#[ooc] i was thinking she's still coming to terms with how he's right here in front of her instead of

[fallingstqrss]

kiss it better

request: can you do a one-shot just like the scene where coryo goes insane because he thinks that the reader left him in the cabin but she didn't and they just go to spend some quality time.

a/n: thank you so much for the request i love this idea!

summary: following the death of Mayflower and Billy Taupe you and coriolanus decide to flee the districts, hoping to avoid the persecution of the peacekeepers. however, when you seem to get lost in the woods coriolanus panics.

warnings: there is a brief description of mayfair's death but it's not detailed. coriolanus might be slightly ooc cause this is my first time writing him but i swear im trying my best.

Coriolanus had made a huge mistake. he hadn't meant to kill Mayfair, he just panicked. He was just going to let her leave but then you walked in, making you a part of Sejanus' horrible plan.

"What's going on?" You spoke, eyes moving from Coriolanus to the weapons that lay on the table. Coriolanus saw as your eyes widened and he hurried to comfort you. "Corio, what's going on?" You questioned again, clutching onto his bicep, hoping for reassurance.

"Y/n, it's gonna be fine-" Coriolanus started, attempting to soothe you as he ran a hand across your cheek.

"Oh, none of you are going to be fine. I'm gonna tell my Daddy what all of you did and he's gonna string you up!" Mayfair spoke in an almost taunting tone. Her threat casts a chilling shadow over the room. As Mayfair turned to leave Spruce, fueled by tension and adrenaline, raised the gun to her back.

"I can't let you leave," Spruce spoke. Y/n took an unconscious step back, recoiling from the potential for violence. Coriolanus could tell you were scared and he felt horrible for being the reason you were involved in this. His mind was racing, he knew he had to get you out of there.

"She's bluffing, she won't actually do anything." Billy Taupe defended, eager to avoid any harm that might come to his girlfriend and to deescalate the growing tension in the room.

"Really? Was I bluffing at the reaping? Tell me Lucy Gray, how did you like your time in the Capitol?" Mayfair spoke, eyes staring at Lucy Gray, who gasped. Mayfair smiled as she turned to leave. Coriolanus jumped at the opportunity, lunging for the weapon on the ground. In a single second Mayfair had fallen to the ground. You gasped, your eyes fixated on Mayfair's fallen figure. Coriolanus was quick to shield you from the unsettling sight, positioning himself in front of you.

"I need you to go home y/n. I'm going to get this figured out. But you need to go home right now and you can't look like anything is wrong," He spoke, his tone firm and filled with urgency. "y/n, please." Coriolanus spoke again when you didn't move. You had stood still, trying to process the events that had just unfolded in front of you. Finally, you looked up at Coriolanus, a nod of reluctant understanding breaking through your shock. You trusted Coriolanus, he would get you guys out of this.

Coriolanus watched you leave, a mixture of relief and worry painted on his face. Once you were out of sight, he turned back to the remaining people in the room. He was determined, now that your safety was at risk nothing else mattered.

That's how the two of you ended up here, walking through the woods, in search of life beyond the districts. Despite some attempts at small talk, the weight of the recent events hung heavily in the air. Coriolanus could sense you were struggling to come to terms with the deaths of Mayfair and, more importantly, your shared friend Sejanus.

"I just don't understand what happened. Sejanus' plan was horrible but he seemed like he was being careful," You rambled on, your voice heavy with confusion and grief. You were unaware of Coriolanus' involvement in the death of your friend. You also didn't notice the tension of the captured Coriolanus at the mention of Sejanus.

"He apparently wasn't careful enough," Coriolanus responded, his tone colder than usual, a deliberate attempt to steer away from the conversation surrounding Sejanus. He longed to focus on the two the two of you would spend together, the new life you could start. Coriolanus was taken aback when you came to an abrupt stop, forcing him to backtrack to stand in front of you. You stared up at him, your eyebrows furrowed.

"Do you not mourn for Sejanus at all, Corio?" You spoke, your eyes reflecting the sadness and confusion that weighed you down. Coriolanus felt a pang of guilt for being distant. However, the truth of Sejanus' death was a burden that he couldn't bear to share with you. He knew you would've never forgiven him.

"Of course, I do," Coriolanus spoke, his tone softer now in an attempt to console you. Coriolanus brought a hand to cup your cheek. "But, it was his actions that killed him." You still seemed unsure, offering a careful nod before turning your gaze to the ground. Coriolanus dropped his hand, moving to walk next to you again.

Eventually, the two of you arrived at the cabin shown to you by Lucy Gray and the Covey. Coriolanus couldn't shake the feeling of your silence, finding it unsettling. The two of you walked into the cabin, setting your things down. "We should fish for a while, we're going to need some food for the rest of the trip," Coriolanus suggested.

"Lucy Gray said there should be some poles under the floorboards," You spoke, avoiding eye contact with Coriolanus as you hung your belongings on the hooks by the door.

Coriolanus nodded, moving towards the boards he found to be loose. He lifted the boards, his eyes widening as he lifted the sheet to reveal the guns that had been used to kill Mayfair. You observed from across the room, a twinge of concern gracing your features. "What is it, Corio?" You questioned, his familiar nickname being a small sense of comfort in the moment of the unsettling discovery. He remained silent, picking up the gun as he turned to face you. Your breath caught in your chest as you saw the weapon, your mind flashing back to the violent events.

"It's the guns," Coriolanus stated, his eyes moving between the weapon in his arms and you. "This means we can go home," You hummed, nodding in agreement. The revelations held the promise of an escape. The promise of a way home. But, they also unearthed memories Coriolanus knew you could never fully forget.

"I'm going to see if I can find anything to eat around the lake, maybe that one root Lucy Gray mentioned," You spoke quickly, shaking your head as she grabbed one of the small shovels left near the door.

"Y/n, wait," Coriolanus spoke, sensing the uneasy energy that surrounded you. "It could be dangerous," Coriolanus spoke, his protective nature kicking in. You smiled as you recognized his instinct to protect you.

"Well, it's a good thing I've got this," You spoke, attempting a teasing tone as you held up the shovel. You could tell Coriolanus didn't quite believe you and you hurried out of the door. Coriolanus was worried for you but brushed off the interaction, trusting that you could take care of yourself. He rewrapped the guns, hoping to drop them into the lake, burying the echoes of the past.

Coriolanus stepped outside heading towards the boat. His eyes circled his surroundings, hoping to find you. However, he didn't see you. He looked around again, his breathing becoming more ragged as he called out for you. He was met with the horrifying echo of his own voice, no response from you.

You had ventured into the forest after finding that Katniss was not ready to be eaten. You had hoped to find some berries, remembering the ones Maude Ivory had collected for you to eat. You attempted to ignore the way the trees seemed to close in on you, the path you thought you knew being erased. You ignored those thought, you had been going in a straight line, there were no place to get lost along the way.

"They should be up here," You whispered to yourself, letting out a sigh as you hoped to break the silence that lay within the forest. The rustling leaves and distant calls of birds engulfed you as you moved throughout the forest.

You had been walking for a while, looking around you realized you have never been in this part of the forest, a sign that you had gone way too far. You turned in various directions, spinning around as you searched for the way you came. Panic began to set in as you quickened your pace, unfortunately leading you to venture deeper and deeper into the forest.

In her disoriented state, you failed to see the root sticking out of the ground. Her foot caught on the root, causing you to stumble forward. Desperation clawed at you as you tried to regain your balance. However, the forest had other plans.

A divot in the ground forced you to the ground as your hands reached out to break your fall. The forest floor met you with a sickening thud, your head colliding with a moss-covered rock. The world around you spun, the pain in your head intensifying with every breath you took. As your consciousness slipped away, the forest seemed to blur into a blend of green and brown, the shadows seeming to dance together in a mesmerizing rhythm.

Back at the cabin Coriolanus grew restless as he awaited your return. The seconds felt like hours as he stared at the tree line, willing you to appear. Finally, Coriolanus was sick of waiting and decided that he would find you himself.

As he ventured into the forest the trees seemed to swallow him. His breaths came out fast, each step propelling him further into the silent forest. Anxiety was clawing at his chest, hundreds of what-ifs raced in his mind.

"Y/n? Did something happen? If something happens we can talk about it!" Coriolanus shouted, pausing as he awaited a response. But he didn't receive one, he only had the rustling leaves to greet him. The silence that surrounded him was deafening.

"Y/n, please say something. I need to know you're okay," He pleaded again. The forest remained silent, offering no hope to comfort his growing concern. Fear painted vivid scenarios in his head, each one darker than the last.

"Please, y/n, if I did something I'm so sorry. We don't even have to talk about it, please just come back with me." Coriolanus pleaded. His pleas became more urgent. His mood shifted from worry to complete despare quickly.

"Please, I can't lose you too." He spoke, this plea much quieter than the previous ones. His voice broke as he spoke, his eyes searching for any clue of you. His steps quickened as he moved around the forest, his handles trembling as he pushed branches out of his way.

"Please, y/n," He called one more time, assuming the worst. He'd come to the conclusion that you left him. It was either that or you were dead, but he couldn't bring himself to grasp the idea that you were dead.

Unbeknownst to Coriolanus, you began to stir on the forest floor. The pain in your head still lingered but the sound of someone's voice distracted you from the pain. You listened more closely as you tried to sit up. Your senses were snapped back into reality when you realized that it was Coriolanus' voice you were hearing. The closer you listened you realized how distressed he sounded and it practically broke your heart. You listened again to his ever-present calls, trying to hear which direction they were coming from, his voice acting as a life-line.

"Corio," you called out weakly, standing as you braced yourself on one of the trees. Coriolanus' head snapped in the direction of your voice. He hurried in that direction, his eyes wide with fear and relief. "Coriolanus," You called out again, wondering if you had imagined him calling for you.

"Hang on y/n! I'm coming," He spoke. Relief washed over him when he finally saw you leaning up against one of the trees, Coriolanus rushed towards you. In your disoriented state you barely even realized he had found you until he engulfed you in his arms. Your senses finally started to come back to you as you reciprocated the embrace, wrapping your arms around his waist.

Coriolanus pulled away for a moment, his eyes scanning your face, he could hardly believe he'd actually found you. He'd thought you were gone for good. Your eyes met his, being met with a vulnerability from Coriolanus you'd never seen before. Coriolanus hated the way you made him felt. He hated how worried he always was for you. But, he also couldn't deny how much he loved you.

"What happened?" Coriolanus finally spoke, brushing your hair out of your face to examine the cut on your forehead.

"I was looking for those berries, the ones Maude Ivory showed us and I got lost, and then I think I tripped," you began to ramble, stopping yourself to take a breath before speaking again, "It's all kind of a blur." Coriolanus nodded as he processed what you said, unraveling his arms from you as he wrapped an arm around your waist to help guide you back to the cabin.

"Well, I think we should get you back to the cabin," Coriolanus spoke and you laughed as you nodded. You'd had enough of the woods.

Back at the cabin Coriolanus used one of the med-kits you'd brought to clean you up. Your heart swelled at how gentle he was, his hands moving cautiously over your face.

"So, will I survive?" You questioned, a smile gracing your features.

"I think you'll be okay," Coriolanus responded, a smile of his own coming across his face. But, you could tell the smile didn't meet his eyes. You could tell something was still bothering him. The sunlight pouring in from the windows illuminated the worry that was still present in his eyes, a silent acknowledgment of the fear he'd felt when he thought you'd abandoned him in the forest.

When Coriolanus finished cleaning the wound he set the supplies to the side and leaned in, placing a delicate kiss on the spot he'd just tended to. The warmth of his lips lingered on your forehead, a comforting gesture that transcended the physical healing.

"There, kissed it better." Coriolanus whispered as he moved away from you, cleaning up the remaining supplies of the med-kit.

Despite his comforting gesture, you couldn't ignore the concern that was still etched on his face. As he finished putting the med-kit away he turned to look at you, being met with your questioning gaze. "Corio, you've been on edge since we got back. What's wrong?" You questioned him, taking a couple steps closer to him so you could wrap your arms around his waist.

Coriolanus hesitated, his eyes betraying his turmoil of emotions. He opened his mouth to respond but the words got caught in his throat. Tension lingered in the air as you searched his face for clues on what he was feeling.

"It's nothing, y/n. Just a scare, that's all. Everything is fine." Coriolanus spoke. However, despite his attempts to comfort you, you could still sense his unease. You reached upwards, cupping his face to draw his attention.

"Come on, Corio. Talk to me," You spoke. Coriolanus sighed, he was torn between his desire to shield you from his concerns and the intimacy the two of you had always shared. Eventually, he gave in.

"I just... I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you. losing you in the woods, even if it was just for a moment, it terrified me." Coriolanus confessed softly. Your eyes softened at his confession.

"I'm right here, Corio. I'm not going anywhere." You assured, he nodded. "I love you, Coriolanus. Wherever you go, I'm gonna be there." You spoke, his words caught him off guard. The two of you had never used the word love.

"Y/n..." Coriolanus started, his eyes moving away from you. However, your hold on his face forced his attention back onto you. "I've never been good at this, relationships. I'm afraid of losing you, of not being enough." You nodded, you understood Coriolanus' insecurities as he'd previously voiced some of his concerns to you.

"Corio," You took a step closer, "I love you for who you are. I don't need you to be perfect." You assured him. Your words hung in the air, in that moment, leaning into Coriolanus, your lips meeting his in a tender kiss. Coriolanus, having been initially surprised by the kiss, eventually surrenders to the kiss. When the two of you pulled away you spoke again. "I want to go back to the Capitol, Corio."

Coriolanus looked surprised but that was overtaken by a look of happiness. He wanted nothing more than to return to his home and family, and now that you did too there was nothing stopping the two of you. "Wherever you wanna go, I'll follow you." Coriolanus spoke, repeating the words you'd said earlier, you smiled at him.

The decision being made, the two of you faced what leaving the woods meant. Coriolanus worked to dispose of the guns while you packed the remaining items you had at the cabin. As you walked out of the door you saw him pushing the boat back to shore. Coriolanus jumped out of the boat, outstretching his hand for you. You smiled at the gesture, moving to meet him, enclosing his hand with your own.

[aethelwyneleigh27]

Cod Characters General Dating Headcanons (part three)

+ Random and Some bits of Chubby Fem S/O Headcanons with mentions of different nationality S/O

+ What type of BF/GF they would be

Including König, Kim "Horangi" Hong-jin, Keegan P. Russ, Philip Graves (+ some headcanons including the Shadows), Makarov

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Fem terms and pronouns like she/her are used for the reader

ꕥ HOPE YOU ENJOY! ꕥ

My rules for requests and characters I can write for

A/n: I tried so hard to get this one out in time with the other but my other wips are getting to me 😭. I posted twice today just to feed y'all ahaha.

Disclaimers/warnings: Typical Cod things, OOC characters???, Unrealistic, Some suggestive themes and language, I'm so sorry but English is not my first language so please don't come after me. Most of the content I've seen are on TikTok and Tumblr I don't actually play the game but I love the characters so much, same with any other content I have for other video games.

Tiny sidenote: the reader in this has been describe to be shorter than the characters and has been mentioned to have a soft body rather than the muscular type.

König

ꕥ (PLEASE DON'T COME AFTER ME, I DON'T KNOW ANY GERMAN AND I'M USING GOOGLE TRANSLATE)

ꕥ Speaking of König, I don't think this man is the shy boy that some people is making him out to be (not that he doesn't have that side at all, I just feel like they make it his whole personality). Based on voice lines alone this man is cocky asf.

ꕥ There's a reason for his mask, yes he was bullied as a child because of his looks and that's one of the causes to his social anxiety but that doesn't mean this mf is shy. He just like to avoid people and social interactions yk. (Y'all have no idea how much I can relate to this)

ꕥ Has and will continue to use his height to his advantage, someone bothering you while you're both sat having a wonderful time together? This mf stands the fuck up, shoulders back, chest out and everything. Looming over that person while glaring down, arms crossed while they're engulfed by the shadow of this 6'10 behemoth of a man.

ꕥ Chubby!Reader? He'll throw you over his shoulders, only using one arm below your ass while he carries you off. Seriously it is no problem to this man, he'd beg you to sit on his face and suffocate him. If anything I'd say he has a preference for it yk, very soft and plush reader for real.

ꕥ Our DIY king here wearing a shirt for a hood, his hair sticking out of the hole for the head whenever he's dressing casual. Play with his hair like right now, you'll make him melt right then and there.

ꕥ Enjoys cuddling, hasn't had many partners and by that I mean kinda none. Nobody was insane enough to approach him till you came around so he's very touch starved. He didn't even know he enjoyed touching that much till he was able to feel the amount of warmth your body gives him. He'd swear on his life that he was intoxicated in that moment.

ꕥ Whenever you sit or straddle on his lap, he's still so fucking tall. I swear you will gain neck pains if you wanna keep eye contact while talking to him. (I understand the struggle, I am a 5'1 girly. Every character I know within the CoD universe is taller than me 😭)

ꕥ Doesn't actually wear his mask around you, he's comfortable and trust you enough to know you wouldn't go around telling everyone what he looks like.

ꕥ Nicknames he'd call you in German are Mein Schatz, Fräulein, Liebling, Engel and Kleine Maus

ꕥ He's still definitely bitter about not being a sniper. (AHAHAHA)

Kim "Horangi" Hong-jin

ꕥ (IF I'M BEING HONEST, I DID NOT EXPECT HIS VOICE TO BE THAT DEEP. ALSO HIS VOICE LINES IN KOREAN/HANGUL (IDK WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT)

ꕥ He has doodles on his tactical gear that he did himself (there are also one that are a tribute to squid game because man's had a gambling addiction), has asked you to draw on it too and he proudly wears it when on duty. Will feel stupid while unconsciously smiling if you draw a heart.

ꕥ Writing something down on his vest from your own mother tongue and he's asking the meaning, if it's genuinely something good like a compliment or something like "I love you" then you will catch this man with a shit eating grin.

ꕥ He used to be a gambler before entering the military and it eventually got him to stop, though he still has a thing for risk, he got himself a more deadlier alternative.

ꕥ Expect surprise back hugs, this man isn't called Horangi for nothing. He's stealthy, I like to think that whatever he says to you is well thought out as well. Man knows how to think before he speaks.

ꕥ Horangi likes to pounce on things, just for the fun of it. It leads him to tackle you on your shared bed a lot, lots of play fighting too.

ꕥ HAS THE PRETTIEST EYES EVER. Like seriously, the only people who knows what he looks like is you and König. Had gentle eyes, you know that quote "His eyes softened", yeah that's the definition of his eyes.

ꕥ Loves it when you trace the veins on his arms with your finger nails, will just straight up offer his arm to you.

Keegan P. Russ

ꕥ This man and his panty dropping voice like holy hell I have never heard a voice as deep as his without a vocal fry (from those try hard guys on TikTok who try to hard thinking their thirst traps are good).

