#Either way I am imagining a sparring scene

[eldritchships]

Dunno which idea I like more, Paramonos already being a surprisingly competent fighter when he and Zag agree to spar, or Paramonos being rubbish until Zag trains him

[sciderman]

This may be a cold take, but looking back at the living with Aunt May arc, I honestly don't like the idea of Peter hitting Wade being played off as a joke. Even though ppl won't see it that way cus they're both men, it still just rubs off as abusive. I mean, imagine the same scene but what if Wade was a woman? I don't mean to come off as dramatic or rude & I'm truly sorry if I am. I just never understood why couples hitting one another was usually meant to be taken as funny. A nudge or something like that is fine. But full blown hitting or elbow drops kinda sit wrong with me

i think the "what if wade was a woman" line of thought is silly because. sometimes he is a woman. you're throwing a very silly line of thinking at me.

i do think if you're not prepared to see two guys beat the snot out of each other then you probably shouldn't be reading superhero comics. that's kind of what superheroes do. i think "violence is always bad" is a very strange stance for a spider-man and / or deadpool fan to have. i think you're in the wrong place.

most couples aren't spider-man and deadpool. spider-man and deadpool who use violence to communicate because they're bad with words. the text is aware of it.

the text is aware that what Spider-Man and Deadpool have is Not healthy. I’ve never made any allusions to them being healthy. the whole point is that they’re not healthy.

but I kind of only really see a relationship as abusive if there’s a power imbalance. wade is highly trained in like. every martial art known to man. if he didn't want peter to strangle him, peter would be on the floor. he is cool with being strangled. he probably thinks it's funny.

all couples are different. what if they’re a couple of wrestlers and wrassling is something they enjoy and bond over? which is the case for wade and peter. they are superheroes. of course they enjoy to wrassle. I think either of them could easily call it off and say it’s going too far. But they enjoy it and expect it from each other. again. it’s kind of how they communicate. and i think they know each other's limits.

I think they probably have a safeword that they use for any kind of physical thing they have going on, be it sex or wrassling. it might even be “uncle” that seems like it’d be a hilarious way to stop peter in his tracks.

4) what’s depicted in the post you’re being critical of is more tonally akin to like. siblings fighting. it’s a valid way humans interact, like any other. cats play-fight. it’s kind of similar. they’re not actually hurting each other.

(as you can tell by their body language, neither of their tails are wagging, and they’re both smiling, so this is not cruel behaviour. just natural enrichment for spider-men and deadpools to engage in.)

i think a sign of a healthy relationship is knowing each other's boundaries and not crossing them. so maybe there's someone i affectionately put in a headlock. and they think it's funny and they're okay with it. it's part of our language. it's fine if we expect it from each other and we're okay with it. fighting isn't always bad. couples insult each other all the time. if you're not aiming to hurt them, really, it's just fine. not everything is black and white. wade spars with all his partners. they beat each other up. they're boys. let them play.

[ravenclaws-stuff]

Fandom: Black Clover

Character: Luck

Prompt: Volunteering at the Hospital

"Luck." I knock on his door, palms sweating. The door swings open. Luck smiles down at me smiling softly than normal. I shake my head. I must be imagining that.

"Hi um Luck." He leans against the doorway. "What's up?" I look down at the ground, collecting myself before looking at the lightning mage. "I'm supposed to be volunteering at the hospital tomorrow. You see we go around visiting the sick patients, mainly kids. My...um usual partner had to cancel this year." I ramble, tucking my hands into my pockets. "I was wondering if you could possibly fill in? I promise to make it up to you. I am even willing to spar with you." His blue eyes brighten at the promise. "Sure." The tension falls from my shoulders. "Thank you so much, Luck. Oh um, before I forget to. We dress up as elves. That's not a problem, is it?" He shakes his head. "So tomorrow?" He asks. I nod. "Good night Luck."

---

The children laugh as Luck floats through the air dropping presents into their beds . I giggle, enjoying the scene. "Miss?" I look down at the little pale red haired boy. I smile sadly. It was Theodore. He has been here for the past three years. "Yes Teddy Bear?" I kneel down, making it easier to look at each other. "Will Santa make me better? For Christmas?" My heart shatters at the question. Smiling sadly, I reach for his hand. "Teddy, Santa is trying his best but he quite hasn't figured out healing." The little boy nods sadly. "That's okay. I hope he figures it out soon. Maybe Lila can get better next Christmas." I smile at his optimism. "Maybe."

I walk out of the room, pushing back the tears. It's always hard seeing how these kids were so sick and I couldn't do anything to make it better. "Hey, you okay?" I jump, not realizing anyone followed me. "Oh it's just you." Luck stands beside me, a concerned look on his face. "I'm alright. Just hard to see the kids sometimes." He nods, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

After a few minutes, I break the silence between us. "Thank you for doing this with me. I really appreciate it." He chuckles, looking back into the room. The kids are playing with their new toys. "Think I can join you next year?" I look at him surprised. "Really? I mean yes of course." He laughs, letting go of me. "You're really good with them." I say. Luck smirks. "I know." I hum, rolling my eyes. Typical.

"Cookie time!" The kids chant in their room. We share a look before laughing. Time to go back.

Everyone was asleep by the time we made it back to the hideout. "Thanks again Luck. You don't know how much it meant to me. I promise I'll fight you whenever you want."

He laughs, stopping in front of my bedroom door. Leaning down, he places a soft kiss on my cheek. "I would have said yes either way. I just needed you."

[handsome-wise-strong]

I think that's why Im (if not most of us are) drawn to lucemond, its so angst filled. The doomed pair, because we know if their houses weren't so poisoned from the inside, they could've been THE duo of the series.

Sure, maybe they still would've been enemies, but it could've been resolved differently. Many possibilities that the lucemond fandom gets to explore.

Insert some trauma experience or whatever cause its GoT, boom. 'If we die, we die together', or some round about way of 'you fight good'.

Also, like REALLY AEMOND. BLUE. OUT OF ALL THE COLORS YOU CHOSE LUKES COLOR?! Okay, we get it. Do not separate.

See that’s my thing, anon! There are so many possibilities you could imagine for Luke and Aemond. So many different roads for them to have gone down instead of the one they did… but on the other hand, was there ever really any hope for them? Let’s take a look at who they parallel, shall we?

Luke and Aemond are pretty much married in the tradition of their house. (Be delusional with me here for a moment) Not much is known about traditional Valyrian wedding ceremonies except that the couples are wed by blood and fire. Luke and Aemond spilled each other’s blood in the presence of fire. This is a very obvious parallel to both Rhaenyra/Daemon and Rhaenyra/Alicent, especially the latter, because they do the same thing their sons had just moments after the fact.

But on the note of Luke and Aemond being practically wed in that sense, then it’s only natural to compare them to other married couples of their house. That’s where more obvious parallels come into play. Targaryen men have a bad habit of killing their spouses (either intentionally or unintentionally) and Aemond falls prey to that habit as well. Daemon kills Rhea Royce intentionally. Daemon kills Laena Velaryon unintentionally. Viserys kills Aemma Arryn, both a mix of intentionally and unintentionally. And Aemond kills Lucerys both intentionally and unintentionally. The parallel is made stronger by the fact that both Luke and Laena were killed by Vhagar. Daemon, Viserys, and Aemond all sharing looks of horror and disbelief after their spouses die also makes this all the more strong. Once you notice it you can’t unsee it!!

Let’s talk more parallels. Lucemond are pretty much a Daemyra duplicate. Luke being like his mother, the younger of the pair, always being watched by his uncle and in turn, always looking back at his uncle. Luke and Rhaenyra both watch their uncles spar with intrigue. Aemond and Daemon both desire their younger nephew/niece. (I want you to put out your eye. Give me your eye or I will take it / I want Rhaenyra, I’ll take her as she is) Aemond and Daemon both look miserable when seeing Luke and Rhaenyra interact with their betrothed partners — which links directly into Lucemond paralleling Rhaenyra/Alicent as well, as Alicent also looks miserable and furious watching Rhaenyra and her betrothed dance. Alicent gives Rhaenyra a scar, Lucerys gives Aemond a scar. A bit haunting is the Rhaenyra line to Alicent, “I want to fly with you on dragonback,” which we see Lucemond do later on as Aemond chases him across Shipbreaker Bay. A scene which links them directly to another couple again, Daemon and Laena! The scenes are so similar and so different, and it’s eerie seeing Luke and Laena both look back over their shoulders at their partners, Luke with horror and fear and Laena with amusement. Daemon and Aemond move the exact same way, leaning back on their dragons carefreely with smiles on their faces.

Smaller Lucemond parallels to other couples include Rhaenyra/Harwin. Luke giving a shit-eating grin to Aemond with a pig between them, and Harwin giving the exact same look to Rhaenyra, again with a pig there! Harwin calling Rhaenyra boy, and Aemond calling Luke boy.

Why have them parallel so many other canon couples or implied romantically connected characters if they were not meant to be seen as the same? Why have Luke say the line, “I am not free to marry, I am already betrothed.” while looking directly at Aemond if they were not meant to be seen as a married couple?

In conclusion, what I’m trying to say is that this story has been told a thousand times over in the asoiaf universe and in House Targaryen in particular. Lucemond was always going to be a tragic story. But that’s what makes them so beautiful and compelling to me. Their inherently doomed narrative is also probably why so many others were drawn to them like we were, anon! And why so many wonderful and creative fics revolve around their dynamic.

I say keep ‘em coming! I personally can’t get enough of them.

[inosukenumberonefan]

How to catch Kokushibo's eye

Unlike upper rank 2 and 3 I belive he would go for a demon because they're isn't any circumstances where a human would cross his path and live.

You'd have to upper rank 2 or 3 because I feel the only way to get to really talk to him would be challenging him to a blood battle or being assigned a mission with him (Or you could harm one of the demons that are above you but he prolly would dislike you for that)

In these two scenarios you'd have to be about the strength of upper 2 or 3 because

In a mission you have to be as close as you could be to be able to keep up with him and not hold him back.

In a blood battle if you were upper 4 5 or 6 he' wipe the floor with you and absorb you for being so naive and stupid and if you somehow managed to beat him and leave him alive bro would never recover and never talk to you again. (Inferioty complex gonna hit hard)

In both of these scenarios you'd have to be have a specific personality for him not to despise you.

