#﹙ heroes are only heroes until it takes its toll ╳ about. ﹚

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

(Genshin Impact) Jean, Eula, Rosaria, Ei, Shenhe, Yelan, Navia, Lumine rescuing their S/O

No one requested this, Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero" came on and demanded I write. ...Same thing happened for the AK-15 fic actually. I NEED A HERO, I'M HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO-

The moment Jean learns that her S/O had been kidnapped for ransom, her senses become so hyper focused and immediately sets off to alert the Knights of an abduction.

She wastes absolutely no time in tracking S/O, and does so easily with her and the others searching.

Her adrenaline kicks into overdrive, and she does not rest until S/O is safe inside Mondstadt walls, ignoring any injury sustained and insisting that she can keep going.

For only a brief moment, Jean loses control and doesn't even warn warn the kidnappers or attempt an arrest, immediately using her Vision to blow them back.

The sight of her S/O is enough to get her to snap back to her senses, and promptly make the offenders pay for their crimes by sending them to the jails.

With a sigh of relief, Jean feels the exhaustion on her body start to take its toll, but she smiles as she unties them.

(Jean) "Thank goodness you're alright. Let's get you home."

She gives her S/O the tightest hug of their life, and has one arm locked around them the entire journey back.

Eula absolutely loses it the moment she learned that someone of the Lawrence clan has kidnapped her S/O.

This was the exact reason she did not want them associated with her-

No. Now was not the time for such thoughts. Now was the time for vengeance.

Being the Captain of the Reconnaissance company, she doesn't have any difficulty in locating their whereabouts.

As much as Eula would like to make sure the Lawrence in question never take another step, she knows it'd be far worse for them to be alive and imprisoned by the Knights of Favonius.

With a swing of her claymore, she instantly puts down the attacker in an ambush and cuffs them. Her gaze turns to her lover before releasing them, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.

(Eula) "Hmph, how careless of you to be captured by another Lawrence. Next time, you will not be so lucky."

By the way her hand was shaking and how close she remained at their side, they could easily see past her words and how worried she was about them.

VIOLENCE

Unlike most people in Mondstadt, her idea of justice is if the person never takes another breath again.

The person kidnapping S/O more than likely had no idea that she was even associated with them. That was their first mistake.

Their last mistake was assuming they would get away with it alive.

Rosaria stalks the kidnapper to where her S/O is being kept.

For the moment, they were unconscious.

Which worked for her.

Dropping down from the shadows, she quietly but violently dispatches of the kidnapper, taking extra care to not make a mess on S/O.

She unties them before carrying them in her arms out of harm's way, not making a comment until they woke up.

(Rosaria) "Good, you're awake. I'm glad you're okay, but be more careful next time."

Rosaria's grip tightens on them before gently setting them back down if they could walk.

What do you think happens when you kidnap God's girlfriend/boyfriend?

If you answered death, congratulations! You're right!

Ei on the inside is scared for their safety, but she knows that panicking will not make things better.

Instead, she goes out to rescue them personally while alerting the soldiers at her command to ensure no one escapes.

And to add extra insurance, she sends out the Shogun to find S/O as well, and to exterminate any offender with extreme prejudice.

The skies darkened and lightning split apart the clouds, striking at the entrance of the abandoned base.

The last thing S/O's kidnappers saw was a woman in purple, staring down at them with a katana held in her hand.

I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROOOAAAAACHING

There was literally nothing left of the kidnappers to arrest or bury, so Ei casually walked up to S/O before untying their restraints.

(Ei) "I am glad to see you unharmed. Do you require any medical assistance?"

For the next month, Ei and the Shogun personally accompany S/O to wherever they needed to go.

Ensuring that if anyone was stupid enough to try it again, they got to see what they would be up against.

EXTREME VIOLENCE

The red ropes on Shenhe is barely enough to contain the rage that swells within her at this very moment.

Someone dared to kidnap someone as loving and sweet as her S/O?

Thanks to them and the Traveler, she tries not to use violence as the answer to all her problems.

For this particular situation, Shenhe decides that violence will solve the problem that is the kidnapper's continued existence.

The very second she found out their location, she begins ripping and tearing through anything and anyone in the vicinity that she deemed was responsible.

The treasure hoarders that kidnapped them? Turned to ribbons.

The wooden doors trying to conceal them? In splinters.

That one Hilichurl sitting near the cliff minding its own business and not even realizing what was happening? It's now at the bottom of that cliff. (And if Shenhe didn't do it, you would've, you monster.)

Shenhe is absolutely stained red the moment she frees her S/O, her rage slowly subsiding at the sight of her lover.

(Shenhe) "I am here to rescue you, S/O."

Shenhe is almost super glued to their side from then on, never wanting to let them get hurt ever again.

And Archons help anyone who tried to again.

Yelan figured something like this would happen. Her enemies would try to kidnap her S/O as a form of revenge or luring her out.

Unfortunately for them, Yelan had a contingency plan if something like this ever happened.

Informants are able to pinpoint the exact location S/O was being held with relative ease.

She infiltrates the building and without warning, her strings immediately sweep the kidnappers off their feet and left them dangling in the air.

(Yelan) "Not so fun when you're tied up, is it?"

Ignoring their shouting, she walks over to S/O and gives them a smile.

(Yelan) "Sorry for the wait. Dinner on me?"

She seems casual about the situation, but when they're out of earshot of everyone, she gives them a firm but gentle hug.

Yelan was no stranger to losing people she cared about, but she was glad she did not have to re-experience the feeling today.

(Navia) *LOADS UMBRELLA WITH MALICIOUS INTENT*

Oh, perfect! Looks like S/O's kidnappers just volunteered themselves to be target practice!

Navia charges headfirst to wherever S/O is being held, not really worrying about the collateral damage other than S/O themselves.

Her bodyguards were able to find them quickly, and joined her in their rescue.

Navia lets all guns fly, making sure these punks would be taught a lesson they'd never forget.

NO ONE touches her darling, except for her!

When Navia finally gets S/O out, she has them in a near bone crushing hug, kissing them repeatedly on the face, being a bit too playful considering the situation.

But in private, she nearly breaks down crying as her hug on S/O tightens.

She was so afraid that they'd get hurt, or worse.

But she's thanking the gods above that they were unharmed.

The aftermath of the situation, Navia and her guards are almost stalking S/O. For their safety, of course.

Even though sometimes that safety has to be all three of them hiding behind a bush very conspicuously, even after S/O's insistence that they were fine.

Sadly, this was not Lumine's first experience with a close person to her being kidnapped. Probably wasn't going to be the last either.

While she is worried for their safety, she has no doubt that they're going to get them out fine.

Lumine blitzes into the domain they're being held in and clears out everyone in her way with nearly blinding speed.

No one has a chance to even react as she effortlessly takes out every single attacker, making her way to them.

Finally after knocking out their kidnapper, she has the guards who she informed the kidnapping about make their arrests as she personally attends to S/O.

(Lumine) "You're not hurt are you?" sigh "Good. Come on, let's go home."

Lumine holds S/O's arm the entire time as they get enough distance from town, remaining silent.

She couldn't find her brother, and she didn't want to lose S/O as well.

Brightening up the mood a bit, Paimon appeared behind them.

(Paimon) "Why don't we have S/O stay with us at the Teapot for a while?"

Lumine makes it mandatory for S/O to sleep in the bedroom with her, and has Tubby or Paimon usually keeping an eye on them so she has some peace of mind.

[thirstywoso]

Love me like a sailor - Jessie Fleming x reader

A/N: a little bittersweet childhood sweetheart fic, now I've re-read it I kind of hate it and let's just say there will be a lot of angst coming - you've been warned

THIS IS A RE-POST AS TUMBLR IS HAVING A MELTDOWN

WC: 2k

Warnings: none atm

Synopsis: long distance is taking its toll on you relationship with Jessie

London, Ontario. You knew it well, why?

It was the city you'd grown up in, learned to love and where you now as a 26 year old adult resided. It was also the city you met your childhood sweetheart. Jessie or as most people knew her Jessie Fleming the captain of the Canadian women's soccer team.

You'd met Jessie when you were in kindergarten and since then the two of you had been inseparable. It wasn't until 9th grade though where you'd both realised your friendship was maybe something more, Jessie had been bold and made the first move.

It had been shortly after her debut for the senior team, at 15 years old it was a huge step for her. You'd gone to see her play and unbeknownst to you the feelings you had for the dark haired girl were also creeping their way into her, only the feelings were for you.

So there you were at the sidelines, back then the games weren't so busy but you held up a sign for her "Fleming is my hero" she came over and said hi, the freckled Canadian grinning from ear to ear.

Shortly after the game you found yourself sat cross legged on her bed watching some old movie you'd probably seen a hundred times, yet this time you felt different. Your gaze shifted to Jessie whose eyes were already trained on you, she gave you a soft smile and before you knew it her lips were on yours.

You reciprocated the kiss and in your teenage brain it felt like hours when in reality was more than likely ten seconds, that's where it all started though. The innocent touches, the shared looks until one day you decided to bite the bullet and ask Jessie to be your girlfriend and now here you are just over ten years later. Still loving that goofy lopsided smile and those big brown doe eyes.

The issue with London, Ontario though was that it wasn't Portland, Oregon which is where Jessie currently resided. That being said it was two and a half thousand miles closer than London, England which was where she had been for the past three and a half years.

Jessie playing across the border provided to be easier than when she was across an entire ocean. It mean't she could fly to you during off season, you could fly out to games especially the ones she played on the east coast. It was easier. There was no doubt about that.

Yet after graduating high school together and both going to college on the west coast of America yourself at Berkeley and Jessie at UCLA, then dealing with the time differences being on different continents, nothing felt as distant as it did now.

You always knew Jessie would go far and even though you both decided it was best for you to stay in your hometown to pursue your career it seemed to be eating at you more and more.

This is something you should probably bring up to Jessie, yet it never seemed like the right time. When you saw her you'd go to talk but something inside of you didn't want to ruin the precious time you did have together and then she would be gone again. However, over the phone also didn't seem like the best way to have this conversation. So you kept it to yourself.

That was until you visited Portland, Jessie had been there several months by now, however, you'd only managed to get out there a few times but it was better than nothing.

This time was different though, she was showing you some of her favourite places she had found since being in the city, one of which was a coffee shop on the river. As you walked in you took note of the way the barista who you'd soon come to learn was named Alex beamed at your girlfriend, her face slightly dropping as she clocked you and your fingers threaded through Jessie's. This didn't go unnoticed by you.

She greeted Jessie as you both came up to the counter and Jessie introduced you to her, telling you how Alex had helped her one day when she got caught in the rain and the paper bag with her groceries had split. They'd soon became friends and Jessie would frequent Alex's coffee shop, it seemed odd to you that Jessie hadn't mentioned her to you before.

As you turned to find a seat you noticed that the shelves in the shop contained some old cameras and some books, the layout of the shop and the items scattered is only what you could describe as a representation of Jessie's brain. You mentioned this to Jessie and she told you that's why she liked this place so much, her eyes then wondered over towards the counter where Alex was looking over at you both smiling. A pang of jealousy struck you in the chest.

Once you'd both finished your coffee Jessie suggested one of her new favourite walks that Alex had apparently showed her, you politely declined, feigning a migraine and asking to go back to her apartment.

Arriving back at the apartment you laid down on the couch on your front a pillow under your head as your arms stretched out underneath it, that's when you felt some soft material poking out from under the couch cushions. After a slight tug you find a flannel shirt, one you didn't recognise.

"Hey babe" you call out

"What's up?" Your girlfriend says walking over to where you lay.

"What's this?" You ask holding up the garment in question

"Oh" she scratches the back of her neck "That's Alex's, she must've left it here"

"What was Alex doing in your apartment? Much less leaving clothes?"

"She just came over one day after I'd finished training to bring coffee... she must've got hot and just left it here by accident" Jessie says almost questioning it herself.

"Right.." you say pushing yourself up so you're sat on the edge of the couch.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"It's just. Jessie, you seem real close with her. The way she was eye fucking you across the coffee shop, how her clothes are literally in your apartment. How you've never told me about her ever yet she seems to be a big part of your Portland life, it just doesn't make sense!" You say beginning to raise your voice.

"I didn't bring her up because I want to focus on you when we talk, she was certainly not eye fucking me and she's just been helpful since I met her"

"Yeah, yeah Jessie, you can't deny the way she looked at you" you yell at her

"You're out of your fucking mind!" She yells back

"I'm out of my fucking mind, clearly you are lying or just so stupidly naive if you don't think she likes you"

Your words are almost instantly confirmed when Jessie's phone lights up on the coffee table,

Alex💕: You still coming over after you drop your girlfriend at the airport tomorrow?

"And there we go" you say gesturing to her phone

"Wow, we are really doing that huh?" She says handing you her phone

"Go on look through our messages" she huffs at you rolling her eyes

"I'm not saying I don't trust you Jess, I'm saying I don't trust her" you place her phone back on the coffee table.

Running your hands through your hair you don't know where to look, settling on the ground you can't bring yourself to look at her.

"She's just a friend, even if she does have feelings I promise you I don't" she says tilting your chin to look up at her.

Begrudgingly you make eye contact with her, deep down you know she's right. Jessie could never cheat on you... could she? You shake your head dismissing that thought.

"You're right, I trust you Jess. It's just been hard you know? You've been so far away for so long and I'm not one hundred percent sure how I can keep doing it" you let out a sigh feeling relived you addressed your feelings.

"Right... so what does that mean for you? For us?" She narrows her eyes slightly somewhat taken aback by your statement. It wasn't that Jessie hadn't also felt the strain and had begun to have those questions herself, it was more that she hadn't even thought about you feeling the same.

"I'm not sure, I love you Jess, I always will but it's just not felt right for awhile" you say your chest tightening

"I see, I love you too but you're right it's been hard, what should we do?"

"Maybe, maybe we should take a break. See how we are in a few months from now?"

"And if we are meant to be, we will be?" She says sadness seeping into her voice

"So, this is it?" You ask tears brimming in your eyes

"This is it" she repeats back to you.

"For now" she follows up.

-

Before you knew it you were on the plane back to your hometown, Jessie still in Portland. Your conversation last night ended with the mutual decision to keep contact to a minimum whilst you both figure things out.

You'd gotten on the plane with a book and some music downloaded on your phone, the way you'd kill the next few hours instead of enduring crying babies and staring at the seat ahead. That all went out the window though when a girl in the seat next to you was struggling to put her luggage in the overhead bin.

You being the kindhearted person that you were you'd decided to give her a hand, helping her cram her baggage in as she slammed down the bin door. Only she ended up knocking your phone out of your hand which came crashing down in the aisle.

She was so apologetic but that didn't help the fact you now had a broken phone and a six hour flight with nothing but yourself and your thoughts.

This gave you time to think about your relationship and your own life. You'd been with Jessie for all of your adult life and half of your teenage years, the time you had made you realise how you didn't know who you were without her, this break would be harder than you first thought.

You loved Jessie, you really did. Just for now you knew you needed to see who you were and what your life was without her.

After several hours of your mind ticking away back and forth between if you made the right decision or not, how you felt and if you should've just stuck with it you finally exit the aircraft making your way to the luggage carousel. As you turn to take your luggage you see a pair of feet in front of you and hear what sounds like someone gasping for breath.

"Oh hi" you say slightly surprised at the disheveled girl in front of you, the same girl from the plane.

