#Because “why am I the Hero who always has to pick up the pieces of my failure

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Giving myself a spa day and washing my hair while thinking about what would happen if totk Ganondorf actually won is a strange way to relax but ok brain. You do you.

[heli-writes]

Between then and now

Part 1: The return

Pairing: Toshinori Yagi x Reader

Summary: When a whirlwind affair between you and All Might was found out by his manager, it was made sure that no one ever knew about you or your relationship with All Might. Even twenty years later, Toshinori Yagi still thinks of you. His retirement leaves him lonely in a cold city apartment and he wonders what could’ve been. Maybe it’s time to rekindle? But is that what you want?

Disclaimers: -

Note: I’ve been writing this piece since October 2022. So glad, it’s finally done!

Heli’s Masterlist

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*

Twenty years ago, Japan.

You giggle when Toshinori pulls you into him. He’s only wearing sweatpants and his skin feels hot under yours. 

“C’mon y/n, we still have a few minutes, right?” Toshinori whines. 

“No, the driver will be here soon. You still have to get dressed and do your hair!” You run your hand through his messy hair. 

“Well, and who’s fault is it that my hair is all a mess?” he grins. 

“Besides the point.”, you shrug, “The actual point is that I am responsible for getting you to your event on time.” 

He sighs. “All right, all right.” 

Toshinori bends over to pick up his shirt from the ground. “Just so you know, Mr. Kanno can be really glad to have you. Without you, neither of us would have any overview about where I have to be when.” he smiles.

“Just don’t let him find out that half of the time you are late because of me.” you sheepishly reply.

*~*~* *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*

“Yagi-san, seriously! How could you possibly think this was a good idea at this crucial time of your career!”. Naoto Kannos voice boomed through the empty office.

“Kanno-san, you need to calm down. It’s not that bad. It’s not like y/n can’t be trusted.” Toshinori said slightly embarrassed.

“I would never tell anything to the press.” you said quietly.

“Y/n, this is not about whether you talk to the press or not. Eventually, they will find out. Are you even aware of what this could mean for All Might? For yourself?” Kanno massages his temple.

“Look,” Toshinori said, “We’re careful. And there is no reason why a hero cannot be in a relationship.”

“There are a thousand reasons why a hero shouldn’t be in a relationship, Yagi-san! You of all people should be aware of that.” Kanno states shaking his head.

Your heart beats loudly and leaves an aching pain in your chest. Toshinori presses your hand.

“I’m sorry you two. But you know this has to end.”

*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*

After a night-long fight and seemingly endless discussions, it eventually did end. You went overseas to work for the American branch of All Might’s hero agency and he stayed behind to fight villains in Japan. When he and Kanno brought you to the airport, you didn’t know that things would get to be a lot worse in America than you anticipated standing at the boarding gate to fly into the unknown.

*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*

The present day, Japan.

He knew the end of his career was coming. He knew for a good few years. He knew when he chose young Midoriya as his successor and he knew during his final fight with All for One. What he didn’t know then, was how much his life changed after his retirement. Sure, he still has his position at UA. He still has to train young Midoriya. 

However, his days are significantly slower and quieter. Nothing could have prepared him for those empty nights in his empty apartment. He has no hobbies, no friends and no family to fill his time. He never had time or the head space to cultivate either of these things. And now all that waits for him at the end of the day is his cold apartment in a city that’s always bright. His home, however, isn’t that bright.

These days, he often finds himself thinking of you. It’s been such a long time. What were you up to? He knows you left his agency in America only a couple of months after you started there. He can’t begrudge you for that. After all, that’s what Kanno wanted for both of you: a clean cut. Where did you go after that? Did you find a fulfilling job? Did you meet someone special? Did you get married and have kids of your own? Are you happy?

He really hopes so. He really hopes that you are happy. The last time he saw you, you weren’t. You were holding back tears. Your broken heart is written all over your face. If things only were different back then, maybe you would be lying right next to him right now.

What a silly thought. He truly has become a pitiful old man. Sick and lonely. So far from what he used to be.

Laying in his bed, he stares at the dark ceiling. He turns over and grabs his phone. He opens social media and types in your name into the search bar. No results. He turns off his phone discouragedly. This was a stupid idea anyway.

*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*

The present day, America.

“When do we have to be at the airport again, Mom?”

“Jesus, Takeo, you are an adult. How can you still rely on your mother to be punctual?” you sigh, dragging your suitcase down the stairs.

Your son walks around the corner and gives you a lopsided grin. “Hey, you have to be at the airport too, you know!” 

Takeo takes your suitcase and lifts it above his head as if it weighs nothing.

You sigh. “Stop that. Put it down. I feel like I shouldn’t have signed up for this.”

“Hey, this was your decision. No one asked you to follow me overseas! I certainly can imagine something better than your mother following you around.” your son pouts while putting your suitcase close by the door.

“I am not following you around! I always wanted to return to Japan eventually. Just never had a good reason. And what better reason do I have than you?” you mumble embarrassed.

“It’s ok, mom. I didn’t mean it like that.” He nudges you. “We’ll be living in different cities anyway. Far enough apart, so I can my freshman year at university in peace.”

You give him a suspicious side-eye. “And how exactly do you plan to enjoy your first year? Studying I hope.”

You pull your jacket from a nearby chair and start to put it on. Your son is already halfway through the doof when you hear him say: “Geez, mom, let me live a little.”

You hear a car door open and close outside. Your heart does that thing again. When it pulls itself together leaving behind a small ache. You take a look around the almost empty house. It will be the last time you see it. The new owners are moving in next week and you will have left the country by then. It’s strange. You choose to leave this place so that you can return to your home country. And yet, it makes you feel awfully melancholic. There are so many memories connected to this place. Most of your adult life. Your son’s childhood.

“Are you ready?” your son asks behind you.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” you say.

*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~ *~*~*

The weather is cold and rainy when you land in Tokyo. You get your son settled into his student accommodation. After that, you take the train to Musutafu. Your family lives in Musutafu. While you don’t have any contact with them anymore, the place holds a dear place in your heart. You always knew that that was the place where you wanted to grow old and find your final rest. 

With All Might retiring, you finally felt safe enough to return home. Your new home is a small apartment on the third floor. You’re glad it came with furniture so that you had no heavy lifting to do. Your other belongings arrived a week ago. The landlord was kind enough to let the delivery crew put it in the apartment. 

It’s almost midnight when you arrive at the place that will be your home from now on. 

After opening the door, you turn on the light in the hallway. You close the door and walk into the living room. In the middle of the room, several boxes are stacked on top of each other. All my life in just a couple of boxes, you think. 

You leave your suitcase standing behind you and open the box closest to you. Kitchen utensils. You open a few more boxes until you find what you’ve been looking for. You pull out a framed picture of your son and you on his first day of kindergarten. Carefully, you wipe over the picture. Then you put it on the windowsill at the right side of the room. Contently, you look at the mess that’s in your living room. 

I’ll take care of the rest tomorrow, you think and you pull your suitcase behind you into the bedroom.

*~*~* *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*

It’s your first real day back in Japan. Before you tackle the unpacked boxes that are stacked in your apartment, you are in desperate need of breakfast and coffee. Although breakfast is relative since the long flight and time difference made you sleep well into the early afternoon. After a quick shower and some fresh clothes, you set out to find the nearest grocery shop.

Your apartment is in a different part of the city than you grew up in. It’s a safety measure really. You don’t want to run into family while out and about. It would be awkward for all parties involved. Still, you feel anxious when you set foot in front of your apartment. It feels as if you’re being watched. As if someone would jump at you around the next corner and yell: “Hey, aren’t you the one that got pregnant out of wedlock?”.

It’s silly, you know that. Most people in this city probably have forgotten you, those who don’t either won’t recognize you anymore or don’t want to recognize you anymore.

Nevertheless, this place brings back memories you’ve tried to forget for a long time.

*~*~* *~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*

Twenty years ago, America.

“Pregnant? pregnant?”, your mother’s voice booms through the speaker of your phone. “Who’s pregnant?”, your bother asks in the background. “Yuto, get out of the kitchen. And tell your father he needs to come in here immediately”, your mother yells at him. She sounds shrill and on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“Y/n tell me that this is not true!”, your mother yells into the phone again. You massage your temples. This was going just as you thought it would. “Mom, it’s true. I’m pregnant.”, you tell her. 

You can hear shuffling at the other end of the line. “Are you sure? Or are you just late? You know, the women in our family have very irregular cycles.”, your mother rambles. “Mom, I’m sure. I’ve been to the doctor already. They did blood work. I’m most definitely pregnant.”, you tell her.

You know that you’ve been pregnant for a couple of weeks already. When your period was late after a month in America, you did a test from the drugstore. When it came back positive, you went into panic mode. You ignored the problem for another week or two in hopes that it’s a false alarm and that your period eventually does start. When it didn’t, you had to face reality and make a doctor’s appointment. 

Now the first trimester is almost over and you start showing. You put off telling your family for a while now but you can’t hide it forever.

“But y/n... how could this happen?”, your mother asks desperately. “Well, I’m sure you have an idea of how this can happen.”, you answer dryly. You can hear your mother take a sharp breath. Somewhere in the background, a door opens. “Give me a moment.”, your mother mumbles. For a few minutes, you hear quiet talking in the background. Someone slams something onto a table or another surface.

“Y/n, this is serious”. Your father must’ve picked up the phone. “How far along are you?”, he asks. “I’m in the 14th week.”, you tell him matter-of-factly. “That’s too late.”, you hear your mother say closely to the phone. She must be pressing her ear onto the other side of it.

You feel anger rising in your stomach. “Too late for what, mom?”, you challenge her. You know exactly what she means. “To get rid of it.”, your father says irritatedly. “I’m not going to get rid of my child.”, you tell him. You’re not surprised your parents would propose this. Nevertheless, it makes you angry.

“Alright, then when’s the wedding?”. Your father sounds calm but challenging as well. “There will be no wedding.”, you reply coldly. You hear your mother sob in the background. Your father grinds his teeth.

There’s more shuffling. Your mother must’ve ripped the phone out of your father’s grip. “But who, y/n? Who is the father? He must take responsibility for this!”, your mother asks. You can practically hear the tears in her voice. “There is no father.”, you tell her. “Of course, there is a father!”, your father booms. “Or are you Virgin Mary?”

You almost laugh at that. To be the Virgin Mary would be easier than the situation you’re in. Of course, there is a father but it’s not like cou can talk about him. “The father isn’t in the picture. He doesn’t want anything to do with this.”, you say. It hurts saying these words. 

“Goddamit!”, your father swears. It makes you flinch. Your father never swears. He’s too sophisticated for that. Your mother wails in the background. “At least he could pay child support.”, he says. “I don’t need his money.”, you explain.

“Oh no, I think you will.”, your father says angrily, “Because we won’t be paying for your bastard child”. You feel tears pricking in your eyes. You don’t want their money. You make good money on your own. What you do want is their support.

“I knew it was a bad idea when you said you’d be going to America! I told you to quit when they transferred you there! You could’ve come work for me and your brother and you wouldn’t be in this situation!”, he scolds. “But no! It’s always been like this! We gave you everything! We paid for your education at one of the top universities in the country. With that degree, you could’ve worked for any company! You could’ve joined the family business and worked for your brother. But no, you chose to work for that All Might. Y/n, I knew that would be your downfall!”, he continues not giving you a chance to say something.

You grind your teeth and stop listening. What your father says is true. You could’ve gotten literally any job you wanted. If it weren’t for your degree, it would’ve been for the connections of your father. And of course, they wanted you to work for the family. Keep you close, keep you under their control. It makes you sick. The whole reason why you started working for All Might’s hero agency was to get some independence. Make your own decisions.

“... and now you got knocked up by some foreigner! What a disgrace! How are we supposed to explain this to our business partners? Do you comprehend what this means for the family?”, your father rambles.

Ah of course, what would it mean for the family? That’s the only thing that matters. Hot tears stream down your cheeks. You feel a big lump in your throat. One that you can’t swallow down.

“... you hear that, y/n? What do you think are we supposed to do now?”, your father yells into the phone.

“Nothing.”, you manage to reply, “You do nothing. You tell them your daughter took a job in America and decided to stay there.”

“Damn right, that's what you’ll do! You won’t set foot into our neighborhood with that brat of yours.”, your father bites back. Anger and determination start to settle in your stomach. It makes the lump in your throat melt away. 

“Don’t worry, dad. I won’t. I will do as I said. I’ll stay here and I won’t return to Japan. There’s nothing and nobody left for me there anyway.”, you say and slam the phone down.

That’s the last time you ever spoke to your father. Your mother spoke to you a couple of times afterward. You’ve tried talking to her but she was unreasonable. After she gave up the idea of abortion, she tried talking you into adoption. Giving birth in America, giving the baby away and then returning home to Japan into the lap of the family. You refused. Despite everything, you loved that baby growing inside of you. Eventually, you stopped picking up the phone when she called. Your brother didn’t even try to talk to you. The reason for that you don’t know.

When your son was born, you sent them a card and a picture. In return, they sent you papers of disinheritance.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[Please comment if you'd like to be tagged in future chapters]

[the-froschamethyst4]

My Daddy is My Hero

𖤐Pairing: Husband! Price x Wife! Reader

𖤐Pronouns: She/Her

𖤐Warnings: TOOTH ROTTING fluff, slight angst, language, married couple, children, codenames,

𖤐Summary: Your daughter Iris had a project for her school and it was ‘Who is your Hero’ and picks someone close to her

————

————

"Mama."

Y/n heard the tiny voice of her 7 year-old daughter Iris. She smiles and turns to look at her daughter.

"Yes, baby?" Y/n asks.

"We're doing a project for school, called 'My Hero' and I decided to do daddy, can you help me?" Iris asks.

"Okay, what do you need me to do?" Y/n says, wiping her hands and placing her hands on her hips walking to her daughter.

"What did daddy do?"

"For the military?" Iris nods in response. "Well, why don't I help you with your paper first, okay?"

"Okay, mama."

"Alright let me see what you got."

This was a week ago, Y/n helped Iris with her paper for hours and kept the project a secret from John.

"My Hero is my daddy, John Bravo Six Price. My daddy was part of the Military as a Captain, he is also the member of the British SAS. Sometimes my daddy is away for months, and I miss every time he leaves, but he tells me he'll come back safe and he always brings me a souvenir from his adventures." She digs in her backpack and pulls out a few things to show off.

"This is a picture of my daddy and some of his work friends, this one is Ghost and this one is Gaz." She puts them back and then grabs a few things that Price has brought back for her.

"This is a mini pyramid, when he went to Egypt. This is a tin art piece from Mexico, they traditionally have art of landscapes of them and pretty flowers. And this is stein from Germany, they usually put their drinks in it." She puts everything back in her bag.

"My daddy is currently in Russia right now and is coming back today, I am excited to see my daddy, and he is my hero."

"Wow! Thank you Iris for sharing, a round of applauds for Iris," her teacher says.

--------

At the end of the day Iris had walked outside to see her mom standing in the car rider line.

"MAMA!"

