspired the "Introducing new grimm that are then quickly abandoned" spot on the bingo board. Now, suddenly, the Beringels have re-appeared and that is a good thing. Though it's too little, too late, as is so often the case with RWBY. Getting something you expect has a sour taste when it arrives months past when it was needed, especially when that something only exists for a second on screen.

This is doubly true given that we saw Oscar eliminate the grimm last episode.

At least, I thought he had? Pretty much everyone I've spoken to thought he had. This last week's discussions have centered around RWBY nerfing the stakes, taking out a whole army of grimm in one, magical blast. That's far from great. Yet now we see that we were apparently wrong. Atlas remains overrun with grimm, this problem remains a problem... so, yay? But we're once left with a tradeoff. RWBY has no longer eliminated the stakes with a deus ex machina as we had originally thought, but in its place we're left with a badly executed scene last episode and an assumed problem that is "fixed" with an enemy we should have been dealing with since the start of the volume. The road to the Beringels has been messy indeed and all they've done so far is fly across the screen.

Which reminds me: if this army of grimm still exists — and absolutely existed prior to Oscar's blast — how come not a single one is attacking the Schnee manor? This opening is in Atlas, the skies are overrun, we've seen a few grimm show up to help out the Hound, yet miraculously nothing bothers the group while they freak out at the dining table, or freak out as Penny tries to leave. That's a whole lot of grimm and a whole lot of negativity... yet somehow these two things never meet in a way that would inconvenience our characters. While from a writing standpoint I can understand not wanting to interrupt all these conversations and feel good moments, the show can't simply ignore the rules of its world whenever it's convenient. If anything, given that Atlas' population is currently hidden beneath the city, Schnee manor should be even more of a hot-spot than it normally would be. There is one (1) group of people out in the open for them to target.

Yeah, we're a single shot into this episode. It's a doozy.

Moving right along, those Atlas citizens (and, let's not forget, a large number of Mantle evacuees too) are still huddled in the tunnels, listening to Ironwood's insane broadcast. They're obviously terrified, as are those down in Mantle who are staring execution in the face. Fiona bursts into tears.

It makes me wonder why we didn't get the airship subplot now. As I've mentioned extensively in the past, that decision didn't make much sense and I think the writers knew it didn't make much sense because they chose not to reveal what Ruby and co. planned to do with the citizens once they were on board. The point was never to come up with a feasible plan, something the audience would put to the test, but rather to just make it seem like the group was doing something Smart and Heroic before Ironwood inevitably derailed it. Don't look too closely at the man behind the curtain. Normally, I'd comment that yes, it's damn hard to come up with a brilliant plan to save others in a situation like this — our characters can only be as smart as our authors! — yet that sympathy dissipates when we hit this episode and are given a scenario where airships would have been great. Ironwood has threatened to nuke Mantle. Suddenly, it is imperative that the civilians leave the safety of the crater as soon as possible (whereas before it was not). So Whitley remembers that they have access to these ships and the group hatches a plan to sneak them down while Ironwood is distracted, get everyone up into Atlas so he can't use Mantle as a bargaining chip anymore. Then they're spotted, the plan revealed, and Ironwood shoots their ships down, leaving them devastated that their attempt to help the citizens has literally gone up in flames. We're still left with the problem of why Ironwood wouldn't just allow a continued evacuation now that Salem is briefly out of the mix and the Schnees have provided extra resources — the writing really took a sledgehammer to his characterization — but the group trying to get people to Atlas to avoid death by bomb at least makes more sense than them trying to move the citizens to an undisclosed location, for unestablished reasons, when they were already relatively safe. The bomb is what makes those airships a necessity.

It really makes me wonder how much editing goes on and how much time the writers have before they finalize scripts.

Regardless, we cut from terrified people to Ironwood himself, accompanied by Winter. The animation has some nice parallels going on here, what with the same black, white, and blue color scheme, hands behind their backs, the need for robotic accommodations, and steps perfectly in synch. As we're about to see though, Winter is very good at looking the part of a loyal soldier while actually bending the rules.

However, are we really going to ignore that she betrayed Ironwood last episode? Betrayal from his perspective, that is. Winter was given a direct order, disobeyed that order, pissed off Harriet in the process, and wasn't able to give a good explanation for her actions — she was too busy being creeped out by Ironwood's reaction. For all intents and purposes she should be considered disloyal right now. Or at least under suspicion, yet Ironwood acts as if everything is fine. We've skipped over any meaningful fallout between them, or a reason why Ironwood would dismiss her betrayal. This ties into something I'll bring up later in the episode: namely, that RWBY introduces too much too quickly and doesn't have time to satisfyingly tackle — or tackle at all — the plot points they've introduced, simply because there's always a new one to focus on. We dropped the "Winter went against Ironwood at great personal risk" plotline to make room for the new "Ironwood has randomly threatened Mantle" plotline, which likewise doesn't do Ironwood's characterization any favors. I don't just mean the obvious "Omg he's willing to murder a whole city now" issue. Ironwood used to be smart, yet his unfounded trust in others makes him look foolish now: first trusting Watts, now Winter. Alongside that, the story and fandom have both pushed the idea that Ironwood is paranoid, yet that "paranoia" has only ever been attached to justified threats. If he were actually paranoid then Winter's actions would have caused him to mistrust all of the Ace Ops now, labeling everyone near him a disloyal enemy, despite evidence to the contrary (especially when it comes to Harriet). Yet across two volumes Ironwood has continually been "paranoid" only in regards to things like Cinder and Salem — proven threats — while simultaneously trusting known villains and ignoring when his subordinates straight up say, "She let our enemies go free." There’s little rhyme or reason to any of his decisions here.

Still! A nice, meaningful shot lol.

As Ironwood and Winter get closer we see the Ace Ops discussing the threat. "Of course he's not going to do it," to which Marrow pushes back with, "So what? He's bluffing with a whole city?" This is a really, really important moment that I don't think the writers realize is important. See, everyone is shocked when Ironwood reveals that he intends to go through with the threat. The Ace Ops, Winter, Robyn, our heroes... everyone grapples with the idea that this is actually happening. Everyone has some moment of, "It's just a bluff, yeah?" and I don't think that's just denial. The characters' shock tells us that Ironwood normally wouldn't be a man who'd do something like this. Ever. That shock has to stem from something, such as an ingrained understanding that Ironwood is a protector, not a murderer. Note the difference between the fandom and the characters' reactions. Whereas a good chunk of the fandom went, "Of course Ironwood means it. We all saw this coming! Remember how he..." and then proceed to list various things — persuasive or otherwise — that prove he was always a bad guy in the making. Yet no one in the RWBY world is inclined to use those moments as evidence. Winter doesn't go, "He's not bluffing. I saw him shoot the councilman just for speaking up" and the Ace Ops don't go, "Oh, he'll do it. This is the man who destroyed his arm to take down Watts. He'll stop at nothing." After everything they've seen — the same things we've seen — there's still some instinctual, nebulous knowledge that goes, "No. Ironwood wouldn't. He's one of the good guys." We can certainly talk about real life people getting swept up in horrible institutions, unwilling to admit how bad things actually are until they hit a specific line they can't cross... but I think this is less a comment on some sort of bystander effect (RWBY isn't that deliberately nuanced lol) and more an unintentional acknowledgement that until the very sudden and entirely unexpected shooting of Oscar, Ironwood actually wouldn't have done this. The Ace Ops are reacting to a man who absolutely existed until the writing erased him and they believe the core of that man still exists. To my mind, he should, but because our show can't actually have Salem as the main villain right now, she's conveniently blown up and Ironwood takes her place.

