#plus he's fun to use at least to me. i love smacking enemies around with his silly little phoenix

[mothocean]

Btw i am saying that with every ounce of love i have for diluc. That man is a forest fire machine and i wouldn't have it any other way

#this is abt his playstyle setting every single piece of grass around him on fire btw #like idk i don't think i could ever get behind characters that lose hp as part of their abilites (like xiao/hu tao) #but with diluc it's pretty manageable with some substat compromises a decent healer and 2pc tenacity at worst #and he can still crit regularly with the right weapon/artifacts #like building him isn't effortless but it's not even that bad unless you're really aiming for perfection #plus he's fun to use at least to me. i love smacking enemies around with his silly little phoenix #also the environmental dmg can be controlled with characters like beidou/kaeya whose skills take out fires #like. he's not perfect but i hate how everyone feels the need to say it. 'he's not the best pyro main' yeah but why does it matter #literally who cares if hes perfect. if hes the best pyro main. yoimiya is considered the best and most ppl dont like her playstyle anyway #fuck meta like genuinely who cares #roseflower.txt #genshin impact #sorry abt this absolute tag text wall i will do it again

[btsqualityy]

Assuage: Chapter 3

Yoongi x Reader

Genre: ABO (Alpha/Beta/Omega) dynamics, angst, fluff, smut, enemies to lovers

Warnings: Hunting (nothing descriptive and they’re not just hunting for the fun of it, it’s for survival)

“You know, it’s about damn time that these dumb asses gave me some help around here!” Kibum exclaimed happily as Yoongi stood awkwardly in front of him. “Well, don’t just stand there boy! Grab that maple wood there!” Yoongi moved quickly, grabbing the long plank of wood before moving back over to Kibum, setting it down in front of him. 

Yoongi had only been working with Kim Kibum for a few days now, but he had quickly learned just how...out there the man was. 

“You know, I’m one of the oldest elders in this damn pack and because of that, you would think that our amazing Pack Alpha would’ve given me some help before now but no!” Kibum ranted loudly as he grabbed a buzz saw, cutting into the maple wood. 

“Uh, how old are you exactly?” Yoongi wondered, looking at the full head of grey hair that the Alpha man sported. Yoongi figured that he had to be over 60, because he didn’t have a distinct scent anymore. 

“Don’t you worry about that,” Kibum smirked. “You just hope that you’ll be lucky enough to make it to be my age someday. Now, come here so I can show you how to cut out this shape for a bed that someone ordered!” 

Even though it had only been a few days since he started working with Kibum, he found himself enjoying both the work he was doing and the man’s eccentricities. Actually, Yoongi found himself settling into the pack so easily that it almost scared him half to death. With everything that he had just been through with his previous pack, he didn’t want to risk that happening again but he also couldn’t deny how nice everyone had been to him since he had arrived onto their territory. 

After spending two hours helping Kibum and learning some different techniques for woodworking, Yoongi walked to the front of the hardware store and sat at the front counter, manning the register while Kibum took his lunch break. Just as he found himself becoming bored, the small bell above the door jingled as it opened, Taehyung walking inside.

“Hi Hyung!” He greeted Yoongi cheerfully, making Yoongi glare at the Beta as he made his way to stand in front of him.

“Are you never not happy?” Yoongi wondered.

“Rarely, except for when Jungkook tries to pull that ‘baby Alpha’ bullshit on me,” Taehyung shrugged.

“Speaking of that, are you and Jungkook like...a thing?” Yoongi questioned.

“You mean are we mated?” Taehyung chuckled and Yoongi hummed while nodding. “Not yet, but hopefully we will be by this time next year.”

“What’s the wait? You’re both presented.”

“Yeah, but he’s still kind of young for mating even by pack standards, with him only being 20,” Taehyung explained. “Plus, Kook was a late bloomer so he’s only been presented for about a year now and he’s still settling into his Alpha hormones.”

“Ahh,” Yoongi nodded in understanding. “And you’re willing to wait?”

“Hyung, I’ve been in love with Kook since I was 17 and he was 15, so over five years now,” Taehyung smiled. “I’m more than willing to wait if it means I’ll be able to spend the rest of my life with him.”

“Must be nice,” Yoongi muttered.

“What about you hyung?” Taehyung wondered. “You ever think about mating and settling down?”

“Not really,” Yoongi shook his head. “Never really appealed to me.”

“Well, that’s fair,” Taehyung shrugged. 

“Can I ask you something else?” Yoongi asked and Taehyung shrugged before nodding. “When I first woke up here, at the medical cabin, I heard you and Y/N talking and you said “what if our parents had left me?”. You said it to Namjoon too. What was that about?”

“Ah, that,” Taehyung laughed. “So, as you know, I’m a Beta and I was actually born in a different pack.”

“Really?” Yoongi gaped.

“Yeah. I’m still not too sure of what exactly happened because I was only 3 at the time but my birth parents and most of my old pack were killed,” Taehyung began. “We were a small pack so our territory got taken over and it just wasn’t pretty. I ended up wondering through the woods alone and that’s when Joon hyung and Y/N-ah’s parents found me and took me in. It was actually kind of controversial, especially since their parents were Pack Omega and Pack Alpha at the time and the only kids that they were allowed to have were their own.”

“Because of the bloodline,” Yoongi finished, knowing very well how pack hierarchy worked. When a Pack Alpha and Pack Omega had children, it was expected that one of those children would be the one to take over the pack whenever their parents decided to retire or passed away. Competition for the title was often fierce, depending on the number of children in a family and their subgender, and adding to that adopted children who had no real linkage to the bloodline only served to further complicate matters.

“Exactly, and it didn’t help matters that when I presented, I turned out to be a Beta. The only fucking Beta in the pack at that,” Taehyung chuckled. “It was just another thing that made the adopted kid stand out, you know?”

“I get it,” Yoongi muttered. “Well, where are your parents now? I haven’t met them yet, or at least I don’t think I have.”

“They were both killed in the Great Pack War seven years ago,” Taehyung told him and Yoongi’s breath caught in his throat. Yoongi was more than familiar with the Great Pack War that had taken out massive numbers in almost every pack in South Korea, which included his own parents. 

“I’m sorry,” Yoongi whispered.

“It’s ok. They were protecting the pack at the time, which was always their main goal, so that makes me feel a little bit better,” Taehyung shrugged. “Now doesn’t it make sense why Joon hyung was so uptight about me brining you onto pack territory?”

“Yeah, it does,” Yoongi huffed. “Especially since his mate is pregnant.”

“Yep. Enough about that though,” Taehyung said abruptly, changing the subject. “I came here to ask if you wanted to come hunting with us.”

“Who’s “us”?” 

“Me, Joon hyung, Hobi hyung, Jungkookie, some others,” Taehyung listed off. “Since we’re entering fall, Joon hyung wants us to try to get extra meat to put into storage. Just in case snowfall comes early this year.”

“I don’t know,” Yoongi replied slowly. “I mean, my wrist still isn’t 100%. I don’t think I’d be able to take down anything.”

“Well, we always take extra tools like spears and stuff with us so you can use of one those.”

“Taehyung, I’m Prime,” Yoongi deadpanned. “I’m literally made to hunt animals with my bare hands.”

“You presented a problem, I offered a solution,” Taehyung laughed. “It’s up to you to take it or not.”

“I’m working though,” Yoongi tried to excuse himself.

“Not anymore,” Kibum interjected as he stepped out of his small office that was just to the left of the front counter. “I’m giving you the rest of the day off.”

“Really?” Yoongi asked.

“Yeah, it’ll be a good way for you to show that you’re contributing to the pack,” Kibum said. “And make some friends because Lord knows you need some.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Taehyung laughed. “So, what do you say hyung?” As much as Yoongi wanted to say no and keep up the façade of him not wanting to get too used to the pack, he also couldn’t deny how antsy he was to hunt again and satisfy that part of his biology.

“Fine,” he relented, cringing immediately afterwards when Taehyung let out a loud cheer. 

.............................

Following Taehyung out to the edges of the pack’s territory, Yoongi was surprised to see so many people preparing themselves to hunt. Most of all, he was surprised to see you standing there as well, talking to Namjoon. 

“Hey, nice to see that you’re joining us Yoongi!” Hobi greeted him cheerfully and Yoongi just nodded towards him. 

“I have to say, I told Taehyung that he wouldn’t be able to con you into coming,” Namjoon chuckled as he pulled off his t-shirt, and Yoongi noticed that he had the same tattoo that you had on your right should smack dab in the middle of his chest. 

“Him and Kibum double teamed me,” Yoongi shrugged. “I had no choice.”

“Figures,” Namjoon chuckled. 

“What are you doing here Y/N?” Yoongi found himself asking. “You seem a little too high maintenance for hunting.”

“High maintenance my ass,” you scoffed. “You sure your ‘Prime’ senses will be working well enough for you to even hunt?”

“Don’t worry about it. Speaking of senses though, wouldn’t it be too much for you to be hunting Omega?” Yoongi questioned, taking a little pleasure in the way that your scent soured a little.  

“You wanna see how dangerous it can get, you keep talking, dumb ass Alpha,” you spat back.

“Oh my god, enough,” Jungkook chuckled. “Are you two gonna do this shit every single time you see each other?”

“If he wants to keep going, then I can too,” you smirked, making Yoongi roll his eyes.

“Never thought you would’ve been the petty type Y/N-ah,” Taehyung laughed as he took his own shirt off, and Yoongi noticed that he had the same tattoo that you and Namjoon had on his left shoulder. 

“Alright guys, you all know the rules but I’m gonna reiterate since Yoongi’s new here,” Namjoon began, silence falling over the small crowd. “Stay within pack territory, you’ll be able to smell the scent markers. Please don’t try to take down anything big if you don’t think you’ll be able to handle it.”

“I don’t want to have to patch any of you guys up,” you added with a smile.

“And lastly, if you run into anyone else on our territory and if you smell anyone else that’s not a part of the pack, no fighting,” Namjoon finished. “You come get me and I’ll handle it. Understood?” A murmur of confirmations flowed through the air, making Namjoon nod in satisfaction. “Well, let’s go.”

Everyone darted off then and Yoongi did the same, following behind Taehyung as they ran deeper into the forest. Since Yoongi hadn’t been hunting in almost three weeks, feeling the wind whipping against his face and scalp seemed to make him almost come alive again. Yoongi loved to hunt, especially since he was exceptionally good at it (even for a Prime Alpha) and it was one of the few things that he was praised for in his former pack so being able to finally do it again was a literal breath of fresh air.

Deciding to be smart, Yoongi had mostly let Taehyung and Jungkook lead him through the forest, since they both knew their territory better than he did. He helped them take down some rabbits and squirrels, and even some groundhogs and woodchucks. 

“Wow Yoongi hyung, your nose is amazing,” Jungkook smiled as he strung the rabbits up together, making them easier to take back to the dining hall for preservation. “Oh, is it ok if I call you hyung?”

“Sure,” Yoongi shrugged, figuring that if Taehyung was already doing it, then there was no harm in Jungkook saying it. 

“God, I’m definitely going hunting with you all the time now,” Taehyung announced giddily. “I’ve never caught this much, this fast, and this easily.”

“I’m looking forward to that,” Yoongi muttered sarcastically, freezing immediately afterwards when he caught a whiff of the air.

“What is it?” Jungkook wondered, noticing how he froze.

“It’s musk deer,” Yoongi whispered, turning around quickly as he tried to get a better idea of where exactly the deer was. “Stay here.”

“Hyung, you can’t take down a deer by yourself,” Taehyung murmured. “Your wrist.”

“Shut up,” Yoongi stated simply, stalking away from them and moving quickly to his left, the scent of the deer becoming stronger and stronger. He stopped behind a tree, smiling to himself when he saw the deer grazing on some grass in the small clearing between the tree he was hiding behind and another. The deer was totally unaware of it’s surroundings, and Yoongi just knew that it would be an easy takedown.

Just as he moved from behind the tree to pounce at the deer, he was blindsided as he felt a blow connect to his knee and knock him down onto the ground hard.

“What the fuck?!” He sneered, shaking his head as he tried to regain his composure. When he looked up, he saw you there, standing in front of the now dead deer.

“Hi,” you smiled, waving your hand at him lightly. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” He questioned as he stood up, dusting his clothes off.

“Oh, was this your deer?” You asked innocently. “Don’t worry. It’s probably better that I took him off your hands for you.”

“You smelled me here,” he accused you and you shrugged your shoulders while smirking.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,” you vacillated. “Maybe I just wanted to show you what dangerous really looks like.” Feeling himself seething with anger, he just spun around on his heel and began to walk away, stomping back towards Jungkook and Taehyung. As he did so though, he couldn’t help but to wonder who the fuck you were and how the fuck you had learned to be such a damned good hunter as an Omega; almost even better than him.

#bts #bangtanarmynet #bts reactions #bts imagines #bts yoongi #bts suga #suga x reader #yoongi x reader #abo yoongi #abo suga #yoongi smut #yoongi angst #yoongi fluff #suga smut #suga angst #suga fluff #werewolf bts

[emkay512]

Once Upon A Time

Chapter 1

Summary: This starts at the beginning of TRR book 2 with the Fydelia ball but with a different series of events. This AU is based off the show Once Upon a Time with Riley and Liam mirroring Snow and Charming. Characters belong to Pixelberry.

A/N: This is my FIRST EVER post and it’s literal trash 😅 I’ve never written before I found you all, and I’ve never had so much fun reading all the stories I found. If you read this please know I’m a complete rookie and I have no idea what I’m doing haha. I welcome and encourage any thoughts and feedback!

A/N 2: my biggest thank you’s to @queenrileyrose and @bbrandy2002 for pre-reading and giving me endless boosts of confidence!!! This first ever, cherry popping post, is in honor of you ❤️

Warnings: This will contain NSFW adult language and content. By reading, you acknowledge you are 18 and over.

I’m tagging those I’ve connected with and thought would be interested. Please let me know if you do or don’t want to be tagged!

@burnsoslow @ao719 @kat-tia801 @callmeellabella @charlotteg234 @neotericthemis

The welcome ball had been exhausting. Riley finally saw them, all of them, the good and the bad. Mostly bad with Liam being the exception.. except the fact that with him came his stupid fiancée. She was forced to deal with the Penelope’s and Kiara’s of the court, and got none of the Olivia’s and Drake’s of the world, with Olivia blackmailed and Drake most likely avoiding the court. Majority of the conversations she had to deal with throughout the night consisted of her rebutting all the allegations against her, most people believing that she had jilted their king. At least she had Maxwell and Bertrand, her home away from home. With the maybe two seconds she had Liam to herself and the amount of work and effort she had to put into her first public appearance, she was completely drained and changed from a gown and into more comfortable leggings and tank after she got back to her room of the Fydelia estate. Just as she was decompressing from the stress of her night, there was a knock on the door. She opened the door to see a particular grin on the face of one Maxwell Beaumont carrying a vase of two dozen roses.

“Greetings, little blossom! One of the staff members stopped me on the way of delivering these, asking what room you were in and I insisted on catching you myself.” Maxwell invited himself into her room after handing her the arrangement. Riley pressed the roses to her nose, inhaling the beautiful scent, and she noticed a note wrapped around one of the stems. She unwrapped the note and turned to Maxwell, who had already cozied himself up on her bed, clearly excited to hear what was on the note. “I noticed the paper in the arrangement too, it’s clearly from Liam isn’t it? You did so great tonight and he had the biggest puppy dog eyes on you, I knew his Prince Charming ass would pull off something like this.. well, go on! Read it!”

Riley quickly unwrapped and read Liam’s note, she had no idea the girlish grin she had plastered on and Maxwell was beaming. He had hated these past few weeks so much, he had been watching one of his closest friends, his makeshift sister, live in desperate torment, questioning her worth after hearing nothing from those she cared most about. She put the roses down and placed the note down next to them and looked up at Maxwell, “He wants me to meet him on his balcony in 20 minutes..”

“That is charmingly romantic, but did he slip in his royal socks and tumble down Madeleine’s overly buffed stairs?? He’s clear across the estate, it’s way too dangerous for you to get out of here alone.”

Riley sighed and collapsed onto the bed with Maxwell, “I don’t know Max, his note is sweet and remorseful, but.. maybe this isn’t about getting back together.. maybe I should just focus on helping house Beaumont and getting home..”

Maxwell stretched across to Riley and smacked her across her head, “Come on, Riles! You have been unable to go a single day without asking about him.. at least twice a day! You NEED to go meet him, otherwise I think both of your little fairy tale hearts will die.”

Riley smirked and rolled her eyes, “You’re so dramatic! And please tell me what fairy tale involved a half nude photo scandal and public humiliation leading to a bullshit engagement between a king and the only ice queen that would rival both Olivia and Elsa while singing let it go? Plus, didn’t you just mention that it’d be too dangerous for me to get to him?”

“Hellooooooo?? Ok first of all, literally all fairy tales are structured that way, couple meets and falls in love, and a public enemy curses them with a dramatic, heartbreaking lie, and then they defile all enemies and live happily ever after.. you’re just living the 21st century version of that! Nudes are basically the most vanilla scandal these days anyway. And secondly, have you JUST met mr covert ops extraordinaire, Maxwell Beaumont!? I said it’d be too dangerous for you to go out alone. Let’s just simply walk out together, and if we get any questions, we can just say we’re meeting my brother for.. you know.. this and that diplomacy reason.. whatever, I’ll wing it. Plus, look at you, you’re already dressed for stealth. I just need to get you outside, and then you can scamper over to Liam’s side of the building. Whaddya say, blossom?”

Riley was exhilarated. Maxwell always knew how to say the right things. She locked eyes with him, pointed straight to his chest and said, “You son of a bitch, I’m in.” They shared a mischievous smile and giggled their way out of her room, totally giddy without even shutting the door all the way. They were completely unaware of the royal guard that had been manning her room and slipped inside.

Thanks to Maxwell, Riley had successfully snuck out of the estate and crept to below the balcony of Liam’s room. She had to think fast as to how the hell she’d get up there, and then she spotted the flower vine growing on a trellis against the building, and she let out a small victorious, “Yes!”

But as soon as she took a step in that direction, a hand grabbed her shoulder and jerked her around so she was facing one of the royal guards. “I don’t think so, lady Riley,” he put a heavy sarcastic emphasis on the term lady, as he was clearly disgusted by her newfound tarnished reputation. “You’re coming with us.”

“Us?” And then from behind her, another guard bagged her head and she felt the grip of two men on each of her arms as they forced her to their destination, practically dragging her as they went. Riley’s heart was thundering in her chest. Where were they taking her? Back to the airport? A jail cell? A dungeon? A firing squad? She wasn’t at all expecting what she got. She was sat on a decently comfortable chair. The guards removed the bag and revealed to see she was in a study. A large one. And there before her on the opposite end of a mighty desk, was the king father, Constantine.

Constantine nodded a dismal to both the guards, and they took their leave. “Well, well. If it isn’t the disgraced American.” Riley was utterly confused and could feel the former kings command in the mood of the room. He did not like her, and she could feel his dislike radiating off of him. “You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you, you foolish girl?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“You had your exit, your out. You were scandled. Ostracized! I even had you as far as at the airport gates. But no, you came back. You came back and left me back at square one on how to get rid of you!”

Realization dawned to her, “It was YOU!” Riley leapt to her feet. She felt no fear, only anger coursing through her. “YOU staged those photos, YOU unleashed Tariq on me.. and you timed the release of those photos, at the most prime time allowing maximum humiliation and zero time in between Liam’s announcement. You’re despicable, I bet you’re even disappointed that Tariq’s attack on me didn’t end.. didn’t end up the way he planned.” She had deliberately slowed her speech as each new revelation came to play in her head, she had lowered her voice with disdain and disgust.

Constantine let out a scoff-laugh at what he considered to be a poor attempt of exerting dominance. “You’re right, and quite honestly I don’t care what that pompous buffoon would have done to you, but I must say, those pictures certainly did deliver.” Constantine was teasing and patronizing her, “And now you’re here, still trying to get to my son.”

Riley crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at him, “I don’t know what you’re tal-“

“Enough. I know everything.” He waved in front of her the very note that Liam had written inviting her to his balcony that he got from one of the guards. “You poisoned his heart, and now his marriage. And with that, the entire kingdom is poisoned, all because your feelings.” He spit the last word out as if he found it vile.

“I wish feelings could be helped, but they can’t.”

“Of course they can. Love is a disease, and like all diseases, it can be vanquished in one of two ways. A cure, or death.” Constantine stood and leaned both of his palms flat on the surface of the desk. “Do you know where your beloved is right now? He’s right down that hallway, he should be packing for his new life, prepared to take on his engagement tour to unify two Cordonian houses and assume the responsibilities and sacrifices it takes to be king. But no.. He’s pining for you. Awaiting your arrival.”

“And I suppose you intend to keep him that way? Waiting for me, only to be rejected, never knowing I came for him?” Riley’s voice was desperate, but still cunning in reality. She needed him to know her questionnaire was not doubtful, but challenging. That she hated his deliberate intentions.

“No. In fact, you’re gonna walk down that hallway. You’re gonna sneak in and tell him you got his note,” Constantine slid the note across the table, no longer wanting it in his possession, and Riley picked it up. “You’re gonna tell him why you answered his call.. Because you don’t love him. It’ll break his heart.. And that will cure him.”

Wide eyed, Riley could only assume the consequence if she didn’t do as he said, “Or you’ll kill me.” She stated with no question in her mind.

“Oh no. I’ll kill him. Killing you would only make him love you more. And the marriage and kingdom would ultimately crumble.”

“And what about your precious Madeleine? I know how this works this is all about mergers and business transactions. How else would you get Godfrey and his house to join with yours?”

“Please, if Liam were to die at an assassin’s hand, he would die a martyr. Godfrey would forgive, even laud, the death. And the merger would be complete.”

“You would do that to your own son?”

“I’m doing it FOR my son.” Love was once Constantine's weakness and it led to Eleanor’s death. It scarred him and he became brainwashed. Convinced love was the enemy. And now, the product of his foolish love, was Liam, who he groomed to be the perfect king. Constantine applauded himself all these years. It was clear as day that even Leo knew the job belonged to Liam, so Constantine did everything to assuage any of Liam’s hesitation into taking on his duty. He always planned on Liam being the logical one, ready to take on the duty and a loveless union. Then that damn New York trip happened. And that damn Riley came in the picture. Immediately Constantine couldn’t tell if he actually hated Riley, or if he hated the idea that Riley was basically the new version of Eleanor that he’d never have.

#the royal romance #TRR #choices #liam x riley #choices trr #liam x mc #king liam

[13dead-ends]

Potions Tutor

Gryffindor Chaser!Henry Cavill x Slytherin!reader

Summary: You tutor Henry who’s struggling in potions, and you slowly realized how much you come to like him over that past few months of studying together.

Warnings: FLUFF, mention of head wounds, mentions of stitches, very small mention of verbal abuse? sorta?, 

A/N: I love Harry Potter and imagining a young Gryffindor Henry had my heart skipping a beat. Henrys family is in this but I changed names and kind of just made the characters up. I felt weird putting their real names in it. Anyways! I wrote this at 3:30am last night, because my tiktok feed is full of Harry Potter. And it’s roughly edited. Thanks again to @hellcaster901 for proofing everything I write! 😊Happy reading!

I looked down at my books as, yet another girl flirted with Henry. A sweet Ravenclaw, she sat next to me in Defense Against the Dark Arts last year. I couldn’t blame her, or the other girls. Really, I was in the same boat as them. No one knew it. I tried focusing on the study guide I was helping Henry with. It was helping me too; tutoring Henry in Potions was helping me improve as much as him. That’s how we met this year. Henry wasn’t doing too well in class, he needed good grades to play for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Snape had me tutor him. He kept his grades up and he stayed on the Quidditch team.

“Sydney, I really need to get back to potions, especially when I have the best in our year to help me.” I looked up at them and smiled. Hoping she’d stop taking up my precious time with Henry. He’d be leaving early to practice today too. A big Gryffindor vs Slytherin game tomorrow.

“Of course, I need to study too. Nice to see you both.” She walked off and Henry leaned forward.  

“Sorry Y/N.” He smiled at me and mine got bigger.  

“It’s okay. You’re doing really well anyways.” He was. He had improved so much over the past few months. He said this is the best he’s done in all five years we’d been here. We only were together during study hall and said hello in the hallways, but somehow, he had me wrapped around his finger. One day last month though, he had yelled a group of girls who were bullying me for being muggle-born. He got them to leave and helped me out of the snow, where they had shoved me. I would always love him for that.  

“Am I? I’m really anxious about the exam.” He looked down at the ingredient list he was trying to memorize.

“Yes, you’re going to pass, Henry.” I smiled and heard the doors to the Great Hall open and looked to see a small group of Gryffindors in quidditch gear come toward us. “Looks like my time’s up with you anyway.” I started closing my books.

“Cavill, stop talking to the enemy, time for practice.” Wood called. I looked down at the Slytherin patch sewn on my robes. Wood winked at me. He was only teasing. He better be, I helped him with his last potions exam. Henry started packing up. He was the star Chaser this year, plus one of his brothers’ is a Beater. He was really good. Another reason he was so well liked.  

“Thank you, Y/N. I’ll see you around.”