ꕥ Calls you "kid" in an affectionate way? It's honestly just what he calls anyone younger than him, you're shorter? He'll emphasize on that shit. Elaborating on the nickname I said earlier, he uses it less when y'all are dating but still does on some occasions.

ꕥ Would say the most dirty and uncalled for things, whispering it in your ears. He's and asshole in the best way possible, loves it when you gasp and playfully slap his chest.

ꕥ He's sweet though, would see you as his wife even if you're not married. You're his now, the moment you entered his life, he basically had a death grip on you.

ꕥ Something tells me that he likes talking about you or to you through radios yk. His voice sounding even deeper through the device, calling you doll even though he's supposed to refer to you with your call sign.

ꕥ Praise kink? I mean you've more likely heard his voice lines, is the type of man to praise you and ruffle your hair, either that or he'll kiss you depending on what stage of your relationship you are both in.

ꕥ Constantly thinks his eyes are weird even though they aren't, he just has sleepy eyes. Speaking of sleeping, I feel like he has such a fucked up sleeping schedule and is used to pulling all nighters more than the normal person.

ꕥ Will drag you in bed though and lay his whole weight on top of you because you ain't going nowhere, you are staying there with him and only him.

Philip Graves

ꕥ (If it isn't "Fix It Felix", please tell me I'm not the only one who sees it AHAHAHA)

ꕥ Philip is touchy, somebody for the love of everything that is holy cuddle this man please. He is just screaming at any type of physical contact at this point. (My sources? Right fucking here)

ꕥ Is the type of boyfriend to come home to you and just hug you, y'all would be there for a solid 10 minutes before he lets you go. Burying his head into your neck and just inhaling your scent while having his arms wrapped tightly around you.

ꕥ His Shadows? More like his fucking children, again going back to the TikTok. He knows how to get their attention, the little pats on the shoulder and small praises are his way of saying they did a good job and they're eating it up.

ꕥ That being said, you are either gonna be their mother figure or someone they enjoy protecting because their dad is so fond of you. Why not be both right?

ꕥ You cannot tell me this man won't be next to the grill, spatula, tongs or whatever kitchen utensil in one hand and a cold bottle of beer in the other.

ꕥ Spends his weekends with you on his lap while he watches football in your guys' couch, you're definitely scrolling on your phone during this.

ꕥ You cannot tell me this man doesn't wear cowboy hats and boots because he certainly does, is it a turn on or a turn off? I genuinely do not know..

ꕥ Is fruity on some aspects but would never fucking admit it..

Makarov

ꕥ Y'ALL ACTUALLY THOUGHT I'D WRITE FOR THIS MAN? NAH THIS ACC IS WHOLESOME (OR ANGSTY) AND ION THINK THIS MAN IS SALVAGEABLE. (This came from a girl who once was obsessed with Tom Riddle for years when she was 13, I recovered from it dw)

ꕥ This man would literally use anyone and anything as leverage for whatever he wants to achieve. (Yes I am one of those "I can fix him" people but damn idk if this man is fixable)

ꕥ Please don't tell me you actually genuinely think this man would be good to you.. I knew what I was writing was unrealistic but damn y'all are delulu on another level (so am I, stay delulu). Jokes aside I love y'all and he's one of the few I won't write for. (AHEM Severus Snape (that greasy mop haired mf)

ꕥ And yes I understand most of my shit are kind of OOC but damn if I wrote him, it would be extremely fucking far from canon and I don't like romanticizing toxic relationships (if I ever do write it, it will be angst and I can't ever promise a happy ending).

ꕥ Happy April fool's! (I know I'm posting this end of September (it's actually October now 😭)

[dtrghost]

closeness and proximity part.6

pairing: ghost x f!reader

synopsis: callsign is sunshine, because you're anything but. team 141 thought ghost was bad? at least they could crack a smile out of the guy from time to time, you? you were stone faced, all day, every day. until one day you're not, not with a certain someone anyway.

warnings: fluff, some angst, ooc simon, virgin! reader, 18+ smut, cunnilingus, piv, praise kink, this a softer smut, degrading terms are still gonna be used but in a praising way because i think after everything that's happened her first time shouldn't be too much, he still gets rough though. size kink, overstimulation!receiving, some masochism!receiving on simon's behalf, some sub!ghost, cursing.

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT:

word count:

The last half a year wasn't as bad as she thought it'd be. Turns out she wasn't a sociopath, she had some tendencies sure, but in reality she was just broken from years of unresolved trauma. She had a long way to go, but according to the reports sent to HQ by her therapist, Ms. Maeve Riva, she was making excellent progress.

Price moved out halfway through her leave, and at first she was happy about it, the flat was a lot cleaner, quieter, she had more space for herself and she could decorate it in peace without hearing him grumble about how feminine her decor was.

But she got lonely within a week, and adding on the depression from reliving her worst traumatic experiences, she'd end up calling someone to talk to, which was more often than not, Price. She trusted him enough for that, and she knew he wouldn't tell the team. She wanted them to think she was getting better, and in a lot of ways she was, but some aspects of recovery couldn't be helped.

It was the last day before she was officially off leave and back on call, and she wanted to make it memorable. She sat down in her usual spot in front of Maeve who smiled warmly at her.

"Last day! I brought.." She pulled out two half liter bottles of cherry coke, handing one to her with a cheeky look in her eyes.

"These, to celebrate you! Look how far you've come!" Her therapist gushed emotionally. She chuckled, cracking it open and taking a sip. She sighed at the burn of the carbonation as it slide down to her stomach.

"Thank you Maeve. Couldn't have done it without you and you're weird obsession with tea." Maeve rolled her eyes, snickering as she took a swig from her bottle. Normally she'd do this with alcohol, but knowing her client it was best not to.

"So what's on the agenda for today. Party your heart out, one night stand." She hummed, shrugging her shoulders.

"I was actually gonna call a friend of mine."

"Oooooo one night stand with a friend then. Those are always interesting." She laughed and looked at her incredulously.

"No no no just for some time to reconnect. I'm getting tired of being alone all the time." Maeve nodded, tilting her bottle towards her in agreement.

"Who's this friend of yours? Are they hot?"

"Name's classified, but damn straight he's hot. Shit. I wanted to climb him like a tree when we first met." Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Alright then. So have you asked him out yet?" She sighed, leaning back on the couch.

"Nope. Don't even know where he is right about now. Haven't tried to call in the last 6 months either."

"And why is that?" Here the therapy session truly started.

"About 2 weeks before I was put on leave we had an.. altercation. Meaning a knife to my neck and some hurtful words. He apologized, we moved on, but a part of me still feels like what he said was true." She knew what she was referring to, and she leaned forward and put her hand on her knee gently.

"You then and you now are two very different people. Yes your occupation requires more, gruesome methods of getting information out of people, but you feel remorse, you do it out of necessity. You can't keep beating yourself up about it." Y/N nodded, looking down at her phone for a second in contemplation.

"Give him a call. I'll be here with you." Her eyes flickered to Maeve's, only seeing comfort and reassurance. She sighed, her tongue poking at the side of her cheek for a moment before she picked up her phone and looked in her notes. She'd asked Price for Simon's number before he left, and she saved it for when she got the courage to actually contact him. She took a deep breath, hitting the call button and listening to it ring in her ear.

"This is Ghost." Her heart was beating out her chest, the sound of his voice causing her eyes to water involuntarily. Maeve noticed the immediate panic in her eyes and reached over to squeeze her hand, gesturing her to respond. She couldn't hear the conversation, but she could tell by her facial expressions the idea of what was going on.

"Uh-, hey, it's Y/N." All the air left his lungs for a moment, his throat dry as he sat up from his bed. It was his off day, so he back at his flat, watching some old crime movie that he'd seen a while back and took a liking to.

"I just wanted to ask if you um, if you wanted to just ya know, hang out with me later. If you can." She hated how she sounded. Her voice was shaky and she was having a hard time getting the words out. The silence was killer, and it was because he was shocked. 6 months of no contact and suddenly she's asking him to dinner.

"...Yeah. Alright. Time?" Her eyes blew open, Maeve cheering her on as she forced herself to remain calm.

"Does 6:30 work for you? I know you prefer staying in so I can-"

"S'alright I'll come to you. I know where you live anyway."

"Oh alright." It went silent for a bit, and she shrugged at Maeve's curious look.

"...You doing alright then?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it when I see. I don't have alcohol so if you plan to drink you'll have to bring your own. Oh, and no masks. Bye." She hung up quickly, taking a deep inhale as she looked at Maeve with wide eyes.

"So you have a date then."

"I guess so. He's coming to me... fuck." She realized she had no idea when he was going to show up.

"We can cut this one short. I got you covered." She thanked her, seeing it was 4 and she needed time to get ready. She rushed home, cleaning up before racing upstairs to change where she was suddenly at a loss. What the hell was she going to wear?

Simon was in no better situation either, staring at his closet that consisted of hoodies, cargo pants, black t-shirts, and mostly work attire. What did a hang out at her place constitute? Nothing formal surely, casual? He decided on a black t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of black shoes he had that weren't too worn out.

The idea of no masks surprised him, but he didn't care too much. They'd known each other for years and he'd been meaning to find a reason to show her his face, and seeing her own. Then realization struck him.

Did that mean she's not wearing one either?

He couldn't help the sudden bloom of excitement in his chest and stomach at the thought of it. He sprayed on his cologne and grabbed his keys before heading to his car. He had memorized the way there, having driven by sometimes to catch a quick glimpse at her as a way to check in.

She sighed, looking in the mirror at her final look, fear and overthinking plaguing her mind. She didn't wanna look like a bum in her own house, so she put on a nicer pair of clothes, which was really just an all black, long sleeve two piece. She looked comfortable but put together at the same time, even if she was anything but the latter.

What if she just called him and said something came up? What if he's already driving over here?

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts, mentally cursing herself as she sprayed herself with her favorite perfume and scurried downstairs while adjusting her hair. With a deep breath, the door opened and her eyes blew open, and so did his.

Fuckin' hell. I'm not gonna make it through the night. He thought to himself.

Her mask was off, revealing her perfect nose, skin, and god those lips. They were just the right size, shiny with whatever lipgloss she was wearing. She flashed him a smile that took his breath away. Her outfit hugged her curves in sinful ways that made him swallow his drool before it had to chance to run out of his mouth.

He was just as hot, the way his clothes perfectly hugged him figure, showing off the slim of his waist and broad, bulky shoulders. His pants accentuated his muscular thighs, getting just that much tighter around them as he moved in them.

His jaw was chiseled, as if sculpted by the Gods themselves, his scars added depth to his face with plump lips and a look that would make anyone's drawls or panties fall off. She's surprised hers didn't.

"You look great."

"You look beautiful." They said at the same time, their cheeks beginning to burn.

"Thank you Simon. It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too Y/N, oh and I.. I brought these.. for you." He pulled out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back, her eyes lighting up in surprise as she hadn't noticed his arm behind his frame in the first place. They were gorgeous. White roses with stems of lavender to compliment them.

"Awwww thank you. These are beautiful." She smelled them, humming at the aroma.

"Do you mind if I put them in a vase really quick?" He shook his head, watching her shuffle back into the flat as he trailed behind her, shutting the door. He took his time looking around, nodding to himself as he was impressed at how well decorated it was. He left his fairly bare, the walls were gray and he'd only furnished it with the necessities. He watched her walk back into the room, bending down to put the flowers on the coffee table in front of the couches.

He almost groaned at how perfectly those pants hugged her legs, complimenting the shape of her ass as she adjusted the vase to be at the center of the table. Her hair fell off to the side beautifully, her velvet locks entrancing him as this was only the second time he'd seen it naturally. He forced himself to look away as she stood back up, smiling at them before shifting her gaze to him. She noticed that he didn't bring anything other than the flowers.

"Not drinking tonight?" He shook his head, dropping his keys onto the table.

"Alright, do you want anything else? Water, I have some coke."

"Coke's fine." She hummed, quickly grabbing two bottles from her fridge and coming back to see him getting himself comfortable on her couch.

"Here." She passed it to him before taking a seat next to him, crossing her leg over the other as she grabbed the remote to put on a movie.

Fuck, those thighs of hers.

He couldn't help but let his mind drift off for just a moment.

How good they'd look locked around his head as he ate her pretty little cunt out until she was begging for him to stop. How'd they feel against his body as he fucked her through the night. Their smoothness, how'd they be shaking by dawn.

"Simon, you okay?" Her voice dragged him out. She looked at him curiously as he snapped out of it suddenly, embarrassed.

"Penny for your thoughts?" She pressed, making him snicker to her surprise.

"I don't think we'd make it to the end of the movie if I told you that." Her jaw dropped for a moment, suddenly not sure how to comprehend his blatant statement as her thighs unconsciously pressed together.

"Don't do that." He commanded roughly, eyes flickering away from her legs and his hand squeezing the bottle in his hand a bit tighter. Suddenly she understood, and she couldn't help the grin stretching across her face making him roll his eyes.

"I know I know, I'm hot. Don't gotta tell me." She teased lightly, chuckling to herself.

"Don't get all cocky on me now. You were the one fantasizing about me while I was in the shower that one time." "Fuck yeah. Told my therapist about it too, she thought I should've shot my shot when I had the chance back then." He looked over to her for a brief moment, watching as she took in the look in his eyes before they flickered back to the screen.

"You could still shoot it." He suggested quietly, his cheeks burning red as he took another swig of his drink. He wished he'd brought the damn whiskey.

"Would I miss?" He huffed a small laugh at her uncertainty.

"You never miss." Her throat went dry, her eyes darting around the room in front of her before her hand reached out to the one he had on his thigh, grasping it in hers before resting it on the meat of hers.

She sighed lightly at the feeling of his hand squeezing her quads, her eyes shutting for a moment as she let her head fall back.

"Call it a miracle if we get to the credits Riley." He chuckled, his thumb stroking her clothed skin gently. They watched the movie in tense silence, their breathing a bit ragged in an attempt to not jump on each other.

"So, how's the team been?" She began, watching him shift in his spot.

"S'been good. Soap's still a shithead but what's new with that." He listened to her chuckle, missing the melody of it.

"Not surprising."

"How's therapy been? Honestly." He was looking for a genuine answer, turning his head and seeing her bite her inner cheek for a moment.

"It's been rough at times, but I guess I should've been expecting that." She avoided Simon's gaze for a bit while, feeling a bit odd talking about it. When she looked back up, she noticed his look focused on her neck.

Her hand reached up, feeling the unevenness in the area from the scar that was left after he pressed his knife against her neck.

"It's okay, forgot it was even there." She brushed off.

"No it's not." Every part of him regretted that, he never forgave himself.

"It was justified. I threatened you before that too. You were just scared, rightfully so." She had reached over to the other side of him, grasped his clenched fist and gently poking her fingers through the break it apart.

"Si, honey. Look at me." His eyes flickered to hers, his chest tightening at the tenderness looking back at him as she squeezed his hand. She was so close, he could smell her lovely perfume, one that made his head spin.

"I forgive you. Okay?" He hesitated, his hand slowly relaxing as hers slipped in, intertwining their fingers for a moment before she sat back. She noticed the dazed look on his face, his mouth slightly opened as his eyes flickered all over her body, from her face, to her waist, to her legs, and back up.

"So how long have you had a crush on me for."

"Oh fuckin' hell."

"What it's a fair question! I'll answer if you answer."

"I'm not answering that."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a bloody stupid question that's why."

"No it's not! If we're gonna fuck then I should at least get to know how long you've been waiting." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his eyebrow and listening to her laugh.

"Well, hopefully not JUST fuck, but I'll take what I can get." She added on quietly, picking at her nails with a small smile on her lips.

"Since a few months after we met." He answered suddenly, looking back up at her. His stare was intense, as it always was, his amber eyes boring into hers.

"Yeah. About the same for me. I didn't understand it for a while until I went through therapy, a bit before that but I wasn't completely sure until I talked it out." He nodded.

"Thank you, by the way." She spoke up, her leg beginning to bob nervously.

"For?"

"Everything. Trying to help me when I didn't want it, coming back for me, fighting HQ for me. All that stuff."

"Of course I came back for you." She placed down her bottle with a shrug.

"I didn't think you would."

Sick, selfish bastard. I don't want something like that on my team.

Those words had stuck with her, and he could tell.

"Oh um, speaking of. We did this thing in therapy where I had to write a letter to the person I think I hurt the most and you were one of them. I was gonna mail it but I never found the courage. Can I just give it to you now?" His eyes widened for a moment, placing down his coke on the floor next to him and giving her a curt nod. She rushed upstairs, opening her drawer and taking out the singular letter she had kept, the rest already having been shipped out.

She stared at it for a moment. Was she ready to hand this to him? For him to read her thoughts and emotions during one of the most vulnerable times of her life? She could say she lost it, accidentally shipped it to the wrong address by mistake. She could've just wrote "sorry for being a prick my bad" and moved on, but she made it personal, emotional, she was pretty sure that there was a stain on it from a tear that had fallen as she wrote.

"Get lost?" Simon called out, noticing how long she'd been gone. She took a deep breath before going back down, staring down at it as she took a seat next to him. He could see her hesitance to hand it to him, her fingers tightly glued to the sides.

"Read it to me then." He offered, shifting his body to face her.

"I'm not sure if that'll be any better."

"I disagree. Go on. Take your time." She felt small in that moment, his intense gaze causing her hands to shake as her finger glided over the indents of his name written on the front. She turned it over, gently slipping her finger underneath the seal of the envelope and opening it, pulling out the letter.

"I tried to keep it short." She spoke, her heart pounding and her voice wavering. He nodded, though she likely didn't see it with how trained her eyes were on the letter. With a deep breath, she started, her voice being the only sound in the room as Simon paused the movie.

"Dear Simon, I dreaded writing your letter because of how personal it would be, but I managed to force myself to pick up my pen and put ink on the page. This letter has no goal, and my therapist told me it was supposed to make me feel better, but that isn't the case for this one."

She stopped for a moment, feeling her throat close up and tighten.

"Take your time lovie." He crooned softly, watching as her eyes darted around the page. She could do this, she thought to herself, clearing her throat and beginning again.

"We've known each other for a few years now, and at first I thought we'd be great friends. We were alike in some ways and even if some our conversations were painfully awkward, I looked forward to them. I was excited when I found out that I was being moved to team 141 because I'd see you again. I used to stay up sometimes and think about some bullshit future with you, where we'd live somewhere quiet together, getting old with a cat and a small garden in the back or whatever else I imagined. But then I actually got there."

She could feel the tears burning in her eyes. Simon didn't speak, instead he just continued to stare at her with a soft gaze, watching the emotions flicker in her eyes, like the candlelight he had seen all that time ago.

