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pollyanna-nana · 5 months

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“I can’t help anyone…”

An analysis of Kieran and how it relates to his most controversial scene.

Warning for Indigo Disk DLC spoilers ahead

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Greetings! I’ve made it no secret that, despite what some people think of him, I am very fond of Kieran Pokémon’s little emo ass. As a result, when perusing the tags I’ve been bombarded with a lot of very… questionable takes regarding his personality and character, which I simply do not agree with. In particular, I’ve seen a lot of interpretations of a specific scene that I don’t think get at the heart of the story and have some fundamental misunderstandings of the subtextual clues we’re given about how Kieran and Carmine were raised, and I wanted to take the opportunity to present my own interpretations and how I have come to understand this young boy’s complex journey to self acceptance.

This scene, right here, has been the source of many specific complaints I’ve seen regarding Kieran’s character. I’ve seen people saying that his actions here make him a bully, that he’s shaming a fellow student for having troubles at home, and generally is an unpleasant, entitled person. And while I think there’s definitely some truth to those points (and they make him all the more interesting…) I don’t think a lot of these people are thinking about what this scene is really trying to tell us.

Yes, it’s showing the player that Kieran has changed since we last saw him. That his shy, kind demeanor has been supplanted by a stark cruelty that was hinted at in the end of Teal Mask, and that we have reason to fear and fear for him. However. I would argue that it also serves to tell us more about what Kieran himself has dealt with as a student at Blueberry academy. Specifically...

Kieran’s struggle with identity and self worth.

From the earliest segments of Teal Mask, we get strong indications that Kieran has quite the inferiority complex. Worse still, said feelings are reinforced by the people around him, knowingly or not. Here, when Carmine tells us that Kieran's "nearly as strong as she is", we know she simply means to compliment us in her own Carmine-ish way. However, purposefully or not, it reinforces Kieran's idea as someone who is always, at best, almost good enough. Almost as strong as his sister. Never as or more.

He tells the player that he'll hang back, not wanting to get in our way. With no prior prompting, either. How many times has he been made to feel that he was a burden? I adore Carmine, but one of her most pressing flaws is her struggle to make Kieran feel loved and wanted. Which, is actually pretty normal between siblings as she herself is a child. But still, given how much Kieran clearly loves and respects her, her words hold a lot of weight. And it's only Carmine who we get to see treat Kieran this way. While it's possible it's coming almost entirely from her, I'll discuss later why I think it may be more complicated than that. For now, though, it's clear that Kieran himself thinks very lowly of his abilities and would rather stay out of people's way, lest they berate him for perceived inadequacies.

He's had problematic behavior modeled for him by Carmine.

Here, too, we see how Carmine's treatment of him reinforced some very negative ideas of interpersonal conflict and resolution. All throughout Teal Mask, Carmine is telling him to shut up and be quiet, and does what she thinks is best for him without consideration for how it may make him feel. No physical violence, but emotional abuse is abuse all the same. While we know that she was ultimately trying to do what was best for him, and had very good reasons for keeping secrets, its undeniable that the words she used only further reinforced the idea that the strong will push around the weak, and that they have no need for anyone who falls behind in some way.

This scene in particular is fascinating, as we get to see first hand the kind of dynamic that pushed his feelings of inadequacy towards the breaking point. Here, after the player and Carmine run into Ogerpon for the first time, he thinks her weird behavior is because they were making fun of him. It's already sad that he would jump to that conclusion, but then Carmine smiles through his entire dialogue and says nothing. No reassurance, no denial, nothing. Kieran walked away from this conversation thinking that his sister and his new friend were talking about how much they dislike him. Speaking from personal experience, constantly feeling like people are talking about you behind your back at a young age can lead to you becoming brutally honest in a maladaptive way, and it can lead to people thinking you're cruel and unkind because you refuse to keep your thoughts to yourself.

Generational trauma, neurodivergence and cycles of abuse.

Here is where we leave screenshot land for a bit and I talk more about things that I suspect to be true, but cannot ultimately prove. However, I ask that you bear with me here and consider what may be going on above the heads of the child protagonists in a children's video game. (After all, if some people can write whole essays comparing Kieran's behavior to some very serious real-world events... I think I am within my right here!)

Kieran and Carmine, to me, match very strongly with the idea that they came from a bad home life. I don't necessarily mean their grandparents, as they seem nice enough (though flawed), but instead that their parents, whoever they were, contributed substantially to their strained relationship and problematic behavior. This post may seem very Carmine-negative, but I actually do not blame her for what she's done, not really. I do think that she has the agency and experience to take responsibility for how she's treated her brother, but I also think that it is something that was modeled for her by her parents, caretakers and teachers. I think it's very important to keep in mind in all conversations about these two that negative behaviors like these rarely manifest out of the ether. When I see child characters acting this way, I think less "wow, what horrible people!" and more "who in your life is modeling this kind of behavior for you?"

Full disclosure: I am an older sister myself, and my younger sister is very close to me in age in the same way that I see Carmine and Kieran as being. I see a lot of myself in her, which is why I deeply understand her frame of mind in everything here. Being expected to be the emotionally mature one in a sibling dynamic is difficult when you're so close in age, and it can lead to a lot of frustration as you feel like you're made to grow up too fast while your younger sibling is shielded from responsibility. It also doesn't help if the adults in your life model a lot of negative behavior, especially power dynamics, and if you have any sort of neurodivergency.

Speaking of... I wholeheartedly agree with the interpretations of the siblings having some combination of autism, ADHD, BPD or several other potential conditions. I won't go into depth, but without question there's something going on with them that's both untreated and misunderstood by those around them. Which, makes a lot of sense considering where they come from. Kitakami is a small nation, mostly agriculture based, and Carmine in particular is very resistant to the idea of it becoming a tourist destination for wealthier countries. They may not have the resources and infrastructure, along with cultural awareness, to properly diagnose and treat certain mental health conditions. Kieran doesn't even have a phone!

Something I don't see mentioned often is how Kieran and Carmine being at Blueberry is more than likely a very isolating experience for both. Being at a prestigious school in Poke-America, when coming from rural Poke-Japan, must've been a very difficult transition. Given that it doesn't seem like ANY of the adults in their lives are interested in their mental and physical well-being, I can only imagine that exacerbated their already existing issues. Not to mention that the culture of BB seems to be overly concerned with strength in battles, it's no wonder that both children's worst traits were made to fester over time.

Entitlement and disenfranchisement

Okay, enough of that. Back to screenshots. Here I want to talk about how some people interpret Kieran as being bratty and entitled, and while I don't necessarily disagree, I think with the context of everything previously laid out in this post that it's a lot deeper than simple entitlement. We know, from his own words, that all he wants is acceptance, independence, and meaningful human connections. To him, that comes in the form of strong pokemon (acceptance at the academy), going anywhere he wants (feeling empowered and self-confident), and being able to make friends with "anyone". Any friends at all, really.

While his "I worked so hard, and for what?! I STILL lost in the end!" can feel petulant and whiny, it also cuts deep for anyone who has grown up without. I think it's very important to note that Kieran is at precisely the age when systemic inequalities really start to weigh on someone, and before the brain and life experiences are developed enough to handle it in a healthy way. While some cope better than others, for many around this age the weight of knowing that there are people out there who simply have more than you ever will not by any sort of effort or triumph, but rather than the dumb luck of birth into a wealthy, privileged setting... well, it can be crushing.

It's something most grow out of, but for a kid like Kieran, who was so obsessed with the story of a genuine injustice (Ogerpon vs. the 'loyal' three), is it any wonder that he would react this way? The player is a particularly extreme example, of course, as protagonist powers are some real bullshit. Coming to terms with the fact that the system has failed him, but he can still achieve great things and become a person he can be proud of, is something that will probably only come with time and wisdom as it does for most of us. In the interim, though, petty teenage tantrums are to be more or less expected.

Feeling powerless.

In case you think I'm extrapolating far too much, I think it's important to note that, after the severe shock that was Terapagos breaking out of its own ball, Kieran reinforces all of these ideas himself. Here, when Carmine is begging him to help you, he refuses not because of hatred of you but rather his own self-doubt and loathing. Which, ultimately, has always been the core of everything Kieran has done up to this point in Indigo Disk's plot. He believed so strongly that if only he could become stronger, then he could prove to everyone, and more importantly himself, that he was worthy of taking up space and achieving his own dreams. But it's here, when everything truly comes crashing down around him, that the facade slips and shows Kieran as he truly is- a little boy who feels helpless in his current circumstances.

I've seen people say that when he cries after becoming determined to help you defeat Terapagos, it's out of jealousy or anger. However, I couldn't disagree more. The light returning to his eyes shows, in my view, that Kieran feels hope for the first time since he had his dreams crushed back in Teal Mask. That, even though he feels powerless, even though he's hurt people and hurt himself, he's still wanted. That he can do something meaningful, even if it's just cleaning up the mess he helped to make. (Briar don't think I've forgotten about you. You're the most culpable in this situation given you're the only adult- but I digress.)

In conclusion.

He bapy.

No but really, what does all of this even mean? I think going back and reading the conversation at the start of the post, especially if you were initially put off by it, with the context outlined here changes a lot about how one can interpret Kieran's behavior. Note that I am not trying to justify anything he said or did, but rather point out that this fictional child has some serious, unresolved issues that deserve time and thought turned towards them, especially in the way that they reflect real-world individuals and systems. Ultimately, if you want my opinion I think Kieran would be a pretty nasty person to know in real life if I was in school still, but you know what? So was I at his age. And so were most people, if I'm being honest. But that doesn't tarnish a person forever. All of life isn't high school, even though Kieran- or you, reading this right now- may feel like it is. He has a lot of growing up to do, but that's life. And in the meantime, he sure is one hell of an interesting character to follow.

#polly speaks #polly writes #pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #indigo disk #indigo disk spoilers #teal mask #pokemon kieran #rival kieran #pokemon carmine #kieran posting #character analysis #tw bullying #tw abuse #ask to tag #im tired. anyway im going grocy shopping anyone want anything from tjs

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chrollohearttags · 3 months

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long winded ass post I contemplated not writing but did it anyways. read if you’d like or ignore lmao.

so I feel as though this kind of goes without saying but a lot has changed on tumblr and the vibe has shifted a lot, sadly, not for the better either :/ I thought about this for a while and although last week, I was not posting any new content due to the strike, I’ve decided to step away from writing in general after this month. I could sit here and go on a tangent about how it’s the ‘algorithm’ and ‘dying fandoms’ but to me, this boils down to the fact that I refuse to exhaust myself to be unappreciated + disrespected. That’s not to say I’m ungrateful to everyone who reblogs and comments on my works all the time because I am incredibly grateful! I love each of you and I look forward to reading your tags/thoughts. However, it’s not lost on me that the anime fandom in general is becoming shrouded in toxicity and many of us are being pushed away. We’re in an age where people are seen as content machines and not humans so others feel entitled to their art and feel no need to be kind, understanding or empathetic to that person’s feelings. I’m not wasting my time trying to teach people manners that they should’ve learned a long time ago. I refuse to share my craft with people like that. And to say the quietest part out loud: y’all don’t want black writers around, PERIOD. One scroll through the dash shows that much. As someone who’s written primarily for AOT (not changing btw) and specifically the black side of the fandom, it’s almost laughable at the extreme lengths that ppl have gone through to see it be erased. And I don’t mean getting fics hit with labels or reporting (that failed so they switched to plan B.) since I began back writing in 2020-21, it was obvious that it was the most popular among black girls and I remember ppl telling me to write for them. Hell, it’s the sole reason I even watched. Needless to say, I fell in love with the show and it holds a special place in my heart. However, I realized I didn’t need any of the original material. Not only that, in all the years I’ve been writing, it’s the first time I’ve seen so many black girls resonating and happy with a group of characters. It was the first and only time I’ve seen stories where I didn’t feel as though them being a black character was a hidden secret or toned down to appeal to others (no shade). It was in my face and proud, even if I didn’t personally resonate with the reader or concept of the story. It still felt good coming from a fandom where I was literally the ONLY black writer in it. Fast forward and I clearly see that now, it’s not welcomed. We could sit here and blame it on non-blk (yt) having the problems but that’s a load of bullshit and the only enemies we have are one another. It’s been other black writers who have littered the tags with discourse abt the same stupid topic to avoid new fics being seen. It’s been other black writers who have switched fandoms when they were no longer the ONLY ones bc coexisting is just too damn hard apparently. It’s been other black authors who have made it blatantly clear that they are only interested in seeing and creating stories that are palatable to other races so they won’t be perceived in a negative light or to be seen as one of the ‘good ones’. Even down to not using black reader tags or avoiding coded language. So much so, they are comfortable laughing at anti-black rhetoric being pushed on other apps so as long as their new favs are not the brunt of the joke.

I’m not here to tell anybody how or what to write. I’m not here to say you ONLY have to like one show but what I am saying is that i will NOT be spending hours and days agonizing over a fic for it to be minimized to a joke for a bitch on TikTok. I will not spend the little free time I have trying to crunch and finish a fic for it not do well but watch y’all pile in my mentions to argue over nonsense. And I won’t sit here and watch y’all purposely try to run other black writers away bc they don’t fit ur aesthetic. Fiction is fiction and whether you resonate with it or not, it’s expression. I’m a boring ass country bumpkin from the middle of nowhere, Florida who’s got social anxiety, chronically ill, neurodivergent and is in bed by 10:00. I don’t smoke, never had sex and I literally never leave the house unless I’m grocery shopping. I never have and never will live the life of any of my characters, even the most tame ones. But I write for EVERY black girl and want everyone of them to be seen. The one space where that seems to be allowed is obviously not welcomed anymore. Arguing and trying to defend ourselves against people who are committed to misunderstanding us is pointless. Minimizing us down to ‘baby mama’, ‘hoodrat’ fics, simply bc you no longer like certain characters (many of which you all were writing for not too long ago) is quite frankly clown and coon ass behavior. Watching y’all become enraged by tropes that are used by ever race, every fandom, etc but turning the blind eye bc it suits ur narrative is fucking hypocritical and laughable at best.

I’m not insecure in my writing. Never have been and never will be. I know I pour everything I have into creating the best work I can and it’s for that reason that I won’t allow it to be treated like trash. I have over 250 drafts in my Google docs and best believe, that’s where they’ll stay until I see fit. Although I know it’ll probably mean leaving the last place I have any sense of community and social interaction in general, it’s not worth coming on here angry everyday in defense mode. Its not worth getting out of my character over and I rather just not be around if it means I have to play mean girl. My mind may change and all of this will just have been me getting shit off my chest but as of right now, this account will be archived come February 28th. Thank you to everybody who’s supported me this far and gave me a safe space. I love all of you so very much and hope that we can enjoy the rest of this month together 🫶🏾 🤍

#cherry chats 🍒#tw rant #tw discourse #tw long post #happy black history month lmao #writing #fanfic writer

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storiesforallfandoms · 11 months

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i don’t ever wanna see you with him ~ roman godfrey;hemlock grove

word count: 2551

request?: no

description: after he gets jealous of her best male friend, she decides to put him in his place

pairing: roman godfrey x female!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist (one, two, three)

Roman Godfrey was spoiled and entitled. Everyone in Hemlock Grove knew that. He was the heir to the massive empire in their small town, so it wasn’t a surprise that he had a sense of entitlement. That entitlement tended to extend to his romantic relationships, too. Roman was often very possessive and jealous over his girlfriends. Most of them liked that, most of them viewed it as hot and endearing.

(Y/N) was not one of those girls.

She and Roman had met through (Y/N)’s best friend, Peter. He was enamored with her the minute he laid his eyes on her, and, secretly, (Y/N) had felt the same way. Not that she would ever tell him that. She had been warned about Roman before she met him. She wasn’t about to give into him so easily; she made him work for it - for her. And he really did put in the work until (Y/N) trusted his commitment to her and agreed to date him.

There was one issue about Roman, though, and that was his jealousy towards (Y/N) and Peter’s friendship. He thought he kept it lowkey, but both Peter and (Y/N) knew. They both knew Roman better than he thought they did. They could see when his eyes darkened whenever he looked at them. They could see his jaw tighten whenever (Y/N) laughed at something Peter said. They could see the way Roman always needed to be touching (Y/N) whenever the three of them were hanging out.

It wasn’t that Roman didn’t like Peter. When it was just the two of them, they were the best of friends. It was Peter with (Y/N) that Roman didn’t like. And that was what pissed (Y/N) off. Peter had been her friend long before he was Roman’s, and long before Roman and (Y/N) started dating. And that’s all they were - friends. There had never been any sort of romantic feelings between them, and there never would be.

That’s why (Y/N) was walking up to Peter’s trailer on her own on a sunny afternoon. He was laying in a hammock, his eyes closed as he soaked up the sun. Upon hearing her footsteps, he opened one eye and peered over at her.

“Where’s your shadow?” he asked.

(Y/N) rolled her eyes. “He’s not that attached to me.”

“He may as well be a wart on your ass, (Y/N). Especially when it comes to me.”

“He’s certainly a pain in my ass,” (Y/N) muttered. “Move over, I want some hammock.”

Peter chuckled and shuffled over slightly. (Y/N) got into the hammock, laying with her feet towards Peter’s head and her head towards his feet. The hammock swayed with the motions before it settled again.

“He doesn’t know I’m here,” (Y/N) said as her body relaxed into the swaying fabric.

“What?” Peter asked.

“Roman. I didn’t tell him I was coming.”

“Is that healthy? Like, for your relationship.”

“I didn’t lie to him or anything. He’s busy with some family shit, so I haven’t even heard from him yet today. If he were to ask, I’d tell him I’m here.”

“And then he’d show up and kick my ass.”

(Y/N) sighed and rested her head back against the hammock. “Do you think he’ll ever stop being so...”

“So Roman?” Peter finished. (Y/N) nodded. “It’s hard to tell. His entire life he’s been surrounded by enablers, or he’s been under the control of his insane mother. I think we’re the first people to treat him like an actual person and not like he owns the world. So either we could help him, or he’ll annoy us both to a point where we can’t deal with him anymore.”

The latter option was what worried (Y/N) the most. She loved Roman, other than his jealousy he was an amazing boyfriend who loved and cared for her so deeply. She didn’t want to lose him, but she knew Peter had a point about if Roman couldn’t control that jealousy. She couldn’t live the rest of her life wondering how Roman was going to react to every guy she interacted with, whether it was friends, co-workers, or just random guys she ran into on the street. And she definitely was not going to be made to choose between Roman and Peter when she had known and been friends with Peter the longest.

She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Peter knew what she was thinking. It wasn’t the first time they had this conversation.

They fell into a comfortable silence. There really didn’t need to be any conversation. This was the first time in quite some time that the two were able to spend time together and actually enjoy it. So that’s what they were doing: enjoying their time.

The enjoyment didn’t last too long, though, as they heard a car pulling up in front of Peter’s place. Peter’s mom’s car was already in the driveway, so there was only one person it could be. That suspicion was confirmed by a car door slamming and Peter rolling his eyes when he saw whoever it was approaching. (Y/N) huffed out a sigh as she prepared herself for the argument that was undoubtably coming.

“You two look comfy,” Roman commented.

“We are,” Peter responded. “Wanna join? you can lay across us.”

Roman glared at him before turning to (Y/N). “I was trying to call you. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

She looked down at her purse where her phone was, which she had left on the ground when she climbed into the hammock. She gestured to it. “It’s too far away for me to reach. And my phone is on vibrate, as it always is, and you know that.”

His jaw clenched. (Y/N) felt her frustration reaching its peak.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here?” Roman asked.

“Well, for one, you haven’t responded to my texts at all today, so it’s not like I’ve even been talking to you today,” (Y/N) retorted. “And two, you don’t own me, Roman. I’m not required to tell you every single thing I’m doing or where I’m going.”

“You do if you’re hanging out with other guys by yourself.”

(Y/N) swung her legs over the side of the hammock and stood up so quickly that Peter nearly flipped out of it. She approached Roman with such ferocity that Roman took a step back before she reached him.

“Let me tell you one thing, Roman Godfrey: I’m done with this jealousy bullshit. I am not your property, I am your girlfriend. You do not control where I go or who I’m friends with. Especially when the person in question is my best friend who I’ve known way before I met you. This dark, entitled rich boy bullshit might work on other girls in this town, but it’s not working on me. If you want someone to put up with that, then you may as well find someone else to be your girlfriend, cause I can’t do this anymore.”

She picked up her purse and put it over her shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Roman asked as she started walking away.

