#with brutal and efficient violence…all by himself

[femmedefandom]

so I actually really enjoy the OG SQQ, he is such an angsty and dramatic bitch absolutely stuffed with trauma and terrible coping behind that ice cold veneer and it’s a shame we didn’t get more of him. there’s just so much to explore with him and he gets cut out and missed by his sect exactly 0% which is pretty heartbreaking.

#svsss #shen qingqiu #shen jiu #og!sqq #a guy that had the outline of a protagonist but the realism of life #orphan child taken living on the streets that has seen too much darkness to be naive but he cares for the other children in his own way #tries to survive the streets and being sold to an abusive family #his friend is saved and brought to a better life leaving him behind #he’s stuck playing the gentle toy for an oblivious girl as her brother torments him regularly #he’s abandoned by his friend and he decides to take fate into his own hands #learning cultivation from a rogue and breaking free of his chains the only way he’s learned how #with brutal and efficient violence…all by himself #he murders his abusers and the rogue who pushed him further into darkness and crime #he makes his way to a righteous cultivation sect to see his brother who he thought was lost to him in death… #…doing apparently just fine as the future sect leader of the top sect with nothing but a bright shiny future and no worries #his past and betrayals have turned him bitter and cutting and closed off but more driven than anyone else #he suffers from qi deviation and likely issues being around other men and substandard education to become head disciple and later peak lord #but no matter how high he goes all he sees is that little beaten and abandoned boy who was good enough for no one with no future #all those fancy worries and honors mean nothing to someone who did anything to survive #all the vague apologies in the world do nothing to ease the suffering he’s experienced #all the rumors and snide remarks are worth him trying to explain himself constantly - to justify his existence #and all the self loathing that has built up could have done nothing but explode upon meeting the blessed protagonist #don’t mind me #just in my feels about sqq again #mxtx why did you make this man only to throw him away??

[daylite-writes]

“Do Your Worst” - Capitano x fem!traitor!reader

You were a spy for your homeland placed high up in the Fatui command, until you were outed as such. Now, you face the man who’s heart you stole.

cw: mild violence for the sake of information, implied previous relationship, not the healthiest relationship, prisoners of war.

~~~

You whined under your breath as his shadow covered, as his hand brushed through her hair. You were a prisoner of war. This was war. The brutality, all of it. If only it hurt, if only it wasn’t soft and sweet.

“C-Cap…” you cough out once.

“Quiet.” He said simply.

Slowly he peeled away your sweat and blood soaked armor, leaving you bloodied and unprotected.

You heard the slosh of water. As the Captain soaked a washcloth, rung it out, and began to clean the dirt and blood from your skin. The ragged cloth brushed over bruises, circling over your ribs, your spine. You said nothing.

Finally, the washcloth left, but he didn’t. He pulled himself close, on his knees in front of you, hand winding through your hair to lift your gaze up to his.

You stared into his mask, a swirling void blankly staring back. He sighed, hand moving to cup the back of your neck, pulling you close against his chest. By now you knew him well enough to understand only silence would satifsy him.

It was a short while, no more than a minute or two, before he spoke, quiet. “Planted or compromised?”

“Planted.”

His grip tightened, his other arm possessively curling over your battle scarred back. “Your name is not [False Name].”

You nodded against his shoulder.

“A lot of us liked you, assassin girl.”

It was an understatement. Columbina enjoyed your gift with the lyre. Pantalone complimented your efficiency at dirty work. Dottore once called you “the useful hawk in a flock of pigeons”. Arlechinno complimented you, to your face. Childe always requested duels, no matter if he knew the outcome. You were, undeniably, liked within the Fatui’s highest ranks.

Capitano though, he was your sergeant, your general. He helped train you into something more lethal than before. He appreciated your battle prowess and scouting skills on expeditions earlier on in your spying career. Even when you fell into your role of Fatui’s assassin, you were often called to his side, some lousy excuse given every time, a job able to be done by any well trained soldier, delegated her for the simple purpose of keeping you close.

They fell for your ruse. The carefully crafted place you’d gained in the Fatui as a spy. And Capitano?

Perhaps he fell harder than any other.

“What ties you? What is stronger than the two of us, that you’d leave me?” He demanded, quietly, desperately.

Nothing. You’d lost all your family long ago, never having met anyone after them. Your loyalty to your nation was hardly more binding than your loyalty to this one. But loyalty was how one stayed alive. Loyalty and skill. You moved through her days like a ghost. Like a killer. Should your home fall, you’d never cry. But until then, the nation that raised you demanded your undying loyalty.

Your eyes were nearly as tired as his, the weight of your actions painted the under of your eyes a bruised blue.

“Graceless, loveless, homeless assassin. You know what happens to you now?”

You nodded.

“Horrid, horrid.” His hand grabbed your jaw, bones almost creaking as he squeezed. “Horrid, horribly enchanting woman.”

He let go, and your head fell.

“How dare you do this to me.” His deep, heavy voice shook.

“If it’s any consolation,” she rasped, eyes on her knees. “This… us... It wasn’t planned.”

“It’s not.” He spat.

You barked out a laugh. It stung your throat.

“Who is your master?”

It takes a moment for the question to process, but as it does, you smiled sadly. “This conversation will not end in a way either of us like.”

“Be happy I am the one to interrogate you. Others more cruel than me would have much more fun with you.”

“You already know my ties are with my home country. I will give you nothing more.”

“Then you know what happens now.”

His knee struck you square in the stomach, forcing you to grunt as bile crept into the back of your throat, but you didn’t curl into yourself. He struck again.

And again. And then once more.

Blood and vomit crept up the back of your throat. You swallowed it down. On the ground now, the steel toe of a boot replaced the knee, striking you in the ribs this time.

You did your best to dissociate, to wait both him and the pain out, hiding in your own mind. He must have noticed, because he refused to allow it, gloved hand pulling you up by the roots of your hair into a half sitting position, grabbing your attention for a quick moment before he stomped on her ankle so hard it cracked.

You cried out then, the scream tampering off into choked sobs.

His boot settled on her other ankle.

“What’s your true name?”

“[First]. No last name.” You gasped out.

He paused, “appropriate.”

What the fuck did that mean? You glared up at him. Gods your ankle was fucked.

“And your master?”

“Didn’t-” You spoke between labored breaths. “We just go over that? I won’t answer a question like that.”

“You will. Eventually.”

You tried to laugh, but you just ended up wheezing, falling forward. Grey was seeping into your vision, blurring at the edges. All the adrenaline in your system was basically gone.

“Kill me.” You said, “I did my duty. And I won’t assist you. Kill me.”

“I have better uses for you.”

Your expression soured. “You’ve never been one to deny an honorable death. It is the one thing you’ve always granted. Why… why is it different now?”

“You don’t deserve an honorable death.”

“There are others who’ve done far worse than me; and you’ve granted it. What crime have I committed where you deny me this?” You bit out.

“Thievery.”

“Thievery?”

“Yes. You stole so much from me. My time, my effort, my heart. It is a disrespect I won’t tolerate.” His hand slipped under your chin, pulling your head up.

“Then what? Torture?”

“No.” He said after a moment. “I will receive your loyalty. Your devotion. I will take it, even without you wanting to give it. We will return to how we were before, only this time you will not be a traitor.”

“I will not stand by your side and serve you. You know this.”

“I am a patient man. No matter how uphill the battle. I will acquire your loyalty. I will not lose you.”

You huffed. “You can try. I am not easy to break.”

“I already have a head start.” Capitano said, tilting your head with his hand. It was true. You’d done a lot for him. You underwent interrogations and torture by mutual enemies and gave up nothing. You trained by him. Fought for him. Killed for him. Sure, it was while delivering intelligence to her homeland, but it was loyalty nonetheless.

You closed your eyes. “Do your worst.”

~~~

#genshin x reader #capitano #capitano x reader #genshin fanfic #genshin capitano #capitano x fem!reader #this has been sitting for forever so I’m tossing it out into the void that is tumblr #yandere capitano #yandere capitano x reader

[bits-and-babs]

✰ 𝐊𝐎𝐖𝐓𝐎𝐖 — 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐍 ‘𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓’ 𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐘

↳ summary: prompt: “on your knees” — A ‘basics’ training course enforced on Task Force 141 after a failed mission causes Simon Riley to lose his cool.

↳ pairing: Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley x f!Reader (Delta)

↳ [1k] content: mentions of injury and violence, oral (m receiving), exhibitionism, rough oral, hair pulling (so inevitably mentions of hair, length not specified), Dacryphilia, swallowing. Ghost is a big massive slut and so am I.

ghost masterlist [coming soon] I| main masterlist |I join taglist

Attempting to get a prolific and deadly team of elite soldiers to engage in a ‘basic self-defence’ training course must have been the most perilous and mortal task Laswell had undertaken in her twenty-year career. You have no doubt that she had already prepped for the uproar it would cause amongst Task Force 414; ‘you’re actin’ like we’re amateurs, Laswell,’ and ‘It’s not as though we’ve stopped missiles or anything.’

The grumbles of the men behind you indicate that they’d been unsuccessful in convincing Laswell that the training program was gratuitous, all looking as though Captain Price dragged them by their ears. 

“Ghost, Delta. You’re up first,” he grumbles, his lack of enthusiasm almost comical. Despite the complaints, you couldn’t exactly condemn Laswell for her enforcement. Alejandro’s ribs had cracked wide open when thrown off the roof of a building, caught off guard by a narco he hadn’t seen obscured by the shadows. Ribs L3 to L8 had snapped, L5 managing to pierce through the soft flesh of the Colonel’s lung and rendering him utterly defenceless as the mission descended into chaos.

It goes without saying that Laswell had dressed the unit down to your socks when you returned, Ghost hauling the wheezing Alejandro over his shoulders and into the rendezvous vehicle. 

The insulting level of competence that the demonstration requires notwithstanding, Simon steps forward into the makeshift ring, the virtually impossible size of his soles barely making a sound as he walks across the floor. Under Price’s watchful gaze, you’re hot on Ghost’s heels. 

It’s a simple task. Simon just has to dispatch you. 

Ominously fixed on your face, the skull mask’s obsidian eyes do little to obscure the amber of Simon’s irises in the daylight. He’s gazing fixedly at you, readying himself and widening his stance for the demonstration. The prop pistol in his hand is near comical given the brutality those giant hands had enacted; though, you can’t help but think that someone as savagely efficient as Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley would still, somehow, find a way to annihilate you with the plastic munitions. 

“On your knees!” Ghost barks out, his booming, gritty voice startling you despite your anticipation. You barely have time to react to the onslaught of motion, your temporary enemy pressing the barrel of his makeshift firearm into your temple with a bruising force. 

Per Price’s instructions, you sink slowly to your knees, hands raised and palms flat to show your lack of armament. The barrel of the plastic G18 lets up against the pulpy skin of your temple, an aching sensation settling into the flesh it had compressed. When you lift your eyes to Ghost, however, you feel as though he’s pistol-whipped you across the face. 

Lieutenant Riley’s honey eyes ooze with arousal, something dangerous flitting through the black pools of his pupils. Blown wide, they bore down at you, betraying his stoic composure.

Battering against your ribcage, your heart rate picks up under his stare. Blood rushes to your face, heating it as you gaze up at your captor through your lashes. 

You hear Ghost’s shaky exhale from his nose rattle against the plastic of his mask. 

                                        ✰

Dragging his fingers through your hair, Ghost’s gloves fingerprints massage your scalp as you kneel perfectly still, his hot, ridiculously large cock balanced on the flat of your tongue. His chest heaves quietly, winding strands of your hair around his digits before curling them upwards into a tight fist. 

“Deep breath, love,” he rumbles before pushing his hips forward. He clasps your chin with his free hand, keeping your mouth wide open for him as he drags the length of his throbbing cock across your tongue and down your throat. 

It’s impossible not to— you gag around him, eyes watering slightly as the blunt head of his cock notches at your throat walls. His nostrils flare, golden eyes beaming in the fluorescent lighting of the hallway.

You barely get a chance to inhale as he’d ordered, using his grip on your hair to yank your head forward onto his dick. You moan loudly, warning a tight squeeze of your strands that cause your hair follicles to strain under the pressure— a warning. 

Ghost’s breathing falters slightly as he sets a brutal, punishing rhythm. However, it doesn’t take you long to establish a breathing pattern of your own against his rapid strokes, inhaling every time he slips out of the confines of your fluttering throat. 

“Fuckk~” he groans, eyes settled on you like a cross-hair as you make an effort to hollow your cheekbones around his ridiculous girth, eyelashes wet with tears. “You belong on your knees. Looking at me like th—shit — like that in front of the whole unit.”

You’d like to ask him what he means, but he rocks forwards again with a significant snap of his hips that bumps the back of your throat in a bruising collision. Retches threaten to spill from your lips, but his width fills your throat, and Ghost relishes in the constriction around his cock with a growl. 

“Yes,” he urges, teeth clenched behind the midnight black balaclava, “Yes, just like that, Christ!”

Ignoring all urges from your body to expel his intrusion in your throat, you swallow around him. It shakes a loud groan from his lungs, the lecherous sound ricocheting off the walls like he’d just shot a pistol. 

“You naughty fuckin’ girl,” he chastises you, punishing you by amping up the impossible pace of his rocking hips until tears begin to spill down your cheeks. It only appears to spur him further, a loud, rumbling groan drenching his words, “They’re gonna fuckin’ hear us—“

Moaning in agreement, you nod your head. It’s only slight; you can’t manage much more than a subtle tip forward of your chin. The vibrations seem to rock down his length to his balls because they pull up tight suddenly, and he’s wheezing out a haggard “Delta!’”

He spurts down your throat, coats the insides of your cheek, dribbles down your chin and drips to the floor. There’s so much of him, and you swallow down as much as you can as he leans back against the wall, winded as though an assailant had just punched him in the gut. 