"Hi, baby," Y/n bends down kissing her daughter's temple, Y/n noticed her paper in her hands. "What's this baby?" Y/n asked.

"My paper for my hero, I got a 100% and a gold star," Iris smiles.

"That's great baby," Y/n kissed her daughter's temple again, before they walked to Y/n's car.

"Mama, is daddy coming home today?"

"Yep," Y/n says, buckling her daughter in her car seat.

----------

Once Y/n pulled into the driveway and helped her daughter out of her car seat they go inside and Y/n placed Iris's paper on the fridge, so when John comes in, he'll see it.

--------

Iris and Y/n played some board games before Price came home. Price was stuck in traffic and just wanted to go home to his family, Y/n smiled at her daughter who was still trying to understand the rules of the game.

"Honey you move 4 spaces."

"But when I play with Anna, she says I'm suppose to move 8 times."

"Why?" Y/n asked with a confused look and a slight giggle.

"Because four plus four equals eight."

"Honey, you're not adding anything. What you roll is what you roll, you rolled a four so you move four places."

"Okay, mama," Iris says with no more argument.

"Daddy has finally arrived," John says as he comes through the front door, Iris pops her head up and Y/n looks over her shoulder at her husband.

"DADDY!" Iris yells, running towards him. He drops his stuff and picks her up.

"How is my baby girl, huh?" He asks Iris kissing her cheek.

"Good," Y/n gets up off the floor and walks over to him, her hands running over his shoulders and hugging his neck.

"And how is mommy doing?" He asked in a bit of a seductive tone before kissing Y/n's lips.

"Just fine." She says to him.

"Oh daddy, look," Iris wiggled from his hold and ran to the fridge, pulling the paper off the fridge.

"What's this?" He asks her, looking at the 100% with his usual big smile and then reading 'My Hero'. "Oh...I remember doing a project like this when I was younger, my hero was Aunt," he smiles and bends down to his daughter. "Who was yours, baby?" He asks.

"Read it daddy," she giggles and hands him the paper.

"My hero is my..." Price looks at it thinking maybe he was reading it wrong. "My daddy...Captain John Bravo Six Price." He reads the papers, tears wanting to fall from his eyes but he held them, choking on some of the words.

Iris hated seeing her father so upset...The last time she's seem him upset is when her grandpa passed away. Iris took her small hand wiping her daddy's tears that did soon fall on his cheeks.

The sight melted Y/n's heart. Price's big hand cupped hers and kissed her knuckles.

"Thank you, baby," he says, pulling her into the biggest and longest hug. "This deserves to be framed," he jokes and looks at his wife who has been crying since Price started reading the paper. He pulls her into a hug as well.

----------

9:00PM

Price couldn't help but constantly re-reading the paper, he was laying in bed, Y/n was doing her nightly routine and Iris was asleep peacefully in her bed.

"John?"

"Why did she pick me?" He asked.

"Because she loves you," Y/n says, crawling on the bed.

She cups his face and kissed his lips. "Did she tell you, she was going to pick me?"

"Yes...but...she loves you...she loves the little things you bring back for her, she took one of your bucket hats to school because she missed you so much. You are her hero, Price and you always will be, I hope you know that."

----------

Price couldn't sleep, he looks at the ceiling and then at his sleeping wife next to him, he caresses her face kissing her forehead and getting out of the bed. He puts on a t-shirt and headed down the hall

He goes to the kitchen, he notices the light on in the kitchen and then seeing a little someone with a glass in her hands.

"Iris...baby, what are you doing up?" He asked.

"I can't sleep, and I was thirsty," Iris says, looking up at him, but he bends down to her level. She walks to him, his arms wrapping around her as she was still holding her glass of water.

"Come on, baby," he rubs her side and kiss her temple as she followed him back to her bedroom. He opens her bedroom door and she walks in, placing her glass on the nightstand and getting back into her bed but Price rests on her right side of her.

"Daddy."

"Yes?"

"Can you stay home, tomorrow?" Iris asked, looking at her daddy. She rolls on her side and plays with his dog tags.

"I can see," he says, placing his arm over her side rubbing her side again and patting her small leg.

Iris's eyes felt heavy, and she ended up falling asleep, Price looked to his right and looked down at his tired, sleeping daughter, he smiles kissing the top of her head.

He ends up falling asleep in Iris's bed, Y/n woke up to an empty bed and walked to her daughter's bedroom seeing a sleeping Price and Iris.

Price holding Iris and her face buried into his side. She smiles at her husband and baby girl, she walks in kissing his forehead and kissing Iris's temple.

--------

The next morning Y/n and Iris were in the kitchen and Price was still asleep in his daughter twin size bed. Iris's princess blanket draped over him.

Y/n pushed a mug of hot chocolate to Iris and Y/n stood next to Iris to help her with homework. Price had came out of his daughter's bedroom yawning and looking at his daughter and wife.

He kisses Y/n's neck and kisses Iris's forehead, he fixes himself some tea and leans over the counter watching his two girls.

Iris was writing down what Y/n was telling her, Y/n's right hand moved Iris's dirty blonde hair from her face, looking like the girl version of her father but the feminine features of her mother.

Price sees the paper on 'My Hero' on the counter and placed it back on the fridge, he kisses his daughter's temple and wife's temple before walking into the master bedroom and grabbing his phone.

He was going to fulfil his daughter's wishes and he will stay home today.

[stillness-in-green]

Project Update/Survey of Interest: The AFO Retcon Essay

Having cleared out the inbox, I thought I'd let everyone know where I am on one of the big projects I've been alluding to for a long while now, the big meta post/essay arguing that the possession plot (and therefore AFO as primary endgame villain) is, in so many words, a big stupid retcon. That essay is - for reasons I'll get into shortly - on the brink of a major change in focus, so I'd also like to gauge how much interest people have in its potential new form. Because it would be another huge one, make no mistake.

(Hit the jump.)

So, I recently started dabbling with a new word processor program and thought I'd try learning the ropes with the retcon essay; I then spent the better part of two weeks combing through chatlogs and my blog archive trying to compile all the evidence I'd want to consider to make that argument. Two nights ago, I looked at the list I had - almost fifty bullet points! - and had the horribly demoralizing realization that...

...You guys, I just don't think I believe it anymore.

Now, that's not to say I've come around on the possession plot, because I definitely haven't! Rather, my trust in Horikoshi as a writer has been so badly eroded by the state of the writing in the endgame that I no longer think even the earlier material is reliable evidence for where the story was going.

To pick the most prominent example, I always regarded AFO telling Best Jeanist at Kamino that his quirk "wouldn't suit Tomura" as one of my strongest pieces of evidence that the possession plot had not been in the cards at that time. After all, who in hell cares what quirks would or would not suit Tomura if AFO's plan, as stated in Chapter 380, was that he would wholly subsume Tomura's will?

Now, however - and Chapter 380 is a big part of this, too! - I look back on that moment and just think, wearily, "Was that ever true, or was Horikoshi just lying to us already, and the only difference between then and now is that back then the lies could hold for hundreds of chapters, whereas now they're revealed within a matter of pages?"

A chat friend letting me vent suggested that perhaps the line was just intended to foreshadow Shigaraki getting All For One (and therefore all the quirks held within it) and Horikoshi just didn't think through all the implications AFO's phrasing had on how that plot was going to go. That may be true, and it's a more generous read than I could muster at the time, but the end result is the same: If I can't trust that the writing was ever an accurate reflection of the characters and their intentions, I can't in good faith construct an argument relying on that writing.

What I think I can do, however, if people are interested, is broaden the overall thrust to something much bigger than just AFO.

I'm currently toying with the idea of a treatise-in-four-parts about the problems in the endgame. Each part would cover one major branch of related issues - they might need to be broken down into sub-parts themselves, if they run long enough! The whole thing would likely be much longer and more involved than my chapter posts; think something more like the PLF mass arrest essay. Following are my current ideas for how those four parts would fall out, as well as some example talking points for each:

Part 1: Shigaraki and the PLF. Would cover Shigaraki as a villain and what he and the forces he'd amassed circa the end of My Villain Academia stood to bring to the endgame, both ideologically and tactically. Would also cover where they actually wound up and some considerations as to why.           Example Subpoints: Demanding accountability from Hero Society rather than just focusing blame on singular evils; Shigaraki as representative of all previous Villains; the MLA's shift in portrayal between MVA and the endgame; the ludicrous string of nerfs Toga was subjected to; whether the MLA was only ever intended to be a mass of numbers to whittle down the equally massive numbers of the Heroes or whether they were reduced to that after poor reader reception.

Part 2: All For One's Impact. Would focus on the sharp drop in moral complexity AFO both suffered himself compared to his pre-Tartarus characterization and inflicted on the endgame both himself and with the caliber of minions he brought to the story.           Example Subpoints: AFO's inconsistent characterization; the moral reductiveness of the Demon Lord as endgame Villain; AFO and Yoichi's personal history; Vestige mechanics; the impact of AFO's inconsistency on Ujiko's portrayal; the Sekoto Peak Problem; the characterization and handling of the Tartarus escapees.

Part 3: Team Hero Is The Fucking Worst. Would focus on the multitudinous problems with the presentation and methodologies of the Heroes in the endgame. Might be two parts if it gets long enough that I decide to split it up into, like, one part on the adults/Pro Heroes and one on the kids or something.           Example Subpoints: The story's bad faith attempts to portray agents of government authority as scrappy, determined underdogs; why it's impossible to believe that the current heroic cast will be able to enact a satisfying resolution to all the structural problems the story has raised; That Stupid Fucking Mech Fight; the constant refusal to let consequences stick to the Heroes; the way the story both undercuts and oversells Deku as a protagonist, and the impact that has on the broader narrative; One For All and more Vestige Mechanics; The Problem of Hawks; the hospital riot; the Todoroki family's inaction.

Part 4: Other Issues. A catch-all area for anything else I trip over that doesn't fit in any of the categories above, or problems of a more meta-narrative sort.           Very Preliminary Example Subpoints: The lazy portrayal of civilian characters; meta-narrative examples of the unreliability of BNHA's late-stage writing, from simple errors overlooked in the highly demanding grind of Shonen Jump serialization to the much more damning abuse of the reader's expectations of the comic medium; idk probably lots of other stuff, I Have Many Problems.

That said, I now have to ask, how interested are you all in a project like that? A fair amount of it would be recycled from my chapter posts, but obviously it would cover stuff I never got to in those, and would be able to be written with more hindsight (especially if it's written mostly or entirely after the series ends!), as opposed to the constant problem of reacting to the story week-to-week.

I basically stopped writing the chapter posts for reasons of incessant negativity, and obviously, this would be more of that, but I mind the negativity a lot less when it's A) able to be more comprehensive and focused than meandering and piecemeal and B) in the form of a large project I can work on as I have the energy for it rather than a brand new project every single week. And, as I trust stuff like MVA In Memoriam and On Heteromorphobia make clear, I do like the idea of putting together a good, comprehensive, easy-to-reference tract on all those problems, as opposed to just letting my issues remain scattered across multiple years of chapter thoughts and bnha critical tags!

That said, it's a big project, and I do vent about these issues pretty constantly with chat and irl friends, so if there's not much interest from followers here, I would not find it hard to just let the whole thing go and turn my eyes to less intimidating fare instead.

(Current other projects include the usual roster of BNHA fic, another mid-length meta piece in the mode of the BNHA vs. Helck comparison from a while back, this time on Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, and a horrible temptation to try and write something thoughtful and even-handed about demons in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to combat the reductive-ass takes on both sides of the argument I've been seeing all over the internet since its anime started. Also, every week I go without seeing a single damn MachtxGluck fanfic on AO3 is a week I get closer to trying to figure out a way into writing it myself.)

Do let me know! Also, feel free to chip in with anything you'd like to see me specifically talk about in an endgame analysis!

[britcision]

Anyway in case anyone was wondering why I do firmly aver I did not get to DPxDC from DC and am not a DC fan despite having consumed all of the Harley Quinn and Suicide Squad runs up to 2018

(And have an exciting grab bag of shows, movies, and assorted trivia under my belt besides

Batman vs Dracula was fucking great fight me)

It’s because DC as a whole is hostile as fuck to the concept of being a casual fan

(And about 90% of the main heroes annoy the hell out of me for the very tropes that DC is known and praised for in their heroes I am here for villains, antiheroes, and sidekicks exclusively)

There is no such thing as consistent characterization, especially as you consume more content or fall down a rabbit hole, and the rabbit holes are ENDLESS

Everyone cameos everywhere else, referential jokes are often dropped in as Easter eggs for people who have read every single other DC comic put out in the same decade and yet within the same comics you get glaringly inconsistent characterization and different retcons for the same events

Big stories are retold and retconned every couple years, we got 3 separate Spiderman origin movies and the exact same Batman origin in more than half the live action movies; DC PAYS PEOPLE to make up their own different versions of canon events

There is a REASON that the Marvel and DC cinematic universes are both officially divorced from comic canon; the sheer volume of canon content is inaccessible to most of the population, and DC and Marvel know it

That’s why the New 52 was a big divorce from all previous canon too - it’s an on ramp for new fans, because sorting through the web of old content is off putting as fuck

It’s the one thing not a single DC fan I’ve spoken to who complained about “canon characterization” has bothered defending or even acknowledging, and yet it has been the core of all of their arguments:

“Canon is what I want it to be, not what any of the sources say”

And listen, I was a Torchwood fan, we were the archetypal example of “canon only happened if I acknowledge it” (so sad that show ended after only two seasons and nothing else ever happened again Children of Earth who), you just gotta acknowledge that that’s what you’re doing

But you frankly cannot have a serious conversation about canon characterization with someone who does not acknowledge entire swaths of canon and cannot understand why that makes their argument completely invalid

Any kind of conversation about the “right” characterization for a DC character necessarily has to involve the acknowledgement that it’s your personal preferred characterization, not a One True Canon, because I guarantee there are canon incidents for every single big name and most of the small ones that directly counter the ones you like

You may note I share a bunch of posts with things like “My Batman would never do this”, as opposed to “canon Batman would never do this”

Hell, on Batman specifically there are hundreds of beautifully put together posts talking about how the different canon runs get him wrong; I too prefer a Bruce Wayne who does genuinely care about his family and tries to protect them, but isn’t perfect or always right over the massive asshole elitist who just grunts and treats them like soldiers

Canon Batman slaps his kids around, it’s the meme that broke containment and you don’t have to like it or accept it as something your Batman would do!

But it’s still canon

Both versions have a massive well of canon support, and exist simultaneously in the multiverse

Every single characterization of a character is true and exists in the multiverse

And that is why the idea of a “canon version” of any DC character is utterly meaningless

TL;DR: write DC characters however the fuck you want and do not worry about it for more than 10 minutes together, that is what the paid DC writing staff do

There will be at least two pieces of canon media to back up whatever interpretation of the character you pick

Not everyone will like that characterization or agree with how you see the character, and that is all fine and good! But “canon” is meaningless in this context, neatly encapsulated by the “multiverse” explanation

Everything is canon, which means that nothing is canon

[silent-raven13]

Make Hobie go PINK! (Halloween Special)

Halloween has arrived and everyone in HQ had this fun idea to dress up or wear some sort accessory as an excuse to dress up. "Happy Halloween!" Peter 616 said out loud being dressed as cozy big black bear holding a big bowl of candy.