So we've got some loaded implications there, as well as Vine's comment that he hopes "the kids" see sense now. I am begging RWBY to pick a lane already. Are they kids, or are they adults? Because that answer makes a big difference and we can't continue to have it both ways.

Ironwood and Winter arrive were Ironwood orders that she prep drones with the "payload." That's the moment Winter and the others realize he's serious. Cue that shock all around. The revelation is the last straw for Marrow, prompting him to start yelling some excellent points about how Ironwood is doing Salem's job for her. See, this accusation works. Telling a guy threatening to blow up a city that he's as bad as their villain is accurate. Having Oscar tell that same guy that he's as bad as their villain because he wants to save a city full of people... is ridiculous. Totally different setup here and RWBY got it right this time. The only line that didn't work for me was Marrow asking the Ace Ops if they believe in anything. Uh... yeah. They believe in saving Atlas + all the Mantle evacuees they got. That's pretty well established. I swear, most RWBY speeches are padded with generic, heroic-sounding lines that don't actually mean anything, or are outright falsehoods we’re meant to ignore.

We'll see more of that with renora.

Marrow attempts to leave and his eyes go wide as he hears the click of Ironwood's gun. Remember I said that Winter is good at playing the obedient soldier? It's after Ironwood aims that she tackles Marrow.

On the surface it looks only like she violently disarmed him, but in reality she got him out of the bullet's path and kept Ironwood from firing at all. She saved his life, choosing to play up how she'll “take this traitor to the brig” where he belongs, rather than watching him die. A really nice moment in terms of strategy and one of the few lately where I've actually felt like I'm watching smart characters.

However, I cannot deny the uncomfortable implications in this scene. Smart or not, necessary or not, it hasn't escaped anyone's notice that one of our darkest characters was a) nearly killed by a white man and b) beat up by a white woman. To say nothing of Marrow's status as a faunus. I was cringing during his line about loyalty: “I used to wear this rank with pride. Now I see it for what it really is: a collar."

Honestly, I don't have the qualifications to unpack all that, so let's just acknowledge that the scene, while good in some respects, was massively insulting in others. I’ll let others in the fandom defend or damn it as they see fit.

We get a shot of how shocked the Ace Ops are that they nearly watched their team member get executed for speaking up against a bomb threat. It once again highlight's RWBY's strange depiction of violence and when it's deemed appropriate. Harriet has threatened people a couple of times now — here telling Marrow she'll shut him up herself — yet her reaction tells us that she never would have killed him as Ironwood nearly did. Threats, then, mean little... unless Ironwood is making an exaggerated comment about shooting Qrow. Then it's evidence of evil intent that's bound to come to the surface eventually. So does that mean Harriet will be trying to bomb cities herself someday? If so, it once again leaves our heroes in an awkward position, considering that Ruby started the fight Harriet wouldn't, Weiss stuck her weapon in Whitley's face, etc. If it says something awful that Winter would punch a minority — even to save his life — what does it say about Qrow that he would punch a child in anger? Outside of the easy to label actions like Ironwood's bomb threat and shootings, there exists this gray space that asks, “When are you justified to use violence? When is a threat forgivable?” The problem is, the show keeps coming up with contradictory answers. I bring this up not because Winter's punch or Harriet's threat are the most significant examples of this that we've seen, but because the themes of forgiveness and violence take center stage at the episode's end... and RWBY completely drops the ball. Keep these complications in mind.

Before that though, the group is crowded into the dining room and no matter what else "Risk" might give us, I'm reminded that I really like the design of the Schnee manor. I'm glad the episode found an excuse to show us this room again.

My initial thought upon entering the scene was, "Are we going to talk about Penny's hack? The silver-eyed grimm? Ozpin's return?" and to RWBY's credit it touches on all of these, though I stand by my point about plotlines coming too quickly. Any one of these should have been given the space to grow, not fighting for space against the potential destruction of Mantle. If you don't acknowledge these things in "Risk" you've lost your chance (much like how "Oscar is kidnapped" replaced "Oscar has to deal with Ozpin's return," resulting in a scene where Oscar was just... randomly okay with Ozpin again. We lost the chance to deal with the first conflict introduced because we barreled into the second), yet if you do spend episode time on these issues, it feels like the characters aren't dealing with the immediate threat. Questions of silver eyes, what to do about Penny, and Ozpin's return needed to be given their due before there was an hour time limit resulting in thousands of deaths. Now, you have to wonder why Yang and Ruby are talking about their mother when a city's safety is ticking away. Where were these questions and reassurances years ago?

I think this is why this episode — maybe even this whole volume — simultaneously feels too full and too boring. We're being introduced to lots of Big Things, but then putting them off to focus on other, smaller stuff, and by the time we circle back around it's no longer the right time. We're constantly focusing on the least interesting, least important thing in the room. Why is the group sitting around with their tea when we could have moved the Hound plotline up and started this groundwork earlier? Which means we're doing that work now instead of worrying about Mantle or Penny. All of which is connected to Salem herself being here, yet Ironwood is our villain instead... We're just introducing new idea after new idea, dropping each to focus on something else when the viewer is already emotionally invested in the last conflict. It makes the show feel overly packed with problems we don't have time for while simultaneously having too much time in which the characters do nothing of importance. We're never dealing with these issues at the right time. Talking about a silver-eyed grimm while Salem is here feels like Too Much and having the girls unpack that now, with Mantle’s life on the line, feels like Too Little. Stop sitting around while you've got less than an hour to save half a kingdom! We needed this conversation in a different episode, one not already driven by a problem that’s objectively more important.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're in the dining room and the group is listing all the stuff that has gone wrong lately. Blake mentions that Qrow and Robyn are still in custody, because we definitely want Blake remembering that Qrow exists, not one of his nieces. Ruby, meanwhile, is having a meltdown. "So then it's impossible!" she yells, head in her hands.