His ideal personality:

Queit: Hes not much of a talker but that does not mean he's a listener after about 30 seconds of you raving or talking about someone not "work" related he gets annoyed. (I headcanon him as not liking loud noises either)

Most of your time spent with him will be in comfortable silence and small talk so you need to be down for that

Loyal: This has been established in the manga that he very highly believes in the hierarchy of the demons so he would not like someone who frequently does not listen to Muzan or complains (I belive the reason he let Akaza live was because of his loyalty to Muzan)

Serious: This is pretty self explanatory. Bro does not like goofing around and he takes getting stronger and being a demon VERY serious so someone who doesn't he'll label them as a distraction and annoyance

Calm: He prefers queit and tranquility so someone who doesn't freak out and get hyper or whatever is VERY MUCH preferred. He needs someone who will address him calmly instead of freezing up in fear (still gotta treat him with respect)

Extra points!

Sharing the same ideals as him which is doing anything to get stronger and training very hard.

Being a training buddy (will elaborate more on this later)

Using a katana as a weapon.

Being turned into a demon by Kokushibo

For age you can either be a super old demon 300-500 years (like him) were you've slowly climbed the ranks maybe going up a rank every 50 or so years until finally you challenge him.

Or....

You can be a baby demon 0-50 years. (The younger you are the more impressed he is) it takes a demon roughly 55-100 to devour enough humans to become an upper rank so being able to climb the ranks faster then most, to him that condems respect.

NOW I HAVE A VISION!

Imagine you're a baby demon just recently turned, you were a previous demon slayer a Hashira or Kinoe. Your skills and powers were already great but now they're out of this world. You've climbed the ranks fast and managed to secure a position in the upper ranks.

Now stick with me... Your BDA is related to your swordsmanship (like Kokushibo's 😽) so you seek him out here's the scene.

"Am I right to assume you used to be a demon slayer Kokushibo-sama?" He stands there contemplating his response or whether or not he should respond.

"As were you." You nod.

"Your blood demon art and sword skill truly are something to behold." You compliment and he tenses up at the praise. "Mines actually quite similar-."

"I have important matters to attend to. Please don't waste my time with formalities." He interrupts.

"I was hoping to find a sparring partner." He wasn't very expressive but you could tell he did not want to do that AT ALL. "I understand your reservations but I do belive its been some time since you've gotta a proper fight and not that I don't find you immensely strong but the Hashira's of this era are out of the world especially with them unlocking the mark, it would be a terrible for any of us to die because we haven't gotten proper practice."

It takes him a while but he agrees because you're also fighting with a katana like a demon slayer and you're matching the power of a hashira so it's a good agreement!

[saturns-cryptid]

Never got to share some of my headcanons for the hfr characters but here we go:

Chai is a blind mf (near-sighted) and needs glasses. Like, right now.

I don’t really know what glasses to give him though. Maybe like John Johanas has. Those could probably suit him.

Korsica is sporty, without a doubt, all about that daily exercise and healthy nutritious diet. What sport would she do though? I think boxing, like with Macaron, would probably suit her, yet I’d also think of kickboxing and maybe some jogging on the side.

On that note, Chai seems extremely flexible, almost if not outright gymnast levels. It remains a mystery for how long Chai had his right arm the way it was before the implant. Maybe he had it like that since he was a baby, but I can imagine him somehow injuring it in his early years, and it was just so severe that he couldn’t get its fine motor skills back. Like, maybe Chai has a degenerative disease that either runs in the family or only affected him due to him being a gymnast.

Or he’s just that naturally flexible and jumpy idk

Another headcanon for Korsica (me fine woman) is that she actually used to play drums and it’s not just a motive that she has in the game with her batons. Maybe she was part of the school orchestra and would only play simple tunes in there, while actually being good enough to pop off any minute. I instantly remember that video “When you’re overqualified for the job” when I think about it.

If the groups were to start a band, then Macaron would def be a piano guy and Peppermint the bass girly.

OKAY i'm gonna go down the headcanon list ting bc i love your takes and i want to respond to all of them properly TEE HEE

would NEVER have thought chai to be blind or in need of glasses tbh, though i'm here for it!! i personally think he would've been more far sighted bc of his ability to snatch onto magnets and grab enemies and stuff... (the thought of him squinting the entire game and hitting any moving robot looking blobs in his field of vision is pretty funny though tbh LOL) ... also i looked up john johanas and it's been a hot minute since i've booted up the game but i SWEAR the ones with the thick black frames are an actual pair of glasses you can get in the shop for chai and i am SOOO doodling that if i have the time

korsica is absolutely sporty. proof: sporty fit in shop. also she's head of security she literally HAS to stay in shape to spin that thang around. (also idk if it's just me but it's implied her batons are pretty heavy bc there's this one specific scene during her boss fight when the game is like "okay scratch parrying everything!" where she strains JUST a little bit to get into the spinning motion so she is SOOOOO absolutely muscular). ALSO did not think about korsica and macaron sparring!! macaron doesn't seem like the type to spar at his age LOL... but maybe he'd be up for it occasionally post game :0!!

i definitely think he would've tried to stay limber growing up all things considered, he has WAYYY too much stamina if he can beat up all those robots LOL but now that you mention it, he DID practically fold in half at the very end of the first stage... BUT i personally hc he has monoplegia as a result of an accident when he was really young as opposed to something he was born with. i'm by no means a medical expert, but it sounds... medically inaccurate for a degenerative muscle disease to stay in one arm? (if you ask me tho, i think he would have a brachial plexus birth injury IF he were to be born with it, but again) take that with a fistful of salt, i'm not a doctor and i don't know shit

i don't have much to say for the last two, i agree with you for the most part BWAHGAHGW i love the idea that if someone asked korsica about why she chose the weapons she chose, she'd just say something like "hitting drums, hitting people. same difference." and shrug BWAHWBJAHGSHJF

[mcclainwilla]

Writing Fight Scenes Part 5 - Kicks

I mean to write/post this two months ago, but I got sad and busy with school. I am still a little sad but I'm of school so let's fuckin go

As someone who did a lot of taekwondo, I know a thing or two about kicks.

Purposes of kicks:

Creating/diminishing distance - if you hold out your arm and your leg at the same time, you'll see that your leg stretches farther. Because a kick reaches farther than a punch, they can be used to stun an opponent while moving closer, or keep them from pursuing when withdrawing

Wearing down an opponent - repeated kicks to the legs/hips/etc. won't end a fight, but it'll definitely take a toll on a character

Power strike - kicks are very powerful and can be used to pretty severely fuck up an opponent **women can often kick harder than men! This is something I will talk about in depth, in another post

Risks of kicks:

Kicks sap more energy - a kick is a 'larger' movement that requires more effort than a punch

Kicks are slower - because a kick moves more mass (a leg is heavier than an arm) and requires a character to shift their weight, they take longer to reach their target and are therefore easier to dodge

Kicks leave you vulnerable - while a character's kick is en route/returning after being thrown, they are standing on one foot hoping no one knocks them over

Now I'll talk about some different types of kicks, their uses, and whether or not I ever want you to write about them

Stun kicks:

As the name implies, these kicks aren't meant to wreck an opponent, they're meant to stop an opponent from getting too close/set up more powerful attacks. Remember when I talked about the sparring stance? (If not, go look at part four.) When standing in a sparring stance, stun kicks are thrown with the front leg. This takes away their power, but makes them faster

Snap front kick:

Travels in a straight line. Lead with the knee, hit with the heel; the height of the kick depends on how high a character lifts their knee. Hit anywhere soft, honestly. Ribs, diaphragm and face are all lovely targets

I see these a lot in traditional boxing/MMA fighting. Useful!

Snap roundhouse:

Travels in a curve - imagine someone is going for a handshake, and a character wants to kick their hand. Once again, lead with the knee, but hit with the ball of the foot (NOT the toes. 'Pull' the goes back to avoid breaking them). Aim at ribs, kidneys, liver or face.

I also see these a lot in professional fighting. They're just a little slower than snap front kicks because a character has to turn the foot they're balancing on to avoid torqueing their knee

Crescent kick:

Travels in an arc (when I was teaching little kiddos, we'd call these rainbow kicks. Maybe that helps with visualization). There's two main types - outside in, and inside out. Either way, they're almost like a slap-in-the-face kick. Crescent kicks are some of the ONLY times a character needs to point their toes - this engages the muscles in the blades of their feet, which is the part of the foot this kick uses. Aim to the face, mostly

I do not recommend these - they're slow (and therefore easier to dodge) and they fucked up my hips

Power kicks

Now we're talking! From a sparring stance, power kicks are thrown with the back foot - this allows a character to gain momentum and, therefore, power. They're slower than stun kicks, but if they land, their worth the hassle

Power front:

Same as the snap front, lead with the knee, hit with the heel. Only this time, a character will 1. Use their back foot and 2. Crunch inward, only to explode outward with the kick - foot goes forward, shoulders go back. This allows a character to put more hip movement into the kick, which increases the power tenfold. Aim mostly to the ribs/stomach - keeping as much of your character's leg bones directly behind the line of the kick makes it more powerful (as such, kicking towards the face with these kinda ruins the purpose)

Highly recommend. Fuck it up, buttercup

Muay Thai roundhouse:

I liken this kick to swinging a baseball bat. This is the other ONLY time your character should point their toes while kicking (if they leave their foot flexed and miss, they'll fold their foot bones in half. Sad!) With the balancing foot, step wide and turn the foot out. Swing other leg towards target, only extending the leg at the last moment. Hit with the shin, and hit low - think ribs and hips

Highly recommend. But be careful not to let your character fuck up their knee - if they miss, they better be prepared to pivot all the way around on that balancing foot, because there's no bailing

Side kick:

This is one I haven't talked about at all yet. Your character will pivot on their balancing leg until they're facing sideways, their back leg now at a 90 degree angle to their body (think sitting in a chair). Then, aiming with their asscheek (not kidding. Point the ass at the target), extend the leg, throwing the hips into the motion by leaning the torso backwards. Hit with the heel, aim for ribs and hips.

Highly recommend. Can you tell I like power kicks?