Basics lesson number one: Ghost likes you on your knees. 

join the taglist here:

@mortallyuniquepeach @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog @crybaby-blue-blog @heart-atttack @pansa-1-san

#simon ghost riley #simon ghost riley x f!reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley x you #simon ghost riley x y/n #simon riley #simon riley x you #simon riley x reader #simon riley x y/n #call of duty #modern warfare 2 #cod mwii #cod mw2 #ghost cod mw2 #ghost cod mwii #cod ghost #ghost cod #ghost call of duty #simon ghost riley fic #simon ghost riley fanfiction #simon ghost riley smut #simon riley smut #cod mw2 smut #call of duty smut #modern warfare smut #modern warfare 2 smut

[thosewildcharms]

Ugh the comparisons are so annoying. You’ll still find people insisting Shane was just ahead of Rick in terms of adapting to a brutal world. When it’s clear the ZA broke Shane, he never really measured his choices and didn’t wanted to help anyone at all. He was a coward and acted first as a coping mechanism not because he was an efficient leader.

say that anon! it's honestly not only annoying but a little troubling to me when people compare rick to shane or worse, n*gan because what do you mean shane was right and rick needed to be more like him? what do you mean if we watched the show from negan's pov we'd be on his side and see rick as the villain? no the fuck he wasn't and no the fuck i would not!

the show establishes very early that yes, violence is necessary. and since that's the case, to differentiate between the rick/the people we're supposed to love and the actual villains we have to look at their motivation. rick has been incredibly violent, but his motivation is always to protect, not only his immediately family, but anyone who becomes part of his community. the group flocked to rick instead of shane from the very beginning because he cared about everybody's welfare, unlike shane whose motivations were ultimately selfish. i always think about his last scene with rick, how shane says he's better for lori and carl, like he wants to possess what is rick's - hence why he sexually assaults lori in the CDC. he didn't love her, he felt he was owed her. the way shane so quickly and easily abandoned all sense of right and wrong and adjusted to brutality was a red flag, not something to emulate. to reiterate the parallel they drew between shane and beale in the towl finale, shane was willing to sacrifice other people (his own people!) for his own survival. we should see this as a bad thing. by contrast we know, empirically, that rick would sooner sacrifice himself than anyone he considered himself responsible for (see: the bridge). the argument that rick needed to learn to be more like shane just doesn't track for me: we saw in nebraska when he killed those two men in the bar without blinking that he was perfectly capable of doing what needed to be done. we saw it when he was the one to step up and kill sophia when she came out of the barn while shane just looked at his feet. if anything, killing shane taught rick just how far rick was willing to go. as he said in his dream sequence in 9x05, it had to be him. he had to stay alive to keep protecting the people he loved no matter what, even if it meant killing his best friend. that's his motivation.

as for n*egan. well. i can't believe in the year 2024 people are still not understanding that rick fucking grimes would never have subordinates, let alone force them to refer to themselves by using his own name. he'd never kill a child to prove a point and force submission, and would never, ever force women to become his wives and have sex with him whenever he wants via coercion because rick grimes would never sexually assault someone. do you honestly think daryl, glenn, maggie, carol, hershel, anyone in team family would have stayed with rick if he was capable of any of that? do you think michonne would have let him within fifty feet of her, let alone put an entire baby in her if that was the type of person he was? the same michonne who arguably has the best instincts of anyone on the show? who sniffed out the governer's bullshit immediately? no. when shown an alternate reality where she became a savior instead of part of team family, michonne called it hell. she only feels safe when she's with rick.

n*gan's whole thing reeks of egotism and a need for power - seeing his people as cogs in a machine meant to be put to work and terrorized and abused only to be told it's all for their own benefit. the saviors are a cult, whereas rick genuinely sees and treats his people as his family. rick's people not only love him, they're not afraid of him. they know that when he does go too far they are safe to tell him so, and that he will listen (even if it takes him a minute). rick admits he deserved it when michonne knocked him out at alexandria, and being a farmer at the prison was basically the apocalyptic equivalent of wearing the grippy socks and he did it without complaint. he lets himself be guided. as hershel said, he gets to come back, and he always does, because for rick ego and power have nothing to do with why he does the things he does. he doesn't enjoy it - it traumatizes him and he has to recover from it. this is not a person on a power trip who needs to be eliminated, but a person who is respected and as a result cared for because he does what needs to be done - things other people might not be capable of doing - but for the right reasons.

all of this is why the towl finale had to happen that way btw. not just because it was set up from the very first episode from a writing/narrative standpoint (and i'll let the much more qualified @starfruit-green speak on the socio-political aspects) but because there's no way rick and michonne grimes would ever hear the words coming out of beale's mouth and not immediately lunge. that finale painstakingly spelled out, slowly while using small words so people could understand, that rick and michonne's sword, their violence, is the necessary kind that protects, that eliminates the real threat. beale, shane, n*gan? they are the threat.

anyway. thank you to @starfruit-green and @redding for the encouragement <3

#answered #like are people okay? genuinely? #also didn't n*gan have a backstory ep and it just made him worse lmao like #idk man i just don't get it #richonne #the ones who live

[valiantverses]

The Azrael Series: Chapter Two

(Simon 'Ghost' Riley X Reader Slowburn/Sort of Enemies to Friends to Lovers)

°°°°°

Summary: Task Force 141 is assigned a new member to deal with Makarov for good. Highly-skilled, brutally efficient and devastatingly competent, Ghost has met his match - and finds himself at odds with the SAS Fraternization Regulations as getting to know you makes him re-evaluate a life he never thought to allow himself.

CW: Canon-typical violence.

°°°°°

@beansproutmafia @chinuneko @agustdpeach @murder-hobo

Introduction 1 2

"We've not gotten much out of the drive m' afraid. We've got cyber forensics and analysts going over the files - far as Makarov's movements, we've got nothin' of note."

The briefing room's atmosphere was a degree short of despair. Papers strewn about, stale cups of coffee and tea haphazardly pushed to the side as Laswell's Toughbook blinked to life, showing the results of the hard won drive the 141 had retrieved a couple of days prior.

Ghost had opted to stand during the meeting, taking up his usual spot with a full view of the room. Most of the team had elected to sit around the metal tables, the briefing now on its third hour - not quite as brief as one would hope, he thought.

He watched Gaz lean back into a stretch, arms opening wide and settling at the back of your chair. You glanced up at the sergeant briefly before turning back to the neatly stacked piles of documents in front of you, poring over the mind-numbing reports and occasionally making notes.

Your integration into the group - Johnny and Gaz, anyway - had not been seamless from his observations, but the sergeants had been as open as could reasonably be expected from their personalities, and you seemed to be reciprocating - or trying to, anyway.

"Ach - not even in the emails? Employee profiles?"

Johnny piped up, unable to hide the annoyance that darkened his features. Ghost had noticed the Scot had been mellower in recent months. Maybe even years - ever since Zakhaev, at least - the burden of their profession was a continuous wear and tear on the mind and soul for those who hadn't locked away parts of themselves like he had. Like his boots, gloves, tactical vests, the work pushed and pulled at soldiers, clawing and scratching till it had to be replaced, patched up, or discarded.

Conveniently, Ghost mused, replaced, patched up, or discarded were the same three fates most soldiers stumbled into.

Johnny knew what this job meant, had experienced it firsthand, and still continued to shoulder the responsibilities. Ghost was intimately familiar with the drive to push through and respected that need - even if it meant watching a part of his comrade wither away.

Laswell sighed, rubbing her temples as she looked up from her computer to meet Johnny's eyes.

"All legitimate, tracing back to businesses or third party contractors."

"All fer nothin' then, was it?"

Price, who had opted to stand as well with his arms crossed, chose this moment to speak up.

"It's hard to imagine the ultranationalists just went and gave up after Zakhaev's death."

At this, Soap leaned back a bit, shifting his whole attention on to price. Ghost remembered reading the reports, how shattered Soap had been over Zakhaev when he got back from S.A.S. recon in Mexico.

"We know Makarov is well trained in counterinsurgency from his time in Airborne and the Spetznaz, but there must be a link somewhere - you don't move weapons and people on the scale he does without having some kind of paper trail."

You chose this moment to speak up, hand still carefully taking down notes as you pored over the files in front of you.

"You mentioned contractors. May we have a list?"

Laswell glanced up at surprise at you before switching to a different tab. It was true that you hadn't been particularly vocal in your time at the base, keeping your distance from most of the upper brass.

"Gutter cleaners, vehicle upkeep, insurance inspections, air conditioning installation, occupational health and safety reviews, catering-"

He watched you smile, that was that same wry smirk, the same twist of the lips that pulled at your face and made your eyes quirk in such a way that-

He jerked his head to the side, keeping his eyes trained on Laswell's computer.

"Couldn't imagine air conditioning would be on my list of priorities, in a winter desert."

Wordlessly, Laswell pulled her laptop closer to her, instantly beginning to pore over the emails sent by the air conditioning company. Price and Johnny shared a look when Laswell made a hum of approval.

"Seems this company uses a really simple order form template, copy and pasted- not really something you'd expect of a company taking orders at this volume."

Gaz reached over, leaning over the table to point at the screen.

"Subject: Notice of equipment upgrade. In our ongoing efforts to enhance the performance of our air-conditioning units, Our technicians will be overseeing the delivery and installation of a package containing the latest components aimed at optimizing energy efficiency. Your cooperation during this upgrade process is greatly appreciated."

He whistled, leaning back in his chair. "They've 'upgraded' their air-conditioning 11 times in the past 4 months.'

You didn't even acknowledge the discovery, still buried in the files. It strangely grated at him, this nonchalance of yours- but surely it was better than the callous sort of arrogance many soldiers at your level possessed? He respected good soldiers, especially those fighting alongside him. But you... there was something different about you.

He was aware of the glaring hypocrisy, to question someone's integrity because of the walls they put up when he himself wore a mask to distance himself from who he was outside of the battlefield.

But you wore a different kind of mask.

He had noticed, during brief moments where your professionalism didn't so much crack as it distended- like a rubber band warping after being pulled apart too strong. There was a smouldering fire beneath the glacial shell of duty you wore. It flickered sometimes, a molten glint in your eyes or a wry quirk of your lips, hinting at a real live breathing person within.

That ferocity had sparked your first clash in the mountains, tangled limbs and shared breaths in thin air, his gaze tracing the map of your face as he tried to determine your motives, whether or not he could trust you. Then there was the hangar, your quiet confidence grating against his need for control. An unlikely pair, yet you'd executed the mission flawlessly. Rolled with the punches and gotten through it all.

Though his face betrayed nothing, his mind buzzed with thoughts as he went over your latest interactions - outrage at your audacity, annoyance at your nonchalance, and a strange reluctance to let go of the distruption you caused, one he wouldn't- couldn't, try to understand the root of.

Beyond it all, he had to admit, was a begrudging sort of respect.

"8 payments have been made this quarter alone to the HVAC company - all worth tens of thousands."

"Drip feedin' Makarov's extra curriculars I take it- any ID on the company behind it Laswell?"

"Northwest of the Caucausus mountains. I'll clear it through Shepherd."

He saw your lips quirk down into a frown at Laswell's words, clearly unhappy about something. He tore his eyes away, accidentally locking gazes with Price, who tossed a raised his eyebrow his way. He maintained eye contact, unwilling to look away first and crossing his arms when Price shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

"We should-" it was the first time he'd ever heard you sound even the tiniest bit hesitant. "We should look into Makarov's known contacts. See who's benefitting from his actions that may be flying under the radar. All of them, even known hostile connections."

There was an implication to your words that Ghost didn't like, and he voiced it.

"Looks like we're already drownin' in information and more questions than answers. Want to send us on a wild goose chase when we don't even know if there's a goose to chase, do ya?"

He could see your jaw tense the tiniest bit as you turned to him, eyes hard.

"All I'm saying is that - paramilitary operations do not function in a vacuum, sir. Terrorist attacks require weapons, and those weapons require logistics to distribute, processing, manufacturing - everything does. The fact that we've run into nothing might suggest we're being walled off from information by design."

There was it- that spark, like flint and steel crashing together. He approached the table, placing both hands on it as he lowered himself to look at you directly in the eyes. When he spoke, his voice was rough, taking on a gravelly quality.

"We've been working on this for years and you've been here a month- if you could focus on your job instead of speculating on facts that aren't there maybe you could actually get the job you were assigned to do done, sergeant."

"Yes, sir." You gritted out, lips thinning. He could see in the tenseness of your shoulders that had he not been your superior this discussion would have been more drawn out.

But your words were beyond inflammatory - they were dangerous and put into question the very foundation of the chain of command that the operation was centered on. You would have to learn that these were thoughts best kept to yourself - it was clear to him that you lacked experience and maybe even the humility that came from working with teammates.

Relaxing his shoulders, he turned to regard the group, realizing that several pairs of eyes were now glancing between you and him with varying levels of confusion and surprise. Laswell, closing her laptop with a neat click, spoke first.

"I think we got it. This corporation has two locations- we'll do some recon and get a plan going, try and positively ID any key people. Great catch, Azrael. I sense this is something big."

You shifted the tiniest bit, simply nodding in response. He hadn't seen you handle direct compliments very well - the military did acknowledgements at most.

You remained quiet for the rest if the briefing and the dismissal after, studiously going over old files, not meeting his eyes again.

"LT! I think we need ourselves a little celebration to welcome our little Sherlock here, aye?"

You mumbled a bit, shuffling as the Scotsman draped an arm over you and patted your arm.

"Just identified an anomaly in the information- is all-"

"None of that now, gawn yerself! We got an ol' teammate comin' with us, Roach, I reckon you'll like 'im."

"I think it would really help your case if you could speak English, McTavish." Ghost remarked, dryly. He had been ready to leave and stretch his legs after leaning up against cold concrete for closing in on 4 hours.

"Alright- not sure about drinking, with the mission coming up soon, but I'll go."

"Ach pure brilliant, so it is. Gaz! You're drivin'! No fun juice for you m'fraid."

There was a groan from inside the communal area, then a smattering of mutters of which if Ghost were a betting man, he'd say could give any sailor a run for their money.

"What d'ya say LT?" He turned back to two sets of eyes, yours a strained sort of amusement, before he leaned back and rested his hands on the straps of his vest.

"Fuckin' hell. You're buyin', Johnny."

There was outraged sputtering, so Scottish it was indecipherable, before he turned to leave. His eyes locked with yours for a split second, assessing. Then he broke connection and made his way back to his barracks, his mind lingering.

He wondered what you were like away from it all.

Away from Azrael.

You seemed like more of a person than he allowed himself to be - but that remained to be seen.

Tonight, the echoes of questions would be drowned at the bottom of a bottle.

°°°°°

Translation for the Soapese:

Gawn yerself: Go on yourself (You're doing really good)

#ghost x reader #cod x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon riley x reader #task force 141

[animeyanderelover]

Could I request how it would be with indra,madara,Sakura,tsunade,Tobirama,itachi,naruto,Sasuke,shisui in a hunger games au?Thank you ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

I might have twisted a few points of the Hunger Games here and there to fit my storyline better. In general I'd like to say that I've never seen or read this franchise so all those informations are based on what I've been told from my followers or what I've read online. By the way, I accidentally added Hashirama in here since I'm so used to having him and completely overlooked that you didn't even requested him here.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessive behavior, obsession, delusion, stalking, paranoia, clinginess, manipulation, blackmailing, poison, violence, torture, death, mentions of suicide, trauma

Hunger Games AU

Indra Otsutsuki

💜 As one of the highest officials even within the Capitol, Indra has always stood out. Not only because he's gorgeous but also because he hates the luxurious and shallow life most citizens in the Capitol lead. He has dedicated his life to overseeing the Peacekeepers, training them and brutally striking down anyone who dares to oppose the system. It makes him as feared as respected as the highly ranked officials in the Capitol do their best to keep Indra content so he will never turn against them as that would surely be fatal. Due to their fear and equal desire to keep a gem like him on their side, he has risen up to be one of the must influential and powerful humans in all of Panem with an army of Peacekeepers behind him. A lot of them from District 2 where Indra is worshipped as a god of some sorts. The Hunger Games have to be watched even if he thinks he could spend his time doing more important things, it's disgraceful to see people dying pathetic deaths due to their own incompetence.

💜 If someone would have ever told him that he would ever find himself falling for someone he only sees on TV, he would have flung them across the room. Yet this is exactly what happens during this year's game as you, an 18 year-old tribute from District 12, enter the games. Most other participants, especially the Career, are flashy and want attention to get supported and sponsored by other citizens. You stand precisely out because you don't draw any attention to you. You're calm, think ahead and it isn't your goal to try to be cool as you just try to do what you're supposed to whilst simultanously surviving. When nearly half of the tribute are already killed at the beginning whilst fighting for weapons and other important stuff in the Cornucopia, you instead decide to explore the region only to set a few traps later to steal everything other tributes collected. A bow and an arrow seem to be your favorite as you shoot opponents from a safe distance, silently waiting in a hidden spot.