"Sorry, it's just, I... hold on" she pants out

You stay still your gaze steady on her whilst she regains composure.

"I, I'm sorry about your phone. I couldn't let you go without apologising again and.." she rummages in her pocket pulling out a crumpled napkin with the airline logo stamped on it.

"This is for you" she says handing it to you

"Your dirty napkin?" You question confused.

"No, open it" she laughs

You do, looking up meeting her eyes a confused look still plastered on your face, eyebrow slightly raised and head cocked.

"What, what's this?" You ask

"My number silly" she giggles to herself lightly before carrying on "when you get your phone fixed, call me or text me and we can grab coffee or something and I'll reimburse you for the damage"

"I don't expect you to do that"

"It's nothing really!" She insists

"Well I'll agree to the coffee but don't worry about anything else" you bargain with her

"Deal" she shakes your hand "It's a date"

Those three words replayed in your head the rest of the day.

[nightcolorz]

Armand could definitely 100% have prevented Claudia and Madeline’s death like obviously he is so full of shit 😭😭 he just chose not to. I dont think he was lying about being held captive, though. It seems more likely to me that he allowed himself to be imprisoned bcus the ultimate outcome would be desirable, rather then like, he was secretly orchestrating it all like a devious Master mind and was only pretending to be a prisoner to trick Louis. I think Armand was genuinely being imprisoned, but he could have easily escaped (as if the vampire Armand couldn’t win in a fight against Sam The Twink), and chose not to because it’s in his best interest for Claudia and Madeline to die 😭. While part of his betrayal I think comes from a comfort Armand takes in learned helplessness, where taking action feels less safe then leaning into victimhood, so armand chooses to accept helplessness rather then play the hero bcus helplessness is comforting, it was also definitely part “I want these two people to be gone from my life and this seems like a sure fire way to let it happen while I get to remain mostly blameless” 😭. Armand finds Claudia’s whole existence horrific and cruel. I don’t think he particularly likes or dislikes her as a person, he doesn’t seem to know her very well nor care to know her (he actually says this in tva lol), so I don’t think he considered letting her a die an act of spite.

Armand thought of Claudia as a suffering, rabid, sick and diseased animal that needed to be put down for its own well being. He considered her death an inevitable tragedy that “could not be prevented”, and bcus of his perspective on vampirism as a horrible curse that can only be spared through very specific very calculated and clean cut means, he wanted her death to come as quick and painlessly as possible. From Armand’s perspective, if he saved Claudia from death by execution, he’d only end up watching her excruciatingly loose her mind and self until she eventually killed herself or got put down by Armand or someone else Nicki style so that she wouldnt need to live in agony anymore.

Which, his whole perspective there is flawed, and fucked up, and dehumanizing of Claudia, but it makes sense why he would think that way. Armand considers vampirism to be always bad, regardless of the subject turned, and always smth he would hate to inflict on someone. So claudias turning, is not only cruel to Armand, but unforgivable and unsalvageable. He’s seen a lot of fucked up vampires in his time, a lot of botched turnings, and he knows from his experience how much of a toll vampirism takes on anyone, let alone someone in the body of a child. His whole “I will never turn someone into a vampire ever in my life” thing comes from this. So, of course he won’t save claudia from such a clean cut, blameless death 😭. He considers it an act of mercy, when he pictures the alternative as “Claudia clings to Madeline as she painfully looses her mind and eventually dies”. Which, comes into why he didn’t save Madeline either lol

Armand doesn’t particularly value life as smth to be worth preserving, he is very willing to view other ppl as commodities when it helps him. But he does value preserving peace and limiting other’s suffering (which is why he kills so gently). Armand is so horrified by Madeline being turned, partly bcus I think he saw himself in her. He sees a fledgling who he believes will inevitably loose her maker, the only person she rlly cares about, to horrible gruesome death, and he knows that once she experiences that her life as an immortal will be cruel and unbearable. So once she is turned, Armand sees another lost cause who will be better off if she is killed before it can get bad. What Armand misses when it comes to Claudia and Madeline, obviously, is that they r more resilient and self sufficient then he sees, and taking away their agency by deciding they have no hope and must die isn’t the mercy he sees it as but is actually like, fucked up and horrible. Armand is so blinded by his trauma fueled dog eat dog view of life as a vampire that he can’t see that.

I think the reason armand considers the perks of Claudia and Madeline’s death a priority over Louis’s happiness (and horrible grief that will ensue when his loved ones die), is bcus Armand considers Claudia and Madeline’s death an inevitable consequence of Louis’s unforgivably cruel actions. He doesn’t resent Louis for it I don’t think, but he definitely thinks that Louis will need to atone for what he’s done whether Armand wants him to or not. So, Armand is ok with Louis grieving (as long as it doesn’t turn to resentment of Armand), bcus it was ultimately inevitable, and comparatively less cruel then what he would have to witness alternatively. It’s a rip the Band aid off type of thing 😭😭

in conclusion uh Armand is bad but Armand has his reasons and Armand isn’t one dimensionally villainous, he has a ton of complex trauma induced reasons for the way he thinks, and his actions r more often then not coming from a warped view of “the kind thing to do” that comes from his lack of understanding of how kind the world actually is and can be (dog eat dog mindest etc), bcus of how horribly traumatized he is. thank u good night

[hannahbarberra162]

Under the Microscope, part 2 (Yandere Sabo x Reader)

18+ MDNI on Ao3

No smut, but some not great behavior from Sabo.

All other chapters

You caught yourself getting excited for your next shift guarding Sabo. It was sad, really, if you thought about it. You’d resorted to being friendly with convicted prisoners to relieve your loneliness. You were no stranger to being on your own, you had been since childhood, but the active hostility from the other Marines on the base had taken its toll on you. Was it so wrong to look forward to someone who was excited to see you? Who shared common interests? You decided to stop beating yourself up and to enjoy Sabo’s company while he was here. Soon he’d be transferred and you’d be all alone once again. 

You didn’t have a shift everyday, today you were just working on your research in your office. It was slow going, you wished you’d been given a research partner. You’d always done better when you had someone you could bounce ideas off of. But the nature of your assignment meant that you had to work alone. The other scientist at the base was a Marine biologist and your work didn’t overlap at all, so you couldn’t even use him as a sounding board. You had a lot to do, so you rolled up your sleeves and magnified until your vision swam. You weren’t any closer to figuring out the genetic sequencing and the meeting with Admiral Sakazuki was getting closer. Not only that, your hands were shaking so badly you couldn’t hold your cup of coffee. You decided to take a break to try to refocus.

Going outside, you realized it was already late at night. You missed lunch and dinner again, working in your office in complete concentration. You weren’t hungry anyway, your stomach twisted in knots. You sighed and looked up at the night sky. You’d always loved the stars and constellations. Your devil fruit had only enhanced your love, allowing you to see deep into the beauty of the cosmos. Your hands were shaking but you tried to magnify some of your favorite constellations. After a few unsuccessful attempts, you were able to see the Andromeda galaxy clearly. It had been your favorite since childhood, allowing you to remember that your problems were so very small and the universe so very large. You’d also loved the story about the princess in chains being rescued from a monster by a brave hero, and their happily ever after. Of course, such things only ever happened in stories, no one was coming to save you from your own life. 

You magnified the galaxy several times, enjoying the swirling stars in motion. The hairs on the back of your neck raised - you had the feeling someone was watching you. Looking around, you couldn’t see anyone in the darkness. But you couldn’t shake the feeling, it was unnerving you. You flicked your hand through the magnification, erasing it. You felt like an animal snared in a trap and you wanted to get away quickly. With a heavy sigh, you went back inside to continue working. You wouldn’t see Sabo for a few days, so you needed to concentrate while you had unbroken blocks of time.

~~~

You had barely been sleeping during the nights, and had early morning guard duty with Sabo a few days later. Well, not with Sabo, guarding Sabo. You had to keep reminding yourself that he was dangerous and violent, not someone to pal around with. You yawned as you entered the room, saluting to your fellow officer as he left quickly. You’d heard the other ensigns talking about how they didn’t like guarding Sabo, that he creeped them out as he silently stared through the bars. That they didn’t get within a meter of the cell for fear he’d hurt them. It was hard to reconcile that image when he spent most of your shift trying to talk to you and had been so relaxed when you’d stupidly gone inside. 

You took a huge gulp of your hot coffee and slumped down on the guard bench, dropping your papers next to you. You leaned your head back against the brick behind you and closed your eyes, taking a moment to settle in for the next few hours. Sabo was already lounging by the front of the cell, ready to engage with you.

“Good morning Sabo,” you stated, not opening your eyes. You could feel his stare already.

“Good morning, Mag. I’m so glad to see you again,” Sabo said exuberant. At least he had a positive attitude. You yawned again, covering your mouth with your arm. “Still tired, hmm?” Sabo queried. You cracked open your eyes. Not this again.

“Like always, I’m fine.” You knew you looked like death, but you didn’t have to admit it.

“Have you made progress in your work?” You stiffened. You still couldn’t talk about your work with Sabo. Besides, it was a sore point and you felt defensive. You hadn’t gotten as much done during your break from guard duty as you’d hoped. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I understand.”

“Your wounds look better,” you said, glancing over his body. You were glad to see he was healing. Sabo hummed, uninterested in that line of conversation. His eyes flicked over you for a moment.

“Are you aware you’re losing weight?” You frowned and looked down at your uniform. You hadn’t noticed at all, but he was right. Your uniform was baggy and loose, you might have to go ask for the next size down. You often missed meals when you were working, but even when you noticed it was meal time your anxiety decreased your appetite to practically nothing. 

“Oh, um, I guess so.”

“Do they not take care of you? Along with working you half to death?” You bristled at his patronizing words.

“They don’t need to take care of me. I’m a grown adult, I take care of myself.” You said testily, narrowing your eyes. You knew you weren't at your top physical condition, but you didn’t need yet another person to tell you that you were helpless and weak. Especially not someone who was currently in seastone cuffs and behind bars . Your hands started to shake, which didn’t help your point.

“Not very well, it seems. But that doesn’t matter. When we get back to the Revolutionary Army, I’ll take care of you.” You snorted out a laugh. Sabo was just referencing his joke from the other day, he was only kidding. You felt better, he wasn’t criticizing you or your lack of self care. You rolled your eyes and smiled at him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Sabo said cryptically. 

“Probably not, but go ahead.” You never knew what Sabo was going to say.

“You think I can’t take care of you, because I look like this,” he said, gesturing to his frame. “Rest assured, when I get back, eat more and resume my training, I’ll be more to your liking.” You thought you were going to pass out from all your blood suddenly rushing to your face. That was nowhere near anything you were thinking about.

“Oh, uh, right. Sure. I mean, I can - uh - ask for you to get supplemental food, uhm, if you want,” you stammered. What on earth were you supposed to say to that? 

“Always so kind, Mag. You’re a diamond in the rough. But there’s no need.” Sabo gave you a soft smile. You supposed there wasn’t, it wouldn’t be approved by the higher ups. You drank your coffee to end this conversation and hopefully never bring it up again.

~~~

An hour later and your eyelids were barely open. The room was warm as always, but because of the early morning chill, it felt wonderful. The room was calm and peaceful, and you were leaning against one of the supports by the bench. You’d decided to give Sabo a long article you wanted to read but hadn’t had the time. It wasn’t specific to your research, so you didn’t see how it could hurt. It was better than him being bored and saying embarrassing things to you. He was reading in silence on his metal bed, and you on your guard bench. The quiet was comfortable, punctuated by the sound of turning pages. You had your book open in front of you and were re-reading the same paragraph for the eighth time. Your eyes kept sliding closed, your head lolling forward. You couldn’t fall asleep - that was the entire point of guard duty. If you were caught, you’d be in huge trouble. So you tried to keep reading, blinking rapidly to maintain your focus.

Sabo POV

Sabo watched you drift off to sleep, happy you were getting some needed rest. It warmed his heart to see that you felt comfortable in his presence, enough to let him watch you while you slept. You had dozed off leaning against the wall, your face now relaxing. You looked younger without anxiety clouding your features. You always insisted you were fine, but it was obvious to him that you were working yourself to the bone. He knew you’d taken offense at what he’d said, but he had meant it. You weren’t taking care of yourself - the weight loss, the sleeplessness, the anxiety, your shaking hands, all of these would take a toll on you the longer it went on. He couldn’t wait until he could leave the jail and take you with him. 

You were such a delightful person, Sabo couldn’t believe you’d become a Marine. In his experience, Marines were weak, idiotic fools who were sacrificing themselves for a government that didn’t care if they lived or died. They didn’t even see the issue in doing so, as long as they got to beat down some poor villagers now and again. But you were different, so very different. You were brilliant, even if no one saw that here but himself. You were kind, having helped him with his shoulder for no reason other than empathy. It had been a foolish choice on your part, Sabo could have easily killed you. But that was something he liked about you - you were completely clueless to the way the real world worked. You were so eager to learn and understand the world but so helpless within it. You’d be alright now, you had Sabo to look after you. You didn’t understand what kinds of people lived in the world and what they would do to such a weak little thing like yourself. Luckily Sabo had found you, and he’d keep you safe. 

Sabo had been to Bayonette on assignment from the Revolutionary Army a few weeks prior to his “capture.” The Army had gotten a tip off from a mole at the base that a gifted scientist had been tasked with isolating the gene associated with the Will of D., the practical application unknown. Sabo was supposed to derail the scientific progress in any way deemed necessary, including assassination of the scientist leading the project. Given the delicate nature of the research, he had assumed the lead scientist would be heavily guarded, with a large support team to help them with their work. Imagine his surprise when he found that the bright researcher was you, working alone, in a regular office. You didn’t have any additional support, guards, or even a lab. He supposed he shouldn’t have been that surprised, the Marines had never been good at resource allocation. Or anything, really.

He’d watched you from afar for about a week, monitoring your every move. He quickly realized the strength of your Devil Fruit, as he watched you poring over DNA for hours. Your fruit, combined with your intelligence, made you an incredible research scientist. He had no doubt that if given enough time, you’d be able to sequence the Will of D., to the detriment of the world. Yes, you needed to be stopped, but you didn’t need to be neutralized. Sabo didn’t think you had malicious intentions, he wasn’t even sure you knew why the Will of D. was important. He could refocus your work to something more beneficial to the RA, he was sure of it. 

You were unintentionally difficult to get access to - you didn’t leave the base or take missions. The only way he was going to see more of you was from inside the base. So Sabo had allowed himself to get “captured” by some weaklings and sent to jail to get closer to you. The more Sabo interacted with you, the more he liked you. You were smart, sweet, well spoken, and alluring. You drove him to distraction and he couldn’t always reign himself in when you were around. He felt like a boy again, always putting his foot in his mouth around a crush. He’d been kicking himself over his “darling” comment, along with a few others. Sabo hadn’t made such a bad slip up since he was a teen. He could tell he had embarrassed you and that you didn’t understand he was trying to flirt. You had just met Sabo, or so you thought, and were still reserved. That was ok, Sabo would have plenty of time to woo you once you were with him.

Sabo quickly realized why you weren’t utilizing your fruit as a spy or for counterintelligence. You were completely oblivious to almost everything. You didn’t notice him spying on you, you didn’t notice the way the other Marines looked at you lustfully, you didn’t notice when it was time to eat, you didn’t notice when others were jealous of you, you didn’t notice when he’d made it into the jail. You didn’t take stock of anything besides your work. You were so unperceptive, it was endearing. Even little rabbits knew when they were being cornered, but not you.

