#But he has to so that she can finally be safe | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

court-jobi · 2 days ago

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hi! i love your works so much!!! i was wondering if i could request a hawks x pop princess f! reader?

like he does security for her groups concert and hes like “pffft im number 2 why do i need to be here”. then he watches her during sound check and is like okay i need to know more about her. so while shes getting ready hes just hovering backstage trying to talk to her. after the show she finally gives him her number (def against her companies wishes) and hes like trying to be suave and flirty and shes like “oh my god why is this working”. just a lot of hawks being a lover boy and sending gifts to her company anonymously and cutesy stuff like that lol. they have to keep their relationship a secret bc her company has a very strict no dating unless we agree rule. can be pre or post war hawks btw! you can take this wherever you want with it as well! can be nsfw or not.

im sorry that was so long! i was trying to make sure my thoughts were coherent lol.

Ooooo I love this idea so much, what a lovely dynamic to picture: a fanboy Hawks for a change, perhaps?? ~ this was a fun one to work on! @strwbrrykthv i sure hope this one was worth the wait and that I've done it justice!

You all are seriously the best readers a gal could ask for, and these requests are ✨giving me life✨~ Keep 'em coming!!

Who Has the Mic

Words: 4.3k

Rating: T

Warnings: Pro Hero!Hawks x popstar fem!reader, forbidden romance, flirting, mostly FLUFF, mentions of canon-typical threats, protective instincts, Hawks is a little shitTM, we love him your honor

for my My Hero Academia Masterlist, check it out here!

Read on Ao3

Hawks falls prey to a special thrill out of extending favors to others.

‘I owe ya one’-- such a simple nicety that in the beginning, he doubts anyone would truly come to collect on it. It makes him sound agreeable, charming, starved for connection even before the height of his inevitable fame.

Then he rose and rose in the hero rankings, securing himself into the very visible and wildly popular top spot, in terms of viewer popularity.

It’s now that the redemptions of Hawks’ pro-hero favors have come rolling in… The unexpected keeps him on his toes and entertains him for the most part; and if it’s all for the sake of protecting others, then why not have a little fun with it?

Once upon an overbearing press conference, back when he was first tiptoeing into the public scene�� Hawks begged a makeup artist on staff for a spot to hide out in the green room and sneak a snack or two (or ten). He was granted pity for a teenager expected to take a seat at the table of an albeit boring Commission presentation. Well, it seems that particular makeup-artist rose within the talent realm themselves, and ended up reaching out to “that flyboy kid” back for a surprising accommodation:

Top tier talent warrants top tier security.

Hawks takes a call at his agency and soon finds himself ushered in for the Tokyo opener of the reigning top-of-the-charts pop star with a voice of gold. The first meeting of old acquaintances led the Pro-Hero to tour the brand new, sky-high facilities, then return for the load-in day of the stage. Again for first dress, and each night of the week-long residency.

He carries his presence on the stealthier side, far above the stage floor in the scaffolding. Up here, lights are rigged with steel supports running every which way, where he executes perfect balance while walking in a straight line atop them. He’s checked -double and triple- that each outlet is free from hazard, each line of multi-ton equipment has been secured and safe, so that even his ‘adventuring’ from up high is not a risk.

He’s happy for the variety of work he faces as a hero- but right now, he’s bored. He shouldn't be feeling so dreadful, especially on the job, but he is. It’s not his style to be so down, after all. But Hawks has checked into every nook and cranny of this place and for the sake of an understandably hypervigilant security team, has an eye for which points of entry and exit could use a bird’s eye view come showtime.

His muscles are used to far more fast-paced antics and time-sensitive chases; not traipsing around like a literal vulture ready to swoop in at any moment. Surely he’s needed elsewhere.

But the threats have been rolling in… as they do for all of these larger-than-life musician types who found their way into the spotlight. They’re at risk of going in blind if they don’t have a good team around them to help them see.

So here he is, playing guardian angel to do his part and make sure all goes smoothly. It's a big operation by his count; there’s sixty members on the tech roster, plus the venue stage manager and their contracted staff, then all performers, and of course the headliner. Now where she is, he’d like to know– for not so selfless reasons.

He’d know her music by heart, given how much of an earworm and personal anthem her songs have become for him. It’s rare that the tables are turned, where Hawks is the fanboy and someone else is the idol. That dream is his dangling carrot for completing this mission successfully: he has the most sought-after bodyguard duty in the nation, and as good as a front row seat to her show.

Yet in a weird sense, Hawks also kinda hopes he never meets her. Doesn’t want to crush that bubble, ruin the allusion of the woman he’s got set as his ringtone.

So, he just runs his headcounts on all bodies supposed to be present at the top-of-show meeting to busy his mind. All is in order. ‘Cues’ are rounding up the pre-show acts, each in plainclothes for this rough stumble-through. Still doesn’t see the little starlet yet, and he gets the residual feeling that this might be typical behavior of ‘the talent’ to show up whenever she damn well pleases.

Though funnily enough, he spots a pretty thing down there sporting some Hawks merch! Always nice to see a supportive fan in the most unlikely places…

It's a well-fitting quarterzip sporting his red feather blades down each arm, an item he vaguely recognizes from this season’s newest launch. She’s got headphones on and subtly bopping about in her own little world, perhaps running through tonight’s set under her breath, if her self-contained taps of the fingers are an indication of her keeping beat.

Hawks’ curious attention to that girl on the fringes of the stage is pulled when he hears the strict timbre of the stage director he’d met on day one take center stage.

“Ok, time to rein it in. As we covered in the email from Sec-Eng- which I’m assuming you gen-z’ers have read,” the bossman snarks to the younger members of this crew down below, “we’ve got some additional eyes in the sky pulling security for this leg in the tour. So, I want to give you all a chance to get your excitement out -along with your thanks- to our equally chart-topping hero, Hawks~ who’s… somewhere around here.”

Hoodie girl blanched– as if she’d been told she’d need to share her internet history to her grandmother. Immediately, she tosses off her headset and starts frantically stripping herself of the jacket she wore. While enthusiastic heads all fly around in every direction in search of the hero, Hawks chuckles at the sight of her alone.

“...//Well, he’s probably checking the perimeters anyway//. How bout we all just send a big thank-you, eh?”

The couple of ‘Hoodie’s fellow dancers were poking fun at her -poor thing still flushed and clammed up- while the group gave a loud, singsongy ‘thank you!!’ up to the stage doors, assuming the Pro-Hero might be busting in, grand entrance fashion on command. The love-laden response from the dancers makes Hawks roll his eyes lightly, but he appreciates their praise all the same.

They giggle about in jazzed excitement with one’s voice carried out squealish and feminine, despite their professional assembly,

“Oh my god, you must be in HEAVEN!! He’s gonna be watching you ALL NIGHT!”

‘Hoodie’ looks downright mortified. The others have seemed to gather around spouting nothing but encouragement to this little fan girl who's doing her best to put on a poker face. Adorable.

“Now we also need to make some edits before the crew breaks for lunch, everyone, so we are gonna start today with opening of Set 5 instead- hold.. Hold on… WHO HAS THE GOD MIC??”

The mics table scrambles for the one handheld microphone with omniscient audio range to the house. Surely it's the one thing they wouldn't lose and should hand straight to the Stage Manager, right?

Well, said mic was sitting unattended there on the cart earlier… all for the Winged Hero’s taking when he was making his preliminary sweep earlier.

From his inner jacket pocket, Hawks catches his lip in his teeth as he remembers where to turn the thing on. Once his throat cleared and the mic blinks red in sync with the soundboard, he amplifies a little trademark bird whistle: for each and every soul in sight to hear.

The stage erupts in excitement, as planned. ‘Hoodie’ immediately teeters over to one of the props hideaways and stows said jacket away.

Hawks chuckles with the mic at chest level– only to call her out from his perch,

“Saw that, dear~”

Seems logic caught up with the poor thing, as she -finally- pieced together the true vantage point of her idol’s presence, and looked up.

Sparing her too much embarrassment, Hawks simply cocked his head on a folded up fist and gave a little wave of some fingers to her.

Despite her clear shock and surprise, she did smile brilliantly back and gave a little signed ‘thank you for being here’ rather than a scream like all the others.

The stage manager followed her line of sight to where the hero stands in wait, ready to dismount and return his bit of cheekily stolen equipment. Despite some bewildered aggravation to Hawks’ antics, he gestures with the exhaustion of a high school teacher.

“There now, see kids? That's how you protect your voices before a show!! Better than belting your way to the doctor’s office. Our star here sure leads by example now doesn't she–”

In rare form for the hero, it's Hawks’ turn to be stunned. His fangirl: it’s you.

Everyone else may be calling that first call time your lucky day… but you were intimidated to the point of feeling ill. Thank goodness for your poker face; because locking eyes with Hawks’ stunning crimson canopy and giving you that wink and a grin about sent you into a heart attack.

You're starstruck. The absolute heartthrob of an idol you revere as your favorite Pro-Hero has been standing over 150 meters above your head, watching for every sign of danger that could threaten you for the last week.

That near guarantee of safety would trump your fleeting nerves– if you hadn’t given the first impression of a closeted fangirl like you did!!

Nothing short of awe crossed your mind when you so much as think of the hero. A very vocal fan whenever he came up in the news or your social feed amongst your inner circle. Hawks is a household name for you, who you were incredibly fond of… both in how he handled massive crowds or charmed in intimate, one-on-one interviews.

You know the role; you suck up for cameras, too, as it's all in the optics. But for every PR-guided response you know is crafted by easy-going smiles or a disarming tone, you remember to see past the spectacle of Hawks and look for ‘him’. Remove the wings and hero getup: who is he? Can you spot the tells on camera like your mom can when she watches you? No matter how big of a global phenomenon her baby girl gets, she can still tell when you have a headache while having to give an appearance on a talk show.

The man you spot on screen has to have a series of faults and slips. Even battle-ready heroes put their shoes on one at a time– just like everyone else. He’s sure to have a favorite lunch spot, a favorite pen to use for autographs, a favorite singer, even…

Surely not you, but a girl can dream.

There’s a glazed-over glint in Hawks’ eyes when he very subtly checks out when being spoken to which gives you the strong suspicion you two may not be so unalike. And that list of little mannerisms has grown exponentially– with every day that's passed:

Hawks has difficulty staying still, you've learned. He’s also much younger than people assume. Carries a crafty habit of popping up unexpectedly in a way that’s youthful– and borderline cheeky. From atop a stack of amps, to a crowdless green room, to the rigging of lights where you've stunned the crowds for the last four nights, he’s perched out of sight from your thousands of fans.

Though each little comment thrown here and there in praise has floated down to your ears in sweet jest, things come to a head when the last night of your show arrived: where the crushing realization sought to dampen your mood.

After tonight, you wouldn’t have your angelic, crimson-winged shadow anymore.

But Hawks surprises you once again.

You nearly miss it, too, once your final round of ‘surprise songs’ is revealed and you are snuck down to your assigned hideout to get ready to leave the venue. It’s back in your can-lit dressing room that you’re making double takes down the hall looking for any sign of your security team; especially the one to whom you owe a hefty ‘thank you’ to for all his efforts.

-but as your half-redressed form has donned your beloved Hawks hoodie once more, you’re not so spooked to hear a familiar whistle from behind you this time.

Headphones slung back down around his neck and wings slimmed down to a more presentable manner for tight hallways like these, Hawks slips into your prep space with a speedy uptick of steps. A knowing whisper to ‘shut the door fast so no one notices’ eeks out of him, eliciting a smile from you.

