#“is he alive???” “i have no idea” it doesn't give us a concrete answer

[i-am-neutral-on-pear-aib]

Ok I'll share smth. Personally imo TiVo has been underutilized as a character thus far and I hope season 1B does something substantial with him (which I feel is likely, given that one scene in episode 5) (also this might be a really biased opinion bc I have attached myself to this character to a pretty big degree and just really enjoy seeing him on screen lmao)

TiVo DEFINITELY is a character that I would love to see more of. Compared to Oodle, we don't really know a lot about TiVo or anything about who he is, but there's a lot of interesting details that we have yet to have explained!

I find it interesting that there's a green triangle on the back of his screen! It feels like a direct parallel to the red triangle found on the paint can, which was an early hint to me that Nabla probably wasn't the creator of the paint monster. It's a neat little detail that provides some foreshadowing of events to come!

As for the scene in episode 5, as Pitchfork AIB themself (/j) I'm REALLY excited for where this is going to go. TiVo seems to almost have a personal connection to Pitchfork's situation? From saving the episode 4 votes for later to watching her in episode 5, I'm really excited for where this story is going to go!

[joanna-lannister]

Alright, after doing the JC fic rec masterlist, I had the idea to do one for my fics. I did it mostly for me, to keep track of what I wrote, so you don't have to like/reblog it, but if you do, I wouldn't mind 😅 It's sorted out by type of canon, so easy to find out what you want.

— PENTOS AU

sweetest devotion Almost five years after settling in Pentos, Jaime and Cersei are about to welcome a new life and Joanna, their daughter, fears something might happen to her mother.

kiss you twice 'cause it's gonna be alright As their lives go on in Pentos, Cersei shares some unexpected good news with Jaime.

all of us, intertwined Little glimpses of Jaime and Cersei's life in Pentos.

— WINTERFELL AU

give you my wild, give you a child The battle of Winterfell might be over but inside the castle's walls, another war for life is raging on.

wherever you stray, i follow A little collection of fics from the "give you my wild, give you a child" universe, centered around stolen moments Jaime and Cersei shared in Winterfell.

— CANON/MISSING SCENE

afterglow Jaime could notice the subtle threat in his sister's voice but he didn't care. She wouldn't hurt him. Not now. Not ever. And surely not when she was carrying their child.

— CERSEI WINS THE WAR AU

and the loving needs the bleeding Jaime and Cersei welcome their fourth child.

would you lie with me (and just forget the world) Cersei is roused from her sleep by an intruder who wishes to share a sweet moment with her.

a flower bud in concrete Cersei comes to Jaime to share some great news.

— KING JAIME AU

the altar is my hips Tywin puts pressure on Jaime and Cersei to give an heir to the Realm, which forces Cersei to worry about their position, but Jaime has another idea in mind.

lionhearts Cersei has some great news to break to Jaime.

king of my heart (body and soul) A tourney is held in honor of the Queen's pregnancy, and the King has been adamant that he will joust today.

— CANON DIVERGENCE

from all of the tears you have shed While the Seven Kingdoms had been pulled apart, each Lord claiming back the crown they had long lost during Aegon's Conquest, Joanna had found out about the affair between her children. She had pulled the right strings and urged a marriage between them, and now, as the Realm licks its wounds, Jaime and Cersei are ready to welcome their first child.

i just wanna keep calling your name (until you come back home) Ten years. Almost ten years since Cersei has watched Jaime ride away to King's Landing with the hope to end the war Robert Baratheon had started against the Targaryens, ten years she lives with the uncertainty of his fate, ignoring if he is dead or alive, and yet, after all this time, she still has faith Jaime would come back to her and their daughter some day.

— MODERN AU

and every time i look at you, it's like the first time A little collection of Modern AUs where Jaime and Cersei are married.

open your eyes Jaime and Cersei's life is perfect. They have been married for almost sixteen years, they have three beautiful children, and they are happy, but an accident tests their love.

i'll kidnap all the stars and i will keep them in your eyes Jaime and Cersei have to live with the consequences of their love when they find out Cersei is pregnant at only seventeen.

slow motion double vision in rose blush Jaime and Cersei have run away from their Father and London. They now live a peaceful life as husband and wife in a little coastal town where no one knows them, but one night, an urgent call from Cersei force Jaime to come back home early.

grieving for the living How to breathe, to live, when the person who made you whole is gone? After all those months, Cersei still doesn't know the answer. She doesn't want to find it. She'd rather sit by the window of the old castle and wait, grieving for what is left of Jaime and her.

my love had been frozen, deep blue, but you painted me golden Jaime padded toward their living room, following the sound of her voice, and his eyes quickly caught sight of his sister, here, in the corner of the room where he had settled their Christmas tree the day before, the tallest one they had been able to find, only asking to shine and sparkle for the Holidays. But not anymore. The tree had turned into a vibrant painting of red and gold during his absence, leaving little place to the green of its thorns.

just grab my hand and don't ever drop it, my love Watching the woman he loves getting married to someone else is not something Jaime intends to witness.

— VAMPIRE AU (MODERN AU)

i wanna do bad things with you Jaime and Cersei have been turned into vampires by a spell over thousand years ago.

— AU

the great war 1916. Jaime has left for the war raging outside after a fight with Cersei, but wounded during the battle of the Somme, he is coming home to find his sister has been longing for him.

[gofancyninjaworld]

There was a lot of complaints ant Saitama's breaking speech never making to the manga, but tbh even if the manga has a series of events that requires that to happen, I still don't want it to happen. Mostly bc what Saitama said is pretty hypocritical and doesn't make sense.

While I do give kudos that Saitama even admits he doesn't really have a concrete idea of what a "hero" should be... That doesn't give a vote of confidence considering he's um. Literally the most powerful hero alive. Kinda hard to believe in someone who doesn't even know if they're doing the right thing while wielding immeasurable power. He pretty much, well, dodged the question and never really bothered to shoulder the responsibility to figure out what kind of hero really wants to be.

Another is his "serious" hero hobby and Garou's "compromised" monster hobby, and the reason why he'll always win is bc he never half-assed his hobby. While he's right not to lower the hurdle before the goal... But the reason why opm more or less has a plot to begin with is because Saitama is half-assing his heroism. He barely takes anything seriously. Like, yes he never half-assed his training to be the strongest and while he's one of the more moral heroes out there he wasn't the best for a reason.

