#...i'm not saying it could never happen but that i don't think it's the *only* thing motivating people called fakers

[brucewaynehater101]

i've been thinking about Tim's 16th birthday, and had an idea, what if after that disaster Tim realizes he couldn't handle another birthday like that, so on his next birthday he decides to try making his own party, he invites his friends from YJ, rents a place outside of gotham and just completely ignores everything that comes from the Batfamily that day. And it ends up being the best birthday of his life, and so he decides to keep doing it, and it continues going well, until a couple of years later when Dick realizes he never celebrated Tim's birthday, so he decides to give Tim a surprise party. Surprisingly everyone of the batfamily gets together to make the party, and they think they managed to hide it from Tim, only despite the fact that his last few birthday parties were amazing Tim still has a lot of paranoia near his birthday, so as soon as he noticed the family was planning something on his birthday he left Gotham a week before his birthday. No one noticed until the day of Tim's 21st birthday, when Dick tried to find Tim, only to get an automated message saying that Tim's not working today because of his birthday, also that message was always on Tim's birthday ever since he first decided to truly celebrate it, only that was the first time Dick saw it because he never sent a message to Tim on his birthday. Later the batfamily discovers that Tim had a party without even mentioning it to them and get angry because they put a lot of effort on a party for Tim, while he didn't even want them on his birthday. Up to you how Tim responds to that.

I love exploring Tim's 16th birthday trauma. I'm going to tweak your idea slightly, if you don't mind. I myself hate celebrating my birthday, so imma be biased :) Let's go!

Warning: This is an AU, so obviously a lot of details aren't gonna be canon accurate.

Tim's birthdays have always been a hit or miss for him [If you want extra trauma, y'all could make the Flying Grayson show a birthday gift/celebration for Tim. Can be the weekend before, after, or directly on his birthday... Just for fun :D]. Before Tim became Robin, his parents... tried. They tried to be home, to celebrate, to be there. More often than not, they were too busy to actually be present. In those cases, if the connection allowed, they would call Tim.

His parents believed the gifts they gave him, the money they spent on him, made up for them not being there. This is when Tim started to have a complicated relationship with gift giving.

This was the case until Tim's fourteenth birthday.

Tim asked Bruce to become Robin at thirteen, but didn't actually hit the streets until he was fourteen. Obviously, a grieving Bruce didn't celebrate Tim's birthday with him, particularly because Tim wasn't Robin.

For Tim's fourteenth birthday, imma present you with two options:

His parents actually managed to come home and this is the last birthday he gets to spend with his mom

Tim was training in Europe over his fourteenth birthday and thus he was the one to tell his parents they can't celebrate with him

For Tim's fifteenth birthday, his dad is in a coma and his mom is dead. He's also a temporary ward with Bruce. Thus, he gets a fantastic and normal birthday for once. It goes far better than his previous one, giving him hope for future birthdays.

Then the 16th birthday happens.

After this, Tim doesn't trust Bruce and Alfred. Dick, Barbara, Steph, and YJ didn't know about it, so he still tentatively trusts them.

To add extra trauma, let's say Tim's 17th birthday occurs during the BruceQuest :)

Now, for Tim's 18th birthday, he's an adult. He has rocky relationships with his family, and he knows how to engineer distractions/excuses to avoid celebrating his birthday with the Waynes. Usually, he has "missions" with his friends that are really fun adventures or vacations.

He used to leave Gotham two weeks in advance, but, after his eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth birthdays, he calms down. He isn't expecting The 16th to happen again.

[To flesh out some of his other relationships (and feel free to regard as you please), let's say that Cass gets invited to the nineteenth and twentieth.

Steph (after Tim and Steph fix their relationship with one another) gets invited to the twentieth.

Jason and Tim both share a dislike for birthdays or presents, so they usually just send each other some text message phrased as an insult ("Seems you actually survived another year. Would you look at that?") and a cheap gift (a pack of cigarettes for Jason and a pack of Zesti for Tim).

Barbara and Tim send each other puzzles/challenges for each others' birthdays. Maybe Duke is the same way too.

Dick goes out with Tim *after* Tim returns to Gotham post-Birthday (if you want a trying/good brother Dick)

Tim does not accept gifts from Bruce nor Alfred. Alfred will instead make Tim's favorite meal and leave it in his apartment for when he returns. Bruce, on the other hand, feels immense guilt over it and only sends Tim a happy birthday text and money.]

But... Then, for Tim's 21st birthday, he notices his family planning shit. His ass immediately flees town and doesn't return for an entire month, just in case.

The Waynes are pissed at him, particularly the ones who don't know about the 16th. I think Cass probably told them not to plan anything and went with Tim when the Waynes continued their plans despite her warning.

Anyways, if anyone actually yells at Tim that they "put a lot of effort into that party for Tim," I hope he crashes out and yells at them for getting upset without even asking him what he wants. All of this could have been avoided if even one of them had asked him about his plans for his birthday and how he likes to celebrate.

[cherrryybeee]

what's wrong with you!?

natalie scatorccio bot (link at bottom)

Natalie Scatorccio was trouble. She was a burnout. A dyke lesbo slut. 

Those weren't your words, god no. Those were the rumors. 

Those are what people knew her by, well that and her being on the best sports team of Wiskayok high school, the varsity girls soccer team.

You never crossed paths with Natalie. It made sense though, you two were *complete* opposites. She wore dark clothes, ripped jeans, that one leather jacket she never took off. Her bleach blonde shaggy mullet was always messy, so was her eyeliner. She was best friends with Kevyn "the goth" Tan, and hung out with a couple girls from the soccer team, Van Palmer who lived in the same trailer park she did, and Lottie Matthews who was super rich but didn't have many friends, and that was it. She listened to music like nirvana, hole, the cranberries, and pixies. And held herself with a sort of confidence. 

You on the other hand wore skirts to school everyday, and your hair and makeup was always nicely done. You listened to music like Bob Dylan, ABBA, Christina Aguilera, salt 'n' peppa, and whatever played on the radio. You listened to "loser" or "basic" music, as people like Natalie liked to say. You had many "friends" but really only hung out with a couple. And you carried yourself cautiously. 

You couldn't deny that you didn't think Natalie was gorgeous, with her dark makeup that contrasted her pale skin, her messy style and "I don't give a fuck" attitude. But it didn't matter, she probably didn't know you. 

The first time you crossed paths with Natalie was when you were helping coach Martinez clean up after soccer practice for extra credit, Misty Quigley, who was the equipment manager, was talking your ear off but you weren't going to be rude and tell her that you really didn't care, so you let her talk. The rest of the soccer team was off changing in the locker room, or so you thought. When you went to put the extra soccer balls away in the school sports shed and you past the bleachers you saw her standing under them, she hadn't changed out of her uniform and she had her soccer bag slung over her shoulder, she was lighting a joint when she caught you staring. Shit. You didn't even know you were staring. You gave her a small smile before quickly walking to the shed. 

The second time you and Natalie crossed paths was when you got paired up with her best friend, Kevyn, for a science project. He told you to meet him at lunch so you two could talk about the project, and that's how you found yourself standing at the lunch table he sat at listening to him talk about what days he was free and not. That is until Natalie walked up and sat across from Kevyn, when she say you she raised an eyebrow at Kevyn. 

"What's the princess doing here?" 

You heard her say, it was followed by a short laugh. *wow, I'm literally standing right here* yoou thought to yourself. Before Kevyn could tell her about the project you quickly told him that your thursday was free and you'd meet him by the library before rushing off to the lunch table you and your friends sat at. 

The third time you two ran into each other happened when you were doing extra credit, again. You were at school after hours helping out your health teacher, coach Toiser, she was the second health teacher who was also the girls volleyball coach, the other one was coach Scott, a.k.a, one of the girls soccer coaches. Coach Toiser had you run the lesson plan for next week down to coach Scott. It was the middle of soccer practice though so you had to go to the field. After walking across the school you finally got to the field, the girls were running drills and that's when you saw her, Natalie, you started staring again. That was until coach Scott jogged over to you and took the binder, saying a quick "Thanks" before running off to his office. Apparently soccer practice got out at the same time the extra credit period ended. As you were walking out of school you heard someone shout. 

"Princess!"

Usually you would've ignored it but then you remember that one day when you were at Kevyn and Natalies lunch table and that's what she called you. So you turned around and just to your surprise Natalie Scatorccio was running to catch up to you. Once she caught up with you she asked you something that changed your life.

"Wanna hang out?"

And that's how it started, that day she took you to a convenient store where you two talked. Well she did most of the talking. After that day you decided that you needed you needed more stuff to talk to Natalie about. So you went to the record store and bought every nirvana album you could find, "bleach", "nevermind", "incesticide", and "in utero", you also bought two hole albums, "pretty on the inside" and "live through this". That night you spent listening to Natalies music taste, taking notes about each song and memorizing facts. 

After that one day Natalie began to hang out with you more and more, you think that learning her interests helped. One day Natalie, and Kevyn, to your surprise came over to your house. You three spent the night eating pizza, watching movies and talking. Kevyn then decided that he wanted to look at your records so you three went up to your room to show him. Unfortunately you forgot to put your other records away, so when he was going through them he held up a Bob Dylan one and laughed.

"Dude, what's this?"

You had to quickly think of an excuse, you couldn't be a loser. Not anymore. Not infront of them. 

"It's just my moms, she must've stashed them up here when she was cleaning downstairs. Kevyn nodded and put it back, thank fuck they believed you. 

You and Natalie continued to hang out, day after day, week after week. Going to her soccer games was the thing you looked forward to every week. You felt yourself warming up to her, becoming less awkward and you think she did too. You couldn't deny that you liked her, she was nothing like the rumors. The only thing you had to be careful about was mentioning her house, family, and the rumors. Whenever you'd bring something up that she didn't really wanna talk about she'd get all defensive. So you stuck to light topics, music, school, soccer, and whenever you spoke about homelife you'd only speak about yours before changing the topic. You didn't know why she wanted to hang out with you but you weren't complaining.

One day in particular you two were hanging out in your room, your mom and dad were at work and your brother was with his friends. The nirvana album "incesticide" was playing on your record as you two talked, well you talked, no you were complaining. 

"I mean *why* is he passing with an A and I have a B when I'm better then him at everything!"

You were complaining about one of the football jocks in your english class, laying on your on your stomach while she was sitting on your floor flipping through an old magazine you had.

"It's favoritism at it's finest, I got the highest score on the essay and guess what he got.. He failed! That's what he got! I mean it's stupid and-"

She looked up from the magazine and rolled her eyes.

"Do you ever shut up?"

She wasn't actually being rude, just tired of you talking about the same thing for 20 minuets. 

"I will shut up soon"

You gave her a smile before continuing on with your one sided conversation, you saw hesitation in her eyes which was weird considering she never really thought about what she did before doing do. 

"Then I asked the teacher why he has a better grade then me and she told me 'oh it's because he puts in more effort', what the fuck! I mean that's the-"

But all the sudden you were shut up with a kiss. More specifically Natalie kissing you. You froze, you had to be dreaming, what was happening. You didn't know how to react and after a couple seconds of not kissing her back from shock she pulled away and stood up.

"God you're so confusing!" 

*Me? Confusing? Because I didn't immediately kiss my friend back who initiated the kiss randomly?* you thought to yourself...

[crowwolf]

This is Kitalia - She's a bit creepy, pretty - SHORT 4'11", and tiny at about 90 lbs - and made of pure chaos. She's 1/2 mixed up fey ancestry, 1/4 wood/Sylvan elf, and 1/4 unknown... She's a shadow sorcerer/bard

1. How would they define love if asked

They wouldn't really know. Kitalia was brought up in an extremely harsh way, rescued eventually, then raised in a way that they thought would make her wily and independent. No physical show of real love, no words of love, just survival of the fittest and I'll check in to make sure you're alive.

2. When someone says "this is [character name] coded," what comes to your mind

A mix of Kit Deluca from pretty woman, Harley Quinn a la Suicide Squad, and a manic pixie

3. if somebody told the character that they admire them what would they feel and how would they react to it

Kitalia would laugh her ass off - literal tears, grabbing her belly, full on can't even talk laugh. She doesn't believe anyone would ever feel like that towards her.

4. How much weight do they give to others' opinions of them

Acts like she gives zero fucks. Internalizes it ALL. Full of inner voices screaming at her.

5. When bad things happen, do they usually think it happened to them or because of them.

All because of her. Always because of her. All her fault.

6. How well do they cope with the reality of their mortality

Welllll...this is a tricky one. I don't want to give too many spoilers, but suffice it to say she doesn't. She's old. Way older than she looks. Younger than folks like Raphael, but older than Halsin old.

7. How easily and frequently do they ask for help

She doesn't. Ever. Asking for help would show she can't survive on her own, her caregiver would consider that weakness. Once she is finally settled in a loving life and is finally comfortable enough she will ask occasionally - but this is centuries of not doing that, so it will take time.

8. What is their perspective on religion and the concept of God

LOL that's a loaded question. She's BG3 universe - Gods and Goddesses are real. She's ambivalent about them, hates some, has a deep love for a certain one - but not a worshipful love.

9. When in pain do they take it out on others or do they keep it inside She will internalize it until it's bursting out and end up taking it out on others - usually someone she picks as an enemy, but often anyone nearby.

10. Their most defining moment vs your favorite one of them

Meeting her bff. In the modern Au that's Ryldinn, @vera-king-hrfl 's OC. They are obviously not related, but fuck if they don't act like twins that were never separated. They have their own hand language and everything. These two bonded hard. In regular BG3, I'm HC that my girl gets with @vera-king-hrfl's other OC Max, the half-orc - bffs turned lovers. Which is hilarious. Giant half-orc, tiny crazy fey lady.

11. One word they'd use to describe themselves, one you'd use to describe them and lastly a word that their closest/loved one would use to describe them

Chaos. Kit would probably say free. Loved ones - um, would be two words - ferociously loyal/loving (once she's bonded to them)

12. How committed are they to their principles, and what might get them to abandon them

LOL um, well, she'd never hurt a kitten so I guess that's something. The only thing she is committed to are the ones who have somehow managed to gain her trust and love - she would never abandon or compromise on that, even on pain of death

13. Is there a moral line they would never cross

See above - if it doesn't involve loved ones, she has zero fucks

14. What could be considered as their worst moment

Absolute worse moment for her would have to be being rejected by the one who has her heart after all this time or her *perceived* rejection - they may be trying to propose awkwardly but she's no compass in regards to interpersonal shit and would think they were leaving her...she'd break. She'd run off before they could actually make their point and they'd have to try to find her. Which would require help because she's been raised to basically be a chameleon when it comes to hiding. She's epic hide and seek material.

15. Do they have a stomach for violence and harm and if so do they only do it out of necessity or at any whim

LOL She's chaos - you hurt someone she cares for - verbally or physically, doesn't matter - she will FUCK you up. Short fuse for anyone not in her inner circle.

16. Do they idolize anyone, if so why is that

Her grandfather - he was her caregiver, the one who checked to make sure she was alive, but left her to fend for herself - finding her own food and shelter. Occasionally he would stay for extended periods to teach her new killing methods, new fighting skills, new languages, new anything sneaky and assassin like (she's not an assassin). Getting her to show him her latest magic or songs. He will praise her but is very biting in any criticism - his vision for her is make her tough, fast, invisible. That's it.

17. How open are they to change their viewpoints on matters

Depends on the situation. Most times - she goes with the flow...unless it's something she's fierce about, then not at all

18. Are they vengeful or do they easily forgive and forget or do they not forgive but don't go as far as acting on that

She absolutely holds a grudge and has a long LONG memory

19. What's their strongest emotion, the one which mostly rules them and compells them to action

Devotion. Once she has her found fam - her devotion to them will make her take the dumbest of risk. She won't care about living or dying, as long as her loved ones are safe.

20. Are they more inclined to take or give

Give. She wants nothing (she thinks).

21. How much do they prioritize their own survival, and what lengths would they go to for self-preservation

Girl was raised to hide and watch the shadows - she'd sit for days without food or water before moving if there was a threat big enough. BUT once with her found family - she prioritizes them...oh wait, basically the same.

22. What is their relationship with their body like She doesn't really think about it. It's her survival engine. I mean, she knows she's objectively attractive, but was extremely abused as a young child and has a disconnect between what her body means.

23. How connected do they feel to their community and society

Not at all - except her found fam

24. Do they self harm and if so in which way

Unintentionally - see survival instincts above. She was starved as a child and her growth stunted, she doesn't always know when she's hungry, but when she has access to food - watch out. She has the metabolism of a hummingbird and can out eat most people twice her size - but has to do it over a period of time. She's tiny = small stomach. If she eats too fast, she'll vomit and be in pain, so she learned to eat small portions a little at a time. This can be extremely difficult when always trying to stay hidden away and quiet. Once with her found fam - she's constantly got food in her hand or pockets - they'll even start carrying snacks for her in case she gets hungry and has nothing. It's the only way to keep her healthy.

25. What's the worst physical or mental pain they've ever endured

When she was very young, her father's best friend slit his throat in front of her and stole her away for nefarious purposes - physical, mental, sexual. She's a long lived person - maturing is slow. She was FAR too young for any of it. Eventually, the abuser let their guard down and the spell they used to shield her from her living family faded enough for her grandfather to rescue her. Grandfather of course slaughtered the abuser, and did at least take her somewhere relatively safe-ish to heal physically. She doesn't remember her father, though if she did she'd know he loved her deeply and was amazing. She never healed mentally - not properly, not ever - the abuser had her for decades. It's absolutely a large reason she's chaos - if you asked me her alignment - I just say chaos, there is nothing else. She does what she does to live, to protect herself, her loved ones and that's that.