Fun anecdote, I used to have a sparring partner who was VERY good at these. He'd leave literal black and blue bruises on my hips (bitch) and when we were practicing these using big cushy pads, it wasn't rare for him to blast me halfway across the room

Back kick:

Back kicks are basically side kicks, but with an added turn. This turn generates extra power, but it comes with risks. 1. There's a brief moment wherein your character takes their eyes off their opponent, 2. the opponent will definitely know what's coming, and 3. the turn can knock your character off-balance if they're not careful. The direction of the turn can be tricky to understand, so just know that the character will turn towards their back foot. Then, look over the shoulder/find the target, aim with the ass, and do a side kick with a 20% power buff

Like I mentioned, these are more powerful than side kicks, but riskier too. A good time for your character to practice using these would be while sparring a less-skilled partner!

That's about it. Sorry again this took me so long to make :( but I'll start drafting whatever I'm doing for part six next so maybe I'll make another post sometime within the next three months

[brzatto]

So, I am a sydcarmy shipper (I second your complaint about the unorganized relationship tagging system it’s a lot lol) but I can understand why some aren’t and would rather their platonic dynamic stay the same. I honestly wouldn’t be mad about that either, because they already have this beautiful bond after such a short amount of time knowing each other, and I have so much love for Sydney and just want her to be supported. There’s still so much they need to go through in this partnership, particularly Carmy proving that Sydney can actually trust him. His behavior this season once he started seeing Claire was so ooc, and I really don’t want “Logan” to come back in a future season. Personally, I think the Carmy x Claire plot line this season turned out how many apprehensive about sydcarmy getting together feared — the restaurant and the found family dynamic is put on the back burner and screen time is wasted spent on John Hughes style meet cutes and surface level flirting about the wonder years and close ups of unending heart eyes, as well as an oddly lit sex scene. If this is what Storer and Co. would go about romance in this show, I’d rather they spar Sydney from it because she’s too multidimensional and enjoyable to be reduced to such a one dimensional role for the sake of a ship. Per JAW, Sydney is his peace and I’m happy with that for now

if i’m being honest about something even as someone who doesn’t ship them i believe sydney and carmy are going to be endgame, or at the very least if they don’t make it explicit they’ll leave us with an open ending between them. even without shipping them there was a lot of moments this season that just felt.. charged? between them that was impossible to ignore. even with everything i didn’t like about this season i want to believe every choice the creators and writers make is deliberate, and with how well executed the first season was it’s harder and harder to believe that all of that beautiful nuance and subtlety could be disposed of so quickly and thoughtlessly.

obviously carmy isn’t at a place in his life where he’s capable of balancing a relationship with his work, regardless of who it’s with—s2 pretty much just showed us that he doesn’t even think of himself as deserving to. in this last season we saw carmy’s behavior with sydney improve: they bond with each other off the clock in carmy’s apartment, they establish new methods of communication with each other, he lets her know that he’s making a conscious effort to be better, he gifts her the custom embroidered chef whites because he knows how much they mean to her. but also at the same time we see the ways in which he continues to overlook or brush her off: he doesn’t understand why sydney seems to make a big deal out of him not letting her know when they took the walls down, he cancels on her last minute in favor of hanging out with claire, as his relationship with claire progresses he leaves sydney to handle the restaurant by herself and unknowingly validates her fears in whether or not she can trust in him as her partner. with the nature of sydney’s character and how well they’ve handled her so far i can’t ever imagine her relationship with carmy being as simple and fluffy and clean cut as claire’s or her character being watered down for their interactions if they did choose to go that way, but if i’m being completely honest i don’t think it’s in character for sydney to want to pursue carmy like that. i don’t think she would be content with or even want to be in a position where she’s romantically involved with anyone who is her coworker, much less her business partner, much less a man she’s idolized and admired and was previously her boss, much less someone like carmy who is (gestures vaguely.) seeing how she reacted to marcus asking her out—who she has a much better, comfortable and more personal relationship with than carmy—pretty much confirmed that for me and i actually was rooting for sydney and marcus for much throughout seasons 1 and 2. everyone makes fun of carmy for his inexperience/aversion to romance but i think he and sydney are both much more alike in that aspect than people realize; we’ve never heard of sydney having a relationship prior to this at all before either, and even if she has she clearly isn’t interested in having one now. she and carmy are both relentlessly singleminded in pursuing their goals, and as a woman in her industry i just don’t think sydney would want her name to be attached to carmy’s in that way—she doesn’t want to be “carmy’s girlfriend,” she wants to be his partner. she wants to be his equal.

there was so much about this season that felt off to me—the fact that they created and introduce a character as one dimensional as claire when they had no trouble creating perfectly human characters with their limited runtime in the first season, the cheap way they tried to tack her into carmy’s history, the strange tension between carmy and sydney whenever claire is involved, the panic attack sequence, the way everything between him and claire fell apart in the last episode. i don’t think the romance between carmy and claire was ever meant to be permanent; she was a plot device, plain and simple, and the driving story continues to exist between carmy and sydney. maybe they won’t ever explicitly be romantically involved but their relationship as it stands even now does have much more depth and nuance than carmy and claire’s, where they’ve left off with each other isn’t perfect just as it wasn’t perfect how they left off at the end of the first season but they’re progressing.

i think that was the true purpose of s2—simply just to show progress, even when it isn’t linear, and that’s why we see carmy form a romantic connection and jump into a relationship so quickly just for everything to unravel by the end of the season. this goes for more than just his relationship with claire too: we see richie and carmy have the heart to heart in the basement in the first episode, carmy’s intentions for richie are revealed during e7 when richie goes to stage, richie admits to claire how much he loves him, richie tells him to his face that he loves him and yet they still both manage to cross lines with one another at the very end during the fight while carmy’s trapped in the walk in and we’re left to wonder how and when they’ll come back from it. i think we’ll continue to see carmy and sydney’s relationship develop in the future season(s), but (regardless of whether or not they are endgame) i don’t think it’ll necessarily be in the way their shippers would want or expect it to be

[tiny-tim-writes]

Side notes before i begin:

This is supposed to be set in the movie Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse. I imagined it happening before the spiders leaving for the final fight with King Pin.

Miles and Gwen are apparently tgt and married in a few continuities. I like this.

Another side note:

it was written more like a movie script than a story, it flows better to me and it was easier to get my pov/idea across that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So.

Miles n Gwen are training/sparring, a room or two away from everyone else.

Gwen knocks him down once, twice.

Cut to another scene where Miles is fighting a training system and Gwen is on the sidelines, sitting cross-legged on a platform of sorts, giving advice, that he either doesn't understand or doesn't work for him.

He gets knocked down again, to which he says:

It's useless, I'm never gonna be like you guys.

Gwen stops for a second, then two. And three. She seems somewhat thoughtful. She turns the programme off, and stares at Miles, calculating. The longer she stared, the more it felt like she was staring through him rather than at.

Miles: Um... hi?

He does a small wave with an awkward air.

Gwen: Hm...

She signs, jumps off her lil perch and walks towards Miles, looking slightly upset and a bit... self deprecating. Huh.

Gwen: I think I found our problem.

Miles: I'm just not meant to be Spider-Man?

Gwen flicks him, hard. He flinches, rubbing his forehead with a whine.

Gwen: No. It's cause we've being teaching you wrong.

Miles looks at her for a moment, puzzled. He responds, frantic energy coming off him in waves, confusion clear in his voice.

Miles: But... you're Spider-Woman. You've been Spider-Woman for two years! You guys have been doing this basically forever!! You're way better at this than I'll ever be.

Gwen sighs.

Gwen: That's it. That's the problem.

Miles: That you guys are all better than me?

Gwen shakes her head, hands covering her face in either frustration, or exasperation, Miles couldn't tell.

Dragging her hand down her face, her reply was a bit muffled.

Gwen: No, we've been trying to train you like us, when we should be trying to help you find you.

Miles: Help me... find me?

Gwen: Pfttttt- okay, look at me.

He does a quick side glance, it was easy to see his awkwardness at the request. Well, from Gwen, it was more like an order. But still. She rolls her eyes, then refocuses.

Gwen: My costume. Anything defining or that stands out from the others?

He pauses, then stares. His eyes go to her left. Then go back to the right. Left and right again.

Miles: Your hood? Um, the zigzag pattern?

Gwen: Yeah, what else?

Miles: Yooouuuuuurrrrrr shoes?

Gwen looks pleased, but patient.

Gwen: Okay, what about my shoes?

Miles continues at her suprisingly gentle urging.

Miles: Um, your shoes. They're the only teal on you, and wrap around... they're ballet shoes- right?

Gwen's pratically bouncing now, her ecstaticy suprisingly clear for someone who was previously quite closed off.

Gwen: Yeah, but why am i the only one who has ballet shoes?

Miles' confusion continues, but he looks to be piecing it together.

Miles: Okay, they're ballet shoes. So u do ballet. But... is it because u do ballet while you fight?

Gwen: Exactly! I have ballet shoes because i mixed my ballet training into the way i fight. So do the others.

She walked a way off to pace a bit. Her hands waved a little, her hand passing through her hair once or twice, tucking it behind her ears. She was kinda cute when she was being less cold. She turned back to Miles, startling him out of his thoughts.

Gwen: Noir, he mixes boxing. Porker uses Cartoony Logic.  Penny uses her robot to do her Japanese Mecha moves. Peter B. and this dimension's Spider-Man used something he called The Way of The Spider? Apparently, it's supposed to be a mix of gymnastics, martial arts and the spider-sense they both created... in separate dimensions... at the same ti- it doesn't matter.

Miles: Uh, kinda sounds like it does matter-

Gwen turned back to him fully, apparently done with pacing and hand waving. At least for now.

Gwen: The point is: It works for us because it's made for us. I can't box the same way Peter can't do ballet based moves. You can't do it like us because you're not us. You're you. So you gotta find what works with you.

Miles: Uh...huh. and, do i get any help with that?

Gwen: I don't think it'd work out, we don't exactly know what would work for you. Only what would work for us. And last time we tried...

She didn't have to reference it, he could still hear Penny and Porker. Yeesh.

Miles: Yea. I got it. Find myself. Shouldn't be that hard, heh.

Gwen stops, puts a hand to his shoulder. He looks up at her, and she smiles, soft and sure, her eyes a quiet steel.

Gwen: Hey. It's gonna be fine. You'll figure it out. I know you will. It's part of the job.

He smiles back, and she pats his shoulder before walking past, leaving him to his thoughts.

