#But eventually most of the bad guys get redeemed and more good guys join so they're basically one big team with a few bad guys chasing them

[h4zardousch3micals]

If I told you about my weird multifandom oc's would y'all be interested?

[variouspolltournaments]

Propaganda

Zhou Zishu: Ok so his villainy is kinda downplayed in Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers (especially in WoH) cause like the whole point is that he wants to retire from being a villain but like I think he still fits here. Like ok episode 1 opening scenes are him leading an attack to wipe out a whole household of an official for opposing the crown prince, being told that he's on the evil side, him going to the official's daughter and telling her she needs to commit suicide, having the last remaining member of his martial sect request a torturous 3 year execution that he invented basically because he can no longer serve under him, and then the reveal that he also picked the 3 year torture execution thing in order to quit and also because he thinks he deserves it. This is like the first half of episode 1 in the show where they downplay some of his more evil stuff!

In like episode 10, we also get a flashback scene that confirms he killed children in service of his goals, but also like his main regret/thing he has the most guilt over is that he lead all of his martial brothers to their deaths by bringing them along with him. He only felt bad about killing Princess Jing An cause she had been Jiuxiao's lover, not cause like he falsely accused her father of treason for not going along with what he was doing. When he does good stuff, he says he's trying to take a couple years off of his punishment in the afterlife. The only reason he's not actively hated by the martial arts world when he returns is cause they don't know he was the leader of Window of Heaven. He meets Wen Kexing, the Ghost Valley Master, who is considered one of the worst evils of their era and is like "yeah we're soulmates I guess." When Xie Wang sees the two of them together he says "why are those two devils together." He's invented some of the cruelest torture techniques of their time too

Again, I'm just pulling these from the show where they tried to make him a better person!!!! That's not even touching on the stuff in Qi Ye, where they show more of him from before he quit. He doesn't get redeemed, he just retires

Zuko: He’s a villain. His goal for most of the series is to catch the only survivor of a genocide to be allowed back into his old position as a prince. In pursuit of this, he threatens an innocent old woman, burns down a village, steals a healer’s horse, etc.

He’s a protagonist. His story, from horrible backstory to his other obstacles and even his emotional journey are all portrayed throughout the series. He eventually learns that his family are evil and goes against them to join the team of heroes.

Also, this is Zuko. You guys know Zuko.

[mythologyfolklore]

Liù'ěr Míhóu joins the jttw gang, or: How to redeem an all-hearing celestial monkey with a superiority complex and a seriously bad attitude

Chapter Twenty-seven: Three monks fight a nine-headed fiend

.

“So, how do we get these fuckers up here to fight you?”, asked Bājiè, as the three of them, plus their fishy prisoners, were standing at the shore of a big, green lake.

The Six-Eared Macaque smirked evilly. “I have an idea …” and bent to the side to whisper something into the Monkey King's ear. The latter mirrored the smirk, turned his staff into a knife and – without any warning – relieved the two fish demons of their ears and lower lips, before throwing the severed body parts into the water.

Wow.

And then the Eldest menace told the poor buggers: “Now, you go to your lord, tell him that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sūn Wùkōng is here, and that he is to return the treasure from the Golden Light Monastery at once, or we will wipe out his entire famliy!”

“And destroy everything he owns”, added the six-eared arsehole.

Bājiè sweatdropped.

Why, oh why did he have to be brothers with a loose cannon and a nutjob?!

.

It wasn't long, until a nine-headed demon emerged from the water.

“WHO IS THAT GREAT SAGE! COME HERE AND DIE!”, the demon yelled and the three monks collectively rolled their eyes at the all too familiar threat.

Sūn Wùkōng stepped forward: “I'm the Great Sage and you couldn't kill me, if you tried.”

After exchanging the customary credentials, the two bantered for about two seconds, before Wùkōng lost his patience.

“I DON'T SERVE THE KING! I OWE HIM NO FAVOURS! HE DOESN'T EMPLOY ME! BUT YOU DIDN'T JUST STEAL THE TREASURE FROM THE MONASTERY AND DEFILE THE PAGODA, THE PRIESTS THERE SUFFERED BECAUSE OF YOU!” Then, going back to his normal voice for some reason: “So, it goes without saying that, since we're Buddhist monks ourselves, we just have to get justice for our brothers.”

Liù'ěr Míhóu and Zhū Bājiè nodded dutifully.

Exchanging a quick glance, the white monkey noticed that the pig demon was itching for battle. Well, for once they were sharing the same sentiment.

The nine-headed demon replied to Sūn Wùkōng: “Well, in that case, since you're apparently itching for battle, we better get to it quickly, so I can kill you quickly and get back to having lunch with my father-in-law.”

Sūn Wùkōng's eye twitched. “Okay, now I just have to destroy you. Eat my staff, you son of a bitch!”

And promptly charged at the dickhead, followed by Liù'ěr Míhóu with his twin swords and Zhū Bājiè with his nine-toothed rake.

They proceeded to duke it out for thirty rounds, completely with relentless taunting and everything. Wùkōng had to hand it to the guy, he was pretty good, considering he was fighting three immensely powerful opponents at once.

Eventually, however, the nine-headed demon seemed to realise, that he couldn't hold off three opponents at once, so he somersaulted away from them and changed into his original form. And wasn't it the strangest, yet most disgusting thing the three disciples had ever seen!

It was a nine-headed centipede, more than 12ft long, with two colourful wings and hook-like feet. And it was hairy for some reason.

“Ewww, what the fuck is that?!”, cried Bājiè.

“I don't know! This is gonna haunt me in my nightmares!”, complained the Six-Eared Macaque.

“I don't know either, but let's kill it!”, cried Wùkōng.

And with that, he charged at the thing once again, going for the head.

The nine-headed demon dodged the attack, quicker than a gust of wind and suddenly disappeared.

Huh? Where'd that creep go?

Suddenly Liù'ěr Míhóu shouted: BĀJIÈ, WATCH OUT! BELOW YOU!”

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the nine-headed demon reemerged from the water (wait, was that where he had disappeared to?) and grabbed Bājiè by the foot with one of his nine mouths.

“BĀJIÈ!”, screamed the Monkey King.

“FUCK!”, yelled Bājiè, before he was dragged underwater.

And then he was gone.

The lake stood still, as if there hadn't just been a ferocious battle, and there was no sound other than the howling wind.

For a few minutes, the two monkeys hovered above the water in shock.

Eventually, the Monkey King groaned: “Fuck! We have to tell our master, but if we go back to court unsuccessfully, they're going to laugh at us!”

“I'll get Bājiè back”, said the Six-Eared Macaque. “Unlike you I can fight underwater.”

“That's because you're not made of stone!”, grumbled Wùkōng, “But be careful, that freak is a really formidable foe! If they catch you somehow-”

“I can literally turn into water! Hells, I was born from water, vapour and ice!”

“How the fuck does that even work?!”

“I'll explain later! Fact is, they can't catch me for shit!”

With that, Liù'ěr Míhóu, transformed into an eel and dove into the water.

.

It wasn't hard to find his way to the underwater palace, where the nine-headed demon lived with his in-laws, not with how loud they were partying it up after catching Bājiè. Tse.

As Liù'ěr Míhóu passed by one of the windows, he could see the local Dragon King drinking and laughing with his nine-headed son-in-law and some other family members. Swimming to another part of the castle, he spied a few crab and shrimp demons, chatting and playing around.

Just as he was about to inquire about Bājiè's whereabouts, he could hear the pig demon whine and complain, as he was want to do.

Question answered.

The Six-Eared Macaque sighed, slipped past the frolicking group and found his elder brother in a narrow hallway.

Bājiè tensed up, as an eel started to circle around him and the pillar he was tied to.

“Psst!”, Liù'ěr Míhóu whispered. “Third Brother! It's me! Be quiet!”

Bājiè relaxed and sighed in relief. “Youngest Brother!”, he whispered back. “Please get me outta here!”

“Yeah, yeah, just wait a moment”, muttered the monkey. After making sure that no one was around, he turned back into himself, summoned his two ice blades out of water and cut the ropes binding the other.

“The ropes inhibited my own shapeshifting abilities, that's why I couldn't free myself”, explained Bājiè. “And sorry I got myself caught instead.”

Liù'ěr Míhóu shrugged: “Don't worry about it. You did pretty well in that fight, until that ugly fucker cowardly attacked from under the water.”

“Thanks, I guess. So, what will we do now? He took my weapon away!”

“Do you know where to?”

“Probably the main hall for display, but I'm not completely sure”, said Bājiè.

Liù'ěr Míhóu nodded: “Right. You transform yourself into something else, hide away under the towered gateway and wait, until I get your weapon back. Oh, you do know how to sword fight, right?”

Bājiè looked confused. “Of course I do! I used to be the Celestial Canopy Marshal, remember? Why are you asking?”

In lieu of an answer, the Macaque handed the astonished pig demon his ice swords, turned into a sentient stream water and flowed towards the main hall, like an invisible eel.

The soul-shattering rake was quickly found and stolen back, and the Macaque returned to the towered gateway, where Bājiè was waiting – holding two very bloody swords and surrounded by the bodies of aquatic demons, who had been decapitated, before they could report his escape.

“Oooh, brutal! No mercy, eh?”, teased the white monkey, as he returned the rake.

“Obviously”, deadpanned the pig and gave his younger brother his swords back. “Alright, I have a plan. You go back up to Eldest Brother and I'll raise some hell here. If I win, I'll catch all those fuckers. If I lose, I'll come running back to you.”

Normally, the macaque would have been cranky at being sent away from the fight.

But he could see where this was going, so he just shrugged and said: “Okay. Run wild and wreak havoc, man.”

As he swam back to the surface, he could hear Bājiè's battle cries and the terrified screams of the lesser demons, as a very pissed off boar demon decimated them and destroyed everything within reach.

Yeesh, and he calls me a bloodthirsty psycho! Which I am, but that's beside the point!

.

Above the surface, Sūn Wùkōng was waiting anxiously for his brothers to return.

Logically, he knew that they could handle their own underwater much better than he could, but-

Before he could even finish that thought, the Six-Eared Macaque leapt out of the water like a dolphin – alone.

“Where is Bājiè???”

“He's fiiine, just a little absolutely livid. Currently wreaking havoc in the palace in retaliation for his capture. Oh wow, he's really taking the main hall apart! Aw, that sounded like a jade vase! The dragon family is hiding – oh, nevermind, I hear the nine-headed freak talking to him … now they're duking it out … aaand there come the old dragon and his son and grandson … ah, Bājiè's coming back!”

Just a moment later Bājiè indeed came leaping out of the water, leaping across the waves in the way only immortals could.

Wùkōng readied his staff, Six-Ears his twin blades and Bājiè joined them, looking glad he was safe (Wùkōng was secretly also glad, but of course he wouldn't say that).

And then a very large dragon emerged, followed by two smaller dragons and the nine-headed fiend.

Wùkōng didn't hesitate for a second, leapt into the air with his staff raised, yelled “GOTCHA, BITCH!”, and bashed the old dragon's head in.

The two younger dragons fled back down, while the nine-headed demon retrieved his father-in-law's corpse, before following them.

The three monks didn't chase after them.

Instead, they sat on the shore and debated on what to do now.

“So, what now? It was the old dragon, that chased me out, after I destroyed half the palace. But now that you've killed him, they'll probably mourn him and hold his funeral and won't come back up anytime soon. And it's getting late”, Bājiè pointed out.

“You're literally the only one, who gives a shit about the time”, retorted Wùkōng. “It's better to seize the opportunity now, attack them, retrieve the treasure and go back to the court. You go back down there, lure them back to the surface and-”

“Uhhh, guys? We're getting company!”

The Monkey King and the pig demon turned to look towards the direction the Six-Eared Macaque was pointing at.

Approaching fast from the Eastern horizon was a large black fog, carried forward by a violent gale.

As Wùkōng squinted, he recognised seven people riding atop the black cloud, accompanied by hawks and hunting dogs, pulling their prey after them. And at the front of them was …

“Oh no!”, he groaned in despair. “Not him!”

Bājiè followed his glance. “What is he even doing here?!”

The Macaque seemed confused. “Who is that?”

Wùkōng massaged his temples and grumbled: “It's the guy, who kicked my arse almost six-hundred years ago, burned down my kingdom and killed thousands of my babies! And his six brothers from Plum Mountain!”

“Ohh. That's awkward.”

“Yeah. Can you believe I'm sworn brothers with these guys?!”

Bājiè stared at him in understandable disbelief. “No.”

Liù'ěr Míhóu arched an eyebrow. “If I hadn't heard you swear brotherhood with those guys, I wouldn't believe it either.”

The pig demon gawked: “What?! How?! When?! Why?! You only met once and that was in battle!”

Wùkōng chuckled awkwardly: “Yeahhh, I'll explain another time. Either way, I'm still embarrassed about my defeat and upset about the destruction of my home, so … who wants to go up to them and ask them to help us defeat the arseholes down there?”

“I can go!”, volunteered the other monkey, but Wùkōng was suddenly seized by panic. “No! You stay here with me! What if they shoot you on sight?!”

Bājiè sighed: “Calm down, Eldest Brother. They obviously just had a successful hunt. I don't think they're in the mood to attack unknown demons on sight.”

“Third Brother!”

“I know, I know. But if it makes you feel better, then I will go and ask them to stay for a bit. Can't promise success though, Èrláng knows me and doesn't like me either.”

“Huh? What did-”

Bājiè leapt onto a cloud and soared to the summit of the mountain, before Wùkōng had a chance to finish his question.

From down here, he could see his younger brother hold the group of seven up and have a short conversation with them.

Liù'ěr Míhóu tapped Wùkōng's shoulder. “You okay?”

“No”, admitted Wùkōng. “The fact, that I'm about to ask him for help and exchange courtesies with him …”

“Our current mission has priority. You can sort out your grievances with him some other time, but now you gotta grit your teeth and suck it up”, said the Six-Eared Macaque. “I know I suck arse at pep talk, but that's how it is. You can do it though, I believe in you. Chin up, Monkey King.”

“That's Handsome Monkey King to you.”

“Keep dreaming. I'm the handsome one.”

Wùkōng gasped and clutched his chest in betrayal.

Bājiè prevented a budding argument by returning with Èrláng's six brothers in tow – Kāng, Zhāng, Yáo, Zhí, Lĭ and Guō; if Wùkōng remembered their names correctly – who informed Wùkōng, that their brother asked to speak with him.

