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#well if the idea turns out to look good on layouting later
mooshywrites · 2 months
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hiii could i get a poly gale/astarion/tav where they share a bath together? could be smutty or not, maybe tav and astarion pampering gale and his own man bones?? whatever feels right to u. 💙
Bubbles and Ducks
PolyGn!Reader x Gale x Astarion
Masterlist
Art commissions
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A/N - I’m a slut for a good bubble bath, ngl
Warnings - NSFW - Smutty atmosphere, cliff hanger kinda?
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You didn’t have to look up from your book when you heard the front door knob start to turn. Astarion was always the first to come through the door, beating your other lover, Gale, home by a half hour or so. Sometimes later if Gale fell far too focused into a new book.
The way the door slammed behind the pale elf, however, did cause you to turn. You looked to the door with furrowed eyebrows, shifting from your spot in the comfortable plush loveseat by the fire. When you met Astarion’s eyes, your heart felt a pang of pity.
Astarion looked exhausted.
“Bad day?” You questioned, making your way towards him. You wrapped your arms around him, feeling how he sluggishly melted into your arms.
“You have no idea, darling.” He muttered. “Who knew a tailor would be in such high demand this time of year.”
“It’s just because everyone knows that you put out the best work.” You stroked his hair, fingers running through the soft white curls.
He only sighed, taking a step back and stretching his arms upwards. You slid his satchel off of his shoulder, rubbing the tense muscles near his neck. The two of you appreciated the moment in comfortable silence, standing in the doorway.
You almost jumped out of your skin when the door knob started to turn again.
“Who is that?” You whispered to Astarion, slightly panicked.
“Gale?” He shrugged, his eyes wide.
“He never gets home this early” You hissed.
The door swung open and you pulled Astarion towards you protectively. You let out a breathy laugh when you saw the brown-haired wizard standing there, looking at the two of you with a confused expression.
“Why are the two of you standing there?” Gale asked slowly.
”What are you doing home so early?” Astarion exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips. “You gave us quite a scare, pet!”
Gale stepped further in and chuckled, landing a kiss on Astarion’s cheek along with yours as a silent apology. “Couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to read a sentence, let alone tutor a gaggle of mages. Didn’t sleep well last night, I suppose.”
“Looks like that makes me the lover of two tired men.” You mused, looking between them.
“Tired is an understatement.” Gale huffed.
“I quite agree, there has to be a stronger word for what I’m feeling.” Astarion whined.
You crossed your arms over your chest, rolling your eyes at the men’s dramaticism.
“I can run a bath for you?” You offered.
“Will you be joining us?” Astarion prodded curiously. You didn’t like the glint in his eye. You knew all too well that the vampire could be a schemer even with the most mundane of circumstances.
“You can’t expect us to sit and talk to just each other.” Gale agreed.
”Why not? I think the two of you would benefit from some bonding time.” You argued teasingly.
“Gale and I had plenty of ‘bonding‘ time last night. Why do you think he’s so tired?” Astarion smiled triumphantly. “Now, come along, darling. I do believe it’s time for a group bath.”
You didn’t have a split second’s time to argue, the two men hurriedly ushering you off towards the back of the house.
It had taken a bit of work from all three of you to make the bathroom the comfortable relaxing area it was now, Gale had even spent weeks trying to come up with ways to have hot water on demand. You had designed the layout of the place, Astarion decorating the room with the most normal amount of perfectionism you could expect from him.
You had to admit, the end result was beautiful. A large clawfoot tub sat in the corner, sunlight streaming down to kiss the porcelain from the skylight you’d installed. Various potted plants and flowering vines peppered the room, making the room smell every so slightly of spring. It was most definitely your favorite place to unwind.
Astarion and Gale undressed casually, this scenario being one the three of you had repeated many times before. Soft, chaste kisses were exchanged as you helped each other out of the more difficult ties, comfortable silence settling over the room. Other than Gale’s slightly off pitch humming, of course.
You started to run the water, sprinkling dried flower petals as the tub filled to make the water smell sweet. When the three of you finally clambered into the steaming water, Gale let out a sigh of relief.
“See now this is how you relax.” He murmured.
“My idea of relaxing doesn’t involve you running your mouth the whole time, darling” Astarion quipped.
Both you and Gale just chuckled, knowing Astarion didn’t hold any venom in his words. You were sure that the pale elf would miss the wizard talking if he did indeed stop talking. Astarion just couldn’t help but express his love though sarcasm.
“So tell me why your day was so tiring.” You asked, settling back in the warmth.
The two men talked back and forth, going into every detail of their day. You idly traced your fingertip over Gale’s arm while you listened, your other hand interlaced with Astarion’s. The three of your legs tangled together under the water, a mess of limbs to make room for the three of you in the tub.
You closed your eyes, relishing in the simple comfort, not at all listening to whatever Gale and Astarion had started arguing about this time. Instead, you fell into some sort of relaxed trance as you spent time with the men you loved.
“Aren’t I right, darling.” Astarion demanded, pulling you out of your lovesick stupor.
“Right about what?”
“That I’m a better kisser than Gale!” Astarion blurted out.
Gale scoffed, holding his hand up to Astarion incredulously. “Surely you can’t agree with him. All three of us know my lips are the best.”
“Hmm,” You pondered, making it seem as if you were having to think quite hard on which of the two you preferred. “I think I’d have to have a demonstration before I decide for sure.” You said with finality.
Both the men broke out in a grin, Gale’s nose blushing over slightly.
”After you, pet, I insist.” Astarion offered to Gale confidently.
”You don’t have to tell me twice.” The wizard smiled, leaning towards you.
His lips were soft and warm against your own, slightly damp from the steam of the bath. He smelled of the roses and tasted of something sweet, making you melt into his touch. His tongue swept across your bottom lip for a split tease of a moment before he pulled away, leaving you breathless.
When you looked to Astarion, his pupils had widened, his lips parted slightly as he watched the display before him. Gale smirked at his reaction, settling back against the edge of the tub.
”Beat that, then.” Gale grinned.
“I think I shall.” Astarion challenged.
He was much slower when closing the distance between the two of you, his eyes devouring you like you were the first glimpse of pleasure he had ever seen. When his lips finally pressed against your own, he was even more methodically slow. His mouth molded against yours, deepening the kiss ever so slightly with each passing second. Right before he leaned back, his teeth caught at your lip, nipping at the sensitive skin softly.
When he rested back against the edge, your cheeks were flush and your chest full of butterflies. Gale continued to smirk at your reaction, obviously pleased by the position you were stuck between.
”I think.” You started before clearing your throat, the action not at all hiding the new quiver in your voice. “I think I’ll need another kiss or two from both of you. For scientific reasons, of course.”
Gale and Astarion exchanged amused glances before turning their attention back to you, anticipation twinkling in their eyes. They didn't need to be asked again. In perfect synchrony, they leaned in towards you, their lips hovering just inches away from your own.
You could feel the mixture of excitement and nervousness bubbling up inside you as they closed the remaining distance, their kisses now coming together in a sensuous dance. Each one was different yet equally intoxicating — Gale's kiss was tender and filled with affection, while Astarion's held a raw passion that set your heart ablaze.
Time seemed to slow down as you lost yourself in the exquisite sensation of their lips against yours. The room faded away, leaving only the three of you entangled in a web of desire. It was a moment of pure bliss, where nothing else mattered but the connection you shared.
As the kisses deepened, hands roamed freely, caressing and exploring every inch of exposed skin beneath the water's surface. Soft moans and sighs filled the air, mingling with the steam that enveloped your entwined bodies. The boundaries between each individual began to blur, as if you were merging into one entity driven by a singular desire.
In a fleeting moment, a thought flitted across your mind.
There was going to be absolutely no relaxing in this bath, was there?
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chrollohearttags · 6 months
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cherry i’m not tryna increase ur workload but all the characters in the reverb universe so full of life 😭 idk i’d like to see like a small time stamp drabble series of a day in the life of them whether its ur ocs or the others KDKAKSK
bae omg not at all!!! 😭😭 I appreciate u sm. You know I love any excuse to write for those fools shkshs 🫶🏾 I REALLY love this idea too!
EJ: he starts his day depending on how his night before went! If he had a good session and turned in fairly early, then he’s up around 7AM. He showers, does his whole morning routine (shaving, doing his hair, the works. He’s in their for a hour). He’ll go for a run or workout..shower AGAIN. Then he gets breakfast (courtesy of his housekeeping or his sweetheart (y/n) and then he’s off to the studio. That’s around 12PM or so. He has his home ones but also one downtown so he’ll meet with people there. He tries to knock out at least a project a day. Whether that’s someone else’s works or his own music. He sometimes has meetings with AMG, appearances on shows, interviews, etc and gigs per his lovely manager. He’ll head out around 6 or 7, get back home and he’ll have dinner with (y/n). They’ll go out if it’s their date night or just stay in. Honestly, that’s the highlight of his day! Being cuddled and laid up with his girl.
Jean: Mr. Kirschtein loves his rest so he starts his day around 9PM. Mika is an early bird so she’s out of the house long before that. He gets his morning routine out of the way before heading into the office. Whilst he’s working on his new album, he’s taking sort of a backseat approach so he helps out with auditions, organizing album layouts, writing music and just overall mentoring new artists. He gets there around 10:30 or so and heads out around 3. It’s then that he heads to his home studio to practice with his band because they still have tour dates coming up. They go at it for a few hours, fine tuning their setlist for an upcoming show. He gets in an hour long workout (bc we all know he has to look his best on that stage while he’s up there being a s-l-u-t). He usually finishes up his day around 10 or 11 and then it’s time for bed.
Armin: well after he’s crawled out of the pile of women and liquor bottles from the night before, he does get down to business. He does a lot of producing, DJ’ing and club promoting so he gets the privilege of starting his day a lil later. He’ll head to one of the ritzy lounges downtown for brunch and often times with one of his pieces of arm candy by his side. While he’s enjoying mimosas and egg Benedict, his assistant is getting his schedule together. His interviews, his gigs for that evening and any other ventures. (not to mention canceling his fifty million dates he’s promised!) Armin is out at allll hours of the night so if he’s DJ’ing/promoting, he may arrive around 11PM and be there until 3 or 4 in the morning. Drinking and turning up the whole time.
(Y/N): My girl staaays booked and busy! Up around 6AM for a workout and morning routine. Comes back from the gym or in home one around 8AM to do her hair and makeup. Often times, her and Eren are meeting one another and they’ll have breakfast together before heading out. Sis does a lot of influencing (obv) work so she’ll film content for a few hours for TikTok and Insta. Reviews on clothes, makeup, hair, etc. depending on what was sent for the week. Mikasa will normally tell her what her gigs are for the week and helps her stay on schedule. Around 1 or 2PM, she’s meeting up with her girls for pole practice. They’ll usually do a live showing their routines and put together their sets for a show. If they have a concert they’re doing, they’ll get to the venue around 6 or 7 to run through their choreography and then once the concert is over, they head out for the night and sis goes right home to relax with a warm bath and her big teddy bear of a husband.
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petrichor-idyllic · 1 year
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Hiiii I'm back with another request. Minho x fem reader. So we are in the Glade and one day reader gets the idea for everyone to have a day of and play a game of capture the flag (if you dont know how to play that lets just play hide and seek). After BEGGING Alby for days he finally finds it a good idea and reader starts planning everything. The Gladers get put into two seperate teams while they play, Minho and reader leaders of each team CUZ WE'RE THE BEST OF THE BEST. Somehow in that game Minho and reader share some playful, aggressive, flirty, spicy/high tension moments that follow after the game as well as they get to talk about it later. Idk if it makes much sense but I'llleave the rest to your imagination ;)
YESSS I love me some flirty competition.
Also, sorry if I'm reusing gifs, this book does not get enough attention I stg.
FRIENDLY COMPETITION
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MASTERLIST | MINHO MASTERLIST
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SUMMERY: See above. Fem!Runner!Reader x Minho. Takes place before the arrival of Thomas. Based on the Glade layout in the Movies to make my life easier.
WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, spice content, some sexual tension (hopefully) and some good ol' competitive spirit.
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It's finally happening.
Finally.
For the past few months, you've had the absolute perfect idea to raise spirits in the Glade.
It's simple but genuis- a game. And not just any game: Capture the Flag.
Alby kept saying that the Glade was fine, and that the Gladers didn't need a break- but after a particularly hard week, he caved.
Besides, if anyone could bring the Glade together and convince them to play along; it's you. Being the only girl means that the Gladers are practically climbing over each other to win your favour.
Sure, it can be kind of annoying and it greatly increases Alby's blood-pressure having to keep an eye on you. But, now that you're out in the Maze most days, having proved yourself worthy as a Runner, Alby sees you as Minho's problem more than his.
Not that Minho's complaining. He is your Keeper, after all.
He actually liked having you around. You push him to try harder, mainly because you're constantly reminding him that you're better than him. You are not better than him, you know that, but as long as Minho thinks someone is coming after his spot- he's going to try even harder.
Of course, Minho revels in the jealous looks and envy from the other Gladers for spending time with you. He enjoys seeing their faces when he comes back to the Maze, you by his side, having some kind of flirtationship about who actually got back first.
So, he might have a slight crush on you.
But, who doesn't?
Which is probably why when you brought your idea to him, he was surprisingly eager to join in.
You spent all week preparing. Including making war paint, coloured bandanas for the two teams, and, of course, the flags themselves.
Minho decides he's going to play team captain, making you both leaders of opposite sides. You'd be lying if you weren't excited.
Your competitive relationship is about to reach it's peak- and it's Minho. Come on, it's Minho. God, if he so much as looks at you with his dumb smirk for too long, your knees go weak and you want to dive on him then and there.
Yeah, you might have a thing for him. No one else has the balls to be as sarcastic or playful with you.
"Alright, you boys ready?" You stand in Council Hall, black bandana keeping your hair at bay with black stripes across your face and smeared around your eyes, creating a smokey eye effect.
You'd somehow managed to rope the other boys into it as well. Obviously, you have nearly half of the Glade on your team, but some notable members are Jeff, Gally and Frypan; with Newt, Winston and Zart choosing to side with Minho.
Alby has made the executive decision to dictate. Probably so he can make sure that no one gets injured in the flames of yours and Minho's fighting passion.
Whatever- you don't need them.
The flags are already hidden. The groups taking it in turns to find perfect places once you'd returned to the Glade for the day. You don't think the Runners have ever done their maps quicker.
You'd figured the most obvious place for a flag would be the Deadheads. And that's the first place your going to look. Minho might be quicker than you, but you're smarter.
So, obviously, you hide the black flag in a barn.
What? It's not like there's any rules saying you can't put the flags inside a building. And since one of the old barns isn't in use anymore since the Slicers opted to use more outside pens and a better constructed building nearer to the killing shack, there's an opportunity.
And you'd be a fool not to take it.
So, the Black flag is in the abandoned barn. And the White flag is yet to be found.
"Yes, ma'am," Gally responds, a lot of your team nodding in unison.
"We all know the plan?"
Another round of yes' and nods.
"Alright, let's do this!"
The rules are simple. The winner brings the opposing teams flag back to their territory. You've claimed Council Hall and the White team have the far corner, near the back of the Deadheads.
You made the choice to make the location of the flags unknown, mainly because Alby didn't want the whole thing to just be a massive fight. So, most of this is going to be trying to find the flags.
"You ready?" Alby pushes the door open and you grin at him.
"Shuck yeah."
You and your group let out war cries and chants as you make your way to the centre of the Glade. Night is starting to fall and with the Doors closed, it's all free game.
You're actually pleasantly surprised to see the other team has also gone along with you theatrics- mainly because Minho looks damn good.
He has similar fave paint to you, with the piece of white fabric tied to the belt hooks of his pants. He wears a simple tight black shirt with his signature backpack/harness. A change from his normal blue button-up.
He puts his fingers to his lips, letting out a loud wolf-whistle as you approach.
"You look good," he shouts, probably because you're wearing a tightish tank top that you normally leave for especially hot days.
"Likewise," you laugh. Your teams stand across from one another in the middle of the Glade. "You ready to lose?"
He scoffs, shaking his head, "Big words for a little girl."
"Don't try me."
"Alright," Alby already seems sick of this, even if he is hiding his amusement from watching his best Runners flirt. "You all know the rules- no violence, well, no bad violence at least, no playing dirty. And have fun- 'cause we ain't doin' this klunk again for a long time." He clears his throat. "Okay, let's get this over with. Three! Two! One! Go!"
You're not sure what Minho's plan is, but yours is cover as much ground as physically possible. Which is obvious when your entire team splits off in completely different directions. You all react so quickly that the White team doesn't move for a second.
Which is weird. But you know Minho is a tricky dude- you're not about to fall for it.
Your goal is, of course, the Deadheads, with Gally and a couple going in the same direction before cutting off. The woods are big, so it's good to have multiple pairs of eyes covering the ground.
Stumbling through the woods, you quickly come across the Map Room, which is the first place you decided to check out. Sure, Minho is smart enough to know this would be the first place you'd visit. So, he'd probably put the Whie flag there purely because he'd think you'd think it was too predictable.
Maybe you're reading too much into this.
Checking around the building, the door is very much locked. You look through the crack in the door and see nothing. You figured that putting the flag in the room is off the table since Alby would actually gut the Keeper if he dared turn their most important building into a game piece.
Realising this idea is dumb, you leave the Map Room be.
Making your way through the Deadheads, your heart jumps into your throat when you hear a twig snap. Spinning around, you hold you ground.
Suddenly, you are reminded of the very real threat of you being a girl alone in the woods in the dark.
"Hello?" Your voice wavers slightly. "Who's there?"
"Slim it, girly, who do you think?" The sound of Minho's voice as you turn and see him leaning against a tree eases you.
"Shuckin' hell, man, you tryna give me a heart attack?"
He shrugs. "If that's what it takes to win."
"There's no way I'm letting you win this."
"Oh, yeah?" He smirks, standing up straight.
"Yeah, you following me or some klunk?"
"I have better things to do," he scoffs.
"Doubt it." It takes you as second, but you realise that Minho came from the opposite way to you, which means he's either looking for your flag in here or- "wait, if you're here, and you're not following me, that means you're probably protecting your flag- then your flag has to be nearby."
Minho's face drops for a second. "You're think too much into that." You've known Minho for long enough that you can tell he's lying. His smooth facade slips and his voice becomes serious. Normally, he'd just laugh it off and call you the Glade equivalent to a dumbass.
But, not here. He's become visibly tense.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"So, you won't mind if I... look around?" His jaw tenses, and he remains quiet. "'Cause I think I'm just gonna..."
With no warning, you break into a sprint, slipping past him before he gets a chance to catch you.
Though, you figure you're right when you hear Minho quick to run after you.
Ah shit.
Okay, so, you've raced Minho hundreds of times- more than you can count. But being chased by him?
That's terrifying.
Minho is absolutely faster than you. He's faster than everyone, and you suspect that even in your playful races, he's going easy on you.
But he's not now.
You shriek as he dives into you, sending you oth crashing to the forest floor. You roll a few feet, landing away from Minho as you mainly tripped with him flying over you.
After the initial shock, you scramble up, kicking leaves from under you. Minho is quick to do the same, and you adjust your stance; hands loose and protecting your face, one leg behind you.
Minho scoffs when he realises what you're doing- ready to fight him. He loosely shakes his arms, his smirk playful and full of sparks.
Despite how he's looking at you like a piece of meat, you can't afford to get distracted.
Lunging forward, he blocks you easily. You duck and swing like your life depends on it, catching yourself as you miss and fumble to the side.
You dive again, attmept to kick him, which he blocks, before trying to to punch him. Almost effortlessly, he grabs your wrist, taking you by surprise. It takes minimal effort from him to push you back, somehow managing to grab your other wrist and twisting it into his already used hand, leaving both your arms in the grip of one of his toned hands.
Your back hits the tree before you can even process what's happening, making you gasp at the contact. He pins your arms above your head, firmly holding you in place.
"You didn't seriously think you'd beat me, right?" His tone is dangerously calm and he's far too closer. Closer than he's ever dared be before.