[rodeoxqueen]

Hi! I love your work and I want to make a request if they're are open, how the boys would react with a s/o that has Scarlett Witch(Wanda Maximoff) powers. If you don't want to write about it feel free to ignore and I apologize if I made some mistakes, english is not my first language

Howdy,

Thank you for liking my work. How could I refuse such a good idea? Your English is just dandy, no need to apologize. 

Yours,

Rodeo

Dante 

He’s so giddy that his S/O has powers. 

“Can you read my mind? What am I thinking of right now?” 

“You’re thinking of how nice my butt looks when I wear those black jeans.” 

“Holy crap! Your powers are awesome!” 

“I didn’t have to use my powers to know you were thinking that.” 

He will ask you to get stuff with your telekinesis. Sometimes it’s the remote, sometimes it’s to hand him a beer and a slice of pizza. 

He likes that both of you and him have red eyes when your powers are triggered. 

“Look, we’re twinning.” 

When you spar, you’re definitely more long-range and indirectly offensive. With Dante, you learn to be more head-on and willing to land physical strikes. With you, Dante learns to use his brain more by predicting the moves of more strategic and less brute-forced foes. 

On the actual battlefield, Dante always stays close to you to make sure you can maintain a close focus on your powers and not get jumped by demons. That being said, you also make sure that Dante can get to harder to travel places by using your powers to move him there. 

Dante does so many stunts with your help. You have in fact launched him to the atmosphere with your powers before. He came back down like a meteor. 

You guys don’t really feel the need to use your psychic bond to talk to each other in your heads. Dante blurts out everything he’s thinking anyway. 

Although you easily use your powers to make other people see things and to take their memories, he knows you won’t do for sadism and he thinks it’s awesome. 

The Scarlet Witch and The Red Devil. Match made in Hell. 

Vergil 

Vergil is attracted to you, for you. But these powers? Are a lovely touch to an already perfect individual.

The two of you discuss your abilities often. 

If you can make a doppelganger of yourself with your mental illusions, Vergil will be very proud. 

He always feels the need to improve his strength and durability, training with his beloved is a must. You throw objects at him and make illusions, he cuts them and solves your mind games. 

Vergil has had a history of being manipulated with his mind and body. (Mundus, you a dead man when I find you). He is slightly intimidated by the omnipotent nature of your powers. His growth is in learning that just because you have the powers to do bad, doesn’t mean you have to use them for evil. 

You guide him in strengthening his mind from being corrupted. Imagine the two of you sharing a psychic bond and floating in the air. 

The day Vergil lets you in his mind, you immediately burst into tears. Your lover’s been through a lot, hasn’t he? He trusts you so much, more than anyone before. 

He admires seeing you, scarlet eyes glowing and hands lit with energy. It’s like you radiate pure power. After a fight, your eyes still have a slight sheen of red. He has a habit of kissing your eyelids. 

When you fight, you find yourself dwarfed by Vergil’s protective shadow over you. 

Both of you require a lot of control when you fight, Vergil is precise in cuts and strikes and your hand motions must be detailed for a specific outcome. It’s a relatable thing for you two. 

“My Scarlet Witch, we will inherit the earth.” 

“Okay, but can we get lunch first?” 

“Very well.” 

The Scarlet Witch and The Dark Slayer, red and blue. It’s iconic. 

V 

He himself has very nice hands. But he prefers to look at yours, moving about like a puppeteer commanding whatever you wish. He gives you a few of his rings and smirks at the sight of you raising hell with them on. 

While he depends on familiars and his own physical endurance, you depend on your own mental strength. Separate disciplines that still get along. 

V is fascinated with how you can move things and either mold or break the glass walls of the human mind. 

Sometimes, you use your mind to make illusions for V’s requests. Often you spend your time together recreating scenes from V’s favorite poems. 

V is not too strong in the physical sense, the fact that you are just as strong mentally as Dante is brutal gives him relief that it isn’t all about brute physical strength. 

V is rather fond of listening to you talk about what you can do and how you do it. He is a bit jealous and if he is capable, you could teach him a little of what you know. 

He rarely wishes for you to exceed your usual abilities, but he stares in awe as you crush whole buildings and heave heavy objects like feathers. 

He feels like he is a worshipper to a powerful demigod whose hands and mind can manipulate whole worlds at a time. He wouldn’t have it any other way, knowing how much you love him. 

This man is a fan of kissing your knuckles, knowing what good can come out of your powers. He’s seen you fix what is broken and heal what if hurting with your scarlet witchcraft. 

“My darling. You are a god.” 

“V, more importantly, I’m yours.” 

“And I you.” 

The Witch and The Poet. Icons, the two of you. 

[crispyjenkins]

I dare you to write an Ani5 fix-it fic. I will not be taking criticism and will die on the hill that this is the most powerful ship and could’ve saved the entire clone wars. Bonus points if it features the ship Mace Windu/headaches (bc anakin is a walking mess of shatterpoints and lives to annoy Mace). Codywan to help knock some sense into anakin would also be top tier. I LOVE YOU ZEPH’BUIR

(of course i can’t do a whole fix-it in a quick prompt answer, but i think i’ve set it up for a far happier ending than in canon! support communication and education in relationships (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) and also adhd clones.

fives might be the most i’ve ever struggled with a character (‘cept maybe ahsoka....) so it took a little while to figure out how to write this scene in a way i liked. also, had to go and watch fives clips to try and get my autism brain working, and BOY HOWDY do i actually hate dbb’s take on the clones, especially the accent but everything else too. their character designs make me want to cry. so i’m begging, for me, to imagine this fives like this especially because then we get Tol Anakin and a Smol Clone BF and i think that is a seriously underutilised dynamic.

thank you for the prompt, ad, and for cursing me with this ship in the first place. someday i’ll get around to actually writing them as the battle husbands they are 🧡)

Alt+R to quick reblog on desktop, Hold the reblog symbol to quick reblog on mobile

  Echo's always been good with programming, but Fives is better with the actual building. He's not any good with inventing, maybe, but putting things together? Opening them up and knowing immediately what's wrong? Fives would even say he enjoys it — and being able to talk shop with Skywalker like they're nobody mechanics from the Outer Rim instead of General and Soldier makes the long hyperjumps between missions actually bearable. 

  How that led to him sitting in a rarely used hallway on the Resolute with Skywalker ("Anakin," he keeps insisting with a smile), both leant over a mouse droid in pieces on a drop cloth, Fives isn't really sure. It probably had something to do with Skywalker's excited bounce when he'd come to ask if Fives wanted to help him, the sparkle in his eye reminding Fives just how young the both of them are. How, technically, he's older than Anakin.

  Because, yeah, he is Anakin, not Skywalker, when they're like this. With his growing knight cut a curly untamed cloud around his ears, grease smeared on the underside of his jaw, with Fives stripped down to his blacks from the waist up, with even his blasters set on the floor next to them. 

  With it quickly becoming clear that Anakin doesn't actually need help to rewire the mouse droid, but had asked for Fives to join him anyways.

  They've been at it for a few hours now, their jokes winding down to companionable quiet as they both work on separate parts of the droid. It honestly might have been easier to start from a scrap droid than try to rewire this one correctly, but it's easy work Fives could do blindfolded, and sharing the mutually-focused silence is actually quite nice.

  Anakin is elbow-deep in the outer casing when he finally asks, "Do the clones feel love?"

  And Fives almost gets up and walks away. He knows not every battalion ended up with a good Jedi, that the 212th and the 501st had been so kriffing lucky to end up with "The Team", but sometimes he forgets. Maybe that's the worst part of it: slow, personal moments like this, Fives forgets he's not natborn and bearer of a face shared with millions. Being around his general makes him forget, and maybe he had taken that for granted until now.

  Or maybe it's for that reason that he hesitates from storming off, because Anakin had been the one to name Alpha, to insist on giving them proper leave, to defend them from anyone who talks down at them even if they're a planetary leader. And Rex had said something, once, about Anakin’s brain working in either/ors, being hardwired in some way to only see in black and white and believing that if you're one thing, you can't be another. That what Anakin says isn't always what he means.

  So instead, he asks, "What kind of love are we talkin'?"

  Anakin refuses to raise his head, and Fives can almost see him stressing about how to phrase this.  "Y'know, grand romance and stuff. One-and-onlys and holodrama romcom propaganda and imagining growing old together."

  "'Not quite sure what you're asking, sir." He takes a deep breath. "The short answer is yes, we can and do feel that, but the long answer is I can't speak for every brother, and I would not want to. Some of us don't feel that." Shrugging, he passes Anakin a socket wrench before he can ask for it. "But it's not because we can't, not because of the longnecks. We're bred to be obedient, sir, not emotionless."

  Quiet settles over them again while Anakin processes this, his mouth twisted rather horribly. Fives starts to think he would do a whole awful lot to turn that frown back into a haughty smile. 

  "What do you really want to ask, General?"

  "I'm married to Senator Amidala."

  Now, everyone with eyes knows that. Maybe Torrent knows even better, when they've been covering for their general for over a year now, and clearly the Jedi just aren't doing anything about it — but Fives also knows Anakin has never actually told anyone about this, not even General Kenobi. Rex says Anakin still thinks they've been discreet.

  "If I may be blunt, sir, this is not news."

  And Anakin actually laughs at that, shaking his head as he tosses down his tools to stare at the opposite wall instead. Fives watches his gaze go distant, somewhere far away from the Resolute lost in the middle of space. “I’ve loved her since I was nine years old, Fives. I loved her through not seeing her for a decade, through her assassination attempts and the First Battle of Geonosis and becoming a knight, and I...”

  Fives sighs once. “No one said you had to stay in love, sir.”

  “But that’s just it,” he groans. “I’ve never known how to do anything else, how to be anything else. I don’t... know who I am without it.”

  He has to look away from Anakin, then, because he’s seen brothers go stupid for people they meet on campaigns, or for their Jedi, and Fives isn’t nearly as young as some of the shinies out there, but he knows what it looks like, when they leap in without thinking. He lets out a long, slow breath, his eyes falling on the ‘saber at Anakin’s hip. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

  Anakin blinks at him, and nods.

  “That’s too young to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life.” Fives raises a brow at his general’s startled expression, which is maybe more amusing (endearing) than it has any business being. “General, you’re barely an adult, just the same as the vode. If my mental timeline is right, you weren’t even twenty standard when you married Amidala, which, frankly, was reckless and unfair on her part.”