Emerald sneaks in an insult: “See? If Ms. Hero here with all the answers doesn’t have one..." and the others, of course, jump to Ruby's aid. But Emerald is right! It's entirely Ruby's fault that Atlas didn't get the chance to escape with those they had. Her actions and lack of a plan led to where they are now. I'm not saying she's responsible for Ironwood's insane decisions — that's like saying he's responsible for Qrow's in relation to Clover — but Ruby indeed played the part of the hero who had all the answers... without actually having any answers. Now that things are worse than how they started, her only answer is to say it's all "impossible" and throw up her hands. Ruby is an absolutely terrible leader right now and someone should indeed be calling her out on that, it's just too bad it's Emerald, someone technically still presented as an untrustworthy figure for the next couple of minutes. (More on that later.) Any and every criticism of Ruby is dismissed out of hand. Don't believe Ironwood because he's crazy now. The Ace Ops? His boot lickers. Yang has things to say, but once Ren agrees with her she does a 180. Now Ren is heading towards an extra special apology for daring to doubt Ruby. May calls her out, only to also change her opinion the next episode. Now here's one more person, but she's a bad guy. The show has never once encouraged us to treat these criticisms seriously — never allowed them to stick, let alone lead to change — and at this point I'm done with everyone falling over themselves to absolve and praise Ruby. By making Emerald the criticizer and having Ruby throw herself a pity party, the writing ensures that the conversation goes from, "Yeah. You messed up big time and now have a responsibility to fix things" to "Aww, don't be so hard on yourself! We won't let mean Emerald insult you anymore."

Ruby makes herself the victim here. She gets so upset and acts so defeated that all anyone can do is reassure her. The focus turns towards her, a focus centered around hiding against the table, or cowering on a staircase, so that it feels cruel to call her out on her deadly mistakes when she's so clearly upset. But they still should have, especially since cowering and tears have never protected anyone else from the group's criticism. Ozpin is proof of that.

What I'm getting at is that Ruby runs away. She's faced with the consequences of her actions, is informed she needs to help come up with a solution, and instead of braving that decides it's "impossible" and literally runs from the room. While they're on a time limit. Keep this moment in mind for just a bit longer. These choices become doubly important later.

So Ruby can't handle the responsibility she violently ripped from others and the group goes out of their way to comfort her in this. Especially since the writing again decides to conflate Emerald and Ozpin through a comment of Oscar's, demonstrating that it still has no decent sense of what "responsibility" or "villainous acts" means. These scenes are three years in the making and every step getting here was dogged with problems, so the fact that the end result is a mess isn't exactly surprising.

We (thankfully) leave Ruby for a bit and instead turn to Jaune. He's amplifying Nora's aura, but admits that he can't get the scars to go away. That makes sense. After all, they're scars. His semblance helps people heal, but at this point Nora has already healed. Those scars are the result of that.

She says it was “Just another ditzy move from Nora” and I'm glad we're acknowledging that, even if it is all framed through the lens of Nora being incorrect in that assumption. Once again, the writing continually makes statements about characters, but fails to have their actions reflect that. Nora wanted to do more than just hit things with her hammer without thinking them through... and we showed that by having her hit a door with her hammer without thinking it through. Was it heroic? Absolutely. Did it lead to any growth? No. I'd much rather someone acknowledge that yeah, she did the same thing she always does, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Nora's impulsivity is a part of her and, given the talk of teammates here, she could have gotten reassurance that she'll always have people around to help her temper those impulses. Instead, we're (again) told that she shouldn't do A anymore, watch her do A anyway, the writing presents it like it’s B, Nora admits that she did A, and everyone rushes to assure her it was actually B. Just let these characters make mistakes for once, especially mistakes made in an effort to help someone. This should be the easiest and kindest way to criticize the group and RWBY can’t even manage that.

Which brings us to Ren. Ren, I am so sorry. You deserved better than this. Nora rips into him, saying, “We were supposed to be a team, but that didn’t matter to you! You shove people out so you don’t have to feel things that are hard!" and again we have RWBY making grand statements that are meaningless. Did Ren keep things bottled up in Volume 7? Yes... and no one tried to help him with that. Instead, Nora decided to bypass his problems completely and try to kiss it better. When that (shockingly) didn't work, Ren was finally forced to open up at Yang's insistence and was abandoned for his perspective. That's what that was, literally and metaphorically: they walked away from him and made it clear that so long as he believes these things, he's not welcome. What were those things? We've made mistakes, Ruby made mistakes, we're not ready for this stuff. That's it! "We were supposed to be a team" makes it sound like Ren betrayed them in the worst possible way, when in reality all he did was acknowledge that they're imperfect and that things are a mess right now. But of course, that is the ultimate betrayal for this group: acknowledgement that they’re not perfect. Everyone can call themselves out to generate sympathy — Nora does it, Ruby does it — but as soon as someone else agrees and implies that they should make changes, they’re dismissed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the refusal to question Ruby makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Is this as bad as Ironwood shooting someone who questions him? Of course not, but that doesn't make it good. The group has made it clear from Ozpin to Ren that if you put a toe out of line, that's it. You're gone. You are not a part of the group until you are willing to back the group 100%, no matter what horrible things they might be up to. That Nora yells at Ren for questioning and Ren learns to keep his mouth shut, apologizing to both her and Jaune for speaking his mind is... well, it's horrible. That's not friendship. I know the fandom doesn't want to hear that given how much we otherwise love these relationships, but it's not. If you can't question and voice concerns without about serious topics like this without the threat of abandonment — literal or otherwise — then that's not a friend group you should be sticking with. Ren’s "biggest failing as a teammate and a partner" is that he didn't agree with the others and didn’t immediately change his mind when they demanded it. There are awful implications attached to that, especially since Ren’s perspective was a good one. He’s not out here slinging horrific views like, I don’t know, homophobia at the bee’s non-relationship. He just went “We made mistakes” and the group responded “Absolutely not. Absurd. Fuck you.” They didn’t even consider that position, which speaks to both a lack of respect for Ren and a level of arrogance that keeps getting them into trouble. But these issues are easily overlooked given everything else that surrounds them. Outside of Ren's apology, I quite liked the renora moment. We got a detail about Nora's backstory! She called Ren pretty! We got an "I love you"! He booped her nose!! It's all very cute and wholesome... and soured by the knowledge of what Ren had to do to get here.

Outside of these generalized responses, there are three other points I wanted to make about this scene:

Yes, more obligatory humor to ruin an otherwise serious moment. Jaune could have just smiled softly and slipped out. Or have him leave before the conversation started (because Ren shouldn't have been apologizing to him in the first place...) Instead, we got multiple seconds of him being awkward, including a bunch of funny sound effects.

I'm legitimately happy we got that "I love you" — outside of the problems since arriving in Atlas, I've always enjoyed the ship — but coming on the heels of last week's episode, it makes the bee's forehead touch look even worse. Renora has been confirmed multiple times at this point, but we still can't get something overt for our one, queer ship.

On the one hand, I really like that Nora set a boundary here — a surprisingly mature conversation for RWBY — but I'm confused as to what exactly the boundary is. She says she needs to figure out who she is without Ren, but what does that translate to on a practical, day-to-day basis? Normally, when a couple needs to figure out who they are they separate, but renora can't do that. They're still on the same team, stuck in the same war, presumably off to do the same things they've always done together. It sounds great on paper to say that Nora is going to discover who she is without Ren, but unless they separate again I don't see how that can happen. More likely, we'll get a volume or two of them looking and acting exactly as they always have, but when it comes time for relationship drama again, Nora will insist she's a different person who is now ready to be with him. That she's changed. But change requires, you know, making a change, so is renora actually going to look any different moving forward?