"Happy Halloween!" Mayday dressed up as Merida from Pixar's Brave having a bow and arrow strap on her back. Her long wavy red hair had been perfectly curled by her mom.

"Awe, so cute!" The Spider-women came by to take one piece of candy from the bowl as they made comments about the father and daughter Spider-heroes.

Spectacular Spider-man stood with one hand on his hip, "Ohh, I see now. I get it, from the movie! Took me awhile putting together the idea."

"Hah, I thought why not make it a twist? Instead of the mom being the bear, it's the dad?" Peter shrugs.

"Not cool as me!" Ben Riley came in dressed up as Batman, "I am the Dark Knight." Trying to put on a menacing voice.

"Easy soldier." Jess appeared with her son, who's dressed as Michael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Spider-woman dressed up as Tinker-bell.

"No, I am Batman!" Ben uses his deep voice getting way into character.

"And I'm Michelangelo!" Gerald stood in a mighty pose and uses his nunchucks to pull off his costume.

"Oh wow, you guys dress up so cool!" Gabriella appeared having to dress up as Mirabel from Encanto, she even wore fake green glasses. Her dad behind her wearing a large green cloak.

"Somebody is Bruno." Peter chuckles.

"Shhh, we don't talk about Bruno." Jess teased.

Ben sang, "No. No. No! We don't talk about Bruno!"

"We don't talk about Bruno!" Mayday, Gerald, and Gabriella sang out loud. Everyone in HQ knows the movies and sang out loud, "NO. NO. NO! We don't talk about Bruno!"

Miguel grunts having his green cloak on him, "Oh ha-ha, very funny! I only did it because Gabriella told me to be Bruno."

"Yeah. because papá is like Bruno; always in a dark room and hiding! And very sleepy lookin', too." Gabriella giggles as she twirls around to show off her pretty skirt.

"Awe, you guys are so cute!" Lupe appeared with her apprentices; Billie 1613 and Mariana 1022. Their masks were off being comfortable to show off their faces.

"Awwweee, such cuties!" The two girls behind Lupe awed.

Lupe looks at Miguel and grins widely, "Are you gonna tell me, my future, Mr. Canon?"

Lyla in her avatar pop out dressing as Peppa, "Hehehe, careful he'll go into hiding."

Miguel 928 gave a weak scowl before he saw Lupe's cat ears, "Aye, at least I dressed up."

"Nah, I'm not paying sixty dollars for a costume." Lupe laughs, then did a fake purr, "Meow. Do you like it, Miguelito?"

"Pfft, Tacky."

"Are you Catwoman, Lupe!" Gabriella asked looking at her ears.

"Maybe or a cat in general." The Spider-woman twisted her lips into a wide smile. "Its subjective."

"It's a poor excuse for a costume." Miguel mutters while he spend weeks making this Bruno costume and his daughter's costume.

"Oh Gabriella, your costume is so cute! So is May's!" Billie 1613 said happily with her hands clasp together, "I'm going to dress up as Ariel!"

"Your gonna be a princess, too!" Gabriella gasps with her eyes widen like they had sparkles in her eyes.

"Huh uh! I got this pretty blue dress for it." Billie giggles.

"I'm dressing up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast." Mariana smiles with joy.

"Oh, I wanna see it." Mayday stomp her foot on the ground, "I bet you'll look very pretty, Mariana!"

"Oh thank you, I will at the party." Mariana said happily, "Did you know Miguel 970, also said he's dressing up a character from Beauty and the Beast!"

"Oh wow, I guess the O'Haras have some weird power, because Gabriel told me, he's planning to dress up as Prince Eric." Billie said being naive.

Lupe crosses her arms then giggles, "Oh really, they both suddenly decided to be a character from a movie you two picked?"

"Yeah!" The girls were clueless.

"I can't wait to see them!" Gabriella happily bounce, "I love Belle and Ariel! They are my favorite princesses!"

Mayday said, "I wanna see the pretty blue dress." She took Billie 1613's hand trying to pull her, "Let's go see it!"

"Sorry, May. I have a lunch date with Gabriel- well, he calls it a date but I find it so silly since it's just us sitting together and talking about random stuff and eating good food." Billie 1613 explained.

Miguel 928 added, "That is a lunch date..."

"Oh no, a lunch date is when a couple go on dates and have lunch together, boss!"

"Yeah, papá. I had a lunch date with a boy from school!" Gabriella puff her chest out with confidence, "we share a juice box!"

"Oh how scandalous!" Mariana and Lupe fake gasps as Jess and Peter laughs at Miguel 928's reaction.

"Qué? Who was it?" Miguel 928 asked out loud, "Your too young para niños, Gabriella!"

"I'm not telling." Gabriella giggles with her little self hiding being Lupe's leg. "Right, Lupe. Us girls don't kiss and tell!"

"Right." Lupe saw the shock of a father figure as if his little girl no longer is staying a child.

"LUPE!"

"What? Me and Gabriella like to have evening tea time with Lyla."

"That's right." Lyla appeared in a Marilyn Monroe outfit on her avatar. "Sorry, Miguel. Gabriella made me pinky promise."

"What! Not fair, Lupe. You have to tell me."

"Nuh uh!"

Mariana said to Billie 1613, "Speaking of lunch dates. I think Miguel 970 is taking me to one, but hmm, he got all shy and grumpy about it."

"Oh no, has he been sleeping well." Billie said.

"I hope so!" The two Spider-woman talked having to ignore the two adults arguing- well, Miguel arguing.

Gabriella saw Petie and May together, "Oh wow, May is Barbie!"

The little three year old giggles with her pink Barbie roller blade outfit, "Daddy is Ken!" She hold her dad's hand.

Jess awed out loud, "Awe, how cute is little May. She's so Barbie."

"Just adorable." Peter 616 said as the adults went around to look at the little girl. May being a bashful went to hug her dad's leg.

Lupe hums, checking out Petie's tight roller blade Ken outfit, "You do realize Deadpool is gonna go crazy when he sees you and your fatty." She leans over to see Petie's butt then giggles.

"Oh god," Petie 2010 sighs, "But I wanted to match my baby. She looks so cute with this outfit."

"Oh wow, what a cute duo." They saw Miles 2020 with his triplets and Alpha dressed up as Pokemon characters. Miles wearing an Ash Ketchum outfit while his Alpha dressed up as Mega Charizard X and the triplets were dressed as up the three different types of Charizard. Mariana got her regular Charizard onesies, Aaron in a Chameleon costume, and Karl in a Mega Charizard Y onesies.

"ROAR!" Mariana 2020 pops out of her wagon stroller with her two brothers sat with her.

"Rawr!" The other two boy follow with their massive hoodie covering their faces as they try to look scary.

Jess laughs with amusement at the Omega being the only different one, "What happened, 2020? You the only one not a Pokemon."

"Wow, those outfits are so cool!" Gerald admires the triplets, especially Hobie's costumes, "You look so dope!"

"I'm always cool, lad." The Alpha ruffled the little boy's hair, "Say you got a swag fit, too."

"I wanna be Leonardo!" Aaron bounced from his spot, his upper body leaning over the edge of the stroller wagon.

Hobie 2020 chuckles, "For real, little one? You were begging to be a Pokemon." The triplets ignore him as they were busy talking to Gerald about his cool costume.

"First, I had this idea that maybe me and my mate can be trainers and our babies be starter Pokemon, but..." Miles 2020 only remembers the costume shop filled with his triplets fighting over Charmander and Charizard. Then, his mate was looking at the cool black and blue Mega Charizard being into the costume than being the trainer. "You know, you make do." Then his eyes saw the girls, "Awe, you two look so cute."

Mayday and Gabriella giggles being shy at their outfits. Miles 2020 saw Miguel 928 looking so serious in his Bruno costume that he burst out laughing, "Oh my gawd, no way. Are you seriously Bruno? Honestly, makes sense... he is a hermit."

The Omega quickly swirl around his boss to look at the outfit then saw his face, "Oh wow, even you did a good job with your makeup. Those dark circles look so real."

Lupe, Peter 616, Petie 2010 were snickering to themselves. "Like I could see the depression hitting, the exhaustion and five'o clock shadow-" Hobie 2020 stop his Omega from saying anything further while maintaining a serious expression, "Darling, he's not wearing anything." Then let out chuckle giving up his strength to hold it in.

Miguel 928 merely stare at them being unimpressed, Miles 2020 gasps, "Uh oh! I am so sorry, Miguel! You really gotta sleep."

"Yeah, take your naps!" Mariana 2020 shouted.

Mariana 1022 and Billie 1613 were looking at the triplets being so cute. They were like hatchlings from a Pokemon egg and all three are together in a nest. "Where's yo costume?" Karl asked in his choppy three old tone.

"Later, bebé. It's going to be a lot of work to put it on." Mariana 1022 cooed, as her hand gently rub Karl's round cheek.

"Best fren! Best fren, hey! Hey, best fren!" Mariana 2020 got all in Billie's face, "Where's yours?"

"Oh it's for the party. I need to do so much with my hair and makeup." She answered.

Mariana 2020 pouts with her hoodie covering her face, "Awe, I wanna see your outfit!."

"Don't worry. I promise I'll show it." Billie 1613 giggles.

"Mariana, no reason to pout, bebé." Her daddy said.

"But daddy! I see them with no costumes!" Mariana 2020 pouts with a huff.

"You want me to deal with her, luv?" Hobie 2020 asked.

"Please, bae." Miles 2020 said to his mate.

His husband picks up their daughter, "Relax, spitfire. We need to wait for the party."

"Awe!" His pup pouted.

"Oh wow, you guys went all out today!" They turn to find Pavtri dressed up as Prince Charming walking with Gwen and Hobie.

Gwen dressed up as the bride from Kill Bill had a fake sword and her yellow black jumpsuit with her hair a little teased and added a bit makeup to look like she was fighting.

Hobie wore horn headband that's nicely placed on his head, and had a fake thin devil tail. "Aye, cat woman." He grins at Lupe.

"See he gets it!" Lupe grins widely, "And you're a demon."

The punker grins widely with his arms crossed, "Always."

"Where's Miles? I thought he would be here." Gwen asked as Billie 1613 touches her fake sword.

Mariana 1022 carries Aaron, "Oh, I wonder what's his costume!"

"Probably something nerdy." Pavtri giggles.

"Oh, will he dress up as a cool anime character." Billie 1613 awe, "My brother use to dress up all the time for his anime club and it was so fun to watch him make the outfits."

"Oh that'll be fun. I wonder if he's dressing up a popular character like Howl from Howl's moving castle or Naruto." Mariana 1022 rub her chin.

"Or hopefully a Pokemon trainer!" Miles 2020 grins widely, "That way my idea will be complete."

Hobie 2020 holding his daughter, "Awe, can't handle a dragon?"

"Roar!" Their daughter roar at her daddy, "Fear me, daddy!"

"Yeah, so scary." Miles 2020 giggles at his pup, "Your just like your father." He winks at his husband, the Alpha let out a low rumble in the back of his throat with his scent seeping out of him.

"Huh oh, careful Millie. He might give you another set of triplets." Lupe chuckles.

"Hahaha, oh nonono. I'm good with these three." Miles 2020 laughs.

"Yeah, I want to be the only girl!" Mariana 2020 chimes out loud.

Gabriella said, "You don't want another sister! I always wanted another sibling."

Miguel let out a cough. "Really? Why? I like being on my own." Gerry said to Gabriella.

"I want a little brother or sister, too!" Mayday agrees with Gabriella.

"Look what you did, Lupe." Miguel said to the Spider-woman.

"What? You can give her a brother or sister, you're still... young?" She tilted her head to the side, "How old are you, again?"

Gwen said to Hobie, "What if Miles dress as an Angel? That'll be so cute."

Hobie turns into a slight baby pink, "My Sunflower as an Angel... yes, I would love to see that."

"Fingers crossed!" Pavtri said out loud.

The group were unaware of a familiar Spider-man running from up high coming down holding a three year old in his arms. "Who dat?" Petie squint his eyes up. Then everyone turns there head at the colorful Spider-man as the closer he got down dressed as Spider-Punk 138b.

He stood as soon he began talking, everyone knew it was Miles. "I'm Hobie Brown, when I’m not playing shows, antagonizing fascists, staging unpermitted political action slash performing art pieces." He did a pose while held a handcrafted thrifted electric guitar similar to Hobie's, "OR, having a laugh at the pub with the mandem. I'm not a role model, I was briefly a runway model. I hate the AM, I hate the PM, I hate labels!" He remove his Spider-Punk mask to show off his own wicks made from a synthetic wig with visible colorful lines and yarn to give that voluminous look. His face painted more Punk aesthetic with black lipstick, and wearing fake piercings similar to his boyfriend.

"Oh my gawd, that's such a cool Hobie costume!" Pavtri and Billie 1613 gasps with their eyes gleaming at Miles' costume. He got every part of the outfit to the tee.

Gwen said, "Wow, no wonder you were asking me about battle jackets."

"Whoa, is your guitar really!" Mayday went up with the other children to check out the outfit. Her hand touched the guitar.

"Yup!" Miles plays a weak string.

Mariana 1022 giggles, "Sweet, I like the hair. maybe you should do wicks more often."

"Oh yeah!" Miles grins widely, as he posed.

Petie said, "The suit and looks is spot on!"

"Yeah, no kidding. I thought it was another variant." Peter added.

"I really like the patch work on those jeans." Jess eyes on Miles' black jeans, she could tell he put a lot a thought on the design.

"He looks like other da-da!" Mariana 2020 said out loud to his daddy, "Right, daddy."

Miles 2020 giggles, "Yes, he does!"

Miles grins widely, "You know, I thought I try something new." His doe eyes glances at Hobie.

Everyone else saw Hobie 138b turning vivid bright pink. Hobie 2020 chuckles, "Tongue twisted, eh?" He patted his variant's back, "Heh, I would be too if my Sunflower dressed up as me." He looks back at his mate with a puppy pout.

Miles 2020 giggles, "Oh really? Maybe next year."

"I wanna dress up as da-da, daddy." Karl climbs on his daddy, being carried.

"I will keep that in mind, mi vida." Miles 2020 kisses his son on the cheek.

Hobie finally got up to look at his Sunflower, "You look Ace, luv. You got every detailed!" He saw the battle vest, "Oi, are you sure you didn't take my clothes."

"No, bae. I made everything. See!" Miles shows the brand of the battle vest, "It's a different brand."

"So, that means I should be you then... hmm perhaps I can steal me a Spider-man cost-" Then a three year old Spider-man pops up from Miles back, "No! It's me!" Billie's voice spoke from the tiny Spider-man.

"Hahaha, sorry, bae. Billie is me for Halloween." He had a baby strap underneath his battle jacket, he got Billie off his back.

The little girl dressed up in Miles' black and red suit wearing her mask and web shooter, "Hi, I'm Miles Morales! I am Spider-man and-and I'ma do my own thing!" She proudly puff her chest out, then shoot a dart from her web shooter at Hobie. "Hehe!"