26. How do their family and their relationship with them influence their perspective and the way they navigate life

She never had real love in her life - not the true I want what's best for you and won't ever force you do to shit type of love. It's crazy to her - and once she has it, she guards it as the most precious of treasures. Physical items are meaningless to her - she was always homeless - having things, meant carrying them wherever she went and that was pointless. So having a home, a family - mind blowing. She'll sometimes have panic attacks when she thinks on it too much.

27. Are they content with their sexuality and gender expression? would a difference in their sexuality and gender affect their role in the story and if so how

My lady is pan and is who she is. She'll fuck whoever she wants but doesn't really understand people being emotional over it. Until she has her family and learns love - that makes her see it...

28. How much importance do they place on their appearance, and on others' appearance

LOL none - she gives zero fucks. Astarion insists on dressing her because she would happily wear rags. BUT she'll sit with him and Shadowheart to judge what the patriars are wearing.

29. What criteria do they use to assess others' character

Will they hurt and/or kill me? If no - yay! If yes - kill them first.

30. Do they take themselves too seriously

Never.

31. How easily do they forgive themselves after making a mistake and how easily do they forgive others

Kitalia doesn't forgive herself, she makes herself correct any mistakes if she can, and if she can't - she carries on. Others - that's a loaded one. If it's her fam - it depends on what they did. If it's someone outside her inner circle, well - they FAFOed.

32. Are they more concerned with the bigger picture or are they hung up on the details

Neither really. Maybe the smaller details - best place to find food, best place to hide, best place to protect.

33. Do they prioritise other people's needs over their own or the other way around

Found family first, then her, then others if there's time

34. What do they believe their hands were made for

Magic and music

35. Do they consider themselves lucky or privileged

nope

36. What is their level of emotional intelligence and social adeptness

LOL the depth is an inverted pool...poor woman, she has zero clue socially and emotionally so stunted she makes tweens look mature. She understands herself more than people think, but social cues and reading emotions - nada.

37. Presented with three different ponds offering eternal health, strength, or wealth, which one would they choose to drink from, they can only drink from one

Health

38. In the event of an apocalypse with only one limited safe haven available, whom or what would they prioritize bringing along

Her loved ones - which are very very few...

39. If they could end one thing—be it a person, ideology or misfortune—what would they choose to eradicate

Poverty - no one should have to dig through trash for food.

40. Would breaking their heart be a quick task or would it require significant effort

It would be quick and brutal

41. Are they comfortable expressing their emotions and thoughts

Not at all.

42. If given the chance to bring back someone from the dead, who would they choose and why

Her father. She's been told he loved her deeply just because she was his daughter. She doesn't even remember his face.

43. With whom or when do they feel most authentic and true to themselves

Alone with her significant other(s) - absolutely no one else around.

44. Do they believe they are more in control or being controlled (by others, their circumstances or their life in general) and are they correct in their assumption

Neither really. She knows she's not really in control, but she's so much chaos that no one can ever truly control her.

45. What is their fatal flaw

Her extreme loyalty to her found family - she would kill herself to save them. Also - her complete lack of care for herself.

46. To what extent does shame or guilt influence their psyche.

Her psyche is damaged from decades of abuse...not really sure she understands either emotion - but once with her found family they help her to recognize and cope (as much as she can) with them. Her youth was stolen from her so she feels no shame or guilt for those decades - but when she does, she buries it deep until it comes out in nightmares.

47. If they were an object, Which material(s) would they be made of Spider silk - incredibly strong, but fragile

48. What gets them out of the bed each morning and how obvious is that motivation to those around them

Survival - once she's with her found fam - they do. She's not totally dependent on them for that, but they give her more of a purpose in life that she lacked

49. Do they believe there's a cause, person, or a goal worth sacrificing their life for

Her family

50. If faced with a magical mirror revealing their deepest fear and greatest desire instead of their reflection, what would they see and would they be surprised by it

Greatest fear would be being alone forever. Greatest desire - just *being* with her loved one(s)

51. What does responsibility mean to them and do they embrace it or take it on reluctantly

Responsi-what? Yeah - it's reluctant - she's utterly clueless to *normal* life shit.

52. Does their race significantly shape their personality or is it more of a background aspect

It absolutely shapes everything about her - her lineage is insane (in variation of fey creatures and other), it's a smorgasbord of characteristics and eccentricities that make her who she is. IF she had been raised by her father, she may (big MAY) have been more stable - understanding more of those around her. But her upbringing, and DNA have made her just a hurricane in a body

53. How entitled do they feel to others' emotions, time or labor

Not at all. Never even want to be perceived as needing anything from anyone.

54. Are they more likely to do a good deed if they know it will be noticed or do they not care about acknowledgment

Nope - zero fucks given. If they do something good it's because she wanted to.

55. Do they live in the past, the present or the future

The present - she has to.

56. How do they go about making decisions: do they consult a particular individual, rely on a trusted group, consider input from anyone willing to share or solely trust their own judgment

On the fly in the most chaotic nonsensical way possible. Once in a place of trust - her bff or s/o

57. How likely are they to intervene if they witness something illegal or immoral, If they choose to get involved what method do they typically use, Does their eagerness to correct the situation and their approach vary depending on the perpetrator's status, closeness or strength

I suppose it depends on the act - if it's against a child - she will intervene. Children and animals. If it's anything else she doesn't even bat an eye. If it's after she's in a secure place - well, it would depend on the situation.

58. When it comes to hope do they view it as: impractical or necessary and why is that

She doesn't understand hope until she's with her people - her found fam. Once she's in that place hope becomes an absolutely necessity.

59. Do they tend to overwork themselves

Nope

60. What type of smart are they

Kitalia knows most languages of Faerun - and some from Feywilds, and others - she is very intelligent BUT she was never taught to read and has ZERO interest in learning. She's very old - so, yes, some things she can read just via exposure to them - city signs, street signs - shit like that. She can read a map in that she understand the design of it and has a superior sense of direction. But let's just say Gale of Waterdeep is flabbergasted by her complete lack of book knowledge. However, she can chat the ear off near any race. She has a musical ear as well, which is probably part of why languages are so simple for her - she can pick anything up by ear. In modern parlance, she would probably have been called a prodigy - but she doesn't care - it's just another skill she learned to survive.

61. If they could make people do whatever they wanted without any consequences, would they use that power and if so how

um, leave her and her loved ones alone and feed her all at once. She's really not complicated

62. Which of the following do they have the hardest time accepting: affection, money or help

That's a hard one - she doesn't really get money. She's lived on the outskirts of civilized society and usually takes/steals what she needs sometimes making money by busking (bard) but is easily fleeced because she can't read and doesn't understand money well at all. BUT she will not ask for help either - which means it's just a continuing vicious cycle until a certain group swoop in and bring her into their fold.

Characters/OCs asks

1. How would they define love if asked

2. When someone says "this is [character name] coded," what comes to your mind

3. if somebody told the character that they admire them what would they feel and how would they react to it

4. How much weight do they give to others' opinions of them

5. When bad things happen, do they usually think it happened to them or because of them

6. How well do they cope with the reality of their mortality

7. How easily and frequently do they ask for help

8. What is their perspective on religion and the concept of God

9. When in pain do they take it out on others or do they keep it inside

10. Their most defining moment vs your favorite one of them

11. One word they'd use to describe themselves, one you'd use to describe them and lastly a word that their closest/loved one would use to describe them

12. How committed are they to their principles, and what might get them to abandon them

13. Is there a moral line they would never cross

14. What could be considered as their worst moment

15. Do they have a stomach for violence and harm and if so do they only do it out of necessity or at any whim

16. Do they idolize anyone, if so why is that

17. How open are they to change their viewpoints on matters

18. Are they vengeful or do they easily forgive and forget or do they not forgive but don't go as far as acting on that

19. What's their strongest emotion, the one which mostly rules them and compells them to action

20. Are they more inclined to take or give

21. How much do they prioritize their own survival, and what lengths would they go to for self-preservation

22. What is their relationship with their body like

23. How connected do they feel to their community and society

24. Do they self harm and if so in which way

25. What's the worst physical or mental pain they've ever endured

26. How do their family and their relationship with them influence their perspective and the way they navigate life

27. Are they content with their sexuality and gender expression? would a difference in their sexuality and gender affect their role in the story and if so how

28. How much importance do they place on their appearance, and on others' appearance

29. What criteria do they use to assess others' character

30. Do they take themselves too seriously

31. How easily do they forgive themselves after making a mistake and how easily do they forgive others

32. Are they more concerned with the bigger picture or are they hung up on the details

33. Do they prioritise other people's needs over their own or the other way around

34. What do they believe their hands were made for

35. Do they consider themselves lucky or privileged

36. What is their level of emotional intelligence and social adeptness

37. Presented with three different ponds offering eternal health, strength, or wealth, which one would they choose to drink from, they can only drink from one

38. In the event of an apocalypse with only one limited safe haven available, whom or what would they prioritize bringing along

39. If they could end one thing—be it a person, ideology or misfortune—what would they choose to eradicate

40. Would breaking their heart be a quick task or would it require significant effort

41. Are they comfortable expressing their emotions and thoughts

42. If given the chance to bring back someone from the dead, who would they choose and why

43. With whom or when do they feel most authentic and true to themselves

44. Do they believe they are more in control or being controlled (by others, their circumstances or their life in general) and are they correct in their assumption

45. What is their fatal flaw

46. To what extent does shame or guilt influence their psyche

47. If they were an object, Which material(s) would they be made of

48. What gets them out of the bed each morning and how obvious is that motivation to those around them

49. Do they believe there's a cause, person, or a goal worth sacrificing their life for

50. If faced with a magical mirror revealing their deepest fear and greatest desire instead of their reflection, what would they see and would they be surprised by it

51. What does responsibility mean to them and do they embrace it or take it on reluctantly

52. Does their race significantly shape their personality or is it more of a background aspect

53. How entitled do they feel to others' emotions, time or labor

54. Are they more likely to do a good deed if they know it will be noticed or do they not care about acknowledgment

55. Do they live in the past, the present or the future

56. How do they go about making decisions: do they consult a particular individual, rely on a trusted group, consider input from anyone willing to share or solely trust their own judgment

57. How likely are they to intervene if they witness something illegal or immoral, If they choose to get involved what method do they typically use, Does their eagerness to correct the situation and their approach vary depending on the perpetrator's status, closeness or strength

58. When it comes to hope do they view it as: impractical or necessary and why is that

59. Do they tend to overwork themselves

60. What type of smart are they

61. If they could make people do whatever they wanted without any consequences, would they use that power and if so how

62. Which of the following do they have the hardest time accepting: affection, money or help

[coreene]

Asking Astarion permission for Halsin

As far as I can tell from the flags, this option should appear regardless if it's spawn or ascended Astarion and it doesn't matter if it's before or after Cazador fight.

Player: You wouldn't believe the conversation I've just had with Halsin... Astarion: Ah, ha ha ha, I was wondering when you were going to ask me about this. Player: It's all right with you? You don't sound fazed... Astarion: The druid is unique. He has a lot of experience with this type of arrangement. Thus, I'm sure it would be quite a harmless affair.

This is the continuation of the above conversation. See how it ends with "jump to node 853". If I understand it correctly node 138 and the following dialogue happens when this conversation happens after Cazador fight.

Astarion: I guessed. The man can't stay quiet about 'enjoying the freedom of Nature's gifts'. I bet he'd outlaw clothing if he could. Player: I wouldn't even consider it if it bothered you. Astarion: I trust you to make choices that are not going to hurt what we have. 1. Player: I want to see what happens with him. Astarion: Honestly, so do I. What an adventure for you! 2. Player: I care for you a great deal. That's never changing. Astarion: After all this, I've realised it's all right if it does change. If anything changes. 3. Player: I don't know what lies ahead, but I trust you, too. Astarion: You're lucky I'm such an open-minded person.

This is the conversation I think majority of us has seen in the game. This conversation happens when you ask Astarion for permission before Cazador fight.

Astarion: I'm happy for you to have as much Halsin as you wish - but I do have one question. It's not because... you know... we haven't... in a while? 1. Player: Gods, I don't want you to think that for a moment. Astarion: I know I was being foolish. But thank you for saying it. 2. Player: I've admired Halsin for a while, that's all it is. Astarion: I'm fairly sure the only one in the camp who hasn't is Withers, but even with him one can never be certain. Even jerky was meat once. 3. Player: He propositioned me out of nowhere - I just want to see where it goes. Astarion: What hovel were you living in, that you didn't see this coming back in the grove? Honestly. But that's fine. devnote: affectionately 4. Player: What I have with you is wholly different and very special to me. Astarion: Aww. 5. Player: I don't want you to feel bad, but I have felt frustrated. Astarion: Oh. Well, you would. Wouldn't you? It makes sense.

This is the end note. As far as I can tell, all of the nodes above will come down to this, so this is what he'll always say when he gives his permission.

Astarion: Go right on with Halsin. Far be it from me to hold your hunger against you. devnote: genuine about it

Been meaning to post this for a while (like six months, oops). A conversation in discord came up, reminding me that I never did so, I finally got to post all of it.

[that-weirdo-thing]

A seven-year-old is fighting an old man and is winning!

Doctor Ivo Robotnik never made mistakes. He just miscalculated, which was perfectly normal since he was always revolutionizing the sciences. Therefore, Ivo Robotnik knew that he hadn't committed a mistake, he just... miscalculated, terribly.

Agent Aban Stone knew better than to say that his doctor might have made a slight mistake, yet he thought so, particularly now. The project his doctor was working on now was supposed to be a machine able to show the knowledge of anyone who used it; even if he had been against the idea, his doctor decided to test it himself and instead of showing them any kind of knowledge from his doctor...

Instead of what was supposed to happen, there was a puff, some white smoke and now in the middle of the lab, was a boy. The boy has a striking resemblance to his doctor, the child has the same perplexed expression as his doctor right now.

"Who are you?!?! Where am I?!?! I don't have anything that you might want!!... you... you dimwits!!!" the boy screamed familiarly, looking around the lab as searching for some exit.

Robotnik, in his usual way, went straight to the terrified child just as this was screaming about how idiots they must be to let him see their faces.

"I know that you have eidetic memory! Because I'm you from the future!" He screamed back just as his hands held his younger version's shoulders.

Well, thought Stone unfazed, that explains the resemblance.

The young Ivo must have been around the age of six, he had wild red hair, it seemed unbrushed; he was clothed in some cheap clothes that were unkept and hanging loose off his small frame, probably second-handed. He also seemed completely lost and terrified.

Stone resisted the urge to go and comfort the child.

His doctor kept talking about how the younger one must make himself scarce while he fixed the problem, he didn't care if the infant saw anything of the future so he could just search about it.

"Perhaps, I might be of assistance taking care of him, doctor," he said before he could stop himself.

His doctor looked mad, well madder than a moment ago, but he just nodded stiffly before leaving for the computer. When the boy and the Agent were alone, the adult smiled at the child.

"Is there any way that you would prefer that I call you?" he asked, the little redhead looked at him with too-big brown eyes, his doctor eyes, full with unshed tears.

The boy looked away cleaning his tears harshly with his T-shirt before murmuring.

"Just Ivo is fine"

"Alright Ivo, now, do you want to get something to eat or do you want to do as the doctor said and learn about the future?" he asked nicely as he extended his hand for the child to take it.

The boy observed him for some minutes before shyly taking his hand. Stone's smile grew.

Ivo knew that what was happening wasn't a dream, he knew that a dream couldn't feel so real. At first, he thought that maybe someone in the orphanage decided to sell him off to some weirdos, but then the taller man said it was him, well, future him. They were in some kind of laboratory with ultra sss technology!!

His future self wasn't very nice, just like every other adult he knew, but then there was his agent, Ivo's future Agent! Mr Stone, as he had decided to call him, was the nicest adult that Ivo had ever known, he talked calmly, let him ask all the questions he wanted, made the best cocoa he had ever drunk, and even got him nicer clothes!

His Agent was the best!

Ivo was talking with his Mr Stone when his older self came and started to say mean things to his agent. Ivo didn't care if his future self was mean to idiots, but he was prohibited from being mean to his agent!

So Ivo did the only reasonable solution he could think of. He kicked the legs of that old man and rescued his agent!

Doctor Ivo Robotnik hated the mere presence of his younger version, he was weak, helpless and absolutely lacking. Being able to see himself just like his former caretakers did wasn't pleasant at all. He could only see his own weakness, his own failures.

He remembered himself at six as one of the weakest versions of himself, still so hopeful that the world wouldn't be as cruel as it was, his eight-year-old self might have been more pleasant, already illuminated to the harsh truth of the world. Anyway, what was done was done and he was trapped with one of the most loathed versions of himself.

So he ordered the brat to stay away, free to do whatever he wanted as he went back to fix the calculations. Robotnik hated the moment that his agent decided to speak, offering himself to entertain the brat as if that would make him endearing in Robotnik's eyes, ridiculous!

He didn't care what the agent was doing with the brat, as long as he got his lattes in time, he didn't care!

...

...

...