The Monkey King followed the other macaque's advice, grit his teeth and flew up to meet his former adversary.

[mastcrmarksman]

I call this. The amount of love, belief, and faith Clint has in his friends, family, team, and in people in general.

I'll isolate some of these more and do a whole post when I am on my laptop later with more precise examples, but I was reading Iron Man 193 / Tony's return to Iron Man and his eventual joining of the WCA (it's a lot of emotions and I have hankering for that era again as well as inspired desire for drabble writing/clint coming to tony about his own alcoholism literally decade and some years later since recovery arc for clint instrad of current canon )

But anyways, all of this right here. The amount love that Clint has for his people, that he openly shows (I have so many more examples tumblr limits me to 10), like he just had a whole lot of affection to give, and the amount of which Clint believes in someone and that is almost unbreakable, if in face the most beautiful quality in Clint.

Like Tony was so on the fence about coming back, and Clint feels bad for pushing him but he sees the path Tony is now on, sees the man is worth redeeming himself and earning back, and sees he has already proven he has what it takes, and just this is when Clint finds out original Iron Man was Tony Stark, so he's compounding two friends of his into one, and seeing a wholer picture, and he does feel guilty feeling he is pushing Tony back to Iron Man, but it's only because he loves the man so much, respects iron man and what he did for the world, for the avengers, and truly believes in Tony.

And then like the Hank panel, Hank is one of his oldest and longest friends and teammates, and he's seen Hank through a lot of dark times, so any time he gets to see Hank and his mind at work, and Hank have confidence in being able to figure something out and come up with a plan, a solution on the fly. It's what he admires about Hank. And he's always believed in (and yes I know we can talk about the treatment if Janet and everything and mental illness isn't an excuse but hank's is a major contributing factor and yes that is something blah blah not the post) this version of Hank. And respected him, and so just coming to Hank in this moment, (so much was going on in this era post civil war) and hearing him says "But I'll figure it out" and Clint's jusr immediate ability to just express this pride over Hank "God. I love you" and he just means it

And all these other panels. Like clint jumping on Steve's bed since he's been sent to go cheer the man up, and he just. He loves Steve, that's his true mentor, the person who helped heal Clint's father wounds without even realizing it (though Steve definitely realizes later on), and Steve's the guy he rides on the most in the beginning, but there are so many panels I could pull of just how much Steve matters and ugh. Ugh.

Clinton Francis Barton and how he is with people, how he is with affection and love. And just the faith and respect for people, and how he says it out loud.

"That's the Carol I had a crush on" just proud moment seeing her kick ass, take charge

Him meeting Cassie and seeing so much of Scott in her, and affirming how proud her father would be.

His excitement of seeing Pietro again and fighting along side him, even if these two do tend to rag on each other (its affectionate) he loves that man. That man is his brother.

The first one with Melissa, like that's him being a good team leader, that's him being able to read and understand people, being able to pick up on what's going on and say it out loud, and prove comfort.

And then just the way he readily betrays Shield (he was an agent at the time) for this New Avengers team, cause as he says they are friends and there is never any question in his mind on what he does. He'll take his friends' side, he'll chose them over anything other.

It's why Clint does tend to stay out avenger on avenger fighting, and hero on hero in general, because it's hard. It's friend vs friend and that's hard, when he always takes friends side. Its why coming back from the dead to the aftermath of civil war is rough, even when he's acquitted of killing Bruce he stays out of the civil war 2, pretty much hits the road and avoids it all.

This man is a people man and it shows so much, and he shows so much affection for his people.

( and I haven't even gotten into the sheer love and pride he has of Kate Bishop always )

[akiizayoi4869]

It's been a long time since I made this AU or talked about it, but thankfully I remember it. It's not very Iroh or Zuko friendly though. I made them the antagonists in this story bc in this AU neither had any reason to be redeemed.

Also I really liked the idea of having Iroh be the bad guy because I thought it'd be fun to have the Gaang be against a very capable antagonist (not that Azula isn't, she definitely is, but I always got the feeling that Iroh would be much more capable than her if he actually wanted to fight and that it was a very good thing he was redeemed before canon). Also this AU used to be "Zuko pretends to be good and a teacher so he can capture them later" until I realized it makes perfect sense for Azula. So Azula's arc mimics Zuko's in a way.

************************************************************************

(tw death, marriage, arranged marriage, abandonment, genocide, abuse, betrayal)

So Lu Ten never died (I actually don't want him to be part of this story. So maybe he doesn't even exist), so Iroh took over Ba Sing Sae. He also adopted Zuko. Ursa's out of the picture. I don't know how, but when I do figure it out I'll make her a larger part of the story. The original plan was that after the Angi Kai Ursa took Zuko and appealed to Iroh for help, which he granted. So now they live with Iroh.

Azula kind of was left behind, though, with Ozai. She and Ozai were kind of disgraced bc what did they do compared to the amazing awesome dragon of the west.

Then the Avatar arrives, and Ozai sees an opportunity. He wanted to do it himself, but Azula volunteers herself. She doesn't want to be in the arranged marriage Ozai's planning for her (to get more status). On Ozai's orders, she cuts her hair and dyes it so Iroh and Zuko will have a harder time recognizing her (he doesn't want them to know it's Azula daughter of Ozai doing this until it's too late. Bc that's probably treason and bad.)

Then she fakes joining the gaang to backstab them. And they need a firebending teacher. Perfect opportunity. But then Zuko and Iroh show up. And Azula has to help the Gaang from being captured, and she's the only one skilled enough to actually do something. Which makes her an enemy of the fire nation.

Ozai ends up pretending he doesn't have a daughter anymore once news gets out.

And therefore Azula is pretty much stuck now. She can't go home without Aang, bc Ozai will punish her for making such a huge mess.

She now has to find a way to bring Aang to Ozai without being caught while plausibly pretending to help the gaang while sabotaging their plans. I don't have any scenes from this point on, beyond Azula freaking out once the Gaang realizes that firebenders loose their bending on the day of the black sun and trying to figure out if she should tell about the invasion plans or not.

Though if I had to give a guess, Azula likely spends a lot of time thinking about when to betray the gaang and how to do so (she only has one shot at betraying the Gaang, she doesn't want to loose it until she's 100% certain it's possible) and eventually ends up not doing anything until she's a certified enemy of the fire nation and it's too late. The fact that she doesn't want to do anything suspicious helps.

There's a period where she considers joining Iroh and Zuko in the process, by appealing to Ursa. I don't know if she does it or not.

Mai likely helps Zuko (though she does recognize Azula but doesn't tell anyone) while Ty Lee is on Azula's side. With Ty Lee's help the Gaang can actually beat Zuko and Iroh most of the time.

Oh damn, this is a really interesting au idea! I would love to read it if you ever wrote it.

[dullahandyke]

Sympathetic Deceit: on Fanon, Tropes, and Unneeded Character

To those who were in the Sanders Sides fandom from 2018 to 2020, you should be familiar with the kind of simplistic moral hellscape it was. Personally, I recall the phrase 'Sympathetic Dark Sides' and go through all 5 stages of grief at the same time. I remembered it in the shower today and could not rest until I had written 2.2k about the phenomenon.

To those who weren't, I hope this is legible. Enjoy the shitshow!

Premiering in 2016, Sanders Sides is a web series by Thomas Sanders of Vine fame. Initially a light series about his internal logos, ethos, and pathos bickering over problems and coming to conclusions, the series soon integrated a plot, and eventually, tried its hand at moral complexity. Can’t say it didn’t try.

Along with the three initial sides, who were the unequivocal Good Guys, another side was soon introduced; Anxiety, an outcast and an antagonist. As the episodes went on, Anxiety was drawn more and more into the main group, until finally, the group learned his real name: Virgil. Learning the other sides’s names had been a benchmark of trust, and all the others had revealed theirs – Logan, Patton, and Roman. This symbolised that Virgil had become a part of them, no longer an outcast.

As Virgil revealed his name and joined the group, Roman said that he was ‘nothing compared to the others.’ Cue the introduction of the Dark dichotomy.

After this point, a line was drawn to retroactively define the way that Virgil had been an outcast. Roman, Patton, and Logan were the Light Sides, the good guys, the ones who were immediately trusted. Before he had begun hanging around the Light Sides, Virgil had been a member of the Dark Sides, a nebulous group that... the audience knows almost nothing about other than Virgil’s involvement and the existance of others. After that line was dropped, it was tabled. The four Light Sides blissfully bickered amongst each other with no further mention of the Dark Sides.

Five months later, an episode aired that, on its head, seemed to be another solely Light episode. For half an hour, the Light Sides argued. In the back end of the episode, however, Patton – the paternal figure of emotion and morality – had been acting less and less moral and emotional. He had turned almost calculating, and soon, the other Light Sides unmasked him as Deceit, the first Dark Side revealed with the knowledge of what they are. Thomas was panicked by this appearance, and though Deceit soon disappeared, he required reassurance from the Light Sides that despite Deceit being a part of him, he was a Good Person.

Logan, Logic, butted in and claimed that Good and Bad are relative concepts, but before he could continue, Virgil shut him up, reinforcing the dichotomy. Yes, Thomas, you’re a good person even though Deceit lives within you, believe in yourself and don’t let him get to you, etc etc etc.

After this episode, it was over two years before we saw Deceit again – saw him properly, saw him in more than bit parts. During this time, I’d like to swivel to the fandom’s reaction to Deceit, and the bullshittery to follow.

To someone familiar with fandom, it should be no surprise that Virgil was the most popular side. Once an outcast, now redeemed, the most obviously ‘complex’ character in the show. An edgy angsty side,  ripe to be woobied; babied, coddled, treated like a smol precious cinnamon roll.  Of course, if you want to draw out the woobie, first you need to damage it, to give it something to heal from. Hurt/Comfort needs the Hurt. However, all of the Light Sides were good – at this point, no reason had been given to question their morality, and the idea that any of them  would purposefully harm Virgil after his redemption was not a popular one at all. The Light Sides were not the only characters, though. There were the Dark Sides. There was Deceit.

Deceit, who had only gotten five or so minutes screen-time as himself, the rest of which had him imitating Patton. Deceit, who had been set up as the first serious antagonist and was not touched for two years. Deceit, who had a history. Who had bad blood with Virgil of all sides. It was almost inevitable.

The most common use of this angst was in Deceit’s capacity as a manipulator. He had many parallels to Patton, often considered to be the leader of the Light Sides, and this led to him being considered leader of the Dark Sides. Virgil had defected from the dark, and hey, he had to have had a pretty good reason to defect, right? Most often, it was written either than Deceit had turned Virgil against the Light Sides and that Virgil had realised this, or that Deceit had been a perpetrator of abuse of any kind conceivable. This second interpretation soon spread, into Alternate Universes and everything beyond, with Deceit as a stand-in for any sort of villain. If you wanted to write a story about Virgil recovering from being physically, sexually, psychologically abused, he needed an abuser. High School!Virgil needed a bully. Fantasy!Virgil needed an evil leader to betray. All through this, Deceit’s name was a point of contention. He was the only side thus far not to have one, and while there was no real consensus, one of the most common was Damien, a name commonly associated with demons and evil.

Eventually, however, Deceit appeared again in 2019, when he butted heads with Patton for a full 40 minutes. Though he was rebuffed again, this episode shifted the common perception of Deceit almost entirely. As opposed to his first appearance, during which he appeared unilaterally sinister after imitating a beloved character for the sake of manipulation, this Deceit was charismatic. He was funny, he had good arguments, and many fans welcomed the ‘dimension’ that this brought to the series. They agreed with him, or thought that he had been railroaded by the bias against Dark Sides, or simply liked the cut of his jib. Thus, the tide began to turn against the conception of Deceit as solid evil. However, this was to face a mighty challenge in the coming months: the same black and white morality that Deceit himself was fighting  against.

While Virgil had been redeemed, many fans were much less willing to give credence to Deceit. After all, they had just spent two years building him up as the villain of all villains! He wasn’t the only one: there was also a theorised third Dark Side, usually called Anger or some variation, to parallel Logan’s fits of rage. However, Deceit had been the star of the show, and realising him as sympathetic would leave them without an incorrigable villain. A schism formed between those who liked and those who hated Deceit, and this culminated in the beginning of the sympathies: Sympathetic Deceit.

It was incredibly jarring for many fans, who had written Deceit as an manipulator and an abuser and all manner of other evils, to see him suddenly being discussed as if he was a good person. A call to action came, asking that people tag Deceit content which wasn’t wholehearted condemnation. Sympathetic Deceit, they called it, not wanting to see this character be treated with any kind of mercy or dimension. If it sounds like I have a grudge, well, my past kinship with Deceit is business of mine and mine alone.

However, Sympathetic Deceit was not the only tag to come out of this. Soon, as the Deceit sympathisers were beginning to question the morality of Deceit, this doubt spread to the Light Sides. The character that this most prominently affected was Patton, Deceit’s Light counterpart. What had previously been a cute, optimistic, paternal character was being analysed more closely. People were noticing his toxic positivity, his possessiveness, his holier-than-thou moral attitude. Before this point, any fanworks featuring conflict between the Light Sides was the result of misunderstanding or attitudes that changed by the end of the works. However, many people were angry and frustrated with Patton, and they began to write him as manipulative, as an antagonist, as Bad. He didn’t get redeemed in those. Thus was born the tag Unsympathetic Patton.

Unsympathetic was not the same as Evil or Bad; after all, that would have just been recreating the Light and Dark dichotomy, which Unsympathetic Patton was meant to break! Instead, Unsympathetic Patton fics had a few key characteristics. Firstly, he harmed the other sides, be it through malice or ignorance. Secondly, he did not grow from it. He was not redeemed and he did not apologise, and thus, there was no  way to Sympathise with him, to see him as more than a nameless villain to attack and run when their time was up.

This convention also spread to other characters – Unsympathetic Virgil, used in tandem with Sympathetic Deceit to paint Virgil as the one at fault for their falling out. Unsympathetic Roman, with his arrogance and proclivity for cutting remarks. Rarest of all was Unsympathetic Logan, but his calculating nature and quickness to anger earned him more than a few works. However, even today, Unsympathetic Patton Sanders is the most common unsympathy tag, though this is likely due to the fact that the tagging trend only came about after the two years of Deceit Villainy, so many Unsympathetic Deceit fics are not tagged as such.