“Bye Henry! Have fun.” He grinned at me one more time and ran off with his team. I looked down at my books and sighed.

~~~

“Y/N! I jumped when a pair of hands squeezed my shoulders. I turned to see Henry, already in his jersey, almost glowing with excitement.  

“Henry, you scared me.” I smiled up at him from my seat in the Great Hall.  

“You’re coming today right?” Sophia, my roommate and best friend, gave me a look. Henry had never asked me about coming to games, I was just as surprised as her.

“Of course!” It was a Slytherin game, so technically I was going to support my house. Who was I kidding? My eyes would be on Henry the whole time. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good, I’m glad you’ll be there, even if you have to watch your team loose.” I scoffed, smirking at him.  

“Don’t get too cocky, Cavill. Slytherin’s only one loss behind you.” He shrugged and his smiled hadn’t left his face.

“I’ll let you get back to breakfast. Bye, Y/N.”

“See you out there, Henry.”  

“Well that was cute.” Sophia stared at me. My cheeks were burning. “Was he flirting with you?”

“No, I’m just his tutor that’s all.” I looked back down at my plate.  

“Oh my god, you were flirting back too.” She hit my shoulder. “You have a crush on Gryffindor’s chaser.”

“Shut up, Sophia!” I hit her back. “Hurry up and eat, I want good seats.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do.”  

The cold bit my cheeks as I sat down. My friend Zoe, a Hufflepuff, had gotten us some front row spots. I could see the field below and the hoops towered up on either ends of it. I stuffed my gloved hands in my armpits hoping they’d warm up a little. “Thanks, Zoe.” Sophia sat next to me.  

“Of course!” She smiled at us and rubbed her hands together.

“Let’s start already. It’s cold.” Sophia pulled her scarf tighter. I laughed at her, but I couldn’t feel my nose. It was cloudy and looked like it might snow today. Hopefully not during the game. Soon the announcer started calling out the teams. They zoomed around the field. I smiled as I saw Henry fly past us, the wind blowing my hair back. Zoe clapped her hands as the game started. Rivalry games were always the best. The teams always played just a little bit better. Henry was making too many points to count, but the Slytherin beaters weren’t making it easy. They were bigger seventh years, sending almost every Bludger his way. I winced as one went flying past Henry’s legs, dangling from the broom.

“Damn, this is the best we’ve played all year.” Sophia watched as one of our chasers scored.

“I know! Those bludgers are laying it on thick, though.” Zoe’s eyes followed the quaffle. Henry caught it once again and flew toward the hoops at full speed. I leaned forward watching him speed toward the keeper without fear. Suddenly one of the Slytherin beaters smacked a bludger directly to Henry. It hit the side of his head hard and he fell off his broom, going limp completely. I gasped, shooting out of my seat. He picked up speed as he got closer to the grass, but something invisible caught him just before hitting the dirt. Madam Hooch had casted a spell, she set him down gently and he lay unconscious.

I ran into the into the infirmary, seeing the entire Gryffindor quidditch team surrounding one bed, Madam Pomfrey scurrying around them. I took a deep breath and walked forward. My shoes were loud in the mostly empty room. Some of the team turned to me. They did a double take when they saw my green and silver scarf.  

“What’s a Slytherin girl doing here?” One of them said.

“Come to rub it in?” Slytherin’s seeker had caught the snitch soon after Henry was taken here.

“Boy’s let her through,” Oliver Wood made a gap for me. “She’s his friend too.” I smiled at Oliver until he stepped back. Henry lay in bed, a large bandage over the right side of his head. He was awake though. Blue eyes open and looking right at me.

“Y/N? What are you doing here?” An older boy stood on the other side of the bed, he resembled Henry, this must be his brother. I stepped closer to the side of the bed.

“I just-um. I was worried. Are you okay?”

“He’s fine, just needs rest.” Madam Pomfrey called.

“I got a few stitches, that’s all.” Henry smiled at me. “Thank you.”

“Good I’m glad.” I sighed in relief. He was awake and talking. “I thought I told you not to get cocky though.” He rolled his eyes.

“How about you tell your beaters to lay off.” He chuckled.

“Trust me, Madam Pomfrey did just that.”  

“Ian, can you go get the rest of our brothers?”

“Yeah, Henry, of course.” Ian was his name. He squeezed Henry’s arm and ran off.  

“We should give the guy some space guys.” Wood ushered the team away and I followed, but Henry grabbed my wrist.  

“Do you want to stay, until my brothers get her at least.” My heart fluttered.

“Of course, Henry.”

~~~

I walked around Honeydukes with Sophia, our usual stop while visiting Hogsmeade. I had already picked and paid for my sweets, but she was taking longer to decide. I adjusted the grip of my bag and picked up a box of Cauldron Cakes. “What about Cauldron Cakes? You love those.”

“Yes, perfect. That’s it, I need to get out of here.” I waited by the door as she went to the register. I rocked on my feet and debated on pulling out my Licorice Wands out now. I heard the doorbell tinkle and saw Henry step in.

“Y/N, hi!” He smiled. It had been a week or two since the game and Henry’s head only needed a small bandage now.

“Hey,” I smiled back at him. “How are you?” The last time I saw him was a few days ago after he had come running to show me, he passed his potions exam.

“Good, how are you?” He leaned on the wall next to me.

“Great now that I got my candy.” He chuckled as I held up my bag.

“That’s always important.” He looked at me. “I realized that we never hang out outside of studying. Would you want to come to the Three Broomsticks with me?” He shrugged.

“Yes, I’d love to. I just need to tell my friend.” I turned to see Sophia walking over to us and tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.  

“Hey Y/N, and Henry, right?” He held out his hand to Sophia as she stood next to me.

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Sophia.” He smiled at her.

“Sophia do you mind if I go with Henry for a little while?” I looked over to her and her eyebrows raised.

“Of course not. I’ll go find Zoe.” She squeezed my arm. “See you guys.” She walked out.

“Shall we?” We walked to the Inn, our arms brushing every now and then. When we got inside, Henry got us Butterbeers and I pick a table for us. I sat down and it didn’t take Henry long to come over her with two drinks. I instantly took a drink when he set them down. I smiled at the taste.

“So is your whole family Slytherin?” He asked.

“No, muggles actually.” I sighed. I wondered for a second what if I had been sorted into Gryffindor that night. I remembered Henry’s brothers making the loudest cheers as their brother was sorted into their house. There were no cheers for me as I was sorted into the house whose table was opposite Herny’s.

“Really?” His eyes widened. “What did they think, that first year?” I huffed, blowing a piece of hair out of my face.

“They were definitely surprised.” An image of my dad screaming at me, Hogwarts letter in his hand flashed in my head. “They didn’t really do much else to help, or with anything to do with magic.” He frowned.

“Your parents never helped? How did you get everything or find the train?”  

“They’ve never really been supportive anyways, but we had this neighbor. I always thought she was cooky but turns out she had gone to school here. She recognized the seal when it came in that morning while she was checking her mail.” I chuckled at the frail woman. “She took me everywhere I needed to go and saw me off at the station.” Maureen had become the grandmother I never had. Both of my parents’ parents had passed away.

“I’m sorry your parents are so unaccepting, but this Maureen woman seems wonderful.” I smiled.

“All of your brothers are Gryffindors, right?” He nodded, letting me change the subject. “What about your parents?”

“Dad’s a Gryffindor, Mum’s a Ravenclaw.” I smiled. After I met Maureen and gotten my hands on her books, I did research on Hogwarts. I had thought I could be Ravenclaw. “My mum wanted Thomas to be a Ravenclaw so bad.” I laughed, I remembered that sorting as well, the same, just with Henry’s added cheers as his youngest brother came down to their table.

“Oh, poor thing, she’s the only Ravenclaw and woman in your house.”

“Do you have siblings?” I shook my head.

“No, I’ve always wanted a brother though.”

“You can have any of mine.” He chuckled and I felt warm seeing him like this.  

A month later and I was helping Sophia pack her bag for Christmas holiday. I usually would be packing with her, but not this year. My first Christmas while going to Hogwarts at been spent at Maureen’s. I told my parents I couldn’t leave school, but just snuck into their own neighbor's house one day. Before I could have another Christmas with her, she passed away that school year. I spent that one alone at the school. The last too were spent with Sophia and her family. Her family was more fun than mine would ever be. This year they were going on a tropical vacation though. I couldn’t afford a ticket and they had the entire family to take. I didn’t mind. Hogwarts always had good Christmases. I smiled remembering how the hall looked my second year.

“I’ll send you my present with Bucky and just send mine back with him.” Sophia’s little barn owl was perched in his cage now.  

“Perfect.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I nodded.

“Of course. I’m good here.” She shook her head.

“Yeah, but alone on Christmas?” She shut her trunk.

“I’m going to be fine. I already have a plan.” She furrowed her brows. “On Christmas Day I’m going to read The Christmas Carol and stuff myself silly with food and cake.” Sophia laughed.

“That does sound like a good Christmas.” She hugged me. “I’ll miss you.” She let me go.

“I’ll miss you too.” Soon she was finished and went to go make sure her brothers were packing. I decided to go down to the common room to read by the fire for a little while. I grabbed my book, but before I could leave my room Sophia and my other roommate Joy came in.

“Hey, Y/N, that Gryffindor chaser’s upstairs looking for you.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” She shrugged and went to her bed. I dropped my book and went to find Henry. We I stepped out the door of the common room I saw Henry leaning on the opposite wall, looking really cute in a red sweater. “Henry? What’s up?”

“Sophia told me you’re staying here for Christmas?” He crossed his arms.

“Yes?” I furrowed my brows.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I shrugged.

“I don’t know.”  

“Well, you’re coming home with me.” I froze, butterflies in my stomach. “I owe you for getting me through potions this year.”

“Henry, you don’t have to. Besides, I don’t want to intrude on your family-”

“The more the merrier. Actually, my mom would be cross if I didn’t invite you.” I rubbed my head.

“I’m not packed at all.”

“So, start packing now. You’re coming packed or not.”  

“Henry-”

“Shush, go pack.” He turned me around and pushed me back to the door. I whispered the password and stepped inside. “I’ll talk to you more after dinner tonight.” Henry called.

“So, are you going?” I had packed my trunk and had only gotten the chance to tell Sophia when we met up at dinner.  

“He doesn’t seem to be giving me much choice.” She shook my shoulder, and I snuck a glance at his back. He was sitting at the Gryffindor table with his brothers who I will be meeting offically soon.  

“Make a move while you’re there.” Sophia nudged me.

“Me? Initiating something?”

“You’re going to have to eventually.” I sighed.

“I guess I’ll send you a letter if I do.” We finished eating and filed out with the rest of the students. Before I could turn towards the common room, I was pulled out of the river of students by Henry.

“Hey, are you packed?” He grinned at me. He pulled me down an emptier hallway, but I saw his brothers up a head. All four of them.

“Almost. Are you sure I should come? I don’t have-”

“You’re coming.” He cut me off and we reached his brothers. “I wanted to introduce you to some of my family before we leave.” I smiled up at them. “This is James, William, Ian, and Thomas.”  

“I’m Y/N.” James, who I think is the oldest, smirked.

“You didn’t say she was a Slytherin.” He chuckled, and I swallowed. “I’m only joking. It’s nice to meet you, Y/N.” He held his hand out and I shook it.

“You as well. All of you.” I fiddled with my fingers under my robes. “Thanks for letting me tag along.”

“Trust me, if we could take you and leave him, we would.” I giggled as Henry rolled his eyes at Ian this time.

“You’ve been helping Henry with Potions, right?” William spoke up.

“Yeah, I have.”

“Maybe you could help Thomas too.” The youngest of the five scratched the back of his neck.

“Shut up, Will.” He muttered.

“No, it’s okay!” I smiled. “I’m sure you can’t be worse than Henry was.” All four burst into laughter. Henry glared at me, but it slowly turned into a smile. I laughed with them and Henry joined eventually.

“Dad’s going to hear about that.” James nudged Henry.

“I like you already.” William patted my shoulder.  

“Okay, let's get you back to the dungeons.” Henry was grinning as we fell into pace with each other.

“Your brothers seem great. Thanks for introducing us before.”

“I figured it wouldn’t be as overwhelming, but I didn’t expect you to betray me like that.” He bumped our shoulders.

“Oh, come on, you were not doing great a few months ago.” I bumped him back.

“Shut up.”

James helped me with my trunk after I said goodbye to Sophia. The train ride was quick as my nerves for meeting Henry’s parents worsened. Now without Sophia’s safety net and the moment looming over me I was anxious. James placed my trunk on a trolley, and I took the handles, my palms sweaty. Henry threw his on top of mine, taking the handle from me.

“My dad should be around here somewhere.” He looked around, just like his brothers ahead of us. I breathed in and out. “Don’t be nervous. They’re great.” He nudged me.  

“Boys!” We turned to our right and saw a man who resembled Henry standing a few feet away. Henry’s face lit up and all five boys picked up the pace. I hung back a little, letting the boys have a moment with their father. “Where’s your plus one, Henry?” His father said as they hugged.

“I’m Y/N. It’s nice to meet you Mr. Cavill.” He took my hand in both of his own and squeezed.  

“The pleasure’s all mine, dear.”

“Thank you so much for letting me stay with you.”

“The boy’s friends are always welcome.” I smiled. “Come on, let’s get home.” We took floo powder to get to the Cavill’s home. I had only done this once, but luckily Mr. Cavill sent us in pairs. I just had to hand on to Henry while he did all the work. I liked the feeling of his hand on my waist. We stepped out of his fireplace into a big living room, with a beautiful tree in the corner. The boys who were in front of us were hugging their mother and soon Henry stepped forward to do the same. She was beautiful and her hair curled like Henry’s.  

“Hello dear, you must be, Y/N.” Mr. Cavill whooshed in behind me as Mrs. Cavill brought me into a hug.

“Yes, hello. It’s nice to meet you.” I told her.  

“Let’s get your things into Henry’s room, okay?” She helped me take my trunk up and I smiled at Henry’s room. A few band posters and quidditch posters hung on the wall, and a picture of him with all his brothers sat on the desk.

“Thank you for letting me stay.” I said as we walked back down.

“I’m just excited to have another girl in the house.” She laughed. “I made supper, once everyone’s settled, we’ll eat.” I went back to the living room and sat down on the couch next to Henry.

“I’m staying in your room?” I asked Henry.

“Yeah, I’ll be in my brother’s room. Is that okay?”  

“Sure, I just didn’t want to kick you out of your bed.”

“I’ll be fine.” He smiled at me. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

~~~

I woke up on Christmas morning and smiled. I opened my eyes and got up out of Henry’s bed. I could already hear voices upstairs, so I pulled a sweater over my tank top and stepped out. Staying with the Cavill’s had been a dream. They were the most welcoming people I had ever met. It was hard to feel out of place here. I walked down the hall and almost ran into Henry as he stepped out, yawning.

“Happy Christmas, Henry.” He smiled down at me and pulled me into a hug. I was surprised at first but accepted it immediately. I smiled in his shoulder.

“Happy Christmas, Y/N.” He pulled away and we walked down the stairs to find the rest of the family talking around the tree. There was a spot open on the couch and Henry let me have it. I sat crisscross and Henry sat on the floor below me, his hair brushing my legs.

“Happy Christmas you too.” Mrs. Cavill kissed her son’s head and patted my cheek. The boys all wished me a happy Christmas as well and then Mrs. Cavill started handing out gifts. I had put Sophia’s gift under the tree when it arrived, and that’s what she handed me first. I opened it and inside was a journal with a set of quills and ink. I smiled at the nice leather the paper was bound in.

“What did you get Y/N?” I handed him the journal.

“It like to record experiments I do with potions. I needed a new journal for it.” I explained.

“Nerd,” I hit his shoulder. “Kidding, this is really nice.” He handed it back. I didn’t think I’d be getting anything more, but Mrs. Cavill came around with another gift for me.

“That’s from all of us.” She smiled.

“Oh, you didn’t have to.” I felt my heart swell.

“Just open it, dear.” She waved her hand. I opened it and there was a brand-new green and silver scarf inside. “Are the colors okay? I’m so used to red and gold.”

“I love it, thank you so much.” My cheeks hurt from smiling by the time presents were over. I was content with my scarf and journal, but Henry stopped me from following his mother into the kitchen. It was only us too in the room now.

“Y/N, I got you something.” Henry grabbed a present missed by Mrs. Cavill. He sat next to me on the couch and I turned to face him.

“Oh, Henry,” I chewed on my nail. “I didn’t get you anything. I didn’t' have time to-”

“It’s okay. Just open mine.” He held out the box and I took it. “Careful, it’s fragile.” I scrunched my brows and began unwrapping it.

“Henry, oh my god.” I lifted the set of glass jars out of the box. They were twist off lids and had the names of different potion ingredients painted on the sides.  

“You always said you never felt organized.” Henry’s cheeks were a little pink.  

“Henry, I love them.” I set them back down and pulled him into a hug. “Best gift I’ve ever gotten.” He squeezed my waist and as I pulled away, he caught my lips with his. My cheeks were hot, and my heartbeat was is in my ears. I held his face and kissed him back.

~~~

Taglist! Message me if you’d like to be tagged!

@xxxkatxo​  @omgkatinka​

#henry cavill #henry cavill fanfiction #harry potter au #fanfiction #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x reader #june writes stuff

[ellewritesathing]

Cross My Heart      I

Summary: No one wants to go to a wedding by themselves, especially when it’s the wedding of someone you haven’t seen in nearly four years. Going with Caliban was definitely a bad decision, but it was still better than going alone.

Masterlist Part 1 

Word-count: 1.3k+

A/N: should i be finishing up infernal? yes. am i writing another fake dating au? also yes. 

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash  

The college years were some of Caliban’s finest. High school had been a few years of heartbreak, when people were just beginning to experiment with bad decision-making. But bad decisions abounded in the college years, and Caliban was a favorite among bad decision-makers. He had all the makings of a tremendously bad decision: long hair, tattoos, and a devilish smile. Caliban was a bad decision that was bound to be repeated. 

Looking back on all his drunken escapades, Caliban felt a certain stirring in his chest. He’d had fun, sure, and everyone on campus knew his name, but he’d never made a real connection with anyone other than his flatmate. Now that they were packing up for graduation, Caliban wasn’t even so sure he could count on Adam to be there once they were in different parts of the country. He’d already spent the last month putting blue post-it notes on everything he owned and pink ones on all Caliban’s stuff. 

There weren't many pink post-it notes throughout the apartment; just on the coffee table, the french press, and the books on the living room shelf. The shelf itself had been there when they moved in, but Caliban had filled it up with secondhand books and Adam had added the lost and found box after one too many houseguests had forgotten their belongings. There wasn’t a post-it on the lost and found box. Ruefully, Caliban took a swig of his coffee, reached over, and stuck a pink post-it on the box.

Caliban had spent the past four years of his life being everyone’s favorite bad decision, but the college years were coming to a close and he was coming undone. He had been full of guts and dopamine and - according to you - full of shit. At least, that’s what you told him as you waded through the moving boxes to the living room. 

Finally, you made it around the boxes and into Caliban’s line of view before climbing on top of the coffee table - the only uncluttered surface in the entire apartment. “Jesus Christ, is the Second Coming happening and no one told me?” you asked, bending down to shove Caliban’s legs off your stage. 

Caliban sighed and put his mug down on the coffee table, making a dark rim on the top of a blue post-it. He nodded at his flatmate, who was in the process of adding another box to an already teetering pile. “Adam here likes to be prepared.” 

You rolled your eyes and grabbed Caliban’s coffee as you straightened up again. “Yeah, tell me about it.” You grimaced after taking a sip of his coffee and spun around to focus on Adam and his post-its. Caliban suppressed a laugh. “So are any of these boxes for next week or …?” 

Adam groaned and smacked his head against his notepad. “I knew I forgot something,” he mumbled. He wiped his face and looked up at you. “I can’t go with you next week, babe. I thought I told you.” 

“Well, you didn’t-” You paused to finish the coffee and grimace, holding out your index finger as an indicator to wait “-and now I’m going to have to be the only single person at that entire wedding.” 

“If it’s any consolation, I don’t think anyone would buy us as a couple anyway.” Adam held his hand to the side of his mouth and leaned in as if to tell you a secret. “On account of me being a flaming homosexual and all.” 

You punctuated your next sentence by waving Caliban’s mug around. It was one of the ceramic mugs you and Adam had made in sophomore year, with badly painted curse words coating the outside. “I know that, but all I wanted was a drinking buddy, not a real date.” 

“So take Caliban. His liver is practically indestructible at this point,” Adam said, shrugging. “Plus he’s hot enough to make that podunk ex of yours jealous.” 

“If I wanted to have someone sleep with half the wedding party, I would have asked Caliban,” you said irritably. You crossed your arms and tightened your grip on the mug. 

“You know I’m still here, right, darling?” Caliban asked, tilting his head up to you and nudging you with his boot. “This is still my apartment for two weeks and three days.”

“I wasn’t really talking to you, angel.” You were trying very hard to ignore him, but Caliban made himself very hard to ignore. He could tell by the annoyed look on your face that you were, at the very least, considering it.

For a moment, the apartment was nothing but silent anticipation, and then Adam laughed. “You two are ridiculous,” he said. “You hooked up one time about a million years ago, and now you’re like mortal enemies?”

You scoffed. “We’re not mortal enemies, he’s just insufferable.”

Caliban rolled his eyes, but he smiled at the memory of being one of the first bad decisions of your college years. The two of you had met at a bar in freshman year, got into an argument over Green Day songs, and went back to the apartment to see who was right. A couple of drinks later, and the two of you fell asleep to the sweet serenades of 21st Century Breakdown. Caliban woke up the next morning to his record player skipping tracks, a pounding headache, and you and Adam dancing to Taylor Swift in the kitchen. 

You’d said afterward that the best part of that night was meeting Adam and stealing Caliban’s old Coldplay t-shirt.

“He’s also kind of your only option,” Adam said, shrugging again and adding something to his notebook. 

“Actually, until someone asks me, I’m not anyone’s option,” Caliban said as he fidgetted with one of the knick-knacks on the side table. He smiled devilishly at your irritation.

You and Adam argued with one another without saying a word, something about your relationship that had always made Caliban envious. He'd never been close enough to anyone to communicate in looks. Eventually, you groaned and turned to Caliban. Through gritted teeth, you asked, “Caliban, will you go to a wedding with me?” 

“Say please.” 

“No.” 

“Then no.” 

You glowered and Caliban grinned. “Please,” you added reluctantly. 

Caliban set the knick-knack to the side and leaned forward, elbows on his knees and chin resting in his hands. “What’s in it for me?”

Adam scrambled around the boxes to diffuse the situation before you exploded. Dragging you down from the coffee table, he said, “You get a couple weeks away from your crappy family.” 

“That all?” Caliban tilted his head. 

“That and I won’t smother you in your sleep,” you said. When Caliban didn't say anything, you rolled your eyes and added laundry to the list. 

Caliban was about to say something particularly spiteful when you sighed and leaned your head against Adam’s shoulder, mumbling that this was useless. Adam adjusted his grip to make you more comfortable, and Caliban’s heart softened. He’d never had someone to lean on like that. 

“I’ll go with you,” Caliban said slowly as he got to his feet, “On one condition.”

“Which is?” 

Caliban smiled his most angelic smile. “Promise me you won’t fall in love with me.” 

You rolled your eyes and untangled yourself from Adam. “Are you serious right now?” 

“As serious as the two of you were about getting breakup bangs after the debacle with J-” 

“Don’t you dare say his name,” Adam said, pointing an accusing finger at Caliban’s chest. 

You shook your head and started the journey back through the boxes. “I’ll pick you up next Friday. If you’re not outside by 9am, I’m leaving without you.” 

Caliban rocked on his heels and tried in vain to catch your eye. “So, do you promise not to fall in love with me?” 

Without so much as a pause, you said over your shoulder, “Cross my heart.”

Adam laughed, and Caliban probably would have laughed as well, maybe even said something witty, if he wasn’t distracted by the pink post-it stuck to the bottom of your shoe. 

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#cross my heart #caliban #chilling adventures of sabrina

[jewish-space-laser]

Miles & Black Coffee - Part Two

“If you’re thinking about taking the high road,

I can tell you that you’re doing it wrong,

There’s a better of way of letting it all go,

‘Cause you’ve been running from the feeling too long….”

-Highroad by Sir Woman

Hiya everyone! Sorry this is up a bit late, inspiration really just runs on its own clock. I’ll keep this short- giant thank you to @oh-honey-styles​ @andwhenshesays​ @for-fucks-sake-h​ for beta-ing and being so so SO supportive. If you haven’t read their fics yet, go check them out! As always, I adore feedback! (4.1k words)

xoxoxoxoxoXO Tile 

You and Harry would never be friends. You were up and down, night and day, oil and water. You just didn’t mesh. He was your roommate’s insufferable older brother, and that is all he would ever be. Well, at least that’s what you thought before….

or

the one with campfire conversations, cabin getaways, and enemies that were never really enemies after all.

Read Part One here!

TUESDAY

Charlie was still sleeping soundly on her side of the bed when your alarm went off, so you tried your hardest to sneak out of the room without making a sound. Spending all day in the sun yesterday had been amazing; your heart felt full, your muscles were relaxed, and you were ready to do it all over again. 

Unfortunately, you also felt a bit gross. Between the warm weather, lakewater, and sunscreen, your skin was feeling like it needed it a good rinse. The thought of showering in the showerhouse wasn’t exactly thrilling, but it was that or the garden hose, so you gathered up your shower caddy and a change of clothes before making your way out of the main cabin. 

It was a beautiful morning, the perfect setup for another day of summer. Dewy blades of grass tickled your ankles as you cut across the lawn, a pleasant chill running through you at the contact. You’d tried to wake up early enough to have the shower house to yourself, not wanting to have an awkward run-in with anyone before you’d had a chance to fully wake up. 

From the look of it, you’d succeeded. You listened for signs that anyone else was out and about, but all you could hear were the sounds of birds chirping and bugs buzzing, the nature around you having yet to be disturbed by rowdy college students. 

Smoking on the boat the night before had turned out to be a great idea. The group had stayed out till the moon was the only light in the sky, only turning in when none of you could stop yawning. You hadn’t slept that deeply in a long time; it felt amazing to be so rested after a full school year of late nights and early mornings. 

When you finally reached the shower house, you moved to pull the door open to have it swing forward and smack into you. You stumbled backwards, balancing yourself against the wall as you stared wide eyed at the person who’d nearly knocked you over. 

“Whoa, sorry,” Ryan rushed apologetically, “I didn’t think anyone else would be up this early.”

“That’s okay,” you gulped, “I didn’t think anyone else was awake, either. I wanted the showers to myself.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” he chuckled, running a hand through his wet hair, “I’m all finished though, so it’s all yours.”

“Thanks,” you giggled, “how was the water pressure?”

“Honestly?” He shrugged. “Better than I expected, but not great.”

“Lovely,” you sighed, slinging your towel over your shoulder. Ryan dragged his eyes down your frame quickly, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. You blushed as you realized that you were still in your pajamas. At least they were somewhat cute, little blue shorts with rubber duckies printed all over them and a plain white tank top. 

The two of you were quiet for a moment, switching places so you were standing in the threshold of the shower house. He was too cute, sleepy eyes squinting in the sun as it grew brighter out.

“So, um, I was thinking of checking out this hiking trail today,” he blurted, cheeks tinted red, “Archie was going to come with me, but he drank his weight in white claw last night, so I’m thinking he might be too hungover to stomach it.”