While these two confess their love but also decide to be separate (is that what happened?), Qrow and Robyn have knocked out some guards and retrieved their weapons. Robyn watches four security feeds, whispering, "He's... really gonna do it." See? Even Robyn, someone who never liked Ironwood and considered him dangerous from the start, is in shock that he would go this far. Qrow doesn't want to talk moral downfalls though, he's all action: "Not if we stop him first."

You know, at least Qrow is doing something. What he's doing is stupid, particularly given his motivations, but with the volume we've had I give him props for coming up with a plan and sticking to it. That's more than many of the others have done.

Yet then, suddenly, Robyn doesn't want to kill Ironwood. ...Since when? Robyn has been the most trigger happy of the lot while Qrow initially wanted to talk. Now they've switched places for no reason I can see, with Qrow all murder happy and Robyn cautioning restraint. Which admittedly isn't uncommon. Remember how Nora was all about protecting Mantle and then randomly decided to help with Amity instead? Remember how Yang was critical of Ruby and then decided to defend her to Ren? Remember how Hazel was pro-Salem until he saw a blue naked lady and decided to defect? At this point, characters just do things at random.

Robyn says that Qrow isn't trying to kill Ironwood because that's the right thing to do, only because he wants revenge. A true enough assessment. But then she follows it up by claiming that Qrow is a better huntsmen than Clover because he does the right thing. Without rehashing all my arguments regarding how Clover was not the devil incarnate for refusing to let two potential criminals walk free — especially after they attacked him — we're really playing the dead guy card now? Clover was murdered. Robyn and Qrow were participants in that murder. Now Robyn is making sweeping claims about who is the better person when Clover quite obviously isn't here to defend himself? That's all kinds of messed up.

Before they can bash the dead guy anymore though the elevator arrives. We see Qrow and Robyn's shocked expressions at whoever is behind the doors, presumably Winter and Marrow. It seems likely that Winter didn't really intend to take him to the brig. They're defecting and have now found two more allies to help them. Robyn wants a plan other than run upstairs and stab Ironwood? Winter will likely provide one.

We return to Ruby who, as established, is wallowing in the most dramatic position on the staircase. Obviously things are legitimately horrible right now and if Ruby had been given a storyline different from what we've seen since Volume 6, I'd feel sorry for her. As it stands, it's just frustrating to watch her look like the maiden of a Victorian novel while Mantle's time ticks away.

The conversation between her and Yang is great though. At least, it is for the first few sentences. I love that the show remembered they're sisters and have them talking again. I love that Yang tries to cheer Ruby up by saying she outshines her big sis in regards to the Hound. I love that she nevertheless acknowledges that the Schnees were a part of that defeat, giving them their due rather than putting all the praise on Ruby. We establish that Yang has learned what the Hound really was. This conversation is going strong...

...but then.

"That's what happened to mom."

Really? Really? In eight episodes we went from, "Lol just because the Hound spoke doesn't mean Summer was secretly made into a grimm. That’s a crazy theory" to "Summer was absolutely turned into a grimm. That's canon now!" Except because it was made canon by Ruby just announcing it one day, we can expect for an even bigger "twist" in the future: Summer is still alive. Why wouldn't she be? The Hound was untouchable outside of silver eyes, so we have little reason to think anyone has defeated her in the last 14 odd years.

I'll admit the timeline works out better than expected (I think) with Salem killing SEWs during Maria's time before switching to experimentation, but there's no emotional weight to this. I just don't care and frankly I don't think the fandom cares either. Oh, there's plenty of excitement over the reveal, but that's all for the version of Summer Rose people have built up in their minds for the last eight years, not anything that exists in the show. If you strip away all the headcanons and fics, Summer isn't interesting because she barely exists. We know nothing about her as a person and therefore we have no reason to care that she's likely another Hound. Worse — because maybe this could be smoothed over if we just care since Ruby cares — everything else surrounding this reveal was badly done. Summer, as said, has been a non-character for this whole series. Yang only just remembered two episodes ago that Summer is her mom too. The only evidence of experimentation we've seen is on other grimm, not people. There was more mystery surrounding why Tyrian was interested in Jaune, not why he'd kidnap Ruby (Big Bads always want to kidnap heroes). We have no idea who this silver eyed faunus was. We have no idea why Salem would randomly start experimenting when she doesn't need additional weapons. We don't know why she would keep these weapons to the sidelines when she’s apparently had them for over a decade. I don't even buy that Ruby, someone who we never see thinking about or questioning any of this, suddenly put all these pieces together to hit on the revelation.

None of this adds up because it wasn't planned. Summer was dead, added to the series purely because having a dead mom is interesting, and she was treated as dead for seven years. Not just by the characters, by the show. Then, suddenly, the narrative raced to remind everyone that she's supposedly a Very Important Character so we could get this twist. It’s awful. Not because the idea itself is horrible, but because it was shoved into a story that wasn't prepared for it and certainly doesn't need it. The group has Salem herself attacking the kingdom, Ironwood threatening destruction, three Relics still to discover, not to mention all the other personal conflicts going on — Emerald walking around the mansion, Ozpin is back, Penny is being controlled, Oscar has finite magic now, Nora is still recovering — but we're going to introduce another subplot to deal with? RWBY acts like it's terrified that if it doesn't add something new and flashy every third episode, its viewers will jump ship. Despite its hiccups, there's a reason why the arcs of Volume 4 worked well overall: characters were given the time to explore specific problems, like Yang's PTSD and the destruction of Ren's village. Now, in episode 11 of 14, RWBY reveals that two of the characters' mom was turned into a literal monster, but there's only time for a tiny bit of comfort because Penny is escaping and they have less than an hour now to save Mantle. There is way too much going on and we're not devoting enough time to any of it.

Hell, even the conversation can't afford to stay on the Summer reveal for more than a few sentences. Ruby segues back to her self-chastisement, saying that she wasted time on Amity. She did, but not because people didn't come. She never should have made that terrifying, nonsensical announcement to begin with. But just like Ruby never thought through the pros and cons of telling the world about Salem, she apparently never thought about the logistics of getting help. She's written the world off now — so you just know help will appear in the finale — yet she never considered how long all this would take. Our timeline is (supposedly) two days, so how long would it take a kingdom to digest the information she gave them, decide on a course of action, get people and resources together, then fly all the way to Atlas? After Ruby used most of the first day just to send the message? As I and others have pointed out, the answer is “way longer than the group has.” It shouldn't be possible, yet neither Ruby nor Yang realizes basic facts like, "What's the flight time between Vacuo and Atlas?" Like Qrow blaming his semblance rather than his decision to team up with Tyrian, Ruby blames the world for abandoning them rather than her terribly thought out plan. Both have reached the right emotion — regret — but not for the right reasons.

Also, Ruby says that Amity fell. Are Pietro and Maria okay??