There are many reasons why Patton was the most popular unsympathetic side. He was stubborn and obstinately positive, often pushing the emotions of the other Sides to the wayside. He held a position as a fatherly Christian arbiter of morality that felt wrong to many of the series’s young queer fans. His position as undisputed cinnamon roll of goodness left him far to fall. What matters most, though, is the way that this represents the growing schism between the two groups of fans, which had more in common than they would like to admit.

On one side: the people who had built up Deceit in their heads as this big, scary villain, and clung to their unsympathetic view of him even as the series went on and he became a squarely ‘sympathetic’ figure.

On the other side: people who were on Deceit’s side, and, often in backlash to the other side (some of whom hated Deceit because they were Patton fans), wrote more about Unsympathetic Light Sides. To widen the scape of stories being told, to get back at the Deceit haters, whatever their reasons.

The very next episode, three months after the sympathism schism began, in came Remus. A Dark Side representing intrusive thoughts, he was always going to be a divisive and triggering character. I only knew a new episode had come out because the top post on my dash was reminding people to tag for Sympathetic Remus. I was squarely in the Sympathetic Deceit camp, so I imagine that there was more ‘Unsympathetic Remus’ content outside of my circle that fell more into his placement as a Dark Side, but in my eyes, Remus himself was not the most impactful part of that episode on the fandom’s perception of characters. It was his backstory.

Remus was introduced as a character who represented ‘dark creativity’, such as gore, fetish, and sexuality, in contrast to Roman, who was ‘light’ creativity; romance, fantasy, adventure. Roman and Remus are twins, and the popular fan conception is that they were once one Creativity that was then split. This split is theorised to have come around because of Thomas wanting to distance himself from his unsettling thoughts, viewed through a Christian lens of bad thoughts meaning bad actions. This view is continually espoused by Patton, who was already being cast as Evil by the fanbase. Thus, on came the idea that Patton was directly responsible for Creativity being torn apart and Remus being cast into the Darkness, and on goes more slack to the fire.

In mid-2020, we got an epsiode focused around combatting the idea of Unsympathetic sides, and it’s another one focused around Deceit vs Patton. In this episode, Patton turns out to be the bad influence and Deceit is the one who ‘saves’ Thomas, revealing his name as Janus in a show of trust as Roman berates Thomas for trusting a Dark Side. Patton and Deceit talk about how much one can make mistakes before you should cut them out of your life, and Patton apologises. If I recall correctly, this did calm down some of the Patton haters; after all, he apologised and promised to do better going forward. However, many Patton Unsympathisers did not feel it was enough, or had simply fallen far enough into the groove of Unsympathetic Patton that it was familiar.

Since this episode, there have been side-stories and gag episodes, but no proper plot. Well, TV Tropes tells me that that fabled Anger side has been foreshadowed, but that’s irrelevant for now. I don’t really know how to wrap up this essay, because it’s not like there’s been a conclusion to this. There are still people who hate Deceit and who hate Patton, though they are much lower in numbers than they once were. From what I remember, Unsympathetic Sides became seen as more of a story convention than a representation of true feelings. Sides are seen as unsympathetic for specific AUs where they fit the villains.

To this day, 3 years since its introduction, the Sympathy tagging system is still used. Out of the 20 most recent Sanders Sides fics on AO3, five of them were tagged with some variation of Sympathy or Unsympathy, a ratio shared by the most recent Deceit fics in particular.

I guess this acts as a word of caution against hiatus-brain and ignoring canon for the sake of fanon. Mostly, it acts as a place for me to vent the absolute shitshow that was the fandom. The shitshow that probably still is the fandom. Any current fans, feel free to correct me, I fell out of it around late 2020.

Don’t watch this series. It is not good.

[eclipticasolaris]

Filler episodes are also critical for giving the necessary ‘weight’ to a situation. You need filler episodes to stretch out a characters conflict or struggles. You need time in between the introduction of a problem and the resolution, or else it doesn’t feel earned.

And I can’t say for certain which caused what, but the tenuous nature of the contracts on streaming services definitely plays a role. If you’re not guaranteed to get more than your single short season, you have to make sacrifices to be able to tell the story you want to tell.

Example: Steven Universe. Steven spends many episodes slowly gaining the trust of homeworld gems and winning them over to his side. Each ‘redemption’ feels natural, earned, and significant, because time is spent on-screen showing how long it took to get there. Then the network decided to sharply cut off the show after the infamous wedding scene caused waves. From then on, the three biggest enemies are all ‘redeemed’ and converted to no longer being bad guys within like 3-4 episodes, as Rebecca Sugar and her team rushed to ‘finish’ the story in the short amount of time they had left. Based on prior timelines, each one of these gems probably could and should have taken an entire season to win over, and because it didn’t, the victory feels very cheap.

Spoilery examples of currently-airing shows under the cut.

Hazbin Hotel was long-anticipated ever since the pilot released on YouTube 4 years ago, and we finally got season 1 on Amazon prime this year. It is glorious….. except for the fact that it feels so RUSHED. Conflicts get introduced and solved in the same episode, that with proper ‘weight’ and filler would take multiple episodes or even an entire season to resolve:

Sir Pentious’s arc from antagonist to spy to genuine guest is squeezed into 1 episode. Theres enough twists and turns here for at least half a season, with him becoming a full-fledged patron as a mid-season climax or season finale.

Lucifer swings from being super avoidant of the hotel idea, to revealing he had a similar plan that had failed catastrophically and that his avoidance was fear of her getting hurt, to acceptance, in a single episode. Most of which happens in a single song. This could have been at least 3 episodes of interpersonal conflict and character development, if not a half-season.

Mimzy appeared and disappeared within 5 minutes, but could have been an entire episode of her yanking around the hotel staff before eventually getting thrown out. In general, there needs to be more one-off character joining the hotel for wrong reasons. (Taking advantage of free room and board, trying to hustle the staff, hiding behind the hotels protection, clueless hellborn thinking it’s a regular hotel, general heckling, etc) and adding to the uncertainty of whether or not redemption is possible.

Razzle and Dazzle show up very briefly as adorable empty-headed… pets? And aside from an offhand remark Lucifer makes about keeping Charlie safe, their position as bodyguards is never properly developed, and them turning into terrifying gryphons in the season finale would have been even more impactful if they had more screen time being adorable, but seemingly-useless bodyguards.

Adam and Lutes dynamic deserved more screen time.

Cherri Bomb and Sir Pentious’s relationship dynamic needed to be a slow burn, not a flash grenade.

Cherri Bomb seemingly goes from ‘just here for the fight, bruh’ to an enthusiastic member of the group just because of a kiss, or the kiss/sacrifice combo

Vaggie is revealed to be an angel/exorcist at the end of one episode, and aside from one scene of Charlie in a blanket burrito and an awkward chat in the lounge, there’s no fallout, and by the end of the very next episode, they are all good, or even have a stronger relationship. The angst alone should take up a whole episode, and this is a full-season level problem that a character would have to work through.

The angelic court hearing could have been two episodes. Just… more time in general to showcase that heaven is deceptively perfect, too much so, and so it’s not quite right.

The struggle between Charlie/Valentino/Angel Dust would have better been simmering under the surface for season 1, and then pulled to the forefront in season 2, with the confrontation scene being the mid-season climax and Angel standing up to Valentino being the season finale.

We didn’t get NEARLY ENOUGH of Fat Nuggets

Comparing Hazbin Hotel to steven universe, Steven repeatedly makes the decision to ‘spare’ Connie the stress of his life as a crystal gem, first by avoiding telling her about his abduction so she won’t worry about him, and then later on when he surrenders in order to save his friends, including Connie, rather than fight alongside her and risk her getting hurt. Both times it damages their relationship, because he doesn’t trust her as much as he cares about her well-being. The first time is stretched over an entire episode, half on the deliberation and thought process of making the decision, and half on the fallout of said decision. The second time, it takes about 4 episodes to cover the choice, the consequence, the realization of how what he did hurt his friend, and the resolution. The end result is that the change in their dynamic moving forward feels earned and significant. The same dynamic occurs between Sera and Emily, but it’s reduced to 10 seconds of a song.

Now, going from Hazbin Hotel and Steven universe to Avatar: The Last Airbender, and comparing the original cartoon to the recently released live-action series.

The original cartoon puts in a bunch of flashbacks into the main storyline, giving relevant pieces of Character backstories in emotional moments as-needed. In the live action, many of those flashbacks are compressed into an opening ‘prequel’ sequence, which removes some of the weight and relevance of certain points in the sequence.

Avatar Kyoshi is set up in the original series via a ‘filler’ episode as the strongest and most badass avatar ever seen, largely through sheer force of will and being unwavering in her commitment, single-handedly pulling off one of the most breathtakingly massive feats of bending in recorded history. In the live action, this episode is reduced to a brief shot of the feat depicted on a poster on the wall. As a result, Kyoshi’s personality hasn’t had time to bake properly, and her forceful guidance of Aang comes off as needlessly cruel, even bitchy.

Sokka’s entire arc of growing up in a rather sexist environment and subsequently being force-fed respect women juice by Suki which leads to them having a growing relationship that blossoms from respect to romance doesn’t have time to happen. Teenage horniness and sexual tension is put in its place, and while it gets the job done, it’s got that artificial flavor aftertaste.

All the wacky hijinks with the pirates and Iroh looking for his lotus tile are removed in favor of Gran Gran just HANDING Katara the water bending scroll. In her backpack when they leave the southern water tribe.

The first season of the live action is only 8 episodes. The original was 20. I’ve only seen the first two episodes of the live action, and I already shudder to think what plot lines have been cut for time as ‘filler’:

Aang resolving the disputes between two tribes who have been warring for generations by telling a lie about a ball game?

Bumi’s whacky trials and tests for Aang?

Miyuki and The frozen frogs?

The panda forest spirit?

The fortune teller?

Bato meeting up with Sokka and katara?

The hot bounty hunter?

And what about filler episodes in the other seasons?

The freedom fighters?

The Royal kids being forcibly sent on vacation?

The

The ember island players?

Heaven forbid: the tales of Ba Sing Se?!?!?!?

genuinely one of the worst things that’s happened to television in the last few years (exacerbated by streaming services) is death of Filler. going from 20 episodes to 8 because “we didn’t really need that episode where the main characters went to the beach right? it had no long lasting effect” but we DID!!! we needed to see how they act without the Big Bad Plot and to establish the dynamics between the characters and lay in the sun (do they forget sunscreen? how do they react to a thieving seagull? do they get buried in the sand or do they do the burying?). the plot isn’t everything. the action doesn’t hit as hard without the quiet moments. give us character development and our little scenes back

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being an Avenger with the power of persuasion

Avengers x reader

warnings:

a/n: towards the end this branches off into the fatws timeline but there’s no explicit spoilers

prompt: anonymous: “Can you do hcs for the avengers with a reader who has powers like Allison Hargreeves from The Umbrella Academy?”

the avengers were a little iffy about you because......someone with your power was hard to trust at first

“mind control isn’t as fun as it sounds, you guys. i really don’t wanna keep my guard up at all times when i’m at home base” -clint

“yeah, i’m not sure if i trust this one yet. i mean, i’m totally immune to mind control, but what if they mind control someone to come after me? and they have easy access to the place?” -tony

“excuse me, did you just say you were immune to mind control?” -nat

“he most certainly is not” -wanda

i mean, you get it and all. you heard stories of the avengers’ past encounters. it couldve messed them up

and they had no character references for you

you were new and mysterious

and your powers could be dangerous if you used them the wrong way

“well, i say we take a chance on them. they might surprise us” -cap

“i knew you would say some crap like that” -tony

“i thought a surprise was the opposite of what we wanted?” -bruce

you were put on the team soon after, but you had to have a buddy on missions

*pretending that we have deaf/hoh!clint like in the comics* you were buddied up with clint since your powers were auditory

“you can’t sign me an involuntary command, can you?” -clint

“no, sir” -you

“cool, cool, cool” -clint

stealth looked good on you, ngl

you were able to get behind heavy gunmen and whisper commands to them

“simon says you are an avenger now, shoot the enemy” -you

“simon says i am your new boss, take out your ex-coworkers” -you

“simon says give me your keycard” -you

“simon says i’m not the enemy, you are” -you

“not bad down there, y/n!” -sam

“thanks! now can somebody give me a lift to that one all the way up there?” -you

you proved yourself that day, so everyone got a lot more comfortable with you

and you made a promise that day that you’d never use your powers on them

but occasionally someone would ask you a simple favor, like putting them to sleep or making them focus on a project

“i think the focus one could be a fire hazard” -you

“so just come and get me! or let me die, that’d be fine, too” -tony

“whatever...simon says focus on the new tech” -you

time went by and things got tough, especially when the sokovia accords rolled in

“i wasn’t even there for that, mr. secretary” -you

“and i’m aware of that, mx. l/n, but you still pose a threat to people around the world. you have the means to walk into any place you want and do anything you want. you can see how that makes people uneasy, don’t you?” -ross

“i’ve never used my abilities for anything but good” -you

“what y/n is trying to say is—” -steve

“he knows what i’m trying to say, but apparently that’s the issue” -you

you were “grounded” with wanda

and pretty pissed about it

“i can understand why i’m here, y/n, but you? what did you do?” -wanda

“i intimidate men in charge, i guess” -you

sounds about right, huh?

but clint broke you out

“finallyyyyy! vision is such a drag” -you

and when you got to germany, you were conflicted with yourself

should you use your powers on the teammates who wanted you locked away?

if you got into their comms, you could stop it in an instant

but that’d take some time

“hi, simon(e)! i’m, uh, scott! i think you’re pretty neat!” -scott (p.s. y/n’s hero name is simon/simone. whatever you prefer idrc)

“thanks...and what do you do?” -you

“he shrinks!” -sam

you snuck out to the pavement and tried to hack their comms, but could only do it one at a time

so you got the spider kid

“simon says stick the cat man to the side of the plane” -you

but that cat had claws

alright, it might be harder than you think

“oh god, simon(e)?” -scott

“what is it?” -you

“i’m a little nervous for my next trick...would it be too much to ask if you did your little command thing for me?” -scott

“ughhhhh...simon says, go on with your ‘trick’” -you

and all the sudden he shot up into the air

“oh, nice” -you

you really hated fighting with these guys, but you were out of options and now cap wanted you to come with him, he wouldn’t leave without you

“steve, i’m sorry. simon says leave without us” -you

and that he did, which left you to be caught by a hair

“so close, weren’t you?” -tony

“simon says go to hell” -you

“very funny, guess i’m immune to mind control, after all” -tony

having a mouth restraint place on you that tony had been saving ever since you joined the team

one that “team cap” heavily protested the second they saw it

“tony, that’s wrong! don’t you trust them enough not to do that? they’re going to hate you after all of this” -wanda