What did surprise him was the absolutely terrible state that the Marines pushed you to. Given your mild and intellectual nature, he thought they would have taken better care of you. Instead, he could feel the anxiety and loneliness radiating off of you. You were losing weight rapidly and looked like you hadn’t slept in months. Your fellow Marines treated you like garbage, speaking down to you and roughing you up. Sabo adjusted his gloves thinking about those who had hurt you physically and emotionally. It was a tell he’d tried to get rid of without much success. Dragon had warned him time and time again that it telegraphed his desire for violence, but when he saw you get checked in the guard room he couldn’t contain himself. He wanted to hurt anyone who made you feel less than - whoever told you that you weren’t beautiful, whoever had made up that gauche nickname, whoever told you that you weren’t useful, whoever was giving you more work than you could handle alone. Sabo had already taken care of Koji, and he was planning on returning to the base for some additional retribution in the future. It had been irritating allowing Koji to strike Sabo but he didn’t want to make it seem like his own attack was unprovoked. After all, he didn’t want to have to break free before his plans came to fruition. 

~~~

Your POV

You awoke with a start, immediately realizing two things. First, you had fallen asleep sitting up during guard duty. You prayed to a higher power (caffeine) that no one had seen you. Second, Sabo was staring at you again from within his cell. 

“Don’t worry, no one came in,” Sabo said calmly, assuaging your fears. 

“Ah, thank you. I… didn’t sleep much last night. I, um, didn’t mean to fall asleep.” You were feeling self conscious at the thought of him watching you sleep.

“I should hope not. What if I had escaped? Or caused some mayhem?” Sabo asked teasingly. The truth was, if either of those happened you wouldn’t be able to do anything. You’d have to call for help. But you felt comfortable joking back since it seemed he might keep your secret.

“Maybe I would stop you by boring you to death talking about my research,” you chuckled.

“Oh, no. That could never happen. I find it all very fascinating. In fact, I wanted to discuss this article with you.”

“You finished it already? It was over 60 pages long.” How long had you been asleep?

“Mm, I couldn’t put it down, it was engrossing.” He talked about the scientific article like it was a novel. The only other person who thought like that was, well, you. You came and sat in front of the bars, close enough where he’d be able to reach you if he wasn’t wearing cuffs. You brought your now half full coffee with you, wanting to finish the cup before you got another.

“I haven’t read it yet, actually. Can you give me the synopsis?” Maybe Sabo could help you just a little bit in getting your work done. He didn’t know the exact implications of the article, and it was publicly available. It would be no different than giving him a random book from the library.

“Sure!” Sabo said, grinning. He spent the next few minutes telling you about theories regarding Next Generation Sequencing, a way to look at many DNA fragments simultaneously. You nodded along and took a few notes. Without the right equipment available, it was unfortunately pointless for you to try. You peppered in a few questions, which Sabo was able to answer easily.

“I think that kind of sequencing could only be done by Dr. Vegapunk,” you mused. “I don’t even have a real microscope here, I do everything by hand, so to speak.” 

“Or, maybe you could try to expand the use of your Devil Fruit,” Sabo suggested. “You know, awaken it.” You frowned. You had heard rumors of what that meant but hadn’t met anyone who’d done it. You’d try to research it in your free time after your assignment. You drank deeply from your cup.

“Well, it’s interesting either way. I hope they use it to help sequence some of these Grand Line viruses, to help cure them.” Sabo laughed bitterly and your face fell.

“You don’t really think that’s what they’ll do, right? It’s always about control and power. It would get used to create biological weapons for warfare, something like that. Destroy some island without having to be there.” You looked away, thinking about Sabo’s words. You knew that your work wasn’t always used to benefit people, but surely some of it was. Or maybe you were just deluding yourself. The voice in the back of your head had often asked what your work was being used for, you just squashed it and took your paychecks. Your hands started to shake in your lap.

“I’m sorry, Mag. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want you to think of yourself -” Sabo started to say softly. 

“It’s fine, I can’t - it’s just a job,” you finished lamely. You looked at your watch, you only had a few more minutes with him anyway. You got up and collected your things quietly, thinking about the implications of your work. You weren’t told exactly what the “D” you were looking for came from or what it was connected to, that was outside the scope of your work. You were just a pawn, doing what you were expected to do. “Thank you for reading the article, I enjoyed discussing it together.” It almost felt like having a lab partner again. You hesitated - you wanted to give Sabo more to read but didn’t want to get in trouble. It had helped you to have a synopsis without having to do the work yourself, maybe it would be good for both of you. He'd have something to do and you could get some use out of his intelligence. 

“Can you - I can give you more to read, if you’d like,” you offered. Sabo nodded his head enthusiastically. You approached his cell, extending a textbook through the bars. He gently took it and smoothly turned it to look at the cover. It was about tryptophan receptors in centromeres, or how to turn key DNA on and off in difficult locations. Yes, it would confirm that you were working on genetic sequencing, but he had already figured that out. “Read as much as you want, we can talk about it my next shift.” With that, you left Sabo’s room. You were out the door for the changing of the guards when the other Marine stopped you before entering the cell room. Officer Shiff was cordial to you, you didn’t mind speaking with him.

“Are you taking the rest of Koji’s shifts?” Shiff asked. 

“For the next week, yeah. He assigned them to me,” you tried to keep the grimace off your face. Shiff looked at you confused.

“Mag, what are you - he was severely beaten, he’s in a medically induced coma right now. Koji attacked the Flame Emperor from within his cell, underestimating his strength. Koji’s not going to be working for months, or maybe ever again. You might have to cover for him until other arrangements are made.” Your eyes opened wide. Sabo had done that? While wearing seastone cuffs? You glanced back at him through the window in the door. He had taken off his tophat and was reading the textbook you’d given him. He looked up at you and grinned. You trembled and your hands shook so hard you dropped your papers. You quickly picked them up and scurried away back to the safety of your office.

~~~

Despite finding out the extent of Sabo’s fighting capabilities, you couldn’t stop yourself from enjoying your shifts with him over the next week. You had been right, Sabo was an excellent lab partner. He quickly understood any material you presented him with and you could discuss deep scientific ideas together. He was funny, polite, charming and so handsome. He hung on your every word - you didn’t think anyone had ever given you so much attention. But it wasn’t like he had a choice, you thought, he was literally your captive audience. Still, he seemed to enjoy your company as much as you did his. Sometimes you played with your Devil Fruit, showing him his own DNA or random cells and molecules. You showed him the cosmos, your favorite pastime, and shared your favorite stars. To do that, you had to get near the bars. You’d been more uneasy since you’d heard what he did to Koji, but you couldn’t resist. You were drawn to him like a moth to a flame. 

One evening shift, you had been magnifying space for Sabo, just for fun. You had brought an extra large coffee, filled to the brim with cream and sugar. The two of you spent hours looking through the cosmos, talking about space and making other small talk. You’d ended up showing him Saturn’s enchanting icy rings, magnifying them until you could see individual chunks of ice and rock. You sipped the last of your coffee and tossed the paper cup into the trash. It had kind of a salty aftertaste. Must have been a bad batch.

“Absolutely stunning, right?” you said, watching the icy rings.

“Mmm. Nothing compares,” he replied. You turned to look at him, and he was watching you. Your face heated. 

“Sabo, don’t.” He hummed and reached for you between the bars. His hand slipped through, uncuffed from the other. You froze. Sabo didn’t seem concerned, just brought his hand back and reapplied the cuff to his wrist. 

“They - they’re broken?” you whispered. You wanted to bolt from the room as fast as you could. You didn’t want to be the next Koji.

“Mm. I broke them before they were put on me. The seastone still works, though, if I keep them on.” Sabo was speaking conversationally, like you were still talking about Saturn’s rings, not about how he was completely free to do whatever he’d like. 

“That’s just to escape, right? You’re not going to hurt us?” you whispered, head down. You were truly scared.  You weren’t sure why he’d waited so long to leave. If he could break the seastone cuffs, he’d easily be able to break through the iron bars of the cell. There was nothing keeping him away from you. You would have maybe a second to react if he decided to do anything. 

“Not you - never you,” Sabo breathed to you. You glanced up at the earnest and dashing man in front of you, looking at you like you were worth something. There were many things you could do, many choices you could make. You should have rang the alarm, had others come in to fight the Flame Emperor. But the truth was, you didn’t want Sabo to have to fight, to be sent to Impel Down. You didn’t want him to be tortured, you didn’t want him to be hurt. Tossing and turning in your bed at night, you had occasionally thought about the possibilities if you had met Sabo in another life. If he wasn't second in command of the Revolutionary Army and you a Marine. If you would have been friends, or colleagues, or even lovers. You made your final foolish choice.

“They’re transferring you soon, you need to leave,” you said quietly. You looked at him imploringly. Sabo took his hand out from the cuff once more and cupped your cheek, to your shock. He smiled kindly at you. Your vision was wavering, maybe you were more tired than you thought.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be gone soon. I was just waiting for an RA ship to be close enough for us to leave easily.” You pulled back with difficulty from his grasp. Maybe he was still joking?

“I’m, um, staying here. I can’t come with you to the Revolutionary Army. I’m a Marine.” You had hoped to speak firmly but both your voice and hands were shaking. Your voice felt foreign to you, like someone else was controlling it. Sabo smiled at you condescendingly, like you were a small child.

“Mag, do you know what the other scientist on the base does?” You weren’t sure where he was going with this. It was becoming difficult to concentrate on his words.

“Mark? H-he’s a marine biologist. He’s working on s-synthesizing some kind of s-secretion from crabsss.” Mark’s research wasn’t classified, but you didn’t know how Sabo knew about him. You also didn’t know why you were slurring like you were drunk.

“That’s correct. Mark specifically works on synthesizing a toxin from Grand Line Blue Crabs that can be used as a benzodiazepine. He’s had a lot of success. He’s created a scent and odor free drug that can be added to liquids. Its use is primarily as a surgical anesthetic, but can also be used to drug unsuspecting victims, causing them to pass out quickly. It is highly effective, even in small doses.” You were glad you were already sitting down, your legs felt numb, like they were detached from your body.

“It has a slight salty taste, but if diluted in say, coffee with cream and sugar, it is rendered nearly tasteless.” You nodded, but which Sabo should you talk to? There were two now. And they both seemed to be leaving the cell.

“Go to sleep. I'll keep you safe.” You nodded again. That sounded like a great plan. You were carefully lifted from the ground and held tightly. “You’ll never have to worry again. I’m going to take care of you from now on.” You fell asleep to the sound of a crackling fire and the sensation of being carried by strong arms. 

[fabled-lady-twilla]

Hi, I'm Twilla and I'm currently in the process of writing a ShigaDeku Dystopia/Soulmate AU fic that no one, and I mean literally NO ONE, asked for! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Why do I always join fandoms late and why do I always somehow end up loving/shipping the rarepairs in fandoms that barely anyone likes or wants to read about lmao? 🥺👉👈

I just finished reading the latest manga chapter, watched all six seasons, and binged all three movies. I am absolutely BURSTING with ideas of where I want this story to go. I want to at least post the first chapter by the time ShigaDeku Week 2024 is here next month. :)

In my fic timeline, the MHA canon story line doesn't happen until Class 1-A's third year, and since my story is set six years after their graduation, most of the main characters are in their mid to late twenties. My story starts after the Quirk Affliction, a strange illness that begins killing off Quirk-users all around to world, resulting in a massive a death toll that causes civilized society to collapse.

Anyways, here's the general synopsis:

The Final War was over before it had even begun. With the onset of the Quirk Affliction, a mysterious illness that disproportionately targeted the Quirks of heroes over the Quirks of villains, the world was left defenseless as it plunged into a new era of chaos and devastation.

It’s been six years since the onset of the Affliction and the death of All Might. Six years since the world’s heroes, and the society they desperately fought to protect, have crumbled into dust in Shigaraki Tomura’s hands.

From the ashes of this destruction, Japan’s new regime was born. The country was split into three territories, each with its own Grand Commander, united in nothing save for one singular rule: life for those who submit, and death for those who do not.

As Grand Commander of the largest and most plentiful of Japan’s territories, Shigaraki has lived the last six years reaping the fruits of his labors and taking pride in helping his Sensei accomplish his dream. But as of late, Tomura has been having strange dreams of his own: hazy memories of an abandoned park, of blooming wisteria trees, of laughter and freckles and forest green eyes.

Midoriya Izuku, now Quirkless due to the Affliction, has not stopped his pursuit of helping others, despite the world — and everything in it — turning itself upside down. Izuku dreams of a brighter future, and strangely enough, dreams of his long-lost childhood friend, Shimura Tenko.

The same Tenko that Izuku had unknowingly befriended as a young boy. The same Tenko who’d stopped him from jumping off the rooftop all those years ago. The same Tenko that, Izuku realized with horror, was now the monster known as Shigaraki Tomura.

Unfortunately, Izuku learns all too late that having a Soulbond with the King of Villains comes with a heavy cost. Shigaraki seems hell-bent on keeping Izuku as close to him as possible, believing Izuku to be his Soulmate, and thus, Shigaraki’s only true weakness, stirring up an ill-fated romance that neither has prepared themselves for.

As a new calamity encroaches upon them in the form of a mad man attempting to become a god, the heroes and villains must find a way to work together and solve the mystery of the Affliction before it destroys the world and everything they hold dear.

✨ P l e a s e ✨ let me know if you're interested in hearing about this by either, liking, reblogging, or sending me a PM. I'm working really hard to get the first chapter of this out by ShigaDeku Week 2024 in May!

Thank you so much for reading. 💚💚💚

[adrift-in-thyme]

I worked on the fic as promised and…it got out of hand. So instead of a snippet I’ll just give you guys the whole thing XD Thank you all for providing that extra nudge I needed to finish it!

Though there’s nothing too descriptive here, there are brief mentions of blood, injury, and captivity. So be careful and take care of yourselves <3

————————————————————-

There is another fae in their group.

Hyrule has sensed it since he joined this little band of heroes. Fairy magic is soft, gentle, easy to miss when it is not in concentrated amounts. But there is a strength to it, an unbreakable force that little else possesses.

While the dark arts are vicious, like a javelin through the heart, fairy magic is soothing and unshatterable. Dependable and comforting.

There are many different magical signatures amongst the men and boys who share his name. Some torn apart and melded back together into something stronger. Others as mighty as a gale force wind, or as swift and discerning as a rabbit, as decisive and resilient as a barricade. Still others as fierce as a soaring hawk, as vicious and protective as the wolves that prowl the forest, as crafty and quick as the mischievous foxes that sometimes play around Hyrule’s feet.

Hyrule keeps his eye on them all as they travel, discovering who they are, watching their tells, learning the ways their faces portray their emotions even when they attempt to cloak them. And he wonders who amongst them is a brother in more ways than shared spirit. Who among them flits on a pair of silken wings.

He wonders until the day Time breaks.

Their journey is a long, arduous one, treacherous and laden with pitfalls. It’s only natural that it would take its toll. Still, Time holds out impressively. Even while he studies him with the other heroes, Hyrule never sees that mask of his slip, never sees a chink in the armor he wears.

At least, not for the first three months of traveling together.