You open your mouth, trying to think of anything to say, but heat beats against your skin as the moonlight breaks through the trees. The noise you make is a strange breathy hum, and Minho's grip loosens for a second when your eyes land on his lips.
Oh, God.
Minho can feel any power he had to begin with, slipping through his fingers when you look at him like that. Your dark-lined doe eyes make his heart beat faster, and it's such a subtle change but he's never seen you like this- so vulnerble; so under his control.
No words are exchanged as he leans closer. He can't help it, he's drawn to you. His grip almost loosens completely as his other hand brushes against your waist, sending a whole new wave of butterflies through you.
"Minho," you mumble and he swallows.
"Don't do that," he mutters equally as quiet, "don't say my name like that."
"How else would you like me to say it?"
He lets out a heavy breath. "Am I going to regret this?" It's obvious what he referring to, but you have a plan.
"Only one way to find out." He takes this as a yes, leaning further into you.
His lips ghost yours. But his grip is gone.
And you have a game to win. No matter how intoxicating Minho may be. Instead of leaning forward and kissing him, you rip hands away from him, shoving him hard in the chest.
Since you've taken him completely by surprise, he stumbles over himself and a branch, landing flat on his back.
You make no hesitation to make a real for it. Sprinting through the forest, you're kind of just running away from Minho over anything else. Looking over your shoulder like you're trapped in a horror movie, when in reality, everything in your body is screaming at you to turn around and rip Minho's clothes off.
Not fully paying attention, your foot snags on a tree root, sending you flying forward and down a hill. You plummet down, rolling and hitting the ground multiple times.
"Ah, fuck," you hiss, any pleasure from you interaction with Minho fading from your senses in an instant, immediately replaced with aching pain all over your body.
Forcing yourself to sit up and stop your head from spinning, you blink, before laughing outland to yourself.
In front of you, in all its glory, is the White flag, sticking out of the ground at a crooked angle. You struggle to stand up, limping slightly, grabbing the wooden handle and yanking the flag out of its spot in the mud.
Your victory is short-lived as crashing noises and snapping branches startle you, forcing you to retort to your defensive stance. It can't be Minho- unless he can teleport and sprint at you from the other direction.
That's made apparent when Gally comes thrashing through the greenery, falling into the greenery.
"Gally!" You hiss. "What the shuck, man?" He stares at you in awe, pointing at you, blinking as you approach, trying to keep your voice down as Minho could he close.
"You got the flag?"
It's now your turn to blink. "I got the flag."
"You got the flag!" You both laugh, high-fiving and pulling him to bump chests.
Then leaves crunch behind you.
"We should go." You state.
"Yeah, gotta go."
The pair of you start making your way out of the Deadheads, which goes about as well as you'd expect when you break through the greenery and someone on the White team immediately noticed.
"Hey!" They've got the flag!"
Fuck.
"Go! Go! Go!" You push Gally forward.
"I'm going! I'm going!"
All you have to do is get back to Council Hall. Easy- surely.
The pair of you start to book it through the open Glade, stumbling slightly and trying to dodge the White team from all angles.
Somehow, with an entire army behind you, you and Gally manage to cover solid ground. You're both very close to the Council Hall when you're rugby tackled from the left.
"(Y/N)!" Gally shouts your name as you're, once again, plastered to the floor, only for him to follow your lead.
You manage to shove the Glader off, kneeling him in the groin, scrambling on your hands and knees to grab the flag. Getting to your feet, you jump out of your skin when Minho blocks your way to the open door of Council Hall.
"Shit."
"Yeah," he swallows, looking like he's ready to pounce on you, "shit."
He's mad. God, is he mad. Though, he's also experiencing new frustrations more than he ever has before.
"Throw it!" Gally shouts, managing to just about stop someone from choking him. "Throw the shuckin' flag!"
Dipping to the side and swerving Minho, you javelin throw the flag, sending it flying straight through the doors.
You stand in shock, Minho staring at the door. Silence fills the Glade for a second before you hear Frypan cheer.
The entire Black team's chants and cheering echo off of the walls as Gally walks up to you.
"We won!" He laughs, throwing his arms around you as you hug him back, letting out a hearty laugh before Frypan, Jeff and some other team members join in.
They start cheating your name, the other team groaning but begrudgingly coming over to congratulate you.
You're too swept into your victory to even get a chance to talk to Minho until you're deep into your celebrations.
A bit tipsy, with enough liquid confidence to face him, you walk over. He's sat on his own, staring into the flames of the Celebratory Bonfire, a glass jar in his hands.
It's no shock to anyone that he's thinking about the evening's events. Mainly your interaction in the Deadheads.
He can't get it out of his head- the way you looked at him, lips parted, chest rising and falling, your hands held above your head; even just thinking about it is making his head go fuzzy.
"Hey," he's sucked out of his thoughts of you by, well, you as you approach him from behind.
"Hi," he sounds a mix of intrigued and irritated, like he wants to hear what you have to say- preferably an explanation.
"Figured I should come over," you say honestly as you swing your leg over the side of the log, straddling it as you face him.
"Did you, now?" His bitterness is painfully obvious and you roll your eyes.
"You're mad at me."
"Who said that?"
"No one had to say anything- you're sat here pouting and haven't spoken to me."
He scoffs, dropping his head. "I'm not pouting- I- I'm not even mad." He laughs, more at himself than you. "I can't believe I fell for it- shuck, that's the kinda klunk I'd pull if I could. I just- I didn't expect that from you. Still a dirty trick, though."
You suddenly feel anxious. "I didn't- it wasn't meant to be a trick." You stutter over your words, basically mumbling the last part as you drop your gaze, avoiding his.
"What?" He blinks at you and you shake your head.
"Doesn't matter- what did you think of my hiding place?" You change the subject, forcing a wicked grin to avoid the burning feeling you're starting to feel in your face.
"What do you mean?" He takes the bait, not wanting the awkward conversation anymore than you do- but he doesn't have a clue what you're talking about.
"The Black flag? What did you think of my hiding spot?" Minho falls silent, his face dropping before turning into a sheepish grin, which tells you more than enough. "Oh, my God- you didn't find it, did you?"
"W-well, I didn't- I wasn't-!"
You let out a loud laugh. "Oh, my God," you repeat, "you don't know where it is!"
"I wasn't looking for the shuckin' flag! That was meant to me Newt's job- I was just tryna guard ours since I figured you'd go straight on the offensive."
"So, Newt didn't find it then?"
"'Course he shuckin' didn't." You snort at this. "Where is it then? Hm? Where've you hidden it, oh mysterious one?"
You stand up, swinging your other leg over and smiling down at him. "I think it's better if I show you- c'mon."
Minho shakes his head, downing the rest of his drink, but he stands up, jogging to catch up with you as you walk away.
You lead him further through the Glade, your lack of presence not going unnoticed by the Gladers; especially Newt who forced Minho to explain why they lost.
Leading him to the old farm area, it's hard to see in the darkness, but you can still make out his puzzled expression. You grin devilishly as you reach the old barn, pushing open the door and playfully bowing.
The hole on the roof lets the moonlight, illuminating the ink-dark fabric of your skillfully crafted trophy.
"You gotta be shuckin' kidding me," he grumbles as he walks past you, towards the fall that takes pride of place, sticking out of a pile of old hay in the middle of the room. "The abandoned barn? Seriously?" He walks backwards, having spun around to face you.
"Yes, Sir," you joke as follow him, the loose door slamming behind you without your weight on it.
"Sneaky son of a bitch," Minho laughs to himself. "I woulda never thought of this." He turns back around, walking closer to the flag.
"I know," you skip after him, slipping your hands into the back pockets of your baggy pants as you rock on your heel once you reach him. "'That's why I did it. You might have the looks, Boss, but I've got the brain." You playfully point at your temple as he glances at you out of the corner of his eye.
"You think I've got the looks?" You blink at him, his tone now flirty.
"That's not what I meant," you're quick to take it back.
"Oh, yeah?" He turns towards you stepping forward, and you refuse to be a coward and step back, so you hold your ground. "What? Just another dirty trick then, hm?"
You grimace. "It wasn't a dirty trick."
He steps closer. "What was it then?"
"That wasn't meant to happen," your voice lowers as your breath hitches, feeling that same powerlessness you experiences before, except he's yet to lay a single finger on you. "That wasn't planned."
"That doesn't answer my question, does it?"
"Minho.."
"I've already warned you about that."
"About what?"
"Saying my name like... that. Looking at me like that; I can't take it." He closes his eyes, throwing his head back and taking a deep breath.
"What are you trying to say here?"
"You're joking, right?" He pulls his head back to look at you again. "Do you seriously expect me to spend every day with you- competing, flirting, challenging me, and for me to not be attracted to you? I thought I made that pretty obvious." A beat passes as you try to process the new situation you're in.
"You have no idea how it feels watching every guy here want you, blindly listen to you, just because they'd do anything to have you- when I'm just as bad. But I know you, better than any of these shanks do. You don't want someone who will bend to your will and worship the ground you walk on; you want someone that'll push back a bit, someone who will give what they can take. Right? Because I don't know what to do anymore and if you hadn't made a break for it earlier, I would've, I could've- I don't know what I- shuck it! We wouldn't be friends anymore, that's for sure."
You've seen Minho like this. You never heard Minho like this. He sounds almost desperate, his voice is deep, and you can smell the musky scent of earth and natural soap off of him.
"I don't even know what I'm saying here. I don't wanna mess this up but I cant fucking take this anymore. I just-"
You cave, leaning in and silencing him as you lips press to his. It's a quick peck more than anything as you pull away again. "You talk too much," you mutter.
His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows, eyes dipping into you before he pushes forward. Kissing you again, his hands fly to your waist, pulling you close and making you gasp.
Your hands come to his hair, allowing him to grasp at you, his fingers kneading into the skin of your hips under your shirt. He pushes you backwards, hitting your back against one of the fragile beams.
His tongue brushes against your bottom lip, and you part yours in response, allowing your tongues to brush for a second. You repeat the motion, the make-out session becoming more hungry and needy. You drop your arms, pulling at the hem of his shirt instead but he grabs your wrists, pinning them above your head once again.
He leaves your lips, making you whimper as he feathers kisses up your jaw, coming up to your ear. He kisses your tragus, letting himself move further down and pulling your lobe between his teeth. You let out a gasp, arching into him before he suddenly sinks his teeth into your neck.
Well, sinks is too strong of a word, but his teeth brush against the sensitive flesh as he kisses it before starting to suck on it, undoubtedly marking you- almost like he's claiming you.
He repeats the action as he moves further down.
Your eyes flicker around, and for some reason, the hay and the slight breeze and the still-standing flag makes you chuckle.
"What?" His breathing is heavy and his voice is rough and scratchy, but he continues.
"Minho?" You properly get his attention, sounding equally as drunk on lust.
"Yeah?"
"We're not having sex in a barn."
He freezes, pulling away from your neck as he blinks at you. "Huh?"
"We are not having sex in a barn," you repeat, starting to smile slightly.
"Right, yeah," he seems to come to his senses, releasing your wrists before he snorts. You can't help but laugh too, resulting in the pair of you giggling in the middle of the empty room.
"Shuck," he mumbles, "the hell's gotten into me?" This makes you giggle more, then you leans forward again, pecking him on the lips as you drape your arms around his shoulders, and he lets his fall to your waist.
"Though, we... we could go to my hut?" You bite your bottom lip as a sly smirk starts to creep across his face.
"Yeah? You sure?"
You nod. "Couldn't be more so."
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Yooo, back again with some Minho spice. This was really fun to write and I love writing some tense flirty competition- which of course means I want to write an Enemies to Lovers with Minho but I don't quite have the idea. Any suggestions?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed :))
324 notes · View notes
daesukiii · 6 months
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Shut Up Before I Fall In Love
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Pairing: Jongho x f!Reader
Genre: Angst, fluff, childhood f2l, family au
WC: 3729
Warnings: Cursing, absent family is a big part of it but not explored too much.
Summary: After you finish college, your parents ask you to move back home to help with your nephew. As much as you are bitter about your older sister dumping her child to go “find herself”, you’d do anything for little Jihoon.
When you return home, you’re surprised to see your childhood best friend, Jongho, still around, after growing up hearing him talk about how he’d love to move to America. But you won’t say no to his company.
This is written for @pirateeznet's anniversary project! My quiz result was Illusion :) Go and check out the other authors' works!
I do have an idea for a continuation of this more focused on the family part of it so if you want to see that too let me know ^^
-
As you leave the taxi, you hear your nephew screech your name before he can barrel himself into your legs. “Auntie!” You gasp playfully as you wrap your arms around the ball of energy clinging to you. “You’re here!”
“I am!” you cheer as you sweep the preschooler up in your arms, spinning him around once before setting him back down. “You’ve gotten so big, baby. Soon I won’t be able to pick you up anymore!” Jihoon puffs out his chest, proud of his achievement.
“Yeah! Soon I’ll pick you up instead!” You laugh, ruffling his hair. “Will you take me to the park instead of Gramma and Grampa?”
“Yes, baby. We can spend all summer together.” Jihoon cheers, his little fists pumping up in the air, and you smile at the cute action.
When you finally look up from the top of your nephew’s head, you first see your mother waving languidly and then your eyes catch on a familiar figure. “Jongho?” the name falls out of your mouth and the man in question smiles and raises a hand in acknowledgement.
“(Y/N), it’s been a while.”
Your heart is overflowing with such warmth at the familiar sight. “It certainly has been. Still in the same neighbourhood, Mr America?” you tease, grinning at the sight of Jongho’s ears turning red as he averts his eyes.
“Yeah,” Jongho rolls his eyes at your jibe good-naturedly. “I was six, dude. You’re never gonna let me live that down.”
You laugh, shoving at his shoulder. “You were six, and then you were twelve, and then you were eighteen and still talking about it. No, I will not be letting it go. But really, it’s good to see you again. Hopefully we can catch up at some point.”
Before Jongho even gets a chance to respond, Jihoon pulls at your pant leg. “Auntie, talk grown-up later! I’m more important!” At his straight-forward demand, all three of the “grown-ups” laugh and you’re quickly ushered into the house by the child, looking back and giving Jongho a quick wave. His pealing laughter follows you even after the door closes.
-
It’s only been about a week since you’ve returned, and it feels like both nothing and so much has changed. Your room has been changed into a storage unit and you’ve currently taken over the guest room, but the rest of the house’s layout remains unchanged save a few decor. Your mom also remains unchanged, and the only large difference is, well, the presence of Jihoon.
Every so often, you don’t expect him barreling around the corners into your knees and every time you see him, your disdain for your sister grows. It’s not his fault, and it’s definitely not her fault that the father is a deadbeat and out of the picture. And it’s not her fault that she wants to be able to have fun in life, but you also think that her time spent “finding herself” should not be spent partying it up dangerously and only showing up when she wants something from your mother. She doesn’t call him her son unless it’s to his face, but still won’t give him up for adoption for the pity points. It’s despicable in your eyes. Jihoon needs his mom but he doesn’t need your sister.
Thinking about the situation just causes you stress each day. You dropped everything to come here to care for your nephew, but she can’t even spare time to see her son win an award at his preschool. Jihoon is always asking about his mother, and neither you nor your mother has the heart to tell him the truth. Not just yet. His world is full of empty promises and you don’t know how to fix it.
Today’s another day of your mother desperately begging your sister to spend time with Jihoon and you taking the few school hours you have left to sit on the porch and contemplate life. Every so often you can hear another door slam as your mother paces from room to room and you wonder how you got here.
A gentle nudge to your shoulder makes your eyes fly open as you stare up at Jongho. “Falling asleep on the job?” he teases, a crooked smile on his face as he dodges your swat.
“It’s not a job,” you snark, even though you and Jongho know that’s a lie. “I’m just waiting for him to come barrelling down the sidewalk.”
“Spoken like a true mother hen,” Jongho laughs, and judging from his facial expressions he immediately regrets his choice of joke. You don’t point it out, however, and so neither does he. Instead, you scoot aside on the porch swing and Jongho plops down beside you.
You decide to ignore the heat of his body next to you and the press of his thighs against yours, just closing your eyes and letting your head fall against the back of the swing. A moment passes.
“What time is Jihoon’s bedtime?” The question makes your eyes open as you turn your head to look at Jongho’s soft side profile. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“How’d you know I was looking at you?” you ask without expecting an answer. “Anyways, he goes to bed around nine, why?”
Jongho still refuses to look at you and you wonder why in the back of your head. “Wanna get fries afterwards?” You raise an eyebrow at the familiar olive branch, poking at Jongho’s leg with your foot. Every time he felt like he hurt you somehow, he would always offer to buy you food, starting way back in grade school when he accidentally broke your glasses.
“Slick, dude. But yeah, I’d like to.” No more words are spoken on the matter as Jihoon runs up the driveway, just a nod and then your attention turns to the three-year-old. Once again, it’s time to forget you are your own person and become a parental figure for Jihoon. With a sigh and a  shake of your head, you will those thoughts out of your head and prepare for a busy afternoon of watching Jihoon.
-
“Okay, I'm home free,” you announce as you come down the stairs to where Jongho is waiting with a patient smile on his face. “Let’s go get fries.”
“The usual place?” Jongho asks and you nod excitedly.
“I haven’t been to that diner in forever! Ahjussi still going strong?” Your eyes are practically sparkling at the prospect of going to the “old” spot.
Jongho smiles knowingly and that gives you the only answer you need. “And he still hates being called Ahjussi. Come on, I’ll drive.”
Excitedly, you follow him out to his old sedan, hopping into the passenger seat. “Any better at driving?” you tease and he smacks your arm without hesitation. Some things never change.
And just as you remembered, the drive takes a meagre ten minutes, most of which was you singing along badly to the radio with Jongho laughing at your pitiful attempts. Not that you were actually trying.
Giggling, the two of you stumble into the 24/7 diner, placing orders through laughter and you’re pretty sure the worker is already sick of you two. Jongho makes sure to tip her well and you ignore the warmth in your stomach again at seeing his warm smile and hearing his low ‘thanks’.
“So!” Jongho proclaims in a news anchor voice, holding his straw as a makeshift microphone, “Here we have Ms. (Y/N) (L/N), home from college! Please, update us on how your life has been in the great shining city of Seoul!”
You’re laughing too hard to answer him properly and Jongho smiles at you fondly. “You’re just as weird as I remember, huh,” you finally manage to say, wiping the tears from your eyes. “It’s been nice. I really enjoy all the little hole-in-the-wall stores I chance upon there, but it’s really fast-paced there.”
Jongho nods understandingly. “Small towns are really nice in that way. Not so much getting everywhere at all times.”
You frown, leaning forward. ‘That reminds me…why didn’t you go to America? You certainly had the grades to do it.” You didn’t mean to be direct about it, but it’s been pressing on your mind since you returned to town. “I left quickly for college, so I don’t know what was up with you for so long.”
Jongho grows silent, his eyes darting away. “It wasn’t much. I just wanted to stay instead.” But alas, Jongho can’t lie when it comes to you, and he never could. All it takes is one look from you for his resolve to fold. “I…you can’t hate me for this, okay?”
You frown, tilting your head at that. “I could never hate you, Jongho. Come on, just tell me.”
Jongho bites his lip and averts his eyes, but finally speaks. “I stayed for Jihoon.” You blink, confused, and Jongho rushes to explain himself. “You couldn’t just drop college—you were in your second year—and your mom couldn’t handle both your sister and a newborn. I didn’t want them to have to call you back if they could help it. I didn’t even apply to colleges at that point so I didn’t lose anything. I just–”
“Jongho,” you whisper, feeling your heart bloom with affection for him. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
Jongho smiles weakly. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. All you knew was that there was a baby, but not all the issues that came with him.”
You smile back at him, reaching out to take his hands. “I don’t hate you, you know. You’ve done so much for us, and I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like without you here. Jihoon loves you.” Jongho peeks at you and you squeeze his hands comfortingly.  “Thank you for all your help.”