“it’s either me or them. at least mine is comfortable” -tony

kinda fucked lol but understandable ig

having to testify without a voice, only able to type or write

but eventually you made your case and were able to make a deal, but part of that deal was to keep your mouth sealed when in the presence of authority since your voice was deemed a weapon ;)

kinda a dick move if you ask me

so you said fuck that and became a fugitive with steve + friends

but used your powers less and less

again, only for favors because it was hard to get peace in these crappy motels

“simon says kill that roach, oh god” -you @ steve

“you were an avenger and you can’t kill a roach?” -sam

“don’t start with me, sam, or you’re sleeping on the floor” -you

“you wouldn’t” -sam

“don’t test me” -you

waiting and waiting for some kind of turning point that didnt come until alien invasion 2.0

and you tried so hard to stop thanos from snapping, but the stones got the best of you as you were frozen in time

but fortunately you didn’t dust

leaving you to get a rematch against thanos when the time would come

and reuniting with tony just for him to lecture you with the rest of the team

“go fuck yourself, tony” -you

“oh, thank god they didn’t say ‘simon says’” -that raccoon you’ve known for like 3 weeks

“do you ever shut up?” -you

“no, he does not” -nebula

anyways your time did not come and you waited five years for another chance

and although you did not redeem yourself on your own, you were just glad that your side, humanity, had won

but just before thanos had ceased to exist, you told him

“simon says to feel the pain of loss for all of eternity” -you

it may have been cruel, but it’s what he deserved

the next step was for you and sam to be pardoned of your crimes

but you didn’t exactly part ways just because...what else was there for you to do? the two of you were close after your time on the run

and all was well until he decided to give the shield up

“oh, bucky’s gonna be pissed” -you

“he’ll be fine” -sam

now, bucky had mixed feelings about you

he was nervous about your powers, but you did save him

and he knew what it felt like not to be trusted

so he gave you a chance and partnered with you after the “new captain america” and the “flag smashers” fiasco

legally, if you used your powers on a government official/soldier you’d go back in the slammer, but it was quite tempting, even if it were just a “simon says punch yourself in the face”

and off to madripoor you went with...zemo

“are you going to persuade me into something petty, mx. l/n?” -zemo

“i’ve gotta make it worth it, honestly, but there’s no rule against me doing so, so at least i won’t feel bad” -you

and who knows what’s next?

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @lokihiddles // @frostedficrecs // @lotsoffandomrecs // @johnmurphyisqueer // @teenwaywardasgardian // @pappydaddy // @captainshazamerica // @freya-xo // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove // @ofthedewthesunlight // @canarypoint // @zoeyserpentluck // @randomawesomeperson102 // @ghost-bich // @wonderful-writer // @of-a-chaotic-mind // @groovyfluxie // @procrastinatingsapphictrash // @lxncelot // @swanimagines // @randomfandomimagine // @petersgroupie // @agentshortstacc // @rosadiaz-sarayvargas-harleyquinn // @werewolf-himbo // @comiocudequemtalendo1 // @mochamoff // @the-marvel-meme-emporium // @summersimmerus //

[timdrake-yumm]

Idk why anyone would pick Jason to be Stray (okay no, that’s a lie- he has the whole former thief and street kid thing going on, I get it), he has the completely wrong body type for it. Not to mention the fact that the whole reason he became Robin was because he got caught. Jason, as smart as he is, is more of an act first, think later type of guy, unless he wants to be dramatic and vengeful (see: Red Hood). He should stick to being a Crime Lord, it suits him.

The people with the best body types for Stray (in my opinion) are Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Wayne, and Tim Drake.

Now, Dick Grayson would make a wonderful Stray, if he weren’t such a show-off. He was born to be in the spotlight (literally, as he was born to famous circus performers). Is he capable of being stealthy and discrete? Absolutely! Is he happy being stealthy and discrete? Not really. It’d be better to let him be somewhere where he can shine and be a spectacle.

Stephanie Brown also has the whole “true Gotham blood” thing going for her, like Jason, but like Dick, I think she’s too loud. She’s not loud in the same way Dick is, but she’s loud nonetheless. I think her and Selina would get along great, but they wouldn’t work well as partners (side note- does anyone else think that Stephanie and Pru would make great friends?). If you took away the whole mind-games thing, I actually think her and Riddler run a similar vibe. Like, all Riddler really wants is someone to challenge him intellectually, right? He just wants Batman to solve his riddles! I think Steph would be similar if she were a rogue. Sure, she’d do the whole revenge thing with her dad, but after that, I think it would just be endless, harmless pranks on Batman.

Cass definitely has both the body type and skill to be Stray. She’d make a great Stray. She has neither the need nor desire to be in the spotlight, and she could go the whole Robin Hood route of stealing from the rich to give to the poor if she felt the need to redeem herself from her past actions under her sperm-donors influence (which she shouldn’t feel guilty for, in my opinion). The only reason I think it wouldn’t work out for her is because I honestly think she’d get bored. Cass is a fighter, not a thief, and while she’d make a very good thief, it simply wouldn’t satisfy her. (For that matter, I think Jason is the same way. Yes he was a thief, but that was really more out of necessity than actually enjoyment, which is why I don’t think he’d enjoy being Stray either). Cass needs to feel the flesh break beneath her fists, so to speak. (I also don’t think the Robin Hood shtick would satisfy her guilt either). Out of all of them, I think Cass is the one most likely to have eventually joined the Mission (and its rules) on her own, whether or not Batman was part of it. Not because she views killing in and of itself as bad, but because she’s probably sick of doing it but still wants to help people. It’s why Cass would be the best person to take over the mantle after Bruce.

Finally, Timothy Jackson Drake. I can see why some people might not think he would quite fit the mold of Selina’s apprentice. He’s already a trust-fund kid, why on earth would he become a thief? I believe the answer is simple: because he’d have fun. Tim isn’t a fighter, he’s a detective and a planner. Will and can he fight? Yes, and he can do so very well (Come on, he got trained by Lady Shiva and managed to beat/keep up with Ra’s al Ghul, of course he can fight). However, Tim has always enjoyed the hunt more than the actual capture. Each heist would be a new puzzle to solve, each escape an addictive shot of adrenaline. He found out the identities of Batman and Robin when he was 9 years old, and only went to Bruce to get trained after he saw his suicide campaign and Dick refused to return to help. He was content with just watching. Furthermore, he naturally has the skills to do it. He managed to follow and take pictures of Batman without getting caught for years! He may not be from the streets of Gotham like Jason and Steph, but he knows them just as well. I think he’d take a Robin Hood route to it as well. He admires heroes too much to steal for the sake of stealing, so I think he’d make an effort to only steal from certain types of people and help those he can.

Anywho, those are just my thoughts on Stray, feel free to let me know what you think!

[the-bed-gremlins-reading-list]

Code Name: Oracle

This project is in the very early stages of development – everything here is highly variable as I keep working out the details. That said, please send in any questions you like about this project or Phoenix Knight! I’m saving anything to do with PK bugs and fixes until a later date since I’m going to take a break from writing it, but I’m still happy to answer questions about the RO’s and setting.

Summary: Life in Delphi City is pretty much like life anywhere – there’s problems, lots of them, but there’s good points too – maybe a bit fewer. But whatever your feelings are about it - it is home. It is also the city with the highest concentration of super villainy on the planet.

The Guardians are the local superhero team, made up of ‘Paths’ – the people with powers – that are on the side of what is good and right, and approved by the government. Their job is to take care of the villains with powers – and sometimes the ones just smart enough to build doomsday weapons. That kind of thing.

The stuff that’s way above your paygrade.

You might be one of the city’s most skilled detectives but you’re still just a detective. Your bad guys don’t have powers (usually). And messing with one that does ends in a world of pain – kidnapped and experimented on by a previously unknown mad scientist type you’re eventually rescued by a hydrokinetic path.

When your powers are discovered, you’re a chance for the Guardians to snatch up an in-house investigator - a part of the crime fighting process they’d previously been forced to rely on the police and other agencies for. And with people beginning to develop into Paths at previously unheard of rates for some unknown reason, Delphi City needs its Guardians to find the answer.

But now they have you. Formerly one of the best detectives in the city but now... after everything that’s happened, you don’t know what you are, but they have decided what they want you to be:

Their very own Oracle.

Features

An +18 rating, again, more for my own peace of mind than what I believe the content will actually be, but I ask that it’s respected.

Warnings: imprisonment, experimentation, police, injuries, genre-typical violence, more to be added.

Planned Features Include:

Customizable Skill Approach - What kind of detective were you known to be. Are you the sort of detective that is good with getting people to tell you what you need to know? Are you the sort that can chase down and catch and answer even if it has you sprinting across rooftops? Are you the sort that notices the details and can put them together? And is that still your style?

Customizable pronouns (with an option in the player menu to reset them as desired)

Decide why you joined the police in the first place. Also decide how you feel about your maverick big brother.

Four romance routes currently planned: Siren, Warren, Cal, and Victoria

Characters

The Detective – Gender Selectable - MC – A legacy cop, whose grandfather and father were both respected life-long officers, your family has a reputation in the DCPD - one that your older brother managed to thoroughly trash, or redeem, depending on who you ask while you were still on the beat. Your position is hard won but no one can deny your skills as an investigator, family name or no. But when your kidnapping results in the development of powers, making you a ‘Path’ you’re put into the Guardians, not as a costumed hero, but as an investigative specialist.

The Villain: “Siren” – Gender Selectable – RO - Without any evidence to prove that the mysterious Siren was a supervillain and not just a very clever criminal the detective and their partner were originally assigned to attempt to apprehend them – or, otherwise, gather enough evidence to make the Siren the Guardian’s problem and not the DCPD’s.  Now you’re a Guardian and in the six months since that stakeout  and it’s very much your job to catch them – but why are they being so damn helpful?

The Leader: Warren Hughes, “Commander Truth” – NB – RO – The Guardian’s telepathic leader, Warren is a strict person with high expectations for everyone around them, but perhaps the highest set for themself. You know Commander Truth best by their black-and-white-lightning bolt costume from the situations where the police have had to work with the Guardians. You definitely didn’t expect your brother’s best friend – and a vague shadow in your life since Adrian went to high school and first met Warren - to be the one under the mask.

The Rookie: Callum Lindsey, “Titan” – M – RO – The newest member of the Guardians, apart from you, Cal has only been in Delphi City for eight months. The blue-and-gold clad ferrokinetic path who can twist buildings out of shape with his abilities is not who you were expecting to be the team’s grinning cinnamon roll, but Cal is definitely the warmest welcome you get to the team.

The Protector: Victoria Aragorn, “Starlight” – F – RO – One of the longest serving Guardians, she joined the official superhero line-up at the same time that Commander Truth did. Though her abilities as a Path give her control over fire – and to a lesser degree light and warmth – she is most famous for her skilled usage of traditional martial weapons and unarmed combat forms. Before Victoria put in the red and black suit of Delphi City’s ‘Starlight’ she worked for the government doing the sort of things only a Path could. (A/N: Victoria’s code name might change later on, but right now I’m amused by the idea of Siren giving her hell over it via “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” so it’s what I’ve got for now.)

The Partner: Theresa ‘Tessa’ Graves – F – Tessa and you have been partners for two years now, and friends for longer than that. She was there on the stakeout the night when everything changed. Her injuries might have forced her to retire from police work but after everything you’ve been through together she’s definitely not retiring from being your best friend. No matter what your opinion on the matter actually is.

The Brother: Adrian – M – Your elder brother is the only family you have left these days, not that that feels all that new. He’s also the one responsible for ruining the family’s sterling reputation when his work uncovered a massive amount of corruption in the police related to bribes and deals made with the city’s supervillain community and he didn’t do the brass the courtesy of backing down quietly about it – instead handing the entirety of his evidence over to the Guardians to pursue and, what was safe to, over to reporters the same day that he handed in his resignation. He claims he’s much happier these days, working as a PI and writing what he reassures you is going to be ‘the worst novel of all time’.

The Doctor: Elis Mercy - M - The doctor in charge of looking after the Guardians, and because of your position and the circumstances around your kidnapping he’s also been your doctor since your rescue. In addition to being one of the only doctors in the city that specializes in caring for Empathic people, his own Path allows him to heal injuries. But just those of the trauma variety - broken bones, bruises, cuts and lacerations, not infections and not poisons. (A/N: The doc’s name is a stand-in, I’m not happy with it. So I’m going to keep fishing around for one that fits him.)

[shizucheese]

Mmmm I don't know about this.

The full claim is that if Lae'zel was a dude people "would be swooning about him being so edgy and such a bad boy” followed by a snark of "oh wait that's Astarion."

I'm just going to go ahead and say it: of course it's a man saying this, probably trying to defend his monster girl waifu, and utterly missing the mark about what the appeal is of "dark and edgy" characters.

So let's break this down, shall we?

"Dark and edgy" characters are popular because they generally show some level of vulnerability or other sign that there's more to them than just being "dark and edgy." This applies to not only Astarion (who very clearly from the beginning is motivated by fear over the situation he's in, and while some of his solutions might be incredibly problematic, are rationally sound given everything that's going on), but to Shadowheart as well (on one hand she's a cleric of an evil goddess who fully buys in to her teachings, on the other hand is one of the kindest and most empathetic members of your party).

Beyond BG3, this is your bad guys who show misgivings about their evil or are eventually shown to have been manipulated (and eventually join/ ally themselves with the good guys or die trying) or are otherwise clearly redeemable, your antiheros (who are assholes but ultimately do the right thing or have the potential to; they're *basically* tsunderes), etc.

Now let's look at why people are critical of Lae'zel in the simplest of terms: she's racist, abusive, and she's so convinced of the superiority of her people and the righteousness of their cause and the infallibility of their queen that she's willing to "steal back" and give away the artifact that is the one thing keeping the entire party from turning into mindflayers, which she has seen with her own eyes is the case.

And while she does eventually get better after her blind faith nearly gets her killed (and even then she had to be convinced of the fact that her loyalty haf been misplaced and that she was making excuses) she first propositions you for sex while she's still at the most racist and abusive point in her character arc. She thinks you're inferior to you and she calls you names and insults you but you fight good so she wants to taste your skin and if you turn her down she instantly goes back to being verbally abusive.