And tbh I'm really satisfied to how 166-169 played out. In the end, what the manga shows us is that they both have naive mindsets. Believing Absolute Evil would bring absolute world peace, believing heroes would always be on time and save the day — only to have reality crashing hard that for Garou to achieve Absolute Evil means people he cares about will in fact die and that Saitama's complacency and invulnerability means it's not him facing the consequences, but everyone else fatally paying that price. it just shows the perfect image that Garou and Saitama are not so different — Garou is a poor villain, Saitama is a poor hero, and it's bc of those flaws, despite them wielding incomprehensible, godly power, they both meet in the middle ground as humans. Which further reinforces ONE's intention to create Garou as the anti-Saitama.

An old, old comment that has aged like fine wine.

There's a question Garou asks Saitama in the webcomic that the latter never answers -- and really should. 'You're strong, but so what?' His questioning whether the mere fact of Saitama being stronger than anyone gave him any moral authority is one that desperately needs to be addressed in the webcomic. So far, so bad.

I really like that the manga has started to look at that question. The Japanese idiom Saitama used when looking at the carnage Cosmic Fear Garou had wrought was his being pierced by realisation (h/t @koumbaya). As if a spear had been thrown through his very soul.

It answered the question he'd been asking himself ever since the Superfight that he'd forgotten something important. In that moment, it came to him just how shallow he'd been for fretting over not learning new moves or finding tough fights. How irresponsible it'd been for him to forget that just because Garou was no threat to him, the same did not hold for others. He had become a hero so that when people were in trouble, he could be there to help them, and instead, little by little, he'd come to prioritise having a good time.

I love how the denouement of the arc has Garou and Saitama understand and enact what it is to be a hero. Garou puts aside his pride to ask for help and heroically sacrifices his life to teach Saitama how to go to the past, Saitama saves everyone who needs his help, *including* Garou.

I love how this fits into the structure of the bigger story, with King having challenged Saitama over this very notion. It's an important question. A hero may need to be strong, but how does that translate into morality? What gives a hero the right to say 'this is unacceptable and I must stop it?'

Of course, there's the small problem of Saitama having forgotten what happened. Which makes me think: whether he wants to or not, Genos has a responsibility to ensure Saitama learns those hard-won lessons without the rest of the world paying for it first.

Final thing: Garou not being left as a foil to Saitama is the best thing of all. He hasn't received a pat answer and been sent into exile to do no more evil. He's getting to struggle with his ideas, to try to forge them into a coherent and workable way forward, and it's good to see him being his own person.

[hideawayintheimaginationworld]

I've gotten a bit into Dark Deception lately too, and I was just intrigued by the idea of one of the Lucky the Rabbit Joy Joy Gang clones being a Nice defect of all the others with no homicidal tendencies whatsoever who hides away in the maze to avoid being bullied by the others. A similar idea for a Nice Trigger Teddy scared of people and warning them because he doesn't want to blow anybody up. It's another shameless 'these evil characters are cute, i want a Nice One to make into a woobie' situation, which I am guilty of doing a LOT.

I hope you don't mind but I wrote a short story about this concept—

Lefty picked up his feet, hearing the maniacal laughter getting louder and the loud thumping behind him. It wasn’t easy, but he had to outrun them if he wanted to survive.

He skidded around the corner, jumping slightly when he heard the wall break behind him which meant only one thing: Hangry was now pursuing him also.

“Get back here! You will join the Joy Joy Gang! Joy! Joy! Joy!”

All that did was prompt Lefty to push harder to run, he was terrified of being captured and reprogrammed, knowing they would likely completely wipe his memory, meaning he'd forget everything— his family, his children, his friends, and his love.

He saw a door ahead and ran towards it, almost jumping towards it as he felt pain shot up from his leg where Hangry had grabbed him before and bit him, luckily he managed to escape but his ability to run was kind of hindered.

He grabbed the door knob, pushing it open and immediately slamming it behind him, he quickly looked around the room to survey the location and spotting items such as a desk, chairs, and lockers, which he could use to barricade the door.

He limped over quickly, pushing the desk forward towards the door and turning it down so the top part of the desk was facing directly foward. He heard the familiar “Joy! Joy! Joy!” taunting chant which prompted him to hurriedly pushed the desk against the door.

As soon as he did that, he was startled to see the door handle rattle violently.

“Hey! You're cheating!!” Lefty heard Lucky scream, “Open this door!!”

He backed away slowly, half expecting Hangry to break down the door as he had seen the pig break down countless walls while chasing him, which that was scary to Lefty, as he couldn’t tell where the pig would come from, he could be sneaking away from Lucky and Penny but running straight towards Hangry, who would be waiting around the next corner, ready to smash down the walls to get him.

For some reason, Hangry appeared angry that Lefty was “inedible” as he described, which Lefty guessed it meant that Hangry would probably eat people and he was terrified for a moment that the pig had killed his kids but he remembered that Hangry commented that he hadn’t eaten anything for “so long” and Lefty breathed in relief, realizing that Alec and Hazel were still alive.

They weren’t here, but they were still alive somewhere else.

“You can't delay the inevitable!! This isn’t the end and I won't lose to someone like you!!”

Lucky viewed this as a game, Lefty shivered, he pressed himself against the wall, raising his injured leg, trying to think of what he could do to fix it immediately so he could continue to search for an exit.

He didn’t know how he came here, only recalling that he was walking downstairs with Fetch by his side to make breakfast, then he woke up, face down on the concrete at the entrance of this twisted amusement park. He didn’t care at this point how he got here, he just wanted to leave immediately, he had a sick feeling this was a trap, a trap designed to separate him from his family and friends so they were defenceless.

He hoped that Alec and Hazel were okay, he knew in the past that he had instructed them as well as Matt and Stanley that if he was unable to protect them, they had to, they had to run to protect themselves and hopefully Lefty would find them later. He didn’t care about being rescued, he did care about what they might do to Alec and Hazel, as well as his other friends.

So far it didn’t appear that these awful machines had Alec and Hazel, Lefty was sure if they did, they would have mentioned it as a means to get him to cooperate. It could mean however that Alec and Hazel were held by someone else, as he had heard Lucky mention an entity named “Malak”, which that completely disapproved Lefty's initial suspicions that Nightmare was behind this, with yet another plan to bring harm to Alec and Hazel.

All he wanted was to get back to them as soon as possible.

His heart leapt when he heard something behind him, he immediately turned his head around to the source of the noise. He saw a locker door had pulled itself backwards.

His suspicion level rose, he slowly marched over, walking to the side of the locker that he saw had opened.

And he roughly pushed it to the side.

The locker easily tumbled down with a loud bang and Lefty heard an audible “OUCH!” from inside it

“I know you're watching me!” Lefty exclaimed, “Come out! I'm sick of you horrible Joy Joy gang members tormenting me!!” He kicked the side with his good leg, hearing another “OUCH!” from inside.

He stood still, prepared to attack, watching the locker door rattle before it swung open.

Lefty backed away, seeing a large gloved hand reach out.