Each one of your suspicions are confirmed with that one comment alone; he knows this game well. Still, playing along with his dance of keep-away from any prying eyes (or cameras) doesn’t mean your heart isn’t hammering away in your chest at the knowledge of getting your hero all to yourself.

So here, Hawks traipses around your makeshift room with unbidden interest– which, for such a small space, is cute to know how many little details pique his curiosity. Your various outfits still hang all facing the correct way, your personal backpack sits beside it on the end featuring your mess of pins and collected patches from the locations you’ve toured thus far. The run schedule is still taped on the wall, and below it, your laptop has your notation software open and idle onscreen.

“Well, now,” Hawks chimes in with a little crouch over the back of your empty chair, “Surely I’m not looking at our next chart-topping hit in the making, am I?”

“Maybe!” you chuckle, joining his side to quickly save your work before you forget. “It’s getting the lyrics and melody to marry right that’s the hard part. Working out the latter right now, and it’s kinda kicking my butt.”

“But you’re doing it! Look at all this– wait. Is this what you were dancing to earlier?”

Damn his powers of observation. You’d been testing out the rhythm of the hook this week– when you’d been caught under his attention.

“...M-maybe?” you hedge again.

“I knew it-” Hawks beamed, “A stunning starlet and a mastermind. What can’t you do?”

Flattered beyond belief, you answer honestly,

“Keep myself outta trouble with my managers. Trying to, at least,” you close the laptop to conserve its power, “but between the shows and speaking engagements, it’s left me a bit starved for time to actually make the music.”

“N’why would writing get you in trouble?”

“It takes me away from all the other things I ‘have to do’,” you sigh easily. “They can bring in anyone to make the music and keep pitching songwriting teams to me to take the load off. Just think something’s gotten a little out of balance.”

Without meaning to, you held Hawks’ attention– enough to make him sit back on the armrest of your couch and listen with undivided attention while you explained your creative process more. While most J-Pop performers would be thrilled to have outside writers create the work and easy into a performance schedule with pre-set work to learn, you loved to have a hand in the writing process too. As an art form, it’s personal when you have to perform season after season.

You’ve chatted quite a bit here and there over these last several days, though not this extensively. He was interested in so much about this whole operation, to the point where you wondered if he’d ever met any of the performers who you knew presented at some of those hero galas he went to. Apparently not, by the way he’d lock onto your every word when you spoke. Either your timekeepers (or his) would inevitably interrupt you, so back to work you two would fly off to.. though you’d seem to circle back to one another and chat about anything and everything if given the chance- little spurts of talk that always left you wanting more.

He’d commiserate with you on that front as well– the balance of stardom and freedom. Bogged down by meetings and public appearances wore on him just as much as you. With every roadblock you described about your recent album development, Hawks nodded along with expected understanding.

The revolving issue of personal safety might have brought him into your employ, but you know more and more cases like yours filled up his day-to-day life in ways you couldn’t imagine… but he even shed some light on that as well to you. He’d burst the bubble on hero work as an industry through little asides with you offstage: comments he’d likely get reprimanded for if he ever spoke them in a public statement.

But you’d keep his secrets safe. What happens on set stays on set.

So even now, as he’s tucked himself into your dressing room while you puttered around chatting about your true dreams of getting a new concept album wrapped by the end of the year, Hawks tuned in with genuine interest that only made your heart skip a beat for him more.

“I haven’t always gotten the time to work on it lately… though this week, I’ve had a clearer head to be in here rather than under lock and key with a security force breathing down my neck– which is largely thanks to you, Mr. Hawks.”

“Oh please,” Hawks scrunches his nose and teases, “Mr. Hawks is what the lawyers call me. Just Hawks is fine!”

You exhale, squishing back any girlish outburst from your voice at how fussy he looked.

“All the same, thank you for your help this week,” you pressed, “It’s -uhm- not often I get to meet my favorite Pro Hero on the job…”

A pleased smirk lifts Hawks’ cheeks, though you spot a funny kind of shyness in them when he studies your sleeve rather than look you in the eye-

“Favorite, huh?” Hawks smiles, “ n’here I thought I was the lucky one, sweet’eart-” he taps his headphones for emphasis, “One day I’m listening to you on repeat on my morning commute– and the next, I’m standing two feet from you!”

“--You’re kidding.”

From his pocketed phone, Hawks challenges you with a press and hold on the speakers to boost the volume as high as it could go. Faintly, you caught your own pop vocals from your second ever album casting from Hawks’ headphones.

You can’t believe your luck– he’s really a fan? Of yours?

The mix of sentimentality and surprise must be palpable on your face as you grasp exactly which song has Hawks spellbound before he cocks his head with a sheepish grin of his own,

“Believe me now?”

Words fail you, but you shudder out a little giggle that speaks volumes. He tests with a smile,

“Soooo guess you wouldn’t mind if I asked a horribly stereotypical favor and snagged a selfie while I’m here?”

Eyebrows shot up to the sky as Hawks dangled his phone between you, you immediately pause. No one on your Communications team is still backstage (to your knowledge), but the engrained warning about checking your professional list of partnerships before posting comes to mind… annoying as it is. All you want is a pic with him, too!

“Nothing for socials-” Hawks assures you with a gloved hand, “If your handlers are just as pesky as mine, they’d never let me live it down. Just– something to keep me grounded, on the hard days.”

That reasoning… it almost broke your heart just as quickly as your potential disappointment had been earlier.

With a knowing smile, you nodded sweetly to Hawks- he’s charming in a whole new light to you.

“Only if you send it to me too, hm? Favor for a favor?”

“ ‘Course!”

Sliding up into his open space, Hawks clearly knows his best side but keeps you right in the center of his shot. That smile he makes… you are going to keep this proud glint in his eye and sight of his hand around you locked into your mind forever– even if he forgets to send it to your insta handle after this.

It’s too brief of a moment, watching his wing curl around you though the phone’s front-facing camera burgeoning you close, head tilting gently against yours. Keeping a close-lipped smile seared into your mind when you think of him now.

Then in an even more lightning fast moment, while he’s fussing with a weird flip of his bangs, you reach to tap the shutter as you sneak a kiss onto his cheek.

He’s stunned by the move, but by the even brighter muted smile, you stand by with pride double checking his photo gallery that the shot made it. It surely did.

“You have a hard job, Hawks; harder and more dangerous than anyone I know,”

You step away casually.. Though the need for distance is more for your sake than just optics of your forwardness.

“... Thought you deserved more than one lil selfie. Hope that’s ok?”

“H-okay?” Hawks breathes out, studying his camera roll with reverence, “Better’n ok..”

Outside a muted feedback from the PA system is calling for Exit team to assemble– get staged for your departure from the venue at last.

“That’s me. Better bounce-” Hawks piped up after a small clearing of his throat. You’re nearly too shy to look at him after this-

-but when a kiss greets your hand, lifted imperceptibly fast and squeezed just as fleeting as his words grace your ears- you couldn’t look away if you tried.

“- a pleasure, dear.”

And before you can utter any further word of thanks or manage something other than a shocked smile, Hawks slips out of the room and off to hand the reins back to your team. You can barely hear from the still-live walkie talkies that your security detail is back at their regular stations, and your Pro-Hero is off for his final step of his hired work. Soon he’d be relieved of his station and off to save someone else from an unsavory fate.

He doesn’t forget to send you the photos; and you now have his private insta handle.

The photo where you snuck a peck onto his cheek would be set as your internal screenshot if it weren’t for your niece’s constant borrowing of your phone when she visits you on set…

But now, you’re back for a month-long stay at the studio– your reward for a successful first half of the Tour.

Encouraged by your protective muse’s spark at the thought of your new music, you decide to take that energy back to Chichibu. Your headphones might as well be glued to your head, with how much you’ve head-dived into your sound mixing apps and sampling library. In fact, it’s that unwavering attention to your music that you nearly miss the most obvious sight walking through the lobby of the unassuming recording studio. Almost.

But how could you really– when the largest floral arrangement you’d ever seen is gracing the reception table? That stunning piece looks like it costs more than the linoleum flooring the desk sits on.

A few aides have been distracted by the sight, studying the typed message attached and racking their brains for any sign of a calling card. One of your cutting room techs was currently rounding the base of the standing arrangement for some tucked note, which made you giggle how intently she was studying the thing.

You know the sound booth manager best out of this group of other visiting accompanists,

“Lucky, lucky girl~” she reels you in excitedly, plucking the card from the other’s sights and handing to you directly. “Sorry to say there’s no hint who it’s from… but it’s for you, little bird!”

You hedge at the pet name once again– the nickname stuck unwillingly not only for your melodic talent, but the association with your clear celebrity (heroic) crush.

However, as you read the note, the immediate assumption that this may have been another gift from a venue host was thrown right out the window…

This was a personal gift:

To keep my genius company while she makes her magic~ No one can give us the stories you can; don’t ever let them take your voice. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve heard. Can’t wait to hear the new demo!

“No matter how high or low I am.. a piece of me will be here with you. It’s- where I'd rather be... Till next time…”

“Next time? Wait, who sent these again?!”

“It was just the delivery guy, from that really flouncy place downtown~” the receptionist answers with interest.

“Nooo, I mean on the card! Who signed the card?

“There's nothing– no initials, nothing..” you confirmed, still reeling over the message. But as you trail off over the cascade of tropical flowers, the flecks of red blooms catch your eye and bring you to study harder.

Then- tucked under some deep green curls- a spot of red hides. A quill amongst the mossy padding of the arrangement- not unlike a surprise found in a nest.

Sifting through under the guise of feeling tender petals, you grasp the soft, downy feather which bears a small post-it flag on the underside with a sequence of numbers on it.

“Do you have any idea who?”

Balling it carefully in your fist just as quickly, you answer, “Couldn't tell ya. But the pop of red sure is pretty, isn't it?”

In your booth -set up with your sticker-laden laptop and butterflies in your stomach- you hold the sticky note in one hand, pinching the crimson feather precariously in the other.

Face warmed and unbelieving of your luck, you think on what to send first to your mic-stealer…

To be continued?

#keigo takami #hawks #mha hawks #bnha hawks #keigo x reader #keigo takami x reader #hawks x reader #takami keigo #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha #bnha

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planethibiscus · 3 days ago

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Hiii !! I was wondering if you could do some jealous Yandere hcs (similar to the ones you did for until dawn) but with mouthwashing? Ty!!

JEALOUSY 🌸 MW

PRONE TO ENVY:

Jimmy

Jimmy is a vengeful and miserable man. He envies reader as they are, for who and what they are, no matter their situation. He's never satisfied, always wanting what he doesn't have. If he doesn't have you then it's all he can think about. When he finally does get you though, it still won't be enough. He'll adapt his victim complex to begin envying you instead of fully appreciating you. Oh how "good" you have it with him. You're so fucking lucky and yet you have no idea. Woe is Jimmy, the unwilling slave to your love.

Swansea

Swansea is a tired and cynical soul. He envies readers likeness. Similarly to how he is jealous of Daisuke, he is jealous of your lot in life. He wants to feel nearly as important as you are to all who you bless with your glimmering presence. He has a wife, kids, a job, he's stable. But he's miserable. Even if you're also miserable, or you don't have nearly as many accomplishments as him, there's just this special spark about you that makes you worth so much more than he could ever be.

SLIGHTLY GREEN:

Anya

Anya is exhausted and unlucky. She envies readers security. There's this way about you that comforts her and she loves it, but it's this underlying sense of safety that she assumes can only come from someone who has their shit together. Things seem to work out for you, and they should, because you're so lovely that life must give you special treatment or else it's being cruel and unjust. She just can't help but think that maybe if things in her life went half as well as they do in yours, then she'd be a better, happier person. One you'd like to be with.