“Anywhere that’s away from you!” she hissed. Over her shoulder she added, “I’ll talk to you later, Peter.”

~~~~~~

(Y/N) was home by herself that night. Her parents had gone out to some kind of function, and had asked if she wanted to tag along, but she told them to go on without her. She felt like she needed some time alone to come to terms with what had happened that day.

Peter had texted her asking if she was okay, but she hadn’t responded. She wasn’t upset with him by any means, as he didn’t even do anything wrong, but she just felt like she didn’t want to talk just yet. When she did respond, it was going to be to tell him she wanted to forget everything that had happened that day and to move on as if everything was normal, minus the fact that she and Roman were no longer together.

Roman hadn’t texted or called at all. She wasn’t sure if it hurt more that he hadn’t, or if it had hurt less.

She was sat in the living room, half paying attention to some movie that was playing on TV, when a knock came at the door. The sudden sound startled (Y/N). She wasn’t expecting anyone, and she knew her parents weren’t either as they weren’t even home. She figured it might be a door to door salesman, or someone trying to talk to her about the Lord, although it seemed too late at night for any of that. Either way, she stood from the couch and went to answer the door.

Standing there, leaning against her doorway, was Roman Godfrey.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him.

“Can I come in?” he asked in return.

“Not until you answer my question.”

“I came to talk to you.”

“You have a phone, which I know you know how to use because you were blowing mine up before you came to attack me and Peter.”

“I wanted to come talk to you in person. You’d be more likely to answer the door if you didn’t know I was coming than to answer your phone if you knew it was me calling.”

Okay, he has a point.

(Y/N) reluctantly stepped aside and gestured for Roman to come in. She closed the door behind him and led him towards the living room. She had been sat with all the lights off before Roman knocked and hadn’t realized just how dark the room had become. She switched on a small table lamp and muted the movie before sitting back in her spot on the couch.

“Your parents aren’t home?” Roman asked.

“No, they’re gone to some gala for dad’s work,” she responded. “Don’t get any funny ideas. We’re not together anymore, remember?”

Roman winced, as if her words had physically harmed him. “Yeah, I know. That’s what I came to talk about.”

He sat down next to her on the couch, but left a respectable distance between them. She appreciated that it seemed like he wasn’t trying to be too pushy towards her or anything, at least not yet.

“Go on then,” she said, waving her hand at him. “Start talking. What was so important that you had to come down from your castle to speak to the commoner?”

Roman scowled at her. “You know you’re not a commoner.”

“Compared to you and your wealth I am. But that’s not the conversation we’re having right now. Whatever it is you wanted to say, say it, and then I’ll decide whether or not I want you to leave immediately.”

Roman sighed and ran his hands through his hair. (Y/N) quickly glanced at the dark brown strands that were between his fingers. His hair was always incredibly soft. (Y/N) always loved to run her hands through his hair and seized every opportunity to do so. She had to look away just as quickly and shove down those painful memories. She couldn’t let herself break and go back to him just because of something so trivial.

“I’m sorry.”

The words shocked (Y/N) so much that she almost physically jumped when he said them. They were words she had very rarely ever heard said with such sincerity coming from Roman’s mouth. She had heard it in sarcastic mutters under his breath whenever his mother chastised him for something stupid, or said to defuse a situation that was getting a little too heated, but this wasn’t in either of those ways. This time, he actually meant it.

“Can you say that again?” (Y/N) asked.

Roman chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I said I’m sorry.”

“One more time.”

“(Y/N), I do have more to say.”

“Yeah, but this is what I want to hear.”

Roman shook his head at her, a smile threatening to break out across his face. “Look, what you said earlier, at Peter’s, you were right. You are my girlfriend, not my property. I shouldn’t have been so possessive and attempting to control your friendship with Peter. I just...every time you two are together, I’m reminded about the fact that you and Peter are close, and that you’ve been close for a very long time. I know that Peter isn’t as much of a prick as I am, some would say he’s an actual nice guy I guess. I know there’s nothing between the two of you, but there’s always been this fear in the back of my mind that maybe...maybe that could change. That you would want Peter more than you want me.”

There was hurt in his big green eyes. His confession surprised her because Roman always seemed so confident in himself. It was one of the first things she had ever heard about him, about how cocky he was.

“Why did you never tell me before?” she asked.

Roman shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to seem like a crazy, possessive boyfriend. I didn’t realize I had already been acting like that. I actually thought I was hiding it well.”

“Yeah, because showing up to Peter’s place because I didn’t answer my phone is totally not a crazy, jealous boyfriend move.”

He chuckled. “Okay, touché. That was not one of my better moments.”

“None of how you were acting was one of your better moments,” (Y/N) said. “I would’ve much preferred you to have told me how you were feeling instead of bottling them up and allowing yourself to treat your best friend like garbage whenever we were hanging out.”

Roman cringed. “I did treat Peter pretty terribly, didn’t I? God, he probably hates me.”

“You’re definitely not his favorite person right now, but I’m sure you can get back in his good graces by acting like an actual person and not like a jealous piece of shit.”

“What about your good graces?”

(Y/N) thought to herself for a moment. He had come to apologize in person. He knew the way he had acted was wrong, he actually apologized for it, and it seemed like he was willing to make a change. That’s what she wanted, wasn’t it? For him to work on the jealousy and actually change it.

“I think you can get back there,” she said. “You’ll just have to work for it again.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.”

(Y/N) smiled. She moved closer towards him and unmuted the movie. “You can start by cuddling me and finishing this bullshit movie with me.”

He smiled back at her and put his arm around her shoulder. “I can do that. But why are we finishing the movie if it’s bullshit?”

“Because I’m invested in the bullshit.”

Roman chuckled and pulled (Y/N) towards him. She rested her head against his shoulder and he put his head on hers. He tested the waters by placing a kiss on the top of her head. (Y/N) didn’t argue. Instead, she turned her head to kiss his cheek before settling against him again.

#Roman Godfrey #roman godfrey imagine #roman godfrey x reader #bill skarsgard #bill skarsgard imagine #bill skarsgard x reader #hemlock grove #hemlock grove imagine #imagine #one shot #fanfiction #fanfic #fandom

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shanastoryteller · 11 months

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Happy Birthday grandma! How about BFF WWX LXC and NMJ? Or female!MXY? Your choice🌻🌻🌻🌻🎉🎉🎉🎉

Ps. Made it?!?!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

Lan Xichen arrives to his brother and Xuanyu in the middle of an argument.

They’re surrounded by corpses, Xue Yang inexplicably among them, and the missing Xiao Xingchen is standing there huddled against Song Lan’s side, looking strangely small, while a blind girl stands on his other side.

Sizhui and Jingyi are staying several steps back in an attempt not to get caught in the couple’s argument.

He almost regrets leaving A-Yao behind with the rest of the disciples. It had made sense at the time, with the low but present chance that they’d run into trouble, but now he wishes he could be the one dealing with their siblings instead of him.

“-not just going to – XICHEN-GE! GET DOWN HERE!”

The disciples, who’d demanded to come along, cringe away and even send him sympathetic looks.

She only calls him Xichen-ge when she wants something. He’s pretty sure A-Yao taught her that.

He descends, jumping off his sword, and frowning when he gets a closer look at her. She has wounds around her waist and shoulder even though they seemed to have stopped bleeding and there’s a variety of colorful bruises on the bits of skin he can see on her, which means there’s even more hiding beneath her robes. “You’re injured.”

“It’s nothing,” she says dismissively. Wangji’s eyebrow twitches. “I want Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, and A-Qing to accompany us to Koi Tower.”

He assumes A-Qing is the blind girl. “Ah.”

“It’s not proper,” Wangji says, enough irritation bleeding though that this is clearly not the first time he’s said that.

She sends him a scathing look. “We can’t send them back to Cloud Recesses, Lan Qiren will eat them alive, and we can’t leave them alone. Look at them! Look around! They need help.”

“Ah, Madame Lan,” Song Lan says tentatively, “you’ve already done-”

“Shut up,” she says and his mouth snaps shut. Lan Xichen stares. He’s encountered Song Lan many times and has never seen him act like this. “Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? You deserve rest, all three of you, and while I would hardly call the Jin restful, it’s at least better than having to watch you back on the road.” She frowns. “Also, what’s with Madame Lan? I told you to call me Xuanyu. If you fight an army of the undead together, you don’t have to use titles. It’s a rule, or something.”

Wangji’s eyes narrow and Song Lan smiles at Xuanyu before he catches sight of Wangji’s expression and then his lips thin out into a straight line.

Lan Xichen can already feel a headache building.

She’s only been missing for a few hours. How did any of this even happen?

If he wants to find out, then he’s going to have to give in to her. She won’t tell him anything otherwise, he assumes, because A-Yao definitely wouldn’t. Besides, he has no reason to deny her. She is Madame Lan and Lady Jin and she’s more than entitled to add people to their traveling party and to invite wandering cultivators to Koi Tower.

“The rest of our party is nearby,” he says finally. “We’re happy for you to join us.”

His brother glares at him, but what does he expect him to do? She’s Wangji's wife.

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #awayinthewind #untamed

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celandeline · 25 days

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If You Never Shoot, You Never Know

Carl Grimes X Reader, Part 1 [previous part | next part]

All you want to do is eat.

You’re almost dead on your feet, exhausted after a day-long supply run with Daryl. For all your trouble, it had turned into a bit of a shitshow in the end, really, how were either of you supposed to know that there had been two dozen walkers in the basement? But you’re alive, and you’re back behind the walls of Alexandria, and Rick had seemed grateful for what supplies you had managed to scrounge up. So you feel entitled to treating yourself to grilled cheese.

You relax back against the island of your kitchen as you flip on the stove, dropping some butter in your frying pan to begin to melt. The delicious smell of frying butter begins to fill the room, and you close your eyes, savoring the scent. God, you’re starving.

A knock at your door interrupts the pleasant, buttery thoughts in your head, and you groan, trudging out of the kitchen. You already know who it is - no doubt the moment he saw you get home, he started over…

You whip open the door and lean against the frame, looking down at the boy on your porch. “What?”

Carl Grimes, with a bouquet of wildflowers clutched in his fist, smiles at you. “Brought you flowers.” He says, holding them out to you.

He’s been doing this for months now. Purposefully volunteering for work that he knows you’re doing, making up any excuse to spend time at your house, going out of his way to bring you things - your favorite snacks, a ring with your favorite color stone in it, a shirt for a band that you like, now also flowers. It’s cute, this little crush he has on you. But turning him down is getting a little tedious.

You sigh. “Carl, we’ve got to stop doing this.” Still, you hold your hand out for the flowers.

“Dunno what you mean.” He says even though he definitely does. He hands you the bouquet. “Can I come in?”

You hesitate for a minute, examining the flowers he’d brought. All pretty, all in shades of your favorite color. “Your dad know where you are? Or is he gonna come busting down my door looking for you again?”

His cheeks redden as you reference the worst afternoon of both of your lives. “I told him.”

“Sure then.” You say, holding the door open so that he can slip inside. “‘M making dinner if you’re hungry. Grilled cheese.”

“If you don’t mind.” He says, wiping his boots on your rug before stepping inside. Always the gentleman.

You look at him, exasperated. “When have I ever minded?” You ask, shutting the door and heading back into the kitchen, flowers in hand.

“Just trying to be polite.” He says, following after you.

You set the bouquet of flowers down on the island before turning back to your pan, dropping four slices of bread into the bubbling butter to begin frying. Carl makes himself comfortable on one of your barstools, watching as you pull a tall cracked glass out of one of your cabinets and fill it with water before dropping the flowers in. You set the makeshift vase in the center of the island with a smile. “Thanks.” You say. “They’re pretty.”

He grins. “They made me think of you.” He says. “Thought you might like them.”

You say nothing, ignoring how his little flirtatious comment makes you feel and instead focusing on the sandwiches. For a moment, the only sound in the kitchen is that of sizzling butter as you flip the slices of bread, until Carl speaks again.

“How was your day?” He asks.

“Alright.” You sigh. “Not as good as it could’ve been, but there’s always tomorrow. Now that Daryl and I know what we’re getting into, it should be easier to handle. And we can always bring more people with us.”

“I could come.” He offers immediately.

You shake your head. “You’ve got your own jobs. Plus,” You joke. “I don’t need you distracting me while I’m trying to kick walker ass.”

He tilts his head, a little smirk at the corner of his lips. “Do I distract you?”

“You wish.” You say.

“I do.” He shoots back, unashamed.

It’s annoying, how good he is at this. Makes it all the harder to keep reminding yourself why you can’t just give in to his advances. You’re three years older than him - which wouldn’t be a problem if he wasn’t freshly eighteen, but he is. And you’re already on Rick’s shit list when it comes to Carl - he’d almost throttled you when he found out Carl had asked you to sneak him some alcohol the next time you went on a run. He’d been furious, that day he was pounding on your door demanding to know where his son was - said he didn’t want him hanging around you, that you were ‘corrupting’ him. You can’t imagine what he’d do to you if you actually were to corrupt his boy, as he’d put it.

“Carl.” You sigh, flipping the bread again, making sure all the sides are a delicious golden brown.

“Sorry.” He says, not sounding sorry at all. “I know.”

And he does know - you’ve talked about it a lot, why this could never work. But the logic doesn’t seem to have deterred him at all.

“You’ve gotta drop it.” You say, folding some slices of cheese into the bread, two fully formed sandwiches sliding around the buttery pan now. You have to swallow to stop your mouth from watering.

“But you like it.” He says.

You roll your eyes.

“C’mon, you do.” He says, grinning as he gestures to the bouquet on display. “You would’ve actually told me to fuck off if you didn’t.” His icy blue eyes find yours. “If you tell me to fuck off, I will, you know that.”

You do know. But selfishly, you don’t want to tell him to go, even though you should. It’s silly to keep doing this when Rick will never ever let it happen, but he’s wormed his way into your affections. You like him. He’s sweet, and funny, and a great shot, and has the most beautiful eyes you’ve ever seen. And you like that he likes you, for whatever reason.

You scoop the sandwiches out of the pan and onto a plate before flipping the stove off. Coming around the island, you slide onto the barstool next to him, placing the plate between the two of you. You don’t bother waiting for him before you grab one for yourself, digging in. You swallow with a satisfied sigh. “God, I was starving.”

Carl bites into his own sandwich with a smile. “Thanks.” He says around a mouthful. “‘S good.”

“Welcome.” You say around another mouthful.

The kitchen is largely silent as you and Carl eat, until there’s nothing but crumbs left on the plate. Your stomach no longer threatening to start devouring your insides, you sink into the barstool, the exhaustion from your run finally catching up to you. You sigh, contentedly, and Carl smiles.

“Can I ask you a question?” He asks, his voice taking on that nervous tone that means he’s going to ask some mushy romantic stuff.

Even though you shouldn’t keep entertaining this, you say, “Sure.”

His gaze set on the marble countertop, he idly rolls a crumb between two fingers, contemplative. “If my dad wasn’t in the equation, would you let me date you?” His eyes shift under his hat, glancing quickly over to you.

You should say no, even if it’s not the truth. If Rick wasn’t part of the equation - or even if you were in his good graces - you’d let Carl date you. Of course you would. But that’s not how things are - as is, Rick would mount your head on a spike. You should say no. But when those icy blue eyes are boring into your soul, it’s hard to be dishonest. “Yeah.” You say, playing it off with a shrug. “Seems like the only way to get you to stop pestering me with flowers and whatnot.”

Carl grins, the kind of smile that only comes from getting exactly what you want. “Follow up question,” He starts, grin turning mischievous. “If we just didn’t tell my dad anything, would you-”

“Absolutely not, no.” You laugh. “You want to fool around in secret? That would make everything a thousand times worse, what are you thinking? If Rick ever found out-”

Carl turns in his seat to face you, sliding a hand across the marble countertop to interlace his fingers with yours. “Please.” He says. “You already said that if getting in trouble with my dad wasn’t a problem you’d be okay with us being a thing. If he never finds out, what’s the problem?”

You shove down the feeling that shoots through you when he laces his fingers together with yours. “I’m still older than you. You’re barely an adult, I mean, have you ever even had a girlfriend before?”

His cheeks redden. “No.”

“I can’t be the first. I can’t set the standard for all of your relationships after this one. You should date someone your own age, I’m sure there’s plenty of girls around here that have crushes on you-”

“I don’t want to date someone my own age.” Carl says. “The people my age here have been sheltered in Alexandria almost their whole lives. They don’t know what it’s like outside these walls. Talking to them feels like talking to middle schoolers.” He squeezes your hand. “But you know what it’s like out there, you’re out there with the groups going on supply runs all the time. You know how to defend yourself, and you’re not afraid of the walkers. I can actually talk to you about that stuff. And if anything were to ever happen, if walkers were to get in the walls again, I know you’d be able to take care of yourself.”

The way he looks at you with such admiration makes your heart do a funny flip in your chest. “You make this very hard, you know.” You tease, trying to ignore the urge to kiss him.

“It doesn’t have to be.” He says. “I don’t care that my dad thinks you’re a bad influence, and I don’t care that you’re older than me. I like you because you’re strong, and you’re pretty, and you’re the funniest person I know. It shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

You tilt your head and sigh, squeezing his hand back. “You’re right. It shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks.” You say. “But unfortunately it does. Your dad calls the shots around here, and it’s bad enough that he already doesn’t like me. I don’t want to make it worse.”

“What if I talk to him?” Carl asks. “It’s not really your fault that he doesn’t like you, I’m the one who asked you to sneak me alcohol, I could explain-”

“It’s already a done deal.” You say. “And I don’t blame Rick for being pissed with me for that, I should have had the wherewithal to tell you no.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m glad you didn’t.” He says.

“Yeah, I’m sure you are.” You say. Your gaze shifts to the window above the sink, the orange sun sinking below the horizon outside. “You should probably go home. It’s getting dark.”

Carl’s gaze follows yours, and he sighs. “Probably should.” He agrees sullenly. Slowly, he rises from his seat. “Thanks for the grilled cheese. And for talking to me.”

“You know you’re welcome anytime.” You say, standing up from your seat as well, despite your protesting muscles.

You walk him to the door, holding it open as he steps out onto the porch. He turns back to look at you, that mischievous glint in his eye again. “Can I do something?” He asks, voice low.

“Do what?” You shoot back, skeptical.

He doesn’t answer, instead just stepping closer to you, his eye darting down to your lips for a second before meeting your gaze again. He approaches slow, giving you plenty of time to back away if you want to, but you don’t even though you should. The image of Rick standing on his porch across the street flares in your mind, but you still don’t pull away, and let Carl’s lips meet yours in a tender embrace.

This kiss only lasts for a short moment before he’s pulling back, grinning like the cat who got the cream. “G’night.” He says.

“Night.” You return, stepping back through the threshold of your doorway before you do something stupid like kiss him again. You watch him retreat down your porch steps, catching the last grin he throws over his shoulder before he darts across the street, back home.

Closing your door, you sigh hopelessly into the silence of your home. He’s going to be the death of you, one way or another.

#carl grimes #carl grimes x reader #carl grimes x you #twd #the walking dead

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nordicmuse · 7 months

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Down by the River - Astarion x Tav Romance/Sm!t

After Astarion is shamed for what he is, he and Tav find themselves confronting the dynamic of their relationship, and if it can even be that.

Fading embers crackled as the group sat around the dying fire. It was late, and conversation had dulled to the occasional mumble about stiff muscles or the notice of a previously looked over wound. Tav stifled a yawn as she lazily spun a dagger between her fingers, having now cleaned it of goblin blood and polishing it until it shone her worse-for-wear face in the firelight.

Shadowheart rolled her head on her shoulders and sighed as an unpleasant pop sounded. Tav winced. To her right, Gale was nursing a sore knee, courtesy of a bad tumble, and sat with it out sideways, wrapped for support. They’d taken a hell of a beating today, but they were alive - more than what they could say for some of the druids and tieflings. Guilt still weighed heavily there it seemed.

Shadowheart stood on stiff legs and sighed, breaking the silence. “Well, I don’t know about the lot of you all, but today’s kicked my ass. I’m turning in.”

Tav opened her mouth to speak, but the rustling of leaves silenced her, making her palm her dagger. She relaxed as a mess of white hair pushed through the bushes and Astarion stepped into camp. His shirt was torn and bloodied from the day’s events, both his and slain foes alike, but where earlier they had browned as they dried, fresh bright splotches scattered amongst them. They were minimal, but undeniably there. He’d been feeding.

“Welcome back. Not that we noticed you were gone,” Shadowheart teased.

Gale rolled his eyes. “Must you go and do that while the rest of us are awake? We don’t exactly care to see-”

“Gale!” Tav whisper-shouted. She flashed apologetic eyes towards the vampire spawn.

Astarion rolled his eyes. “No, please, let him go on. You’re so very charming. I accept, but with a request of my own. You can’t eat in front of me either. Have to play fair, after all, and it’s hardly kind to rub it in that what I used to enjoy can’t sustain me anymore.”

“You should know to just ignore him by now,” Shadowheart chided him.

“Or better yet,” Astarion continued, “You eat whatever you want at any time, but if I see a speck of gravy on your shirt or a stray crumb, I’ll remind you just how inconsiderate you are.” His smirk did nothing to hide the pair of stained, elongated teeth at either corner of his mouth.

“You are vile,” Gale berated, raising awkwardly to stand on his bad knee.

“Hmf. Suppose that you are entitled to your opinions.”

“It’s not a huge favor to ask that you keep those monstrous tendencies to yourself. Though you clearly had no problem making it Tav’s prob-”

“That is enough!” Tav shouted, bolting to her feet. She pointed an admonishing finger at Gale. “You’re going to lecture him about what he eats when I had to watch you consume a pair of boots just yesterday? For fuck’s sake, find something better to gripe about!” she hissed.

“And you!” She turned to Astarion. “Learn when to walk away!”

A pregnant pause fell over the group as she stared them both down.

“Tav is right,” Shadowheart said. “We need to stop bickering. We’re all complicated. No use in pointing out what makes it different.”

Astarion glanced down at Tav, then brusquely averted his gaze. “Suppose you’re right. Now, if there’s nothing else to be said, I think I’ll be changing into fresh clothes and turning in.” As he stepped away, Gale scoffed to himself. Tav watched as Astarion hesitated that half-step, sighed, and continued to his tent.

Shadowheart and Gale excused themselves as well, but Tav stayed by the fire, sitting on her bedroll. Thoughts consumed her. Why were people so vile to him? He hadn’t hurt any of them. She grimaced. Well, not exactly. But she had let him. Of course she was aware that he had snuck up on her that first night. But she had offered himself to her freely, once the shock had passed. And, try as she might, she couldn’t convince herself that he would have fed from her if she had never stirred or simply refused. He tried to deny it at every turn, but that glimmer was there. Humanity.

And it made it all the damn more conflicting when she had offered herself to him again. And again. And again.

There was no denying it. She couldn’t hide the bruising or puncture marks on her neck, and she was admittedly lethargic the day following a feeding, but seeing him so rejuvenated made it somehow worth it. It didn’t make any damned sense. Why was she sacrificing herself for someone people saw as a monster? Probably because she didn’t see him that way at all. Not anymore.