“Where’s the trail?” You questioned. 

“It’s on the other side of the lake, about two miles north. We were just gonna borrow a couple bikes from the shed,” he explained, playing with his hair some more, “but anyway, I was like, well, I was wondering if maybe you would wanna join me. I’d hate to go alone.”

“I’d love to!” You said eagerly. When he smirked at your excitement, you tried to play it cool. “I mean, uh, yeah. That sounds like it could be fun.”

“Great,” he chuckled, “I was thinking of leaving around eleven, gives us time to relax and have some breakfast. The trail itself should only take a couple hours, but there are a few detours I wanted to see. Is that cool with you?”

“Sounds awesome,” you nodded. 

“Fantastic. I’ll find you in a bit?”

You nodded, bidding him farewell as he made his way back to the guest cabin. The moment the door shut behind you, you let out a quiet squeal. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours, and already you had a date with a cute boy. Plus, you were genuinely interested in the hiking trail; if it was anything like the forest around the cabin, it was sure to be gorgeous. 

Ryan was right about the shower pressure. It was enough to make you feel clean and refreshed, but certainly left much to be desired. At least there was hot water. 

By the time you made it back to your room, Charlie was up and about, playing upbeat music on her phone speaker and digging her toothbrush out of her bag. 

“I can’t believe I forgot to brush my teeth last night,” she pretended to gag, “I literally passed out so hard. Didn’t even hear you get up this morning.”

“It was a long night,” you laughed, feeling amused as you watched her flit around the room to get ready for the day.

“And it’s gonna be another long day,” she sighed, “long, but fun. Olivia and I were gonna tan on the docks for a bit, if you wanna join?”

“Actually,” you tried to act nonchalant, “Ryan and I are going on a hike.”

You sat on the corner of the bed, sucking your lips into your mouth to keep your giddy smile at bay. You were really excited though, and Charlie seemed like just the right person to gush to.

“Ryan, huh?” She said, face scrunching up in confusion. “I would’ve thought you’d want to spend as much time with Harry as possible.”

You widened your eyes, letting out a loud burst of laughter that had you wheezing. “Harry? No way!”

“You and him aren’t a thing, then?” She asked, zipping her suitcase shut. “He was asking after you at the bonfire yesterday, and then insisted that he should check on you when you didn’t come down.”

A frown formed on your face. You specifically remember him saying that he’d just been using the restroom. Why would he want to check up on you, anyway? Surely he was just using it as an excuse to bother you. It was his favorite activity, after all. 

“Well, no, we’re not a thing,” you said firmly.

“Ryan’s cute, too,” Charlie shrugged, “James and I had a moment yesterday, too, so hopefully we both get our cute summer romance this week.”

“Ooooh, James?” You waggled your eyebrows, happy to change the subject. Charlie flushed, biting down on her lip.

The two of you gossipped for a while longer, with Charlie organizing all of her belongings while you lounged on the bed. It was nice chatting with her; you weren’t the closest, but you’d always gotten along really well. 

New romance, new friends, sunshine and nature. You could already tell that this was going to be a week to remember.

~~~

By the time you made your way into the kitchen, almost everyone had already had breakfast. Dishes were piled high in the small sink, streaks of what looked like pancake batter smeared across the countertop. You hated when people didn’t clean up after themselves, but you chose to ignore it for now. 

What you couldn’t ignore, however, was Harry, who was sitting by himself at the table. He was also pouring a bowl of cereal, which wouldn’t have been a problem if your name wasn’t written across the box in black sharpie. 

“Is that your cereal, Harry?” 

You had a hand planted on your hip, eyebrows raised expectantly as you awaited his answer. He lazily glanced up from his phone, looking you over from head to toe before shrugging. 

“Dunno, found it in the cupboard,” he muttered, jamming a spoonful into his mouth.

“Interesting, interesting,” you droned, biting the inside of your cheek, “did you stop for a moment to think that it might belong to somebody else?”

He shrugged again, not bothering to look away from his phone this time as he chewed slowly. You could tell he was holding back a smirk from the way his dimple indented into his cheek. He knew what he was doing, he always did.

With a huff, you walked over to him and snatched the box off of the table, turning it around and pointing at your name in bold letters. 

“I wish you’d asked,” you snapped, opening the cabinet with more force than necessary to grab a bowl. 

“Just figured we were all sharing food,” you heard him say. 

You wanted to rip his breakfast out from under him, anything to get a reaction, but you just took a deep breath insead. Getting you worked up is exactly what he wanted, and you’d never give him the satisfaction

“If you’d read your sister’s e-mail, you’d know that any food that isn’t labelled is up for grabs. That cereal has my name on it.”

“Sorry,” he shrugged again, “I don’t really look at my e-mail.”

“Clearly,” you rolled your eyes.

He didn’t respond, and even though your skin was crawling with irritation, you figured it was best if you stopped talking. Even though he was being a pest, this behavior was relatively tame for him, and it would be a shame to ruin a perfectly good morning with a fight.

Well, that’s what you told yourself before you opened the fridge. 

“Harry,” you warned through gritted teeth, “did you finish off the milk… and then put the empty carton back?”

“No,” he locked his phone, crossing his arms over his chest and grinning, “there are a few drops left in there.”

That was it. The absolute last straw. 

“You are literally the most inconsiderate person I’ve ever met,” you seethed, shaking the empty carton in his direction before throwing it into the recycling bin. It didn’t seem to phase him.

“I think-”

“I don’t really care what you think,” you interrupted. 

“-that you’re being dramatic.”

You were scowling so hard that your cheeks were beginning to hurt, but you couldn’t help it. Not when he was pushing your buttons in all the wrong ways. You dumped your bowl of dry cereal back into the box.

“I’m not being dramatic,” you hissed, “you’re just being a dick, but what else is new.”

“You really need to calm down,” he snorted, “a bunch of us were going to break out the kayak and race across the lake, do you wanna join?”

You weren’t sure where he’d gotten the idea that you’d want to spend more time with him, so you just shot him a dirty look, deciding to just skip breakfast. Sure, you were starving, but anything was better than spending one more second in Harry’s presence. 

“I have other plans,” you snarled, turning your back to him and leaving the room. 

“Really?” He asked, following you down the hallway. “Do they involve… I dunno, pulling the giant stick out of your ass?”

You practically growled, stopping so suddenly that Harry nearly ran into you.

“No,” your voice was strained, “Ryan asked me to go hiking with him, if you must know.”

For the first time all morning, the unbearable smirk on his face dropped into a frown. 

“Just the two of you?” He prodded. 

You narrowed your eyes at him. Why was he suddenly so interested? 

“Yes, just the two of us,” you sighed, turning to walk away again, “now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be as far away from you as possible.”

He didn’t follow you this time, but you could feel him watching you go up the stairs. It bothered you to no end that he could get you so riled up. Next time, you would walk away at the first sign of trouble, because he truly wasn’t worth your energy. 

Once you finished packing up a drawstring backpack with the hiking essentials, it was just about to time to meet Ryan, so you made your way over to the guest cabin. On the way there, you saw Harry pulling a kayak off of a metal rack, passing it to James like it weighed nothing. He looked a bit ridiculous, with his tie-dye shirt and a bandana in his hair.

“Hey,” you jumped at Ryan’s voice, “you ready to head out?”

You didn’t spare Harry a second glance when Ryan started raving about this amazing waterfall that he wanted to see. The day could only go up from here.

~~~

The rain had come out of nowhere. 

It had been blue sky for miles for the entire hike, but the second you got back to the bikes at the trailhead, dark stormclouds had already started sprinkling. It had quickly turned into a downpour, soaking through your thin t-shirt in record time. Ryan wasn’t much better off as he pulled his helmet off, hair matted down on the top of his head. 

Not to mention, it had been extremely buggy. Even with bug spray, they had been relentless. You were sure you had at least twenty bug bites all down your arms and legs. 

Despite everything, you’d enjoyed yourself. You’d stayed out even longer than you planned, sitting by the waterfall and chatting. As soon as Ryan found out that you skipped breakfast, he’d given you half of his sandwich. He’d been a complete gentleman, taking your hand frequently to help you over a rough part of the trail, and even though neither of you specified, it felt like a date. 

Conversation with him was easy, which was a major improvement from your awful morning. In fact, you barely even thought about Harry all afternoon, so distracted by Ryan and his nature commentary. The only time he’d come up was when you stopped for lunch.

“So what’s the deal with you and Harry?” Ryan had asked.

“Ugh,” you’d snarled, taking a pull from your water bottle “can we talk about literally anything else?”

“Oh,” Ryan had raised his eyebrows, “so, you’re not together?”

Immediately, you had choked on your sip of water, slapping your chest until you stopped coughing. 

“Together?” You guffawed. “What on earth gave you that idea?”

He had blushed crimson, playing with the hair on the back of his head. “He talks about you a lot… and sometimes I notice you watching him.”

His comment had confused you, but you’d shrugged it off, assuring him that you and Harry weren’t, and never would be, together. 

Now, the two of you were ditching your bikes in front of the cabin and sprinting towards the door to escape the awful weather. You found yourself giggling as you stumbled into the kitchen, wet, muddy footprints trailing behind you as you dropped your pack to the ground. It landed with a loud squelch, which only made you laugh harder. 

“I had a lot of fun today,” you said, “I’m really glad you invited me.”

“Really?” He chuckled, catching his breath. “I thought it was a bit of a disaster, between the mosquitos, the rain… the mud….”

You both laughed, shaking your heads at your bad fortune. You were being truthful about having fun, though. Even though the day hadn’t gone according to plan, it was exactly the kind of adventure you’d wanted.

“Whatever,” you shrugged coyly, “I had good company.”

Ryan’s cheeks flushed crimson, and a sweet smile crept up his face. Even with mud caked across his neck, pine needles in his hair, and angry pink bug bites down his arms and legs, he still managed to look adorable. When his eyes darted down to your lips, you stepped forward.

“I’m really glad we’re both on this trip,” he said softly, placing a hand on your waist.

“Me too,” you whispered, leaning in closer. 

Just as your lips were a hair away from brushing together, a crash from behind you had you jumping apart in alarm. You yelped loudly, your heart stopping for a beat before you spun around to face the culprit. 

Of course it was Harry. 

The first thing you noticed was his sunburn; all he was wearing was a pair of light gray sweatpants, so you could see how pink his chest had gotten. He resembled a deer in headlights as he stared at the floor below him, which was currently covered in the broken remnants of a shattered plate.

“Sorry,” he slurred, tip-toeing out from where the ceramic shards had scattered. Once he was clear, he stumbled over to the broom closet, swinging it open harshly as you and Ryan watched on awkwardly. After digging for a few seconds, he emerged with a broom and dustpan that looked like they were older than you.

“You scared us,” you bit out, heart finally slowing down to a normal rate. 

“Oops,” his shoulders lifted in a shrug, He turned to start sweeping, but quickly did a double take. “What hap-… you guys look horrible. Why are you covered in mud?”

Irritation took over you as you watched him gape drunkenly at where you and Ryan were standing. Not only had he interrupted what was sure to be an epic kiss with Ryan, but then he’d nearly given you a heart attack by sneaking in and dropping the plate. Sure, it was an accident, but that didn’t make you feel any less angry. And now here he was, telling you that you looked horrible.Your foot started tapping against the floor rapidly on its own accord. 

Just as you were about to chew him out for being a complete thorn in your side, he stumbled forward and hissed, lifting his bare foot into the air. 

“Harry, you’re stepping on glass,” Ryan warned, rushing forward with a worried expression over his face, “and you’re barefoot. Why don’t you start getting ready for bed… I’ll clean this up, okay?”

He took the broom from Harry, shooing him away from the mess. You knew it was the responsible thing to do, but part of you was still disappointed that your moment with Ryan had been ruined.

“Will you help me up the stairs?” Harry asked you sheepishly, half-limping over to you, “can’t get the glass out of my foot….”

“Well, don’t try to take it out here,” you sighed with an eye roll, “let’s go up. We’ll have to clean it, too.”

“Aww, y’gonna take care of me?” He smirked.

“Don’t push your luck,” you snapped. He held his hands up in surrender, but you still wanted to slap the smug look off of his face. You turned to Ryan, who was still sweeping the plate shards into a pile, and shook your head apologetically. “See you tomorrow?”

He nodded, a sad little smile on his face. You made yourself a promise that you’d kiss him next time you were alone. It was only the second day, after all; you were positive that you’d find another moment. For now, though, you had to deal with a certain drunken fool, who was currently limping down the hall, tripping every other step as he tried to grip the wall for support. 

“Hold on, you dimwit,” you sighed, rushing forward and slipping a hand around his waist. 

“Ooh, we’re getting cosy,” he hummed. You weren’t going to dignify him with a response.

Harry’s skin was warm to the touch, a bit sticky with sunscreen but still smooth. You tried to ignore the shock that ran through you when you felt his back muscles shift… you knew he was in good shape, but you hadn’t expected him to be so… firm. Your mouth went dry.

He leaned practically his entire weight on you, nearly forcing your knees to buckle. Fortunately, you were able to find your balance and walk with him, taking one stair at a time.

“Now who’s being dramatic,” you muttered.

“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Harry slurred, frowning in your direction. He had one arm slung over your shoulder, and the other hand gripping the railing as he hopped on one foot.

“You called me dramatic this morning,” you reminded him, “and now here you are, needing help up the stairs because of a teeny piece of glass….”

“Heeeey,” he protested, stopping in his tracks to look down at you properly. 

A scoff escaped you as you rolled your eyes, gesturing for him to continue hopping. You were nearly at the top now.

“Is there a first aid kit somewhere?” You asked, relieved when he removed his arm.

“Yeah,” he scratched at his head, “I packed one, but it’s still in my room.”

Honestly, you were a bit surprised that Harry packed a first aid kit. You’d never stricken him as the responsible type; Callie had always seemed more put together despite being younger. 

You followed his hobbling figure into his room, which was much cleaner than you expected. He clearly hadn’t changed it much since he was young, evidenced by the lego figurines lined up on his shelves. There was also a cute framed photo of him and Callie at her high school graduation, which was admittedly adorable. 

Getting the splinter out of Harry’s foot hadn’t been a problem, but cleaning it was another story. First, he insisted that he could do it himself, but then he accidentally got neosporin all over his bedsheets. Then, he wouldn’t stop flinching away from you when you tried to stick on the bandage, claiming that he was ticklish. 

“Can you please just cooperate,” you sighed. 

“Can’t help that it tickles,” he giggled, twitching away from your hand again, “your hands are too soft.”

If he pulled away from you one more time, you’d rip your hair out. This was not how you foresaw ending your night.

Eventually, finally, he stayed still long enough for you to finish. You glared at him as you gathered up the bandage wrapper and used alcohol wipe. He was gazing at you with wide eyes, bandana slightly crooked on top of his head.

“Did I interrupt something downstairs?” He asked all of a sudden, sheepishly looking out the window.

“Yeah,” you exhaled, shaking your head in frustration. “You know, Harry? I don’t understand what I did for you to hate me so much.”

He squinted his eyes in confusion, as if he had no idea what you were talking about. As if he hadn’t spent countless hours intentionally getting on your nerves. 

“What’re you talking about?”

“Please,” you laughed sarcastically, “It hasn’t even been two full days here, and you’ve already called me a wet blanket, eaten my food, and ruined the end of my date. You do nothing but antagonize me… why?”

He opened and closed his mouth several times, and it was then that you remembered how truly drunk he was. He probably wouldn’t even remember this in the morning. You don’t know why you’d asked him about it in the first place.

“I mean, I…” He stuttered, apparently unable to articulate his thoughts. 

Truthfully, you didn’t even want to know.

“Maybe we should just stay away from each other,” you told him, “I’m not a huge fan of you, and you clearly have a problem with me….”

He looked completely taken aback.

“Just… go to sleep, okay?” You pinched the bridge of your nose. “I left the painkillers out, so… take those in the morning if you want.”

You were waiting for him to say something, but he just sat there, silently gaping at you with cloudy eyes, so that’s how you left him. He was still staring at you when you fleetingly made eye contact on your way out the door, but didn’t say a single word.

From what you knew about him, that was out of character. He always had something to say, another jab, another comeback, absolutely never letting you have the last word. And his eyes… the way he’d been staring at you, like he was offended and guilty and confused. You’d never seen him look like that before. 

As you got ready for bed, you tried to shake the entire interaction off. He was drunk, he probably had no idea what you were saying. The entire conversation wouldn’t even matter in the morning. 