Curly

Curly feels stuck. He envies readers freedom. So badly does he want to wrap you up in his arms and squeeze the knots out of your back with one powerful hug. He's just so worried that he'll scare you off and it keeps him paralysed. He wonders if you'd be terrified of your mismatched power dynamic or comforted by it. He wants you so terribly but he has a responsibility that you don't, as your captain, to make sure that you feel safe. If pushing advances on you might make you uncomfortable then he wouldn't dare. Even if it's all he can think about.

BARELY BITTER:

Daisuke

Daisuke is enthralled by the sensations of love but insecure. He holds no true jealousy towards reader, yet often finds himself wishing that he was half as cool as them. He adores being around you. Not a moment spent in your presence is a waste of time. He desperately hopes that you might feel the same, and that you don't think spending time with him is a chore. He doesn't want to bore you or annoy you at all. Your opinion of him holds him in a death grip, but he loves how it chokes him. It reminds him just how lucky he is to be perceived by you at all.

#yandere mouthwashing #yandere x reader #yandere jimmy #yandere swansea #yandere anya #yandere curly #yandere daisuke

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ashblooddragons · 2 days ago

Text

The Red Queen (Chapter 8/?)

112 ac

Your Pov

It's the day of Mama's funeral. I try not to cry again as I sit in the bath as my maid wash hair.

“What oils would you like today, Princess? Your usual jasmine?” Orchid asks already reaching for the oil bottle ready to pour it in the tub and my hair.

But instead, I stop her and think about Mama's calming scent and Ali's vanilla scent, or at least that's what she calls it.

“What was Mama's oil?” I ask and I see the flash of sadness cross Orchid's face before she smiles and grabs another bottle.

“Lavender, the late Queen loved Lavender.” She says filling the dropper before letting the oil drip into my bath and hair.

“Can I have vanilla too? Or would that smell bad?” I ask curiously before biting my lip nervously.

“Lavender and vanilla would be lovely together, Princess.” Orchid says before reaching for the small vial of vanilla oils.

Once she has them both in the bath and my hair I feel safe, like a warm hug, like I can breathe again. I start to cry again but Orchid acts like she doesn't notice, most of the maids act like they don't notice. I don't understand why, why can't they wipe my tears like Kepus and Ali do? Why can't they hold me so close like Kepus and Ali do? They hold me so tight it's hard to breathe but I can feel their hearts beating feel they're alive feel they're here.

But what confuses me the most is why Mama had to leave me? She promised after this baby was born she would play with me finally, that she would come to my leasons and see how smart I'm getting. But now she can't do that, because she's gone forever.

Everyone keeps saying that, but they won't tell me how long forever is, only that it is forever. It doesn't make sense, I just want to know when I can see my Mama again when she'll be back to play and see how smart I am.

“All done, Princess.” Orchid says wiping my face of the water from the bath, but from her frown I can tell she was also wiping my tears.

I stand in the bath and use my step stool to get out so she can wrap me in a warm towel that always feels warm against my skin because she rests it next to the fire, and smells of something woodsy.

I'm quickly dried and dressed in a black dress. Put on thick wool stockings as it's chilly today and my hair braided so it's a crown upon my head. Orchid helps me put on my bracelet and necklace from Kepus like always before someone knocks on the door.

“Come!” I call out rubbing my already raw and painful eyes. I then look down in case it's Papa, he seems to not be able to look at me anymore. I don't understand why though I haven’t done anything wrong.

“Ñuha riña, it's time to go.” I hear Kepus say.

Not Papa, I don't have to hide my face.

I turn and look up and see him frown at how bloody my lips and how red my eyes are.

“Can't I wear red, it's a much prettier color than black.” I say frowning

This seems to make him happy as he chuckles with a shake of his head before he kneels down so he can hold my hands in his. My hands always seem so small when he holds them, not like the big girl hands I like to think they are. “No, I'm afraid not ñuha riña. Black, is traditional mourning colors you will be wearing them for a while yet.” He says inspecting my hair to see how well done it is.

“I did it today, M'lord.” Orchid says from her spot behind me with her head down.

Kepus made sure to tell Orchid only she and him can do my hair now, maybe the ‘little Hightower’ but I don't know who that would be.

“I figured as much, it's not in her eyes.” He responds with a nod to my maids before picking me up and walking out of my room.

Once in the carriage I see Nyra who is glaring at me as usual but this time it sends chills down my spine. Had I done something? And then I see Papa next to her and he won't look at me, as if doing so brings him pain. I must have done something bad, but what?

The ride is quiet, almost suffocatingly so, so I feel I need to break it.

“When will me and Nyra know when to tell Syrax and Stromchaser to dracarys?” I ask Papa but when he doesn’t answer I turn to look up at Kepus instead.

“I’ll count down from five, once I say zero you two command them to light the pyre.” He says glaring at Papa or some reason.

I only nod and look out the window watching as the smallfolk cry for Mama. They miss her too, hopefully their Mama’s aren’t goen too.

When we make it to Rhaeny’s hill Kepus picks me up again and whispers to me “it’s quite steep, ñuha riña, don’t you tripping and getting hurt.”

I feel the wind against my back, it makes me shiver as I cling to Kepus hoping he'll keep the cold away. Once we make it to the top of the hill he sets me down on my feet. He lets me cling to his leg as the Valyrian priest chants.

I try and ignore them as I look at Mama and baby Baelon, they're wrapped in a brown cloth so tight I can see the outline of Mama's arms, legs, and belly. Her belly looks weird but I ignore it as it's probably because she's dead.

Once the priest is done and walks away I let go of Kepus and walk forward with Nyra.

“It's time girls, are you ready ñuha riña?” Kepus says standing between us.

I want to scream ‘NO’ but I know that I must, that Mama and Baelon must be ‘put to rest’ or at least that's what Ali said. So instead I nod my head as I wipe my tears.

Kepus looks between us one last time before sighing and nodding his head, a lmost like he's defeated.

“Five.”

I gasp realizing I'm never going to be ready this, to let Mama go. At least before I had to turn her to ash in the wind I could pretend she was just on a long trip, that she wasn't gone that she was only seeing her family in the Vale.

“Four.”

I feel my heart clench, feel it about beat out of my chest. It's painful, it hurts, but not as much as when I burn Mama away.

“Three.”

I can't breathe, why can't I breathe? I can feel my heart practically beat out of my chest. I feel my lungs constrict so I can only take in small gasps of air.

“Two.”

I feel Kepus rest his hand on my shoulder giving it a squeeze. I still can't breathe, still feel my heart beating out of my chest, but for some reason, it's all getting easier to deal with.

“One.”

I hear Stromchaser let out a cry of pain, Kepus says they feel our emotions, our pain, I have to stay calm for Stromchaser. But I can't I can't calm down, I'm losing Mama forever.

“Now.”

I figured out what forever means, and all it took was me screaming with Nyra, commanding our dragons to make Mama and Baelon ash in the wind. Make them gone forever.

Once Stromchaser and Syrax stop their flames I turn to Kepus leaping into his arms and sobbing. Sobbing that I'll never get to see Mama again and play in the gardens with her. Sobbing because I'll never get to meet my baby brother. Sobbing that Mama and Baelon are gone forever.

Daemons Pov

I stand leaning against the Weirwood tree waiting for that blasted Dornish man, Cole.

I knew after that fucking Sarwyck lost in the first round you needed a better guard. Though my pride was hurt I can't deny that Cole proved himself, that he would be the perfect guard for you.

I remember the look of hos face when I grabbed him after, it was a look of horror, of fear of what the Prince of the city would do to him. Instead I only whispered one thing.

“Meet me at the Weorwood tree in a week's time at the hour of the wolf.”

He quickly agreed of course but now I'm wondering if I should have threatened him instead of letting him go on his merry way.

I hear a twig snap under someone's foot and turn to see him. He seems to have rushed here if the sweat on his brow is any indicator.

Must have realized he was almost late. I think with a cruel smirk.

“You wished to see me, my Prince?” He says winded and bent over with his hands on his knees catching his breath.

“I have an offer for you, though if you take it you'll answer to me and no one else.” I say standing straight and walking towards him.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“You took down one of my Gold Cloaks, he was in charge of the care and well-being of the youngest Princess. Can't have someone who can't even beat a stewards son protect my sweet little niece, now can I?” I say in a calm voice that has always led men to do as I please, even my brother, the King.

“And what does that have to do with me?” He asks standing straight again hands behind his back.

I know that stance, I know it well.

“You're a soldier aren't you.” I say but it was rhetorical

“Yes, my Prince.” He responds curtly but I catch the scowl that he was read so easily.

Oh just you wait, Ser Cole, you'll learn to hide everything in this pit of vipers soon.

“If I could make it where you have a very high chance of becoming a Kingsguard, would you?”

He seems shocked from the way his mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water. I can't fight the chuckle that leaves me, nor would I want to.

“It would be an honor, my Prince. But why would they choose a stewards son over a lord's son who has also been to war?” He asks, curious and skeptical to this offer.

“And what I'd I said they wouldn't be others who have gone to war?”

He freezes for all of ten seconds before a smile comes to his face. “And what would you need from me? Of course after you give me such a high ranking at court you will want something in return?”

I stop and look at him surprised. Most who are not from Kingslanding would have taken this chance by now, I can't tell if I'm proud, annoyed, or impressed. I think before responding.

“You see, I noticed something about our match. I had my blade to your throat, I let you live, and yet at the first chance you got back up and made sure I'd be the one to yield.” I say smiling when he starts to shift uncomfortably.

“It was a fair fight, you know it just as much as I.”

“Never said it wasn't, you never said you yielded, so by all rights you could, and did get back up to continue to fight.” I say smirking when I see the tension leave his shoulders.

“That still doesn't explain why you need me.” He says obviously getting annoyed.

“It's simple, I want- no I need a man who will use suck ‘dirty’ tactics when defending my niece. If I was to help you, you will defend the youngest, the Realms Darling they call her.”

“Why her and not the eldest?” He asks confused.

“Rhaenyra has at least three guards at her demand, none are truly hers but they may as well be. The youngest…well she has only had the spares or the ones I give to her. I wish for her to have one I know I can trust. One that will give me the information I desire, when I desire it.”

He seems to contemplate his options, though before he even says it, I know what he'll do.

“I'll do it.”

I can't fight the smirk that comes to my face as I shake his hand, a symbol of a good deal.

Once he's out of my sight I look down at the gold cloak against my back.

Fuck I could use a drink and a whore. I think before walking towards the most depraved parts of the city looking for a night to forget all I've lost, if only for one night.

Viserys Pov

After that ‘talk�� with my small council and the very long day I've had I knew when my head hit my pillow I'd be asleep.

All I saw for a while was darkness, I figured it was because I was still awake but then I saw a light far away and knew what was going on.

Not this blasted dream again! I thought as I stormed forward knowing what I'd find.

The throne room was dark, not a candle lit on the walls, but there was fourteen candles lit in front of the iron throne. They always seemed to dance, I swore if I moved closer I would hear the sounds of childlike giggles. Most are on their own, standing on their own candle sticks, but three have two prongs with two candles on the stand.

It's all the same, even those damned faces are still blurry! I think ready to turn around until I hear the booming voice of my Grandsire.

“You will stay, boy!” I feel my bones rattle just from the sheer force my Grandsire has spoken to me.