  “Padmé would never–”

  “I don’t mean intentionally, sir. The fact of the matter is, no wonder you don’t know who you are without her, because you’ve always had her.” That decade of no contact notwithstanding, considering Anakin didn’t not have her, either. “Senator Amidala knew who and what she was before you, and she’ll know who and what she is without you.”

  “That’s not quite fair,” Anakin grumbles, but his throat is flushed in what Fives hopes is entirely appropriate guilt, or at the very least embarrassment. “It was my idea to get married after Geonosis.”

  Fives snorts. “The idea of a child thrown into war, afraid to lose anything.”

  “You’re being uncharacteristically candid, Fives.”

  “Respectfully, sir, the last thing you need is to be coddled.” His general laughs again, this time good and bright in a way he hasn’t heard before; and then Fives can’t help what he admits next. “We weren’t allowed toys, or anything.”

  Laughter cutting off abruptly, Anakin’s eyes grow haunted instead. There might not be anyone else in the galaxy with quite the same experience as the clones, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t those that understand.

  “Hevy made me and Echo– Well, he said they were mythosaurs like Kal taught us about, but they looked more like sad loth cats. He cut up his own bedsheet to make ‘em, and couldn’t tell the longnecks what he’d done with it, so he just slept on the bare mattress.”

  “Fives...”

  But it’s clear Anakin doesn’t actually know what to say, so Fives pushes on. “Some of Fett’s instructors tried to teach us Mando’a, you know? I think Spar is the only brother that ever got fluent, the rest of us have been making up words and combining them with Basic and Kaminoan and whatever else the Cuy’val Dar spoke that sometimes we don’t even remember what language they are anymore.”

  “I didn’t learn Basic until I was five.” Anakin thunks his head onto the wall behind him with a sigh, the mouse droid forgotten at his feet. “Other padawans always told me I was lucky Master Obi-Wan knew Huttese.” Ahh, kark, his general had been a Hutt salve; at least the spice runners made sure their slaves could communicate with their customers. “I couldn’t read a word of Aurebesh when I first came to the Temple, though to be fair, I couldn’t read anything else, either.”

  “You grow up around other kids?”

  “Yeah, my mom and I lived in the biggest slave slum on Tatooine.”

  Fives doesn’t need to tell him how lucky he was just to have had their own quarters. “I think, sir, that the vode know better than you think, what it’s like always standing on the edge of losing everything.”

  Squeezing his eyes closed, Anakin inhales sharply and clenches his fists over his knees. “What happened? To your mythosaur toys?”

  “One of the longnecks found them while we were in training, ‘threw them out before we got back. I think Hevy was even more upset than we were.”

  The leather glove over his prosthesis creaks as he tightens his grip on his own palms. “Was it easy? To just... forget about them?”

  “Of course not,” Fives snorts and crosses his arms, “we were the equivalent of eight standard at the time, but we honestly didn’t have a choice. As we got a little older, we stopped trying to put meaning in things, because we weren’t allowed things. Our names are our only real possession, even our armor can be taken from us, but we will not, cannot, let anyone take our names.”

  Groaning, Anakin scrubs his hands over his face before pushing himself up to finally look at Fives properly. He still doesn’t speak for a moment, just watching him, then teases flatly, “You’ve been spending too much time with Cody and Obi-Wan, you’re starting to speak in riddles.”

  “They are riddles only to you, sir.” He offers a small smile, and is only slightly disappointed when Anakin doesn’t return it.

  Instead, he lets out a winded breath. “So. You’re saying that it’s not easy to let go of even small things, but we must. And then there are things that we shouldn’t let go of?”

  “Some things aren’t ours to keep.”

  Anakin swallows. “Like Padmé,”

  “Like any person, no matter what sort of love we have for them.”

  Groaning, Anakin pulls his knees back up close and drops his face into his arms. “But I still love her.”

  Knowing that this is not a new problem, that General Kenobi has been trying to teach his general this for as long as they’ve known each other, Fives takes a moment to consider. “You don’t really have to stop loving her.”

  “But you said–”

  “You think I stop loving my brothers when they die?”

  Whether or not it’s healthy to hold onto affections for someone after a romantic relationship is a conversation for another time, Fives decides, and leans over to pick up where Anakin had left off with the droid.

  “General, it sounds to me like you already know all this,” he says, twisting a wire into the grip of his glove to yank it from the motor. “And  that you’re digging your feet in — which is the crux of the problem, isn’t it?”

  “You sound like Obi-Wan,” he groans, but doesn’t deny it.

  “Hmm, well, at least we’re still just kids.”

  Anakin very slowly looks up from his arms, just enough for Fives to see his wide eyes. “What do you...?”

  “Well, we’ve still got time to learn, don’t we?” Fives raises his eyebrow as he fits the new wire into the motor and starts to close all the panels back up. “I still think about Hevy and Droidbait and Cutup, and honestly, I still think about Echo’s and my mythosaurs. That’s not a bad thing, I don’t think, not even the Jedi would think that’s bad. I’m still angry when my vode don’t get funerals and I honestly hold that against the Chancellor and the Jedi both. But I don’t get to go back to Kamino and take my anger out on the longneck that took our toys, and I’m... working on it, not being so angry with the generals. I’m still angry. But I know the Jedi have about as much say in all of this as we do, and I know burying my brothers won’t bring them back. So I’m working on it.”

  “I... don’t have to be good at it all at once.”

  “Great Maker, General, just because you’re the Chosen One doesn’t mean you have to actually be good at absolutely everything from the start. You just have to try, and you still have time to.”

  He looks up and finds Anakin already smiling back. “Fives, I could kiss you.”

  “Considering it sounds like Senator Amidala just divorced you, I think that’s a very bad idea, sir.”

  “Bah, you’re no fun.”

  Fives feigns offense, “This mouse droid we’ve rigged to follow Captain Rex around and scream says differently.”

-

  The night the 501st returns to the Resolute after finally (kriffing finally) leaving Umbara, Fives finds a hand-sewn stuffed mythosaur on his bunk, with a string collar and a dogtag etched with CT-782.

-

Mando’a: Cuy’val Dar — “Those who no longer exist”, group of 75 Mando’ade and 25 others put together by Jango to train the clones vod/e —  “brother/s, comrade/s, sibling/s”, technically gender neutral but used most often in fandom as “brother/s” (*in this context, fives is using brothers as gender neutral as well, because you won’t take trans and nb clones even from my cold dead hands*)

[orangerosebush]

What’s in a name?

[ao3 link]

Juliet Butler was used to sharing. The weight of her last name. Her brother. Her space within the manor. It seemed that just by being born at this time, within this family, she was expected to follow a certain path in life that was so far tangled up in the Fowls as to not really be hers at all.

It didn’t surprise her brother when she sat him down at age 18 and told him she was going to try a crack at something new in America with the wrestling circuit, but it did surprise him when she came back a mere three years later. It was shortly after when Artemis checked into the psychiatrist in Haven — she had come to the clinic with Butler and Artemis, and she took the shuttle back to the manor with Butler.

Butler didn’t want to say anything too pointed. They’d have to talk about if she was here to stay for good eventually, but she had just gotten back; he knew that she was proud enough that she’d pack her bags again if she felt he was suggesting her experiment in the U.S. with carving her own path had failed.

So they didn’t talk about it. They both went on, carefully watching each other as they circled around the elephant in the room.

It had been a week since she arrived at the manor, and it looked like they could avoid the subject altogether if they tried hard enough. Their patterns during the day were certainly different enough that they could rely on their interactions being brief enough to make having a conversation about what Juliet was going to do easy to sidestep.

He was far busy enough trying to explain to Mrs. Fowl why her son was staying with a psychologist a few thousand kilometers under the earth’s surface. Neither the mental health conversation nor the magic conversation was going particularly well, he winced. Of course, Mr. Fowl was significantly out of the loop, but he’d never really been in any loop regarding his son. At least with Myles and Beckett, he could trust that Juliet was enough of a distraction from Artemis’ second leave of the family. Both the boys had noticed, of course, that their brother was gone again, but they were too dazzled by the newness of Juliet to ask either their mother or him about where Artemis was.

Butler leaned back in his chair, looking out of his room’s window at the sunlight. The clouds had cleared for the first time in a while, and the Fowl estate sprawled out across the surrounding acres of land. The wing that his room was in faced the old forest on the grounds, and he could just about make out the distant scene of Juliet and the boys by the pond at the edge of the trees. Juliet appeared to be allowing Becket to sit on her shoulders while Myles sat on the grass and looked at the water.

He smiled to himself, feeling the lines under his eyes crease upwards. From a distance, she could have been their older sister. Pulling his eyes away from the glass, he glanced back at the inside of the room. He sighed. Rolling his shoulders, he reached for the book he’d set down on his coffee table last night.

⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢ The manor was quiet. Juliet paused at the bottom of the staircase, hand ghosting over the handrail. If she looked close enough, she could make out the scuffs that Artemis and her brother weren’t quite able to get out of the wall after the troll wrecked the hallway during the hostage situation. She exhaled slightly, a grin quirking the sides of her mouth upwards as she imagined Artemis getting snippy over her usage of ‘hostage situation’. “Please, Juliet,” she remembered him sighing a while back. “It’s rude to leave out the nuance of it all like that”.

She tightened her grip on the banister. Slowly, Juliet made her way up towards her room.

⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢

There was a knock on the door. Butler set his book on his lap.

“Come in,” he called out, fully prepared to see Angeline.

The door opened cautiously, and there was Juliet, her hand lingering on the doorknob.

“Hey,” she scuffed her feet against the carpet. Butler blinked.

“Er, hi.”

They both stood there, self-consciously waiting for the other to say something.

“I took the twins outside.”

“I saw. They seemed to have a good time.”

Juliet shrugged, finally walking all the way in to the room. Letting the door close slowly behind her, she sat down gently on the edge of his bed. “Yeah, I guess. They like the pond. I remember liking getting into whatever was muddiest on the property when I was their age.”

He grinned. Butler remembered taking Juliet outside to run before dark when she was young — she’d always had a wild child energy to her.

“Beckett reminds me of you,” he smiled. “He’s very determined to find trouble somewhere on the grounds I’ve worked so hard at child-proofing.”