"Awe, she looks so cute, Miles!" Jess quickly went over to look at Billy, "She's so adorable as a tiny Spider-man? Spider-woman?"

"I'm Miles!" Billie 1610 said out loud.

Hobie chuckles, "Heh, not follow gender norms. I like it."

"Ohhh how cute! Look at her tiny web-shooter!" Pavtri gawks.

Billie 1613 and Mariana 1022 cooed at Billie, "Awe, Billie. Your so cute as Miles."

"Hehehe! I'ma do my own thing." She saids trying to be her big brother. She didn't want to remove her mask.

Miles mimic Hobie's voice, "Sunflower, you're doing a fantastic job!" Gwen and Pavtri giggles at the perfect cockney accent.

"Huh uh!" Billie nodded.

Hobie picks up his Miles, "Hobie!" Miles being bashful.

"You're too precious to me, luv." He happily kisses Miles' cheek.

"No, Hobie! My big brother!" Billie huffs out loud.

"Well, now I know the party is going to quite ecstatic." Miguel said to the adults.

Peter laughs, "Yeah, especially when you got those two together."

"HOBIE!" Miles saw how the punker runs around having the children chasing them.

"No fair, Hobie! I wanna touch Miles' guitar!" Gabriella said out loud.

"I wanna hold Billie!" Mayday said out loud.

Gerry preach, "I wanna play with Miles."

Hobie merely plays around while carrying his lover and Billie. "Whoa-whoa!" Billie getting dizzy. "I wanna do my own THING!"

"Me too! Me too!" Mariana 2020 shouted out loud.

"Sorry, lads. I'm not sharing him." Hobie chuckles at the children.

[liraleinil]

So. I finished reading the Captive Prince trilogy in three days (just the novels, not the short stories) and I am feeling a lot of things, but mostly I'm feeling vaguely frustrated. It's hard to articulate how I feel. I enjoyed the books while I was reading them, even though some parts made me cringe. But that's not the problem.

The problem is the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. I feel like at least some people who liked the Captive Prince books would love Dunnett but I've found that recommending the books rarely sticks. 

If you're expecting an epic gay romance, you won't find it in Lymond. But a lot of the other elements in the Captive Prince series are there, along with great writing, a complex cast of characters, and plots and ploys abound. I don't read much historical fiction, but Dunnett was so good, it sucked me completely in, despite knowing very little of the history and setting. (Not so different from reading fantasy, really.) 

Anyway! Spoiler warnings for all the Captive Prince novels and the Lymond Chronicles, though it's less explicit for the latter.

Let's get the obvious thing out of the way. My favourite book series is the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, six historical fiction novels set in the 1500s, spanning from Scotland to Europe to Turkey to France, featuring a blond-haired, blue-eyed, minor Scottish nobleman known as Francis Crawford of Lymond. I'm sure other people have pointed out the similarity between the two series and the characters Laurent and Lymond and there has been analysis by people much more eloquent than me. 

I started reading Captive Prince one afternoon and finished it before midnight. I went on to read Prince's Gambit simply because Laurent was acting so Lymond-like that I had to find out what he was up to. I immediately suspected he knew who Damen was from the start because that's the sort of annoying leaps of logic Lymond makes, with his cornflower blue eyes glittering with malice — that's how similar they are.

I'm not one of those people who can't enjoy a book because something like it has already been done before. I'm always looking for books that could bring me back to that same kind of excitement I found when I first read the Lymond Chronicles. One of the reasons I picked up Captive Prince was because of the comparisons made to Lymond.

It's just that I feel a bit cheated that, despite all the similarities, I don't think it would be easy to get people to read the Lymond Chronicles after getting into Captive Prince. It's too dense, too full of historical references, too many quotes in too many languages. Too clever. 

Who knows whether the parallels in the two series were intentional or not. At the start of the first book, The Game of Kings, Lymond gets drunk before he goes off to rob his mother, Sybilla, and set her castle on fire. Here's part of his conversation with her. You can see why everyone around him wants to stab him. He's more loquacious than Laurent, at any rate.

Yes, he even has an older brother. Lymond goes and antagonises Richard almost immediately after this. I think that was the point where I started wondering, This is the man we're supposed to get behind? Quite the antihero, Francis Crawford of Lymond. 

There are other things. They don't play the same part or advance the narrative the same way in both stories, but the fact that they are there just … I'm not even sure what to say. Imitation is the best form of flattery? There are disguises with hilarious consequences, trials where every single piece of evidence is disputed, exhilarating chases over the rooftops of Paris, whips and whipping posts, royal hunts that don't end well, ridiculous acrobatics on horses, babies of indeterminate parentage, your favourite characters ending up dead, Will Scott's mix of hero worship and wanting to strangle Lymond at the same time, and Jerott (I don't even know where we should toss Jerott). 

Sometimes it's just a line, and I end up raising an eyebrow at it because it sounds so Dunnett. I'm not disparaging Pacat here; as I said earlier, I'm frustrated, because I feel more people should enjoy the Lymond Chronicles and Dunnett's writing, but they're not going to, because Dunnett was too clever and made the books too dense and witty and difficult.

If you do start The Game of Kings, though, I ask you to try to get at least to page 100 or so before giving up. That was where I decided that yes, this was definitely worth the effort. 

I don't suppose I'm making much sense, but apparently I feel so strongly about this that I need to make a Tumblr post in an otherwise empty account. Go me.

PS: I liked Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series as well, though the first book is, uh, somewhat disappointing? I don't know if I had too high expectations or what. I loved the later books, though. For some reason, I still haven't read the last book in the series. I suppose I should remedy that.

[dead-boys-club]

hello, everyone! DBC has decided to do a Christmas prompt list this year. Simple as always, just pick one of the prompts below and send it in with your character(s)* of choice! * I don't write just ships but I will write poly!

Currently writing for: Tokyo Revengers - My Hero Academia - Haikyuu!! - One Piece - Honkai: Star Rail - Genshin Impact - Demon Slayer - Jujutsu Kaisen.

There are two types of prompts: scenes and quotes. You can choose only one or you can choose one of each - up to you. When choosing scenes, please put an 'A' in front and for quotes, a 'B' ( ex: A13 / B24 )

Scenes:

1. Wrapping presents together (and failing miserably). 2. Getting caught under the mistletoe. 3. Getting lost at the mall. 4. Building a snowman with an unexpected twist. 5. Christmas shopping chaos in a packed mall. 6. A cozy movie marathon with holiday classics. 7. One person LOVES Christmas, the other… not so much. 8. First snowfall of the season. 9. Baking Christmas cookies that go horribly wrong. 10. Decorating the Christmas tree (and arguing about the topper). 11. Ice skating mishaps. 12. Getting snowed in together on Christmas Eve. 13. Sneaking around to hide the perfect gift. 14. A surprise Christmas confession under twinkling lights. 15. The annual ugly sweater competition. 16. Drinking hot chocolate by the fire and sharing secrets. 17. Christmas karaoke gets out of hand. 18. Waking up to the surprise of a White Christmas. 19. A holiday party that ends in complete chaos. 20. Exchanging handmade gifts. 21. One person forgetting it’s Christmas and rushing to make it special last minute. 22. Wearing matching pajamas (and someone hating it). 23. A romantic sleigh ride in the snow. 24. A snowball fight turns into something… more. 25. Lighting up the neighborhood with the most outrageous Christmas decorations. 26. Searching for the perfect Christmas tree. 27. A surprise Christmas getaway. 28. Christmas-themed game night (think charades or trivia!). 29. Losing power during Christmas dinner. 30. Decorating gingerbread houses and making a mess. 31. Staying up to see the Northern Lights together. 32. An anonymous Secret Santa gift leaves someone wondering who sent it. 33. One person being overly dramatic about hanging up lights. 34. Visiting a Christmas market together. 35. A cozy nap on the couch while snow falls outside. 36. Getting lost in the woods while searching for a tree. 37. Finding a stray animal in the snow and deciding to take it in. 38. Christmas Eve at a cabin in the woods. 39. Building the perfect holiday playlist. 40. Sharing a scarf on a cold winter night.

Quotes:

1. “I swear, if you eat one more Christmas cookie, you’ll turn into Santa Claus.” 2. “Do we really need a tree this big? Are we decorating it or climbing it?” 3. “You’re cold? Here—take my scarf. I don’t need it.” 4. “I didn’t get you a gift because I am the gift.” 5. “Who needs Santa when you have me?” 6. “I think the lights are tangled… and I’m stuck. Help.” 7. “That’s not how you build a snowman! You’re supposed to stack the snowballs, not throw them!” 8. “Hot chocolate tastes better when you steal it from someone else’s mug.” 9. “Are you crying? It’s just a Hallmark movie!” 10. “Is that… matching pajamas? For us?” 11. “No, you’re not putting a star on top. It’s going to be a dinosaur this year.” 12. “It’s snowing! Come outside with me!” 13. “This gingerbread house is structurally unsound, and it’s your fault.” 14. “Christmas isn’t about the presents… but if you got me nothing, we’re fighting.” 15. “You’re putting WAY too much whipped cream on that hot chocolate.” 16. “I told you not to eat the raw cookie dough, and now you feel sick. I’m shocked.” 17. “Why does this Christmas party feel like the start of a murder mystery?” 18. “I don’t care how cold it is. We’re staying outside until you catch a snowflake on your tongue.” 19. “This isn’t a snowball fight. It’s a war.” 20. “I don’t do Christmas cheer. But for you? Fine.” 21. “Santa doesn’t leave coal in stockings anymore. He just leaves bad vibes.” 22. “Stop shaking your presents! You’ll ruin the surprise!” 23. “I didn’t wrap your gift. I thought the bag was enough effort.” 24. “Christmas lights aren’t supposed to explode, are they?” 25. “It’s the most chaotic time of the year.” 26. “I made you a Christmas playlist. No, you can’t skip the Mariah Carey song.” 27. “This isn’t a holiday drink. It’s pure sugar and regret.” 28. “Tell me you didn’t just eat Santa’s cookies.” 29. “You can’t just use mistletoe as an excuse to kiss me whenever you want!” 30. “Who needs a fireplace when you have me to keep you warm?” 31. “It’s not a proper Christmas until someone burns the cookies.” 32. “You’ve got snow in your hair. It’s adorable.” 33. “What do you mean you don’t know the words to Jingle Bells?” 34. “You look good in the glow of Christmas lights… too good.” 35. “I didn’t decorate for Christmas. I decorated for you.” 36. “This gift is wrapped so badly. Did you use duct tape?” 37. “Mistletoe is overrated. You don’t need it to kiss me.” 38. “Christmas Eve isn’t the same without you.” 39. “Snow angels are overrated. Let’s just lie here together.” 40. “You’re my favorite Christmas tradition.”

[cherryblossomshadow]

How to Think About Politics Without Wanting to Kill Yourself

Hamilton Nolan

There are Enemies, and then there are Cowards.

Some people expect politicians to be heroes, and treat them as such. They pick a team, and they embrace a candidate, and they fawn over them, and idealize them, and treat them in the way that fans treat celebrities, or that medieval peasants treated kings. Not only is this unhealthy for the fabric of our civic society; it is unrealistic. You cannot be a fully moral person and be elected president of the United States.

.

I am bringing this up because, every election year, millions of politically concerned Americans struggle with this cognitive dissonance.

People want heroes as leaders, but you must swallow an enormous dose of bullshit in order to fawn over a major party presidential candidate.

Typically, the way that we deal with this is to ignore and wave away the bad things that our preferred candidates do.

People have a hard time accepting the fact that they will be voting for someone who will certainly do evil things.

What does that say about us, the voters?

Others deal with this by deciding not to vote or to voting for purist protest candidates, which, in our unfortunate two party system, effectively helps the candidate furthest from their own preferences.

“Everything is fine!” some say, putting on blinders.

“I can’t possibly support this candidate’s position on XYZ,” others say, maintaining their own sense of morality while, in the material world, helping to elect the worst possible person.

Both of these choices are flawed. Yet we all find ourselves here, over and over. What to do?

.

Untangling this ethical knot is, I think, a matter of perspective. It comes down to the way that you think of what politics is. For the most part, it is wrong to think of elections as contests between “good” and “bad” candidates. With few exceptions, it is more accurate to divide most politicians into two broad categories:

Enemies

and

Cowards

.

The enemies are those politicians who are legitimately opposed to your policy goals.

The cowards are those politicians who may agree with your policy goals, but will sell you out if they must in order to protect their own interests.

Embrace the idea that we are simply pushing to elect the cowards, rather than the enemies. Why? Because the true work of political action is not to identify idealized superheroes to run for office. It is, instead, to create the conditions in the world that make it safe for the cowards to vote the right way.

Under this framework, you can set aside the tedious feelings of disappointment that come with holding moral views while also supporting any politician. Will your favorite candidate do something bad? Almost certainly. After all, they are cowards.

The onus is on us to give the cowards a soft path to the moral choice.

.

The willingness to overlook certain morally indefensible things is something that most people accept, in their own hearts, when they go into electoral politics. If there is a hell, I expect that many well-liked and popular Democratic politicians will end up there.

But here in the material world, we are trying to achieve tangible things.

The cowards, unlike the enemies, can be moved into the right place.

That is why we vote for them, when faced with the choice of the two.

.

In general, it is better to think of even the politicians on your own side not as role models to be admired but rather as basically disreputable figures who are necessary to deal with but who should always be looked down upon and forced to prove, through action, that they are not pieces of shit.

.

So cease your valorization of political candidates, and cease also your tortured moral struggle over “supporting” a candidate who has done something awful.

Accept that all we will get from the next election is someone who can be made to do the right thing under pressure, rather than someone committed to doing the wrong thing no matter what.

.

There are many heroes in this world, and very few of them are politicians.

Our job is to get so strong and organized that the cowards will have no choice but to come along with us. The real action in politics is not in Washington. It is right where you are.

[rotten-potatoes-movie-review]

Forrest Gump

Hello! This is going to be my first post of many to come. Right now I am in a Film Studies class and need to make a blog, so if you decide to join me for the ride, hang on, because this might be a bunch of mush pouring from my head.

Alright, this time, I have three things to do after watching this movie. First, I need to find three pieces of symbolism. Second, I need to find three universal themes and figure out how focusing on them can improve my life. Finally, I need to think of how I could improve the movie through setting, clothes, lights, props, and such.

Let's get it started.

I picked out three pieces of symbolism or some things that I believe are symbolistic. My first piece is Forrest Gump's name, or more accurately his namesake Nathan Bedford Forrest. Although the movie says that his name was supposed to be a reminder that, "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense". I however feel like it alludes to the fact that he is the opposite of the man he was named for. I don't know if that makes sense, and I don't know how to make it make sense but I'll try. Forrest is seen multiple times, talking to black people, treating them kindly, and helping them despite the man he was named for being very much against them since he was in the bad southern group that shall not be named. The fact that our 'hero' or main character would be named after such a horrible man feels like it can only mean that our main character would turn out to be the exact opposite of his name.