"I was confused. I didn't understand why I imagined these fantasies about us or why I wanted to be around you in the first place. I couldn't handle all of it at the time. I had done horrible things in front of you, tortured people in ways that now I can't stomach thinking about. There is no amount of money or apologies I can give to take my actions back, to bring those people back to life and figure out another way. And I did it because I'd seen it done before. I've watched the strongest of people break in Verdansk, and I replicated it because I knew it would work, and that's what matters right? That i got the job done."

Her voice had cracked, the tears that had once blurred her vision now streaming down her cheeks.

"I know that none of this is an excuse, and I won't ask for your forgiveness because I know that I don't deserve it. But I need you to know that I'm sorry, for hurting you, for scaring you, for failing you. Your face in that room is what I see when I close my eyes at night, consistently reliving it every chance of sleep that I get. You tried to save me and I didn't let you, and I'll always regret that. You words stuck with me, and I promise that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make amends with myself and everyone else I've hurt. If you've gotten this far, thank you for reading, and for what it's worth, if anything, I'm truly sorry for what I've done to you.

Yours wholeheartedly,

-Y/N L/N."

He watched as she covered her face with the paper to try and hide her sobs, even though her body shook and convulsed lightly as she cried. His body moved before his mind did, getting up silently. She thought he was leaving, and she was okay with that.

"Hey, look at me." He cooed softly, gently taking the paper from her tight grip and placing it on the table behind him. Her eyes flickered to his, her cheeks red and puffy in his hands as he cupped her cheeks.

"I forgive you, Y/N." His voice was calm, even. She shook her head, her hands coming up to her face to hide her tears, only for him to pull her arms away and intertwine their fingers.

"What I said was fucked up. It's not true. You're not sick, you're not selfish. Do you hear me?" The resolve in his eyes only made her feel worse. She wanted him to hate her, to scream in her face and rip up her letter, but here he was. On his knees in front of her and holding her hands, doing the opposite.

"You're all I want, and you're all I'll need. I know that now, always have." He could still see the hesitance and disbelief in her wide range of emotions, so he did what he's been wanting to do for so long. His hands went back to her face, and with a gentle tug their lips met. It was almost too overwhelming, the sensations that flooded her senses soon overpowered her. She kissed back with the same fiery passion, sighing into his mouth as his hands dropped to her waist.

He rose, pushing her frame back into the couch, hovering over her. She was engulfed by him, he kissed her like it would be his last, pouring every ounce of his soul into hers, and she drank it gladly. She engraved the feeling of his soft lips on hers into her mind, feeling the roughness of his palms gliding under her top to feel her skin against his.

"Let me show you how much I need you lovie." He muttered against her lips, his eyes dark with lust, love, and desire.

"Let me take care of you."

Her throat when dry at his words as they sent shockwaves through her body, her thighs pressing together once more as heat gathered in the place she now needed him the most. With a single nod she was picked up in his arms, her legs wrapped around his middle as he began heading up the stairs to her room.

"Where." He followed her point to the right, pushing the door open with his hand and shutting it with his leg. His lips met hers again, moaning at the feeling of her hands combing through his hair. He tossed her onto the bed with a small umph, and she suddenly regretted wearing pants.

~ Oh we're switching to 2nd POV for this yall. Buckle up! Or should I say saddle up ;)))) ~

He settled himself between your legs, his hands squeezing the flesh of your plump ass as his lips hit yours, this time rougher and more needy.

"You ever done this before lovie?" He mumbled against your lips. Your breath hitched, your body tensing underneath his as you look away, embarrassed by your unspoken answer. He on the other hand, he loved it. His length grew impossibly harder at the idea of him being your first and your last.

He'd be damned to let you go again. You were it for him, it ended here, just you and him.

"Hey hey, look at me." Your eyes flickered to his, only to find fondness and excitement in his eyes as he rested his forehead against yours.

"It's alright love. I'm more than happy to be your first." He could feel you relax, his lips grazing over yours as he moved to your ear.

"I'll do it right yeah? I'll take my time with you, give it to you real nice and ruin you. You want that sweet thing? You want me to ruin you?" He could hear your uneven, shaky breaths as your legs pressed together, trying to relieve some of the pressure of your arousal. He groaned at the sight, of your small body under his and aching to be touched by his big, rough hands.

"Please Si." You whimpered, your eyes shiny with lust and need. He used his knee to push your legs open, his hand traveling down your body and cupping your hot sex. Your skin burned at him feeling how wet you were, the moisture pushing through your panties and just nearly to your pants.

"I know lovie. I got you, always have right?" You nodded vigorously, buckling your hips into his hand desperately for some friction. He hummed, pressing a sweet kiss on your lips before they traveled to your neck. You felt his tongue travel over your scar in a silent apology, one of likely many as his hand cupped your breast under your shirt. He loved how perfectly they fit in his hands, how soft and supple they were.

"How about we take some of these things off." His suggestion was more of an order, and you worked quick, pulling off your top and unclipping your bra as his knees sat on either side of your hips, watching with a raging hard on and sultry eyes.

"You're fucking beautiful love, so perfect for me." You felt vulnerable under his intense gaze, gripping the sheets to stop yourself from covering your chest. His head came down, swirling his tongue around your nipple as he teased and pinched the other one. Your breathy, soft moans were music to his ears, and they only grew louder as you felt him grind his clothed length against your core. He kissed and sucked, leaving marks all over chest to claim you as his.

"Simon" You whined, grabbing at his shirt, watching it ride a bit to showcase his lower back. With a smirk he lifted himself up for a moment, slowly peeling off his shirt as if he were giving you a show before tossing it somewhere in the room. Your hands began to roam, and he watched as you became entranced by him, your fingers delicately tracing his scars and running over his muscles.

You shivered, feeling his finger gliding underneath the waistband of your pants. You watched as he got off of you, sinking down to his knees as he began to slide them and your panties off of your legs. With a grip of your thighs he yanked you closer, amused by your small yelp as he examined your wet cunt.

Were you okay down there? Your thoughts began to race as he sat in silence.

"You... are a fucking goddess." His words caused you to gasp lightly, his hands pushing at your now arched legs to open them wider for him. You exhaled shakily at the feeling of him kissing and nipping at your inner thighs, leaving more marks he'd probably reencounter soon.

He was addicted to you already, fuck knows how many times he'll be in your room on base, doing just this.

He gripped your hips, cementing you in place before he licked a strip from your hole to your clit, listening to you moan as your head fell back against the bed.

"Eyes on me lovie. Want you to watch me eat this delicious fucking pussy." Once your eyes met his, he began eating you out like a starved man who had been deprived of a good meal for months. Your hands landed on his head in shock by his vigor and need as you moaned his name. He hummed, the vibrations adding to the hot pleasure that was coursing through your body as his tongue swirled around your clit.

"Fuck this is the best pussy I've ever had." He growled, his tongue entering your hole as he fucked you expertly. He forced himself to not thrust his hips into the bed for some relief, focusing all of his efforts into this moment. You moaned his name as you approached your orgasm, his eyes shooting up to look at you as he almost came from the way you said it. You felt his fingers replace his tongue, grinning at you as two slipped into easily.

"Gotta get this pretty cunt ready for me lovie." When his mouth attached to your clit and his fingers moved inside you, you saw stars, your hand gripped his free one that pressed flat of your lower stomach.

"Cum for me. Cum all over my fucking fingers." He instructed. He felt you clench down on his fingers, your head thrown back in ecstasy as your orgasm rocked you. He continued his motions until your whined, pushing at his head to get him off for a moment.

"You taste amazing, fuck I could do that for hours." He came up, pressing his lips against yours and shoving his tongue in your mouth, letting you taste your euphoria. You tugged on the belt loop of his jeans, feeling his chest vibrate against yours as he chuckled. He stood back up, your eyes trained on his body as he undid his button, letting his jeans drop.

Your eyes blew open, a sudden fear striking your heart. He was massive, his tip red in agony from the lack of attention.

"Si... that's not gonna fit." You told him. He brushed it off, stepping out of his pants and returning to his position, hovering over you.

"I'll make it fit. Don't worry." Shivers ran up your spine at his deep, raspy promise to you. You reached down, gathering some of your slick and beginning to slide your hand up and down his cock. his head hung for a moment, moaning your name softly. You sped up for a brief moment, only for him to yank your hand away with a shake of his head.

"This is about you love. Just do me a favor and say my name all pretty like you did earlier while I fuck you." You moaned, your arms wrapping around his neck as he grabbed the base of his dick, slowly pressing himself into you with a quiet groan in your ear. You felt yourself stretching to accommodate his size, your eyes flickering down to watch as he slowly disappeared into your sopping cunt.

He bottomed out with a moan, looking down at you.

"Any pain pretty?" Your cheeks burned at the pet name, shaking your head as he shifted your hips to get comfortable, listening to him hiss at the movement. He gives you a moment to adjust, and with your signal of buckling your hips into him for friction, he began thrusting into you. His pace was slow, following through with his promise to take his time with you as he memorized the feeling of your pussy clamped around him, hot and wet and needy for him to fill you up.

You soon began moaning loudly, still sensitive from his tongue as your nails pressed into his back.

"You're taking me so well Y/N, swear your pussy was made just for my cock." He grabbed your chin, forcing you to look him in the eyes as he fucked you.

"You were made for me love, made to be fucked like the pretty fuck toy you are." Your mind was sent into cloud 9, the feeling of his hips driving into you with purpose and need sending you over the edge.

"Oh fuck si right there!" He knew just how to fuck you, his length hitting the spot he knew would make you see stars, spots that had never been touched or stimulated in your life until now. He grunted at the feeling of your squeezing him again, kissing and sucking your neck as he pounded into you faster.

"Oh f-fuck yeah. Pussy feels amazing, so fucking good for me Y/N. I can feel myself, right here love" He took your hand and used his to push yours down on your lower stomach, feeling him fuck you with rhythm.

You were the best he'd ever had, and the best he'll ever have. No one could compare to you, nobody could moan his name like you could, make him feel good like you could. He was yours now, and he intended to let everyone, including yourself know that. The pleasure soon grew to be overwhelming, your fingers digging into his shoulder blades and making him shudder and whine into your ear.

"Fuck, do that again lovie. Mark me. Give me something to show off and let em know I belong to you." And you did just that. You left deep, red scratch marks on his back, kissing and nipping at his neck and his chest, leaving dark marks that he could flaunt later. His praises never stopped, him talking you through every orgasm you had and quickly slipping his cock back in when one had forced him out. He had no filter now, saying anything he wanted, which consisted of the filthiest words you'd ever hear him speak, and each time it would bring you and him that much closer to the never ending ecstasy you found in each other.

"S-Si I can't." You cried, tears rushing down your face as you pushed at his chest, the pleasure mixing with pain as your legs shook against his torso.

"One more for me. I'm so close lovie." Your want for him to cum was more than enough to help you persevere, his thumb coming down to rub your clit as he felt his orgasm approach.

"Where do you want me my love." He groaned, looking down at your fucked out face with his hooded eyes.

"In me. Please fill me up Si." You begged, your doe eyes big and watery. He let out a dirty moan you'd have to get out of him again later when you were able to move again as he let your legs down, fucking you fast in missionary, your legs locked around his middle.

"You want me to breed you huh. Dirty little girl, I'll give it to you. Fill that tight pussy up, you'll be full of me every day, walking around with my seed running down those pretty thighs of yours." His words sent both of you into a euphoria, your cum mixing together as he shot his load into you, your pussy having a vice grip around him as he shuddered. He managed to fuck you through yours, only stopping when you had begged him to with your pretty voice.

"Shhhh. I'll take care of you Y/N. Just trust me." He cooed in your ear, slowly pulling out of you and hearing you whimper from the loss of connection. He picked you up, bringing you to the shower that you lazily directed him to. He ran a bath, noticing how you were unable to stand up without his help. He scrubbed you clean, leaving loving kisses on your delicate skin, feeling you shiver as his tongue swirled over a few love bites he made.

When you were all clean he dried you off and helped you get dressed. You sent him to shower and managed to keep yourself up enough to grab some old clothes Price left behind that you cleaned and left in your drawer for whenever he came back for them, which was never. You laid on the bed, your eyes closing from exhaustion as you curled into yourself under your comforter, missing Simon's warmth and body heat. You were asleep by the time he got out, throwing his clothes into your laundry hamper and slipping into bed next to you, bringing your body flush against his.

"Goodnight lovie." He soothed, brushing your hair back and pressing a slow, loving kiss on your forehead before falling asleep with you, happy and content to have you in his arms.

That night was the first in 6 months where you slept through the night, no nightmares to plague your mind, no loneliness to keep you up in tears. You were in his arms, full of his love in every way, your closeness and proximity being the last identifier you needed to believe that life would get better.

And it would, you both knew it.

And that's it people!! It was my first time writing smut to be published so bear with me if it's bad. I might write a follow up chapter to this series but this is what I'll consider to be the last part! Thank you so much for your love and support and if you have an ideas for the next series, any hcs, preferences, smut etc let me know!

@thaprilks @bowtruckleninja @almightywdm @niallcozidonthavebettername @gothgirl6-6-6

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Is there a reason Marinette’s lying to Adrien about Gabriel doesn’t make sense to you from a character-standpoint? She’s lied a fair bit in the show for reasons other than keeping her identity or crush on Adrien a secret, and her love for Adrien has consistently created a blind spot for her in terms of her “general” morals/behavior.

Is there something more specific to Marinette’s pattern of behavior that indicates how her lying about Gabe would be OOC, or is the lie something you believe Canon!Marinette should recognize as too egregious to take part in?

(The closest alternative explanation I’ve seen thus far is that she shouldn’t have any reason to lie for Gabe because they share zero good will, but if we interpret it as lying for Adrien, then I’m not sure if that explanation fits.)

I have, admittedly, not gone through the show and tracked every lie that Marinette has ever told to see if I can weave together a pattern that backs Marinette's behavior at the end of season five. It's possible that there's a lie that I'm forgetting that would totally change my stance and, if you think that's the case, then feel free to respond to this with a comment or an ask on that topic! My "this is BS" stance is based on the overall story of the show and the ways that I've seen people try to justify the season five lies as those are the arguments that I've thought through and found lacking.

We'll start by discussing the two lies people use to try to back Marinette's behavior at the end of season five: the scarf and Chat Blanc. Then I'll talk about the story's lead up to the season five lies and why it makes for a horribly unsatisfying story in my eyes. If someone gave this to me, I'd be suggesting some major edits to make it work on a technical level.

The Scarf

For those who don't remember, the season one episode The Bubbler sees Marinette make Adrien a scarf for his birthday. She drops the scarf off at the Agreste mansion with a note for Adrien and the hope that this will get him to finally notice her. Nathalie then takes the scarf and uses it as a gift from Gabriel instead. Marinette learns about this during this exchange at the very end of the episode:

Alya: Yo, nice scarf, Adrien. Off the chain. Adrien: Yeah, can you believe my dad got this for me? (Marinette looks surprised) it's so awesome. He's been giving me the same lame pen for three years in a row.... Alya:(to Marinette) You gotta tell him you were the one who knitted the scarf. Marinette: But he seems so happy about his dad. I don't want to spoil it for him. Alya: Aw, Marinette. (they hug.) You're amazing, girl. You know that, right? And someday Adrien will figure it out too. Promise.

I can see why someone would look at this and call it a setup for the end of season five. There are some parallels here. The problem is that there are a lot of massive differences, too. Differences that make this a really crappy setup:

Marinette does not lie in this scene. She simply overhears a lie and doesn't correct it. Remove her and Alya from the scene and nothing changes. The lie still exists. Meanwhile, without Marinette, the season five lies would never have come to be.

Marinette knows about the scarf lie for about a minute on screen. She hears about it and tells Alya to let it go within the same scene. That's a gut reaction, not a carefully planned and considered deceit. Once again, wildly different from what season five gives us.

Adrien and Marinette aren't shown to be close friends in season one. They rarely talk to the point that I didn't even know that they were supposed to be friends until we got to Origins. That complicates correcting the scarf lie. How does Marinette approach a random classmate and explain a situation that she doesn't even fully understand herself? That's very different from Ladybug telling a lie to a civilian or Marinette lying to her boyfriend.

Season one Marinette has no idea how messed up Adrien's home life is. All she knows is that Adrien liked her gift, but that he thinks it came from a different person. She doesn't even know that a lie was involved in this confusion! As far as she's aware, this could just be a minor misunderstanding that she'd rather let go because does it really matter who the gift is from? This is extra true because the scarf never comes up again, meaning that this is not an ongoing or damaging lie as far as canon is concerned.

That last point and the issue of Marinette never actually telling the lie herself are probably the biggest points in Marinette's favor. If Adrien wore the scarf all the time and used it as a comfort when he was fighting with his dad, then you'd have a solid case for Marinette needing to say something because the lie is arguably doing actual harm. This is especially true if you let Adrien say things like, "I wear this to remember that my father loves me," to Marinette. But that's not what canon did.

As far as canon is concerned, the scarf lie exists for all of a minute. A minute in which Adrien expresses delight in the gift, but gives it very tepid weight in terms of what it means for his relationship with his father. (Adrien's room is full of nice gifts, I don't think a scarf was going to make-or-break their relationship.) After that, the scarf never comes up again, meaning that Marinette's gut reaction to not immediately destroy Adrien's happiness is all we get. That's hardly a great setup for her being the source of massive ongoing lies about Adrien's personhood and the truth of his father's abuse.

I'll also remind you that this all happened at the very start of the show. The Bubbler is one of the first episodes people see. If this is your best argument for Marinette's behavior five seasons later, then we have a major writing problem on our hands. You should not have to dig back to the very start of the show to justify a major character beat like this. There should be more relevant material. We'll circle back to that problem in a minute. First let's quickly touch on lie two and why it also falls flat.

Chat Blanc

Another thing people point to as foreshadowing for the season five lies is the fact that Ladybug kept Chat Blanc from Chat Noir and, if Chat Blanc was actually affecting her, then I would agree with this take. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. The official story is that Ladybug's actions in season four had nothing to do with Chat Blanc. It was just guardian stress! If that's true, then I don't think she should tell Chat Noir about Chat Blanc.

Why?

Since when do we tell people about all the awful things they did while they were akumatized? There's no point to that. It's cruel. Do you think that Ladybug also needs to walk him through everything he did while under the control of various akumas like Dark Cupid? If no, then how is Chat Blanc any different? What's the value in telling Chat Noir the gory details of what will happen if he ever has a moment of weakness and becomes akumatized? He already knows that it will be bad! Why tell him exactly how bad it will be? I can't come up with a single good canonical reason.