And then something strange happened - Astarion had reeled her into a conversation about that fateful night, talked about how it seemed to have awoken an appetite (though he swore he had no intention of feeding off of Gale of Shadowheart), and being his musing, hypothetical self, he had asked her who she would feed off of if she were like him. And the answer came a bit too quickly. You. He’d laughed it off with thanks for the flattery, but she realized she had admitted something deeper than that.

Tav looked up from the all but extinguished fire, barely an ashen glow. Lanterns were snuffed out around the campsite, but the full moon illuminated the woods in a pale glow. She stood, muscles aching and face still stinging from the slash it had taken across the bridge of her nose and down her cheek today. She told herself she was just taking the long way around to her tent. It wasn’t her fault that it passed his. Besides… she wanted to check on him.

Her hand fell to the tent flap, hesitating as she was unsure of how best to get his attention when knocking wasn’t an option and she didn’t want their other companions to hear her call out to him. She pulled the tent flap back.

“Looking for me?” a saccharine voice whispered. She turned to Astarion’s tall frame leaning against a nearby tree, and dropped the flap.

She hung her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry-”

“Hush,” he said, a finger to his lips. He crooked his finger, beckoning. “Let them sleep. If you want to talk, I suggest we wander off some.”

She nodded, following him down a winding path to the riverbank, where the steady flow of water sang, drowning out their conversation.

“What were you doing out? I thought you were going to bed, too.”

“I could accuse you of the same. But if you mean to ask if I was feeding, then no, so you needn’t worry.” Defensive malice dripped from his words.

Her heart stung. Was he accusing her of being appalled? “You know I don’t care about that - not in any bad sense. So then what were you doing?”

He leaned back against a large boulder, arms crossed over his chest. “Thinking. I might be able to be in daylight now thanks to our little passengers, but I’ve been a dark dweller for hundreds of years. It’s oddly comforting once you’re used to it. A monster can hardly change its true nature,” he bit out.

“You’re not a monster.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“You don’t get to decide that! I let you feed off of me. Why would I let you do that unless I gave a damn about your wellbeing? When I know you can survive off of animals, yet bare my neck and let you take from me?”

He averted his eyes. “I never meant to insult you.” He stepped away from the boulder, staring into the black water. “But even I have to admit that you’re a puzzle I can’t solve.”

“It’s not a puzzle, Astarion. I just… I just want you to be okay,” she admitted, surprised by her boldness.

“I’ve survived how many more lifetimes than you, darling girl? I’ve managed,” he quipped.

You feel it, too. You have to…, her mind wondered.

Tav stepped forward, placing a firm hand on Astarion’s arm. “You might actually believe you’re a monster, or maybe that’s what you tell yourself to prepare for the inevitable storm of assholes that can’t see past their own prejudices. But I’m telling you what I see, and that has to be worth something.”

He turned, red eyes locking onto hers. “And what is that?”

Had her chest been heaving this hard a minute ago? Her breath stuttered. “I see you.”

His eyes fell to her lips, she shook with anticipation. Was he wondering what it would be like to close that gap just as much as she was? Her hand fell to his arm again, trailing down to his fingers as she locked her hand into his. Was he shaking? Yes, he was undoubtedly glancing between her eyes and lips, torn in the middle of a decision. One she wanted so badly to make for the both of them - but he needed to be the one to decide. To be allowed to choose for himself.

After what felt like many moments of empty promise, she pulled back, her hand leaving his. As she turned away, his eyes widened, like the loss had panicked him. He grabbed her hand and stared at her, uncertainty in his red eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“You’ve done nothing wrong.” And she meant it, by every definition.

He pulled her body against his, lips crashing onto hers with fervor. His hands cradled her neck as he backed her against the nearest tree, all semblance of his self-control lost. Good. She didn’t want it. His tongue searched for hers, a different kind of ravenous, and he groaned pleasurably as she wrapped her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers into his hair. His kisses trailed down her neck, hesitating at the marks he had left on her. He needed to be distracted from where his mind was returning to.

She used her leg to pull him flush into her body, an unmistakable hardness pressing against her. Both gasped at the contact. Her hands flew to his fresh shirt, opening the first few buttons, but he put his hand over hers. Breathless, he asked, “Leave it on. Please.” Shame clouded his eyes, brows furrowing. “I have… scars.”

“We all do,” Tav said, confusion riddling her voice. “Hell, I have an open cut running across my face right now. That will probably scar, too.”

Though his desire was palpable in the air, he pulled back another excruciating inch. “These ones are… different, to put it lightly.”

“From the transformation...” Her confused look softened, but turned to horror in her eyes. But not at him. At whoever could have done that to him.

Astarion didn’t say it, but he didn’t deny it. He backed up a step, though he looked physically pained to create the distance. “You don’t actually want this, Tav. You deserve better.”

“I want all of you.”

He grimaced. Fucking grimaced. “There’s not a lot of me left.”

She advanced, hand touching his cheek. “Then let me take whatever you will give.”

His eyes clouded with something - relief, resolve? But he nodded fervently and lurched in to kiss her like she was air and he was suffocating. She ran her hands over the planes of his chest exposed by the few buttons she had opened, wishing she could run them along his back, but respected his wishes. She would only take what she was given. His hands fumbled for her belt, unbuckling it as she pushed them down her thighs, exposing herself to the chill night. Her pants and boots were thrown haphazardly to the side, and they both heard the unmistakable tumbling and splash of something heavy hitting the water nearby.

They hesitated long enough to laugh as he lifted her into his arms, bracing her against the boulder. Tav cried out, biting off a moan as a long finger slid through her slick heat. Astarion groaned, producing the soaked finger in front of him. And sniffed. He was fucking smelling her.

“Oh, darling,” he purred. “I’ve tasted your blood. But this is going to be divine.”

Words couldn’t form as he sank to his knees, barely giving her a moment to realize his intentions before his warm tongue slid against her. She gasped, fingers tangling in his hair. She couldn’t help the involuntary tug when he sucked her clit into his mouth, working over the sensitive bud.

“Delicious,” he sighed against her.

Her brain fogged, and certainly not from the damned tadpole. But was it possible that everything she was feeling, he felt, too? It would explain the sense of mesmerized pride she felt.

“As-Astarion!” she begged, bucking her hips against his mouth.

He placed a steadying hand over her hip bone and broke away, causing her to cry out in frustration. “Quiet, now, or you’ll let everyone in on our little game here.”

Suave as he was, she knew. He didn’t want her to be embarrassed if she was caught with him. And it burned her, because nobody else gave a damn who fucked who the night before. Unless it was him, apparently.

“Let them hear,” she whispered. “I want them to know.”

“You say that-”

“Then believe me.”

She sank to her knees, shoving him backwards so she could straddle him. She unlaced his leather pants, growing frustrated with them and allowing him to free himself. He groaned at the relief from the confines, and need radiated in her core like alchemist’s fire. He was going to be the death of her, but not in the way he worried about.

Her hand encompassed him, and he jolted, lips parting. “Darling, I don’t mean to rush you, but I’m afraid you’re going to spoil your own fun if you keep that up.”

A smirk played at Tav’s lips. “Been a while?”

“What can I say? I’ve been a bit preoccupied with being kidnapped and turned into a nursery.” But the sharp, joking tone of his voice dropped. “But, yes. I don’t often take people to bed. Despite Gale’s prodding, I do still have impulse control, and I don’t seem to enjoy meaningless little trysts.”

She hesitated. “Are you saying this means something?”

“Please, don’t make me answer that tonight. But I think you already know that answer, even if I can’t bring myself to say it.”

“I understand.”

He took her hand, holding it between them. “Thank you.”

He coaxed her off of him and kneeled, closing his eyes as he unfastened the last buttons of his shirt.

“Astar-”

“I know what I said. And I have no plans of letting you see that. Not tonight, maybe not ever… but I’m not about to bed you on the cold ground,” he explained, pushing the white shirt off his shoulders and laying it on the ground. He beckoned her closer, drawing her into another fervent kiss and laying her onto the thin fabric. He kneeled over her, supporting himself on his forearms. They both sighed as his cock nudged her entrance. “Tell me to stop, and I will.”

“I don’t want you to.”

“Thank Gods.”

He pushed into her, sinking in inch by inch until his hips were flush with hers. Tav gasped, hooking her arms around him. She felt the marks a moment too late, and her eyes flew open, boring into his. But he was just watching her, studying her like he was waiting for regret to ebb into her eyes. It never came.

Her body ached from more than the ass beating she had taken today. It ached for him, wanted him impossibly closer. Her hips bucked as she tried to draw him in, causing his breath to stutter as his gaze grew hazy, setting a steady rhythm rocking into her.

“Astarion, fuck-” she gasped, pulling him flush to her chest. “I need you. Please.”

“Darling, you have me,” he rasped, punctuating the thought with a tantalizing grind of his hips that rubbed her clit as he moved. His movements grew feral as he kissed her fervently, head dipping down to her neck. She groaned at the distinct feel of his teeth grazing her neck. And though she knew he only did it to heighten her senses…

“I want- want you to- fuck… I want you to feed on me,” she begged.

Astarion’s hips stuttered as if the thought alone was going to drive him over the edge.

“Tav, now isn’t the time. I’ve had enough to satiate me.”

“But not enough to fill you. And you said it yourself - it can be extremely pleasurable in the right circumstances. And I want to give it.”

“Are you sure?” he breathed, eyes wide with doubt even as his hips rolled slowly against hers.

Her hands guided him to the healing bruise on her neck, and a moment passed where she questioned if he would accept her offer. And then a sharp sting radiated pain thorough her neck and shoulder. Pain and wooziness and… yes, that. She quivered, surrendering to his touch, to everything that was him. She would die for this, would beg for it without shame. She was his, whether his heart understood that or not. Even if it never did.

Her stomach tightened, release a cliff edge she just needed the slightest push towards… Maybe their minds were more interconnected than she thought. “Come for me,” Astarion groaned, reaching down to rub her clit and punctuating the thought with sharp, dizzying thrusts. And the world shattered.

“Astarion!” Tav screamed, orgasm ripping through her like earth-shattering magic.

He panted against her, pushed her legs up to drive into her impossibly deeper, sweat beading on his forehead. She gasped, sensitive from her climax, and fell deliriously into a second one as he groaned, burying himself to the hilt and stilling, cock twitching inside of her as he finally broke apart.

He stilled, lowering her legs and bracing himself, eyes closed as he fought for breath. He slid out of her slowly, regretfully, and fell to the ground beside her. He pulled her into him, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, damp with sweat.

Laying on his stomach, he tucked an arm under his head and turned tired but sated eyes on her. No, more than sated. Adoring.

“You’re amazing,” he whispered, disbelief heavy in his eyes.

“So are you. Wonderful and handsome and smarmy and arrogant sometimes… but amazing. I meant it. I see you, Astarion.”

His throat bobbed, then his gaze fell to the dirty, frumpy shirt they were lying on. As if realizing his position suddenly, he swore, jolting upright and turning his scarred back away.

“Damn it. I’m sorry. I truly didn’t mean for you to see that. You just…,” he sighed, “make it too easy to let my guard down.”

Tav pulled herself into a sitting position. “I don’t mind it, Astarion.” She cupped his cheek, directing his eyes to hers. “And, for whatever it’s worth… you’re beautiful. Unique. Something I want to spend a thousand nights mapping out.”

He smiled. “Then you’d be the first. And some horrible, selfish part of me wants you to be the last,” he admitted softly.

Tav leaned forward, wiping a droplet of her own blood from the corner of his mouth.

“I think I would join you in that eternity. We’ll find a way to make this work, if that’s what you want, too. I promise.”

“I… I believe you,” he breathed, pulling her into his arms.

“We should get back to camp. I’m sure tomorrow can’t wait to kick our asses again, and we both need rest.”

They dressed in silence, minus one boot that might have accidentally somehow ended up in the river. He apologized, but she could only laugh. He surprised her when he outstretched a hand. She took it as they strode silently back into camp.

With his tent just past hers, Astarion hesitated outside of her tent, lingering. Their hands stayed locked as he pressed his forehead to hers appreciatively. “Goodnight, you strange and wonderful thing,” he mused, smiling down at her.

It was a reach, but she couldn’t just let him walk away. It was some agonizing fear that if he left now, he would convince himself that this was all just for fun, that this was a distraction for both of them. “Stay,” she asked, searching his eyes.

“If I stay, the others-”

“I don’t care. Stay.”

Slowly, he nodded. “Alright.”

She fell asleep in the folds of his arms, not minding the dirty shirt he slept in. Hopefully he would ease about his back scars over time with her, reveal more of the history, but she was just content to be held by him tonight, and hopefully many nights after. And Astarion slept peacefully beside her for the first time in many long nights.

She woke to his gentle gaze roaming over her, taking in her face, her hair, her breathing. He adjusted as she stirred, almost apologetic.

“Good morning,” Tav murmured, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Good morning. I apologize for staring, but… I wasn’t convinced it was real when I woke up this morning. I’m still not.”

Sleepily, she moved forward and pressed her lips softly to his.

He sighed, relief melting over him. “Thank Gods.”

Between his hands running through her hair and his adoring words, she drifted back into the daze between sleep and waking. Just resting her eyes a bit longer…

Except when she opened them again, Astarion was gone. The distinct voices of Gale and Shadowheart filtered through the tent walls. Camp was awake. Had he snuck out unnoticed, still embarrassed to be discovered? Her heart sank at the thought.

She left her tent, strolling into the center of camp where Gale was cooking breakfast over the fire and sitting on a cut log.

“Good morning,” Tav said, nodding towards Shadowheart who sat polishing pieces of her armor.

The cleric nodded. “Good morning.”

Gale nodded curtly. “Morning.”

She knew she was showing her hand too much, but worry ebbed into her veins. “Has anyone seen-”

“Your boot. Yes. Found it by the bank behind your tent, actually,” came his steady voice. Astarion waltz into camp, throwing the soggy leather boot down by the fire to dry. “It’s, eh- a bit damp. If it doesn’t dry well, we can visit a merchant in town, no doubt. Or check at the grove.”

Her relieved smile met his content one. “Good morning, darling. Sleep well?”

“You mean you actually got sleep last night?” Gale retorted, shooting Astarion an accusatory glance.

If at all possible, the elf paled, but a snarky grin masked it well. “What gave it away, Waterdeep? Her beautiful sounds, or the shirt I’m wearing? Had to wear the dirty one I bedded her on top of last night so as not to wear that bloody one that upsets you so.”

Gale stiffened, not expecting the crass admittance.

“But… yes,” Astarion said. “Tav and I are… trying this. And I don’t give a single damn what you think. All that matters,” he laced his fingers into hers, “is what she thinks. What I think.”

Shadowheart smiled. “If this is what you want,” she glanced at Tav, “ I’m happy for you.”

Tav nodded, lacing her fingers tighter into his. “It is.”

Gale nodded. “Seems like I’m on the unpopular opinion side of this debate. Which also means that I might have been wrong about you,” he said, locking eyes with Astarion. Astarion nodded, and the conversation ended. A quiet agreement of mutual respect.

Hours later, Tav ripped at the buttons of Astarions shirt, shoving it partly off his shoulders so she could roam her hands freely over his chest. Her tunic followed swiftly as he laid her onto his bedroll in his tent.

“Last night,” she gasped between kisses, “I told you- that I- wanted to explore you for a thousand nights. This is only two.”

“You’re foolish if you think I’m giving you up after the thousandth,” he rasped.

She laughed, falling into their passionate embrace.

#Astarion #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate astarion #bg3 astarion #bg3 fanfiction #down by the river #larian studios #astarion x tav #bg3 smut #astarion smut #astarion spoilers #baldurs gate tav #bg3 tav #my tav

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 3 months

Note

Would I BTAH For telling on my co-worker

So I (23Nb) work at a semi-bougie clothing store with 5 employees total. We work along side our boss during the week but on the weekends the store is left to us. I already know the stance on workers telling on other workers here, and typically it ends up with YTA but at the end of the day it isn’t fair if only one of us gets to do whatever they want while the rest of us have to follow the rules.

This one employee (28F) who’s only here to fill in and works one day a week is seeming to take advantage of this fact by taking 2 hour lunch breaks (only 30 mins allowed) sometimes. She even started hanging out with her ex at work behind her actual BF’s back (he’s in AZ and she just spend 4+ months with him out of town) who’s here for most of the day (12-5) which I guess isn’t enough since she has to take long lunch breaks with him for whatever reason. This is a small business it’s not like it’s a chain store with a boss who only collects the paychecks and doesn’t show face. They’re here al the time putting in more hours than any of us.

Not to mention that we’re the only ones covering for her and yet she still takes our sales when the rest of us take turns with each other. (Ex. I’m helping 2 customers and she’s helping 2 customers, hers leaves so she thinks she’s entitled to the second person I’m helping out and it’s annoying af bc I don’t do that to her) even if she needed the money more it still isn’t right to assume the people I’m helping are hers + the customers are confused about who’s helping them.

The only difficult part is that she can and will blame one of us because there’s only a few people who work here. The accountant was there that day though so we all have plausible deniability.

Anyways would I be the asshole? Honestly I’m kinda just venting bc wtf man come on

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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thatbadadvice · 1 year

Text

Help! My Girlfriend Bought Me A Million Dollar House And Raised My Kids And All I Got Was This Million Dollar House And Someone To Raise My Kids, When Is It Finally Going To Be My Turn To Get A Break??????

Pay Dirt, Slate, 17 April 2023:

Dear Pay Dirt, My longterm girlfriend and I disagree about whether a $30,000 inheritance left to her by her great-aunt should be “her” money or “our” money. She wants to spend a large part (almost a third!) of it on expensive supplies for her hobby. I think that we should save most of it and use some of it on a vacation since we both find traveling extremely romantic. My argument is: 1) I don’t care about her hobby, but we’ll both enjoy a trip abroad; 2) we’ve lived on only my (admittedly low, since it’s academia) income for over a decade, so according to her own rule about entitlement to “her” windfall, shouldn’t she technically have been entitled to none of my wages all these years? Her argument is: 1) she had to put aside her hobby for many years to raise our children (it’s not a safe art form for young kids to be around) and yearns to return to it; 2) she paid entirely in cash for our $950k house at the beginning of our partnership (though my income pays the property taxes and maintenance costs), therefore she alleges that we haven’t actually been living on solely my income because I’ve been saving on rent all these years. I feel resentful of the double standard about control over finances and hurt that she would rather prioritize her own joy over our shared joy. She feels impatient to reconnect with her hobby and hurt that her contributions to our lifestyle are unseen. How do we reconcile our different viewpoints? How should the money be allocated? Is there something that we’re missing? —I’m About to Glass(Blow) a Fuse

Dear About to (Glass)Blow a Fuse,

I hope you don't mind that I corrected your very clever parenthetical sign-off! You're understandably dealing with a lot of hurt right now at the hands of the cruel and self-absorbed girlfriend who bought you a million-dollar home and abandoned her beloved hobby to raise your children, so I totally get why a brilliant, overworked, and under-appreciated academic genius such as yourself would fuck up something so incredibly simple and obvious, you poor thing. Really speaks to the distress you're in as the victim of this woman's sordid scheme to steal every ounce of joy from your life by experiencing some of her own after decades of managing your household for you for free.

Great relationships are built on the exactly equal division of all resources, and it sounds like your girlfriend has trouble grasping this because she seems to believe that the home you live in and the time she has invested raising your children for you have value, when of course they do not. The only thing that has value in this world is cash money, which is why we call it money. If parenting were valuable, you'd be able to trade it on the stock market! And what was your girlfriend going to do, not live in a house? These are things she'd have done with her life anyway, and they don't get to count toward her contribution to the household just because she did them for and with you instead of expressly and specifically pursuing her art. Whereas who knows what you could have done with your life if you hadn't been locked into a free house and a partner dedicating herself full-time to keeping your children alive for you?

Now, after all these years of being nothing but a worthless freeloader whom you support out of the generous goodness of your kind heart, your girlfriend has finally acquired something of value, and she wants to keep an entire third of it for herself? To do something that doesn't directly benefit, enrich, or entertain you personally? That's not equity, and it's certainly no way to repay you for periodically writing checks to the plumber. Isn't it about time you finally got something out of all of this for your trouble?

What benefit is there for you in having a partner who enjoys the sweet satisfaction of creative fulfillment after years of yearning to express herself? What kind of weirdo wants their girlfriend to have her own interests? And what kind of ungrateful hussy doesn't jump to spend thousands of her own money on a romantic vacation with someone who actively resents even entertaining the possibility of the idea of her doing something that makes her artistic spirit sing?

The balance sheet of this relationship is indeed all out of whack, and it's too bad that it's taken this long for your girlfriend to see just how uneven your bargain has been. If we're going to get technical about what has "value" in a relationship — and it does seem like your girlfriend is an inveterate bean-counter in the worst way around this stuff — the best way to reconcile your mutual account, as it were, is to present your girlfriend with an itemized bill for all the services you have provided her over the years, such as allowing her to buy you a home, permitting her to forego a wage-earning career, and gifting her with the opportunity to abandon her favorite hobby. That should pretty swiftly put everything you're "missing" in stark relief, and solve the question of how she should allocate her money in the future.

#advice #bad advice #money #financial advice #slate #pay dirt #vacations #inheritances #finances #this goofy chucklefuck

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blippymilk · 4 months

Text

Do You Have Something to Tell Me?

(Chapter 2)

Veneer x GN! Reader

Read chapter 1 here!

Summary: You’re a normal teen in Mount Rageous, and the biggest Veneer fan known to man. Everybody that knows you knows it too. Unfortunately it’s highly unlikely to date the celebrity of your dreams…unintentionally.

Warnings: Slight cursing, mentions of cheating

“Come on (____)…” Lili said as you readjusted your face in your pillow. “(____) still mad that they missed Velvet?” Romar said standing at your doorstep, bowl of cereal in hand. “What do you think?” Lili replied patting your back. Romar sat his bowl down on your desk and walked over to you. You could feel his shadow over you before he snatched the pillow from under your face. “Stopppp!” You said grabbing another pillow and putting it on top of your face now. “You don’t need to suffocate yourself though.” He said struggling to pull it off of you again.

Eventually he gave up when you weren’t budging and you all three sat in silence. “Is it true that Veneer wasn’t there?” You asked, you voice muffled through the pillow. “I promise Veneer was nowhere in sight, if he was we would’ve come to get you a long time ago.” Lili said. A couple seconds later you pulled the pillow off of you. “Besides I’m pretty sure she was only there because of her brother.” Romar said as you sat up straight. He ate from his bowl again as you shot him daggers. “What?” He said eating as your eye contact got more intense. “Oh uh yeah apparently he snuck away or something and she was trying to track him down.” “She said that?” You asked. “Well that’s what we could make out through her distressed screams.” Lili chuckled.

“She’s such a bratty diva, I bet Veneer is just the same.” Lili said but she was serious.

“Exactly that’s what makes her amazing. Aren’t all the best divas extremely talented?” Romar added on.