A Lucky robot pulled itself out of the locker, laying on the floor for a moment before standing up straight.

Lefty immediately curled his fingers and delivered a swift punch to his face.

“OUCH!” Lucky exclaimed, holding his nose, “You're hurting me!”

“That's the idea dipshit!” Lefty snarled, “Now let me leave! Call off your gang and all your doppelgängers, let me walk out of here!”

It shook its head, “I'm not doing it!!”

“I don’t care if you’re the leader or the underling! I will keep fighting despite being injured! So it's better if you just stop!!” Lefty grabbed his ears, pulling him down.

“BUT I'M NOT HURTING YOU!!”

“Are you playing reverse psychology?”

“LOOK AT ME!! DO I LOOK LIKE ONE OF THEM??”

Lefty froze, looking over this particular Lucky model. He did notice it didn’t look “show ready” as he would describe it, as it had several missing suit parts, particularly on one arm, from the lower arm to the finger tips, it was just an exposed robot arm. The suit also looked dirty, with obvious mud caked on the feet, dried up black oil around its eyes, the fur at some parts looked matted, like he hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.

“I'm hiding also,” The rabbit explained, “I'm hiding from them.”

“What are you? An unfinished prototype?” Lefty let go off his ears.

“Malak said I'm a defect!”

“A defect...?” Lefty said skeptically, he knew that “defect” could mean anything, it didn’t necessarily mean this one was good, it could mean that it was missing some important programming. He was also a little confused about the tone in which he had said “defect”, like he didn’t understand what it meant.

“I don’t like them... they're mean... so I've been hiding anywhere I could basically!” Lucky exclaimed, “The concept of killing people doesn’t appeal to me.”

“How do I know you're not lying through your teeth right now?” Lefty frowned.

“I know why you wouldn’t believe me... I know you aren’t one of them... one of the Joy Joy Gang, I mean.”

“Indeed,” Lefty answered, “I just want to go home, to my family... I don’t know where the exit is though and I’ve been chased around in circles by those three,” Lefty exhaled, overwhelmed.

“Maybe... Maybe I can help you to escape! I have a map of this place installed in my memory!”

“As if I'll blindly follow you,” Lefty knew he couldn’t just blindly trust anyone in a strange place.

“How can I...? Oh! I know! Your leg!” Lucky pointed at it, “Looks like you've caused some damage to the main connection on the knee joint... you need a replacement if you want to run as fast as you can... I don’t have a replacement part on me right now, but rubber bands can help hold the joint steady temporarily so it won’t break further! Hopefully long enough for you to escape and get back to your family!”

Lefty tilted his head, “Why would you help me?”

“I want to... I've seen too many people being killed... and hearing you have a family... I know they'd be devastated if you died!” Lucky shook his head.

“I... I don’t know if I can trust you...” Lefty admitted.

“How about I tell you what you need to do with the Joy Joy Gang? You just need to electrify them!” Lucky replied, “That'll stun them long enough for you to have a chance to escape!”

“Is there anything I can do about Hangry? He's a real big problem for me right now.”

“Hangry... you can try roaring at him... he doesn’t like animals like lions or bears...”

Lefty frowned, that seemed too simple and he knew there was likely a catch, “Suppose I could... Alright... so...”

“Lucky.”

“For personal reasons, I'd rather not call you Lucky, I've had a bad experience with someone named Lucky and what's going on right now isn’t helping... can I give you a nickname instead?” Lefty suggested

“Okay!” He seemed happy at the suggestion, “What do you wanna call me?”

Lefty thought for a minute, he didn’t want something too silly, or something too unusual, but he wanted it to be distinctive.

“How about... Jai?” Lefty asked.

He saw his eyes lit up, “Ooooo Jai! That sounds so interesting!”

“It means victory.”

“Wow! I finally have a name, maybe I can stop associating myself with... that other guy...” He frowned.

“Well...” Lefty extended out his arm, “My name is Lefty.”

“Hello Lefty! I'm Jai!” He proudly introduced himself, shaking Lefty's arm, “Wow! That felt amazing! Just to introduce myself like that, as someone separate from the Joy Joy Gang!”

“I apologize also for attacking you,” Lefty shook his head.

“Oh I understand and it's forgiven... now how about I find those rubber bands and you can tell me more about yourself in the meantime, I wanna know about your family! If that's okay of course...”

Lefty chuckled, smiling at Jai.

[fonulyn]

I don't know if you've ever answered a similar question but who do you think Leon's parents are? Do you think they're alive?

i... honestly have no idea. we don't really know anything about his early life or his childhood so it's like... anything goes? :'D usually for fic writing purposes I go with either of the two options: 1. his parents are dead or 2. he is estranged from them and doesn't keep in contact. because otherwise it'd be weird not to include the parents at all in anything, so it's kind of the easy cop-out.

then again it would be really interesting to once write something where he'd have a really complicated relationship with his parents, where they don't really get along but they still care about each other on some level, and every interaction they have is so awkward. like. there are so many options? maybe Leon idolized his dad when he was a kid and since his dad was a cop he wanted to become one too? or maybe his dad was an absolute dirtbag and Leon wanted to become a cop to protect people from such dirtbags? or idek maybe his dad is a flight attendant and has nothing to do with cops at all lol.

it's such a shame we're not giving any concrete information but then again, that also gives us the opportunity to create any and all backstories we want! and that is awesome :3

...and it makes me realize I probably should take that opportunity way more often than I do, tbh :'D

[annonmaly]

Spoilers Ahead!

Hi, fellow bored humans! Today is another day to set aside our real-life problems and overthink matters about fictional situations. Because why not? Mochijun-Sensei can make us do that. So, last time I made a post questioning Misha's knowledge of Vani's self-hypnotism. So before anything else, I want to thank you guys who took the time to read, liked, and replied to that post. It is fun to read ideas that even I can not think about.

Grab a cup of coffee and be prepared for a long-ass non-sense.

I am calling human Vanitas = Vani, and Luna = Luna. The pronoun I use is "she" because I would not confuse myself. I know Luna said she is an enby so, do not fight me.

Today, I want to talk about Luna and her death. I know that we have too little information in our hands right now, but my brain cells can still assume something based on what we have. This thought came about with the premise that Luna is an Archiviste.

I can't think of anything that happened to them "that day", but I have a theory of why Vani killed Luna. To make things clear, I will summarize my assumptions and list them down. I made an explanation of each point. Supposedly, those would come first but I didn't expect it to be so long, that's why I decided to just put it at the end. You could ignore it if you want. Check it out if you are curious.