💜 He can tell that you're experienced with hunting as you're excellent in hiding your own tracks whilst being a genius at following others. You even use the poison from muttations thrown in by the gamemakers to finish of your enemies even more efficiently. Someone who was forgettable at the beginning of the games has turned by the end of it into everyone's favorite as citizens are gushing over your smoothness and predator-like behavior. You have a lot of sponsors yet the first one who provided you with medicine and weapons was Indra. He's investing into you as he deems you to be someone who deserves to live. You're different from those incompetent and arrogant fools who are either too terrified or too cocky, you always approach everyone with the same amount of caution and fight seriously. Perhaps it is no one's surprise that you end up winning, the first champion of your district and the people love you. One specific person probably more than others.

💜 His desire for you shocks him as he's never met you in person, he's only seen you in the arena. Truth is though that you're everything he's ever searched for. Courageous, smart, strong and merciless when it comes to snuffing out a life. You're unaware of him until the day where he pays to see you, something that is allowed as he's from the Capitol and you're a mere attraction for those people. You walk in, completely expecting him to initiate sexual intercourse yet he's more interested in talking to you, seeing your skill with his own two eyes, scientifically modified with his own request to grant him even more power. The end result are permanently red eyes with black dots within his orbs which make him all the more intimidating. You're secretly just relieved that he doesn't want to violate you so you indulge him in his interest to see your abilities up close. If only you'd known what consequences that would have later on for you. It's never like you had a choice anyways...

💜 His obsession gets gradually worse as he gets to know you better. Your skills match your fast thinking and you're a quick learner as he suddenly starts training you in hand-to-hand combat and the use of other weapons. Slowly you start spending a lot of time with him until you find yourself staying days in his house as he provides a room for you. He grows possessive, sees it as such a terrible waste that you still have to stay in your District, even if it's in the Victor's Village. Thoughts fill his mind, wondering if he could convince the president to let you live permanently with him as Indra is almost as powerful as he is. Those dark thoughts turn into schemes yet it is when one of the Peacekeepers in the Victor's Village informs him that you recently took someone in who isn't your family but someone you fancy that a burning rage takes over him. The next time you're forced to come over, you instantly sense that something is wrong. It is only confirmed when you're grabbed by the man, red eyes gleaming as he smashes his lips against yours in a searing kiss, growling in between that you can't refuse him. You're his, he will see it through that you can never leave him.

Madara Uchiha

🌑 Madara is a Career from District 2 that will participate in this year's Hunger Games and to say that he's confident is an understatement. He's been training essentially his whole life for such a chance and in his last year before he would have been excluded from it, he's finally chosen. There are rumors if the Capitol might have manipulated the decision on purpose since Madara is quite well known even among the citizens of the Capitol for his skills and beauty. Truthfully spoken though, Madara doesn't care. He's just thrilled that he gets his chance to participate, to fight. His District has produced a lot of victors for the Hunger Games so this is about honor, especially since his own father is a previous victor from a game years ago. He can not let his family down like this. Madara is instantly the favorite among the crowd as soon as he enters, the cheers for him are deafening and a lot of tributes seem to give up instantly, recognizing him.

🌑 When he notices most of them cowering upon noticing him, avoiding his eyes and making themselves as small as possible, he can only scoff and give them a condescending look. He despises people like them, weak cowards. They're all going to die anyways. There's only one person who meets his gaze and refuses to look away, a sign of rebellion. A tribute from District 7, the same age as him. Both of you get caught in a silent stare battle as looking away or even blinking is a loss, something that both of you don't want. It's this first encounter between the both of you that not only sticks in Madara's memory as you're the first one to have challenged him so openly, but also makes you more memorable for the citizens. So you're the tribute he decides to keep an eye on for now but it's the fight around the Cornucopia that really earns you a spot in his memory and heart alike. Your strength from providing wood and lumber for the Capitol surprises and overwhelms almost all other tributes, even Madara.

🌑 Madara and you alike slaughter quite a few tributes until only both of you are left in the Cornucopia, staring at each other again. The adrenaline is still high yet both of you come to an agreement. You'll wait for this fight until you're the only two left. There's no doubt in Madara's mind that you'll survive to fulfill your promise and you think likewise. All viewers crave the same as both you and Madara receive lots of support, in your case an axe which becomes the weapon you slaughter all your enemies with. Even Careers fall ultimately when fighting you, the hardest fight up until Madara for you is the female Career from District 2 who is plenty skilled although you don't expect anything else if she comes from the same place as Madara. After a longer fight though, she succumbs to her injuries, her severed arm the main source as she has lost too much blood. When Madara and you meet again, both of you hold each other's gaze again...before one of the most spectacular fights unfolds itself.

🌑 You two go at it for hours as both of you possess a great amount of stamina, endurance and strength. There's no denial that both of you enjoy this fight to it's fullest though, you can even see Madara grinning, thrilled to have someone who can finally stand up to him. It seems inhumane, watching the fight between essentially two monsters. Both of you are so immersed in your own world where only you two and this fight exists that it's only when a loud announcement echoes through the arena, announcing both of you for some reason as victors of this year's games that both of you come back to reality. It turns out that the audience in the Capitol is absolutely enraptured with the both of you and has unanimously demanded for both of you to be named winners and the president saw himself forced to keep the citizens satisfied. Madara is in a way thankful though because if you two are alive, it means that you two can fight again. In a way you've completely won his heart with this fight.

🌑 It's never the same for him again after he's met you. You're special and talented, no one in his district can compare to you and that causes him to grow irritated. Luckily the Capitol is unable to forget about you two just as much and the demand for both of you to keep entertaining the citizens is high so both of you see each other often despite living in different districts. No words could describe just how excited Madara is about being able to see you as often as he does, focused on only you. If he has to take a spouse, he wants it to be you. He knows that it's technically not possible yet he senses soon enough that he isn't the only one who would want you two to be together. A good bunch of people in the Capitol love the romantic tension between you two and his growing possessive behavior so it dawns on him that he could use the foolish wishes of those people to his own advantage. Some people in the Capitol really start voicing their opinion that you two should marry since you are perfect for each other and you plan to announce that you don't have any interest, you're stopped by Madara. Hush, darling. Don't even try to stop something you have no control over.

Hashirama Senju

🌳 Hashirama and you alike are both from District 4, although his family lives in the Villager's District looking on how his father has won in his younger years the Hunger Games. That doesn't spare his children from being chosen as tributes though and it just so happens that Hashirama and you have been childhood friends since forever. His family is very close with yours so you're often allowed to come over and visit and train together as Careers. You know that Hashirama would do anything to spare you that fate though because even if his district sees it as an honor to add victors to their districts and stay wealthy and powerful among the other districts, Hashirama sees this entire game as rather cruel. He's always been empathetic as he watched so many young people dying for the amusement of others yet whenever he has voiced his opinions in the past, he has been scolded and punished by his parents. If the Capitol would find out after all, they might be killed.

🌳 Yet it is the cruelest irony when both of you get chosen as tributes to present your district for this year. Horror washes over his body as he clutches your hand tightly into his, sweaty and shaking ever so slightly. When he's shortly about to leave for the arena, his father advices him to not get all emotional and spare your life as there can only be one winner and those words haunt him and are the start of his breaking point. Obviously Hashirama doesn't listen to him as he sticks close to you the entire time, nervous and terrified for you instead of fearing for his own life. Both of you know that he's been in love with you for a long time now although you have asked him to give you time to think about it. His father knows about it too, the whole family does, that's why they're worried that Hashi will prioritize you over everything since he's an emotional fool. When all of you are presented to the viewers, he refuses to stray away from your side. Both of you catch the eyes of some people thanks to that.

🌳 They refer to you two as unfortunate sweethearts as Hashirama's love for you seems to earn you the favor and support of quite a few fans who are eager to see the development between you two. When both of you fight in the Cornucopia and Hashirama shields you and gets hurt in the process and you carry him around in desperate search of a hiding spot, you receive medicine and bandages from fans of you two who are positively gushing over the dedication between you two. This sickens you yet you have no choice but to accept the presents to help Hashirama who is busily soothing your guilt for him getting hurt because of you. You stay awake the entire night to let him rest, keep guard so that nothing and no one can attack him whilst he is so vulnerable. Both of you never separate once from each other during the entire game and the one time you suggested splitting up, Hashirama had a small meltdown, stopping you physically from leaving him.

🌳 Being part of the game and seeing himself forced to kill other participants breaks him and his psyche. Nightmares that always turn him into a whimpering mess who clings to your form and an emotional breakdown as soon as he thinks that he has lost you. He clings to you like his sanity depends on it and at this rate that is most likely the case. Whether it's luck or not, both of you find yourselves as the sole survivors by the end of it and Hashirama has killed a good bunch of them, something that still horrifies you even if you understand the rules of this game and that he only did it to protect you. There can only be one survivor though and you can only stare anxiously at Hashirama. He truly looks broken, dark rings under his eyes, bruises and cuts covering his face. His own tired gaze meets you and he musters a reassuring smile before embracing you. Terrified confusion turns into utter horror when he mumbles that he won't let you die, no matter what. Even if he has to commit suicide.

🌳 This revelation triggers shock and admiration alike within everyone in the Capitol, all of them loving the tragic love story. People crave a happy ending though so a lot of requests fly in to allow both of you to survive since you're from the same district. You're crying out in relief when the announcement is made or otherwise you would have knocked Hashirama out to stop him from doing anything stupid. Both of you return as victors to your district yet it wasn't worth the price you paid. Hashirama is traumatized with everything he has seen, glued to your hip and emotionally unable to accept you leaving him. You two move into a separate mansion in the Victor's Village, you would have most likely done that even without them telling you that you have to live together, apparently another sick fantasy of the Capitol. You despise all of them though because they've taken your best friend away from you and have ruined him into this anxious, clingy and delusional broken man in front of you who showers you excessively with his love and affection. Apparently that's what the people want though, you realize that with horror when you hear the rumors about an arranged engagement.

Tobirama Senju

🌊 Tobirama is within his lifetime the pride of his District 4 as he was barely 12 years old when he participated and won against everyone else, even if some of them were years older and had way more training as him. Tobirama is just naturally gifted and just happens to be your best friend as well. Something inside of him changed after he came back as the victor though. He never was all that much sunshine to begin with but he became harsher and way more merciless after he won the games. You can only imagine what he saw during his time as a player but when you try to ask him, he always puts you rudely down. He lives with his family in the Victor's Village where you are often visiting thanks to his influence. Instead of playing around and enjoying time together, now he starts training with you intensely though, reminding you harshly that you might get chosen one day too. It's jarring to see his transformation after the games.

🌊 You're 18 when you're chosen and shocked when you hear your name and even Tobirama is shaken but he flawlessly hides it behind the usual scowl sitting on his face. Needless to say that he becomes your official mentor since you're now the official tribute for this year. Expectations on you are high as all believe that with Tobirama as your mentor, you can not fail. Tobirama himself goes harsh on you now that you're going to participate in the Hunger Games. He's relentless and unforgiving, you pass out a couple of times since he does not allow you even a minute to take a break. Whenever you start begging him to stop, all you receive is a harsh lecture that you'll die as one of the first in the game if this is how you're going about it. Partially that is true, he knows that better than anyone else. However, Tobirama is also deep down very paranoid about the aspect of potentially losing you. All his rudeness aside, you're still very much his best friend and his first and only love. The later you don't know yet though.

🌊 The arena this year is close to the sea with a lot of beaches, rocks and cliffs and it's almost as if the Capitol is favoring those from District 4 with such an environment as they specialize in fishing and for that know how to navigate around such places. He watches this year's game with a lot more dread than he ever has. Whilst he is confident in your abilities, he knows that his district isn't the only one who produces Careers. Luckily for you and your fellow Career from District 4, the Cornucopia is placed on a small island within the sea which means that you either have to swim or build a boat. Unfortunately a lot of tributes lose early on their lives, underestimating what muttations swim around in the deep parts of the sea. You belong to the smarter ones who build a boat instead of risking to get eaten, go even as far as catch bait to keep those creatures under control in case they decide to assault your boat too. Sailing a boat is no problem for you.

🌊 The last part of the game is a never-ending train of death, fights and survival of the fittest as only the Careers are left and have to battle it out. You on the other hand go into hiding, stay close to the sea where using weapons will be for the most part very difficult, plus the fact that even Careers are careful to dive to deep into the water, considering the terror creatures the Gamekeepers have designed for this. You avoid the bloodbath for the biggest part, until only you, the other Career from your district and one from the first one are left. This fight is gruesome as you gut your fellow Career out with a harpoon you snatched away in the Cornucopia and push the other one down the cliff, watching the shark-like muttations tearing them apart. When you're announced the winner, Tobirama can only slide down the chair, all tension leaving his body and leaving him exhausted. You've won. You survived and most importantly...you'll return to him.

🌊 He gives you genuine praise when you return, relieved that you were skilled and strong enough to survive everything. You get your own house in the Victor's Village, beyond grateful that you made it out of this living hell of a game. Unfortunately you don't get much of a break as soon afterwards, his family and your own family start talking about potentially engaging you two. Both of you won a game after all and are now praised as the best of the best among their district. His father is finally willing to see you as worthy for his son and your own father can allow himself now to demand high things from your future husband too. This disturbs you as you don't plan to marry Tobirama and you seek him out as soon as the topic is brought up in your family, naively thinking that he will respect your wishes. Instead you're met with overwhelming silence as soon as you've finished your earnest plead to him, red eyes scrutinizing you. Are you really that repulsed with the thought of marrying him? After he's trained you, mentored you, helped you survive the game? It's on that day that you realize for the first time just how much the Hunger Games can change a person, especially your best friend.

Tsunade Senju

🐌 Tsunade is one of the most well-known victors in all of District 4 as her grandfather as well as her great uncle were both legendary victors in the annual Hunger Games and she herself participated when she was 18 years old. Unfortunately for Tsunade though, she lost everything because of those games. Her brother, who had just freshly turned 12, was elected as one of the tributes. Young, optimistic and naive he saw it as an amazing chance to show to everyone, including his sister, that the Senju were a family of winners. He lost his life in an explosion though, the necklace the only thing left of him. During her own time as a tribute, Tsunade was forced to see her own lover die, who was in the same year chosen as a tribute. The mere thought that only one person would survive was mortifying as it was but when Danzo sacrificied himself for her, earning her as a result the favor of the crowd, she was shattered forever. All her hope and optimism gone and instead she spends her time with sake.

🐌 When you enter the Victor's Village as the freshest addition of that place, you already know about Tsunade, everyone knows. For a woman of her height she easily matches and often surpasses the strength of any men and is additionally very skilled with medicine and surgeries. Yet all other victors who live here warn you about her as she's turned into a bitter and lonely woman who refuses everyone's company. It's a shame for someone with a pretty face like hers, she's still such a young and attractive woman after all, only a few years older than you are. In a way you can not bring yourself to blame Tsunade though, not after you've gone through those games too and had to kill the other person from your district who you had actually gotten along with quite well. You just leave her be, even if her own house is right next to yours. You never engage in any rumors about her, even go as far as defending her when other victors talk down on her. She's after all still one of the greatest.

🐌 Your first encounter is certainly one you will remember as the good lady had a few drinks too much and stumbles into your house instead of her own, breaking your door in the process with her brute strength. You initially think of thieves when you see the broken door hanging out of it's door frame only to see the good Tsunade Senju herself sleeping in your bed. You're baffled for a good amount of time, confused to say at least about what you should do now before you decide to let her be and instead sleep downstairs on the couch. The next morning is awkward for the both of you as you have to explain to her that this is in fact your house, especially since she was about to deliver a good punch for thinking that this was still your house. She leaves with her head held high, apologizing for putting you through such a situation before she leaves with the slightest hint of pink dusting her cheeks. After that encounter, your relationship with her is never the same again.