I now don't feel like a King, I feel like a little boy again being scolded for trying to steal a sweet…again.

“Why do you bring me here Grandsire? You have made me come to this room with its candles every night ever since my dear wife has passed! Well before that I was having this dream once a moon!” I cried out looking up and around me searching for my Grandsire.

“It is not our fault you are not Brave son. That you will not face what you already know.” I then hear my Father, the one man I always wished I could be, but Daemon has always been more like him than I'll ever be.

“What is there to see? Fourteen candles, two blurry faces on the throne? I've seen it! I understand I must have a son to put on the throne!” I sob out feeling their disappointment, their regret, knowing I'm far from the monarch they wished from me.

“Have you thought that perhaps if you moved closer the faces would be clear? Or are you that daft Viserys?” I hear their voice now combine, hear my fathers furious tone mixed with my Grandsires disappointment.

I shake my head but still listen to their advice. As I move forward I begin to hear the sounds of a woman giggling at something a man had said. Another step, and I can make out the woman's curls and theans long straight hair. One more and I see a gorgeous woman on my brother's lap, though it is not him that wears my crown but her.

The two of them stop their chatter, my brother is the first to turn to look at me.

“How lovely for you to finally join us dear brother, I was beginning to wonder if you ever would.” I teases with that smirk of hos that always make me want to punch him right in the lip.

That'll show him who's older still. I think with a smile before I leaves me and a pained gasp leaves me.

The woman has turned her head to look at me, I would have never recognized her if it weren't for those eyes. One of Lavender and one of Ice Blue, the ones I can not look at, the ones who only bring me pain.

“You know what you must do, Father. You always have.” You say but it is not your little voice, it is a woman's voice.

I wake with a gasp before turning and letting my dinner meet my chambers floor.

“You know what you must do, Father. You always have.” Those words keep running through my head as I try to catch my breath.

I have, haven't I?

Special thanks to @sugutoad for making the header for this fic, I swear I'd be lost without you girly!

TAGLIST: @sugutoad @ilikefelines @classicsimpforaaronwarner @mmogurl @sachaa-ff

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sleepyc63 · 3 days ago

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I actually realized this a few months ago, when trying to find canon evidence i found nothing that directly supports them being siblings in vanilla. I still think it's meant to be implied, however.

From exclusively vanilla, here's everything i found that points to them being siblings (or, having a familial relationship). Sorry, i can only use the wiki, so i'll link my sources instead of adding screenshots.

It's about the local aquifer - it must be quite old, from when Five Pebbles was in the planning phase...Building Pebbles so close to me was believed to be a risky choice, but the groundwater was finally deemed as sufficient. It was not a good decision, in hindsight.

(Bright Purple Pearl, Shoreline)

This supports the retcon from Downpour that Moon and Pebbles have the same parents (aka: built by the same colony of Ancients/Benefactors). This also confirms that they share groundwater, which may be a metaphor for sharing blood. (This was inspired by someone else, unfortunately I don't know where so please tell me if you know so I can tag them!)

BSM: Two cycles ago, my neighbor Five Pebbles drastically increased his water consumption to four times the normal amount. He has been unresponsive for a period of time longer than that. The two of us share groundwater, and I have been without water for almost a cycle.

(Variant 5, Green or Dark Blue Pearl, Sky Islands)

More confirmation that they share groundwater and are abnormally close to one another. Even if this is common knowledge it still felt right to add.

"The Moral Argument: Five Pebbles is our Creation, and we have Parental Obligations towards him...." And then there are polite farewells. None of us really miss the times when their cities were populated. Imagine having skin parasites that also ask for advice and have opinions...I'm sorry, that was disrespectful. They were our parents after all.

(Light Green Pearl, The Exterior)

This outright states that the Ancients that lived in and built Moon and Pebbles see the iterators they created as their children. They were likely built by the same Ancient group, if not that group's descendants. This would make them sibling beyond a metaphorical/social sense.

There's also the fact that Moon calls herself/is called "Big Sister Moon" in chatrooms. Even if there's no confirmation as to why she's called that, it's safe to assume it's because she's senior of her group. Not necessarily just to Pebbles, even if I choose to interpret it that way. Either way she's implied to be Pebbles' big sister figure, if not related by blood.

I also feel that its important to mention that there's no confirmation that Iterators are above "human" feelings and relationships. They are shown to have friends, dislike others, feel pain, etc. They aren't necessarily robots either, which debunks the whole "robots can't have real siblings" argument I've seen used. Moon states that they are purposed organisms*, while directly comparing herself to the slugcats** (which, are known to have families/siblings, even in the earliest renditions of the game)

* Yes, I am aware Iterators have mechanical parts, but so do MANY other creatures in Rain World. This is why I don't consider them fully robots, if robots at all.

** Moon talks about a "small slug made to clean the inside of pipes" then goes on to say that the slugcat may be descended from a purposed organism. While not confirmed to be descended from the pipe cleaner slug, it is very strongly implied. (Again, likely common knowledge. But I have seen people debate this so it felt right to add.)

The creation of downpour isn't something i’m knowledgeable about, seeing as I wasn't around for that, however I doubt Joar and James werent given any say in DP's dialogue and story. Which is why I don't think that Moon and Pebbles being siblings is entirely a retcon; if theres so much evidence in vanilla, and the creators of the original game approved official content that called them siblings, why is it such a stretch to assume they're siblings in the source material?

(Screenshots from @/voldkat and @/faeinabottle)

Especially since this is what is given in downpour, Spearmaster and Rivulet campaigns respectively. (I tried to refrain from adding DP stuff because thats not what this post was asking, but this feels too relevant not to)

This is just my interpretation, what i’m saying obviously isn't fact as Rain World is known for having vague lore. Feel free to correct me if anything I said has been debunked in any QnAs or anything out of game, as I don't pay attention to those as much as I do the game itself.

Okay so apparently the entire fandom may or may not have collectively hallucinated moon and pebbles being siblings or having an actual sibling-like relationship and referring to/seeing each other as such ??? Because so far I have found nothing in any of the vanilla pearl dialogues or even moon and pebbles' own dialogues (they only refer to each other by name or as "friend") that clearly points towards that The "Big Sis Moon" title is her username in the local group, but not specifically in relation to pebbles- could just be that she sees herself as the "big sibling" / "parent" friend of the group ? And she does say "our parents" but she might be saying the "our" in general (our parents being the parents of all iterators and not just the parents of specifically her and pebbles) ? If anyone can find vanilla lore bits that point at them being stated as siblings do show- because im legit interested in knowing if it's actually there and I missed it or if we really just all sorta assumed this bit of headcanon is fully canon ?

#i’m not rereading this so sorry for mistakes/typos #also i switch between calling the benefactors/ancients a few times #i personally think they should be called benefactors bc it makes more sense. and sounds cooler #but i dont see it used often so i swapped between the two #at least i think. like i said i didn't revise this #rain world #sleeptalking

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trippinsorrows · 2 days ago

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Can we get a dreamland Christmas short?

roman and solana are sitting on the sofa with aubriela laying on her daddy's chest, solana gently running her fingers down her sleeping baby girl's back.

"she reminds me of leya and aroha," solana comments, smile soft. "quiet."

roman chuckles. "let's hope she stays that way."

mischievous eyes lift to him. "in this house? never."

roman gives a small smile and chuckle, refocusing on his baby's girl face as she sleeps away, peacefully, comfortably, safe.

"dad."

roman lifts his head and is a bit startled by the sight of literally all his children. right away, he's suspicious.

"what have ya'll done now?" beside him, solana makes a sound. oh well, he knows when they all congregate together, it's usually for a mass apology.

or request.

aroha, surprisingly, is the one to answer. "nothing, daddy!" she lifts her little arms with all of the excitement. "it's time to put up christmas decorations!"

that takes him back at first, though it shouldn't. the day after thanksgiving has always been the day they start decorating for the kids favorite holiday.

but, this year is a little different. at least, it will be.

"ya'll don't need me to help you," he shares, motioning to the older kids. "tama, lina, and leya, ya'll take charge."

a round of protest sounds, koa pointing out, "but dad, you always help us."

roman sighs. "i'm getting too old for all that. besides, there's enough of ya'll where you can handle it yourselves."

"but not too old to make another baby?" tama's murmured comment earns a hard glare from his dad. he clears his throat. "i'm just saying, dad, you know they don't listen to us." he motions to his younger siblings, specifically koa and kai. "especially these two. remember what happened last year?"

kai is the one to defend himself and his twin. "we gave them back access, okay!"

roman sighs, "boys, no hacking the neighbors internet."

koa's smart ass corrects his father. "it wasn't their internet. it was their electric grids."

solana chimes in, "well, whatever it was, don't do it. again." she then turns her focus to her husband. "baby, you know they love decorating with you." he looks over at her. "it's tradition."

roman is quiet for a few moments. she's right. for as far back as he can remember, starting with lina and leya's first christmas, he went against his usual grinch approach to the holidays. solana handled decorating inside, and he did outside. and as the girls got older, they started to help him. something all the kids have done over the years.

and regardless of their ages and ability to work together to take over the task, he can see it's important to them.

carefully passing a still sleeping aubriela over to solana, he kisses the top of her head and solana's temple before standing up.

"let's get started." a round of excitement as aroha runs over to him, hugging his legs, peering up with the biggest smile ever.

"thank you, daddy!"

he gives a small smile, quietly enjoying being able to make her happy. to make them all happy.

he then informs tama and lina, "ya'll are getting on that ladder though. not me."

leya then asks, coming up beside him, holding onto his arm, "can we go out for pizza afterwards?"

at the idea of going out to eat, the younger kids cheer, "yeah, dad! please!"

roman looks over at a smiling solana. "it's up to your mom."

aroha runs over to solana, climbing on the sofa, "please, mommy? can we go?"

solana chuckles, looking down at a now stirring aubriela. at four months, her outings have been pretty limited to family. she's now at an age where she can be out in public and them not have any concerns for her health. especially since she already knows that her husband will have the pizza parlor cleared out.

smirking, she finally answers, "better get started, so we can leave."

#ari answers #ltye ask #dreamland ask

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god-blues · 2 days ago

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An Analysis of Clive Rosfield and the Dominants of FFXVI

finally writing this post after having brain worms about these themes since [checks notes] the game came out last year, so here goes

every single dominant in the game represents a theme to clive rosfield in some shape or form, and serves to mark the progress of his growth across the narrative of the game. either as an obstacle to overcome, or as a guiding beacon imparting him with purpose to keep carrying on

i'm going to look at each dominant that clive faces in the chronological order in which he absorbs their eikons, so we're starting from benedikta even though jill and joshua were the first ones in clive's life, and go from there. i'll be leaving leviathan out of this since i think that one's the most disconnected from clive's journey and has the least to say about him as a person (makes sense since it's DLC and not necessary for the full story)

also, this is obviously just my own interpretations of the game's themes and the way it utilizes their characters in clive's journey etc etc. i'm not saying this is the only Correct way to look at it, i just wanted to get my thoughts out on paper as a nice little overview for myself and others interested in that kind of thing

it's about 2k words long so i had to add a read more. onwards!