Would people really judge a character like that *less* harshly if they were a man? Or would a racist, abusive man who tells you that he was impressed with how you fight so now he wants to taste your skin and fuck you and goes back to being verbally abusive towards you if you turn him down make people even *more* uncomfortable and people would judge him even *more* harshly for it?

it's true, and I'm glad an industry veteran with a large platform is saying it

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

"I have some problems with [Luke] as a character)" was mentioned in your Reylo response post. Very interested in what your thoughts are on Luke! 👀

Do you want me to get murdered?! Well, if I didn’t get lynched for calling Sirius Black a Stephen King villain I can surely do no worse here.

Let’s do this.

Caveat that, as usual, I am wearing a heretic hat and expect no one to agree with what I’m saying.

Luke Skywalker, much like Harry Potter, is not the character the authors and vast majority of the audience seem to think he is. Luke is seen as the true coming of the Jedi, the light side of the Force incarnate, and someone so innately good he was able to redeem his father, restore peace to the galaxy, and restore the Jedi Order.

I disagree with all of this.

I think this is what Luke thinks he did but the truth is far sadder and, well, in general worse.

First, let’s start off with Luke’s hero’s journey throughout the saga.

Luke starts your ordinary guy, he’s not bad by any means, but he’s not particularly good either. He lives in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, part of a relatively well off family, and set to inherit the world’s most boring business: moisture farming. He has dreams of going out, seeing the world, and becoming a great pilot.

Important to remember but what most people gloss over: Luke starts if not pro-empire then neutral towards it. Luke wants to attend flight school, given his desire for glory and adventure, he probably wants to join the empire’s military. He might not like Storm Troopers all that much but the fire of revolution doesn’t burn in his heart the way it does Leia’s.

Now, personally, I like this about Luke. It makes sense to me. Given where and how Luke grows up, given all he’s ever known, I think this makes perfect sense for his viewpoint. He might get hassled by stormtroopers now and then but the empire really doesn’t interfere with his life except in a) propaganda b) offering an escape from his dull existence. What would someone like Luke know about the Rebel Alliance?

The movie however... sort of goes out of its way not to acknowledge this, and this is where I start having problems with Luke. Luke gets Leia’s message about Obi-Wan Kenobi, sees the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in his life, and gets to embark on this amazing adventure. The story sort of takes it for granted that he then agrees with old hermit, Obi-Wan, that the empire is evil. This is helped because Luke does too.

In other words, Luke’s opinions are very shallow and lack any introspection. Finding himself in the company of Jedi, smugglers, and hot rebel princesses, Luke suddenly goes, “Ah, yeah, I hate the empire!” We never really see him change his mind by reflecting over what the Death Star means/the destruction of Alderaan, the death of his relatives, or his meeting with Darth Vader. Luke seems to be won over... Honestly, it feels like it’s because the Rebel Alliance let him fly a plane before the Empire did.

Then he blows up the Death Star, is a galactic hero/enemy number one of the empire, and he’s full on board resistance man and the next Jedi.

Which brings us to point number two, Luke legitimately thinks he’s a Jedi.

Obi-Wan gives him half a word of advice for maybe half of a day, watching Luke swing a sword around and get shot at by a robot. Yoda trains Luke in a swamp for, generously, maybe a week or so before Luke ditches him (against his advice even) to go save his friends. Luke has 0 training (beat out only by Rey, who wasn’t trained at all). More, he lives in a world where everything he knows of the Jedi is colored by Palpatine’s propaganda and old legends. The Jedi temples have been ransacked and presumably next to nothing of the Jedi culture remains, I can imagine Palpatine as being nothing but thorough in his elimination of the Jedi religion. The Jedi survived in Obi-Wan, Yoda, and in some sense Anakin Skywalker.

They do not survive in Luke. Luke puts on some quasi-Jedi robes, slashes his sword around a few times to save Leia from Jabba, and he says, “Now I am a Jedi!” Luke is that kid, LARPing, yelling “firebolt, firebolt, firebolt!” Only, that is, if the LARPing consisted of him representing a massacred culture thinking he’s it’s sole legitimate heir. So... Luke is playing Cowboy and Indians, and he’s the Indian.

In my opinion, Vader wasn’t so much redeemed as he always had a very high priority in finding his son and keeping him alive. The obvious way to do this would be to take Luke as an apprentice and, eventually, murder Palpatine. Well, that didn’t pan out, and eventually Anakin chooses murder-suicide to save his son’s life. It’s very touching, I’m not knocking the moment, but I do think a lot of that was Anakin vice the inherent goodness of Luke.

Anyways, Luke and pals save the day, they start a new republic and then they learn life is complicated. The new republic fails within decades, worse, it’s feeble and likely torn apart by civil war, strife, and constant infighting. It is utterly powerless, to the point where the First Order easily rises to replace the Empire and take over its vast resources (with Palpatine building a secret sith army on the side no less). That Leia rather than lead an army through the new republic in the sequels is leading her own private resistance army is very telling.

Fitting in with this, Luke starts a Jedi Academy. The prequels, and yes go ahead and slander them all you like but they’re better than many admit, taught us a few things but one of them is that it is hard to be a Jedi. To walk the path of a Jedi is to open yourself up to great temptation to use the dark side, and the dark side isn’t just some strange quirk or sense of duality, it is the equivalent of selling your soul. It is an unnatural action that leads to unnatural abilities. 

You get a bunch of Force Sensitive kids in a room: you better know what you’re doing.

Luke doesn’t. He collects a handful of the remaining Jedi artifacts that Palpatine somehow didn’t destroy, opens up his Jedi School (even teaching his nephew), and within maybe five years the place is burned to the ground, his students murdered by his nephew, and his nephew runs off to join a Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere (Luke not realizing that this was just immortal cockroach Palpatine). 

Luke then becomes a grumpy old man who just can’t deal, sits on a rock drinking blue milk, and whines that for how shitty of a teach he was that Obi-Wan guy was worse for messing up with his father. Which, frankly, is very in character for Luke.

Luke has never really failed in his life, or at least, never had to recognize his own failure. So, when he does, he a) doesn’t realize what went wrong b) blames everyone but himself c) sits on a rock and waits to die.

So yeah, that’s Luke for you.

A whiney, shallow, stupid, somewhat narcissistic, hero. I... don’t dislike the concept of his character, played more straight I’d love his character, but I dislike that people talk about him like he’s the most noble creature to ever grace the planet and has this inherent understanding of a murdered people that the murdered people themselves never had. 

(All the Jedi were doing it wrong! Luke made the real Jedi Order! Is something I see a lot and... well... say what you will about their philosophies, but this kid who was not a part of that culture “doing it better”... That’s real problematic folks, real problematic.)

[splendidly-secret-sick-fics]

Ooo! What about Kuroo feeling really unwell during training camp while training with Bokuto, Akaashi, Tsukki, Hinata and Lev? He's probably felt bad for a while, but just suffered through. So when everything becomes too much, a panicking Hinata runs to get Kenma... and you can decide the rest.

Only if you're comfortable with writing it though! Have a nice day!

Leaders Don’t Cry: a Kuroo sickfic

Pairing: sick Kuroo, caretakers Kenma, Tsukki, Bokuto, Akaashi, kinda Hinata & Lev

Word Count: 4,266

Warnings: vomit, swearing, slight emetophobia, and sad Kuroo :(

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Thanks for the request friend :) I’ve only ever written Kuroo & Kenma as side characters, so this was kinda fun!!

I’m not super super happy with the overall product, but that’s alright. I do feel like maybe it’s not super cohesive? Idk. Let me know!! I look forward to improving my characterization of Kuroo and Kenma.

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Kuroo was a Leader. He was someone that others looked up to. Someone you could depend on.

Leaders were extroverts though, and Kuroo had to admit he did his best Recharging alone in his room or the quiet company of the Kenma. That’s an Introvert Thing, apparently. Even when he was young, too many people or too much social interaction drained him. Another Introvert Thing.

When he met Kenma and started playing volleyball, it seemed he naturally outgrew his Introvert Model, shedding his shy, intimidated outer-self. It was easily replaced with the Extrovert Model.

Now, Kuroo liked being surrounded by his team and his friends and he liked meeting new people. That’s an Extrovert Thing. So Kuroo was an Extrovert.

(“That makes you an Introverted Extrovert, Kuro,” Kenma told him one day. Kuroo didn’t understand how that could possibly be a thing.)

As an Extrovert, it was only natural that he became the captain of his volleyball team his third year. It was only natural that he was the Bridge between Karasuno and the Tokyo powerhouse schools.

(Kenma claimed, when the two of them were alone at least, that it was really his friendship with Chibi-Chan and their coaches that did that. Kuroo refused to concede this point.)

As the Leader and Bridge, it was again only natural that not only his team, but also other teams’ players were drawn to his wisdom and sparkling personality.

(“You forced yourself on them,” Kenma sighed.)

And that’s how he, Kuroo Tetsuro, Certified Extroverted Leader, came to be in Gym Three, long after their main practice ended with two of Karasuno’s first years, Bokuto, Akaashi, and Lev.

And that’s also how he ended up in the Worst Possible Situation.

It went down like this.

They were at another training camp with the Fukurodani Group and Regular Guests, Karasuno High. It was a short one, thrown together quickly because of the long weekend.

After much convincing (read: coercion) from him and Bokuto, Tsukishima Kei agreed to join them again for blocking practice. They pushed because Kuroo couldn’t stand to watch this kid’s talent waste away and Bokuto was personally offended that Tsukki still didn’t seem to enjoy volleyball.

It should have come as no surprise that Karasuno’s Hinata Shoyo joined in again, determined to redeem himself from his previous loss at the last camp.

And then because Haiba Lev decided that Chibi-chan and him were rivals, he joined in too.

(Akaashi claimed he had no choice but to join. It was either endless practice or endless Dejected Bokuto. Kuroo thinks he’s just masochistic.)

Their first night was awesome. He saw a fire ignited in Tsukki and got to smash Bokuto’s spikes back in his face. Plus, his ego was boosted because the three first years were all wowed by his skill.

Tonight, however, was not great. If he was honest with himself, things were bad from the second he woke up, and promptly wanted to curl back into his futon.

His head hurt and his body ached. The sounds of his team waking up and getting ready for the day set his nerves on edge the second he heard them. He felt overcrowded and overstimulated and he wasn’t even out of bed yet.

It had all the signs of a Recharge Alone Day, but it was the last full day of a training camp in which he was supposed to be a Leader. So, he pushed that all aside and got up to go lead.

As the day progressed, Kuroo gave more and more thought to Kenma’s “Introverted Extrovert” theory. He still loved his team and wanted to be around them. He did want to participate in the games and hang out with the other teams.

He also so so very badly wanted to sit in the dark for the next several hours.

Kuroo’s headache only grew more insistent as the day went on, likely due to the sounds of squeaking shoes, bouncing volleyballs, and the too warm summer heat. He got increasingly more fidgety and nervous all day and it made him uncomfortable in his own skin. That, added to the already ever-present soreness of his limbs only served to make him more miserable.

But he was the Captain, so he shoved those feelings down, ignored his headache, and tried to act as normal as possible. For the most part, his plan worked and no one bothered him about what might be wrong. Kenma was the only one that eyed him suspiciously every time his Extrovert facade slipped a little. At the end of the regular practice, his best friend approached him slowly.

“Hey,” he said, his voice quiet as usual.

“Kenma! What’s up, dude?” Kuroo forced, trying to maintain his usual Extrovert Mode.

“Cut the crap, Kuro,” Kenma sighed, blunt and exhausted as usual.

“Kenma, what are you—“

“Are you sick?”

The question caught Kuroo off guard. Was he sick? He thought it was just an Introvert Day that he had to push through. Maybe Kenma had a point though? It wasn’t like he normally felt this drained during a training camp. That usually came after the camp ended.

“No,” he eventually replied and waved his hand, “nah. Just tired. I think practicing with the guys at night took more of my energy than usual.” That must be it. He didn’t usually have to put out that much energy after practice. Lev, Hinata, and Bokuto were all True Extroverts, after all. Unlike Kuroo, who just molded himself into one. It made sense.

Kenma studied him with wide eyes before relenting and saying “Don’t push yourself, Kuro.”

“I won’t, don’t worry. I am a little tired though so maybe I’ll forgo evening prac—“

“Kuroo-san!” Hinata ran up to them, “are we practicing again today?? I want you to show me that cool wha-BAM block again!!” He jumped up and slammed his hands down, most likely trying to imitate exactly what he was trying to convey. All the loud explanation did was call attention back to his headache.

“Shoyo, Kuro was actually just saying that he was—“

“On my way to look for you Chib-chan!” Kuroo interrupted. Kenma narrowed his eyes at him, but Kuroo couldn’t deny the little red headed twerp.

“Let’s go grab something to eat and then we’ll round up the others.”

Hinata looked at him with those stupid starry eyes and nodded before running off to pester Tsukishima. Kuroo deflated some.

“Kuro. It’s okay to take breaks. I know you think that this is what you should be doing as Captain, but it’s alright to say no sometimes,” Kenma said.

“I know, Kenma,” Kuroo smiled gently, ignoring the uneasy feeling in his gut, “Thank you for looking out, but I’m fine! It’s only one more day. Tomorrow afternoon once everyone’s gone, I’ll just hang out in my room. You can come over if you want and play that new game I bought.”

Kenma studied him again before letting out a long-suffering exhale.

“Sure. Sounds good.”

After they ate, the six of them met up in Gym Three for another three on three. On the outside, things were going well. On the inside, Kuroo’s head was quickly descending into chaos.

He pretended that Bokuto, Lev and Hinata weren’t too loud. He pretended that he had enough energy to show them the same move seven times. He pretended he was enjoying this.

All the while, his headache slowly transitioned into a migraine, his limbs got heavier, and his dinner swirled in his stomach nauseatingly. It took maximum effort to stay awake, let alone play a three on three with three of the most energetic people he’d ever met before.

It all came to a head when his feet slammed down after blocking one of Bokuto’s cross shots. The power behind those normally made him stumble upon landing, but this time it sent a sharp pain shooting through his head and stars dance in his vision. He couldn’t regain his footing, and he stumbled onto his ass.

“Kuroo-san?” Akaashi asked when he didn’t get back up. He couldn’t get back up. The stars were still there and he couldn’t really find his feet.

“Y-yeah?” he stuttered.

“Hey, hey, hey, Kuroo, you alright my man?” Bokuto’s voice boomed and he winced before he could stop himself.

“Kuroo-san? What’s wrong?” Akaashi was kneeling beside him now. He could tell by the proximity of his voice.