“It doesn’t make you anymore talented or attractive.”

“Not exactly true but ok.”

“That’s my opinion though so.”

“And that’s fine, you’re entitled to your wrong opinion.”

“Guys stop bickering,” you interrupted, “It’s a stupid argument we’re about to start here. And Veneer is definitely not a brat.” You made sure Lili heard that last comment.

________________________________________________________

After Lilli and Romar left your house the next day, you couldn’t find anything to do. I mean you had invitations to go places with some of your “friends”, but you weren’t really interested to be honest. You scrolled across the media, then Veneer’s page, then had a little dance break, then viewed Veneer’s page, then got a snack, then…you get the gist.

Finally you put your phone down and searched across your room with your eyes. There was litteraly nothing to do except maybe a couple chores. Why not? You got up an grabbed your jacket that had been laying on the floor for a day. You planned to wash, but before you did you had to check the pockets. One was empty, one contained a piece of paper. That’s when it struck you that you had Victor’s number in your possession. You quickly grabbed the note and threw your jacket back to the floor.

You dialed the number in your phone and quickly hesitated before texting him instead. You sent a simple ‘hi’ and waited for him to respond. Not even 10 seconds later the status changed from delivered to read. ‘Heyyy wsp?’ He responded.

You texted back, ‘Nothing much just a little bored yk.’

Typing… ‘Yeah I feel that. I’m surprised you actually texted me’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. But I’m happy tho :)’

That made you smile a little. Was he actually wanting your time?

The conversation with him lasted all night. You were actually quite entertained by him. You guys played mini games and asked so many questions about each other. You actually got to learn quite a lot of about Victor and that he really was cool. You guys had even moved from talking over text to talking over the phone after not too long.

“Ok ok so any celebrity crushes?” You asked him as he thought. “I mean no not really, I never really thought about having one. I prefer my relationships to be 100% real and thoughtful.” He replied. “How do you know celebrities aren’t real and thoughtful?” You asked. “Umm I don’t? It was really just a guess. Anyways who’s your celebrity crush?” He asked as you started getting excited. “Veneer 100% he’s the hottest guy in Mount Rageous. Ever!” You said. Victor’s line had went silent and after you calmed down you had asked him why he was quiet so suddenly. “Uh no reason.” You were curious now, “Oh come on, I can basically here the smile in your voice,” you stated before your smile dropped, “You better not be crushing on my man Victor! I’ll find your location right now!” He chuckled, “Nope you can keep your man.”

It went quiet for a moment before you yawned. Victor chuckled a little, “Getting tired eh?” You yawned again, “Yeah I’m about to go to sleep soon.” You replied turning off the lights in your room. “Yeah me too. Um- is there like anyway at all we could meet up tomorrow? Possibly? If not it’s fine.” He said catching you by surprise. “I mean sure why not, like to do what?” Veneer hesitated, “Well what do you like to do?” You thought before smiling a bit, “Hmm I like…trampoline parks. Annnndddd I like eating?” You said. “Great! How about I pick you up at 1:00 pm tomorrow?” You agreed and ended the call, immediately climbing into your bed and falling asleep.

________________________________________________________

The next morning you woke up and checked your phone. 11:47. You yawned and suddenly remembered you that you had planned to hang out with Victor today. You turned on some music and began to get ready for your day. You went to your bathroom and began to shower. Maybe it was the hot water that woke you up when it hit you, but you suddenly thought about how Victor had technically asked you on a date. Which wouldn’t be a problem but, you did have a boyfriend (that hasn’t called you in a week). ‘Eh he’dunderstand’ you thought as you continued bathing.

You decided to dress casual since Victor would be taking you to a trampoline park.

(You can choose one of these or choose your own)

Eventually Victor picked you up and you both were headed to the trampoline park. To your surprise Victor’s car was nice, like really really nice. It was the closest you could get to a luxury car without it actually being a luxury car. It was a black vehicle with green rims.

You were left in awe as soon as you hopped in his car. As Victor drove he smiled at you still gaping, “What?” He laughed. “This car is amazing! And so expensive! How did you even afford this? You’re litteraly a teenager!!” You said piling on questions.

“Woah woah,” Victor said interrupting you, “I guess you just have to work hard.” He shrugged. It didn’t really answer you question, and Victor almost seemed unsure but you sat back and enjoyed the ride.

About 3 minutes in and Victor was offering you the aux cord. “Wanna play something?” He asked as your eyes lit up. You quickly hooked it up to your phone and played “Watch me Work”, one of Velvet and Veneer’s hottest songs. “I should’ve known.” Victor smirked. “Shh! Veneer’s part is coming up.” Victor quickly shut his mouth as …Veneer sang his quick line. “Ugh. I swear his sister doesn’t give him enough time on the microphone. I need a song with him leading and Velvet singing, or better yet just Veneer singing.” You said. “You think so?” Victor asked as you nodded, turning up the radio. Maybe if you weren’t so into the song you would’ve noticed how incredibly red Victor’s face was.

You had fun with Victor at the trampoline park and he honestly impressed you. He was very flexible and (you were too but like this man’s insane). He knew how to all sorts of flips. You’d seen him do tricks that you’d also seen Veneer attempt and succeed at on stage before.

After a couple hours at the trampoline park, Victor took you to a pizza restaurant. You both figured it’d be a great way to sit down and get to know each other better.

“So Victor, I don’t know if you recall me asking last time but I was wondering if you’d take your shades off?” You asked before sipping your drink. “Why do you wanna see my eyes so bad huh?” He asked smiling a bit. You shrugged, “I dunno, I mean we’re getting to know each other and I don’t even know the color of your eyes yet, please?” You asked giving him fake puppy eyes. Victor took his glasses off and you were met with…brown eyes. Brown eyes that seemed so familiar but you couldn’t put your finger on it. Almost like you’d seen them before, but something was off about them, as if the wrong color or something. “Happy now?” Victor asked. “Pleased.” You replied before opening your menu.

After going back and forth getting to know each other, you decided you really liked Victor’s company. You figured he liked you too, but in a more romantic type of way. You didn’t want to shoot him down, especially if you didn’t even know if he really liked you or not. After all you did have a…

“Jalen!” You said as you watched your boyfriend walk through the restaurant doors. “Who?” Victor asked you. “My boyfriend.” You replied as Victor cocked his eyebrow, “Your…boyfriend?” he almost sounded defeated, but your eyes were glued to your boyfriend who was standing at the door, looking around the restaurant. Was he here looking for you? Your location wasn’t even on. Was it a coincidence? Out of all the restaurants in the world and he just happened to end up here? However your fear quickly turned to confusion when a girl walked up to him and gave him a hug. The anger when she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Jalen!” You shouted loud enough for him to hear this time. You got up and walked over to your boyfriend who’s eyes widened. “Who is this woman and why is she kissing you?” You asked as he stuttered a bit. “She’s my c-cousin” he stammered. “Don’t hit me with that cousin sh*t Jalen. You’re a liar!” You pushed him a bit. That’s when Victor came up running behind you. “And who’s this?” Jalen’s worry quickly dropped and turned to almost a smug face. “A friend.” You replied crossing your arms. “How do I know you’re not lying to me.” Jalen said. “Stop trying to turn this around.” “Answer the question.”

“She’s not lying man, we’re cool. We’re literally just friends.” Victor spoked up. “No one was talking to you ‘man’” Jalen brushed past you, and met face to face with Victor. “He’s being honest.” You replied. “I don’t know that for sure or not.” Jalen said still glaring at Victor who stood his ground.

“You do this too often! You literally thought I was cheating on you with Romar!” You said. “And I still don’t know if you are or not.” He replied turning back around. “Romar is gay, stupid!” You shouted.

Jalen kept trying to bicker with you and eventually you were over it. “Victor can we just go? I don’t want to be here anymore.” You asked him. “Yeah let me unlock my car you can go wait.” Victor said as you walked out the restaurant. Jalen watched as Victor ran back to the table, and put the leftover pizza in a to-go box.

Once finished, Victor headed back over to the door of the restaurant, glaring at Jalen and the girl before leaving.

“As*holes.” And with that he was out the door.

Taglist: @cookiemunches @crowleysthings (for some reason I couldn’t tag some of you so I’ll just alert you that I posted a part 2)

(I alr have ideas for the next part 😋)

#veneer x reader #trolls #trolls band together #trolls veneer #velvet and veneer #veneer trolls #veneer trolls band together #trolls 3 band together #fanfic #fandom #request

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elegantmusicdragon · 5 months

Text

Adventures in Bravo-Sitting

Pairing: Dieter Bravo x Babysitter!Reader (f!Reader probably? Can be gn!Reader for now)

Rating/Warning: Just some language! Words that rhyme with certain swears. Me being a menace. You know how it goes.

A/N: Okay so this is for @blueeyesatnight who just went a on a Dieter/Babysitter journey with me and inspired me to crank this fic out in two days. Haven't written a fucking thing except a fic I won't post and THIS. Blue, you're the best and Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas (if you celebrate) and thank you so much for the inspo! Our Dieter/Babysitter thread is my favorite thing and also if you wanna write some of these two or your own version PLEASE DO IT. I encourage it! Much love to you.

To anyone else who may read this: thanks for sticking around and checking this not beta'd dumpster fire. I have no clue what this is. It came out of my brain and onto the page in a frenzy. But it's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!

You are terribly confused.

"We know this is highly unconventional."

Well, that's putting it mildly.

"In all honesty, I've seen weirder." A nightmare child smearing his feces all over the baking appliances and a cake his mother had made takes the trophy as of now. Though this situation is a close second.

The woman, Amanda, smiles at you - relief flooding her features. She readjusts herself on the ridiculously fancy chair she's sitting on. Behind her, a small cluster of people in suits and business skirts gather. And between Amanda and the group? A man. Well, not man. Celebrity. A celebrity who seems to be grumbling something close to the words “ducking shooshes”.

You never thought you'd end up babysitting Dieter Bravo but, you guess, things could be weirder.

"Can I just...ask...um...why does a grown man need a babysitter?"

Dieter rolls his eyes and cuts in, "I don't."

Amanda talks over him, "I'm sure you've seen the...incidents...on the Cliff Beasts set."

You nod. "Absolutely, who hasn't? A drug overdose, quickie marriage, annulment - all within the span of a year. And the giant bender in Vegas with the showgirl last month? It's been all over the news."

Amanda nods, tension lining her face. Behind her, Dieter rolls his eyes again.

"It wasn't that bad."

Amanda finally graces Dieter with an irritated glance. Her voice raises slightly, “Not that bad, Dee?? You almost destroyed the MGM Grand’s lobby, casino, and the penthouse suite you were staying in! That showgirl almost lost an eye!”

Dieter rolls his neck back to face the ceiling, “Yeah, but she didn’t. She was fun,” he chuckles. “Liked to party. We still got her number?”

You see a vein throb in Amanda’s forehead. You’re not quite sure if you should butt into their conversation. Amanda grips the planner she holds so tightly, her knuckles begin to turn white.

“No, Dee. We don’t have her number. You know, since she ALMOST LOST AN EYE??”

Dieter sighs. “Oh my god, she was fine. It was safe. I was totally able to handle that machete. That lobby guy was just scared.”

You raise an eyebrow.

Amanda fires back, “He was the manager!!! And you were swinging a machete at one of his showgirls!”

“I wasn’t gonna hurt her, god it’s like you think I’m irresponsible or something.”

Oh god what have you gotten yourself into???

You reach down and attempt to subtly get your belongings. You’ve decided you want no part in…whatever this is. To your utter disappointment, you’re apparently not subtle enough. Amanda’s eyes dart to where your hand is resting on the strap of your bag. Her eyes widen just a fraction in desperation.

“I know we’re not giving the best impression here. But I promise, this is going to be a very rewarding experience. Dieter is special!”

She had said that on the phone too, but it was your fault you had misinterpreted it. Dieter clearly is special just…not in the way you were expecting. He’s special in a super-fuckin-entitled-wealthy way.

You swallow and your eyes dart to Dieter, who hasn’t looked at you once since this whole meet and greet started.

“Listen, Amanda, I’m really flattered that you and your…” You peter off, realizing the entire group of people behind her are now listening to you basically say no to this insane job. Are they really surprised you’re not interested in this?

You clear your throat and continue, “team…want me to do this. I just don’t quite think I’m what you’re looking for.”

Amanda looks behind her at a gentleman in a neatly pressed suit. He leans forward and whispers something in her ear. She nods, and turns back to you. Dieter remains absorbed in the ceiling.

“Alright,” Amanda starts, “how about I show you what your pay would look like and we’ll take it from there? Maybe we could do a trial run if the amount is to your liking?”

Dieter snorts. “It’ll be to her liking, I’m loaded.”

Amanda rolls her eyes. Despite that, she keeps her focus on you. “Well?” She asks.

You sigh. You know you’re caught between a rock and hard place. Money? Or no money? Well, even if this job isn’t what you necessarily thought it would be, it couldn’t hurt to look at the amount. Why the hell not?

You shrug. “Sure,” you reply back to Amanda. “I guess looking at the number can’t hurt.”

She smiles and nods, turning to confer with the gentleman behind her again. They whisper to each other for a few minutes before Amanda turns back to you.

“Okay! I just want to clarify that we’ll be starting with a trial run of a week. If just you, or both you and Dieter-”

He snorts at his name. Amanda studiously ignores him and continues on.

“Are interested in keeping this arrangement going, we’ll re-discuss and go from there. Is that amenable to you?”

You nod. “Sounds good to me.”

Amanda smiles widely, looking truly relieved for the first time since you stepped into the room.

“Great!” She replies. She reaches behind her to grab a small piece of paper from the suited gentleman (who is he???) and hands it over to you. You surreptitiously glance over at Dieter. For the first time, you find his eyes on you. You shiver slightly. His eyes sparkle with…something.

You look back down at the folded piece of paper in your hands. You’re more nervous than you thought you’d be. You open it slightly and see the number written down.

WOW that’s a LOT of zeroes! Holy crap.

You look at Amanda.

“Trial run it is.”

P.S. Banners by @firefly-graphics

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phantomphangphucker · 19 days

Text

Phic Phight - Death’s Brought Me Company

@Mimca @thesilentbard @carelisswriting @kinglazrus

There are times Vlad is truly baffled at how irresponsible, foolish, reckless, inane, stupid, dangerous, dense, careless, thoughtless, witless, idiotic, and hazardous, Maddie and Jack could be. They were his friends, yes, but they were a menace to everyone around them and he is not impressed with their son becoming their lastest ‘screw up’.

Vlad hums as he sorts through a few papers, there wasn’t too much approvals he needed to go over and sign but it was still work all the same. It would take him a few hours at least, rather than the seven plus hours poor people had to work but well that’s the perks of wealth no matter how questionably immorally acquired. That questionable morality was why he didn’t bring up his business around those friends of his, they didn’t exactly approve of how Vlad got himself to where he is today. He finds it to be rather hypocritical considering those two worked in an area that was highly morally questionable as well, and he highly doubts they’ve achieved everything they have though one hundred percent legal means as well. Alas, he had little interest in arguing such things with them, both could be rather dense after all.

He’s making good time on this application for zoning investigation and work arounds, which was starting to look like he’d definitely have to deal with it personally and with a little intimidation perhaps. Then his phone goes off, he’s tempted to let it simply go to voicemail, no one was truly entitled to his time or immediate attention after all. Then the caller id tells him it’s them, it’s Jack and Maddie, and any ideas of giving the caller(s) the cold shoulder goes out the window. They’d caught up with him four days ago? He’d given them his condolences for their portal, while also adding in some maybe snide remarks about how ‘at least there was no tragic accidents this time’. Secretly, he wanted that to be a success, in part because he knew they’d just keep trying and he’d rather them succeed before hurting themselves. The other part was simply that he can then show them his portal in proper, since they didn’t want seeing his to influence their own work; establish something themselves without others input was something he could respect. But without them being able to sense and feel the flow of ectoplasm even he’s not sure how they’ll manage it. The fact that they’re calling again so soon means either it has indeed worked and they had only needed to fiddle with it a bit more, or someone’s been hurt. All he can do is hope it’s the former, as he picks up the phone, “Maddie? Jack?”.

It’s Maddie’s voice he hears, hearing her voice before Jack’s excited greetings was never a good thing. The last time that happened Jack had gotten himself hospitalised from a head on collision with a semi truck. The time before that, Jack had somehow gotten the house teleported into the mirror dimension, which Vlad hadn’t even known existed. Her voice is worried, “Vlad, I think we messed up”.

Oh no. Vlad sighs, folding up the paperwork that won’t be looked at again today, and puts a few of his fingers to his forehead as he replies, “what happened? Are you two okay?”.

“We’re… fine-”.

“And! Our portals working!”. Ah there’s Jack, there’s excitement in his voice but it’s… far too subdued for the man. Very far too subdued. Something’s gone wrong.

Did a ghost come through their portal? A dangerous one perhaps? Or is the Infinite Realm side location an unpleasant one? Is the portal unstable? There’s lots of possibilities.

“Jack dear, let me explain”.

“Right, sorry Mads. Hey Vlad!”.

Vlad rolls his eyes a little fondly, also slight annoyed of course, Jack could be too eager and exuberant, “yes hello, Jack. Now do explain, Madeline”.

“Maddie”, she clears her throat, “after the portal didn’t work we decided to go for a walk, to try and think in the fresh air and cheer up”.

Perfectly reasonable and expected so far.

“We even formulated a new shaft design we were going to try and work in, but when we got back Jazz… screamed-”.

Jack butts in again, “it was awful and I never want to hear that from my precious princess ever again”; Vlad can hear the man physically shudder. Yes, he supposes hear one’s child scream is never good or pleasant.

“Agreed, Jack. But-”, she sighs, “-it was from the lab, Vlad, so we ran down, worried of course-”. It sounds like she’s bitting her nails, something she only did when very worried. “-the last time anyone screamed in a lab was you and that was terrifying”.

Vlad grumbling, “oh I’m well aware”, shaking his head, “is young Jasmine alright?”.

“Yes, yes, thankfully. But… Danny’s not”. Well butter biscuits, Vlad gets up immediately to go grab his coat as she continues, “apparently Danny saw how upset we were and thought he’d try to fix the portal for us-”.

Vlad pauses with one arm through his jacket sleeve, he almost squawks but he absolutely does not squawk, “what”; he knows a bit of his ghostly power leaked into his voice and that made his response less pleasant on the ears, but he hardly cares. “How did he even get down there”.

She doesn’t chastise him for using his more ghostly voice over phone, meaning she might be concerned enough to have not even noticed, “we… might have forgot to lock the lab when we left-”.

Jack butting in yet again, “but the kids have been drilled on safety! He really should have known not too!”.

Vlad growls low, “they’re children, Jack”, pulling his jacket on fully and taking a breath, “children are not known for abiding by rules and are well known to have invincibility complexes”. Daniel was a stellar and unfortunate example of that. That boy had tried to eat a pie that was actively on fire before, and don’t get him started on the child trying to ‘bake himself’ or the blackbird pie incident.

Maddie swallows, “I know we weren’t as careful as we should have been, Vlad. Danny… wandered inside the portal to see if he could fix it and it turned out we… forgot to unplug it as well and… forgot there was an on switch inside that needed to be turned on”.

Vlad knows well his eyes flash red, “excuse me, would you care to repeat that”, that was practically a threat and he knew it. How could they be so! So! So stupid! So utterly and completely and unbelievably moronic! “You left it plugged in, forgot an on switch INSIDE THE MACHINE, failed to lock the Cracker Jack door, and left a dangerous highly volatile machine in working condition alone while your children were home. Are you two actively TRYING to hospitalise people?!”. It takes some effort to not simply crush his phone, “college I can understand, we were all too excitable, but now? Absolutely not”, growling again, “now. What is Daniel’s condition”. That’s a demand not a question.

He can hear the wince in her voice, good, and her tones shaky, for a change he’s hoping that’s from fear of him. “He’s… he’s out of the hospital now, Vlad. He’s-”.

What. “You mean to tell me he was in hospital and you didn’t call me immediately. Madeline, what the butter biscuits is wrong with you two!”. This was completely unacceptable. He paces in a circle, he wanted her to just hang up already so he can head over there personally and shoot something just to get across how unbelievably pissed and unimpressed he is. As it is he’s seriously debating throwing one of his crystal whiskey glasses at a wall.

“I, we knew you’d be mad and, Vlad, it’s not the same. There’s no ecto-acne, his hair’s the same. The doctor even said he was having a perfectly normal reaction to high voltage electrocution. His vitals weren’t even wonky!”.

Jack blurting out, “we were confused! Relieved but confused!”.

Vlad pauses, stilling, “he… doesn’t have ecto-acne? None of my symptoms?”. That… then perhaps the boy would be fine? Wouldn’t be changed by them?

Maddie clearly bites her lip, “no and I thought that, maybe, if you were around, with your ecto-field, that might change things. I thought it was a risk and I knew you’d come immediately if we called”.

Vlad pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs aggressively. He supposes they very well could have a point there. As there would be no way to safely confirm if Vlad being near would have some effect on someone else who got caught in a portal. It would genuinely be a risk. Even if she had explained that worry to him he knows he would have gone anyway, he wouldn’t have been able to take her at her word. He still can’t, won’t. “I want you to send me his medical records, immediately. I’ll read them on my way”.

“I’d chastise you about distracted flying but, I understand. We’ve poured over them already and they really are normal. But, he’s- something’s not right even if he keeps saying he’s fine”.

Vlad glares at a wall, it melts slightly, “butter biscuits”, at least his tablet pings an email, him transforming as he opens it, it’s the medical files. Him nodding to himself, at least they had the files on standby already, “got them. I’ll be there shortly. However, do know that I am not impressed”, and he hangs up without giving them the chance to say goodbyes or see you soons.

Him flying out a window and flipping through his tablet, the files are… somehow perfectly normal and Vlad is a little baffled. His own records showed himself as having a disturbingly low heart rate and blood pressure, an extreme feverish body temp, and far too few breaths per minute. Daniel’s was: eighty two bpm, one-twenty over eighty mmHg, ninety-seven point nine Fahrenheit, and a respiratory rate of eleven. His respiratory was on the lower end but it wasn’t actively concerning, Vlad himself often averaged only four.

Normal was good. But Madeline said she still felt something wasn’t right, perhaps she was simply paranoid or perhaps the electrocution had simply raised Daniel’s vitals for a period of time. Vlad shaking his head, the fact that the boy had been inside of the portal and electrocuted instead of simply blasted in the face by pure ecto-energy was horrific; but perhaps such an unfortunate experience would prevent him from becoming something no longer truly human. Vlad did consider himself better for how he is now, but that didn’t make the process of become content with it a pleasant one, it also didn’t make being a halfa a good thing as it arguably was not. It was a rather lonely existence, which Vlad would rather not see changed in this particular instance. It could one day get him experimented on by his own government, and under that same government he did not truly have rights. He had nothing he could compare himself to, for curiosities sake or for the sake of his well being. There was also the simple fact that having powers resulted in his view of the world and other people being undeniably altered. The mental changes and instincts were an entirely separate issue, one he’s embraced, but that applies to him and perhaps not to a young teenage boy.

He now rather wished it had been Maddie or Jack that had gotten caught in their own creation, rather than a child.