Ladybug has no idea what caused Chat Blanc, so she can't warn Chat Noir what he needs to avoid. You can't even use the "he should know about Bunnyx" argument because that wasn't Bunnyx's debut. Canonically speaking, the only reason that Ladybug should talk to Chat Noir about Chat Blanc or any other bad thing that he's done while under the power of an akuma is if it's effecting her or their partnership and it's apparently not! That's why Marinette never reacts to Chat Noir getting a white makeover (see: the Paris special & Jubilation) and why Chat Blanc is never discussed in the show outside of that one brief nightmare callback in Sentibubbler.

To be clear, I think that's an asinine choice as Chat Blanc's memory hurting Ladynoir would have been semi-decent foreshadowing for the season five lies, but the writers decided to go another route. They also let Chat Blanc haunt Adrien even though he doesn't know about it, which I don't even know how to dissect because it's such terrible writing! If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the official explanation for why Adrien couldn't make it to the final fight. The reason for the white-and-blue Chat Noir that haunted his nightmares:

Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

Quality writing here folks. Quality writing. At the very least have season five Adrien be freaked out about the fact that he cataclysmed a human! That would make this make at least a little sense, but we don't get that. Instead we get Adrien almost cataclysming several akumas like it's no big deal while having nightmares about a thing he's never even been told about (see: Derision and Jubilation and probably other's I'm forgetting.)

The Events of Season Four and Five

As you can hopefully see, we don't have a great, ongoing pre-end-of-season-five lie to point to as proof that Marinette would decide to tell the massive lies that she does. That's a pretty big writing flaw, but it's not a show stopper. A lie like this could still fit her character if the story sets it up right.

The problem is that the story doesn't do that. It actually sets Marinette up to be primed to want to tell the truth.

For all Miraculous' nonsensical and wacky writing, the season five lie still comes at the end of two seasons with relatively clear messages. Those messages were to trust others and avoid lies. Let me show you what I mean.

While season four's writing is an absolute disaster, we cannot ignore the fact that the stated lesson in Strikeback is that Marinette learned to trust others, give up control, and stop lying:

Ladybug: Why don't you just give up on me? I've lost ALL the Miraculous! I'm the worst Guardian EVER! I wanted to control everything, I didn't listen to you, I lied to you, I kept you at a distance! Every time you offered me a helping hand, I never took it! I really made a mess of EVERYTHING! (continues sobbing)

This is what Marinette says to Chat Noir directly after losing the Kwamis. This is the lesson that she supposedly learned. The end note of the season. The word of god meant to be internalized by children everywhere. The show even goes so far as to have Ladybug give Chat Noir more responsibility in the first episode of season five (Evolution):

Cat Noir: Catch, m'lady! (throws the Rabbit Miraculous at Ladybug and she catches it) Only the holder of the Rabbit Miraculous can open a time portal. Ladybug: (contemplates shortly then places the Rabbit Miraculous on his chest, smiling) You do it, kitty. Cat Noir: You want me to control time? Ladybug: It's you and me, remember?

Really driving home this idea that Ladybug is going to be more trusting and open with others moving forward.

The meat of season five sees Marinette and Adrien start dating. During this arc, Marinette learns to be more open with her feelings around Adrien while also being confronted with the reality of just how messed up Adrien's home life is. Marinette and Gabriel clash with each other over Adrien with Marinette fighting for Adrien's freedom and Gabriel trying to control everything:

Gabriel: I don't think you understand, child, so let me put things differently. Life is like fashion. You think you have a choice, but all you have is the illusion of choice. And I decide what choices are given to you. Marinette: You're wrong! (Shows Gabriel her sketchbook.) Fashion is about listening to people, it's about understanding who they are, what excites them and creating the clothes that will help them express their inner world. Help them connect with others and make their dreams come true.

This conflict means that Marinette and Gabriel do not have a single positive interaction in the entire season outside of maybe the final. We also see Adrien defy his father more than ever before. This is not the kind of setup you write if you want Marinette to tell Adrien that his father was a hero. Why in the world would she think that he'd want to be told that kind of lie? Why would he even buy it after all of the things that Gabriel has done? The final literally sees Adrien locked in a padded prison cell!!! Writers, what are you doing??? Why did you write this???

There's also the fact that season five has a major theme of lies = bad. It's the season where Lila's lies are finally outed, but only after they almost cost Marinette's friends their futures. For those who need a reminder: Lila tried to mess with the forms that stated where everyone wanted to go for lycée and would have succeeded in pulling off that harm and blaming it on Marinette were it not for the lies being outed.

On top of that, we also see Adrien keeping the plan to ship him off to London from Marinette, ending in this exchange:

Marinette: (on the video call) Adrien! Adrien: (voice breaking; in tears) Marinette, I should've told you sooner, but... up until the last minute, I thought I'd find a solution. I tried everything, I swear. Marinette: (on the video call) Adrien, what's... what's going on? Adrien: I have to leave Paris. (his voice breaks) I'm not worthy of your love. I feel terrible for hurting you.

Adrien kept the truth from Marinette to try to keep her from being hurt and ended up hurting her more than he otherwise would have because they don't even get a proper goodbye.

None of this is a solid setup for Marinette turning around and lying to Adrien about his father. Why would she do that after all of the harm lies and Gabriel caused in season five? Between this and season four, she has not been setup to want to lie to Adrien. Season five needs massive rewrites to make that choice work! (Note: I have yet to see the London special, but based on everything I've heard, I think it's just going to cement my annoyance at Marinette's wishy-washy writing by continuing to ignore the plot of the seasons leading up to the final and the special.)

Final Thoughts

I don't think that Marinette lying to Adrien about his dad is a terrible idea. It's a believable struggle! It just doesn't fit her character's journey. They've failed to have her tell that type of lie before and they had her tell this lie after two seasons where the main lessons were how much lies have hurt her and the people that she loves. If she hasn't gotten the message that you shouldn't lie by now, then when exactly is she going to learn it? It's incredibly hard for me to get invested in characters that aren't allowed to grow and learn from their mistakes and Miraculous has made it abundantly clear that it will not let these characters grow if growth messes with the plot that the writers want to tell.

I will openly admit that I think that Marinette's lie was a last minute retcon to make there be a cliffhanger to season six, but let's ignore that and give a quick three-point plan of how you could make this ending work:

Really lean into the negative consequences of people knowing the truth about things. Nino knowing Alya's identity outing Alya. Luka getting shipped off to Brazil. Make the truth hurt Marinette at every turn. Basically remove all lies = bad consequences and have Ladybug see losing the miraculous be the result of trusting others because she trusted "Adrien" and lost, leading her to keep pushing people away

Don't let Lila be outed. Have Lila be a good president and make that part of her big plan for the next season.

Have Gabriel and Marinette get along. Gabriel has said that Adrien is like Emilie, let Gabriel see himself in Marinette, leading Gabriel to trust Marinette to be Adrien's support should the worst happen. Let the final fight be a heartbreaking moment between two people who have an actual relationship built around loving Adrien. Have Adrien going to London be a "convenient" trip to get him out of the way on the day of the evil plot and not a prison sentence so that Gabriel doesn't look cartoonishly evil. Make it feel like he cares! Sell the redemption!

Do that and, yeah, I'd buy Marinette's choice even without setup lies because you don't need setup lies! Setup lies don't matter anywhere near as much as selling this lie and the writers simply didn't do that. I don't believe for a second that Marinette would lie for Gabriel or think that this was what Adrien wanted based on the relationship season five gave us for those three characters. It is so glaringly obvious that this is nothing more than a stalling tactic that has nothing to do with Marinette's character and everything to do with the show's rule that "there must always be a secret between Adrien and Marinette." I genuinely struggle to understand how anyone sees it as anything else.

[whumpsday]

Whumpmas in July #25

Share a sneak peek of something you're working on

all my WIJ stuff is being completed like the day before since i fell super off-schedule, so here's some other WIPs that are less "on the burner"!

there's a bunch of em, so i'll put them under a read more. this will primarily consist of Kane & Jim and BG3 fanfic things. at the very bottom is something with major Kane & Jim spoilers, but i'll give ample warning.

excerpt from a segment of a Kane & Jim AU RP i intend to edit into its own little thing. still have to put it in past tense and polish it up lol

But he has another problem: how is he to possibly stop this from happening again? He can't stay awake forever. Jack's things he can protect by sleeping in the middle of the floor with nothing, but he can't stop himself from screaming. Can't he? Kane eyes the little scissors that came with the sewing kit, then takes them into the bathroom. This is worth it to not lose access to food, he tells himself. And if nothing else, it will prove to Jack he's serious about trying to be good. He'll do anything to please his rescuer. Using the mirror as reference, he makes an incision into his throat. With all he's been through, he knows where to aim by now. He snips into his vocal chords until the whimpering stops, making sure not to interfere with his ability to breathe. Blood and tears mix in the sink, mostly blood. He presses his hand over his throat until the bleeding stops. It's quicker than usual: faster healing due to the blood, he supposes. It looks nasty, but he can't make noise now, at least until it heals.

this excerpt is from a Kane & Jim-related oneshot. by "related", i mean it takes place tens of thousands of years before K&J's story, when the first vampires were created.

Alukah sliced the man's throat with her sickle, watching the fear die in his eyes as the life left him. The life that would soon belong to her, for an eternity to come. She held him just so, letting his blood drain into the earth where she had prepared the spell, before tossing him in a pile with the rest to be buried later. The farmers said they could be used to nourish crops, an extra bounty on top of their main purpose. The tedium it would require would no longer be a concern, at least: they'd all have nothing but time if this went as planned. The message-girl bounded up to her, undisturbed by the mountain of dead.

this is another Kane & Jim AU, actually a fanfic (not sure if that's the right term to use) of a K&J x MMSS crossover i have with @not-a-space-alien. in the RP we did, Lex was Kane's victim and the hunters handed him over to her instead of Jim. i'm writing an AU of that where things go pretty badly and he gets sent back. i've been working on this for like a year and it's almost done, but i get nervous writing other people's ocs lol i'm always worried i'll write them ooc...

Kane hissed, loud like a feral cat, a sound he hasn’t made since his early days with the hunters. Eyes wild with fear, he tried to exude STAY AWAY FROM ME with every fiber of his being. “Did you just hiss at me?” Ari asked, incredulous. It only made her stop for a moment before she reached for his hair, to drag him away, to drag him out into the sun- Kane had no options left. It was eternal torture, or anything at all he could put between it and himself. It dawned on him that he had absolutely nothing to lose. There was no worse fate he could be punished with. And he’d said he would do anything to avoid it, hadn’t he? He lunged forward, swiping at her neck with bound hands. Ari was quick, but she wasn’t quick enough. Kane missed her throat, but as she turned her head away, his nails clawed at the side of her neck, delicious blood spewing from it. If Kane had been thinking clearly, he would have taken the opportunity to find something to end his life with. But he wasn’t thinking clearly: the only thing occupying his mind was the enticing scent of blood. Ari shouted something, but he wasn’t listening, focused solely on trying to get at the food he needed more than anything. A hard kick to the chest sent him flying back into the wall, further splintering already-broken ribs from yesterday’s beating. He tried to get up again, but promptly collapsed: he had no energy left in his burnt, beaten, starved body for another attack. He’d barely had enough for one. He wheezed, trying to catch his breath around fractured bone.

extremely tiny bit from a Catharsis chapter i have planned, during Luan's captivity

Cyrus’s shoe pressed against the back of Luan’s head, grinding his face into the floor. “This is where you fucking belong. You and every other nobody who thinks they’re hot shit.”

this excerpt is for chapter 2 of Lost at Sea, a miniseries i started a long time ago and never finished.

It had been several days since the monster had taken Digory to her cave, and by some miracle, he was still alive. He was alone much of the time. Each day, she brought him fish- more than he could eat in a day- and a large shell filled with freshwater. Blessedly, he was out of the sun. His skin, though still angry and red, was beginning to heal a bit from more than a week of nonstop exposure. It was miles better than the boat. Digory had been sure he would die there. Of course, he was still in dire straits. His mangled legs weren’t getting better anytime soon, though by this point he’d gotten somewhat used to the throbbing pain of them. He was pretty sure that his feet turning purple was a bad sign, but at least he couldn’t feel them. That was probably worse. And of course, he wasn’t always alone. The mermaid was terrifyingly enormous. She liked to stare at him with unblinking eyes almost as big as he was, her claws as sharp and menacing as her teeth. She could kill him with no effort at all, if she wanted to. She probably would. Digory pretty much figured that was why he was being kept. After starving on that wrecked ship so long, there was little meat on his bones. Every bite of fish he took to sate his hunger was bringing him closer to his own death.

here's an excerpt from chapter 2 of my BG3 fanfic Astarion and the Cleric (remember that?) that if i'm being honest i probably won't ever finish

That gave Astarion pause. “A vow of celibacy.” “It means I don’t–” “Yes, I know what it is, darling.” Astarion’s hand retreated as he attempted to think quickly of a way to salvage the situation. Had a mark said that, he would have normally given up and gone for someone easier. But Gentle was not a mark. Gentle was a reliable source of food, and by some twist of fate the gods surely found hilarious, currently his best means of protection from Cazador. He was an irreplaceable resource, and things were too shaky as they currently stood what with their… moral differences. He had to make sure– “I’d still love to spend the night together.” Gentle spoke in a manner evoking his namesake, stepping ever-closer. “It would simply be less… lustful. Though I understand if you’d prefer to seek elsewhere for your night of passion instead. I overheard Lae’zel expressing similar wishes?” “Ha.” The githyanki was perhaps the one least likely in all the camp to allow him to indulge in her blood. This could work, however. “What exactly do you have in mind?” Gentle’s smile turned playful, his turn to be coy. “You’ll have to wait and see.” “Cheeky. Wait and see I will, then,” he settled on. As Gentle skipped off to enjoy the party, Astarion tried his best to push down the part of him that ended up relieved.

despite only ever posting 1 chapter of Astarion and the Cleric and not even getting to the whumpy part, i went off the rails and started writing an AU of it in which Gentle, the titular cleric, is also turned into a vampire spawn by Cazador.

here's an excerpt of Gentle sealed in a tomb long-term as punishment, something i do intend to post probably next month for augusnippets after i put it in past tense:

Gentle prays. He is unsure by what interval he prays, unable to track the passage of time, sealed in the tomb as he is. He prays whenever it feels right. Sometimes he prays for hours on end without ceasing, sometimes he goes what might be days without, like a child throwing a tantrum. But never longer than that. More often, he prays what might be once every hour or so while he lays awake. For there is nothing for him to do here but pray, and there is no one else to listen but Ilmater.

something else from the same Astarion and the Cleric AU, Gentle helping Astarion get acclimated after he's first turned (i had Gentle be the older spawn)

Gentle’s heart sank when he saw that Master had brought a new spawn along with him into the dormitory. He’d hoped he would be the last. He and Violet already took home plenty of innocents– as much as it tormented him, he could not disobey. But a new spawn? It was a fate worse than his unfortunate victims would get. A fate worse than death. The dormitory did have six beds, in addition to Violet’s seventh in the favoured spawn room. Gentle didn’t like to dwell on the implications. The new spawn looked to be an elf. Master seemed to have a preference for them, himself being the only non-elven member of the ‘family’. An obvious newborn, he was covered in fresh dirt and clearly trying very hard to keep himself from shaking with terror. Gentle could just barely make out wounds beneath the later of filth.

this next except is from an entirely separate BG3 fanfic called Answered Prayer. the premise is that Bhaal hears Astarion's desperate prayers during his phase of "trying" every god in hopes someone will help him. Bhaal sends The Dark Urge (my durge oc Perran) to slaughter Cazador and everyone else there. Perran then takes Astarion for himself and becomes his carewhumper.

Bhaal. Oh, how he’d prayed to the Lord of Murder. To have a sliver of opportunity, a stake steady in his hands. Or for some brave hero to come do the deed themself, vanquishing Cazador for him. For Astarion was a well-suited devotee, was he not? Had he not ended enough lives himself to earn his salvation? As he was made to fight the cultists at Cazador’s word, his master’s will overriding his own, he supposed the answer was yes, not that he’d live long enough to see it. He was weak with hunger, and the hooded figure he’d been ordered to distract overpowered him easily, pinning him to the palace floor despite his struggles. “Not that one,” their leader barked, jabbing a confident finger toward Astarion before running a dagger through Aurelia’s throat. His ‘sister’ gurgled, the terror fading from her eyes as she lost her life for the second time, joining the rest of his downed siblings. The Bhaalist sighed with the same satisfaction one might feel after a full meal, turning his attention toward Cazador. Despite his own dire straits, Astarion paused his efforts at wriggling away to watch. If it were possible, Cazador’s death would make a fine appetizer to his own– or whatever the Bhaalist had planned for him. He’d never thought he would see Cazador overpowered, but the Bhaalist was a force to be reckoned with. Deliciously, he had a front-row view to the slaughter. The Bhaalist made quick work of incapacitating him and slow work of killing him, dragging screams from his throat just as Cazador had done so many times to him. If only the victory were not tainted by knowing he was next. Just like that, Cazador laid dead and bloody on the ground. Astarion could feel it as soon as the gory mess the Bhaalist had made of him transformed from an undead swath of agony to a truly-dead mangled corpse: the thread tying him to his master snapped. He was free, all too late.

the following contains major spoilers for Kane & Jim canon. it's a bit for a future present arc scene i had to write early because it wouldn't leave my head.

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Stab the little bitch and make it hurt. The thought pushed its way into Jim’s mind, much louder than his own quiet, dulled thoughts. So much more important. Anton was telling him to stab Kane. Jim walked over to the cupboard drawers and took out one of the silver forks. That should work. Just as Kane got the upper hand and tackled Anton to the floor, Jim plunged the fork into his back. His task completed, he stood idly by as Kane shrieked in pain, the sound and smell of burning flesh permeating the room. Something nagged at the back of his mind- like something was wrong? No, nothing was wrong. How could anything be wrong when he felt this peaceful?

that's all i've got! literally almost every WIP i have in my folders.

@whumpmasinjuly

[toraawa]

Why Serena Can't Hate Yuri (and What May Happen in Duel Links) Part 2

Link to part 1 here.

As I said before, Serena hating Yuri would be very hypocritical, and I hope the analysis part demonstrates that. It's OOC, and I also believe it's OOC for Serena to be cutthroat about forgiveness.

In Arc-V, Serena's first impression of Sora is really bad. She sees him defeat Shun and make him roll down a whole flight of stairs, and she's horrified by it. Sora is one of the worst offenders of Academia's cruelty, right below Yuri himself—his glee in defeating Shun and the hunting game in Xyz mirrors Yuri's own glee for victory and carding others. Sora portrayed exactly what Serena found disgusting about Academia's soldiers.

But in Duel Links, Serena has no problem with him whatsoever, because she understands that he was heavily conditioned like she was and broke out of it... and is also happy to hear that Academia is changing!