Yet, for some reason, the image of his wide eyes and crooked bandana were all you thought about until you drifted off to sleep.

~~~

If you made it this far, thank you! What do we think? Any thoughts, theories, questions, comments? Let me know! Until next time, xoxoxoxoxox Tile

#harry styles #harry styles fanfic #harry styles imagine #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fic #harry #styles #hs #enemies to lovers #love triangle #m&bc #miles &black coffee #m&bc2

[ghostiewriter]

prologue | tale of a slightly unstable teen hero

Summary: JJ’s life is thrown upside down after a school trip. Now he just decide what to do about his newly found powers and discover just how much his life has changed.

Warnings: contains strong language, a teeny sliver of sexual references, just the three boys being dumbasses? a small smidge of angst (it barely counts) and some fighting, kinda amateur but he’ll learn eventually

Word Count: 8.2K (I’m so sorry)

A/N: ahhh so here’s the prologue! Hope you guys enjoy, it’s a bit of a mess and it wasn’t meant to be this long but oh well! This is just to kinda set up the world, I promise the chapters won’t be this messy! There will be way more Kiara in the next chapter as well, don’t worry! Like I said, this is just a filler chapter! Also this is unedited and I am kinda unwell so lets hope this makes sense :) feel free to leave any feedback!! 

masterlist // taglist // ao3

JJ prided himself in always loving an adventure. A random trip at 3am when one of his buds felt down? Hell yeah! An exploration through the streets of New York when he decided to ditch his Spanish final? Let’s go, dude! A spontaneous road trip with his boys during summer? JJ was down! But this? This just felt like some sick joke.

Admittedly, JJ wasn’t listening in class when the trip was announced. And as Pope liked to remind him every couple of minutes, this whole situation could have been avoided if he had listened in class. But can you blame the guy? A whole day off school to visit some big corporation uptown where he was getting a free lunch—JJ would be stupid to reject that. Yet, JJ should’ve known there would’ve been some catch, some flaw in this trip. And that flaw was that he had to spend the day walking around Cameron Industries, the biggest nerd fest on the East coast.

JJ was bored out of his mind.

Pope was ecstatic beyond belief.

John B was ready to punch JJ in the face if opened his mouth to complain one more time.

“Why call it a trip when all we do is listen to these dudes in lab coats droning on about some weird gene thing? Like c’mon! A trip is meant for relaxing. Where the fuck am I gonna relax around here, huh? The fucking gift shop—“

“Shut up,” John B hissed at the blonde, smacking JJ’s arm for good measure, to which the blond dramatically whined at. “Just please…shut up. You’ve got one more hour until lunch, alright? Don’t ruin this for him.”

JJ huffed as he glanced over at Pope, who was eagerly questioning every scientist they came across. As much as it pained him to agree with John B, he did have a point. There weren’t enough fingers in the world to count the amount of times JJ had dragged Pope into some anxiety-provoking, impulsive situation. The least he could do is suck it up a little and mope silently as they walk through countless fancy labs that probably each cost more than his apartment complex altogether.

“I don’t know why you’re acting so chuff,” JJ huffed, his fingers twisting the rings that adorned his hands—a force of habit when he was uncomfortable and bored. “You usually back me up on this kinda stuff—“ But JJ didn’t need to finish his question. Oh no, because the answer was right there.

JJ smirked as he turned to John B, one eyebrow raised in question. However, his friend seemed much more content staring at Sarah Cameron from where she stood near the front of the group, smiling towards the tour guide like they were close friends. Which they probably were considering they were standing in the building her father owned.

Ward Cameron. Renowned scientist, billionaire and founder of Cameron Industries. A true inspiration. What started as a hopeless experiment in his high school chemistry lab ended up forging Ward Cameron’s path to success in the biggest multibillion-dollar multinational corporation that held the future for chemical engineering. JJ just thought he was some lucky rich kid that had daddy’s money to support his dream.

And it was for that reason that JJ rolled his eyes, nudging his friend out of his daze. “You do know you don’t stand a chance, right?” JJ commented.

Harsh but true. JJ and the rest of the kids that attended this trip went to Midtown High School. True to its name, it was smack bang in the middle of two very different livelihoods. Uptown Queens: home to the kids who live of old money, designer clothes and trust funds. And Downtown Queens: home to working-middle class who would spend the rest of their lives making a sliver of the uptown folks’ wages.

Take a wild guess which area JJ is from.

However, some old dude in the 60s decided to try and bridge the gap between the classes and thus, the school was born. All it did was let each know how much they resented the other. Yet, John B had fallen into the alluded mind-set of that old geezer and set his eyes on Sarah Cameron, the most uptown chick you’ll get. And of course, JJ was there to remind him of that very fact and push him off that imaginary bridge. It was a fool’s hope to combine the uptown and downtown folk; it was a fool’s hope to try and make them get along. It won’t happen now nor ever.

John B flipped him off. JJ only grinned in response.

Nonetheless, that ended up being the most exciting part of the hour. JJ shuffled along at the back of the group, his eyes constantly wandering around the labs. Did he have any clue what any of it was? Hell no, but he was naturally curious and couldn’t help his hands from wandering. Sue him, he was a teenage boy with ADHD and a knack for getting into trouble—he was bound to do something stupid.

His interest in science perked up a bit when he noticed a small enclosure of what looked like completely normal spiders, yet as their tour guide spoke, they were anything but normal.

“Our team have been working on taking the genetic code of three separate species of arachnids and combining them to form a super-spider. One which can survive and reproduce and live as any other would. It is the first step in the future of genetic engineering and modification. With this technology, we could find cures to diseases that were deemed impossible to cure. We could form a stronger, better human race—“

“Isn’t that unethical?” A voice interrupted. Everyone’s head snapped towards the curly-haired girl that stood by Sarah Cameron’s side. JJ knew very little about her—considering this was honestly the first time he had seen her—and he wasn’t complaining…nor was he actually listening to what she was saying. “I mean, won’t this just introduce a future of designer babies and a superiority of the genetically modified over the natural?”

“I understand your concerns,” The tour guide—a young redhead who honestly didn’t look a day over twenty-two but then again, JJ guessed everyone around here was some sort of genius. “But I can assure you there are a number of protocols behind this research that would prevent such a thing from happening.”

“Can you really stop the rich from getting what they want?” Ironic considering she was a rich, uptown chick.

An awkward silence washed over the group before the teacher quickly cleared their throat and directed the tour guide to continue.

JJ—being the foolishly bored teenager he was—made his way over to the unknown girl, standing next to her as they looked at the spiders in the enclosure.

“Poor things.” She sighed sadly. JJ only raised an eyebrow but didn’t question it.

“You know,” He began, his voice smooth and suave—the usual JJ charm he used on girls. “I totally agree with you on all those…ethic…things…” He trailed off, risking a glance towards the girl who only narrowed her eyes at him.

“Really?” She questioned, nodding her head for him to continue.

“Yeah, I mean, save the animals, am I right?” He grinned, nervously scratching the nape of his neck. The girl seemed unamused.

“Uh huh, sure thing, buddy.” She stated before turning to catch up with the group. But JJ’s voice stopped her once again.

“How about I take you out some time? And then you can tell me all about all this ethic stuff.” He proposed, his usual charming smirk on his lips. He was a lady’s man, he knew he was gorgeous and JJ would be a fool if he didn’t use it to his advantage. One small date to charm her before JJ wiggled his way into her bed, then boom—they never have to speak to each other again. Plus, this girl may be one of Sarah Cameron’s wee minions, but JJ didn’t let class get in the way of his ‘love’ life. He just resents the lot of those uptown kids in every other aspect of his life. No harm in fraternizing with the enemy, right? What other people didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. It’s just a little bit of fun.

“Do you even know my name?” She asked him, her arms crossed over her chest. It took a lot of self-control for JJ not to follow the movement. He cleared his throat, leaning one hand against the enclosure.

“Uh…Samantha?”

“Nice try, asshole.” And with that, she turned around to join the group.

JJ stood there, a little dumbfounded by the encounter. He was taken aback not only by the fact she had just rejected him, but with the sass in which she did so. He would be lying if he didn’t say it was a little hot, but he expected it. Uptown kids always thought there were better, superior to the downtown kids.

But JJ didn’t wallow in his rejection for long when he felt a sharp, stinging pain on his hand. He glanced down, seeing a spider on the back of his hand and his instant reaction was to shake it off. “Little shit!” He hissed, looking down at the small bite mark on his skin.

“Hey, dude, you comin’?” He heard John B call out. He glanced around, unable to spot the spider. He shrugged, JJ has had worse than a small spider bite. He’ll survive.

“Yeah, I’m starving, let’s go!”

Little did JJ know that was his last day as a normal, hyperactive teen.

**********

“I’m telling you something is fucking wrong with me!”

Both boys looked at their blond friend with sceptic looks. It was Saturday morning and far too early to deal with JJ nonsense. Especially when they could barely understand what he was going on about. It was around 6am when John B and Pope received a very distressed call from JJ. Neither one was very sure for what reason, all they heard was ‘freaky’ and ‘fuck’ multiple times during the call. But he sounded like he was really going through something so they eventually went over—arriving at JJ’s place at 7:30am. JJ was too on edge to even try and call them out on it.

“Dude, breathe,” Pope muttered, watching JJ run holes in his carpet from how much he was pacing. “Calm down a little—“

“I can’t calm down, Pope!” JJ snapped, looking at his friends who seemed far too calm. “Like I don’t know if I am freaked out or pumped but just—“ He paused, seeing the look of confusion on his friends’ faces. He huffed and pulled his shirt off, looking at them expectedly. They didn’t react.

“JJ, did you really call us down here on SATURDAY MORNING because you have another birthmark that looks like George Clooney because I will literally murder you—“

“No, no!” JJ hissed before pointing down to his abs, and then his arms. Then he began flexing, yet he was met with blank expressions again.

“Dude, as much as I love staring at your abs, what the fuck are we meant to be looking at?” Pope asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“They are different!”

“They are?”

“They are!”

“Uh…how?”

JJ scoffed, as if it were obvious. “They are more defined!”

“…more defined?”

“Clearly!”

John B let out an unattractive snort, pushing his hair back as he leaned back against the wall, all his worry for his friend now gone. He was honestly concerned it was something important. “What’s next? Is your hair too perfect, J? Need a bag to cover how gorgeous you are?” Pope snickered along with him.

“I mean, I am having a good hair day…” JJ trailed off before shaking his head and turning to the two of them again. “But that isn’t all, okay? It gets freakier!”

Both boys looked at JJ with amusement from their spots on his bed.

JJ rolled his eyes before he stretched his hand out, his palm facing the ceiling with his two middle fingers pressed into his palm. Not even seconds later, a THWAP echoed through the now-silent bedroom.

Both teenagers looked down at the string of substance that just existed their friend’s wrist, completely shell-shocked. It was John B who spoke first, looking away from the white substance on JJ’s bed.

“Is that like…the same as…did you just—“ John B points down to his groin area, only for JJ to grimace.

“Dude, no! EW! I didn’t just jizz from my wrist!”

“It looks like you just did.”

Pope quickly kneeled down next to the bed, hesitantly reaching to touch the stuff, ignoring John B’s comments on how disgusting it was. “It feels like…silk,” He murmured in confusion before pulling his hand away, noticing how it stuck to his skin. “And it’s sticky.”

John B gagged in the back, but JJ ignored him. “It’s like glue, a really strong glue! And then after like twenty minutes, it disappears!” He told Pope as he reached for the scissors to help his sticky situation.

“How did you do that though?” Pope’s mind was reeling with the possibilities, the science behind the completely inhumane thing JJ had just done and he had witnessed with his very own eyes.

“I don’t fucking know!”

“Does it have anything to do with that weird-ass bump on your hand?” John B perked up, nodding towards JJ. All three boys’ gazes shifted to his left hand, where in fact there was a small red bump, no bigger than a grape at most.

“Nah, dude, that’s just from the spider bite yesterday.” JJ answered with a shrug. Pope chocked on the air, looking at JJ like he had three heads.

“I—you mean the fucking GENETICALLY MODIFIED SPIDERS FROM THE LAB?!” JJ winced, trying to shush Pope but there was no avail, this boy was going off on a rant. “Are you stupid? Why didn’t you tell anyone yesterday? JJ, those could’ve been poisonous or had long term effects or—“

“Made you some weird mutant with cool powers.” John B added. He quickly shut up when he received the ‘look’ from Pope.

“We have to tell someone at Cameron Industries.” Pope concluded. JJ was quick to pipe up, taking a few steps away from Pope on instinct.

“What, no way! They are gonna stick me under some fancy microscope or inject me with needles full of…stuff! I’m not going back into that geek galore!” JJ stated. Pope looked like he was ready to open his mouth, and start spouting out arguments as to why JJ should head over to the professional scientists over his weird, overnight mutation. But it was actually John B who came to a more mutual conclusion.

“Or we just do our own tests,” John B shrugged, both boys turning to look at him with fairly discombobulated expressions. “C’mon, Pope is basically a scientist and he is smart enough to figure out whatever the hell is going on with you!”

“I don’t have half the equipment they would have—“ Pope tried to argue.

“Look, we aren’t going to find out anything through a microscope. The best way is just go out there and test what he can do. How hard can it be?” John B grinned.

Pope wanted to argue that it was very hard. Though he had read countless papers on the genetically modified spiders, even he didn’t know enough to do a full conclusive examination on JJ and his new state. He didn’t have half the things he needed, but when he looked over at JJ and saw a much more relaxed—and hopeful—expression on his face from when he had suggested returning to the lab, Pope sighed and shook his head a little.

“Just so you both know, I am going to say, ‘I told you so’ when this goes downhill.”

**********

That is how JJ, Pope and John B found themselves standing on the roof of JJ’s apartment complex, the busy streets of New York oblivious to the scientific discovery that is happening above them. JJ couldn’t tear his eyes off the skyline, finding something about it much more relaxing that the potential of just what his new body could do. He was scared—no, scratch that—he was nervous, anxious if you will. JJ couldn’t lie that a part of him was excited. It felt surreal, like something out of one of those comics he used to nick from the uptown kids. Then again, JJ wasn’t very fond of the idea of being some new scientific discovery. It made him feel like he would end up like one of those poor frogs they had to dissect in biology—poor fuckers.

“Okay, so the spiders were made from three separate species to optimize their physical properties—being able to adapt to new environments, heightened senses to avoid predators, enhanced strength and speed, stronger material to create webs for larger prey—all that jazz. No research has been done on the psychological properties though.” Pope rambled, his hands moving wildly whilst both boys stared at him with clueless expressions.

“Which means?”

“JJ could have some really cool powers but could also be going totally insane,” Pope said with a sheepish shrug. “Like I’m talking full Tasmanian devil mode here—“

“Very reassuring, dude.” JJ stated bluntly. He took it all back, he wasn’t excited. He was terrified now. He glanced down at the small bite on his hand, which was slowly deflating as time passed. JJ wasn’t sure if he was relieved or worried that the second the bite disappeared, it could mean something really bad—like him turning into some massive humanoid arachnid that attacks the city. He shivered at the thought. “Right, let’s just get on with this.”

John B clapped a hand on his back, a small smile on his lips. “You’ll be fine, dude, alright? You’re in good hands.” He tried to reassure JJ. And JJ knew that everything Pope was saying was just to help him understand what was going on too, but he couldn’t help but think there was a small part of Pope that enjoyed using JJ as a lab rat. He was a scientist, could you really blame him?

“Yeah, I know.” He said with a curt nod.

“Let’s try the web again, see how far you can shoot it.” Pope piped up, moving to stand on the other side of JJ. “The average spider can shoot a web to about four feet, but these spiders have the DNA of the Darwin Bark Spiders which can shoot webs up to eighty-two feet. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you could reach the same, maybe more.” He then gestured for JJ to try it out, pointing towards the building opposite then, which was only around eight feet away, at most.

JJ took a deep breath before extending his hand out, the THWAP sounding clear despite the ongoing traffic down below. Yet, the web barely shot out a couple of inches before landing on the edge of the roof with a disappointing splat.

“Well then…” John B trailed off, all three boys staring at the failed web shot.

“You clearly weren’t trying, just concentrate!” Pope said with a clap of his hands. He only received a blank stare from JJ.

“I was trying, dumbass! It’s harder than it looks. It…feels weird, man. Like a sneeze…from my wrist!” He huffed, but Pope only nudged his shoulder to try again.

JJ sighed and turned to face the opposite building again. He raised his arm, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he tried to imagine the web shooting out and reaching the opposing roof. He tried to imagine more web fluid being shot out his wrist, he tried to imagine like he actually knew what he was doing. Not even a second later, the THWAP sound was heard and suddenly there was a white rope of silk extending from JJ’s hand onto the next roof over.

“Holy shit!”

JJ grabbed the web, giving the web a light tug. He was expecting for the web to break, for his hand to be covered in web fluid. But instead the web remained, strong and sturdy as though it was bolted onto the roof.

“This is crazy, dude.”

He snapped his hand back, watching the web breakaway from his palm and flop, hanging from the brick wall like a pathetic piece of string. “That was cool as fuck,” He murmured as he glanced down at his wrists in shock. He gently ran his thumb over his wrist, a delightful shiver running down his back. It caused him to smile a little, thinking about just how far he could shoot these webs.

“Dude, you could swing around like Tarzan now.” John B snickered. JJ gave him a deadpan look but he couldn’t help himself from glancing down at his wrists again.

“You think?”

“Only one way to find out.” John B grinned.

Pope’s eyes widened slightly as he quickly began to shake his head. “You don’t know if the web is strong enough to hold his weight, he could hurt himself or���“

“You calling me fat?” JJ gasped with a pout, a hand placed over his heart. “You offend me, Pope. Thought you were better than this.”

“If calling you fat will stop you from swinging off a building like an idiot then yes, I am calling you fat.” He hissed.

JJ grinned, his eyes quickly searching around before he noticed a large satellite pole sticking out from one of the nearby buildings. It was a bit further away, but JJ let the pride of his last success get to his head. “I can do it, bud, don’t worry about it.”

“That’s my boy!”

“Don’t encourage him!”

“He can do it!”

“How the fuck do you know that!?”

“Sixth sense, my dude.”

JJ blocked out the bickering, taking a couple of steps back from the edge of the roof. A running start never hurt anyone, right? He rolled his shoulders, stretching his neck from left to right. Never once did he let his gaze shift away from the satellite pole. He crouched down a little, already feeling the adrenaline build up in him. “Diver down, boys.” He grinned before he began sprinting to the edge of the building. As he reached the edge, he pushed himself off and extended his arm out, imagining the web wrapping around the pole and seconds later it did. He held the web tightly in his grip as he felt himself swinging towards the building. Whoops and cheers could be heard, though JJ wasn’t sure if they were coming from him or the boys back on the roof.

“JJ, THE WALL! LOOK OUT!”

But JJ was a little too pumped up to even comprehend what Pope was screaming until he noticed the brick wall getting closer. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’ The words echoed in his head and he tried to think of a way to slow himself down. But it was useless as he found himself colliding with the wall, his eyes clenched shut on impact.

“Oh, fuck.” He groaned, his limbs sprawled out like a starfish. A part of him thought he was dead, that maybe he hit the wall way too hard, he had a lot of momentum after all. But the muffled screams coming from his friends was enough to tell him that he was very much alive. “I’m alive!” He yelled out, slowly beginning to blink his eyes open, finding himself face to face with a brick wall. “What the…” He trailed off when he glanced at his hands, finding them attached to the brick wall.

His heart was pounding when he looked down, seeing that he was attached to the wall, very far up from the ground, with nothing suspending him. His mind was reeling, almost as though he was waiting for himself to fall and his body to meet the ground. But it never happened.

“You’re like an actual fucking spider, dude!” He heard John B yell, as though he was right beside him, which caused him to wince a little. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing them still very far away on that roof.

JJ shook his head and glanced up, seeing the edge of the roof a couple of feet from where he was stuck on the wall. He took a deep breath before slowly removing one hand, and when he was sure he wasn’t going to fall, he moved it up higher. Slowly, JJ found himself scaling the side of the building, his heart beating wildly even as he pulled himself over the edge, both feet finding the solid ground of the roof. He turned back to look at his friends, both of whom looked shocked beyond belief.

“What the hell…” He could hear Pope whisper, which only caused JJ’s eyebrows to furrow in confusion.

“This is a lot more complicated than I thought.” He muttered to himself, only now realising that the bite mark on his hand was long gone.

**********

JJ winced a little as he heard the bell ring, indicating the end of this period and the start of lunch—his favourite subject. Yet, JJ wasn’t exactly jumping out of his seat as usual. It was now Monday and everyone was back at school. JJ, Pope and John B had spent the better use of the whole weekend to run around, using JJ like some lab rat and seeing just what he could and couldn’t do. And JJ was fucking exhausted. The amount of times he had face-planted into a wall was beyond funny and he had learnt the hard way that the more on edge he was, the more sensitive he was…well, to everything. The sound of the chairs screeching against the floor made him cringe, the bright LED lights made him want to cry and the feeling of his sweater against his skin was scratchy and uncomfortable. JJ sure as hell wasn’t hyped for his newly found powers if this is what the rest of his life is going to be like.

The blond sighed to himself as he shoved his stuff into his backpack, swinging it over his shoulder and heading towards the cafeteria once he left the class. He kept his head down, finding the small shuffles of his vans against the floor were helping him from cussing out every single student that bumped into him, making him honestly want to scream and stay six feet away from everyone. He tried to reassure himself that he was half way through the day, that he only had a couple of hours left and then he could preferably go hide in a hole somewhere for the rest of his life. Okay, that is a little dramatic but a dark hole sounded great to JJ right now.

But here’s the thing, JJ is a Maybank. He has the good ol’ Maybank luck, which means even when he feels shit, the universe is out to make his life worse. And the universe sent that in the form of Rafe Cameron and his loyal little minions, Topper Thornton and Kelce Smith. Midtown High’s own version of the Plastics, some may say.

By some, I mean JJ. But hey, don’t judge. He was forced into watch Mean Girls by one of his flings awhile back and he won’t lie, the movie slaps. But that is besides the point.

“Oi, Maybank!”

JJ inwardly groaned at the sound of Rafe’s voice. He would much rather hear nails on a chalkboard than whatever Rafe had to say. JJ wouldn’t consider them bullies, they were simply the top tier of the uptown kids who had some sort of superiority complex. And JJ had no issue on challenging them, it was far too easy to wind up a bunch of rich kids who weren’t used to being called out on their bullshit. And it just stuck. They would say something stupid to try and provoke him, and most of the time JJ’s words were enough for them to leave him alone. He had the satisfaction of punching Rafe in the face a few times, but usually Pope and John B were quick to hold him back. After all, it would backfire on JJ if he got into trouble with an uptown kid.

“What do you want?” JJ huffed out, glancing up at the trio. The sight of the three of them almost brought a smile to his lips. Uptown kids and their need to follow trends, they wore the same outfit in different variations and it honestly made JJ want to laugh. The classic preppy look with their pastel sweaters and tennis shoes, it made JJ want to gag. But he contained his vomit as Rafe spoke up.

“Aw, c’mon, Maybank. That all you got today? A bit pathetic.” Rafe snickered, the other two laughing along with their leader. JJ rolled his eyes. The funniest thing about them was their outfits.

“As much as I’d love to talk to you little pastel powerpuff girls, I have much better things to do in my life,” JJ said with a sarcastic smile on his lips as he side-stepped the trio, attempting to make his way past them. He really didn’t have the patience to deal with them today. He had happily planned to steal food from Pope and take a nap for the hour. But the second he felt Rafe’s hand on his shoulder, he knew that wasn’t going to be happening.

“Watch your mouth, Maybank.” Rafe spat, his hand tightening on JJ’s shoulder. The act made him want to cringe away and rip off his skin. The feeling of his hand on his shoulder, his thumb brushing that little bit of skin near the neckline of his sweater, it made JJ want to gag. It felt horrible. He wanted that feeling gone.

“Piss off, Cameron.” He scoffed, harshly jerking his shoulder so Rafe’s hand would lose its grip but it only tightened. In an act of desperation, JJ did the only thing that seemed reasonable. He shoved Rafe away. Now normally, it would be enough to have Rafe stumble a few steps so JJ can make a quick exit. But JJ just so happened to have forgotten that this wasn’t like every other normal time. He wasn’t normal anymore. So, his shove was much more than a wee push, it was more like completely winding Rafe. JJ couldn’t help but cringe when he heard the sound of Rafe’s body colliding with the lockers before he slumped to the ground, a dent now evident in the lockers from the collision. Topper and Kelce looked at JJ with mixed looks of confusion and fear before rushing to their friend’s aid.

“Oh my god, Rafe!”

JJ’s head snapped to the end of the hallway where he could see Sarah Cameron, but she wasn’t alone. Beside her was the curly haired girl from the trip. His eyes widened a little when his gaze met hers, but he was only met with a glare from the mysterious beauty.

“What’s your problem?” She hissed at JJ as the two girls got closer, now seeing the full effect of what JJ had done. JJ gulped a little, his fingers tapping the side of his legs as he tried to think this through. What could he say, ‘oh sorry, kinda lost control of my new powers, I’ll be a little more careful next time’. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work.

“He started it!” JJ blurted out, only to mentally smack himself at how childish he sounded. “I barely touched him, he was being dramatic!” He added but the looks of uncertainty didn’t reassure him that they bought it. He was in the lion’s den here, a downtown kid surrounded by the privileged. He was never going to win. So, he did the only sane thing any downtown kid would do. He got out of there as quick as he could.

“He could be concussed!” Sarah Cameron spoke up for the first time, a frown on her face as she met JJ’s gaze. He could almost feel the judgement oozing from her.

“Maybe he will finally have some brain cells knocked into him!” And with that, JJ ran out of that hallway and didn’t stop running until he was far away from the school.

**********

“I’m sorry what?”

Following the fiasco on Monday, JJ’s week hadn’t been much better. Most of it was spent avoiding the uptown crew whilst simultaneously keeping a low profile, which is very hard for someone like JJ. He was used to being the class clown, milking any attention he got. Now he felt like he was under house arrest or something, trapped to keep to himself and work out what the hell was happening to him. But true to their commitment of being his best friends, John B and Pope were right there beside him. It had been a long and stressful week but they made it through. It was a little exhausting on them but they had each other to lean on. JJ was just glad he wasn’t alone.

But now, sat in Pope’s bedroom on the Saturday night, looking between the two boys with a very concerned look, JJ wasn’t sure his weekend was going to be any more relaxing. He knew the three of them combined weren’t the best combinations. They probably shared a brain cell between them and even then, it mostly resided with Pope and his weird, random facts. They had come up with some really strange, out-there ideas before—like the time they tried to give John B a perm with household products or when they convinced themselves they could do a road trip in John B’s crappy van. But this was the icing on the cake. This was enough for JJ to confirm that his friends had completely lost their mind.

“Think about it!” John B continued, practically rolling on the balls of his feet in excitement. JJ raised an eyebrow but didn’t interrupt him. To be honest, JJ wasn’t even sure where to start with how bad of an idea this was. “You have these super cool powers that are totally useless to everyday life, so why not put them to use? You could be like—the next Batman or something!”

“Batman was a rich dude who made gadgets. He doesn’t even have any powers. How the hell would I be like Batman?”

“Okay, bad example,” Pope piped up. “But just think about it. You could make a difference, be a hero!”

“A really badass superhero!” John B added.

JJ looked at them with a frown on his face. This now just seemed like a deranged joke. He was waiting for them to laugh, to say it was just a silly joke and move on with their usual weekend plans. But they didn’t. They continued.

“I mean, we could be a team! The three of us! You’ll go out and do all the crime fighting, Pope can make crazy gadgets and do all the…tech stuff and I can be your guy in the chair, you know?”

“My guy in the chair?”

“Yeah, you know, the guy in the headset…surrounded by screens…telling you where to go when you need extra help and stuff.”

“What?”

“Like Pope would set it up, but I would be the mastermind behind it! Like you’re stuck in a building and can’t find a way out, I would help you find a route. Your guy in the chair!”