Either way, he’s here now. Floating invisibly above the FentonWorks building and feeling the desire to blast that sign of theirs out of frustration and annoyance. One would think after what happened with him they’d be even slightly more careful, but apparently not. He lands with a scowl, phasing through the front door and, at the sight that only Maddie and Jack appearing to be around, transforms back into his human form and drops his invisibility; both of them jerk a little and he glares instead of half heartedly apologising or mocking them. “Where is he”. It’s not a question and they know it. Vlad can smell that the boy’s not here, and he’s none too pleased about that.

Jack rubs his neck, “school”. While Maddie winces. Vlad glaring a little more, “he just got of the hospital for at the very least being electrocuted and you sent him to school”.

Maddie standing up from her chair, hands up pacifyingly, “he wanted to, Vlad”, dropping her hands, “even Jazz tried to get him to stay home but he got mad at her for being overbearing and still left”.

Jack frowning, “he’s been making almost every excuse he can to not be here, kinda part of our worry you know?”, and laughs in that awkward way that Vlad knows means he’s upset and possibly even scared.

Vlad rubs his temples and walks in further, “I suppose that’s acceptable then, but what teen actually wants to go to school?”.

“Jazz thinks he’s traumatised and doesn’t want to be around the portal”, Maddie frowns, “which is understandable”.

Vlad scowling, “yes, yes it is”.

Jack tilting his head in confusion, “but he’s still cleaning the lab, like he’s supposed to so I don’t think Jazz’s theory makes sense”.

Vlad blinks at the man, he can’t be serious. “You’re telling me, you have Daniel who was just in a portal accident cleaning your lab? Surrounded by ectoplasm samples and mess. Jack, I am genuinely debating trying to beat you up”. The man looks apologetic rather than frightened, which is a fair bit grating. Giving Maddie a hard look, “how can you justify him being around that if you were worried about him being around me”.

“We don’t really know how different your ecto-field is, Vlad. And you give off a ton more than any samples we have. For all any of us know there could be some form of halfa gene or energy in yours”.

Alright, Vlad can admit that could very well be the case. Sighing, “fine. I still don’t approve”, moving into the kitchen/dinning room fully, “now what about him seems wrong? I know him being avoidant, of you two or the lab or merely the portal would not be enough to set off alarm bells”. After all, such behaviour would be perfectly normal and human.

Maddie frowns and grabs a sample vial out of the fridge, “we found blood and ectoplasm in the bathroom this morning, and remembering what… happened with you and your wings, well”, she hands it over to him and he gets her concern immediately, it looks like one of his own samples. “It’s not separating out like human blood and ghost ectoplasm normally does. Normally does, with any sample that isn’t from you or someone severely contaminated long term”.

Vlad nods at the sample, this was near as good as proof to him. He winces a bit internally though, feeling a bit of a pang of sympathy for the boy. The wings ‘coming out’ as it were, was incredibly unpleasant. He’s glad Jack and Maddie had been there for that, to ‘help’ even if it was mostly them getting things straightened out and cleaning him up when he was frankly too exhausted to do it himself. However this meant they weren’t there for their son, which would be the more important one to be there for. Rolling his right shoulder a bit, “I’m assuming there’s more, because yes, him just being contaminated is a viable option”.

Jack nods, “he keeps dropping things and acts very freaked out after”. Maddie nodding at her husband then looking back to Vlad, “I’m fairly certain I saw his cereal spoon go through his fingers rather than just dropping it. And he has that unnerving aura around him that you do, I might be desensitised to it but that doesn’t mean I don’t still feel it sometimes”, and she laughs playfully a little.

Vlad glaring, flashing his eyes at her, “I’m not in the mood, Madeline”; making her wince. Vlad pinching the bridge of his nose yet again, eyes squeezing shut, “alright, so it would seem that Daniel is mostly likely a halfa now, correct?”. Dropping his hand and eyeing them as they both nod, “yet he did not have ecto-acne or abnormal vitals?”. More nodding, “and he’s being avoidant of a house full of ghost hunting gear as well as the two ghost hunters who reside in it?”.

Maddie smacks herself in the face immediately, Jack thumping his head down on the table. Maddie groaning, “why did we not clue in to that? Ugh. He’s afraid we’re going to hurt him or hunt him”. Jack snapping his head up, “we would never!”.

Vlad gives them a bit of a pitying look, eyeing Jack specifically, “you two found out the same time I did about my altered state of being, there was never a chance for me to have those kinds of worries”, scoffing, “not that I would have. But Daniel is a child. His brain isn’t even fully developed, it’s a wonder he didn’t run away on you. Of course he’s afraid of ghost hunters if he’s a ghost himself”. They both wince at least.

And the then house phone goes off, Maddie picking it up immediately, “hello?”.

Vlad tilts his head, his ghostly hearing making it easy to listen in. “Hey Mrs. Fenton. Was wondering if Danny could spend the night? We got a big project and apparently the dummy forgot to actually do his part”. That reeks of a lie, it’s not a bad one though, he’ll give what sounds like a teen girl that much; it was most likely that Samantha girl.

Maddie eyes the vial now sitting on the table, hopefully she’s thinking what he is, Daniel’s friends knew and were trying to help him, most likely with the fresh wings. Vlad would gamble a concerning amount of money on the belief that Daniel most certainly did not actually go to school and neither did his friends. Maddie shakes her head to herself, “I would really rather he come home, I’m sure any school work he needs to do is important but I’d like him home”.

Vlad rolls his eyes, the woman was going to make the boy a bundle of nerves, so he walks over and phases the phone out of her grip, making her jump. She glares at him and puts her hands on her hips, “what do you think you’re doing?”. Vlad simply smirks, said smirk likely airing on the ‘villainous’ side, before giving his attention to the phone, “tell young Daniel that his godfather would like to see him and that said grandfather is not unfamiliar with certain portal-related accidents, as it were”. Maddie looks worried. Him moving the phone away from his ear and covering the mic, “relax, dear Maddie. Being blunt with the boy is far better than making him scared to come home”.

The, “what are you talking about?!?”, that comes through the phone making all three of them wince from the static and warble. Maddie paling a little and leaning against the counter, after all, that kind of vocal effect was explicitly ghostly and one she’s heard from Vlad quite literally today multiple times. It was more solid proof. A different male voice, that isn’t spectrally infused, pipes up in the background, “dude, your voice?”.

Hmmm, yes his friends did indeed know. Vlad smirking a little again, “Daniel, tell that friend of yours not to worry about your voice, it’s perfectly normal when emotional”.

“Um. Uh. Okay?”. Oh the boy sounds so unsure and freaked out, Vlad almost wants to mock him a little. It sounds like he’s turned his head away from the phone, “um, so apparently what just happened is normal? And my uncle god father guy might be, you know, kinda like me or something? And I should probably actually go home”.

Then the girls voice again, “if your parents shoot you, I’m stabbing them and burying their bodies in my garden”.

The other male sounds like he’s frowning, “do you want us to go with? You know, moral support?”.

It would seem Daniel had good friends. A blessing indeed. Hopefully they were less reckless and idiotic than Vlad’s own friends, regardless of how fond of them he was. However, Vlad has no interest in explaining himself to three teenagers, Daniel needed the information the other two could hear it from him, “I’d much rather not have this conversation with three hormonal teenagers”.

Daniel is clearly still talking to his friends, “okay so that’s a no, Tuck. Apparently we’re too hormonal”.

“More like homicidal, I do have boots with knives inside them”.

“I’m not wearing your shoes, Sam”.

“You don’t need to wear them! Throw them!”.

“Your shoes weigh, like, twenty goddamn pounds?”.

The boy butts into the argument, “I’m not sure that matters anymore, man. You accidentally lifted up my dad’s car”.

“Shut up, Tuck. Ugh”. Daniel’s attention does seem to return to the phone at that, “am I in trouble?”.

Vlad rolls his eyes, “hardly. The only ones in trouble are two reckless scientists who let this happen for a second time”; he throws another glare at the two who smartly wince and glance away.

Daniel almost excited whispers, “oh my god my parents are in trouble, that’s kinda awesome”; his friends laugh in the background.

“Well if you find that amusing, come home and mock them”.

Daniel sighs, “okay fine”.

Vlad nodding to himself, “good. Now for the love of all the Gouda in the world, do not try to bind or strap down your, let’s say, feathered friends, you’ll just damage them and bent feathers are hardly becoming of a man or boy”. Vlad took expert care of his wings and he wasn’t about to tolerate Daniel not doing the same, or everything forbid misshaping them.

This time Daniel actually squeaks, “okay”, then hangs up.

Vlad feels quite content with himself actually. Looking to Maddie and Jack, who still look rather awkward, “he’s coming. Now hopefully I don��t need to tell you two to avoid staring or trying to take samples from him”, he doesn’t like that they appear slightly confused, “Daniel isn’t me, I was and am an adult and an ecto-ologist myself, he is neither”.

Maddie sighs and nods to herself, “right right, he needs us a parents only and the last thing we’d want to do is make him feel like an experiment”.

Vlad nodding strongly right back, “indeed”.

Jack smacking his fist into his hand and springing up, “oh! We should change so we’re not in the, you know, ghost hunter stuff!”. Vlad chuckling a little, “that’s not a bad idea”, which makes the man run off upstairs. Maddie shaking her head fondly and moving to follow after him; Vlad watching her go.

They were fools but they cared, it was only too bad their foolishness had to bring harm unto others so often. Yes Daniel’s own actions had been foolish, much like Vlad’s had been, but that boy was a child and that made a world of difference. A child should have the expectation that something that could alter their very being and species wouldn’t be left unattended and plugged in inside an unlocked room. Daniel was well within reason to believe that the worst that could happen was a slight burn or small shock, a cut perhaps. Not death, by half or full.

Daniel arrives before his parents actually finish changing, getting in and out of biohazard suits wasn’t exactly easy, even for Vlad since he couldn’t phase through the material. Arguably this was for the best, Vlad was watching the door, leaning back against the kitchen entryway wall, as Daniel sticks his head in cautiously. Daniel spotting him, stares, looking confused, so Vlad gestures at his eyes and flashes them their ghostly red. Daniel jumps a little before relaxing and moving inside fully, he’s… holding a blanket around his shoulders even if it’s not doing much to hide that there’s something large underneath. Vlad definitely wants to mock him, very badly in fact, drawling a very sarcastic, “impeccable fashion choices, Daniel. I applaud you”.

Daniel scowls at him, “what else am I supposed to do, you jerk”, there’s a bit of humour in his eyes so Vlad counts that as a win. Daniel glancing around as the door shuts and he shuffles inside more, “where are, mom and dad?”.

“Upstairs at the moment”, Vlad eyes the ground around the boy, no shadow. Daniel is absolutely a halfa, even with wings he could still technically be merely extremely contaminated, but without a shadow there’s no way he’s fully human. Light simply passed through their kind in the same way it did with ghosts and there was nothing that could be done about that. Which yes, was part of why Vlad preferred to avoid needless public appearances.

Daniel nods, eyeing Vlad, “so, where’s yours? Or were you just yanking my chain?”.

Vlad rolls his eyes at that, pushing himself off the wall and letting his wings unfurl out through the holes he had in the backs off all his clothes these days, crimson red feathers lining the inside and his white ones covering the outside. Stretching one out to flick Daniel in the forehead with the primary feathers. Daniel stares wide-eyed, “how did you do that? How do you hide them?! I have so many questions”.

Vlad chuckles, his blatant curiosity, with no hints of horror or distrubia was a genuinely welcome reaction. It reminded him of Jack, except without getting his very fresh at the time feathers grabbed and prodded. Folding his wings up against his back again, though leaving them out instead of reabsorbing them, “I imagine so”, walking over towards Daniel and grabbing the blanket he’s still using as a cover and pulling it up some, ignoring Daniel’s clear embarrassment. “We’re malleable things, absorbing them inside ourselves is a simple though uncomfortable task”. The constant full sensation in his torso and the aches from wings that wanted to be stretched out could be incredibly annoying and cumbersome. Humming, “yours are much too fresh though, you need to heal first. I can say the colour seems to suit you well though”. The red inner feathers of his own used to confuse him, until he grew up and stablised into his more vampiric appearance anyways. Daniel’s were white and seemed to shimmer or sparkle like fresh snow, which went well with his pale skin; they even felt cold like snow, was his core an ice type perhaps? The black tipping on all the feathers, as well as his lesser coverts and alula feathers being black was a decent accent and went well with his dark hair. If Vlad had to guess, Daniel’s tertial feathers are black as well.

Daniel blinks, apparently a little baffled by how calm Vlad was being, “yours… go with your eyes?”

Alright yes, Vlad laughs at that, “they suit me more than you can tell, boy”.

Daniel snorts at that and rolls his eyes, “whatever, old man”, though his fidgeting fingers give away his nerves.

“Alright! Is he here yet!”, Jack pops down the stairs in his stupid ghost themed overalls, how did that man not understand that those things did not flatter him at all? Jack brightening up at seeing his son, and basically bounding down the stairs. Daniel pulling the wing out of Vlad’s grasp and hiding it under the blanket again, “oh! Um, hi? Dad?”, cringing dramatically, “what are you wearing?!”. See even Daniel understands it’s unbecoming.

Vlad has no desire to play a game of ‘beat around the bush’ so he nods to Jack, and Maddie as she comes down as well, “he doesn’t have a shadow, meaning that yes, he’s a halfa as well”.

“I- wait what?”, Daniel looks down, “what do you mean in don’t have a shadow?”, does a little circle spin ‘thing’ while staring at the ground and blinking, “holy shit I don’t have a shadow”.

“Language, my boy”. Had he seriously not noticed? Well Vlad knows which parent he got that lack of attention to detail from, as endearing as that particular flaw could be it wasn’t a good one.

Maddie gives Vlad a bit of a pinched smile before making a point to hold Jack back from crowding the boy, her walking up and ruffling Daniel’s hair, Daniel eyeing the bare hand cautiously. “To be fair, sweety, we didn’t notice either”.

Perhaps he got it from both of them. How unfortunate. Vlad shakes his head, stepping back a little to let the mother look over her son and the father hover close enough by that it doesn’t quite qualify as crowding. Vlad huffing, “considering you didn’t notice an entire misplaced on switch I’m not sure why I’m surprised”.

Both parents wince but Daniel blinks at him a bit owlishly, it absolutely does not come off as human, “wait, how do you know that?”.

Jack rubbing his neck and getting his son’s attention, “well, we inspected the portal after your, uh, accident. We wanted to know how it happened, since we thought it was completely nonfunctional”.

“Right. Your ground breaking life’s work. Got it”. Even Vlad cringes from that response, it was explicitly bitter.

Jack holds up his hands, looking awkward as he should for that comment. “No not just how you got it to work. More like how it worked at all, every other time we’ve failed it had to be completely reworked so it should have been fine not being unplugged… or locked… which yeah was really stupid of us. Heh”, and rubs his neck.

Vlad sighs, touching a few fingers to his forehead, “what your buffoon of a father is trying to say is that he wanted to know how you were even able to get hurt”, then glaring at Jack, “I am still fully tempted to smack both of you over the head, know that”.

Daniel actually looks amused and pleased at that; progress. And stares a little surprised when Jack smacks Vlad on the back a couple of times, paying no mind to the wings. Muttering to himself, “Huh, I guess they are okay”. Meanwhile Vlad’s simply trying to stop himself from getting knocked over.

Maddie nodding and startling the boy a little, “we’ve had twenty years to get used to him and all the changes that happened, you’re fine and we definitely are not going to shoot you or anything of that sort”. Jack nodding and grinning in agreement readily.

Vlad inspects his nails a little, “I’d be quite annoyed if that wasn’t the case”, waving at Jack dismissively while speaking to Daniel again, “your father was more explicitly responsible for my little accident”, huffing, “though I’ll admit sticking my face directly in front of a potentially viable proto portal was indeed foolish”.

“I mean, at least you didn’t try to put it around your neck to wear it like a collar”.

Vlad blinks at the boy, a bit affronted, “that would be utterly imbecilic rather than just foolish”.

Maddie blinks before putting a hand over her face again, “right, yeah”, looking at Vlad, “we caught him doing that with another proto portal model, that’s why we stopped making them”.

Vlad smacks Daniel over the back of the head immediately, “you are a danger to yourself and a complete moron. Child or no”.

Daniel squawks, “ow! Hey!”, and covers his head with his hands, “it was funny!”; this all resulting in him dropping the blanket, which thumps to the ground quietly considering how much it doing so revealed. Daniel blinking owlishly again and eyeing his folks as they get their first proper glimpse of the wings.

Vlad humming to himself while the boy has an internal crisis or two, “hmmm, I was right, your tertials are indeed black”.

“My, what?”.

Vlad unfolds a wing some and gesture at the fluffier feathers that stayed close to his side and back, “the inner most feathers, the only ones that actually stay ‘fluffy’”, gesturing at Daniel’s fuzzy fluffy feathers, “you have feather down right now, that’ll go away with age”. Vlad only had to put up with that for around two years if he remembers right, Daniel’s would likely stick around for at least four; that thought making him snicker at the boy, “give it a few years, at least four, I’d say”. Daniel pouts at him.

Jack beams, “meaning more time for cute baby ghost pictures!”; that Daniel absolutely fully groans at, burying his face in his hands. “We only have five of Vlad”.

Vlad scowling, “and here I thought I burned all of those”.

“Aren’t you glad you didn’t now?!”, Jack’s grin is almost mean which is strange to see on the jubilant man, “now Danny-boy can see them!”. At least that makes Daniel laugh into his hand.

Vlad rolls his eyes, though he supposes the bonding would be worth the embarrassment. As well as reassuring to the boy that he’s normal, for their species anyways. Though… Daniel still has his wings as scrunched up and as pressed into himself as possible, he wasn’t relaxing them at all. Sighing at the boy, “the more difficult you make healing the longer it’ll take to be able to hide them”.

“Huh?”.

Vlad ignores him, as well as his parents looks of concern, and moves around Daniel to physically grab the wings and force them open and away from his back a bit. Daniel yelping and attempting to jerk out of Vlad’s grasp, “hey!”.

Vlad just glares at the very sloppy stitch work and bandaging attached with, of all things, scotch tap. This would scar horrifically if not corrected immediately, “by Gouda, who did this? This is going to heal horribly even without you trying to scrunch your wings up out of existence. Kitchen table, now, we’re fixing this”. Vlad doesn’t care that the boy is clearly embarrassed when Jack and Maddie tilt their heads over or physically move to get a look and cringe themselves.

At least Daniel does move into the kitchen, not moving his wings at all from the position Vlad effectively moved them into, good, smart boy. Daniel grumbling, “Sam did and I think she did a great job”.

“A great job for a teenager not for a doctor. Any doctor who did this would lose their license on the spot or I’d sue them into bankruptcy”.

Jack brings over their medi kit, the one they’d use on him on the rare occasion it was needed. Vlad liked to pride himself on rarely getting injured even when dealing with ghosts. Of course one can’t employ ghosts without out first proving why they’re the employer and not the employee. Skulker in particular took a while to beat down into submission. Maddie getting out what’s needed from the kit while Daniel sits down on one of the stools, “um, why is the thread in there glowing?”.

Maddie’s response is automatic and she doesn’t take her eyes off of her task, “it’s phase proof, so you won’t accidentally phase it out of your skin”.

“Oh okay, yeah that makes sense I guess”.

Vlad rolls his eyes, “I would hope so. Now hold still and don’t fold your wings in”. It was fairly clear Daniel was more comfortable with him touching his wings, likely because Vlad had his own pair, so Vlad maneuvers the wings around for Maddie as she does her work. Vlad, figuring he might as well use this time to explain and to distract the boy from the pain of this, hums, “Jack and Maddie said you’ve been clumsy, dropping things, so I take it your having issues with the powers?”. Vlad had had some control issues in the beginning, but not much. In fact, Vlad didn’t get his powers for quite a while after his accident and they came one by one and very painfully. They always stung and felt foreign the first few times, it seemed like Daniel might not be having such issues.

Daniel flushing, “oh um, yeah? It’s just comes so easily, naturally or whatever, that it kinda just keeps happening?”.

Vlad quirking a single well manicured eyebrow, “and it doesn’t hurt? At all?”.

Daniel turns his head to give Vlad a confused look, “no? Should it?”.

Jack looks relieved and gets Daniel’s attention, responding before Vlad can, “oh yeah, it was pretty bad every time a new one cropped up. Sure it was cool too! But the pain and it making his ecto-acne flair up really made it kinda suck. I totally freaked out the first time”.

Maddie nodding as she threads some more of the ecto-line, “to be fair, your best friend falling through his bed, and all his medications and monitors, while screaming would be very scary to anyone”.

Vlad huffing, “I will not admit to being terrified at the time”, was saying that basically admitting to it? Absolutely not and no one can convince him otherwise.

Daniel huffing, “then I’m not admitting to being scared either, jerk”, shaking his head gently, hopefully with the purpose of not disturbing Maddie or causing himself more pain. How well he could hide pain was a little concerning. “Should I be worried I’m not getting pain from it and stuff? And each time you got a new one?”, Daniel quirks an eyebrow, “you didn’t just get everything all at once? Ecto-acne?”.

“That level of pain would have likely knocked me unconscious for multiple days, so no. I got my powers slowly over multiple years, which were spent hospitalised”. Humming and tapping his chin, he wonders why they’re different like this? He’s clearly a halfa and not a full ghost, otherwise he wouldn’t look human at all and he wouldn’t still have a human scent; yes it was tinted with ectoplasm but it was still human. Could it be because his own accident was with a proto portal and not a genuine one? Or did the size and power output matter? Perhaps how much of the body was engulfed at once? Since it sounded like Daniel’s entire body was blasted all at once, while only his face was affected. Perhaps that was why Daniel didn’t get ecto-acne?

Jack scratches his head, “I don’t think? you need to worry? There really isn’t an ‘normal’ way this works since Vlad’s the only halfa we all know of. And your, uh accidents, were pretty different”.

Daniel quirks an eyebrow at Jack then turns the look on Vlad, clearly wanting an explanation. Vlad shrugging like talking about it didn’t really bother him, “I got blasted in the face, and only the face, by a proto portal that quite possibly had contaminated ectoplasm in it. Where as it sounds like you got blasted head to toe by a genuine fully functional portal, that would definitely have been using pure ectoplasm otherwise it wouldn’t be working”, frowning, “I also did not get electrocuted, so it is not as if you got out of this pain free”.

Daniel winces, “yeah that wasn’t fun”. Maddie and Jack also wincing, it looks like Maddie’s got the first wing back tear stitched up properly now.

Jack rubbing his neck and eyeing his son, “we are really sorry that happened though”.

Daniel shrugs, making Vlad smack him over the head again, Daniel grumbling and rubbing the back of his head, “ow. And it’s fine, dad. I shouldn’t have been messing with stuff”.

Vlad scoffs, “it shouldn’t have been accessible for you to mess with in the first place”. Making both parents look thoroughly chastised, good.

Daniel glares at Vlad, “I would have picked the lock anyways”.

Maddie glares at his back for that, “since when did you pick up lock picking, mister”.

“Uh, Tuck has a bad habit of locking himself out of his house? Sam thinks it’s too funny to help and he can’t pick a lock to save his life?”.

Vlad grins meanly, “what a budding little criminal you are”.

“Hey!”.

Vlad studiously ignores the glares Maddie and Jack throw him, clearly trying to discourage Vlad from being a more illegal bad influence on their kid. Vlad putting a proud hand to his chest, “perhaps you shall follow in my footsteps and start robbing banks”.

Maddie’s scowl can be heard in her voice, “Vlad”. Jack pouts at him, “you know we would have paid your hospital bills”.

“I have no interest in being indebted to others because of money, such things are beneath me”.

Daniel gives him an affronted look, pity, “I am not robbing banks, what the hell uncle?!? Why would you use powers for that?!? I’d use them to, like, рⷬrͬoͦᴛⷮeͤcͨᴛⷮ people or something first”.

Vlad blinks at the inhuman ghostly subvocal to that, which he’s sure Jack and Maddie didn’t pick up on. They didn’t pick up on it when he himself did it, over that pesky little possession obsession. Perhaps Daniel’s own obsession was protection based… Vlad may have to cautious of that, as he could see himself bothering a protective obsession. Beyond Jack’s and Maddie’s well being, he hardly cares if his endeavours harm others. He’s not going to comment on his suspicions though, it was rude to out another ghosts, or halfas, obsession like that and opened yourself up for attack. Jack grins, “that’s my boy!”. Making Vlad roll his eyes at the large man.