I think these two examples are very poignant. Serena despises Academia, but she's not dismissive about the fact that they're trying to be better. It even makes her smile. Yes, Serena, who swore to fight against Academia with everything she had. This shows that Serena isn't against forgiveness at all, as long as you're trying to change for the better. Both Sora and Academia are trying to do that, and she gives due recognition for it. Past actions aren't going to make Serena hate someone forever.

And it's precisely because so many others have extended the same grace to her. She's been given a second chance herself, and understands how valuable it is. It would probably crush Serena to be seen as only evil because of what she did in the past, no matter how much she regrets it and tries to amend her mistakes.

Although, I think Leo is the one person Serena isn't ready to extend much understanding to, just because of how much damage he caused.

Another interesting aspect is how Serena reacts to Sora vs. how she reacts to Yuri in the anime.

When Serena sees Sora again after she's hit by the nerve gas, her immediate reaction is distrust and disdain. She tries to tell him to get away from her. But she doesn't outright deny Sora's claim that he hasn't come to take her back; Serena just questions him further with a lot of skepticism, and when Sora outright says that he's on their side, Serena is surprised (and seems to accept it somewhat). This is another example that Serena doesn't let her judgements remain set in stone. She allows someone who she thought was terrible, like Sora, to explain himself and prove that he's an ally. Serena has broken out of refusing to listen to others like she did in Season 1 with Dennis.

This also implies that Serena doesn't hate Academia's soldiers; rather, she just holds a very intense disdain for them and what they do.

And remember, Sora is pretty much the closest to Yuri in terms of being a reprehensible person. But to refuse hearing Sora out and forgive him (and explicitly be on good terms with him in Duel Links) would be extremely hypocritical of Serena, because so many people have done the same for her. People like Shun, who have every right to hate Serena forever for who she used to be despite her conditioning, but is now on very good terms with her in Duel Links.

And then there is how she reacts to Yuri.

I'll admit, I was always a bit puzzled by this scene, because I expected a lot more hostility from Serena—some demands for Yuri to not mess with her, or to shut up, or something like she did with Sora. Yuri's in control of the Obelisk Force, for crying out loud. He's very obviously a special enforcer who reports directly to Leo, yet all Serena can muster is repeating his words and giving a scowl here and there. Anyone explicitly tied to Academia immediately garners her hostility, yet with Yuri, Serena just seems confused. And surprised at his dragon. I still can't find a good explanation for her behavior here that isn't simply a headcanon.

The most I can think of that isn't just her feeling a connection to him a la Bracelet Girl and Yu-boy magic is that she recognizes him from when they were kids in Yuri's flashback sequence. (Either is technically possible, but I'm trying to not let my bias for this ship affect this analysis LOL.)

I bring this scene up because Serena has a strange lower level of hostility towards Yuri, and because there is a sprite of nerve gas Serena in Duel Links's internal files, which suggests that this scene may be expounded upon when Yuri finally gets added and can talk to her.

This reaction from Serena also ties into when she finally mentions Yuri in Duel Links. And come on, Serena smiles when talking about Yuri. She's aware of his faults, and was targeted by him to be brought back to Academia, but her reaction towards Yuya mentioning him is nowhere near as hostile as when Sora asks about Leo.

In the Japanese version, Serena's line is a bit different; she says Yuri is someone she doesn't know well, but well, he'll come eventually when he feels like it. Either way, she's not fussed about him like she is with Leo. She doesn't express any dislike towards him coming at all.

We can go into all the characterization reasons for why Serena can't hate Yuri, but if this isn't a blatant confirmation of it, then I don't know what is.

At this point, I realize that it sounds like Serena can't hate Yuri but that her forgiveness towards him will be swift. And I want to assure that I definitely do not think that will be the case.

I think Serena's handling of Sora is good insight into how Serena will treat Yuri. In short, Yuri must show regret for his actions and strive to do better. If he does, then I think Serena will outstretch an understanding/friendly hand towards him. She has a very intimate understanding of the conditioning he went through by Leo's hand, after all. But if Yuri doesn't show remorse, I think Serena will be disapproving of him, while also keeping her understanding that this is how both Leo and Zarc made him in her head.

Between the two, I think the first option is a lot more likely.

I could cite the ending of Arc-V, where Yuri has a strange off-screen redemption and shares a smile with Serena in the last episode, but I hesitate to because Duel Links is actively rectifying many of the fans' complaints about the ending. I honestly don't know if they're going to keep that smile or not. I do believe that Yuri's redemption is an integral part of his character arc, however, and that Duel Links will focus a lot on it. Yugo's dialogue with Sora sort of implies this:

In the Japanese version, Yugo says that he doesn't want revenge because they were one until very recently, though it still has the implication that he got to know Yuri in that state.

I also think that with this knowledge that Yugo got to know Yuri, we're going to have additional insight on what pushed Yuri to embrace Zarc completely. Yuri's character depth is very shown and not told, but it's implied that he was desperate to become with his counterparts because he was so tired of being alone. Everything Yuri went through in Academia was enough to sway his #1 hater, in any case. It's likely that these deeper aspects of Yuri may be revealed with Serena as well, as she may be wanting to push for details of his life, but that's speculation.

Yuri's redemption in Duel Links seems eminent, and if he shows the resolve to change for the better and acknowledge his wrongdoings, I'm fairly certain that Serena will view him positively.

Redemption, forgiveness, and acceptance is a central theme in all the Fusion characters' arcs, after all.

[melishade]

Attack on Primue: Guren No Yumiya Commentary Part 1

Main Story

Alright everyone! I know things have been!...stressful. But now, I will be getting into the Guren No Yumiya Commentary! And this commentary will be split into multiple parts because this chapter is already so goddamn long. Longer than the Hizuru OVA, which was the last time I did a commentary! So now we begin!

Also spoilers ahead.

So initially I would have started with Optimus immediately after the Rumbling was activated, having a panic attack and what not, but I knew that I had to address the location of other characters first. Like Gabi and Wheeljack, since Optimus left her with the injured Autobot. Onyankopon would have the Jackhammer, and Ymir and Historia would come to terms about helping the people from the Rumbling because both would feel extremely guilty for just letting everyone die, so they go to the neutral ship because that's their best option.

Now onto where everyone else is:

Optimus…couldn’t think. He was still trying his best to comprehend what had just happened. He could barely hear with his audio receptors. It…the Rumbling…it was actually happening. The Colossal Titans stamped the ground so loud that the earth shook. The noise was too deafening, and the sky was scorched a scarlet red from the humidity. Humanity was going to perish. Humanity was going to die because of him. He failed…he…Eren…why? Why would Eren do this after everything they had been through?!

“Optimus?” Megatron grabbed him and shook him by the shoulders, “Optimus!”

It was no use. Optimus just looked so catatonic, so dead inside. The Prime had slipped out of his grasp and fell to his knees in defeat. His optics stared at the marching titans, ignoring the comrade right beside him. Megatron examined Optimus’ body. No bruises. No permanent damage from what he could see. He had to check on the others. He had no choice but to leave Optimus alone.

Sure, Optimus having a breakdown might be OOC of him; however, throughout the entire story, Optimus has no longer been held to the standards of a leader and has had gotten attached to Eren and the Survey Corps. So to have Eren, the human he called his son in the 'Moving Forward' chapter, start a genocidal plan, is going to mess with him. So Megatron is starting to take the lead and figure out how everyone is doing, and Arcee is not looking so hot after getting her arm cut off (again).

“As far as I know, missing in action,” Megatron answered, “And Optimus isn’t in the right head space to actually fight.”

“…can’t say I blame him,” Arcee confessed, “I’ve seen how close those two were. Why would Optimus hurt him?”

Megatron couldn’t help but sigh in defeat at…everything. What got them all here? Inaction? Emotion? Attachment?

“Slag everything,” Megatron groaned as he stood up.

“Where are you going?” Arcee couldn’t help but ask.

“…I don’t know, Arcee,” Megatron admitted, “But…for what’s it’s worth, you weren’t wrong about me.”

Arcee couldn’t help but be surprised at those words as she careened her helm to look at him, but he was already trudging away from her.

This is where Megatron has basically made up his mind about going after Eren, and he starts saying what he thinks are his last words to everyone in the area that he has ever wronged. To say sorry to Arcee would no doubt be an insult to her and all other Autobots. So casting aside his pride and admitting that Arcee was right about what she said to him in the 'Monster' chapter.

So we cut to the humans to see what their reactions are. Kenny doesn't care, and has made his opinions known quite a few times in previous chapters, while Hanji is extremely adamant about allowing for a genocide to happen. And Magath, because he's still in the mindset of the 'Eldians are devils' bit, immediately starts to blame the Survey Corps for Eren's actions. And we already know the hypocrisy of Magath's words from the actual show, so I'm not going to dive into that. However:

Something caught their eyes and they turned to see Megatron trudging towards them. Magath should have felt fear in that moment. The sight of the Flying Titan in all its wickedness should have terrified him, but all he felt was rage.

“And you!” Magath seethed.

“General!” Colt pleaded while Lara could only stare.

“You lied to us for years!” Magath shouted at him, “Stringing us along to your whims to get what you wanted! Making us…care about you! And you played us all and got people killed!”

So it was very apparent that Colt still believed in Megatron, especially since Megatron has actively been nice to the Warrior Cadets. But I was also hinting at the fact that Magath started to care about Megatron's human persona after the Monster chapter. And this is Megatron's response to him and everyone else:

“Isn’t that what you have done?” Megatron challenged in annoyance, “Forcing Reiner and Annie to do Marley’s bidding and infiltrate the Paradis military? Making them believe that the people of the island were devils when they weren’t? Having them string the Survey Corps along until they got what they wanted?”

“At least what they were doing was stopping the Rumbling from happening!” Magath retorted, “This! This is on you!”

“And I accept full responsibility,” Megatron tiredly replied, shocking everyone there.

Everyone froze at that. Did Megatron…just…accept responsibility?

“What?” Hanji questioned.

“After nearly causing the extinction of my race and destroying our planet, I should have known better.” Megatron pulled out his sword and stared at his reflection in it, “I should have taken far more effective measures to prevent this tragedy once again…but it seems I learned too late. And for that, I’m sorry.”

Half of the Survey Corps mouths dropped. Megatron…just apologized to them all. He apologized?!

“Oh wow, we are fucked,” Kenny swore.

The results of Megatron's redemption comes full circle as he apologizes to all the humans. He doesn't really have time to give a full length apology to each and every single person there shows signs of his character growth. Also, Kenny's "Oh wow, we are fucked" is a reference to the DBZA Finale with TFS Vegeta saying that. And Vegeta is already an asshole. But TFS Vegeta is an even worse asshole. So the quote definitely does apply to this situation: a four million+ year old warlord apologizing to humans.

So Megatron is prepared to leave, but Armin and Mikasa still try to convince Megatron to not go, because they don't want Eren to get hurt and they don't want Megatron to die. But Megatron has already made up his mind. Besides, Megatron is already marked for death. And he's going to choose how he goes out. He does give some advice before he does leave them.

“Optimus tried. He failed,” Megatron cut her off as he placed his sword on his side again, “He was our best chance of stopping the Rumbling before it started, but Eren no longer cares. If we wait to try that again, more people will die. And even if you do try to convince him to stop, will you accept the fact that he will have the blood of thousands, if not millions of people on his hands? The lot of you could barely stand me as I am for my past crimes. What makes you so certain you can stomach seeing Eren if you somehow manage to bring him back?”

Megatron glanced back to see Mikasa’s expression of denial while Armin looked like he was coming to terms with Eren’s actions. “He’s too far gone now, Mikasa. He willingly attacked all the comrades he swore to protect. I can’t tell you this in a gentle manner, considering the situation, but it’s over. And you need to let him go.”

Because the main criticism that I had with the end of the manga was that everyone was remembering Eren fondly even though he wiped out 80% of humanity. So in this context, to hate Megatron and then care about Eren when both have committed genocide is hypocrisy. No hypocrisy. Drop Eren. Drop Eren's ass so hard.

But in addition to that, the fact that Armin is begging Megatron to consider reason and not diving headfirst into danger does strike a cord with the former warlord. To know that someone actually cared about him enough to consider his safety. And Armin and Megatron's relationship has obviously been interesting throughout the story. What once started off as blackmail had grown into a mutual understand. But Megatron knows that time is of the essence, so he still has to do his duty. But he does say:

“…Thank you…,” Megatron spoke, “For believing that I could be something more than who I am.”

Because to know that someone still believes he can be better despite all the evidence suggesting otherwise gives him hope.

Finally, he goes to Optimus, who is still in a state of shock and tries to reassure him, but Optimus is saying that he failed which technically isn't wrong. Megatron provides reassurance that Optimus was just trying to find peace without violence, and Megatron, a person who is engrained in violence, finally sees that non-violence isn't such a bad thing. But Megatron says like 'Hey, I gotta go kill Eren to protect the world. Stay here and protect the Survey Corps.' Optimus is begging him not to go because he literally cannot handle losing both Eren and/or Megatron in the same day. And Megatron, finally, finally, accomplishes the thing he was trying to do since day one of arriving on the AOT world.

“I’m sorry, Optimus Prime,” Megatron apologized.

Optimus froze at the words that came out of Megatron’s mouth. “What…what do you just say?”

Megatron felt…ashamed. Embarrassed even. He couldn’t continue looking Optimus in the optic and hung his helm. “I’m sorry, Optimus, for everything I’ve ever done. For the war, for killing our planet, for trying to destroy Earth. I’m sorry for the lives that I’ve taken and the people I’ve harmed. I’m sorry for forcing you to make difficult decisions because of my own failings. I’m sorry I did not trust you that day during the council. And I’m sorry that’s it’s taken me until now to properly apologize for my transgressions to you.”

“…Megatron…” Optimus didn’t know what to say.

“You were my brother,” Megatron confessed, “My constant. Despite everything that happened between us, I am still glad that I got to know you.”

Megatron pulled his servos out of Optimus’ grip before standing up fully.

“Wait.” Optimus his servo out as Megatron turned to look ahead.

“Goodbye, Optimus,” Megatron spoke.

“Don’t go!” Optimus tried to grab him, but it was too late. Megatron transformed and flew off away from Shinganshina, directly towards Eren’s titan form.

Megatron's apology is no longer out of selfishness, but out of genuine remorse. He throws his pride away once again to confess his feelings and express his remorse. And Optimus just wants him to wait! To not go! He can't lose Megatron again! But it's too late as Megatron takes off to engage Eren and his puppet titans.

Now everyone is still figuring out what to do next, with Hanji immediately taking charge and determining that they need to get to the Jackhammer to try and get to Eren. No Jaegerists, since Megatron got to Floch first and as a result, the Jaegerists aren't as strong as they are in the actual show. Magath immediately goes off on his own with Pieck and Colt trying to convince him to not do that since they need allies. And Optimus is slowly coming to terms with the fact that Eren is doing this, so Optimus has to stop Eren. He's not at putting Eren down yet, but we'll get there.

Optimus slumped forward once he realized Megatron was out of his line of sight. Megatron…went to stop Eren. Megatron went to fix his mistake. Optimus felt his servos shaking once more. It happened again. First Megatron, and now Eren. He failed to protect them. He failed to understand them, and now the world was going to pay for his sins. Why?...Why in the Allspark does this keep happening? Why couldn’t he do any of this right?! Some Prime he was! He can’t even protect the people he cares about!

Optimus clutched the sides of his helm. He hated this! Why in the Allspark was he brought here in the first place if this was going to be the end result?! Why didn’t Eren listen?! Why couldn’t Optimus convince Eren to stop?! If only…if only he tried harder…then maybe…maybe…Optimus’ servos fell to his folded knees in defeat. He knew he had to do something. He knew that, but this was different from Earth. Even if he saved the humans of this world, there would no doubt be retaliation for any lives lost. His home, his family, was going to be put in danger. And if he helped saved the world, there was no guarantee that they would be safe. That Eren would be shown mercy…but he knew that the longer he contemplated, the more lives would be lost.

Optimus’ gaze was redirected to the emblems on his upper left arm: the Autobot symbol and the Wings of Freedom. He knew what those meant, what those represented. If he did nothing now, he would be unworthy of carrying them both. Everything he had ever done would be for naught if he sat on the sidelines and did nothing. And that was something he would never allow himself to do. 

But it is hard for Optimus to rationalize this in a way that he can digest. Because he is wondering if it is his fault or it is because of outside forces. And even if they somehow manage to succeed Paradis will no doubt still be put in danger. But as an Autobot and as a Survey Corps member, he cannot stand by and do nothing. So he makes up his mind to go after Eren, but the first thing he does is try to ensure Paradis' safety is secure by making a deal with Magath.

“If I am to succeed in stopping Eren, promise me that you and your forces will leave Paradis alone,” Optimus said.

Magath blinked in confusion. “W-what?”

“If I stop Eren, leave Paradis alone,” Optimus repeated in a simpler manner. He knew it was a long shot, but he still had to try and make peace if he somehow succeeded.

“Leave Paradis alone?!”Magath nearly shouted, “It’s because of you that the world is going to hell! This is your entire fault! Do really think that Paradis will be left alone after this?!”

“Megatron is giving this world a fighting chance, as will I,” Optimus retorted, “This is the one chance you have at surviving this catastrophe.”

“Even if it was possible, why the hell should we believe you?” Magath hissed, “You’re devils. Scum of the Earth that should be wiped out.”

“I do not care what you think about me,” Optimus declared, “But I do believe that humanity does not deserve to perish. I will do everything in my power to protect your world. The only thing I ask in return is that you do not destroy mine.”

Magath was surprised at the titan’s steadfast resolve. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to believe this titan! Not even…not even after he tried to convince Eren to stop. As Magath’s doubt began creeping in, Pieck suddenly emerged from her titan formed, startling her comrades.

“I believe you,” Pieck declared, “I believe you, Optimus Prime.”

“Pieck!” Colt exclaimed.

“What are you doing?!” Magath demanded. She was putting herself in danger! What was she thinking?!

“You do?” Optimus spoke, taken off-guard by her proclamation.

“I’m sorry for our actions today,” Pieck apologized, “But right now, I am being as honest as I can be with you. I never cared about Marley. I knew full well that they would decide to kill all the Eldians whether or not we received the power of the titans. I only cared about my comrades and keeping the people I love safe. The only reason I became a warrior in the first place was so my father could receive medical care from Marley. Everything I did, I did for him.”

Magath was stunned when tears began falling down her face. “And all that will go to waste if Eren succeeds with flattening the whole world. Please. I’m not asking you as a warrior or an Eldian or a devil. I’m asking as a scared woman who’s afraid to lose her home and father. Please, if you can find a way to stop him and save this world then please.”

Magath looked back at the titan, and saw that he was moved by her cry for help. He was shaken to his very core. The titan’s surprise turned into determination as he stood up.