JJ only shook his head, pressing his fingers to his temples to try and not completely lose his temper.

“And like every superhero ever, you’ll need a suit. So, I went looking through some stuff and I found my mum’s sewing machine,” Pope fumbled around in his pocket before he pulled out a small bunch of red fabric. He threw it to JJ, which he easily caught. JJ then realised it was like a ski mask, with two small holes for his eyes. “It’s not much but we can work on it, keep your identity secret and everything.”

“Oh, and you’ll need a badass name! I was thinking like Night Monkey, or—“

“—Spiderling!” Pope interrupted with a grin, clearly proud of it. But JJ had enough.

“Can the both of you just shut up!” He snapped, both boys instantly quieting down, looking at JJ with concerned looks. “Okay, are you out of your mind? Me? A superhero? Hate to fucking break it to you but I am not the superhero type guy, alright? I’m not your friendly neighbourhood nice guy helping old ladies cross the street or getting cats out of the tree! I could give zero fucks about the law cause all its there for is rich idiots to manipulate and use to ruin lives of people like us!” JJ cried out to them, letting go of any hope he had on trying to keep his cool.

“People like us don’t become heroes, alright? We are usually the ones that get locked up. And knowing my luck, I will be thrown straight into some loony house, in a straitjacket because of these powers! You guys have to be absolute fools if you think any of this would work.” JJ huffed as he stood up, shoving the mask into his pocket before making his way to the door. “I don’t care about other people, alright? I care about you guys, my mum and most importantly, myself. Why the hell should I risk my life for a world that won’t appreciate it anyways.” Both boys stood there stunned, looking at JJ with wide eyes and parted lips.

“JJ—“

“No, okay? Superheroes are meant for comic books and movies, not real life, alright? Grow up.” And with that, JJ slammed the door as he left the apartment.

JJ scoffed, muttering to himself as he walked through the dark streets of New York, deciding to take the longer route back home. He needed the time to clear his head, grasp his thoughts. He didn’t know what the boys were thinking, he was definitely not fit to be a hero. Were they out of their minds? Give a guy some abnormal powers and suddenly he should be putting on a cape and preaching morals. That wasn’t JJ, that would never be JJ. He was selfish, arrogant at times and beyond prideful. But he was aware. He knew what he was and he knew he didn’t have what it took to be a hero. Pope and John B needed to stop being ignorant and see that.

He rolled his eyes at the thought and continued his way back to his building complex, hands shoved in his pockets with his right-hand clenching around the fabric of the mask. Small puffs escaped his lips as JJ started regretting taking the long way home. It was October and winter was promising to come early, JJ could tell that much by the stinging cold against his cheeks. The cold was just the cherry on top of his bitter mood.

Yet, as JJ continued to make his way home, he could hear the sound of people talking, causing a frown to form on his face. JJ had walked this way many times, especially during the night, and the chance of passing someone down these streets were fairly rare. Maybe the odd one here or there, but a group of people? Definitely not common.

At first, he ignored it. He had gotten used to the heightened senses over the week, being able to hear things from a distance even when he didn’t try. For all he knew, he could be hearing the muttering of some people a few blocks over. So, he ignored it and carried on walking. But then it started getting louder and clearer. JJ felt his whole body go on alert, the hair on his arm standing up, like his body knew something was off. He could feel it in his gut, a horrible realisation that this wasn’t going to be his usual walk home.

It wasn’t until when JJ turned the corner that he realised just what he had walked into. There stood around five men, all wearing masks that covered the lower half of their faces. They were dressed in all black, probably to draw less attention to themselves, but JJ could see the glint of guns in the light of the lampposts shining down on the street. They stood outside a building, three of them seeming to try and block the view of the other two. It was then when JJ’s brain actually caught up with what he was seeing and realised what the building was. A bank. These guys were trying to rob a bank.

Well shit.

The way JJ saw it, he had two options here. He could turn around, pretend he didn’t see anything and let them get on with what they were doing. Chances were they would either get caught by the police or he would see that the bank had been successfully robbed tomorrow morning on the news. Or JJ could do something about it. He quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket, only to see that it was dead. Of course, it was the good ol’ Maybank luck. He shoved it back into his pocket and looked towards the five men.

Then an idea popped into his head. A stupid, insane idea that was nothing short of self-deprecating and downright dumb. It was short of one of the worst ideas he had ever had. JJ had done a lot of weird stuff in his life but this definitely tops it all. And the worst part was that he was going through with it, because as much as he hated it, it was his only choice right now.

“I’m gonna regret this.” JJ huffed to himself as he snatched the mask out of his pocket and pulled it down over his face, adjusting it so he could see through the small holes Pope had made. He let out a breath, shaking his shoulders a little as he tried to pump himself up, get his adrenaline going.

“You got this, it’s not like they have guns or anything,” JJ muttered to himself as he placed his hands on the wall of the building across from the bank, the one he was currently hiding around so the bank robbers wouldn’t see him, before he began to scale the building. I mean, who would expect the enemy coming from above, right?

He stopped around half way up the building, thanks to the heightened senses he was able to still see the criminals clearly. He watched them closely, seeing only the three men that were on lookout where the one with guns. “Oh, let’s hope this works.” He whispered to himself before extending his arm out.

“What the fuck!” One of them called out as his gun was snatched from his hands in the blink of an eye, his two friends following a similar reaction. JJ wasn’t even thinking about where he was throwing the guns, just as long as they were nowhere near these dudes when he confronted them.

He watched them freak out, yelling at each other as they looked around for the culprit to their missing guns. He heard the half-ass threats they used and tried not to snort before he shot a web to one of the lampposts nearby and swung down, landing gracefully at the top of the lamppost.

“Guys, I hate to break it to you but someone lied, bank doesn’t open until tomorrow morning.” JJ called out to them, giving a small shrug. All five heads snapped up to look at him, and the glares he was receiving was enough to tell him that these guys weren’t big jokesters.

“Piss off, kid, this is none of your business.” One of them replied in a blunt, scruffy voice. It honestly made JJ cringe a little.

“You see,” JJ sighed. “I’ve made it my business so…” He trailed off before snapping his wrist, a web shooting out to stick to the head of the closest criminal and with a firm tug, his head hit the pole before he slumped to the ground.

One of the men growled at JJ, clearly not happy about some weird kid interrupting their wee heist. “You had your warning, kid. Come down and play with the adults.” He taunted before JJ noticed the glimmer of something in the light. A knife. Of-fucking-course the gun wasn’t the only weapon they had on them.

“That’s a bit unfair, isn’t it?” He commented, shooting a web to wrap around the criminal’s wrist, prepared to pull it out of his grasp, only for the robber to tug the web instead, sending JJ flying off the lamppost and falling on his ass to the ground. “Fuck!” He hissed as he quickly jumped to his feet.

“Life is unfair,” The criminal muttered before reaching to punch JJ but he easily dodged it. The speed and agility with which he moved with clearly distracting the criminal long enough for JJ to kick him hard enough that sent him stumbling back into the wall. JJ barely had time to process it before he snapped his hand to the left, stopping a fist that was inches away from his face.

“Nice try, asshole.” He huffed before twisting the criminal’s arm before sending a swift punch to his jaw. There was a satisfying pop sound that told JJ he would be preoccupied for at least a couple of minutes.

He then noticed two of the criminals trying to corner him, and he couldn’t help but smirk a little under the mask at just how cliché it seemed. In seconds, JJ has webs shooting out each wrist, attaching to the chests of each men, before yanking the two towards each other. Groans echoed through the empty street as both men collided with each other.

JJ’s head snapped to the side when he heard an angry battle call as he saw the man with the now dislocated jaw running towards him. JJ crouched down a little before he began running towards the criminal, his arms hooking around his knees. He kept running forwards until JJ felt glass smash around him and the two of them fell through. He quickly got up, wincing at the window he had just broken before turning to the criminal and giving him a good smack in the face—he definitely wasn’t holding back with his strength on that one.

JJ began to work fast, not knowing how long each of the criminals would stay dazed and unconscious for. In no time, he had them piled together, a healthy amount of web fluid keeping them tied together. They wouldn’t be going anywhere—at least for twenty minutes. But it was just JJ’s luck that he didn’t have to worry about that time limit because not even seconds after he finished, he heard the sirens and saw the blue lights flashing down the streets.

Police cars began to surround the bank, creating a semi-circle to prevent any possible escape. Officers began to exit their vehicles, guns set and loaded and now aimed towards JJ. “This is NYPD, keep your hands where we can see them!” One officer called out.

“Shit,” JJ muttered to himself as he raised his hands in the air, watching as officers slowly approached the crime scene.

He watched as a look of confusion washed over their faces as they took in the scene: the smashed window, the five tied up men, the weird silky rope that was binding them together and of course, JJ in his crappy mask.

He watched as they evaluated the situation. Watched as they tried to piece it all together before one officer—the badge telling JJ her name was Captain Peterkin—stopped in front of JJ with raised eyebrows. “Did you do this?”

“Sure did, ma’am.”

“Why?” Another officer perked up, JJ could see his badge said Officer Shoupe.

“They were robbing a bank, what did you want me to do? Sit around making daisy chains until you showed up?” JJ immediately defended, glaring as best as he could with the mask on his face.

Peterkin smiled a little before she cleared her throat, JJ’s attention shifting to her. “Then I guess we owe you a great deal of thanks for your work.”

“All in a day’s work, can I leave now? I’m sure the security cameras will give you all the answers you need.” JJ stated as he already began to take a few steps away from the crime scene, walking backwards.

“Can we at least know your name?” Peterkin asked.

JJ looked down at his wrists before he snapped them up, watching as the web attached to nearby building. He looked at Peterkin and couldn’t help grin under his mask as he answered her question before tugging on the web and swinging away into the night.

“Call me Spider-Man.”

Taglist: @alphinias @popcornhook @loveyatopluto @teamnick @peanutbelley @iccyyyybitch @jiara-maybank @donkey-is-my-spirit-animal @carissarose16 @unspokenfaith @largedenominationsplease @jiaaras @homebody-nobody @smileymikey @hvitstark @shaymq7 @hmspogue @falseungodlyhours @aarchiess @rcsales @raeoffuckingsunshine @jjskiaras @parker-holland-osterfield @thesadprose

#jiara #outer banks #obx #jj maybank #kiara carrera #jj maybank x kiara carrera #outer banks fanfiction #jiara fanfiction #obx fic #my fic #spiderman au #marvel #tale of a slightly unstable teen hero

[skribbz]

i know im sending u tons of these but ELLIE

Oh boy here we go

First impression

I actually didn’t know anything about TLoU before I played it except for it being a zombie game. Since zombies have always been a super special interest for me, I had to play it. So actually playing it was like being smacked in the face with emotions. 

But I didn’t even know about the existence of Ellie, so my first time seeing her was when Joel meets her. I thought she seemed cool, but a little abrasive. She did make me laugh though. 

Impression now

Oh god where do I even start. 

I’m not even exaggerating when I say Ellie helped me become who I am today. I related to her in so many ways. Not just in the way she's so nerdy, but also in how she treats others. She was just a kid who was let down by the world around her, yet she still wants to do what she thinks is best for everyone. She's sentimental, holding onto keepsakes from the people she's lost. She can have a bad attitude sometimes, but is just a complete sweetheart. She goes through so much, and even when Joel gives her the option to just go back home, she decides to keep going. 

Ellie came into my life when I needed a role model. The way she had gone through so much, but didn't let it break her soul, the way she always found a way to "endure and survive", meant so much to me at the time, and even now. She also helped me accept the fact that I wasn't straight. Seeing a character who I already admired so much, kissing another girl made me just break down crying. 

When they said that Ellie was going to be the main character of the second game, I cried again. I think the second game just really expands on the reasons I loved her in the first one. She still tries to do what she thinks is best. It's not always the right thing, and sometimes it's very much the wrong thing. But she has so much guilt over Joel, yet still loves him so much she's willing to do whatever it takes to give him the justice she thinks she deserves, even if she knows it's not at all what he would want her to do. (There's so much more to her thoughts and actions in the sequel of course, but I feel like this is one of the most important ones.) It's just like the first game where she's willing to go to any ends to do what she thinks is right, no matter how much it may hurt her in the process. 

I think in the end she has realized that her life means more than just being the cure. Her life matters just because she’s alive, is loved, and loves others, and that message means a lot to me, and I’m sure to many others, too. 

I think Ellie is such a wonderful character, and one of the most well written characters I've ever seen in any media. She really changed my life, and because of that she is my favorite character ever. 

Favorite moment

HOW am I supposed to choose just one. 

Does the entire winter section count? It shows much she loves Joel, and how strong she has become by that point, and how determined she is to survive. She sees just how truly awful some people in the world can be, and despite it she still wants to do whatever she can for the cure.

It’s our first look into what would become a major theme of the second game. While David’s town is an enemy to Joel and Ellie, and we as players hate them, they were doing what they thought was best to survive. Cannibalism isn’t right by our standards, but that’s because we haven’t been pushed to that point. But would we be willing to turn to it if we were pushed that far? Is it more acceptable to kill innocent people to feed a whole community that’s depending on you, or is it more acceptable to just let all of those innocent lives that are depending on you die?

I think we can all agree on one thing though. David is a piece of shit and deserved to be chopped up into teeny pieces. 

Idea for a story

I have many ideas. But I'll go with where I think her story can go from here, AKA my TLoU3 idea. 

The story starts 12 or so years later. Putting JJ around 13. Dina, Ellie and Abby 32-33. Lev around 25. Tommy and Maria probably late 50s-early 60s

Ellie is back in Jackson. She works her ass off doing whatever manual labor she can because all she wants to do is just work herself into exhaustion. She's dealt with her trauma and she’s in a better place mentally now. Now her reasons for shutting everything out is that she’s too scared to try and really reconnect. She wants companionship but is afraid of the pain of losing it all again.

The exception is when she has JJ. He is still the light of her life. She takes him hunting and camping and plays video games with him and they geek out over comics. She has taught him to draw. She wants to teach him guitar like she promised, but hasn’t been able to yet. 

The only time she sets foot outside of Jackson is with JJ.

Dina is of course doing something that uses her skills. Maybe the lead electrician at the dam. They've kept JJ very innocent. Obviously he knows of the infected, and has seen his moms kill them before, but he doesn’t know just how bad it really is, he’s never seen another human die.

Her and Ellie are amicable. They are happy to be co parenting jj but there's nothing between them (for now). 

Maria holds a lot of guilt. Over sending Joel and Tommy out that day, over not giving Ellie and Dina help in Seattle, which got Jesse killed, over letting Tommy get as bad as he did after Seattle. She blames herself for the way Ellie is. She tries to spend time with Ellie, but Ellie is very elusive when she wants to be. She adores JJ though. That's her little great nephew. His auntie is the leader of the whole town and he uses that to his advantage every chance he gets. And she lets him.

Tommy has a little guilt. He doesn’t know Abby is alive, Ellie only ever told him she “finished things” and didn’t talk to him much after that. But he sees how she is a complete mess and lost her fingers. He knows that guitar was special for Ellie, plus any kind of disability is a huge disadvantage in their world. Dina doesn’t let JJ near him. JJ doesn't understand why and no one will tell him

Tommy and Maria never worked out their differences and have stayed separated, partly because of their guilt toward what happened with Ellie. They cared about her like she was their own and they both let her down

Jackson is now huge. They’ve made contact with other settlements, and have trade routes. But Maria is getting older and the town is getting too much for her to run on her own. Tommy is getting up there in age as well, and despite his injuries he still does patrols. But alone. He’s not actively trying to get killed, but he isn’t always as careful as he knows he should be. 

Story starts out and you're playing as Tommy on patrol. He gets ambushed by a small group of people. And lo and behold Abby (and Lev) is there. Tommy is shocked when he finds out who it is, and he asks if she came to finish the job she started. She says no they tracked him since he left the town and were waiting to get him alone because she has news for him. The fireflies have rebuilt stronger than ever and now they’re back out for the cure and are coming for Ellie, because she is the only known source, but also as a form of revenge for what Joel did all those years ago, destroying what the Fireflies once were. They were able to get there first because they only brought a few people and set out before the main squad. Tommy asks why he should believe her, and she says that Ellie saved her life years ago and it's the least she could do to pay her back. (just like. Assume that there was enough info stored with the fireflies that Abby could work out who Ellie is). To keep Tommy from attacking or following him, they knock him out and untie him then leave. 

Control switches back to Ellie who is doing her chores around town. You get to nail fences, chop wood, and carry hay bales. Fun. Later that night, as Ellie is getting home, standing on her porch, Tommy rolls up and confronts Ellie about Abby being alive. They get into a huge fight and Ellie tells Tommy that he fucked up her life. It's his fault she lost Dina. His fault she only gets to see jj when Dina allows it, his fault Jesse was killed. And its his fucking fault Joel died.

He storms off. But then Ellie notices J standing on the street coming to stay the night. She had forgotten this was her night with him. He’d been told his whole life that moms had a peaceful break up, and that dad and grandpa Joel died being heroes, but now he’s upset about what he's heard so he runs back home to Dina. 

That night Ellie is woken up by fighting in Jackson. She runs out to try and find what's going on. All she can get is that fireflies are attacking. She eventually finds out that some travelers shot Maria and a fight broke out. Ellie fights through the town to Maria. She's injured with a gunshot in the arm, but alive still and kicking some ass. She tells Ellie that fireflies came asking for her, and would leave peacefully in return. She told them no and they shot her. Maria says she’ll be okay and tells Ellie to go find JJ and get him to safety. 

She fights through to the other side of town. Because of the commotion, infected have broken in so there’s humans and infected running around killing. She gets to Jesse's house and JJ is hysterical, Dina is holding him down and he's like screaming and crying. His grandpa fought off a firefly who was trying to get in their home and was shot and killed. It hits Ellie that this is all her fault. People are dying because of her again. Anyway she tells dina and robin that they need to leave. Dina says she's not going anywhere without Ellie. Ellie wants to stay and fight, but JJ is more important right now. So the 4 of them sneak out and near the gates they meet up with Tommy. He’s helping get people out and sending them to one of the patrol lookouts that is secure and can fit everyone. 

Ellie sends Dina, Robin and JJ off. Ellie gives JJ Joel's revolver and tells him to keep mom and grandma safe for her. She goes back to Tommy and the two get back to Maria. When they are very close to her, an infected ambushes them and Tommy gets bit. They get to Maria who is losing blood fast and doesn't look well. After a lot of arguing from Ellie, the pair decide to stay. They tell Ellie they’re old now. Maria wont last long with her wounds, and tommy has no chance of surviving his. They apologize to Ellie for the way things turned out and how much she has meant to them all these years. They give her all their ammo except for one bullet in each of their guns, because that's all they need now. Ellie begs them to come along, and she’ll figure something out for them. But they eventually convince her to go. Ellie leaves crying, and Maria and Tommy maybe get a cute moment before cutting back to Ellie. 

Ellie makes it back to where the survivors are and is depressed that there's way less than she was expecting. JJ has cried himself to sleep and Dina notices Ellie is acting strange and pulls her away to ask her. Ellie tells her what happened and Dina holds her while she cries. It's the first time anyone has really been physically affectionate with her in a long time so Ellie clings to her as she lets it all out

The last survivors decide that Jackson isn’t safe. It's too damaged, filled with infected, and no one can figure out what the fireflies were doing. Ellie can't bring herself to say anything about it. 

The next morning, everyone wakes up and is discussing what to do. JJ is still inconsolable. Ellie decides to take him away from the group to get some fresh air. She tells him to hold on to Joel's revolver. They chat and JJ asks what happened to auntie Maria and Tommy. She decides to be honest with him. She expects him to cry, but is shocked to see him become angry instead. He basically swears revenge for them and for his grandfather. This of course stirs up a lot of very negative thoughts in Ellie, but she decides to let him grieve in his own way for now. 

That’s everything I have written out in detail for now. But the main idea would be Ellie becoming a leader to the few remaining survivors as they make contact with the other settlements that Jackson is allied with. She would take responsibility for all of these lives. They would be her reason for fighting now. 

Over the course of the game, Abby would come back and her and Ellie would be forced to team up. There’s no more animosity between the two though, they’re both over it and don’t want to go back down that road. Over the course of the story they would come to understand each other’s actions. They wouldn’t become friends, but they can at least rely on each other. 

JJ would find out that Abby is the person responsible for Joel and Jesse’s death, and she came from the group that killed his grandfather, Tommy and Maria. He’d go into a rage and try to attack her and Ellie would have to hold him back. He wants to know why Ellie is defending the person who hurt everyone they loved. Ellie would have to finally tell him the whole story, and try to keep him from giving into his anger and sadness like she did in the second game. She won’t let her son become like her. She wants him to stay her innocent baby boy, but she knows that’s just not possible in their world. 

Other stuff that I have yet to flesh out:

More about Dina’s backstory. Or at least her last name. 

Lev being a big brother to JJ.

Dina and Ellie falling in love all over again as Dina sees Ellie doing so much for the rest of the community. It’s gonna be emotional.

Ellie teaching JJ how to play guitar, and tearfully singing Future Days to him.

Unpopular opinion

I’m not sure of what people’s opinions on her are. I know most people love her and anyone who doesn’t isn’t entitled to an opinion. 

I guess one is I’m not a fan of her farm hairstyle. Her Seattle look was just so cute. Why did you do that to your head, girl. 

Favorite relationship

Dina of course.

I feel like Dina represented what Ellie could have if she wasn’t stuck in the past. Joel represented her violent past, and her traumas. Dina represented her future, her home, her family. Ellie was so stuck in the past, that she couldn’t see the future standing literally right in front of her. 

It’s a great representation of how she holds onto the people she loves, but also how PTSD works. The past keeps coming back to haunt her. 

Favorite headcanon

I hc her as autistic! I kinda feel bad because everyone else hcs her as having ADHD. But I’m autistic so I say she is too *sunglass emoji*. 

Why I think she’s autistic: 

Obviously her special interests would be space and dinosaurs, and the way she talks about them reminds me of how I get when people let me infodump about my SIs.

The way she plays with her fingers looks hella like stimming to me. In fact, that’s one of my stims!

Her interest in art and music.

Her interest in general nerdy stuff like comics and video games. 

She collects cards, and collecting is a big autistic trait.

The way she’s sort of untidy and cluttered, yet labels all of her boxes of shit. The ordered mess is such an autistic thing.

#apocalypsebutch #this is 2861 words

[jeawrites]

3, jj, and g for Nogla and Delirious? or Nogla and Cartoonz?

((We love!! Pairs that aren’t seen enough!!!))

(this gets violent in the middle so read with care!)

3. Taking care of injuries

g. “I hate you.” “No you don’t.”

jj. “I know I can get bad, but you’re down right crazy sometimes.”

Luke hadn’t been in the gang long. Comparative to Jon, who had been in the gang for a couple of years, Luke was just nearing the end of his first year- just a few more weeks and it’ll be the day his second year starts.

Not to say he regrets joining the team, of course he doesn’t, but he does hate the fact that no one there is easy to judge. Not even fucking Nogla. The clumsy fucker who seemed like a kind soul and had such weird stories about his time back in Ireland, the man who seemed to wear his life on his sleeve and seemed so easy to judge. Even that fucker kept some shit hidden!

He wouldn’t have learned this if it wasn’t for Brock, who just mentioned it while he was treating Luke’s wound. 

“He doesn’t look like he’d hurt a fly- plus he’d probably miss if he tried.”

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Luke. There’s a reason he’s on the team, and its not just cause we like him.”

What did that even mean? He didn’t know and he didn’t really know how to ask- he still barely understood how a man like that could contain something hidden. 

He huffed lightly, shaking his head as his thoughts left him and glanced around the main room of the base. He noticed the door had opened, and he looked towards the back of the room, shifting on the couch to look. 

He made eye contact with the Irishman, a donut sticking out of his mouth an armful of drinks tight against his chest that he must’ve stolen from the vending machine as it was open. 

Nogla glanced from the machine and back to Luke, before he made an attempt to talk, his voice muffled due to the... donut. 

Brock had to have been kidding.

“Do... you need some help?” Luke asked, already standing up. 

Nogla had nodded regardless, and he seemed relieved as Luke took a few of the drinks from him, enough so Nogla had a free arm. Which, he used to first close the vending machine and lock it, and then take the donut out of his mouth. 

“Thank ye!” he beamed, licking some icing off his lips and then gesturing with his head towards the door. “Everyone’s gonna be headin to the meeting room so I figured I’d get them all drinks, as gracious as I am,” he chuckled and began to walk.

Luke didn’t really ask for the explanation, he would have enjoyed the situation much more without context. But, he did find it oddly sweet that Nogla would do that. So, he followed after him. “I forgot we had a meetin’,” he mentioned.

Nogla nodded. “I nearly did too til Brian came to me complainin’ bout it!” he huffed, “I’m thankful but he didn’t have t’do that. Sorta annoying- and I know annoying.” 

“At least your self-aware,” Luke said smoothly.

David laughed loudly at that. “Fuck ye! That was a good one but ye still shouldn’t say stuff like that- ye’ll start soundin’ like Tyler!”

They shared a laugh and entered the meeting room together.

-

A few days later was the mission, Luke wasn’t aware just what they were after other than complete destruction of some enemy territory. Which, whatever he guessed. He was down with some arson and a bit of violence- if he had to shoot someone he’d shoot. 

The issue is the building was a few stories and you’ve got a be crazy to do anything damaging on the upper levels- it was six floors high- and he knew that because he was on the sixth floor- along with Jon, Nogla, and Marcel. 

But, he was basing stuff off of nothing and Jon was much more reckless than Luke had realized. He found himself smiling as he shot some people. He was glad Jon was having fun. Distracted, however, Luke failed to notice someone call for back up.

He ran off towards the main hallway where the stairs and elevator sat, and he contemplated heading down when the elevator doors opened and out came a good chunk of guys who were piled inside. 

Great. Honestly, he should have expected as much- he never quite went without seeing something stupid while he was on these missions. 

“Fuck me,” he grumbled, taking aim as he got ready to shoot while he also tapped his com. “Guys- got trouble by the stairs!” 

He shot a few times but he wasn’t going to win without something drastic.

“Toonz!” a voice broke through, but they were a bit late as noted when Luke’s leg got shot twice. “Fuck!” he fell, gripping the wounds in pain. Then, he heard shots and a few guys fell pretty fast. 

He watched in pain and surprise as Nogla came running into the group then, gun firing and very little restraint as he smacked a few guys down with the gun, shot a few, and straight up kicked a few to the ground. He even got shot a few times and yet Nogla wouldn’t fall. He was brutal about it, nor mercy and no hesitance as he took out the other guys. 

But, then he looked at Luke once they were all down and he smiled a bit. “Sorry it took me a minute t’ get here- I told Vanoss and Del to drop to the lower levels,” he grinned, walking over and helping Luke up before just letting the guy hold on as he lifted him up on his back. 

Luke swore he saw Nogla pull something out of his pocket, and he seemed to be right as he held up a remote once they reached the stairs and pressed a button. Then, he began to hurry down as fast as he could. Though, they didn’t quite manage to get to the fourth floor when the building shook as the top blew up. 

“Fuck me! I though Marcel timed those focking bombs better!” David complained, picking up the pace as another shake hit the building and the fifth floor collapsed just as they hit the third.