“Just a a little...dizzy,” he forced a laugh, trying to play it off. He squeezed his eyes shut and brought a hand up to squeeze at his temples. What the hell was happening?

“Kuroo-san! Do you want some water?” Hinata’s voice rang and clanged in his head. He groaned.

“Kuroo-san, don’t die!!” Lev’s voice pounded. He grimaced.

“Would you idiots keep it down?” Tsukishima, beautiful, quiet Tsukishima commanded.

“Hey, Stupid we’re just trying to help!” Hinata screeched.

“And clearly he’s got a headache, you massive dolt. Keep your volume down,” Tsukki snapped back. Kuroo would thank him if the room would stop spinning.

Suddenly, a hand was on his forehead.

“You’ve got a fever,” Akaashi stated.

Oh. Well, Kenma was right after all. He was sick. The confirmation snapped something into place and all of his emotions, his control, whooshed out of him in one fell swoop. All the symptoms he ignored all day came to the very front of his mind and all he could think about was how miserable he felt.

“Oh,” he choked around the abrupt knot in his throat. He blinked his eyes open and turned to look at Akaashi. The setter was serious as ever, but there was a small frown on his lips and tiny furrow to his brows.

“Bokuto-san, can you bring me your warm up jacket?”

Bokuto nodded and quickly, but thankfully quietly, brought their jackets over and Akaashi draped it around Kuroo’s shoulders.

“Kuroo-san, do you want to lie down?” he soothed.

“Akaashi, I don’t feel good,” he muttered. There was a burning in his eyes and a quiver to his lips that he really wished would go away.

“I know. We’ll get you to your room, but first, I need you to get yourself together some.”

“I don’t...I don’t feel good,” he said, an all too evident shake in his voice. This is not what Leaders do. But he felt so terrible, there was nothing he could do to prevent this sudden onslaught of emotions. Before he knew it, warm tears rolled down his flushed cheeks.

“Kuroo-san!” Hinata screeched. Tsukishima smacked him upside the head. He glared and rubbed the back of his head.

“Kuroo-san,” he tried again, quieter this time, “don’t cry, please. It’s okay!”

Kuroo couldn’t help it. He appreciated Hinata’s attempts at comfort, but he was so drained and he was so sick and he couldn’t help it.

“Kuroo, what can we do to help, man?” Bokuto asked gently, much to his and Akaashi’s (flustered and very evident) surprise. He sat down by Kuroo and rubbed a hand soothingly up and down his back. It helped for a second, but then it just made his skin crawl and his stomach turn.

“I I don’t...I don’t know,” he whimpered pitifully, “I don’t feel good.” He exhaled and dropped his chin to his chest. The downward spiral of both his physical and mental condition brought him further and further into his own self-incurred misery. He needed someone else to be the leader. Anyone.

“Ahhhh, Kuroo-san.” Hinata flailed.

���What about Kenma?” Lev whisper-yelled. Hinata’s spine straightened sharply.

“Good idea, Lev! I know where he is. I’ll go get him!” Hinata proclaimed and ran out.

“Kuroo, what doesn’t feel good?” Bokuto asked.

Kuroo inhaled shakily.

“Head.. my head hurts. And I’m sore and uh and my st-stomach,” he responded through panting breaths.

“There’s a stomach bug that just hit a couple of the player’s on Shinzen’s team,” Tsukishima supplied helpfully.

“Sounds like you might’ve picked that up, Kuroo-san.” Akaashi clicked his tongue.

This was news to him. It must’ve just happened because usually the captains kept each other up to date on those kinds of things as soon as they could. If that was true, that would explain why it came on so quickly. He was fine yesterday. Even just a few hours ago, he was nothing but a little groggy. Now it felt like he got hit by a bus.

If it was a stomach bug, that meant….

“No, no,” he panicked, “no I don’t want that.” He wrapped his hands around his swirling stomach.

“Kuroo, calm down. It’s alright. You’re gonna make it worse,” Bokuto said. Kuroo shook his aching head.

“No I hate throwing up, Bo,” he whimpered and dropped his head to look at his shaking hands.

“Oh…” Akaashi breathed, “do you feel like you might?”

“I don’t know,” he said again. Because he didn’t want to. He absolutely did not want to puke. Not in front of these first years. That might ruin all of his credibility as an upperclassmen, let alone the Captain of a powerhouse school.

Geez, what a pitiful and pathetic display he was putting on. He was supposed to be someone these kids looked up to, and now they were helping him.

“Here,” Tsukishima said, handing Akaashi and Bokuto a bucket from the supply room. Kuroo eyed it distastefully.

“It’s just in case, Kuroo-san!” Lev tried. But the more Kuroo got worked up in spite of himself, the more he realized that wasn’t true. His current emotional state wreaked havoc on his head, which in turn twisted his gut.

Several minutes passed and Kuroo took the time to collect himself so that he could get it together enough to go to his room. At least there he could be miserable and pathetic alone.

While he was able to get himself to stop crying, the come down from the sudden rush of emotions only made his other symptoms that much more prevalent.

Kuroo groaned miserably, “where’s Kenma?”

“Hinata-kun has gone to get him. He’ll be back soon hopefully.”

“Akaashi, I don’t feel good,” he whined and curled tighter in on himself.

“I know,” Akaashi said.

“Feels… bad…” he swallowed thickly.

“Kuroo…” Tsukishima warned. He shook his head.

“‘M sorry,” he mumbled. Something heaved in his stomach and he pulled his shoulders up to his ears and brought the back of his hand to his mouth.

“Y’guys should go,” he said around the pool of saliva in his mouth and the heaviness of his jaw. Who he was talking to at this point, he wasn’t sure. He just knew that being around him right now was only asking to catch this. He also knew he was about to puke and he really wanted to try and maintain some of his dignity.

“Too late for that, numbskull. We’ve been around you for days. If we’re gonna catch it, we’re gonna catch it. Might as well make sure you don’t die,” Tsukishima said. Kuroo, behind his mounting nausea and hazy brain, was touched by his salty kouhai’s attempt at comfort.

“I think he meant he doesn’t want you to see him spew, Tsukkidude,” Bokuto murmured. His hand was still on Kuroo’s back and while it was more comforting than bothersome now, it also served to swirl things around in his stomach and brain. He nodded lethargically.

“Kuroo-san, if you could, uh— please, just, um...wait...for Kenma-san, I think it would make you feel, uh, better. To have him here, that is. Instead of...uh...me,” Akaashi stammered. Kuroo heard the nervousness in his voice and felt bad. There wasn’t much he could do to stave off the inevitable though.

“You squeamish, ‘Kaashi?” Bokuto asked.

“Uhhhh,” Akaashi hesitated, high pitched, “maybe a little.”

“Bo,” Kuroo panted, punctuated by a sick hiccup.

“I gotcha, buddy. Bucket’s right here,” Bokuto reassured and placed the bucket in his lap. “You can leave guys, I got this.” He said to the other three.

“Yeah...I’m gonna take you up on that,” Lev said uneasily. “Sorry Kuroo-san.” He bowed and then sprinted out of the gym. Tsukishima looked more hesitant, but ultimately bowed and left as well.

“Akaashi?” Bokuto said right as Kuroo spit into the bucket. The sounds of their conversation faded in and out with the rest of Kuroo’s surroundings. All he could fully register was the lump of something nasty moving up his chest. All he could see was the blinding red color of the bucket.

A few airy burps that grated his throat passed through his parted lips. He whimpered.

“It’s alright, Kuroo,” Bokuto’s voice filtered through the haze. He gagged.

It hurt. It hurt so badly. Each heave, gag and hiccup that plagued him for the next several moments.

Where was Kenma?

Kuroo coughed, hiccupped, and a small stream of vomit trailed out of his mouth. It wasn’t enough. It still hurt. He wheezed.

“Hey, Kuroo-san, try to take deep breaths,” Akaashi’s shaky voice commanded.

“Can’t,” he gasped, coughing up more bile.

Fuck he wanted this to be over.

Cough, gasp, puke. The painful, horrific cycle repeated for several tense minutes. It didn’t relieve any of his discomfort.

Bokuto patted his back and tried to offer comforting words. Akaashi wouldn’t look at Kuroo, but he was there, another steady presence to offer some grounding to Kuroo.

“Kuroo- san! I found Kenma!” Hinata’s voice cut through his misery. “He was in the shower. I’m sorry it took so long!”

“Kuro,” Kenma said, voice calm, blunt, comforting. He took Akaashi’s place at his side, his Snorlax slippers and ratty sweatpants taking up Kuroo’s peripheral.

“I don’ feel good,” Kuroo told him around the bile coating his mouth. Kenma put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

“I gathered that,” he said with amusement, “it’s okay. Just relax.”

Kuroo shook his head. Relaxing meant letting this happen. He did not want it to happen.

“Tetsu, don’t be an ass,” Kenma sighed, exasperated.

“Kenma,” he whimpered. The hand on his shoulder squeezed again.

“How long has he been like this?” Kenma directed at someone else in the room.

“About 15 minutes,” Akaashi’s shaky voice answered.

“Shit, Tetsuro, why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Kenma asked. Kuroo shook his head slowly.

“Didn’ re’lize,” he slurred. His stomach cramped and his inhaled sharply through his teeth and gripped tightly at his shirt. As soon as the cramp passed, he gagged, his body jolting forward.

“Uh, I’m gonna—I’m gonna go,” Hinata stuttered out and then Kuroo heard his tiny feet run from the gym.

“Can you two go get Nobuyuki and Yaku from the Nekoma quarters? I’m sure Lev is looking for them, but he’s an idiot,” Kenma demanded of Akaashi and Bokuto, the inflection behind his voice commanding and unwavering. It comforted Kuroo in ways he didn’t understand.

Despite how it appeared to onlookers, Kenma was alway the one taking care of Kuroo. More than Kuroo took care of him, anyway. The setter always knew exactly what Kuroo needed before he even said anything. He was passive most of the time, content to let things be, but stubborn and steadfast when he needed to be. Which was something that Kuroo was grateful for, too prone to letting his emotions take over. Kenma was a sturdy support for Kuroo when he was at his weakest.

“They’re gone, Testsu. Relax and let it happen. It’s just you and me,” Kenma told him. He put his forehead on the top of Kuroo’s matted, sweaty hair. The parts of Kenma’s hair that touched Kuroo were wet and cold. It felt nice. 

The uncharacteristic gentle action from Kenma made something in Kuroo’s chest twinge and he whimpered, fresh tears dropping into the bucket.

Kuroo could be himself with Kenma. He didn’t need to be the Captain or a Leader or an Extrovert or even an Introverted Extrovert. He could just be Kuroo.

“Just us, Tetsu,” Kenma said and pulled his head back.

Kuroo inhaled slowly, deeply and exhaled, trying to relax his shoulders and back. It didn’t take much more for his stomach to finally find relief.

A gurgling hiccup brought up a small stream of bile and he coughed. Another hiccup brought a little more. Then finally, he belched, wet and heady, and heaved, a much stronger torrent of disgusting vomit moving up his chest and out of his mouth.

“There ya go,” Kenma sighed. He moved Kuroo’s unruly hair, made more disgusting by the sheen of sweat covering his forehead, back and away from his face. Kuroo lurched forward with a gag, bringing up more of his dinner.

“Holy shit, Kuro, that’s some fever. I’m sorry you’ve felt so bad all day,” Kenma whispered. Kuroo shook his head, spitting out the nasty taste in his mouth, trying to find his breath before the next round. 

He didn’t get much of a chance before he heaved again.

“God,” he slurred between wretches.

“It’s alright. Calm down,” Kenma instructed.

He puked twice more before his stomach settled for the time being.

“Kenma...please…” he whispered, gesturing for him to move the bucket away.

“Here,” Kenma handed him a water, “drink this first. Rinse out your mouth.” Kuroo did as he was told and spit into the bucket. Kenma took it away after that and Kuroo thanked him quietly. He inhaled, bringing his head up and looking at Kenma for the first time since the setter got there.

Kenma’s eyebrows were furrowed ever so slightly, a subtle pout on his lips. He brushed Kuroo’s bangs back again.

“Thanks, Kenma,” he smiled weakly. Kenma clicked his tongue.

“You’re an idiot,” he sighed. It lacked any of its usual blunt edge.

“Kuroo!!” Kai called out, running into the gym. They were both wearing medical masks, a couple more in their hands.

“Hey,” he said sheepishly, a hand on the back of his neck.

“I knew something was wrong. You really are such a dumbass,” Yaku said, a hand on his hip and an eyebrow raised. He was as blunt as usual.

“Thanks, Yaku. You’re as gentle as ever.”

“Yeah, well. Can’t help it when you decide to push yourself to this point,” he said, turning his face away. “Idiot,” he added as an afterthought. Kuroo couldn’t see his cheeks behind his mask, but his ears were red.

“You alright Kenma? Here,” Kai asked and handed Kenma a mask. Kenma shook his head.

“Too late for that,” he sighed.

“Yeah, but several of Shinzen and Fukurodani’s players have gone down with the same thing as our fearless leader here. We’re trying to contain it so it doesn’t spread more,” Kai explained.

“Yeah. Exactly. You wear one too, Kuroo,” Yaku insisted. Kuroo didn’t like the idea of having his mouth covered, but he also didn’t like the idea of spreading this wretched fate to others.

Kenma and Kuroo took the masks and then Yaku pulled some meds out of the bag on his shoulder and handed them to him. Kuroo’s lip curled, but Kenma pinched his elbow and he relented. They hit his stomach with a hollow thud.

Kai held a hand out to help Kuroo up. As soon as he stood, his knees buckled and black spots danced in his vision. Kai quickly caught him around his waist and threw Kuroo’s arm around his shoulder.

“Try not to pass out until we get back to the quarantine room. It’d make things difficult,” Yaku said. Kuroo would’ve rolled his eyes if he had the energy.

Together, they made it back to the classrooms (repurposed as sleeping quarters for the camp). There was a room for people who already puked and one for anyone experiencing symptoms. Kuroo was shocked to find Akaashi there, leaning over a trash can, Bokuto rubbing his back, as well as several Shinzen players, a couple Ubugawa players, and the setter from Karasuno.

Hinata was there as well, sitting beside Kageyama with his arms crossed and a disgruntled look on his face.

Yaku set up a new futon for Kuroo and Kai helped him settle into it. He immediately curled up on his side, exhaling in relief.