“You have my word: I will do everything in my power to stop Eren,” Optimus declared.

The only reason Magath even decides to agree to Optimus' deal was because of Pieck. Because Pieck was told by the shadow (aka Primus) to put her faith in Optimus Prime because he'll be the one to end the power of the titans forever. Not to mention, Pieck has witness Optimus' good character in such a short amount of time to help back up Primus' statement. And then, Optimus says 'goodbye' to the Survey Corps.

“Optimus!” Hanji cried out as the Survey Corps ran over to him. Magath saw Optimus’ face grow fearful. The man saw Optimus clench his fists and shut his eyes, choosing not to face the Survey Corps.

“Optimus, what are you doing?” Armin asked as Levi pulled out his swords.

Optimus knew…he knew that he wouldn’t come back. Megatron knew that fact clearly. If the both of them left and they failed to stop Eren, then it would cost them their very lives. He would never see them again. He had faced death in the face countless times but…this time felt so different. It…it genuinely terrified him. But…he had no choice. He had to go.

“Survey Corps,” Optimus began with his eyes still shut. Optimus then turned to his comrades and gave them a small, yet bitter smile.

“Optimus?” Hanji asked fearfully.

“It’s been an honor serving with you all,” Optimus declared.

Before anyone could comprehend those words, Optimus turned towards the marching titans and took one step…then another. Then all the humans in the vicinity finally realized that Optimus was running towards the Colossal Titans, towards Eren.

Optimus knew. He knew that if he prolonged his goodbye or said anymore, they would catch on before he started running. Or he wouldn't have gone to stop Eren because he didn't want to leave them behind. BTW, I actually did kind of spoil this in this prompt. With Hanji reaching out to him in a dream as he ran into certain death. Now the Survey Corps are begging him to come back, Erwin has to stop Hanji from going ahead, Armin and Mikasa don't know what to say, and Levi:

“Let go of me!” Hanji screamed at Erwin in anger and fear, trying to kick their way out of his grip.

“We don’t have a plan yet!” Erwin retorted.

“Levi!” Hanji screamed at him.

Levi activated his 3D gear and flew towards Optimus as fast as he could before Erwin could respond. Levi used his 3D gear to fly low on the ground due to the lack of material he could actually cling to. Levi managed to reach Optimus and shot himself high into the air to get a better vantage point. Despite his injured arm, he used it and aimed his energon spear at the titan. Optimus looked backed at him briefly, and the world seemed to stop for them. Levi could only stare into those bright blue optics, but couldn’t will himself to pull the trigger. He…he couldn’t hurt Optimus, but he couldn’t let the titan rush to his death. Levi snapped out of his moment of weakness when Optimus activated his battle mask. Levi shut his eyes and pulled the trigger, and Optimus transformed into his alt mode, causing the energon spear to just barely miss his legs.

Levi couldn’t find any more items to latch onto and ended up hitting the ground hard. The Ackerman rolled to a stop, causing him to let go of his handles he had on him. Levi groaned, holding his injured arm before he forced himself to sit up. He heard Optimus’ engine fade away watched in fear as Optimus drove as fast as he could to Eren.

Levi, in the beginning of the story, was the last to really trust Optimus. It wasn't until chapter 8 that Levi decided to put his trust in Optimus. And once Levi puts your trust in you, he'll literally be a ride or die. So the man who was the least trusting of Optimus, is now trying to stop Optimus from going to his death, but he can't bring himself to stop him by harming him. He can't stop Optimus from going to protect humanity, and he also can't let humanity die.

So the alliance is created when Pieck decides to lend her aid to the Survey Corps, forcing the rest of the Marleyan team to follow. Also this:

“Your name is Arcee, right?” Pieck asked.

“…maybe,” Arcee answered.

“You knocked me unconscious,” Pieck commented, recalling her human appearance in Marley.

“…probably,” Arcee begrudgingly admitted.

Is in reference to the 'Curtains Rise' chapter where Arcee uses her holoform to knock Pieck out. Everyone decides to help out either through moral obligation or compassion for other comrades (Kenny is only helping out because Levi is getting involved.)

“You’re not coming?” Erwin assumed. Kenny couldn’t help but look up at the Colossal Titans before turning his gaze to Erwin.

“I don’t want to,” Kenny confessed, “This is…bigger than me.”

“…I don’t blame you,” Erwin agreed.

"You don't have to go," Kenny proclaimed, "This is bigger than you too."

"I know," Erwin agreed, “But I can’t let this go.”

Kenny glanced behind Erwin to see Levi assisting Hanji in walking. “He’s going, isn’t he?”

Erwin glanced back to see who he was referring to. “Yes…I can tell him-!”

“No,” Kenny shot at him, “I owe Levi.”

And the team set off north to get to the Jackhammer. Meanwhile, Optimus manages to reach Eren's Founding Titan and sees that Megatron is getting overwhelmed by numbers, Optimus tries to provide assistance, but Megatron protects him in response and:

“Prime?!” Megatron called out in confusion as he smacked his shield in the side of a Jaws Titan. Megatron gasped when a War Hammer Titan was sneaking up behind him with a sword in hand. He bolted towards Optimus and tackled him down to dodge the swing of the puppet. Both noticed the Zeke’s Beast Titan forming and hanging off a protruding bone on the giant spine. It manifested rocks in its hand before chucking it at them both. Megatron used his shield to protect them both from the impact, but another War Hammer used a sword to pierce Megatron’s shield and cut it in half. The force knocked the two of them back, and they ended up falling through a gap in the spine and plummeted towards the ocean. Megatron shielded Optimus from any other attacks from above before they crashed into the water.

Megatron's shield gets destroyed. And if you remember from the Purpose OVA, Megatron's shield is the same one he used as a gladiator. The shield had sustained heavy damage throughout the story. I just thought it would be good to finally have it destroyed.

Now, I'm going to stop right here for now because, exciting news, I'm almost done with the rough draft of the next chapter. I just have one more scene to write, and the chapter will be done with over 35,000 words. Once I'm actually done with the chapter, I have to edit it, finish up the commentary, and then post it. After that, I probably need to take a small hiatus because I have really been working overtime to get to the end and a break does sound nice.

But let me know what you guys think and stay tuned.

[samwinchestersbf]

{ The Ghost of Beacon }

Chapter 1. "Do you really believe in ghosts?"

A RWBY x reader

warnings: small language, maybe ooc?

small authors note: I just created this idea on a whim, I am open to criticism. The gender neutral reader will be using they/them so anyone is welcomed to read. I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors in advance, I also have a small concept on how tumblr works beware! Please enjoy :) More chapters to come. (This takes place along with the original storyline with a few tweaks. I might toss in some romance when the time comes but who knows.)

Short Summary: The ghost of Beacon was thought to be a legend however with the recent spikes of activity, the school has grown unsure. The students with no idea of the story behind it all have determination to find out...

Reblogs are appreciated!!<3

WHY IS IT KINDA LONG OML SORRY 🙏

At first it was...difficult to come to terms with your death in the first couple of years. It's not like anyone noticed anyways, with all the speculation and lies.

Your days passed by very quick to say the least, you grew bored of it all. You craved to have fun if you were going to be a ghost trapped forever, right? Especially with new fresh students coming in.

Now here you were, amongst them all without their knowledge. These new students definitely piqued your interest, as did the last ones but there was something about them. You couldn't put your finger on it, perhaps it was just their behavior so you brushed it off.

You were too stuck in your thoughts to hear the headmaster's speech, along with his colleague. "Are there any questions?" He asked smoothly before taking another sip from his mug.

"Yeah...uhm sir?" You turned your attention to the timid blonde boy before he was cut off. "Good! Now take your positions." You let out a simple laugh and observed the group of teens ready themselves, the boy not aware of what was about to happen. "Uh sir...I've got a question" He still raised his hand.

Students were being flung into the air and he was still on rambling with his question as Professor Ozpin answered calmly. You walked over to him, "Good luck" You whispered into his ear before he was being launched at full force.

"My bets are on the energetic redhead" You tried to joke before realizing again no one can hear your remarks. You watched the collective group in the air, giggling a bit to yourself.

Professor Oz and Glynda pulling out their scrolls to watch on the surveillance system. "Hey! Let me get a peek" You tried to watch over Glynda's shoulder, she let out a little shiver. "Sorry, just let me see real quick" You attempted to take it before the tablet swung out of her grasp, her eyes widening.

You were able to see the students landing strategies before she scoffed, picking up the tablet from the ground. "Slippery fingers I see." Ozpin let out his own remark. "Oh shush, I don't even know how that happened." Her tone a little irritated. She walked off to go somewhere more private to observe.

You were a little shocked to say the least from your power. You didn't know you could do that? You decided to try again on the headmaster, you swatted at his mug, yet nothing happened. "Maybe if I- aha!" You hit the mug as he was about to take a sip, a majority of the drink spilling on him, before the mug took a tumble to the ground.

Glynda looked over her shoulder as she was walking away, "Now you've got slippery fingers" She mocked him, he seemed amused with his furrowed eyebrows. He glanced down at the mess, "Ignore that please." You bursted out in a laughing fit, feeling satisfied you now have the power over objects.

You recovered from your prank, thinking about it more now. If you were a stereotypical ghost, you could do much more than that. You could possibly try light tricks or even talking to someone finally. You yearned for conversation, sure you loved to be alone but you wished deep down for someone to hear your opinions and jokes.

You just wanted someone to know you were there, you wanted to be noticed.

You stood there, ruminating to yourself. It's not like Ozpin could see you, if anything he thought he was alone.

Soon enough Glynda spoke up again after quite some time, walking up to him. "Our last pair has been formed sir," She continued on swiping the scroll to a different perspective. "Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren...poor boy, I can't possibly imagine those two getting along." You peered over her shoulder watching Nora be quite silly.

"They seem alright to me." You muttered, Glynda turned to Ozpin. "What did you say?" He looked up from his scroll, a look of confusion on his face. "I didn't say anything." He cocked an eyebrow before Glynda returned back to watching with a small eye roll following. So you could talk to people, if you really tried of course.

"But still, he's probably better off than Miss Nikos." Ozpin replied with a small hum. "I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat."

You wondered for a bit, it was possible to forge your way into any academy. You've seen it happen before besides no school is perfect.

Glynda put away her scroll, "I guess we'll find out soon enough" which in this case meant they were going to be finishing soon, you did want to test tricks on the new students. It'll maybe finally give you your own entertainment instead of listening and watching.

The collected woman walked off yet again, "At their current pace they should reach the temple just in a few minutes." She turned a little, she was truly a professional woman. As if you always knew that's who she's always been.

"Speaking of which; what did you use as relics this year?" She turned her full attention to him and called out his name again. He seemed too focused on his scroll, watching the kids from earlier have an argument. You believe he heard her because all he let out was another responsive hum.

He always did this, his little hums. Anyone was lucky if they had a full conversation with him.

All of a sudden you started to feel an intense pain in your stomach and throat, if ghosts could even feel a phantom kind of pain. You fell to your knees, trying to scream for help except not a single word came out. You coughed into your hand, pulling away to see your transparent hand stained with blood.

Get up. Get up. Get up

You blacked out and went dormant before waking up in a new scenery. You were in the academy now? You were still on the ground and quickly returning on your feet. An overwhelming confusion as you finally calmed down, realizing the pain beforehand was completely gone.

You woke up in that secluded spot you would go to clear your mind, a special place to your heart. It was dark outside and you could hear a faint commotion of people down the corridor.

You walked down there, walking through the door as you saw a sea of people surrounding the stage with four new students and Professor Ozpin. Everything must be over now, he's giving the new teams publicly.

"Oh shit, I missed all the fun." You sighed in defeat, still trying to figure out how that could've happened. You listened to Ozpin, making your way through the people to hop on stage.

"Looks like things are shaping out to be an...interesting year" He turned around, walking right through you. "Ow! You know that hurts right?" You hissed holding your stomach but he didn't notice.

He entered off stage as the girls and crowd cheered. You were obviously quick to follow right behind him.

He exited the room, Glynda waiting outside for him to talk to him. "I want to talk about what happened earlier today." He stopped in his tracks, and looked down at her. "Earlier?" He questioned before she took a breath in, "Earlier today, what happened wasn't ordinary. Stuff just doesn't come flying out of our hands and there wasn't any wind if I recall."

He raised an eyebrow before clicking his tounge to speak. "Yes that was quite odd but-" he was going to dismiss it all before a couple of students came to talk to him, surrounding him and Glynda. He politely answered some of their questions.

You saw the new team RWBY come out of the room, they seem to be having fun so you decided to follow them. They were chatting and walking to their brand new dorm.

After a while they finally made it there and you decided it was time to do what you originally wanted to do. Everyone was about to head to bed anyways so it was perfect for you.

The students said their goodnights to each other and were fast to fall asleep, now was the time to strike.

You went to team JNPR's dorm, knocking on their door and frantically shaking the door handle. "I'm coming..." Jaune's tired voice croaked before opening the door to absolutely nothing.

"Oh?" He looked down the halls with no sign of people whatsoever.

You decided to do it again every random hour of the night and you would follow him all day tomorrow to torment him.

The next morning he came off as very tired, explaining what happened and how no one has that much dedication to a joke like that. He believed it was a ghost, he was practically accusing you without knowing your name.

"Jaune cmon, maybe you were just restless all night from homesickness" Nora commented, she definitely had a heavy sleep effortlessly. Her friend Lie Ren was meditating on his bed.

He snapped his eyes open and whipped his head, drawing his teammates attention. He glared down where you were standing specifically, he must be able to tell you're there. He stopped before realizing he couldn't see you and apologized to them, "I thought I could sense something.."

Nora tilted her head and questioned the situation to the two boys "Do you really believe in ghosts?"

Jaune nodded desperately, "If it wasn't a ghost then it was most likely a student" Pyrrha suggested. "No it wasn't, I would've caught them!" Jaune rubbed his eyes, you did feel a little sorry.

"Then you should talk to Professor Ozpin about it later today" Ren replied, he was back to his calm meditation. The rest of the team agreed before you all heard team RWBY speeding out of their dormitory.

The four kids peeked out, falling onto the ground and catching up with the other team.

Hopefully this year would be interesting.

[lost-inanotherlife]

Lost S2 Rewatch - Final thoughts

Following this post, here are some more random thoughts about S2:

They did it once, they've done it again: killing off a female character for the sake of the paired male character's manpain. They did it with Shannon and they've done it again with Libby. Twice in a season. At this point I think it's a pattern and I totally hate it. The writers could write extremely well, they could've written something better but they just didn't do it. Totally uncool.

Speaking of Libby, I wish they didn't kill her off before telling us her story. Up until her death her character's main purpose is being the possible love interest of Hurley. Which, yeah, okay cool, I'm down with it. But maybe show us more as well? It's a shame that we come to know about her connection with Desmond literally after her death. And yes, I know, "plot reasons" and it kinda made sense too. And yet I felt a bit disappointed. We saw 0, nada, nothing, of her arc. Again, totally uncool.

"What Kate Did" is the season's best episode and I fucking love it.

I still have mixed feelings about Kate and Jack. What I mean is that they're definetely connected and they somehow click and not click together. I love thier dynamic. However in S2, although we have a kiss and a "caught in the net" moment (lol, Sawyer I luv u), they didn't share much screen-time together. Yes, yes, I know, this is a common way to write romance (a kiss, an "I'm sorry. I'm not", a bit of lack of communication, circumstances bring them apart and yadda yadda) but to "buy" their love story I needed a scene of the two of them together, without any interruptions, in between the kiss and the net. There wasn't so I don't know how I feel about them: do they like-like each other or are they just projecting *stuff* onto one another?

On the other hand, my baby girl Jack and Sawyer shared A LOT of intense scenes together. Like the one where Sawyer tells Jack that he's his friend (well, close to one) <3. Or when they play cards. Kate literally left them alone, lol. It was INSANE. I'm sorry but this confirms my reading that the real meaty love story is between the two of them. If the show aired totay we'd all be talking about the homoerotic subtext in Jack/Sawyer scenes. I said what I said.

Jack, please my love, listen to Sayid. His character faded a bit in the background this season, I mean something had to give with the introduction of FIVE new characters. But he was quite right about everything and I wanted to scream at Jacko everytime he was like "uh but Sayid we don't know!". Listen to the soldier/torturer/communication officer, doctor! You do you, let Sayid do Sayid, lol.

As I've said, I didn't enjoy Ana Lucia's connection to Christian. However, I like her story. Unfortunately her arc meets a brutal end: she was on her way to come to terms with her actions and she was stopped too soon. Honestly? I don't agree with this choice: the writers took their sweet time to let us discover Ana and her complexities, I'm sad her story ended beforehand. :(

I'm quite torn about Mr Eko. On one hand, interesting, brilliant character, on the other I feel like the last episodes made him act a bit OOC. We're showed a Mr Eko who's both ruthless and compassionate: he's a paradox and it's stimulating, we wanna know more about him. But then he goes all "I've received Revelation in my dream" and acts a lot like a dick. Like when he doesn't go to Ana Lucia and Libby's funeral. Dude, come on. Intellectually I know that it was all there, the moment he met Locke signed the fact that they'd first be united in their shared belief about the island and then they'd have split over their faith or lack thereof. Still, like with Ana, I think it was done too fast, I personally think they wasted quite some time with the Ben storyline. Too bad.

This rewatch reminded me of how tragic and absurd Locke's life is. Has he ever had ONE happy day in his life? Also, I always find myself a bit irritated that they didn't cast an older actor to play his father. I'm sorry I don't know the actors' age but Terry O'Quinn definitely looks older than the guy who plays Anthony Cooper.

Okay, I have more to say but I'll stop here! On to s3!