Luna is an Archiviste

Vani is protecting memory from his early childhood

Vani casts the hypnotism while/after he was training to be a chasseur but before Luna's death

Luna bit Vani the day she died

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Here is the idea: I think Vani killed Luna because she forced herself to drink Vani's blood for whatever reason and the self-hypnotism activated. Sound farfetched? Because it is, but I'll show you why I thought it this way.

This is my one and only proof. The eyes are almost the same, right? See, I told you I could make a long-ass post just from two panels. The left one is from the Bal-Masque arc before Vani made a scene. The right one is before Vani and Noe's death fight. I believe that Vani's hypnotism is triggered in both pictures. I actually hesitated if I should do this since Mochijun-Sensei really loves including similarities in the story. You see, Astolfo and Misha made the same eye. But all three of them have the same eyes the moment they thought about why they would kill a vampire.

Vani - to not allow anyone to steal his memory

Astolfo - because vampires shouldn't even exist

Misha - Noe didn't drink Vani's blood.

So yeah, whatever, I'll go ahead and write this one. Vani would be the main focus of this thing.

1. The way Vani's hallucination phrased this is interesting. We know Vani's father died protecting him. What about Luna? If Vani killed Luna intentionally or because of hate, she did not die "because" of Vani. Vani killed her. There's a difference between the two. Behind all that facade that Vani is showing, he's kind. He's not someone who could just kill anyone without any reason when he's in the right mind. Especially if that someone is the one who became his guardian and is helping him to find a cure to make his body normal. Initially, I thought that Luna had gone wild and reach the point of no return. That's why Vani had no other choice. Though if this is the reason, Luna still did not die because of Vani. Now, this phrase would only be right if Luna died protecting Vani or if something happened to Vani. How could this happen if she was killed by the one she's protecting. So, what if, instead of Luna going wild, Vani is the one breaking down. Thus, Luna had really no choice but to make Vani her kin. If she's an archiviste and Vani already casted the hypnotism. It would be triggered and so he had no choice but to kill Luna.

"You give yourself someone to protect that's why you're weak." -Vani to Jeanne

If Luna didn't save Vani and Misha, she might still be alive. If she chose to abandon or kill Vani (when Vani loses his mind), she might still be alive. But Luna chose to save him by making him her kin. She handicapped herself by choosing to protect Vani and she died by doing so.

2. Maybe Luna doesn't want to use this method because it involves blood drinking to leave her mark. If she's an Archiviste, perhaps her reason is the same as Noe does not drink blood "She doesn't want to look at anyone's memory without permission".

3.Vani was never an honest and straightforward guy. If there is someone/thing he wants to protect he wouldn't say it outright. Sometimes we would go full on beast mode, just to hide his real agenda. It already happened a lot (reread the manga for examples). So maybe the reason he strongly disagrees is that he knows that once Luna tries to bit her he would lose his mind and try to kill her.

4. This is just so heartbreaking. Look at how he cried. I think this is not a cry of relief. Vani is crying out of frustration. It's not because he wanted to kill Noe. For me, it's like Vani is saying "I killed Luna, why can't I kill now." I mean, he realized that this ordeal could be solved without killing the other party. But why didn't it happened before?

This is just a half baked theory so of course there are still things that could negate these panels:

If Luna is talking with Vani here, she makes him her kin even before dying. Since everything is so calm. Though I would ignore reality and think that Luna is talking with Misha here. I think that Misha became her kin first since he is breaking down first.

The flashback of Misha shouting at Vani, maybe this is just hallucinations. But if this is true, it means that they spent some time together after Luna's death. And yeah, all of this would be meaningless.

Explanation of each point

1. Luna is an Archiviste. The theory is already out there, so I wouldn't explain it anymore.

2. Vani is protecting memory from his early childhood & 3. Vani casts the hypnotism while/after he was training to be a chasseur but before Luna's death. Going back to my previous post, I mentioned that it is strange for Misha to know that Vani hypnotized himself if Luna is the one who begged Vani to not let anyone take his memory on her deathbed because:

a. The timeline doesn't coincide. The chance that Misha and Vani separated "that day" which is I believe the same day as Luna's death is high. So, there's no way Misha could know.

b. Misha forgot what happened "that day". However, it's not like Vani doesn't want Misha to remember. I don't know but I feel like everything would be civil if Misha didn't mention that he wants to revive Luna. That is the moment everything went a wrong turn.

It is likely that Luna already asked Vani days before "that day" and her death. The problem is if the three are together "why did she only ask Vani and not Misha?". Maybe, Luna and Vani have a shady secret that they don't share with Misha as he's too young. However, if the secret has something to do with Luna, Vani won't even mention something relating to it to Misha, I mean the kid knows exactly the trigger of self-hypnotism. Maybe Luna is not the one who asked Vani. I believe that someone already asked Vani before he entered the church to train as a chasseur. But "who" asked Vani is not my problem today it is "when".

So in short, I suppose that the memory Vani is protecting is something that only he knows at the moment, and it did not happen recently but goes way back in his early childhood. As retracexcviii pointed out, it looks like that the self-hypnotism technique Vani used is the same as what the chasseurs. So, Vani knows this technique way back before he became a lab rat.

Continuing on...

Don't judge but I wasted a considerable amount of time digging information about Vani's childhood (yup, I don't have a life outside). And I found nothing concrete that could help, however, as I said, I could make something out of what we have. So here we go.

In Vani's delirium due to high fever he finally opens up and we had a peak of his life before everything. There's nothing much here, just a simple story, but let's overanalyze this:

a. In the era they’re living in, vampires are not allowed to attack humans. People are even treating them as folklore or old people's tall tales. Thus, random vampire attacks are seldom. The attacks that we heard are from the cursed ones (e.g., Amelia and Thomas) or harboring resentment (I think this is why the vampires attacked Astolfo’s family). Well, the attack on Vani and co. may be a special case. Vani mentioned that chasseurs are hunting "dangerous" types of vampires that are rampaging in the human world. So, there may be a miscreant group of vampires somewhere that hates peace or being suppressed by humans. Right, Misha's mother was also killed by a vampire.

b. When Misha asked what's a band of traveling players then Luna answered that it's a bit like a circus. Vani answered that "It was nothing like...that formal". He hesitated for a moment, meaning, he wanted to say something different first, but he changed his mind. Or maybe he just can't find the right word. I know that someone already mentioned this, but did you know that according to Wikipedia "Charlatan is a seller of medicines who might advertise his presence with music and an outdoor stage show." Now that's another thing to add to Vani and Naenia's parallel.

c. Vani thinks that his father doesn't like it there very much. So, why stay even if his wife is dead? Even if Vani's father could not go back to his family, he could still opt to cut ties with the band and settle down somewhere. He's a doctor, it's not like they would be helpless if they leave. Travelling is not a safe choice if you think about it. Perhaps, he stayed in the memory of his wife? Or are there other reasons?

d. This guy didn't just come to Altus ones before. "No matter when I visit" he already visited during different periods. The times he possibly could go in Altus is before his father's death and after Luna's death. Maybe Luna's going in secretly for whatever reason. I just want to drop it here because it's interesting to take note of.

e. I'm not sure if I should include this since it may be Luna's influence, but Vani knows way too much about vampires and also the babel incident. Also, Ruthven's statement just gives me a weird feeling. Does it mean "You an average human are running around doing ridiculous things, so tell me about 'yourself', kin of the blue moon vampire"? Or "without the context of being the kin of the blue moon vampire, tell about yourself?" I think it is the latter meaning.