My second piece of symbolism is whenever people get shot something big in his life happens. Every single time he mentions someone dying from a gunshot, or the TV shows that someone important died by gunshot the scene will then change to a new important part of his life, or a big change that has happened. This has led me to think that the gunshots might be a symbol of change.

My third and final piece of symbolism is the birds chirping after Forrest starts leaving Jenny's grave. The birds symbolize the prayers that Jenny prayed earlier in life, that she wanted to become a bird and fly away from her hard life. The birds symbolize the fact that she is finally free.

Now, we head onto the next part of this little assignment, three universal themes. My three themes are friendship, willpower, and kindness. I don't know if I need to explain why I chose these but I'll give you a little run down. I chose friendship because Forrest is always there for his friends no matter how much they might push him away, hurt him, or hate him. He stays with his friends and continues to help them and love them even through death, like with Bubba. I chose willpower because Forrest keeps going no matter what despite what others think. Finally, I put kindness in there because Forrest always shows kindness no matter what the situation is. An example is his apologizing to the Black Panther group after getting into a fight even though they threatened him and Jenny.

I believe I could use a bit of each of these in my life in so many different areas. Right now, I am having a hard time keeping up my friendships with so much pressure from work, school, and just my friends pulling away naturally as our paths drift. What Forrest has taught me is that it is ok for friends to drift apart but it is not alright for friends to forget each other and that we can always come back together. I could also use some kindness right now while dealing with difficult family members who give me a very hard time. Finally, I could use a little willpower to get through this assignment- I mean to follow through with my promises, both to myself and to my friends and family.

And now it is the time for me to become an absolute film critic. I believe that the whole movie was in fact perfect in every way.

I'm kidding, I know I can't do that. My main critique is in the outfits, mostly what Jenny wears during her hippy phase. She is seen having multiple outfits and clothes that look new or nice when this was not something very common for hippies who often had little money and only one to two outfits. If anything could be changed, I would like this to be looked at.

[widogasted]

the pride ask game. 3 6 and 9 for psyche and 15 and 18 in general >:3

ohohooooo. yes yes yes. (this got loooong.)

3.) How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

honestly this one is kind of interesting solely because it brings up something about psyche i don't discuss much, since it never came up in canon, but psyche is intersex! aldrithe is mostly a gender utopia but they did face some distinct mistreatment from some of their foster families as a kid. they were never given any kind of medical or magical intervention to make them appear perisex, but their sex organs and presumed gender were definitely introduced to them as Different (and usually Bad) at a young age.

the reason i never covered this much is because psyche is a character originally designed to be performed for an audience, and i am a perisex person and didn't want to cross any lines and there was never a real casual time besides art streams to drop a "by the way, psyche's intersex," but it's been a part of his character since its inception! i did a bunch of research into actual intersex variations and know a LOT about the specifics of her body and hormones and the way it affects her but i'm not gonna clog this specific post (though i will elaborate if asked!)

ANYWAY. psyche does consider her body a part of her relationship to queerness/gender, and he used all pronouns from a pretty young age partially as an act of rebellion and partially because it just felt right. in terms of their sexuality, aldrithe is a queer utopia and that was never really a thing he considered one way or the other jkshkjdg

6.) 6. How does your oc feel about labels? Theirs, or in general?

KILL EVERYONE NOW! CONDONE FIRST DEGREE MURDER! ADVOCATE CANNIBALISM! EAT SHIT! (thank you Divine.) (my immediate first instinct reading this question was this quote. apologies)

psyche is not big on labels and dislikes the feeling of being defined. they are a person who is uncomfortable even with broader labels like "bisexual," let alone more niche labels. psyche is psyche. would self-id as queer in a modern setting and use no other labels

9.) 9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

ok i covered this in 3 by accident but i'm going to use this opportunity to talk about psyche's attitudes toward gender presentation as someone who grew up on one continent, moved to literally the entire other side of the world solo while freshly out of puberty, and then has been Adventuring Ever Since

psyche's always dressed and groomed in ways that adhere more to their personal comfort than intentional presentation as one gender or another, with the exception of their makeup and tattoos. she doesn't present as a man or a woman, she presents as a threat, and as she's moved between countries, he's picked up on local customs surrounding adornment and clothing and picked up pieces that make him appear more offputting to locals

15. Do any of your ocs use neopronouns? Which ones?

psyche uses neopronouns by virtue of using all pronouns, and my character for fallen hero uses ne/nym!

i think i have a couple more floating around but they're escaping me at the moment. a few definitely use it/its as an auxiliary pronoun set

18. Do you prefer to give your ocs specific labels, or keep it unspecified? Why? If applicable, do you change their labels depending on circumstance?

i let the character decide this for me! psyche uses no labels and i do not label them. on the other hand, i have other characters who would id with much more specific labels (and this gets SPECIFIC sometimes. i think aisling, my fallen hero oc, would probably use the label "genderweird" in a genuine sense)

that being said, i'm not a person who uses very specific labels for myself, and i put a lot of myself in my ocs, so that desire for a lack of specificity usually bleeds over.

i also have characters who just have no use for labels in their situation. lennon, my monster of the week character, could accurately be described as an agender butch lesbian, but doesn't have the time to get into all that. so sometimes i have labels i could like, assign to characters in a pride lineup, but they don't necessarily correlate with the words my ocs would use to describe themselves if someone asked them on the street

thank you!!!!

[saaraofthesand]

My Thoughts on The Sun and The Star.

I’ve organized my thoughts into some lists. Enjoy.

I polled my followers and they said they wanted this so you can’t get mad at me.

I must first emphasize that at 20 years old, I’m hardly this book’s target audience. I am fully aware of that.

Second, this book is fine. It’s not bad, it’s not insulting to queer people, but it’s also not the most interesting work of fiction I’ve ever read.

Third, I never finished the Trials of Apollo. I don’t think it hugely affected my reading experience with this one as I’d read all 10 of the other books and could use context clues for anything I didn’t know about. But I thought I should mention it.

Fourth, a lot of my problems with this book have also been present in all of Rick Riordan’s books post-pjo. So, these aren’t new.

Fifth, I went into this book with basically zero expectations. I’m not active in the pjo fandom (this is an anime blog), so I wasn’t seeing the book hyped up or anything. Before this, I’d basically only talked about it with my family and friends. I also don’t really read pjo fanfics. I have because I’ve gotten curious before, but I haven’t read enough to know about general fanon interpretations of characters.

Okay,

Nico has been my favorite PJO character since I was a kid (yes I grew up gay with abandonment issues shut up), so I was excited for this book.

The queerness is well done. There isn’t any “othering” of Nico, Will, or their relationship due to their queerness.

We got Italian! Nico moments, which I’ve been wanting more of since forever, so I’m happy about that. They did an okay job rounding out Will’s character. And Nico and Will’s relationship got a lot of good exposition (even if I felt that they were unrealistically mature about it). Nico’s experiences with homophobia felt very real.

Okay, now on to my critics:

Without a doubt my biggest criticism of this book is that it is very clearly fanservice. It doesn’t exist because it has a story to tell. It exists because fans wanted more Nico and Will content.

I didn’t like that the book was written from third person. I had this same critic of the Heroes of Olympus books. Rick Riordan’s strength has always been first person POVs, starting with the original PJO series. I feel like the funny chapter names, the breaking of the fourth wall, the sidebars, etc. are the reason that Rick’s prose stands out. A first person perspective is the reason the books are as funny as they are. And this book lacked that spark.

The choice to write from third person is part of what contributes to the fanfiction-esque writing style of this book. As someone who both reads and writes fanfiction, I can tell you that almost all fanfics are written from third person. This is because, for the most part, the characters you’re writing are not your own. First person is way too intimate a POV for that type of writing, and it’s why most fanfic authors don’t use it. That’s what I feel like is happening here. Oshiro is writing characters that aren’t theirs, and that means they can’t bring the intimacy of a first person POV or even a more intimate third person POV.

The book is also very on the nose with its themes and ideas. Generally, this is fine in this type of literature. This is a piece of middle-grade fiction. The target audience is middle schoolers. But also, middle schoolers can pick up on subtext. They’re young, not illiterate. There was far too much telling when they were already showing.

A good example is the title of the book. It’s very clear that “The Sun” is Will and “The Star” is Nico. I assumed that before I even opened the book. That imagery is incredibly obvious, so the authors don’t need to state it in the text. But… they do. Bob refers to Will and Nico as “My sun and star.” It was one of the moments in the book that really made me cringe.

The book has major pacing issues and is too long. I felt like it was going on forever. There were full scenes and segments that I think could’ve been cut without affecting the plot.

This book really put on display that even though Will and Nico work as boyfriends, they don’t work as partners. This contrasts Percy and Annabeth, who do work really well together since they were partners first. But Nico and Will are so bad at working together that their quest dynamic isn’t fun.

Generally, I don’t love the characterization in this book.

Nico and Will are supposed to be on this dark, dangerous quest. One so horrible no one would ever want to undertake it. It’s the House of Hades (Nyx’s Version). Except it really isn’t. It felt like they wanted to make it more psychological than the previous books, but they also weren’t totally willing to commit to everything that would entail.

Despite all the fluff in the book, it takes itself just a little too seriously. Nico and Will are 15-16. I feel like they could have had more fun with it while still tackling darker themes. Again, I know Riordan is capable of this because *gestures at the original PJO books*

Nico and Will have this weirdly mature outlook on their relationship that doesn’t fit their ages.

We don’t get PJO-esque jokes until 80% of the way through the book (yes, I kept track). There’s the “Travel Brochure” joke and the “Saturday Sundae” joke during the Nyx confrontation. Both of which invoked the feeling of reading the original Percy Jackson books. I got really excited.

Immediately after those jokes this became one of the cringiest books I’ve ever read. And I do not care to elaborate on that because I’m just happy that the book is over at this point.

Lastly, I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I read it, so now, you have to too. “‘Will, he said it has to be both of us,’ said Nico. Will hesitated at first, but an epiphany dawned in him, and his eyes went wide. ‘Together,’ he said.” After reading this, I immediately recoiled in disgust and went “UGH!” And there are multiple lines like this in the book. Absolutely horrible -7563/10. Rick, never allow another sentence like that into one of your books again. This isn’t YA. You can’t be throwing lines like that at me out of nowhere.

In conclusion:

I’ve seen people saying the criticisms of this book are the result of homophobia and… y’all no they aren’t. Most of the people I’ve seen criticizing the book are queer, including me! I’m tired of this idea that queer people just have to appreciate whatever representation they’re given without having any criticisms about it because at least it’s something. No! If Nico and Will were a straight couple, I’d still have the exact same critics of this book. I’m gay and it’s my godgiven right to dislike books that focus on gay people if the stories aren’t good.

Something that I do think is sad here is that Oshiro’s name is now on this substandard book forever. They’re a new author, and they don’t deserve that. Rick Riordan will be fine if this book isn’t received well, but Oshiro is less likely to be. That upsets me deeply as a queer writer myself. That sucks. I hate that. Go check out their books instead of this one tbh.

[takaraphoenix]

new tag game: list ten of your childhood ships

Tagged by the wonderful @blairwaldcrf​ - thank you, dear! This sounds like fun!

Though also this had me questioning how to define “childhood”. So, I went with “ships I sailed before I discovered ‘fandom’ and ‘shipping as an activity’“. I am really trying to pre-date my actively-involved-in-fandom days here. It’s also amazing how I can suddenly not remember a single thing I watched as an actual child.

1. Charmed - Cole/Phoebe

These two shaped me so much. Had the most imprint on me, ship-wise, before I knew what shipping was. I still hold such a candle for them.

2. Sailor Moon - Seiya/Usagi

This ship changed my brain-chemistry. Prior to this ship, there was always... one endgame. And you didn’t question the endgame. And then Sailor Moon went ahead and put her main love interest on ice and introduced Seiya and it wasn’t just Seiya who liked Usagi, Usagi spent her time blushing and showing signs of attraction herself. This was mindblowing for tiny Phoe because 1. it is a hundred times better than the actual endgame ship, 2. it is AN OPTION to change ships? I think that this ship very much introduced the concept of shipping, as in, you don’t have to stick to the one main couple, to me.

3. Jungle Cubs - Shere Khan/Bagheera

I don’t know what to tell you, I love those two. Mostly due to Jungle Cubs, honestly.

4. Anastasia - Dimitri/Anya

This movie. I think part of why I loved this movie so much was because this ship was so great. A yearly rewatch for me, and I always loved those two and the way they fell in love. The agency Anya had, compared to most Disney princesses at the time? The roguish nature of Dimitri, compared to most flat Disney princes at the time?

5. Swan Princess - Derek/Odette

Similar to Anya and Dimitri, only even more probably? They near-parodied Disney movies and heteronormative movie settings with how they montaged the childhood and set up the heteronormative Boy Meets Girl and then they should be in love already and she asks why he loves her and all he can come up with is uh because she’s pretty now? And then he has to go on a journey and really fall in love with her, and she with him. And it’s beautiful.

6. Ojamajo Doremi - Akatsuki/Doremi

I am still an Akatsuki/Doremi truther, I don’t want to think about them trying to set her up with her lame-ass classmate, even though that was probably where that was going. The Flat4 were so much cooler.

7. Ranma 1/2 - Ranma/Shampoo

If you asked me to pinpoint one piece of media that kickstarted me figuring out I am Not Straight, it was Ranma 1/2. This shit was too queer to keep kids straight, man. And shipping was like? Aspects of Ranma? Which? Both? Yes?

8. Gargoyles - Goliath/Elisa

Introductions into monsterfuckery, by Disney. It’s been so long since I watched this show, but I do remember loving those two and I am fairly sure this is at fault for the monsterfuckery.

9. Kim Possible - Shego/Kim

Not to copy Cherry’s homework, but yeah no definitely KiGo. Though I didn’t watch the whole show back when it first aired and only caught some episodes every now and again, the green-skinned villainess really got me and how often do you get a female hero/female villain dynamic? This was. Life changing. Yeah.

10. Digimon - Joe/Mimi

I’ve considered which one to pick, but I honestly think the only Digimon ship that I was invested in from the OG series there, from the beginning, were Joey and Mimi.

Aaand I’m tagging @kunfyouzed​ @kimmycup​ @justonemorechapternicercy​ @m1yaku and anyone else who wants to do this! Feel tagged! <3

[onekisstotakewithme]

for the writing meme, i'd love director's commentary on as much of the last section of "Beautiful to Take a Chance" as you'd like to provide! that's one of my favorite of your fics

I didn't know! Good old "Beautiful to Take a Chance," I'd be glad to offer director's commentary on this story 💜

Apologies in advance if this is like, less than coherent, the story is four years old... 😅

(but to spare everyone else, I'll do it under a read more)

Okay so it's obviously just a basic 5+1 structure, and this is actually a fic I don't think about very often! 😅

It starts with snuggling because I'm a soft-ass bitch at heart.

There are actually more parts to this universe, backstory pieces that demonstrate how Hawkeye has come to be this way (involving Carlye, primarily, and how she's the root of some of his insecurities.)

“Where do you get off always telling me I’m…” He chokes on the word. “Is that supposed to be funny? Cause if you look closely you may notice I am expressing zero mirth.”