🐌 Somehow she seems less hostile around you, most likely because she will never be able to forget about that accident. That has eased her up around you and so you two occasionally engage in small chats when you meet each other outside. That slowly evolves into meeting each other inside either your or her house and you feel honored that you're pretty much the only one who she has ever allowed inside her mansion. She has her own laboratory that was specifically built for her as the Capitol still demands her to invent new medicine since she is the best there is, even surpassing the scientists in the Capitol. She admits to you that she doesn't want to help the very same people who took everything away from her but she knows that they will threaten innocent people and only bother her more otherwise so she still does as she is told. You openly tell her how much you admire her for what she does and also express your compassion regarding her brother and lover.

🐌 You're a person Tsunade feels comfortable around, less lonely and miserable. She can talk with you about her pain without others talking their death little by calling them simply not strong enough. You're still human, you admit that the whole concept of the Hunger Games is sick and wrong. You give her solace and she starts yearning for that feeling, seeks you out more and more actively. Initially you don't object, you know how lonely and misunderstood Tsunade is. Eventually you recognize that her clinginess has become rather unhealthy though as she barely wants to separate from you and you spend most of your time in her house. She doesn't want you to spend any more time with those people outside who have traded their morals and human lives for fame and glory, wealth and riches. You're still a good person but most importantly, you're a person she has learned to love and cherish. She won't lose you again and if she has to poison your food and weaken you a bit, she will do so. Don't worry though, she would never risk your life. No, instead she will only sicken you a bit to be the one to nurse you back to health.

Shisui Uchiha

🍂The Uchiha family within District 2 is by far one of the most well-known families throughout the entire country of Panem since a lot of people from there have not only been chosen as tributes but also won those Hunger Games. Shisui is no exception to that as he was barely 13 years old when he entered the game and left the arena as a victor. His skills were so outstanding that he was in fact approached by some high officials from the Capitol and asked if he'd like to join the Peacekeepers of Panem, looking on how they trained already in his district. Shisui politely declined though although he in fact is allowed to watch them training and even acts as a teacher at times since his abilities surpass theirs far. Some people in the Capitol are at times terrified that Shisui might betray them though because if he would join any sort of rebellion, he could make it work. That's why they go to great lengths to keep him content with his life, although they are never able to figure out how he is really feeling.

🍂You're a close friend of Shisui even if you don't belong to his family. You're still from District 4 though but have never been made a player in the Hunger Games and are out of their age range by now. When you turned 19 years old, everyone celebrated your birthday as if it was the greatest day in your life and honestly, it was. Because it meant freedom and no fear for you anymore. You have obviously been trained as a Career just like everyone else but you would have never been able to survive out there, at least in your opinion. Even Shisui seemed off for a few weeks after returning, you still remember this hollow look in his eyes and the goosebumps across his skin when he hugged you despite the sun shining brightly, pressing you tightly against his own body. He never talks with you about it and a huge part you've seen on TV when it all aired but the camera wasn't focused every time on him. You just assume that Shisui wants to spare you from the unspoken horrors he went through.

🍂With him moving into the Victor's Village, a tradition for everyone who wins a Hunger Game, you find yourself spending less time with him. It's lonely without him since he's always been your best buddy, even if he still tries to make time for you as good as he can. Instead you are now more often alone, a little bit sceptical to make new acquaintances. That is until you meet a lovely group of people, one of them is in fact a neighbour of yours. All of them are around your age which means you don't have to fear that even one of them might lose their lives in such a cruel and useless game. You start to spend gradually more time with them but Shisui seems a little bit relieved that you have found new friends, considering how much you've blamed him for leaving you all to yourself at first. He admits briefly that he's a little bit busy at the moment, although he never explicitily states what he is doing. All you know is that he's doing something for the Capitol.

🍂After a few weeks of spending time with your new friends and just living your life without the looming threat of death, they start asking you about what you think of the Hunger Games. You're cautious ith your answer since you know that quite a few people in the second district see those games as a chance to prove to the Capitol that their district is the superior one. You still make it clear that you think it's cruel and unfair to throw essentially children into an arena and have them killing each other for the sick amusement for the richest of the rich. To your relief they agree with you and voice their clear dislike of the whole concept. What you gradually notice though is that conversations always shift to the games and soon you start talking about how one might stop those games and how to overthrow the Capitol. You initially entertain them with your own schemes and ideas, start feeling very uncomfortable soon though. When they notice though, they instantly revert back to doing something else.

🍂You're surprised when Shisui one day requests you to visit him and even more shocked when the first thing he does as soon as letting you in is forbidding you to spend anymore time with those people. He doesn't answer any of your questions but only insists that you have to stay away from them. His more bossy tone does not sit right with you. Who does he think he is, telling you not to spend time with your friends when he's barely there anymore? It's this rebellious streak that you give him that shifts something within him and just as you're about to leave his house, he is in front of you in the blink of an eye, slamming the door closed and staring at you with black eyes who appear to see right through you. You shrink, trying to escape from his gaze that is staring relentlessly at you. You break out in cold sweat when he asks you if you really want to know but find yourself still nodding. When he tells you that those people plan a rebellion against the Capitol and planned to recruit you and that he has been tasked to kill them, your blood runs cold. When you asks him quietly if he can really kill people again, he gives you a firm nod. Those are orders and on top of that, they promised him the one thing he's always wanted. You.

Itachi Uchiha

🍡 Another resident in District 4 who has been trained from a very young age on as a Career. Itachi is gifted, there is no denying his skills as he has risen up to the status of a genius from a very young age on. It's precisely due to his outstanding abilities that his father is secretly always hoping that Itachi's name will be chosen in the annual lottery to determine the next participants in the game. Year after year passes by though and his name never once appears. Perhaps a stress relief for the other Career within District 4 as they have zero confidence to win if Itachi would get chosen together with them. How does Itachi feel about this though? Well, he isn't much of a talker and stays silent most of the time when someone approaches him and wants to converse with him about the Hunger Games. He hides his unhappiness though as he would rather spend time with his little brother or with his darling instead of training hours and hours on end for the slim chance he might get chosen.

🍡 When he passes the age of 18 and is officially out of the register, his father is greatly disappointed whilst Itachi is just relieved that he can hopefully spend more time with Sasuke and you from now on. Unfortunately fate is not as kind as your name gets chosen that year, your last year of potentially being chosen. Terror freezes you in your place as your name gets chosen and the same silent horror seeps into Itachi's veins as he hears the news. You come running to him the same day, although he was planning to search for you just as much. You're crying your eyes out whilst in his embrace, terrified and scare out of your mind. You don't want to participate in the games! You don't! Seeing your tears and the hope already having left your body breaks his heart, fills his chest with a searing pain. When Itachi finds himself laying that night wide awake in his bed, an idea suddenly pops up inside his head and the next morning he approaches his father and asks if it's possible that he can take your place.

🍡 Technically it shouldn't be allowed since he's out of the age range but when his father notifies the people organizing the Hunger Games, they're very happy to make an exception for Itachi. He's skilled, he's handsome and they're sure that the citizens of the Capitol will be very happy to have him as a tribute. News quickly spread within your district about the change of plans and knock the air out of your lungs when you hear what a sacrifice Itachi made for you. Yet you can't accept it, approach him angrily with tears in your eyes as you lash out at him for doing something so stupid. He shouldn't have done this for you. You aren't worth it. You try to convince him to pull back, that he doesn't have to do this for you yet he just gently nudges you away, speaks with a soft voice that it's alright. It's too late now anyways, they won't let him slip away now that they have him finally in the games. You can only watch with an aching heart as he leaves for the Hunger Games.

🍡 You watch everything with your heart in your throat, horrified yet unable to avert your eyes from the game you watch safely from the comfort of your house as Itachi participates in your place. At times you feel almost glad that it isn't you when you see the gruesome deaths of the participants yet guilt fills you almost instantly after as you realize that it's because Itachi risks his life instead of you yours. When Itachi stands as the last one and wins, no one in your district is surprised and instead they celebrate him. Only you sit there, devastated that you forced Itachi, who never wanted to kill tributes, into this living hell. When he returns and is brought to the Victor's Village, you try to avoid him. You see the broken glimmer inside his eyes, the burden he took because you were too much of a coward and it is too painful for you to witness. You don't deserve someone like him. You spend the following weeks away from him, ignore all letters and attempts he does to reach out to you.

🍡 After a few months have passed by and Itachi's attempts to reach out to you have stopped, you've slowly attempted to get back on track with your life. Itachi's absence has left a hole though, one you try to ignore since you made that decision. Your life isn't good but you try your best to do the best to make it acceptable again. Until one day a few Peacekeepers suddenly storm your house, arrest you and the rest of your family for no reason and you're separated from them. You don't know where they plan to take you, at least until you see the Victor's Village in the distance where you're thrown into one of the houses, the doors shut behind you. When you look up from your position on the floor, you're met with Itachi's black eyes. He's standing a few feet away from you, his face unreadable yet there's cold fury in his eyes. What do you expect? You betrayed him in a sense, left him alone when he would have needed you the most. Do you even know what he went through during this game? Your apologies barely do anything nor does your pleads to help you with your family. At least not for free this time. You can only stare at him with horror when you hear those words. What have you done?

Naruto Uzumaki

🍜 Naruto Uzumaki is from the twelfth district, the poorest district in all of Panem. He's an orphan whose parents have unfortunately died when he was really young due to the poor conditions such as minimal food. A lot of people in their village suffer under the dictatorship of the Capitol and they barely produce any winners for the Hunger Games as they lack the resources and the training to train the young children such as the wealthy districts do. So when one of their tributes miraculously wins the Hunger Games, only the tender age of 14 years, hope returns once more to the people that for at least the next year, the Capitol will provide them with enough food and supply them what they need. When the winner returns to the village, they're hailed and celebrated like they're the incarnation of a godly being themselves, so dire was the daily life before they won. It's been years since someone from their district has won after all. They move into the Victor's Village with their family soon after.

🍜 4 years later, Naruto gets chosen as a tribute for the Hunger Games, clinging to his hope that he has a chance to win if he works hard enough to win and help all the people in his village who suffer from the lack of food and water. There's also a bit of giddy excitement though to meet you, the very same champion who won 4 years ago and is even the same age as he is. You haven't been here that often ever since you were able to move into the Victor's Village but the stories about you have never really stopped. Such an impact left your victory on the people, the first one in over two decades. Naruto actually recalls that he knew you before you were chosen as a tribute but when he sees you again, he feels like he's meeting a completely new person. No wonder, you're famous now after all. He feels flattered when you actually recognize the blonde-haired boy too, point out that he surely has grown up. You do warn him that you won't go easy on him or otherwise he won't make it.

🍜 Training with you is surely tough as you force him through hours and hours but you admire that he never gives up and insists on doing something over and over again until he's got the hang of it. He's optimistic, painfully much so, and you wonder at times if that is a farce to keep himself motivated or if he truly thinks he has a shot. When you ask him, he manages to flatter you when he answers that you've given him and everyone else a lot of hope with your victory. The time you have to train him isn't that long yet you too grow quite close to each other during that period, most likely because of Naruto wanting to get to know you better. He's quite a fanboy, blue eyes admiring everything you do and somehow that feels nice. You're anxious when he leaves since you've grown attached to him and he's grown even more attached to you. You can only pray now as your one eye that you didn't lose during the games is glued to the screen when the tributes enter this year's arena, a forest.

🍜 Naruto is anxious and nervous when he enters the arena but he tries to do his best to stay optimistic throughout it all. His friends are watching him, you are watching him and this is a chance to help everyone in his district. Unfortunately his optimism gets shattered during the games. He knew that he would witness multiple bloodbaths but nothing could have prepared him for the real deal. His blue eyes grow dull as the game goes on and his hopeful smile leaves his face the more he is confronted with the ugliest side of humanity. It breaks your heart to see him although you can fully understand that no one would be able to stay happy after this hell of a hell. It's the finale of the game that mortifies you though as the other tribute from your district gets killed right in front of Naruto's eyes and the Career makes fun of them. Silence as blue eyes are glued to the mutiliated corpse before something just snaps and Naruto enters a frenzy, an outburst that makes him the victor as he kills the other survivors.

🍜 You wait for him in the Victor's Village, a shell of what he used to be with hollow and empty eyes. You do your best to take care of him, keep him hydrated and see through that he eats as Naruto sits otherwise just around, blue eyes staring into the emptiness. It truly shatters your heart and you do your best to help him to heal as good as you can and slowly he starts responding to you. Sad eyes are always following you around and soon you have him trailing behind you like a little duckling. You're too glad that he has started reacting again to notice the alarming signs that you're feeding him into an unhealthy and delusional obsession. You've always been there for him, haven't you? You've sacrificed even more than him since he didn't lose any eyes or limbs. It makes him wonder how much pain you still carry around inside of you and it's that thought, the idea that he should help you to heal too, that fully pushes out the grin out of him again. A smile to cheer you up. Initial happiness soon turns into dread when you finally come to realize that Naruto has lost his sanity in those games, his broken mind viewing you two as soulmates since both of you have gone through the same hell.

Sasuke Uchiha

💙 Sasuke and you have been childhood sweethearts for such a long time now, Mikoto adores the two of you together just as much as your mother does. Both of you were born in the second district which means that you two live a rather good life in comparison to most other districts, looking on how District 2 is one of the wealthiest districts among the 12. It also means that the both of you are trained from a very young age to be Career and potential tributes from the Hunger Games when you're old enough. You know that the pressure is big on Sasuke as he is from the Uchiha family who is generally known to have created a lot of champions in the Hunger Games. His own brother is hailed as one of those victors who has won the games at the age of 14 and that has led Sasuke to become visibly more bitter and greedy for power as he spends hours training relentlessly. You're one of the few people he is still occasionally showing his soft spot, although he has also demanded that you spend a lot of time with him.

💙 Both of you are 17 when somehow both of you get chosen as tributes and both of you are aware what that means. A shiver goes through you and when Sasuke clutches your hand tightly in his own, clearly stressed by this sudden turn of event, you know that both of you are screwed. You more so than Sasuke since he's talented whilst you're not. You're not bad but certainly not good enough to win this game and silently you might have already resigned yourself to the fact that you'll die. That is until Sasuke grabs you and drags you harshly to a place where no one can hear you two and tells you that you'll stay close to him during the entirety of the game. You want to protest but his dark eyes leave no room for a discussion and you silently nod, decide to listen to him. You spend the little bit of time you have left training with him and you can tell that he goes very hard on you as you receive bruise after bruise with him snapping at you that you need to focus more. You sense that he's scared for you though.

💙 Starting from when you enter the arena to be presented to the citizens of the Capitol, Sasuke keeps a sharp eye on you and an additional arm around you, glaring at everyone who does as much as glancing at you. When the fight in the Cornucopia begins, you realize very much just what hell behind the hell you'll have to endure as all tributes start fighting and slaughtering each other mercilessly to gather the weapons and supplies inside the building. Sasuke gets his hands on a katana and that's when pretty much everyone else is already screwed as he flawlessly starts slaughtering him, the blade of his weapon cutting through flesh with blood splittering his clothes and his face. The only ones who survive are the ones that are fast enough on their legs and a part of you wants to run away from him too when he turns around to you, covered in blood and far too calm considering what he just did, instead asking you if you're alright. You can only swallow back the lump in your throat and nod.