There's nothing important here that proves Vani's childhood should be kept as a secret. But this will do for now, I just want to establish that Vani is more than just kin to the Blue Moon Vampire. His childhood, his father, family, and that traveling players are also suspicious. (Why the hell do I find everyone in this series suspicious?!? oh, except Amelia and Riche).

4. Luna bit Vani the day she died. I can't come up with anything that happened "that day". Did Luna has gone wild? Did someone attack them? Did Vani and Misha lose their mind as an effect of that weird doctor's experiment? There's really nothing but I think that whatever happened "that day" led to Luna's leaving no choice but to drink Vani's blood, or to make Vani her kin. There has no explicit explanation of how you make one your kin, but I'm sure drinking blood is included in the process. They would only gain a mark if they were bitten.

I'm actually not done yet. I still have plenty to say, but this should end here now. This is already too long for me to handle. Does this make sense? Or is it confusing? Don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong or tell me whatever you want to say.

So, if what Vani is saying is true, why do you think he killed Luna?

See ya' later folks!

Note: I wrote this to indulge my over-thinking self. This is just a random theory, thoughts, assumptions, and/or head-canons. Thank you for taking the time to read and understanding if I made any mistakes or post whatever it is you don’t agree on.

[aotopmha]

One thing that is with hisu's situation is that if she's actually pregnant with farmer guy or eren it's leave really bad scenarios or implications. For one with farmer guy it could indicate is she had sex with someone she doesn't love with a child she doesn't want to, either go with 50 year plan or assisting eren (by keeping zeke alive). If she's with eren (I truly hope not) it's a secret off screen romance that changes our understanding why eren is doing this (among other things).---->part 2

----> continuation: the fake pregnancy I think has more possibilities however the issue is how she did it (while throwing off the military police) as well as the big thing that is most puzzling of all. If I remember correctly eren talks to historia ten months before all that has happened with the rumbling. During this time historia *appears* to tell no one of what eren is doing or even attempted to stop him. I hope isayama knows what he is doing, but I have little hope.

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

Yeah, those are some shitty implications and as I've said before, there is a whole bunch additional implications because she is a female character and even more because she is a gay-coded female character - a pregnancy is something women and gay women are still forced into directly or indirectly today. Women are constantly told to have children and for their purpose to be having children by society, so for a story that is about gaining freedom and destroying a corrupt system and ending the cycle of violence and suffering, it is really contradictory to use this as a plot point in a way.

But as I've also said I think and like that the horror is at least deliberate and that that's the point. I at least take shock value with purpose over just the sake of it. Many men and women make sacrifices for a better world in very unpleasant and ugly ways, it is at least true to life in that way. Modern society was built on much suffering.

After going over all of the Historia material we have, I think I actually have a fairly well-defined idea where the story might be going with Historia.

If nothing else, I'm excited to finally get concrete answer on this, no matter how good the answer ultimately is.

In fact, I think there is still one possibility how the fake pregnancy can be true: the person we think is Historia is a body double, some other pregnant woman she asked to stand in for her trickery of the MP.

I think it is remarkably more out there than any other fake pregnancy possibility, but I think it's still possible.

Points in its favour:

1) There have been comments how the timeframe and circumstances are strange by Nile and Levi.

2) We never see the pregnant woman's thoughts or any dialog in any of her appearances. The thoughts and dialog we get from Historia is all prior to her supposed pregnancy.

3) Historia would never push any other human being into a role they did not choose considering her own past of being forced into roles.

Points against it:

1) Historia says she is willing to do it because she was grateful for all of the good things everyone did for her as well as that she is willing to ensure the survival of the island in the most reliable way they have.

(chapter 130)

This does go in line with her arc. She decides to live for herself and be true to herself and her being true to herself is her being genuinely kind. During her journey, she also learns pragmatism, as she is able to put aside her selfish desire to get self-affirmation from her father.

So, I think the authorial intention here is that the pregnancy is her sacrifice for a better world. Even the page we get in chapter 134 depicts her as being in pain.

I've seen a lot of takes that say that "children are the future" is the thematic point of her pregnancy, but after rereading all of the material with her character, I feel her decision is more framed as a sacrifice, along the lines of the equivalent exchange theme of the story - if you can't sacrifice anything, you can't achieve anything.

This was my initial take on her pregnancy and on a reread, I think this is what the story is going to ultimately lean into because the very first time we see Eren elaborate on his perspective in the story in chapter 1, it is about keeping up the struggle to make all of the sacrifices worth it, which is an actual consistent theme of the story since chapter 1 that is also relevant to Historia's character.

So I think the most likely option with her is that her pain will be worth it, she'll give birth and there at least will be some solution that won't have her child have to continue the Titan Shifter cycle and be pushed into a role not of its choice.

Thus Historia's pain and sacrifice of her personal freedom will ultimately be worth it and she and her child will be free to live as they please.

Now, if I had the ideal version of that, keep everything the same except she isn't pregnant and has been holding out to stop Eren on her own terms because last time Eren unlocked memories with Historia (in the cave), it also unlocked some of hers.

This would explain why she didn't tell anyone. She knew something Eren didn't and if she talked, it would get out and Eren would know.

Perhaps how to ultimately stop Eren and destroy the cycle/system has to involve the rumbling actually happening and these circumstances would allow Historia to help end this whole thing. This would also basically explain all the holes and recontextualise them in its own way.

I think the former is more likely than the latter, though.

At the very least, what has allowed me to look past all the parts I don't like about this is that I feel it is still purposeful. It's at least not throwing darts on the wall and seeing what sticks.

The story at least seems to be commited to what it tries to do.

Thank you for the ask!

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Biggest Mistake Of Your Life

Characters: Jennifer Jareau x Reader, Derek Morgan, the rest of the team

Word Count: 1,474

Warnings: talk of cheating in relationships (think of ross and rachel season 3), angst, kidnapped

Summary: You and JJ are having the biggest fight of your relationsip, and while on a break, you go to your best friend and do something you can’t take back. What happens when she finds out what you did?