This part particularly - Hawkeye doesn't believe he's beautiful. The whole story is kind of inspired by Alan being mildly self-conscious, and by Hawkeye not looking like a conventional "hero".

“See, there you go again!” Hawk says. “Look, pal, I’ve looked in the mirror a handful of times in my life, and I can tell you, it’s never Gene Kelly looking back at me.”

Why did I pick Gene Kelly? Because at the time I was mildly obsessed with Singin in the Rain. Although, personally, I prefer Donald O'Connor.

ANYWAY EVERYONE SHOULD TELL HAWKEYE HE'S PRETTY.

“Well why didn’t you lead in with that?” Hawk asks, certain he’s bright red by now. “I’d have believed you much sooner if you’d brought up sex.”

Don't you love when he says something upsetting and means it? I do. But like Hawkeye reducing himself to a tired old lech (this is particularly on my mind at the moment having watched That's Show Biz the other night. Hawkeye ties his worth to being good in bed.

Idiot.

“Too long nose. Too many limbs that are too long and gangly. I look like a stick insect. The wrong face.” Hawk gestures to himself. “Extra fat in the wrong places and skinny everywhere else. A small cock.”

And here's where i confess something: i don't like that last line. At the time I wrote this, the server I was in LOVED Hawkeye having a small cock and I kind of ran with that based on their influence. On my own merits, I wouldn't have written that because it feels cliche to me, a way of making him the "woman" in his and BJ's relationships. So anyway, this is an average Hawk cock truther blog.

“Yeah,” Hawk says. “In the same way Igor is a gourmet chef.”

On your left, you'll see me never missing the chance to take a jab at Igor, who I irrationally dislike.

“Shush.” BJ says, giving Hawk a searching look. “Your face is just right, dummy. Maybe your nose is long, but it gives you character that Gene Kelly could only dream of. Skinny arms and legs, so what? The food’s bad and you happen to be tall. I’ve heard women - and men - like that.”

Someone commented this on the fic i believe - and I agree wholeheartedly - that it's important that BJ doesn't dismiss how Hawkeye feels. He acknowledges those feelings and then proceeds to say that he loves them. That matters to me at least (also my nose is slightly too big so <3 )

“No,” BJ murmurs. “It’s the curve of your ear, and the silver in your hair, and the scar you have from falling off your bike when you were six, and the blue of your eyes and the scar on your lip… you’re beautiful, Hawkeye.”

I'm quite proud of this line! (most of the time I look back at older writing and go 'ehhh what's so special about it' but this line...)

anywayyyy I love them. Thank you!

[heniareth]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH my brilliant friend you know what? First the notification that you liked the ask game came up and the jittering began BUT NOW YOU HAVE REBLOGGED!!!! PREPARE. TO BE. ASKED.!!!!! Ok now I'll ask a lot, because I'm curious about a lot, and you just pick whatever you want to answer yeah? Yeah! <3 <3 I'll put this under the cut as it's ended up quite long (you said you were on the road tmrw and I didn't know if you'd be on mobile to answer, so I wrote the prompts here so you didn't have to get out of this to go back to the list-- god help me if it turns out there's an easy way to do it and I don't know it :P) Hope you're having a grand time!!!!

NOW!!!!!! For Astala my beloved, as she is always on my mind, let me put forth requests FOR: 1 (what is their colour palette), 2 (what does their handwriting look like), 10 (what piece of moody poetry or novel quote best encompasses your character), and 22 (what is some advice or guidance they received that had a big impact on their lives or outlook? was it a positive or a negative impact)

For Ilanlas my bitey beloved, who spins in my head like he's been glued to a chair-o-plane seat, I'd like to enquire about 4 (if your OC likes art, talk about what they would like best), 8 (if your OC were to live in an alternate time period, which one would suit them best), 12 (what is their character theme song and why? if it has lyrics, pick which ones best suit them), and 24 (is mental, physical, or emotional wellbeing most important to them)

And for Marelas my brand spanking new beloved, who is shiny and taking shape so gorgeously in my head, may I ask 3 (what architectural or design aesthetic would suit them best), 9 (if your OC were to imagine their idyllic life, realistically or otherwise, what would it be like), 23 (what sort of rules, routines, and rituals do they set for themselves), and 26 (if they were to lose the person closest to them, how would they mourn them and how would they handle their grief)

Plant, lovely friend!!! I am so excited for this!!! I did end up having to drive the other day (this is why the asks are trickling out of my askbox rather than being answered all at once), but here we are!!! And such asks!!! Let's talk about the beloveds! A cut is required because this never is short (please take as long as you like with this because it’s. Really Long.)

I appreciate you putting the whole questions into the ask so much!!! It makes life easier (and asks long, but no long asks ever intimidated us, did they? XD)

Astala

1 (what is their colour palette)

Oh boy. Astala loves her colors. She usually goes for muted colors. You know, kinda something like a fall palette. Here are some examples:

When she’s at court as arlessa or as the Hero of Ferelden, however, she very deliberately wears brighter and more saturated (and thus more expensive) colors, and if there’s jewelry involved she’ll go for gold. She’s definitely flaunting her status here in front of all the shem. At the Landsmeet, she’s well known for her red dress; a callback to her first encounter with the most esteemed nobility of Ferelden (aka. Vaughan). If she’s somewhere in her capacity as Hero of Ferelden she’s restricted to blues and silvers, sadly, but she makes it work (and work very well indeed, as Zevran would add). Below are the same colors as above with higher brightness and saturation to give you an idea of what that might look like:

2 (what does their handwriting look like)

Astala, dearest Astala, started her career of doing paperwork while having a fancy title with nothing to prepare her for hours spent writing (she does know how to write, thank you very much). In the beginning, her handwriting suffers from it. She grips the pen with way to much strength and either ends up with a hole in the paper or a cramp in her hand (or both). But practice makes perfect, and after a bit of practice, her handwriting is even and orderly as can be. She tends to make her lowercase letters pretty tall and overall her writing leans to the right. If she's sending informal letters (like the one to Sten) she likes underlining the important words to accurately convey the meaning and intonation of her sentences. She's also one to use several instances of P.S. to tell the whole of what she wants to tell. Her letters are mostly always nice and structured; she's better at accounting than writing, and tables are amazing, so she makes liberal use of bullet points and the like to speed up and organize the flow of information.

10 (what piece of moody poetry or novel quote best encompasses your character)

We've got a couple different ones here, so I stitched them together!

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." —George Eliot

This quote spoke to me because Astala was supposed to be a troublemaker like her mother and live a quiet, unassuming life like her father, was supposed to get married and start a family and is now a Grey Warden.

"Nobody protects us. So we protect us." —Miriam in Dragon Age: Absolution

This one is pretty obvious. Astala is big on protecting and wholeheartedly believes in her community and the need to stick together.

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." —Charles M. Schulz

This one just made me laugh XD XD Astala loves to enjoy things (regardless of whether they are luxuries or not), but she does yearn for close connections. And when she can't have them, having access to nice things is definitely a way she copes with a potential lack of close relationships

"But of course, your Excellence. A true commander takes responsability for the life and death of the men he sends into battle; it's only right and proper that he should be held accountable for them. At the first stolen chicken you may have my head." —Rankstrail in The Last Orc by Silvana de Mari (a bit of context: Rankstrail is sassing the local governor's military people bc they wanted to torture one of his soldiers over a stolen chicken. And the chicken wasn't even a fat one to begin with!)

This book series is a YA fantasy series that I stopped reading after some installments because the characters I loved the most kept dying or falling into depression with no visible way out, but it handles poverty, government incompetence and injustice beautifully. Incidentally, the government in question has a very futuristic style of architecture, and given the Italian name of the author I wonder if there are some intended parallels to a fascist government. Back to the book, Rankstrail is definitely one of my favorite characters and the whole series was very formative when I read it as a teen. I wanted to include a quote and this one stuck out to me because Astala has to navigate some authorities trying to pull one on her while sneering down on her as well. I think she and Rankstrail would find common ground in that (and in the book series the whole thing is amazing bc Rankstrail dances circles around these people but they always maintain the upper hand in the end because they have the power and the resources and he doesn't!)

22 (what is some advice or guidance they received that had a big impact on their lives or outlook? was it a positive or a negative impact?)

I've talked about how Astala has been impacted by her mother, for good and bad. Her father mostly taught her by word and by example how to look for work and keep it, as well as how to care for her family. I really should talk more about Cyrion, because obviously he had the bigger impact on her here, but I want to talk about Valendrian.

When Cyrion was still recovering emotionally from losing Adaia and physically from having spent a winter sick (half of it working), Valendrian often took the Tabris kids with him when he made his rounds around the Alienage. Other children in sinilar situations had other adult family members (aunts, uncles, grandparents, adult cousins) who could do the same; not the Tabrises, so the hahren had to step in. Working with Valendrian gave them something to do, connected them more with their people and allowed them to feel useful and capable in a situation that was very much beyond their control. He sent them to run errands for families who couldn't, to deliver medicine or food, to watch over kids, to help clean a house or a street or warehouse, or took them with him to visit people who were sick (and not contagious), alone or grieving. He also often took the scenic route to his destinations and tried to send two of them ahead or something to get time with the third one alone. With Astala he talked about her mother, about her father, about the weather, her future, Soris, Shianni, and, when she was fourteen and still helping him out, her crush on Alarith (that moment in the first chapter of her story when she offers Valendrian her help with Vaughan and Valendrian tells her to step back? That's a callback to those days, when she and her cousins used to help him all the time).

Basically, Valendrian tried to lend these three kids what support he could give them. He's Astala's reference for what leading a community looks like, and what a community is, how it works, and so forth. This comes in very handy during the Blight, but especially later, as arlessa. She is some steps further removed from her people than Valendrian was at that point, but the basic procedures stay the same.

Ilanlas

4 (if your OC likes art, talk about what they would like best)

Ilanlas is very much about statues and abstract art. I think he’d love the black and white paintings of Franz Kline. It's the kind of art where he feels like he can step into it; the feelingnis comparable to when he sees a grove of trees or a structure of rocks or a bend of the road in the distance and wants to go and check it out. These paintings form a kind of space for him where he can retreat into. It's very nice and calming.

He'd also love sculptures made out of driftwood, particularly those where the wood has been left to stay in its original shape. In his opinion, taking the raw material as it is and working with its shape instead of bending said shape to one's will is much more imaginative, creative, respectful.

And then, while snooping through the internet, I found this piece, Burning from Within by Christopher David White. It's ceramic, not wood, which is a feat in and of itself, but what Ilanlas would find amazing is the way the copper leaf on the inside really makes it look like it's wood being consumed by embers. He'd see it from the back and get all excited about it jntil he'd realize that the thibg is not a piece of a hollowed-out tree but. Y'know. The naked torso af a woman. That'd bother him a lot; the ubiquity of naked women in art in general would. Why does everything have to be about having the hots for random women? Wtf??? (He's very unimpressed by the countless Andraste statues everywhere as well. At least they're clothed.)

8 (if your OC were to live in an alternate time period, which one would suit them best)

I answered this one here! It’s kinda hard to find a time period that’d suit him. He’s so integrated in Thedas. But, now that I think of it, he would’ve had a blast in the 80s. He’d have his own painted van and everything. He and Tamlen would just take off and make a long, long roadtrip to wherever the road will take them. They'd set up camp in the middle of nowhere, stop in the desert and spend the whole night looking up at the stars, park the van in the curb of a steep mountain road to climb those extremely climbable rocks, watch the sunrise next to a gigantic waterfall that douses them from head to toe in fine spray water. Merrill comes along sometimes and has them stopping at tourist attractions, museums and canyons. Can you imagine Ilanlas with sunglasses and a bandana holding his long hair back? He’d have so much fun XD XD XD XD

That said, big aside: since the Dalish have ties to Native Americans, Roma and jewish people, all of the above might not've been possible. I don't have a lot of knowledge on the situation of these people in the 80s, in the USA and otherwise, but what little I know makes me think that Ilanlas would've been more preoccupied with travel restrictions, bad faith from the authorities and just the general population, poverty and all of its lovely companions. For his sake, I'd like that not to be so. On the other hand, erasing the past of other people is not good. I hope he does get to see at least one sunrise next to that waterfall tho

12 (what is their character theme song and why? if it has lyrics, pick which ones best suit them)

I have. Several songs I relate to this man, but here’s one. Sound the Bugle from the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

If you lose yourself

Your courage soon will follow

So be strong tonight

Remember who you are

I don't have a lot of smart things to say here, except that he's really going through it. Where Astala is doing her damnest to eke out a place for herself, no matter how small, where she can live her life as close as possible to what it used to be, Ilanlas has thrown himself wholesale into the Grey Wardens. The only thing he keeps for himself is the right to take vengeance for Tamlen, and since that means killing darkspawn, it's not really something that detracts from his role in the order (while Astala very much does try to put as much distance between herself and the order as she can). Losing Tamlen was like losing a huge chunk of himself for Ilanlas. When he finds Tamlen again, these verses will be significant.

24 (is mental, physical, or emotional wellbeing most important to them)

I think his emotional wellbeing is the most important to him because it's the most fragile. He has a very decent pain tolerance and doesn't mind getting sweaty or having his legs full of mud after trekking through the countryside for hours. He's also good at problem-solving and decision-making generally comes easy to him (even if they're not always the best decisions).

It's the emotions that get him; some things hurt him deeply and he doesn't know what to do with that. In other instances it's just him losing his cool or being brusque and not thinking much of it, only to then turn around and find that the other person is offended and blames him. There are many people that feel things more deeply than him, and he finds it hard to understand that because to him it's no big deal. It's a bit of a vicious circle, tbh. He seriously and unwillingly hurts somebody and then gets hurt back bc the other person reacts negatively for no reason, seemingly. Or even lashes out. Long story short, it's the emotional wellbeing that bugs him the most and that is thus most important to him.

Marelas

3 (what architectural or design aesthetic would suit them best)

I think Marelas would enjoy the Arts and Crafts Movement. It's beautiful (could do with a bit warmer and more vibrant colors though), practical and it puts great emphasis on the craft of the artisan. This man enjoys having beautifully made things around him, and that's one if the tenets of the Arts and Crafts Movement. You bet he had a say in Skyhold's furnishing, much to Vivienne's chagrin. Too Dalish for her taste.

He'd also have a field day in the Library at the National Palace of Mafra, Portugal. Baroque isn't his favorite (it's very Orlesian), but this building in particular is grand, but not gaudy, well illuminated, probably very cool in summer, and has tons of space in case he wants to strew his papers around to arrange them on the floor and look at them from a certain distance to get a look at the big picture of things. He likes mind maps. Also, the building apparently houses bats!! How cool is that?

9 (if your OC were to imagine their idyllic life, realistically or otherwise, what would it be like)

Here are some of the things Marelas would love to have in his life if you’d asked him right before the plot in Trespasser kicks off:

Study lore!! So much lore!! All the history and the magic, medicine, cultures, all of it!!

Peace for clan Lavellan.

A long life for Keeper Deshanna.

Many people around him he can trust and rely on.