💙 You're able to collect a lot of stuff in the Cornucopia since everyone else fled when they saw Sasuke and his skills with the sword, the way he almost danced whilst killing everyone else. You should be glad that he's on your side and you are but at the same time you're frightened out of your mind. You never knew that Sasuke could murder so many people at once without feeling an ounce of guilt and dread pools deep inside your stomach when you think about what might happen at the end if you two are really the only ones left. With Sasuke on your side, you survive easily as he continues tracking down one tribute after the other and kills them all whilst you stay back and hide, wait for him to come back. One time you dare to ask him how he can just kill everyone that easily. Black eyes land on you for a few silent moments before he tells you that he doesn't care about anyone else besides you. If it wouldn't have been in those circumstances, you might have felt flattered by those words.

💙 As you have feared and dreaded, ultimately it's really only Sasuke and you left and that's when your fear really starts kicking in. He has reassured you throughout the game that he will find a way for both of you to survive but you just don't know how he plans to achieve that. You know that everyone is watching you two right now and Sasuke is just as aware of that and suddenly pulls you closer to him, one arm wrapping around you to hug you. For a split second you're confused only to completely freeze when you feel the blade of the katana pressing against your back, slightly pressing against it. He won't let anything separate you two, not even death. So if both of you can't survive, he'll just kill the both of you instead. You clutch the material of his outfit in your hand, wide eyes meeting his own horrified and silently begging him to reveal that this is a twisted joke. Your heart stops for a few seconds when you realize that this is his plan though, his ultimatum. Silence that drags on for far too long before both of you are named the victors, his daring gamble paying off. You lose all strength in your legs, Sasuke tightening his grip on you to keep you steady. A smirk on his face as you're pressed against him. Perfect, everything worked out.

Sakura Haruno

🌸 The 75th Hunger Game is around and with that special anniversary comes the Quarter Quell with a twist to the rules to make the games more entertaining for those who watch them and even more gruesome and bloody for those who are forced to participate. This year's game is especially anticipated among the richest people in the Capitol and especially dreaded among the districts, especially those who can not afford to train their children. When the special rules for this year are read out, everyone is watching it with mixed feelings, the most common ones fear and dread. Winners from previous games are supposed to participate in the games and team up with one tribute that is chosen from the lottery. That means that from each district one tribute and one winner will participate and to make it only more interesting, this year two winners will be allowed. Only if both of them are the victor and the tribute from the same district though.

🌸 Everyone has obviously heard from Sakura from your district, the poorest in all of Panem. Who didn't? She's legendary, 16 years old when she won the Hunger Games 3 years ago and stood out with her unusual strength and ability to create poison which she then used to paralyze and murder her opponents with. She's chosen as the victor that will participate in this year's Hunger Games to represent the victors from their district as she's the youngest one. Chosen as the other tribute to fight alongside with her are you, in your last year where you could have been chosen as a tribute. Your whole family is horrified as this is essentially a death sentence for you and you have no choice but to put your faith in Sakura, who was actually your friend before she moved to the Victor's Village with her family, who comes soon over to pick you up and mentor you. Her face contorts in one of shock when she sees you, her heart dropping into her stomach. No, why did they have to choose you this year?

🌸 It's been years since you've seen each other but Sakura has never forgotten you. How could she? You were her best friend back in the days when she was all shy and insecure and together with her family the main thing that kept her going during her time as a tribute in the Hunger Games. She tries to push all her emotions down but that is very hard because this is not how she envisioned your first encounter after such a long time to be. She pulls it ultimately together though as she senses that her fear only makes you lose your hope more. The time before the game starts is short so she has to teach you as much as she can. She mentors you in multiple things such as hand-to-hand combat, how to hide your own tracks and read the ones of others and especially in the usage of medicine and poison, the area she's the most skilled with. It's so much for you though, too much in such a short time yet she promises you that she'll do her everything to see it through that both of you survive.

🌸 She's terribly overprotective but you won't blame her for that as soon as the game starts and you're thrown into the hell that is meant to entertain those people in the Capitol. In fact, everything you see is too much for you to handle and you resort to clinging to Sakura as your sole pillow of protection and comfort since everyone else wants you dead. This in return only makes Sakura worse even if she won't show it all of the time. She immediately knows what the strategy of everyone is. They try to slaughter the tributes of districts that are ideally no Careers to take the easy route since without their tributes, the victors will have automatically lost. That's why Sakura never allows you to stray away from her side, something she doesn't need to tell you twice. Part of you has always been a little bit curious to know how she survived her first game though since the Sakura you have known throughout the years was too kind to hurt anyone. Your opinion is definitely about to change.

🌸She's rather merciful for the most part, only killing someone if they attack you and then with the poison she has already extracted from the snakes and poisonous insects within the arena.  It's the last fight that brings something out of her that is truly fearful when the only other two survivors, Career and champion from the second district, manage to catch her off-guard and hurt you. Not seriously as you're quick enough to dodge but enough to make you scream out in pain which causes Sakura to see red. It's hard to tell what you witness but at the end of it you only know that Sakura rushes to you to quickly tend to your wounds whilst your eyes can only zoom in on the two people behind her, one of them with his head smashed in and dead whilst the other one is still slightly twitching as his life slowly leaves him. Their blood is still on her hands as she stops the bleeding and bandages the wound whilst you distantly note that you two are announced the victors. That's when you finally manage to look her into her green eyes and she manages to give you an exhausted grin, mumbling that you two made it. That's when you wonder if everything you've just seen has been some sort of fever dream as there's no trace of that bloodlust left on her face anymore.

#yandere naruto #yandere naruto shippuden #yandere indra #yandere indra otsutsuki #yandere madara #yandere madara uchiha #yandere hashirama #yandere hashirama senju #yandere tobirama #yandere tobirama senju #yandere tsunade #yandere tsunade senju #yandere shisui #yandere shisui uchiha #yandere itachi #yandere itachi uchiha #yandere naruto uzumaki #yandere sasuke #yandere sasuke uchiha #yandere sakura #yandere sakura haruno

[guess-that-ship]

S10 Round 2

Magical and Mechanical

[This description has been modified to remove potentially identifying information.]

V is a wizard looking for a new lease on life. B is a science experiment who was cloned over and over and over again to be an army pawns, though his lack of fighting ability lead to all of them being failures. Despite coming from completely different circumstances, they are drawn together and become almost inseparable.

Specifically, after the organization that experimented on B is destroyed, he's left to pick up the pieces of his life. He decides to open a cafe in town, and joins a sports team centered around bonds and love in an attempt to better himself. There, he meets V, and is subsequently partnered with them for the upcoming game. However, after a spell gone wrong, V loses most of their memories, and ends up relying on B for support. The two become quite close during that time, as V learns more about what happened to B and helps to teach him better coping mechanisms and self love. During this time, they also begin to form a crush on B, but hesitate to do anything about it.

Eventually game day arrives, and the two work together shockingly well. Despite his own lack of skill, B finds success alongside V, and gets further than he ever has before. At the same time, V and B's feelings for one another become increasingly obvious, and are called out by the other competitors (as well as being shipped online in universe. There is in universe fanfiction of these two). Once they're eliminated from the game, the two take a private moment together (paid for by one of the previously mentioned competitors) and finally confess, agreeing to try dating. Ever since, they have been attached at the hip, with V working in B's cafe, and B bragging about V every chance he gets. Love wins <3

Lightning Strikes Twice

The Blade has known only violence their whole life. Raised from childhood to be a weapon, they're an efficient, brutal killer. They strike like lightning, swift and deadly, with no room for anything besides the bloodshed they've spent their existence wading through. And they're perfectly fine with it, until they meet the Rope, who looks at them and sees something no one else has: a person, worthy of attention for more than the violence they reap.

The Rope is a cunning man, charming and roguish with a quick smile and a quicker trigger finger. He has big dreams for how to fix a world that's rotten to the core, but no means to accomplish them… until he meets the Blade. What starts as fascination turns to admiration, as he realizes this broken person raised by death might be exactly what he needs to burn away the rot.

Lightning strikes and a fire ignites. The Blade cuts down anyone the Rope asks them to, and the Rope lavishes them with love and praise for every life they take in his name. He gives them purpose and identity outside of what they were created for, and for that they are determined to always stay by the side. They say love changes you for the better, and the Blade is inclined to agree.

#s10 #tournament poll #s10 round 2

[league-of-blorbos]

I've been working on listing as many parallels as I can between Kayn and Rhaast, because I'm just unhinged like that, so here's the ones I noticed so far under the cut:

Design:

SA Kayn has a diamond on his forehead and Rhaast has one on his chest 

Can represent their different mentalities as “brain vs heart”

Kayn is more methodical and efficient in his killings while Rhaast just likes to go in and kill as brutally as possible

Both lose their pupils after transforming and become more “inhuman” looking

Rhaast is obvious how inhuman he looks, SA’s skin turns ghostly pale and has shadows crawling up his arms (in LoR Kayn even gains claws after becoming SA)

The loss of pupils could be another way to show how removed from their humanity they’ve become, “eyes are the window to the soul”

Magic:

Kayn’s magic comes from shadows and Rhaast’s magic comes from the Sun

Day vs Night, Sun vs Moon, Light vs Dark, you get it

Their skins also play with this, Night/Dawnbringer swapped their red/blue coding but Kayn is still dark-coded and Rhaast is still light-coded, and in Odyssey Kayn is now light-coded (golden ora and bright stars) and Rhaast is dark-coded (literally a DARK star)

Kayn’s magic is “incorporeal” and Rhaast’s is “physical”

Kayn can pass through physical objects while Rhaast can use hemomancy to control minds and warp bodies

Kayn is fighting for intangible power and Rhaast is fighting for a physical body, both have what the other desires most

Backstory:

Both were soldiers with war-related trauma

Made for fight for someone else’s immoral goals; Kayn was fighting against Ionia defending from an invasion and Rhaast was fighting against Icathian slaves revolting

Can also play into how they are both reduced down to being weapons; Rhaast is literally trapped within his scythe and Kayn sees himself as a weapon crafted to fight against Noxus (“I am the weapon, you are a tool”)

Both their minds were scarred from witnessing horror they couldn’t handle; Kayn, as a developing child, couldn’t handle the violence of war and Rhaast, who began as a mortal human, couldn’t handle the existential horror of the Void

Other:

Both are fucking lonely and don’t wanna admit it

In all his versions Kayn craves companionship; base Kayn has unwavering loyalty to Zed and sees him as a father figure, Heartsteel becomes like brothers to Kayn even when he thought they’d just be another stepping stone in his career, and Odyssey Kayn sees Rhaast as a friend and still calls from him even after killing Rhaast for power

All the Darkin have been isolated in their weapons for centuries and once they’re free they try to remedy that loneliness; Naafiri embraces being a pack mother, Varus slowly opens his heart to Kai and Valmar, Aatrox calls for the other Darkin to join him for on last battle, and Rhaast chooses to toy and joke with Kayn instead of being cold towards him

Kayn and Rhaast have the potential to set aside their conflict, coexist, "allow themselves to blend" and not be lonely anymore, but both are too stubborn and selfish to even consider the possibility

#am also doing this cuz of a... 'project' I have cooking involving these two #lemme know if I missed a parallel Im sure i overlooked something here #league of legends #lol #leagueoflegends #riot games #shieda kayn #kayn #rhaast #rhaayn #darkin

[team7-headquarter]

Medical nin Sasuke is a top tier AU for sure

Anon, I hope you don't mind me adding some of my headcanons / thoughts because YES IT IS:

I'm begging to watch Sasuke reanimating someone with a controlled electric pulse.

We all know about the sharingan abilities to easily memorize and catch even the littlest of details, right? It'd be perfect for a medic nin who has to identify all types of wounds in the middle of chaotic battlefields. The efficiency would be around 90%.

Sasuke has amazing chakra control too and it deserves to be talked about more.

It is perfectly plausible that in some other universe where Sasuke wasn't as heavily manipulated as the canon verse, he'd seek to reform the system from within by pushing forward the medical agenda in a world full of mindless violence. I bet he wouldn't feel half as powerless if he could save lives with his medical ninjutsu.

Sasuke can become a medic nin out to rebel against the people trying to control him. He could go "I wish I was powerful enough to stop Itachi before he went too far AND knew how to heal my parents before they died".

He could have become interested in medical ninjutsu during his fight with Haku. Faking death? Going for the vital points with brutal efficiency? All awesome stuff.

Sasuke is so similar to Tsunade. Both left the village because they were disappointed and hurting. They lost their brothers, saw the people most important to them get killed, felt betrayed by someone they trusted— and how interesting I'd be to parallel Orochimaru and Itachi search for power, when both of them later help Konoha survive.

He's fight with Itachi would have gone a lot differently. Itachi is sick and wants to die and is manipulating Sasuke further, but what if Sasuke refused to allow it to happen and managed to save him? I love the trope where characters live to pay for their own mistakes instead of "dying to redeem themselves". The character development is worth it all!

He's very observant, more than Naruto or Sakura. He thinks critically, works under pressure, is not afraid of blood or doing what must be done...

He's a field medic through and through. If he wanted to bring back the honor of the Uchiha clan, becoming a medic sounds like a good idea. Do I need to remind everyone that one of the worst nightmares of Naruto was the asshole of Kabuto? And how he was such a pain in the neck because he was a medic nin?

KABUTO AS SASUKE'S MEDIC NIN SENSEI.

Way to turn around and spit into the Uchiha curse of hatred too. The Sharingan is a gift of love— of love and grief. It's a tool to be used so you won't lose anyone like that again, so you can protect your loved ones. It'd shut up Black Zetsu and his Uchiha manipulation.

POISON EXPERT SASUKE? I NEED IT.

Honestly I think it would have been great to create a plotline where Kakashi is too busy seeing himself in Sasuke, it hits him like a truck the moment he becomes aware that he is more than Rin in so many ways.

Sasuke turning to be more like Mikoto than like Itachi or Fugaku!!!!!!

I have so many ideas for this au. Giving Sasuke the power to heal doesn't change who he is at his core, but it influences who he becomes. I'm not saying he won't be bitter or angry— Tsunade and Chiyo were two of the best medic nins around and they were drowning in vices.

It depends on who his mentor could be and he won't be a worse fighter, but!!! Idk, there is a different type of strength in healing...

#shanaruto asks #asks #naruto #Sasuke Uchiha #naruto shippuden #naruto classic

[socially-awkward-skeleton]

tagged by: @direwombat and @madparadoxum (for wip last line)

tagging: @jillvalentinesday @confidentandgood @afarcry5fromstraight @nightbloodbix @roofgeese @inafieldofdaisies @voidika @kyber-infinitygems @clicheantagonist @adelaidedrubman @strafethesesinners @statichvm @neverthesameneveranother @peppertheferalraccoon @josephslittledeputy @marivenah @simplegenius042 @theelderhazelnut @josephseedismyfather @v0idbuggy @florbelles @poetikat @ladyofedens-blog @eclecticwildflowers @shallow-gravy @cassietrn @strangefable @stacispratt @wrathfulrook @aceghosts @chazz-anova

writing tag list here to be added/removed

With the new chapter of American Beasts posted this week I haven't got anything worthwhile there to share, so have some more from Kit's Herald/Role Swap AU Kakia (warnings: for guns, violence, and straight up patricide):

There were countless times she’d pictured doing this, hurting her parents the way they’d hurt her, vengeance for how she was raised. A father’s brutal lack of love. Overbearing and cold. He treated her as no more than an offshoot of himself, just an added limb to his legacy, his memory. Nothing was ever for her, it was all for him. Selfish, conceited and controlling. Her mother’s feigned sympathy, coddling a scared and angry dog, only to try and dress it up for her own amusement. The party trick kept around to amuse the guests, no better than a piece of art on the wall, something her mother could briefly point at to draw attention to it before turning away from her as she always did. 