Juliet rolled her eyes. “They’re both troublemakers.”

“True,” Butler laughed, leaning back in his chair. Juliet grinned. She stretched slightly, flopping back onto the bed.

“It’s weird being back,” she sighed. “Like, I’m back in my old room, and what’s still up on the wall? The Spice Girls poster I had when I was, what, eight? It’s like a time capsule I don’t even want.”

“I’m sure most twenty-somethings coming back from university feel the same way about seeing the stuff they plastered up all over their room when they were younger,” he chuckled softly.

At that, she sat back up to look at him, putting her weight on her right arm. “I’m not most twenty-somethings, though. I didn’t even go to uni—“

Butler scrunched his face up in confusion. “Do you even want to go to uni?”

Juliet groaned, gripping the duvet in annoyance. “I don’t know if I want to go to uni, that’s the thing! I thought I wanted to go to America, be a wrestler, but then something happened with Artemis. And, a-and I was sitting in the hospital cafeteria with Mulch, and you know what I realized? I’d tried professional wrestling, and now I was bored! I love wrestling! I love my teammates! I love traveling and seeing new people, and getting to be Juliet instead of Juliet Butler. But I still woke up each day loving the gig a little less than I did the night before, and I can’t live like that. You know that, Dom.”

Juliet’s eyes were shining, and she loosened her grip on the bed sheets. Butler set his book down gently on the floor. Standing slowly, his knees cursing him, he moved to sit next to her.

“I missed you,” he said simply. “I’m sorry about America.”

She reached over, putting her hand on his shoulder. “I missed you, too.”

“I want you to know that you can stay as long as you need. I can also help you find an apartment nearby if what you need to is to be here without being here, if that makes sense.”

Juliet let out a small grin, retracting her hand from his shoulder to rub the wetness from her eyes. “I like my old room, but thanks.”

She grabbed a pillow, holding it on her lap and looking up at the ceiling pensively. “I don’t want to just be a Butler for Myles and Beckett, though. That’s never going to be me, I know that.”

“I know. I think the Fowls know that, too.”

Juliet nodded earnestly. “Cool. That’s good.”

“Thank you for talking to me about this, by the way,” Butler sighed, looking at her.

“I don’t care what happens — at the end of the day, I’m still your older brother. I want you to let me in when you’re hurting—“ Juliet scoffed, but he continued. “I know you’re not a child anymore, I know that! But I hate the idea of you feeling as though you have to go it alone because you need to prove something to the world,” he finished, eyes pleading.

The two of them sat in silence, the sound of birds outside filtering into the room the only noise in the room. Finally, Juliet sighed, leveling her gaze on him.

“Okay.”

He started. “O-okay?”

She snorted, throwing her pillow at him. “Yeah, okay, nerd. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

Butler caught the pillow, laughing incredulously. “Okay!”

Suddenly, Juliet’s eyes widened. “I still have to tell my manager that I’m dropping out, shit”

Butler stared at her. “You didn’t tell him?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “I think he knows, considering it’s been, what, a couple of weeks by now? But after you showed up,” she jabbed him with a finger pointedly. “I was so caught up in whatever end-of-the-world business Artemis had gotten us caught up in that I never gave my ‘official’ two-weeks notice, or whatever.”

Butler sat there in silence for a moment, thinking. “I… don’t think you should call him, actually.”

“Me neither.”

“I think he’s going to be pissed.”

“Wow, really? Because I think he’ll be psyched one of the best acts in the group just dropped out without letting him know. Dom, obviously I’m gonna get yelled at by him if I so much as look at my phone.”

A side of Butler’s mouth quirked upwards. “One of the best acts?”

Juliet sniffed. “I was being humble. I’m a Butler, it’s clear I’m the best.”

At that, he laughed, and she shoved him. “Shut up! I am going to let him know eventually. I’m telling Sam that I’m not rejoining the troupe tonight—”

“Sam?” Butler frowned, and Juliet stuck her tongue out at him.

“Don’t be annoying. She’s my teammate. You saw her and I sparring before you dragged me off to Haven. We’re scheduled for matches together, so she, out of everybody, deserves to know first about my decision,” she chided.

“I wasn’t prying!” Butler said defensively.

“Fiiiine, you weren’t prying,” Juliet teased. Butler rolled his eyes.

“So, she’s your teammate. That’s nice! I’m glad you have friends in the troupe.” Butler tossed the pillow back to its original place on his bed.

“Yeah, it is nice. She’s cool, you’d like her. It’s… stupid, but I already kind of miss her,” Juliet’s tone softened. Butler’s eyes widened slightly. Oh.

“You could ask her to visit sometime, if you’d like,” he offered, trying to be nonchalant.

Juliet hummed. “Maybe. I’ll see how things go tonight with her.”

With that, she stood up from the bed. “I’m going to get ready for dinner. I think we’ve had enough awkward sibling heart-to-heart conversations for today,” she grinned, and Butler knew that eventually, things would be okay. Maybe they wouldn’t go back to normal, but that was okay. He had his sister back.

Pausing at the door, Juliet turned to face him. “It’s nice to be back home with you, Dom.”

He smiled. “Love you, too, Jules”

Juliet grinned, closing the door after her, and Butler was left alone. The sun was starting to get low in the sky, and the light cast shadows across his room.

He picked up his book again, running his fingers down the spine to stop at the name of the author. Violet Tsirblou. The book was, in all honesty, quite bad. The dialogue was awkward, the plot stilted, and the characters alien-feeling. Butler felt the smile lines on his face deepen. Artemis must have written it when he was about ten.

Butler put his hand on the window sill, his gaze falling on the pond. Myles and Beckett. Artemis and Juliet.

It would all be okay, in the end. It had to be. Butler let his hand fall from the sill. Sitting back down tiredly, he opened the book to where he had left it.

[penguiduck]

Writing Fight Scenes

I’ve had a lot of readers mention that they don’t feel comfortable with fight scenes.  Well, that’s understandable. It’s challenging writing about experiences you’ve never had.  But with some perspective and practice, you can most certainly work toward writing those fast-paced, heart-pounding scenes with ease.

To give you some background, I practiced competitive martial arts for six years.  I competed in tournaments and trained hard to perform well in the ring. It was a contact sport, and even if I wasn’t sparring, training often left me with bruises, usually of the physical nature, sometimes of the emotional persuasion.

This experience gave me a lot of perspective when it comes to writing fight scenes.

Whenever I step into the ring, I have a flexible strategy in mind that combines what I know about myself, my opponent, and what I’m going to learn about them in the next two minutes.  I’d like to share some of these thoughts and perspectives with you, and how your character may think before and during a match of their own. Of course, my fighting experience is limited to a contact sport.  Your story may very well be far more violent with higher stakes, but strategies may be of similar foundation. Once you take a fight into deeper consideration, aside from the depiction of two fighters merely exchanging blows, you can begin to enrich your writing experience.

I’m including examples from Yu Yu Hakusho because that’s the fandom I write the most for, and as you know, there’s a lot of fighting involved!  But remember — anime and writing are two completely different mediums. There's no one narrating everything that our beloved characters are doing on screen. You just see it. That is why you, as a writer, must paint those scenes through words for your readers.

Nevertheless, this advice really stands for any sort of writing, so do with this information what you will.

A well-written fight scene is never about just trading blows.  There are other conflicts at play, whether between the fighters or even in the heads of your protagonists.

Allow me to elaborate:

1. Who is your protagonist?

Whenever I am preparing for a sparring match, the first thing I worry about is me. I must be self-aware. 

I think about my own fitness.  How am I doing? Do I have any existing injuries or ailments?  How is my weight? My body type? What are my strengths and weaknesses?  What do I have in my toolbox? What techniques do I know? What techniques am I most versed and confident in?  

I also think about my overall wellness. Have I been eating well?  Drinking water? Sleeping? How is my emotional state of mind? What are the stakes?

Is my uniform clean and pressed?  What about my equipment? Headgear?  Mouth guard? Shin guard? Did I replace that torn lace?

I recommend using these questions to bring your character’s own reflection to the forefront in whatever way makes most sense for them.  How is your character’s fitness? Is she in good fighting condition? Has she been injured previously? What has happened since the last fight that might impact her state of mind? 

It’s possible that she’s recovering from an illness or injury.  Perhaps her mentor died a gruesome death. Maybe she’s frustrated because she lost use of her right hand, temporarily or permanently, and has had to compensate with her non-dominant hand.  Or perhaps she’s lost the will to fight, having experienced something traumatic.

Hiei had to constantly think about his own state of health throughout the Dark Tournament after his fight with Zeru.  His arm had been sacrificed to his Dragon of the Darkness Flame, rendered useless, and he was in terrible pain. He never let it impact him, of course, being the stoic warrior he is.  His personality allows for little inner dialogue to be shared with the audience, but as a fighter, he was most certainly considering what options he had with his handicap. And, as a writer, perhaps you would like to elaborate on his thoughts for your readers.

What has your character been practicing lately?  Is her weapon of choice the same? Has it been upgraded?  Has she been training with a different weapon or technique?  Is she perhaps nervous about using something new?

Maybe she just repaired her sword, and she’s unsure if it’s as strong as it was before.  Perhaps she’s been studying a new technique, and she knows she’ll need to use it in this battle.  

Remember when Kuwabara first introduced his spirit sword in Maze Castle?  He was so proud of himself, and that whole battle was an introduction to his newfound technique, how he manipulated his sword, and how he was able to harness his spirit energy.  It’s far more interesting to see this development and exploration than to just watch him stab at Byakko a dozen times.

My point is that while your character probably should keep her emotions out of the ring, she may not be able to.  There are so many things that could be on her mind, plaguing her thoughts, especially if there’s a lot riding on this battle.  I think it’s really important to not only acknowledge the physical part of fighting but the emotional toll it can take a fighter, too.

Think about the fight between Yusuke and Toguro.  Toguro had just killed Genkai, and Yusuke took that very personally.  This was not a simple battle of strength or wits. This was a battle of emotions, and it wasn’t until Yusuke was able to master his feelings and reach beyond that “six foot wall of crap” as Genkai so affectionately calls it that he was able to finally defeat Toguro.

And the catharsis that came from defeating Toguro? It was made all the more powerful because Yusuke went through that emotional journey. It wasnʼt just a fight — it was a calling, a purpose, and a lesson.  It was painful and potent, and it made him realize just how much these experiences shaped him as a person.