Okay, he might be curious. Robotnik observed them through the cameras, expecting to see the exact moment that the agent that the sycophant showed his true colours. He observed them talk calmly, watched them walk hand in hand, his agent preparing cocoa for the brat, it didn't matter that he also was doing his latte! That was his job! when his agent went to bathe the imp, when he helped the wrench brush his hair...

He needed to show his agent who was the boss.

He was doing his usual thing, terrorising his agent to show dominance, manhandle him around...

When a sudden pain in his left leg shocked him. Robotnik glanced down just to be met with familiar brown eyes...

The brat just kicked him!!

"You kicked me!!"

"You have been prohibited from being mean to MY agent!!"

HIS AGENT????

STONE WAS ROBOTNIK'S AGENT

NOT OF SOME... SOME LITTLE WEAKLING!!!

"YOU ARE A LITTLE NOBODY AND-!!!!"

Stone was hugging the brat. Stone was hugging the brat. Stone was hugging the brat. Stone was hugging the brat. Stone was hugging his younger self. Stone was hugging him.

...

...

...

We're sorry there's no signal :,(

...

...

...

Boop beep boop!

...

...

The system has returned.

We're happy to say we are returning from where you were before the error H34R7.

So, Stone is hugging the brat. He decided to protect the little imp, and he picked him up, hugging him while looking at Robotnik with his big wonderful stupid eyes filled with fake worry. Why else would he be willing to touch him??? He's saying some nonsense about the brat being only a child who doesn't understand, and who is still too young...

And Doctor Robotnik? He could only stare at how the fucking little brat sent him a smirk proudly in Stone's arms while the idiot was talking about a safe environment to grow and some more stupidities.

Wait.

Stone is on the brat's side.

Does that mean that the brat has won???

A brat has just kicked him and his agent is on the brat's side?????

"That imp needs to leave!!"

"Doctor, please!"

The little bastard puts his best sad face to Stone when the idiot looks his way, when the man turns back to try to convince him the imp starts to sign to Robotnik uh he didn't remember that he already knew how to sign at such age "Ivo 1, Oldman 0"

If he kills his younger self, it would affect himself or a new alternative universe where he had travelled to a parallel universe?

[jellybeanium124]

I don't have it in me to make a big long detailed post of everything atticus ever stole from me but safe to say that for the last many many months, his fics have been littered with my stolen ideas. you can find comments from me at the time under those fics going "ohh that's my idea!" under where he stole from. at the time I thought it was just friends exchanging ideas, but, and I'm being dead honest, I did have a squirmy feeling in my gut every time. I pushed it down and never confronted him because I thought we were friends.

stars thru the windshield might be the most blatant one. a good chunk of the childhood portion of the fic is ripped from the junior breakfast club. atticus sensitivity read ch2 for me which he was NOT QUALIFIED TO DO AND I FEEL SHITTY ABOUT IT but the main thing he added was making sure ed talked about his own feelings, and all the ideas are mine.

atticus DID credit me in ch2 of sttw, but only after I commented:

if I hadn't said anything he never would've added his opening note crediting me for all my ideas. I still think this counts because he fuckin absolutely didn't credit me till I called him out on purpose rather than it being an oblivious oversight.

homecoming also took a lot of ideas from my fic "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine"

partners in crime rips ideas from I thought it'd be different.

journalist ed is nemeses with stede's father/stede and is trying to destroy their company

stede is absolutely not with his father on any of the stuff he does

the reveals of each others' identities, which, tbf, is also from canon

in sounds like pearls I would give him ideas in the comments for the ending and he would take them. without credit. absolutely nothing in the opening/closing notes.

this comment on chapter 4 really encapsulates how I was feeling at the time and how he framed it. I really thought that this was only happening with me because we were friends.

here's the comments where I gave him the idea of how to finish the fic, and he did not credit me anywhere.

and when I mention ed's doodles here:

it's a reference to how this bit:

published july 11 2024

is very similar to this bit from best friends by me, published july 8 2024:

that's all I feel like getting into now. there's probably more.

idk what to make of all this because there was like, some permission on my end, whereas most of the other people he stole from weren't his close friend and there was absolutely 0 permission. but even if this doesn't count I think it still adds to the picture. he only credited me afterwards once and at no other time did he credit me for ideas he took from me, even if readers could theoretically find out if they read all the comments (and what reader reads all of the comments).

[trippinsorrows]

just need you to know i smiled the whole time reading this. honestly. truly. 🥺

and, man, i appreciate you commenting on the introduction, because i really wanted that to be attention grabbing, just because given everything that happened, the entrance needed to be good. 😭

yessss. lmao. that's exactly the dynamic i was aiming for with jacob being included in the group now. he most definitely a lot (mans threw father time out the window like it was nothing), but so is roman. hell, all these men, but roman is more controlled with his crazy. jacob ass just wild asf, and so roman def does have to adjust to that for all the reasons mentioned. lmaooo you know i had to have him drive that ambulance, friend! and, you can bet he was driving just as erratically as he be acting. 😂

it truly felt so strange to not have or show any scenes with and of solana outside of that brief flashback snippet. but, it was also necessary, as i wanted to focus on roman and his journey/challenges navigating all of the things without solana to help/comfort him. 🥺 we also saw that roman struggled a bit with deciding on how honest he wanted to be with jimmy, and i too agree that he made the right decision in not leading them to believe her dead. that just felt too....cruel, almost.

i 100% agree, and as i've mentioned before, no one wins or was going to win, regardless of what decisions were made. the damage is done, the relationships borderline irreparable. at least, for right now. jimmy has every right to feel hurt and angry with roman for the "treatment" he and naomi are receiving, but he also has to acknowledge why roman is so upset and hurt. and, he has every right to be. conversely, we know roman's pride is a big struggle for him, and he's stubborn, so yes, i'd say some part of him is keeping his wall up with people who played no active role in the coup. still, like he pointed out, jimmy knew rikishi was on some fake shit and never said anything. that's still betrayal in roman's eyes. also, i'm so happy to see you point out his not telling jimmy the truth about rikishi. that was very telling and powerful. shows that even with all that's happened, roman still loves his cousin and doesn't want to deepen his hurt.

mmhmm! we've seen some glimpses before, but roman definitely secretly struggles/has struggled with insecurity regarding a few things. i believe we'll see that explored a bit more in book 2. 👀

lmaooo. yes. honestly, truly it's roman's love for solana and her pleading for jey's life that spared him. as much as roman didn't want to kill him before, as we clearly saw in this chapter, baby boy is on a murderous rampage. he dropping bodies left and right, and i think he would have killed jey based off high emotions and moderately to deeply regretted it later. it would just be more trauma for him. banishing jey and excommunicating him from the bloodline was the next "best" thing. and yes, roman don't ever wanna see that man again in life, bruh.

not to mention, and i think i saw a few people comment on it, jey was clearly upset with roman. i don't want people to get things mixed up though. jey 1000% regrets his role in the coup, but nicki being killed in the process only recharged that anger with roman. he's angry with roman and blames roman for nicki's murder. one might also wonder how he feels/will feel when he finds out solana isn't dead, so roman's wife lived and his didn't......hmm.

ahhh! you know what's crazy! that was discussed! solana wanted roman to take dulce with him for the exact reasons you mentioned. she didn't want him to be all alone in the house. 🥺 and, roman considered it. he really did, but he ultimately chose for dulce to stay with solana, because he knew she'd more or less be in that house all day by herself, alone, and he didn't want that for her. not when she could be with solana. 🥺 50/50 on if that convo will be included in a flashback for the next chapter, but in the event it doesn't, there ya go lmao

yessss. the murderous trio all gon be in the same city! heaven help anyone who crosses any of them. 😭

listen!!! we don't talk enough about alicia and lita who be out here doing the lord's work for these unhinged ass niggas. someone needs to just go on and give them both a raise atp.

chile.....i guess they mama said, "welp, it's time for me to fuck some shit up again." 😭😭😭

@proceduralpassion

looking through your eyes + thirty eight | part one

authors note: see at end of chapter.

warnings: angst and graphic depictions of violence. gore. torture. not for the faint of heart.

story song inspo: ‘looking through your eyes’ by leann rimes

***gif credit goes to @romanreigns ***

cast+ masterlist +story playlist + taglist request form

words: 12k

"We need Tribal Combat!"

"There's no time for that! We need a leader now!"

"We need to follow the order of command!"

"What command? Roman is dead! There is no order anymore!"

"This is why he should have been dethroned a lot sooner! He left us no heir!"

"The child wouldn't be old enough to rule anyway!"

Aleki runs a hand over his haggard face. In a matter of weeks, he feels like he's aged another ten years.

He's getting too old to be dealing with this shit, and that's exactly what all of this is. A bunch of shit.

"Tribal Combat is the way our ancestors would handle a situation like this," he finally speaks. The situation being the fact that for the first time in his lifetime, the Bloodline is without a leader.

Roman is dead.

Solo is dead.

Roman left no heir, thus there is no clear path moving forward for what should occur. The past two weeks since the former Tribal Cheif's murder has been nothing but chaotic to say the least. Aleki is far too prideful to admit it, but a part of him blames himself. He should have known better than to trust Rikishi to get the job done. Should have known that just like he did years prior with Jey, he'd fall short.

Should have known his plan was not without holes. Holes that have left them in the mess they're in now. Allies demanding to know who is in charge, threatening to sever partnerships with a syndicate that boasts no formal, official leader.

A mess.

"And just how do we determine who is eligible for combat?"

Someone, another annoying voice, inserts their question among the mumbled conversations.

Another Elder handles the answer, offering, "it could be open to anyone."

Sione sighs, saying more to himself than anyone in particular. "Nakoa's bloodline has ruled for generations."

"And now his bloodline is all dead," Aleki counters. Cold. His voice and expression are as cold as the ice in his veins. "His son in his stubbornness has damned us to this mess." He gestures around the room, anger growing as he mulls over the situation. "We should have never allowed him to rule for so—"

His pending rant is cut short by the arrival of another attendee, which instantly has him scowling for two reasons.

One, all attendees who were allowed for this audience are present and accounted for.

Two, the identify of said attendee has him pissed.

"Dwayne." His voice is clipped. "This is a closed—"

"I don't give a fuck," comes the dismissive response of the man nearly insufferable as his late, younger cousin. Dwayne saunters over to an occupied seat, easily grabbing the seat by the back, yanking it out and knocking the person to the ground. A smug smirk sits on his face as he plops down and props his big ass feet on the table. Dwayne lifts the sunglasses from the bridge of his nose to the top of his bald head. "Oh, don't stop on my account."

"This doesn't concern you," Sione dismisses.

"Come on." The 'n' drags on as he props his hands behind his head. "I'm still Bloodline, aren't I?"

"You were apart of Roman's Bloodline, and he's dead now, so you have no place here anymore." Someone, an attendee whose name Aleki would never bother to know, counters with a huff. "Plus, where the hell have you been the past few weeks?"

Dwayne shrugs. "Around."

"Around." Someone else mocks. "Our empire in on the brink of collapse, and you've just been around."

"It's like candy ass small dick over here said." Dwayne gestures with his thumb. "I'm unemployed."

The insulted man slams his fist on the table, shooting up, "you smug son of—"

Dwayne quickly silences him by pulling out his Glock G-19 and shooting him directly in the temple, his lifeless body instantly dropping to the floor. Gasps sound around the table, Aleki angrily calling for security.

"You need to leave now!" He hisses. Aleki glances toward the door, wondering why the hell security didn't come barging in at the sound of a literal gunshot.

"See, I would, but I don't answer to you anymore." Dwayne replies in a significantly more serious voice. Gone is the nonchalant "devil may care" attitude. His big body shifts as he moves both elbows onto the table, gun still in hand. "I only answer to the Tribal Chief."

Aleki hisses. "Roman is dead. There is no Tribal Chief."

Dwayne's growing smile can only be described as sinister and predatory. Knowing. "You sure about that?"

Seconds later, not even a full minute, the sound of grunts and thuds from outside the conference room. The Elders and other attendees looking around in confusion.

Except for Dwayne.

He just keeps smiling.

And an almost thunderous sound is accompanied by two more unexpected arrivals. One significantly more unexpected than the other.

Jacob Fatu's unhinged, crazed look of insanity is accompanied by his big body throwing down two dead guards, their heads awkwardly and sickly hanging from their lifeless bodies. Snapped. Their necks have been snapped.

But, that grotesque sight is severely outmatched and borderline underwhelming compared to the inconceivable sight of a dead man walking.

Roman's hair is down and wild, his murderous gaze steady and focused forward. Brass knuckles attached to a chain are secured to his right fist. The table of men are suddenly in shambles, falling over and working to put as much distance between themselves and the man everyone has believed dead.

Again, everyone except Dwayne.

Aleki can barely compute what's happening before him. So much so that there's no time to react, no time to think, just a tremendous of pain that courses through his aged body. Because one minute, he's in his chair at the head of the table, and the next he's on the floor, an enraged Roman having slapped the heavy metal chain against his body.

The old man cries out in agony as the chain is whipped once more, cutting into his skin and laying heavy onto his already brittle bones.

"Please!" He begs, allotted a brief respite as Roman redirects his focus onto Sione and the other Elders, each being mercilessly whipped with the chains.

Punishment.

He's punishing them.

"You wanna take me out!" Roman's infuriated voice slams against the walls the same way he starts to slam his fists against the broken, bloodied men who sought to see him six feet under. "It ain't ever fucking happening!" Roman lands a bone breaking kick to the neck of one of the elders, killing him instantly. The next is killed not directly by Roman but by proxy, as he screams for Jacob.

Jacob, who grabs his gun and shoots out a window, marches over, snatching the man up, dragging him to the window and not wasting a second of a minute to toss him out of said window.

Onlookers watch in horror as one by one, Roman kills them all in various brutal ways. Suffocation. Slit throats. Snapped necks. A brutal beating with the brass knuckles. Various, violent methods and manners in which each meet an untimely, grisly demise. But, the best is saved for last. Aleki. A thorn in Roman's fucking side since he was a boy.

The older man is barely clinging onto life when Roman easily snatches that life away with each slap of the heavy chain, the brass knuckles slammed onto his face until it's disfigured beyond recognition. And finally, the severing of life is achieved via the slicing of the large hunting knife across his throat.

Heaving, splattered with blood, a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, nothing but adrenaline and unbounded rage soar through Roman. His lethal gaze falls on the room of people who've been forced to watch the gory bloodbath.

The faintest hint of a smirk on his face.

Good.

Dwayne whistles. "Well, if it isn't obvious, he's not dead."

Roman shoots his older cousin a glare. Dwayne simply shrugs while Roman tips the chair back over, kicking Aleki's body to the side, rolling the chair and sitting down.

And silence. A piece of lint could fall off the wrinkled shirt of the man sitting a few seats down from Roman, and it could still be heard.

Fear.

Fear fills the room and dances off the walls, surrounds the men who just witnessed a bloodbath unlike any.

And then, finally, a brave—or stupid—soul decides to take a risk. Take a chance. "You're….you're alive."

Roman's gaze easily flickers to the man whose wide, horrified gaze is focused on him, trembling finger pointing in his direction. "We—we thought—"

One nod toward Jacob, and the man is barely able to stammer out an "I'm" before his head is violently forced to the side, the sound of his neck snapping followed up with the loud thud sound of it dropping onto the table.

The men around him back and cower away, eager and desperate to escape the death that's already claimed their pathetic lives.

"I was betrayed." Is the first thing to leave his mouth, the word 'betrayal' leaving a bitter, disgusting aftertaste that has him craving more blood. Craving vengeance. "They tried to overthrow me. Tried to kill me, and they should have." Roman stabs the large knife into the table, almost certain he heard someone whimper, as if about to cry. As if they were already crying. "They should have because they killed my wife, and now there's no fucking place on this earth anyone can hide or escape my rage." Saying it aloud is more difficult than Roman anticipated. Playing along with this storyline where Solana is no longer among the living. The discomfort is only quelled by the constant reminder that she is okay. That she's safe and simply waiting for him to return to her after handling business.

And, that's exactly what he's going to do.

Roman digs the knife deeper into the wood. "When I'm done with everyone involved in this shit, the only thing anyone will be able to see is red, and that's the fucking blood I'm going to paint this whole fucking town with." Sitting back in the chair, Roman leaves the knife protruding from the table. "But, until then, I need you all to send them a message."

Another foolish, ignorant, naive soul decides to ask what will be the final thing to leave his mouth before he leaves this room. "Wh—what m-m-message, s-s-sir?"

And for the first time since his entrance, Roman offers something other than a menacing glare. He smiles, but there's nothing humorous about it. If anything, it's predatory.

"That I'm coming."

Similar to the onslaught Roman bestowed upon the now deceased Elders, it's quick and violent. Jacob and Dwayne work almost simultaneously, not killing, but maiming the men. Severed, bloodied pieces cut from bodies. Fingers, noses, ears. Nothing fatal. Just warning enough.

And, it's only when each men has been left with a mark, a sign of Roman's pending revenge, they're ushered and forced out the room. Jacob landing a particularly painful looking blow into the back of the last disfigured, partially dismembered man.

Rolling his shoulders, Roman doesn't even need to instruct them on what to do next. Dwayne is reaching for the laptop, ripping a shirt off one of the dead elders to use it to clean it of the blood. "Fucking disgusting," he hisses, throwing it down once its completed the job.

Roman's eyes cut to the clock on the wall. Right on time.