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Squares Filled: grabbed by the hair for @badthingshappenbingo​ // race against time for @ladiesbingo // cheating for @cmbingo​

Author’s Note: If you have any requests, please send them in! this is unbeta’d and every mistake is all on me.

Feedback the glue that holds my writing together

Tags at the bottom

Yours and JJ's relationship has been on the rocks for a while now. You can't go one dinner without fighting about what you've been fighting about this entire time. You want kids, she doesn't—well, not now. There will always be a reason not to have kids—a new case, new enemy, someone dies, or someone moves on. JJ will always give a reason why having kids is a bad idea.

That's why you think now is a perfect time.

Yes, there will always be something to prevent you from expanding your family. However, there will be no more excuses once the baby comes because all you'll be thinking about is the baby. You love JJ, but a family is something you've always wanted. Being a mom is your dream job. You're 31, there is no better time.

The fighting got so bad that just three days ago, JJ was the one who suggested a break. Much like Ross and Rachel from Friends, you stormed out of there and to Derek who is your best friend. He's the one who got you your job in the first place. You were so emotional that night that... something happened. Something that shouldn't have never happened. You haven't told JJ what happened, and it's already been a month of secrets and lies. You two are still fighting, so it's clearly not the time to disclose your late night rendezvous. You fear you might push her over the edge if you told her what happened.

For right now, you're keeping your mouth shut.

You're not sure how much more of this you can take.

It's been three days, and no one has heard from you after you stopped by Derek's place to talk to him about what should happen after that night. After you left his place, you were kidnapped by a very angry unsub. The last few weeks have been very emotional for you which is why you didn't fight back as hard as you should have. This unsub is someone you previously put away. Ever since his release from prison, he's been dead set on getting revenge.

It's been three days, and JJ has been regretting what she said to you ever since she got the news.

"Please tell me we've found her,"JJ asks for the thousandth time.

"We're trying as hard as we can. Don't worry, we'll find her in time," Derek comforts her.

"He gave us a time limit. We're running out of time!"

"Why don't you take a walk. Clear your head," Hotch suggests.

"Yeah, okay," she whispers and leaves.

"You're never going to get away with this',” you groan in pain.

The unsub, Charles Maxley, has kept you sedated the entire time he's had you. He hasn't laid a finger on your head, hasn't harmed you, and has barely spoken to you. You don't know his endgame, but you know it's not you; otherwise, he would have killed you.

"Shut up," Charles sighs.

"Why did you kidnap me? You know my team is going to find me. We caught you once, we can do it again."

"I said shut up! We're keeping her until Emily gets here. Don't tell me what to do!" Charles hisses.

"Charles, what are you doing? Who are you talking to?"

"I'm not listening to you anymore. Go away."

Something must have happened to Charles in prison because he's seeing people or hearing voices that aren't there. His mind is making up the images of people he either knew or knows. There's a reason why he hasn't touched or hurt you—he doesn't really know you're there. The people he's seeing told him to kidnap you, and he couldn't resist. You're either in trouble or the safest person in the world.

"Baby girl, please tell me you have something," Derek asks.

"Maybe. A store clerk called the police ten minutes ago regarding someone that came into his store. The guy didn't buy anything, but the store clerk claimed he was talking to himself. The only thing he remembers hearing is Y/N's name."

"Do you think he took her?"

"We can't assume he did, but we can't ignore it either," Hotch determines. "Garcia, give me everything you have on Charles. Everything that he's been up to after and including in prison."

"Yes, sir."

You've been saving your energy to gather enough to escape. If you're calm and still, Charles will think you're sedated. According to your calculations, you've missed your last two doses. He knows to check on you every hour to make sure you're alive. In the hour he's gone, you've learned two things: One, wherever he's keeping you is by a convenient store since he's come back with items found in a gas station. Someone is bound to see you if you escape.

Two, Charles is really bad at tying a knot. You didn't notice it at first, but your binds are much looser than you realize. You finally see an opportunity to get the hell out of there. It's the top of the hour because Charles enters the room you're in. He always comes every hour on the hour. You make sure to keep yourself relaxed even though your heart is pounding a million beats a minute. He approaches your side to make sure you're still alive, and that's when you make your move.

His head is close to your leg, so you slam your knee into his jaw. The rope falls to the ground, and you scramble to untie the binds on your wrists. He yells out in pain and falls to the ground. You get up and rush to the door, but you underestimated the amount of pain Charles is in. He gets up and chases after you. He grabs your hair and yanks, throwing you to the ground. Your head slams against the concrete, and your vision goes blurry. JJ has always told you to get your hair cut for this exact reason.

"I really wish you hadn't done that,” Charles says just as you black out.

It didn't take the team long to find you when a pedestrian walking by the building heard you scream. It didn't take long for the police to get there either. Charles barely had time to punish you for what you did. However, you sustained some head injuries from where you fell, therefore needed to be hospitalized.

"Is she going to be okay?" JJ asks the doctor.

"Yes, but I'm worried about the baby. I'm keeping her overnight for observation to make sure she and the baby are going to be okay."

"Baby? She's pregnant?" JJ asks, her voice laced with disappointment and hurt.

"Yes."

"With who?" she grows angry.

"That, I can't answer. I'd have to have a paternity test given. I'm sorry," the doctor apologizes and leaves.

JJ angrily stalks into your room where the rest of the team are. They tense when they see her expression.

"What is it?" Derek asks as he lets go of your hand.

You're laying on your bed, completely out of it due to the medicine the doctors gave you.

"Y/N's pregnant. Did any of you know this?"

Rounds of "I didn't know", "what", and "oh my God" bounces off the agents except for Derek. He's unusually quiet. He didn't want JJ to find out about the pregnancy this way.

"Derek?" JJ asks when she notices her friend's silence.

"Yeah, I did know."

"Excuse me? Whose is it?"

"Mine," he whispers, but everyone heard.

"We'll be outside," Penelope announces, and every non-relevant agent leaves the room.

"If this is a joke, then it's not funny."

"I'm not laughing. Look, this isn't how we wanted you to find out, but it did happen."

"When?" she demands.

"After you two broke up."

"What the hell? We never broke up."

"Going on a break is technically breaking up."

"That's what she told you? That we were on a break? Bullshit."

"It was your suggestion," he sighs. "Look, what happened, happened. We can't change that. What we can do is be there for her."

"Fuck that! She cheated!" she shouts.

All the yelling and the pressure from how thick the tension is, is enough to wake you up.

"Why are you yelling?" you mutter tiredly.

"I can't fucking believe you! You went to Derek after our fight? You got pregnant with his baby? You'd do that to me?" she shouts before storming out of the room.

"JJ wait!" you try to yell, but it comes out raspy.