David held little hesitance to shove through people who tried to stop him and Luke on the stairs, he was beyond determined and Luke was just in awe over the situation. The got outside soon enough and David made sure to set Luke down in the van before he backed off a bit. “I’ll be right back- tell the others that too!” he exclaimed before running back to the building.

“What... what the hell...”

“I told you not to judge him,” Brock said, making Luke jump and turn to look at the driver. “David’s not one to hold back when someone gets hurt,” he added, glancing back towards Luke with a smile.

In the time span of the guys getting back and David still being gone, three bodies had been thrown through windows, the building continued to slowly break down, and there were a lot more gun shots. Finally, however, it went silent. 

And, then out the front came David, holding something in his hands as a boom shook the building- an explosion from somewhere on the first floor. 

David got closer and everyone noticed he was covered in blood and holding a water bottle. “I was feelin dehydrated,” he chuckled as he slowed his steps to the van. “I uh... I think ‘m also a little dizzy, hah.” He leaned and nearly fell over if Brian hadn’t caught him. 

-

David woke up in the medbay, his eyes squinting as they adjusted to the light. He felt something touching his arm and he slowly glanced over, smiling a tad as he saw Luke.

Luke didn’t bother looking, just sighed out some in relief as he noticed the arm tense. “I hate you,” he said, immediately. 

David felt too tired to laugh so he spoke soflty; “No ye don’t- yer clearly patchin me up. If ye hated me ye’d let me die.”

Luke smiled a bit and he glanced towards David. “David-”

“David?” he cut him off. “Yer callin’ me that now? Bout time, I had a feelin’ ye didn’t know my name,” he breathily forced out a laugh, though it hurt a bit and just made him feel even more exhausted. 

Luke shrugged. “Well, of course I’d know ya. You did save my life the other night,” he commented. “And... you were fucking nuts,” he chuckled. “like- You destroyed the whole building! Apparently you also killed most of the people in there and you did cause you wanted a water? You were covered in bullet holes!” he sighed a bit, running his hand through his hair. “I know I can get bad, but you’re down right crazy sometimes.”

David nodded. “I’d do it again. I’ve a mind to kill anyone who hurt someone I care for! Plus, they had the fancy water!”

Luke felt flattered at that honestly. “Well, regardless I owe ya one. Do you wanna get some dinner once you’re healed?” he offered.

David thought it over and nodded. “It better be at the fanciest place in town- treat me like a prince charmin’!” 

“Suddenly I feel like you aren’t the one who saved me-” Luke laughed he gained a complaint from David.

Maybe this was the start of something good. Regardless, Luke knew now not to assume things about anyone in his gang. Ever.

#nogla is a power card #i might write a nogla and del short later #just cause i love them a lot too #but this pair was golden cause Lukes just: what the fuck fdgfdgdfgd #daithi de nogla #Cartoonz #daithi de toonz #noglatoonz #bbs #bbs au #banana bus crew #banana bus squad

[moodysnowflake]

Please mind the Spoiler slap that might come your way guys...

Let’ talk about Rufus Shinra.

Yes, he has been exploited better than the OG, and yes, once you get the hint the assesment is trying to throw at you, it’s easier to whack his butt.

He still beats the crap out of you. 

We have to realize that Rufus is a normal human being. He’s not a Turk either. Sure, he was a prodigy and has been trained by the military, and he might have trained with the Turks too during his “extended assignment oversea” (despite being him the boss, I bet Reno would still try to zap him in the crotch, if left unsupervised). Rude would gave him a sturdy run for his money (of course pun intended) and Tseng did probably manage to wipe the floor with his gorgeous platinum-blond ass at least once when they were younger. Rufus manages to stand his ground against Cloud, a final-stretch-game Cloud. Not an early-game Cloud. You have to run, dodge, parry and dive like hell, and when he hits you, it fluffing hurts. He’s the only human enemy in the Remake who actually manages to do some serious damage using a firearm. 

He’s been designed to do that, you might say. Well, yeah, duh, he’s still the only one, so that’s awesome.

Moreover, he doesn’t actually look exhausted, nor particularly beaten up when the battle ends; he just smirks his way out. We couldn’t appreciate it in the OG, but heck yes we can now. 

We might argue that’s all a façade, and I think that part of it could very well be true. Cloud did roughed him up after all. Plus, that’s his character, he would never show a speck of vulnerability (”nobody has ever see him bleed or cry” - can we seriously blame him for becoming an ice prince?).  And he’s not stupid; once he’s disarmed, he immediately opts for strategic retreat. He’s not a brainless goof, he recognized his huge disavantage: a true tactician indeed.

Him and Cloud's battle dialogue...is it just me, or did they sound like ex-boyfriends angrily snapping at each other?...

C: Think you got my number? [Cloud?]

R: Not at all. You’re making me sweat. Good thing I came prepared. [Rufus?]

C: That’s a new trick.

R: Like it? ‘Course you do.

[Did they actually meet in Before Crisis?!]

R: Let’s make it a night to remember.

Okay guys, seriously, tone it down a notch, would you? That’s too much gold for a single scene!

His outfit might not have us all agreeing, I can totally see why. That off-white contrast to Cloud’s pitch black tho...

Here’s the knot my brain is twisting itself over.

The question slammed my brain like a train, pretty much the same as Rufus’.

I don’t know, you tell me how the heck are you seeing the Whispers...

Tseng going:

Rufus looks at him like “Wait, what? You’re not seeing this shit? You kidding, right?” then proceeds to glare him into submission, either because he thinks Tseung might imply he’s not okay after the fight and he might be suffering some side-effects, or he’s mocking him.

[If it’s the last one, that would open another pit of thoughts, like: if he thinks Tseng is teasing him, that means that happened before. If that happened before, it means he’s not a utter cold-blooded bastard, and they interacted like functional(ish) human beings up to the point of joking. What is this? Solid character background? OG-wise, we know he’s not a saint, but we also know he’s not totally batshit cracker either. Because WRO and Avalanche. (Can’t wait for Barret’s reaction when that’ll happen. That’s gonna be spectacular XD)

Reno’s line ‘You’re sure you wanna do this by yourself, boss? (ENG)//That’s dangerous (JAP)’ could support this theory, even if we know he would talk back to Sephiroth himself.]

Untill now it’s evident that he being able to see them is “Because Plot“

But my spider senses are tingling, feeling something lurking below.

He didn’t seem to be able to see them on the platform while Cloud’s smacking his way through. That could be arguable, ‘cause spotting dark stuff in a dark background is not that easy. 

But after the Edge of Creation cutscene (and that’s another thing I’ll talk about later), he’s pretty well able to do that. And he’s the first character we see...

So what happened in between?

Well, there’s Wedge scene...but that’s the only thing we’re allowed to see. 

Based on what’s happening in the game, you’d be able to see the Whispers because of Aerith/Sephiroth’s intervention or because the Whispers need you to see them.

That create some interesting choices, which might combine, ‘cause they’re not mutually exclusive:

1. Rufus finds/saves Wedge, or the Whispers are bringing Wedge to him (very unlikely, but you know, overthinking is so fun). He was minding his own businnes, and Wedge suddenly appears. If this happens, I don’t think he’s gonna kill him...Because Avalanche (and because if you resist Wedge’s puppy eyes you don’t have a heart, nor a soul). Yes, he’s ruthless, I know, but there are times during the story in which he doesn’t behave like a complete dickhead. Very few times. But maybe the Whispers need for Rufus and Wedge to meet, and maybe that’s what happened in the hall.

Also, my useless rambling neuron got stuck over a very stupid, very impossible, but very cute idea why Rufus wouldn’t kill him: what if Wedge and Rufus know each other? Barret and the other knows his face, but what about Wedge? Maybe somehow they casually met in Junon, or (god forsake it, my heart) even before in Midgar he saved him from whatsoever situation and he never mention it? Chances are never really zero in FFVII, but I’m well aware that this is far-fetched...like, a lot. 

How cute would it be if Wedge woke up with Rufus crouched down there, skeptically looking at him.

‘What are you doing here?’

To which he would chirp “Hey Rufus, long time no see! How’re you doing? I thought you were still in Junon.”

‘I’m the boss here, I ask the questions. What are all these creepy things flying around.’

“Well, I don’t have that much of a clear idea...Also, you’re not my boss!“

‘That’s not helping. Also, technically, yes Wedge, I am.’

”Huh?”

‘I’m Rufus Shinra. (smug smirk)’

“I know that dummy (Rufus would scrunch up his face), what I don’t understand is how that would make you my boss. Blowing up one of your reactors using your explosive can’t make me pass as construction worker.” 

‘I am not your boss because of Shinra. I am your boss because I’m the boss of the boss of your boss.’

“WAIT, WHAT?!”

*Whispers taking him away*

2. Sephiroth has a brief chat with him during the moment he’s left on his own (while we’re fighting his true self in the singularity). In the OG, Rufus always had this incontrollable drive to find Sephiroth, an inespicable and obsessive draw to hunt him down, which only Cloud match (and he’s the one guarding Jenova’s remants in Advent Children...). And no, it’s not because he killed his father...we know how idyllic that relationship was. That spark could have been started here.

3. A combination of the two. Because why not.

4. Something else within him helped the trigger.

Speaking about this, I discovered some interesting info. The Remake has retconned his age from 25 to 30, flopping back his birthday from 1982 to 1977. Five years shouldn’t make that much of a difference. We can agree, artistic licence. 

Too bad 1977 is also the exact same year Jenova’s remnants have been discovered...As well as the very start of the machination for Project S and Project G.

Using Dirge of Cerberus as reference, 1982/1983 should approximatly be Sephiroth’s birthyear. Which leaves 5 years of preparation.

Is this a coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe the president let Hojo start to experiment on baby Rufus as he saw fit. Nobody would convince me that the president wouldn’t have done it, those two are just too fucked up. That could explain why he was so flipping good with a shotgun since he was 10, why he managed to face a SOLDIER without turning into minced meat (he didn’t show negative repercussions because he could have been resistant to mako poisoning, like Zack; plus he is the only human enemy with some resistance to Poison and Magic), why the president didn’t kill him when he sided with the Turk’s assassination attempt. That wasn’t paternal love; that was probably Hojo interceding to not have a succesfull test subject except Sephiroth eliminated, promising to have him brainwashed.

Like Cloud, despite Jenova’s cells, he wouldn’t be able to see the Whispers by his own. But Sephiroth, or Aerith, might have flipped the switch in some way. Or even Jenova’s or n#2′s bodies, to which we still have no idea what happened.

4.1. The annoyed/angry glare This could also be another reason for the angry/annoyed glare he shoots Tseng, like he’s saying “You know what I am” or “You know taking me down is not that easy”. The first one reminds me of Cloud’s line to Jessie...the look is pretty similar.

Another interpretation of this expression could be that he actually has, from time to time, some odd quirks or weird moments, residues of the mako treatment/cells' interaction. It is very likely that if that’s true, Tseng - and maybe even Rude and Reno - witnessed them.

That wouldn't surprise me: he’s sporting some serious dark circles under his eyes in this scene.

So, he could be also saying “What? Are we doing this again? You still think I’m frail and crazy? Do I have to beat that out of you like last time?”

5. He touched Jenova’s blood; it wouldn’t be that improbable, since it was smeared all over the floor. That might have done the trick by itself, or, if connected to point 4, he could have been drawn to it by the cells within him, which could have worked as catalyst. 

6. Any combination of two or more of the previous points. It’s Nomura Testuya we’re talking about, they could all be true for what we know. He’s a goddamn psycho: it’s easier to build a house with a sand-pail and a plastic shovel than understand Kingdom Hearts' series plot .

 Too many questions, but the revelation that Rufus can see the Whispers is very intriguing; the whispers needs him for something. Destiny needs him for something. That makes him an even more valuable character that he already was in the OG, and I’m glad they’re doing it. 

Nobody seems to be left behind (in character development sense) this time.

We can only wait and hope.

Wish you all the best, Rufie (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *

#ffvii remake #ffvii remake spoilers #ffvii spoilers #ffviir #rufus shinra #ffviir spoilers #ffvii remake theories #ffvii theory

[slade-neko]

Monster Hunter Rise ~ My Thoughts

Oh, man, Monster Hunter Rise, where to begin?! I guess I’ll start with the game itself in a nutshell is a BLAST! It’s not without a few issues I have with it personally, but I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it nonetheless. I want to take the time to mention I am a second generation hunter myself. Started playing Monster Hunter in 2008 with Freedom 2 on PSP at the tender age of 13. So its safe to say I’ve got a lot to say about this game! If you want to read the full thing then here it is. 

This review is MOSTLY spoiler-free! There isn’t a lot you can spoil in this game... I mention some endgame stuff and there is a screenshot that contains the final boss’s armor but not focused on it. Just a friendly warning if you are a die-hard spoiler avoider. 

The Weapon Types

I’ll start with the fact that the weapon types in MH Rise are all really fun to play and have very well polished movesets. I haven’t extensively played with all the weapon types, but I’d like to say a few things about the ones I have been using. Long Sword feels the best it has ever been in the entire series in my opinion, ironically this game starts you off with a Long Sword equipped too. 

I went ham with Long Sword throughout the main story, but now have swapped over to maining Light Bowgun. I was a big Heavy Bowgun main in MH World, but shield spreadshot builds don't feel the same for me as they did in World, but the Light Bowgun in this game shreds. Narga Piercing LBG for distance shooting and then Magnamalo Spread LBG for getting up close and personal. Evade Extender 3 makes zipping around the battlefield a breeze and next to impossible to get hit making it a very fun and rewarding playstyle. 

My brother on the other hand has been hitting hard with Long Sword and the new Hunting Horn. He misses the original note playing at times, but the damage on HH is insane and healing constantly with the Rampage Horn is a big plus too for a game with no health regen factors. He’s been building sets for nearly every weapon type, but LS and HH are his two mains. Both weapon types were introduced in 2nd Gen, where we started, so maining those two for him is a bit symbolic. Also the fact that LS has been heralded as the most used weapon-type and HH the least used as of recent games is a neat contrast to use both.

The Characters, Setting, and Story

I know Monster Hunter isn’t exactly known for it’s characters or story, heck most games hardly had a story until World came out. Typically Monster Hunter games follow the simple formula of big bad flagship monster causing problems with local village and ecosystem, hunt it, happy ending?, turns out bigger badder scarier secret boss monster was actually causing the problems, hunt it, true happy ending. Nothing wrong with that, I can roll with whatever story they make, majority of players are here for the gameplay. That said, I still enjoy and appreciate what story the devs put together no matter how it turns out. I liked what Rise offered, nothing too grand like World, more of a simple story following the old games formula. 

Surprisingly I haven’t seen many people talk about the characters in this game and the little fact that this is the first time in the ENTIRE SERIES (outside of MH Stories) characters have REAL names! Hinoa, Minoto, Fugen, Yomogi, Iori, Hamon, Rondine, Hojo, Utsushi, like honest to goodness actual NAMES, not “Blacksmith,” “Village Elder,” or “Fish Mongress.” The characters are fun though, nice and memorable, not really annoying. Also following World’s fully voice-acted characters is a nice touch. I sometimes miss the days of old when characters had simple grunts and you read everything, but I doubt that will ever come back now, just something lost to the classic MH games. 

Then there’s the super Asian-inspired ninja-like theme to the entire game. You’ll either love it, hate it, or maybe you don’t care about how the village is at all. I like the whole ninja aesthetic while it does work for this game in particular, but I will admit its a little bit weird in the entirety of Monster Hunter as a series.

The Hunts, Gameplay, and Everything Else

Ah yes, the gameplay, the heart of the Monster Hunter games... while yes I do think this game is a lot of fun overall, I do have a few complaints with it... I’m going to break this down into mini-sections because there is a lot to cover here.

Quest Preparations Maybe I’m just old school, but I feel like they took away a lot of the prep work for going on hunts. No cold/ hot drinks, access full inventory on quests, refill items, no longer eat for attack/ def buffs, monsters always visible on maps, no random spawning on High Rank quests, little things like that. In the old games you had to prepare for each hunt, it was part of the game. You go after a big monster, you make sure you got everything you need to win BEFORE you depart on the quest. It feels like they are double-downing more so on just the fighting itself. 

Tracking Monsters Monsters aren’t even tracked anymore, they’re always visible on your map. No having to run around and look for them like classic MH games... Though to be fair maybe that’s better off in the old games with the paintball tracking system and individual loaded areas than in a game with a fully open-world setting because I got headaches tracking monsters in MH World’s open-world especially the Ancient Forest. 

The Monsters The new monsters in this game a welcome addition. I don’t really have any problems with their designs or fights. Have to say Goss Horag has a very fun fight, but my favorite new monster is probably Rakna-Kadaki. A pelican spider is a dang neat idea for a monster and there aren’t a lot of Temnocerans. Would love to see the return of the Carapaceons though! This is literally the perfect game for Shen-Gaoren to come back with the new rampage system! Bring back my giant enemy crab, Capcom please!

Monster Behavior/ Minion Monsters/ Herbivores Added this subsection to talk specifically about the monsters’ behaviors in this game along with the minion monsters cause while not very important overall there are still some things to be said. 

Same thing in MH World, but the monsters act more like animals now. While yes, that is more realistic and is mostly a good thing, but it honestly gives me second thoughts about hunting them. In World most boss monsters wouldn’t attack you unless you attacked them first. That made me feel terrible walking up to a calm Teostra just chilling in the dunes and then I start smacking the heck outta it with a weapon... Old games the monsters saw you, the “something’s gonna getcha music starts playing” and then it charges you and your in the fight! Now its like you’re the monster killing a bunch of animals (exaggerating a bit, but still!)

What’s not exaggerated is the minions in this game. The old games had minions that were incredibly annoying and I wanted to kill them. This game however has the sweet little bullfangos, jagras, and other minions just lazing around sleeping. My brother and I were in need of Rhenoplos scalps for some gear, set out on a quest to slay some, find them peacefully sleeping by some rocks and I ask my brother, “Okay, so you gonna bash its skull in with your hammer and pop its eyes out or am I gonna fill it full of lead with my bowgun?” Needlessly violent example, I know, but it still makes the point that it feels more like animal cruelty when they aren’t bothering anyone. I’d rather the minions just start charging me and piss me off as a player, so I wouldn’t feel bad defending myself to take them out. 

Lastly, there’s the herbivores. Not a lot to say on the matter, but I feel like they could’ve given a few more herbivore types. Like no Aptonoth in this game? I thought they were kinda a staple of the series for herbivores. I also feel like the maps could feel a bit more lively with more herbivores placed around. Maybe Mosswines in the Shrine Ruins, especially when scaling the central mountain shrine with the mushroom colonies everywhere. Great spots for mushroom piggies! 

The Maps/ Locales I love them! Well for the most part. They are good and I don’t dislike any in particular. My only problems is that they sometimes feel too big, too open, and too empty. I know they have a lot of stuff in them, gathering points, spiribirds, relics, and many other things, but there is an odd sense of emptiness there. Like I mentioned earlier, I think perhaps adding in more scattered monsters might’ve helped that a bit. Only other thing to mention is that the new locales rely too heavily on the Palamutes to get around effectively. I personally like bringing my kitties with me on multiplayer quests, so I am at the mercy of wirebug zipping to get around and often left behind. 

Oh, last thing I will mention on maps is while its not in the base game, I pray they add back the Tower as a map. Preferably the 2nd Gen version where you start at base camp and scale the tower. A game that’s all about rising and verticality, the Tower is literally the PERFECT map to have in this game! 

Spiribirds Love em or hate them, there’s the Spiribirds. Cool concept, but I don’t think it works very well in my opinion. I don’t care about roaming the map to collect my bird buffs, I just want to eat for Attack Up large like old games and be done. I definitely try to grab them when I can, but I can’t be bothered to chase down all the birds each and every hunt just to get my full Attack up buff. 

Wirebugs On with the title of the game being Rise giving meaning to the new wirebugs feature. Wirebugs are fun to use, zip around the map, super attacks, and what-not, but I can’t help but feel its a little out of place in a Monster Hunter game. Feels like I’m Spider-Man or something. I know I praised this when I played the demo and I’m not dissing it now, I still enjoy using them, but I am also admitting that they do feel very outlandish for a Monster Hunter game. Still better than the slinger/ clutch claw though! Let’s never talk about those accursed items again. 

Silkbinds The Silkbind attacks though are fully great! I love having access to super attacks like Hunting Arts and things like that for my weapons, so I sincerely hope they keep some kind of super attack format in future games.

Mounting The mounting system in this game is weird, but pretty cool! Its a great way to let you control a monster for a change and beat the snot out of other monsters as a monster. I saw someone describe it is as “going full on Ratatouille with the monsters” and honestly there isn’t a better way to explain it than that. 

Palicoes/ Palamutes The Buddy System in this game is great! Palicoes still feel about the same as they did in World, maybe a little less powerful now since you can have two of them at once, still love them though and prefer to bring a Palico with me on my quests. 

Then there is the new doggies, the Palamutes! Super cute and cuddly, but also quite powerful! I love the doggos, but I wish the maps weren’t designed around them. I like to bring my cat with me on multiplayer quests, so I don’t get a dog to ride and the maps are HUGE, very wide-opened, lots of running... Wirebugs help, but still not quite as fast as the puppies. 

Oh and two little pet peeve of mine is you can’t see other players buddy names and you can’t change buddy comments! I want people to be able to see my buddies’ names and I need my Garfield cat’s comment to say “I hate Mondays.” and my Sonic dog to say “Gotta go fast!” and my Courage the Cowardly Dog dog to have “The things I do for love.” Unless there is a hidden menu somewhere where you can edit these, but alas I have yet to find it...

Voiced Hunters Hunters have always been the silent protagonists of the games with attack grunts, hurt sounds, and little to nothing more. Now they are full voiced for gestures and full hunting dialogue. I really like this, its funny to hear them shout things and stuff and having some familiar voice actors in the game is really cool to have them voice my characters. My brother rocking the Xander Mobus voice-type on his hunter is freakin’ cool and hilarious at the same time. I am tempted to make a Zentisu hunter, name him Zenitsu, give him the Zentisu voice-type, and go full Thunderclap maining a Thunder-type Long Sword just for the heck of it. Oh and also there’s the fact that CRISTINA VEE IS OFFICIALLY IN A MONSTER HUNTER GAME NOW AS A FEMALE VOICE OPTION! Still feels weird comparing it to previous games, but I’m okay with it because the fun factor in it outweighs the weird for me personally. Besides if you for some reason decided you hate fun you can just mute them in the options. 

Layered Armor (or lack-of) I love Layered Armor... and there is only two sets in this game. The Deluxe Edition’s “Kamurai” samurai looking layered armor and the Magnamalo amiibo “Sinister” layered set with a few head only layered pieces as DLC in the eShop. I was honestly expecting all armor to be layered and unlockable in the base game after the huge demand for layered armor in MH World and Transmog being a thing in the side team’s last game, MHXX/ MHGU. 

I think a mixed system of both Transmog and Layered Armor would be ideal. Transmog system for in-game armors and then additional bonus themed armor sets made as Layered Armors like the Kamurai set. That way players can be rewarded for crafting all the armors with use of a Transmog system even giving an incentive to make multiple sets twice to Transmog differently. While the devs could still make money off cool unique Layered sets as DLC in the eShop. Literally fixes both issues right there. Feel free to use that idea, Capcom, and you’re welcome.

Multiplayer/ Lobbies/ Scaling Four people lobbies are back! Not necessarily a good thing. I mean hey its not bad either, but I honestly preferred the larger lobbies like World had. Having more people doesn’t make it less social. All they need is to force people to do multiplayer quests in the Gathering Hub. I prefer large lobbies and have people do whatever they want and meet up in the Hub for socials. Mainly what I dislike about 4 player lobbies is everyone will be expected to help each other on their quests within the lobby. I just want to chill and do my own thing, but see and interact with other players in the village between quests. Oh, but the ability to join quests late is seriously great! Dropping into a lobby and seeing people already on a quest and being able to jump in with them is a godsend! 

Difficulty scaling is a very weird thing. It’s basically a double-edged sword. Its good to have because you can beat everything on your own, but that also defeats the purpose of multiplayer. In the past games, Hub quests were scaled higher for multiplayer, so getting more people to help only made it easier. Now, why bother with players when you could just do it yourself scaled to an easier single-player difficulty? I can usually get faster times when I solo things now. Multiplayer is there just for the social aspect to goof around with friends or if you just wanna do chill hunting with people. It’s no longer a requirement or an aid for beating the game. Like I said, its a weird thing, not bad, but not good either? I dunno, I just compare a lot of things to the classic MH games. In the past getting a second player to help makes it twice as easy compared to beating a Hub quest by yourself, while getting four players makes it where you’re effectively doing 4x more damage. Now its like you get 4-players and the monster gets 4x the health too. That might not be the exact scaling, but you get my point. 

One last thing I want to touch on which a lot of people have already mentioned is the fact multiplayer can get pretty chaotic. Especially when you have 4 players with 4 palamutes all smacking away at a monster. Hit effects are EVERYWHERE! Creates quite the mess and can be hard to tell what’s happening. 

Quest Difficulty/ Harder Monsters I don’t care too much about how hard the game is and I know this is a touchy subject, but I do like challenging monsters, without relying on gimmicky crap to fight them. MH World was filled with gimmicky fights like Behemoth, Leshen, even Alatreon and Fatalis to some degree. I still have Extreme Behemoth PTSD. I just want good clean fights, no damage checks, unavoidable one-hit kill moves, crap like that is not cool. I want to cart because I screwed up and made a wrong move and got punished by some wicked strong attack from a big bad boss monster. Not a stupid damage check telling me, “Oh, you not do enough damage, you die now.” To be fair, old Monster Hunter games had some gimmicky fights too though. MH4U with Apex Monsters and Wystones, MHGU with HP tank Hyper Monsters, heck even Freedom 2 was unintentionally gimmicky with outrageous hitboxes haha. Oh, that game was brutal! Deviants in MHGU were amazing though! Some really tough fights there, but incredibly rewarding to beat, that’s what I love!

The Endgame/ Secret Bosses (or lack-of) There is no Endgame, we are stuck in the Infinity War for now (or Affinity War as my brother calls it since the meta is all about those crits!) Okay, so that’s a bit harsh, all jokes aside there is an endgame, but its not exactly what I was expecting and leaves me wanting more. One of my favorite aspects of Monster Hunter games is the endgames and the secrets they hold, which this game had very few! They revealed nearly EVERY monster before this game launched. I get it, they want to sell their game, but leave some secrets please. Only monster that was secret was just the final boss. I love getting to the end of the game and unlocking new quests to fight the big scary endgame bosses. I guess World kinda suffered from that too a little bit. Mostly hanging on to old games like Freedom Unite unlocking Fatalis, MH3U getting Abyssal Lagiacrus, and Molten Tigrex in MH4U was very cool! Could just be the state of games these days like Smash Ultimate where they reveal everything before the game is out since data miners will just leak them anyways... kinda makes me sad. 

Updates and Future Content

I know this game has planned updates that will add a lot of content, but I can’t help but feel those “updates” were part of the game that’s been withheld to make the updates feel like so much more. Its like they ripped out the ending of the game and are passing it of as a big huge update to be released after launch. 

The real kick to this is the fact there is no Hunter Rank in the current game... I’ve done approximately 300 quests so far in my game, its going to hurt me very badly when I see the HR update come out and I don’t get any HR for the hunts I’ve done so far. I know some people could care less about HR and just see it as a number, but for me that number is a nice thing to see. I love seeing it go up as I do more quests and play more of the game. Going hard at launch has been a lot of fun, but less rewarding knowing I am quite possibly not getting any HR points for all my gameplay. 

Only reason I can see they would not want to allow a buildup of HR before this update is because this update will add a bunch of new endgame monsters most likely unlocked through getting high Hunter Rank. I pray for my boy Akantor to finally shine again, I know the side team loves him, so let’s please get him into Rise! AND Please don’t show them off in videos, Capcom! Just stealth drop a bunch of Elder Dragons and Endgame bosses into the game!

Final Thoughts

I’m probably just stuck in the old days some, I guess this is just how the games will be going forward, but a bit of that makes me sad. Feels like the game series I loved so much is losing some character and personality of what made is special and unique. This review might’ve got a bit ranty, but I like to critique a game series I am very passionate about. World was very similar to this. From everything I’ve said, by no means do I hate this game. I still love MH Rise and the entire series and I’ll keep playing it having a lot of fun along the way. Best way I can describe Monster Hunter Rise is it’s the Side Team’s Monster Hunter World. Its fresh, new, and very experimental! 