He's uncaring of his appearance, focused on one thing and only.

Blood.

Roman is out for blood.

As Dwayne works to get everything set up and synced to the large TV screen anchored onto the wall, Jacob stands off to the side, waiting, observing, protecting almost.

Roman would be lying if he said he wasn't skeptical when Solana first told him about Jacob.

Told him how he allegedly protected her and vowed his loyalty to Roman and Roman only, as he recognized Roman as the Tribal Chief.

The only Tribal Chief.

Told her how not everyone in the Bloodline was involved in the coup, and many were waiting for Roman to show up.

Truth be told, Roman is still trying to test that. Test Jacob. So far, he's proven useful, offering Dwayne and Matteo intel and information on those allegedly involved and those not involved.

He's a a hell of a body to have around, capable of the most violent desecration of people. Useful. He's useful, but only time will tell to what extent Roman can trust him.

Can trust anyone, really.

"It's ready," Dwayne announces. Roman breaks from his thoughts, rolling his shoulders once more, ignoring the throb. Solana would have his ass for all the physical exertion. But, it needs to be done.

The sooner Roman handles this, the sooner he can have her back home with him.

Right where she belongs.

Dwayne and Jacob move to take seats, both on opposite sides of the table but in view of the TV that also serves as a casting source. The television screen is then filled with the exact person Roman wants to see next.

"This is a fucking waste of time." Luca's irritated voice is heard, his irksome ass face focused on something beside him. It looks like he's signing something. "Without someone of Italian blood at the head of your table, we have no alli—"

He stops, finally turning to look at the screen, and if there was ever someone to be as pale as Casper the fucking ghost, it's Luca.

"Roman." He all but whispers.

The Tribal Chief remains stone face. "Luca." He tilts his head. "You look surprised."

The younger man stammers, eyes darting around, hardening slightly when he lands on Dwayne who offers a small, mocking wave.

He then narrows his focus back on Roman. Clearing his throat, trying to play off indifference, he straightens his tie. "We were told you were dead."

"Were you?" Luca makes a sound. "I suppose that would have made things a lot more easier for you, now wouldn't it?"

Luca glares. "Just what—"

"Don't fucking play with me," Roman growls. "Do you think I'm stupid? I know you've been trying usurp me. That you were behind that missing shipment. The hit that killed our men. That you sent my brother to spy on me. That you were working with them to kill me."

Roman refuses to name them. Refuses to have their names on his lips. They're not fucking worth it.

Luca, to the best of his limited abilities, tries to remain unbothered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

At that, Roman chuckles, smiling, looking down and nodding. "That's….that's good." Roman can give credit where it's due. Albeit a paltry amount. But, just as quickly as he was smiling, he's glaring. "But, here's the fucking problem, I'm better. I'm better than you. Better than anyone else in this fucking family. I've always been better, and I always will be better." Always. "And you know what else?" A beat. "I'm always three steps ahead."

Luca opens his mouth to respond, fire and fury dancing in his irises when commotion can be heard through the TV.

Roman smirks.

Luca looks to the side, once angered, now confused, and then disturbed.

Gunshots. It's the sound of gunshots.

He curses in Italian, barking orders at what's probably security.

Roman says nothing.

It makes no difference.

None whatsoever.

He just sits back in his chair, enjoying the sound of men crying out in pain, bodies dropping, bullets being emptied into now lifeless corpses.

Luca's clearly shitting bricks, perspiring, gun in his shaky hand. He calls out another order that's cut short by what sounds like the door being kicked open.

Gunshots ring once more, back to back, strategic and aimed.

Luca curses loudly, holding onto his shoulder where he's been shot.

And seconds later, the base of his neck is exposed as another figure stands behind him, forcing his head back, gun pressed to his temple.

Matteo

True to his character, Luca uses his dying words to curse at not only Roman but Matteo who stands with a smug expression, giving Roman only a simple nod of acknowledgment.

Roman smirks.

He sits back in his chair, voice calm and collected. A contrast to the mayhem just unleashed. "Luca." The man in question struggles and works to move out of Matteo's unrelenting grasp. "Take this free advice. If you're gonna go for the devil, you should go always go for the head, because if you miss." A quiet chuckle. "He sure won't."

A loud bang followed by blood and brain matter splattering the screen, partially obscuring the view of Luca's lifeless body slumped over.

Like a bug, Matteo shoves him away, taking the seat, seemingly unbothered by the blood that stains his clothes, hair, and skin.

"It's done."

"Good." Sitting forward, Roman's mind travels to the mental list curated. "Get on the first flight back here."

Matteo nods. "Will do." The connection ends, and Roman closes the laptop.

Looking around the room, he readies to order Dwayne to start seeing about replacements for the Elders council but ultimately decides against it.

It can wait.

He has bigger, important things to worry and focus on, like making his way down his infinite kill list.

The OTC is coming.

---------

There are many, many things on Roman's to-do list once he arrives back home. Many bloody, violent things. Lives to take, primarily.

But, while that remains near the top, there are other things that also require his attention. Things he'd moderately prefer to not have to do but things he needs to do.

It's what leads him a few days later standing outside of Jimmy and Naomi's house. One of his first of many stops during his "revival" tour of sorts.

But, the minute the door is ripped open, and Roman is standing face to face, directly across from Jimmy, a new influx of confusing emotions fill him. The same way they paint the face of his wide eyed cousin.

Roman can see the way Jimmy continues to grip the door so tightly that his knuckles whiten. "It's….it's true." Roman's jaw twitches as he briefly looks away. "You're…you're alive?"

"We need to talk," is Roman's response. He looks at Jimmy. "Can I come in?"

A delayed response is followed up with an almost distracted head nod as Roman makes his way inside of his cousin's home, a place he's been in countless times over his almost 40 years on this earth. But, this…..this has to be the first time where it's felt different. Felt off. Felt wrong.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jimmy breathes. Roman turns around to face him, seeing the shock and confusion melt away into a bowl of anger. "We thought you were dead, Roman. Almost everyone thinks you and Solana—" He stops himself, pausing, eyes widening slightly. "Wait, is she—"

A pause. Hesitation. The moment Roman wrecked his brain over and over again trying to navigate the best way to handle such a tricky, complicated, complex situation. Ultimately, Solana's words and recommended or requested approach taking front seat. "She's safe."

Once the words leave his mouth, there's a semblance of regret. Like, he wishes he had gone a different route. Almost like he wishes he'd continued to maintain the story being spread about the fate of his pregnant wife.

Jimmy places both hands behind his head, walking away just enough to blow out a big breath. "What the fuck, Roman?" He growls, walking back over and pointing upstairs. "You got any fucking idea how gutted Naomi and I been?" He scowls, the anger and relief clearly at odds. "Thinking you and Sol were—"

"I know what you thought," he interrupts, hating his own emotions being at war. "You thought what we needed everyone to think."

Jimmy swallows. "Even me?" Silence. He once again motions upstairs. "Even Naomi?"

Silence

He runs a hand over his face, and in that moment, Roman can see for the first time the toll all of this has taken on him. He looks drained. "Roman….I know….I know what happened was fucked up. I'm not denying that. But, to treat Naomi and I like this when we ain't even do nothing?" He shakes his head. "When I'm already having to mourn my brother and father—"

"The same people who tried to kill me?" Roman interrupts, his voice sharp and even. "The people who kidnapped and were going to kill my wife?"

"I know that, Uce—"

"Do you?" A pointed question, as anger starts to overpower everything else. "Cause you're acting like I did something fucking wrong—"

"You did!" Jimmy snaps. "You kept us in the fucking dark when we deserved to know the truth!"

"The same way you kept me in the dark?" Is Roman's almost quiet response. He sees the way Jimmy's anger twitches, how it's briefly interrupted by what Roman considers to be a valid point. "For years, your father was trying to get ya'll to challenge me, trying to turn you against me, and you never said anything. Never told me shit!"

"I told you, I didn't realize—"

"I don't give a fuck what you did or didn't realize. I had a right to know!" He needed to know. Roman needed to know that the same people he considered family, the closest thing he had left to a father figure, even with them never necessarily being super close, was plotting against him the entire time. "If you had just told me—"

"Then what? It would have changed something?" Jimmy shouts, also unwilling to back down like the man across from him. "Would have stopped all this from happening? Would change what happened—"

"I don't know!" A forced, short, angry response as the Tribal Chief turns away, running his hand over his face. This conversation is equally heavy as it is challenging. He wasn't stupid enough to expect anything about it to be easy, but Roman can't deny a small part of him hoped it would go….different. In what way, he's not entirely sure. Just something….not this.

"Uce, we can figure this out—"

Roman briefly turns to him. "Can we?"

And, when Jimmy doesn't respond immediately, doesn't respond at all, Roman realizes in one area of all of this shit, they're on the same page. They're both confused as to how to untangle this massive mess of betrayal, lies, and hurt. Because for Roman, it's not even the coup organized by the people he once considered family, it's the fact that he also has to come to grips with that same "family" was a part of the plan that cost Roman his entire immediate family.

Left him essentially alone.

In many ways, that's what hurts the most.

But, it's also something Roman has opted to not tell Jimmy. As much hatred the Tribal Chief holds toward Solo and Rikishi, he can still acknowledge that was Jimmy's brother and father. He won't complicate his cousin's grief.

Because Roman doesn't hate him.

Doesn't hate him at all.

He just can't trust him anymore, and he's not sure if and when that will change.

Which is why he settled on the decision he did. The decision he's ready to finally share.

"When Solana comes home, and she will come home, I don't want to see you."

Gaze focused on the wall art in Jimmy's living room, Roman doesn't need to be looking at his cousin to know he's floored. "W-what?"

He swallows, recalling the specific wording he decided on. "You're out of my inner circle. I'll have Dwayne find a position for you in the Bloodline when things settle—"

"Roman—"

"Solana can decide for herself what she wants her relationship with Naomi to be, but I don't want either of you at my house."

"You can't—"

"I can do whatever the fuck I want." Even if he's not entirely sure it's exactly what he wants. It's the best Roman can do under these circumstances.

All he can do.

That doesn't mean there's not the reappearance of that damn weight that's been on his chest ever since he had to leave Solana. Even before that, if he's being completely honest with himself.

"My decision is final, Jimmy." Because maybe sticking to the facts, or rather the stipulations Roman has decided to put in place until he can navigate a better solution might be helpful. Emotions are getting in the way of business.

Jimmy just looks at him, stares at him, unwilling or maybe even uncaring of how visible his many emotions are. "So, that's it?" Roman's jaw clenches. "After everything we been through, the good, the bad, the everything in between. Almost 40 years of friendship, of being family….." He swallows, emotion and vulnerability on full display. "You're like my brother, Roman—"

"But not a brother, right?" Silence. "That's why you didn't say anything."

It's a deeply rooted point of insecurity. One that Roman hasn't really allowed himself to think too much about since he was a kid. That feeling of being "not like them." Of feeling like he didn't necessarily "belong."

An outsider among his own blood.

"This isn't fair, and you know it," Jimmy finally responds. "You're punishing me, punishing Naomi, for something that we didn't even do."

Perhaps. The Tribal Chief won't entirely deny that. He knows he can be vindictive, and maybe some part of him does want to punish them in a way he can't the deceased. But, the vast majority of him only seeks to have a temporary solution in place to relieve him of all the other very many tasks on his plate.

And, the deep fucking truth of the matter is also something he won't allow himself to admit aloud but feels fully.

He needs Solana.

Roman needs his wife to help him sort through all of this. He needs her support. Her safety. Her sage wisdom and soft way of helping him navigate these things. So, until that can happen, this is what needs to happen.

Roman takes a deep breath. For as nice and big a home Jimmy and Naomi have, it's suddenly feels a lot more stuffy than he recalls. A lot less welcoming. His presence more…intruding than anything.

"I have to go." Both a truth and a lie. The day is practically just getting started, but time waits for the Tribal Chief. He could stay longer, could maybe talk things through with his cousin.

Problem is he doesn't want to.

Not right now.

Not for a while, most likely.

Roman is a bit unsure why he's some level of bothered by Jimmy not protesting his leave. It's what's best….

Right?

"You're going to do it, aren't you?" Roman's hand is halfway to touching the doorknob when he's hit with the question. The one he knew was coming but hoping wouldn't. The one that makes sense. "You're going to kill him."

His eyes shut.

Debated. Roman debated the hell out of and with himself to try to figure out how he would tackle that one. Of course, Jimmy would want to know that. Would want to know if another person will be added to the list of lost loved ones. Especially his brother.

Jey.

Roman also considered how to respond to this, how much he wanted to share, if he wanted to grant Jimmy some sense of peace with knowing the answer or grief with also knowing the answer.

Roman swallows once more.

And, he walks out the door.

-----------

The only way for Roman to decompress from his heavy conversation with Jimmy and all that will come from the decisions that have been made is to cope the best way he knows how.

Murder.

Roman needs to cross off another name from his hit list.

Two, precisely.

"Where the fuck are they?" Dwayne complains and swats away a pesky fly that seems to prefer to fly around and in his personal bubble. "Fucking hate the outdoors."

Matteo snickers. "So, you wouldn't accompany Afia, the kids and I on a camping trip?"

Dwayne just stares at him. "Do I look poor to you?"

Roman manages a chuckle and a thought of something else. About the sacrifice Matteo is also making by being here with him. Standing with him. He's also separated from his wife. From his children. Agreeing to no contact to help keep Solana being alive a secret.

Roman swallows.

He didn't really realize until just now how massive an ask that was.

And how Matteo never once hesitated to agree to join him.

The sound of a truck engine revving is a welcomed distraction and something that allows Roman to reorient his focus to the task at hand. Jaw clenched, he watches the ambulance come to an abrupt stop followed by the drivers door being flung open.

Jacob's large body drops down, his boots leaving imprints in the slightly muddy ground as he stomps to the back of the truck and snatches the door open.

Hate fills the Tribal Chief as he watches Jacob angrily and almost erratically yank the two hospital beds out the back, both participants crying out in pain as they tumble onto the ground.

But, the cries of pain from one ease into a sick, twisted, laugh.

Roman's stomp onto his neck effectively silences that laugh. Seth's brown eyes peer up into him, that deranged smile on his face causing Roman to lift his foot and stomp once more. Seth almost instantly coughs up blood.

However, it's wheezing from the rotund man on the ground a few feet away from the lunatic under him that snatches Roman's focus.

Carefully, slowly, he walks over, anger accompanying each step until he kicks Paul over, a loud howl leaving his former advisor's mouth.

Tears stream down his face that has a large bandage on the right cheek and other unhealed cuts around various areas. "Pl—please."

Roman growls. That damn word has easily become one of his least favorites.

Similar to Seth, Roman lands his boot down on the top of Paul's fat neck. As the man screams out in pain, Dwayne chuckles.

"I know that hurt."

It all must hurt, Roman realizes. Hurt tremendously. Good.

For the first time, he takes in the sight and state of the two men before him still in hospital gowns. Their legs and arms covered with bandages, peaks of red, burned skin peaking out, the lesser of their injuries minimal compared to the latter end of severe.

Severe…

Nothing will ever be severe enough for them.

Roman barks for a knife, and the minute he's handed one, he crouches down and begins cutting. Not just the bandage. The fresh, still healing skin graft underneath the bandages as well. The screams of pain are ear piercing and music to Roman's fucking ears.

Methodically, like a butcher mastering his craft, he cuts away, ignoring the blood and body matter that splatters and splashes his clothes, tossing the mangled, ruined patches of fleshto the side like trash to the can.

Around him, no one interferes, no one stops him, and no one damn sure responds to Paul's blubbering as he transitions between screaming, apologizing, and eventually begging for Roman to just kill him.

That last is definitely on the agenda. Just not yet.

Because, one he's done butchering victim one, he transitions to victim two. Seth. Seth's torture is the eerily the same, the maniacal laughing eventually melting into sobs of agony. But, he doesn't beg for death, doesn't beseech the Tribal Chief for mercy.

No, that doesn't come until Roman is handed the electric chainsaw.

It comes then. Screams and shouts of unimaginable pain as Roman saws off arms and legs, one by one, blood shooting and spurting out. Again, the man intent on making their last minutes on earth nothing but horrific, forever uncaring. It's satisfying in a demented sort of way, but Roman doesn't care.

They're getting exactly what they deserve.

Heaving and sweating from the exertion expended through the torture, Roman only stops when all that remains is exposed bone from where he cut off their arms below the elbows and their knees slightly above the knees.

He would have continued too, if not for the fact both men are starting to lose consciousness, and that won't do.

He wants them awake for as long as humanly fucking possible.

Especially for the grand finale.

Roman snaps, speaking to Jacob. "Douse em'."

An order that doesn't need to be repeated. As Roman lifts off his shirt that's caked in blood, pieces of bone, and human flesh, tossing it to the ground, Dwayne hands him a towel to dry off and remove some of the other unmentionables.

Jacob moves quickly and efficiently, pouring the gasoline all over what remains of Paul and Seth's carved up bodies. Drenches them.

And with a wicked smirk on his face, Matteo tops it off, tops them off with the cherry on top.

An accelerant.

He forces their mouths open, the sound of them gurgling and choking sounded out with a kick to the side of the head. It's effective, allowing him to empty the bottle that he tosses to the side.

"Done," he says, voice ice cold as he goes to stand beside Dwayne and Jacob. None of them showing even the slightest hint of disturbance. If anything, there's more of a pleased, satisfied aura.