But then, one day, there is an accident. A simple slip up born of exhaustion. During a battle with a group of black-blooded beasts in Twilight’s Hyrule, Warriors doesn’t see a monster lunging for him. Not until it’s too late.

And when he crumples into a limp, bloodied heap, Time’s mask shatters.

He doesn’t manage to piece it back together for the rest of the day. Not when he carries Warriors back to camp. Not when he lays the captain down on his bed mat and helps Hyrule tend to him. Not even when Warriors comes to, groggy and sore but very much alive and very much himself.

The captain teases him about being over protective. Time’s answering smile is a hollow one that doesn’t reach his eyes.

The injury had been a severe one, Hyrule won’t deny that — perhaps, more so than any of them have endured thus far. But Time seems to take it the hardest of any of them. And Hyrule can’t help wondering if maybe, just maybe there is something more behind his behavior.

Could it be that Time has been feeling the overwhelming nature of this quest the same as the rest of them, caving beneath its weight but unwilling to show it?

So, during dinner that night when Time sets aside his untouched food and slips silently away, Hyrule trails after him.

He goes a short way into the surrounding forest, footsteps soft, ears pricked for any sound of disturbance. Then, he stops, casts a quick glance around him…and disappears.

Hyrule peeks out from the cover of a nearby bush, eyes wide as he stares at the place where the old man had stood. For a long moment, he remains motionless, thoughts whirring, trying to decipher what has just happened.

Hero of Hyrule or not, people don’t simply dissipate like the morning mist. Though, with Time’s seemingly endless collection of masks, he supposes something of the sort is possible. Still…

Hyrule frowns.

There is something else here, hovering in the damp night air. A familiar magic that now drifts lazily over to him in delicate wisps.

Hyrule straightens. His brows dip further.

He knows what Time’s magic looks like, smells like, feels like. It is difficult to ignore, after all, tangled and tortured as it is. Such power is meant to flow freely. But Time’s has been grasped in hands that are not his own, grasped and mangled, suffocated, stretched to its breaking point and further, morphed into something completely unlike what it must have been at the start.

It is nauseating to behold at times. Right now, however, right now Hyrule can’t bring himself to look away. Because threaded in between the heartbreak and pain are gentle strands of the faintest blue fae magic.

The traveler steps forward. His eyes travel over the trail Time’s power has left behind, leading all the way up into the highest branches of a nearby oak. If he squints, he can make out a tiny dot among the lush leaves, shimmering emerald.

His lips part in a silent “oh.” He dares to take another step forward, then another and another, wings issuing from his back as he goes, body shrinking until it too can soar up to the haven of foliage.

Time doesn’t startle when he lands quietly on the branch. He remains sitting where he is, legs hanging over the edge into the open air, wings wafting gracefully back and forth. Hyrule stares at them, almost taken aback by their beauty.

He should have expected it, he supposes. Every fairy’s pride is their wings, after all. But Time’s unforgiving plates of armor, his dull gray tunic and obsidian trousers, the glowing marks of crimson and navy blue adorning his face – they provide such a severe air. Strength, dedication to duty, and unyielding courage are what they convey.

His wings, however, they speak of softer things, fragile things held close and treasured.

They are long, sweeping along the height of Time’s body in flowing curves like those of a butterfly. Their translucent surface is colored a deep emerald and adorned with veins of pale pink. They remind Hyrule of the vibrancy of the forest after a long, hard storm; of the look of leaves when the emerging sun caresses their dewy surfaces.

He walks closer, almost enraptured by this sight. Perhaps, he should turn away from something so vulnerable. That is likely the polite thing to do. But he has traveled far beyond politeness now, mesmerized as he is by this discovery.

And when Time says, “Hello, Hyrule,” there is nothing in his tone to communicate that this is an invasion of his privacy. On the contrary, he sounds calm, unbothered. He pats the spot beside him and slowly, Hyrule settles down upon it. Their wings nearly touch.

“So, it’s you,” he says, awkward and awestruck.

A small smile quirks the old man’s lips. His gaze remains trained on the heroes gathered far, far below them. Their laughter and chatter float up to them in bubbles of murmured joy.

“Yes, it’s me,” he says, mildly, as though this meeting is no shock. As though he has been expecting it for a long while.

Silence settles for a moment as Hyrule scrambles for what else to say.

“How?” Is all he can come up with.

Time chuckles. Hyrule is certain the sound is lighter than usual.

“I’m not sure.” He cocks his head, bangs falling aside so Hyrule can see his markings. “I have theories, of course, but I have no way to prove any of them. And those who might have been able to explain are long gone.”

His voice is good-natured enough but the words carry a weight that Hyrule can feel in his soul. He ducks his head.

“I’m sorry.”

Time shrugs. “Their fates were not your doing. There is no need for you to ache for them. Or for me.” He turns now, a smile brightening his face once more. “What about you, Hyrule? What is the nature of your transformation? Were you born with it?”

“Oh, it’s just a spell,” Hyrule replies, quickly. “Though, I’ve wondered if I was born with fae blood in me. I don’t think it would’ve worked otherwise.”

Time hums, thoughtfully. He is quiet for a moment, once more staring down at their comrades.

“I wondered why I felt the presence of one of my brethren amongst the group. But it wasn’t my place to pry. Besides, I assumed it was only a matter of time before I discovered who it was. Secrets don’t stay concealed for long in a group such as ours.” He grins. “It seems you found me first, however.”

Hyrule laughs. “It sure seems that way.”

“That isn’t why you followed me though, is it?” The old man’s gaze is sharp and discerning as he pins Hyrule with it. The traveler fights not to sink into himself beneath it.

“No.” His voice is a bit smaller than he wants it to be, embarrassment sneaking into it against his will. “It isn’t.”

Time nods and looks away again. Stance relaxed, expression guarded, he waits. Hyrule swallows, gathers his courage, and continues.

“I saw how upset you were about Wars.”

Time flinches almost imperceptibly. The walls that had gone relatively low rise again so far Hyrule is taken aback by it. Yet, he plows on anyway.

If anything, Time’s reaction validates his decision further.

“And…I saw how you tried to hide it, too. And I wanted to make sure you were okay. Because you don’t, old man, you don’t have to hide what you feel.” His gaze travels to those magnificent wings again, grander than his own, yet so similar. “Or what you are.”

“It’s dangerous,” Time murmurs. “You know that, traveler.”

Perhaps, he is talking solely about feelings and the open expression of them. But Hyrule sees a bottle anyway, brimming with desperate magic, translucent sides smeared with blood and tears, it’s top shut so tightly the air has grown thin.

“Not with us,” he says, firm despite the dizzying rush of fear the memories bring. “Not with me.”

He scoots closer. His shoulder bumps against Time’s, their wings brush. Time’s next exhale catches at the end.

To anyone else such proximity would be touching enough, a display of closeness between two brothers in arms and spirit. But Hyrule knows that to fae it means even more than that.

Wings are not only the pride of the fairy people. They are also their greatest power — and their very life. To allow someone else to touch your wings so freely is a show of trust as momentous as when Time had shown them his ocarina. Not the one embued with sacred magic and given to him by Lullaby. No, the one that is even more precious to him that even that one. The one Sariah had given him so very, very, (very, very, Hyrule adds for good measure) long ago.

The stiffness that had seeped into Time’s posture eases slightly. Hyrule feels a smile stretch across his face.

The two of them grow silent, allowing the symphony of night creatures to fill the space between them. Hyrule swings his legs, back and forth, back and forth, listening to the crickets and owls singing in time with the laughter of his brothers. Time still looks down upon them.

Watching over them, Hyrule realizes with a sudden burst of warmth.

Their leader can seem cold sometimes, distant. Little had he known the depths of his love for the heroes with whom he shared a spirit of courage.

There is much, he thinks in wonder, that he doesn’t know about the old man.

Beside him, Time sighs and exhaustion permeates it. “You all aren’t going to give up on me, are you?”

Hyrule sends him a grin. “Nope. We’re not gonna stop until we know all your secrets. All of them. And we’ll know because you’re comfortable enough with us enough to share them, because we’ve earned your trust enough to be gifted them.”

Emotion burns in Time’s eye when he turns to the traveler. His face is more vulnerable than Hyrule has ever seen it before — even when Warriors fell.

“My trust isn’t easy to earn.”

“And Hyrule isn’t easy to save.”

Time holds his gaze for a long moment. Then, he smiles. It is small, almost shy, but Hyrule knows it is a gift. The first of many, if he’s lucky.

“Well, then, I suppose you’re amply prepared for such a challenge.”

Hyrule leans in closer, pride welling within him when Time returns the gesture, and his grin grows.

Yeah. He thinks, watching with wide eyes as fairy dust floats around them. I am.

We all are.

[demigod-shenanigans]

"I can go into why i dislike ToA (especially Tyrant's Tomb is. a book that exists) but box of pandora. Once open good luck shutting me up" (source: your tags)

Now that you said that, i'm geniunely curious. Open the box. I dare you

This should be obvious but @ the people who really enjoyed ToA, this post is not for you. I’m not sure I’ll even tag it because this is mostly me venting into the void because two people asked and not me wanting to ruin other people’s fun. These are just my personal opinions.

I also apologize if I get any details wrong, I did recheck a lot of the things mentioned but it’s been a minute since I read ToA and might not remember everything 100% correctly. Also, obvious spoiler warning.

*claps hands together* Okay, you asked for this but heads up, it’s going to be long. Maybe grab a snack and a glass of water beforehand.

My beef with ToA can be summarized into a few key points that I’ll elaborate on below but basically:

-It tries to wrap up character arcs for some of the seven (and Reyna) but does this through the eyes of someone with zero context and also treats these characters arcs as unimportant footnotes in the larger story

-Jason’s death and everything surrounding it was handled extremely poorly.

-I cannot remember any demigods staying mad at Apollo. Redemption arcs should not mean everyone has to forgive this character for all the shit they’ve done in the past.

-The death toll. This is not helped by the fact that a lot of the deaths feel like they exist solely for the purpose of making Apollo learn death sucks over and over again (Jason is the worst example of this, but there are others)

More grievances I have but don’t have enough to say about to justify a longer explanation:

-There are a whole bunch of new minor characters on top of the old ones already struggling for screen time. I don’t remember much about any of them, which is a shame because the idea behind some of them is really compelling.

-The story is centered around the Triumvirate as antagonists, with Python as a final boss, but book four just dumps an additional antagonist on you out of nowhere? Why?

-Reyna rejecting Apollo is nice and all but I still had to put up with him crushing on her and was very uncomfortable the whole time.

-Chiron sends a bunch of new demigods into what’s potentially a death battle and tells them it’s a fun field trip (what the fuck)

-This is a personal grievance more than anything but it took me ages (book five) until I really got attached to Meg. I feel like that could have been fixed if she at least got a few POV chapters.

-Dishonorable mention to the punch line joke. Two whole camps of people lining up to hit the canonically abused kid that saved them is not funny.

Details under the cut (Pandora’s box, I did warn you)

Character arcs:

The books really do try to tell meaningful stories for people whose arcs weren’t finished in Heroes of Olympus. With some of them, you can even tell the ideas behind wrapping up those arcs were solid. But the books also tells those stories through the eyes of a character who doesn’t know these people’s pasts and quite frankly doesn’t care a lot of the time. People will voice/do something that is huge for their character and instead of going into that it’s followed up with some random Apollo anecdote that’s only tangentially related at best.

Taking Leo as an example: Apollo has no idea why Leo settling down and finding a home somewhere after everything he’s been through is meaningful. That’s a story that could have been the focus of an entire book of its own, but instead it’s just a side plot to a completely different story. And that story really should have been told through Leo’s eyes, or at least through the eyes of someone like Jason or Piper who realize why this is huge for him.

Apollo also does not care why Leo and Calypso are fighting, so it’s not something that’s properly explored. Leo’s fights with Calypso are mainly mentioned/witnessed. You get some guesses as to how they started but they never mention the exact reasons. They both say they care about each other, but only to Apollo, when the other person isn’t present. When they sort things out it happens largely off-screen. I was also not a fan of the way many of their issues ended up being pinned on Leo being sexist when it was actually way more than that.

ToA does this a lot. It gives arcs to characters who honestly deserved to be explored more, but those arcs are barely footnotes in a larger story where these characters just cameo for a hundred or so pages.

The cameo stuff works okay for Percy and Solangelo because the books are very aware they’re cameos and they get to have fun but this is not their story. But the characters the series tries to give proper plots to are all over the place.

It’s said that Jason and Thalia are really close but they never interact in the books. Jason had a bit of a chance at a normal life finally but that’s barely gone into. (More on Jason later because my god did how the books handled him piss me off massively)

Piper’s struggles with her queerness get the random Apollo anecdote treatment. There’s some stuff about her reconnecting with her dad and her heritage but that’s not explored a ton either.

Frank’s firewood burns up and he’s fine, which is just sort of hand-waved and doesn’t feel meaningful, especially because I think the fireproof pouch was already a fine solution? Congrats on being free of this, now you can get stabbed to death like all the other characters, I guess.

Reyna gets a sort of arc but it feels really weird because it happens almost entirely off-screen. She spends a large fraction of the book chiding Lavinia for leaving her post, then gets her leg broken, is off-screen for a while and then just DIPS with the Hunters after her home suffered huge casualties.

I also think her joining the Hunters is a super lame way to resolve her arc in general (she just lays down one responsibility to sign up for the next, and a character not wanting romance/not wanting romance right now should be allowed to exist without having to join the eternal maiden’s club, but that problem isn’t isolated to Reyna and could honestly be a whole post of its own)

This also comes down to the fact that I’m here mainly for the demigods. I care about these kids having good arcs and good lives. I care significantly less about Apollo having to learn really obvious shit like “murdering my pregnant girlfriend was perhaps a little messed up”

Jason’s death and everything surrounding it

Killing off a major character (especially one whose arc isn’t finished) can be a plot twist that works at times. But it has to be handled well. Doing it to a character that’s suffered horrifically and is starting to heal is also a hugely shitty move, but I understand you want meaningful deaths for the plot sometimes.

But you cannot do it the way Rick did it with Jason’s death. If he was going to kill off one of the seven, he should have done it in Heroes of Olympus, with that character narrating and their friends getting to deal with the aftermath and grieve.

Instead, Jason dies in a book that he appears in for like. A hundred pages iirc? Two-hundred at most? You get Apollo narration on it, and sure, he’s big sad about it, but he also knew this guy for two days.

Piper gets a few pages to deal with his death, then disappears from the book and comes back for a heroic rescue later. Leo gets like two pages to deal with the fact that his best friend is dead. They then proceed to fuck off to Oklahoma instead of going to the funeral. For what reason? No idea. The book doesn’t bother to explain it.

Jason gets a Camp Jupiter funeral, with none of his Camp Half-Blood friends present, because fuck the fact that him belonging to both camps was a huge part of his arc, right?

Piper and Leo know Jason is dead but they cannot be there because they’d already used up their time as ToA side characters, I guess. Percy and Annabeth can’t come, they don’t find out due to demigod communication issues until the end of the series. Thalia also doesn’t get to go to her brother’s funeral. She doesn’t find out until the funeral is already over. We don’t even really get to see her grieving, her finding out Jason died happens off-screen too.

Because this is the Apollo show, Apollo is the guy who leads the funeral procession instead of, like, Reyna, who knew Jason for years.