Daniel flushes though and Vlad can pick up on the slightly concerned off put look on his face, the boy likely noticed something was off with his comment. That there was a strong pushy undercurrent of pure want in there and likely in his chest as well; even if he’s positive Daniel’s core hasn’t developed enough for him to genuinely feel it yet. Daniel clearing his throat, “so um, our accidents were really different then”.

Vlad smirks at the boy, who glares back, before nodding his head, “indeed. And I suspect my ecto-acne played a large role in my being in pain and perhaps also why I took years for my powers to develop”.

Jack nods, tapping his chin, “I really wish we knew exactly why that ecto-acne happened”. Vlad nodding readily, it was something they would probably never figure out. (He would later find out, due to his ecto-acne returning and Daniel trying to help him, that it was because of pop in the filtrator. He was incredibly infuriated by that, and Jack apologising profusely didn’t little to temper his anger).

Vlad eyeing Daniel, Maddie seemed almost done with the other wing back tear, “now, care to enlighten me on your abilities? It would be best to confirm if they’re the same as mine”. At the boy eyeing him cautiously Vlad rolls his eyes with a huff, “invisibility, intangibility, gravity nullification or floating in layman’s terms, enhanced senses, increased physical ability and durability, duplication, ecto-blasts, ecto-shields, transformation, overshadowing, healing factor, teleportation, body modification or contortion, mild electrokenisis, pyrokenisis, power augmentation, ecto-twister, and a resistance to anti-ghost tech”. He studiously ignores the proud smile on Maddie’s and Jack’s faces, they always got oddly proud over how powerful he was. Yes he himself took great pride in that, being able to best relatively any ghost he came across, but as full humans they should find that unsettling and perhaps it wounded his pride a little that they did not.

Daniel blinks in that owlish way again, Vlad’s going to have to talk to him about breaking that forming habit, then whistles, “well damn, uncle. That’s nothing to piss at”.

All three adults look at him disgusted. Vlad scowling deeply, “I would rather no one ever piss on me, Daniel. That is disgusting”. Right, he always forgets that Daniel has a rather peculiar and annoying sense of humour.

Maddie shaking her head while doing up the last stitch and standing up, stretching a little and handing her tools off to Jack to clean up, “alright, you’ll be good once I get you bandaged”.

Daniel looks over his shoulder and wing a little awkwardly, “uh, thank you? Thanks, mom”, and forces a smile at her.

She ruffles his hair with a genuine soft smile, “of course, Danny. You’re more than welcome to come to us if you ever get hurt, we can teach Sam and Tuck too if you’re more comfortable with that”. Jack holding up a finger, “and them knowing would probably be a good idea anyway. Never know when you’re going to get hurt!”.

Vlad sighing and massaging his temples, “yes of course, especially since as soon as the ghosts find out there’s another halfa, they’ll want to test your metal”.

Daniel blinks, “what?”, while Maddie sorts out which bandaging she wants to use.

“Fight you, Daniel. It’s part of how ghosts socialise and establish their standing compared to each other. Ghosts are very much rule of the strong”, looking to Jack, “you two have been sticking to teaching him combat, right”. Jack nodding readily, so Vlad nods back, “good”, looking back to Daniel, “now stop dodging the powers question. Your parents aren’t freaked out by mine, they won’t be freaked out by yours”.

Jack giving his son a thumbs up, “dont worry, Danny-boy. And ghosts vary a lot and you’re young and new, so if you’ve got less than Vladdie that’s likely super normal”. Vlad nods like that’s obvious, because it was.

Daniel flushes, “uh, well I don’t think I can do all that? But I think I’m, uh, stronger than I was a few days ago”.

Vlad nodding, “you were freshly formed, as it were, a few days ago. I doubt every single ability you’ll have would have developed immediately or within a few days”.

Daniel chuckles awkwardly and rubs his neck, Maddie tapping in his back to remind him not to move too much, making Daniel look even more awkward, “yeah I guess that makes sense”, tilting his head, “um, so far then, I don’t have anything you don’t I think? Invisibility, intangibility, the gravity thing, the heightened physical ability which I’m guessing is strength and speed and stuff, probably the healing factor, body morphing, I don’t think the voice echo thing counts as a power-”.

Vlad snorts, “it does not, good for intimidation though”.

Daniel makes a face at him but continues, “-my senses are better, and transformation”.

All three adults blink, surprised. Vlad titling his head, “you can transform already? Into your more ghostly appearance?”.

Daniel’s, “yes?”, is very awkward and mousy.

Jack beams and jumps, it’s rather embarrassing and childish. “Awesome! I bet you look awesome and very spooky!”, laughing, “it took ol’ Vladdie, like, six years to do that! And! He usually couldn’t hold it for very long!”.

Vlad grumbles, not pouts, grumbles at the man, “I was still healing and it’s an entirely deferent state of being, of course I had issues, Jack”. Jack just grins and laughs a little more.

Daniel tilts his head but chuckles at Vlad, “I think it’s easy, I mean sure I detransform, I guess, accidentally. And it’s kinda weird getting it to work, but when I really remember the how I can do it”.

Maddie nods, giving the bandaging a pat down before staring up, “alright, your good”, moving her head to be more in Danny’s line of sight, “you feel like showing us? Your other form?”, then looking at Vlad with a quirked eyebrow, “I’m sure your uncle Vlad wouldn’t object to showing you his?”.

Vlad waves her off, “oh but of course, you know how much I love to show off”.

Daniel looks at him blatantly curious, though clearly also nervous.

So Vlad steps back a bit and does a little bit of a dramatic bow while letting his transformation rings travel over his body. A little curious about Daniel’s muttered, “why are his black?”. Regardless, Vlad straightens up in his ghostly form, making a point to keep his feet planted in the ground.

Daniel stares a little, tilting his head at an angle that’s a little past humanly possible, “wow you look way different”, then snickering, “very vampire, nice horn hair”.

Vlad is well aware he is being mocked. Today he’ll tolerate such insult, since he’s effectively explaining for the first time being a halfa to another halfa who is also a child, his godson at that. “Yes yes, laugh it up”.

“Did you always look this different?”.

“Yes and no, I bulked up a lot and my hair changed. The fangs, ear points, and claws are all adult ghost traits as well”.

Jack grinning at Daniel, “meaning you shouldn’t have them now but will one day”, and only grins more at his son’s groan.

Vlad nodding, crossing his arms, “and if you get into fights, you’ll likely bulk up at least in ghost form. Now, you wondered at my rings being black, are yours not?”.

Daniel shrinks down a little, “I, um. No?”. And glances around, all three adults giving him encouraging gestures. Daniel flushing a little and clearing his throat, nodding a little. Vlad has a genuinely hard time not mocking the boy when he mutters a very quiet, “I’m going ghost”, before the white -different indeed- rings appear. Perhaps a… catchphrase helped the boy focus on the change? Regardless all three eye the more ghostly version of Daniel as the rings finish their job. Vlad’s almost miffed at how the transformation did seem easy for him, but oh well.

Daniel’s ghost form has a black hazmat suit with white gloves and white boots, his hair’s also a very shocking white. Vlad’s a little surprised his green eyes still have black pupils and white sclera, perhaps that would change as he grew into adulthood? Some ghosts did have black pupils and white sclera though, so it may very well just be the way his eyes are naturally. Daniel… looks incredibly similar to his human half, far more than Vlad ever did. Perhaps it was due to how quickly his ghost form formed? “Well you certainly don’t look all that different”. Daniel just shrugs awkwardly and jumps a little, remaining floating in the air after, at Maddie ruffling his hair; Daniel's hair waved around almost flame-like at the action.

Jack grins at Daniel, “I say it suits you! You have a pretty strong glow too!”.

Vlad leaning over some to hold his own arm up near Daniel’s having to phase through some of the boys left wing, Daniel’s glow is actually brighter than his own, if only by a hair. If Daniel was equal to him in experience and skill then Vlad’s not certain he could actually win. That was slightly concerning, on a ghostly level, no strong ghost liked the potential of a stronger one. But it was also quite thrilling, this boy could perhaps challenge him and could be something special if trained well; that prospect was incredibly enticing actually. Very thrilling indeed. “A strong glow is good, no godson of mine should be weak”.

Daniel blinking and looking at his arm, “so my… glow means I’m strong?”.

All three adults nod, Vlad standing back up right and crossing his arms again, “a stronger glow means you’re shedding off a high output of ecto-energy, it means you’ve got a high amount of natural ecto-energy. That your body self produces and filters a larger amount of ecto-energy”, humming, “though it may very well be that all halfas are powerful by our nature, as it is we don’t have to expend our energy to merely exist; however it does use up energy to remain in our ghost form”.

Daniel nods, soaking up the information, oh having an apprentice was going to be delightful. “Yeah I’ve notice I get tired after a while”, tilting his head a little at Vlad, “and so we, I, am a halfa?”, and looks to his parents for confirmation as well.

All three nodding readily, Jack beaming, “half a ghost, half a human; that’s what all the ghosts went with! Even if most of ‘em would lie just to amuse themselves”.

Vlad shrugs, “many ghosts are alright enough, particularly the useful ones”.

Daniel frowning, “yeah I don’t think I’m going to be ‘using ghosts’”. Vlad scoffing and waving the boy off, far too moral, this one.

Maddie smiles, pleased, “well you will likely get into fights, Vlad’s made it clear that’s unavoidable, so I fully expect you to take target practice and your martial arts a little more seriously”.

Vlad gesturing with a hand, “and ghost power training, of course. A well aimed ecto-blast will get you much further than a thrown punch”.

“And if I can’t do that?”.

“I’ll be baffled if you can’t, but everything has a work around if you look for it”, grinning all fang, “hold up a hand and imagine that tingling vibration throughout your entire body flow into the air above your palm, condensing into a tight pulsating sphere”.

Daniel blinks but stares at his hand, furrowing his brows in concentration, he jumps a little as a green ecto-blast forms above his palm. Him startling himself, of course, results in him losing focus and sending the blast into the ceiling. Him laughing awkwardly, “oops?”.

Jack smacks him on the back, making the boys wings twitch, “no worries, Danno! You should have seen the amount of things Vladdie set on fire!”. Daniel chuckles, loosening up a little, until Jack grabs his wing to inspect them anyways, “now let’s have a look at these! Since you’re all patched up now!”, and basically pulls the floating Daniel off his stool.

The boy giving both Vlad and Maddie slightly pleading looks, Vlad shakes his head while Maddie gives him a soft smile, “just let your dad get it out of his system”. Daniel groans but does let Jack effectively manhandle him, spinning him in the air and stretching out his wings to inspect them better. Eventually Daniel stuck holding onto the table when Jack decides to see just how long Daniel’s wing span was. They were needlessly long wings, frankly. His humerus bone was practically the length of half of Vlad’s wing. Incredibly showy, like a peacock. He’ll have to see if that’s just for show, or if the boy can put genuine speed and power behind them.

Maddie crossing her arms at her husband, “Jack, dear, that’s enough, you’re going to give him a strain at this point”. Daniel grumbling a, “thanks mom”, when Jack sheepishly lets go of the poor boys wings.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Danny-boy!”.

Daniel glances around awkwardly, “it’s, uh, okay, dad”, rubbing his neck, “it’s better than you being scared of me or trying to hunt me or something”.

Jack’s, “we’d never!”, is thankfully immediate. As it should be. Daniel was his own son after all. Vlad would be quite displeased if he found out they were hunting him in any capacity.

Vlad blinking before smirking, turning his head towards the kitchen entry way, based on sound and scent those friends of Daniel’s have shown up, ears pressed up to the door perhaps. Vlad chuckles meanly, “you two can come in, instead of trying to spy. Your friend is perfectly fine”.

Daniel jerking in the air before zipping over to the door as if it was mere second nature to him already. Vlad is absolutely a bit jealous, not that he would admit to such feelings. Jack elbowing him, “he’s got the hang of this a lot faster than you”. Vlad snarls at the man, it’s a ‘playful’ threat and Jack absolutely knows that.

Meanwhile the door opens, a pale goth and dark-skinned geek poking their heads in; the goth’s scowling and the geek’s nervous. Them both rearing their heads back a little at Daniel’s face being practically right in front of their own, “hey! It’s okay, they’re cool, my uncle’s stupidly vampire themed though”.

Vlad sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, “it’s stylish, boy. And I will not be explaining myself to your friends as well”, waving dismissively at the boy, “feel free to burden yourself with that explanation instead”. Regardless the two teens stare at Vlad, wide-eyed.

“So Danny’s not going to get shot, caged, or strapped down?”

“Danny-man, you’re either extremely lucky or stupidly unlucky, take your pick”.

At least the boy had good friends, ones that were seemingly serious about fighting his parents should they harm him. Good. They made for acceptable playmates.

Daniel blurting out, “did you guys notice I don’t have a freaking shadow anymore?”.

Both the teens snapping their heads down and blinking. Tucker shaking his head, “huh. You’d think that would be more noticeable”.

Vlad transforms himself back human as he walks over, eyeing the two teens and drawling, “you'd be surprised how much most people fail to notice”.

Sam snorts at him, “oh you’re the weird uncle, that explains so much”, pointing at Daniel, “doesn’t it, you weirdo”. Daniel simply pouts fondly at her.

Vlad quirking an eyebrow, “the ‘weird uncle’?”.

Daniel eyes him, still floating in the air, “you say some really strange stuff, okay? Like, you swear using food. That’s weird”.

“Far better than using foul language”.

“Gonna disagree on that one”; Daniel transforming back human and landing on the ground almost gracefully. Vlad sighing when the teen realises he’s sans a shirt, covering up with his wings before running up stairs for a likely baggy tank top. Daniel’s friends actively laughing at him before running into the house fully and chasing the boy up the stairs shouting about getting more ‘blackmail’ photos.

Vlad shaking his head before turning to Jack and Maddie who were watching the teens fondly, “I’m assuming you’re going to be doing quite a bit of sewing to make his clothing wearable for at least the time being”.

Maddie nodding at him, “there’s no way he’ll let me cut up his nasa varsity jacket but otherwise, of course”, frowning a little, “so you think he’ll be okay?”.

Vlad looking back up the stairs, “he seems accepting of it, shifting into comfort easily. With support there would be no reason for him not to be mentally well. Physically? I’d say he’s better off than I was, and his ecto-energy feels stable for a child ghost”. Maddie sighs in happy relief and Jack beams, giving him a thumbs up. Vlad still frowns at them, “you two got lucky with him, do not repeat this”.

Maddie’s, “we won’t”, is at least very firm. Jack nodding right after, looking up the stairs himself, “I can’t believe he’s not upset with us”.

Vlad shakes his head, “he blames himself for it entirely, regardless of that being incorrect. Which would be concerning, if I wasn’t fairly certain that he’s okay with this change. Confused, unsure, and nervous, perhaps. But not upset, angry, or sad”.

Maddie sighing again, “good. That’s good. And I agree, he seems more worried about our reaction than about being the way he is now. Being a halfa”, smiling a little, “though I’m sure he’ll ask a lot of questions”.

Jack nodding strongly, and crossing his arms, “as any curious teen should”.

Daniel’s head pops back out of his bedroom, “Vlad! Can we survive in the void of space?!”.

Vlad absolutely knows that tone meant the boy was going to do something impressively stupid. Flying to space most likely. “Yes. But you’re too new, if you lose your ghost form in space and that high up you’ll be in trouble”. The teen pouts at him, “boo. You suck”, and ducks back into his room.

At least it looked like he found a shirt he could get on.

Vlad giving Maddie and Jack pitying looks, “he’s quite the handful”.

Maddie putting a hand over her face and laughing a little. Jack chuckling loudly, “V-man! You were here when Danny attempted to eat a blob ghost!”.

“I unfortunately remember that and do not understand how that didn’t kill him”.

“Neither do we!”.

Maddie shaking her head and eyeing Vlad, “will you be staying a while?”.

Vlad inclines his head, “oh but of course, Maddie dear”, grinning, “I have a young halfa godson to apprentice after all”.

Jack laughs rather awkwardly, not unlike his son, “just don’t forget he’s our son! Don’t do too much of the parenting for us!”.

Vlad smirking, “I make no promises”; Jack, the utter fool, thinks Vlad’s joking. Vlad is not joking. If he can make an heir out of the boy then all the better, Jack and Maddie were hardly truly good parents even if Vlad himself highly doubts he’d be any better. However, Vlad was a halfa, and so was Daniel. Even if Jack and Maddie were truly great parents they wouldn’t be able to fulfil all his needs or fully relate to him. Vlad can and will.

Maddie sighing, picking up better that Vlad’s intentions weren’t exactly pure. “Please don’t. I know he’s a halfa, like you, but try not to get dangerously possessive of him?”.

He scoffs, moving to head upstairs, sending away his wings to make the stairs and hallway easier to navigate, “oh it’s much too late for that, I’m afraid”.

At least they follow him up, smart. Pointless, but smart. Besides, he doesn’t truly believe he can actually get Daniel as exclusively his or under his thumb in any sense. That boy was too moral and headstrong… and chaotic. Vlad opening the boys door to him standing ‘threateningly’ over his friends, wielding fist fulls of feathers like bombs; his friends already have a noteable amount of black and white feathers on them. Vlad sighing, “Daniel, why are you ripping out your feathers?”; Jack is wheeze laughing and Maddie looks like she thinks she’s won.

Daniel blinks, looking at Vlad but otherwise not moving, fist fulls of feather still held up in the air, “I claim comedic effect?”.

Tucker smirks, spitting out a feather, “he’s trying to suffocate us”.

Samantha’s smirk is far more mean, “i threaded some beads into his feathers earlier, he only just noticed. I am very smug”.

Daniel throws his feathers at her without hesitation. Vlad puts a hand to his face and sighs heavily, this boy was a menace in all the wrong ways and his half death was only going to encourage him.

Then Tucker looks to Vlad, “oh, I hacked your company by the way, just in case you abduct Danny or something”. Then going back to smacking Daniel and his wings, while the boy basically assaults both of his friends with the feathered things. Samantha also taking the time to look at Vlad, pointing aggressively at him, “and I have enough money to have you fully killed by somebody who has nothing”. Daniel smacking her harder with a shouted, “murder is bad!”.

Daniel’s friends were not going to help reel the boy in at all. As much as Vlad loves not being alone any more and the prospect of teaching another halfa, he’s a little concerned over what’s been given to him.

Maddie scowling, putting her hands on her hips, “Danny! You’re going to rip the stitching!”. While Jack cheers this mess on, “you go! Danno!”.

Hmmm, yes Vlad’s plate is going to be very full and he’s gotten himself involved in quite the half dead mess.

End.

Prompts: After the accident, the Fentons can't help but notice something wrong with Danny. And since Danny also has that terrible symptom of "being a teenager", he refuses to tell them anything. So they are reaching out to the only person who could possibly help: an old friend in Wisconsin. After the accident, Danny no longer has a shadow, and he isn't the first person to notice its absence. Ghosts have wings. Humans don't.Unfortunately for Danny, his body did not get the memo. In another universe, Maddie and Jack did visit Vlad in the hospital, and stayed in contact. What happens when Danny has his accident twenty years later?

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emilybahu · 20 days

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I love 9-1-1 so much!

I have fallen in love with tv shows before, watching episodes religiously as they aired weekly. 9-1-1 has been different for me though, it’s become more like an obsession. In some ways that’s bad, it’s consuming my mind a lot of times and it’s distracting me from other things I need to get done. However, really getting into the fandom of this show has also been wonderful for me, it’s made me so happy, actually getting involved with other fans and talking to people the last couple months has been so fun! You all are amazing, funny, talented people and I’m truly grateful that I’ve been able to interact with you!

Now, I’ve heard about some toxicity within the fandom, Buddie and BuckTommy shippers turning against each other and fighting about what’s best for the characters. (Which btw, isn’t really up to us anyway)

I personally haven’t seen a lot of that, who knows, maybe I’m just ignoring it because I don’t want to see it. Either way I always try to keep a very open and and neutral stance when it comes to shipping. I let myself enjoy the stories, the edits, the fan art, and the speculation. However, I also try to stay grounded in the reality of what’s happening in the movie/book/tv show.

When it comes to 9-1-1 right now, between Buddie and BuckTommy I’m not picking sides. I like both ships the same, and I don’t think that’s gonna change any time soon. I really, really enjoy both ships! (Plus the fan fiction for both are amazing, so I’m LIVING)

Buddie is part of the reason that I started watching in the first place, Buck and Eddie are my favorite characters. I love them both to death, and regardless of their relationship status they have something special, no one can deny that! Their friendship is beautiful and deep, they do truly love each other, they’re family, they will always be there for each other whether or not they end up in a romantic relationship. I’m honestly just happy to see them together in any capacity. And yes, I will happy, overjoyed even, if they decide to make Buddie cannon, but I’ll also be happy if their relationship remains as it is.

As far as Buck and Tommy go I was surprised when the kiss happened, but OH MY GOD… I was totally there for it! I’m actually really happy with this storyline so far, (even if the second hand embarrassment nearly killed me during the first date)I think that they’ll be great together, I really can’t wait to see them getting to know each other more! Wherever this goes, I’m here for it! I’m excited to see Buck explore his bisexuality with Tommy, and learn about himself through this relationship. I’m also excited to learn more about Tommy! And if they don’t end up being very long term, I really hope that they stay friends.

I’m really enjoying being into a ship that’s canon for once, it makes me really happy. I don’t think there’s ever been a ship (apart from these ones) that I’ve been into that have even had a remote chance of becoming cannon (Stucky… my first love!)

Anyway, I digress, the writers and the actors KNOW these characters, we know that if something felt off it the story, they’d want to do right by the characters. We know for a fact how much Oliver and Ryan love Buck and Eddie, and if it feels right and true to them Buddie will happen. If it doesn’t feel right to put them in a romantic relationship, to me, it’s fine because regardless we have these two men with an absolutely beautiful and meaningful friendship, and I’m always here for that!

All of this to say, all this fighting about “who’s right for who” isn’t doing anyone any good. I mean we’re all in this fandom because we love this show RIGHT!? Being on platforms like this is meant to bring us TOGETHER!

SO WHY THE HELL ARE SOME OF US TRYING TO RIP EACH OTHER APART BECAUSE WE HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON A DAMN SHIP!?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions after all… so yeah, share your opinion, just don’t be rude about it. Putting someone down because they disagree with you doesn’t make you right… it just makes you mean. It scares people away, maybe makes them feel like they’re not safe in this community. I’ve seen it a couple times too, with myself and others, being afraid to make a post because of the possibility of hate.

In my experience you’re meant to feel safe in a fandom, in a community because you’re sharing your love for something with others who love it just as much as you do! We should love each other like we love these characters!

To conclude, all I need is for our boys to be happy, that’s really all we should care about here anyway. It shouldn’t necessarily matter who’s dating who, as long as they’re HAPPY! I’m really just along for the ride, I’m here for whatever they decide to do with Buddie and/or BuckTommy in the future. Buck and Eddie are my loves, and we barely know Tommy, but I’m starting to like him already, as long as they’re happy, I am too!

Thank you for reading my TedTalk…

Sorry if it doesn’t sound completely coherent, stringing words together isn’t always my strong suit…🫠

#911 abc #9-1-1 #buddie #bucktommy #tevan #eddie diaz #evan buckley #tommy kinard #time to rant #buck and eddie #I really love this show

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scribble-dribble-writes · 8 months

Text

A surprising ally

<<<Prev (silver eyes tell no lies)

(A blue flame)Next>>>

Pairing: Buggy x female mermaid reader

Word count: 2000

Warnings: none

Content: Helge needs to know he's Kenough

---

“Poisoned?”, you questioned as he pressed down on your wrist to make you put down the cup as you regained your composure.

“How do you know?”, you asked next to which he gave you a small smile.

Picking up his tea cup, Helge took a sip that made him wince as he pursed his lips before he looked at you, his silver eyes turning green for a few seconds.

It was then you remembered a fact you had read about his family line, the Slyvesters were immune to poison of any kind.