Boots thundered on shining wood floors, polished to the point you could see your own reflection, clean enough to eat off of and God only knew with the money they were flashing it certainly wasn’t her mother on her hands and knees doing it anymore. Kit’s hand tensed around the grip of her gun, as she passed by the farmhouse style Live, Laugh, Love sign complete with scuffed chalk paint and tarnished metal corners. It was revolting. A mask slapped on top of the horrors that hid underneath, no better than sticking duct tape over a hole punched in a wall. 

“Yes, do it. They deserve it.” The whisper in her head was the only accomplice she needed. “Quiet, quiet. No one will hear you. You’re almost free.”

She turned the corner down the hall and made her way to her father first. The root of all her evils. He broke her, ruined every chance she had at a life of her own. But with his death she’d find her release. No longer bound to him, cutting the cord that had held her to him since birth. 

The door to his office had been shut tight – just as it always was while she was growing up – not to be disturbed. But his law of the land no longer stood with her. The door swung open, the lock clicking open of its own will, and with her gun at the ready, Kit stood in the doorway.

He barely had the time to look up from his monitor to see her. His eyes (ones that had filled her with so much guilt and shame) were spared only a moment to grow wide before a hole was made between them. The blast caused his head to snap back against the headrest, his mouth gaping open in stunned surprise as deep purple blood oozed down from the wound. With no life left in James, he slumped over, his head hitting the keyboard below, the weight of his cheek and forehead causing the keys to clack loudly in response. It was a quicker death than he deserved, but at least he left the world knowing just how excellent a weapon he had made. Quick, clean, efficient.

Unstoppable. 

“Excellent. We’re almost there.” The Voice slithered in her ear, a forked tongue lapping at her lobe. 

Storming the kitchen, her mother had already raced to the security unit by the back door with the sound of the gunshot, but she’d soon find she was as alone as Kit had felt for all those years with no one to turn to, no compassionate ear to listen to her problems, to take her away from the hell of another’s making. Elaine could press the alarm call button over and over and it would serve as much purpose as the cooing she would do over her daughter when she was worn down and told she was some monstrous thing, when she was told God was watching her and that He knew what she was thinking at all times, and that she needed to shape up. 

Seeing the red specter of death that was her daughter enter the room caused Elaine’s heart to race, stumbling backwards into the kitchen island. “Kitty, what’re - what’re you doing here?” Her mother’s eyes glanced around the kitchen, looking for something, anything, to defend herself with, but to no avail. 

Pale eyes tracked her every movement, the same way she’d been trained to. Keeping herself three steps ahead of her mother at all times. Kit lifted her gun, aiming it at her mother’s chest. 

Elaine’s attention turned to the hall her daughter had come from. “You - your father - why? Why are you doing this?”

Kit’s cold, emotionless face slipped into a deep scowl. Teeth bared, she became more animal than human. Her lungs forcing out each anguished breath she’d kept locked up in the cage of her chest for so long. “You’re fucking kidding me, aren’t you?” she rasped. 

“Is this because of the explosion? Some sort of PTSD? We can get you help, Kitty. I can help you.” Elaine opened her arms wide as if to accept her daughter, to embrace the burden of her own bosom.

The anger cracked, a smile pulled at her lips and a laugh trembled out of her. “You, help me? When have you ever done that?”

Watery eyes looking back at her would do nothing to dissuade Kit from her mission, and it was clear that her mother knew it all the same as she crumpled down to the floor, resting up against the kitchen cabinets in fetal position waiting out her inevitable demise, shaking like a lost lamb. 

Every thought she’d ever had about her mother came true in that moment, proof positive she’d been right all along. She was weak. Pathetic. A burden beset upon the world, and Kit was doing her and the rest of mankind a favor, ridding them all of Elaine Cross. 

Sobbing as the cold metal bite of the muzzle of her daughter’s gun was pressed to the top of her head, eyes the color of forget-me-nots stared up at Kit, pleading desperately with her through streams of tears and snot. “Please…what did I ever do to deserve this?”

The empty stare Elaine was met with befit the shell it belonged to. Icy eyes with a darkness to them so deep it was practically bottomless. A machine of her husband’s making, a monster made flesh from within her own rancid womb. A daughter of Cain completing her reflexive duty, something born and bred with a killer instinct. 

“Ask God.”

#wip wednesday #fic: kakia #oc: kit cross #alas james and elaine you had this coming to you #the one timeline where kit gets her sweet sweet justice

[mirrorhouse]

Do you think ocelot is actually horny for torture is it more a Fandom Thing? Idr anything other the snarky kaz quote but that's standard for them.

i think that was kinda the vibe you were supposed to get from him right from his very first appearance, but because of the nature of his character it can be hard to tell when he's hamming it up and putting on a show; he's very rarely genuine.

in mgs1, he's described as a sadist by other characters. he tells snake he doesn't see what he's doing as 'torture', he sees it as sport, and describes his interrogations as 'shows'. it gives you the impression it's a skill he's spent years honing and perfecting, and he wouldn't do that if he didn't genuinely enjoy it.

in mgs3, you see where his appreciation for it all originated: after watching big boss survive brutal beatings and electrocution at the hands of volgin, he says:

"Watching this has made me realize something... it's really not that bad. It's the ultimate form of expression."

in mgsv, he relays to snake how he got his nickname of 'shalashaska', partly by being so efficient at breaking prisoners through torture. in the conversation that kaz quote comes from, ocelot tells him:

"It's not a matter of art. It's about quick, minimal strokes of psychological warfare. That's what gets the answers. And it's the best way to keep both questioner and subject safe. The risks only increase the more the interrogation drags on. At that point, it causes as much pain to the inflicter as the inflicted."

i actually made a post about this months ago (because i think about this often apparently). in my opinion he's being mostly genuine about this. volgin is another character who is described as being sadistic, and you see that he does get sexual gratification from causing and witnessing pain. however, volgin also doesn't care about how far he pushes his 'subjects', and usually kills them if he gets too into it and lets it go on for too long.

ocelot has a more deft touch i guess, and his interrogations have clear goals, rather than just opportunities for violence he can get off on. he sees them as shows or dances with two 'equal' participants, both revealing their real selves, both just as vulnerable as the other in a way.

obviously, he's enjoying himself the whole time (while the other person... probably isn't). he never denies that, either, only takes issue with the way other people describe it.

so yeah, if you want my scholarly opinion on it, even if it's not exactly 'horny' in the traditional sense he still gets a lot of pleasure from interrogation/torture that other people witnessing it pick up on. from his point of view, i think he sees interrogation as a way of letting both himself and his subject/victim express their true uninhibited selves and feelings, and that's what excites him, and makes him work to be so good at it.

#sorry i couldnt just be normal and give you a short answer like 'hm. yea' #mgs #revolver ocelot #ask #long post

[thesimulationswarm]

Balsam, Chapter 4: A Little Cemetery

This is a story about trauma. What trauma does to a person, and what trauma does to a community. And how, in the midst of it, people find their way to joy, delight— even love.

Pairing: Joel Miller x original female character Summary: After the events of tlou, Joel and Ellie try to establish a “normal life” in Jackson, but neither of them are any good at normal. A town doctor tries to care for residents who have experienced unspeakable trauma, and struggles to overcome her own past at the same time. Joel finds himself drawn to her, as their lives become increasingly intertwined. Meanwhile, outside Jackson, troubling things are happening… Rating: explicit 18+ MDNI Word count: 5.7k Warnings: slow burn (there will be smut eventually), canon-typical violence, descriptions of medical situations, trauma/PTSD symptoms, painful adolescent social dynamics, LGBTQ issues, Ellie and Joel figuring out how to be family, Tommy and Joel figuring out how to be family

Series masterlist

At the council meeting, it was Jenna Starkey who saved Dr. Connor. 

She sat up straight, eyes puffy but dry, and looked at the people of Jackson. “He got to die with his wife, his baby, and his dignity. I know it’s what he would’ve wanted.” Maria watched the audience nodding gravely at her words and murmuring among themselves. Most people there had seen enough of violent deaths to know going quickly was better than going slowly. 

But there were dissenters. Big Michael, of course, who felt betrayed by Nina. He’d come to her to save his closest friend, and instead she’d killed him. He was calm today, at least— subdued, the weight of grief settling down into his shoulders.

Archie Hayes, who ran the butcher shop, said Nina “had no right to take the Lord’s work into her own hands.” Maria saw Nina’s eyebrows rise at that, and knew what she was thinking: pretty rich for someone who spent his days eviscerating chickens and sawing through the leg joints of lambs. 

But thankfully Nina kept her mouth shut. Tact wasn’t always her strong suit.

Then there was a group of women from the kitchens, where Starkey had worked. Chrissy, Lena, and shy Marisa Robinson, her face stained with tears. They all came up together and spoke about what the community had lost when Starkey died, and how he hadn’t even been given a chance to survive. The testimony had emotional impact, but it ultimately couldn’t outweigh the opinion of Starkey’s widow.

Maria watched the crowded room carefully, assessing every face and posture. She had experience reading juries, but it was harder when the jury was the size of a small town. Sure, Nina wasn’t on trial— not in any official sense. This was just a discussion of what had occurred on the day that Starkey died. She knew the council members, and knew that given the circumstances, the majority would not favor any sort of formal charge.

But even if most folks approved of Nina’s actions, any serious objections still spelled trouble, and she was alert for signs of them in the meeting room. The doctor could walk freely out of here today, then be attacked in the street tomorrow. She’d seen it before: an accused murderer acquitted, only to be hit by a rival gang. Or simmering tensions could grow over time until they split the town into rival factions.

Maria kept her exterior carefully controlled as she sat there on the dais, but underneath she was edgy, preoccupied. She had wanted to believe that, in the safety of Jackson, they’d moved beyond mercy killings. But after this last brutal winter, their environment was more hostile than ever. Spring had begun, but the patrol attacks hadn’t stopped, and she was afraid that something truly awful was happening outside of Jackson. She could see the signs gathering, like dark clouds massing on the horizon. 

They would need to be prepared.

And she worried about Nina, too. The doctor was efficient and effective at what she did. She clearly cared about Jackson and the people who lived there. But Maria knew that as a person— as a friend— Nina was troubled. She’d seen flashes of it over the years they’d known each other. Nina had that stubborn self-sufficiency, an unwillingness to let other people in. She could be reckless, with her temper and her predilection for dangerous men. And then there were her episodes, when she went flat and unresponsive for hours or even days at a time.

After the incident with Starkey and then Big Michael, she’d shut down like that. Anya and Brandy had to physically lift her from the street where she’d knelt, and hold her arms as they’d walked her back to her place. Maria had followed them and taken Nina upstairs to her apartment above the clinic. She sat her at the kitchen table and made a cup of tea.

Nina had stared down at the cup with empty eyes, and made no effort to lift it to her lips.

And as Maria stood there and watched Nina’s insensate face, she’d wanted to shake her, make her snap out of the trance she was in.

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t pissed off. Not that she disagreed with what Nina had done, exactly, but she was not too pleased with how she’d done it. Not telling Starkey. Not telling Starkey. Doing it out in the street, in front of half the town. The cavalier way she’d administered a lethal injection, then snapped at the dead man’s shocked best friend. It was going to stir people up in Jackson, make things difficult for Maria and certainly for Nina as well. And then the woman wouldn’t even speak or meet her eyes. Yes, Nina couldn’t help it— but it still rankled.

Maria had looked around her kitchen, struck by how sad her living quarters were: the battered table, the single chair, one chipped dinner plate on an otherwise empty shelf. No personal touches— art or flowers or knickknacks. Her home looked abandoned, even though someone lived there.

She’d leaned against the counter, arms crossed, watching the tea grow cold on the table. Her back and her feet ached, but as frustrated as she was, she hadn’t been willing to leave her friend when she was like this. Didn’t want her to “wake up” all alone. So she waited, as shadows slowly lengthened down the peeling wallpaper.

Finally, a flicker of awareness returned to Nina’s features. She shifted in her chair.

“You okay?” Maria asked.

Nina shrugged her shoulders. “Guess so. It’s been a weird day.”

“That’s one word for it.” Maria pointed to the cup, and Nina finally raised it to her lips. “I know you couldn’t save him, Nina. But some people are going to be upset about how things went down.”

Nina was quiet for a long moment, looking out the window at the tangle of tree branches, the darkening sky.

“There’s a quote I think about sometimes,” she spoke softly. “Something an old French doctor wrote. ‘Every surgeon carries about him a little cemetery, in which from time to time he goes to pray, a cemetery of bitterness and regret, of which he seeks the reason for certain of his failures.’”

Maria sighed deeply.

“Girl, you’ve got to get your act together.”

Joel watched from the back of the room, arms crossed over his chest. He was relieved to see which way things were going, but the whole thing was bullshit. Maria and Tommy knew Nina wasn’t a murderer, and they were still parading her up there in front of the town, while they debated what she’d done.

Calling it democracy. He’d seen how democracy could go—what happened in Kansas City, wasn’t that the will of the people?

Nina sat at a table beside the council members, with her dark hair pulled back and her chin held high. He watched her face, but her expression was hard to read— she didn’t look scared, or angry. Maybe just a little sad. She answered the questions people asked politely, matter-of-factly. Didn’t get emotional up there, unlike some of the townspeople.

Ellie was sitting a row in front of him, beside a group of other teenagers. She’d wanted to come here today and see what it was all about. He knew she was feeling anxious about it.

“It’s fucked up,” she told him last night at dinner, shoveling food into her mouth. She’d never stopped eating like a starving animal. “It’s like people here forgot that everyone is gonna die, and now they’re mad at Dr. Connor because she reminded them.”

She was a smart kid. Smarter than him by a mile, which made him proud and also nervous. He stared at the tilt of her small shoulders, the glossy strands of her ponytail. He would’ve liked to sit with her, but he didn’t want to crowd her or embarrass her around the other kids. He was trying to be a good… whatever he was to her.

He was surprised by how relieved he felt when the council announced that, “after hearing from all interested parties,” they felt the doctor’s actions “had been justified by extraordinary circumstances.” Nina stood and Maria walked her out through the back, with a hand pressed between her shoulder blades.

There was a flurry of movement as a woman pushed through the back row roughly and stormed out to the street. It was the quiet girl from the dining hall, the one who always looked scared of Joel. She’d been up there crying like a widow with Starkey’s other coworkers. Bunch of girls who were either sleeping with the guy or wanted to be, hard to be sure.

As the door slammed behind the girl, voices rose in the room. People were getting up from their seats, talking to each other, standing around in small groups or walking down the aisles to leave. There was a lot to gossip about, he supposed.

He moved toward Ellie, who was still with the other kids. As he stepped into her line of site, she shot up from her chair and strode quickly over to him. For a second, he was worried— then he realized what was happening. She didn’t want to talk to him in front of the other teenagers.

Jesus, was he really that embarrassing? He shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to affect a casual stance. 

“Doin’ okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“I’m gonna head home. You wanna come, or…” He trailed off, looking over her shoulder at the clump of kids.

“Actually, some of us were going to go hang out for a bit?”

“Sure, sure. Just, uh, be home before dinner time?”