Recognizing they've reached the end of the road, that the men are mere minutes away from unconsciousness—and death—Roman stalks over to them. Slowly. A predator enjoying the final moments of his prey's existence. Moments that must consist of pain beyond human comprehension.

He looks down, the sight grotesque and enough to evoke vomiting from anyone without a seasoned stomach, but Roman is anything but. The sight makes him smile. The putrid smell of exposed bone, organs, and extensive blood pleasing to him in every sense of the word.

A dark, quiet chuckle leaves his mouth. "So much for that spoiler."

Stepping back, his eyes dart between the both of them, studying and committing the grisly image to memory.

Gratifying, indeed.

And without much thought, he pulls out the matchbox, lighting two matches, each thrown onto the men.

Turning on his heel, Roman walks away, tuning out their screams of misery and suffering.

"Let's go." It's spoken to the three men with him as they head out of the forest and to their SUV's. Extracting his revenge on the two men grants Roman with a sense of relief. He's relieved to know those two fuckers no longer breathe, or will breathe, the same air as him.

But, as gory and sadistically satisfying as Paul and Seth's deaths are, it still doesn't dull or ease the mixed emotions that fill the Tribal Chief at the thought of his next task.

Arguably, one of the hardest he has to complete.

----------

There's one reason and one reason alone why Roman asks Matteo and Dwayne to be present for this.

One very valid, important reason that can't be ignored or pushed aside. It's not his preference though.

Not really.

This is so personal that it feels almost wrong to have other parties present, but Roman also knows himself. Knows that when he fully succumbs to that uncontrollable rage that dwells within him, he can't see or think beyond it. It totally and wholly consumes him. Controls him.

Thus….his need for a contingency plan.

Roman has his back toward the door that's flung open, the intensity causing nearby photos on the wall to shake. Roman sighs. As effective as Jacob can be, he's…..a lot.

The Tribal Chief turns around just in time to see one cousin throw down the man Roman also once considered cousin.

Considered family.

Considered to be a brother.

As prideful as he can be, Roman would never deny the fact that he could have done a better job with being less hard on the twins. Less…..him. But, the truth of the matter is that despite the frosty disposition and irritation that marred a lot of their interactions, no one but the three of them know what they've been through. The countless times they've had each other's back out in the field. Protecting and looking out for each other.

The times Roman looked out for Jey.

All those moments that have boiled down to and left them right where they are now.

Jey, on the floor before him, hands on the ground, his fiery gaze on the man he also once considered family.

And seeing it, seeing Jey be upset with him?

It pisses Roman the fuck off.

He walks toward his table and grabs the brass knuckles. Both pair.

"Get out." A command directed only toward Jacob who offers no protest, walking out the same way he came in, standing watch outside the door.

"Roman…"

Roman has completely tuned out the voice of either Dwayne or Matteo. He doesn't know nor does he care.

Roman lifts his foot, kicking Jey right in the face with so much force that his body jerks back violently.

"You son of a bitch," he growls, not wasting a second to pounce on top of him, aiming for his ribs first. Jey's' howl of pain drives his determination—and fury—and distracts the Capo from his own lingering pain. The injuries that have not yet fully healed, marginally due to the fact that Roman has done nothing but exert himself from the moment he landed back home.

He'd kept his promise and continued rehab, continued to follow the doctor's orders, but that was all in between carrying out violent, bloody, brutal punishments for every fucker who turned on him.

Including the one underneath him.

And thinking of Solana, thinking of how she's not here, not with him, it only deepens the color of red he sees.

It's all he sees.

The sound of Jey's ribs cracking and his fruitless efforts to push the enraged man off him only drive Roman to lift the man up and slam him against the nearest wall. Another brutal kick to his ribs. Roman doesn't care if every single one is broken.

He grabs Jey by the chin, squeezing, enjoying the way his face remains scrunched up in pain. "You broke up my Bloodline." Not the massive crime syndicate that Roman has spent the better half of his life improving and making it into the billion dollar empire that it is now. He's referring to the family component, the familial bond and connection they shared.

That Bloodline.

"My wife isn't here because of you, Jey. You understand?" Roman continues. A part of him wonders if anything, especially that, means anything to Jey. He's unsure if Jey knows that Solana is actually alive or if he even cares, because his wife is most certainly not.

And, it's that, Roman is sure, that fuels Jey's hatred. Has him, despite the brutal beating he's receiving, refusing to cower, to show any sign of fear. Just impenetrable defiance.

"I looked out for you, I spared your fucking life, saved your ass time and time again, and what do you do?" Another fresh wave of rage, as Roman slams Jey's head back against the wall, shouting, "you break up my fucking family!"

Again, double, maybe even multiple meanings, all with one heartbreaking conclusion.

It creates a brief fracture in Roman's anger, paves the way for a small glimpse of what lies underneath all of that fury that courses through his big body. "I would have never done this shit to you, Jey."

Because, he wouldn't. Because for all the bad things Roman is, how awful he could be, he would have never stooped so low. Would have never allowed whatever prideful feelings he was struggling with to lead him down a path that could only end in heartbreak. But, Jey did. His insecurities got the best of him, and it's cost him.

It's cost him dearly.

Because as far as Roman is concerned, Nicki's death is on him.

"So just…." Jey coughs up blood as Roman realizes at some point in his inner dialogue, he'd moved back to pounding Jey into the floor. "Just…do it." Roman stops and stares at him, his own chest heaving. "You wanna kill me…..fucking do it then, Uce. It's…it's what you want, ain't it?"

Bullshit.

Roman can see right through it, right through the paltry front he's trying to put up in the face of a true life or death situation. Stubborn as all outdoors, very much like himself, Roman knows that Jey loves his kids more than anything. He would never want to "leave" them.

Especially after what's happened.

He's calling Roman's bluff, and that pisses him to fuck off.

For more reasons than the man under him and the two before him can realize.

Roman closes his eyes.

"Please." It's the pleading nature of her voice as well as the borderline desperation in her eyes that has Roman struggling. Struggling with it all. "I know….I know what he did was wrong."

"It wasn't just wrong, Solana," he calmly counters. Roman is working hard to be mindful of his tone with her. The anger that dances and burning within is 100% not aimed or geared towards her. Whatsoever. "It was unforgivable."

She swallows. "I know." He shuts his eyes once more as she continues to gently massage his scalp with one hand, the other tracing his inked arm, carefully maneuvering the ridges of disfigured skin from his burn scars. "But, I'm not….I'm not asking you to forgive him, Ro."

"No," he murmurs, jaw flexing. "But, what you're asking is a lot fucking harder."

Solana moves closer, her hand traveling to his face. "Roman….his kids lost their mother." She licks her lips and shakes her head. "We both grew up without our mothers, and I know that your relationship with yours was…..complicated, but….mine wasn't and not having her…." Her eyes watering is something he can't avoid. Can't ignore. "No child deserves that, Roman, and you know it." His silence is all that she needs to continue. "Baby, I know I'm asking a lot from you, but….please don't kill him."

He's always said and "joked" about never being able to say no to her. But, this….this might be a first. "Solana…."

"Please, Roman." Her voice cracks as she leans up, her forehead against his, breathing. "For me."

Roman is returned to the scene before him, to the decision he'd made just this morning. A decision he's not sure how he'll handle moving forward, but it's one he's accepted as his final answer.

"I'm not going to kill you," he announces. Jey can't hide his surprise, and Roman would bet his cousin and brother mimic similar expressions.

He hadn't shared his decision with anyone until this very moment.

"And, the only fucking reason I'm not is because of the woman you almost got killed," he hisses. Jey continues to look dumbfounded. "But, you are fucking dead to me in every other sense of the word. You've got a fucking week for you and your kids out of the city. Your security access is revoked, your position with the Bloodline done. You are done."

Jey continues to look around, obviously struggling to process what's being said. Like, he hadn't expected Roman to actually kill him and yet still expected Roman to kill him.

"I never want to fucking hear or speak to you ever again, you understand me?" It's a watered down warning. It's all watered down, truly. Even the fact that Jey lays before him, potentially half dead, in need of medical assistance. It's not enough. Nothing will ever be enough, even if he took his cousin's life with his bare hands. And, Roman knows this.

Still, this has to be one of the hardest decisions he's ever made.

"But, if you ever fucking step foot in this town again, I don't care what Solana says, I'll fucking kill you. I swear it on Fetu's grave." A vow to carry out the act of vengeance, love, in all the irony, prevents him from completing.

It's solely Roman's love for Solana that stops him from killing Jey.

Nothing else.

Literally nothing else.

Roman's final declaration is accompanied by another stomp, this time to Jey's face, effectively knocking him out cold. Standing up and rolling his neck, Roman grimaces and grabs at his shoulder.

Way too much exertion. Not that it makes a difference.

Jey is just one of many he plans to visit today.

He looks over his shoulder, uncaring and unwilling to discuss what transpired. What's done is done.

Roman so casually, and coldly, walks over Jey's slumped, unconscious body and snatches his jacket off the hook behind the door. "Let's go."

Footsteps of the other two men follow him swinging the door open, Jacob standing at attention.

"Make sure he's gone by the time I'm back," Roman commands. What's done has been done, and while there's a tremendous amount of unspoken, unresolved issues between himself and the man he's just effectively banished indefinitely, it's not a task he's up for.

Not now.

Not ever.

Roman meant what he said.

Should Jey ever try to return to the city, Roman will absolutely kill him.

But, until then, he might as well already be dead.

Because he is to Roman.

---------

Following Roman's dramatic, bloody return from his supposed demise, he places the city on lock down.

No one enters, and no one leaves.

Armed guards, a mixture of verified Bloodline loyalists as well as soldiers from the Legado Del Fantasma, remain stationed at every entrance into the city, whether it be by land or harbor, to ensure that this order remains non-violated.

Roman intends for not a single fucker to escape his bloody vengeance.

And bloody, it most certainly is.

Nothing but unbridled rage courses through Roman's body as he spends the weeks making his way down his list eliminating target after target. Traitor after traitor. Life after life, taken.

Doors are kicked down, pieces of shit dragged out. Some granted quick death. Simple head shots that leave blood and brain matter splattered in the nearest vicinity. Some are tossed off of buildings, leaving their splattered remains for all to see. Some are used as examples. Their tortured, mangled remains tied up on display in the middle of the streets as both a reminder and a warning. A reminder of what happens to all who dare to cross Roman fucking Reigns, and a message to those who played in any role in the coup that he's coming, and he's coming for blood.

Roman has the city in a state of terror and fear. Families keeping their children in the house. Picking them up and dropping them off to school to avoid being caught in the cross hairs. A bit unnecessary, as despite Roman slipping back into that dark space that consumed him before Solana, his few morals remain the same. Women and children are off limits.

Neither of those groups are included in his hit list.

Everyone else though…..tough.

But, while the adrenaline that races through him fuels his revenge tour, that fuel of sorts easily melts away when he arrives home later in the evening. Arrives to an empty home. No sweet, delicious aroma of Solana's cooking to greet him. Or the pitter-patter of Dulce's feet as she races to the front door, eager to jump at and try to lick him but mostly just wanting to be petted and to have her belly rubbed. Being able to come up behind his wife, holding her, kissing her temple, taking in the feel of her body up against his.

Things he'd gotten used to.

Things he misses.

He misses a lot.

He misses her.

He thinks about her, about what she could be doing, about whatever pregnancy symptoms she could be experiencing, as he follows along via the app she'd installed on his phone. He checks daily, each time wondering about the swell of her stomach, imagining the excitement she must feel. Or, the sadness.

Because there is something undeniably sad about them not being able to experience this together. Something that was so important to her.

Important to him.

Being there with her to support her as she carries his children, their children, is important to him.

But….but, her safety comes first.

Their safety comes first.

Her absence is with him every fucking second of the day, though on the back-burner when the sun sits comfortably in the sky, and he has the distraction of his murderous rampage. But, when the sun is replaced with the moon, and he lays in that same bed where they've made love countless times, where she's laid on his chest, talking about her day. Where he's held and slept with her, rubbing her belly, allowing himself to feel genuinely happy for a long fucking time.

All of that is soured and dampened by the cruel reality. Solana is not there. Dulce is not there.

She's not with him. They're not with him, because of them.

And then the rages builds up all over again.

It's a vicious, cruel cycle. One that he can't escape. One that leads him to the place he wasn't expecting or planning to visit anytime soon.

Too difficult.

But, necessary.

"Not gonna lie…." Lita trails off, shifting in her seat. It's one of the few times he's noticed she's not almost casually lounged, legs tucked under her. She's sitting with both feet planted on the ground, a small frown on her face. "Believing you to be dead only for you to show up with quite the return….and now having you in front of me, I'm not quite sure where to start except to tell you that I'm so sorry about Solan—"

"She's not dead."

Silence.

Lita, for all her expertise and experience, can't hide her shocked expression. "What?"

Roman looks away. Just as he battled with whether or not to tell Jimmy the truth about Solana, he experienced the same battle regarding just how honest he wanted to be with Lita.

That's not to say he doesn't have a host of other issues he could probably, definitely, benefit from talking and working through with her.

Like the two panic attacks he's had since returning home.

Or, the several nightmares that have awoken him from the little sleep he has received. The nightmares that started when he was in the hospital in Mexico. The reason Solana refused to go home and leave him alone, staying and sleeping with him. Comforting him.

She's his comfort, and not having her has him six different shades of fucked up. On top of the pre-existing level of fucked up-ness he is on any given day.

If there was any doubt in his mind before just how codependent Roman is with his wife, this whole experience has successfully zapped it all away.

Still, that doesn't take away from the fact that Solana isn't here, and he's not okay, so he needs to find a way to get his shit together.

And, the woman before him is his best bet.

It didn't take much research and digging to realize Lita had no connection or involvement with the coup, thus eliminating her from the hit list. But, there's still this overwhelming importance of only keeping Solana's true status a secret from anyone who doesn't need to know.

And, while Roman wouldn't consider Lita someone who needs to know the truth, it would help him a hell of a lot considering the whole reason he's sitting before her.

Plus….while Roman isn't sure just what trust means to him anymore, he trusts that if she didn't know before, the bodies dumped in the streets, should be all the reminder of what happens to anyone who crosses Roman fucking Reigns.

"She's….she's in hiding. Safe." He clarifies, not willing to offer much more than that. "I'm not bringing her back home until I'm sure it's safe to do so."

"I see…." Lita trails off once more, slipping into her usual sitting position, legs tucked under her. For some reason, it makes Roman feel slightly more relaxed. "It all makes sense, then."

He eyes her. Skeptical. Cautious. "What do you mean?"

She takes a deep breath. "Roman, I don't….I don't fully understand how all the crime shit works, but I know and have heard enough to know that you were betrayed, Solana was kidnapped, and my guess would be that they tried to kill you both." He says and offers neither agreement or disagreement. "I can understand why you're so angry and why you've been on a murder spree, making the town look like something out of a horror movie, but it's….it's deeper than that." She tilts her head, assessing in a low voice. "It's even more personal, because she's not here….you don't have her with you, and that's….difficult, I'd gather."

He looks away once more, fist forming at his side. Roman's voice is also low and quiet, as he admits aloud for the first time, "I'm not….I'm not used to it." He swallows, pushing back the pride, knowing he needs to talk about this. To unload at least one thing on his plate. "I'm not used to….to being without her."

He doesn't really know how to function properly and normally without her. Just knows how to channel all of that frustration in his killing and torturing.

"I'm sure," Lita murmurs.

"I—" He struggles, the word a tremendous weight that weighs him down to the point of needing release. "I miss her."

Lita presses her lips together, voice sympathetic. "Are you….are you able to spe—"

"No," he interrupts, voice gruff. "We're no contact to ensure her location can't be tracked."

"I see." She's quiet for a few minutes, eventually and gingerly approaching all of the other shit Roman now has added to his collection of baggage. "I've also heard that….that you were betrayed from the inside. That it was….some of your family members."

"They were never my fucking family," he growls. Roman has shifted from that place of vulnerability to that stainless steel wall of defense. "And don't fucking call them that."

"My apologies." She nods, recognizing that the extent of his regression might be more than she realized. Understandable though. Completely understandable. "Can I ask you something?"

His hesitation is noticeable. "What?"

"With Solana gone for the time being, who do you have?"

It's a delayed response. The question requires contemplation.

"My cousins, Dwayne and Ava," he finally answers, and for the first time, in a long time, Roman allows himself to be honest about the very thing he's avoided for years. Tried to pretend wasn't a thing. But, it is. And, it's been more than proven in the past few weeks. "And Matteo….my brother."

This time, Lita expertly shields her surprise at yet another shocking confession. "Your brother?" He says nothing. Expected. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had a sibling still living."

Tense and partially uncomfortable, Roman nods. "It's….complicated."

"I bet," she murmurs. "Do you…do you want to talk about it?"

No. He doesn't want to talk about anything. What Roman wants to do is be with his pregnant wife. He wants to not have to deal with any of this shit. Wishes it never fucking happened in the first place, but it did, and now he's here trying to use a dollar store mop for a rainfall of issues.

But….

But, in this midst of this storm of epic proportions, there have been some glimpses of….something.

Like the fact that Roman can't and won't continue to deny something he's spent his whole life avoiding. Trying to avoid.

That he has a brother.

That despite all off the bitter feelings of resentment and jealousy toward the man that got the same short end of the stick that he did, Matteo has more than proven himself to be someone Roman can….can trust.