Jongho’s eyes are suspiciously shiny, but before anything else can happen, the girl who took your order shyly approaches the table. “Uh, I’m sorry to interrupt…but we’re closing and need to wipe down the tables.”
You and Jongho both stand up startlingly fast, averting both of your eyes in embarrassment. “Yeah, sorry. We’ll be out of your hair,” Jongho reassures before turning to you. “Let’s get you home. It’s a school night after all.”
At that, the tension is gone and you smack his bicep with a snort. “Yeah yeah, dad, let’s go home.”
When the two of you finally arrive home, you pause in the driveway. “I don’t want to go in,” you blurt out and Jongho frowns, coming up behind you. “I know I’m being dramatic, but it feels like if I go in, my life will be gone. I’m twenty-three, Jongho. I can’t be a parent. I love Jihoon but I don’t want to live my life being his mom for my sister.”
Jongho’s hand comes to rest on your shoulder. “I get it. But you know, I think you’re doing great. Jihoon will get older soon and he’ll understand. And you have me and your mom to lean on.” He squeezes your shoulder, and in typical Jongho fashion, winks to brighten up the conversation. You roll your eyes but smile at him, thankful for his comfort.
“Thanks, Jongho. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
When he leaves, his words stick with you up until you get ready to sleep and lie in bed, and you dream of his warm smile.
-
“Fries?”
“Fries.”
Those two words became a staple of your and Jongho’s relationship. About once a week, you’d go get fries and just chill and feel like the young adults you actually are. But a new problem has occurred.
You have a crush on Jongho.
And maybe in any other circumstance, it would’ve been fine. Perhaps in a different life, you would’ve been happy with Jongho, starting a life together. But not now, not like this. Not whenever you think about having a life of your own guilt wrenches in your gut because of Jihoon.
So like any self-respecting human being would do, you start to avoid him. At first, it wasn’t an issue. You didn’t mind hanging out in groups, but you avoided one-on-one time like the plague. It helped to use Jihoon as an excuse, but sooner or later, that wasn’t going to fly.
But on a day like this, when it’s just you and your nephew, you feel at peace.  Your mom is having a luncheon with her friends and Jongho is at work so you’re watching your nephew yourself, something that surprisingly doesn’t happen too often. But your mom deserves some time with her friends too and you like having alone time while Jihoon plays by himself.
The pitter-patter of his feet does not catch your attention right until he stops at your side. “Hey, auntie?” Jihoon tugs at your pant legs as you cut vegetables in preparation for lunch. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” you smile at him, putting down the knife and wiping your hands on your apron as you crouch down. “What’s up, kiddo?”
“Are you my mom now?” Your jaw drops and you’re pretty sure you’re not blinking because your eyes are stinging as you just stay in the same position. You both knew this question would be coming and yet weren’t expecting it at all.
“Jihoon, what do you mean by that?” You do know what he means by that but you need to get to the root of his thoughts.
Jihoon shrugs, no longer looking into your eyes as if he did something bad, and you feel guilty over your reaction although you don’t think you could’ve helped it. “My teachers always say mommies are always here and you are! So can you be my new mom?”
You try to speak but nothing but a strangled sob comes out and you clear your throat. “Jihoon, honey…it’s not quite how that works. I take care of you but I can’t be your mom.”
“Why? Grandma’s too old so it’s you!” He sounds almost angry about it and if not for the context you would laugh.
You frown as you think of the best way to explain this to someone whose knowledge of the world consists of LEGOs and Frozen. “It’s just a lot of adult problems that need to be solved first. Just like when you play with building blocks! You gotta build the bottom before the next part!”
Jihoon nods sagely. “Okay,” he agrees easily, patting you on the knee before going back to colouring pages on the couch. You’re left in the kitchen on your knees, silently letting the tears fall as your family breaks apart even more.
You want someone to come. You want your mom, you want Jongho. Distancing be damned. You just want someone. You try your best to wipe away your tears furiously when you hear the door creak open. “Uncle Jongho!”
Oh shit. You didn’t mean to actually manifest Jongho coming around, even if you knew that it was very likely that he would just go over to your place instead of heading to his own. It was almost like his own home at this point, no matter how much you and your mom tried to convince him that he didn’t have to let his life be taken up by your little family.
“Hey, kiddo,” you hear Jongho high-five your nephew and you smile despite your overflowing emotions. “Where’s (Y/N)?”
“Kitchen,” your rascal of a relative rats you out with relative ease (not that he would take that much interest in your forest fire of a crush). “She’s making lunch.”
“Thanks, kiddo.” You can practically see Jongho ruffle Jihoon’s hair, an action the toddler absolutely adores. And soon enough, his heavy footsteps make their way to where you’re standing like a buffoon.
As you’ve mentioned, you’re a self-respecting human. So self-respecting that you whirl around to hide your red eyes and overall pretty shabby appearance. “Hello, Jongho,” you greet him a little too casually and Jongho is immediately on high alert.
“What happened?” is his first question, with no hesitation whatsoever and you silently curse at how well he knows you. “Are you all right?”
“Oh yeah, I’m okay.” You’re not fooling anyone, not with a voice thick with tears and you’re refusal to turn around. “Uh…do you mind finishing up lunch for me? I think I need a moment to myself.”
“Yeah, of course…” There’s confusion and worry prevalent in his voice, and before you can escape to your room, you feel his hand grip at your shoulder as he pulls you into a bone-crushing hug.
The warmth and sturdiness of his arms comforts you more than you can explain and it takes all your energy to not let the tears break free as you squeeze his waist before pulling back and sighing deeply with a whispered “thank you”. You’re still not ready to talk to him but you will never take his consideration for granted.
“Let’s talk later, okay?” Jongho raises an eyebrow and you know it’s not really a question. You can only nod and hope that you can escape the questioning for a little longer before you get your thoughts under control.
-
And you’re caught not two precious weeks later when Jongho corners you before you can go to bed, raising an eyebrow along with his request “fries?” and you know you can’t back out this time.
To your surprise, he doesn’t pull into a parking space, instead utilising the drive-through, before going down an old road you almost don’t remember. It’s only when you reach the destination that you remember—the open field you and Jongho used to skip classes at.
“Jongho?” you start to question but he holds up a hand.
“Not yet. Let’s set up first.”
“Set up?” Your words are stopped short when he pulls out a large picnic blanket from the backseat.
Not moments later, Jongho motions for you to come join him on the ground, smiling to himself at his little impromptu picnic. Unsure, you slowly lower yourself on the ground, and it’s only when you get comfortable he finally speaks. “Why have you been avoiding me?”
You blanch, not ready to have been called out so quickly. “What? What do you mean?” you try to defend but it comes out so squeakily that you know there’s no escaping the conversation. With another look from Jongho, you sigh. “I just needed to think over things. Nothing against you. Getting my life straight and all that.”
Jongho frowns, his concern sweet. “Is it about Jihoon?”
You almost laugh at how close and yet so far he is. “Basically. Just a lot of things adding up and I don’t know…just trying to sort through it.” It’s so hard to lie to him, even if your ability to is a little better than his. It takes everything in your willpower to not spill everything like you’re so used to doing.
Jongho tilts his head adorably and you can feel your cheeks warming up. You turn your gaze away lest you fall further. “I can help you, (Y/N). You don’t have to shoulder it all by yourself.”
Before you can stop yourself, the mental blockade falls and you blink at him, before blurting out, “Stop.” Jongho stares at you, surprised and maybe a little hurt, but your big fat mouth can’t stop moving. “Shut up before I fall in love with you, okay? It’s so hard, Jongho. I just want to be able to live without the guilt of Jihoon and eonni over my head but when you’re so perfect, so pretty and so kind it’s so damn hard to not love you.”
Jongho opens his mouth and nothing comes out and it’s only then you realise the weight of your words. “I…I’m sorry. Just forget I said anything,” you mutter, turning away in embarrassment. You didn’t mean to let it all spill out, and now what is Jongho going to think of you? You want to go home and hide under all of your blankets but the issue is Jongho is your ride home. You’re in no mood to walk and there’s no way Jongho would let you walk home either.
As you sit in awkward silence, a single fry coming into your line of vision baffles you enough to look up. Jongho sits right in front of you, his expression stone cold as he attempts to feed you a fry. When you open your mouth to question him, he just sticks the fry in your mouth. Unfortunately, he is a little too enthusiastic and basically shoves it down your throat and you cough violently.
“Oh shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to do it that harshly,” he panics, rummaging around the bag he brought trying to find his water bottle, and you almost laugh but choke some more instead. “Stop talking you’re making it worse!”
With some patting on the back by Jongho and an unholy amount of water, you finally manage to swallow the fry properly. “What was that for?” you croak out and it’s Jongho’s turn to look away bashfully.
“I just wanted you to shut up and stop being stupid.” Jongho scolds, his hand coming up to rest at the top of your head. You can’t help but notice the way his fingers slowly stroke at your hair. “You shouldn’t hold all that to yourself. Talk about it, you idiot. How else would I know you like me too?”
You stare at him, unblinking as you process his words. “You what?”
Jongho rolls his eyes before leaning closer so his nose almost touches yours. “I like you, you fool. Don’t feel guilty about it, idiot. Jihoon would want you to be happy, and I won’t be weird about it. I practically raised him too, you know. It hurts a little you think I wouldn’t care that much.” 
You don’t know what to say to that and instead just opt for something more simple. “Can I kiss you?”
All Jongho does in answer is press his lips to yours. As soon as your faces meet, you feel the warmth in your stomach bubble up so intensely that you fear you might melt with all the love you have for him. “What did I do to deserve you?” you mumble and you can feel Jongho’s smile against your lips.
“You were you.”
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aralezinspace · 1 year
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Spoon Theory
Requested by anonymous: reader unexpectedly says they want to marry morpheus when they're together in the dreaming, and the statement takes him off guard? reader panics when he takes too long to respond and they jolt themself back to the waking world in embarrassment while morpheus metaphorically kicks himself in the shins for not saying yes when he shouldve. eventually they talk things out after reader finally returns to the dreaming
A/N: I tweaked it a liiiiiiittle bit, hope that's okay! Y'all do you have any idea how hard it was to find an ancient marriage/proposal/love declaration that could be turned into an accidental proposal ?? like I studied history in college and had to use all my rusty research skills xD Hope you enjoy it!
~~Requests for Morpheus and the Doctor (9-13) are open!~~
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It came to you one rainy Saturday afternoon that you had decided to spend at the local antique shop. About half of the items on the shelves were junk, but they had meant something to someone at some point. Fingertips brushed gently over figurines and buttons, jewelry and old postcards. But then, something caught your eye, hidden behind some silverware and a small porcelain horse.
It was a carved wooden spoon, lovingly crafted over fifty years ago. The little attached tag said it was an old Welsh tradition, to carve a wooden spoon for the one you loved. The carvings all had different meanings as well. You took a photo of the tag for future reference- being rather crafty and good with your hands, you had wanted to make a gift for Morpheus, but had no idea what.
Until now.
~~
That night, while you dreamed, you made your way to Merv’s workshop to ask for the tools and materials to make your gift. It took you a while to find the place; you had only been seeing Morpheus for about a year, and the castle layout tended to change with the wind. Merv was more than happy to help, even giving you a wide pumpkin grin when you told him your plan. The two of you worked in a companionable silence on your respective projects: Merv worked on a new door for Abel’s house (Goldie had accidentally torn the old one off its hinges) and you carved away at your spoon.
A sketch of your design was pinned to the wall above the table where you worked, along with a page of notes on what each symbol meant. You worked with single-minded focus, tongue between your teeth as you carefully whittled away at the block of wood.
A twisted stem to show your intertwined lives. Three chain links for loyalty. A key for safety. And a heart for love.
A few nights later, you were rubbing the final coat of polish into the grain of the spoon. Merv whistled his appreciation as you threw the polish-soaked rag onto the work bench. “Looks real good kid, you should be proud.”
“You think he’ll like it?”
“Oh, definitely. He loves everything you do. And something you made with your own hands? He’s gonna go crazy.”
~~
The next night, you raced to your rooms the second you appeared in the Dreaming, knowing you didn’t have much time before Dream sought you out. There was no way he hadn’t noticed your arrival in his realm. The spoon was already wrapped in a silver box, hidden in the back corner of your wardrobe. Your heart pounded in your chest, pumping your nerves through your entire body. You hoped and prayed he’d like it.
Box held in trembling and slightly sweaty hands, you walked through the halls to the gardens. It was one of your favorite spots. Morpheus would be there before long. You sat on a stone bench, forcing yourself to breathe and stay calm.
You felt Dream’s power slide over your skin a few minutes later. You jumped to your feet and hid the box behind your back. “Hi Dream,” you chirped, smiling somewhat nervously. Of course he noticed, you were an open book to him.
“Something wrong, my love? You seem nervous.”
Slowly, you withdrew the box and mumbled, “I, umm… this is for you.” Whatever Dream was expecting, this wasn’t it; he thought something was wrong. He carefully took the box in long, pale fingers.
“For me?” You nodded. “Yea, I just wanted to make you something.” His gaze lowered to the box as he removed the lid, revealing the spoon.
The whole Dreaming seemed to stand still. Morpheus was fixated on the spoon, glacial eyes frantically darting over all the symbols carved into the wood. The silence was spine-chilling, unnerving. “D-do you like it? I made it myself.”
He looked back at you so fast you almost got whiplash. Before you could say anything else, he raised a hand, and with a gust of sand, you found yourself awake in your bed.
~~
Morpheus stood in the same spot, a slight imprint in the grass the only indication you had been there. The box holding the spoon you made was still tightly clenched in his hand. He could not deny that it was beautiful; he could see the love and care you had poured into every minute spent carving it. But then, surely you knew just what such a gift entailed?
He did not dare get his hopes up. You had not been courting for very long, and surely you would consider this a huge step in your relationship. Yet his thoughts ran away from him: he could not help the rose colored fantasies that skipped across his mind of the two of you, living together in bliss.
You had offered him everything he could have ever wanted with you in a silver box, and he had panicked, sent you away. That brought a whole new wave of worries: would you resent him? Would you even speak to him again? Were you hurt, crying?
Not to mention, Death would never let him live it down.
~~
The next night, when you found yourself in the Dreaming, it was outside the palace. Your stomach writhed and churned with nerves, the empty spaces filled with dread. How could you possibly face Morpheus after yesterday? Clearly he had interpreted your gift in a way you did not intend, and you two needed to talk, but it was sure to be awkward and uncomfortable, maybe even painful.
With a heavy sigh, you started walking towards the palace, but it felt more like walking to your execution. You couldn’t seek him out, not yet. Not when you didn’t understand a single thing about his reaction.
Your footsteps carried you to the library, where Lucienne was working diligently as usual, writing in a large ledger with a sleek black pen. She looked up when she heard your footsteps, the smile when she saw you immediately falling from her face when she saw the state you were in.
“Oh goodness, what happened?” she put her pen down and pulled a chair next to her, giving the seat a pat in invitation. You slumped into the chair and hid your face in your hands as you told her the story of the previous night. When you were done spilling your worries, you peeked through your fingers, watching as she took off her glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief before replacing them on her face.
“Y/N, my dear, I’m guessing Lord Morpheus did not explain himself, which is why you have come to me.” You nodded. Lucienne sighed again. “One moment.” She left the table and headed into the maze of shelves. When she returned a few anxious moments later, she was holding a small green book, turning the pages as she walked. By the time she reached the desk, she had found the spot she wanted.
Without a word, she handed you the open book and nodded for you to read the page. Your eyes darted over the text once, twice, three times, widening as you absorbed the words.
“MARRIAGE?!” you yelled, earning a glare from Lucienne as your voice echoed off the walls and ceiling. “Marriage?” you repeated in a mortified whisper, looking at the page again just to make sure you had read the words correctly. “But- it was just a spoon! D’you think- you think that’s how he took it?”
“I have no doubt in my mind. Perhaps he could have handled himself better, but I am sure that is how it was interpreted.” You groaned and let your head thump against the desk.
“Ugh, how am I supposed to talk to him about this?”
“Talk to me about what?” Morpheus’ gentle baritone came from over your shoulder. You were so absorbed in your thoughts you hadn’t even noticed him approach. Your face turned tomato red as you looked up, refusing to meet his eyes. Lucienne quickly murmured an excuse and took her leave. The tense, thick silence stretched between you for what seemed an eternity.
“So…” you began softly, apprehensive. “How’s your day going?”
“Well.” His response was an equally uncertain murmur. Silence again. Before you could break it with another awkward question, Morpheus cleared his throat.
“Y/N, I wanted to apologize for my poor reaction yesterday. It was ungracious of me.” His hands were jammed into his pockets, you could see his fingers clenching and releasing behind the soft black fabric. “Please do not think I am rejecting your gift, I was taken quite by surprise.”
“It’s okay,” you sputtered quickly. “I didn’t know that's what it meant, that I-“ you let out a short, barking laugh at how absurd it all sounded. “That I basically proposed to you.” A sigh. “I just saw a spoon like that one in an antique store, and the tag said they were made as gifts for the one you loved, and I thought it would be nice to give you something I made, like you’ve done for me.” The tomato red in your cheeks had faded to a bashful pink blush. “It’s okay, I would have been surprised too.”
The barest hint of a smile touched the Dream Lord’s face, his relief palpable in the air. Maybe it was his age showing, maybe he was old fashioned, but your understanding and forgiveness of his slight was more generous than he thought he deserved. “It is beautiful,” he assured you, his eyes dropping to the spoon. “And your desire to gift me the labor of your own hands is… touching, in a way I have not experienced for some time.”
He placed the box on Lucienne’s desk and took your hands in his. “And while I desire nothing more than to spend eternity with you as my partner, I am prepared to wait as long as you need to feel confident in that decision.” You sighed again and shifted your hands to press a loving kiss to his knuckles. The breath caught in his throat, little tingles spreading through his form from the spot where your lips met his skin. It was such an electrifying sensation, to be the one receiving a gesture he so often gave.
“Thank you,” you murmured against his skin, peering up at him through your lashes with a smile. “Trust me, when I propose for real, it’ll be a much bigger thing.” Morpheus chuckled, already pondering what schemes you’d come up with for that moment, whenever it came.
"Of that, I have no doubt.”
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noodle-anime · 5 months
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just! finished saiyuki og series!!! discovered the first resurrected edition volume recently and it has been. well. it's been a journey lol
oooooooooh boy there sure was some Anatomy and Proportions happening in the first volume but it was super fun to see the art style progress actually. it encouraged me to notice more complex poses and things in the later volumes, and when there was an occasional repeat panel like Sanzo and Goku's first look it was very cool to see the difference in quality.
i have a coupla favorite panels/spreads and generally tried to pay a little more attention to how things are precisely laid out and it was a fun aspect of reading. i want to do some actual breakdowns now, maybe compare early and later layouts.
also! i discovered and watched zeroin! my first intro to saiyuki was discovering reload blast forever ago. the art style in zeroin and the fact that there's a whole set of characters i'd never heard of before made it feel like an au or semi-canonical anime movie, sorta, but i enjoyed it So much and there are some specific notes on sanzo characterization that i want to dig into
sanzo is my fave and the kami-sama arc was So Very Good in that respect but it also grew my love for gojyo three sizes.
the way that they all react when gojyo leaves cracks me up so much. they're So Offended. something so funny and also so tasty that they will not under any circumstances admit out loud that they care about gojyo and miss him so instead they're like we are going to Hurt Him (because he hurt us) for Disrupting Our Daily Routine (he's a fundamental part of our lives) and FORCING us to turn this car around (he left with the full knowledge and expectation that they would follow through with actually continuing to pursue this Very Important job like they always said they would)
mmmmm gojyo's savior complex mmmm it's good.
got blasted by the idea of gojyo and hakkai starting an orphanage when they're done with the mission. hakkai was a teacher and still models himself as a "childcare professional"/co-parent to goku and gojyo wants to save somebody So Badly. also good luck resocializing goku to not be killing people/fighting for his life every other day for Two Entire Formative Teenage Years, helping kids and not having it backfire spectacularly in his face would be good for him
i just read the fourth volume so that's most of what i've got on my mind, i know i have More thoughts from the other volumes
besides the fact that sanzo's joints are gonna/have gotta be So Fucked Up. he really is a grandpa. poor guy.
feels good to nail some characterization aspects like genjyo "i'm a coldhearted bastard and you'd better stay out of my way" (developed coping mechanisms to deal with the traumatic loss of a parent and people repeatedly Attacking Him at an early age) sanzo, cho "yes i'm the wife/mother, please excuse these skeletons, the cleaver is only for special occasions" hakkai, sha "i'm the only one here who understands how to be a normal person" (he does not but he does have the highest emotional intelligence) gojyo, and son "i'm a teenager" (he's a teenager, also growing up with the aforementioned trio as parental/familial figures and starting to come into his own!!) goku
not a single one of these men has had a normal relationship or even prolonged interaction with a woman
i had no idea there was a whole brainwashing segment with kougaiji?? and i really want to see more of lirin, there are fun parallels there to explore that i really wanna dig into
i had no idea to what level sanzo was a bastard gremlin with a gun who just Happens to also be the highest of high priests before and now that i do it delights me. the very hypocrisy of his acceptance in his position disgusts him because He Is Not Priest Material but also it's what his dad wanted for him so fuck everybody who tries to take that from him. in any other situation he'd be the shady penniless vagabond gun for hire but koumyou happened. and now we all get to enjoy it.