“Dinner time. Okay.” She gave him a sharp little nod of agreement, then turned to rejoin the group.

He wasn’t really sure what to do with himself now. He saw Tommy up at the front of the room, talking to a few men. Thought for a brief moment of going up there, but he wasn’t ready yet. He still hadn’t spoken to him since that night he’d met Maria at the bar.

Ellie was moving toward the door now, walking with a boy and a girl who both looked vaguely familiar. He watched as she turned her head toward the girl and laughed. Then the boy looked at the two of them, smiling, and said something he was too far away to hear. Now that he could see more of his face, he recognized the kid who was always walking that dog around town. A tall teenager, a little gangly, but with a nice thick head of hair and a brooding look. Ellie smiled back at him.

So that’s why she was so dead set on working with the dogs. She had herself a little crush on the boy who trained them. And it looked like she was actually making friends.

He walked slowly behind the group for half a block, trying to hold back the smile that wanted to erupt across his face. Then he turned off toward home.

The three of them went to an empty house on the north side of town. It was small and a little sad looking, with a caved-in section of roof. The front door was boarded shut, but Brandy led them around to the back, past a lurching, rotting porch and in through the kitchen door. Ellie ran her finger down the coiled cord of a telephone that hung on the wall, feeling the satisfying way it sprang back after she tugged on it.

In the living room, dust swirled through the air and a floral couch sagged against the wall. Brandy plopped down in the middle, and Ellie and Chuy took the sides. Now that they were out of the crowd, Brandy had grown quiet, and Ellie could see the strain on her face.

“Well that was fucking dumb,” Ellie sighed. “I mean, at least they let her go and all. But I don’t see how any of that meeting was necessary.”

“She didn’t have a choice,” Brandy agreed softly. “As soon as I saw him lying there, I thought, ’This guy is going to fucking die.’”

“I still can’t believe you were there for that.” Ellie was honestly a little jealous. She’d never seen anybody die like that, a shot of poison into the vein. Not that she wanted it to have happened, but if it was going to happen— well, she was super fucking curious about it.

Brandy looked queasy, and she realized she’d said the wrong thing. Dumb, dumb, dumb. She tried to think of a more supportive response, but her mind went blank. Why was this so hard?

“I always liked Starkey, you know? He was nice. And I— I’ve never actually— ” Brandy broke off, her voice cracking. She stared down at her lap. Ellie wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, or maybe rub her back reassuringly, below the smooth cascade of her hair. But she wasn’t sure if she should— was that weird? Was it too much?

“I’ve never seen someone die before,” Brandy choked out.

Oh shit. Poor Brandy. She was biting her lip, and Ellie watched the way the sharp line of her teeth indented the delicate skin. Again, she thought about touching her, comforting her. Again, she kept her hands down at her side.

“The first time is hard for everybody,” Chuy spoke gently. “I don’t think anyone really gets over it.”

Brandy turned and looked at him. “I didn’t think it would be so bad, because I’ve known a lot of people who’ve died. But I keep thinking about his face when he died and the weird look his eyes had, and the way he was breathing. It was awful, kind of a rattling, drowning sound.”

Chuy nodded. “I know what you mean. After my dad died, I kept seeing it whenever I closed my eyes.”

“Your dad died?” Ellie was shocked. The way Chuy talked about his dad, she’d thought he was still alive. He was always bragging about the great scientist who had discovered all kinds of things about cordyceps.

Chuy let out a ragged breath. “It was before I came to Jackson. We were surrounded by infected just outside Denver, and he fought them off as long as he could. Really he— he saved my life. He saved Coco, too. She was his dog. He trained her to smell the infections and everything, and I only took over because he was gone.” Ellie thought about the sweet, obedient dog, and how bonded Chuy had always seemed to her. 

“I’m so sorry,” Brandy said, leaning closer to Chuy.

“As soon as the infected were all dead, he began to walk back towards me and Coco. And that’s when Coco started barking at him—she’d never barked at him before. And I knew right away what that meant. I don’t think he realized until then, either, because he looked down at his arm and he had this horrified look when he saw where he’d been bitten. And then he just… shot himself.”

“Jesus,” Ellie breathed. She saw Riley’s face, contorted with pain, how it had looked that day in the the fucking Halloween store. Facing defeat. Way I see it, we got two options.

“There are these little things I thought about for a long, long time,” Chuy went on. “Like how Coco looked at him with her teeth barred, snarling at him. Or the way his arm jerked as he pulled the trigger.”

Ellie nodded— she knew about those kind of memories, too. You really didn’t get over your first time. The look in Riley’s eyes, when she wasn’t Riley anymore. It was same look Sam had that day in the motel. And the way they’d both charged her… She blinked, trying to clear the pictures out of her mind.

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, and looked at Chuy. His face was serious and sad, but calm. She didn’t understand how he could just talk about this kind of stuff. Whenever she even thought about it she felt like she couldn’t breathe, like she was drowning on land.

And that was when she saw it— Brandy and Chuy, holding hands. 

Their arms were resting on the couch between them, their fingers intertwined. There was something so casual about their posture, like… like they’d done this before.

She wanted to throw up.

She was a fucking idiot. Brandy wasn’t like her, and she didn’t like Ellie, no matter how much she laughed at her jokes. Chuy and Brandy were wired the right way, the normal way. Like Joel and Tommy and Maria and maybe everyone else in this godforsaken town, except her.

Joel was cooking dinner when he heard the door bang open, followed by the sound of feet stomping rapidly up the staircase.

“Ellie?” He called out. No answer.

“Ellie?” He repeated himself, louder this time. Again, no answer.

He sighed, turning the burner on the stove down to its lowest setting and wiping his hands on a dishrag. He stopped to pick up the jacket she’d tossed on the floor in the entryway— no matter how many times he’d told her, she never hung it up.

The door to her room was shut. He stood at the top of the stairs for a second, trying to decide what he should do, then stepped forward and rapped on the door with his knuckles.

“What?”

“Can I come in?”

“Fine.” Her voice was clipped, affecting annoyance, but underneath that he could hear the quiver she was trying to suppress. She was crying, or had been crying. His heart sunk.

She was sitting by the window, knees drawn up to her chest. She didn’t turn to acknowledge him when he walked in, kept herself angled toward the gray sky outside. Still, he could see that her face looked puffy and blotched, eyes ringed with pink.

“You doin’ okay?”

She took a sharp breath in. “What the fuck do you think?”

He sat down on the edge of her bed, a few feet from her. 

“What happened?” Just a couple hours ago she’d seemed so happy. Walking down the street with her friends, her body loose and light. Whatever upset her, it made the rage well up in him like a fountain. If those kids were mean to her, so help him God he’d snap their little necks.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she replied bitterly.

“I might.”

She huffed out something between a snort and a sigh. “No, you wouldn’t. You don’t know what it’s like to be a fucking freak.”

He felt sick to his stomach, remembering how hard he’d gone at her over working with the dogs. Telling her she needed to be careful, that people would turn on her if they found out, drive her out of town or worse. How was a girl supposed to settle in and make friends with that hanging over her head?

“Ellie.” She wouldn’t look at him, twisting her head further away, her shoulders hunched protectively. He moved over to the windowsill and lowered himself beside her.

“There’s nothin’ wrong with you, Ellie. You’re not a freak, you’re— you’re a—” He faltered, trying to find the right words.

Her head whipped around and she pinned him with her eyes. Angry, anguished, pleading. “What do you think I am?”

“You’re a miracle,” he said softly.

She shook her head at him, then took a deep breath, opening her mouth as if to say something. But no words came. After a moment, her face crumpled and she leaned forward to bury herself against his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her. He rubbed circles against the bird wings of her shoulders, feeling them heave as she sobbed against him.

“Shhh, shhh. Shhh, s’okay.”

Jack and Old Michael had asked Tommy to help with enlarging the sheep enclosure. He knew it was going to be a long day’s work, digging out fence post holes by hand. Now that the ground had finally thawed and farm work could begin in earnest, there were a thousand back-breaking jobs like this to keep him busy in the coming months.

Not that he truly minded a day’s work in the sun. He whistled as he walked toward the barn, auger slung over his shoulder. When he rounded the corner into the field, work was already well underway. Michael was laying down markers along the far end, while Jack was up near the gate, throwing his post hole digger at the ground with all the force his wiry body could muster.  

A few feet away from him, Joel was kneeling, hacking away at the roots of a scrubby bush that was in the way. Tommy’s heart sped up— it’d been a good two weeks since he and Joel had spoken. He’d seen his brother in passing, but he wouldn’t so much as meet Tommy’s eyes.

Tommy knew he’d fucked up. Maria had made it plenty clear to him, that night she came home after running into Joel at the bar. He should’ve told Joel as soon as he and Ellie returned from their trip to the Fireflies. But they’d both seemed so worn down and troubled, that day when they’d stumbled back into Jackson. He knew Joel’s moods, was used to tiptoeing around his rage, taking care not to poke the bear. He’d figured he should give them some time to settle in before explaining why Maria had to know about Ellie. And then… well, the time had never seemed right.

And he was a coward when it came to his brother. Had been since he was knee high to a grasshopper.

As he approached, Joel looked up. Tommy could tell by the way his eyes widened that he wasn’t expecting to see him there, either. He stole a glance at Old Michael; even from this distance he could see the amusement on the man’s face. He sighed. Little old fucker thought he was playing matchmaker, getting the feuding Miller brothers out here to build a fence together.

At least there was work to be done. Tommy set himself up a little ways down from Jack, drilling out the next hole. He felt sweat starting to bead on his forehead as he leaned his weight into his arms, wrenching the handles of the auger around and around.

The four men settled into a rhythm with each other, despite the tension hanging in the air. Despite Tommy and Joel not exchanging one word. They took turns digging holes and clearing brush, setting poles and tamping dirt. It was chilly but not freezing, and the work kept them plenty warm.

Around noon they took a break, cooling down in the shadow of the barn. Jack’s sister, Roberta, brought out sandwiches and iced tea. Bread, cheese, pickles, and hefty slices of chicken— it tasted so damn good after all that work. 

Joel had sat down as far away from Tommy as he could, on the far side of Jack and Old Michael. But after they finished eating, the two other men excused themselves to go use the facilities, conveniently leaving the brothers alone. Subtle as a goddamn sledgehammer, those guys. 

But in truth, he was grateful for the chance.

Tommy looked out across the field, not sure how to start. There was so much he wanted to say to his brother, and a lot of it he’d probably never find a way to put into words. 

“I’m sorry, Joel.”

“Don’t.” The response came swiftly, a warning.

“I should’ve told you. I feel terrible about it.”

“You shouldn’t’ve told her in the first place,” Joel hissed. 

“It was the night before you left. I thought I was gonna be the one leaving with Ellie in the morning. And I knew it was dangerous. There was a real chance I wouldn’t come back.” Tommy kept his voice soft and even, trying not to let Joel draw him into yet another fight. “I couldn’t walk out on my pregnant wife, maybe for good, without her even knowing why. I couldn’t risk my child growing up not knowing me, and thinking it was ‘cause I didn’t care.”

Tommy looked at his brother. Shoulders set, jaw taut, radiating tension. But he was quiet at least. Not yelling and not storming off, which counted as a victory when it came to Joel.

“But I was gonna do it, Joel. I was gonna take the chance I’d never see my kid grow up, for you. It wasn’t— it wasn’t really about the cure.”

Joel let out a long breath. They sat for a moment in silence.

“And Maria let me go,” Tommy continued. “I know you think she hates you—“

“She does.”

“Okay, she does. But she trusts me when I say I need to do what’s right. And I trust her. You’ve got to know that she’s safe,” he said, his voice pleading. “She’s family now, Joel. Like it or not.”

He could see Joel clenching and unclenching his fist, that nervous habit he had. He took a few deep breaths, then finally turned to look Tommy squarely in the eyes. There was anger in his expression, but mostly there was sadness. And the cold glint of fear.

“I’ve accepted that, Tommy. But I need you to understand, too. Ellie—Ellie is family now, too. We protect her. Like she’s one of our own.”

Nina stood in the dining hall, tray in hand, looking for a place to sit. She was conscious of eyes on her, sizing her up. A feeling akin to being in a middle school cafeteria. She’d avoided coming here for the past week or so, but she couldn’t stay away forever. And anyway, she had business to see to today.

The Millers were all sitting together for a change— Tommy, Maria, Joel, and Ellie. They looked happy, the four of them, as they talked over their dinner. Even Joel looked a little lighter, the brow not as pinched and the scowl not cut so deep. He looked younger when he wasn’t so surly, she noticed. He must’ve wrecked some hearts in his day, with that jawline and those curls and the solid muscle bunching below his shirt. He could probably wreck some hearts right now, here in Jackson, but from what she’d seen he wasn’t terribly interested in that.

As she approached, he looked up suddenly. His eyes caught on hers, wide and dark and a little surprised to find her watching him. Then he looked back down at his plate, suddenly seeming very interested in his potatoes.

“Mind if I join for a minute?” Nina gestured toward an empty chair at one end of the table, beside Tommy and Maria.

“Doc! Please, have a seat.” Tommy gave her a warm smile, and she felt a little rush of gratitude for his friendliness. She liked to pretend she didn’t care what people thought of her, but the past couple of weeks had been rough. Not just the occasional nasty looks, but the general sense of discomfort people had around her, the awkwardness and trepidation and pity.

“I won’t stay long. Don’t want to interrupt your family time. But I do need to check in with you all about something.”

“Nina.” Maria fixed her with one of her looks. “You know you’re always welcome here, and you know you can’t stay in your apartment all day. Stay and eat.”

So she tried to sit and be companionable as she worked through her serving of stew, but her mind was elsewhere. She knew Maria was worried about her and was trying to be supportive by insisting she join their family dinner. But the more stressed she felt, the less she wanted to be around people, putting on a performance of normalcy. She’d rather be back in her clinic, studying her medical textbooks or preparing elderberry tinctures or something productive. Not making small talk with the Millers, however nice they might be.

She was also acutely conscious of Joel sitting a few few away, and keeping quiet much like she was. Twice she looked up just as his eyes were skidding away from her. Was he watching her because she’d been watching him? Or was he just… watching her?

“So Doc,” Tommy began, “you said you had something to talk to us about?”

She set down her spoon. “I have to go to Lava Hot Springs next week, to meet Mo. Starkey was supposed to go with me, like he did in the fall.”

“Shit.” Tommy rubbed an anxious hand along the back of his neck. “I completely forgot.”

“You’re going to meet the smuggler? That’s so fucking cool,” Ellie broke in, eyes shining.

“Ellie,” Joel admonished her quietly.

“What? You know it’s cool.”

“I know it’s unfortunate timing, but I’ve got to meet him. We’re going to be in bad shape if I don’t.”

“No, you’re right. We can’t afford to miss the rendezvous.” Maria looked pensive, running through the logistics in her head. “Someone else needs to go with you. It’s too dangerous to travel that way alone.”

“I hate to say this,” Tommy said with a sheepish look in her direction. “But I think most folks’d be hesitant to go with you right now, Nina. Not for any good reason, but they might be afraid that…” He trailed off.

“What, like she’s gonna execute them if they sprain an ankle or something? That’s bull-“

“Ellie!” 

Joel was glaring daggers at the girl, but Nina flashed her a smile. Tommy was right: people might not want to join her on a trip right now. But Ellie was also right: it was bullshit.

There was a moment of silence, everyone thinking through the options. Then Tommy spoke. “I’ll go.”