Yang talks about blind optimism vs. no optimism at all, something I could really get behind if the group hadn't been governed by blind optimism this whole time. Also if what the rest of what Yang said made sense. She fires back with, “And in case you didn’t notice, my plan for Mantle didn’t work either." Uh... what plan? As far as I recall there was no plan. They just went down to do any tasks that needed doing: supply runs and grimm killings. What plan is Yang talking about?

This conversation is a disaster. We circle back around to Summer with Yang saying she also took a risk (the title is very obvious this episode) but "she's still my hero." Is she? Because the only thing you've ever said about Summer is that she baked great cookies. Regardless, Yang lays her head on Ruby's shoulder and they cry some more.

Then Jaune hurries down the steps because Penny has woken up and broken through a window.

Again: how were they planning to deal with this? Did anyone discuss it? Because it looks like Klein said, "Hey, that friend of yours powered up and could have hurt us," Nora said, "Hey, Penny was fighting some sort of control," and Whitely said, "Yeah, she wanted to open the vault and then self destruct" and everyone just left her alone in some room, deciding they'd worry about that later. If Penny had just snuck out a little more quietly the group would have been screwed.

What I do like though is the teamwork to keep Penny from flying off. It feels like we get so little teamwork nowadays, which makes everyone piling on others' range weapons, or Jaune boosting Weiss' glyphs, really enjoyable. Even Emerald gets in on the action because apparently they gave her her weapons back!

We're going to talk about this nonsense in a second.

For now, Ruby implores Penny to fight it, which is exactly what I said we'd get. Penny insists Ruby kill her though, saying that if she does she'll ensure that the power passes to her. I find this to be a weird priority. Does the group really care about who gets the Maiden powers right now? The threat here is that Penny will successfully open the vault — which shouldn't even be that much of a worry. Just let Ironwood leave instead of trying to destroy Mantle! Keeping him here has made things worse! — and that Penny will self-destruct. That feels like the biggest worry: that Penny will die. So they're going to prevent her death by... killing her themselves? Priorities and motivations really feel shaky this week.

Luckily, Ruby remembers that Penny is A Real Person and tells Jaune to amplify her aura. The fact that she has a soul keeps the virus from overtaking her. Hurray!

That's like saying my sense of self will beat off rabies. Just believe that you're your own person and nothing can touch you. They go so far as to say, “That’s who you are. Our friend, not a machine” and that feels like such an erasure to me. Penny is a machine. She is! And that was great back when this was accepted as a good thing, not something to ignore. Remember this?

You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me?

Here, Ruby acknowledges Penny's difference and reaffirms that she still has worth. Now, the group denies Penny's difference in order to prove that she has worth. She has worth because she's supposedly not a machine and supposedly can't be controlled like one... even though she is a machine and is being controlled. It's only Jaune's semblance that keeps her from going under again. The concept of Penny's personhood is now connected to her ability to resist a machine-based virus and she has failed to do that. This doesn't confirm Penny's humanity, it tells Penny (and us) that humanity is distinct from the machine parts of her, rather than a concept that includes it, and the moment she is too influenced by that machinery she ceases to be a person. The group isn't accepting her here, they're encouraging Penny to ignore and deny the parts that make her Penny.

If you want an example of how to do an arc like this far, far better, go watch The Next Generation with Data. He's what Penny could have been.

Regardless, the virus has been held at bay, at least so long as Jaune has aura. Which seems to be endless given that he was exhausting himself in the whale, but is now boosting Nora, Weiss, and Penny without any difficulty.

At least that's a minor concern in the grand scheme of things. What we're about to get? Not so much. Honestly, I'm 7k into this recap and I just don't have the energy that these two scenes deserve. Which scenes? The one where Emerald is welcomed into the fold with laughter and Ozpin has to grovel for forgiveness.

Emerald first. Last week I said:

“However this fight ends, we could really use someone like you, [Emerald.]” That’s it then. Discussion over. We knew as soon as it started that blindly trusting her was being presented as the “right” thing to do and now here we are, deciding that conclusively, despite Jaune and Yang’s complaints. By the time the group reaches the mansion, Oscar is defending Emerald from Ruby. We’re supposed to just accept that she’s a part of the group now, only minimal pushback allowed.

and I was right. Over the course of the last week I spoke with a number of friends, many of them working under the belief that this was just the start of an arc for Emerald. Obviously the show wouldn't instantly have the group trust her after all this. They'll need to warm up to her first. She'll need to prove herself. Well, I was far more pessimistic, arguing instead that I thought this was it. She was already being presented as a perfectly trustworthy figure. I'd briefly thought I'd been mistaken when the group turned on Emerald for her comment to Ruby, but then suddenly she's been given her weapons back. It's not even a matter of "You should be able to defend yourself, but you're still not trustworthy" (which would still have problems, but). No, she makes a comment about "switching sides" and that's it, trust achieved. That's all it took — nothing at all.

Now, some shows do function on a second chance policy. We can name hundred of stories where heroes instantly forgive antagonists and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is that RWBY is very much not that show. In the exact same scene Ozpin apologizes to the group and begs that they try to trust him again:

“I’ve failed all of you. I should have trusted you with the truth and I should never have run the day you discovered it."

This is complete and utter bullshit. Sorry, I'm not mincing words for this one. Two years we waiting for the group to come around, hoping that there would be apologies on both sides, but there wasn't. The group doesn't physically or verbally hurt Ozpin anymore — they do accept his request — but it's done with expressions that say this is what they are owed. You’d better apologize.

I could rehash all the arguments I've already made about how atrociously they treated him, how Ozpin had no reason to trust a bunch of teenagers, how important it was that both sides admit their mistakes, but if you're reading this recap you're likely already familiar with all that. Rather, what I want to emphasize here is that our opinions on Ozpin don't even matter here. Even those who take his apology at face value — fully believing he did fail them, he should have told them everything from the start, and that him leaving was "running away" rather than being driven off — even if we accept for just a moment that Ozpin is as guilty as the show says and heinous as the fandom claims... surely he's not as bad as Emerald? In roughly chronological order she has:

Tried to ally herself with Adam along with Cinder and Mercury

Helped to attack Amber, resulting in injuries that would have killed her if Cinder hadn't gotten to her first

Helped kill Tukson

Pretended to be a transfer student and Ruby's friend for the rest of the semester (that’s a lie that would breed mistrust)

Tricked the world into thinking that Yang had attacked Mercury unprovoked

Uses her semblance on Pyrrha, causing her to unintentionally kill Penny

All of this was in service of the Fall of Beacon, an event that destroyed a school, killed an unknown number of students, killed Pyrrha, and lost Yang her arm

Participated in the attack on Haven which, beyond the intent to further Salem's goals, nearly got Weiss killed

Came to Atlas to assist in the next attack

Went after Penny, Pietro, and Maria — two of whom might still be in trouble depending on if Amity literally fell out of the sky

Listened to Oscar being tortured, hemming and hawing for a while before realizing that, if the whole world is in danger, she's in danger too

Finally jumped ship

Emerald is one of the bad guys. All the sad looks over the years doesn't change that. Yet somehow an antagonist we've had since Volume 1 is considered more trustworthy than Ozpin, a man who hasn't intentionally helped kill their friends and who has been helping and apologizing for months now.