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sygneth · 1 year
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I had this idea for a while now but I didn't really have time to go shoot photos, so finally I just digged through my old photos and found something I could use.
Postcards from Revachol vol. 1
The technique is digital painting on photos (photos are mine as well), don't worry I didn't paint all that
The thoughts behind this project (or a deep and thorough analysis of Revacholian [suppposed] architecture and urbanistic, long):
Ever since I played the game I have been thinking of how Revachol reminds me of my birth city (where I have been living for past 25 years) and I couldn't really get why. But then I started to think. And oh boy, not in a long time was I this happy to be an actual architect.
I know we have never seen any of Revachol besides Martinaise but what we know is that Revachol have been founded around 380 years ago. If the cultural/architectural periods in Elysium are comparable to what happened in our world, that would mean the city's beggings were in something baroque-ish, and it's golden age was probably at the turn of baroque and classicism. What is important is that Revachol is not a medieval city. There is no old downtown with a city wall and narrow, curvy streets. Baroque and classicist cities were all about good planning, composition, wide streets, representative buildings in strategic places, and later also good functional layout and generally being a good-to-live place. We know the city must have been a great, rich place, very representative, as it was said to be the capital of the world. It was a monarchy until the communist revolution some years ago, before the events from the game. What this pattern reminds me of, is actually the history of Saint Petersburg. Also a baroque/clacissist city, also a capital, also got through a communist revolution.
We also know that Revachol, or at least it's parts were based on a mashup of Paris and Tallin (the latter I don't know much about, unfortunately) with some 90's post-communist CEE climate sprinkled on top. Paris has been re-built at some point of its history (around 1850), the streets have been widened, the city structure got more organised, the facades of the buildings gained a characteristic style (there was an actual law how they should all look but it didn't work very well honestly, but still gave the city a more consistent style)
Okay. That was about St. Petersburg, Paris and Tallin. Where is my city in all this mess?
Let me explain.
My own city isn't one of those cities with old boulevards and medieval centers. It was a small city until 1820, when somebody noticed its potential and started to build factories. With the factories, there came workers and with the workers, a need for places to live in. The city developed quickly, but at that time the cities didn't really grow in an uncontrolled manner, it had to be planned. And those plans were mostly inspired by Paris and Saint Petersburg. The tenement houses in my city were practically copied from those one in Paris and the whole urbanistic design of the city was based on the urbanist laws in St. Petersburg. So now you can see why that was important.
Another thing is that both Revachol and my city are cities of immigrants. My own city at some point was said to be "a city of four cultures", are there was a similar number of Jewish, German, Polish, and Russian inhabitants. People came here to work in the factories from all over the country (or rather what have been the area of our country before the annexation, as there was no country of Poland in the XIX century) and they stayed, started families, and started to be from here.
And then, after WWII my country fell behind the iron curtain. In the communist times there have also been major architectural changes in here. Some of the buildings in city center were knocked out, some typical socialist architecture started to appear. In the pretty much city center there is a high-rise residential area of concrete blocks that are 20-something floors high. And looking at those blocks in the distance here really, like really reminded me of this part of my own city. And here we come to another point of this ridiculously long essay, but I guess that is the last of the important ones.
There are no modern-looking skyscrapers in Revachol. Taking the technological level of development on Elysium seems similar to the ~90s in our world, there should be technologies to build high. The thing is, there is either no money for that or no need (or both). I know this is a general tendency of European cities (Paris, Stockholm or Amsterdam doesn't have any modern American-style skyscrapers too), but this was something I noticed about my own city a long time ago before I even considered studying architecture. The highest buildings are those high-rise multi-families, churches, and chimneys. In Revachol we see the chimneys of the power plant as the most prominent thing in the city panorama.
One more thing is the socio-economical aspect of my city. The golden age of the city passed with the XXth century. The city was poor, neglected, and dirty, the city center was a place where people were actually scared to go in the night. There still are parts of the city where I would rather not go after dark. Times have changed, but the renewal of the city takes time, and what we still have, are tones of half-empty tenements, with closed or barely-alive little shops on the ground floors, tired people, and a lot of graffiti everywhere. And especially hearing of Jamrock, I just couldn't take the visions of familiar places I walked myself thousands of times off my head.
(The last one teeny-tiny detail. Unimportant. But if anybody got here, I have to mention it. Remember how I mentioned the industrial character of my city? It was actually mostly the fabric industry.
And we know Precinct 41 has its seat in the old silk factory. That's all. That's all I had to say).
Even though Łódź is not nearly as big as Revachol, I feel like there are particles of her. They are hidden under the roofs of tenement houses, in the abandoned shops, in the smoke of the cigarettes of strangers at bus stops. They are not easy to find and most people will pass by not even noticing. But if you know where to look, maybe they will let you find them.
Or maybe she will find you.
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t00nyah · 1 year
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Meet 24 hour — they're ready to cheer you up, well…24 hours a day!
2019. Despite both not being really fond of publicity, it seems like the idea of making a band together made them work on their social awkwardness and, by publishing their fresh version of Calamari Inkantation, they got the attention of Inkopolis' cephalings. Soon after that Off the Hook finally were ready for their tour and their place was offered to 24 — which, while being quite unexpected, but was accepted by them.
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Sango is a beginner DJ with a potential, but not with the most expressive face, trying hard to contribute in broadcast, although very often he can be seen gesticulating more than talking…
(even though Three is they/them non-binary in my headcanons, they went through some gender identity crisises before getting there. Timeline-wise in 2019 my Three uses he/she and identifies as man, and still has to figure out why it still feels not like it doesn't suit him. I will refer to Sango with he/she when I portray him in that time period, but with they/them when it's later, when they came out as non-binary!)
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Hachi is a brighter, easily impressionable and smiling octoling songwriter. She seems to be very easy to offend because of her emotionality, but she forgives easily.
(now, i'm not good at music at all, but i've made a track for Inkopolis News ft. 24hour!~ i tried making more but it all turned out bad and my pc couldn't handle my spicy beats, uhhh...)
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🎃SpookyFest!🎃
Hachi: It's time! Sango: 24 LIVE… Hachi: Yep-yep, that's us! I wonder what are current stages for… OH! Sango: ? (turned his head to Hachi, interested) Hachi: I think we might need to tell the exciting news first! Sango: You mean… Hachi: (nods) Ta-du-dum! It's Splatfest time! Sango: What's the topic this time? Hachi: We'll find out… In a minute!
[BAM!] Hachi: (puts her hands over her beak) Ah!! Wait, what day is it?! It can't be that soon… Splatoween, already?! Sango: Oooooh… (motioning fingers in a spooky manner) How would you like to spend your Splatoween…diving into the atmosphere by watching spooky films? Hachi: Or on a theme party? Hachi: Oooh… This one's tough… (taps finger on her cheek, thinking) Sango: It's pretty simple for me. Parties are not my thing. Sango: You can't turn off people around you when you're tired. Sango: But a TV always has this function. Hachi: Hm-hm~ But what about spending time with your friends in spooky or funny costumes? Hachi: You could make thematic decorations, food, games, anything! Hachi: I'm team Splatoween party. Sango: Have fun there, and I'm going to watch Nightmare before Squidmas. Hachi: Hey, I want to too..! (puffs her cheeks) Hmpff… Sango: I can wait for you if you want. Hachi: !.. Sango: (smirks) Well, what would you choose? Splatoween films or Splatoween party? Hachi: Don't forget to go to the Splatfest terminal and choose!!
~~~ Hachi: It looks like it's time to wrap up… Sango: Well, all day's the time… Hachi: …to let you shine!
(yep, i decided 'what do you mean no splatoween. here i have it right there.')
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SpookyFest art! Hachi and Sango doing both activities in the end. It's not like anyone's gonna find out that they're both too scared of scary movies and social interactions to do things on their own, right?
Bonus: 24 concept art!
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(you can actually use this as a reference as long as you understand that some things here aren't finalised and if something doesn't seem right(like sango's teal color is different from his actual design here) — you better reference the artwork above! it's mostly good for small details like their headphones or hachi's skirt for example)
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(me trying to figure out their studio layout and dynamic at broadcast)
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(small doodles where you can see hachi hiding her shoulders by tying her sweat..er?.. anyway i love this concept so much.)
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(i tried to cut out splatoween sango and hachi in case anyone wants to use them as a pfp idk (just credit me please if you do!))
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(also a small shellfie doodle i made yesterday bc i was really hyped to show all this!!!)
big thank you if you made it to the end!! i worked on this for half of this month and i'm really glad i finally get to show all this stuff :] i hope you like it 'cause i might plan to do something else...
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radiance1 · 11 months
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*cracks knuckles* so you have wished it, so shall it be!
Maddie is a daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, Jack is from a long line of Hunters, together they kill whatever they hunt
Dan is the firstborn, raised to be the perfect ghost hunting weapon obsessed with killing everything he hunts, like Hela from the MCU
Flynn is the second born, he's never gonna measure up to Dan so he never tried
Jazz is the third, she's the perfect child
Danny is the fourth and he's born to replace Dan
The next six children aren't named, they're disposable and unneeded, but the fifth unnamed chooses to call herself Dani
Dan is put down like a rabid dog when he grew too inconvenient to control, he returns as a ghost but is trapped in an already apocalyptic timeline until he's eventually freed from it
Flynn is too soft so into the portal he goes, he can either die or grow stronger, either way he's not Maddie and Jack's problem anymore
Jazz is perfect, she has to be, she knows the consequences of failing and she wants to keep living
Danny takes Dan's name and feels like a replacement, he hates what he's been raised to become, he hates himself and the ghostly child soldier his parents turned him into
The other children were born without fanfare and died without fanfare either, Dani earned her name when she tried to prove she wasn't weak by trying to kill Danny, she didn't succeed but Maddie was proud enough that she tried
- Chaos Gremlin 💖
I won't lie, I like this au A LOT.
But I don't know if I have any ideas for it..
So I'll just throw a bit of scraps together for now.
So, what if they move to Gotham, not by any of the children's wishes no. But because Maddie and Jack want to try their hands and hunting down the Batclan.
Their goal is obviously the notorious Batman.
Their arrival was pretty discreet, but a few days later they get picked up on by Batman and the rest, because of them popping out and trying to kill any member they come across.
Danny and Dani were sent after Robin and Red Robin.
Jazz is sent after Red Hood and Nightwing.
Danny and Dani don't really like each other, you know from Dani's attempt to murder Danny and all, but they work well enough together that they can fight other people.
So they split up, with Danny after Robin and Dani after Red Robin. They just had to wait for night and go find them.
Jazz was both hard and easy, she knew how to possibly draw Red Hood out, and Nightwing she just has to scour the rooftops for, so during the day she went around, beating up various gangs to draw the Crimelord's attention.
At night she went across the city looking for Nightwing.
All hell broke loose when they found their targets.
Danny and Dani wasted no time in trying to kill their targets, they had powers while the others didn't, it should be easy to kill them.
It wasn't.
They had some trouble fighting, more than they would have liked to admit, the gadgets and them knowing the layout of the city was annoying. They escaped just when the two of them thought they finally got them.
Jazz had a harder time with her targets.
It was a far more even playing field, it wasn't uncommon for her to have bullets wounds whenever she had to head back or multiple bruises, depending on who she encountered. But at least she had the knowledge that she at the very least gave them multiple broken bones and the occasional concussion.
Jack and Maddie weren't at all pleased with the repeated failed attempts. So, they both entered the field themselves, looking for the big bat himself.
The Batclan made themselves an easy target, all of them in one location. Batman out in the open and the others in hiding.
Jack and Maddie both took the opportunity for what it was and pounced, with Jazz staying on standby while the Danny and Dani both went to look for their targets.
Shit went, pretty wrong.
For Jack and Maddie anyway.
With five members of the Batclan against just their three, they put up a good fight, but Jazz was still injured from her previous fight against Red Hood.
So they were pretty overwhelmed, especially when they didn't expect more than what they thought would be there.
They thought at the most it would be maybe 3, not five.
So Jack and Maddie got beat up, so did Jazz.
So yadda yadda Danny and Dani find out, lose their shit because that's their sister who got taken and wanted to get her back.
They did get her back, but not in the way they expected.
If being able to now live a normal (Or at least normal in Gotham) life with their big sister in Gotham was any example.
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trylynarie · 7 months
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Fruit Sniper (Crosshair)
-imagine tbb as cadets for this one :) -
Crosshair was on the brink of insanity. These regs can't shoot basic targets yet they had the balls to claim he was the defective one. Okay granted not many ten year olds could shoot like a trained hitman and he was practically mute most of the time but it was the principle of it!
"Heya, Crosshair!" Wrecker on the other hand was beaming.
"Have you got to bring that stupid toy to the mess?" He sighed.
"Hey!" The big clone pouted, "Lula is apart of this team to! Where we go, she goes! And I know it was you who made her for me."
"Did."
"Didn't."
"Did."
"Didn't."
"Anyway, doesn't it drive you insane?" Crosshair said through gritted teeth, he had indirectly started a staring contest with a reg and he was not losing.
"What insane? What ya lookin at?"
"These stupid regs."
"Reg are just regs," he shrugged, "not worth worrying about them."
The reg in particular was rapidly losing this contest. From the other side of the mess, Crosshair could see that his eyes were beginning to go red and water. Red like... oh... what a wonderful idea. Petty, yes. But petty enough to turn the insanity tables.
"Wrecker... how many watermelons can you carry?"
"Haha! More than you! .... Umm.... Why?"
"Break into the kitchen and steal as much fruit as you possibly can."
"Well what's in it for me?"
He gave a satisfactory smirk as the reg couldn't take anymore and lost the game, "you get to watch me put these Shebs in their place."
About an hour later, Wrecker and Crosshair were hiding in the kaminoans viewing platform of the mess, curtains only slightly ajar so Crosshair could see what he was doing. Was this severely breaking the rules? Yes. Did they care? No of course they didn't, it's only a crime if you get caught after all ;). The door was locked and at this point anyone in the bad batch knew the ventilation layout like the back of their hand.
"So what exactly is it you're gonna do with a sniper and fruit?" Wrecker questioned.
"Prove that regs are stupid?" Crosshair focused on the point he needed, if he short this right...
This didn't exactly provide Wrecker with much clarity.
"So what do you want me to do then?"
"Go to the vent in the mess ceiling and drop the melons of course."
"Of course." Wrecker imitated, rolling his eyes and climbed back into the vent.
As expected, Wrecker was having a growth spurt earlier than his fellow defective counterparts and the vent seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Tech predicted that in a couple months he wouldn't be able to fit anymore. Sure he took pride in being the strong one but it suddenly made him more different than his friends; more different than he was comfortable with. But it made the vent cover easier to take off so it was a 50/50 situation.
The first water melon was casually rolled out the ceiling. Now was was crosshair going to-
A singular shot was fired, hitting the melon and making it burst with a loud bang and spraying the floor dwelling regs in a red watery mess. The cadets would have mistaken it for blood if one of them didn't get it in their mouth. The confused wails were a melody to Crosshairs ears. Nobody shall dis his squad!
Besides the one cheering Hardcase he could hear in the background.
"WOO SOMETHING INTERESTING!"
"Hardcase shut up!"
"HOW ABOUT NO?!"
"There's watermelon all over my revision notes I have a heart exam in less than an hour."
"THEY GOT HELMETS ON THEIR HEADS! BUT I GOT A WATER MELON INSTEAD! B-)"
Wrecker had a Birds Eye view on the whole scene and could see Crosshair had covered a significant amount of surface area. This was too good, their faces looked so confused! Now what if he threw down another?
It would have helped if his grey haired companion was actually looking out of the window rather than giggling into the sniper. It was only by chance he saw a large amount of green move rapidly across his peripheral vision.
"Sheb!" He cussed as he quickly leapt up to the window, barely getting the shot in time.
BANG
The pieces came at the regs this time with much more velocity, one of them being physically blown back from melon to the face. This was pure gold. He knew he was going to get in some form of trouble for this but it was totally worth it
—————————
"There's another one." Tech cocked his head towards Hunter.
"Yeah, are we being attacked or something?"
The pair of them were in the barracks, in a mutual stale mate of 'this noise is really overwhelming me but I'm not going to tell you that'.
As much as he didn't want to, Hunter concentrated on the noise's whereabouts.
"I... I think... it's coming from the mess hall."
"Didn't Crosshair and Wrecker go there?"
"Oh no?" Hunter went pale, not expecting it to be their creativity causing the ruckus, "we gotta go."
He made his way for the door but was pulled back by a concerned Tech.
"If it really is an attack we shouldn't go through the corridors!"
"Yeah," Hunter agreed, "take the vent."
There were multiple vents into the mess hall. Having more common sense than the other two, they went for the one that was closest to the floor.
"What do you see?" Tech asked.
"There seems to be no droids," Hunter surveyed the scene, "but they're all panicking about something or other. And they're... covered in fruit?"
"Pardon?"
"I'm not joking."
They clambered out of the vent, only to get hounded by the newly painted red regs.
"You!" One pointed at them accusingly, "I bet you freaks had something to do with this!"
Hunter raised his hands, "hey calm down, soldier. We just came to investigate. What's going on up here?"
"Guys!" Another reg bounced over to them, assumably Hardcase.
Despite Hunters heightened senses, he still couldn't tell him apart from the others. He felt bad about it but the guy was so hyper he could tell off personality. What he didn't know couldn't hurt him.
"There's watermelons exploding everywhere, it's hilarious!"
Tech raised an eyebrow, "water melons?"
"Yes!" The angry reg butted back in, "and you can't tell me otherwise that it's you!"
"We may be more skilled than you but defying the law of gravity may be difficult even for us." He shot back in a deadpan tone.
"Well then where's q-tip and smooth brain?"
Hardcase glared at him, "they have names you know?"
"You're just as bad as them you little traitor."
"OH YEAH?!"
While Hunter tried his best to stop Hardcase going ham, Tech went about figuring out what on Kamino was going on. Melons from the ceiling? Well there was a vent... oh- OH! The vent was open with a clear face poking out the shadows and conveniently half a face behind observation deck curtains. The face in the ceiling also gave a little wave to him. Impressive. As funny as he thought this was, there was a high chance it would damage their reputation more than it was already.
"Hunter, can you do me a favour?"
"I'm a little busy right now!"
"Just go check on a ceiling vent, will you?"
Hardcases medic batch mate had now joined the fray. They had an arm each on Hardcase with the medic silently begging Hunter to not let go.
"You go!" Hunter shouted back.
Tech let out a sigh as he crawled back into the unsanitary vent. Why was it him always doing everything? It wasn't easy to scale up a vertical vent but the skill might come in handy one day. The vent was pitch black so he had to make some very well educated guesses on where he was but he was a Tech so this was fine.
Fine until he heard a "Wait Tech no-"
He had crawled straight into the melons causing one to dislodge.