2. Who is the opponent? 

Before I participate in a tournament, I do my research.  Who is likely to be competing? Who is in my weight class?  What do I know about these competitors? If I don’t have answers, I would find them.  I’d chat with my instructor, my fellow martial artists. Has anyone else from my school fought these people before?  What were they like? Are there videos online of their performance?  

I find as much information as possible. I make calls, send texts, take people out to lunch, scour the internet for information.  Even if your character lives in a less technologically dependent world, I would imagine that he might talk with friends, look through old records, listen to gossip and hearsay.  He might watch battles leading up to his own fight in an effort to learn more.

And if this pre-work isn’t possible, that’s okay.  Fights in your story may be entirely unpredictable, but your character can also learn things about his opponent during the match.  

When I step into the ring and ready myself to compete, one of the first things I want to find out is on which side my opponent is dominant.  In other words, are they right-handed? Or left-handed? Right-footed? Or left-footed? Maybe they only focus on one side during training (which is silly, but that’s another conversation).  But there could be an underlying reason why as well. Perhaps they injured themselves in the previous round or maybe they just don’t like exposing one particular side of their body for whatever reason.

This information is critical because this tells me what I need to watch out for, which side of my own body I should be guarding, how I may penetrate my opponent’s defenses.  How can I catch them when they least suspect it? Where can I knock them off balance? My instructor always told me to watch the shoulders — shoulders move before the rest of the body.  You can tell what your opponent is about to do by watching their shoulders.

Your character may wish to discover the same thing.  Maybe his opponent uses a two-handed sword and is very clearly right-handed.  This may give him some information on where his blind spot is — or maybe he just needs to disable his opponent’s right arm.  The possibilities are endless, and understanding his opponent will give him leverage, offering him many options.

Understanding an opponent’s technique is also important.  In martial arts, practitioners often favor a strategy or skill.  This seems obvious, but it’s vital that you understand what it is — only then you can combat it.  

Consider Kurama’s matches with Gama and Toya during the events of the Dark Tournament.  The English dub did a wonderful job voicing Kurama’s inner conflict during these fights, struggling with first his inability to move and then his imprisoned spirit energy — if you were to put these scenes into writing, explaining his thought process would be fascinating.  How does Kurama overcome these obstacles? He seeks to understand his opponents before he defeats them, which, unfortunately, also means he risks injury to himself until then.

Your character’s thoughts about the fight, interpreting for your audience what he feels he might need to do to secure victory, is just as important as detailing the fight itself.

3. What about the writing?

The writing will come once you begin to dissect your characters and their motivations for fighting.  Your characters aren’t one-dimensional, or, at least, they shouldn’t be!  

Your fight scenes shouldn’t be, either.  It’s not about two fighters trading blows. It’s about an artfully curated dance.  Two opponents are engaged in a craft that they both know well, and whether they’re fighting to win a tournament or for their very lives, they have reasons and complex thought processes that should make their fight interesting.  

There are two players here, and unless the fight is grossly one-sided, they’re both thinking and acting independently of one another.  My advice is to thread their actions and consequences together — weave the fight scene as if it’s a stream of conscious thought, separated into paragraphs, each with a shift in perspective, for clarity.  

Instead of writing:

Yusuke charged at Kuwabara and punched him in the face.  Kuwabara punched him in the mouth. Yusuke then kicked him in the stomach.

Try this:

Yusuke had little patience for Kuwabara’s bad jokes, and he rushed toward him, landing a blow square in the side of his head.

Kuwabara flew backward with a grunt, stabilizing himself before launching himself at Yusuke, returning the favor.  His fist collided with Yusuke’s jaw, a blow hard enough to knock the teeth out of any regular human.

Yusuke expected him to retaliate, and although he was nearly knocked off balance, he swung his leg around, making full contact with Kuwabara’s stomach.

You may also find it useful to deviate from the fighting itself.  You can speak to a character’s inner dialogue or thoughts, whether about the fight or something else.  You may choose to have them begin a brief conversation. Or you may describe what other characters are feeling about the fight as onlookers.

There are many ways to make these fight scenes seamless and interesting — take some time to explore your options!

Just a few more general tips that might help:

If you’re going to use a thesaurus, be mindful about it. I use a thesaurus when I write because I suffer all day, every day from tip-the-tongue syndrome.  But words, even if they generally fit the same definition, can have vastly different connotations, so before selecting a word from the thesaurus, do some digging.  Look at the exact definition and perhaps Google some common usage. Punch, slap, and stroke do not mean the same thing, even if a thesaurus might say otherwise.

Read your writing out loud.  If you’re unsure, this is the best way to understand your cadence, the flow of the battle.  Use your best Morgan Freeman or Jorge the Ogre voice.

Consider a beta reader.  Sometimes having a second opinion is immensely helpful.

Remember that there are no strict writing rules.  You write whatever your heart desires in whatever manner your heart desires.  Experiment and explore with different styles and techniques to find whatever works for you.

I hope you find this information useful!  Please feel free to suggestion additional blog posts you would like to see from me in the future.  ^_^  Of course, please reblog this if you found it helpful!

Pictures are, of course, not mine.  They are shots from the anime or other official derivatives.

[jackoshadows]

The Expanse and GOT Spoilers.

I have been doing The Expanse re-watch to prepare for the best season ever - season 5 - starting on the 16th. And the writing is so good, even for the secondary characters and their relationships. I can’t help but compare it to the garbage writing on the more popular Game of Thrones.

Watching season 3, and the character dynamics between Camina Drummer and Klaes Ashford is what I think Benioff and Weiss wanted between Jon Snow and Sansa Stark in seasons 6 and 7. There is a tug of war for power and leadership between Drummer and Ashford and the same holds true for Jon and Sansa. Scene for scene there are parallels of the conflict between the characters on both shows.

But context matters. Drummer and Ashford actually work because she’s the new, younger leader in charge of the Behemoth and Ashford is the older, more experienced leader who thinks he should lead because of his experience. On the other hand, it does not work at all with Jon and Sansa. In their case, Jon is the older, more experienced and knowledgeable leader and Sansa is the younger sibling trying to make the case that she knows better than him and therefore should be the one making the decisions.

The Expanse actually lays out and explores in detail the conflict between Drummer and Ashford. They spar and argue with witty dialogue and good delivery of lines that makes the case for both of them. Each character knows and is clear about where the other character stands. They know what the other character is trying to do. That makes their scenes exciting and interesting to watch.

Ashford: Camina, you have nothing to worry about from me. I am here to be your first officer and I have no problem with that.

Drummer: You believe you should be in command.

Ashford: Ah, of course I do, but this is not about experience. It's about politics and perception.  Fred has Protomolecule, Dawes has Cortazar, and they both need this ship.  And neither one of them cares if you or I are happy with the arrangement.

Drummer: Ah, finally, some truth.

Ashford: I haven't lied to you...

Drummer: Yet...

Ashford: But my point is that we both have orders to follow, which means we have to work together. For the good of the new Belter state, ke?

We never get a similar scene or confrontation between Jon and Sansa. Sansa hides information about her Vale army from Jon so that she could get the credit of the victory, leading to the needless deaths of thousands. And Jon just shrugs it off with a kiss on the forehead. Imagine if we got a game of thrones in Winterfell between Jon and Sansa - like we got between Tyrion and Cersei in KL? Where both characters know what the other is trying to do and try to outwit each other? But D&D never really committed to what they wanted Sansa to be on the show and their Jon was written as a gullible fool and so we got scenes that made no sense.

Remember when Sansa undermined Jon in front of the other houses and later Arya observes that Sansa was trying to get the Lords on her side rather than Jon’s. Again, the show hesitates to commit to what Sansa is doing. Jon is made out to be the bad guy for requesting that Sansa not undermine him and Arya comes off as being the mean sister for pointing out that Sansa is not supporting her brother.

Meanwhile, on The Expanse, we clearly see what Ashford is doing and so can Drummer.

Sansa wants to punish the children of the traitors. Jon wants to pardon them and give them back their lands. Drummer wants to throw the drug dealers out of the airlock. Ashford disagrees. He asks for a private word with Drummer and orders their audience to step back - he then persuades Drummer to change her mind but it’s clear to the people watching that he made the decision. Both the audience and Drummer can see that Ashford is indeed undermining Drummer here, but he’s more sly about it.

They have several such arguments. Ashford questions Drummer’s decisions within hearing of their men. Ashford wants them to hear his disagreements.

Ashford: Oh, and it's just too bad we don't have our chief engineer to build us some probes.

Drummer: You have something to say?

Ashford: Yeah, I said it. We needed Nagata here, and you let her go.

Drummer: This isn't a slave ship.

Ashford: No, it's a warship. The Belt's first and only.

Drummer: And I'm its captain.

Ashford: Yeah. Yeah, you are.

Drummer: We have a few autonomous farm drones with chemical samplers for soil. We can convert those into probes. A captain must know their ship.  Hmm?

Later one of those men approaches Ashford. He trash talks Drummer to Ashford and insinuates that Ashford should take over.

Diego: Bossmang...

Ashford: Yeah, what's up? What's the problem, Harari?

Diego: I na like da ting Drummer say to you... or how she say it.

Ashford: Uh... a captain can run their ship however they choose to.

Diego: Captain should be you.

Ashford: Tread carefully, good my boy.

Diego: You been bossmang from da time before me or half the Beltalowda on this ship was born.

Ashford: Yeah, that's true. I have. And I've drunk real Earth whiskey out of a UN Admiral's mug and then scuttled her ship. I flew dark past a Martian battle group, and they never even knew I was there. And I've seen friends breathe the vacuum and watched my only child burn. So when I tell you to tread carefully, you would do well to stop talking.

This scene parallels the Northern lords saying that they should have made Sansa queen instead of Jon. Sansa listens to their complaints and then says that Jon is their king and they can only do what he says. We see Arya observing this and later confronts Sansa in a scene where Arya comes off as being unnecessarily harsh and wrong. I am not going back and watching this trash, but if I recall, Arya actually gets angry at Sansa’s fashion choices here! Like why? What does that have to do with anything? What does that have to do with Sansa trying to win favor from the Northern lords while not supporting Jon’s decisions as king? Again, the show never commits to exploring Sansa’s decisions here.