He exhaled as though his throat had the worst burn, which then made him puff a few coughs, “Sea snake venom gives a strong kick to our drinks, but it’s quite deadly to you.”

You looked at the tea that sat untouched in your cup, it’s colour normal as always but it’s presence was eerie. When you turned to look at him, you held him in a suspicious glare, which seemed to bring him back to the moment.

“I’ve never served you poisoned tea, if that’s what your wondering.”, Helge folded his arms. His blonde hair combed back with such elegance that he looked like he was a pristine painting on the wall. But his eyes alone teemed with worry.

“How can I believe your word?”, you furrowed your brows at him to see the disbelief that began to spread across his face. That somehow your trust had meant a lot to him and now to think you didn’t take him upon his word, it seemed to have hurt him.

“Because I taste tested every batch before it was served.”, he said with a passion that you had never seen him portray before.

“Did you think I was against you? Like the rest at the mercourt?”, he questioned, his eyes fixed on you with such desperation that he hung on your every word.

“You can’t ask that when you have a lot to gain from all the politics.”, you burst out at him too, arguably the only time your conversation had felt real. You leveled his glare and watched as his eyes shimmered again, breaking away from your gaze as he tried to hide his pain.

“I have a lot to gain? Right, of course.”, he put up his hands in defense as he pushed away from the table with pent up anger.

“Oh you don’t have to thank me for saving your life by the way.”, he mumbled again waving his hand as he walked away towards his solitary window space.

“There, you saved my life? By dooming me to these castle walls and then by preventing an assassination attempt because the people want me gone?”, you pushed away from the table too as you followed him.

“What did you expect? We’re mermaids. We steal the things we like. We’re vicious and barbaric. You’re not the first to have poisoned tea, it’s normal within these walls. But you’re the first one I chose to save, people dislike you for being different -.”, he spoke with his back facing you.

But you cut in as you laughed, unable to believe how absurd it was sounding but to your reaction, he turned to face you, his expression chipping away to reveal a broken part of him you caught a glimpse of.

“I’m not some relic you can collect.”, you responded breathlessly.

But his gaze lingered on you, as though he had more to say, instead he tightened his lips and turned away.

“Your entitlement really does go over your head sometimes.”, you remarked to which he grew quite, you watched as his shoulders rose and fell as he breathed.

“Please, grace me with an answer as to why you chose to save me when I could be dead in that seat instead?”, you folded your arms as you waited for him to reply, instead he sighed before he turned to you.

His silver eyes narrowing down on you as though he was going to let loose his rage but the moment they settled on you, his gaze softened to the point you finally saw how hurt he was.

“You really are different to what everyone had told me about. Although they hate you for it, I began to like you. As you are. You’re more human and that’s exactly what the mercourt needs. ”, he stated as he held his ground.

“Ever since I was born, I was only worthy of one thing. To be King, if you were found that is, if not I wasn’t anything special. I only existed if you did.”, he had lowered his walls to finally begin to speak to you about more deeper matters.

“And to my hopelessness of being lonely for ages, the news of you being spotted was my only joy.”, he gave you a sad smile.

“Mother would havd never bothered with me otherwise. But with you coming back, she flitted around me, wanted to connect with me and I wanted to soak in all that attention I never received since I was a child.”, he sighed, as though the more he spoke the less heavy he became.

“When you arrived, I was instructed to announce our engagement the very next day but I didn’t, I wished for us to have some time.”, he paused as he ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling it.

“I wished to get to know you.”, he met your gaze again.

“But when my mother almost twisted your incident this morning into a rumor that could have ruined your chances here, I grew to understand how vulnerable you actually are.”, he said as he shook his head in disbelief.

“Your mother likes her games.”, you said as you raised your brow, hoping he would contradict it or tell you to not speak ill of her.

“She does, to a point she forgets her son is not a pawn in it.”, he said softly as he moved away and suddenly his chamber and environment made more sense. His boarded walls was to protect himself from the constant infiltration of his mother, that right this instant as he stood quietly in front of you, his silver eyes unable to tear up no matter the pain he carried, you saw how isolated he was.

“I’ve heard your father was a much more pleasant.”, you steered the topic into something that might make him happy. You didn’t know much about his father, only that he had passed when Helge was a child.

“He was.”, he smiled and you could tell he was remembering fond memories as a ghost of a smile rested on his face for a second before it vanished.

“He perished the same day your parents did.”, he stated as he bit the inside of his cheek. His eyes turning crystalline like ice as he fixed his gaze on you.

“I just wished to feel wanted, by you.”, he said and you stilled as you felt the weight of his gaze.

“But I feel I’ve lost to that new friend of yours.”, he stated, his eyes glistening with mischief as he hid his disappointed smile.

You held his gaze as you stood your ground, not willing to give him an answer in the fear that this was another game of its own.

“Please, I know of your history with the showman. You were always so quiet in our meetings I had to dig around to find more in the attempts to learn about you.”, he clasped his hands behind his back as he began to stroll towards you.

“Does your mother know?”, you furrowed your brows as you watched him get closer.

“Oceans no.”, he huffed looking hurt again.

“I don’t wish to hurt you.”, he said with a solemn expression that it was clear he was being honest.

“But she did instruct me to handle you with a firm hand. And I knew you felt as suffocated as me here, so I had to put up a front while I tried to find ways to make your life here a bit better.”, he shrugged his shoulders as though keeping you entertained was actually keeping him entertained.

“Why are you telling me this now?”, you gave him a half smile as you asked.

“I fear for your life, the same way I feared for my father’s a few days before he died. Some sort of intuition that had kept me up at night of the fear I could lose you. Someone does not want you to become Queen.”, he said. It grew clearer why the Slyvesters and Nerroceanes were the royal pair. You worked well together professionally.

“That’s an understatement.”, you waved your hand before you rested your head on your hand. By this time he had ventured closer to you and it felt like you were meeting him for the first time.

“I hoped with the circus here and with you reunited with your pirate captain, I only wished to have a pawn in the game myself. To seek help to solve the conspiracy behind the death of my father.”, his sweet smile disappeared as he grew serious.

“I would have helped you either ways. Without my pirate captain as a well appreciated bribe.”, you laughed which eased him.

“That’s kind of you to say but the way your eyes glimmer when he holds you, it satisfies my longing by witnessing the love you have for him and somehow it makes me believe that love is real.”, he looked out towards the sea and you couldn’t begin to fathom the true sense of his love for you, because he was willing to see you happy with someone else.

“That’s very rare.”, he stated wistfully.

“What is?”, you asked quietly.

“Someone loving you without conditions.”, he said with a tinge of sadness wrapped in his words.

“Is it pathetic that your happiness makes me happy?”, he turned to you as a he smiled.

You wrapped your hand around his arm and laid your head on his shoulder, he froze under your touch but then slowly rested his head on yours.

“No, it just shows you’ve got more heart than you would like to admit.”, you said.

“I guess so.”, he replied quietly.

“What about all the talk about punishing Buggy if he didn’t make me happy?”, you smiled as you asked to which he chuckled.

“He’s not the only one who can put up a show. But I was a little jealous. However, he loves you truly and I admire him for it.”, he responded but you could hear the joy in his voice.

“Tell me if he hurts you, then the dungeons it is.”, he stated seriously which made you laugh in response.

“I doubt that will ever be the case.”, you said

“I know.”, Helge drawled.

“And I’m sure you will find that love you yearn for.”, you told him and instead of responding he placed his hand over yours to give it a gentle squeeze.

“It feels nice to have a friend.”, he admitted as if he had never said that to anyone else.

“Provided you keep Buggy a secret.”, you looked up him to which he nodded in agreement.

“And you have my allegiance.”, he looked at you as though you were a queen already.

“All I ask is for your help to find the truth behind my father’s demise.”, he looked at you and you sensed the vulnerability in his voice. He had been on his own for years and he could trust no one else but you, so stepping out to ask you for your support would have been an uphill climb.

“I will.”, you gave him your word and in return Helge relaxed as he gave you a grateful smile.

“ Alright that’s enough sadness for today.”, He shook you as you laughed.

“Would you like to play a game of ships and monsters? I’ve got the cards ready.”, he looked at you and you saw the lonely teenager he had once been.

You nodded and he moved away to reset the table.

The sun had set and you walked down the corridor, the cold night’s breeze sending a shiver down your spine as the empty hallways began to feel too open. Your mind tricking you to believe someone was following you. You were almost there, to enter the archives when you passed by an enclave and all you felt was a warm hand pulling you into the darkness.

---

Tags:

@lotr-got @juhdoche @wooyoungsrightsock

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caramel1mochi · 8 months

Text

ぐちゃ ! (Splat!) [Yoru x F! Reader] [4]

Heya everyone!

Just a quick note; if you spot a random 'You' halfway through a sentence, it's supposed to be 'Yoru' but it keeps getting autocorrected and it doesn't stop NO MATTER WHAT SETTINGS I CHANGE.

Anyway, that's it, have a good one!

❤ฺ·。

Yoru x F! Reader

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 4.5 / Part 5 / Part 6

Genre: Fluff, a tiny amount of angst. Very tiny. Trust me.

Synopsis: Hapless doesn't even begin to describe you. With your life flipped upside down within the span of a day; you're left to rely on your best friend Tala to help you pick up the pieces and build the new one forced upon you. And this 'luck' seems to have caught the attention of one of her friends.

。+❤ฺ·。❤ฺ·。+❤ฺ· +❤·。❤ฺ·。+❤ฺ·

At first, you thought Neon was being dramatic when she talked about how the contingency of you having your own room was a terrible one. You had to have your own private space after all, right? You were a bloody adult.

Unfortunately, having your own space also meant that you were free to cuss and rant in Tagalog all you wanted while throwing your belongings around in a skewed sense of ‘organising’, or whatever ran through your mind at the time.

And that’s exactly what you’ve been doing since you escaped Omen’s sight.

Who the hell did Yoru think he was? That’s the question that you kept asking yourself, furiously grabbing your blanket and airing it. You knew his type. The ones who think they’re entitled just because they helped you a few times? And even then, you didn’t ask for his help! He offered it! So why was he getting on his high horse?

Gah, it was all just so moronic, you thought as you set the blanket down and folded it to properly fit the small bed.

You didn’t notice that, over the course of the past few minutes; your voice increased in volume and so did the loud thuds as you threw your items around. Which is the reason why two knocks on the door interrupted your incessant fury.

With a barely audible screech, the metal door slid open to reveal, thankfully, a familiar face.

“Oh, hey Neon.”

“Hoy, what’s going on here?”

You sighed and walked off to your vanity desk, organising the magazines you tossed.

“You heard that, huh?”

Neon laughed, already stepping in and running her fingers through the painting you had hung up. Delicately, so as to not ruin it, though. You were already pissed enough and god knows that she could tell.

“You don’t know how thick the walls are here, huh, Y/N–” she shook her head, “sorry, A/N.”

Just as you met her gaze with a smile, you were quickly pulled into a hug. So quick, the tufts of your hair barely even had time to settle as she tightly wrapped her arms around you.

“By the way, welcome to the team! I’m so happy you’re finally with us!”

“I’ve been here for a week, dummy.”

Despite your sarcastic remark, you felt all of your anger melt away in an instant, promptly hugging her back.

God, she was just the cutest.

“I just thought I’d give you the welcoming nobody else was going to!”

Nobody else, huh? That phrasing reminded you of a certain someone. Neon quickly pulled away. And immediately, just looking at her incredibly amicable round eyes stomped out any lingering hint of wrath you felt. And you couldn’t help but grin at this sight.

“Neon, seriously, what’s going on? Did everyone leave and you just have nobody to talk to?”

“Well, yeah, but since we have free time, we get to do something!”

…

Wait, she wasn’t joking?

“They’re actually gone?”

“Technically, they’re in a meeting right now. We’re just not a part of it.”

Your eyes widened in surprise. How come there wasn’t even an announcement? At least some chatter from the others as they made their way there? Is that why it was quiet enough for Omen to have heard you and Yoru arguing?

“There’s a meeting right now?”

“If you don’t know about it, then it means that you’re not gonna be in whatever they’re doing. Wanna go see?”

Before you could even open your mouth to answer, you were already pulled to the empty hallways and forced to march down with her, her grip on your left wrist as hard as it always is. But this time, after all the training and the way Harbour would slap your back as a way to express his joy, safe to say that you were definitely used to it.

On another note, your shoulder blade definitely had a crack in it somewhere.

“Wait, wait, where are we going?”

“To check out the meeting room! I don’t think you’ve ever been there, yet!”

With how silent the hallways were, you could hear your very steps echoing. And it made sense after what she told you.

However, this silence would allow you to listen in on a very distant yet muffled voice in just a few seconds. And with how harsh the tone was, its recognisable pitch, you could tell it was Viper before you could even make out one word.

The closer you got to the meeting room, the more audible her voice was. And just like that, you both found yourselves moving towards a wide open door, the only source of light coming from the centre of the table, projecting something to them as Viper explained whatever.

Both of you took a peek inside to see what the fuss was about. But it was hard for you to get a look at the model of the building they were examining, seemingly surrounded by a body of water. Not when everyone sat in a circle around said table. You began glancing at many agents you both recognised and didn't recognise.

There was Phoenix, Jett, Gekko, Skye, and…

Yoru.

“Ugh.”

“What?”

You cleared your throat, forcing a smile, but not without questioning how Viper tolerated such a man’s presence, not when he sat like he owned the place. Slouched on the chair, arms crossed, completely uninterested.

“I mean– is it, uh, is it usually this dark?”

“Not really. Whenever it’s dark like this, it means something serious is going on. Me and Sage actually made a little rhyme for it whenever we’d see Viper or Brim mess around with the light switch!”

As she went on her little tangent, your eyes bore into the back of Yoru’s head with unrelenting anger. God, he just looked so punchable.

“It goes like this; if there’s light, then the workload’s light! If it’s dark, then you better get ready for some dark stuff! It’s not creative, but we were making up songs while we were surrounded by a bunch of rocks and had to wait for a rescue.”

Only after you observed the way his hair moved upwards did you realise that Harbour sat amongst them. Uh oh. He was in on this mission, too? That means you won’t be able to talk about this bomb thing you discovered until he gets back, right?

“A/N?”

“Yeah– I was, uh, I was just listening to what Viper was saying. Freaky stuff.”

“I know! I wouldn’t want to be Yoru right now, but he says he’s used to scouring things near the deep ocean.”

You scoffed.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever he says. So, what’re we doing until they’re back?”

You met her gaze. And of course, she beamed with a smile, her brown eyes glimmering under the harsh lights above you.

“So, A/N, since we both have free time and money, you wanna go do what I’m thinking we should do?”

…

“Uh, I don’t think I should be wasting–”

“Hoy, don’t be such a wuss! We’ll finally get to buy you that makeup you always wanted!”

Though you perked up at this, it quickly died down once you had another reason not to do this.

“No way, what if we–”

“We have time, money, freedom, and no rent to pay. You’re out of excuses and coming with me.”

Before you could retort, she grabbed your wrist and pulled you down the hallway once more. And, of course, with her contagious joy, you couldn’t help but also share her excitement for this trip.

It’s been a while since you had the freedom to dress the way you wanted. Wait, scratch that, you never really had said freedom unless you slept over at Neon’s house as a teen... Huh, maybe she was right. With how everyone else around here dresses, what’s the harm if you decided to wear fishnet stockings, right?

❤ฺ·。

Most of the agents left the meeting room excited, chatting with each other about the plans they'd set and what they're going to do. Mostly, however, about the unique location of the base. Even Harbour was excited, even though he had every right to be since it was in the middle of the ocean.

However, surprisingly enough, Phoenix wasn't one of them, following Yoru with an incredibly sour expression. Unable to read the room, he didn't realise the Japanese wanted to be left alone.

"Nah man, there's no way Viper took me out of the mission so quickly! I got cheated!"

"Phoenix. It's a base surrounded by water."

"And?"

"And the section we need to get into is submerged in water."

"So what?! Fire can still be useful!"

Yoru stared at him with a blank expression, before walking away. And Phoenix immediately followed. As per usual, with a preposterous counter-argument ready. If he could, Phoenix would burn an injured person if it meant he’d somehow be able to heal them.

"Wait wait, hear me out, I heard from somewhere that if you put fire on ice, it burns instead of melting 'cause of some chemical jargon. What if, by some force of nature, the same thing happens to the water?"

"You'd just be boiling it, idiot."

"Oh, come on. You're making it sound so useless!"

Yoru stopped and met Phoenix's gaze, both of his hands in his pockets.

"Why don't you go check if Neon has something planned?"

There was a reason she, Sage and Jett always had those outings, she was the mastermind behind all of them.

"Nah, no chance, fam. I saw her and A/N leave before the meeting was over, she's gone gone."

Already? Yoru thought, before shaking his head and both of them continuing down their path.

"Then go shoot some bots, or something. I have stuff to do."

"No way! After the shouting match I heard there, I ain't touching that spot until tomorrow."

"Tch, what? Shouting match?"

"Yeah, fam. Shouting match. Omen and I were chilling in the lobby and we heard shouting from there. Dunno what was up, but..."

Phoenix then remembered a key detail. Didn't Yoru tell him earlier that he would be training, and that's why he was unavailable most of the day? Then that meant… He chuckled to himself.

"Wait, was that you? Mate, how feminine does your voice get when you’re mad?"

"Did you just compare my voice to A/N's?"

"Wait, that was A/N? Why was she yelling?! Nah, there's no way you started an argument with her! Weren’t you just getting along?"

Disinterested in the conversation, Yoru took out his butterfly knife and began flipping it, its clacking sticking out against the moderate silence around them. Getting along is a stretch, he thought.

"Put down the tinfoil hat, Phoenix. There wasn't an argument. I just told her what was on my mind."

"Mate, what's on your mind can make the bloody president resign! Remember when you obliterated Sage for a small mistake?! I swear I saw her cry!"

"For the last time, she was sweating. And what's wrong with telling her to quit being passive?"

"That's not harsh?"

"She agreed with me, idiot."

"Look, I get what you mean, but I still think you should be nicer with your words, you feel me? A/N's kinda sensitive, unlike me."

Yoru immediately stifled a chuckle and cleared his throat.

“I’m already nice in one way. I’m not slathering my words in honey.”

“Mate, you’re hopeless.”

And with that, Yoru had no further retorts or desire to continue such a fatuous conversation.

But just because he shut himself up doesn't mean he didn't have ammunition upon ammunition of counter-arguments. And the most important among all of them; this was Valorant, not some daycare. People here should be used to harsh words. Thankfully, he was one of them, which is why he was unconcerned when you snapped back at him.

Nevertheless, he took a turn and walked down the hallway, their shared path dividing into two.

"Whatever. I'll see you after the mission, Phoenix."

Phoenix stared at him walk down the corridor, crossing his arms. And as per usual, despite his concerns, Yoru absolutely did not give a damn. It was evident just in the way he’d walk.

Maybe Phoenix should apologise for you, or fully scold him when he gets the full story.

❤ฺ·。

For the first time in a while, the fresh air of the outside world freely filled your lungs like mystical fairies sparkling some dust of serenity in you. And though it matched the one on the island you’d frequent for training, this one was different. This air was littered with a sense of peace.

You had been out shopping for the past few hours, with nothing to worry about. Not money, not anyone, nothing, other than keeping an eye on Neon so that she doesn’t stray too far away and leave you alone. It was a record for you to go so long without stressing about anything, at this point.

“You know, now that I think about it, that bracelet kinda adds to your look, doesn’t it?”

You held up your arm and lifted the long sleeve up in confusion, staring at it in the mirror. Of course, angling yourself in such a way so that the other customers couldn’t see what was going on. And you could definitely understand what she meant.

“Oh, yeah, it does.”

She stepped up behind you, both of her hands behind her back as she sported a cheeky smile. Did you even need to say anything to know she had something in mind? You flinched once she pinched your loose plain shirt and lifted it up, almost like she was grossed out.

“Jeez, this plant is so metal and stuff, your outfit is so boring in comparison.”

You rolled your eyes with a smile, waving her away.

“I know, you don’t need to say it.”

“What do you think of this?”

As if it was on cue, she immediately lifted a charcoal black top, its design carefully formed to fit the shape of a dainty hourglass figure. High quality, multiple patterns delicately laid throughout alongside a few buttons that helped it pop, it was so pretty. Without wearing it, you knew it fit you, and you already imagined what to connect this with.

But it wasn’t before you immediately shut this idea down.

“Neon, I’m not wearing a corset again!”

“Why not?! It’s not like anyone will say anything!”

“But it’s too much! I think I’ll just go with the choker this time. Maybe next month I’ll come back and get this.”

You pointed at the simple black choker you held. And immediately, you were met with an unamused expression.

“This doesn’t even have a pattern on it.”

“I wanna take it slow. What would Harbour say if I showed up in that?”

She giggled, putting the corset away.

“The guy dances with death every single day; seeing you in knee-high boots is not gonna do anything to him. Right…?”

You blushed, jokingly shoving her away and turning to the shelves where the chokers were set.

“Tumahimik ka! He’s like, forty!” <Shut up!>‎

Neon laughed, refusing to take her words back.

Then, one choker caught your eye. One with a heart in the centre, holding the whole thing together. Right next to a spiked one you considered getting, it was irresistible. And you flinched once Neon suddenly snatched it, observing said spikes.

“Why not this one? It looks cool.”

You rolled your eyes, putting back the plain choker in favour of the one with the heart. Then, you stepped away from the shelves, looking around for the cashier. It reminded you of Yoru.

“I don’t like spikes.”

“What’re you talking about? You wore spikes all the time.”

“Not anymore. They look like they’d hurt.”

Neon cheekily smiled.

“Yeah, duh! Yoru has these gloves with spikes on them. And once, I saw him punch someone with it, I think he got a scar on his cheek from those spikes!”

You threw her an expression of disgust, before walking down the aisles and towards the cash register you found. Neon took the choker with her and followed, intentionally holding it with her left hand so that it would be hidden out of your sight.

“Neon, that’s so crass.”

“But fighting is crass! You think we look like pretty ballerinas when we’re on the field? No way, we look like animals!”

You smiled and met her gaze.

“I’ve spent my entire life working in customer service. Nothing can shock me after that.”

Neon set the two chokers on the counter. Unlike you, she didn’t bother to look at the cashier as he worked, watching you take out your wallet.

“Oh, right, I forgot. Didn’t you work in a salon once?”

“Don’t remind me.”

You both continued chatting as you purchased the items. And being so distracted with whatever she was saying, you didn’t even notice that you were also buying the spiked one, the worker setting them both on a plastic bag.

And with a smile, he handed it to you, both of you immediately making your way out of the store.

Within the next few seconds, you already had the heart choker wrapped around your neck, angling your somewhat-messy bob so that it would cover some of it from the passerby. It felt uncomfortable for the first few seconds, but you quickly got used to it once you saw your reflection on the nearby window. And pretty was an understatement.

Neon scrutinised you with a wide smile on her face.

“I can’t believe it, you look less like an NPC, now!”

Before you could retort, Neon’s phone buzzed and she quickly pulled it out. And immediately, she began rapidly typing back, her smile falling considerably fast.