[flowers-in-bloom13]

Another pjo fanfic I made and posted on AO3. This one is still being continued. Here are all the 3 parts of it!!! Btw it is Valgrace. And hurt/comfort<3

------------

Chapter 1. lonely hearts club

''--and then I said 'he's literally just a guy. hit him with your car' but it turns out she doesn't have a car so--'' Piper said, retelling an old story from the wilderness school. ''huh?'' Jason said. ''sorry I didn't catch that..'' Piper looked at him with a concerned expression, her eyebrows furrowed. ''you okay, Jase?'' she said. ''you've been zoning out a lot recently..'' ''yeah...yeah I'm fine'' Jason said trying to reassure Piper with a smile. ''if you say so..'' Piper tried to erase the concern from her face.

~~~~~Later that evening~~~~~

Jason was laying in his bed , starting at the celling contemplating his feelings...his feelings for Piper. ''do I really love her?'' he thought.

''oh no...why......why am I questining this? of course I love her!'' but did he really?

his heart felt lonely.

Chapter 2. Jason's google search history: Am I gay, Am I gay quiz, how to know if you're gay.

Notes:

SOMTHING IMPORTANT: in this fanfic Leo made phones and tech and things that don't attract monsters. why? because plot. ALSO: this goes for the whole fanfic but I'm really sorry if/when any of the characters seem ooc.

also a note to all my friends: if I ever get isekai'd you better be coming with me.

--------

Jason was understandably confused about the situation. ''I don't know what to do anymore...'' he thought. ''I should- I do like Piper...right..?''

why was he so confused. It's his feelings he should know how he feels, it's what he thinks. if only it where that simple...

Jason sits up and takes out his phone and goes to google. ''am I gay'' he types.

he's far too scared to press search, so he deletes it. he lays back down. staring up at the celling again.

contemplating his feelings. ever since the bitch Hera erased his memory he's not known which of his feelings are real and which are not.

does he love Piper? he's been wondering that for awhile now. he keeps ''zoning out'' because of it. Jason decides to google it anyway. ''how to know if you're gay'' he types but he's too scared to actually look at anything that comes up.

he types ''Am I gay quiz'' he clicks on the first result, its a buzzfeed quiz. he takes the quiz. he gets his result. ''Traditional labels are meaningless!'' he reads the description. ''"Gay," "Straight," "Male," "Female"... There's a lot more to the world than those blunt terms encompass! You get to define yourself, and you're free to celebrate your sexuality — or lack of — however you choose! Hurrah!'' Jason reads it, his heart beating, ''oh.'' is all that escapes his mouth. he hears a thump -the Stolls summoning a demon again, probaly- and gets scared and closes the tab and deletes his search history.

'Maybe I should go see Leo in bunker 9'' Jason says aloud.

~~~~~At bunker 9~~~~~

'Hey, Leo...I hope you don't mind me barging in here..'' Jason says closing the door to bunker 9. ''oh hey, Jase!'' Leo says with a grin on his face while he works on fixing the argo 2.

''sooo.....'' Jason doesn't know what exactly to say. he can't just come in here and say ''oh hey, man, I'm not sure if I like my girlfriend anymore, oh also I might like men.'' well...technically he can...

''soo...erm....I need to talk to you about something'' Jason says hesitantly

''oooo got a secret?'' Leo teases. ''you could say that..'' Jason replies.

Leo realizes that this probably isn't the time for teasing. Jason and Leo sit down on the floor next to each other.

''I...I'm not sure if I liker Piper anymore...'' Jason explained. ''In fact...I'm not sure if I ever liked her at all..'' ''hm...well that's a....problem...'' Leo replies. Jason looks down toward the floor. ''yeah...it is...''