Nina caught the way Maria’s eyes flicked at his, widening in alarm, before she composed herself. She knew Maria didn’t want him going on any more patrols, not when she was so close to her due date, and not when things outside Jackson had been so treacherous. Tommy, for his part, didn’t look terribly happy about the plan, but he was resolute: it had to be done.

“No, Tommy. You gotta stay with Maria now. I’ll go.” Everyone turned to look at Joel, who went back to spooning soup into his mouth, nonchalantly.

“That could work,” Tommy mused.

“Is that okay with you, Nina?” Maria was giving her a look she didn’t quite understand— studying her, warning her maybe.

The thing that was disturbing him was that Ellie wasn’t mad. She was annoyed and a little mopey about being left behind, but she wasn’t getting in his face and blowing up at him. She left him alone while he packed his rucksack with clothes and supplies.

He didn’t like it. Kept thinking about what Nina had told him that night in the bar. It’s a good thing that Ellie’s acting out. It’s what teenagers did in normal times.

She hadn’t gone out to work with the dogs, either. Not since that day last week when she came home in tears. He’d even told her, with a great deal of discomfort, that it was okay if she wanted to keep doing it. 

She’d given him a shocked look, but then she just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “I dunno, I’m not really that into it anymore.”

“What about… somethin’ else? Some other kind of farm work? Or maybe somethin’ with food, like the bakery?”

“Um, maybe. I guess I’ll talk to Maria about it when you’re gone.”

She had that flatness about her that she got now and then. She’d been that way for a long time after he’d gotten stabbed and she’d been taken by those goddamn fundamentalist creeps. He’d worried then that there was a side of her that was gone for good. That was the way he felt about himself— that parts of the man he’d once been were buried too deep to ever get back.

But she’d resurfaced from that, eventually. She was probably stronger than him, in addition to smarter. Still though, occasionally she would get that look in her eyes. Or that lack of a look, that kind of sad emptiness. It made him feel sick. And he didn’t really know how to help her, because he himself had never learned how to overcome that kind of pain. He just lived like a twisted version of himself in its shadow.

Now he was leaving her while she was in one of those moods, and he felt awful about it. He thought about offering not to go, but he couldn’t do it to Tommy. As he’d reminded Joel, his brother had been willing to put his life on the line for him. For him and for Ellie. And now it was his turn, to look after Tommy and Maria and the baby.

And then there was Nina. He kept thinking about her, and kept trying not to think about her. Kept thinking it was a bad idea to go on this trip with her, when for weeks he’d been daydreaming about her while he fucked his fist in the shower. He barely knew how to act when he was around her in mixed company. How would he get through a week on the road, just the two of them?

There were a number of reasons why he’d hadn’t made any kind of move on her, and didn’t intend to. She was young and tough and smart as a whip, and she was frankly out of his league. He hadn’t hooked up with someone new in over a decade and he wasn’t sure he even remembered how. He’d had no reason to think she was interested.

But despite all that, he wanted to be near her. He wanted to hear her talk with her low, melodic voice. He wanted to look at her dark eyes and darker lashes, the bronze expanse of her skin. The way her hands moved, skillful and gentle, and the way her wide hips swayed as she walked.

She was the fishhook; he was the fish.

#tlou fanfiction #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller #joel miller x original character #tlou fic #the last of us fanfiction #Ellie Williams #Tommy Miller #Maria Miller #tlou fluff #tlou show #tlou #joel miller angst #tlou angst #joel miller series

[deeper-x-deeper]

I've been considering exactly what it means to me to be dominant.

what exactly is it that draws me to it? which aspects of it do I enjoy more than others? I can tell that my dominance style isn't exactly the kind you see often, so it leaves me wondering.

so many dominants out there relish the ability to bend and break a submissive through tactics that are a little more forceful. exerting their power and demanding respect, relying mostly on the submissive's consent to the dynamic in order to uphold it.

obviously there's nothing wrong with this style. it appeals to quite a large audience, considering how prevalent it can be.

but I find myself taking a somewhat different approach.

I prefer using a soft touch, a gentle guiding hand, the only force lying within my words, and only to indicate through tone of voice the difference between a statement and a command.

and I'm also delving into the why of all of this, of course. always looking for the why.

why do I prefer it this way? especially since, when I have the chance to be submissive, I do also enjoy the more typical approach.

I think I may have the answer, so if you'll allow me to ramble for a little bit I'll try to explain as best as I can.

it starts with a book I was obsessed with from a young age.

my favorite novel when I was between the ages of about 9 and 13, was White Fang by Jack London.

I remember reading it over and over and over and over, devouring every line on every page, captivated by every single word, and no matter how many times I read it, I would always want to read it again.

because, you see, even though the book describes itself as a gripping tale of a wild animal desperately fighting against nature and the Wild to survive, that's not at all what I got out of it.

to me, it wasn't a story of trials and tribulations, of trauma, of abuse, but rather a story about the nature of respect.

it was a story of a wild animal, yes, but one that found itself living among humans who all have different meanings of the word respect.

his first handlers used him as a tool, as a means to get something done, respected for his usefulness, but violently beaten down at the first sign of disobedience. respect out of fear, but a respect nonetheless.

his next set of handlers turned him into a killing machine. one so effective that he was removed from the fighting ring not because he failed, but because he was too successful, too efficient of a killer to be entertaining anymore. respected out of fear, his handlers communicated in the same language of violence he faced every day in the ring.

this isn't a book report, but this brief summary is important for my point.

because my point is where our wild animal finds himself at the end.

after a lifetime of being beaten to submission, forced to respect others out of fear of punishments so violent and frequent that they no longer served as a deterrent

only for the man to finally make him submit

to finally make him obedient without fault

is the one that decides to treat this creature with kindness, and make an effort to build trust.

a gentle hand, a kind word, is all that it takes to make this lethal force of nature bend to someone else's will.

while his punishments before were usually enacted through brutal physical violence, this new handler only has to say a firm word, or give a light tap

and it's far more effective than any beating ever was.

because to be chastised by someone who is more commonly kind means more than to be beaten into submission by someone known to be aggressive.

and that's exactly the energy that I like to bring to my own style of dominance.

I may be gentle. I may not use much force, unless of course I am asked to.

but that's because I don't need to.

I don't dominate by creating fear, I do it by building trust.

of course a submissive will obey if you threaten them with punishments, because fear is an effective motivator.

but consider a submissive that obeys their dominant, not out of fear or even respect

but because they trust their dominant so completely that they know it will always be safe and fun for them to obey.

they can trust that when they submit to me, I will provide an experience that falls within the things they enjoy. that if I push a limit, that the push is all it is, and I will never actually cross the line. that even if my command seems strange, that I have a purpose for giving it at all, one that has only your best interests in mind.

because dominance, to me, isn't about the power or the authority, but in having someone trust me to handle them with care.

and that kind of trust is the highest form of respect for me.

because how can you believe someone truly respects you if they don't trust you, too?

#this is. a long one. #this isn't even about hypnosis or anything #just the dynamic in general #anyway if you read this I hope any of it made sense #I wanted to post this mostly to see if anyone else sees it like this #personal thoughts

[my-dumb-obsessions]

Reishni & Lae'zel

THEM!!! Them Them Them!

In camp sometime between Acts 2 and 3, Isobel (btw, that she survived Act 2 when Reishni wanted SO badly to kill her is a trip and a half)...Isobel asks him, "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

Reishni thinks back to the moment he met Lae'zel, when she threatened him at sword point, and answers, "Absolutely, there's magic in a look."

He didn't actually know then - he didn't know much of anything but his name and the shattered flashes of violence in his head. But she made sense to him, made him feel normal, without even trying. An offhand comment here or there, "Killing is good, it culls the weak." Agreeing that sometimes violence is the answer and any warrior worth their salt thirsts for blood.

And she is such a warrior herself. Brutal, efficient, intelligent...

But it was her wistful look as she gazed at the moon and the scattering of rocks that ringed it, one of which was her home, when she fondly remembered it as the place she murdered her cousin on her teacher's command that made him go, "Oh..."

Of course he'd submit to her when she asked, let go of the reins on himself he tried to hold so tightly. If he lost control, she'd put him down without hesitation. Of course he would prove himself worthy of her in a language they both understood, with a force of will and desire that left them both bloody. And when she asked him for tenderness, he'd turn his heart inside out to give it to her, and admit that he wanted it, too.

She defied her queen - she defies all logic sometimes, and even the laws of physics. She is indomitable, and together, they can surely put down a god...or three.

#lae'zel #the dark urge #durge #durgezel #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 oc #oc reishni #this went longer than i expected #i just really love them #bg3 screenshots #my game screenshots #doc's fanfics #bg3 spoilers #dark urge spoilers

[crossxroads]

im sorry for asking this cuz you're probably busy with other asks but can I get the main 3 x reader who practices taekwondo?

Sorry that this took so long! School and life hit me pretty hard. This topic was really fun though!

Main 3 and Taekwondo!Reader

For those who don’t know: Taekwondo is a martial art that prioritizes kicking and punching as its main source of techniques. It can be used in conjunction with melee weapons, however, It is primarily a defensive art that doesn’t focus on pure violence as a method of ending fights. As such, our dear Reader fights defensively and will often do their best to leave their opponents alive (though, admittedly, very unconscious).

Deimos

He honestly finds your flexibility rather impressive, not to mention your balance and ability to stay on your feet despite executing several moves that involve jumps and near flips. He also admires the sheer force behind your blows.

Like, yeah, he can lug Hank around pretty well, but Dei’s always been more of a distance fighter. He can mano-y-mano in a pinch and well, Nevada pinches back a lot.

So he finds you,,, really cool. How you’re just willing to go in the fray sometimes and kick some major ass with only disables and blocks.

You could probably throw him over your shoulder too and he’d thank you for it.

He also wouldn’t mind the occasional spar between just the two of you, if just so he can spend some time seeing how you execute all these neat moves.

He also finds you pretty calming, likely because you don’t seem to emanate the murder urge that most folks have.

Hank

They find you pretty confusing, Hank's always been a person of violence and bloodshed so it's baffling sometimes to encounter someone who fights so cleanly but rarely draws blood or kills.

They may think of you weak for this, that you're too soft to land the killing blow.

But at the same time, you're a survivor. You've lasted so long even with these pacifistic ways of ending fights and knocking out people yet you still live.

There's strength in how you move and how you act. The sheer restraint in your hits and blows.

If they see you, truly and utterly enraged. The brutal beating you give—but still leaving your attackers sprawled and unconscious, skin darkening with broken blood vessels. It's entrancing.

He finds himself wanting to see more. What will happen if you encounter an enemy too strong for your methods to work? Would you then use tooth and nail to tear them apart? Or would you finally pick up a firearm and unleash true carnage?

He kind of wants to study you.

Sanford

Like Hank, he’s a little bewildered by you not killing people. Sanford’s always been more of the brawler to Deimos’ support so he’s more hands-on and willing to do permanent and major harm—especially given how his bounty has torture listed to get important information. He does admire strength and speed, which you’ve got plenty in spades.

Unlike Hank, he more or less finds your unwillingness to kill cute. 

Maybe a little pathetic, but he won’t deny that he enjoys seeing people go up against you and fail miserably before they get knocked out. 

He’d also like to spar with you, seeing as a lot of the moves you use, while defensive, can be used efficiently as brutal attacks. Simply because you get someone right where you want them and defenseless. 

He’s kind of a cheerleader sometimes if you go into a fight with semi-overwhelming odds. The rest of the squad has your back, but golly it’s so cool to see all the acrobatics and rolls you can do to get out of a tight squeeze.

Can you get a “HELL YEAH?”, cause he definitely will give you one.

#madness combat #madness combat x reader #sanford madcom #deimos madcom #hank j wimbleton #hank madness combat #hank x reader #sanford x reader #deimos x reader #reader does martial arts #x reader #[x] ask #[x] anon

[wnderlvnd]

OUROBOROS | YUNHO

SYNOPSIS: it was at first sight when you finally believed in someone other than yourself. yunho catches your gaze from across the room, all red, red, and rust-red. all hurt and empty. he doesn’t look away. you see the human in him and that means there is no greater threat if he’s the one by your side. 

(he will be the one to kill you. you’ll make sure of it.)

tags: GN reader, murder, betrayal, depictions of violence 

here’s a fic concept:

thinking of a world where death games happen, and there’s only two kinds of people who fight: as punishment or as entertainment. the rules are simple: win enough and maybe you walk out alive. you know why you’re in the games, know what you’ve done to fight for freedom when it was taken away from you, so when you see yunho, you don’t know why he’s there. 

he has none of the lust for blood or amusement for killing nor does he have the heavy shame or desperation it takes to reclaim his life. he’s stoic, emotionless, he survives because of it. you know because he’s been in the games for as long as you have. 

and, when you have another match and yunho is one of the contestants, you pay him no mind and kill the others. you collect your bodies, move with brutal efficiency. you’re good. reliable. you have to be. it’s why the inner circle has its chains on you. 

it’s when you jerk your shiv out of a body that you realize you two are the last ones standing. the air between you charged, electric, striking. he looks like a corpse in the moonlight. 

you don’t want to kill him, not really, but your choices have already been made. it’s kill or be killed. he steadies himself, body tense and ready to strike. you do the same. 

you take one step forward–

and the announcement rings out. two survivors. you imagine the audience’s ire, the wave of disappointment that ripples throughout the nation. you shrug it off, slipping into a cold mask. there’s something strange in the way yunho looks at you, like he’s gazing through you at something you don’t know yourself. 

you turn away, you don’t want to know any more burdens.

your performance that day lets you live comfortably until the next match. it isn’t until a messenger comes by that you realize it isn’t over yet. the inner circle wants you to have a partner, to make a duo that will create a storm.

you and yunho. 

your life is his and his is yours. you think of the strength in his hands, the bulk of his arms, the blood that stains him, you think of the way he trembles at survival. then, you think of the weight of his gaze and you wonder what it takes to move a man like him, what it means for him to live. 

a narrative forms in your head. you two will have a bond, sanctified by blood, honored by loss. it’s inevitable, the shackles that bind you both, the ways you will hurt each other. you’ll make him care, you’ll make him want to live again, you’ll plant a seed in his heart that’ll fester in him. then, you’ll make him kill you. 

you might think it impossible, hope and happiness an arm’s reach away, so close you could grasp it in your hands and keep it, but you forget yourself. 

perhaps it was in the ways yunho gave himself to you. his hurt, his joys, his dreams. the way he talked about life like it mattered, like it was something worth living. you let yourself indulge, just a little. 

light breaks through the windows in a glorious glow and you haven’t felt this warm in years. you made it. you’re home. there’s food on the table and your safe bed is waiting for you. you see it, then, with your heart wringing out of you. you see what yunho talks about when he talks about living. 

you open your eyes and there’s a gun to your head, cold and unmovable. the hand trembles. it’s you or him again. it’s an easy choice. always has been. because your choices have always been made, it’s been written since the beginning. 

kill or be killed.

you had thought yunho to be unbreakable, unmoveable. he shrugged off every obstacle in his way and made it out alive. you wondered once, what it would take to make him fold, to make him snap. the answer is simple.

all it takes is a kiss. you wish you had more time.

when his wretched face mirrors your heartache, you can’t help but think it’s symmetry. 

you take one breath, and you’re gone in the next. 

don’t be sad. it’s okay because this is the greatest kindness you’ve ever known, after all, the dead don’t bury themselves. 

#ateez fic #ateez x reader #yunho x reader #fic concept #my writing #*waves hands* or something like that