They asked if he needed anything, promised to bring him a change of clothes, and left. Kenma saw them out but then came back and plopped himself down beside Kuroo.

“You can go, Kenma,” he said, looking up at him with one eye open. Kenma shrugged.

“I wouldn’t leave you,” he said plainly. Like it wasn’t embarrassing at all. Kuroo smiled to himself.

“What’s with Chibi-Chan?” He asked in lieu of a response. Kenma snickered.

“His team sent him here when Kageyama came down with the bug. Apparently their “secret relationship” isn’t so secret.”

Kuroo chuckled. That was probably why Akaashi and Bokuto were both here as well.

“You know,” Kenma said.

“Hmm,” Kuroo replied sleepily.

“No one thinks you’re less of a Leader just because you’re sick. It happens to everyone. Doesn’t mean you’re not still someone other people look up to,” Kenma said quietly, matter-of-fact.

“Mmm.. you’re right,” he muttered back. He was. Kuroo knew that. He appreciated the reminder though.

“Go to sleep, Tetsu,” Kenma said and stretched his legs out beside Kuroo. He ran his fingers through Kuroo’s hair. Sleep called to him and his eyes slowly closed.

He woke up several times before the next morning, because of other people puking, because he needed to puke and once when Kenma puked, swearing Kuroo out for getting him sick.

He apologized profusely and pulled Kenma’s hair back with the hair tie he kept on his wrist.

Kuroo was a Leader. Someone other people liked and looked up to.

Sometimes Leaders needed someone to lean on too, he supposed. Thank goodness he had Kenma.

[nova-is-a-writer-now]

The way you said “I love you”

Summary: All the times you and Zuko said I love you to eachother, sometimes without even actually saying it.

A/N: I was feeling a little uninspired while trying to write pt.4 of Fools, so I decided to write something else in the mean time. I saw someone did this and I found it so adorable I decided to do it too. Sadly I only saved the original post and not the hc that was inspired in it, so if you know who came up with this pls @ them so I can credit them.

Side note, I had more ideas for some of the other prompts but didn’t want to make this excessively long, so maybeeee I’ll make another one of these but we’ll see.

original post

-IF YOU HAVE ANY REQUESTS DONT HESITATE TO ASK-

As a hello

It was late on the night the gaang had finally agreed to let Zuko join them. They hadn’t been specially trustful or accepting of him, but they let him join, and that was what mattered to Zuko, he’ll work his way up to everything else.

He couldn’t sleep, thoughts about everything that had happened and everything that would happen running around in his mind. The stars above him glimmered in wonderful harmony, the time of the year where the sun would be more forgiving at day and the nights would gain a growing coolness to them came around.

Lost in his head, Zuko was startled when he heard you take a sit next to him. You were the only one in the group who Zuko didn’t know that well. He’d only seen you a handful of times before that night and couldn’t really tell on what ground he stood with you.

You handed him a blanket with one hand while you held your own around your back and over your shoulders with the other. “Didn’t want you to freeze to death on your first night.” You explained when you saw the confused look of his face.

“I’m a fire bender, I don’t get cold.” He replied taking only a couple of seconds to mentally slap himself for being rude. This being a good guy thing was gonna take some practice.

“Oh” you said, the realization of his words hitting you, feeling a little dumb for not thinking about it before.

“But thanks...anyways” Zuko tried to redeem himself, hoping he didn’t make a bad impression on the one person who didn’t hate him already.

“Yeah, no problem.” Your eyes drifted up to the stars too. They were prettier tonight, maybe it was because of how peaceful things felt for once. A deep sigh forced you to turn your attention back to the dark haired boy. “Are you ok?” You asked him, hoping he wouldn’t feel like you’re intruding.

“Yeah, just...worried. Katara still hates me, Sokka doesn’t trust me and Aang only keeps me around because he needs me. I’m not complaining, I just... don’t know how to show them I’ve changed.”

“I’m sure Katara is gonna come around eventually, she has too much of a big heart to stay mad at anyone for too long. Aang is the one that convinced everyone to let you join, so I think he does like you, and Sokka is...well, Sokka, I wouldn’t worry about it” you reassured him.

Zuko gave your words a thought. You were right, but things were still complicated. He looked at you and asked. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

You looked away from his gaze, his golden eyes were a bit intimidating if you were honest. “I...don’t know. I guess I just believe you when you say you’ve changed. I see good in you... I always have, even when we were running away from you. All of us have done things in the past we aren’t too proud of, some of them may be worse than others, but we’re all here now, and we’re all trying to do the right thing. I think that on its own makes you worthy of a second chance.”

Your words shocked Zuko. No one besides his uncle had been that kind to him in a long time. He felt hope inside, if someone as kind and good as you could forgive him, think that he could be redeemed, then he hoped everyone else would too. “I...thank you. I promise I won’t disappoint you... any of you.”

“You and I can start on a blank slate, as a matter of fact” you extended your hand to him. “Hi, I’m Y/N, very nice to meet you.”

Zuko chuckled very lightly at the weird way you had decided to show how it was a new beginning for the both of you, but played along. “I’m Zuko, it’s very nice to meet you too.”

When the broken glass litters the floor

It was your first day on the Ember Island’s house. Katara and you had been cooking with the groceries Sokka and Suki brought from the market. You two weren’t experts but you had gotten so much better by then. Katara decided to go outside with a basket of cabbages to feed Appa and told you to stay and check on the food so it wouldn’t burn.

No more than a few minutes passed before you heard Zuko coming inside from where he had been training with Aang. He took his shirt off at some point during the training, leaving his naked and muscular torso was exposed.

You tried your best not to stare but you couldn’t help the blush that took over your face when you looked up to his eyes and found him staring right back. His cheeks were blushed as well and you decided for your own sake to assume it was from the physical activity.

“Hey...um, do you mind pouring me a glass of water, please?” He asked softly, his voice a tad raspier from him being out of breath.

“Yeah sure.” You managed to say.

When you turned around to get a glass for him your arm bumped into a glass vase that was incredibly bad placed, throwing it off from where it had been resting. One of your feet was already lifted when the vase crashe onto the floor and into a million pieces, which made you nearly lose your balance and step right on the fragments. In a fraction of a second you felt Zuko’s hand grabbing your wrist and pulling you back, which made you very strongly land on his chest. His other hand instantly moved to the small of your back, as if he was scared you would fall without his support. 

His eyes met yours as you raised your head to look at him, your faces closer than they’d ever been before. Both of you held your breath for a few seconds before you broke the silence. “thank you.” You muttered softly not wanting to move a single muscle.

“You’re welcome” Zuko replied in the same tone, softening the grip on your wrist.

The moment would’ve lasted way longer had Katara not stormed into the kitchen after hearing the sound of breaking glass.

“I left you in the kitchen alone for ONE SECOND!”

Not said to me

Zuko had clearly been avoiding you the past couple of days. Was it the war that was starting to gain weight inside his head? Was it how close you two had started to get all of the sudden? Was it something you did? You didn’t know for sure, but you knew you didn’t like the feeling of it, at all.

He told everyone one morning he wasn’t feeling great, so he would stay inside instead of spending the day at the beach like the rest of you had planned. This was your chance to get him alone and try to talk.

You decided to make him a special tea recipe you’d picked up from Iroh at some point, he said it was a miracle when it came to curing illness. When you tried it you were surprised from how good it ended up tasting. You poured it into a teapot and grabbed a couple of cups, proceeding to take them upstairs where Zuko’s room was.

You were about to walk right in when you heard Sokka voice coming from inside, realizing the door was only half open.

“You can’t do nothing, dude. What kind of dumb ass plan is that?” He said whisper-screaming.

“I’m not telling her.” Zuko replied in a voice so low you almost couldn’t hear him.

“Why not? She clearly likes you back, you know that, I know that, and everyone else does too. The two of you are the only ones who keep acting like it isn’t obvious.”

You wonder who they could possibly be talking about, a small pit of jealousy forming inside of you.

“You don’t know that for sure, and I’m not losing Y/N’s friendship just cause I was dumb enough to crush on her. Trying to get over it is better than getting rejected and ruining everything, I like her too much to do that.” as soon as you heard your name your heart stopped.

Zuko... liked you. He liked you and was scared you didn’t like him back. How could he ever think that? Sometimes you felt like you were too obvious about it, but it was hard not to. It was his golden eyes, probably the most beautiful thing you’d ever seen, how they looked like growing flames when the sun hit them, the little dark spots around the rim of his irises, how they looked at you intensely like if when you talked everything else faded. It was the way he would throw his head back when he laughed, but only when you made him laugh really hard, how his face glowed with a youthful tint, like he was a normal teenager even though you were in the middle of a war, and how when he stopped laughing he had to take a deep breath before letting the laugh die down. It was the way he talked about his mom with such love and adoration, or how he talked about the future with a little bit of fear but mostly hope. It was the way he was always ready to run to you if you needed him to, making sure you were ok, protecting you. It was him, all of him, it had always been him.

You were shocked at the words you just heard but glad you’d heard them. Before either of them walked out and found you there, you walked back downstairs as quietly as you could, praying they wouldn’t hear the creaks of the stairs. Once you were back at the kitchen you decided to wait for Sokka to come down, he had to eventually, and you hoped he would leave Zuko alone when he did. It didn’t take him much longer to do so, to your relief coming down the stairs alone. He looked at you and smiled.

“Hey, Y/N. Watcha doing?”

“Making tea for Zuko, is he feeling any better?”

“Oh, no. He’s terrible, the poor thing. You should definitely go check on him.” He tried to say this without smiling so you would take him seriously but the corners of his mouth were already starting to curve up.

“Will do, thanks Sokka.” On the surface, you were thanking him for the information he was giving you, but deep down you were also thanking him for being the reason why you found out Zuko also liked you.

You walked back upstairs, not even thinking of bringing the tea up with you. You took in a deep breath before opening the door, and you when you did, you saw him laying there, eyes closed at first but opened quickly when he heard you come in.

“Y/N... hi.” He said sitting up.

“Hey, wanted to check up on you, Sokka said you were feeling terrible.” You told him knowing he would kill Sokka afterwards for sabotaging him.

“I’m not feeling terrible, I’m much better actually, but thanks for coming to check on me.” You took a sit on his bed, close enough to be able to do what you were planning your next move to be.

“I’m glad. We need you up and in your best shape right now.” You waited a few seconds trying to gather all the bravery you had inside before saying. “Zuko?”

“Yes?”

You didn’t warn him before closing the space that separated the two of you, one of your hands went up to cup his cheek while your lips pressed softly against his. You could tell he was shocked by how his body stiffened under your touch, your lips moved softly and slowly trying to figure out wether he wanted to kiss you or not. You were about to pull away when he started kissing you back. His own hand sliding up to your neck, holding you firmly while his lips devoured yours, like he had been waiting for this moment for way too long. When the two of you finally pulled apart to fill in your lungs again, your eyes connected with his, there was a new kind of light in them. A smile took over his lips when his eyes drifted back down to your lips.

“Were you eavesdropping when I was talking to Sokka?” He asked softly and teasingly.

“What in the world would make you think that?”

Over and over again, till it’s nothing but a senseless babble

You were under the covers in Zuko’s bed. Your eyes deeply staring into his, your fingers running up and down his jaw, sometimes getting distracted and playing with his hair. The moonlight leaked through the window and the only sounds that could be heard were the ones of trees swaying with the wind.

Zuko looked at you intensely and profoundly. He was sure you were a dream sometimes, something so perfect couldn’t be real, so he touched you to make sure you were actually there, and he held you gently but firmly to make sure that even if you were a dream, he wouldn’t lose you.

“We should sleep” you muttered in a whisper

“We should” he replied his lids already looking a little heavy.

“Good night, Zuko.” You planted a little short peck on his lips before starting to turn around.

“Good night, Y/N” he replied getting comfortable. “I love you.”

Your heart stopped at this words, a warm feeling started to crawl up your body and your eyes that were already closed opened abruptly.

You turned back around to find him staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open while holding his breath. “What did you just say?” You asked him.

“I-... I’m sorry it just...slipped.” He explained.

You knew he could be a little insecure sometimes, always thought he was unlovable so you had to constantly make sure he knew how much you liked him. This was one of those occasions. You crashed your lips against his roughly, pulling him so he would be on top of you. This kiss was a declaration, a promise and a revelation all at the same time, your lips moved hungrily and passionately trying to show him how much you loved him back.

Once you separated you looked at him sweetly and said “Say it again.”

“I love you.” Zuko was more sure of himself this time, a warm smile took over his face.

“Again, please.”

“I love you.”

“One more time.”

He took your face into your hands and kissed your forehead first. “I love you” then he went to your right cheek “I love you” and to the left “I love you” and to your nose “I love you” and finally took in a deep breath before looking to your lips “Y/N Y/L/N you have no idea how much I fucking love you” he kissed you again.

Maybe you couldn’t understand how much love he felt for you, how it burned inside of him like a wild fire, how when you were with him all his worries faded and the rest of the world was put on pause, maybe you’d never even grasp the way you were his first thought in the morning and his last at night, but he could try showing all of it to you with a kiss.

You pulled away to look at him one last time and said “I love you more, I will always love you more.”

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 06 (first part)

(Masterpost)(Episode 05)

Warning: This contains spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Bad Boys Bad Boys What You Gonna Do

Nie Huasang’s brought his nuts, and someone’s brought wine, so the boys are drinking in Wei Wuxian’s guest house. Finally he gets to drink some of the Emperor’s Smile wine that he’s been doing all those product placements for.

Boys, get a bowl or something for your shells, were you raised in a barn?

Wei Wuxian hits on waxes poetic about the wine, and Jiang Cheng tells him to shut up. 

Wang Zhuocheng’s raw-fish-eating face may have failed him, but his drunk faces do not disappoint.

Wei Wuxian teases Jiang Cheng about his list of standards for a chick: She should have natural beauty, be virtuous and caring, from a good family, not too talkative, with a gentle voice, and not too capable. Also she should not spend too much money. Drunken running ensues.

Cue Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

(more behind the cut)

Much of the fandom has decided this list is a good fit for Nie Huaisang himself, and it sorta is. But he is both talkative and unvirtuous, what with all the current sneakiness, and all the eventual murders. 

This also definitely doesn't fit Wen Qing because she's capable as hell.  

This list is, however, a 100% a match for Jiang Yanli. Not in a weird, Jin Guangyao way--a lot of men want to marry a woman like their sister.  In a gender-divided and generation-divided society, a man’s sister might be the only woman he’s ever known well. Jiang Cheng adores Yanli and she’s his ideal model of a woman, as opposed to his mother, who...isnt.  