Such a difficult, virtually impossible thing considering what happened, the depth of the betrayal, but the truth of the matter is that Matteo and so many others showed up when Roman needed help the most.

Needed his brother.

It's why he's decided to stop denying the truth and maybe, just maybe, himself.

Roman shifts in his seat. "I've…I've realized that….I should…probably try to form some kind of relationship with him." Because, it's time. "It's what Solana thinks I should do, and….one of my aunt's dying wish that I….make things right with him."

"Sure." A pause. "But, what about you, Roman? What do you want?"

A lot of things. The biggest thing? His wife back home with him, so he could have her by his side as he works through all this shit. But, that's not an option. It's not an option, and he has to learn how to be without her for the time being.

Has to learn how to navigate the waters closest to him.

No matter how much he hates it.

"I—I—" He also hates this fucking stuttering and stammering. It's so unlike him. "I don't know how….how to go about that."

An almost embarrassing admission but a truth, nonetheless. Solana is good with these sorts of things. Not him.

Lita keeps a contained smile. Regression has certainly occurred but not, perhaps, as much as she initially believed. There's something there she intends to grab and hone in on as much as she can while still acknowledging his already complex treatment plan just got significantly more complicated.

"Well….." She starts, standing up and walking over to grab the infamous box of Giant Uno off her bookshelf. "Murder and mayhem, I don't know, but that…." Trailing off, she takes a seat, offering another small, patient smile. One step at a time. "—That I can certainly help you with."

----------

"Ya know," Ava starts, lifting her beer from her mouth after taking and swallowing a decent ass amount. "I'm a little offended none of you fuckers have invited me along for the kill tour."

Dwayne chuckles, the beer in his hand looking significantly smaller than it actually is due to his big ass overall size. "Didn't realize that was your thing, cuz."

"Psshhh." She makes a sound, leaning back in the chair, lifting her middle finger to the sky. "They came after our family. Of course, I want my pound of flesh."

Matteo's smile is small as he traces the mouth of his bottle. "Well, there still remains a few outliers we haven't caught."

Being reminded of that makes Roman scowl as he tightly squeezes the bottle in his hand.

Despite his shutting down the city, a few bitches were perhaps smart enough to get the hell out of dodge when they realized Solo was also dead. When they realized that while Roman had been "eliminated," not having the protection of the men who led the charge meant their fates were left up in the air.

So, they ran.

Not that it's made a difference. Roman has accompanied Dwayne on various trips to other states where the Bloodline has locations, where tips from traitors who were dumb enough to stick around and ended up singing like canaries from a little bit of torture. Or, if Roman doesn't accompany Dwayne for said trips, Matteo does.

They're smart enough to know it's not wise for all three to leave the city at once. Not when they're working to restore order and balance.

A process that's…..going, which is good, but it's still going, which is the problem.

It's been two weeks, and they're still not there. At that point where Roman can bring his wife home, and that….that's been rough, to say the least.

It helps to have the people around him, but even them combined together don't equate even half of the comfort and relief his wife provides him.

"Good," Ava replies, smiling craftily. "Save some for me, then." She then gasps, looking around the room. "Has big ears told you what we came up with for you know what?"

At that, Roman rolls his eyes, but he can't ignore the skip and leap of hope that dances within at the shift in topic and conversation.

"Hopefully, you did most of the thinking, cause Lord knows this man ain't got a romantic bone in his body," Dwayne scoffs, gesturing to Roman who only scowls in response.

"I'd argue there's maybe one there." Matteo shrugs. "Or, half of one."

Ava snorts. "More like a quarter." Roman flips her off, something she entirely ignores. "Anyway, so here's what we came up with…."

As Ava moves into specifics, excitement painting her face and accompanying her hand gestures as she almost illustrates what they, what Roman primarily, intends to do for his wife upon her return. A plan months in the making, marked and interrupted by several setbacks but something he's ultimately decided to follow through with.

Roman tunes them out to a certain extent, focused less on the conversation at hand and more the people.

In under a year, his life has taken such a turn. Many unexpected turns. He's gained and lost, lost and gained, gained some more, lost some more, and started all over. Overwhelming in a lot of regards, especially considering the latest chapter has easily been the most traumatic.

But, there's also something else he can't deny. Something he's been working on in therapy with Lita, that he'd love to be able to talk with Solana about, but something he can't really deny, nonetheless. Even if he wanted to.

He's gained such a loyal, strong inner circle. People who, if he continues upon the path of honesty, have always been there for him. It's just been him, Roman, who's kept that wall up.

The wall that, according to Lita, kept the "bad" people out but also kept the "good" people from getting in.

She wasn't wrong.

Roman has spent so many years pushing people away, only letting a select few close to him, and while a few of those select few have caused him an insurmountable of pain, hurt and trauma, there still remains the fact that he still has people he can trust.

He still has family.

Even more, Solana's several statements regarding as such return to the forefront of his mind.

"The girls deserve to have a big family who love and support them, Ro."

Solana was also right.

His family might look slightly different now, but they're still family.

"I—" He cuts in, interrupting the conversation among the three regarding that. Equally important but not as germane as what he wants to say. Needs to say, really. "I want to thank all of you."

"Hell hath fucking frozen over." Ava scoffs. "Did you just…..thank someone?" She smirks, crossing her arms, head tilted. "I didn't think you were capable of that shit. Not unless it's Solana."

Roman scowls, but he doesn't disagree. "Are you done?" She rolls her eyes and lifts her hands in a defensive manner, signifying her silence. Roman shifts in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable with the three sets of eyes on him. "I know I….I'm not the fucking best with this shit, but I….I do appreciate the three of you. What you've done…..for me." He primarily looks between Dwayne and Matteo. "Especially you two….you saved my life." He swallowed. "I don't….I don't take that lightly."

"You better fucking not," Dwayne shakes his head, sipping some of his beer. "I don't risk my life for just anyone."

"And, you're not just anyone, Roman," Matteo adds, his tone more on the serious side. Sincere. "You're family."

"We're family," Ava corrects, looking among the men. "A dysfunctional ass family of killers and shit ton of trauma but family nonetheless."

Roman chuckles. "Yeah…." He clears his throat, carefully trying to balance vulnerability with some element of business. "Matteo…." His brother looks his way, eyebrow raised. "You said you trust Vinci, right?"

Vinci. The man who assisted Matteo in making his way back to Italy without the Administration finding out, allowing him the element of surprise needed to carry out his hits. A man who, according to Matteo, has worked hard for and with him for over a decade.

He offers no hesitation, just a nod of confirmation. "With my life." Skepticism is raised. "Why?"

A bit of a delayed response, because that damn trust thing. Roman isn't sure how he's supposed to trust anyone outside of the group of people who helped him ever again, and while this Vinci fucker isn't anyone he knows, Matteo does. Matteo is vouching for him, so that has to be enough.

For now.

"We'll need someone we know we can trust to handle business over there." At that, he and Dwayne share questioning expressions. "Because I need you two stateside with me."

Matteo is the first to respond, that skepticism still looming. "Yeah?"

Roman rolls his neck, explaining. "I….I need people around me I know I can trust." A survey of the gatherers. "And outside of Solana, I don't know anyone I trust more than the people in this room."

Ava sits forward, seeing her cousin's gaze on her. "Wait…." She lowers her beer, small smile growing on her face. "You're inviting me into your inner circle?"

Roman nods. "You may be a pain in the fucking ass majority of the time, but you're smart. Loyal. I know I can trust you, and I know you'd be a valuable asset."

"Hell yeah, I would." She agrees. "Some estrogen to tamper down all that testosterone would probably do you all some good."

Roman doesn't entirely disagree. He just continues to share the tentative plans he's been mentally mulling over since returning home. "I'm also….I'm considering including Escobar."

"Escobar?" Dwayne's look of skepticism sure. "Brotha, you sure you didn't hit that big ass head of yours at some point?" A sarcastic question, of course, but there's also a hint of truth. "You hate Escobar."

"Dumbo hates everyone. What else is new?"

Roman ignores Ava. Her being on his council will be….an adjustment, for sure. "I did, or I do, but….I can't deny what he did, and Lopez wants him to be the liaison between us and the Cartel, so it only makes sense to include him. In some things. Not all."

"Isn't he technically your in-law as well?"

"Don't remind me," Roman mutters, trying to wipe his brother's valid but irritating reminder from his mind.

"I hate to break it to you, Roman, but it seems Solana's maternal side of the family is….large." Matteo's comment doesn't help, but it's not meant to. Meant to remind The Tribal Chief that his future is most likely filled with forced interactions with….people. "It might benefit you to get used to….large family functions."

"Make sure that Stephanie girl is there."

Matteo frowns. "Did she not tell you, not so eloquently, might I add, to fuck off?"

"Sure did." Dwayne answers. Proudly, almost. "I'll wear her down."

"Oh my God." Ava rolls her eyes, standing up and heading to the kitchen. "I need another beer."

"I'll join you," Dwayne announces.

"Please don't," she objects. Not that it makes a difference as he says something about warming up a slice of pizza.

Their departure leaves Roman and Matteo alone. A blanket of silence befalls them. One that has Roman moving around in his seat, eager to down the rest of his beer. In the madness and chaos that's thrived and consumed his life in the wake of fixing everything, this evening of just….calm, of normalcy, is appreciated.

Needed, even.

"So…." Matteo starts, placing his beer down on the coffee table. "Your inner circle…"

The younger man nods, stroking his beard. "Well, there are openings now."

While Roman is dead serious, Matteo laughs quietly, shaking his head. "I bet there are."

For the Elder council as well, but that's also being taken care of. Another task Roman is overseeing with the help of his cousin and the man before him.

"Thank you, Roman." Matteo's voice has shifted to a serious, solemn tone. "I don't take the honor lightly. Especially after what's happened…."

Roman says nothing initially. Just nods as something unfamiliar and indescribable fills him. Emotion, maybe? Some form of it, perhaps. He just knows it's partially settled by the conversation he had with Lita about this.

One step at a time.

"You've earned it." Is the response he settles on. The latter portion of his response a bit difficult for him to share but a truth, nonetheless. "Besides, it might be kind of hard for us to work on this….brother shit, if you're on the other side of the world."

While it's not the first time Roman has referred to Matteo as his brother, it's certainly the first time he's verbalized it in an accepting manner.

Especially in front of Matteo whose small smile can only be described as one of relief.

And joy.

Happiness.

"I suppose you're right, fratello," he hums. "I suppose you're right…"

Fratello

Brother.

And for the first time, Matteo's use of the word doesn't anger Roman. Doesn't pick at a long-term, never healing, always open, fresh would.

It feels relieving.

Healing.

---------

Despite an evening of relaxation and camaraderie, the next day brings about more work. More shit to work through.

"So…." Matteo starts as the two walk into Bloodline Headquarters, Dwayne planning to meet them later in the day, tasked with carrying out a side quest for Roman. "Who are we killing today, fratellino?"

Little brother.

Again, no irritation. No vexation. Just….the calm.

"Depends on who pisses me the fuck off," Roman mutters, and the two brothers share a small laugh and chuckle that's almost instantly washed away from both the minute they walk into Roman's office to see someone already waiting, sitting in Roman's seat.

Roman's fist forms at his side. Alicia's days are fucking numbered.

"You got a minute to tell me who the fuck you are, and maybe I won't blow your brains out just yet."

The man smiles. Older. Very old. His face reveals that he's seen decades of this world past him by, his eyes filled with countless stories of mischief and mayhem. A smirk on his face accompanies him standing, revealing a height rivaling Roman and Matteo's. He comes to stand in front of Roman's desk, leaning back with his arms crossed over his slim build.

"Well, I'll be damned." His voice is thickly accented. Familiar. Italian. "Can't say I ever saw this shit coming."

Roman is ready to kill the old man and be done with it, but Matteo grabbing his arms stops him from adding to his never-ending kill count. Roman looks over to see Matteo's head turned slightly, studying, observing, but something else. Something unfamiliar. Alarmed. He looks alarmed.

Roman frowns. "What?"

But, Matteo says nothing. Not to his brother, at least.

"Nonno?"

And, at that, Roman's gaze shifts back and forth, quickly, between the two men.

His chest tightens, asking again, but for a completely different reason. "What?"

Gaze on the old man, Roman sees how he simply raises his chin, offering a nonverbal response. And confirmation.

Only then does Roman see it. The slight but now visible similarities between not only Matteo and this man, but himself and the man.

In all of them.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Matteo speaks in Italian, his voice even, the former shock and confusion easing into a coldness that Roman often feels and see in himself.

"Well." The older man makes a sound, rolling his shoulders, face turned up in a brief grimace. "Given all that's happened the past few weeks, we realized it was time—"

"We?" Roman cuts in. It's the first thing he's said to the man he now recognizes the same way Matteo does.

His nonno.

Their grandfather.

This is their maternal grandfather.

"Hi, boys..."

Another voice speaks, but this time, this time there is no word to describe just what courses through either of the brothers as they turn around in almost perfect synchronization. Initially guarded and partially alarmed, that's punted away the minute their sight confirms what the auditory already knew.

Roman doesn't get disturbed often. If ever. It's not in his character. Matteo's neither.

But, it's a miracle that neither man stumbles back at the sight before them.

She stands in the doorway, an expensive, beautiful, intricately designed scarf over her head, tied under her chin. A wrap that slender fingers with disfigured looking skin slowly moves to undo, allowing it to crumple in her hands. She swallows, the lines on her face prominent as she frowns, her familiar light brown eyes bouncing between the two stunned men.

The weight on Roman's chest has grown to an unbearable amount, so much so that it prevents him from speaking. From thinking. From breathing, it feels like.

No, Matteo is the one that finds the wherewithal to speak the word Roman can't find in him to verbalize.

"Mom?"

------

welp. do ya'll agree with roman's decisions regarding jey and jimmy?

also, yes.....matteo and roman's mother is still alive.

reminder: next chapter is the last one.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I'm thinking about going back to my old Zelda WIPs and continuing writing them. Since Ganondorf is a huge part of them, and you have a PHD in Gerudo, I was hoping you could help me with some tips. How do I avoid orientalism as much as possible while still keeping him morally grey and/or a villain? (Different incarnations are different degrees of morality in my fics).

It's ok if you just forward links from your blog where you already discussed it. I'd just like directions on how to find them, hehe.

Hellooo I'm sorry it took me so long to get to your ask, I wanted to make sure I had good refs for it (and was very busy ;;)

So I do not think I can claim to have a PhD in Gerudo when tumblr users @bloobluebloo and @blackautmedia share this website with me (among others), but I can recommand Bloo's thoughts overall, their blog is a great resource; and Blackautmedia has done an amazing and super thorough breakdown of the Gerudo situation (and TotK) in this Youtube video.

(and of course, Edward Saïd's body of work for a more precise breakdown of Orientalism, where it comes from, why it exists, and the countless ways in which it manifests in culture and geopolitics)

To give my own two cents on the matter, I think there's several things to take into account:

the very framework being proposed by Nintendo is born out of orientalist sensitivities, and so a lot of the very fundamental ideas that led to the gerudos and Ganondorf existing as they do will never be neutral. That doesn't mean we can't do anything with them or that they are inherently corrupted (tho some people think the subject is messy enough to make them unwilling to engage with it in any way, which is fair enough), but any narrative decision being taken will probably carry on that weight, that framework. Some parts (like the very harem-like logic of the one guy many girls --even if it's not how gerudos are interacting within canon, we know where the inspiration came from) are kind of very deeply baked in. We can recontextualize it and make it interesting or human or complicated or just not really deal with it (or break the rules entirely, some people decide they don't want to deal with the one guy many girls situation and more power to them honestly), but there's only so much anyone can do about the framework. There's going to be some authorial intent happening no matter what.

Speaking of authorial intent, I guess my (general tbh) advice is: know what interests you, be sensitive to your own internal motivations, be informed of other people's perspectives, and figure out what you are comfortable with, and why. It's a combination of what drives you and being aware of the choices you're making. You can even disagree with other perspectives of course, but it's about making sure you understand your own reasoning and can stand by it within your own art.

Then I guess my main take is: Ganondorf can be as brutal and as selfish as he wants (as a treat) and that will never erase the fact that he lives in a feudal world where the main neighboring kingdom has arbitrarily decided his people (and by extension himself) is considered lesser than a hylian, and that his only path to being considered good is to accept that reality for himself, and kneel and happily become a vassal with zero resentment towards anything. That is kind of the fundamental Zelda game situation: Ganondorf being dissatisfied at his own status leads to him reaching for the biggest source of power available, at any cost. Then, you can complicate him in ways as extreme as him saying he went on to this quest for the sake of his people and was vilified in extreme ways as punishment for this, or in less extreme ways, by deciding he did throw his entire people under the bus with complete disregard --but that it doesn't change the fundamental injustice that pushed him to pursue this path of domination for his own selfish sake. And then, there's entire worlds of nuance between these two extremes, and many, many ways to sidestep what I just outlined and decide this is an AU and Ganondorf's story is about something else entirely.

Honestly, my biggest suggestion is just: give this dude an internal world. It doesn't have to be a sensitive and tearful one, but just some internal reasoning, a sense of purpose, and weave in some of the qualities we see in the games in which he appears, and you have a guy who can cause a big mess and still be terrifying and still be a person.