All in all this game is still great and I stand by what I said at the beginning of this entire post, its a blast to play! I hope everyone can enjoy it and remember, Happy Hunting! 

#Monster Hunter Rise #Monster Hunter #MHRise

[crimefightingspiderguy]

left hand free

Part II to the series, i want you to want me.

Summary: (Y/N) is checking in on Peter in Germany. 

Warnings: I guess swearing? Maybe spoilers for Captain America: Civil War, but like who hasn’t seen that bad boy lol?

Pairings: Peter Parker x best friend!reader

Word count: 1,632

A/N: I’ve decided that I’m going to attempt to get this series done before I start my summer semester, so on the 15th of May, if I can’t then updates will be slow during that time, at least for a month until I finish school. Updates will ideally be 1-2 times a week since that’s about how many days I have off from work. Thanks for the support on the last part!

You anxiously pace back and forth on your kitchen floor. Lost in your thoughts, only brought to reality by the familiar ding of your phone. You let go of the breath you didn’t know you were holding. You pick up your phone and look at the text from Peter, 

P: “Just landed in Germany”

Y: “Well now that the hard part is over, have a great trip! 🙄🥴”

P: “All will be fine lol. Make sure to send me a picture of us “hanging” so I can check-in with May.”

“Hey, dad!” You called to him, hoping he could hear you from his room.

“What’s up?” He popped his head out from behind the door frame. 

“I have a strange favor to ask. Can you take a picture of me working on my Spanish project? Since Peter and I couldn’t work on it together, they want us to take pictures of each of us doing our halves so they know we didn’t just have one person do all the work.” 

“What happened with Peter coming over this weekend?” 

“Oh, it turns out he had a college recruitment thing. He didn’t think he’d qualify when he applied, so he thought he’d be able to make it. He’s gonna do his half in his hotel.” 

“Oh, alright.” Your dad takes your phone from you and snaps a picture of you leaning over the poster board, pretending to write the title for the project. He hands you back your phone. “That’s an odd request from a teacher.” 

“Well, that’s what they tell us, but we all really know that they’re just lacking in volunteers for the yearbook so they want to get some extra pictures of kids working on projects if they can.” You chuckled nervously, and took the phone back, immediately sending it to Peter. He went back to his room, telling you goodnight and to not stay up too late. “love you!” you shout as he shuts his bedroom door. 

“Back at ya kid!”

You phone bings and brings your attention back to Peter.

P: “Oh look how cute you look when you pretend to do homework 🥺”

Y: “Shut up. I hope Captain America knocks you on your ass with his shield.” 

P: “Well that’s not very nice. Maybe I should ask one of the Avengers if they’re in the market for a new best friend.”

Y: “Go ahead and do that for me because if you die then at least I’ll have someone to comfort me. Does Thor happen to be on your team? If so, I’ll gladly mourn my loss in his big strong arms 😢”

P: “As a matter of fact, he is not. Guess you’re s.o.l. Nighty night.” 

Y: “Night, try not to get yourself killed dumbass.” 

You continued working on the Spanish project throughout the night. After all, you were planning on having two people doing this, and now you have to make up for that. Well, that’s what you told yourself, you knew that you wouldn’t be able to sleep well all weekend with the thought that Peter might be in danger. But, if he really has been Spider-Man this whole time, then he’s been in danger for some time. But this seems like a different kind of danger. You’ve always know Spider-Man to be the friendly neighborhood crime fighter, but now that he’s working with the Avengers, you worried what that kind of exposure to a bigger enemy might mean for him. Maybe this is why Peter never told you, he didn’t want you to hold him back or worry constantly about him. You’d understand him not telling May because of that, but you thought that your friendship was something beyond just caring about each other. You thought it was the two of you encouraging each other and helping them to be the best version of themselves, so why didn’t he trust you with something that was so important to him? Maybe he thought you’d rat him out? But if he gave you the chance he would know that you would never go behind his back like that. Maybe this was your chance to prove that to him. Well, whatever his reasoning, you hoped he would be more honest from here on out. 

The next day you hadn’t heard anything from Peter all day. You assumed he was probably just busy, plus being in a different time zone probably didn’t help, but you still had a gnawing feeling. That was until you got a text of a picture of Peter with some locals, and you realized he was probably sightseeing until it was time to “suit up”. You smiled at the picture and saved it. He looked so genuinely happy, and you didn’t get to see that often in pictures. You realized that this was something that he was excited about. His nerves and tension you sensed when he asked you to cover for him were gone, and he was fully enjoying himself and his chance to fight with Iron Man. You sighed contently and shut off your phone, figuring it’s probably best to not have it taunting you throughout the day. 

When you finally turned your phone back on, about right before you got into bed for the night, you had a video from Peter waiting for you. It was him running around a town square and showing you all the different food carts. You chuckled, not really sure why he felt the need to share all the food carts with you of everything, but you didn’t mind. Accompanying the video is a text that says,

P: “Mr. Stark says we’re gathering at the airport in the morning because that’s where Captain America is heading, trying to escape.”

Y: “Loving the video and picture, looks like fun! Hope everything goes well tomorrow, kick some ass Pete ❤️ (oh and don’t die please)” 

P: “Oh now you want me to come back. Now that you know Thor’s not here to dry your tears?” 

Y: “I’ve always wanted you to come back, I’m just saying if you don’t… I might not be so torn up if Thor was sent to break the news to me 😉”

P: “I’ll put that in my will really quick “P.S. Send Thor to break the news to (Y/N)”.” 

Y: “I appreciate your support on this bud! Oh by the way, here’s a picture of the project finished for May, tomorrow I’m baking Mantecados so when you get back you can be my taste tester and then everything should be ready to present on Monday!” 

You’d gotten up and snapped a picture of the finished poster board. Then propped your camera on your desk so it looked about Peter's height, and set a timer. You hopped in front of the board and held your arms out in a way that someone would show off a car on a game show, and out on a big grin. You sent both to Peter so he had some options for what to send to May as proof. He responded to you after he saved them and forwarded them to May.

P: “Thank you! May is really appreciating the fun shots of you acting like poster board making is your calling. Also, I’m really looking forward to knowing absolutely nothing about our project when we present lol.” 

Y: “Hey, that’s on you lol. Read the points I have on the board on your plane ride back.” 

You set your phone down and closed your eyes, a smile on your face that you couldn’t shake. You were able to sleep peacefully knowing that for now, Peter was okay. You could worry about him tomorrow, but for now, he’s okay. 

You decided to sleep in as much as you could, since today all you had to do was go out and get some baking ingredients, then bake. You woke up around noon, which is definitely longer than you thought you’d stay in, but you weren’t mad. You were facing your alarm clock on your bedside table then turned on your back to stretch. You looked up at your ceiling and fell out of bed. 

“What the actual fuck!” You yell as you fall, scared to death.

You heard the most familiar laugh echo through your room as Peter fell from your ceiling to your bed. You stood up, grabbed your pillow and smacked him across the head. 

“Hey! It’s not my fault you’re easy to scare!” 

“No, but it is your fault that you’re a total ass.” You laugh at him, but then pause as he takes off his mask and reveals his black eye. You quickly take his face into your hands and gently rub your thumb over it.

“Who did this? I’ll kick their ass.” You said, completely forgetting that he was just fighting the oldest living Avenger.

“I’ll let Mr. Stark know to warn Cap that you’re coming for his head.” 

“Right, sorry. I did just wake up, I totally forgot you were off fighting big bad guys. So what was it like? Are you an Avenger now?” 

“It was interesting and kind of cool to be doing more than just stopping random thugs from stealing old ladies’ purses, ya know? And no, well… I’m basically an Avenger, but I think I have to wait for another assignment or something for me to prove I’m ready.” 

“Well, hopefully, they’re not needing you too much.”

“Why not? I could really do this! I could be an Avenger!”

“What about school?”

“Well I could obviously do both, I would just have to only do Avenger things when I can, but I’ll manage, I’ve been managing for a while now.” 

“Well, as long as your happy, and not dead, I’ll support you.” You chuckled, hoping that Peter would continue to trust you with his Spider-Man secrets. 

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#peter parker #peter parker spiderman #peter parker is a dork #Peter Benjamin Parker #spiderman #spiderman series #peter parker writing #peter parker reader imagine #peter parker reader insert #peter parker tom holland #peter parker imagine #peter parker is precious #peter parker is a little shit #peter parker au #peter parker ship #peter parker series #peter parker fic #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fandom #captain america civil war #MCU

[blue-and-dog]

More Sengoku Basara OC Writings!

Dinner Time (Nanahime and Yoko)

[[MORE]]

The pirate queen, scourge of the seas! Feared by all! She challenged the gods and won! She crushed her enemies! She commanded a crew of the finest, the strongest, the bravest!

She stood at the helm of her mighty ship—terror of the seas! Now that none in Japan stood against her, there was no choice but to continue to new lands! Adventure awaits!

With a crouch, she prepared to leap from the helm into the seas—

“Yoko, get down from there! Preferably not by jumping!”

Yoko snapped back to reality, the little girl crouching down to see her mother’s slightly-agitated gaze.

“Y’know, we specifically told you you’re not allowed to jump from the roof after what happened last time.” Nana held up her arms as she drew closer. “C’mon, I’ll catch you. Just climb; it’s time for dinner.”

“Comin’!” Yoko turned around, beginning to climb down and letting go; Nana caught the six-year-old under the arms with a grunt.

“Geez, you’re gettin’ heavy....” she laughed a bit, setting her down and taking her hand. “Okay, let’s go before the food gets cold.”

“‘Kay!” Yoko fell into step beside her mother, humming a bit as they headed into their home. “Think daddy’ll be back tonight?”

“Mm...probably not. You know your dad; he could be another few days, another few weeks, or show up within an hour.”

“I wonder if he’ll bring me a neat shell again this time,” Yoko thought out loud, “I don’t mind if he doesn’t, though.”

“Just want ‘im home in one piece?”

“Mm-hmm. Then we can wrestle again.”

“Am I not a good enough wrestling partner anymore?”

“That’s not true!” Yoko immediately replied, flustered, “You’re still fun! I like to wrestle you!”

“I’m just teasin’, squirt.” She messed up her daughter’s hair a bit. The pair said hi to passing crew members and guards as they went, before finally, Nana used her free hand to slide open the door to where they would be dining: a large, square room with a single round table in the middle and three somewhat-flat cushions (though one of the regular occupants was currently away). Waiting at two of the seats were a hearty bowl of steamed white rice, and somewhat-neatly assorted fillets of fresh ocean fish—Nana had even cut off the tail fin of the fish and stuck it near the far right of Yoko’s rice, having given it a bit of a whale shape (never mind that whales weren’t fish).

“Dinner!” Yoko cheered, immediately sprinting to her spot and jumping onto the little cushion meant just for her; the cushion slid a bit, but snagged on the wood floor before it could send the girl careening across the room. Yoko immediately snatched up her chopsticks and went to pick up the tail fin and pop it in her mouth—

“Ah, don’t eat that part. That’s for decoration.”

“Oh. Okay!” Yoko set it aside, instead swiping up the rice bowl and digging in voraciously.

“Please don’t choke.” Nana sat down with a laugh and a sigh, beginning to eat her own portion of the meal. After a while of eating in silence, Yoko swallowed a mouthful of rice, taking a deep breath.

”Mommy, what kinda stuff do you do as daddy’s first mate?”

“Hm?” Nana had a fillet halfway in her mouth. Chewing and swallowing, she cleared her throat. “Well, lots of things.”

“Like what?”

“Let’s see...” she put her chopsticks to her lips as she thought for a moment. “I’m head of the household, officially, so I handle anything goin’ on around the house. I also handle inventory for your daddy’s ship; make sure the crew has enough food and supplies. Lotsa physical work, too, like helping with building and maintainin’ the fleet. Then there’s handlin’ relations with the clans your dad allied with—“

“Those are the days you gotta dress up nice, right?”

“Ugh, yeah. Anyway, there’s all that, and basically keepin’ your dad from doing anything stupid. ‘Bout a fifty percent success rate, there.”

“And you gotta make me little brothers so Daddy has heirs, right?”

Nana paused as she looked at her, then squinted. “You were supposed to be asleep when we were having that conversation.”

“I know how babies are made, mommy. You told me.” Yoko stuck her nose up, “Don’t be surprised.”

“Listen here, you...” Nana started, then snickered. “You’re gettin’ too old, too fast.”

Yoko let out a giggle, then went back to eating, while Nana watched for a moment.

Those big green eyes, full of curiosity. So familiar to her.

Sometimes, when Yoko looked up at her mother with those big green eyes, Nana could see Fukurou there, for one, fleeting moment.

How would you feel, seeing your daughter now, Fukurou? she thought.

“Mommy?” Yoko spoke up again. “You’re not eatin’.”

“Oh, you’re right. Whoops.” Nana popped another fillet in her mouth.

“It sucks Daddy’s not here to eat this with us.”

“He had plenty of food packed; I’m sure he’s fine.”

“But it’s not like when you make it fresh! Daddy’s missing out!”

“Look at you, worrying over your dad. He’d be so flattered. Complete turnaround from when you first met him.”

“Really? I can’t remember a time I didn’t like Daddy.”

“Ohhhh, there was a time when you didn’t like him at all. You were really young, though; I’m not surprised you don’t remember.”

“How old was I?” Yoko leaned in a bit, now at full attention.

“Mm....” she swallowed some rice. “...three? It wasn’t long after Mommy and all her friends decided to become pirates. I think I was working on something that required two hands, but you were being clingy and wanted me to hold you, so I was managing with one hand. The cap’n—your dad, as you now know him—came by, saw what I was doing and asked if I wanted him to hold you while I was finishing up. I told him it wasn’t a good idea because you got fussy with people you didn’t know, but he insisted it’d be fine. So, I decided, fine, I’d let him hold you for a few minutes. Well, no sooner do I pass you to him and he says hello, that you scream, ‘NO!’ and—“ she started to cackle, “You smacked him in the face as hard as your little hand could. Which, luckily, wasn’t very hard.”

“I hit him!?” Yoko sounded distraught. “I’d never hit daddy if we weren’t playing!”

“Well, he started laughing after that and just held onto you despite the fact you started squirming and flailing—I think he kinda saw you as a challenge. Did seem kinda disappointed at your reaction, though.”

“When did I start liking him?”

“I’d say about a month or so later. I was talking to him about something, and you just walked over, looked up at him and said, clear as day, ‘Aniki, up!’ and held up your arms. I swear, he must have been waiting to hear that, because he scooped you up immediately. Plus, scored him some points in my book, with how much he took to you after that.”

“Is that when you fell in love with him?”

“Mm....nah. I can’t really pinpoint a time that happened. That’s the thing about falling in love, kiddo; sometimes, it’s just kinda...there.”

Sometimes more than once. And with multiple people. But she doesn’t need the details.

After dinner was eaten, Yoko scurried off while Nana went to wash the dishes. As she entered the empty kitchen, she went over the dinner conversation in her head, and again, her mind went back to Fukurou.

“Hey, if it’s a girl, let’s name her Yoko, okay?”

“Yoko? Not against it, but why?”

“We can use the character for ‘ocean.’ We met on the beach. It fits, yeah?”

“Yeah...you’re right, it does! That’s actually pretty cute.”

She smiled a bit. Him and his symbolic names. Such a dork.

He was her former lover.

He was exuberance and life and adventure all rolled up into one. Never sat still, never stopped thinking of new things to do. Never stayed in the same place. Always found something to love about the places he went.

As she finished drying the dishes, though, she paused. A pang in her stomach, and it wasn’t the food doing it. With a sigh, she headed back to the quarters she shared with her husband, going to the closet where she kept her few belongings. Sliding it open, she pulled out a small leather pouch, opening it and dumping the contents into her palm—a round, amber stone on a leather string—the string was long since broken. Raising it to eye level, she turned it over in her hand, a frown crossing her features.

The kid’s doing fine. We all are.

She closed her fist around it, giving it a squeeze.

I promise, I’m okay.

She sat against the wall, staring across the room blankly for a while, still holding the stone in her hand.

She wasn’t aware how much time had passed, until Yoko opened the door again.

“Mommy, I’m going to bed! It’s story time!”

“Huh?” Nana snapped back to reality. “Oh...! Right. Sorry. Are you all set?”

“Mm-hmm.” Yoko nodded, lying completely.

“Hey.” Nana crouched in front of her. “Are you lyin’ to me?”

“...no.” Yoko looked away.

“You didn’t wash up!” She put her hands on her daughter’s cheeks. “You gotta wash up, kiddo! Or else you could get sick, and that would be,” she smushed her cheeks, taking a faux-sinister tone. “Sooooo baaaaaad.”

“Stoooop!” Yoko whined, pulling away. “I’ll go wash my face, fine!”

Nana laughed as Yoko scurried off, heading to her daughter’s room—the room was filled with odds and ends; various little “treasures” Yoko had picked up from playing with friends, going on “adventures” with her parents, or just wandering around. But displayed proudly on a small shelf were four seashells, each different shapes and colors—gifts given to her by her stepfather...her “daddy.”

“Here I am....” Yoko arrived moments later, crawling onto her futon.

“Alrighty, so what story do you want?”

“...actually...instead of a story...”

“Hm?”


“...can I ask you about my daddy? The daddy who made me?”

Nana felt her stomach flip as Yoko asked. “...you wanna know about your birth dad, huh?”

“You don’t gotta tell me everything if you don’t wanna, but....I at least wanna know what he was like.”

Nana didn’t know this feeling. It wasn’t dread. She knew Yoko would want to know more eventually. Fukurou didn’t live to see Yoko; didn’t get to watch her grow. And as those big green eyes stared back at Nana...

“...well....I can’t deny you that, huh?” Nana smiled a bit. “...okay.”

One day, Yoko would have to know what happened. But...at least for now, she could tell her who he was.

#sengoku basara #chosokabe clan #sengoku basara oc #writing #fanfiction #senbasa #capcom #original character #nanahime

[gimmeyoon]

Slayer: Only Human

    ✰ pairing: human!Jin x Slayer!reader

    ✰ setting: Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU

    ✰ word count: 4.5k

    ✰ warnings: explicit language, violence, underage drinking, angst as always

    ✰ summary: ❝Being the Slayer is not how you imagined spending your life, let alone your first year in college. You try to keep it together, but when an empath demon rolls into town you can’t help but vent to him. Now he knows exactly what makes the Slayer tick.❞

    ✰ A/N: hey listen, I know you crazy kids want Jin smut. And because I’m a loving and kind human, you will get just that. Just not until my beetlejuice fic comes out on Halloween. Enjoy this mostly SFW installment of Slayer until then. 

Prev | Next

    "Come on in, Join the fun, we're the girls of beta tau," Jimin cheered as you exited the large classroom where your sorority had just held chapter. "Wisdom, grace, and kindness, we're the girls of BTS, hey hey, I'm glad I'm in Beta Tau-"

    "Shut up," you said, elbowing him in the side just as a few of the girls in your sorority walked by laughing at his antics.

    "Well that certainly wasn't the display of kindness you'd expect from a Beta Tau girl," Jimin said, wincing as he stood now doubled over.

    "Yeah, well I just got horrible news."

    "What?" Jimin asked, his face growing serious as he walked out of the building with you. "Is the world ending again?"

    "No," you sighed, pulling your jacket tighter around your body as you walked into the cool spring night. "But honestly it would be a little bit easier if it did. At least I wouldn't show up alone at the end of the world."

   Jimin's brow furrowed as he stopped dead in his tracks. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

   You let out an exasperated huff as you turned to face him, pouting. "I forgot we had our formal this weekend and I never found a date."

    "Well if that's not the end of the world then I don't know what is," Jimin teased as he pulled you into a side hug. "Is this your way of asking me, _____? Is it okay if we go as just friends?"

    "We'll be enemies in a second if you don't stop," you said shrugging his arm off of your shoulders. "Seriously, I'm going to look like an even bigger loser than they already think I am."

    "Who cares what they think?" Jimin asked as you began walking again.

    "I do," you insisted. "I only joined this sorority so I could try and make some normal friends and I'm too busy with the abnormal to actually do anything with them."

    "I mean I feel like being the chosen one is a little bit better than being a Beta Tau girl," Jimin said with a shrug. "Plus, you have plenty of friends."

    "It's a fucking sausage party," you said, rolling your eyes.

    "I thought we were talking about your formal. No one said anything about having to fuck sausages."

    "I will literally turn around and walk as far in the other direction as I can."

    Jimin smiled widely as he knocked his shoulder against yours. "You can't get away from me that easily."

    "I know I've tried," you said, fighting back a smile.

    "Seriously though, all of your friends are guys, just ask any of us. Personally, I am always ready to get down."

    "Don't we all know," you said, this time allowing a smile to break across your face. "Is it horrible to want to actually like the guy I invite?"

    "No," Jimin said, shaking his head. "I think it's probably one of the most normal problems you've had to deal with in recent history."

    "The last guy I liked turned out to be a demon, so it's not going great."

    "You could always ask Taehyung," Jimin suggest, earning a hurried head shake from you.

    "He's still doing that fun thing where he completely doesn't understand human interaction. Plus, the whole, let's murder all of your friends thing really killed whatever feelings I might have had for him."

     "Awh, you do like me," Jimin teased, pulling you into his side again.

     "Don't let it go to your head."

     "Sorry I couldn't be hunkier for you," Jimin said, sighing dramatically.

     You laughed in response lightly hitting him on the chest as you shook your head. Of course Jimin was good looking and you knew for a fact at least a few of your sorority sisters would be jealous to see him arrive with you, but that wasn't the point. The reason you selfishly wanted to go to this formal with a boy that you actually had a crush on was because that's what most of the other girls would be doing. A part of you wanted to prove to them that you weren't the weird outsider you feared they saw you as. You were just like them and if they had the chance to get to know you they would see that.

    You were just like them.

     Right hook and then left. You keep advancing forward, sending the vampire backwards until he bumps into a tombstone, stopping him in his tracks. He goes to move away, realizing just a moment too late that he is cornered.

    You quickly stake him in the chest before turning to deal with his friend. You think she must have made him, because she's harder to fight. You taste metal as she smacks your head against a tombstone and quickly roll out of the way and to your feet before she can finish you off.

    She pounces in your direction, but you're quicker this time, kicking her square in the gut, causing her to double over just long enough for you to stake her through in the back.

    Your yourself double over as she turns to dust, catching your breath and wiping the blood from the corner of your mouth.

    "I swear to god if this isn't healed by formal, I will find a way to resurrect her from the dead just to kill her again."

    When you turn around to leave, you see Yoongi leaned up against a tombstone, a small smile on his face.

    “Enjoy the show?”

    “Very much so,” he said, falling step with you as you walk by. “My favorite actress stars in it.”

    “Is that so?”

    He hums in agreement.

    “Hey,” you said, turning to face him. “how old are you?”

    His smile widens at this. “Isn’t that a rude question?”

    “Maybe,” you contemplated as you kept walking. “I guess I’m just wondering what kind of events you would have gone to as a human.”

    “Why the sudden interest in my former human social life?” he asked, bumping his shoulder against yours.

    “I have a formal this weekend,” you admitted. “I guess I was wondering if you ever went to any stupid balls or something.”

    He looked at you with a furrowed brow as if he was trying to see you better. “You don’t want to go?”

    “No, I do, I just-“ you started to walk away, frustrated that you couldn’t explain yourself well.

     Yoongi reached out and grabbed your arm, stopping you. “I never went to any balls, as you called them. My father was a farmer.”

     “Would you have wanted to go?” you asked, turning to face him.

     “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve been to many as a vampire, and I find them taxing.”

    “Of course you do,” you laughed as you continue to walk back to your apartment.

    "Did I say something?" Yoongi asked, following behind you.

    "No, I'm just being very human recently."

    "You are human."

    You sighed. "It certainly doesn't feel that way."

    Yoongi looked at you with the sort of seriousness Namjoon sometimes had and something in that look hurt more than you expected. Yoongi never looked at you like that; he always seemed to believe you could do anything. Now, there was something about this that seemed like he wasn't so sure.

   "I gotta get going," you said motioning in the direction of your apartment. "Goodnight, Yoongi."

   "I can walk you-"

   "No," you said a little too forcefully. "I just want a moment to clear my head."

   Yoongi nodded his head, the look on his face growing more serious. "Okay."

   You wondered for a moment, as you walked away, if Yoongi would ask you to stop. If he would insist on walking with you.

   But he didn't.

   You weren't sure why you wanted that or what it would mean if he did. But for a moment you wished that he would run up and stop you and he would tell you everything would be okay and that formals were a stupid human thing that didn't matter when you considered the fact that you stopped the world from ending once.

    But he didn't. And of course he didn't, because you told him not to.

    Stupid human.

   You've shoved yourself into so many different variations of polyester, satin, and tulle that you're starting to this the whole endeavor was pointless. Just as you had waited too long to find a date you had probably waited too long to find a dress as well.

   Currently you’re zipping up a satin dress, one that's low cut with a slit up the thigh as well. You had been gravitating towards pieces that made you feel sexy in the hopes that you could at least feel hot at the dance even though you were sure to be constantly reminded of your future alone.

    You open the door of the dressing room and walk to the communal mirror outside, where Jungkook and Jimin are waiting for you. You look at yourself in the mirror for a few moments, ignoring the boys until you're certain how you feel about the dress yourself.

   "Well?" you asked, turning to Jungkook. The werewolf's eyes are wide when you meet them. "Are you okay?" you asked, causing Jungkook to nod his head quickly.

   "It's good," he said, still nodding his head.

   "You look hot," Jimin said, causing you to turn towards him.

   You take a few steps forward and pull the dress up just enough to reveal the knife strapped to your thigh.

    “What?" you said innocently, as Jimin raised an eyebrow at you. "An outfit is nothing without its accessories."

    "I always considered you more of a gold girl," Jimin said, a smirk on his lips as he motioned to the silver blade.

    "While gold might be better for my complexion," you said, before hiding the knife again, "silver's the only thing that keeps that puppy down."

    "I didn't do anything," Jungkook insisted, standing from his seat.

    "I'm just kidding, Kook," you said, Jimin and you laughing lightly at his intense reaction. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

    "You didn't hurt my feelings," he grumbled as he shifted his weight.

    "I'll take the dog for a walk," Jimin said joining Jungkook, "and you buy that dress so I can have the hottest date at the formal."

    "Well if you insist," you said, walking back to the dressing room.

    As Jimin and Jungkook walked towards the store entrance you just barely heard the younger pouting, "You know dog jokes are actually really offensive."

   "I don't really understand the point of this dance," Namjoon said, coming out of the stacks to join you at your usual table in the library. "You said every sorority and fraternity on campus does this?"

   "Namjoon, I cannot keep explaining to you that where there is a will, there is a way, and Greek Life will never turn down a chance to drink and party."

   "Yes, but why is it so stressful if the whole point is to have fun?"

   You stared back at him, stumped by both the simplicity of his question and the fact that you did not have an answer for him. "Maybe it's just me who's stressed."

   "No, I heard one of the girl's in my class complaining about it as well," Namjoon said passing you the book he had gone searching for.

   "Of the great unknown," you said reading the cover.

   "Homework," he said, pulling out the seat across from you and sitting down. "All seems to be quiet right now, so you can catch up on your studies."

   "You do remember that I have a major event this weekend right? One that I won't shut up about?"

    Namjoon laughed at this, his dimples appearing as he broke into a wide smile. "Yes, I do recall such an event."

    "So, you realize there's no way I'm reading this."

    "I'll pretend you didn't say that," Namjoon said shaking his head, as he pulled his own book out of his backpack. He looked up at you over his glasses as he sat the book down on the table. "Well," he said, motioning towards your book.

    "Oh, we're starting now," you said, opening the book in front of you. "Always straight to business."

    "It is my job," Namjoon said, his eyes beginning to scan the pages of his book.

    Namjoon always looks right at home with a book. As he pushes his glass further up his nose bridge, you fight off a smile as you return your attention back to your own book. You might not be interested in learning more about whatever this old dead man found in the great unknown, but at least you'd get to spend a few more moments with Namjoon in the peace and quiet of the library.

   Jimin was right, you did look hot in the dress. Objectively you could see that. So why did you feel like the ugly duckling as you paint your face?