Yang "Aww"s when Emerald speaks. Just sit with that for a second. The woman who went through all of that horror because of Emerald, who just last episode was correctly saying they can't expect her to forget all that, is going "Aww" after... Emerald helped hold Penny for two seconds? This is ridiculous. These are the faces of the group when talking about Emerald's trust

whereas these are their expressions when talking about Ozpin's

It’s not a matter of who deserves trust or not, here it’s purely a matter of comparison. Emerald should not be more quickly forgiven than Ozpin.

Now toss in the story Ozpin tells. Unsurprisingly, it's another fairy tale — we've gotten a little heavy-handed lately — about a young girl who flees the consequences of a choice and, having never learned from her initial failure, spreads even more trouble. That's Ruby. That is Ruby to a T in this episode and the last three volumes. She is literally a young girl who has caused staggering consequences, literally ran away from the conversation about those consequences, and is now poised to continue making those mistakes because everyone keeps reinforcing her flaws. That's Ruby, yet somehow the show thinks it's Ozpin. He positions himself as the young girl here, as if he didn't face his consequences generations ago when he left the cabin, didn't learn from his mistakes by keeping Salem's secret, and hadn't been driven away by the very people he's asking for a second chance. This scene has everything backwards and while normally I'd grab hold of the possibility that maybe things will right themselves later on... we're done. This is the ending of that arc. After two years of saying, "Maybe, maybe, maybe," Ozpin has been taken back into the fold after begging his way back in. There's no more time to correct things. RWBY missed its chance. Weiss says that "Trust is a risk" and that's how Ozpin is forgiven. They have taken the risk of trusting him again after months of reflection, life-saving actions, and apologies. Emerald is granted the risk of trust in under an hour. I’ve heard so many people say they’re dropping RWBY this volume and scenes like this are precisely why.

Ugh. Heavy stuff, folks! I feel like I need to lighten the mood. Here, let's take a moment to acknowledge that the Schnees and Klein only marginally know what's happening.

Someone help them.

That is, to all intents and purposes, the end of our episode. Ruby has some sort of epiphany about actually handing Penny over — "That's actually a risk we haven't considered" — and Ironwood will no doubt fall for whatever plan they've concocted because he's stupid now. He receives a call from Ruby saying they agree to his terms, Watts is attempting to get communication of his own up and running, and Neo arrives to do... whatever she intends to do. Idk, I have assumed she wanted Ruby, but Cinder obviously doesn't have her yet for a trade off. Regardless, Neo is ready for a fight while Cinder just smiles. Team up 2.0?

As for bingo, I'm using my free space for "Worst redemption arc I've ever seen," with an honorary nod to Hazel too, and Ozpin's square gets blacked out in exes because that was just #bad.

This bingo board is a mess. Appropriate lol

Three more weeks, everyone. Hang in there! 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby risk #mymetas #rwby recaps

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fabricated-misslieness · 3 years

Text

SS Tier Gliding Laughs p. 1

Refer to this post to know what 'SS tier' means

Features: Bennett, Mona, and Xiangling

You can find everyone's laughs on Honey Impact

While I write haikyuu reqs, here you have half of the SS tier. I’m not sure when I’ll write the other half (Hu Tao and Rosaria)

Bennett (♥ω♥*)

Somehow, you were Bennett’s lucky charm.

You didn’t have any luck of your own, but whenever you were with Bennett, his bad luck would be canceled out - provided you had an uneventful day of recharge. Otherwise, there would surely be disaster.

Yesterday was uneventful, so today, you took him out on a date.

“Gliding?” Bennett beams wide, eyes sparkling with excitement and jumping up and down in place. “I never get to go gliding! Something bad always happens! Like… you know, getting struck by lightning.”

“That won’t happen.” You reassure him.

“That won’t happen, because you’re here!” He affirms. “My lucky charm..” He kisses you on the cheek, which causes you to giggle lovingly.

<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>

As you glide together, windswept hair from the fresh breeze, legs free and swinging, and laughing, Bennett feels lucky.

Lucky you’re his little charm, lucky he likes you, lucky you like him too, and most of all, lucky to have you. If it weren’t for you, he’d spend every day in utter bad luck.

Now, because of you, he spent half his-

“Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh?”

“UH-OH!” One of Bennett’s wings tears open, causing him to start losing height rapidly.

In fear, you yell out, “AH BENNETT!” You stop gliding, reaching a hand out for him, trying desperately to catch him, but to no avail.

As you fall nearer and nearer to the ground, you have to catch yourself.

“IT’S OKAY!” Those are Bennett’s last words before he falls into Starfell Lake. Fortunately, it’s not long before he pops out to the surface again, spitting out water..

“Bennett!” You yell again as your feet touch the ground, you rush to the shore.

“It’s okay, I’m okay.” Your boyfriend reassures, swimming over to you quickly. He almost hugs you before remembering that he’s entirely soaked.

“Damn…” You mutter, remembering yesterday’s events. “It rained yesterday.”

“Not your fault,” He presses a wet kiss against your cheek. “I should’ve remembered too.”

You start to object, “But-”

“No buts, (y/n).” Bennett sends you a trademark cheeky smile. “Let’s set up a campfire before I get a cold.”

“Okay.”

Mona (๑♡⌓♡๑)

The growing astrologist, and your girlfriend, Mona Magistus often relies on you for mora support. She prides herself in her passion, astrology, and often forgets to satiate her daily needs in favor of anything that would help her astrological studies.

Which is why all her hard-earned income goes to her studies and all the money you give her goes to her needs.

But, even if those needs are met, she doesn’t take a break often.

That means all her breaks are your dates, and you make sure to take her on dates frequently.

“Gliding? Ugh…” Mona folds her arms, groaning. You know she likes going out on dates, but astrological studies are always on the back of her mind. “but we just went out on a date two days ago!”

“So what, Mona? I wanna pamper my girlfriend.” At that, she blushes.

She looks away from you with a huff, “Hmph, fine!”

“Thank you.” She can’t help but smile at the wide grin you give her.

You pepper her face with kisses, which she pretends she finds annoying, but you know she doesn’t. “Okay, okay.” She pushes you away, her blush unceasing. “Don’t push your luck.”

<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>

Every time she jumps into the air, she laughs with such a joy that it makes you beam even wider. She clearly enjoyed spending time off work, though her pride wouldn’t let her do so; that is, before she met you.

“Woah!” She exclaims as a breeze ruffles her hair and nearly takes her hat with it. She says it more so with awe than irritation.

“You see, Mona? It was worth it!” You yell over the wind.

Mona laughs again, gliding with grace. “I guess it was.”

“Come here.” You beckon her closer to you, which she does with a slight reluctance and curiosity.

“Why?”

“Don’t worry, just come closer.” You instruct her. Once you’re right next to each other, you hook an arm around her waist. She does the same to you instinctively.

Together, you glide in embrace.