And then of course I could start to wax poetry about all the angles I see one could pursue with him, all of his relationship to the gods, to fate, to agency and control, to violence and strife and resistance and madness and humanity and and and --yeah there's a lot to find in that thick red hair of his in my opinion, and it's just about... kind of, being interested in that. It doesn't have to be the main focus of course, and you can just have a Ganondorf who's there to provide conflict and be a big guy who's really into having the fight of his life, but there's always this risk of forgetting why he's angry, what shaped him, and therefore falling into tropes of... I don't know, he's a rapist for no reason just because it felt logical that he would be one 🙃 (not saying it can never ever be a take, but to refuse to give him any room for introspection on why he ever would be one given both his very... "I never showed even a hint of sexual interest towards anyone in canon" + "I grew up among a group of ostracized-yet-fetishized women" circumstances might just be the orientalism speaking unfortunately )

So yee!! Those are my perspective!! I hope it's helpful in any way!!!

[azaharinflames]

Idk, I think we are lying a bit to ourselves when we claim the show is not for Buddies after 8x11? It was, even if it is not in the way they think it is. the whole set up here was because of Buddies. The GA did not see Tommy being insecure about Eddie before, the GA did not think 7x4 was really about Eddie. What the GA did in fact see is Buck pining for Tommy since 8x6 and that was while Eddie was still in LA. To even bring up the question of Buck having feelings for Eddie is a sign for the abject fandom brain rot Tim is suffering from. Like who asked for this? The shippers with blogs he insists on talking to every week and the hoard of fanatics that have been sending death threats to him and his actors as recently as last week? I resent the fact that the show so openly admits to being influenced by them. Tim now yanking fandom into canon, essentially introducing this mess to the larger audience, under the guise of shutting it down, is so frustrating. Especially since he is out there allready trying to walk it back with his usual "never know what happens" act

Hi, Nonnie!

I don't know if what you're trying to say is that they are doing Buddie after all, but if it is that, then I must disagree. The show is being very clear in not wanting to do that, and some interviews (not all) are being clear on not wanting to do Buddie as well. Sure, Tim's can be questionable at times, but even he has said this is not the path they're going down.

Truth time? I think they went this way mainly for one reason:

It was the easiest and quickest choice.

Let me explain. The end of 806 introduces us to a Tommy that is vulnerable and insecure, and does not see himself as enough for Buck long-term. We are presented with someone who wants to be Buck's last, but who is convinced he won't be. At this point, he didn't dwell further into this, and we all assumed it was something inherently his. And, whilst to a certain degree it is, that would be a much harder issue to solve for 911. As a matter of fact, this is a big cast, and they cannot give BT several episodes to work through their stuff. Especially considering Lou is recurring and not a main. Therefore, they have a limited frame to fit all they want.

So. What is the best solution? To have Tommy be insecure about his role in Buck's life long-term, because he thinks that Buck could fall for the guy that was by his side for several years*, instead than falling for him. A valid worry, even if Eddie was his friend too and never showed to be jealous of their relationship. Do I think it could've been introduced better? Hell yeah. But they're working with what they have.

And by doing this, they do make sure they have an issue they can solve rather easily, by having Buck show Tommy he loves him and wants to be with him, whilst also making sure that the craziest fans see that Buddie is not happening**.

Perhaps 811 was influenced by the crazy fans. But I fully believe it wasn't any type of gift for them.

My inbox is open for ranting, venting, giving your opinion (unpopular or popular, I'm happy to receive and discuss both), and even confessions! Though if you don't want yours posted, please make sure to say :)

Take care <3

(*I do think Eddie is not the best friend for Buck, especially as of late. And I am frustrated at the show painting him as the absolute best friend when he's a shit friend overall, not only to Buck but to everyone)

(**I think this might have been ABC's demand rather than Tim's initiative. Because has hasn't cared that much about the crazy, even when it's been worse than ever lately. But I can see ABC being done with it and wanting to nip it in the bud)

[myun-saidthoughts]

12th House & 8th House Themes Using Song Lyrics:

"I know I could've loved you, but you would not let me." (Stevie Nicks)

"No one has come close to you, and I don't think anyone will." (Sydney Rose)

"I don't ever tell you how I really feel, 'cause I can't find the words to say what I mean." (Harry Styles)

"I know I'm not your only, but I'll still be a fool, 'cause I'm a fool for you." (Harry Styles)

"You're not wasting time stuck here like me... The world ended when it happened to me." (Sydney Rose)

"I needed to lose you to find me." (Selena Gomez)

"And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone." (Olivia Rodrigo)

"I was still yours....Even when you weren’t mine." (Nessa Barrett)

"I wish that I could hate you, my baby....I wish that when I left, you'd've chased me." (Charlotte Lawrence)

"You're all that I think about, I even see you when I'm dreaming." (Charlotte Lawrence)

"Cause I've got my mind on you...I've got my mind on you." (Lana Del Rey)

"Say yes to Heaven, say yes to me." (Lana Del Rey)

"Lighting me up like Venus, but then you disappear and make me wait." (Selena Gomez)

"It's like I can't breathe without you inside of me." (Kelly Clarkson)

"It's like I can't think without you interrupting me, in my thoughts, in my dreams, you've taken over me." (Kelly Clarkson)

"We go 'round again, we jump back in bed... That's what you do when you love somebody." (5SOS)

"I'm eating breakfast in bed ever since you left, I'll never love again." (Nessa Barrett)

"I tell myself to run from you, but I find myself attracted to my dilemma." (Selena Gomez)

"And I know what I know, and I know you're no good for me." (Selena Gomez)

"I know I let you have all the power, and I realize I'm never gonna quit you over time." (Kelly Clarkson)

"The bed's getting cold and you're not here... But I'm not alive until you call." (Selena Gomez)

"I just wanna call you home...Even when I know you don't." (Sadie Jean)

"I'm trying not to let it show, that I don't want to let this go." (Halsey)

"Just a little bit of your heart is all I want." (Harry Styles)

"I wish I knew what you were feeling." (Charlotte Lawrence)

"Wish I could make you want to, 'cause you're something I can't undo." (Hollyn)

"I needed to hate you to love me." (Selena Gomez)

"The ground beneath our feet was never sure, so you always had one out the door." (Hollyn)

"This dancing was killing me softly." (Selena Gomez)

"You make me so upset sometimes, I feel like I could lose my mind." (Selena Gomez)

"Fighting every instinct while you hold your pride." (Charlotte Lawrence)

"I should've seen it coming...Every time we say goodbye, I say hello again." (5SOS)

"Can't help the way I keep ignoring every omen...Heaven knows I should let go." (5SOS)

"Close my eyes and see your face...I could stay right here for days." (Sadie Jean)

"You won’t give your heart a chance to break, standing in the shallows safe." (Hollyn)

"But your lips hang heavy underneath me, and I promised myself I wouldn't let you complete me." (Halsey)

"There's so much of you that I ignore, 'cause every time you hold me, I feel warm." (Hollyn)

"Picturin' you happy...Somewhere lookin' at me...Wonder if it ever works...Waitin' on the universe." (Sadie Jean).

"These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real...There's just too much that time cannot erase." (Evanescence)

"When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears...When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears". (Evanescence)

"Cause you'll be safe in these arms of mine...Just call my name on the edge of the night and I'll run to you...Even if it's gonna break me." (Lea Michele)

[theroundbartable]

@groundbreakingdot872

Arthur would never admit it out loud, but he often invented reasons to take Merlin out for a drink.

Now, he couldn't do it as much. After all, a King cannot be seen buying drinks for his servant (as he used to tell Merlin back when Uther was King and a rule he threw out the window the moment he himself had assumed the throne). But it was fine if he bought the drinks for all his knights as well, if they just weren't alone.

The first time Arthur had taken Merlin out for a drink had been a surprise on many layers. A) he had not planned to buy them drinks, but he'd lost a bet against Gwaine. B) He'd assumed Merlin was a regular at the tavern but the man couldn't drink more than a cup of wine before he was dancing on a table. And C) his final dilemma, Merlin kept complimenting him.

Okay, to be fair, not just Arthur. He was complimenting everyone. He told Gwaine about his pretty hair and Lancelot about his pretty eyes and Gwen about her perfect skin and Morgana about her make-up skills and Elyan about his empathy and Percival about his strength and Mordred - okay, Merlin had never complimented Mordred. But he'd complimented Leon's cooking skills. Which was strange, Arthur didn't even know Leon could cook.

The point was, Merlin always, always ended up complimenting Arthur, and Arthur kept melting whenever it happened. A drunk Merlin didn't know personal space, didn't have any inhibitions. He always somehow ended up sitting half in Arthur's lap, grabbing him by his chin and sparkling like crazy as he complimented Arthur to his face. It felt like Merlin were counting Arthur's freckles, the number of hair on his eyelashes, the pulsing beat of his heart. "You're beautiful" Was a sentence that paled to the look alone that Merlin gave him and still, he wouldn't stop telling Arthur how pretty he was.

Arthur shouldn't be instigating these moments as often as he did. But he couldn't help doing it. He loved Merlin that close to him, his devotion evident with every brush of their touching skin, only inches away from kissing each other.

And today, today Arthur was on it again. Downing shot after shot in order to prepare himself so he could deal with what he believed inevitable to come. Merlin was busy talking with Gwaine, but also drinking wine from time to time and Arthur could feel that moment approaching. He grew lightheaded with each drink, his mind filling with anticipation and hope and all those things he never dared to name sober.

It got later and later in the evening. People already leaving, his knights saying goodnight and Arthur was way beyond the point of tipsy while Merlin remained surprisingly formal with everyone.

It didn't dawn on Arthur until his seventh drink that Merlin must not have been drinking alcohol at all, if Arthur's vision doubled while Merlin remained static and fine.

"I think you've had enough, Arthur. We should leave. You have a tournament tomorrow, remember?"

Arthur's world focused on Merlin's lips, everything else a faint memory in his mind. "Why are you not drunk?" He slurred, surprising himself with how normal his voice sounded.

"I had water. I have a long day tomorrow and don't want to be hungover. Last time you nearly killed me for sleeping in, remember?"

"'d never kill you." Arthur responded blurrily. "Luv' ya too much for that." He closed his eyes, feeling tired all of a sudden.

"What did you say?" How had they ended up outside? The cold wind was brushing through Arthur's hair, cooling his heated skin. Merlin was grinning amusedly. It looked pretty. Merlin always looked so pretty.

"I like you better drunk." Arthur accused half heartedly, realising faintly that Merlin was the only reason why he wasn't already falling right on his face. "Like it when ya compliment me."

Merlin had stopped them, his brows furrowing. "Is that why you keep filling me up at taverns? Because I can't shut up when I'm drunk?" Pink spread adorably around his nose.

"You like my eyes." Arthur grinned at him, teasing him.

"You like it when I'm drunk because I say your eyes are pretty?" Merlin snorted, nearly overbalancing Arthur when he stumbled over nothing.

"You're pretty." Arthur said, somehow not following their conversation, revelling in Merlin's touch. "And I love you very much." He found himself laughing. It sounded ridiculous out loud. Never mind that it was true, it was weird to hear it coming from himself. It was unheard of, basically illegal.

"Arthur, are you okay?" Merlin asked, suddenly sounding worried. "You're too drunk. Gods, you'll have my head for this tomorrow." Merlin sighed and pulled Arthur forwards.

"I'm tryin' to make you kiss me. You always look like you wanna kiss me." Arthur wondered at Merlin's reddening cheeks. "Wish, ' cld tell yu. You'd look so good in a crown." The end of that conversation slurred after that.

When Arthur woke up the next day, he had no recollection of the night, only a vague image of Merlin staring at him with wide eyes that had captured the sky.

Send me a standard fanfiction trope and make me fuck it up.

I have no idea what to write, but my brain likes to do weird shit over normal stuff.

[littlest-w01f]

Falling

Rhysand x Reader(+ Venom)

For @starfallweek [hosted by: @azsazz and @writingsbychlo]

Starfall Week 2025 Masterlist

Day 3 - Character A is confused about the meaning of Starfall and misinterprets the entire evening.

Summary: While exploring an Illyrian mountain, a meteorite crashed into place, carrying an alien species that now called you its host, leaving you to explain that Starfall wasn't the end of the world.

Cw: Just silly fun, Venom is jumping universes again.

a/n: I was really thinking hard about this prompt, redid it twice... Then I had a dream of Rhys and Venom in Reader, it was like destiny... So... I had to. And I present to you, Venom in the Maasverse.

"STARFALL!? YOUR "MATE" WANTS TO CELEBRATE STARS FALLING?" The panicked voice of the creature that now lived inside you said in your head, a black gooey substance rising from your arms as it went back down, "HE WANTS TO KILL US."

You groaned, head pressing in your hands, as you sat in front of the vanity mirror, "Please stop yelling at me..." You knew you should be more careful of an alien sharing your body, but it wasn't the weirdest that had ever happened to you. "That's not what Starfall is and Rhys doesn't want us dead..."

The being pulsed within you, tendrils of shadowy black substance snaking through your veins. "YELL? I am merely expressing concern for our mutual survival! This... Rhys, he is an unknown variable. His intentions could be anything!"

"He is not unknown, you are unknown." You pointed to your vanity, where beside your head a creature of a being fully black, apart from the white eyes looking at you, "Cauldron boil me, don't looking at me all judging..."

The entity's form shimmered and shifted on the vanity, its shadowy tendrils curling in agitation. "I am simply assessing the situation with the logical perspective only I can provide!" It paused, it talked like you, studying you intently with those piercing white eyes. "Tell me then, what IS this 'Starfall' celebration? And why would your mate wish to partake in such an event involving celestial bodies plummeting from the sky?"

Picking up a blush, you dabbed some on a brush, putting it on the creature's cheek, hoping to annoy it into going back inside, making it shake the powder off, "Its not actual stars falling, it's starlight, sprirts are carried through the sky tonight, it's actually gorgeous. So please, just enjoy the night."

The entity shuddered as the powder brushed its skin, a flicker of curiosity sparking in those pale eyes despite itself. "Starlight spirits... How whimsical. Illogical." It leaned closer, studying your face intently. "It would be better with actual stars. More chaotic."

"And how logical is an alien creature who calls itself Venom, of all things, landing in a universe where apparently magic is real and wherever you were before it wasn't?" You sighed, exasperated. "Just... Be normal tonight, only my mate knows about you and I would rater you not try to eat the head of my friends."

The dark being rippled, shadows swirling around its form as it considered your words. After a long moment, it inclined its head in a gesture almost like a nod. "Very well. I will try to blend in. To appear normal." Its voice took on a slightly mocking tone. "Far be it from me to cause a scene at your little celestial party."

"Not quite celestial. You're impossible." You muttered, setting your make-up down, this was like arguing with yourself, you couldn't wait for Rhysand to pull this thing out of you and send it home.

"Are you ready, my dear?" Rhysand knocked on the door to your shared room and walked in, "Mother, I need to get used to seeing that thing..." He blinked at the sight of you and your new, acquired alien, arguing. "If you don't want Azriel's shadows to see completion you better keep it away... I must say, darling, you never fail to surprise me. An alien parasite, really? How delightfully macabre."

"I'M NOT A PARACITE!" The creature yelled at Rhysand, glaring at the male. You sighed as now they argued, busy admiring the gown you were wearing.

Rhysand sauntered over to the vanity, looming behind the entity, darkness rising with each step. "Now then, let's establish some ground rules, shall we? Rule one: no trying to possess or otherwise harm my mate. Rule two: you attend this little gathering on your best behavior. If you do any of it I will rip you apart in ways you haven't seen before."

"SEE HE THREATENS US!" The creature turned to you, as expectant as a child complaining to their mother.

You rolled your eyes at the melodramatic display from both parties. "Enough, both of you." You fixed the creature with a stern look. "You, I know you just want to surive, but Rhys isn't going to hurt us. He's my mate, my love. I trust him completely."

Turning to Rhysand, you smiled softly. "And darling, please don't threaten it. I know it's strange having an extra presence around, but until we find a way to send it home, it's a part of me... It's here to stay for a while." Your hand came up to cup his cheek affectionately, you knew he was agitated, the creature had added a layer of protection to your mental shields, Rhysand had said it looked like dark spikes all over, forcing him outside your mind.

Rhysand's expression softened almost imperceptibly at your touch and gentle words. He placed his hand over yours, calloused fingers brushing your skin. "As you wish, my heart. I will endeavor to tolerate our uninvited guest." His gaze flicked to the creature, eyes glinting with warning. "But know this - her safety and happiness are paramount. Anything threatening that, and there will be consequences beyond your comprehension."

"Isn't this perfect?" You smiled wide, getting up, the creature melting into your form, you could feel it in your head, missing Rhysand's presence, "Come on, let's go out there, enjoy Starfall."

"CELESTIAL BODIES."

"Please stop yelling, I will literally stab myself in the head."

{General Taglist- @lilah-asteria @paleidiot @dee-writes-angst @adalia-jaycee @anarchiii @alwayshave-faith @velarisnightsky444 @minnieoo @mellowmusings @daughterofthemoons-stuff @tele86}

{Rhysand Taglist- @yeonalie}

[no-goodbyes-no-regrets]

Even if it were true that nothing will come of Tommy and Buck, it’d also still be true that Buck and Eddie are never gonna happen. They only had Tommy mention that stuff about Eddie because Tim wanted him to stand as the buddie shippers lol, just as Maddie stood as the buddie shippers when she asked Buck if he loved Eddie lol. Buck’s response about not being in love with Eddie was to the fans. Like okay I get why it must suck for those shippers because that is a sort of weird way to shut something down (imo, like I can see why they’d jump to think it means something), but I also just feel petty considering how nasty some of them are about Tommy and other Tommy and Buck shippers.