Also, for some reason, the person avenging Jason is Frank? Absolutely no offense to Frank, he’s a great guy and I’m sure he cared about Jason, but that choice still feels deeply comedic considering I can remember exactly one meaningful interaction him and Jason had in HoO (Jason giving Frank praetor position at the end of HoH) and not a single conversation they had beyond that. If Rick had to write Leo and Piper out of the plot, why not at least have Reyna avenge him?

Jason dies specifically because Apollo broke a stupid oath he made on the River Styx. We’re told that people around him will keep dying because of this. He dies as a chess piece in a stupid game between gods, for the sake of Apollo’s character development. He dies so he can be brought up every hundred pages for Apollo to waffle about how sad his death was but how he’d also definitely not want to be brought back (I get it, we cannot revive people constantly, but having Apollo make this point when, again, he knew the guy for two days, is still really stupid. Nico also gets to make the same point at the end just in case the reader didn’t understand before that we’re not bringing Jason back)

Apollo is forgiven by everyone

Related to the above point. Like I said, we’re outright told that Jason dying is a direct consequence of Apollo’s oath. Apollo also knew taking them along on the mission would get Jason or Piper killed and he did it anyway.

Piper gets to be mad at him very briefly, but when he tries to apologize at the end of the book, she interrupts him and tells him “it’s fine” (her voice is described as “no anger, just natural heat”)

Thalia doesn’t get to be mad at him at all. Her baby brother died and she just pats Apollo on the back and tells him “it’s fine, Jason made his own choices. That’s what heroes do.” And then it’s made about how Artemis lost Apollo when he got transformed into a human instead of. Like. The fact that Thalia just lost her baby brother for the second time in her life.

IT’S FINE?? THAT’S ALL ANYONE HAS TO SAY ABOUT THIS??

Hell, Apollo even has a sort of dream hallucination of Jason’s ghost so that ghost can forgive him too.

Was that really necessary? Why do people think that a character learning to be better means absolutely everyone has to forgive them? Wouldn’t it have been a better sticking point for a god to learn people are allowed to stay mad at you?

The death toll

A lot of people die in these books. People dying in pjo books has always been a thing, but it’s never felt this pointless or this much like it was solely happening for a single person’s character development.

Jason is the most pointed example of this, but there are more. Starting with the fact that two of Apollo’s kids almost get torched in front of his face in the first book (Austin and Kayla) and somehow that is not a sticking point. I don’t think it’s ever brought up again afterwards.

Other characters that die so Apollo can learn death sucks:

-Several Dryads die saving the grove of Dodonna

-Heloise the Griffin

-One random unnamed demigod in Dark Prophecy (mentioning them because that’s where it occurs to Apollo demigod deaths also suck)

-Money Maker (Dryad)

-Crest

-Harpocrates and the Sybil of Cumae

The death toll in Tyrant’s Tomb is completely ridiculous. Like, “feels worse than Last Olympian despite not even being the final battle”-ridiculous. And unlike how Percy at least gets to use that tragic battle to change things in a fundamental way, the Camp Jupiter demigods don’t win anything significant. Their home is only almost completely destroyed. Some of them aren’t dead. That’s it.

If you remember the name of any side character Camp Jupiter demigod from HoO, there’s a very high chance they die in this book.

We don’t get exact numbers for how many people die. The book actually explicitly refuses to give numbers, stating “We didn’t count the dead. They weren’t numbers. They were people we had know, friends we had fought with.” (Which gets even more ironic due to the fact that, again, we barely have any named CJ demigods to begin with)

The closest thing we get to numbers are that 25 demigod members of the legion died in the battle before the book started, and towards the end there are fourteen total demigods still standing of the first to third cohort combined. Even if half the missing demigods are “just” so severely wounded that they can’t fight anymore, that’s still 60 dead kids! The pre-book battle was mentioned to have been hardest on the civilians. We don’t know how many of them died, and losses among the fourth and fifth cohort are also unknown, but that is a ridiculous amount of losses. Why are there so many dead kids in this book and why are we all just supposed to be okay with this?

Jupiter explicitly forbids the other gods to intervene. The only one who does is Diana, after an offering, and she takes her sweet time to get there. That camp is named after the guy! That’s people’s kids down there! I know the gods not helping their kids isn’t exactly new, but this is on a whole other level.

There are funerals but those are largely skipped over, and Frank announces that they’ll resolve this by asking Lupa to bring in more demigods so they’ll come back stronger, which. Baffling statement. Let’s just fix the dead people by replacing them.

TL;DR: Good on Apollo for learning to be better, but I really didn’t like how it was done. There were a handful of things I liked in almost all the books, not including Tyrant’s Tomb which wins the award for rrverse book I most wanted to chuck out of a window. Some of the ideas were good. I think the first and last books are mostly solid (largely due to the fact that those don’t try to shove in entire side character arcs). But the things I did enjoy just get very heavily outweighed by everything that annoyed and upset me.

I really wish ToA had been mostly new characters with maybe some minor cameos, and other people’s arcs had been saved for different books. I also think splitting the perspective between Apollo, Meg and maybe the character who was trying to have an arc in that specific book would have helped.

[rookiesbookies]

Sorry yall! I havent written DC in a long time and I only recently fell back in love with it. I wrote this based on this tiktok

This is really just me breaking down Jason’s death, what surrounds it, the effects, what happened after, and his relationships before and after. Its kinda angsty but like it hurts you and comforts you at the same time, let me know how I did!

When Jason died, Bruce had imagined the after math before. He knew the toll it would take on him even before it happened.

It was like pushing through the swirling winds of a sand storm. The air was dangerous to breathe and cutting his skin. He was suffocating in quick sand, the weight of it all too heavy. The world became bleak and dry of emotions, not a mirage in sight even to trick him.

Bruce had used the thought of his death to bring him to sanity when experiencing fear toxin. By pushing the worst thought possible, the thing that scared him the most instead of his easiest fear to trigger, he could trick his mind into taking back control.

It was a scare tactic he used on himself in the field as well, making sure the scope the place out before even thinking of taking Jason in.

Dick was acrobatic, he was fluid like cats and water. He had incredible luck, skill, and experience before he came into Bruce’s life.

Jason didn’t.

Bruce wholeheartedly believed Jason’s luck was solely spent up when Jason fell into Bruce’s life. Like a stray cat that you take in because you find it eating the plants you keep in the balcony.

Bruce was the luckiest thing to happen to Jason. And that scared him.

When Jason’s actual death came. Bruce was blindsided. He was torn up.

The last conversation he had with his son was a fight, an argument. Something that he could have avoided if he had just held his son and been an adult. But he didn’t.

For the first time in a long time, Bruce was back in a church. Dick, a raging fire of anger, stood next to him- Alfred on his other side.

The funeral was relatively small. Bruce didn’t want to invite a bunch of elites to this. It was only the three, a few of Jason’s friends from school or the alley, and a few heroes and side kicks that knew him.

Bruce, Batman, the human gargoyle, did everything the keep himself together. Clark offered to help him slip out.

Bruce kept it a closed casket funeral for his own sake.

When everyone had left, Alfred ushered Dick, now a young man, away.

Bruce knelt by the casket and just put his hand on it. Tears silently flowing from his eyes as his fist balled up. He sat like that for hours.

Even before that, it took Alfred hours to pry Jason’s body from Bruce’s arms when he first found him and brought him back. It took days for Alfred to convince Bruce to sent the body off so they could get closure and cause of death.

Jason wasn’t Bruce’s greatest failure, his death was.

Bruce’s greatest fear came true.

It all got so much worse after Jason came back.

Bruce’s guilt was over flowing, like a small child walking with a cup too full in shaking hands.

When Jason came back to the mansion, Bruce felt like he was seeing a ghost. The buffer, angrier ghost of his sweet son.

Dick’s anger only got worse it seemed. Jason’s anger would sit and stew, Dick would snap. Jason’s was slow and calculated, Dick’s was improvised and bash.

Jason wanted revenge, Dick wanted to avenge.

Dick’s anger would come in waves, he was so excited to have his little brother back, until he saw Jason.

The 5’9”, scrawny, 16 year old was now 6’2” and would bench Dick as a warm up. He wasn’t his little brother, the malnourished kid that he taught how to be a kid, this was a totally different animal.

Dick began to tear up, not realizing exactly how much of Jason’s life he had missed at the difference.

Alfred had been crying, but only when he was away from everyone.

He had celebrated each of Jason’s birthdays even when his name was treated like a slur by Bruce, not wanting to hear about the son he fail. Every year he would bake a batch of Jason’s favorite cupcakes, he’d put one by in the kitchen and open the window. He’s serve the rest as that nights dessert, Bruce would be celebrating and not knowing. Or maybe he did and he just didn’t care. By the time Alfred would come back to have his own dinner, Jason’s cupcake’s candle would have been blown out by the wind.

Jason didn’t have the capacity when he came back to the mansion. He had hoped the Robin mantle died with him. He prayed no children would be risked or subjected to that danger again.

But then he saw Tim. Misguided anger on Jason’s part led to an unfortunate relationship for the two of them for the whole time Jason was adjusting to life back.

All in all, no one knew what they were doing and it was incredibly difficult for them all to adjust.

When Damian arrived, they hit it off almost immediately.

Damian had someone who spoke fluent Arabic, Bruce only spoke a broken version and Dick and Tim had no idea. Damian also had someone who trained in the league who wasn’t his father.

Jason and Damian had met a few times while Jason was training but Damian was just too young. He was about 6 years old and Jason was still too crazy so Talia and Ra’s kept them mostly separate.

While Damian always had the stronger bond with Dick, Jason was by far the brother he looked up to the most.

Jason was always in town, unlike Dick, and Jason was so similar to Damian.

Bruce still felt as though he kept failing Jason, but when Damian joined the family, Bruce knew Jason didn’t feel so alone anymore and Damian didn’t feel as alone either.

[dark-elf-writes]

Harry as a weapon being taught to be human inbetween by Tenya and Teddy. Tenya who holds his hands and kisses his scars (forehead, hand, arm, all the scars he can find).

Class 1A seeing this broken pile of teens, who came from a war where nothing changed in the end. 1A who swears to make it right in their own world. (Not all do. Mineta is removed early after Harry uses his money to payback the donation the boy’s family made so the board wouldn’t fuss. Bakugou who sneers at everyone and won’t see the broken teens as anything but failures. Who fights for himself like another blond Harry remembers who had the same money and entitlement issues.)

Hizashi loving the nephew they never met until now. Who curses out Dumbledore with a bottle of scotch and the warmth of old friends around them.

Touya and Percy working together to rip down Endeavour. Aided by Molly who snarls her anger. She’s been unable to help Harry (in her darker dreams she wondered why she’d suddenly forgotten about the bars. Why it only came back when Dumbledore died. She was scared to know why she’d brushed it aside. She won’t let it happen again). Molly who storms Natsuo’s dorm to give him a sweater, who hugs Fuyumi. Who meets Rei with a smile (and a cloak borrowed from Harry. Rei goes missing three days later after a visit from her husband. Fleur just so happens to have her aunt visit after)

Arthur works with Nezu and flourishes. His mind and skill clicks with the small mammal who finds delight in these wizards. Arthur who discovers a boy forced to spy and opens his arms to the child. Who loves and accepts.

Geroge who finds hope in Tensei and later finds his own mark shining (only half because his twin was always part of him). Mount Lady who smiles and struts but who also has been trying more. Who saw a boy run in to save another while she did nothing and feels the sting. Who settles her shoulders, deciding she would fight back (who fights with Midnight as part of their PR but both go to a bar to bitch about it after) Mt Ldy who sees her soulmate, and decides to truly change to prove herself.

Neville who left a grandmother whom never saw him and a family who hurt him. Neville who finds his way as a UA student. As a leader.

UA is happy to open its doors as a magical school, Nezu cheerfully talking with Minerva who decided ‘fuck it’ when most of the children she cared about left. She followed after lighting Dumbledore’s portrait on fire.

Harry who forgot what it was not to be a freak or the Boy-Who-Lived. Even those closest to him turned him into a symbol in the end. A banner. He was the figurehead of their war and the man who was born to save them. Born to die for them. They try to understand but it’s hard to break six plus years of indoctrination. Harry can’t blame them for it. He’s having a hard time breaking it himself. It’s easier with Tenya being so far removed from the wizarding world. Who only sees Harry as his Soulmate rather than as a Symbol. He treats Harry so gently, so kindly, and pulls him back from that edge he was forced to walk so long. That he would still walk to keep those he cares about safe.

All, or well most with a few notable exceptions, of 1-A are just as caring to their newest classmates. The Refugees Ginny dubs their little group with a laugh full of pain and black humor. They are refugees in a sense. Survivors of a war that they won but still somehow lost in the end. The few that stood up to fight. The children that coated their hands in blood when most adults offered them up like lambs for the slaughter. 1-A can’t understand really but they are trying to. It is worlds beyond what any of them have received before.

Hizashi is another example of that gentleness, and one that understands far more than 1-A even if they still dont understand all of it. They have been a hero for years now. They know the kind of toll that it takes on the willing adults that go into it with support and training. They can only imagine what it would do to unwilling children forced to become someone more than what they are so young. To do so with only each other at their backs to count on. They offer companionship (as much as they want to bundle Harry away from the world and protect him, to parent him even, it is far too late for that now. They will never forgive the people that made them miss that chance.) offer a listening ear offer a bottle of their best alcohol when Harry finally finally allows himself to get angry about what was done to him. They teach him every curse word they know and he hurls all of them at a dead man. They hold him when he breaks mourning dozens of deaths including his own. They sit with him through the nightmares, running their fingers through his hair and humming to try and keep them at bay. They should have been able to do this before. They whisper their own curses long after Harry has fallen asleep that neither of them had the chance until so much had been lost.

Molly who will never forgive herself for what she let happen to his babies, all of them even those not hers by name, right under her nose. Who has been nursing nightmares and migraines after the war that didn’t come from the battles and trauma. That overlay her memories of a kind if timid boy to show her bruises and too knobby wrists and her children yelling at her about bars on bedroom windows. She doesn’t want to think about why these are coming now. She already knows. So she throws herself into helping her newest son, whether the boy knows he is already a Weasley or not. Into helping his siblings. Into helping his mother. She failed her children for so long and she will not do so again.

Arthur who feels as if a fog he hadn’t even noticed was lifted around the same time Mollys nightmares started. Who is able to focus to notice more. Who still loves to tinker and build things but can now pay more attention to his children to the world around him to the scars that still sit prominently on his face. He is the one that notices the spy, eyes clear and mind sharp for the first time in what feels like decades. He is the one that pulls him into the fold and swears to protect him in the way he never could for Harry. He had failed his children too. It is not something he will allow to happen again.

Neville who steps into the role of leader of their little group of refugees knowing deep down that it would kill Harry Ron or Hermione to do so. He had been a leader for a year anyway, had kept those still in Hogwarts as safe as he could for as long as he could. Far more names would have been on the memorial if he had not. It’s not hard for him to do. It is something he can endure with a smile, as much as any of them smiled now. If he was honest with himself he sort of liked it. It isn’t anything he would have thought he would be good at before. It’s nice to prove that part of himself that sounds far too much like his grandmother wrong.