“Wow!” She exclaims in awe again. “I didn’t know you could do this.”

“Mhm.” You giggle at the wonder in her look.

“You’re warm…” Mona whispers her thoughts out loud, only realizing once you give her a dopey look. “Did I… say that out loud?”

“Yeah.” She looks away from you, blush evident on her cheeks. When you kiss her cheek in admiration, her blush brightens.

“Love you, Mona.”

“Love you too, little star.”

Xiangling (●♡∀♡))ヾ☆*。

platonic cuz she’s like 14

“Xiangling!” You exclaim, running up to her and tackling her with a hug.

“(y/n)!” She grins brightly, wrapping her arms around you with one of her bone crushing bear hugs. Thankfully you’d grown used to it.

“How was Mondstadt?” You were a native of Mondstadt that had moved to Liyue at a young age. Ever since then, you’d longed to see the city again.

However, your desires were quite frequent. In fact, you’d visited last month. There was no need to visit every week, even when you longed to. Liyue was your home, after all. The place where you earned income and the place with your actual shelter. You probably couldn’t handle living in a tent for a month straight.

“It was great!” Xiangling’s trip, however, was the first time she had visited the City of Freedom. “There were all these amazing foods, new flavours, and new ingredients! But most of all,” It wasn’t normal for her to place anything higher than meals, so you were a little concerned. “I saw these people flying with wings!”

“Oh, Xiangling…” You giggle. “They weren’t flying.”

“No?”

“They were gliding.”

“Oh… same thing!” She waves dismissively.

“Buuuut!” She brandishes two pairs of wings from behind her. You hadn’t been able to get your hands on a pair of them since your last ones tore. “Look at what I got!”

“Oh, Xiangling!” You give her another quick hug.

She giggles, “Come on, let’s go try these out!”

<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>♡<>

Guoba, as Xiangling had told you, also wanted to tag along and try gliding. His arms were too small to do so on his own though, which is why your best friend had him tied on a rope and attached to her leg.

This was, much to your dismay, very dangerous for her center of gravity.

“It’ll be fineee!” She reassures, not that it actually eases you. But in the end, thanks to her adorable puppy eyes, you agree to let her try it out.

It was not in fact, fine.

Apparently she had tied the rope around Guoba’s arm quite loosely - Guoba has feelings too - and that made him slip. The little bear may not be able to feel pain, but he sure as hell wouldn’t appreciate falling.

Xiangling makes a move to stop gliding to dive for him, but you stop her before she injures herself. “I got this!”

As the more experienced glider, you felt it was your responsibility to catch Guoba.

“Hold on, Guoba!” You begin to dive, getting damn near the cliff as you do. It seems like every time you reach out for him, he falls faster and faster.

“(y/n)!” Xiangling warns you. You’re getting closer and closer to the jagged edge protruding from the mountain.

“Don’t worry, Xiangling!”

You’ve got him! Quickly, you move to glide again. Your center of gravity is off, thanks to holding Guoba on one arm, but at least you’re far from certain death.

“Phew!” You hear Xiangling sigh, though by this point she’s far away from you.

“Let’s land!”

You land on a smaller mountain, holding Guoba close to you. The bear seems annoyed, though not at you. He looks at Xiangling with a frown as she lands.

“Oh, Guoba!” She takes him from you, hugging him tight.

The bear smacks her on the cheek, but with his specialty being breathing fire and not slapping, it doesn’t affect her much. Still, she rubs her cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“I’ll give you more Chili Peppers! You too, (y/n), thanks for saving him.”

#xiangling x reader #bennett x reader #mona x reader #genshin impact x reader

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grimessbitch · 3 years

Text

Devil’s sister- Introductions - Rick Grimes x Reader

Finally I’ve posted the first chapter! I’ve been working really hard on this for awhile with brain storming and trying to make my writing as great as the idea, so please remember feedback is key 💕 and the tag list is open :)

“So you know what you’re gonna do now, right?” Negan asked you not giving you any attention at all as he cleaned Lucille “Yea, Negan, I understand. Now can I please go now? You’ve told me like a thousand times!” You groaned loudly stomping your foot a bit, your older brother took advantage of you being about thirty years younger than him. Negan’s mother had him fresh out of high school, and your mother had you around the time she was in her late thirties, early forties. Your mother ended up marrying his dad for his money which resulted in you two having the same father but different mothers and Negan being in his early fifties and you being in your early to mid twenties. “Yea. Yea. And Y/N?..don’t fall in love with the prick” He grumbled, You walked out and out of the sanctuary towards the tree-line. Croutching down lown you grabbed your knife, you could hear the loud groans coming from the undead up on the street, your target being way ahead of them, Rick Grimes, the man you had to force to fall in love with you. You dove deeper into the woods taking down a stray walker, Gulping and holding back a gag you cut open the walking corpse smearing the blood on you bit along with some mud, anything to make it look like you had been out here for months.

It had be at least three or four days of walking and killing walkers, and if Negan would’ve explained that this was part of you mission you never would’ve done it. You stunk, your hair was a complete mess, the mud had dried on your face giving it a disgusting feeling. Walking closer to a noise you heard you saw a giant field, and in the center was a beaten down red car, with a boy sitting on top of it, using a knife to peel the bark off of a stick. As you walked closer you recognized the face, you had seen him once at the Sanctuary, but he wasn’t wearing a hat or a bandage over his eye at the Sanctuary. “Hello?” You asked walking into the field “please don’t shoot I’m..I’m not bit” you yelled a bit louder as the boy jumped down walking towards you “who are you?” The boy asked standing in front of you glaring a bit, obviously not happy that you disturbed his peace “I’m lost..I’m looking for somebody named..Daryl?” You asked looking at Carl, putting a confused and dumbfounded look on your face “how do you know him?” He asked sitting on the hood of the car “I met him once..he told me if I was ever in trouble to go west...and I’ll find a town...w-why do you know him?” You asked quickly. “Yea. Go...that way about a mile or two and you’ll be there” The boy said pointing the left calmly grabbing his knife again “I’m Y/n...thank you...for helping” You smiled nervously reaching out your hand to shake his. “Carl” he nodded towards you not turning away from his stick. “I’ll be on my way..thank you” you smiled walking forward on your trip to Alexandria.

You crept through the dead leaves, trying to walk through the large patch of mud that was blocking your path. Hearing a metallic clank your heart dropped, and about the same time your heart dropped sharp metal teeth clamped onto your leg, a fucking bear trap. Falling to your knees you bit your arm, if you screamed now it’d attract however many walkers, and then bam. You’re dead. “Fuck” you growled reaching down to your leg prying the bear trap open and off of you. You crawled back out of the mud patch starting to rip your pant leg in half, wrapping the ripped cloth around your now blood covered leg you forced yourself up. You walked forward, using a large stick to help you as you limped.