Benedikta Harman

benedikta and clive share similar traumas. both were enslaved at a young age, and while their experience of it differed for both, the similarities are so stark that the game practically spells it out for you. basically: benedikta is where clive would have ended up had he ignored or rejected cid's guidance

imo it's no coincidence that cid and benedikta have the history of cid having saved her from slavery when she was a young girl, because it mirrors how he saves clive and jill as well. the difference is that unlike clive and jill, benedikta did not end up with the benefit of gaining a support system like the hideaway

instead, she was taken in, used for her powers as a dominant and manipulated by barnabas, and eventually abandoned by cid which left her in an even worse place. with no other way to survive, she could only hold onto barnabas to grant her status and power to protect herself

now whether cid was wrong or right for leaving her behind is not something i'm gonna go into since we don't know enough about the circumstances in which it happened. from the way cid speaks to benedikta in game, benedikta and barnabas were responsible for acts he didn't agree with ("because i'd had enough of you and your king's antics"), so we'll leave it at that

that aside, though, it left benedikta to fend for herself, with no one she could have truly relied on. clive and jill, on the other hand, found a new home with people who understood and shared in their struggles, and with cid there to guide them

it makes the boss fight clive has with benedikta rather tragic, looking back on it. this is one of the boss fights that don't necessarily symbolize growth for clive, at least not in a positive way: he loses control just as benedikta did. it's a fight between two hurt people hurting each other because it is all they know how to do

the only difference is that one of them has people he can rely on, and the other is alone, used as a tool and then discarded when she served her purpose. the same as would have happened to clive, had he never escaped slavery

Cidolfus Telamon

it makes sense that we go from benedikta to cid after that, because once clive comes to terms with his trauma and Accepts The Truth, he moves onto the path of recovery. being that he doesn't know how to navigate that, however, cid becomes a natural mentor to him

from the start, you get the sense that cid has already decided in his mind that he wants clive to be his successor and keep the hideaway safe. the man is living on borrowed time, his arm turning to stone and coughing up blood every time he exerts his aether in any significant way. note what blackthorne tells clive the first time they meet, as well: "don't let cid decide what's best for you". cid clearly has a habit of steering people in certain directions

clive, who is at a loss on what to do now that he has been stripped of his original purpose, which was to avenge joshua, of course clings onto the new purpose that cid guides him towards. this is not to say that cid does so in a manipulative way: clive wants and needs to feel useful, and cid offers a way for him to do that to both their benefit. by the time they head to oriflamme, they hold a mutual trust between them, and clive views cid with clear respect and admiration, enough to pledge himself to cid's cause

the interesting part in all this is the way how clive absorbing ramuh coincides with him absorbing cid's ideals and cid's very identity as well in order to carry on his legacy. in the process, a part of clive's own identity becomes subsumed by this role he takes on as "cid" and the hideaway's new leader, quoting cid at various moments after the timeskip ("any objections?"). it is no different than the roles he fit himself into throughout his life or failed to fit into ("...prince, Shield, son his mother could love")

i always wonder what cid would have thought of that. i muse about it more in this post, if you're interested

Hugo Kupka

hugo kupka embodies, very plainly, refusing to accept the truth and being blinded by vengeance.

both hugo and clive were wrapped up in this idea of needing to get revenge, and for both of them that revenge was built on a lie. whereas clive confronted the truth of what happened to joshua and was able to move on because of it, hugo became wrapped up in a deception (albeit externally inflicted) and let it consume him

in so doing, he became a useful tool for barnabas that was then discarded as soon as his purpose of giving clive titan was fulfilled. his revenge amounted to nothing. but that is not to say that vengeance is being condemned by the narrative, rather, being blinded by it is.

clive, having seen and accepted the truth, exacts a much more righteous retribution on hugo for having destroyed the hideaway and having killed so many, all because of a lie that cid had killed benedikta

rather than let the need for vengeance rule him, clive wields it only when it is deserved. he overcomes the manipulation where hugo does not, and hugo suffers the consequences where clive emerges victorious

Dion Lesage

dion is similar to benedikta in that he exemplifies the outcome of a path that clive could have walked, but ultimately escaped from: to be used as a weapon, and to be trapped by his desire for approval from a parental figure. had clive been revealed to be a dominant much earlier in his life, there is no doubt in my mind he would have been in the same position that dion ended up in with his father. i've written about it more extensively in this post, so i won't repeat all of it

the gist of it is that dion is a tragic hero from beginning to end- unlike clive, he is unable to escape his fate. he embodies the self-sacrifice and endless striving for a parent's affection despite never being good enough

the sidequest with tomes is especially heartbreaking when keeping this in mind, because unlike clive who was able to accept the "sin" he committed in "killing joshua" (as well as actually killing rodney), dion cannot forgive himself for the sin of killing his father and destroying twinside

like i mention in the post i linked, it's no coincidence that clive reunites with joshua in the same scene where dion's sin is born. clive lets go of his guilt and moves forward, whereas dion becomes entrenched in his guilt to where it drives him to sacrifice his very life in an attempt to make up for it

on top of that, when you look into additional lore you see what a horrible person sylvestre truly was. ultimania reveals he had dion's mother assassinated in order to hide that he was born to a commoner, and a courtesan at that, and used dion's status as bahamut's dominant to become emperor. then you realize the full depth of the tragedy that is dion's story

dion died trying to redeem himself to a man who saw him as nothing but a tool, and had fully deserved to be killed by his hand all along

Jill Warrick

jill is, pretty much, what keeps clive's will from breaking

their romance absolutely cannot be separated from this, so even if you personally might not ship these two, canon is very clear about this

jill has always given clive the strength to carry on, more than anyone else. when he first finds her during his assassination mission at the nysa defile and realizes that it is her, he is ready to abandon his quest to avenge joshua and die together with her when they are about to be overrun by the iron kingdom's soldiers. and when she wakes in the hideaway later, she is the one who gives him the strength to face what happened at phoenix gate, and accept the truth of who he is

to elaborate on this: the game's mechanics give the major enemies a Will Bar you have to deplete for a reason, similar to how dominants lose control of their eikons when something causes their Will to break, and why ultima continuously tries to wear away at clive's Will throughout the game: willpower is an essential thematic component of the narrative, and jill being there for clive is what keeps his Will from breaking

i think it's very purposeful that the only time clive is truly defeated is by barnabas (if you'll remember the mocking Clive Bested pop-up lol). it's also to hype barnabas up as a villain, yes, but also to exemplify he needs jill--needs to absorb shiva--in order to overcome his greatest adversary yet

there's some discourse about the english vs japanese translations of the scene they share at the beach, and i'm not interested in getting into that: the english dialogue is what encompasses canon to me first and foremost. so, going off that, we get a scene where jill entrusts shiva to him, which might first be seen as clive taking the burden of it from her. which is true, but! it is also what gives clive the strength to carry on

in that way i think the game strikes an interesting balance between what is a "burden" and what is "strength". yes, carrying the hopes and dreams of your fellow comrades on your back is a heavy weight, but it is simultaneously something to draw strength from, because through that same token clive knows he's not alone. jill and everyone else at the hideaway is with him

Barnabas Tharmr

barnabas is clive's ideological foil, another path he could have walked. i could write an entire essay on this particular point alone, but most of it would be speculation and my personal headcanons based on the scant few lines we get from barnabas in-game and the added lore in ultimania, so i'll spare you. if you want to know more about how i see barnabas, cid and clive fitting together in terms of their ideology, though, refer to this post

anyways, this one is pretty obvious: barnabas represents the relinquishing of human will and becoming a slave to a higher power

i've mentioned in past posts before that ultima embodies the pinnacle of a slave master, tying in with the theme of it within the game- even the combat mechanics are built around it, as i mentioned in jill's section. what if clive never escaped slavery? what if he had succumbed to ultima and truly became mythos? that's pretty much barnabas in another form

barnabas is also the antagonist clive tries to talk to the most, even saying to him verbatim during their second duel at the bottom of the sea "we don't have to do this". their fights are not only physical fights, they are verbal and ideological ones: through their battles, they begin to build an understanding of each other, leading barnabas to come to the realization that he never truly relinquished his will at all

this realization signifies clive's ideological victory, and thus barnabas is fittingly the final dominant you fight before you face ultima themselves. every step of clive's journey has been leading up to this: working through his trauma and hurt, finding community and purpose, accepting the truth to no longer be lead astray, letting go of the need for approval and validation, carrying the hopes and dreams of his loved ones, and proving the strength of his ideals

Joshua Rosfield

joshua is the genesis of clive's search and need for a purpose

not by joshua's own hand, of course. he was just a baby, after all, but the birth of the dominant of the phoenix meant that clive no longer had a purpose (at least, in anabella's eyes). if clive could not be the dominant that his mother wanted, then the next best thing would be to become the shield that his brother needed

except, joshua turns this notion entirely on its head by the end of the game

he saves clive not once but twice, first in oriflamme, then later in the rift when ultima is trying to possess clive once more. both times, joshua thwarts ultima: both times, it is joshua who functions as clive's shield. he is upset when he thinks clive has pressured jill into giving him shiva, because he thinks it is clive yet again trying to shoulder the burden all by himself

there are many different interpretations of the ending of the game, but joshua is in part why my personal view is that clive is the one who lived and joshua is the one who died. joshua has always been clive's foremost protector, and through his sacrifice, clive is "released" from his roles and his need for a purpose to make himself useful his entire life

as a result, joshua is the one who sets clive free at the end of clive's journey. that is what allows clive to overcome ultima, who would see mankind shackled to their will, and instead has clive leading mankind to freedom in turn

In Conclusion

this game's themes fuck severely and i will be thinking about them for a long time to come. thanks for reading 🫡

#ffxvi #ff16 #final fantasy xvi #final fantasy 16 #clive rosfield #jill warrick #cidolfus telamon #barnabas tharmr #dion lesage #joshua rosfield #benedikta harman #hugo kupka #ff xvi chatter #musing about valisthea

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likeawildthing · 7 hours ago

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And ode to our family couch on her last day of service.

Thank you, couch, for being my first big post-divorce purchase. I was SO proud when I could finally afford you for my little family. I couldn’t afford the delivery fee so my dad put you in the back of his truck and you rode, ass out, all the way home.

Thank you for serving us faithfully for the last twelve years, through countless movie nights, pillow fights, pillow forts, and dance parties. Also: crying sessions, depression, illnesses, and inadvertent sleepovers when I’d fall asleep to pride and prejudice for the fiftieth time.

You were vomited on at least four times, but your lingering smell is Diet Coke because approximately fifty-seven cans have been knocked over while balancing on your arm. Did I ever learn? No.

You survived two boys, from toddlerhood to young adulthood, definitely worse for the wear but still in tact. You were both the best springboard and floor mat for questionable gymnastics moves.

(I’m sorry for the atrocities committed, both on and around you, in the name of teenage hormones—I really, really try not to think about it but I know you Saw things. And felt them. Ew.)

You supported me through school, all of those late nights, year after year, while I was trying to better our family’s prospects. You were my safe space in the depths of chronic illness, serving as bed and desk and table when I couldn’t climb the stairs. We were best friends when I started working from home.

The scorch mark from the radiator isn’t visible, but the indents are both from our cat. Top left — his second favorite nap spot. Middle right, from my butt because he insists on sleeping between me and your arm, so I get the crack. Crack on crack crime.

I’ve tried to take care of you over the years, performing deep cleanings, surgeries, and multiple restuffings. I sacrificed a foam mattress last year to give you new cushions, and new legs the year before that.

But, and I’m sorry about this, too, you were my faithful craft desk. Shout out to your many hot glue gun burns, paint stains, and exacto holes.