All these robes and talismans over the door do nothing to stop Lan Wangji from strolling in.  

Okay so - Lan Wangji is the senior disciple of the Lan Clan, yea? There is no way that patrolling the guest area is in any way his job. He is just walking around here at night specifically to see what Wei Wuxian is doing.

I already did a gifpost of the boys and their totally nonsexual horseplay, over here. I’ll just add, for sad factor, that Jiang Cheng is play-choking Wei Wuxian when they’re all on the bed, and later in the running-and-crying episode he is gonna for-real choke him. Foreshadowing! or maybe just coincidence!

One fun thread running through the young-cultivators episodes is that Nie Huaisang is legit terrified of Lan Wangji while also having a major aesthetic crush on him. Look at how flustered he is here, trying to act sober while also checking him out. 

Lan Wangji is shocked and visibly upset - what are you guys doing? This is not his busting face, this is, for a moment, his vulnerable and disillusioned face. He is super not used to what normal people are like. 

Wei Wuxian doesn't lie or otherwise try to get off the hook, which has got to have Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang grinding their teeth in frustration. He invites Lan Wangji to join them for a drink. LWJ cites a the “no drinking on campus” rule and WWX tries to convince him to chill. 

Then we have this lovely coordinated faint by the boys, to get out of going to get punished. Nie Huaisang has been practicing fainting in front of a mirror just in case he ever needs a skill like that in the future. 

Wei Wuxian keeps trying to turn this into a date. Eventually Lan Wangji is so upset he admits he can’t take all three of them by himself. 

Then the boys run away fake-barfing and Wei Wuxian hits Lan Wangji with a talisman. 

Steal His Agency That’s What You’re Gonna Do

What Wei Wuxian does to Lan Wanji here is definitely wrong. But it's not entirely a disaster.  It allows some crucial information to be shared between them, and it results in Wei Wuxian getting the utter shit beat out of him and never doing this again. I mean, he continues to mind-control his enemies and their eventual corpses, but he doesn't intentionally violate a friend or ally's autonomy in the future. Uhh not counting that whole golden core surgery-without-consent situation. And probably some other situations I’ve forgotten. He improves slightly, okay? 

It’s important to note, incidentally, that the Lan rules about drinking and other “vices” should not be viewed through a Christian lens. The Lans are neither puritans nor ascetics (look at their clothes, furniture, and jewelry, for starters). Being drunk is forbidden probably because it’s a loss of self-control. 

Speaking of self-control, mad props to Wang Yibo for being able to have zero physical reaction to fingers snapping in his face.

Drunk Lan Wangji

Under duress, Lan Wangji knocks back a cup of wine and promptly passes most of the way out. 

Wei Wuxian puts Lan Wangji into bed not unkindly, but pretty much like a sack of potatoes. Compare this to how tenderly he handles Lan Wangji the next time he’s drunk. 

WWX tells LWJ to call him Wei Gege, and giggles. Is this a term of endearment in this context? So far the various boys are calling each other -xiong, not -ge or gege.  In Western media, men calling each other “bro” is basically saying “no homo,” but brotherhood and sisterhood in C-Drama is often a way of indicating stronger love than friendship, without saying whether it's sexual or not. 

They finally start to have a conversation, and when Lan Wangji explains that no-one can touch his headband except, etc etc, Wei Wuxian stops trying to touch it. So at least he's not a handsy bastard in addition to all his other faults. 

Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that his clan is boring and women won't want to marry him. Lan Wangji says that's fine. On one level this is the show acknowledging that he's gay, but I think he's responding in a gender-neutral way; he doesn't want to marry anyone. Marriage, from his perspective, is the literal worst. 

We don't know how he felt about his father, but he definitely loved his mother deeply, and she had a profoundly unhappy marriage, in which her husband did not provide companionship and her children were taken from her.

A note about all that: The dynamics of heterosexual marriages in The Untamed are not based on contemporary companionate marriage. Sex and reproduction is a wife's job in this world, and giving a gentry woman the option to choose her husband is radical. Wei Wuxian is the only one who dares say that Jiang Yanli should have a choice when Jin Guangshan casually tries to give her to his son in front of everyone.  

OP made this today but will totally reuse it when episode 23 rolls around

So Lan Wangji’s parents' marriage was extremely problematic but not necessarily for the reasons it would be in contemporary terms. Having signed on to marry Lan Dad, Mom would have expected to live together and get laid regularly (important for health, in some traditional views, regardless of love/no love) and to have the company of her children. Instead, she was isolated. Lan Dad wanted to have it both ways and so even though he loved her and apparently hooked up with her sometimes, he didn't do his duty by her. She didn't love him but she did her duty. 

Wei Wuxian continues to not get it, calling Lan Wangji dull and babbling about Lan Wangji’s parents until he realizes that LWJ is an orphan like him. 

A nice shift happens here. Once the penny drops, Wei Wuxian doesn't ask a single additional question - he just sees - by reading Lan Wangji’s face - what the deal is, and shares his own story to show he understands. 

This is the first time Wei Wuxian mentions being chased by dogs, which is kind of a big deal, because why was he left all alone when his parents died? 

Why didn't anyone take him in before Jiang Fengmian found him? How isolated are independent cultivators in this world? 

Tea Time

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen are having tea, and the Lan Clan is so uptight they don't touch each other's teacups. I don't know what this thing is called so I'm going to call it a tea speculum. 

Lan Qiren is back from the cultivation conference and says the red crack plague is happening over in Qinghe where the Nie clan lives.  Lan Xichen fills him in on the water demon, specifically saying Wei Wuxian figured out the connection to the red crack dudes, and explaining who WWX is, as if Lan QIren hadn't already thrown stuff at him and threatened to eventually kill him. 

Fun fact that I just noticed this week so didn't make it into earlier posts: In Episode 46, when Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are in the Jiang ancestral hall, WWX says he was often punished to kneel there, and LWJ said that they heard about this in Gusu.  

So when WWX came to Gusu he already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and the Lan brothers were aware of it.   

Busted and Beaten

A Lan snitch comes in to say that Wei Wuxian has successfully corrupted Lan Wangji, which really shouldn’t cause as much surprise as it does.

“Wei Wuxian got drunk”

“Lan Wangji got drunk”

Lan Xichen takes a moment to consider carefully whether Wei Wuxian is a good friend for his little brother and whether perhaps he was too hasty in throwing them together. Ha ha ha no he doesn’t. 

On the punishment porch, Lan Xichen tries to lecture Lan Wangji in a calm way, but Lan Qiren wants to beat him and Lan Wangji wants to get beat. Wei Wuxian can’t understand why Lan Wangji doesn’t let him take the blame for the drinking. 

Lan Qiren goes way the fuck overboard with this punishment because he's angry--losing control and losing his sense of proportion--and Lan Xichen is shocked. The drone camera watching from above is also shocked.  

Lan Qiren has a few (very few) redeeming qualities, but his extreme rigidity and chronic resentment of anyone he perceives as bad are serious problems. His nephews are both struggling with complex moral quandaries as they get older, and he is absolutely no help to them in resolving their conflicts.

This is definitely...a style of parenting & teaching, but you can see how poorly it works, with Lan Wangji straight up saying “fuck it” after many years of conformity.  Lan Xichen is devoted to the middle path and tries to be obedient. But he is actually not walking anywhere near the middle path, as he gets pulled into colluding with a murderer at the same time as getting dragged onto his brother’s carnival ride. These men need parenting that isn’t so, uh, fucking stupid. (Yes, grown adults still need good parenting; watch Go Ahead if you doubt me) 

Wei Wuxian initially yells and falls down when he gets hit, but then he sees Lan Wangji is taking the beating without any reaction and he tries to do the same. 

Aftermath

Jiang Yanli gently lectures the boys, blaming Jiang Cheng for Wei Wuxian's drinking.  Jesus Christ, he's the younger sibling, could you just NOT, Yanli?  

Both boys ask Yanli not to tell their parents. The boys bicker about who's at fault and then Wei Wuxian shifts to baby voice and starts whining to Yanli about the pain. 

Yanli tells him to suck it up, and says after school she'll -- ok and I know this will be a surprise for everyone -- make soup for them. The boys immediately get back on the same team, which is team Please Put Meat In the Soup.

There's a nice character building moment for Wei Wuxian here. When he sees Lan Xichen he initially turns away to avoid running into him, but then he adults-up and goes to face him and greet him, giving him a half of a bow because of the pain, the pain. Rather than complaining about his punishment he meekly asks if he's broken another rule. 

Lan Xichen tells him that he did wrong but that Lan Qiren’s punishment was too harsh, and then in what is one of my favorite Lan Xichen moments, invites Wei Wuxian to use the cold spring to heal, but doesn't invite Jiang Cheng to go with him even though Jiang Cheng also was beaten. Lan Xichen, Matchmaker Auntie Extraordinaire. 

Then he answers Wei Wuxian’s question about his mom by saying she was just like Wei Wuxian and drove Lan Qiran up the wall. Jiang Cheng's reaction to that is really sweet. He does enjoy Wei Wuxian at the same time as being constantly irritated by him. 

Lan Xichen does his patented “breaking off in the middle of saying something and leaving out a chunk of the story” maneuver, although this time he doesn't include a flute solo. 

OP is mildly obsessed with Xuan Lu’s shoulders in this outfit. Also Yanli has an interesting sword, that's got some wood carving similar to Subian, but without the organic look, which OP only noticed because of screen capping Xuan Lu’s shoulders.  

Club Ruohan

Wen Qing continues to be pretty and slightly evil at this stage, sending magic fire notes to her boss using this talisman that is definitely floating in the air and not just hanging from a string. 

Wen Ruohan is in the mosh pit with his zombie groupies while he reads Wen Qing’s extremely vague status update and says "it all makes sense." 

Reach out and touch faith

Soundtrack

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Writing Prompt

How did Wei Wuxian’s parents die?

Admin Notes

I’m going to start spacing out my “first part” and “second part” posts by a few days.  I’ll update this post to link up the second part once I post it, and my masterpost is always up to date. 

Also: if you want more of my original content but don’t want to follow my whole blog (not following is fine!), I keep a pinboard of fun stuff at the top of my blog. I try to post original content at least once a week.

Continued in the second part later this week!

[sparklinpixiedust]

Never

I've recently seen some old posts talking about how Ben and Gwen trusted Kevin too quickly and it was stupid. Apparently it's something they both would've never done. It's the word never that struck me.

So I just want to add my opinion and say it wasn't a stupid move. I agree Gwen and Kevin falling in love seemed rushed but the trust thing isn't as bad as people have made it out to be.

I'm going to talk about Ben and Gwen separately.

Ben

In Forge of Creation Paradox says to child Ben But one day, you'll remember it dimly and trust Kevin when you shouldn't, and he'll respond to that trust and help save the universe.

So Ben trusting Kevin wasn't out of nowhere. Paradox literally mentions that Ben will trust Kevin when he shouldn't. " shouldn't " most likely refers to when they met 5 years later. Ben shouldn't have asked Kevin to join the team but he does because Ben subconsciously knows Kevin's importance.

The show does acknowledge that Ben included Kevin in the team too quickly but also gives us a reason, though it was later on.

But even then , in Kevin's Big Score , Ben also says Still not buying the "nice guy" act, Kevin.

Again, while a part of Ben gives Kevin a chance, he still isn't too sure about his decision.

So we do have the conflict of interest shown from Ben's side so he's clear from his side.

But even if Kevin didnt save the universe Ben still would've given him a chance, maybe not that soon but eventually because thats who he is anyway. He helps Vilgax with his planet and isn't hostile against the Reiny when they were trapped. So why wouldn't he have asked Kevin to join him?

Gwen

Okay with Gwen I'm probably reaching but hear me out.

In What Little Girls Are Made Of she mentions how she feels like and outsider and then says that's what she thinks high-school is anyway to try to make herself better.

[ I couldn't get transcripts for the episode and was too lazy to type out word for word ]

Also Gwen doesn't have many friends. I dont know if the writers have ever mentioned her having friends besides Emily, because I guess Ben having lots of friends before the omnitrix in Alien Force has been mentioned.

Yes I know in OS Gwen [because she had invitations ready for her birthday] had friends but its natural over time that people drift away.

My point is Gwen feels alone. I dont think she was bullied but her being different in a magic-alien sense made her feel out of place.

I guess somewhere she knew where Kevin was coming from , though not completely.

Ben would've told her about Kevin, about how he lived in New York and what he knew of his situation, so I guess in a way she put the pieces together and could relate to being different from others.

Ben has the omnitrix but he's still a human. He's still like other people, but Gwen is inherently different.

She can't just turn off her powers, they are part of her.

So Gwen placing full trust in Kevin? probably not. But she understood enough to give him a chance.

Also I've read a few old posts about how Gwen would never be with Kevin because he tried to kill her.

My thoughts on this? Gwens mature enough to know while Kevin was bad, he was also 11 years old.

He was a child. If he was older, then I would agree that the things he did were maybe unredeemable and Gwen would never.

But they were kids. He was kid with a huge troubled past, any sensible person could see that he wasnt evil, just really angry at the world. Ben just happened to be his punching bag. He mentions people laugh at him and call him a freak. He wanted revenge for that.

Gwen has shown to give people the benefit of doubt throughout the series too e.g. with P'andor.

She even tried to patch things up with Charmcaster , though she shouldn't have right? Charmcaster was just a big a threat to them as Kevin was in the OS. That post also mentioned Charmcaster being redeemed makes more sense than Kevin's. But you're reasoning Kevin shouldn't have a redemption because he tried to kill them , then charmcasters redemption also shouldn't work because she too tried to kill them.

Having a preference for her over Kevin I can get but your reasoning should make sense.

[ chamrcasters arc is a whole other train wreck so won't be going into that ]

So teaming up with Kevin being a never isn't in the picture, atleast not for me.

Also why wouldn't Gwen like him? He's good looking , he's got charm , he's smart, and got that boy thing going.

She's still a teenage girl, crushes happen.

Though I will agree leaning into him and the whole "ill follow you anywhere moment " was too much too soon, but Gwevin being a possibility isn't so far fetched as some people claim.

I read a post on tumblr a while back and someone mentioned that even the rushing made a little sense. Because what they said was that Gwen and Kevin had a crush on each other and the reason they got together so quickly was because of it. They weren't expecting to actually fall in love with each other, however once they got together the casual-ness of the relationship became more serious.