Nezu doesn’t even hesitate to open a new department of UA for his newest collection of pups. Doesn’t hesitate to welcome Minerva with open arms when she comes looking for them with sharp eyes and sharper claws wrapped tightly around her wand. She was willing to fight her way through to them. Nezu opens the doors and offers her a position teaching them once again instead.

[aspoonofsugar]

About You, About Me

Jaune: What about you?! It's all about you!

This line is what the episode is about in a nutshell. As a matter of fact it conveys 2 ideas central to the whole situation:

1 - The "you" Ruby is talking about is different than the "you" Jaune means.

Ruby is asking about herself as a person, while Jaune speaks about her as an ideal. This dychotomy is the crux of both their current situations. Ruby has been lving as the embodyment of an ideal, so now she struggles to express how she feels in a healthy way. Jaune is instead trying to hide who he is behind the ideal of a hero.

So, Ruby wants to be seen as a person, while Jaune as a hero. Interestingly, both fail, as WBY's reactions to them make clear:

WBY immediately understand Jaune's pain and can see through his very thin (paper-thin I would say) facade.

WBY fails to pick up on the many red flags Ruby has been showing throughout the whole volume. They try to address Penny's death and her frustration on a couple of occasions, but never really go deep.

2 - Jaune is lashing out at Ruby, but he is really projecting on her his own frustrations.

This is made clear by the rest of the conversation:

Jaune: On that bridge, I was the only one, who could do it... I was the only one! And I... And now I have to live with it forever, in here or back home.

It is all your fault! It is all my fault! Jaune just keeps swinging between these 2 extremes. It is exactly like when in Mistral he goes on a rampage against Cinder, but the one he really hates is himself. There he lashes out at the villain, here he lashes out at the hero. The villain is a monster, the hero just could not live up to her role.

Ruby on her part does exactly the same. To be specific, she lashes out on everybody, but I would say she does so in 2 distinctive ways.

BLAKE AND JAUNE - STOP BEING LIKE ME!

Ruby: Shut up... Don't do that... Just don't.

The fight ends with Ruby telling Blake to stop trying to be positive. This complements her previous outburst directed at her (and Yang):

Ruby: Gotta stay positive, right?! Smiles all around!

Ruby can't stand how Blake is behaving because it reminds her of how she is supposed to feel. And she doesn't feel it anymore.

Thematically, Blake has been stepping into Ruby's role since the beginning of the volume:

I would not say she has substituded Ruby as the leader. Still, she is being the optimistic one, the idealistic one, the hopeful one. She realizes they are in a fairy tale and is enthusiastic about it. She knows the right definition of what being a Huntress means. She is Ruby's past idealistic self and Ruby can't stand it. Ironically, our Black Beast is now more optimistic than our Little Red.

Which is why both moments Ruby shares with Blake and Yang past volume are now bittersweet:

Blake: I know you don’t always know what to do, but that’s never stopped you from doing something. I was like that as a girl, but time and… a lot of other things, took their toll on me. Then I wasn’t sure if that kind of girl could actually survive in the world… until I met you. It was a little strange at first because you were younger, but I’ve always looked up to you, Ruby. And I still do.

Yang: You were being optimistic. Look, blind optimism isn’t great, but no optimism means we already lost. We need hope. We need to take risks.

Sure, everybody loves Ruby because she is optimistic and pure and inspiring... but what when she can't be it anymore?

This episode addresses precisely this and takes Ruby and Blake's current foiling to its extreme conclusion:

Blake: Then we won't run this time.

Blake charges into battle to protect strangers, while Ruby runs away from her loved ones.

If Blake reminds Ruby of her past, Jaune is a spitting mirror image of Ruby's current self. This is why she doesn't even talk to him directly, but keeps mentioning him:

Ruby: What about me? No time, right? Gotta get home! Gotta help Jaune! Gotta find someone, who isn't just going to screw everything up!

Ruby: I'm sorry, is this a bad time? Are we supposed to be mourning Jaune's make believe friends?!

Notice the 2 references to time. Ruby, just like Jaune, feels she has no time. It is just, Jaune feels he has not enough time to save everyone, while Ruby feels she has not enough time for herself. No time for others to care and nurture her. This is what she is trying to convey.

Similarly, the remark about Jaune's make believe friends is cruel, but it has definately to do with Ruby's own very real lost friend:

The one she has yet to mourn. The one nobody is mentioning anymore because everybody is too focused on other things. So, yeah, why should they all be mourning a bunch of afterings they know nothing about? When Ruby herself did not even take the time to properly mourn Penny?

Throughout the whole episode,Jaune (unwillingly) steals Ruby's spotlight and caters everyone's attention on himself.

He's obviously been through a lot. We can be frustrated later. Right now, Jaune needs us. And we need him. We just can't count on him.

While Blake says so, the one in focus is Ruby because this phrase is actually about her. Except nobody realizes it. Nobody (or almost ;)) notices she is struggling.

This pattern keeps going throughout the whole episode:

Weiss and Jaune insist Ruby should just grab her weapon and fight like always

Weiss aka Ruby's partner chooses to assist Jaune instead of her. Symbolically, even the Walker that almost kills Ruby is the one Weiss and Jaune launch in the river while they are fighting

When Ruby lets Crescent Rose fall, Yang's question to her is cut off by the paper town being floaded, which leads to everybody comforting Jaune

Even Ruby's own outburst is overshadowed by Jaune's one, which leads to Ruby finally leaving

All Ruby wants is for someone to look at her properly and empathize with her. Still, everybody has been too focused on their own feelings and losses. At the same time, Ruby herself has been refusing to open up with her friends for several volumes now. Everybody believes she is alright because she has always repressed her negative feelings, so nobody really knows she has any.

Everybody thinks she is Blake, when she is actually Jaune.

WEISS AND YANG - LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME!

You don't need me anymore No, you don't see me anymore I'm alone in this war I am a trap door

Ruby lashes out at Blake and Jaune because they are like her. When it comes to Yang and especially Weiss, instead, she is angry because they don't realize her pain.

Yang is too caught up in her new love life to notice her little sister needs help. Or at least, this is what Ruby thinks tbh because there is not that much evidence of this in the story. It is just that when you feel very low, you can end up resenting others for their own happiness. And this is what happens with Ruby and Bumbleby:

Ruby: Good for you, by the way. We are all soooo happy for you.

Weiss is too caught up in her own pain and grief to realize how much her partner needs help. Even in this episode, when she sees Ruby has not Crescent Rose, Weiss bitterly reprimands her. Just like she did at the market. Not only that, but after Ruby has made clear she is absolutely not okay by letting Crescent Rose fall... all Weiss has to tell her is to help support Jaune.

Weiss: It's what they wanted. Right Ruby? Ruby: Why are you asking me? Because I am the leader? Because I am just supposed to have something to say? Cause I don't.

Nobody looks at Ruby or notices her low spirits... well, actually someone does... a small soul ; )

RED HOOD AND LITTLE

Ruby leaves and the only one she has left is Little. Her new friend. Her Ever After's guide. Little is the only one this episode who notices Ruby is off. And they are also a lot how Ruby used to be when the series starts. Little is someone who sees her and also someone like her.

It is going to be interesting how Little will impact Ruby going forward. Especially because we might get some new Little Red Riding Hood's references this volume.

Ruby leaves her family/loved ones/home and enters a wood alone. Where is she going? Maybe she just wants to go back home:

Yang: Return home, eh?

And yet, the woods are dangerous and full of wolves, who want to eat our Little Red Riding Hood:

And just like with the Hound aka another representation of the Big Bad Wolf... the monster hides a person:

In general, the situation is the reversed one of volume 6:

There Ruby enters the woods, discovers dangerous things, but also meets a mentor figure who teaches her something about her Silver Eyes. She is able to inspire everyone to move on and steps in the role of leader.

Here Ruby enters in this strange new world and can't find an ounce of optimism. They are in a literal fairy tale and she doesn't give a crap. The same girl, who started volume 7 eager to explore Atlas after having crossed a whole continent on foot.

In any case, I am curious to see where we are going with Ruby. Especially because she might very soon have a meeting with the true Neo, aka her Shadow. Little as the Little of her Red Hood and Neo as her shadow and the wolf. Probably both ingredients are needed to see where Ruby is going in the future.

Speaking of Neo, there is this:

Yang: But that's... those were more than her usual tricks. They eat and growl and... how has she gotten so powerful?

Yang openly questioning Neo's new powers make me thing there is more than just a semblance evolution. The power-up happening in the Land of Darkness makes me thing it might have something to do with it. Darkness in Jungian psychology is the Shadow and the Repressed. What if this land lets you tap into your buried potential? For better or worse?

Scratched through the surface And you found a key Unlocking what you thought was safe inside a box But it's somehow been set free (Finally)

THE FALL OF ATLAS- ONCE AGAIN

So far, the protagonists have experienced the fall of Atlas twice now. The first time at the market. The second time at the paper town.

In general, the 2 episodes clearly parallel each other. To better say, the paper town is an escalation of the market.

Both times WBY and Jaune fight Neo's Jabberwalkers, while Ruby freezes up. Both times Ruby is reprimanded for apparently spacing out when she is experiencing psychological distress. Both times the protagonists feel as if they are living Atlas fall once again. And yet:

Neo's presence is made clearer, as if we are building a climax toward a final meeting with her. The real her.

Ruby consoles Weiss at the market, but refuses to console Jaune at paper town.

Ruby buries her feelings at the market, but explodes here.

The Rusted Knight is introduced as a dependable hero and a saviour at the market, but Jaune is revealed as a broken and grieving person here.

The most interesting thing is that when it comes to the Fall of Atlas specifically the 2 characters in focus are Weiss and Jaune:

This fits the foiling set up in the Ponder Storm mirror gallery. There we see how they both are still struggling over what happened in Atlas.

Weiss thinks about her Kingdom, her people and how they risked their homes without gaining anything.

Jaune thinks about Penny and his role in her death.

Both can't forgive themselves for failing to stop Cinder and to save Penny. This makes sense considering how they are the last 2 to fall and the ones who hold on the longest. They were both blooming in Atlas and were in very positive moments of their life. And yet, last volume's climax changed things. They were brought down when they were at their strongest... so what can they really accomplish?

And yet, even if they clearly blame themselves, they end up lashing out on others, as a coping mechanism (even if in different degrees). This volume both are shown particularly rude, sassy and cynical, in ways they usually are not. Or at least not anymore and not as often. The result is that they both enter into a conflict with Ruby. Weiss's insensitivity and ignorance of Ruby's feelings coupled with Jaune's exploding at her are among the reasons why Ruby leaves.

It is clear the dynamic among Weiss, Jaune and Ruby is going to be important for the resolution of this volume and for all 3 their character arcs. Especially, there is still something that hasn't been addressed:

I thought this episode was perfect for the reveal Jaune killed Penny. And yet, it doesn't happen. Which makes me wonder when this truth is gonna come out and how it will impact Ruby, Jaune and Weiss's dynamic. What is sure is that Jaune and Weiss clearly have a role to play in this volume's climax and in Ruby's arc.

WEISS - SNOWHITE, SNOW QUEEN, SNOW ANGEL

Weiss: Then, who does that leave us with? It's obvious we need someone to guide us or we can end up throw back in time or killed by the tree or worse.

Weiss keeps looking for someone to look up to, to guide her, to console her and to support her. This is not wrong per se, but hilariously Weiss is the one who is probably the most put together compared to the characters she wants to depend on.

She opens up to Ruby about her loss. There is nothing wrong in this, but we as viewers can really see it should be the other way around. She should be the one Ruby can lean on. Even in this episode, when it comes to support Jaune, she asks for Ruby's help. Now, she doesn't really need to. She can say something kind to Jaune by herself and neither Blake nor Yang ask Ruby to butt in. Weiss does and, as little as it is, this is what sets Ruby off. Because once again Ruby is asked to ignore what she feels for someone else's sake. Even if Weiss and the others can really handle the situation on their own.

This is why Ruby calls out Weiss specifically this episode:

Ruby: Gotta find someone, who doesn't screw everything up!

Something similar happens with Jaune, as well:

Yang: And when did you get so... Weiss: Mature...

This is both ship-teasing and a joke, but it hides an important truth. Notice that Weiss doesn't say "handsome" or "hot", but mature. Jaune is an adult, he is Weiss's childhood hero, so he must be dependable. And yet, he is not because he is still RWBY's old awkward friend and he has spent years alone with his guilt. Weiss should understand better than anyone else why Jaune isn't well. I mean, she was there when Penny died. She outloud states Penny sacrificed herself, so I think she knows what Jaune had to do. And yet, her reaction this episode to Jaune's predicament is this:

Weiss: But how? He's clearly not... all there.

Just like with Ruby, she makes a snappy remark, which is heard by Jaune and this starts a discussion and escalates an already difficult situation.

I don't say this because I think Weiss is a monster or a bad person, obviously. She is clearly suffering as well and really means no harm. Still, it is important Weiss stops looking only at herself. She failed to save Atlas, but she can still save her friends. She has the inner strength and the wisdom to succeed:

CC: I am talking about you, Wise Huntress.

It is through helping others that she will move forward from her loss. Just like Jaune did it in volume 5 by saving her.

JAUNE - HERO, VILLAIN, MAIDEN

Jaune is instead the opposite of Weiss. He tries to overcome his grief over Penny's death by trying to help other people. I mean, it worked with Pyrrha in Mistral, right? So, why shouldn't it work here? Sorry Jaune, but that coping mechanism is not functional anymore because your past self has been shattered:

And yet, Jaune refuses to let go of the heroic self-image he has worked so hard to built. Basically, he has regressed, as well and is stuck here:

Jaune: I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!

Jaune's arc has always been about integrating with the anima, aka his most feminine parts. He refuses them, but it is through them that he will eventually become the hero he wants to be. He needs to accept he is a damsell in distress to be the hero. Even more so, to truly complete his journey he needs to become a symbolic maiden. Only in this way, he will be complete. He will truly be himself. After all, he alludes to the very famous Maid of Orleans ;)

So, right now Jaune is once again refusing his anima and this is why the once promising hero has turned into a toxic version of himself. He thinks he is protecting the paper pleasers, but he has actually trapped them. He is not the one saving them, but they are the ones saving him by offering him a coping mechanism to keep himself together:

Weiss: Then why do you care so much about this village? Jaune: Because I can actually protect these people!

They are pleasing him in a relationship, which is honestly detrimental for both parties. Jaune protects them, yes. Still, he also stops them from evolving. The same is true the other way around. The paper pleasers are keeping Jaune functional, but they are also stopping him from making any real progress.

This is why after years Jaune is still a prisoner of the Ever After. It is because (obviously) the way out one way or the other has to do with the tree. And yet, Jaune keeps avoiding it. Just like he is avoiding any real change.

This is because "changing" is a risk and a risk means you can't be sure if things are going well or badly:

A new me, I am ready, but who will I find?

And you know what else is a risk?

Weiss: Trust is a risk

Interesting...

Jaune: Afterlings are all either too clever, too stupid or too crazy to trust!

And who is the last person Jaune trusted exactly?

Penny: Trust me...

Jaune is clearly trying to "fix" what happened to Penny through the Afterlings, but he is wrong. There is no fixing the past this way and what he obtains is just that he is making people suffer for no reason. Not only that, but his stubborness puts the paper pleasers in real danger:

If the Jabberwalkers get them, Jaune's friends would never ascend. There is no escaping death, one way or the other.