I did, absolutely, cut a few strategically placed holes in you today to see what treasures you have stolen from us over the years. I did vacuum out every month the attachment only went so deep. So, in no particular order, your secrets:

-approximately two handfuls of dirt

-an obscene number of bottle caps (my side) and cosmic brownie wrappers (where my youngest sits)

-twelve buttons

-a roku remote

-three needles (we thought there would be at least forty)

-$1.25 in assorted change

-my Apple Watch which has been missing for four weeks

-three earrings, none matching, but thankfully i always keep my lost halves

-assorted paper scraps

-mini tweezers, one nail file, and three exacto blades

-a marker, four pencils, one pen, and two marker caps

-a lego ninjago sword that my kids fought about for two years, each insisting the other stole it (I have wrapped it in a tiny box as a Christmas gift from you to them. I’ll let them fight over who gets to keep it.)

-two nerf darts

-our missing cat laser toy

-an entire purse chain from my grandma’s vintage coach bag. I didn’t even know it existed.

So, aren’t you a sneaky bitch. But also, thank you for returning my watch.

It’s been real, babe. You were mostly great, very comfortable, and perfectly serviceable. I’m writing this, ironically, on your replacement. She is comfortable, spacious, and heaps more stylish.

But, damn.

Does she have big cushions to fill.

#pen to paper

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lunaforyou · 12 hours ago

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Primes Reborn AU spoilers below the cut, if you want to wait until the fanfic is done don't read.

WARNINGS miscarriage scare, violence, a little angst for the soul.

(everything turns out okay don't worry)

Sooooo, after kid number three, Optimus is already getting used to this. Hey, why fight the Matrix when he can work with it?

Besides, it's vindicative to be able to un-do most of Sentinel's damage, after giving the miners cogs that is. His frag up doesn't have to haunt their entire species forever.

Nevermind that the Matrix takes bits and pieces out of him in lieu of transfluid, since, well, the sparklings have to come from somewhere.

If undoing the damage Sentinel did entails energon, sweat and tears every time, so be it.

So he decides to find a spot he feels safe in and build a nest!

His unfortunate ass only feels safe in the cave of the primes though.

No biggie! He just has to make a comfortable spot.

In a cave full of corpses.

Great.

By the time he is finally done he is so wiped out that he falls asleep in the nest immediately.

And then he wakes up to the sound of a fusion canon. Being aimed at his face.

Oh right, Megatron.

So they start to fight, Optimus is always trying to diffuse it and keep his shit together, like, invading a nest is extremely distressing for the carrier. It's not like Megatron knows he is invading a nest, because even he wouldn't go that low goddamnit.

And then Megatron taunts him with something along the lines of;

"Look at yourself, Prime. You have gone soft with time, literally." (I'm still working on what he says, don't be too rude)

And Optimus, the fool that he is, looks down at himself. He really shouldn't have done that because that gives Megatron an opening to hit him.

In the gut.

He immediately falls to the floor in pain. And Megatron goes "I won't have mercy on you because you feel a little pain, Prime"

He can't even finish the sentence though, Optimus interjects with "She isn't moving"

It takes a second for Megatron to realize what he means.

He immediately scrambles to help, however he can. He lifts Optimus up and places him in the nest, and really he can't do much but it's better than doing nothing!

The blow triggered the emergence, and little Solus is born unconscious. This time, the other primes' spirits are mysteriously absent.

When he has her in his arms, Megatron shakes her up a little bit, to see if she wakes up. To which Optimus tells him that it's useless, her body is weak without a sire bond, and that she'll die.

And without thinking, this other fool just.

Opens his spark chamber.

You see, to form a sire bond, the spark of the carrier acts as a bridge between the sparkling and the sire's spark.

Want to guess where this is going?

That's right! Megatron and Optimus spark bond to save little Solus, you get nothing for guessing correctly <3

They coax her spark chamber open and the three of them bond. After the bond takes, Solus starts crying, and thank Primus she is crying, Megatron doesn't think he could have lived with the guilt if his little one died because of him.

And then Optimus takes her in his arms and Megatron's world expands by five.

They look so, so beautiful. And suddenly everything that's right in the world is in that cave, in the nest that his love made.

Because yes, that's his love now (never stopped being his love) and that's his sparkling. And Primus damn it he is not going to let go of them.

And then he looks at little Solus, and cries a little and says something along the lines of "She's perfect"

And then Optimus hits him with the "You say that because you haven't seen the other three"

Megatron cries a little more.

And the name of the AU is STILL Primes Reborn. :)

#transformers #megop #mech preg #maccadam #mechpreg #optimus prime #tf one #primes reborn au

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rewiringtoheal · 15 hours ago

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This Pain Is Temporary

Anna x Fem!Reader

He's Just Not That Into You AU

Summary: I was watching this movie and had a lot of what if questions. What if the main cast actually all communicated with each other? What if Anna actually had some character development? What if Reader was a variation of a female Conor Barry who got a clue? And how would these differences lead to Anna genuinely falling in love with Reader.

warnings: very slowburn, angst, worse before better, eventual fluff.

You feel used. This person that you love…loved?? You aren’t really sure anymore of your feelings toward Anna. It was never simple with her. And truthfully, you wish you could go back to your blissful ignorance.

You had been so thrilled when she told you she was finally ready to take the next step with you. A real relationship with the girl of your dreams. Having your heartfelt love confession be returned and then making love for hours was more than you ever could have hoped for.

You now knew it was all a lie. And that Anna was a very skilled actor. In your excitement you had raced home the next morning to tell your best buddy Alex and his new girlfriend GiGi the news. After showing them a picture of Anna and you. The night of bliss quickly turned sour; GiGi hesitantly told you that Anna was the same woman that had a very recent affair with her best friend's husband. And everything the past few months had started to make sense. How Anna would constantly ignore your calls but somehow always be available when she needed her emotional needs met. And finding out that the only reason she wanted a relationship with you was because the man of her dreams wouldn’t leave his wife was heartbreaking. How could you be so stupid? And how could you be so blind to the type of person Anna really was.

You felt a hand squeezing your knee bringing you back to the world around you. You see GiGi’s hand retreating and her eyes filled with sorrow. You muster up a strained smile.

“Well, at least I had my dream girl for a moment even if it wasn’t real. Looking back, I kinda see now that she treated me like shit but I was so lost in her. I can’t believe I was so blind to her selfishness. And now this…I don’t think I ever really knew her at all,” you say somberly.

Alex let out a deep sigh, “Dude I don’t really know what to say. She did really shitty things but maybe she's not a shitty person. The moments you had together weren’t all fake. The parts of herself she showed you are probably real. And you can love those parts and still be hurt that she lied about her feelings for you.”

You give a weak chuckle, “You’re right..but I don’t know how to deal with this. I do still love her even if she used me. I see it so clearly now. I’m the back up plan. The person she really wanted hurt her so she chose the safe option.”

Gigi looked at you, her eyes filling with sorrow, “Sometimes people don’t know what they have until it's gone. She is making awful decisions and it’s hurting everyone around her. Deal with this by loving yourself first. I know it's hard but she doesn’t appreciate you. And only wants you when she has no one else.”

That was hard to hear but Gigi was right. You need to take care of yourself. For months you have been putting all of your energy into Anna. Being there for her emotionally, picking up her dry cleaning, giving her rides, and loving her to the best of your ability. All to realize that she never really cared about you, not even as a friend. A friend wouldn’t play with your feelings like this.

You continue to chat with your friends for a little while longer. Eventually you grow too sad and too tired to keep up the conversation. You excuse yourself for the night and head up to your bedroom. Not in the mood to do your night time routine you just chuck off your clothes, put your cellphone on your night stand and cuddle under the covers.

Your mind keeps turning in circles as you lay there. The happiness you had felt earlier today has turned into a deep sadness. And for the first time since Gigi told you about Anna you allow yourself to cry. As silent tears move down the contours of your face you burrow into your pillow; just praying to yourself that you can fall asleep. Anything to stop the pain.

You briefly wonder if Gigi’s friend Janine is in the same state you are right now. You know more than likely she is worse off than you. Janine's entire life is in shambles. Her husband is awful no doubt about it but you just can’t wrap your head around Anna getting involved with a married man. Nothing makes sense anymore but maybe you never had a clue to begin with.

#Scarlett johansson x reader #natasha romanoff #scarlett johansson #natasha romanoff x reader #he's just not that into you

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zabala0z · 2 days ago

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Welcome back to the first episode of “Listening to TMA S5, blind” I’m your beloved host and guys. Guys guys. I actually am freaking out.

MAG 161: Dwelling

I’m actually screaming. Hearing the old gang actually made me want to cry. SASHA. SASHA I MISSED YOU :(( also Elias: “I’d like to keep an eye out” you think you’re so fucking funny. I loved the very off key singing of Happy Birthday. Accurate. I wonder if Elias/Jonah sent the tapes for a reason. It’s definitely not to gloat. Is this apart of a wider web of manipulation? The Web style? Also, the fact Sasha could’ve been head archivist. Jesus

Hearing the description of the entities, that they don’t care enough to keep humanity fed and watered unnerved me a lot actually. I don’t know.

MAG 162: A Cozy Cabin

GERRY!!! Nice to hear him as a human, without all the ghost-like qualities. Although hearing Jon rewind the tape over and over and over and over again just made me feel bad.

And then Sasha and Tim.

“we had the ill-advised hookup, the awkward aftermath, and the gradually rebuilt friendship, but – that’s all season two stuff. We’ve got like five more seasons before we get the heartwarming epilogue that makes it canon.”

“No. You took it too far! I’m unforgettable!”

So what if I just ended it all?

Also Jon’s monologue. For a bit, I thought he was “knowing” one of Martins poems that he made during this since Martin was the one who did not like staying at the cabin but no, I was wrong. But time to see the outside world

MAG 163: In The Trenches

I wanna go back to the cabin.

I love TMA so much because of how the format switches up every season. Like season 1 was pretty simple enough with season 2 having Jon add in those supplementals and having a new setting (the tunnels). Season 3 cranks it up with having live statements from recurring characters, statements read by others, and dropping some lore. season 4, while similar to season 1 in terms of format, has Martin reading statements, more god damn lore and some new settings. And now season 5 has uh all this. It’s so amazing and I love it and I’m terrified.

Hearing Jon describe everything going on actuslly made me horrified. Like I got spooked out by the statements but this made me feel so much dread like I’m not even kidding. I also wanna know more about that weird ass doctor and the man with the red flower. Avatars of The Slaughter I presume.

Also that phone. ???? What???

MAG 164: The Sick Village

Gross. While the previous episode made me experience horror, this made me feel disgust. Disgust that just burrowed into my bones (get it. Cause..the episode-). I had such a deep instinct of repulsion. Like actually. I also read the triggers just cause you can never be too careful and I remember thinking, “how can xenophobia be involved with The Corruption?”…apparently xenophobia was very prevalent

Now I know where the whole “Martin’s middle name” thing comes from. I’m glad Basira is alive. And heart broken at the tragedy there is. She’s always chasing Daisy and Daisy is always chasing another thing SOMEBODY SEDATE ME

I think Georgie and Melanie are in the tunnels. It’s been established before that Elias can’t see in the tunnels which probably means Jon can’t see them. I’m glad they are safe. They need it.

Helen! Nice to see her again, I actually cackled when she said “check up on the happy couple”. Nice to see a confirmation about the relationship. This is like the worst time to be dating someone though 💀 Helen’s so happy. I’m sure she has a ton of people in her hallways. I don’t know if she’s lying about the “friend thing, but it’d be funny if she wasn’t

Okay. That’s everything. Sorry for the long wait, I had to take a break after season 4’s finale and then ANOTHER one after listening to the first 3 eps. This is like, actually heavy. Kinda draining. But god, I’m actually going insane.