"No no no oh no..." all Wrecker could do was hope that-
"I had to dip," Crosshair was coming up behind him, "The Kaminoans were breaking down the door-" he froze as he heard a loud thump.
"I don't wanna look..."
"Wrecker just look down."
He looked, "well... I don't think Hunter is going to remember any of this again."
And he was right. All Hunter remembered after the incident was a large amount of green then darkness. The melon had knocked him out cold.
———————
"Yeah and that's how the glorious Sargent was defeated by a watermelon." Crosshair smirked, Omega looked spellbound.
"Wow."
"CROSSHAIR STOP TELLING OMEGA-"
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lizard-shifter-noms · 3 months
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Wayward Waters Epilogue
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Ayy, Epilogue already? that was fast! but i have good news!
i have re-edited arc 1 (removed typos, made it more comprehensible etc. also shorter chapters so its not a wall of text anymore) so i will upload that some time after!
this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.
have fun reading!
and as always Reblogs are appreciated! (Also ASK’s are open so feel free to bother me!)
AO3 Link for those that prefer the layout there;
AO3 Wayward waters
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After the Victory Rose had anchored,  with the smaller Halcyon close behind we were finally home.
Not wanting to spend too much time in Tunstead lest there was a repeat of Naroa Island and someone didn't like that there were Nonhumans visiting.
Not like Rikaad would allow that but there were always assholes.
So instead we went straight for the castle, none of the crew of the Halcyon having seen a building this big before, or confusingly built.
Which was very evident as half of them got lost in less than half an hour.
At least Imugi had fun doing figures around the spikes at the bottom of the cliff.
We found them about two hours later, Jamie having been chased out of the kitchen like some raccoon and Ronan got brought outside by Norrin, who had scruffed him like a disobedient dog.
For some reason the Grumpy young man Leon came with us to the castle and refused to say much or leave.
We left him for now,  with Nea and Norrin around there wasn't much he could do.
I shooed the Crew to Okaleys tower,  he would have more information about the blue bracelet anyway.
Yamet had opted to tour the kitchen, stating the others could tell him later and that he'd rather see if he could trade recipes.
The tower itself was as askew and unorderly as always,  and we hadn't even knocked.
The door was missing completely anyway for some reason so we simply walked in.
I did come as a surprise though that Nea was in here,  holding a brown creature with white spots on its back.
At first I thought she was holding a fawn, but then I noticed the longer neck and nubby horns as well as the claws and long tail.
“Nea? Where the FUCK did you get a baby Drake?”
The thing in question made horrifyingly pitiful bleaking noises,  pawing uselessly at the air as Nea held it like a particularly squirmy cat.
Though it was more the size of a young goat.
“I found it! So I get to keep it!”
I was not about to Argue with her, she'd kick my ass,  Instead I stared confusedly at Oakley, who was painting the cat blue.
Oh so one of those days where nothing made sense involving him.
“Oakley, why are you painting the cat blue?, and why does Nea have a baby Drake?”
He turned to face us and shrugged.
“No idea what the insane lady here is doing but i'm trying to figure out what magic affinity our dear kitty here has! 
The paint is made of lapis lazuli by the way!
Now say who are those people behind you and why is the Zoa trying to pocket some of my Gems?”
I looked over at Jamie who hastily put some sort of clear crystal back onto a shelf.
“Uh, those are friends i made while on the ocean, long story i'll tell you later, but uhh we found another Bracelet, its blue this time”
I pointed at Ronan who in turn pointed at the Bracelet on his arm.
In less than a Second Oakley had gripped his arm with one foot and was hanging onto the wall with the other, inspecting the new Bracelet up close and with no regard for personal space.
Ronan just stared confused at Oakley, though to be fair he was already used to having to be a Perch for jamie.
“Did the creature look anything like the Ardua?”
No that it did not.
“Uh, no, it was more like a seal with big and flat hands and a long tail with a fin, does it have its own name?”
Oakley Jumped of off Ronan and walked back to where he was, rummaging through his coat a bit before pulling out a Book.
While he flipped pages, and apparently had trouble reading it? The Cat, Gloxinia trailed blue paint everywhere, jumping up the windowsill and bapping at the very confused baby Drake Nea was still holding.
The poor thing probably had a very weird day,  getting manhandled by a quite frankly rather crazy woman and then getting disrespected like that by a cat.
The thing bleaked again, trying to wind itself out of Nea’s Grip,  yeah that would be futile.
“AHA! Found it! I think translating is gonna take a while seeing as the author changes the stupid coded letters every five pages! 
And language as well!, tell ya what, imma deal with Nea now and then go back to translating, you can come back after Dinner or so”
That was reasonable, and Jamie and Akeem had left already anyway, leaving only Ronan and Imik here.
No doubt Akeem went after Jamie to prevent chaos,  and they took the clear crystal from the shelf again.
Nea set the confused Drake on Oakley table where it did a wide stance as if it couldn't decide between fight or flight,  not that either would be a good idea with Nea here.
“So! Arthur got all pissy when I brought ta lil guy with me! Said just cuz i got rid of tha big one din’ mean i could keep tha smaller one!
I say tha only one that can tell me what ta do is Rikaad! 
And i want you ta tell me what exactly this is so i can ask to keep it,  or him or her or whatever!”
The thing in question made another bleaking Noise, sniffing at the table and looking over the edge of it.
Ronan put his face close to it and the thing screeched horribly, scrambling and slipping on the old wood and nearly falling off.
In response to that Nea tossed Ronan out, literally, she tossed him out the window and Imik walked out after him to make sure he was okay.
Since Ronan had landed in a bush he only had some dirt on him, and after that they both wanted to look around the castle more instead of being near Nea.
Yeah, fair, I did however want to see how the entire Drake thing would play out so we parted ways and I went back inside where Oakley was just telling Nea that the little guy was a male.
“I'd say it's a young male,  the spots have the same reason as fawn spots, they fade with time and he should get some more tan and brown colors. 
I can't say what species exactly yet but it's possible he'll get stripes,  or colored horns.
If you're sure you wanna try taming him go ahead, i can't guarantee anything but i sure am gonna watch you try, you'd probably be the first to do that, well to be fair you gotta be a bit insane to try”
A bit was good, but I also wasn't exactly fond of anyone trying to kill something so young, and thus far the little guy hadn't done anything.
As it was he was even afraid of the cat, who was still covered in blue paint and attempting to groom him.
All that did was cover him in blue paint too and he looked rather miserable at that.
While Nea argued with Oakley about what size he could reach, apparently Nea had expected something big like a dragon but Oakley estimated something slightly larger than a horse,  so I held out my hand to the strangely fluffy creature. 
All in all it looked scraggly and scruffy,  the only scaled parts being the legs and sand colored underside as well as the rather beak-like snout that seemed to be made of cartilage.
It tentatively sniffed at my hand, bonking its head against it.
Then Gloxinia wanted all the attention and I had to pet her with the other hand while the goat sized creature was inspecting my hand with its amber colored eyes.
Maybe Ronan would have some tips for Nea since he’d sorta raised Imugi already.
I was handed a blue stained cat by Oakley who told me to go wash the color off before she decided to lick it off.
“You want me to wash a cat? 
A cat of all things who are not known for liking water?”
“Yeah! Good luck!”
And with that he shoved me out, not even saying if he'd figured out if Gloxinia had any magic or magic type.
Well, better get this over with,  I wasn't even sure if the paint was edible so she probably shouldn't lick it even if that was how cats normally cleaned themselves.
Ignoring that my own shirt had gotten blue in places,  I went to the next best water source and tried my best to keep a hold of Gloxinia who definitely did not like water.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
I looked up to see that Leon guy.
“Oakley put paint on the cat, i'm trying to get it off before she licks it,  but i don't think she likes water”
Leon stuck his hand into the water bucket,  taking it back out and flicking water at me.
“Yeah no shit, thats cold water, why the fuck would wold a cat like that, try warm water next time dipshit”
Rude, at least I was trying, and not letting her eat paint.
“You do it then! If you're so much better at that!”
At the moment neither the cat nor me were happy about it.
“Aight, bet”
With that he grabbed both Gloxinia and the bucket, slinging the cat half over his shoulder and dragging the bucket to who knew where.
Well, at least I didn't have to do it now.
And judging by the fact that Gloxinia tried rubbing her head against his ear she was also rather happy about that.
Whatever, if that guy thought warm water would make her hate it less he was free to try.
Now where did everyone else go? 
Hopefully none of them got into trouble.
As it turned out they just had gotten lost in the castle again,  which we only found out because Jamie walked along the outside of it to try and get someone that knew where the fuck everything was.
Yamet however was found in the kitchen, 
talking and working with Myril so we left them to it, whatever they were doing smelled really good so we were not going to interrupt.
As expected when two very good cooks were put in the same kitchen, Dinner tasted amazing, some sort of Goulash that heavily utilized spices.
Yamet was probably the one that had brought the spices.
After that I brought Ronan back to Oakleys tower,  also rather curious about whatever he found out.
We did do a little detour though as apparently Nea had decided to train her new Pet like a Dog, including the command to fetch things.
Well, things, she let it chase a rat carcass she had tied to some other poor Guard that had to run laps to avoid the little beast.
Not something anyone wanted to be involved in.
“Is she trying to train the Drake?”
“I think so, but i don't think she knows how to,  how did you know how to take care of Imugi?”
He shrugged.
“Fuck around find out really, Imugi was easy cuz she loved doing what i was doing, also i was the first thing Imugi saw when she hatched so i guess she imprinted on me? I'm not entirely sure she knew she was a sea creature for the first few months.
Also I gave her treats when she did good things. 
Maybe I can talk to the lady there later and see if I can help! 
I've never really seen a Drake this close! Or young!”
“You do that, 
i'm not entirely sure she won't tell the little guy to bite you though”
I Wouldn't put it past her to do that, Besides we had other stuff to do first.
So, Ignoring whatever torment Nea brought upon everyone else,  I knocked on the doorframe to Oakley tower, the Door itself still missing.
“Ah there you are! Come in! I accidentally melted the door anyway!”
I kept quiet about wondering how the fuck someone could melt a Door on accident.
“Did you find out more about the Blue bracelet? 
Does the water creature also have a name?”
Oakley wordlessly pointed at two chairs and told us to sit down, 
heaving the book he rummaged for earlier onto the table.
Flipping pages around he stopped on a depiction of the creature Ronan turned into, though the drawing on the old paper depicted spots Ronan did not have as well as a different tailfin and a more brownish coloration.
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But it was still the same creature, the depiction surrounded by runes and letters that were absolute gibberish to me.
Oakley pointed at it.
“So from what I found out this is a Faraselgi,  and it's basically the same principle as for the Ardua just with a water element instead of an earth one, the rest is pretty much the same.
Well that far we got ourselves already.
“Anything else about it? Or is that all?”
I would have expected it to have at least a few more differences.
“Nope! Aside from the different creatures, which are really just based on environmental factors, it's pretty much the same!
What? Did you think the blue one got superpowers or something?”
Of course not, but after being able to turn into an Ardua I couldn't exactly know what to expect regarding those Bracelets.
“How much is the same? I mean I know about the two hearts thing, 
Is the rest also the same?”
Ronan asked, brow creasing as he tried to read the absolute mishmash of letters and runes, clearly not getting anything from that.
Oakley just nodded.
“Well yes, if you take aside the tailfin shorter hind legs and stupidly big paddle shaped grabbers it is very similar!
Oh also your thoracic vertebrates are longer,  so you sort of got a mock fin on your back, but it's technically bone”
There was the weird thing,  of course there had to have been at least one weird thing about it.
Well, weirder than it already was at least.
“So I got more bones? Awesome! Do they have a function too?”
Leave it to the biologist to find that exciting.
“I don't think so, maybe helps with balance,  don't go around trying to remove them”
A fair warning considering this was Ronan.
“Don't worry! I'm not gonna vivisect myself! 
Jamie and Imik would beat the shit out of me!”
That really shouldn't be his only concern here.
“Well then that's really all since you seem already familiar with it somehow! Just don't go around scaring people or you will find your head mounted to a wall someday!”
With that he picked up the book and shoved it back into his coat,  which shouldn't feasibly hold something that big.
“Hell yeah! Now I know what it's called! I'm gonna go tell the others! 
And Imugi! Imugi first! Before it gets dark! Byee!”
He rushed out the doorway,  well at least there would be a bit of daylight still.
“Does he know where he is going?”
“No i don't think so,  when i go back i'll inform someone to keep an eye out”
Eh, he'd be fine, he had a stupid amount of luck.
Besides, I did want to talk to Oakley a bit more.
My turn to say something that would throw him for a loop.
“I met your ex”
He spit out the tea he'd been sipping.
“What? Wait which one? 
Ah no considering where you were it can only be one”
Which one??? Dumbass, then again he was like what? Sixhundred?
It was likely he had more than one ex, or more than ten even.
“So, how is Grella doing? 
It's nice to hear she's still alive after all this time”
“She's kinda dying, just like magic,  but you knew that already didn't you?”
He stared into his mug.
“Kamerasca doesn't have any Ley lines, the closest one is where my old hut is, which is why I built it there, but yes, magic is dying.
I've noticed a long time ago,  but nobody I know could do anything about it. 
I can't do anything about it, and telling people brought nothing,  either rejoicing at the ‘evil’ becoming less or simply not caring considering it wasn't their problem.
The only ones that did care were the mages and wizards and the like,  I know a few Elemancers tried to figure out WHY it happened but when I got there they were dead already, stabbed in the back by someone that saw his magic as a curse rather than what it really was.
I debated telling you after I moved here,  but I didn't want to take your joy away so soon,  Besides, there is nothing you can do, and I didn't want to see anyone else get hurt trying to figure out what was going on with magic.
At first I even expected you guys to either not care or to actually care, and go off on some stupid mission to fix something that a mere human could never fix and die.
All the powerful and old magic users are either dead or somewhere in Valyria, which is very dangerous as is already, i bet even more died in the last two hundred years as most used magic to prolong their life.
But with magic dying all the old magic users will too, and Grella as well.
She's really the only one I feel sorry for.
How much time did she estimate?”
I stared at him, so he hadn't told me to not worry me,  but from what I gathered he would have told me eventually,  when it became relevant for me.
“She said about thirty years at most, she will die in less than twenty”
Oakley looked at his three fingered wing hand,  sadder than I had ever seen him.
“If i wasn't a coward i’d visit her, but alas i am just that”
“Why? She sounded like she still likes you, i don't think she’d hurt you”
He shook his head.
“No, i know she won't hurt me, we split because i could never really go dive into the depths with her, and the school i wanted to go to was a good bit inland, where she couldn't go, in the end our interests just didn't match anymore and we agreed both to call it off.
But there are things out there, that I made very angry,  people I made angry by obtaining what was considered forbidden knowledge.
If i were to go too far from Barmea and too close to Valyria again they would kill me, and they could make it permanent”
There was a lot I did not know about Oakley, but I knew he was not a bad person, why ever he had done it he would have had a reason to.
“So you're stuck on this continent? 
Wait, did you just live as a hermit for a few hundred years? 
No wonder you were so weird when we met you, you still are”
He puffed up indignantly.
“Well, social norms have changed a lot since I went into the forest! 
It's not my fault you humans can't stick with one thing!”
Well that was true.
“Fair, but I'm sure you could just have read up on it!”
He grinned, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.
“Well i find the fuck around find out approach a lot more amusing! 
But if you insist I will head to the castle Library to get catched up now!
Also i need to get a new door, maybe i should do that first”
I looked at the doorway that let a cool breeze in.
“Yeah that has probably priority right now, well have fun repairing your door, i still need to say hi to Arthur, if i find him”
“Oh i think he fell asleep sorting paperwork!”
I nodded at Oakley and went back to the castle,  stopping briefly to grab the red blue and purple shell I had picked out for him, I did say I'd get him one.
Now I just had to find him.
Since every other hallway ended up in the throne room at one point or another that's where I went, and Rikaad and Robin were already there.
Rikaad stared with disdain at the needlessly pompous throne,  to be fair it did not look comfy at all.
“Hey! Have any of you seen Arthur? I did promise to bring him a shell"
I waved said shell in the air.
“I have not seen him, but he has to be around,  perhaps Norrin will know where-” Rikaad got interrupted by Arthur emerging from one of the side hallways.
“I hate the layout of this place! Oh you're all back!”
There was a Squeal and Robin rushed to hug the blonde, who had to hold a bunch of paper over his head to not get them scrunched up.
For some reason they had reddish brown stains in one corner.
Arthur nearly fell over if not for Rikaad grabbing his arm to keep steady.
Arthur awkwardly patted at Robin's messy head and I noticed that two of his fingers were in a splint.
“What happened to your fingers? Did Nea break them?”
Robin let go after that, inspecting said finger gently.
He did say before we left that he wouldn't doubt that Nea would do just that.
“Huh? Oh no i tried to grab at something that fell behind that longass drawer, kinda broke my finger when i slipped on paper”
Well, that still sounded painful.
But at least the next bit would probably cheer him up a little!
I handed Arthur the shell I had picked out for him, 
the blue, red and purple shimmering in the light.
“Here! I did say I'd get you a big one!”
He turned said shell over in his hand,  the thing being almost bigger as said hands.
“I didn't know seashells could have those colors! 
Thank you! OH! Also I have something as well!”
He held out the slightly stained paper, which I was now pretty sure was blood, and carefully took it, looking it over.
My face split in a grin as I read the title, 
It seemed like Rikaad had to rewrite a law pretty soon.
Man, I couldn't wait to write to Fable!
NEXT / PREVIOUS / OVERSIGHT
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fishymom-art · 1 year
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Bendy and the Dark Revival: Trailer Review
 Attention! This post contains spoilers for the new trailer of the game Bendy and the Dark Revival!
If you haven’t watched the trailer, do it first and then come back to read! I also advise you to check out the stream over on @halfusek​ ‘s YouTube channel, where we reacted to the trailer and discussed it too, but you can do it after you finish reading :))
LET’S START, SHALL WE!
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Let’s begin with a huge WHAT THE HELL????? There is so much in this trailer and so many details! I rewatched it a few times already and noticed something new every time! So we have a looooot to unpack.
I will discuss the trailer and theorise about what might happen and what could some things mean. I will be more than happy to hear your own theories based on the trailer! I’ll make a separate hashtag for it, so I don’t lose all of it :). Maybe when the game comes out, we could go through some of those theories again and see, if we did guess something right.
Also sorry in advance if my screenshots aren’t very high quality, I’m working with what I have here, and what I have isn’t always good XD
Onto the trailer!
It starts with a short cutscene of Audrey at her drawing desk. A detail I noticed while making the screenshots, is that it seems to be dark outside and she’s either completely alone at the studio, or there aren’t that many people around for the purpose of making the player concentrate only on the main character, hahaha. 
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We also have a screenshot from the Bendy Store website showing more of her workplace. Well would you look at that! She has Henry’s picture hanging on her wall :))
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(look at her. She’s so pretty with her cute cheeks and uh... Yellow-ish eyes, for some unknown reason)
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I’m pretty sure this is how the game starts. And since we were told that the game is separated into chapters again, I assume that in the first chapter we will explore the layout of the place she works in more and play as the normal Audrey, before she gets covered in ink and shit hits the fan. I’ll stick with the theory that Audrey works for Nathan Arch and not in Joey’s Studio, because this place looks VERY different from what we’re used to.
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I also assumed that she might be a replacement for Henry when he left, mainly because of his drawing on her wall. But it might also indicate that she’s either his relative or that little girl asking Joey to tell more stories at the end of the first game... hm. But it looks like the game finds itself a few years later after the events of the first game. Like, for example, we were shown that Audrey drew with colours, which means it’s the era of coloured animation. The first full-color animated film was released in 1930s and became frequent by 50s and her hairstyle and clothes seem to line up. MY PROBLEM IS THAT JDS WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1929 AND OPERATED FOR 30 YEARS. SO EITHER THE DEVELOPMENT OF CARTOON INDUSTRY IN THE BENDY UNIVERSE IS VERY SLOW, OR THEY ALL DECIDED TO STICK WITH THE OLD FASHIONED “DRAWING ONE MOVEMENT FOR 10 HOURS BY HAND ON PAPER WITHOUT ANY COLOR” TECHNIQUE FOR MUCH LONGER THAN THEY SHOULD’VE, BECAUSE THE CARTOONS WERE IN COLOR ALREADY LIKE 10 YEARS AFTER THE STUDIO WAS ESTABLISHED. AM I MISSING SOMETHING?????
khem. Anyway.