Jaune needs to accept this and he is actually starting to accept it. Symbolically, the day after he finally reunites with RWBY, the time starts moving once again. After years of delusions, Jaune starts facing what he has done. His delicate stability, which is symbolically represented by a paper world evaporates and dissolves into water (this episode starts with fire and ends with water > 2 elements linked to alchemy and transformation).

He starts the episode claiming he is fine:

Jaune: This isn't crazy. I'm not crazy.

He ends the episode admitting he isn't:

Jaune: I'm sorry. I know I am not okay. I know I am not right.

And even asking himself the key question:

Jaune: What am I supposed to be?

What are you? Only by facing this question head on Jaune can hope to finally evolve. Only by letting fo of his armor, which is rusted already, he can hope to find his new more refined self. A hero, who is also a maiden.

GRIEF

It seems that after the first 5 episodes exploring the 5 stages of grief, we are getting calls out to them in different ways:

Ruby bargains her emblem in order to help her friends. Another way to run away from Summer, but also to sacrifice her pain for others. She failed to get the ingredients in time, so obviously now she has to sacrifice something so personal, like her mother's memento, right?

Ruby, Weiss and Jaune walk in a mirror gallery, which reflects their grief and fail to discuss it. They didn't even properly discuss Penny's death and how it happened. They are negating it on some level.

Ruby and Jaune explodes into anger this episode and in this way they can finally both start their self-actualizing journeys.

We'll see where it goes...

ASCENSION VS DEATH

Personally, I think we need an exploration of this dychotomy on a thematic level.

On the one hand ascension is clearly a metaphor for death. However, the Jabberwalker, which is clearly a creature of Darkness seems to be offering a different idea of death. More similar to the one the characters have. What is the difference? What is ascension really? And why does the Jabberwalker embody something different?

This a very interesting mystery thematically speaking and I am curious to see how it is solved.

Is it about introducing 2 different flavors of Destruction?

Cancellation (death)> negative

Transformation > positive

We'll see...

On another note, the reveal of Jaune's role in the paper pleasers' town gives more context to the Cat's dislike for our Knight. The CC's role is to lead the Afterlings to the Tree, but Jaune goes in the way of this. Symbolically, this makes them antagonists.

MISCELLANIA

Here come some miscellania thoughts:

The time motif is interesting. This episode specifically times keeps being mentioned by Jaune and Ruby. Jaune keeps saying they don't have time and that he is late. He also keeps asking what time is it. Ruby is annoyed there is no time and sarcastically asks if that is a bad time. In general, Jaune and Ruby are also opposites when it comes to time. Jaune is currently a man who has spent too much time alone with his trauma. Ruby is a child who has had not enough time to properly process hers.

Jaune's allusions just keep multiplying. He is the White Knight in Alice (also that character sings a song whose alternate title is litterally The Aged Man :P). He also fits the Hatter to an extent in how he killed time (aka spent years alone making no progress and broke the time fruit). And now he is also the White Rabbit.

Speaking of Jaune... meta-narratively the Rusted Knight is very interesting. Judging by the girls' enthusiasm and by Jaune's own excitement when he mentions realizing he was that character, the Rusted Knight is surely portrayed very positively... And yet, Alyx poisons him. I think @harostar suggested what we saw in this episode might offer us a glimps of why. Jaune might have been controlling to Alyx and Lewis and Alyx may have felt trapped by him. And yet, the story still portrays Jaune as a hero. If Alice wrote the story or if Jaune was really that terrible to her and her brother, then why isn't he portrayed as a villain? This question is interesting and seems to confirm Alyx might not be the writer of the story... At the same time, Jaune might have failed to leave up to a fairy tale- standard. However, if the writer still felt to write him as a hero, maybe he did better than what he thinks.

This is the third time Ruby hallucinates three people. The first one when she falls (Oscar, Yang and Penny), the second one in the Blacksmith's place (Penny, Alyx and Summer), the third one while fighting the Jabberwalker (Cinder, Penny and Salem). Clearly they relfect Ruby's deteriorating mental state. The first time, she isn't hallucinating, but seeing Neo's illusions. The second time she is subjected to the Ever After's strange magic. This time, though, she is having a straight out panic attack. In all this, Penny is fittingly present all three times. Ruby needs to properly mourn her or she will never move on.

WBY's discussion about the Tree this episode is interesting because we have: Blake (destruction) believing the Tree is rebirth, Weiss (creation) being wary of the dangerous power of the Tree and Yang (knowledge) wanting to know more. Fittingly, Ruby (choice) is silent and so they fail to reach a resolution.

I think this volume might introduce a key theme, which will probably keep going in later volumes. The idea of need vs wants in a reverse sense. Jaune and Ruby both want to be needed to the point Ruby fears that now she isn't needed anymore, she is going to be left behind. It is the same as Yang's conditional love idea (see the Auction)...I think the resolution is going to be that you don't love people because you need them, but because you want them in your life. It is the same concept expressed by Blake last volume... Others are just a part of you... you don't stay with them out of codependency or need, but because you are happy and wish to be with them.

[littlecelestialmoth]

For Whom the Clock Bells Toll

CHAPTER FIVE: FIRST MIX

Eddie flops back onto his bed, barely bothering to kick off his Reeboks before combing his hands through his frizzy bangs.

Long days at school always make him feel like his brain was going to spring a leak and drain his mind of consciousness forever. Was that a dramatic line of thought? Yes. Was Eddie known for being dramatic? Also yes.

He resolves to think about his music to-do list after he’s had some time to recover. He has a mixtape to make for Steven Goddamn Harrington after all. 

Eddie knows the guy has fallen off the social ladder, Dustin’s nerdy hero worship proving the point further. He’d still love to know how Hawkins High's ‘Keg King’ became a real life Paladin, but it’s one of the only things Dustin refrains from elaborating on. Which, for Dustin, is a huge effort. It’ll be nice to hang out with someone his own age and someone who apparently understands the sass and snark of one Dustin Henderson.

He makes his way under white windowpane patterned and stained comforter, all the spare blankets piled on for maximum weight and comfort. The silence feels like a sweet relief after the noise and chaos of highschool halls. 

Yeah, he knows it’s ironic. Eddie Munson loves noise and chaos and writing music and campaign plots in the dozens of notebooks he’s collected over the years! Well, the truth is Eddie Munson also needs quiet and solitude and stability in a situation. Contradictory little Eddie Munson can’t make his brain crank out an English paper until the night before it’s due when the library is hours past closing on top of all of that. Planning out his next great twist in the Hellfire campaign or jotting down new bars for the song he’s working on has always felt easier and more desirable than struggling through a History assignment that requires date memorization. How is he meant to remember when some rich racist asshat died when he can barely keep track of what day of the week it presently is. Mr Andrews is never amused when he gives that explanation for his centuries-off citations.

It's like Eddie the ‘Freak’ is a whole other character sheet with disadvantage on every stat. 

Not knowing what will happen and not having control makes him anxious. It makes him seem larger than life when he takes control, always the ring leader, the dungeon master, the man with the cards in his hand, black mail and leverage that makes him almost untouchable.

That’s what scares him about letting Steve peel that back, even just a little. It makes him feel like a drugstore label, <em>peel to read more</em>. An invitation to take a peek at all the wires and pipes behind the big red curtain and find out what makes Eddie Munson a person.

He’s getting ahead of himself, he always manages to stumble over his own feet, too quick when it comes to someone that has the potential to be the object of his affection. Granted he has to get to know the guy first to catch real feelings, but a small something still presses out from within his ribcage. The excitement of it is what’s alluring to him right now. That maybe Steve Harrington is a good person. And maybe he’ll see Eddie as a good person too.

Eddie shoves off his comforter, pushing it to the end of his bed. He’s done daydreaming and has enough energy to be engaged in the task of compiling music.

He wants to very gently introduce Steve to the world of metal and begrudgingly hard rock. It’s not the best in his books but understanding the roots of metal and how it all ties into each other is just as important. He’s a musician, he knows how to pick out the bits that developed into what he loves and has an ear for skill outside of metal too. He resolves that Steve’s music re-education should start in its true and deep roots: the Blues.

He reaches for his boxes of cassettes, pulling out the oldest one first. In his own way Eddie had been led down the Metal to Blues pipeline, only having Tapes and Records that Wayne owned originally. It had taken him a while to understand what music he liked, slow progress from up-beat Blues to Blues Rock to Metal Rock to Heavy Metal. 

It was one of the earliest things little Eddie could be convinced to do with Wayne. Being twelve, Wayne thought he was old enough to develop interest in things but hadn’t yet and therefore he tried to make small efforts to include Eddie in the few things he enjoyed. They would sit on the couch in the evenings, back when Wayne worked early but not night shift early in an effort to be home to make Eddie dinner, and Wayne would put on a tape.

Eddie now was sprawled out on the floor, a smaller notebook open. A messy list of songs was jotted down in it, some scratched out, their replacements crammed in the space between. He made himself pack up and put away the tapes he wasn’t using so he could focus on the carefully refined list. One of his favorites from the selection, <em>Smokestack Lightnin’</em>, howling in the background.

Thank god Eddie had already copied all his and Wayne’s Vinyls onto Cassettes, it was making his life much easier. It was easier to skip around on a Cassette than a Vinyl. Saving up for the slightly more expensive sound system was worth it, mostly for making Corroded Coffin tapes with overlapping tracks.

Hours later after scouring every single tape and record between him and Wayne combined he has compiled a list and recorded it on a Cassette. It’s in order of chronological release that shows the timeline of Blue to Rock to Metal without it being too lengthy. He puts the finishing touches on the Cassette itself, carefully pening the tracklist down on the insertable card and titling the mix: <em>’Eddie Munson’s Music Re-Education’.</em> A self satisfied grin breaks out on his face, sharpie lid between his teeth as he holds the tape up, giving it a last once over.

Only one last test to pass: Steve.

READ THE REST ON AO3

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[acre-of-wheat]

Everyone ready for an unhinged theory about The Gales from Willow 2022?

So obviously they’re a dark mirror for our protagonists, and they function like a lot of teams of baddies in media-- they tie up each character in combat scenes by either having skills that subvert what the heroes are good at, or are simply just better at the same skills the heroes have.

Have a fast and dexterous fighter like Kit? Throw the Scourge at her and it overpowers anything she throws at it. Have a knight commander in full armor? Toss the Lich at him and have it bamf out of existence every time he swings his sword at it.

But I think there’s more to them than being battle foils for the characters. When Elora and Kit are hemmed in by the Gales and Airk, he tells them that the Gales are, “not what you think they are.”

So much of Willow has to do with the past, and choices, visions and alternate futures, recursions and cursed blood. I think that the Gales actually are our heroes, from a time when they gave into the Crone’s temptations.

Spoilers under the cut.

The Lich / Graydon Hastur

There’s a lot going on with Graydon.

First, his scar. I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s something magic going on here, and my guess is that it is a seal meant to prevent whatever possessed Graydon in the first place from popping out again.

I’m going to hazard a guess that whatever is still inside him is where his magic comes from. Magic apparently comes in several colors, but it does seem to at least partially relate to who is casting it, and what the spell is.

Willow and Elora’s natural colors are green, which you can see in the training montages and in Elora’s battle with the crone. Red appears to be pretty obviously bad.

Something happens to Elora’s magic color when she casts a Nekotic spell the Crone taught her though. The color turns darker, and goes blue.

Graydon’s “natural” spell color seems to be purple, and it doesn’t change based on what he casts, even when he fights the Crone and uses a spell that sounds very Nekotic.

I think it’s only a matter of time before the influence of the Wyrm makes Graydon’s spell work go fully red.

I also think his scar/seal is spreading. During the trek across the shattered sea, Graydon begins to learn magic. We know from Willow that magic takes a toll on the body, and we see that a bit with Graydon during a conversation with Elora.

She tells him not to scratch at something, and Graydon pulls his shirt aside to look, very carefully not revealing what it is. It’s worth noting that this is not on the side that he was injured on, so it’s not that “acting up.” Instead, I think it’s the seal spreading as he uses more and more magic, thinning the line between him and whatever possessed him.

If the scar continues to spread, perhaps Graydon might come to look like the Lich that we know-- covered completely in scar tissue.

The Doom / Jade Claymore

This is the one that initially got the gears turning, and all because of the weapons involved.

Throwing stars are only used by two characters in the show, and it seems like such an odd choice. Not daggers, axes, or javelins, but throwing stars. The Bone Reavers and the Tir Asleen knights don’t seem to use them, so they’re not a cultural practice that Jade might be familiar with. They aren’t used in the original movie either. Jade uses them once in battle, and then once during a training scene which doesn’t seem to have any story significance other than to remind us that she has them.

The only other character to use such a distinctive weapon is the Doom, when attacking the silt sleigh.

Because we’re talking about weapons, it’s worth noting that the Doom dual wields metal whips. Until the last episode, the only one of our heroes to dual wield her weapons is Jade, when she uncouples her sword from its staff/sheath

Speaking of distinctive, the Doom’s dark metal face plate is pretty unique, but we do know another character who wears a face mask into battle-- a battle that took some of Jade’s innocence with it.

I also really like the symbolism of the Doom’s first fight being with Kit and Sorsha, the very people Jade is most adamant about protecting.

The Dag / Kit Tanthalos

This one feels like a fairy-tale curse. What does Kit’s dream mother offer her? Freedom, a chance to go wherever she wants. In the usual wicked twist of irony, why not make that freedom both symbolic and literal by transforming her into a bird creature? Rootless, homeless, chasing after who she used to be and the girl she used to love.

The Scourge / Thraxus Boorman

This one doesn’t have much to go on--  they’re both tall, beefy dudes? The only thing that might be symbolic is that we know Boorman would rather jump off the edge of the world than have an intimate conversation-- what better way to avoid intimacy than to have a spiked cage around your head?

[chainofhyrule]

Calling him by name

Warriors couldn’t even remember the last time he’d gotten to take a soak like this in waters that weren’t in the middle of the woods, in a river, or in a secluded pond.

Honestly speaking…it felt somewhat lonely.

It’s so far been four long days of non-stop walking, with minimal breaks, and several random monster attacks. Every time Time had even tried to let the group take a rest longer than half an hour, their position was always given away by some random Bokoblin or a Keese flying above, and they were swarmed in minutes. Luckily it wasn’t difficult to wipe them out, but ambush upon ambush had quickly taken its toll on the group.

As a Captain in his Hyrule, Warriors had felt each time that it was partly his fault--despite knowing logically it wasn’t true--that they were made to be such easy pickings. Perhaps if he’d led the others a little better, or kept his senses tuned to his surroundings a little more, or at least done a better job at keeping up the group's morale, perhaps they wouldn’t all be so tired. So tired that many of them couldn’t even be bothered to soak in the large baths of the inn they’d finally managed to come across in some desolate little town in Time’s Hyrule.

Many of the heroes of the group had opted for a bed over the baths, notably Time, Wild, Legend, you, and Wind. Twilight and Hyrule dipped for a few minutes to get the dirt and blood out of their hair and off their skin, though they towelled off not long after. That left himself, Four, and Sky to long-term access to the baths, at least until morning when the others would take their turns after sleeping in until about noon. Not that Warriors really blamed them.

He could easily see himself sleeping for at least a good 12 hours, if he had the opportunity to do so.