"Let her go. She needs space right now," Derek sighs.

"This isn't how I wanted things to go," you cry.

You were supposed to have kids on her terms. Instead, you took that from her when you fucked Derek.

What have you done? Most importantly, what are you going to do?

wanna be tagged? add yourself to this document! if your tag doesn’t work, find out why!

@kendall-michele​ @practicallylivesonline​ @skylarraker @idkbutspencer​ @miraclesoflove​ @countrygal17a​

[fieldteamleader]

If you headcanon FTL doesn't hunt then why do you draw him with his weapon? Also just very curious as to why you came up with the hc :3 no hate

(hope this is okay I’m answering this OOC!)

the answer may be a bit obvious, but he canonically carries a weapon around, so it seems silly not to, it is part of his design and all, but in the case of the headcanon, it’s more like carrying as a means of self defense. (A lot of NPCs can be spotted in the field with some way of keeping themselves safe, with mantles or just staying out of the way of monster paths, save for like, some researchers, but notably they’re usually escorted by hunters or they as well mind the stomping grounds of monsters.)

I think the headcanon started off as joking around more than a serious one, but it wound up being considered as a lot of joke ideas tend to turn out to be. OBVIOUSLY it shouldn’t be taken as concrete evidence or anything, it’s more like “I interpreted the dialogue/lack of dialogue as this, as a fun take on the character that I wanna expand on for a fun and stuff and not necessarily a hard breakdown or actual analysis”, since it’s like, obviously not a headcanon that’d ordinarily be considered, especially given some obvious aspects of the character in dialogue and the story (trained why by Huntsman, for example, and being the “weapon tutorial guy”).

Actually, the first point was that we were joking that, despite working alongside the Commission his whole life (note: he’s really adamant about not being considered a member of it), he still has like, a bone greatsword, and coupled with the fact he never mentioned hunting anything himself, nor do any of the NPCs comment or say anything about him hunting. (I’ve spent a little too long clicking through almost every dialogue option of NPCs... I don’t have much of a life, you see) If you compare to a lot of the other NPCs, such as the Admiral, Commander, Excitable A Lister, the Huntsman, etc., at least a couple others talk about them hunting. As well, Fieldy’s not super hot about hunting (if you talk to him, most of his dialogue is saying that he’s more concerned about you being alive than hunting and etc.)

There’s also veeeeeery teensy weensy smaller details, story wise, such as not taking on the Jagras or Anjanath at the beginning of the game (again, you’d think someone with as many years and experience in the New World would’ve fought one of the two?) as well as the Huntsman coming to protect him from Velkhana (to which NPCs say they weren’t surprised, and oddly didn’t comment anything along the lines of “hey why didn’t the Field Team Leader defend himself instead”)

it’s really super nitpicky, in all honesty, and more of a case of “hey it’d be kinda interesting if he’s not great at hunting, and he’s definitely more of a leader type person than a hunting type” than, again, having actual evidence. (That and that the NPC dialogue has a lot of details, and I’ve yet to come across anything about he himself hunting anything, which is odd considering all the other content and insight on characters they give. Like, a startling amount - we even get a lot of info on us, the nameless protagonist hunter.)

(tl;dr I spend my days thinking about fictional NPC characters that really don’t matter that much)

There’s probably some points I’m forgetting but, I’ll mention those if I remember them. I’m surprised anyone wanted to hear about my weird headcanons on this blog in all honesty LOL.

on a side note, why is everyone in the Commmission so flippin’ sad and need hugs? no i’m not joking.

[authorofdanger]

Reason Of Survival Part 1

Genre:Angst

Warnings: Mentions of abuse, violence, kidnapping, and death.

Stray Kids Mafia AU

My breathing was ragged as I took another blow to my chest. It was another losing fight for me this week but what was the point in winning? Another day having the shit beaten out of me? To possibly having a full meal once a day and two smaller ones to try to motivate me more? Some clean water? A fucking shower? I dont have a good reason to keep fighting so I kept taking all the hits from my opponent. It felt like hours before I was on the ground with a broken wrist, fractured nose, bloodied face, cracked ribs, and bruises littering my entire body. It's not the worst I have endured in a fight but it's not my best either.

I was tossed back into my cell like a piece of meat and I could barely let out a cry from the pain of the impact. My hair was pulled up harshly which forced me to look my boss in his eyes. "The fuck is wrong with you? You were my top fighter for years and now you cant even win a single fight! And for what? Some cell mate you had for only a few months? Pathetic." My cell mate, Libby, died last week after losing her tenth fight. Boss decided she was no longer useful and.... well you can guess from there. She was my only friend in this hell hole and the only person I wasn't forced to fight. We took care of eachother and became eachothers motivation to keep going and keep winning. At this rate I'm not too far from joining her.

"I'm warning you. Either start winning or I will find better use for you," he warned before releasing my sore scalp and slamming my cell door shut. I crawled over to my personal first aid kit and cleaned myself up the best I could without water or a mirror. My wrist was going to have to wait until my weekly body check from my cell section's nurse. Leaning against the cool concrete wall I listened to the fights continuing the floor above me so I could have an idea of which cells would need to be cleared tonight.

*****

"Let me fucking go," a voice boomed down the hall which ripped my attention away from the fight. I glanced over through the bars and saw a boy being dragged this way by two guards. He looked young, possibly still a teen, but he was well built and looked to be a perfect candidate in the ring. His red hair was messy on top of his head and his clothes were ripped and bloody. He had to be new though because if he wasn't I'm sure I would have fought him by now. I pulled my legs to my chest to make myself small as the three of them stopped in front of my cell and the boy was tossed inside with me and locked in. "I swear to God your going to regret that when my team gets here," he yelled but the guards only laughed before leaving the hall.

I kept silent as I watched him curiously. Nobody in their right mind speaks to the guards like that unless you are a top fighter. A boy like him could get killed here and the boss wouldn't even bat an eye. He ran his hand through his hair before turning around and jumping at the sight of me. I relaxed my legs a bit when I saw all of the violence in his eyes be replaced with concern. "Are you okay," he asked. I let out a small painful laugh. "You're kidding right?" His eyes scanned around my body and stopped when it hit my wrist. "Its not nice to stare you know," I scoffed before shutting my eyes and leaning my head back, "you a new fighter or something?"

"Prisoner. I was captured while on a mission with my team." Prisoner? We dont have prisoners. We have fighters, sex workers, and the guards but not prisoners. "So a fighter? You look too innocent to be a guard and the boss doesn't typically want a baby faced male sex worker." My eyes shot back open in fear as I felt a hand gently grab my wrist but I didnt pull away. "I can wrap this. It might help." Without an answer he had a hold of my first aid kit and made a good makeshift cast. The entire time I kept my eyes on his face which held a sense of focus and care that kept me calm most of the time of contact. "You know it's not nice to stare," he mocked while finishing up. I rolled my eyes but chose to ignore his comment.