I want to know how this is going to be fixed. Like. There’s gotta be some happy ending. ??? Right??? Please tell me there is one.

#the magnus archives #tma #tma podcast #zabala0z thoughts #tma s5 #the magnus archives season 5 #Jesus #this is just a lot #also I now have 5 friends who started listening to TMA because of me #I’m a plague onto society #get it #plague #sorry

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geddy-leesbian · 2 days ago

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A Miracle Too Good To Be True (one-shot)

Leon exits the elevator, expecting to be confronted by yet another abomination that mutated itself beyond recognition. Instead he's greeted with a miraculous sight for sore eyes, an old friend that must be in Valdelobos for the same reasons Leon is.

But sometimes you have to be wary of a miracle too good to be true.

(This isn't a first draft but also isn't quite the final version either. Eventually I'll post a more complete version of it to AO3 that's more polished and has more of the Krauser fight on screen, as well as a longer conversation at the end. I'm just too excited to wait to post this 🤭)

Leon would be lying if he said he wasn't annoyed when the elevator doors opened and he saw that Luis wasn't alone this time. Even though she was small and huddled in a corner behind Luis, who was shaking the container with the suppressant and talking, Leon's eyes were drawn to the little girl immediately because she stuck out like a sore thumb. Leon may have been inclined to think she was Luis's daughter if it weren't for the fact she looked nothing like him. She looked nothing like anyone in Valdelobos. She was the first child, dead or alive, that Leon had seen during the mission. Her hair was a bright red, and her skin was pale; not the sickly pallor complexion some infected took on, but simply the healthy pale shade that tends to come packaged with red hair. Leon couldn't get a good look at her face, but he could see that her clothing was also unusual. She wore a bright yellow raincoat that appeared to be too big for her small body and a pair of pink sneakers. Nothing like the dreary old clothes he'd seen on Valdelobos's other residents.

Leon wasn't upset at the girl, nor was he annoyed by her specifically. It was just that an extra person meant another layer added to his already difficult mission. Get Ashley back from Saddler. Protect Luis so he can remove their plagas in his lab. (While Luis wasn't exactly a basket case, he's still not the greatest in fights.) And then, protect a child. A child Luis was tight-lipped about, only saying that her name was Lucia, they had to take her with them, and that she wasn't infected. Leon accepted it, but he still wasn't happy about the new wrench in his plans.

But much to Leon's surprise, Lucia's presence didn't interfere with anything. Half the time he forgot she was even with them. During quieter moments she either walked behind Luis, clinging to him like glue, or rode on his back. When there were fights that couldn't be avoided, she ran away from Luis and found a crevice or nook she could squeeze into, only coming out of hiding when the sounds of gunfire ceased and Luis called out that it was safe.

Luis wasn't entirely useless either. He didn't contribute much when they were just fighting ganados, but once they started running into invisible bugs, Luis was suddenly more useful than Leon. Leon heard buzzing and looked around, scrutinizing and shooting at rocks, shooting into the air repeatedly like a madman, and nothing happened. Luis heard buzzing and after just one or two shots from his Red9 a bug would suddenly become visible and then fall to the ground, dead.

Somehow they made it to the elevator miraculously unscathed. Lucia didn't have a scratch on her, and the only injuries Leon and Luis acquired were superficial and easily treated with herbs.

“Okay, Luis, time for you to finally give me some answers,” Leon demands after he's treated his wounds, reloaded his arsenal, and gotten the elevator moving. “Talk.”

“Lucia was an Umbrella test subject,” Now that Leon really has him against a wall, almost literally, Luis drops his frustrating habit of dodging questions and isn't beating around the bush at all. Lucia is standing in front of Luis, and he covers her ears with his hands as he starts to talk. Leon almost laughs. The kid's been watching them brutally fight their way through the mines, seeing god knows how many ‘people’ die in gory ways, and yet Luis is trying to shield her from a conversation. “She was an orphan Umbrella scooped up from foster care. The parasite implanted in her was a slow growing one, it would take years to fully mature. So it was decided she needed to be treated differently from other test subjects to ensure behavioral issues wouldn't be a long-term hindrance. I was her… handler, for lack of a better word. I pretended to be her adoptive father and built a relationship with her, that way she wouldn't resist procedures or tests if I reassured her. At least, it was supposed to be pretend. I was too soft for the job, I got attached and actually did love her as a daughter. I left Umbrella when her parasite was nearly mature and she would die if I didn't remove it soon. I managed to smuggle her out. I promised her she would never be anyone's experiment again. I promised that, once I removed the parasite implanted in her, there would be no more needles. I promised she would never be a test subject again. That's how I ended up working for Los Illuminados. It was a real deal with the devil type of situation. Saddler said that if I didn't work for him, she would be given to another team to use as a test subject. But as long as I worked hard, he wouldn't let anyone touch a hair on her head. What was I supposed to do? If I left the village with her, Umbrella would eventually find us and I would be murdered and Lucia would be at the mercy of evil scientists again. And if I stuck around here but refused to work for Los Illuminados, same thing. They would take her away from me by force and she'd become the newest test subject to torture. Working for Los Illuminados was the only way I could keep my promise.”

“I still don't get you though. Why are you helping us? You just want to keep your… daughter safe and get out of here, why not just do that now instead of staying longer to help out me and Ashley?”

“Because what I did was selfish. I worked for Los Illuminados just to save my daughter. I contributed to the deaths of hundreds to save a single life…” Luis pauses and looks away from Leon for a moment, trying to wrangle his thoughts. Suddenly he looks like shit– or maybe he's looked like shit this entire time and Leon just hasn't looked closely enough to notice until now– regardless, Luis looks weathered beyond his years. There's far more gray in his hair than a man of his age should have, there's dark circles under his eyes, his face is gaunt and ragged… It's a shocking contrast to the little girl in front of him, with her wavy red hair, pale skin with a healthy pink tint, and full cheeks. Leon is sure that at least some of Luis's worn appearance can be attributed to him regularly skipping meals to make sure his daughter never went to bed with an empty belly. “At the time, I felt justified. I never made any promises to keep the world safe, I made a promise to keep her safe. But still, maybe it was wrong. Maybe saving hundreds of lives would outweigh the wrongness of breaking one promise. But I can't turn back time, I have to live with what I have and haven't done, and helping you is my way of-”

Lucia suddenly slaps Luis's hands away from her ears.

“Monster! Outside the elevator.”

Leon looks at her skeptically, and Luis explains. “The thing about her being an Umbrella test subject? Yeah, she's got a sixth sense that senses BOW's. That's how I was able to shoot all those invisible bugs easy, she told me where to aim because she could see them,” Done addressing Leon, Luis kneels down to talk to Lucia. “What kind of monster?”

“Not the ganados or bugs, someone like… Méndez? Saddler? Not them, like them.”

“Great. I was starting to worry that we'd make it outside without having to fight one more mutating freak,” Leon quips, double checking that all of his weapons and herbs are ready to go. “You stay in here, I'll go check it out.”

“Major Krauser?” Luis hears from within the elevator. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Luis is aware of who Krauser is. He doesn't need to ask Lucia if the man Leon is talking to is the monster she's sensing, he knows that Krauser was host to a dominant plaga. What he doesn't know is how Leon knows this guy. And what Leon doesn't seem to know is that this guy is, in fact, the BOW Lucia warned him about.

“Long time no see, rookie.”

“What? Why are you here?” The dominant tone of Leon's voice is still disbelief, but there's also a hint of relief to it. “Are you on some other top secret operation to stop Los Illuminados that no one bothered to tell me about?”

“Were you really all by yourself in that elevator, pretty boy?” Pretty boy? Luis already had enough questions, he did not need to hear that. He dares to poke his head around to catch a glimpse of what's happening. Krauser slowly circles Leon, eyeing him up and down like he's a piece of meat. “I wanted to see my pretty boy again, but that was just a nice bonus. I came down here to recover some stolen goods, and kill the rat that took them. I thought he was with you.”

“You mean Luis?” Krauser's back is currently turned to the elevator and Leon glances over his shoulder at Luis who is gesturing wildly, making a knife slicing motion against his neck. Leon seems to pick up all of Luis's intended messages. “I killed him. Found out he was Umbrella, and you know what those assholes did to me and my friend, so I killed him.”

Luis feels a wave of relief wash over him. Leon understood Luis's message, and he's playing the situation perfectly.

“Just like that? You really snapped and killed him that easily? That doesn't sound like the rookie I knew,” Leon's hand inches towards his knife. “But maybe you have changed. How about you show me what you're made of now?”

Luis readies his pistol, and then watches helplessly as Leon and Krauser begin to fight. He wants to help Leon. It's the first time a fight has truly been neck and neck. Luis was used to watching in awe as Leon decisively won every fight, watching a fight with no clear winner made his stomach churn. Leon should be sweeping the floor with this guy like usual. He wants to step in to tip the scales in Leon's favor, but both of them are moving far too fast for Luis to get a clear shot. If they're still talking, Luis can't hear it over the clanging sounds of knives clashing.

He whispers to Lucia to turn around or go back into the corner of the elevator, but she doesn't listen and continues watching anxiously. Luis doesn't argue further, he can't risk drawing Krauser's attention to himself and Lucia. Right now Krauser believes that Luis is dead and Leon has no one to back him up, he's not going to throw that advantage away.

Eventually Luis gets an opportunity to act. Krauser has Leon on the ropes. He's dangling over the abyss, and will fall to his death when Krauser takes his knife to his hands that are desperately holding onto the edge of the platform. Luis springs out of his hiding spot, shooting a volley at Krauser's hand and hoping at least one hits its target.

Krauser isn't as surprised by the “surprise” attack as Luis hoped. A bullet does appear to graze his arm, but he doesn't even flinch, let alone drop his weapon.

“I knew I smelled a rat,” Luis at least accomplished his main goal, Krauser's attention is now focused on him, giving Leon time to climb back up onto the platform. “And I knew that rookie wouldn't have had it in him to just cut someone down.”

As the arm around his throat tightens and his vision begins to blur, Luis desperately prays to a god he doesn't believe in that Lucia followed his instructions and stayed in the elevator and wasn't watching all of this. But suddenly Krauser releases him from the chokehold and shoves him to the ground. Not prepared to do anything to break the fall, Luis groans in pain as his body hits the ground, and there's a crunching sound as his glasses are smashed between the ground and his face. But broken glasses are the least of his worries…

“You know what, rookie?” Krauser walks over and puts a foot on Luis's back, lest he start thinking there was even a chance he could get to his feet and flee. “Killing this rat was my job, but I think I'll let you do the honors instead. Come finish him off. Think about what his employer did to you and your friend. Think about what he did to us in the jungle. You remember. All those things Javier sent at us were from Umbrella Europe. Come get your revenge. Then you and I can settle our score on a more fitting battlefield I've been preparing just for you,” Leon takes a step towards Luis, and Krauser takes his foot off of Luis. “That's right. Come finish him, then I'll be waiting for you in our arena.”

Luis hopes that Leon is considering the offer. Neither of them are in great shape, Luis can't imagine a situation in which they both leave alive. The best he can hope for is that Leon comes and kills him, buying himself some time to patch himself up, get Lucia from the elevator, and then fight Krauser with better odds than he has in his current state.

Suddenly Luis hears and feels a heavy object hit the ground a couple feet away from him. Luis opens his eyes in time to see another object, a brick, come hurling towards Krauser, making contact with his shoulder. Leon and Krauser both look confused.