Frequently meet the members of the Inquisition, see what work they have been doing, maybe even continue working with them to enrich the lives of the people of Thedas (and enrich is the keyword here. He’s no fighter when he can help it. He’d rather pursue social or cultural goals).

Be able to often visit Dorian, very often (the separation hit him hard, harder than he wants to admit. He thinks it commendable and a good thing that Dorian wants to better his homeland, but at the moment when Dorian told him he was leaving, Marelas did feel a bit abandoned in favor of more exciting pursuits. He and Dorian did have the chance to talk it through, however, and have settled on an arrangement that, so far, is satisfying to both. Still, he misses Dorian).

Not have any world-ending threats hanging above his head.

Foster more community between the city elves and the Dalish clans (I think somebody from his family came from the city, probably an uncle who married into his mother’s side of the family).

23 (what sort of rules, routines, and rituals do they set for themselves)

Back at his clan, his routine looked something like this:

Wake up, have a handful of something, pray alone.

Do some stretching, have some real breakfast, revise what has to be done that day with Keeper Deshanna and the clan’s Second, and start. He sometimes works alone, sometimes they all work together or in pairs. They have a well-honed system.

Part of his routine is taking a round of the premises (wherever he is) and see how everybody is doing. He tends to do that around mealtime, after getting some work in.

If somebody wants to converse with him, he will tend to schedule it in the afternoon, preferrably right after having eaten lunch and taken a bit of quiet time to himself, or when the sun is already lowering towards the horizon. He finds these are hours best spent quietly, and that they lend themselves more to thinking than to doing.

He will also pray alone in the evening, right after dinner if he can manage. He will go over the day, write up things that have to be done next (either the following day or at some point in the future), offer up the good and the bad, and enjoy the quiet as the sun sets and the stars start to shine.

Prayer is very important to him, and throughout the day there would be more opportunities, mostly with Keeper Deshanna and clan Lavellan’s Second. He tries his best to keep this routine after the explosion at the Conclave, although Keeper Deshanna and clan Lavellan’s Second are replaced by Cullen, Josephine and Leliana. He does miss the more relaxed rhythm of the life in his clan, but he makes do well. It is strange to him to be at the head of a group instead of the leader’s right hand. He takes responsability quite seriously and the biggest break in his routine is him doing paperwork until way later than he intended. Sometimes, it’s almost a relief when he can leave Skyhold to go roam around Thedas.

Another big interruption to his routine can be any sort of magical or historical study that catches his interest. He’s an academic at heart. In the Jaws of Hakkon DLC, he was happy as a clam at first, searching for Inquisitor Ameridan, and even in the Descent DLC he would rather have spent time studying the runes on the wall than investigating the earthquakes. The Emerald Graves were a treasure trove (albeit a bitter one). If there’s a piece of work that captures his interest, he will get his duties done, sure. But later you’ll find him writing deep into the night. Sometimes his room looks like a tornado came through and scattered complex diagrams and drawings throughout. This turns a bit unhealthy after he drinks of the Well of Sorrows. He now has direct access to knowledge from Arlathan, and he considers it one of his duties to record EVERYTHING the well tells him. He ends up with incoherent scribbles more often than not, but at other points he wrote down a poem, sketched a view from the temple of Sylaise, found a recipe to help with some kind of cough, found hints of an old technique to enrich iron, and so forth. It’s fascinating, but dangerous. More than once, somebody else had to take the pen out of his hand and send him to bed, or otherwise bring him back to reality.

26 (if they were to lose the person closest to them, how would they mourn them and how would they handle their grief)

Ooooh, this is a heavy one. Let's do it >:)

Okay, first of all, Marelas would nowadays have been diagnosed with some form of anxiety disorder (or maybe even PTSD, since the symptoms manifested after an accident in which he nearly drowned). As part of dealing with persistent worries, intense fears of danger and death, and with a generalized feeling of helplessness and loss of control, Keeper Deshanna encouraged him to seek special connection with Falon'Din. The reasoning was that if he died, Falon'Din would be there; he wouldn't be alone. Take away some of the fear that death inspired, and everything would be much easier to deal with; that was Deshanna's reasoning. After all of that and all the events in Inquisition, Marelas likes to think of himself as someone who is familiar with grief and who knows that a loss such as this one will take time to heal. He will do his best to be patient and lean on other loved ones for support, to give himself time, to cherish the memories while stepping out of himself to create new ones. And he does good! He tries his best! He is able to step away from the moment, take a deep breath and brace himself for the things that are to come and he is able to stay moderately aware of his own wellbeing during the period of intense turmoil that follows the death of a loved one.

The reality, however, is that he's a very sensitive man who feels things deeply and for a very long time. He might be patient, experienced and good at taking his own feelings at face value, but his emotions are stubborn buggers. He'll most likely spend a couple of days numb, think that it's going better than he anticipated, until reality catches up to him and everything comes crashing down. After that, he will cry, a lot, but try to keep some of it to himself. He does occupy a position of responsibility after all, and he has to keep doing his work.

In fact, although he knows that giving himself time to actively grieve is important, he definitely puts his role as First (or the Keeper if it's Keeper Deshanna who died), well... first. If Keeper Deshanna died, he would even officiate the funeral. Embodying the figure of the First/Keeper removes him from his pain by focusing on other people's pain, although that's not the only reason why he blends into his role in the clan. He does genuinely want to help. It is, however, part of the reason why he spends some days functioning well while emotionally numb. He's not entirely conscious that he does this, and there's no easy answer here because he does have a responsability for the well-being of the clan. He does best when he has somebody that will step past the whole "he is responsible for everybody" thing and makes him contemplate how he is doing as a person. Hold a mirror in front of him, so to say. So yeah, that's him if somebody close to him from his clan dies.

If Dorian died... well, that's a whole other thing. He doesn't have any official role to disappear behind here, although he definitely would find something to try and occupy himself with. He'd definitely be at the funeral, and he'd definitely ask if he could help with anything. But he's out of his depth in Tevinter, and he's Dorian's partner from down south. Despite his best efforts, he'll have everybody's attention and he'll be at an utter loss on what to do.

So he'd do his best to hold his tears in and cry when he's alone. He'd try to meet Dorian's friends and family and establish at least a bit of a positive relationship with them. And in the process, he'd probably have at least one moment where he'd crack under the pressure and either run away or cry somewhere totally inappropriate and end up mortified and with all the pain spilling out.

All of this, of course, if Dorian or Keeper Deshanna didn't get assassinated. In that case his new mission would be hunting those bastards down, and that's what he'd stand behind until the emotions one day suddenly catch up to him. And he’d go for it with a lot of zeal. He isn’t an easy one to anger, but when he is angry, it holds for a long time.

After having digested the heap of emotions, he does his best to celebrate the person he's lost. He's quite meticulous about marking death-days, and consciously makes space on those days to remember and honor the deceased. He might put up an altar with things that remind him of them and spend a good chunk of the day reminiscing and talking to them (without receiving an answer of course. He might be a mage, but communion with the dead is rare). And he would honor them by trying to help along whatever efforts they pursued in life, if the chance presents itself. Falon'Din is still a god he holds in high regard, even if after Trespasser the elven gods as a whole are unstable ground to him, and honoring the dead is very important to him.

---

And that’s a wrap on these three! I hope the wait was worth it, and if you’ve read the whole thing, kudos to you! This was a very nice brain exercise XD XD XD It was really cool to get to know Ilanlas’s taste in art, tbh. I had a vague idea, but now I really want to sit down with him and talk about modern art. There’s a lot to go into there (starting with what the devil IS art??) and it’d be so interesting to hear what he likes and doesn’t like. Thank you so so so much for these wonderful questions!!!! I hope you are having an absolutely splendid few days!

[simp-writer]

𝚂𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗'𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜

A/N: I based this whole thing off a prompt given by the Writing Prompts acc [the post] and I went with my own take on it. Probs a crack fic but who knows! Anyways it is 5.5k words. One-shot stuff I think. Anyways my first time writing for something that isn't a fandom so it is a bit messy! Anyways hope you enjoy. Banner from @/uuchiihaa

The biggest and baddest villain of your city, The Illusionist, was fighting against my boss. Nightbolt was his hero name. He is an asshole but at least he does his job. His super power allows him to draw energy from any source of light but he has a dark shadow to him as he is absorbing all the light around him. The Illusionist makes illusions as his name states. He is ranked as S-Class and has a spot on the Hero's Most Wanted List. I've never had a chance to face him before, I thank the Gods everyday for this, because I am a rookie. My superpower allows me to see the world as a grid and spot weak points. A subpower of it is that it can show me how to pick locks or disarm traps in a sort of tutorial type way. Hard to explain but useless as of now. I've only been able to use this power to test security of important buildings and I am under so many NDAs that it could rival the Constitution.

I am hiding behind some broken walls from a ruined building, which was ruined before my boss decided to fry the electrical unit and throw a part of it at the Illusionist. I frankly don't know why my boss is always trying to fight him. There are other heroes with more suitable powers to fight him. I look around the ruined area doing minor things like connecting a battery to the electrical unit to help my boss out and using my super strength (a given to anyone with superpowers but we are just stronger than the average human but much weaker compared to those whose superpower is Super Human) to help trapped people get to safety. I kinda have to stay near my boss to make sure he doesn't run out of electric volts to use against the villain. I look up at them fighting on the rooftop with the Illusionist having like sixteen different versions of himself fighting against Nightbolt. I let out a sigh as I climbed up some ruined stairs to get back to where I connected the battery. The battery is buzzing away and is at thirty percent. I let out a sigh as I walked around the building to find a tool closet which hopefully has a spare battery. I only carry two and knowing my boss, it won't be enough as he enjoys dragging these battles on for some reason. With other villains, he finished the fight as fast as possible.

The building has so many holes in it. There are several walls which have human-shaped holes in them. I hear a crunch under my foot as I take a step back. It is a silver locket. I let out a hiss as I wonder if I just destroyed someone's property. I only pray it will be simple to fix and I don't end up ruining someone's gift. It always sucks when this happens because it usually gets written off as collateral damage but I've seen people cry hard over it as the heroes end up destroying a gift they had prepared for someone which was a one-of-a-kind or destroying a gift from a dead person. I open the silver locket infront of me so the glass pieces fall out of it. I turn the locket so it faces down and give it some taps on the back so the rest of the glass falls out. I turn it to myself so I can see what is inside of it. There is a comically timed explosion on the roof as my eyes go wide. It is a picture of the Illusionist, in his civilian form I think, with a woman and it seems to be their wedding day?! I only connect the pieces because the scar on the Illusionist's face matches with the one on this wedding photo, but I could be wrong. I feel a shiver go up my spine as I think about the fact it could actually be the Illusionist. I quickly close the locket and put it in my pocket as I hear Nightbolt yell for me. I nearly trip over a very exposed wire while running up. Nightbolt is fuming a bit as he takes off his mask and crosses his arms like a pouty child. "The Illusionist ran away after something on his belt started ringing. He didn't even bother with me as he made his illusions explode into gas and he escaped!" Nightbolt is crumbling while kicking some pieces of the ruined building like an upset child. I just sigh as I call HQ to inform them that Nightbolt failed in capturing the Illusionist again and is fuming. I hear the receptionist let out a sigh as she says she'll inform the big boss about this.

At a mountaintop days later

Honestly, there are times where I wish my parents were more hard pressed on making me go on with my career as a engineer. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with all this. Being at another villain’s hideout on a mountain during the fall. I shiver as I walk around the area trying to scout out the location. Nightbolt is currently with another hero being briefed about the mission. It is likely that he is just goofing off and the other hero will have to try and keep him from destroying the base once again before we get all the proof and weapons out of it. I sit down on the ground as I see the sun rise. I pull the small cart I grabbed beforehand to carry the batteries. I hop in it as I slide down the hill and hit the base’s wall. I hop out as I hear explosions already. I use my power to find a weakpoint and hit it as hard as I can. It crumbles down after a couple hits and I walk in. I pull the cart behind me as I look around for the circuit breaker. I have to open a couple doors to find it. I pull the cart into the room as I feel the building shake like we are dealing with four earthquakes at once. I hear Nightbolt shout to the villain, “Get back here you * so I can wipe that smug look off your face!” With a long string of curses following it. I mentally thank Saber for creating these earplugs that censor cursing. If they didn’t, I’d end up hearing a ton of words that gotNightbolt canceled. Plus I’d rather not hear his insults while I am over here tearing wiring out from the walls and tying them together.

“Nightbolt! I got it set up!” I shout with my hands around my mouth to make my voice louder. Nightbolt jumps from a tower and grabs the bundle of wires from the floor. I bolt back to the circuit breaker and refocus all the power to those wires. Nightbolt’s power needs a constant source of electricity. However, if he gets a large amount of it that can overload any high-tech circuit breaker, he gets a major power boost. Which is why I carry heavy batteries around. I see blue sparks of electricity in the air as I feel my hairs stand on end. I plug both batteries into the circuit breaker. The second version of it is to overload Nightbolt himself with electricity. A more dangerous move as he could die from it, but it is something he has done often so I assume he got used to it. To be fair, the villain they are fighting has a shield power and this state lets Nightbolt break through nearly any shield. Still don’t get why he doesn’t use the first state of overload to wrap up his fight with the Illusionist but boss’s orders are orders I guess. I hear a massive explosion as I run out of the room. The circuit breaker is broken and I don’t have any other reason to stay here. I walk out a side door and get picked up by Starbright, a hero with wings. Her power allows her to have as many sets of wings as she can handle coming from her back (with size varying) and to control the feathers from said wings as long as they are in a certain radius around her. She picks me up by my arms and flies me back to the mountaintop. We hear massive explosions behind us as my walkie is ringing off the walker with strings of curses from Nightbolt is sometimes heard from it. All of us ontop of the hill, mostly the sidekicks and support heroes, watch as we see blue lighting go through the sky with a glimpse of the villain, Termite, they were fighting. It is a weird villain name so that’s funny at least.

Everyone jumps back to make way while opening up the sliding door as Termite is thrown our way and slides infront of the support heroes. They quickly tie him up with some power canceling rope. Nightbolt follows a moment later as he lands on the balcony while stumbling. I rush to his side as I help him inside and down to the medbay. He looks frankly awful. His suit is torn with a ton of wounds on him plus his mask is falling off slightly. The nurse bandages him up with the warning of “Not letting the stupid boy overload again. His nerves are all freaking out and it will take one more overload to fuck them all up again. He shouldn’t use overload for a couple months to at least give his nerves a chance to return to normal. He has nearly fried all of the nerves in his body.” I nod as the nurse leaves. I kinda can’t leave when my boss is in the medical bay so I just sit on a chair and open one of the many many medical books in the bay. I will likely never need this information about how different gases and herb mixes affect the body, but knowledge is knowledge nonetheless. Plus it is an easy way to pass the time.