Her sudden wide eyes immediately concerned you.

“What’s up?”

“I, uh– we should go back.”

“Why, what happened?”

“Phoenix’s telling me the mission went south, they’re hurt! We have to go back and check on everyone! Come on!”

And with that brief yet sufficient explanation, she grabbed your wrist and rushed down the sidewalk; bits of her electricity cracking with each rapid step.

You were pulled away faster than you could comprehend, now forced to share her panic.

❤ฺ·。

You came back to chaos.

The area was filled with the panicked voices of your fellow co-workers, most of them standing in the hallways just outside the infirmary rooms. Each door closed, and there was no sight of the two healers.

“I can’t find anyone!”

Neon called out, the unnerving atmosphere clearly getting to her. And you couldn’t blame her, not when each voice was louder and less recognisable than the last, everyone clumped together into one blur of various colours in the medical wing. None of them were people you knew.

Then, you heard a distant voice, high pitched, babbling in a language you couldn’t understand. But you knew you heard that voice before.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Gah, there’s no time.

You grabbed her wrist and moved through the crowd, mumbling an apology with each person you gently pushed. And with each step, that voice had gotten louder and louder with every room you passed.

But it promptly went silent.

Just as you ushered a blonde man out of the way, suddenly, the door on your right violently swung open to reveal Sage, holding a dishevelled Jett close to her.

“Jett! Jett, what happened?”

Neon quickly rushed to her friend, but you noticed how the door was immediately slammed shut behind them, giving you no time to see what else was inside. Jett responded to her question, but it wasn’t a coherent string of sentences, Sage patting her back in reassurance as a teal aura wrapped around her hand and the Korean’s left shoulder.

“She’s gravely injured. Just give her a minute.”

Both of you noticed how she clutched her right bicep tightly, an odd discoloration blocked by her hand. And with her white skin, the harsh pink was obvious despite Sage’s efforts to heal her. With the way her sleeve was violently ripped to bits, a deep black painting the edges, it was concerning.

“What happened? Who’s in there?!”

“Follow me. We need to get her to a quiet room.”

And with that, all four of you made your way down the medical wing, moving towards an empty area.

You gently shut the door as Sage quickly worked on healing Jett, the discoloration slowly shrinking to a more manageable size, enough for her to be able to fully cover it from you and Neon. And both of you noticed how, despite her shock, she really wanted to keep it concealed. But only Neon had the guts to speak out.

“How bad is it?”

“Third degree burns. It was much more gruesome when it first occurred, but I have it under control.”

“Third degree burns?”

Sage met her gaze, strands of hair sticking out in a disorderly manner, alongside the sweat that dripped down her chin. In every sense of the word, she was exhausted.

“I’ll tell you later. I just need to get this fixed, urgently.”

You nodded, understanding what she meant. With the injury strong enough to put Jett in shock, you could tell why she didn't want to explain right next to her.

"Is everyone else okay?!"

You piped up. And thankfully, you both earned a nod.

"We managed to escape before the base completely exploded. I'm not even sure what happened."

"How? You weren't there?"

Jett winced once Sage's hands wrapped around her arm, forcing her to stop holding it so tightly. And despite you both now being able to get a clear look at her arm, there was only a blotch of light pink that slowly shrunk as the healer worked. It looked less gruesome than the glimpse you got just minutes before, thankfully.

And it seems like she’s gotten calm enough to be able to form sentences.

"I– I think I need a drink. Uh, Neon, can you help me out?"

"Sure, no problem."

And with her support, Jett and Neon left the room, walking extremely close side by side so as to keep the Korean from losing her balance.

Immediately, just as the door shut, your eyes darted over to Sage's.

"What happened, exactly?"

Sage took a deep breath, grabbing the nearby rolling stool and taking a seat. One more second, and she knew that her legs would've buckled under her weight.

"I’m not sure, I wasn't with them, but I know something went wrong. When I arrived, Jett had a massive burn on her arm and Yoru was disfigured. From what she told me, sections of the base were falling apart."

Disfigured…?

You watched her rest her head on her hand, taking a deep breath.

"Is, uh," you started, nervous, "Is Yoru okay?"

"I– I think… he's stable. I have to go check in on him, nevertheless."

Sage suddenly stood up and immediately aimed towards the door, the conversation cut short. And just as she went to leave, you quickly caught her attention once more.

“Wait, is there anything I can do to help?”

She met your gaze, weakly smiling.

“Water would be great. But make sure you knock first. I’ll be right next door.”

You nodded. And with an even wider smile, she promptly turned on her heel and took her leave, heading towards the Japanese.

With a sigh, your mind drifted back to Neon and Jett. They should be in the cafeteria, right? She mentioned something about water. Maybe you should go there as well.

❤ฺ·。

The serene silence amidst the HQ was flipped on its head. Now, despite escaping that constricted hallway where constant words dripping with anxiety were exchanged, you still felt tense. What happened to Harbour? Skye? Was Jett okay, even after she was healed? What about Sage? She looked absolutely spent. And…

What about Yoru?

A loud clunk snapped you out of your trance, and you blinked to find yourself in the doorway of the cafeteria, Neon standing right over the sink, a glass being filled up with water in her hand. Just as you arrived, she turned off the faucet and faced Jett, neither of them catching on to your presence as they chatted. Their tones low and melancholic, it only added on to the intensity of the general situation.

Jett seemed to have calmed down, judging by her relaxed posture as she took the glass from Neon. There, she noticed you, weakly bringing up her good arm to wave.

“Hey, A/N.”

You waved back, awkwardly smiling.

“Hey… are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright, I was just telling Neon what happened. By the way, did Sage say anything about Yoru?”

You approached the sink, taking out a glass and washing it.

“Uh… She said he was stable. I’ll give her the water and check in for you.”

“Thanks, you’re the best! Also, nice choker.”

You smiled to yourself, muttering a ‘thanks’ whilst you worked. Even in complete anguish, she somehow managed to notice it and even compliment it. What a sweetheart, you thought.

The water loudly swirled in the glass as you filled it.

“Is everyone else okay?”

“Nobody else got hurt, just me and Yoru. And he got the worse end of the stick, by the way.” She rolled her eyes, bringing the glass of water up to her lips. “Of course it’s us.”

“Seriously, what happened to Yoru?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re back.”

You groaned, turning to look at them as she gulped down, presumably, the second glass of water.

“Come on! Sage won’t tell me, and now you won’t tell me?”

To be fair, she didn’t know what happened.

“It’s– it’s awkward for him, okay? I don’t want him to get mad if I told anyone! And it’s not like I told her, all Neon knows is that a pipe burst on my arm!”

“What?”

“Yeah, straight through! Burned like hell!”

Now you knew why she was so desperately trying to cover her arm. It must’ve looked so grim.

You let out a huff, noticing the look of genuine concern over Jett as she explained. And it wasn’t the fact that she was hurt, more-so about Yoru, and how he’d go ape on her if she said anything. Like that mattered in this situation.

“If this is how all missions are gonna be, then isn’t it fair that I should know?”

Neon awkwardly laughed. Clearly, she hoped you wouldn’t bring that one specific point up.

“Okay, A/N, wait, I know this all looks bad but I swear, not all missions are like this. This only happens, like, once in a blue moon!”

“And that moon came up right after I–”

Oh, right. Luck.

You held up the glass of water, a few droplets falling to the ground.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You promptly left with the glass, heading back towards the room where Yoru was. And your mind was slowly dipped in turmoil with each conversation you had. Sure, Jett was shocked, but she clearly came down from it and was ready to talk.

God, how big of an ego did Yoru have, and why did everyone just accept it?!

You sighed and took a turn, working to push these thoughts off of your head.

Yoru was hurt. Seriously hurt, by the way they talked about him. You shouldn’t be holding a stupid grudge when his life was in danger. Maybe, just this one time, you could give him a pass…? Until he gets better, that is.

❤ฺ·。

The rest of the day, even after it ended, wasn’t easy for anybody. The lingering aroma of death still haunted the halls even after the break of dawn and you were marching down the hallways alone. Out of everyone, you carried the most burden. Mentally, that is.

Yoru was completely unconscious. You were sure of it.

Even though Sage didn’t let you in the room after you’d given her the water, the entirety of the day went by without a single sound from him. And you watched that door like a hawk. Only Sage left that room, but there was no sign of the Japanese.

You couldn’t help but think, was this all your fault?

You remembered how people back home would avoid associating with you because of your luck. After Neon befriended you and disappeared without a trace, your reputation was set in stone.

And with what just happened, were they wrong not to think otherwise? According to Neon, this never happens. And Yoru, after insulting you, was subjected to a horrible fate.

Was he even–

You stopped in your tracks once you saw a familiar figure sitting at one of the tables of the cafeteria. Back turned towards you, you recognised him by the spiky hair.

“Yoru?”

You called out, concern bleeding into your tone. He turned around, glancing at you from the corner of his eye, before looking back at his food.

“Hey.”

You quickly moved up towards him, laughing awkwardly. Relief overwhelmed you like never before at the sight of the grumpy Japanese. Just seeing him alive in front of you, it was cathartic. And wearing a plain white tee, you would’ve never guessed it was him, either.

“Yoru! Juskó, are you okay?” <Yoru! Oh my god,>‎

He ignored you as you approached his left, not turning his head all the way to meet your gaze. And weirdly enough, instead of some gourmet food, he was drinking a glass of water with ice in it, swimming like pretty mermaids.

“What do you want, lady?”

You placed a hand on your hip, furrowing your brow. Jeez, now you remembered why you argued.

“I wanted to check in on you, I thought you died! I was worried about you!”

“Tch.”

He lifted the glass and took a sip, and your eyes immediately locked on to his exposed right arm. There was a harsh light-pink tone that overtook the entire limb. Ungloved, every single detail was free to be scrutinised.

…

Was he purposely not looking at you head-on?

With this in mind, you immediately moved in front of him. And now, you finally got a good look at his face. And the sight was… incredibly hard to look at, to put it lightly.

The right side of his body, whatever wasn’t concealed by his shirt, was painted in the same pink, and it looked verbatim like first degree burns. And this was after Sage healed him, you couldn’t imagine how it looked when he was first found. How did all of this happen…?

But you could see a deeper red near where his neck was, like that part wasn’t healed properly.

It must be so painful for him to even grab the water and drink… Ugh, okay, scratch that. Too vivid.

“Go away.”

He said through gritted teeth, snapping you out of your shock. And quickly, you cleared your throat with an awkward smile.

“Sorry– do you, uh,” you looked at his right arm, pink, seemingly useless, “do you want me to cook you something?”

He raised an eyebrow, insulted. And it’s not like he didn’t catch on, either.

“I’m ambidextrous.”

…

“Yeah, but… I’m– I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

He took another sip, breaking eye contact with you. And with that, you heaved a tired sigh, turning to the stove to your right, completely unused. If he came down his high-horse and just admitted that the heat of the stove would get to him, there would be sympathy. But how could you be mad at him in this state?

He was clearly helpless despite his aversion to showing vulnerability.

“Yoru, whatever you want, just say it, I’ll make it. No skin off my back.”

“I want you to leave me alone.”

God, he was impossible, even when you were trying to make amends.

You sighed, finally turning to the stove to make your own food. Neon wouldn’t mind if you used some of her ingredients, right…? The grocery trip you would’ve gone to yesterday was cut short by… well, you know. Hey, the choker made you feel confident, at least.

You moved to the fridge and got to work, taking out what was needed for your own breakfast. It’s been a while since you’ve cooked your own food, so you might be rusty.

Yoru winced once the clunk of your plate ripped him from his day-dreaming, watching you as you sat in front of him with your breakfast. Thankfully, no plate for him.

But as much as he didn’t want to admit it, the food smelled okay. Which was surprising considering the bland stuff he watched you consensually eat. Yoru quickly recognised the dish as tapsilog thanks to Neon, who would usually make this whenever she was forced to cook.

“So, what happened?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“You know, the mission, and stuff. Jett hurt her arm, and you…?”

You looked him up and down, noticing how the burns only took over the lower right side of his face, having grown threateningly close to his eye. Just a few more inches, and he’d have a clouded lens. Would Sage be able to heal that?

Like an approaching wave of volcano, the sight of Yoru slightly smiling immediately caught your attention.

“Didn’t Jett tell you?”

“Uh, no? She didn’t want you to get mad if she did.”

“Tch.”

You rested your arms on the table and waited for him to continue.

…

Ugh.

“So?”

“It’s not a big deal. One of the pipes burst on Jett’s arm, I covered her from the upcoming explosion, and accidentally took the damage from the wall of pipes behind me. That’s it. Now stop–”

“Wait, wait, what?!”

A wall of pipes went off on him? The toxic fumes, everything? And he was so nonchalant about it?! Just the burns on Jett’s arm, whatever you caught, looked agonising. And he had double that amount explode right on him.

If it weren’t for the existing marks on him, you’d definitely think he was lying.

“How aren’t you maimed, at least? You look fine!”

“Sage’s magic does wonders.” He proudly pointed at his neck, where the deep pink resided, “This spot was mangled when I woke up.”

To say you were horrified would be an understatement. No wonder Sage didn’t allow you to see him. You really didn’t want to believe what he was saying was true, either.

“You’re saying that you covered Jett from the explosions, but it hit you. How?”

“I wrapped the rift around her front. But I swallowed the damage from behind.”

“What–”

Wrap the rift around her? What does that even mean? Like, a mystical shield?

“Why didn’t you– you know, wrap that… around both of you, all the way through?”

“Lady, I had two seconds to keep her safe. I thought I had my back against a wall, at first.”

…Keep her safe? Did those words really just leave Yoru’s mouth without a hint of irony or sarcasm?

“But what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You kept her safe. Do you care about Jett that much?”

Yoru wryly laughed at such a stupid concept, immediately dismissing you with a wave of his good hand.

“As if. I acted on instinct.”

And yet, his instincts demanded he put her before him? Even if those pipes weren’t behind him, he fearlessly covered her on both sides using everything in his arsenal; even himself. Doesn’t sound very selfish to you, you thought.

Wait…

“Are you gonna hold this over her head?”

“What the hell do you take me for?”

…

Wow. You really weren’t sure what to think about him.

Yoru pushed the chair back and went to stand, but you quickly held a hand up and stopped him.

“Yoru, wait.”

“What?”

You sheepishly slid your plate of food towards him, an awkward smile lifting your lips.

“You didn’t eat yet.”

He stared at you, and his hostile expression quickly softened at such an unexpected offer. Alongside that, you could also sense an air of confusion.

“I’m not eating that.”

“You need to eat something, Yoru. You’re hurt, your body needs it.”

“I’m not in the mood.”

“One bite, at least? Please?”

“I don’t want your–”

“Just this once!”

He stared at you for a few seconds, clearly annoyed at how persistent you were. Where did the coward A/N go, the one who couldn’t even tell Harbour she was too tired to go back to training? He thought.

…

He sighed, pushing the chair forward and taking the fork into his hand.

“Fine. Just so you’ll shut up.”

You beamed with a smile, watching him pick up a small piece of the beef with his fork.

However, your smile quickly fell once you noticed his face slightly twist at the sight of it, despite the steam that escaped it. To you, it looked incredibly delectable, and frankly, it was a crime you weren’t the one eating it.

“What’s up? Do you hate the seasoning?”

“No. Meat’s just not my first choice.”

“But I thought you liked hibachi grills.”

He shook his head.

“Nevermind.”

He took a bite, leaving you even more confused.

You stared at his face as he ate, not realising how weird you looked, not when you really wanted to know what he thought of the food. It’s not like you didn’t ask yourself why the hell it mattered. Wasn’t this the same man who called you spineless to your face just the day before?

And you felt bad just because he… saved Jett’s life, and didn’t plan on holding it against her.

You turned your gaze away, unable to stop yourself from smiling.

“What’s your deal?”

You shook your head, a quick and impossibly awkward giggle escaping you.

“Nothing. You know, now that I think about it, I should get back to training.”

Yoru watched you stand up and quickly walk off, escaping his line of sight within a few seconds. And for a moment he questioned your sudden switch, before completely dismissing it and eating his breakfast.

Unlike you, his emotions had minimal control over him.

He didn’t care.

❤ฺ·。

As much as you didn’t want to admit it, you sort of understood now why people gave Yoru a pass on his abrasive behaviour. After putting his life on the line, allowing himself to get severely injured, all for the sake of Jett’s survivability? How could you hate him after that?

You sighed to yourself as you worked, struggling to find the muscle that ejects sundew. How did you do it last time? All you recalled was angrily pointing at Yoru… Wait, maybe it’s connected to your index–

Nectar suddenly engulfed your hand by accident, dripping down to the floor. Wrong trigger…

You sighed and left the training range, moving towards one of the tables where a box of tissues sat, like they were waiting for you.

Then, a set of cyan slits caught your attention, and you turned to find Omen standing near the lockers. Just seeing him felt incredibly calming.

“Hey, Omen.”

He met your gaze, but his awkward posture quickly set you off.

“What’s up?”

…

“A/N. Nice choker.”

You grinned in pride, using two fingers to caress the heart choker once more. Second compliment on the accessory, already? And from Omen, too. Maybe this thing’s paying off.

“Maraming salamat. Thank you. But are you okay?” <Thank you so much.>‎

Omen shook his head, turning back to his locker.

“Nothing, I was… set off by the smell just now.”

You awkwardly laughed, quickly working on wiping the nectar away, desperately praying he didn’t read up on your abilities and didn’t know it was coming from you.

“I’d forgotten what you can do.”

Damn it.

“Sorry about that. Used the wrong muscle, and stuff.”

“What were you trying to do?”

He gently closed the door to his locker and approached you. Panicking, you immediately wiped up the remaining liquid and tried to find the trash before the scent could irritate him any further. You really didn't want to be reminding Omen of his biggest fears. He was too sweet to be hurt like that.

Where was the trashcan?!

“I wanted to shoot that sundew bomb again, but I don’t know how I did it the first time.”

“I see. And… isn’t Harbour your coach?”

“Well–”

You really hoped he wouldn’t have asked this question. But at least it wasn’t Yoru asking you this. It’s not like you didn’t think about it, either. But he was exhausted just like the other agents. You couldn’t bother him, not after what just happened.

“I– I wanted to practise alone, you know? I’m not in the mood to talk, and stuff.”

Omen stared at you in silence for a moment, before nodding.

“Very well. I was about to leave, anyway.”

Uh oh.

“Uh, wait–”

You quickly held up a hand and stopped him just as he took one step away. And thankfully, he did.

“You know, it– uh, it’s not so bad having you around.” You awkwardly smiled. “Mind staying? It’ll be fun just to talk.”

“Talk?”

You nodded, anxiously scratching at your bracelet. And the few seconds that passed felt like whole hours, before he finally spoke up.

“I can do that. Let’s go.”

Even though Omen had a soothing aura, talking to him was also incredibly stressful. At least you could go off of the eyebrow movements with Yoru. But him? There was literally nothing other than maybe the slits.

Nevertheless, you both entered the training room, and only now did you remember the puddle of nectar you accidentally left behind. Omen stopped, took a deep inhale, before ‘clearing his throat’.

“I didn’t want to say anything, but I have half a mind to turn this scent into a candle.”

…

“Is… Uh, is that a bad thing?”

“Just tempting. The smell’s pleasing to the soul.”

You eagerly smiled and stopped right in front of him. In the vast area, your voices echoed like you stood in a massive field. A massive dull, closed off and grey field, but I digress.

Separated into two classifications, poison and nectar, you were delighted to discover than he smelt the latter.

“Candles that smell like everyone’s favourite thing ever? I’m up for it!”

“I’ll need a cup-full of it first. Then, I’ll see if I remember the steps…”

You both continued chatting about nonsense as you tried to summon the sundew.

And for the whole hour that you were there, progress was naught. For some reason, you just couldn’t find the trigger for it. All you did was summon more of the nectar by accident. But you avoided crushing the building to bits.

Omen even offered to leave to let you focus, but you couldn’t part. Not yet. Not when he was exactly like Yoru, albeit a kinder version of him. One you could talk to without being looked down on for existing.

You sighed, pulling back your hand and staring at it. Your arm started to ache with how much you kept it pointed straight forward, and how much pressure it took to keep producing the nectar, but nothing would come out.

However, your mind drifted elsewhere.

“Omen… you saw what happened to Yoru yesterday, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Is that, uh, normal?”

Omen met your gaze, and you could sense his confusion by the subtle tilt of his head.

“Yes, we all get injured in this line of work.”

“No, but, he had pipes explode right on him. He almost died. Does that usually happen?”

He crossed his arms and leaned on the wall once more, clearly pondering. It’s not like he didn’t know the answer to your question. But considering the dread that bled into your tone as you spoke, he wanted to figure out how to ease this information onto you.

“...What happened to Yoru was a rare instance.”

Before you could let relief calm you, he immediately spoke up again.

“I understand how fun your friends make it seem, but, A/N, Valorant isn’t a fun get-together. Dying on the frontlines is still highly expected.”

All relief was squashed within a second, and you put down your arm in surprise. Omen noticed this, quickly continuing his sentence.

“Obviously Sage can bring us back should that ever happen, but my point stands.”

You awkwardly laugh, feeling panic suddenly engulf you like a flood. Something he also took note of.

“Kailangang magbiro ito…” <This has to be a joke…>‎

You stretched your right hand, struggling to keep the poisonous fluid and everything alongside it at bay. As much as you tried to keep yourself relaxed, your shaky voice gave everything away.

“W– well, is there, you know, a way to get out of this? This isn’t what I– it’s too much, you know? It’s– It's not– I don’t think this is something I can handle.”

“I… can’t say for sure.”

You put your hands on your temples, struggling to keep calm.

With how little they talked about it, you never realised how appalling the circumstances were, not until you saw it in action. You saw the burns on Yoru, and those burns were after he was healed. You couldn’t not imagine what he looked like when it all first happened. But most importantly, how did he feel? How much pain did he endure before he passed out? And how high were the chances of that happening to you?!

Amidst the turmoil in your head as you mumbled nonsense in Tagalog, you hadn’t realised that Omen stepped up to you, the slits combined with his presence snatching your attention with ease.

“You’re sure there’s no way out of this?! Mali ito, ako– hindi ako dapat nanatili rito!” <You’re sure there’s no way out of this?! This is wrong, I– I shouldn't have stayed here!>‎

He put his hand on your shoulder, his touch slowly bringing you back to reality.

“Take it easy, A/N. You’ll be alright.”

“No I won’t, what if that also happens to me?!”

“It won’t. I guarantee it won’t.”

“But– but–”

“You let your fear control you too much, A/N. Half the things running through your mind are impossible scenarios.”

He saw the poison that dripped from your hand. You didn’t notice it, but thanks to this, being around you forced him to remember his own array of problems.

“Wh– what? How do you know?”

His posture loosened, giving you an air of amicability.

“It happened to me when I first became… this.” He pointed to himself. “It’s only when you truly get on the field do you realise how repetitive things really are.”

…

How repetitive things really are? As in…

“So… I’ll– I’ll be fine?”

“You will. And you’ll even be laughing at yourself a few months from now. That’s what I did.”

His lighthearted tone took its toll on you in a positive way. Just by the softness of his voice, it managed to calm you down and force a smile to lift your cheeks.

Omen was just so… kind.

“How are you feeling?”

You sighed, running your dry fingers through your hair.

“I– I feel better.”

“Good. Now, how about those candles we talked about?”

…

“That– that sounds… It sounds great. Okay, yeah, let’s do it.”

With a friendly pat on the shoulder, you both walked out of the training room and headed towards elsewhere, ready to get your mind off of everything.

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