Lucia. It must have been. A normal girl of her age wouldn't have been able to throw a brick that far, but Lucia isn't a normal girl. Luis looks up at the platform where he left her, and up at the various crates, but doesn't see her. She must have hidden herself. Hopefully Krauser can't see her either.

Finally a third brick hits, and it's a bullseye, bonking the top of Krauser's head. Krauser's far too tough to be incapacitated by a single brick, but he is annoyed.

“I don't have time to play with some brick throwing coward who won't show his face!” Krauser yells. “I'll be waiting for you, Leon. Your little friends are welcome to come to the battlefield too, but they'll have to show their faces and play fair.”

The moment Krauser vanishes from sight, the only people who exist in Luis's world are him and Lucia. He ignores both his own injuries and Leon's as he scrambles to his feet and rushes to Lucia, who came out of her hiding spot. He fusses over her for a couple minutes. He knew that Krauser didn't touch her, but it didn't stop the paranoia. Then he heaps the praise on her for her quick thinking and bravery. Once he's satisfied that Lucia is okay, he finally turns his attention to the slumped over Leon, kneeling on the ground next to him.

“You better not be dying on me. I watched you walk off a chainsaw injury, a few stab wounds aren't going to keep you down,” Luis says, looking over Leon and then readying some supplies to tend to his wounds. Leon's eyes flutter open and he, for reasons he will choose to believe are related entirely to some blood loss clouding his mind and the emotional impact of seeing Krauser again, finds himself looking up at Luis and leaning up to kiss him. Luis gently pulls away and tries to focus on the wound on his shoulder, the rejection making Leon pout. “We can do that again when you're not at risk of bleeding out, okay?”

Leon mumbles out a yes and lets Luis focus on tending his wounds, the worst of them being stitched up by surprisingly delicate hands, the rest getting a can of first-aid spray. Then he gets Leon to eat a few herbs. It's only when he's done that he realizes he had an audience, Lucia sat cross legged with a concerned expression a couple feet away.

“Is he okay?”

“He will be, princess,” Luis reassures with a pat on the head. “He just needs a bit of rest.”

“Yeah, I'll be fine,” Leon says, already a bit perked up from the herbs. “Thanks to you and those bricks. Me and your dad would have been toast if you hadn't stepped in.”

Lucia beams at the praise and scoots over, resting her head on Leon's uninjured shoulder. “We can rest here. There's no more monsters.”

Luis is shocked by her behavior, not only talking to someone but trying to cuddle. Due to her having spent the majority of her life in an Umbrella laboratory or Valdelobos, she was scared of people. Méndez had tried talking to her when they first came back to the village, before he was infected, but she wouldn't say a word to him and would try to hide behind Luis. Luis was the only person she wasn't scared of. But even though he wants to encourage this breakthrough, he doesn't want her to pester Leon. Before Luis tells Lucia to give Leon space, Leon gently pushes her head off his shoulder, but only temporarily– he moves his arm to wrap it around the back of the girl's body and then leans his head against hers. She's exhausted and can barely keep her eyes open. Luis makes himself comfortable on the other side of her and idly runs his fingers through her hair.

“Can you promise me something?” Luis asks after Lucia eventually dozes off.

“Depends.”

“If something happens to me, don't leave Lucia behind. I know you already have a lot on your shoulders without a kid to look after, but-”

“That's a promise I can make. It's not like she's deadweight, she saved our lives. We would have walked right into an ambush and Krauser would have killed us if it weren't for her powers. He would have killed both of us if she hadn't started throwing those bricks. She's a good kid.”

“What about me, Leon? Am I a good man? Despite the shitty life I've led?”

“If you're a shitty person, so am I. I'm not a government agent because I want to be. I was in Raccoon City that day,” Leon doesn't need to say the date, Luis is smart enough to know. “I found a little girl there. She was implanted with G. I got her a vaccine, we got out of the city just in time. Then the government came and ‘rescued’ us. We were taken into custody. They told me Sherry was valuable because of her infection. They had scientists itching to experiment on her. But I was valuable too, surviving Raccoon City showed I had a lot of potential. They told me that if I worked for them, they wouldn't experiment on Sherry. So I did, even though I had learned the government aren't the good guys. I've killed people who hadn't done anything wrong because the government told me to. I've been on missions with an unnecessarily high amount of civilian casualty because the government didn't care enough to minimize who was caught in the crossfire. Every time I rescue someone, I wonder if I'm actually rescuing them or if it's like when I was rescued and I'm just taking them from one nightmare to another. But I just keep following my orders, because Sherry will get hurt if I don't. A lot of people are dead or fucked up because their lives meant less to me than Sherry's life.”

“Shit,” Luis's eyes start tearing up. “I haven't even thought about what the hell I'm going to do when we make it out of here. What will happen to her.”

“I won't let the government get their claws into her, I promise. Don't know if you've heard of the BSAA or TerraSave, but they're organizations who deal with bioterrorism and victims, and aren't following the US government's orders. I've got friends in both. I'll write down contact information for you. You'll have to take Lucia and run before the helicopter comes to get me and Ashley to make sure you're not on the government's radar.”

“That's a disappointment-” Luis cuts himself off, wanting to reword his statement. “No, that doesn't sound right. It's a relief there's help and hope for a safe future for Lucia and I. But it's disappointing that you're not in that future. I wanted more opportunities to kiss you when we're not filthy and injured.”

“This isn't something I can promise, but maybe I'll try and take a look at my situation again and see if there's any way I can get out without putting Sherry in danger. If I'm ever at a point where it's safe, I'll find you again.”

#title/italics part of the blurb from the rush song the wreckers. which i also listened to on a loop while writing this #the extended conversation will have leon talking more about krauser #luis serra #leon kennedy #serennedy #serrennedy #resident evil lucia #my writing #💛𝓛𝓾𝓬𝓲𝓪💛

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aspoonofsugar · 2 days ago

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What do you think so far of season 2 of Arcane ? Honestly I think for my part that it’s too rushed and there are too many storylines it’s so confusing. Besides they completely destroyed Vi and Caitlyn relationship lol the disappointment is high

Hi!

I am sorry you are not enjoying the season very much. On my part I am loving it and I am looking forward to the final act!

I think much criticism I have seen stems from the very own premise of Arcane as a show tbh. I think there are two things to clarify.

First thing to clarify

Arcane is in the end a League of Legends show. Its main commercial goal is to explore the Lore of the Game, so that new fans can be brought in and old fans can have fun spotting easter eggs. As a result, it takes some choices that in another story you wouldn't have. Two examples:

1- Mel's arc feels out of the blue, but it ties into the lore of the game (I heard they wanted to make Mel into a new champion? If so, she is probably going through an arc where she is receiving magical abilities, as smart as fuck and good at politics isn't exactly a set skill that works in LOL). It is a storyline you would not usually add, as you would not usually add the Black Rose shenaningas. They added it because it probably lets them add a new champion to the game and it lets them play homage to another popular character of the game. That said, Mel's own storyline has the potential to tie nicely with the main plotline:

a) Mel's disappearance does in fact have an impact on the narrative, i.e. it lets Medarda do as she pleases in Piltover. If Mel were around, there is no way she would have let her mother establish Martial Law without a fight. I think Mel could have also had a positive influence on Cait. Not only that, but Medarda's love for Mel humanizes her character and gives more depth to her relationship with Caitlyn. It is obvious Medarda and Cait's bond is one where they are projecting on the other a loved one. Cait finds a new mentor figure/mother after Cassandra's death. Medarda finds a new mentee figure/daughter after Mel's disappearance. They are not mother and daughter, but they project on each other a need they both feel, as they are both grieving.

b) Mel has always been linked to Jayce and Viktor's B plot aka Arcane plot, as she, Viktor and Jayce are the ones who created HexTech. This season Viktor and Jayce have both "touched" the Arcane, which has traumatized them in opposite ways. In a sense, they have both lost their humanity in the pursue of progress. Moreover, they have both become entangled with magic. Well, even if I know very little of LOL Lore, I think it is safe to assume Mel inherited some kind of magical ability. The fact she is trapped in some kind of magical dimension where she has to decipher old runes makes me believe her experience is not very different from Viktor and Jayce, thematically. They all pursued progress through science, only to now face something of wild and irrational. Also, Mel being the one with the higher magical potential among the trio could be pretty interesting.

2 - I would not have wanted Vander to come back in any other series and was skeptical about the choice of having him be Warwick. That said, I also understand it makes a very interesting background for the champion, so I understand why they made this decision. What's more, I actually like a lot how he has been used. Instead of being reduced to a simple agent of chaos, he has been used as a catalyst in Vi and Jinx's arcs.

Basically, they are taking choices, I would not recommend in any other story. However, they are making them work pretty well both for Arcane and for LOL.

Second thing to clarify

It is true Arcane is an ensembled cast and it balanced different pov rather well in season 1. However, this does not mean that ALL characters have the same importance. I think both season 1 and this season so far have made very clear that the story has ONE main character, that is Jinx:

She is the one given the major focus BY FAR.

The whole first season is her journey to become the Jinx in the games, which is symbolically why the season ends with her embracing this alterego. Every other major character's plotline in the main A plot is after all tied to her. Vi wants to save her. Silco wants to control her. Caitlyn wants to arrest her. She is the reason why Cait and Vi meet each other in the first place. Not to count she also unwillingly kicks off the B plotline by having Jayce's research come to light.

The second season so far has revolved around her, as well. This time she is going through a journey, where she tries to fix what she has broken. At the same time, she has to accept the consequences of her own actions. She grieves Silco, connects with Sevika, adopts Isha and tries to mend her relationship with Vi. Meanwhile, all the other major characters are impacted by her. She is at the centre of the conflict between Vi and Cait, for example. She is the one who almost kills Viktor, so that Jayce tries to resurrect him. Finally, she becomes the centre of the major conflict between Piltover and Zaun.

In short, I think it is fair for people to be annoyed their faves are not receiving the screentime or focus, they had hoped. However, I think that so far the series has been coherent in keeping Jinx at its center. We'll see if it will be so for the ending, as well.

Finally, I don't think Vi and Cait's relationship was ruined. I think the conflict among Vi, Cait and Jinx is actually my favourite part of this season. I will add that their conflict is actually a mirror of the first season:

Season 1 has the first act focused on Vi's relationship with Powder and it ends with their separation / Season 2 has the first act focused on Vi's relationship with Cait and it ends with their separation

Season 1 has the second act focused on Vi and Cait's relationship, as Vi looks for her family / Season 2 has the second act focused on Vi and Jinx's relationship, as they look for their family. Both relationships start as conflictual and slowly grow better

In season 1's third act, Vi fails to reconcile her relationship with Cait with the one with Jinx. We'll see if in the final act of season 2, she will fare better.

In short, it has never been only Vi and Cait, but always Vi, Cait and Jinx, as her lover and her sister represent two different sides of Vi. Just like Jinx has to reconcile both Jinx and Powder, so Vi has to reconcile both Jinx and Cait. Similarly, Cait needs to reconcile Vi and Jinx as two parts of Zaun.

In conclusion, I do agree that there are a little bit too many storylines, some of which might feel out of the blue. I also understand people wanted some characters to be explored more. However, I also think they are doing a great job at telling the story they want to tell and they are giving the viewers all the elements to understands the characters' developments. Surely, it would have been great to have some dynamics and psychologies explored more, but the writing level stays pretty high.

This does not mean you should like it, though. You probably were more interested in some dynamics and storylines that ended up being sidelined and it is totally valid to be annoyed by it.

Thank you for the ask!

#arcane #arcane season 2 #jinx #vi #caitlyn kiramman #mel medarda #warwick #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

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