It takes about four hours before Nightbolt wakes up. Just in time for one of the bosses to walk in. I closed the book as I just finished the herb section and was just about to get to the gas section, maybe I’ll read it another time. I put it back on the shelf as I hand my walkie back to the boss along with the report the nurse left on Nightbolt, who is sitting up with little struggle. I repeat the nurse’s words to Nightbolt. “Gah. Why does everyone want to stop me from having some fun!? It is not that serious.” He grumbles while the boss looks unimpressed. I stand to the side as the boss clears his throat. “As advised by a medical professional, I hearby suspend you from participating on any more missions. At least until a medical professional says it is safe for you to return to the field.” Nightbolt opens his mouth to rebuttal but then his mother walks in. “Nathan Alan Jones, what were you thinking about using maximum overload when you were just advised to avoid using overload?! The other hero could have taken down Termite instead of you nearly frying all your nerves again!” She says as she stands infront of him.

Looking at her, she pretty much gives stereotypical rich mom vibes. She’s just an older female version of Nathan. I avoid making eye contact with Nightbolt who looks at me for help, which I was not gonna offer. Ain’t trying to get the mother’s rage focused on me. The boss also stands to the side as Nathan gets scolded. He tries to speak up a few times but his mother pulls his ear to get him to listen and behave. I am soooooo telling this to my bestie after she gets home. After Nathan’s mom leaves, he looks like a sad puppy with how he looks at me and the boss. “This is your punishment. I better not hear news from the other heroes, staff, or even the reporters about you being out and about. Your father already knows about this and your grandfather made this order as well.” The boss says. Nightbolt’s grandfather made the Hero’s Agency which is why Nightbolt gets away with a lot of this but his father didn’t inherit any strong powers which is why he works as a civilian with Nightbolt’s mom who is just a normal person. “But, I didn’t go overboard-” Nathan starts to say before the boss says, “You destroyed half of Termite’s base while nearly setting off multiple bombs which could have caused a landslide to happen as we are on a mountain which is known to cause landslides to the city.” Nightbolt lets out a childish whine before laying back down on the medical bay and turning his back to us both. “You are also unable to join any missions.” He says to me while sighing. “You’ll be paid the Agency’s minimum wage as an apology.” He hands me a paper which is signed by the boss’s boss. “Until then, stay safe. I hope Nightbolt stops being such a child.” He grumbles within earshot of Nightbolt who shuffles around on the bed. I nod my head and leave the room. At least I’ll have time to do other things.

Weeks later

I am walking around town to buy some groceries and bandages. Nightbolt is still healing up. I have the locket hanging from my hand as I enter a repair shop for jewelry. I explain in loose terms that a friend broke their locket and would like the glass replaced. I looked around the shop as the woman said it would take about an hour but luckily she got some fresh glass to cut so it wouldn't be too long. I ended up just sitting on one of the couches as I scroll through news channels on my phone. Normal news about heroes capturing villains, some news about rising attacks from certain villains, costs of food going down, more job openings to help the heroes out, and more. Mid and chill stuff for a rookie hero to know about. I thanked the shop owner and paid some extra for her cleaning it. I walk out of the shop and bump into someone. I stumble backwards against a wall which makes me do a double take. I blink rapidly as I look around me to see I am somewhere else entirely. I turn to look at who I bumped into and my soul leaves my body for a second. It is the Illusionist. I blink a couple times before I hear him speak. "Please help me recuse my wife." He sounds nothing like I heard him before. I hand him the locket and mumble a sorry for taking it. I stare at him as he speaks once more, "I already asked or tried to ask the heroes about it. But they won't listen and thought it was a trick or something along those lines." To be fair, I wouldn't trust him either as he is known for making illusions. "I hope you'll help me out as you've seen the picture inside the locket. Another villain took her while I was fighting Nightbolt weeks ago. I’ve been unable to get her back as Red Heart has kept her in a place I can’t unlock nor break into.." The Illusionist looked at me and he looked more like a pleading child rather than the villain who brought panic to the city. I take a couple deep breaths as I try to figure this out. On how he knew I had the locket, I'll ask that later. Likely he had a tracker in it or put a spell on it. Unlikely was that he was stalking me after seeing he lost the locket when he was fighting Nightbolt.

"I'll help." I end up saying after several painful and long minutes of silence. The Illusionist smiles before snapping his fingers. I look around to see I am in a whole new and fancier apartment. The Illusionist says, "I brought you here so you can help me plan out how to get her back. Unfortunately my powers don't go well with Red Heart's power. I can't risk running in without a plan as I believe he is planning to use my wife as bait to trap me in something." He brings me over to a table and explains what he already knows about Red Heart. Red Heart is a A-Class villain on the verge of being classed as S-Class. His power allows him to control and summon fire for as long as he is rageful. He got named Red Heart for some reason. It is just one of those villain name mysteries. I look at the blueprint he stole which shows Red Castle's base layout. He begins pacing around the room, still in his super villain outfit, while mumbling about ways to break into his base. I stare at the blueprints while using my power. It is much harder to find weakness from a blueprint and not looking at the building itself but it will do nonetheless. I grabbed a red pen and circled two entrances of which I think will be our best shot at entering the base undetected. "I think I have a plan but it is just as dangerous as entering through the front door." I say to the Illusionist. He looks at the red circles as I explain how they were built from the blueprints with weak defenses. "We can enter through there but there is also the risk they updated their defenses since this blueprint was made. I can make a better judgement once we get there." I say while pointing at certain parts of the blueprint which can also work as entrances but are likely much harder to stay hidden with how strangely the place is built.

At ????

I was not expecting my Tuesday to be spent walking in a dimly lit hallway with a villain. He seems locked in as the kids say. I mentally punch myself as it makes me sound older than I am. I look down the splitting pathway which each side leads to one of the red circled entrances. I touch the wall causing the path to split as I use my powers. I grit my teeth as this was one of the few times I used my powers in an unnatural way. I pointed left and said "The defenses there are worn down." I walked with the torch lighting out as the Illusionist was grumbling about his fancy cape, which was made by his wife from what I could get from his words, and was singed by fire from some of the heroes. I put out the torch by holding it against the damp ground. We climbed up a ladder as we were in an empty dining room. The Illusionist used his magic to keep us hidden as he walked around the first floor of the base. I waved him over to some stairs as I used my power, with less force, to see where Red Heart and his minions were located. "Red Heart is on this floor but his minions are guarding something on the fifth floor. I can vaguely sense a person there but it is likely there are some powerblocking things in place." I say as we are reaching the third floor. The illusionist takes off his cape and ties it around me, as one would tie a blanket around a cold child. "Go get my wife. I'll fight that bastard." He says while grabbing some swords from a nearby weapon rack. I stare at him as I wonder what to say. I just nod my head as I take a sword he handed me. I only wonder what my bosses would think if they found out I was helping a villain instead of reporting him to HQ.

I reach the fifth floor and take a moment to catch my breath. There were so many more steps since the third floor as if someone was purposely trying to tire them out. I walk towards the cell as the guards, more so minions, are talking about what they will have for dinner. They don't even turn to look in my direction. Likely from whatever magic the Illusionist put on the cape or me. I unsheathe the sword as I slice through two of the minion's necks. The blood gets on the cape, my shirt, and face slightly. I quickly stab the sword into the third minion's chest and make sure they are all actually dead. I am still paranoid from the encounter with a villain who could bring back the dead. Luckily Starspear took care of them but that was the only time I could actually see Nightbolt as a normal person. I place my hand on the metal door to use my powers. I let out a yelp of pain as I quickly pull back my hand. I look at my hand to see it having been slightly burnt. I look at the door and see my handprint there. So the door burns whoever uses a superpower while touching it? I choose to test this theory by placing my hand on the wall and not touching any metal part as I use my powers once more. It didn't burn but I can see a void in the shape of a cube inside the wall. I at first try to check the minions for any keys. I find some but none of them unlock it. I then use one of their weapons to break the lock on it. All either bounce off it or break the weapon. I wrap my hand in the shirt of the dead minions and try it again. I could vaguely sense the outline of the cube but I pulled my hand away again as I smelled smoke. I saw the shirt got burned all the way through with my hand being burned slightly more. I grab a nearby wire as I hold the lock. I take a deep breath as I use my superpower's subpower to help me unlock it. I can feel the lock being burned into my hand as I pick the lock. Once I hear the sound of the lock opening, I quickly pull the lock away from the door before letting some tears fall down my face. I grabbed some numbing cream and rubbed it into my palm. I wrap some bandages around it. I take a moment to catch my breath as I open the door with my other hand. I see the Illusionist's wife. I use a dead body to keep the door open as I walk over to her. She looks fine but she seems to be knocked out. I picked up her up bridal style with some struggle. I try to avoid putting too much pressure on my burned hand but nonetheless I start to walk down all the steps.

I see some of the stairs got broken so I have to go down the other set of stairs. Using my powers to see what has happened while I was saving his wife. I can see multiple rooms being destroyed and one that is actively being destroyed. I stumble over a loose brick and land on my back with the Illusionist wife on me. I struggle to stand back up as my hand is actively bleeding now. I lean the wife against the wall as I rebandage my hand. I look back at her to see her slowly coming to. She stares at me but I start to rapidly explain how I was here to help her husband save her and asking if she is okay. She nods slowly before standing up. "Where…where is Adrian..?" She asks slowly as she looks around the floor. Note to self, unremember the Illusionist name. "He is fighting Red Heart. Come on. I've gotta get you out of here." I say while picking her up once more and holding back my cry of pain as my hand is feeling like it is on fire, which is ironic. I go back down the stairs as she introduces herself through mumbles as Jasmine. We just get down to the second floor when I have to speed up going down the stairs as I see Red Heart and Adrian fight each other in the living room area of the second floor, which is a living room type area. I ran down the steps fast as I noticed Red Heart was looking at us. I stumble at the last step before I break into a full on sprint.

I am running out in the middle of nowhere far from the city. I heard the sounds of someone chasing us and having to dodge things being thrown at me while being sure Jasmine doesn't get hit by anything, I don't wanna get on the Illusionist bad side if I can avoid it. I notice there is a forest about 500 feet away as I keep on running. "Get back here! Don't think you can run so far little Illusion!" I hear Red Heart scream as I notice there are about six other me's running with me. I just refocus my attention on running. One of my me's disappears after Red Heart threw a fucking big ass chuck of his base. I make it to the forest just in time to hear the sounds of some other heroes ordering for Red Heart to stand down. I just keep running into the forest as I hear the explosions of colliding attacks behind me. I hid behind one of the bigger trees to catch my breath. I set Jasmine down as she fell asleep somehow during the attack. I lean against the tree trying to catch my breath as my arms and legs are burning. I've done a lot of physical stuff since being a rookie hero under Nightbolt but this was far more than what I was use to. "Thank you for your help." I hear a male voice behind me. I lift and turn my head to see Adrian standing there. I give him a weak thumbs up before going back to trying to catch my breath. Adrian gently shakes his wife awake as he hugs him. I just wonder if they gave her a high dose of some calming agent and it is still in her system. That's my only explanation. Jasmine sounds happy as she says, “Honey…..I had a interesting nap. The kid carried me down stairs of clouds and ran all the way here! Such a sweet child.” She chuckles as she reaches out towards me. I kneel as she ruffles my hair. “Silly child!” She giggles before mumbling about having to bake a cake for her anniversary. Adrian lets out a sigh as he looks at me. “He likely had gas put into the room after he left to keep her calm as to avoid letting anyone know her location from her shouting or anything. Could also be a type of gas to cause hallucinations. Best let her breathe fresh air and wait a while until it wears off.” I say while rubbing the back of my neck nervously.

In a Living room

I was infact not expecting to be in a villain’s home, let along willingly being there. I am sitting with Jasmine on an open balcony as she is telling me stories about the myths from her hometowns. The gas has likely gone all out of her system but it seems she is still seeing hallucinations to some degree as she is telling me about animals and creatures that aren’t there or wherever she is pointing. Adrian walks over with some grapes and tea. He sets them down on a table as Jasmine happily takes the tea from him. She keeps on talking about her hometown as I snack on the grapes Adrian brought. They could be laced with something but that is an issue for later. I am starving. I doubt he would lace them anyways after I helped him save his wife. I only hope my (very little) trust in him won’t be in vain. Adrian lets out a sigh as his wife finishes her tea and goes to the kitchen to wash it. “Thank you for helping me.” He starts. “I literally couldn’t have done it without you. I probably could have in a couple weeks but I doubt Red Heart would willingly give me that much time. Without your help, I would still be panicking about my wife’s safety.” I nod feeling a tad awkward as I only helped out at the start because of a innocent person being in danger. She could have perhaps not known about Adrian being the Illusionist so that helped me out in my choice to help him out. “You could have probably betrayed me or used my wife against me to get me to turn myself in. Thank you for not doing that.” He lets out a sigh as Jasmine comes back with cookies. “Have some cookies.” She says while pinching my cheek as a grandma would do to her grandkid. “It was no problem.” I say while rubbing my cheek while grabbing a cookie. “You seemed pretty in need of help and it would likely haunt me knowing I could have endangered someone’s life by ignoring your request.” Adrian pats me on my back. “You’re a good kid. Let’s just hope I don’t have to go against you in the future.” I nod as Adrian grabs a cookie himself. Jasmine looks at us. “Are you guys also apart of a gaming club?” Adrian and I freeze. “Yeah. We are apart of opposing guids in the club. It is a friendly competition between club members.” I frantically explain with Adrian nodding after I finish speaking. Jasmine smiles before saying “Do you have any up and coming meetings or competitions?” I look at Adrian who just gives a thumbs up. Jasmine nods and says “We are going to have dinner. Do you want to stay? Oh what is your name?” I clear my throat as I say “My name is but I am fine with whatever.” I rub my neck nervously as I stand up. “I’ve gotta head home though. Thanks for the offer. See you next week at club Adrian!” I say while walking out of the house and waving bye.

In office

I am bouncing my leg up and down as I am finally letting the weekend sink in. First, I helped the Illusionist save his wife. Second, I know both of their names and where they live. Third, the Illusionist knows my name. And fourth, he keeps sending me Gen-X memes and gaming memes. I run my hands through my head as I try to figure out when he got my phone number. “Gift for . From your game club member.” I hear someone say behind me. I nearly jump out of my seat as I turn around to see one of my fellow rookie heroes. They are holding a pretty massive gift box as they set it down on my desk with a thud. I blink a few times as my co-worker leaves. I just stare at the box as I notice a sticker on the side. “From Jasmine & Adrian.” I bang my head on the desk a couple times. I just keep my head on the desk after a moment, turning it slightly to the side to look at the box. After a while, I lift my head up as I rub the red mark on it. I open up the box to see a new gaming console. I dig through the box to figure out it is one of the newer ones that got released a month or so ago. I closed the box and placed it under my desk for now.

Nightbolt had escaped the medical bay yesterday and got caught on his way out so now his time there has increased. I still have paperwork to do as HQ still needed me to fill in and check reports on the incident with Termite. I let out a sigh as I looked back at my computer to read my twenty-fourth report of the day. Everyone there had to give one. I just hope the gifts don’t come again. I can handle small thanks but not something worth like thousands of dollars. Hell I feel like I want the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I don’t even know how I will be during the fights Nightbolt will eventually have with the Illusionist. I let out another sigh as many scenarios run through my mind. I wasn’t expecting this outcome and I don’t think it is that unwelcomed? Who knows anyways. That is a problem for tomorrow me to figure out and today me has to finish reading these reports.