    You keep thinking about the other girl's in your sorority. They, no doubt, have gotten together with some of the girls to get ready together. To blast a girl power playlist and compliment each other until they all felt like goddess and then they would meet up with their dates and get plastered before the event. You didn't know any of them well enough to expect an invite and inviting them to your own apartment had the dangerous possibility of resulting in at best the reveal of the supernatural and at worst, death.

    So you threw your own pity party, imagining what kind of advice your friends might give you tonight, or how they would compliment your lipstick. You played your own girl power playlist for a moment, but the realization that it didn't make you happy actually made you sadder. You had switched it to your training playlist. Sure it was meant to get you in the mood to slay vampires and demons, but it was helping to combat your metaphorical demons at the moment.

    You're almost ready when you hear a knock at your door. Jimin is early which is very unlike him, so you yell that you'll be there in a moment while frantically trying to get your shoes on.

    "How very punctual of you," you said with a smile as you opened the door, only to feel your face drop as you realized it wasn't Jimin at your door.

    Seokjin smiled lightly as he presented you with a bouquet of peonies that matched the light pink of his blazer. “I don’t know if you consider me a step up from Jimin, but at least no one in your sorority knows me.”

    "Hi," you said as you took the bouquet from him. "You look nice."

    "I always look nice," he said, dramatically sweeping his hair back. "Tonight, I've reached my final from."

    "How very "gotta catch them all" of you."

    "Don't worry, I have only one catch on my mind tonight. I'll let the other dates keep their sorority girls."

    "That's so kind of you," you said, shutting your apartment door behind you after depositing the flowers on the counter.

   He smiled. "You could call it community service, it wouldn't be a stretch."

   “Thank you,” you finally said as you walked to the sorority house. “You didn’t have to do this, I was being stupid about this for no reason.”

   “It matters to you, so it’s not stupid.”

   "I'm a little bit mortified that you even know about this. I mean this confirms my suspicion that the gang is gossiping about me behind my back."

   "I wouldn’t call it gossiping exactly," Jin said with a light laugh. "It was more like Jungkook and Jimin asked me to help them study and Jungkook spent the whole time whining about Jimin assuming he would be your date."

    "As if Jungkook would ever be caught dead at a function where he knows absolutely no one and has to put on a suit."

    "That is almost verbatim what Jimin said."

    You laugh at this, throwing your head back in delight. "I think that's the proof that we spend too much time together."

    "Add giving you a break from Jimin to the list of good deeds I did tonight then."

    "Oh it was already noted," you said, opening the door to your sorority house and ushering Jin in.

    "_____!" One of your sisters, Soyeon cheered as you entered the house. "We were just about to take pictures, come join."

    "This face was made to be photographed," Jin whispered as you joined the others on the stairs.

    Nearly too many photos, a couple of shots, and a few awkward moments outside of what seems to be the main group of people later, you and Jin find yourselves on the bus to the hotel where the formal is being held.

    You're a little surprised by how comfortable it feels just talking to Jin all night. Despite living next to each other and occasionally saving him from the forces from darkness, you and Jin have never spent extended periods of time just the two of you. He's usually so busy with his TA duties during the day and at night, while he's joined you on a patrol once or twice, it has almost always nearly cost him his life.

    But he makes you feel at ease on the way to the formal, sharing little jokes with you and only you and for the first time in a while making it feel like you are an insider in this place. It doesn't hurt that you keep seeing your sisters looking at him with jealousy. You understand, perhaps more than you'd like to admit. Jin looks better than most of the other men on the bus.

    "What do you think," Jin asked as you entered the main ball room. "Should I show my legal I.D. to the bartender and get us some drinks or should we stuff our faces at the buffet first?"

   "I'm thinking team work," you replied. "You grab the drinks, I grab the food, and we meet in the middle at a table."

    "I like the way you think," Jin said with a wink before making his way to the bar.

    On your way to the buffet in the opposite direction, Momo stopped you.

    "_____, right?" she said with a smile. "You and your boyfriend are really cute."

    "Oh, Jin's not my boyfriend," you said a bit more quickly thank you would have liked, as Momo's eyes widened at the intensity of it.

    "Oh, sorry I didn't mean to assume," she said, holding her hands up as if in surrender.

    "No it's okay," you said, grabbing a plate from the buffet just as Momo took one from the other side.

    "Honestly, I think more than a few people will be relieved to hear he's single," Momo laughed. "Myself included."

    "Oh, don't tell him that. We don't need Jin to get an even bigger ego."

    "I won't tell if you don't," Momo said before the two of you parted ways.

    You find Jin sitting at a table in the middle of the room, smiling happily as he raises a glass to you. "All the drinks were themed, so I went for the one with the coolest name," he said.

    "And that was?" you asked, passing his plate to him.

    "The Marilyn Mon-oh no," he said, laughing before he could even finish saying the name.

    You laughed along with him. "It sounds like my liver might regret this."    

    "Hey," he said, turning to you with a composed look. "Do you have a high tolerance?"

    "Why? Want to know if I'm going to be a cheap date?"

    "No," he said, smiling. "I'm just curious. I mean you heal quickly and are pretty much indestructible-"

    "Oh, I am very much destructible,"

    "So does that also effect how much alcohol it takes to get you drunk?"

    "Yes," you said as you took a sip of the white colored cocktail. "Good thing it's an open bar."

    "Interesting," he said, leaning back in his seat and looking off in the distance for a moment, before quickly turning back to you. "What else is effected?"

    "Can we pretend I'm not the Slayer tonight?"

    "Of course," Jin said, turning back to his food. "Just two very average humans enjoying an unnecessarily formal events."

    "Everyone here thinks you're an above average human."

    "As they should," Jin said with a wink.

    "See anyone you like," you asked leaning in closer to Jin. "I can pretty much confirm that no one here is a demon."

    "No, no, no," Jin said waving you off. "Tonight you're the only girl I see."

    You try and fight the blush you feel spreading across your face, and take a sip of your drink to try and shake the way he's looking at you.

    "Do you dance?" Jin asked, motioning towards the middle of the ballroom where a few couples have already made their way to the dance floor.

    "Namjoon would say every fight is but a dance," you said, laughing lightly.

    "Excuse me," Jin said turning to you with a serious look. "I'm pretty sure we agreed you're not the Slayer tonight."

    "My mistake," you said, shaking your head. "Yes, I believe this very average girl does dance. Especially after a few more cocktails."

   "Then a few more cocktails we shall have," he said, standing from his seat and making his way back to the bar.

   It almost feels wrong how easily the night progresses. You and Jin have those drinks and even after making your way to the dance floor, you still can't fight the feeling that a demon should come crashing through the ceiling or a vampire will begin his feast on the floor. But it doesn't happen.

    It's almost as if the forces of evil respect every girl's right to putting on a fancy dress and dancing the night away.

    How kind of them.

   "I don't think I've smiled this much in a while," you said as Jin finished his most recent interpretive dance.

   "Good," he said, grabbing your hand and pulling you into him as a slow song began to play. "Then I've done my job."

   "Thank you," you said, leaning your head against his shoulder as you swayed to the music.

   "Thank you," he replied. "You know for saving the world all the time."

   "All in a day's work."

   "Yeah," he chuckled. "I know I'm more of a liability to the gang than I am an asset-"

   "That's not true,"

   "but I figured if I could make you happy tonight. If we could dance and eat and drink and pretend that nothing waited out in the night, then maybe I did my job."

   You lean back to look at him, feeling moved by the serious look on his face. "You did a great job saving my world tonight."

   "Maybe I'm the chosen one," he said wiggling his eyebrows.

   "I wouldn't go that far," you laughed, leaning your head against his shoulder again.

     By the time you and Jin are walking back to your apartment building, you with your shoes in your hand, something Jin spent minutes ranting about, you feel the most relaxed you have in a long time.

    "You know, if you wanted to help us out more you could," you said, breaking the comfortable silence between the two of you. "Namjoon could train you for combat and I'm sure you would be good at helping him research."

    "Yeah?" Jin asked, seeming to ponder that for a moment. "I might reach out to Namjoon then. And by reach out, I mean the next time I see him in the library I'll sit at the same table."

    "Is he really always there?"

    "At least whenever I am."

    "I guess one of us has to be," you said, shrugging.

    Jin bowed dramatically as he opened the door to the building for you, stumbling a little in his intoxication.

    "Thank you, kind sir," you said with a laugh, stepping into the building, Jin following close behind you.

    "Of course," Jin said, falling in step with you again. "I am nothing if not a gentlemen."

    "Oh, of course," you laughed pressing the button in the elevator for your floor.

    The two of you rode up to your floor in silence, both of you occasionally looking between each other and trying to fight back laughter.

     "I believe this is your's," Jin said after the two of you walked down the hallway to your apartment.

    "Why yes, I do believe it is," you said with a wide smile.

    "I had fun tonight," Jin said, taking your hand in his and placing a light kiss to the back of it.

    You felt your ears burn as he looked back up at you with a small smile. You're not sure if it's the way his hold on your hand lingers or the gratitude you feel for him helping you have fun tonight, but soon you're taking the few steps between the two of you and pressing your body to his, your free hand coming up lightly behind his neck. You lean in slowly, a bit fearful of his reaction, but he meets your lips in the middle and the world seems to slow as you kiss him.

    For a moment you wonder if a simple thank you would have been enough to show your gratitude, but as his hand comes up to rest on your hip, you melt further into him, happy to blame the alcohol tomorrow for your behavior.

   As you pull away, Jin seems to look at you with a new understanding, his eyes searching your face as you step back towards your apartment.

   "Goodnight, Jin. Thanks for everything."

   "Yeah," he said, shaking his head as if to clear an etch-a-sketch. "Goodnight, _____."

   That night as you slip out of your dress, clean your face, and slip into bed, you wonder if this is the life you would have had if you weren't the Slayer. If you would kiss the boys that took you to parties and feel butterflies in your stomach as you replayed through the great night you had.

   No, you think. Because you wouldn't have been such good friends with Jin if you weren't the Slayer. He would be the TA you lived next door to.

   You would never get to laugh about punny drink names and his interpretive dancing. You would never place bets on who was going to be the first to vomit or dance under the faux starlight of the ballroom.

    Maybe being the Slayer wasn't as bad as you had once thought. It had helped to create friendships you never would have dreamed of. It had brought all of you closer through your mutual quest to stop the forces of evil.

    Ot at least in Jin's case, your mutual quest to try and survive the forces of evil.

    Yes, you thought. You could get used to being the Slayer if it meant you would always have the Scooby gang by your side.

    And if anyone tried to take them from you.

    They didn't call you the Slayer for nothing.

© gimmeyoon — all rights reserved. reposting, modifying, or translation onto other sites even with proper credit given is not permitted.

#Jin fanfic #bts fanfic #jin smut #bts smut #magicshopnet #seokjin fanfic #seokjin smut #bangtan fanfic #bangtan smut #jin x reader #seokjin x reader #bts imagines #bts scenarios #bts writing

[miraclesnail]

A little bit of magic, a little bit of logic (and a whole lot of coincidence)

Summary: It’s not so bad growing up in Camp Jupiter. Sure, there’s little annoyances here and there: like, Octavian always glaring at him, him being stuck in the fifth cohort, his inability to learn Latin that well, his weird preferences for the Greek names over the Roman ones, and the most annoying of all, an itching, indescribable feeling that somebody is waiting for him. Somebody… which is ridiculous because he has nobody outside of Camp Jupiter.Or my self-indulgent AU where Connor grew up on Camp Jupiter while Travis is still on Camp Half Blood.

ao3 link

ffn link

aaaaaaaaaaand chapter 5 is finally done.

Chapter 5: I have to say, I am a pretty great friend.

Written for Writer’s Month Day 22: Summer

Connor climbs onto the ship not so gracefully and rolls over the rail onto the deck, sliding the grappling hook onto his belt. He surveys his surroundings. By the ballistas, Percy and a blonde are beside an unconscious body. In the middle of the deck is Jason, unmoving, — oh gods. Is he dead?! No, wait. His chest is rising. Jason’s okay. Jason’s fine — and another girl, conscious and tending to Jason.  

Nobody notices him yet despite his rather loud landing. If he hurries, he can bring this down without fighting a single — 

“Go! Get us out of here!” Percy yells and the blonde nods, standing up with speed and turning around. She freezes though when she sees him. 

Their eyes meet. 

Her eyes widen. She mouths a name. ( His name). A blast of icy cold wind chills his core (someone) (someone is waiting for him), but he pushes that thought away. 

Camp Jupiter first. Everything else second. Prove your worth and all of your problems will be solved. 

Connor uses the only asset he has, his slightly above-average speed, and takes off for the helm. The blonde follows after him unfortunately. 

He doesn’t want to fight. 

(You can still back out)

But there’s no other choice. There’s no backing out. 

He reaches the helm seconds before the girl will. At first glimpse, it’s obvious everything at the helm is handcrafted. The navigation system is… unorthodox. No traditional steering wheel. Just a variety of game controllers plus a dubstep keyboard and an aviation throttle all linked to several big screens.

The girl is nearly here. Make a decision, Connor. And make it fast. 

He lunges for the aviation throttle, but before he could push forward the girl screams that name again.

Travis. 

Travis… 

That name… that name sounds so familiar, even as it tears a hole in his chest. Travis… Travis… Travis is… Travis is someone important… someone he treasures. But that’s ridiculous. He never met a person named Travis before at all (Liar. Think harder.) 

No. Stop it. Camp Jupiter. You’re going to prove Octavian wrong, remember? Don’t you want to rub it in Octavian’s face? Don’t you want to rub it in all their faces about his success? Then stop listening to the voice and just do it, you loser. 

Connor grits his teeth, grips the throttle, and pushes it forward. The ship angles downward slowly. Not exactly what he wants to do. How does he lower the ship? Ah, whatever. He doesn’t have to bring the ship down. As long as he keeps it in place until the eagles could get here. 

The dubstep keyboard probably controls the ship’s cannons, oars, and mast. He stabs his dagger into the keyboard, flinching from the resulting sparks. The Wii remote he doesn’t have a clue as to what it does, but he jabs it with his dagger too. As for the monitors, he cuts the wires on the back and watches the screens turn black. 

Looks like they made a stop at McDonald’s before coming here. The soda cup sitting on the dashboard is half full and from the transparent lid, he can tell it’s definitely not water. Great! 

He’s about to reach for the cup when the girl pushes him aside with enough force to knock him to his back. 

“Crap. Crap. Crap. You couldn’t have made this simpler could you, Leo?” the blonde curses as she spends a second to stare at the controls in confusion before she finally spotted the throttle. That second cost her. Connor sweeps his foot on the back of her knees, watching her lose balance and hit her head on the dashboard. 

She glares at him and oh man, her glare?  It’s definitely enough to make him want to quiver in fear. But that’s something Octavian loves to poke fun at so he fires up whatever specks of courage he still has left and says, “You shouldn’t have attacked my home.”

“Your home?” Her eyebrows furrow. “Jason wasn’t lying. You’re really not Travis, are you?”

Connor clenches his eyes shut and wills the pain away with minimal success. Why does that name always do this? He doesn’t understand. His head… his whole body… it feels like he’s been shot and dunked in an ice bath. Fuck. He hates this. He hates everything right now.

“I’m not,” he starts to say, but the world spins dangerously. Don’t pass out again. Don’t pass out. Now’s not the time. “My name isn’t Travis. It’s Connor. I’m an only child.”

The girl hums. She probably doesn’t think he noticed her hand itching back up to the controls, but he sees it and he tackles her. Not that it did much. In seconds, he’s pinned on his back in a rear chokehold.

“Are you sure you’re an only child?” the girl grunts into his ears, tightening her hold. “We have someone who looks exactly like you back in my camp.”

“Sure you do,” Connor mutters and tries to roll around, failing spectacularly. But at least the girl is too occupied to reach the controls. If he can keep them this way for a while longer, then—

“Annabeth! We need to go!” Percy yells, running into view. “Terminus is firing up an attack and I don’t think this ship can withstand it.” 

“Kinda busy, Percy,” the girl — Annabeth — yells back, “I’ll hold him down. You get us out of here. Pull the throttle all the way back.” 

Connor sucks in a quick breath, pulls his grappling hook from his belt, stops himself from crying when Annabeth tightens her hold, and aims the hook at what he hopes is the dashboard. Annabeth attempts to snatch his weapon away. Or maybe she was trying to mess up his aim. Either way, the pressure on his throat lets up slightly and he elbows her hard in the side. She hisses in pain, pulling back more and Connor lets the back of his fist rocket back and hit her smack in the face. 

As she curses and clenches her nose, Connor rolls back up to his feet and takes aim again, focusing on the dashboard and pressing the trigger. The hook shoots forward. 

Amazingly enough, Percy notices the hook firing despite the barely noticeable gush of air released. He spins and swings Riptide down on the hook to knock it out of the way. But Connor kinda already knows Percy is that capable. He saw the guy fight. 

The hook fell to the ground, right next to Percy’s shoes.

Did he feel any guilt when he retracts the hook, the hook snagging on the shoe, and watches the son of Poseidon fall flat on his face?

No. Not really. His favorite boba shop was blasted to pieces because of them. This is just penance.

Connor stands and dodges Annabeth’s lunge, tossing the gun on top of her head. He runs to the controls, leaping over Percy’s groaning body, and grabs the soda cup again. If he pours it over the controls, it should fry the mechanics, shouldn’t it? If it doesn’t… two versus one isn’t ideal but all he has to do is hold them here long enough for Terminus to attack then boom. Goodbye ship. Hello Justice. 

“Connor.”

Now isn’t that a familiar voice? Connor bites his cheeks, but he doesn’t let go of the cup. Pour it.

“Connor, wait.”

“... why should I, Jason?” Connor says. Pour it. What are you doing? 

Connor chances the second to glance up at Jason, standing with the help of a brunette and wearing an orange shirt. He’s not a friend. He let his Camp be attacked. He’s an enemy. 

Even still... 

“You’re hurt,” Connor states, watching blood trickle down Jason’s temple. “What happened? Did another brick get to you?”

Jason rolls his eyes as the brunette stares between them. “Yes, it was a brick just like two years ago. Funny, I know. Absolutely hilarious. We can laugh about this later but Connor, I need you to listen to me. Put down the cup.”

Connor raises it instead. “No.”

“Connor,” the brunette begins to say, voice calm. “Put down the cup. Let’s talk this out.”

For some reason, her voice just makes him all the more angrier. 

“No.” He pops the lid. 

“I know you’re angry,” Jason says, tone slightly hurried now, “I know you think if you stop us from leaving, they’ll accept you. But the truth is—”

“Angry is kind of an understatement, Jason,” Connor snaps.

Jason continues like he never talked. “Octavian and his lackeys were never going to accept you. You fought in the titan war. You defended it the same as any of us. That should have been enough. Doing this won’t change their opinion.”

(He’s right, you know.)

His vision swarms, hard blinking no longer working on curbing the nausea away. A hand grasps his shoulder and he knocks it aside. Somehow Jason stumbles to his side. More than anything in the world, Connor hates the concern on Jason’s face. It makes him feel incompetent. Worthless. Weak.   

“I don’t care about being accepted. You attacked us. You need to face justice.” His voice breaks towards the end. 

“It’s to save the world,” Jason states. His hand grips his wrist holding the cup. 

(Let’s leave.)

“The… world? Come on. You’re exaggerating,” he snorts, but he could feel his resolve crumbling.

Jason shakes his head. “No, I’m not. This is to save the world.”

(Let’s go east)

The pounding in his head isn’t making understanding any of this easier. He blinks hard again, rubbing the heel of his hand over his eyes. 

(And then you can finally find him.)

“The titans are rising.” (Leave)

Ah. 

“Me, Piper, Leo, all of us. We are going to stop it.” (Go east)

It’s happening again. 

“So please.” (Someone is waiting for you)

That dream. That woman with two kids in her arms. He can’t see their faces. He could never see their faces. But they’re important. He needs to see them again. He needs to find them. (East.) 

“Connor? Hey? You okay? Are you still there?”

When Jason places a hand on his shoulder again, he doesn't bother knocking it aside. He looks down at the controls, not believing what he’s going to say next. 

“It’s… really to save the world?” (Someone is in this world. Might as well let it be saved as you go east and find your—)

Jason nods and Connor’s chest tightens like a hand is squeezing over it. 

“I really, really hate you,” Connor says, pouring the drink onto the deck and stepping back.

The three fates appear behind Jason, wrinkly, old faces judging him and judging him hard. 

Yeah, yeah. My promise. I didn’t forget. 

“Wipe that smile off your face, Jason.” Connor scowls, bumping his friend’s shoulder as he turns around and walks to the rail. “You destroyed my favorite boba shop. When this is all over, I’m making you buy me as many boba drinks I want forever.”

The stupid grin doesn’t drop from Jason’s face. “5 boba drinks a month. I can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars for your boba addiction. Hey, Connor, where are you going?”

Connor didn’t answer as he stops by the rail. He can see Frank as a dragon distracting Terminus down below. He can see Hazel putting out the fires on the sails. He can see he’s thousands of feet above the ground. Everybody is just a dot. The giant eagles are finally here and racing towards the ship, but they’re probably not going make it. 

“Connor?” Jason asks quizzically.

He steps atop the rail.

“Connor!?”

I can’t believe you gave up so easily . 

“Connor, get dow—”

And jumps down back to Camp Jupiter.

Out of the four seasons, Connor has to say summer is his favorite. It’s warm. It’s bright. It’s full of life. Going out of camp with his friends and visiting the sea lions at Pier 39 is his favorite activity to do ever. 

(And the summer atmosphere reminds him of someone. He likes summer too.)

Someone catches him as he’s falling, her cheerful voice telling him who saved his life. But Connor opens his eyes just a tad to double check, resting his head on the uncomfy armor. 

“Thanks, Gwen,” he mumbles. 

“You’re welcome, you idiot. Octavian was going to let you fall to your death, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.”

“Thanks.” It might have been better if he’d just fallen to his death though.

He listens to the eagles’ flap their wings, but they’re not going to reach the ship. Octavian’s cussing confirms Jason and the others are gone. He still opens his eyes though to see the tail end of the ship disappear into the clouds. The glares he gets from Octavian and the others are enough to make him squirm closer into Gwen’s arms.

“Don’t let them get to you,” she says to him with undeserved support. “They couldn’t even get on board the ship.”

“Gwen,” he murmurs, “I let them go.”

But she just says it's okay, smiling with her saccharine grin. “I kinda figured you will. Jason can make you do anything he wants. Don’t worry though. I’ll protect you from Octavian.”

Connor pouts. “No, he can’t.”

(Yes, he can.)

“Yes, he can,” Gwen says, her smile dropping in concern. “Connor, you should sleep. You look like you need it.”

(She's not wrong.)

Why don’t you just shut up?  

But that annoying voice of his is right. And he hates it when that stupid voice is right. It makes it so much harder to question its validity. 

#fanfiction #archive of our own #connor stoll #jason grace #pjo #hoo #au #ao3 #it's been 5.5 months #i have to say #that's pretty good

[mxmearcstapa]

Maddening Lions Update #3!

[WARNING. SPOILERS FOR FE3H AHEAD. CURRENTLY PLAYING LIONS ROUTE BUY SOMETIMES I TALK ABOUT OTHERS AND SOME PARALOGUES OVERLAP SO SORRY IN ADVANCE]

So for a time, my roommate kidnapped me to play Minecraft (foxes!!) but the Madlions continue! And I have moved quite a bit further. So much further that I'm splitting this update into TWO updates because I have too dang much to say.

And DLC wave 3 is out! Regrettably, I am so late in this run that I am not making as much use of the sauna as I could, and I am missing like alllll the new quests and whatnot, but I am loving the new outfits! I got all my boys in summer wear, and most of the girls are wearing evening wear (unless they're mounted--summer wear overrides for combat, but evening doesn't because the skirt is too long).

I have class outfits overridden and I swear we're Valkyria Chronicles now but everyone looks dapper af and I don't care for the Mortal Savant outfit so really this is better

Here's what we've been up to!

The Great Bridge of Myrrdin:

HEY, LORENZ, YOU'RE ON THE WRONG SIDE.

This absolute sunofabitch comes at me ready to throw down as a level 40 Paladin and comes back home to us as a LEVEL 14 SOLDIER. I understand that I did nothing to improve him over time and I shouldn't be surprised, but honestly I expected at least his current class to stay unlocked. Was I gonna use him? No. But it was simultaneously hilarious and jarring. I even made a meme:

AND DEDUE IS BACK MY BOOYYYYYY!!

I keep forgetting that Dedue returns at the beginning of this chapter instead of the end. It's so inspiring~ I had him classed as a Warrior before he left, and he was about 5 levels behind (yikes) but he survived well enough. With the power of Byleth's healing and exp gain, he caught up quickly enough.

For this battle, our main force went up the middle, and Byleth and Dimitri went on a magical bridge adventure on the side. Even though I re-learned the hard way that I AM NOT A FRONTLINER at the start of the timeskip, I believed erroneously that Byleth would be okay over there. I am not ashamed to admit that I had to pull out the Sword of the Creator to end that shit sooner than otherwise.

Paralogue: Dummy Thicc Thickets:

Sometimes I forget that not every battle requires you to kill every last one of them rout the enemy. Sometimes the battle objective is to defeat the commanders.

This is not a battle I forgot that in.

So, uh, Marianne was about level 9 when we started this one. The rest of the roster was mostly mid-high 30s? With Dancer Flayn creeping up the highest around 39. With the power of torches, some trial and error (and Divine Pulse Intervention--thanks Sothis), thicc thickets (40% cover is #blessed), and aggressive Striding, we gunned it for Maurice and beat the absolute shit out of him before he could so much as protest.

Thicket is love. Thicket is life.

And Marianne gained a single level casting Physic. *tiny sad low exp gain flags*

Worst Class Reunion in History:

I learned from the last times I did this map. Hahaha. With all students recruited, Gronder was monumentally easier. And I can't speak for Golden Deer players, but for Blue Lions, I'm telling you: avoid the center hill. The not-Bernie archer could not do enough meaningful damage to anyone I put in their range, and most importantly, it gave us much-needed distance from Claude's disgusting wyvern range.

I like to see the special dialogue, so I went out of my way to send Dimitri to fight Edelgard. This is probably one of the most chilling interactions between the two of them. Holy cats does Chris Hackney deliver this shit.

Gronder is such an intense and important battle, and I wish so hard it was executed just a little better. The pieces are all there, but some don't fit together correctly, or create discord between story and gameplay. I have never quite understood why the Alliance chooses to so aggressively attack when my Kingdom intentionally stays out of their way. If the battlefield were covered in actual fog, it might make more sense (though SOTHIS it would be a NIGHTMARE). Instead, Claude comes off as capricious, not as a "Master Tactician."

But with some suspension of disbelief, Gronder still packs an emotional punch. And hot fucking damn, Chris Hackney's voice acting. The cutscene after Gronder is some of the most intense and moving shit in the game. The way his fucking voice cracks at, "But you seem to have all the answers, Professor," is utterly destroying. I love the Blue Lions for many reasons, but I'd recommend it just to get to this scene alone. It is beautiful and humbling.

Paralogue: One Big Turtle:

Hey did you know that Lethality procs off Gambits, too? Because that was an absolute delight to learn.

I almost didn't do this paralogue because of the FOG and Leonie and Linhardt being so low-leveled like anyone not on the A-team, but this was really the only chance I was going to get to fight a 3x3 beast on Blue Lions, so my curiosity won out. Plus, the dialogue in the cutscene leading up to this is some of my favorite. It is really a shame that Linhardt and Leonie don't have more dialogue/supports.

With enough torches, this level is reasonable, and fighting The Immovable was fun! Probably as much fun for me as it was for him. And I finally took Flayn to fight a Saint, which is a riot.

"Oh, hey, Cethleann!"

"UNCLE, SHUT UP!"

Next Update: Bernie/Petra Paralogue, Retaking Fhirdiad, Ferdie/Lysithea Paralogue, and Saving Claude!

Roster (post Saint-smacking):

To see the class progression, please check my earlier updates! It's a lot of text to repost 😭

Unit: Class (Most Used Weapons)

Byleth: Enlightened One (Brawl and Faith)

Dimitri: Great Lord (Lances)

Dedue: Wyvern Lord (Axes)

Ashe: Bow Knight (Bows) duh

Ingrid: Holy Knight (Lances, Faith)

Annette: Mortal Savant (Levin Sword+, Reason)

Sylvain: Mortal Savant (Burn until we meet again Reason)

Flayn: Dancer (Levin Sword+)

Felix: Warmaster (PUNCH!)

Gilbert: Great Knight (Axes, Lances)

Caspar: Wyvern Lord (Axes)

Hilda: Falcon Knight (Lance's, Axes)

You Two Should Kiss! (Intended Pairings):

• Dimitri and Byleth (I AM SHAMELESS TRAAAASSSHHH)

• Sylvain and Felix

• Ashe and Ingrid

• Mercedes and Annette

• Flayn and Dedue

• Caspar and Hilda

• Dorothea and Petra

• Ferdinand and Manuela

• Catherine and Shamir

• Hanneman and Lysithea (thankfully not romantic)

#fire emblem three houses #fire emblem #fe16 #fe16 spoilers #fe3h timeskip #fe3h #molly's madlions #maddening mode #madlions #my extra support points now go towards my matchmaking business #blue lions #in this house we stan Chris Hackney