When the shot with the corridor appears, we hear a loud noise and Audrey saying “What was that?”. It sounds like something opened or turned on in the building. It doesn’t show what that was or what happened, but I guess she went to check it out, because it’s totally safe and a good idea to go towards scary loud noises [thumbs up]. 
We’re cut straight to a new character, who is probably either the main antagonist or one of the main antagonists alongside other characters that we’re more familiar with (Alice, Ink Demon, etc.).
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WELCOME THE CREPPY OLD GUY AKA WILSON!
He is greasy, he is ugly, he looks like someone made a human version of Carver from Showdown Bandit that looks too much like Singed from Arcane. It seems like this is the Unknown guy that was talking to us in the Gameplay Trailer. I really hoped that it’ll be Nathan, but this dried out fig will do too. 
Before I talk a little more about the zombification of Peter Capaldi, let’s look at this screenshot a little more. Behind him is something that looks like a mini version of the Ink Machine. It might be the thing that turned Audrey into the inky mess she’ll be for the rest of the game. But there are also some kind of posters about what seems to be... a movie? About Joey Drew? It’s called “Joey Drew: The Man and the Demon”, and is produced by the Arch Gate Pictures (HOORAY! MY ASSHOLE OF A BOY IS CANON IN THE GAME, HALLELUJAH!). Since the location we’re in still looks like the place we’re started off in, it supports my theory that Audrey works for Nathan. 
Back to the human cotton swab aka Wilson. Since he refers to our main girl by her first name, it seems like he knows Audrey or was at least told about her.
After his appearance there are a couple of shots showing Audrey transforming into her inky form, so to say. This is what she will look like for the rest of the game. The way they cut to her panicking while turning into an ink creature right after introducing our new baddie, makes me think that Wilson turned her into an ink creature. Maybe he like... poured ink on her or smth?
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Now let’s make a little stop here, because while I was writing, the official Bendy Twitter account shared this picture:
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First of all, I want to assume that it’s not an only reference we will get. Maybe we will see one for Allison or maybe even our new ugly antagonist, Wilson! Let’s go through it first, shall we?
- They deliberately point out, that Audrey was unwillingly pulled into the cartoon world of Bendy. - She has unique mysterious powers. Something that Henry did not have. Which means I have no clue what she can and cannot do. - And there is a new evil at work in the studio. I’m pretty sure they mean Wilson, because there aren’t any new evil characters who could play a big role in the story, except that male version of Annabelle Doll.
And she’s working those hips, like damn girl, looking sharp!
Anyway, I don’t really have much to say about it yet. I will point out stuff about her design later in the review though!
Anyway, back to the trailer.
Now you can notice those familiar textures and the color scheme. We’re in the Joey Drew Studios, aka now “Bendy’s Cartoon World”, as referred to in Audrey’s bio. I have two options for why we’re suddenly in JDS. It’s either:
- Hidden under the Arch Gate Facility like the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaplace under the Pizzaplex in Security Breach or - Audrey’s tripping balls and sees everything like that because of her new shiny lightbulbs that replaced her eyes.
Both theories are standing on legs made out of cheap dry plasticine and have almost no points that could’ve supported them (except Wilson actually being supposedly present in the studio at all times), but oh well! Let’s put THAT nonsense aside and look at some new shiny shots of the JDS! Oh, wait, we’ll look at a crucified Lost One first.
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It looks like this guy went through some... extreme bullcrap. But oh wait! Is that- Is that what I think it is?! The new weapon that I keep referring to as the Gold Blitz?!... are we going to just... rip it out of this guy?... Oof.
By the way, from now on, I will always refer to this mechanism as the Gold Blitz, because I’m used to it and I can’t really tell what it’s supposed to be in general. So until we get a clear explanation on what it is and what it’s called, you’ll have to deal with my creative choices.
Other than the obvious rehearsal of some biblical events, we have “Demon Follower” written on the wall next to the Lost One. I assume that being a Demon (pretty sure they mean Bendy) Follower here is strictly prohibited and... very creatively punished. Which is a pretty drastic difference from the first game, where the Lost Ones and Sammy were more known as Ink Demon’s followers. But the Ink Demon and support towards him being vilified is a pretty big deal here. During some other shots, we hear a monologue from no other than a less sexy Morty from Hello Puppets Wilson:
(I couldn’t understand some of the words he said, but the overall meaning is clear, I think) “[...] Children of the Machine. For 211 days you’ve lived without the Ink Demon haunting your [?]. I banished him away. In return, I ask just a little favour. There is a stranger. Bring her to me!” (I’ll come back to that last part later)
After some very VERY beautiful shots of the locations that I’ll show shortly after this, we have those posters, saying “Relax, Wilson Knows Your Purpose”. Wilson here is called “The Man Who Killed The Ink Demon”.
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Now here’s a little spelling game! Can you spell “PROPAGANDA”? If you need a hint, I can give you a sentence where this word can be used: “This is a clear case of propaganda and manipulation that shows Wilson as the true hero and saviour, who supposedly got rid of the Ink Demon and freed everyone!”
Now, I can’t really say that the Ink Demon is good, because he clearly isn’t. But Wilson is lying, because we do get to see Ink Demon later in the trailer and we have others talking about him. Did this walking example of what lung cancer does to a person brainwashed the Lost Ones into thinking they are safe? It portrays him as a great leader who can easily manipulate other people into believing him, because “Oh, he saved us from this big threat we experienced! We owe him!”.
I think those are some obvious things and a pretty good introduction to a completely new character. I’ll be very surprised if I was wrong with my theory on who he is and what his motives are XD.
NOW LET’S LOOK AT THOSE PRETTY SHOTS OF THE STUDIO I TALKED ABOUT BEFORE!
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Look at those details that aren’t distinguishable because of the poor quality of my screenshots!
Okay, jokes aside, it does look extremely pretty. I don’t really have anything else to say about this shot. It’s just. It’s just so much better. Here, have a screenshot of the same location in the first game. DO YOU SEE WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT?
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Although we’ve been waiting for a long LONG time, I am still glad that they took their time with the game. It has so much more to itself and the new design, graphics and overall look make the wait worth it. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this game when it comes out.
And here’s the other shot! There are... so many details. Clearly this is a cafeteria/canteen or something like that. Honestly looks even like a bar to me, which doesn’t really fit the fact that it’s a fricking studio, but there are many other things that make you question the definition of the word “studio” in this game, so we’ll look over it for now.
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I can’t really recognise anything special here except maybe those 3 signs that look like licence plates.
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One of them has 414 written on it, because of course it does. I dunno why it has 210 first, I didn’t find anything. The other says “OUTATIME” and the third is “SLW-287R”. Those reference the license plate of the DeLorean Time Machine from “Back to the Future” and Mr. Bean’s car. Nothing else, really, haha.
Of course we also have our beloved Little Miracle station standing in the background, as well as something called Dream Supply and Tasty Eats. I have little to no clue what those are, actually. I’m still confused why is a locker called Miracle Station. But I learned to never question the design choices the developers make, so we’ll just move on.
We also get a quick look at the Art Department or at least something that looks like it, as well as GOLD BLITZ WOOHOO!!! I still have NO idea what this thing is for.
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But what I do know, is that we can CHARGE this bad boy! Yes, you heard me! Whatever this abomination of a MacGuffin is, it requires (and presumably emits) electricity. Watch Audrey put this baby in an oversized battery port!
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And we actually see that being confirmed in this screenshot. Those lights on the device indicate that it runs on some power and has limited usage. I guess we’ll have to charge it from time to time... I just hope it lasts longer than Glamrock Freddy... also it kinda looks like she made it herself, because it just looks like a pipe with a battery slapped on it ahaha
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ALSO LOOK AT MY BOY CHARLIE!!! HE LOOKS SO COOL!
But we actually have something else appear before Audrey gets to show off her new toy!
BOOM! THIS GUY! 
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He appeared in one of the trailers for a brief moment already. I assume he’ll be an annoying kind of enemy like the Butcher Gang. I have no idea what to call this son of a gun, so I’ll just refer to him as the Ink Brute if I’ll have to talk about him again. But honestly, he’s my son and I lowkey love him. Just look at him go! Even my boy’s better than the vacuum in a skin costume that calls itself Wilson.
But why would I talk about him separately? Because one of the thing that I love the most about this trailer is the unique designs of different new characters that we will be able to interact with! They are so cool! They are alive! They are PEOPLE!
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LOOK AT THIS GUY! HE’S SO FUNKY! HE’S SO COOL! ROCKING HIS GOGGLES LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW (which is probably accurate, because time isn’t a concept the studio decided on following).
OR THIS MAPBOT FROM SECURITY BREACH  DOLL!
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Both of them even have their own voices and here’s something the doll girl says
Doll: “Almost everyone here either can’t speak or they’re completely mad.”
Considering that there are differences when it comes to living cartoons, it kinda makes sense. Perfect cartoons, like Boris, cannot speak, for example. And Alice, who was proven to be an imperfect version of her cartoon self, is uh... unwell, to say the least. It doesn’t really apply to the Lost Ones, as well as this Doll. They do speak, but don’t appear to be irrational, at least from what I’ve seen. The only mad characters in the trailer are the Butcher Gang, who are rabid from the get-go, Alice, who’s literally portrayed with a legit GUN later in the video, and the illegitimate son of William Afton and Bill Cipher aka Wilson.
Talking about the characters we already know and love (not counting Wilson). Allison is here, looking SHARP!
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There is a short dialogue going on between Audrey and Allison. I assume it’s the first time they meet.
Allison: “I’m not gonna hurt you. Looks like you need some help” 
Audrey: [pulls her hand away as soon as Allison touches it] “Don’t touch me!”
I wanted to add, that Audrey doesn’t say “Don’t touch me!” in a scared voice. More like warning Allison, that it’s not safe to touch her. Although maybe it’s just me looking too much into voice acting hahah. I guess Allison here helps Audrey to adapt around the studio. She takes her hand and points out that our girl needs help just by looking at it. Maybe she realised that Audrey is new to all of this. But she could also be pointing it out because of this distinctive feature of hers:
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I’m actually surprised they didn’t really say anything about her arm and I didn’t even think about it until I watched the trailer again. I don’t really have anything else to say though. I hope Allison will answer this question, because it looks like she knows what that could mean. At least I hope she does, because if she doesn’t, we’ll have to interview the old melted wax figure that is Wilson. Or like... ask Alice, or smth. She did pick up a hobby of going through cartoons’ guts, she might know a thing or two- [gets shot with a tommy gun]
Well, anyway, let’s see, what else we have in that trailer. Except the canteen and some random rooms, we get a hallway!
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What’s interesting is that it has an almost identical layout as the hallway I showed in the beginning, but it might just be me looking at the floor tiles and thinking I connected the dots, when in reality I didn’t connect shit. But it does work with that “Audrey’s tripping balls” theory I talked about earlier. Although I am leaning more towards the Security Breach comparison at the moment.
And then we have something interesting, which is just a shadow, but it belongs to my boy, my love, my beautiful bean, my favourite creature Nature created while she was drunk on bacon soup. THE INK DEMON!
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There is a short dialogue between Allison and Audrey when he appears.
Allison: “Above everything else, stay away from the Ink Demon.” Audrey: “What’s an Ink Demon?” Allison: “He likes to smile. And he kills anything that moves.”
We already heard the last sentence in a different trailer out of context, but now we know that it’s Allison explaining Audrey who the Ink Demon is. Which makes me think that we won’t see our favourite boy for a while. At least not until Allison and Audrey meet.
Bendy also seems to be a little upgraded. His horns are bigger and the head isn’t as smooth and round. And if you look closely when the shadow rises, you can see that he has some kind of spikes on his back. He did have something similar in his old model, but it was more subtle, while the new model seems to be more detailed and “exaggerated”, so to say. Also it seems like he’s not a twink anymore - [gets shot again]
After that we get a better look at Audrey’s model and may I say, she looks pretty badass. Slay, queen! SLAY YOUR ENEMIES! SLAY THE DEMON!
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I honestly really enjoy her design. And am... kind of confused why everything around her as well as she herself change their color. Guess it has something to do with the whole “Bendy’s Cartoon World” thing? I never really think about it usually, but the people in the studio don’t really... have that many normal human features. Like, their skin color is orange/brown-ish and all the clothes grey and black (maybe a little white here and there + golden stuff like Audrey’s eyes). It seemed like a design choice in the first game, but now that we were shown a different place that is more colourful and we know that Audrey’s skin and clothes don’t actually look like that in the beginning, it gets a little confusing.
I don’t really know what else to say. A part of me suggests that maybe it means that she’s dead, but that Joker with no make up on (Wilson) is also there and I’m pretty confident that he is alive. Plus, there’s no indication that it might be a purgatory of some sort or that there’s no way out. Even the description of the game that we get on the official Bendy Store website states, that our mission is to leave the studio. Although considering the ending of the first game, that wants us to think that Henry might be dead, it’s a question that will stay open for quite a while. As far as I’m concerned, we might never get a clear answer to what the hell this studio is. I know those Indi developers. They never give a clear answer to the biggest questions, especially BatIM.  So I guess we could theorise about it without ever being sure X). Let’s just move on, we could talk about it the whole day.
Btw, the sign behind Audrey says “Unsafe Area” and asks for the workers’ ID cards. 
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There was another location that requires an ID card to enter with the subtitle “Be Drawn to Fear.”
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I guess all the locations reserved for Gent workers may require an Identification to enter... LET’S STEAL WALLY’S ID!
//I wrote a shit ton of stuff here and it got deleted, so from now on it will be a little rushed, probably//
///It got deleted twice. I am suffering right now///
Welp, let’s talk more locations! Here we have a... uh... [looks through the notes] a city street. Yep. A city street.
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At first I thought it was the Lost Ones harbour/town/haven/whatever. But look at it again and you realise that there’s no fucking way it could be that. I TOLD YOU THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD “STUDIO” IN THIS UNIVERSE IS THE MOST CONFUSING SHIT IN THE WORLD. This place has a grocery store, a pharmacy, a residential building EVEN A SUBWAY STATION. IT HAS A GODDAMN SUBWAY STATION????
This place makes my head hurt as much as Tumblr deleting half of this review every time I’m trying to save it as a draft. I have only one explanation that comes to mind and makes the most sense. The locations from the cartoons/comics become real, just like the characters. It’s the most realistic option in my opinion. We did see city backgrounds in comics and cartoons after all (reference Cheap Seats).
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Otherwise it makes absolutely no sense and if I’m wrong here, I will lose all my marbles and I don’t have many left. This just adds like... 50 bucks to the “Put a dollar every time the JDS makes no sense” jar.
Let’s move on before I lose my mind. We do have another screenshot that seems to be taken in the same location, but I’ll leave it for later ;)
NOW WE HAVE THIS! 
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IN THE VENTS! IN THE VENTS! WE WILL GO INTO THE VENTS ANd I am not going to make an Among Us joke.
NEXT!
OOH, SOME QUICK GRABBERS WE HAVE HERE! And it clearly belongs to our beloved Ink Demon - his left hand has four fingers and a glove.
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Although it does seem like he went through much more changes than I thought. Because this looks much better than whatever the hell it used to be:
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Fear the ones you bullied in middle school, so to say.
Although he does lack basic level of intelligence if he thinks that he can reach and grab Audrey through that little hole in the wall. Well, at least one thing they didn’t change about him X) /lh
And here’s something... big. I missed it the first time I watched it and I didn’t really look that deep into it. A table a with a writing on the wall behind it saying “She was the FOURTH”.
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But then a friend pointed out that it might have something to do with a thing Meatly said once that left all fans go completely badonkers 2 years ago (yes, it’s been 2 years).
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This CLEARLY means that Audrey (or some other female character who we haven’t seen before. Although I’m pretty sure it’s about Audrey) is supposed to represent the fourth member of The Butcher Gang. And this is a pretty huge deal. If it IS Audrey, it could explain why that wet old sock of a person aka Wilson wants to find Audrey so bad. Maybe he tried to turn her into that character, but she managed to escape before he could finish his work. And maybe it’s the reason why she has those unique powers that Allison seems to be familiar with - maybe, all cartoons have this feature?
But we still can’t really say who that character is. Clearly they came up with it pretty late. The comic book already came out when he said it and neither that nor the cartoons acknowledge this character or their existence. Which leads me to the only conclusion I’m able to make right now - that fourth member was a thing at FIRST, but then was scraped by the artists and never made it to the screens/in the comics. If I’m wrong again, I’ll just stick with the joke that Edgar’s toy duck is the fourth member and shut my mouth.
Let’s move on then, because I have nothing else to say about this and I’m very tired and have been writing this part for over 3 hours or something like that.
WHY NOT TALK ABOUT ANOTHER MUCH BETTER (sorry XD) FEMALE CHARACTER THAT IS MY BELOVED ALICE ANGEL?! Because guess what!
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THEY GAVE HER A GUN! I REPEAT, THEY GAVE ALICE A FUCKING GUN! BENDY ROYALE IS REAL MWAHAHAHHAHAH
But for real now, this moment made my day when I first saw that XD.
Well, for the last, but not least (although pretty much the littlest)...
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PERFECT BENDY IS HERE! HE’S CANON AND HE’S BABY! LOOK AT THIS PRECIOUS LITTLE BEAN!
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Look at him in his little vest! What an adorable little gentleman!
This is that other screenshot from the city location I mentioned! Which means that Bendy might accompany us in some of the locations. Which I’m all for! IF I GET TO SEE THIS PRECIOUS LITTLE CREATURE MORE THAN ONCE, I WILL BE THE HAPPIEST FISH ALIVE!
Also it makes me think that the Perfect Bendy might actually be Henry. Now, this is a pretty popular theory and I actually agree with it in some parts. For example, that scene in Chapter 5, where Sammy attacks Henry, saying that he betrayed and abandoned him and that he trusted him, etc. He mistakes Henry for Bendy there and it would only make sense if he did so because Henry looks like his Lord. + Our man had ink splashed in his face on multiple occasions throughout the game, it should’ve affected him somehow. And lastly, every living cartoon was a normal person at first, and it doesn’t exclude Bendy over here. And who fits the role more than Henry? (Except maybe Joey, but I highly doubt it) Plus, he does look like he’s been in the studio for quite some time, because of his messy clothes and messed up face. And we all know by now that Henry went through a lot of loopty loops in this studio, he’s seen some shit.
Of course, I haven’t talked about a couple of other things (like that ball with someone’s name), but mainly because I honestly have nothing to say about that. There is so much in this new trailer and I am extremely happy.
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November 15th. Less then two weeks left.
I know I said that I won’t be doing anything bendy related anymore. But I also said that this will be a case only if batdr doesn’t awaken anything in me and boy did it awaken a lot. I can’t wait to play this game and watch other people play and theorise about it. I also can’t wait for you guys to send me your comments, ideas and theories about this game and my review, so we can all talk about it a little more.
I do still think that the developers are assholes. They aren’t good people. But it doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy the everloving hell out of this game. Plus, I am the (self-proclaimed) Owner of Bendy and the Ink Machine ;).
In conclusion... I am happy. I truly am. And I can’t wait to see more when the game comes out.
With love,
FishyMom.
78 notes · View notes
ancientschampionau · 6 months
Text
The Skeleton House
Related to my story/fanfiction.
When I first started working on the chapter (chapter 64) where Sans and Frisk explored their new house. I had no idea what to write and no view for it myself. So like the nerd that I am. I decided to first make one on the Sims. Then use that as a blueprint to write with.
It worked perfectly and I got through the chapter no issue.