''This might sound crazy but.. maybe you should tell her?'' Leo explains. Jason looks back up at Leo. ''but...I.. she'll be sad or mad..'' he says. ''She'll be happier if you do tell her'' Leo says. ''you think so?'' Jason asks hesitantly. ''I never think, Jase'' Leo replies.

~~~The next day~~~

Piper is enjoying the picnic her and Jason are having in the strawberry field. Jason...not so much...he's dreading telling Piper that he may not love her. ''It's such a beautiful(Selina beauguard much?) day, the clouds, the blue sky, the birds chirping, Clarisse threatening to kill Percy..'' Piper exclaims. ''yeah...it is...'' Jason replies ''you okay, Jase?'' Piper asks. Jason takes a shaky breath and looks down. ''the truth is, I'm not fully sure if I....If I like you'' ''Romantically I mean! I do know that I like you but only...as a friend, maybe? I'm still not sure yet...'' Jason explains ''oh...that's...erm....'' Piper says ''I'm glad you're figuring yourself out, Jase'' ''you're not mad?'' Jason looks surprised, maybe even a little shocked, ''you're not mad?'' Jason asks in surprise. ''No. I'm not'' Piper said. Jason starts to tear up. ''I love you, Pipes, I'm not sure if it's romantic or not but I love you'' Jason says. Piper pulls him into a hug. ''I love you too, Jase, I'm glad you're starting to figure out who you are after...Hera'' Piper smiles lovingly at Jason.

Chapter 3.

----

Jason was laying in his bed, wonding, how Piper was so kind and supportive of Jason maybe not loving her romantically - until he heard a knock at the door of cabin one.

Jason got up and opened the door. It's the Stoll brothers. ''Hey, Jasie!'' said Connor...or Travis. it was impossible to tell. ''erm...'' Jason exclaimed ''what are you doing here? and so late as well, It's what 10:30?''

The Stoll's looked at each other and laughed, then looked back at Jason.

''well we're having a...'event' over at the Hermes cabin!'' said one of the Stoll's. ''and we're here to invite you! trust me, there's alcohol!'' said the other butting in.

*so that's why they where laughing...* Jason thought, *wait...Alcohol...*

''uhm...I think I'll have to skip this one..''

''but...!'' the one on the left said, ''You can't skip itttt!'' the other one sarted to speak, '' yeah! you can't! come on Jasiee. stop being such a party-pooper!''

Jason sighed, ''fine. I'll come to your party...'' ''Great!!'' exclaimed one of the Stoll brothers.

Jason wasn't enjoying the party all that much so many...drunk people.. It remined him of his mother. she was always drunk

-----

I'm obviously not the best at writing...also for the "am I gay" quiz result,

I took an actual "am I gay" quiz and answered how I think Jason would and copy/pasted the result... Also I'm sorry it's so rushed- I just really want to get to a certain part. Also my username on AO3 iz "W_itch_With_A_B" if you want to find me on there. Also I wrote the fic in the early rif the morning...it's currently 00:23 rn actually!

[ad-hawkeye]

(not the past anon/s but i made this whole analysis on artem's summer splash card + compared it to wings of exhilaration and i wanted to share hehe this got really long and i hope it makes sense 😭)

SPOILERS AHEAD‼️‼️‼️ they're pretty minor bc i won't be spoiling the overall plots of the cards but,, still spoilers 😭

when i think of fanservice in terms of artem cards, the cards that come to mind are his summer splash card and "wings of exhilaration" but i will always pick the latter over the former any day under any circumstance‼️ they both center on the theme of possessiveness but while wings acknowledges it as smth that is natural in a relationship, summer splash makes it feel like it's a requirement

artem is def a lot more comfortable relationship-wise in wings but there's clearly still some uncertainty 🥹 after not seeing each other for a week he gets super clingy and pretty much does everything he can so he can have rosa all to himself for a while. he lets her choose between having dinner in the hotel room or at the hotel restaurant but rosa sees right through him, noticing that he's hoping she'll pick the former, so she does but it was of her own accord.

at the end, he's surprised she noticed this and reveals that it was bc he knew that a lot of racers would also be dining at the restaurant and he didn't want anyone to share his or her attention but he still wanted to give her the freedom of choice, hence him still giving her the option to dine out. he also adds that he's not sure whether he's had this possessiveness from the start and it only manifested now and he didn't want rosa to "accomodate" his wants BUT rosa immediately assures him that possessiveness is normal in relationships and that even she feels toward him too!!

wings is supposed be released before summer splash so i'm pretty sure what the writers wanted to do with summer splash is show artem in his most confident and comfortable stage in the relationship as a continuation of wings but they forgot to stay true to his actual personality 😭 at the end when the two of them were lighting the sparklers, rosa was reminiscing about what her high school classmates would do with the sparklers and artem straight up tells her that he doesn't want her to remember them when she sees sparklers and think of ONLY him instead?? and imo it just doesn't seem like smth artem would say 😭

i imagine he'd be sentimental and say "while i missed out on experiencing playing with sparklers as a kid, this experience with you alone makes up for all of it" 🥲 and even if they rlly wanted to keep his original quote, there are so many other ways to reword it so artem isn't basically saying he wants to override her memories until they're all of him (i refuse to acknowledge summer splash as canon and made up my own plot for it LMFAO)

all i can say is that artem in wings of exhilaration was written with the character in mind but artem in summer splash was written for the plot‼️

YOU ARE COOKING ANON. STRAIGHT UP COOKING UP A FEAST. A FULL FIVE COURSE MEAL. AND DEAR GOD AM I EATING ALL OF IT UP!!!!

this is literally the most clear and concise explanation of these cards ever. and how each one handles a similar topic, but differently?? wow, okay yeah i can. definitely see where this card went very very wrong.

the funny thing is i have never liked possessiveness or jealousy plots in otomes/dating sims because more often than not it's treated exactly how you said it was in the summer splash card. it's. the. WOORRRST and it's even more awful here because of how ooc it is.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT?! yeah! the wings card does seem in character and handles the topic like. so normally. !!?? when this stuff is handled well it's so much better and anyways this is required reading for this blog thank you for my life anon this was utterly fantastic, well written, and concise!!!!!!!!!!

[bigskydreaming]

Last reblog had a lot of fascinating takes on the Batfam’s stances towards killing across the board. I particularly loved the bits about Cassandra’s perfectionism playing into her own stance against killing....the distinction where she’s like ‘I can understand someone else killing in self-defense, but I don’t know how not to hold myself to a standard that insists I could have found another way.’ 

I also really like the bit about juxtaposing Dick’s anti-killing vehemence in NTT versus his more varied approach to it in later years...especially when paired with Tim’s early convictions around killing. 

I think particularly with really old, long-established characters, we have a tendency to pick and choose with a lot of history in terms of being like.....this story contradicts this one which makes this character’s take here OOC or inconsistent with prior characterization....which is often true! BUT if we fall back on that all the time, we run the risk of not letting long-existing characters have room to actually evolve and grow.

And I actually think the link between Dick in NTT versus his views later in life can be perfectly in character, especially using Tim as a comparison point like in that post. Because we tend to overlook the basic fact that Dick was young in NTT comparative to later Nightwing solo runs. His views on killing are inevitably going to be a large part of breaking away from Bruce and defining his own worldviews for himself. Its the difference between parroting learned dogma and learning what does and doesn’t work for yourself.

Personally, I lean towards the take that Dick raises the issue of ‘is killing right or wrong, discuss’ as little as he does in later runs pre-Flashpoint, because I like to interpret that as he’s not inconsistent there so much as he’s figured out by that point that he just flat out doesn’t have the answers there. He’s still working it out for himself. It doesn’t mean that he’s not going to have opinions about it, and even hypocritical ones at times, but that’s also due to the fact that many times this only comes up in highly charged emotional situations where no one’s taking the time to step back a beat and go wait, what do I really THINK about this versus what am I currently FEELING about this.

And as I’ve said many times before, I think the Blockbuster issue AND the Joker one are massively complicated by the fact that one of the bigger ways I think Dick is comparable to Cass and where they overlap and have a lot of untapped potential to bond over or y’know, recognition of the self through the other, lol - is that Dick, like Cass, has never mastered how NOT to hold himself to impossible standards. It would have been totally different if it had been someone else killing the Joker or someone killing Blockbuster for their own reasons unrelated to him....but with he himself being central to all that, he doesn’t know how to separate himself and the expectations instilled in him FOR himself....enough to view those situations through the same lens he views the morality of killing as an ideological question if he’s not part of the equation. (Cass and Dick as regularly described as among the most empathetic characters in the Bat franchise, but both equally unwilling to ever extend that same empathy to THEMSELVES: Discuss!)

And I think its an interesting angle to pursue, that for Bruce a lot of the issue is just hard-wired trauma reactions. I think so much of Bruce’s personal morality crystallized around set moments in time, that he doesn’t even recognize how often his views on certain situations go hand in hand with having knee-jerk reactions to those situations unfolding right in front of him, period. Its always funny to me (not hahaha, just, y’know, funny) how as much as his kids are among the first to criticize Bruce as not being all-knowing or perfect, they’re also among the first to fall into the trap of not realizing when they DO have Bruce on a pedestal in their mind. 

It could definitely be argued that there’s a dissonance involved, where many of his kids push back against certain ideas he instilled in them or things he taught them that they disagree with later in life.....where their innate assumption is that Bruce himself was operating from like....an emotionally objective plateau when he taught them or passed down these ideas in the first place. As opposed to recognizing that some of them aren’t Bruce being hypocritical so much as just being....irrational. Not in a pejorative way, but just in terms of acknowledging how much of an unreliable narrator he can be due to his own trauma, his own rigid and impossible self-expectations for himself, etc.

But of course this overlooks that a basic staple of Bruce’s interactions with others is he over-compensates and covers up his own insecurities or doubts or anywhere he second-guesses himself, by like, doubling down on his convictions or at least the parts he DOES feel sure about. So the very fact that Bruce seemed so unwavering in his stance about something when instilling an idea or take on something in various of his kids.....doesn’t actually guarantee that Bruce WAS as sure about that thing as he seemed at the time, just convinced he was the Adult, the Teacher, the one who was SUPPOSED to have the answers, so he had to present himself as such WHILE passing down this perspective.

And yet....its not going to look that way to his kids, so....enter their own conviction that Bruce could never understand or empathize with them changing their minds about these particular things or having their own doubts....thus leading them to not come to him with their doubts or questions about the rigidity of this particular idea or perspective....at least not UNTIL they’ve already firmly made up their own minds about their new perspective on that thing, at which point Bruce is like wait where is this coming from, when they hit him with a complete 180 about something he THOUGHT they were on the same page about, as far as he knew the last time it came up. 

And thus: conflict.

Idk idk idk, my thoughts are all over the place with all of this and the other kids as well, but the thoughts, they definitely are percolating.

[salarta]

I wanna say some things.

I've been a Polaris fan for almost 15 years now. Fans just tuning in, and some that may have tuned out, may be frustrated with how the X-Men comics keep failing/refusing to do right by the character.

I want to give you all a look from my view, so you can see the progress.

Back when I discovered Lorna, it wasn't because of a TV show. Or social media. It was because, by pure chance, I ran across her entry on the Marvel wikia. She wasn't promoted enough for me to know she exists except by accident.

In terms of the landscape: she was in a bad position. The Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon had just been canceled after the Disney buyout, which meant any plans for her there went out the window. In the comics, she had been reduced to Havok's supporting character girlfriend again, only this time exiled to space for his Starjammers team. It was shortly after I learned of Lorna that she was put in space limbo for over a year, no appearances anywhere at all.

No place in comics. No involvement in mutant events on Earth at all. Stuck as Havok's supporting character girlfriend when last seen. No origin story. Magneto as her dad was still a big question mark, and it wasn't clear if she was even a mutant.

Here is a list of gains since I discovered the character.

Restored as a mutant

Restored as Magneto's daughter

Not stuck in relationship as a supporting character for Havok

Back on Earth, taking part in X-Men comics

Breakout role on Gifted played by Emma Dumont

Multiple good video game appearances

Has an origin story now

Led a team of her own (despite Jordan White undermining her and killing the book)

Won the X-Men fan vote

Interacting with Jean Grey again after decades of nothing

Has a PhD now

Yes, I do complain about the X-Men comics. A lot. I have good reason to be. Within that same time frame, we still have these problems that keep coming up.

Havok keeps getting forced into almost everything Lorna does

Her surviving the Genoshan genocide keeps getting treated like it never happened

Keeps getting forced onto teams named X-Factor, clearly due to Jordan White's nostalgia for 90s X-Factor

Different writers treating her like she either has no history before or after the 90s, never a full accounting

OOC depictions in various places, most notably in the recent X-Factor #4 and Trial of Magneto

Lorna is a work in progress. She spent decades getting treated poorly, with people at Marvel thinking that poor treatment was appropriate. Some of them, like White, even think that poor treatment was somehow actually good and want people to think like they do. Because of this, Lorna has ups and downs in her overall trajectory.

The first thing I want to emphasize is that as a work in progress, it's going to take time for her to get where she should be. You can't undo decades of damage in a single month or year. It's taken almost 15 years to get her where she is now, which is much better than where she used to be despite all the things still wrong.

The second thing is her profile.

Back in 2018, I talked to Jordan White on Twitter. He said Lorna didn't deserve anything. He claimed Lorna didn't have enough fan interest or star power to warrant getting the respect she deserved. He cited nothing for this view other than his general attitude and claiming he'd have more tweets directed to him about Lorna if she had enough fan interest.

The X-Men fan vote proved him wrong. In the past 5 years, we went from Jordan White writing her off as a nobody, to White clearly understanding that he can't ignore her anymore. He knows now that she has way more interest than he was counting on.

That's progress. And while it may not feel like it, poor treatment is also progress in this case. We went from White insisting Lorna doesn't deserve a miniseries, to White greenlighting a 4-part Infinity comic clearly meant to push his personal whims.

Of course, I would vastly prefer Lorna get an actual mini that treats her right instead of something that amounts to a drawn fanfic paid for out of company money. But at the end of the day, her profile and public awareness of who she's actually supposed to be as a character has grown enough that White decided to devote company resources on trying to make people think of Lorna the way he does.

That's a victory for Polaris fandom. It's part of the fight to get her where she should be. Or rather, should've been all along. Don't look at it as end of the road. Look at it as a stepping stone to a brighter future for the character.

P.S. - Jordan White didn't read the original run of X-Men comics until COVID. That's not a problem for the average person. Fans usually don't go that far back. I haven't read the original run, just Lorna's intro issues. But as senior editor of the X-Men comics, you would expect him to have read those issues much, much sooner than 2 years into being senior editor.

[citizensofeggtonarchived]

Long Poppy Theories Thing - OOC

Okay, I'm about to just go off right now on a super long rant about my theories about Poppy and what I think is really on play here. There isn't going to be any order to this at all and I will be jumping whatever point from the list I made comes into my mind so, yeah, all over the place.

I'm gonna start off with the world and what I think really goes on. We know from the beginning that the Gods created all life with the intention to give the people they made free will at some point, though when the time came that changed their mind. Only the Goddess Delphi pushed to keep their promise and in response adsorbed all the magic from her tree of life to over power all her brothers and sisters while placing the planet and everyone in her Magic Pouch while she fights all of them. Now, I think that story is false and here is some proof to this.

Magi Lila mentions this little note along with almost saying something else to Friedrich, though stops herself to check if he could know which he couldn't. Clearly this means there are still Gods around, or, at the least there has to be new Gods roaming Flora. This clearly puts some holes into the story everyone believes. What I personally believe happened is some form of fight broke out with the Gods ending up choosing sides. One lead by the Specter of Fate and the other by Delphi the Iron Matron. Get more into why I just used Delphi the Iron Matron later. This ended with all the Gods and Goddess's losing their lives, though now being reborn as new Gods. I did mention to a mutual that I thought the Specter was behind this, though thinking about it the Veil would be likely as well in order to keep the peace and because maybe it used to be common information, though this lead to wars constantly breaking out and the Gods continuing to kill each other.

This would explain how one can get such vast amounts of fresh God's Blood and distribute it all over the place and at such a high speed given how many people are reporting it in to the authorities. Not to mention just how strong the stuff is with how it effect the wildlife so who knows what old God's Blood would do.

That being said, the Specter (or Chicadino, for now) as to be getting this amount from somewhere and I have two theories for that. Either he has some Gods working for him that gives him their blood or the one I'm leaning more towards is he captured a God and just draining them of their blood until they're barely kicking, heals them, and repeats. I assume the latter because of how fast he keeps pumping it out.

Now for the Specter and I believe that it isn't Chicadino because here in this part of the comic Poda is talking about them and mentions how they're reborn over and over while being bolstered by the blood of the Gods. It makes me think the Specter is a God themselves which ties in to the start. It would mean the Specter has died many times so that could mean the Gods all fighting each other because of The Specter of Fate and Delphi the Iron Matron has happen multiple times by this point.

Now we get into two of the key players who seem to have been there since the start which are Poda and Silvana. Both seem to have some form of immorality, at least in terms of not being able to die from age. Silvana seems to be the creator of the Veil of Ignorance and one who want's to keep certain information withheld from the world while Poda is a Hand of The Specter of Fate. There is clearly some form personal beef between Poda and Silvana, though neither seem to let it deter them from their main goal.

Then we have Magi Lila, the only human we know of to exist in this world at the time, though seems to spend most of her time in the Second Rung of the Veil. Seems to have been trained by Silvana and is more than likely her top enforcer when it comes to keeping key information inside the Veil and seeing things go according to whatever plan the Veil has.

Of course if this image is to go by anything there might've been another human at one point, though Poda killed them or at least did something to them because

There is this human like hand that was the main source in controlling the dragon that attacked the temple. I assumed Poda didn't fully killed them, rather turned them into a tool for the Specter. Why they're a hand now? Not sure, though if you know Poda, she clearly seems messed up in the head so, yeah.

Now I'm jumping up to where the comic is talking place and focusing on Mary and her interactions with Poppy. When first meeting Mary instantly recognizes, though when Poppy claims to not know who Mary was mentioned how it must've been another buff opossum who was just older. I personally think Mary is Mystana and has met Poppy before. One might question how, though I believe by this point something has changed and that is this point in time is being reset and is repeating. Meaning when Poppy dies someone resets the timeline to the point of Poppy's birth because they believe they can break the cycle. I believe this is the fourth time based off King Renard's prophecy about Sky Henge Act IV and Mary (or Mystana) seems to be the only one to remember this resets. This has led to Mystana leaving the Veil and choosing to take on the guise of Mary to keep an eye on Poppy. Maybe the comment about the other opossum being old means in the past timeline Poppy was closer to thirty when meeting Mary there.

Then we get this interaction where she just called Lily a tiny version of Poppy which makes me think she just seems anyone close to Poppy another version of her or perhaps this was the first timeline where Poppy had a child and she was having a hard time adjusting to that. Bit more towards the former for me.

Of course she also starts to appear a bit more after Poppy is attacked by Poda. Could say this is just Mary being her odd self, though after their first meeting there wasn't much word from Mary other than when Poppy visited her for directions. Makes me think Mary was getting concerned Poppy would die before she normally does so wanted to keep a close eye on her to prevent a premature death.

Then we get into the vision King Renard had about Sky Henge Act IV. Now, clearly it's an opossum, though in the top right there is a cat paw which I assume is someone attacking the opossum. Then we end up having Poppy and Petuina having to fight because of Chicadino so to me that is clearly the start of the vision.

This is also more proof because during his episode King Renard said this. A-Tion When Ten Billion Eye's Close Here's Will Open. Assuming the a-tion was supposed to be attention to try and get everyone to listen to him. Then we get this picture where Poppy's removes her mental blocks and in the background we see what I can only assume is Delphi, though she not only has four eyes on her head, though all over her body. Then there's that glowing light which I assume is the one eye opening and that's connect to the stone image of Poppy with the eye on her torso. I'm thinking the magic tumor that King has is him remembering the resets, though I'm unsure why he's having this effect. Then again if Mary is Mystana then she is more than likely more powerful than him and doesn't have this side effect for remembering the other timelines.

I also think Delphi is speaking to Poppy right here rather than this being a third person thing because if you follow the trail at the last panel it leads off to the side as if someone else was there. I know it was cut off a bit at the end, my bad. Anyway, I believe the original Delphi can talk to her reincarnations and guide them, though Poppy lost the connection has a kid before she could understand it.

Now, I'm also thinking the whole thing about opossum's having anti magic because their tree was destroyed is a half lie. I think that anti magic was Delphi's God power and she passed it to her people which allowed them to have a field they can activate to cancel out magic, yet didn't prevent them from using other magic, then during the first fight with the Specter Delphi did have to adsorb the magic from her Tree of Life just to defeat him which lead to the magic getting all messed up and no it just something that prevents them from using other forms of magic as well. Now in this fight with Poppy's mental blocks gone she can cause this field as Petuina says her soul patches stopped when the pulse started. This is what makes me think this is what the opossums could originally do.

Jumping back to the Iron Matron we first get a mention of it here with Silvana calling Poppy by the title. This makes me think either Silvana can remember the timeline resets or Mystana told her sister the first time it happened and they had a disagreement on how to handle things thus Mary going out on her own and doing thins the way she is now.

However Magi Lila only called Poppy an Iron Matron Candidate which makes me think Silvana may be lying to even her on who Poppy really is which is the Iron Matron. Now, the reason I why at the start I was using Delphi the Iron Matron is because I believe that was her full title so her reincarnations also take the title of Iron Matron, though before Poppy it was a guess on who it was.

Now this to me confirms that Silvana and Mystana had a falling out as it looks like Silvana is attempting to stop Mystana from leaving with an item of some sort. Then we have the mysterious figure of an opossum wielding a hammer in the distance. Perhaps this is Delphi or a reincarnation which means Delphi's weapon of choice is a Maul (I think that's the right word) for when she fights and of course her Magic Pouch.

Alright, that's all my brain juices got and all I could honestly think of after over analyzing each and every comic frame by frame to put this jumbled mess of a theory together. In short terms someone is resetting Poppy's timeline because they believe she can be the out to put down the Specter for good and is just starting over and over while changing details each time along with the timeline changing itself. Mystana remembers, though upon telling Silvana they have a fight on how to handle things and go their separate ways, though not before Mystana steals some sort of magic item which makes Silvana not trust others anymore hence keeping the information from Magi Lila. King Renard is remembering too, though in the form of visions which have now caused a magic induced tumor to form.

[abbottgiftexchange]

a gift from a person who asked to stay anonymous for @thehours2002 <3

Author's note: First Off, Happy Holidays everyone, and especially to my giftee. Hope yall had a great new year! I hope you like this little ficlet :) Writing in a male pov was a fun challenge, and I hope Barbara isn’t too OOC. Hope you enjoy it! Lastly, I don’t know when this fic would take place. Maybe in the abyss of time, idk. I think it's a couple years after the current season.

Jacob doesn’t know when he first noticed precisely.  Melissa being part of the community was always kind of an open secret, one that she not so subtly threatened him to never speak about- something about privacy and it being her own business. And Ava once set a school-wide memo that if you implied she was hetero was grounds to get canceled via her Twitter followers. 

 But Barbara? Barbara? The woman who he struggled to admit to being gay in his first-year teaching? (For the record, he did sorely misjudge her on that front but still.) Like sure, she divorced her husband a year prior, but that didn’t point to Barbara Howard being into women.

So one day, when they were all sitting in the teacher's lounge complaining about the cold outside, he saw out of the corner of his eye that one of Barbara’s hands gripped Melissa’s hand under the table.  Like…the other woman would leave at any moment. He didn’t mean to stare, really, but Gregory and Janine were talking to each other, and they kinda made it obvious they didn’t want him to butt in.

“You got to be kidding me,” Melissa muttered as she peered at her phone through her glasses. The hand-holding stopped. 

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked, his eyes glancing between the two older women. 

“I have to go out in this weather; I’ll be back in a second.” The redhead muttered, shrugging on a winter jacket. 

He noticed that Barbara scowled as Melissa left the room in a rush. 

Janine and Gregory started to argue about the optics of How Nice Snow Is, so Jacob grabbed his mug and sat down next to Barbara. 

“So…How do you feel about snow?”

“It's fine, Jacob.” He could tell she wasn’t paying attention to his questions. 

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t love it either.” They sipped their drinks in unison. 

She looked over at the window and frowned. Jacob watched as the older woman got up and peered out the window. He followed her up to the window, and they watched as Melissa talked to some…Woman. 

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know.” She did not seem happy about that. Oof.

And then Melissa kissed the other woman on the cheek. 

“I didn’t know Melissa was dating someone.” He said, squinting through the snow that was falling. “Nice she met someone, though, right?” He looked over to his window-peeking companion. 

Barbara was gripping the windowsill. 

That's when part of it clicked in Jacobs's mind, and his eyes went back and forth between Barbara and the scene playing below. It put a lot of things into perspective. Many moments that he just wrote off as them being friends in a different light.  *

From there on, he kept a watchful eye on her. Part of him wanted to reach out and tell her he knew exactly what she was going through. But then he thought about it some more. His experiences were more about falling in love with straight men, and she was in love with a taken bisexual. Not really apples to apples there. And then it also dawned on him. 

Jacob didn’t know if she knew what she was feeling. He was able to come to terms with it. He had boy bands to focus heavily on as a young kid while he ignored everything around him. He had moments to explore. Barbara Howard might never have had anything to help her with these…feelings if she even acknowledged them. 

He didn’t really mean to pry. That was the last thing he wanted to do. But it felt like his calling to help her. Guide her like she guided him in the past. He repeated that phrase in his head on his way to the Kindergarten classroom. Jacob hoped she would still be here - the school bell did just ring, but it was Friday and people liked to bolt. 

He knocked a couple times on the doorframe, and what he got in response was a muttered, “I’m busy, Melissa.” She didn’t even look up from the papers on her desk. 

“Uh, it's Jacob?” 

“Oh, Jacob. Do you need something?” She gave him a smile but then looked past him, and her eyes darted around to see if anyone else was there. Okay…weird…Anyway, how was he going to word this? Don’t be too forward-

“Are you mad at Melissa? I noticed you didn’t sit with her today.”

Okay, Too Forward., maybe even the wrong approach. 

Barbara took a deep breath and sighed. 

“Speaking for both of us, I think Melissa and I would appreciate it if you and Janine stopped trying to intervene with our personal problems.”

Confirmed. 

“So you ARE mad at her.”  Full Send it, Jacob! He moved into her classroom, looked around for a place to sit, and then decided to stand rather than stoop to sitting in a five-year-olds chair. 

She sighed again. 

“I am not mad at Melissa; I am just…not the biggest fan of her current life choices.”

“That shes dating a…woman?”

Barbara's eyes widened. “No! Oh, Heavens, no. I just feel like her girlfriend isn’t the best. She could do better.”

It's like he was transported right back to the sixth grade, where his one guy friend started dating a girl, and he couldn’t do anything than just get mad at him.

“What's wrong with her? Melissa seems happier than when she was with that other guy, uhh, the one who stocked the vending machines. Didn’t she date him like a year or two ago?” 

“I know, I know. It’s just-” Barbara put her hand over her eyes. “I just have a feeling. I just don’t like her. Simple as that.”

Jacob tried really hard not to let his mouth fall open. 

“You are not speaking to Melissa because you have a gut feeling about her girlfriend, and correct me if I’m wrong, whom you have never met?” 

She closed her eyes. Then nodded. 

“To me, it sounds like you are jealous.” Jacob shrugged. 

The older woman looked away when the word “jealous” left his lips, refusing to meet his eyes. 

“Jealousy isn’t Godly. And what would I be jealous of? Really, Jacob.” Barbara forced out a laugh.

Should he really lay this on her? Right now? He took a deep breath. You are Full Sending This, Jacob, helping to make this the Gayest School in Philadelphia. 

“I think you love her. Maybe as a friend, maybe something more.” It was only when he heard the words leave his own lips did it fully set in what he said.

He didn’t wait for her reaction. He assumed it was something scandalized. Jacob booked it out of there faster than the speed of light. There were consequences to one's actions, and then there were consequences for speaking out of line to Barbara Howard, the best Kindergarten teacher in the whole city. 

He was TOO forward.  Why does he do this to himself? *

It was Janine who broke the ice. She visited his room on their break and interrupted his grading. He was trying to not be in the same room as Barbara as much as possible, but Barbara wasn’t interacting with Melissa at all, so Melissa was apparently pissed that everyone was ignoring everyone, so Janine finally cornered him and asked what happened. 

“Jacob, why?”

“I thought I was helping?”

“You don’t share a hallway with them! Me and Gregory do! Do you know what it's like to have Melissa interrogating you on why her best friend isn’t speaking to her?” She took a deep breath. “This is- This is like ten times worse than anything I have ever done.”

“I know.” He pulled his hand over his face, dragging it down. “I messed up a ton.”

His friend came over and side-hugged him. A minute after the hug, Janine giggled.

“What?”

“I still can’t believe you told Barbara she might be gay.” “Me neither.” He moaned.  *

It all came down to their garden. 

They both simultaneously noticed that despite both of them ignoring it (in hopes to not run into each other) that it seemed to be doing quite alright in the winter months. Jacob came out one Monday morning after letting it sit for a week or two to find Barbara doing the exact same thing. It was freezing and quite dark from the clouds overhead. 

“It’s still doing okay.” He said out loud, not really directing it to her, but more in amazement. 

“It is.” Barbara paused. “I haven’t worked on it, have-” He cuts her off with a shake of his head. “Hm.”

They step down into their little garden together. They’re both quiet as move around the plants. It seemed like minutes pass with no more words uttered. Jacob looked at the tiny pea pods below him and sighed. 

“I- Barbara, I was really out of line. I shouldn’t have assumed. I feel really awful for stepping in.” Jacob kicked a pebble into a corner. He willed himself to look up at the older woman. “I hope I didn’t make things worse for you and Melissa.”

Barbara looked at him with uncertainty. She then exhaled and fiddled with her long necklace. 

“Jacob, Jacob. I was making things worse with Melissa. You just said what was happening out loud. You noticed.”

He nodded, a bit unsure where this was going. 

“I do love Melissa. I’ve known her for many years. Maybe I do feel for her in the..the ways you said.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I think I have to think about a lot of things going forward, especially if it's obvious to everyone. And if it's gonna affect those around me.”

“Are you saying I helped you?” He was grinning, and he knew he really shouldn’t be, but sue him!

Barbara laughed.

“I’m giving you a maybe, Jacob, a maybe.”

They resumed their gardening with only a small interruption from Gregory, when he walked by and stared at them for a bit. (Why did he do that only when they were gardening?)

“How did you know?” She asked as she watered some vegetables. 

“I fell in love with my best friend. His name was Scott. I had never felt love like it before. It surpassed the love I felt for my friends, which at the time were mainly girls.” Jacob laughed. “Well, Scott met Maddy, and he soon forgot about me and my Pokemon card collection.”

She hummed in response. 

“When you first told me I was jealous, I couldn’t believe it. Me? Really? But then I went okay, yes, I was a little mad Melissa didn’t tell me about her new girlfriend. But then it went to: ‘I was mad Melissa wasn’t spending as much time with me.’ And then I just accepted I was jealous.” Jacob took note she was fiddling with her necklaces again. “I don’t think I loved anyone as much as I love Melissa. I don’t think I ever realized that until recently.”

“Thank you, Barbara, you didn’t have to share that with me. I- I feel honored.” Jacob felt tears spring up in his eyes; maybe he was finally cementing his place into their little work family, as Janine put it. 

She gave him the ‘you are laying it on a little thick’ look, and he shut up. 

“Well! If you ever want to visit one of my queer film nights going forward, you have an invitation.”

Her eyes widen. “Uh, Thank You, Jacob. I’ll have to, uh, think about that.” 

It was then that a beam of sunlight finally broke through the clouds, and Jacob smiled as it perfectly illuminated the woman in front of him. Saint Barbara Howard, Indeed.

[justashadetalkative]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN

NAME?: Gossy

(Picrew by Lunevani, found here. Thanks Swid!)

PRONOUNS?: Any non-neopronoun (he/she/they/it)

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION?: Discord for any sort of involved conversation! Replies & tumblr messenger are both fine for short-form stuff, though.

MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S)?: Diamond for the most part; he comes naturally.

EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS?: I started roleplaying on online forums ~15 years ago, but I started doing DnD with my parents and pass-a-word-document-back-and-forth style rp with some IRL friends ~18 years ago.

BEST EXPERIENCE?: I don't really tend to think in terms of Grand Moments! I think that overall I've had a pretty good experience just, In General with rp. Exceptions have happened, but they've been mild and manageable.

RP PET PEEVES?: Lack of (positive) ooc communication is the main one that comes to mind. I want this to feel like something we're doing collaboratively, with good will and for the sake of having fun. I do also get disheartened if the initiation of interactions (e.g. ask sending, thread notions) isn't at least sometimes mutual, but that’s like... I don’t expect balance or anything; folk have varying levels of energy and anxiety and idea flow, and that’s natural! I just feel more comfortable with at least the occasional indication of reciprocal interest.

FLUFF, ANGST, OR SMUT?: Angst and fluff are both good! I'd theoretically be open to smut on Discord with the right characters & situation, but I've never actually written it.

PLOTS OR MEMES?: Definitely plots; I am so, so bad at improv, so it's kind of hard for me to respond to ic-memes a lot of the time. ^_^; That said, even when they're a challenge for me I do still like memes! They're a nice way to get new ideas flowing, and I like sending them.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES?: Long and medium are best. Kind of like with plotting vs. memes, I do best when I have context to build from, and single-paragraph or shorter can start to be more difficult for me to work with.

TIME TO WRITE?: Fffff. Whenever I 1) have time, and 2) can convince my brain to cooperate. It's intermittent, sadly.

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ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?

We're all very queer. :P

Otherwise, Diamond's been hanging out rent free in my head since I was literally 4, so. I think there's absolutely overlap there and that it's also just anchored too deep down for me to untangle or notice specifics. xD

My other muses do often take at least one or two ideas, feelings, or questions of mine and extrapolate those to extremes; see where they'd go if they were big enough and internalized enough to be personality-defining. Clemcy and the fear of death, the arrogant know-it-all tendencies. Ithadel and the deep fear of overstepping boundaries, the self-knowledge of being a wet blanket in social situations. Oscar and the genuine belief that the whole point of it all is for us to care for one another and the world itself.

Phosa and Linast are question-based; I think a lot of their character struggles have grown out of my musings on the sometimes-immense discrepancies between who one is in raw instinct vs. who one is when acting purposefully vs. who one wants to be, and the further difference between true internal desire 'want' vs. wistful thinking 'want'.

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tagged by: @archerwhiterp; thanks! :)

Tagging: @theovergrowth @needleandstory @desertfragments @writedisaster @oflostinfound @hearthtales @discipulusmaleficus