"What's your name?" "Y/N. Yours," I asked as he put up the kit. "Jeongin. How long have you been here?" To be honest I'm not too sure. One day I just woke up in this cell with no recollection of my past and I've been here ever since. "Years," was the easiest answer I could give him. I could see his shoulders tense up a bit but his face remained calm and held little emotion. It's odd seeing a newbie so relaxed after being brought in. Normally they would be screaming, fighting, and finding any way to escape. Jeongin on the other hand seems to accept his fate or maybe he has a plan that is bound to fail, either way it's too hard for me to read him quite yet.

"How old are you? I'm seventeen," he asked. He was probably trying to relax any fears I have of him and truth be told it was working but seventeen? And he was talking about a team and he is holding himself together? Something isnt quite right about him but how can I judge in a place like this. "I dont really know anymore. The boss has a file on me somewhere but I had a serious head injury a while back and all I remember is my name and a few scattered memories here and there. It's all a bit of a blur. Hey you said something about a team right?" His eyes shined at the question. Whoever this team is he must hold a good amount of fondness to them. "They're like brothers to me. There are nine of us in total and we run a pretty well known mafia group if I do say so myself. It's a tough job but it gives us all the thrill we have craved since birth. I'm their hacker, I can crack any passcode and hack any electronic device in minutes. Been doing it since I was about fifteen." His hopeful look dimmed as he trailed into a deep thought.

"I wonder if they know where I am." Against my better judgement I reached my hand out for him and led him to sit beside me and laid his head on my shoulder. I dont quite understand what he is feeling right now but I have a good idea. "I wont let anything happen to you Jeongin. Your brothers are coming and they will get you out of here, until then I promise I will keep you alive." Now the question was how was I going to do that? How was I going to protect another person when I can barely protect myself?

*****

The next morning we were woken up by the sounds of sobs and screaming, the usual sounds the morning after fighting matches. Today is the day where cellmates discover that their best friends, lovers, and family members are gone. Today is also the day where if we have any weak links we either move them to the sex worker section or they get killed off. It's always hard to hear no matter how long you have been here and I feel that these sounds will haunt me until the day I die. "What's happening," Jeongin whispered as I watched people being ripped from their cells and new people being added. "They're cleaning out cells. Removing weak links, adding new people, and moving people around. Dont think to much about it." He only nodded his head before taking his body weight off of me and looked around. He mentioned before that he was in the mafia, shouldn't this not bother him at all? "There's kids here too?" Does he expect the boss to have morals? If they can be of any use he will keep them. "Some were born here and some were taken. Again dont think to much into this stuff. It only adds to the depression." He turned his head and looked at me with an unreadable glare. "I'm going to get you out of here," he said more to himself but I only gave him a small smile before fear rose in my chest. I quickly got up and pushed him behind me as the boss opened my cell and slightly chuckled at my protectiveness.

"Well looks who is finally up and moving again," he said darkly while pulling a remote out of his suit pants pocket. I prepared myself for the electric shocks that were about to hit me through my shock collar but refused to stand down, he is testing me I know it. "So I see you have gotten to know our new little addition. I figured he would bring something out in you." I ticked my eyebrow up at him and listened carefully at every single word he was saying and being prepared for any questions he may ask. "I was thinking of adding him to this unit but maybe he would be better as-" "You wont take him," I interrupted boldly, "you want me to win then fine but you cant have him." I know his games and he has done things similar before. He wants his best fighter to win him big bucks in the ring and this is a sick way of doing it. A grin found it's way on his lips as he pressed the button on the remote, nearly bringing me to my knees if Jeongin didnt grab me by the waist to hold me up.

"How about we make a little deal then pet," he laughed before turning off the collar, "as long as you keep winning in the ring he doesnt have to even lift a finger. You continue your little stunt and your losing streak then I trade you two out. Maybe he can do better then you." Jeongin's grip on me tightened and he whispered in my ear "I can handle this. Dont do it." Closing my eyes and shaking my head I felt like there wasn't much of a choice. If I can help it I dont want anyone else in that ring even if it means I have to work myself to death. "He wont be in the ring? Or a part of the sex group," I asked as bravely as I could. "No. You will take up any and all of his jobs I would have pinned him to do. His whole life will depend on your actions." Could I handle that? The extra fights, possibly be in the sex ring as well, any and everything he would have to go through plus my own schedule? "Deal."

*****

"You didnt have to do that," Jeongin sighed while cleaning the dried blood off my face and body since we got our cleaning bucket. "You dont want to be out there. I've been doing this long enough to know what to expect. You just have to trust me on this." I let in a sharp inhale as the soaked rag swiped over my nose which definitely was broken. He mumbled out a few apologies but continued on until most of the blood was off of me and in the bucket. "We should be getting showers tonight for the selections," I explained as he examined the bruises and other various injuries I had. "Selections?"

"Other bosses from other districts come and decide who they want to pin against their own fighters. They also discuss which prize they want if they win. Sometimes its money and sometimes it's the losing fighter. Most of the others here I had fought at one time or another and my boss claimed. I could be fighting about four fighters if I'm lucky in the next three days."

"You call that lucky?" "Lucky as in minimum. Usually on my own I get between two or three and now that I add on your count," I began but stopped myself. I dont need him feeling bad about something that isnt his fault. "You wont be fighting. Chan and the others will find us by then," he assured quietly after a guard passed our cell. I could only give him an assuring smile. How long will it be before he gives up hope? I've been here for years and after a few months I gave up on the thought of escape. Once you end up in a cell there is no leaving, you are no longer a human in a sense but like an animal. Nobody really cares about you as a person anymore and you might as well be erased from the outside world.

"I bet Seungmin has already tracked my location by now," he added "and Chan is probably calling either Sungjin or JB! Oh or Woojin could be calling Jungwoo! It would be a mess if all of NCT came you know," he continued. At some point I zoned out of what he was saying so I myself wouldn't get my hopes up. I thought back to Libby and how right now she would be playing with my hair or how she would be trying to learn fighting strategies from me. Maybe she would have punched Jeongin in the face by now because of his optimism levels, she never was one to see the glass half full.

"Are you even listening to me," he chuckled which pulled me back to the present. "Kinda. Hey Jeongin can we not talk about escaping right now? Maybe you can tell me more about your friends in general?" As if he understood what I was getting at he nodded his head and began to ramble on about all the adventures he has been on through the years. Though he may be a little too hopeful and cheerful he is the perfect amount of light for this dark situation, and in my mind I vow to never let anything happen to him.

Even if it kills me.