Then someone asked if they could see what the house looked like and I figured 'Sure. I can just make a tiny post and like upload the picture in the sidenotes.'
TURNS OUT! The Sims did in matter of fact NOT save the house that I made, anywhere. So that plan was a bust.
So obviously. I figured it would a great plan to REMAKE the house.
Turns out. Making it from text -> house is a lot harder than the other way around.
I was just going to show the finished results but I guess you all can see my struggle:
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Try 1. I ended up deleting it as I could not make the layout work as I wanted and I decided I wanted more space to work with. Just in case.
So I went to look through the houses that were there to figure out which family I could evict and house I could bulldoze (Gotta love the Sims)
I ended up going for a house in Windenburg:
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I picked it because there were no direct neighbors and no direct roads which worked for my emergence and so my overall idea.
So I bulldozed the lot and I got to work with the basic layout on the groundfloor.
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At some point I was happy with the overall layout. You will see the upper left change a bit.
Once I was happy with the groundfloor I added the overall layout for the first and second floors as well. I also decided to struggle on the staircase for about 20 minutes to get a hole around the top part of the stairs.
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This is the only picture I got where it is obvious but damnit I am proud of it and it deserves the spotlight. But I spend 20 minutes on it so it deserves the mention. No I did not do the same with the second staircase. I don't enjoy suffering.
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After that I made a bit of a sandy path to the front of the house and I added some windows and lights, mostly to make it light inside to enable myself to see what I was doing. I have eben making small edits to the overall layout and shape but it remained mostly the same.
The next view updates go fast because I got in the decorating zone and I just kinda went.
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Tada! The groundfloor! Some of you will notice it is slightly different than the house in the story. Mostly this is how I imagine it will eventually look. After the guys also made it a bit more there own: Blue circle: The first guestroom. I made all the guest rooms generic. mostly because I don't hate myself and was not in the mood to make them all different. Green circle: Groundfloor bathroom Purple arrow: The area that is different from the story. In my head the guys will end up renovating the house a little which means they will sacrifices one of the guest rooms for another staircase to the library that does not yet exist. White arrow: the dining room. I wanted to use a bigger table but the Sims does not HAVE bigger tables thant 3X1 and I couldn't find a good one that should look like a big one if you place them next to one another and I wasn't in the mood to try and make it work with moveobjects on cheat. At elast the number of chairs is enough Red circle: The pantry. Obviously in the center by the staircase you see the living room. Top right is the kitchen. and bottom right is the hallway and enterance to the house.
That was the rundown of the groundfloor!
First floor lets go!
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Okay here we go!
Purple circle: The library that was added later by the guys, before that part of the house did not exist. Green circle: General bathroom Blue circles: five guestrooms Pink circle: Frisk's room and they bathroom, bathroom has a door both to the hallway and to their room. I want to add that I added the non-binary flag above their bed but you can't see it clearly but I want everyone to know it is there I swear. Yellow circle: Sans' room with bathroom, bathroom does not have a door to the hallway.
The top floor is honestly boring but to be complete I will show you
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I did not decorate all the rooms because I didn't know what to make them all yet. The center room is just the bedroom for Horror, Killer, Dust and Cross. It is honestly just a room with a giant bed in it because all they do there is sleep and otherwise they are either on the bottom floor or in the garden.
Now. The garden.
As you saw with the tour of the house, the garden is still very empty. Not for long!
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Here is the front garden and the roof. Fun fact. the roof is actually rather easy and If you are struggling with adding one because of the windows. If you use a slightly smaller window and put it as high as possible you get a little bit of wall under the window. Then, when you add the roof you can make the tip of the roof lower. Then it is a matter of making it smaller until it fits under the window. No cheats required, just some patience.
Anyway, that were the roofs. The garden was just me adding the sand path with the terrain editor. Digging a river type thing with the dig tool and add water tool. I made a tiny pit where I added a volcanic pit, just for flavour to serve as a firepit. Then I just added a buttload of trees and plants and waterstuff.
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Some of it even lit up which made me very happy.
But that is it! the Skeleton Estate!
Final overview shot:
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For those curious it took me about 5 hours to remake it (Not counting the 2 hours with the failed attempt at the start)
I will probably never use the house in the Sims but it is there and I actually saved it this time so hopefully if I even need the reference again I don't have to rebuild it again.
8 notes · View notes
overwatch-archive · 5 years
Text
Bastet
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A Short Story: Michael Chu Illustrations: Arnold Tsang Additional Artwork: Bengal Design and Layout: Benjamin Scanlon
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After days of lying in wait, Ana's target had appeared in one of Cairo's opulent, ancient palaces. Abdul Hakim was a king in his own right, one who was using his power and influence to squeeze the life from the city, making himself and his followers rich in the process. But before she had her chance to capture him, the first ghost appeared: Jack Morrison. Though he was masked and had assumed the identity of a vigilante—Soldier: 76—she recognized him immediately.
The world believed that Morrison was dead, killed in the destruction of the Overwatch base in Switzerland, but Ana had her doubts. Though Jack had escaped death, a specter followed behind him… the Reaper. A killer clad all in black, his face hidden behind a bone white mask.
Reaper had confronted Jack, and Ana had leapt to his aid. She had subdued Reaper, wrestling him to the ground. But when she had stripped off the ghoulish mask and seen the ruin of a face beneath, she recognized Gabriel Reyes, a friend and comrade she’d known just as long as Jack. Gabriel proved to be the real phantom as he’d faded into thin air, disappearing like a whisper.
She was left with the revelation that Gabriel and Jack, two men like brothers to her, were not dead.
In fairness, they thought I was, too.
She took a deep breath and surveyed the scene. Bullet marks patterned the walls, tiles on the floor were cracked, and the bodies of the manor’s security guards—muscle for Hakim’s illegal enterprise—were splayed about like children's toys. At the heart of the courtyard, Jack stood impassively.
"I got them all," Jack said as he rifled through one of the fallen mercenary's belongings.
A guard on the ground between them groaned, and in a flash, Ana drew her sidearm and fired a sleep dart into his neck.
"You missed one," Ana said.
Jack gave one of his good guy shrugs. "It’s nice to see you, too, Ana."
Ana engaged the targeting visor from underneath her cowl. The heads-up display failed to activate. She flipped it back up, annoyed. "Any idea where he went?"
Jack activated his visor and scanned the area. "Not a trace."
Something to worry about later.
"That doesn’t look good," Ana said. Jack had been shot right beneath the giant numerals "76" on his jacket. As she took a closer look, she could see that the jacket and his flesh had been ripped apart by a shotgun blast. From that range, it should have killed him, but Jack had certain advantages. His wounds could heal themselves—a legacy of his past as a test subject and an enhanced soldier in the American armed forces. She could already see the pink of new skin forming at the edges, but not completely. Where it looked the worst, his flesh had turned necrotic and black.
"I'll be fine," Jack grunted. "It just takes us some time."
Us, Ana thought. Jack was adapting quickly to the knowledge that his former best friend was still alive.
Or did he already know?
The faintest sound of approaching sirens interrupted her. "We should get going. Sounds like someone’s noticed."
Jack nodded. "Lead the way."
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An hour later, Ana and Jack crouched in the shadows, watching as hover taxis zoomed by and a pair of civilians riding robotic camels made their way down the street. Overhead, skiffs and surveillance drones crisscrossed the sky, the former carrying the well-to-do of the city to their afternoon appointments, the latter mobilized by the shootout in Hakim's palace.
Ana navigated the narrow alleys, finding the routes through the labyrinthine tangle of streets and pathways, keeping an eye out for the patrols that circled like hawks. For once in her life, she was grateful for the city’s patchwork infrastructure, still recovering a decade after Overwatch's intervention. The state of Ana's home country was one of the reasons she had been drawn back to it. She felt responsible for Overwatch's legacy here, whether it had been her choice or not.
In the shade of one of the massive, derelict cooling towers, the heat from the oppressive afternoon sun was a little more tolerable. It didn't bother Ana, but Jack seemed to be laboring. His genetic enhancements should have helped him acclimatize to different conditions, the same way they should have stopped the blood that was seeping through the shirt he'd tied across his midsection as a bandage.
"You need to take better care of yourself," Ana chided him.
"You sound like Angela," Jack grunted.
Ana waited for a police car to speed by, lights flashing, and then she signaled him forward.
"Think they’re looking for us?" Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Most likely," Ana said, squinting at the car's retreating form. "But there's a lot of crime here. The police are busy."
Another part of our legacy.
Jack had fallen behind a few paces, leaning against one of the walls. "Reminds me of Prague."
"I’m not carrying you this time," Ana said. "Come on, Jack. Keep up." She dashed out of the shadows and across the street, feeling the full blast of sun above and the heat baked into the stones beneath her.
Back in the shadows, she continued. "Prague was your fault. Why you ever thought Reinhardt could be stealthy is beyond me."
Ana waited for Jack to defend himself. When he didn’t reply, she turned around. He had collapsed on the paving stones, out in the open.
Not now, Ana thought as she ran back to him. She tried to pull him up. "Wake up, Jack." But he gave no response. Ana slung Jack’s arm over her shoulder and lifted him, carrying him down the alley.
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Jack drifted awake. That wasn't normal. Even before the army, he'd always been a light sleeper, starting awake at the slightest disturbance. His eyes adjusted rapidly to the dim light of the room as he sat up. He was on an old military surplus cot with a threadbare blanket. His side ached like hell.
"Finally," Ana walked over, silent as a stalking cat. "Tea?"
"I'll take whiskey if you have it."
Ana rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jack, I happen to keep a bottle around just in case you show up."
"Tea's fine," Jack said in a smaller voice.
Ana stretched her shoulders. "You know, I had to carry you all the way here."
"I've been shot plenty of times. It's never felt like this." Jack grimaced as he shifted, twisting around to get a better look at the wound. Three large gashes crisscrossed his back and sides, but they'd been stitched together with dark thread.
"There's something very wrong with that wound. We should probably take you to a doctor." Ana moved to a low table with an induction burner and placed an ornate gold kettle on one of its two heating pads.
"I don't think a doctor's going to know how to deal with this." Jack looked grim.
"Dr. Ziegler's not too far away," Ana suggested. "But I’m not carrying you."
"No doctors," Jack said. "And especially not Angela." How would we even begin to explain this to her? I doubt she'd want to see us now. Two lost ghosts.
"I tried stitching you up myself," Ana said apologetically. "I never was much good with field dressing. Didn't need it very often."
He ran his finger over the jagged stitches. “Looks like a butcher went at it.”
"Well, you can take care of yourself from now on, if you like."
"It's a little hard to reach," Jack said sheepishly.
"Then don't complain.” Ana paused. "And shouldn't that be healing itself?"
Jack nodded. "It should be. Maybe the shells were laced with a biological agent?"
"You're sure you don't want to see Dr. Ziegler?"
"We'd have to explain to her that we're not dead," Jack said.
"She's the miracle worker. She's probably used to it by now," Ana laughed.
"No Angela," Jack said, and that was that.
He looked around at Ana's home, as it were. It was a mix of tactical equipment, military surplus, surveillance devices, and some light touches of domesticity. The space was more archaeological site than apartment, ancient stone chambers with worn stone columns, and the walls had been carved with hieroglyphics, though some looked like the work of more modern vandals. On a low table, Ana had set up a little display of ancient objects that had been carefully preserved: a jar with a ram's head lid made of pale, milky stone, a black and gold mask bearing the visage of a fierce cat goddess, a chipped vase of brown-red clay, and a small, brilliant green figurine of a falcon.
Jack took a closer look at the antiquities. "This place reminds me of a museum my mother took me to in New York when I was a kid." It had been one of his favorite parts of the trip, running around the transplanted ruins of an ancient Egyptian temple. He smiled at the memory.
Ana offered him a blue mug with a red plaid pattern. "It's a necropolis—a city of the dead."
"Appropriate," Jack chuckled. He motioned towards the small display. "What are these?"
"I found them when I moved in. I couldn't very well throw them away. These relics have survived thousands of years. Empires rose and fell, and they're still here. I figured I should take care of them before I sent them to Dr. Faisal."
Jack blew gently on his tea to cool it. "You've been here the whole time?"
"Ever since I left the hospital in Poland." Ana watched as Jack sipped his tea.
He made a face at the bitterness. "Any sugar?"
Ana ignored him. "When I woke up, I didn't remember who I was. I had no name to give them, so they called me, 'Janina Kowalski,' your Jane Doe. For months, I sat in that hospital room in pain and confusion. Dr. Lee told me I was lucky. Well, as lucky as you can be after having glass and shrapnel embedded in your skull." Ana felt the phantom pain of her eye even as she recounted the experience.
"We tried to find you," Jack said somberly. "I used every resource at my disposal. Gabe even put McCree on it personally. Not a trace. Everyone else tried to convince me you were gone and that I was being irrational. But deep down I knew that you couldn't be dead."
And I was right, Jack thought.
"Dr. Lee kept me out of the system. I convinced her some dangerous people were after me."
"I'm dangerous?" he asked, playing innocent.
"You're a kitten, Jack," Ana laughed. "Eventually, I was able to piece together what happened, but I don't know how much of it is real and how much I've filled in the blanks myself. I remembered the mission. We were pinned down by the enemy sniper, and I was trying to flush them out. I remembered lining up the shot. But it was almost like there was a reason why I didn't want to remember what happened next."
Jack looked down into his teacup.
"It was because I recognized that sniper," Ana said, studying him carefully. "You already know this."
"Amélie?" Jack said. "Yes." He had learned that and more over the years, but he left it unspoken.
"Poor Gérard," Ana sighed.
The pair sat in silence for a while as the steam drifted lazily from their cups and dissipated into the dusty haze of the ancient room.
"Why are you here, Jack?" Ana asked at last.
"I never forgave myself for leaving you behind. I heard about a bounty hunter in Cairo, and I hoped…" Jack set the mug down.
"You never were good at letting go," Ana chided him. "Too stubborn for your own good."
"Gabriel is out there. Talon is getting more powerful. They need to be stopped, and everything that we've suffered—everything that you've suffered—needs to be made good on. I’m going to take them apart, piece by piece." Jack's impassioned words echoed off the stone walls, and he had clenched his fists. He slowly released them. "But I can't do it alone. I need your help."
Ana crossed her arms. "You can barely stand. You fainted in the street. The only thing you need to do is recover."
"Don't let this go. Don't be like the others. They dismantled everything we spent our lives building, and then they made us into villains."
"We're not all like you, Jack," Ana said. "Some of us can move forward."
"This is moving forward," Jack growled.
"You're excited," Ana said. "You're not thinking straight. Get some more rest. We can talk after."
"After?" Jack's eyes flashed to his mug and then looked back at Ana. "Did you—?"
He collapsed on the cot.
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Ana waited until Jack was deeply asleep before she lifted his legs onto the bed, tucked a pillow beneath his head, and pulled the scratchy blanket over him. He had scars she didn't recognize, and his hair had thinned and faded to a silvery white. While he slept, Soldier: 76 slipped away, and she could feel the presence of the Jack she remembered.
She picked up the empty mug and left him to rest.
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Later, Ana returned to the darkened complex, her supplies in a canvas sack she carried over her shoulder. With the lights off, the place felt more like a tomb than ever. She walked through the entry corridor and into the main chamber to find, of all things, Jack, shirtless, doing one-handed pushups through gritted teeth. He'd discarded his bandages in a small pile on his cot. Ana could see the angry red and black of the wounded flesh, bound together by her inexpert stitching.
"You're going to tear those stitches out," Ana remarked.
"I was feeling a little restless," Jack explained.
"You did sleep for two days," Ana said. Hungry?
"I'd kill for a burger."
Ana gave him a look of disbelief.
"But I'm not picky," Jack flashed her that smile he used to try to get himself out of trouble. He really was like a child sometimes.
Ana pulled paper containers of food out of her sack and placed them on the low table in front of him. The rich smells drifted through the air. There was falafel and beans, and pockets of freshly baked bread stuffed with steaming minced lamb meat and onions. "It's not my cooking, at least."
"Thank god for small miracles," Jack chuckled.
In spite of herself, Ana laughed as well.
Jack attacked the food like someone accustomed to having to wolf down meals quickly. Ana helped herself to a little, but mostly they ate in silence. When they'd finished, Jack leaned back on the crate he was sitting on and settled back into his questioning.
"Why didn't you tell me you were alive?" Jack asked.
"I don't know if you'll understand," Ana said. "Gabriel would, but you're different in some ways."
Jack's expression was unreadable. "And Fareeha? You let her think you were dead."
"That was the hardest part." Ana sighed. She stood up and walked over to her desk, where there was a small framed photo Ana with her young daughter on her back. Their arms were both spread wide as though they were flying. "Fareeha would have expected Captain Amari to return, but she was gone. The moment I hesitated, I changed."
"You can't blame yourself," Jack said softly. "How could you have known?"
"Don't patronize me, Jack," Ana snapped. "Of course, it was my fault. It doesn't have to haunt me for the rest of my life, but I can accept the blame."
"It wouldn't have made a difference to us. We would have wanted you back. It turns out we couldn't do it without you," Jack said, touching her shoulder gently. "Overwatch needed you. And now I need you."
Ana read the desperation on Jack's face. "Getting revenge for what happened won't accomplish anything other than getting you killed."
"Maybe, but I still have to fight. Everyone else gave up, but not me."
He blames me, too. Ana realized. "Stubborn."
"You couldn't give up the fight either," Jack said. "Why else were you at Hakim's palace?"
"I tried to live quietly, you know. I would be near my daughter and be at peace. But the longer I lived here, the harder it was for me to escape the fact that we are responsible for what happened to this city. We shut down the Anubis project, and Egypt has never recovered." Ana stood up, turning her back to Jack. "People's lives are hard. They're being taken advantage of by parasites like Hakim. How could I let it go on when I knew there was something I could do?"
"You're fighting for justice, just like me," Jack said.
Ana's eyes narrowed. "Revenge isn't justice."
Jack threw his hands up. "We're after the same thing. Why do you think Hakim was meeting with Gabriel? He's working for Talon. The rot on this city is going to spread, and it will ruin the world just like it always does."
"Hakim runs a criminal organization that has strangled Cairo. The police and the government either turned a blind eye or they're being paid off by him. Food supplies aren't being distributed to people who need them. Medical care is almost impossible to get," Ana said. "Look me in the eye and tell me you can leave without doing anything."
"Cairo and the world will suffer until we bring them all down! You have to see the bigger picture," Jack said heatedly.
"Are you even hearing yourself? You would never have made this argument before," Ana said disapprovingly. "The way we do things matters."
"Times change," Jack said with finality. "Either you're coming with me, or I'm leaving. I've already wasted too much time."
“I’m not going,” Ana said.
For a long moment, Jack stared at her in silence. "A sniper takes the most dangerous threat out first. That was your job." Jack picked up his ruined coat. "If you want to waste your time on petty criminals, so be it. I have a war to fight."
He stormed out.
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After Jack left, Ana switched on her computer. Jack had been using it earlier, and the screen was cluttered with articles about Reaper’s movements and appearances. Ana wondered who had been supplying Jack with some of this information, but that was a puzzle for another time. She browsed through the reports and remembered the ruined face she had seen behind the mask.
Gabriel… what happened to you?
One of the articles indicated that casualties in one of Reaper's attacks had suffered the same sort of wounds as Jack.
That damned scientist, Ana thought with disgust.
The other information offered little new insight on the Reaper, providing only a view into Jack's mind. He was following a spiderweb of corporations, government officials, and financial institutions, all hopelessly tangled together through corrupt arteries and shady intermediaries. It was the sort of problem that was never Jack's strong suit. He preferred two sides, concrete facts, and one clear, unequivocal decision.
The messy stuff was always Gabriel's arena.
Not as much as it used to be.
Ana considered her options. In her heart, she knew she wanted to stay. Egypt was failing. In a few more years, it was likely that it would fall into chaos, torn apart by profiteers and criminals like Hakim. As the bounty hunter Shrike, she had slowly been making a difference, little by little. If she left, all her work would be undone.
But there are other people here, like Fareeha. They're not helpless. It doesn't have to be you.