Four was the first of the trio to leave, bundling himself up in a warm towel that looked more like a large blanket due to how small he seemed in comparison. Sky left not long after, after having accidentally fallen asleep against the ledge. He was lucky, Warriors thought, that he hadn’t slipped. Waking up underwater like that would not have been an enjoyable experience, for sure.

Only in his solitude, did Warriors realise how truly tired he was. Without eyes looking to him for advice, or goddess forbid for leadership, he let his entire body sink back against the ledge, his arms behind him to hold him up. He hadn’t realised how tense his shoulders and back were, or his neck. Even his jaw was sore from clenching it all day, and though he tried to let himself relax, his body wouldn’t give to the temptation.

He wondered silently for a moment if you were alright. He actually didn’t know if you’d opted for a bed over the baths, just that you hadn’t come to this bath.

Despite his best efforts—per the norm—his mind succumbed to the thought of you. Your entire inclusion to the group was by mere coincidence, but it just happened to turn into the best “happy accident” of his life. Everything Warriors lacked could easily be found in you. You were smart on and off the battlefield, and magnificent despite having little to no formal training of any kind. You held your own surprisingly well in any confrontation, with such a lightness on your feet Warriors couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Hands somehow gentle and strong at the same time, tending to wounds with such care one could forget there was ever any pain at all. Yet those same hands could mow down three Bokoblins at once with one of Wild’s weird, glowing, saw-like weapons. You were such a wonder. Warriors often found himself distracted by your face in his mind, your seemingly immaculate grace, and your name. A name he could never get tired of hearing.

Warriors groaned as he shifted on his arms, and his shoulder popped in protest. Water sloshed around his chest as he moved, attempting to stiffly roll his shoulders and (hopefully) ease the soreness there. He wondered how Time could walk around full-plate when he himself could barely handle the mail he wore under his tunic, and the scarf.

Many fruitless attempts at massaging his own shoulders soon prompted him to stop, realising he was only making it worse. He turned to face the ledge, and raised his elbows to prop himself up. Resting his chin in the gap of his folded arms, Warriors let out a prolonged yawn and found himself fighting the sudden heaviness of his eyelids.

Just five more minutes, and he’d towel off and go to bed.

Sudden footsteps from ahead caused Warriors’ head to suddenly snap up, his eyes open and full-alert. When you, small in comparison to the tall wooden slats in place of the doors, appeared, Warriors mentally cursed himself for reacting to the sound the way he did. What, did he think a Moblin had somehow snuck its way into the bath? What was he gonna do, run at it naked with a loofah brush? If Wild could storm a Bokoblin camp with nothing but a soup ladle, he supposed it could have been possible…

Wait.

You were here.

Warriors was here.

You seemed to have yet to change out of your garb.

Warriors was stark naked under alarmingly not-as-sudsy-as-before water.

It wasn’t that Warriors really had anything to be ashamed of—surely the ladies and gents of his Hyrule assured him of that—but for some reason he started feeling awfully self-conscious when you actually started walking towards him. The smile painting your face did something strange to his heart, and he felt betrayed by the warmth spreading to the tips of his ears. He raised his non-burnt hand to wave at you shortly, lowering himself a little further down into the water.

“Hey there, Captain,” you greeted, your smile a rude contrast to the dark shadow under your eyes. You seemed quite tired, and rightfully so.

“I’d have thought you’d’ve gone to bed by now,” Warriors said through a yawn, to which you only scoffed.

“I could say the same to you.”

Warriors noticed that you made no move towards the changing room, but towards the ledge where Warriors was resting. Perhaps you were waiting for him to finish?

“If you need solitude, I can leave you be. I’m about done here, anyways.” Warriors let his offer hang in the air for a few seconds before moving to raise himself out of the water, surprised when you spoke up to actually stop him.

“You don’t have to go yet,” you said slowly, and slightly slurred from exhaustion. “I just came to make sure you didn’t drown in here, since no one has seen you in almost an hour, now.”

Warriors was shocked to hear how long he’d been here since Sky left, as it didn’t feel like it’s been an hour at all.

“Ah, well,” he said slowly. “I apologise. I didn’t realise how much time had passed.”

Warriors’ eyes shot up to yours, surprised by the sudden sound of your laughter echoing off the walls.

“Come on, Captain, you don’t have to sound all formal with me. Nor do you have to apologise.” Warriors noticed your voice took on a more sincere tone, and it calmed him. “I think out of all of us you’ve definitely earned this break.”

Warriors only really tilts his head at your statement at first, confused.

“What do you mean by that, exactly?”

You lost yourself in thought for a moment before speaking, and decided to make yourself more comfortably seated.

“Next to the Old Man, you’ve probably got the majority of the weight of everyone’s well-being on your shoulders. You were a captain in your Hyrule, after all. Not that you need me to tell you that.” You moved a little closer to Warriors, and crossed your legs to hold your crossed ankles. “You don’t have to worry about leading us like an army, Link.”

Warriors was almost stunned by the simple statement, and his name—his name—on your lips. Not “Warriors” or “Captain,” but Link. His heart fluttered lightly in his chest at the softness in your eyes, directed straight at him.

“Turn around,” you say simply, and surprisingly sternly. It reminded Warriors of the tone of voice Time used often on Wind and Wild.

Warriors did his best with stiff shoulders to turn himself around, doing his best to not show the discomfort on his face. He doubted it worked, though. You were probably the best of the group at detecting anyone’s pain. Whether or not it showed on their faces.

Warriors left no room for confusion at your order—not request—but kept it to himself. He was about to ask, until he felt your hands begin to knead at the tense muscle in his shoulders, neck, and back. Every time you pressed your fingers—which were quite dexterous, he noted—into a knot and worked it out, Warriors let out soft sighs of relief. This seemed to encourage you, and you let out little chuckles of your own.

“You alright there, Link?”

His name on your lips once more, had been the final push Warriors needed to finally relax, his body melting under your skillful touch, your soft breath in his hair, and the warmth of your body seated behind him. He exhaled deeply, and hummed in content.

“Absolutely divine.”

(Tap here to return to Masterlist)

[miraculous-the-spectacle]

y’all hear me out miraculous au right?

marinette gets her miraculous that first day of school and only marinette.

master fu, tired and sick, knows his times running out and chooses his first Ladybug. he teaches her as much as he can, as much as he remembers, and entrusts her with the miraculous box. he transfers possession and leaves her to face hawk moth armed with knowledge instead of companions.

ladybug saves the day but the toll it takes on marinette is much larger. she fights an army through one on one battles until she’s revered but exhausted. without chat noir’s demeanor and charisma the public view of superhero’s are more akin to saints than celebrities. the people of paris rely on her.

marinette is paris’ only hero for five years; her scope of a normal life blurs as she becomes consumed by the mask and it’s responsibilities until being ladybug is the only thing she knows.

her high school years pass in a blur of late assignments, bailed hang outs, and akuma attacks. at the end of the night her feet ache along with her head but she swears it’s the happiest she could be.

a showdown with hawk moth leaves both worse for ware and ultimately ends in a stalemate; neither side able to recover enough lost ground to turn the tides. hawk moth goes underground, ladybug recovers before deciding to hang up the mask until the dust settles.

she learns to start choosing herself. she remembers the girl who started all of this, the one she thought she lost when she first learned about kwami and the miraculous used to wield them.

she sees more of her friends, peruses her passions, and her health slowly starts to recover from its seemingly never ending spiral during the constant crisis. she remembers peace.

the legend of ladybug goes down in art and history as the era of miracle seems to come to an end, until Hawkmoth resurfaces with far more power and knowledge than before. marinette must once again chose between her city and herself.

too weak and weary to face the fight alone marinette must decide if it’s worth sacrificing the remaining childhood of one of her peers to gain an ally- as well as decide who she can truly trust after having kept the world at such a distance. this is where our story begins.

Seeing The Sun

first chapter coming to ao3 January 12th 2025

[akiizayoi4869]

I need to talk about one of my favorite video game villains of all time for a minute.

This guy. The one who I'm pretty sure a lot of people who played The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel 3 and 4, probably ended up hating for how much of a dick he was in those two games. His change in behavior and attitude in the later games didn't make me hate him, though. In fact, it made me like his character even more because it was pretty easy to understand why Cedric ends up like that when you consider the events of the finale in the second Cold Steel game:

He was kidnapped by Duke Cayenne during the Civil War in Erebonia and was forced into one of the seven divine knights, Testarossa, which went completely berserk since Cedric was unable to control it's power at the time. As a result, he was forced to fight against Class VII, who ended up saving him, but at a great cost to one of their own classmates. Crow ends up dying, trying to break Cedric free from Testarossa. Cedric saw all of this happening before his eyes and couldn't do anything to stop it. So it's really no wonder that, when we see him again in Cold Steel 3, his demeanor has changed entirely, and he's obsessed with obtaining power. He goes from the sweet, innocent boy whom we are introduced to in the first Trails of Cold Steel game into someone who is pretty much unrecognizable and with his own little crew.

His sudden change was a shock to me at first. I really wasn't expecting it at all, especially since when he first appeared, he spoke politely. It wasn't until his conversation with Rean on the school rooftop later on that day that we see just how much he's actually changed. The conversation starts out well enough, with Cedric thanking Rean for saving him in the last game. We can clearly see what happened back then really took its toll on Cedric, and that it still weighed heavily on him.

He tells Rean that during the summer after that incident, he got very sick and, as a result, was unable to start school at Thors Military Academy until the following year. Nothing seems odd... until Cedric proposes that Rean should transfer to teahc at Cedric's school, the main campus of Thors Military Academy. This is when we see his demeanor start to change. He talks down about the branch campus and says that someone like Rean is better suited for the main campus, which Cedric holds in high regard in comparison to the branch campus. Rean's students eventually find them on the rooftop, and Cedric is cold towards them, especially to Kurt. He then leaves, but not before saying that he'll be back to hear Rean's response to his demands another day.

Over the course of the game, we see just how much Cedric changed. He's competitive, thinks that power is everything, and absolutely hates weakness. He constantly talks down to others and doesn't care how he makes them feel as a result. The end of Cold Steel 3 really showed just how far Cedric was willing to go to get what he wanted.

He attempts to kill another one of Rean's students, Altina, so that she could become the sword of the end, which was needed to bring about the Great Twilight. He was also completely ok with having his older brother and two other people killed to accomplish this goal (even though as we saw in the 4th game, he was relieved to see that his brother has survived). These two acts really shocked me, because not only did it show a stark contrast to who Cedric was before versus who he was now, it highlighted just how much the events of Cold Steel 2 really changed him, and not for the better.

Cedric becomes one of the main antagonists of Cold Steel 4, and he proves himself as a strong enemy to take down. He was way more of a jerk here than in Cold Steel 3, and it has really seemed as if he has gone off the deep end for good. Then we get to the final chapter of Cold Steel 4, where Cedric is one of the final boss battle fights. He's still the same condescending jerk that he's been for a while now, but everything changes when Juna asked him one question: "What are you so afraid of?" Then all of a sudden, the truth comes out: Cedric was being controlled by the influence of Ishmelga, thanks to Chancellor Osborne and Franz Reinford. Now, this certainly doesn't excuse what Cedric has done up to this point, but it certainly explained why he was willing to go so far all of a sudden, when he hadn't been like that before. It was as if Juna asking him that question had suddenly opened a dam though, because this was what finally made Cedric return to how he used to be. What I absolutely loved about this is that he doesn't try and use Ishmelga as an excuse for the things that he did. He owns up to his actions and sets out to atone for them.

What he eventually chooses to do though was shocking, but it made sense: he decides to join Oroboros, leaving his friends and family behind.

Just as he says, if he stayed with all of them, he knew that he would be forgiven in spite of everything and he wouldn't really have any consequences for his actions. So joining Oroboros as a way to atone for what he did was the right call imo. Cedric's arc is probably one of my favorite ones in Cold Steel 3 and 4. It was very well done and Falcom handled him really well, and I can't wait to see more of him in future games.

[class-1b-bull]

How would the other 1B students react if Itsuka Kendo's Quirk started to cause problems with her heart? (Loosely inspired by some headcanons I came up with.)

Not proofread we die like men

If kendous quirk were to mess with her heart I would think it would be due to how much blood it would have to pump to her hands to keep them working when she makes them big which would obviously take a toll on her heart (especially after extensive usage)

Awase - he tries to stay nonchalant about the whole thing but its painfully obvious that hes worried about kendo.

Sen - he knows that kendo doesn't want to be treated differently because of her hearts health but he cant help but do little things for her every now and then.

Kamakiri - I think he would be the only person to fully treat kendo the way he always has ykyk. It may sound a little bitchy but sometimes the best thing you can do for someone whos health is declining is pretend they are fine.

Kuroiro - by far one of the most worried but he shows it the least. He just kinda hangs around whenever someone is talking about kendos condition and he spends the rest of the day thinking about ways to help her.

Kendo - when kendou initially found out that her chest pains were due to her quirk she hid it from her classmates for a long time. She didnt want them to treat her differently or view her as weak for her condition.

Kodai - she stays silent about the whole ordeal but she does a bunch of little thing for her to remind her she cares and is worried (like getting her snacks and writing notes for her and such)

Komori - she knows that theres not much she can do to help so she instead makes sure kendo stays in the loop for all of the latest drama. (Specifically when kendo is on hospital leave for a few days)

Shiozaki - prays everyday for the health of her friend but she also does a lot of research and tries to find things that would help her out. (Like making her specific foods that help with pain and blood flow and whatnat)

Shishida - if she ever needs to miss class for a hospital visit or whatever he will bring her any class work she missed and help her through it. He also makes tea for them to drink during their little study sessions (if thats what they would be called idk)

Shoda - he does his best to take on all (or almost all) of kendos usual class representative duties just to make her life easier. Hes really concerned about her health too but hes one of the students that just kinda stands to the side.

Pony - shes very worried about kendos health and she does her best to make sure kendo isnt over working herself. She makes sure to spend time with kendo and helps her with lots of little things <3

Tsubaraba - bro took 'laughter is the best medicine' to heart. He spends all day making sure kendo is happy and laughing to the point where someone needs to drag him away so she can catch her breath. <3

Tetsutetsu - dude starts walking on glass when kendos around after he found out. Hes so scared that mentioning it would upset her (and that wouldent be manly) but at the same time he want to know the details!

Tokage - she helps kendo with training without letting her overwork her quirk, she tries her best to find ways for kendo to continue training without hurting herself <3

Manga - any time she has to get hospitalized due to her heart issues manga will draw a picture for her everyday until shes up and running again.

Honenuki - he spends a lot of time researching different foods that help with pains and blood flow so he can start making her herbal lunches and such :>

Bondo - hes another one of the students that stays to the side and just silently worries. He does little things that makes her day a little easier and has even made her some snacks every now and then

Monoma - he tries to not let it show but he cares about everyone in the hero course (including class A) a lot. So when he found out about kendos heart problems he intentionally put up a front to make it seem like he didnt care but he does everything for her to make her life easier ykyk

Reiko - kendos health and safety is her priority from here on out. She tries to support kendo and understand her struggles. Most of all she just listens to kendo when shes ranting <3

Rin - he tries to help her as much as he can. He helps with both small, insignificant thing and some bigger things. He tries his best to help ease her own worries without letting his worry for her show (since he doesn't wanna stress her out)

Idk why but I always get a mini heart attack when I open my notifications and I see one person went through and liked over half of my posts. (Like a good mini heart attack lol) <3 ilyily