Stumbling up to Alexandria you collasped, the wound on your calf was the cause of your collapse which you didn't plan. A walker slowly walking up falling forward, you gagged at it's foul breath, reaching into your holster you forced the knife into the walker's head, the body going limp "You bit!?" A southern accent yelled from the open gate, his long hair basically covering his face "no! I-I stepped in a bear trap!" You yelled your voice cracking lightly, truth was you were in alot of pain, your calf was throbbing and the ripped shirt you used to stop the bleeding was now soaked with blood. The Southern man rushed out helping you up and helping you inside "M Daryl" He grunted leading you towards one of the houses, you looked around, gulping whenever you saw Rick, he was alot more attractive up and close, and way more attractive than Negan described. By the time your leg was stitched and patched up Rick stood in front of you, his hands holding onto his belt in an almost cocky way, you could see every muscle flex under the shirt he was wearing. "I'm Rick Grimes. Nice to meet you"

“I-I’m Y/n” You said calmly, you could hear your heartbeat in your ears, if you couldn’t get into Alexandria now then you never would, you had to play it calm and cool. “How many walkers you kill?” He asked sitting down on the bed directly across from you “A few Dozon?..” you questioned fixing her shirt to look more presentable “and how many people have you killed?..” he asked looking at you a little more stern, you had to make it believable..and what’s more believable then the somewhat truth? “One.” You gulped looking at him trying to keep eye contact, but your big brother was right, his stink eye is intimidating. “Why?” He asked resting a hand on the handle of his knife now ready to attack you if you tried anything “got to handsy.” You said messing with your jeans “Let’s go and get you some new clothes. Those are all ripped them you can get cleaned up” Rick said wrapping your arm around his shoulder and helping you up, letting out a small whimper you limped forward going to wherever Rick took you. “Carl, she’s gonna wash up upstairs okay?” He asked looking towards the boy you had seen in the woods before “it’s you! I brought you that food that one time” Carl smiled softly waving a bit at you, a small baby cooing and smiling at you from in front of the teenager. “What’re you talkin about, Carl?” Rick asked holding your wrist to keep you from falling onto the ground in pain. “I went on a run...with Enid...and I scared off her deer so I gave her a can or two of food” Carl explaining smiling softly towards you “make yourself at home..I think you’ll fit in my clothes better” he pointed out before Rick lead you upstairs and into the bathroom “there’s a towel, here’s clothes..there is hot water along with soap and conditioner...when you’re done...go to Carl and we’ll talk” he explained to you slowly, you nodded softly holding the clothes and towel like it was your lifeline. Would Negan be mad if you stayed? Because right now running hot water everyday would be amazing.

The hot water hitting your back felt great, although it burnt your stitches a bit, you ignored it, just happy to be hit with hot water instead of ice cold water. You let out a deep breath, so far you were in, the long talks with Negan refreshing in your mind.

“Listen to me Y/n! Stop fucking around! Once you get Rick to trust you and love you you’ll report back to me. You’ll let us in through the back while everybody is asleep and we’ll attack and I’ll finally get to fucking kill Rick Grimes. It’ll take a long time..but I trust you.”

Whenever you opened the door Carl was right outside of it about to knock “S-sorry! You were taking awhile after the water shut off and I just wanted to che-“ you cut Carl off by laughing a bit “It’s okay, seriously little man, I just need your help finding your dad” You smiled looking at him, wearing a pair of skinny jeans that were held on by a belt and folded at the ends to fit your legs, obviously Rick’s jeans. You also wore a Marvel comics shirt which you had a feeling was Carl’s “O-oh! Of course” Carl rushed out grabbing your arm leading you down the stairs, making sure to help the best he could.

Carl lead you into a large building, like a library of some sort that was transformed into a meeting hall “dad?..” Carl called standing in the doorway next to you. “Yea?” Rick asked turning around smiling softly at you and the teenager “oh hey Y/n, let’s get you sat down and I’ll go through the rules and things with ya for you to stay here” he explained sitting at a small desk “so..you’re already ready to stay here..but I just have to get a few things outta the way” Rick explained to you resting his hands on the desk “Every week we split what we find with somebody called the saviors” he said looking at you closely “ya know of em?” You gulped, was this Rick telling you he already saw through your lies, what was next? Was he gonna kill you? “Yea..i used to know em...Leader is a fucking dick” You said looking at Rick, taking a deep breath to stay calm.

“How do you know them?” He asked crossing his arms “they cornered me one day in the place I was staying..forced me with them..I-I only just escaped now” you explained, you weren’t exactly lying to Grimes, it’s just whenever you were cornered and forced to leave your home it wasn’t ‘The Saviors’ it was only Negan, back before he changed into the jealous, cocky, asshole he is today. “Can you prove your story?..” he asked, slowly you turned around showing your back, a large scar presenting itself down next to your spine. “Negan’s right hand man Simon..” she whispered sitting back down “he caught me trying to run...tackled me and tried to kill me” you lied looking at him sadly.

“Alright...we ain’t got any open houses so you’ll either have to pair with Daryl or pair with Eugene” Rick said looking at you in almost an awe “there’s two jobs open..Either go on runs with Daryl and I or stay here with the garden” What he said shocked you into a still, you could either get to know Rick more and try to further your plan that way or you could take a different approach and get his kids to like you first. “I’ve always been better with gardening...I don’t wanna slow you boys down” you explained smiling a bit, your stomach turning with how you said it, You knew you could probably be a better fighter than both of them combined but what if Rick didn’t want that? And he wanted someone to stay home with the kids. “Okay...we may pull you a few times to train to fight just Incase the savior’s try anything or walkers get behind the walls somehow” Rick mumbled under his breath writing things down.

“Alright, so..Daryl or Eugene?..” Rick asked looking at you “Eugene...I’ve met him before and feel safe there” you explained, fiddling with your thumbs “great! I’ll take ya over” Rick smiled standing up helping you up and off the chair “you won’t have to work until yer leg is healed..unless ya can work with kids” he asked looking at you as he walked down the street, helping you stay upright while walking. “Yea- yea I’m good with kids, I-I used to be a pre-school assistant before..all of this” You whispered looking at Rick, both of you standing on Eugene’s porch. “Alright that’s great, I’ll come show you were the daycare is tomorrow morning, rest up though” Rick whispered as the front door opened and Eugene grabbed your arm slowly but tightly.

Once the door shut Eugene jerked you into the living room “What in the world are you doing here? Did Negan put you up to this?” He growled holding your arm tightly “N-no. I-I ran from Negan..” You whimpered tearing up giving Eugene the most upsetting face you could muster. “O-okay...I do suppose that makes sense...you did despise your brother quite a lot” he explained leading you upstairs “this will be your living quarters” He explained before leaving you alone in the half empty room.

Laying down on your mattress you sighed, this was your new life, trying to calm your mind down was a job within itself and was tiring all together. Taking a few deep breaths you closed your eyes and started counting down from one hundred, figuring that counting down would help calm your mind down enough for you to fall asleep.

Tag list:

@steverogerslut

@kingtwhiddleston

#the walking dead #rick grimes #rick grimes x reader #negan #daryl dixon #the walking dead negan #twd #carl grimes #Judith Grimes #rick grimes x y/n #rick grimes x you

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