That pride again.
She looked back at articles about the vigilante Soldier: 76. One caught her attention: a break-in at LumériCo's newest fusion plant. There’d been a gunfight in the middle of the market—a number of serious injuries and property damage—all of it attributed to him. But there was also eyewitness testimony from a local girl in Dorado. Even though everyone else thought he was someone to fear, she'd called him a hero.
It doesn't have to be you, but sometimes, people need something to believe in.
Ana knew what she needed to do. She walked over to the makeshift shelf that held the treasures she'd found in the necropolis when she'd first arrived. She looked at the feline face on the ancient mask. It was the goddess Bastet.
A guardian.
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Jack walked through the sleeping city. The cool night air was a pleasant break from the heat of the day. Given the late hour, the streets were quiet, even though he had wandered into the city center. The stalls selling food, scavenged omnic parts, or fabrics and textiles had all long since shut down. Curfews weren't imposed, but the city's residents were advised to stay indoors after sundown for their own protection. After coming face to face with Reaper, the dark was a pool of shadows that hid the unknown.
Jack had been on the hunt for some time now, gathering information, and tracking what leads he had. He'd had the benefit of being unnoticed, but things had changed. There was no doubt that Talon and its allies knew he was coming for them. He had gotten one good night's sleep since he arrived in Cairo, and it was the first in as long as he could remember.
I can't believe she drugged me, Jack thought.
He was uneasy now. Staying in one place for too long was risky, especially now that Gabe would be looking for him. He had to move on.
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Night had crept towards morning and a full moon was hanging lower in the sky when Jack finally returned. Ana was sitting at the computer as he entered.
"Come back for the rest of your things?" she asked without looking up.
He walked over to her, "I'll help you capture Hakim. Once that's done, we go after Reaper."
"We have to make sure the city is secure," Ana corrected him. "I'll only leave with you after things here are settled. That means not just Hakim, but his followers, too. I need to know that the people will be safe."
Jack's jaw clenched as he considered the offer. "Then let's go over to his manor and round him and his men up. One quick strike before they have time to prepare."
Ana shook her head. "No rushing in. Remember how it went last time?"
"It would have been fine if Gabe hadn't showed up," Jack said.
Ana arched an eyebrow.
Jack sighed. "What's the plan then?"
"We start at the bottom and work our way up. Close the net around Hakim, starve him of his resources, and force him out into the open. We have to expose him and the people that are protecting him. Understood?"
Jack sighed, relenting. "You know, I told Gabe they picked the wrong person for Strike-Commander."
"Yes, but you meant him, not me," Ana replied.
"It could have been Reinhardt," Jack smirked.
"Let's not be crazy now."
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Ever since the fight at his palace, Hakim had been reticent to return, instead moving between his safehouses in the city. Jack had been able to track down a number of them and found the one that was most conducive to their plans. He rented an apartment that overlooked it. Ana and Jack hadn't bothered with niceties: the room was furnished only with a couple beaten-up wooden chairs and a wooden crate. They took turns with one sleeping bag. After the second day, Ana had insisted on bringing a hot plate so she could make tea.
Within a week, they'd rounded up a number of Hakim's associates, whittling away at his organization. Word spread about someone targeting Hakim's organization. Whoever it was, people agreed, they meant to bring Hakim to justice. But after the initial burst, things had slowed down. Hakim went further underground. He was being more careful. There was nothing to do but wait.
The boredom wasn't so bad for Ana. As a sniper, she had more than her share of patience, and having the freedom to move around, take naps, and even go outside, made it more than tolerable. Jack was restless, though. She saw the way he looked out the window, searching the horizon endlessly, and Ana knew his gaze was fixed on one thing.
Gabriel.
"Anything?" Jack asked, glancing up. He leaned back in his chair in a way that would make a school teacher worried. There was something in his hand.
"No sign of Hakim. What are you looking at?" Ana asked.
"Oh, just reminiscing about the old days." Jack passed over the small stack of photos. They were well-worn, creased in places, and had obviously been Jack's companions for a long time.
The top photo was a picture of them with Gabriel, all three looking young and optimistic, though Gabriel already showed signs of the stress of leadership weighing upon him. They'd just won a major battle in Rio de Janeiro. "I remember the beach," Ana smiled. "We look so serious in this picture—it's funny!"
"That's why it's a great photo!" laughed Jack.
It’s good to know he can still laugh.
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She turned to the next one and almost dropped the photos in surprise. She'd never seen the photo, but she recognized it immediately. Jack looked so much younger. He had just stepped off a military transport for leave. It was the other person in the picture that surprised her—a dark-haired man, dressed in a casual, black button up shirt. Jack's arm was around his shoulder.
Vincent.
"Vincent… I haven't thought about him in years," Ana said. "Still keeping a candle lit for him?"
Jack shook his head. "Nothing like that."
"You've never looked in on him? You must have been curious. All the surveillance power in the world. I bet Gabe would have put a Blackwatch agent on him if you asked," Ana said.
Jack glared at her.
"Okay, touchy subject."
Jack laughed. "He got married. They're very happy. I'm happy for him."
Ana was unconvinced. In the early days, Jack talked about him often, floating a dream that the war would end quickly, and maybe he'd have a chance to return to a normal life.
But a normal life was never the reward for people like us.
"Vincent deserved a happier life than the one I could give him." Jack sighed. "We both knew that I could never put anything above my duty. Everything I fought for was to protect people like him… That's the sacrifice I made."
"Relationships don't work out so well for us, do they?" Ana said, unconsciously running her thumb over where her wedding ring used to be.
"At least you and Gabe managed to have families."
The pair lapsed back into silence.
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Ana glanced out the window to see the familiar figure of Hakim entering the apartment block. "It's him." Ana passed the photos back to Jack, who carefully slid them into the inside pocket of his jacket.
"Ready?" Jack asked as he put his mask and targeting visor on, picking up the heavy pulse rifle where he had propped it against the wall.
Ana took her own rifle, quite a bit more manageable than Jack's, and slung it over her shoulder. She clipped a few flashbangs to her belt and then retrieved the last item from her pack: the black and gold mask.
"You're bringing that?" Jack asked.
"You inspired me, Jack. Soldier: 76 is more than a vigilante. The world knows that name. Your enemies are afraid you'll find them. I don't want Hakim, Talon, or anyone else to plunge Cairo back into chaos the second I'm gone. I'm putting on a new mask. Not a hunter this time, a protector. The kind of persona that I could leave behind to keep the people safe… Bastet."
"I just thought my mask was scary." Jack smiled.
"Bastet is scarier than an old lady."
"Ana, there's nothing scarier than an old lady," Jack said.
"You would know."
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One week later, Ana and Jack were packing up the necropolis base. They'd leave much of Ana's belongings behind, taking only what they needed for the journey ahead. Hakim and his network of criminals had been dismantled. The news had started to report about the movements of a guardian named Bastet who had captured Hakim and exposed the extent of his crimes. Even the government was forced to act.
"What about these?" Jack pointed at the shelf that had the Egyptian artifacts on it.
"I could barely manage carrying you, and you want me to bring all this?" Ana said. "It's well-hidden. It will just wait here until I can find a proper caretaker."
"Fareeha?" Jack guessed. "You talked to her?"
"I… left her a message," Ana said.
"You're sure you can leave things like this? It could be a long time before you see her again."
If ever.
Ana sighed. "She never responded to my first letter."
Jack winced. "She'll come around in time. She loves you. Did you tell Sam anything?"
"I will, eventually. Maybe," Ana said. "I made a big enough mess of his life without having to give him the news. None of us are very good at saying goodbye, are we?"
"We're better than Reinhardt, anyway. I'm pretty sure his life is just one long attempt to avoid saying a goodbye."
"How is he?" Ana asked.
"That's a long story," Jack said. "But I suppose we'll have time."
Ana nodded. "There's something I want to be clear about before we leave, Jack," Ana said. "I'm going with you, but I'm not convinced that this is a good idea at all. Talon, Overwatch, Gabriel… I already let go of them. It hurt." She paused. "When I first came to the necropolis, most of the artifacts I found were ruined. I saved what I could, but I had to leave the rest. That's what's most important, Commander."
"Don't call me, that," Jack groused. "And come on. We need to pay a visit to some old friends."
They left the necropolis, sealing the entrance behind them. Long after they'd left, the relics of ancient civilizations laid in wait in the darkness of that dusty room. At the center of them all was a golden mask bearing the face of a goddess. Just as it remained in the hearts of the people of Cairo, and the fears of those who would harm them: a mask and a name.
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snaketailthecat · 2 years
Text
A Dance of Flames and Distrust
A Mikado Sannoji/Nikei Yomiuri x Reader Fic
Prologue Part 2
Well, that wasn’t worth anything.
I managed to explore most of the island's major landmarks at this point and found nothing of value, other than a few new faces that I had no desire to interact with after being bombarded with questions by that journalist.
I internally sighed as I munched on some chips I picked up back at the convenience store. 
At the very least I had a good idea of the layout of the island. If needed I could probably stay far away from any immediate threats if I’m observant enough, though no one besides Hajime and that red-haired guy from the park seemed to pose any threat anyways.
As I continued to dwell on the people I’d seen and how much of a threat they appeared to be, I suddenly heard footsteps approaching me from behind. I quickly turned around to see an orange-haired boy wearing a sort of uniform with a red tie as the final touch.
“H-Hey!” He shouted appearing out of breath. “Hold on!”
I stopped and stared at the boy as he stopped in front of me, catching his breath. The poor kid looked like he was about to pass out with how red his face he was. I pulled a water bottle out of my bag for him, which he took gratefully. 
He chugged down the water before looking at me with a sheepish smile. “Thank you.”
I shrugged in response.
“I don’t think we’ve met yet. I’m Yuki Maeda this year’s Ultimate Lucky Student.” Yuki said with an awkward smile.
“Y/N L/N, Ultimate Sharpshooter.” I said blankly.
Yuki looked at me wide-eyed at that, looking very similar to a deer in headlights.
“I’m not gonna hurt you if you’re worried about that. I only kill in self-defense or for money, and I don’t recall someone like you being on my list.” I said.
“O-Oh, well that’s a relief at least.” Yuki said still looking nervous.
Now that I’m getting a closer look at this kid he seems awfully familiar somehow, I feel like I’ve seen someone like him a while ago. I pushed that thought down, for now, to dwell on later. More importantly, why was this kid chasing after me like that?
“Any reason you were chasing me?” I asked.
Yuki perked up at that. “Oh right! We’re gathering everyone on the beach to figure out what’s going on. Hajime mentioned someone else in a leather jacket on the island so I went looking for you.”
I nodded and started to walk toward the beach.
“Hey! Wait up!” Yuki exclaimed as he followed after me.
Yuki and I arrived on the beach shortly afterward, and I quickly noticed that there were sixteen of us present in total. A few people I recognized, while there were others I’d never seen before.
Ignoring everyone else for a moment I walked over to the nearby palm tree and leaned against it, giving a small wave to Shobai and Mikado as I did so.
Yuki was the first to speak up. “So, we’re all here now?”
“So there’s this many people huh?” Hajime asked.
“So, you’re all new students, too? Nice to meet ya!” Said a short brunette with a hat and type of vest with a cross-hatch pattern on them. I noticed her sketchbook and decided to nickname her ‘Acrylic’ for now.
“Hey, hey, why’d we all have to gather? I wanna explore the island some moooorre….” Ah, I recognized her at least, Hibiki Otonokoji, the singer from the popular pop band ‘Melody Rhythm’.
Yuki seemed a little nervous as he spoke this time. “Uh… thank you all for coming. There’s a couple reasons why we called you here.” He continued on with his little speech. “The first is so we could all gather together and get to know each other better… and the second reason is-”
I cut him off. “It’s about this whole island situation correct?”
A white-haired girl in some sort of high school uniform spoke up next. “That’s right. We need to discuss that.” I think I’ll nickname her ‘Albino’ for now.
“Yeah, we need to talk about that. Glad to see we have at least some regular people here.” A pink-haired woman in a blue dress stated. With nothing else to go off of I decided to nickname her ‘Pinkie’.
“Wait, so that means that some of us aren’t normal?” The journalist from before asked.
“What situation? What are you guys talking about? Isn’t this just the entrance ceremony?” There’s the red-haired guy I saw earlier, I’ll call him ‘Vines’ due to the necklace he had around his neck.
After ‘Vines’s’ comment I just looked at him with the most disappointed expression I could muster.
“Alright time out,” I said. “What about this seems like any sort of entrance ceremony to you? Hope’s Peak or not this is not normal even for that school’s standards.”
‘Vines’ seemed to get nervous because of that statement. “W-Well I just thought-”
I continued anyways. “On another note does anyone remember how we got here in the first place?” I asked.
After a beat of silence from everyone gathered I continued. “Exactly. Why would we not remember being brought here if this is just some Hope’s Peak entrance ceremony?”
“Even so there’s no point getting so worked up maybe something just happened on the way over here.” A blue-haired woman piped in who I’ll call ‘Cyan’. 
I just shrugged in response. If these people weren’t going to see reason then there was no point convincing them.
After that, I just ignored what everyone was saying, instead opting to fidget with one of the many daggers I carry on me at all times.
Well, I tried to at least until I heard Shobai start talking.
“So you dragged me here just to talk about this shit. Ugh. Precious seconds of my life, down the drain.” He seemed quite annoyed, which is understandable he’s someone who values his time above everything else.
“Hey, no need to be a jerk. It’s true that we haven’t solved anything yet, but we’re at least trying to figure out the situation.” Hajime said.
Shobai shrugged in response. “Whatever. Only reason I showed up is ‘cause I was morbidly curious about you brats.” He turned around after saying that and began to walk away. “Can’t see what I’d gain out of getting chummy with you people, so I’m just gonna pass.”
“Wh-What?! Hold it! You can’t just talk trash out of the blue like that and leave!” ‘Pinkie’ shouted.
“He’s just like that, you get used to it after a while.” I said as Shobai walked past me. I dug into my bag and fished out a box of cigarettes, giving it to him. “Which reminds me, now we're even for the ‘Tsuri Family’ event.”
Shobai didn’t say anything in response, but I caught the glimpse of a smile as he walked away.
‘Pinkie’ turned to look at me with a shocked expression. “Wait you know him?”
I nodded. “Had a few run-ins with him on the job, considering he can do the same kind of work as me, sometimes we bump into each other.”
I saw a few people look at me with a concerned expression before the conversation continued, with me zoning out again as I thought about the situation we were in more.
“We’ve got sun, sand, and surf. Why not go for a swim?” ‘Cyan’ suggested. 
I just looked at her, on the outside showing no expression, but on the inside? I was screaming due to how idiotic the entire idea was. I just sighed, realizing there was no point even arguing. These people would rather pretend everything is fine than prepare for the worse.
As multiple people ran to get some kind of swimsuit I just crossed my arms leaning against the tree a bit more.
I mean on the bright side this place is pretty, living in the back alleys and hidden city routes I never got to see much other than trash most of the time.
As long as I keep watch on these delusional idiots for now I can do my best to make sure no one gets hurt.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked over to see Mikado, who upon seeing me waved a little.
“Oh hello, Mikado.” I said patting the spot next to me.
He perked up a little bit and leaned against the tree next to me as we watched the majority of the students play in the ocean. 
At least he’s nice company compared to most of the people I’ve met so far.
I heard Yuki exclaim he was going to join the others, but… 
I don’t know why but I had a gut feeling something was about to go wrong.
I went on the defensive looking around for any threats ready to take my pistol out of its holster on my waist, but just like that, I saw the albino girl from before collapse. 
“What the-” I was cut off by a pounding pain in my head.
I collapsed to the ground due to the pain, seeing everyone else had lost consciousness, and now I was fighting to stay awake.
I kept breathing heavily, struggling to stay conscious and desperately trying to figure out what was happening, but I was slowly losing my vision no matter how hard I tried to fight.
I heard the crunching of sand in front of me, but I couldn’t see who it was for the life of me.
I heard whoever it was say something, but I couldn’t make out a word of it. However, it seemed like whoever the voice belonged to they were attempting to calm me down, and it was actually working somehow.
The last thing I heard was a soft shushing noise and the feeling of a hand gently brushing my hair before I finally lost consciousness.
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Reader to Everyone Else: What the fuck Richard?
49 notes · View notes
bluem00n007 · 1 year
Note
Hello!! First off, I'm really sorry for not responding back to you earlier from my last ask. I got really busy with irl stuff that I didn't get the time to reply. But if I can still send in my answer, you don't need to apologize about the leash thing with sirius!! I should have realized that sooner lmao, but thanks for clarifying. Also, you definitely have a point that arcturus has so much potential to be a good, bad, or grey character. Besides his constellation, there's also his special magic, how he takes such a long time to get back to mc when he excuses himself from them, and the Shepard thing. These could be building up to something big later on in the story, and I'm equally terrified and excited. Side note though, I saw your comic about vega and vanessa and it was so good!! The layout felt so clean, not to mention the way you drew out their emotions was a critical hit to my heart!!
Also also, if you don't mind me asking on your opinion on this, what do you think are the effects of mc being imprinted with the sorcerers? Besides the boost in power ofc.
Apologies for the long text, hopefully I didn't bother you with this. Take care!!
OMG HEY ANNON!!! It's so good to see you again!!! ^w^)/ And please, don't apologise for not replying before, real life takes priority and I hope you are doing well
The Sirius thing was such an innocent mistake and well, it is a saying that not a lot of people are familiar with and use, so I really get what caused the confusion, Arcky, I think if he does indeed turn out to be a villain, would he be with the void on purpose or was manipulated, hm another Tumblr user, who's user I am forgetting at the moment, but all credits to them for this pointer, basically what they said was Arcturus is the protector of the bear, Summoner is represented with the bear constellation, so I think the void did wipe his memories and are now using him as a way to get closer to summoner, I mean so far everyone lives the way their constellations do
Also thank you so much!!!! I was really hoping you would see that comic TvT and I feel really happy that it was impactful, I don't know how to actually put this in words, sorry of if I can't say it properly, but yeah, I am really happy!
Now I think the best way to explain an imprint is that it's a very magical form of "red strings of fate", more so a promise to protect the parties imprinting and a way to ensure it than anything else, like the pact in obey me, it's a power scaler(?) Like you make pacts and if you learn how to use them, you can draw power from demons and make them do what you command, that's not what I think an imprint is, like Spica said, it's an oath to protect
For the imprints, so far we know bits and pieces for what makes them special, firstly they allow partners to feel each other's feelings, you have any idea how hard it would be to hide crushes? Jokes aside that means that there must be a while lot of trust between people before they imprint, Spica did a gigachad move, respect, because he just let us imprint with him without knowing us much
If we take Alpheratz's words at face value, multiple imprints are not possible, or at the very least not common, he looks so surprised that our heart was entwined with others, that or he was just surprised at how many imprints we had even before a week at Contell, this could be explained by the time loop theory, which if you didn't know about, is that Sirius is a time loop character, goes back in time, which creates a different timeline, the good stuff, that explains why summoner has so many pacts already, if the bonds carried over everytime, but honestly speaking, that actualy leaves more unanswered questions, why was Sirius surprised he got summoned? Why did us coming to Bound arlyn ruin his plans? So I am a little skeptical of this theory
I think that is what makes summoner a summoner, plus the entire potential of being able to summon stuff that are not under the same relam as constellations, hence so special, but then why these 6 specific guys? Which is why it's not a 100% disagree on taht, just skeptical
Third and personally my favourite, angst warning and it is a little morbid, so don't read this if you are uncomfortable:
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you can't harm an imprinted partner or you get harmed yourself, it has so much angst potential (I love angst actualy) out of everyone, Sirius has the heighest potential, imo, to use this if he ever finds himself in a clutch, not because it's an easy way out for him, mind you, but most likely because it's the best way out for summoner in case the void catches them in a clutch (yes I do live for angst) plus if the time loop theory is correct it's not much of a risk either, plus storytaco has a reputation of having a high chance to kill any character, even MC has no plot armour
Sorry for the long reply, I kinda get in the whole flow TvT
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