Who is saying nothing will come of Tommy and Buck?? These boys have issues but they're very much in love - and I'm cautiously optimistic they'll work things out. If they were over for good, they didn't have to bring Lou back as Tommy. They could have left it at the break up in November and (eventually) give Buck another love interest, But They Didn't! Tommy is back and they're still very into each other. He wanted to get back together before they both fucked it all up again. (TALK to each other you idiots!!)

As for the buddie stuff - I think it was Aisha who wanted to shut it down? I saw some quote come across my dash that she went to their showrunner with that idea. She's close to Oliver so maybe she wanted to do her bff a solid and free him from the "what about buddie???" in every interview.

And yeah I'm definitely a petty bitch to those buddie shippers who were gloating back in November and keep calling Tommy every name under the sun. Like calling Tommy Temu is childish but harmless - fuck knows I do it too in other fandoms - but the constant use of all kinds of slurs towards him and twisting everything to make Tommy seem like some sexual predator vs buck the innocent little boy... sure they're fictional but real queer men have told them it's hurtful and homophobic and they just... keep going.

And the people who keep going after Lou personally... what has that man ever done to you?? Gotten a job you didn't like? Obviously I don't know him, but he seems like a nice guy who loves his friends and family, a little goofy, and just a sweetheart all round. Leave him alone!!

[yuseirra]

Scary face~

I'd been thinking, but that really freaky face Kamiki made near the end of the story? That could also be referencing the myths. The god who he stands for was known for having a very intimidating face (had no effect on his wife Ame-no-Uzume but it did scare off all the 80,000 other gods besides her though!!)

Some analysis under the read more!

There's no mention of Sarutahiko being ugly in the myths. (I mean, him and Ame-no-Uzume fell in love at first sight and got together on the spot... Of course, it doesn’t seem like that goddess was particularly tied down by anything. She probably would've liked him regardless of how pretty he looked)

But there is talk about him looking scary. He didn’t look normal—more like a monster—so the 80,000 gods, except for Ame-no-Uzume, couldn’t even approach him just because he was standing there.

So doesn’t that mean that eerie, bizarre expression Kamiki made at the end was a reflection of that?;;; and that talk about him being a monster as said by Akane?

It was terrifying… like something straight out of a horror movie. That expression was way too unsettling.

I wondered why they drew it that way, but—

In the original myth, Sarutahiko didn’t actually have any ill intent. It was just that his face looked like that, so he got misunderstood.

I don’t know;; I mean, in Kamiki’s case too (that character is Sarutahiko Okami;;;), we don’t actually know whether he had any real malice or not. Personally, I think there’s a pretty high chance he didn’t.

But because of his expression and the way he looked, Aqua got all triumphant like, “You’re the problem here!” And then everyone else was like, “Oh, this guy’s seriously evil, huh?”

There’s no actual basis for it!!! There’s no proof at all. Except for this one really messed-up thought about Ruby he has, but for even that, we don't even know if he actually attempted to kill Ruby or have plotted/devised something against her because, didn't her stage end safely!! Didn't this man tell Aqua to go watch her!! Follow her journey and see her perform at the dome!! That means he wouldn't have let her die at least before she performed there!!!

And I keep saying this, but Sarutahiko’s real ability is guiding things towards a positive direction/future.

If that’s the case, then sure, in this story, all these strange incidents happening might technically be Kamiki’s fault. Because he's lost. Looking for Ai(Love). But whether he actually intended it or not—he said he didn’t.

Of course, his goal must have been to elevate/amplify Ai’s presence. And at this point, he’s indeed fallen into darkness.

But honestly, rather than being outright evil, I think his nature just got distorted. So… does that still count as evil?;

I mean, he did do a lot to try and bring Ai back in a sense.

But I don’t really feel malice from him. It’s more like… he was just so desperate to see Ai again that he lost his mind. That method—that was all he had, so he went off the rails. If there had been any other way, wouldn’t he have taken it? Was he ever really in his right mind to begin with? Besides, he really didn't do anything much in a physical sense, did he? So just how much of it was his intent and what exactly did this guy do anyway?? What I'm guessing is that what he's said is partly true, he didn't do anything in a physical sense, and he never wanted people to get hurt in the process but he still went for it because he thought it was the only way- the songs are what covers this aspect of him. He kept trying to offer things to bring Ai back or get closer to her I guess, he is not sane at this point of the story...

They would have had to stop him, of course.

But if you think about it… Ai and this guy really loved each other. They must’ve been happy together.

I just can’t imagine him doing anything bad to Ai. There’s not a single action in the story that proves he’s the kind of person who would orchestrate something against her.

And why is that?

The story is based on a mythological couple known for their deep bond. And now we’re supposed to believe the husband plotted against his wife? Why would the story be written like that? For what reason? This is so ridiculous.

Everything about what he’s done and how the situation is unfolding—it all lines up with that Sarutahiko god. That’s the only way to explain the bizarre events in this manga, or why Ai asked him to be helped.

If that’s the case… ugh… this is just horrifically tragic.

I really think Tsukuyomi is the real mastermind… What exactly can she do if she supposedly governs fate? Looks to me like all she did was try to get rid of Kamiki. What was she doing while Ai was alive? Just watching her die? Isn’t that what drove Kamiki insane? Was there really no hope from the start? It feels like she just let things play out because Amaterasu had to shine.

Like—“Retrieve the two troublesome gods and replace them with Amaterasu.”

Unless that was her mission all along, I have no clue what Tsukuyomi actually did in this story. She even let Aqua die… She totally used Aqua for her own ends. I can’t see her in a positive light at all… Or maybe she was acting on orders from some creator god or whatever. That could be a possibility

Did Kamiki and Ai violate some divine taboo or something? Their lives were way too cruel. Did they get punished just for reincarnating as humans of their own free will? Because their life was really cruel to them; Kamiki has all the right to curse his own fate, nothing works out for that guy.

A friend told me that maybe the author will explain some of this in another story that shares the same universe-

But personally, I think the full truth of one story should be revealed within that story itself.

One more thing, Sarutahiko is the guidance god- the god who directs everything into goodness, right?

I've been thinking, but I think that power may work in reverse when he's in bad shape (black star). That's probably why Ai got pregnant when both of them were totally unready (Ai says he was really crushed back then), how Ryosuke and Nino approached this guy and went after Ai, how Ryosuke went to stab Ai when Kamiki asked him to deliver a flower for him etc.

Remember how his eyes briefly turned white when he met Ruby? That's because Ai's love was transmitted to him through Ruby's eyes. So he was briefly restored of his original powers then-

Thus, that's how Ruby's wish got granted. because, he was able to grant wishes in the right way the way he should have been (along with Ai)

He went to visit his children last thing before he thought he'd rot away and all, didn't he? and what did he do when he actually met them? He asked Ruby of her wish and congratulated Aqua on his having come true, that's all he did.

He was there to grant his children's wishes as a parting gift of sorts, that's what's been going on. Because he's the guiding god who can direct people's futures and GRANT WISHES WITH HIS WIFE. He wasn't there for his children physically, but there's mention that he has an eye on Ruby(when he met Yura) and he tells Aqua they share the same eyes, right!! HE'S THE BLACK STAR GOD! AND HE WASN'T ORIGINALLY THAT WAY! HIS EYES USED TO BE WHITE! HE WAS UNSTABLE BECAUSE HE GOT ABUSED, AND HIS NATURE GOT PERMANENTLY TWISTED BECAUSE HE RECEIVED A FATAL FLAW UPON AI'S DEATH! That's what the song Fatal is talking about.

That whole say about him having paternal love is true!! What happened when the twins used/utilized their black star eyes, huh? They did have things work out their way. That's kamiki's power!!! HE HELPED HIS KIDS PURSUE WHAT THEY WANT WITH HIS POWER! I say this a lot, but that's what the whole star eyes are about! The white star eyes are from Ai and the powers of "sending out love", and the black one originates from their dad!! What kamiki tells Aqua in ch 160? that's him going, "I gave you my powers, wasn't it helpful? didn't it feel good?" and Aqua's rejecting him saying "Aw yeah, but you suck and Ruby's going to be different from you" but you know? in the final chapter, doesn't Ruby still USE the black star eyes??? Then it's not exactly always a bad thing??? It's just their parent's powers, that's it!

What Sarutahiko is capable of is directing people's futures, so Aqua abandoned it, leaving him powerless, that's why Kamiki got so shocked. What he said to Aqua about his futures is what Aqua really could have had!! It's words coming from the very god who has to do with futures, so Kamiki knew his son would have had all those things he mentioned, he even smiled at him.

Aqua just. hates his dad so much. I think this is Tsukuyomi's doing tbh

come on, this guy originally had a noble soul, that's something that's put out there as a statement. Ofc he went mad after having lost Ai but this entire story is such a trainwreck... Ai had to be brought back o<-<

Well, that's that,

The author should have explained this all, not I...

I keep talking about this because this keeps bugging me a lot; I hope it doesn't at some point but I feel so bad about how.. this character seemingly seems to be constantly so misunderstood and misjudged by everyone, that's not fair. Even if someone's done wrong, they should only be accused and punished for things they're responsible for. It's just..agonizing to look at;

[minlahzz]

friede with a quiet, reserved s/o who’s super affectionate in private.

this is my second friede ask, and i'm actually so happy with how this turned out because i was originally a friede fangirl when i started pokémon horizons.

wheew, okay so you've got the most outgoing and talkative person with the most quiet person, who would've known? honestly the rvt members wonder how he happened to pull someone like you, considering, he's friede after all, actually even friend doesn't know either.

honestly at first friede just assumes you're shy, like painfully shy. maybe you just needed some warming up to do, right? but then weeks pass and you're still giving one word answers to people, barely reacting to mordocks jokes and just quietly sipping your drink while everyone else continues talking around the table. so, he figures, yeah you're just a quiet person.

what does confuse him, though, is how even if you don't talk much, you still somehow end up spending a lot of time with him. not that he's complaining, you don’t talk his ear off, but you listen. and while everyone else is focused on his loud personality, you watch him like you actually see him. it throws him off a little. he’s used to people meeting his energy, not quietly existing beside him.

he doesn't even realize he likes you at first. he likes your presence, he likes the way you don't demand him for anything, he likes how you're just there for him. it's when he catches himself looking/seeking for you at every given moment that he realizes "oh my arceus." it was pretty obvious he'd purposely fly around places he'd be able to see you often (if you're not an rvt), he'd stall longer just so you guys (he) could talk more. it all clicked and he knew there was no point saving himself from being this down bad.

now, confession-wise? let’s just say it’s a mess. friede may be a smooth talker, but not when it actually matters. he tries to be casual about it, like. "hey, so you ever think about how good we'd be together?" and it’s meant to sound playful. his jaw drops to the other side of the earth when you said you liked him back.

"...wait. you like me?" he asks, like a total idiot. you just tilt your head. "yeah? was that not obvious?"

no. no, it was not. he literally spent weeks agonizing over how to confess, only to find out you’ve been on the same page this entire time. it’s kind of embarrassing, actually. he was definitely so giddy after that, all the rvt members got a bonus and a snack! they all want to thank you for making this man so happy, if he had wings at this moment he might aswell fly up like captain from how happy he was.

now THIS is when he realizes how affectionate you actually are, so you see nothing changes in public, infact it doesn't even look like you guys are dating. but the moment you two are alone? the hug monster is out! suddenly you're curling up beside him, leaning on to his warmth, resting your head on his shoulder. you don't talk much but your actions speak much more than any said poetry.

at first, friede doesn’t know what to do with it. where was this side of you hiding?! it’s like discovering a hidden move in a game you’ve been playing for years. he literally freezes the first time you grab his hand without warning. he's never been the type to shy away from affection, but coming from you it's different. you turned this man into your pillow.

captain is do done with that man.

hey don't underestimate friede though, he adapts quick! he quickly got used to your acts of affection and even initiates it too, sometimes, he gets a little competitive about it. like, okay, you’re affectionate in private? so is he. you love leaning against him? cool, he’ll lean against you harder. you like holding onto his arm? great, he’s not letting go for the next hour. at some point, it just becomes an affectionate game of chicken. (you win mostly)

friede, being friede, tries so hard to get you to be more openly affectionate in public. not because he needs pda, but because it’s funny. he’ll dramatically hold his arms out, like, “oh, woe is me, my partner who smothers me in private refuses to hold my hand in public...how tragic!” cue you staring at him blankly before walking away. don't worry it's just jokes, he'll never push your boundaries if you don't want.

the rvt members lose their minds when they finally catch you being affectionate.

"no way," roy says, watching you casually lean against friede, you had a quiet panic and scooted away.

"i feel like i just witnessed a rare legendary," liko mutters.

"so, let me get this straight," orla starts, staring at you. "you barely talk to anyone, but you do that?"

friede just grins smug, "sorry i'm the favorite, i guess..." yeah they all attacked him after this.

[dovalore]

hey so how are we feeling about the latest pvpciv ep

yapping about my thoughts under cut

um, spoilers for everything up to minecraft but i battle the tridents of pvp civilization

also before i continue, she's a catgirl! anyway this isn't going to be about her design, so that's all i'm gonna say about it for now

i'm going fucking crazy over tabi only ever acknowledging whatever her feelings are towards evbo through killing him. like, at the end of s1 she had a clear shot of getting rid of him forever, but she didn't

when zam was about to get him with the eternal trident, tabi dealt the final blow to spare him. sure circumstances were really different then, but she was presented with two chances to actually kill him and both times? nothing! she chose to spare him again, but this time her own fucking life is in danger because there's nothing stopping zam from killing her if that's what he decides to do

we know her weapons (assuming that she did keep her swords because why wouldn't she) are running low on durability from what she says to pierce about the cost of invisibility potions (granted, we don't know how much those cost, but they can't be cheap). she doesn't say anything about her diamond sword specifically, but we do know that a lot of its durability was spent on opening the swords' final red gate (almost 400 attacks). the eternal sword is broken, so it's in kind of a weird spot

the thing is, we don't know what happens to players if their born weapons breaks while they still have another weapon in their possession (assuming their acquired weapon is also being held in one of their hands when it happens). we do know that armour stands will still activate regardless of what kind of weapon is used on them. otherwise, nobody from the axe civilization would've been able to go through the tridents' labyrinth and neither would've evbo

tabi didn't mention her axe specifically when talking about how many attacks she had left and this was before she entered the labyrinth (so my guess about invisibility potions being pretty damn expensive checks out), i wouldn't be too surprised if she did try using the eternal sword to stock up, then discovered that she's shit outta luck for some reason, probably because it's broken

but this could also mean that eternal weapons are locked from buying things from armour stands. think about it, if you gave someone an eternal weapon that never breaks, what's stopping them from just buying things for their friends/the people around them forever so they don't have to watch their durability slowly drain over time and kill them?

so now my question is, where the fuck did pierce get all of the invisibility potions he used to coerce ferre into giving up his respawn powers? we don't know how long these things last in pvpciv and we don't have a frame of reference for exactly how long he was spawn camping outside 'long enough for ferre to give up basically eternal life'

did he break his original axe to get them? did he get the other axes (like tabi) to help him out with buying them? was pierce's invisibility during that entire sequence even coming from potions or something else entirely?

well, whatever's going on with pierce is still pretty up in the air, so i'm bringing this back around to tabi. because if we're going with the assumption that other people have been spending their attacks on pierce's behalf, it's probably safe to assume that between battling and her own purchases (y'know, to keep herself alive and on top of others in pvp), she's likely the one who's spent the most to aid him in his cause

which makes it extra fascinating to me that she was willing to attack evbo with anything that wouldn't permanently kill him when she's already nearing the end of her durability. yeah of course you're gonna spend attacks during any old fight, but neither of the times evbo died to her so far were battles at all. she actively chose to save him

she's terrifyingly devoted to the axes' cause of ransacking other weapons' eternal weapons, willing to throw herself into battles constantly eating away at the number of attacks she has left. she can't fall back on respawning if something happens to go really, really bad and um. she's currently facing down someone who's actively trying to become god through whatever means possible, we don't know what's going to fucking happen there. i'd... honestly be more surprised if this is where her story ends, i want to know how her arm's going to be twisted by zam because he got front row seats to her stealing his kill from him. as an act of mercy towards evbo

i'm pretty sure he's aware that evbo's convinced himself that tabi's his friend, but not so much on tabi's side of things until well, right now

okay i think that's everything important i wanted to say, it kinda goes places but that's just how i am with things

anyway here's some rapid fire, not as important things that i don't want to leave in the tags since people can just see them

you don't understand just how fucking thrilled i was when we went into the trident civilization and a lot of the skins cc evbo chose for its residents were sea/diving-themed, CHAT WE WERE RIGHT TO ASSIGN TRIDENTS FISHY TRAITS

i mentioned altering my design idea for zam because he wasn't a godly figure, well um. i guess my initial instinct was somewhat right because that's exactly what he wants to become lmao

fine i'll talk about tabi's design for a little bit here. she's a cat because i love cats and the way her name is pronounced is literally "tabby". tabi the tabby, except the pvp version of her isn't exactly a tabby. she's a serval