But Drummer knows what Ashford is doing. She’s clever.

Ashford: I understand why you let Nagata go. If I had a chief engineer who didn't want to be here, I wouldn't want them around, either. But she was your friend.

Drummer: She is my friend.

Ashford: No, I always treated my friends harder... harsher, to show the crew I wasn't playing favorites... even if I was.

Drummer: You just can't stop giving me advice, can you?

Ashford: I'm trying to help you.

Drummer: Yet, still you call me out in front of the crew.

Ashford: Yeah, I could've done that better.

Drummer: You did what you meant. You put it in everyone's head. And after I left, I bet you were all praise for me, yeah? How important it is to respect the captain and so on. That way, when the turn come and you take over, they all know it was because you had to. No choice.

Ashford: Oh, we have a problem. And we need to work it out.

Drummer: Or else what?

Oh, how I wish we got this sort of confrontation, conversation, a similar scene between Jon and Sansa after he got back to Winterfell.

And the beautiful thing about Drummer and Ashford is that we can actually see where they are both coming from. They are both looking out for their people, they both want to do right by the belt. The older, more experienced Ashford thinks he should be in charge and knows better than the young whippersnapper Drummer. Smart Drummer is actually capable of being a good leader and can see through what Ashford is trying to do. They end up helping each other. And in the end, Drummer turns out to be right, Ashford acknowledges this and in the next season they work together.

In GOT however, we are just supposed to accept that Sansa is right, despite Jon making the right decisions to tackle the problems facing them. Sansa’s actions are never challenged by anyone. Jon just floats around like a gullible fool and Arya’s real issues with Sansa in season 7 are never again mentioned. And because there is no resolution to the conflicts and drama, in season 8 we get Arya suddenly and inexplicably thinking that Sansa is the smartest ever, Jon continuing to trust the person who lied to him and undermined him and Sansa continues to win despite being wrong about everything.

Drummer and Ashford are secondary characters in The Expanse and yet their character dynamics, the conflict, the resolution is all so well written and played out. Meanwhile, Jon, Sansa, Arya and Bran are all main characters and Littlefinger is a main antagonist and yet that whole story in seasons 6 and 7 was so badly written and nonsensical that it’s absolute trash. Ultimately Benioff and Weiss did not know what they wanted Sansa to be - they wrote her one way, did not want to commit to the character they wrote, and wanted the other characters (and audience) to see her another way.

It’s clear that the writers and showrunners of The Expanse are invested in their characters and good storytelling. And that’s why it’s a far more enjoyable and entertaining show with likeable characters than GOT.

[mime-requiem]

Saint Seiya Question Game

Let us play a little Question game. Remove my answers and puts yours under the questions.

Taken from: @aaravos-startouchelf

How did you get out/found to Saint Seiya?

I actually watched it as Knights of the Zodiac back when Toonami was showing it every Saturday night along with other great anime. That was before they took it off air in the middle of the Sanctuary Arc.

Who´s your favorite character and why? This is a very hard question for me because I have not seen the whole series include any of the spin offs and OVAs besides Lost Canvas. So I’ll list my favorites from each part.  Saint Seiya Sanctuary: Cygnus Hyoga

Saint Seiya Asgard: Benetnasch Eta Mime Saint Seiya Poseidon: Siren Sorrento Saint Seiya Hades: Aries Mu Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas: Aries Shion and/or Unicorn Yato Saint Seiya Soul of Gold: Aries Mu

Who´s your absolute hate-character and why? Aw man, that’s tough! I would say the Specter Toad/Frog? Zelos. After seeing the scene where he hurt Camus when he couldn’t even fight back. I don’t like characters that kick people when they are already down. 

Shippings you like and why you ship them?

I have a lot... OTL

HyogaXShun: They are absolutely devoted to one another, sacrificing so much for the other. It shows how much they care about each other.

IkkiXHyoga: The dynamic seems interesting to me, mostly because they are almost polar opposites. But I think they would make a very unique couple.

SeiyaXShiryu: The bond between these two are so strong since the tournament. Always worrying about each other, being happy to see each other again. It’s super touching.

JabuXNachi: Okay, a real rare pair since we never get to see any of the other Bronze Saints again. But I think this pair would be interesting, mostly because Jabu needs someone else that would stand by him since he can’t be with Saori. 

SeiyaXShun: These two are very sweet to each other. Always having each others back, Shun always saving Seiya, not to mention Seiya always wanting to protect Shun.

SagaXMu: Okay, these two are kind a of rare pair. I don’t know what got me into the pairing, but I think Mu’s kind and gentle nature would be good for Saga to help him heal. Being forgiven by Mu and acknowledged as a fellow Gold Saint really helps Saga to heal from all those years he was suffering at the hands of his dark half.

ShakaXMu: Mostly for the elegant feel and the welcome company. Mu cries over all of his comrades, but he felt close to Shaka. So I think they are a very sweet couple.

AioliaXShaka: These two have the companionship dynamic, not to mention they seem to enjoy each other’s company. They would definitely be sparring partners, being careful not to almost have another 1000 day war.

SagaXCamus: A pairing I recently discovered, with it’s own unique feel. I feel these two would be the quiet companions, Camus trying to help Saga with his pain. 

DeathmaskXAphrodite: A real devilish pair. They are ones who understand each other, though they see things quite differently. Aphrodite would probably be the one to quell Deathmask when he’s angry.

AiolosXShura: I know this pairing is a little hard to see, but I imagine Shura looked up to Aiolos and regrets being the one who killed him. When he finally apologizes, Aiolos would have already forgiven him for everything.

MiloXCamus: The care with how Milo worries about Camus is so sweet, he even tries to convey his best friend’s feelings to Hyoga and that speaks volumes. 

FenrirXMime: I find this pairing to be very sweet, Fenrir enjoying Mime’s gentle presence as he plays for him. Fenrir would be very affectionate as he grows closer to Mime, even staying with him during very cold nights with his wolves. Poseidon/JulianXSorrento: Okay, partially a loyalty pairing and loving pairing. Julian would be very caring with Sorrento, while Poseidon may be a bit more possessive.  BaianXIo: These two it’s a bit harder for me to say since I haven’t seen the Poseidon Arc yet, but they would be one of those cute pairings.  RhadamanthysXKanon: A pure rivalry pairing, I feel they could learn a lot from one another. HadesXOrphee: Okay, a VERY rare pairing. I feel this one is possible though many may disagree with me. Honestly, I feel Orphee would become closer to Hades over the time he played for he’s played for him. Maybe even to fill the void of loneliness he feels after losing Eurydice.  TenmaXAlone: Of course, these two are made for each other. So protective and loving to each other.  TenmaXYato: A rivalry pairing, but I feel these two could get together after getting to know each other as they fighting together.  RegulusXYato: They are best friends, though Regulus enjoys teasing Yato too much.  DohkoXShion: A bond that goes beyond the hundreds of years they’ve lived. They share so much hardship, they deserve each other. ShionXAlbafica: A heartbreaking couple. Shion tries to pull Albafica out of his shell but loses him. It’s so sad they didn’t get more time together.  KardiaXDegel: The amount of care for each other, that makes this pairing so nice. Degel taking care of Kardia when he’s sick, Kardia defending Degel on the battlefield shows a strong bond between them. I can’t think of any others right now. I will add them later if I do.

Shippings you don´t like/hate and why you dislike them? PandoraXIkki: Um...no? Ikki never felt that way for her, not to mention it’s kinda creepy to me. ^^;;;; ANY ADULT/MINOR Pairings that are way too far apart.

Your favorite Scene?

So far my favorite scene is when Shun uses his Cosmos to save Hyoga in the Libra Temple in the Sanctuary Arc. It really shows how much Shun is willing to give his all to save those dearest to him.

Your favorite Attack:

Aurora Execution! Hyoga was my very first favorite, but seeing Camus use this move made me love the Ice Saints even more. It’s beautiful not to mention terrifying.

If you could decide for which god/goddess you fight, which one you prefer and why?

Wow, this is a hard question! There are so many but not many are even mentioned! I would have to choose...either Athena or Poseidon? I really can’t decide. ^^;

If you could choose a Cloth. Which you would prefer? I would want to have the Aries or Aquarius Cloths! I love their design and the power behind them!

From which country you´re from?

I am from America! 

Your favorite season / sequel:  So far it’s the Sanctuary Arc! Since I haven’t watch the others yet!

Tag friends who want to play the game too (It can be played by anyone): @starlightofdream @siberianxbreaks

[ruthoakenshield]

Very Good Friends (Chapter 8)

Catch up here: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]

Reader x Henry Cavill, Reader x co-star named Dan

Warning: This tale is for 18+ readers ONLY!!!  Mentions of flashbacks: (rape, anal sex, non-con sex, abuse), severe  bruising and injury, mentions of suicidal thoughts, depression,  humiliation, and some fluff to make us feel better. Smut comes later on  in the story… Several chapters down the road… I promise!!!

If ANY  of the warnings upset you or make you uncomfortable, DO NOT read below  the cut! go find something else to read in this case.

If you are okay with reading those things then enjoy the tale below the cut.

Feedback and reblogs are appreciated. I do not own Henry nor do I have any  personal knowledge of him besides what is common knowledge amongst the  Cavillary. Any mistakes and typos are mine, story is not beta-tested.  GIF I got from the tumbler search thingy.

Sunday morning arrives and it is cloudy and raining. Henry lays on the bed, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain hitting the trailer as you sleep, head still on his Pec. Arms wrapped around his broad chest and fingers holding his shirt. your body still wrapped in the comforter burrito. Neither of you shifted positions as you slept, and he still has his cheek resting against your head. The scent of peppermint still comforting his thoughts. He smiles realizing you seemed to sleep through the night with no nightmares this time. He hopes you finally got some much needed rest.

He thinks about the things the counselor said yesterday and he wonders if the self-defense class would help you like it did the other women. It certainly couldn’t hurt. He thought it might help you if he took the class as well. Then you both could spar together. He decided he’d talk to you about it when you woke up.

He wondered if you would like to try drawing or painting or creative writing to help you sort things out in your pretty little head of yours. He decided to ask you about it as well.

It was the beginning of August and it was chilly now in the mornings and evenings. He hadn’t turned on the furnace in the trailer yet. Though you were in your comforter burrito, he was for the most part uncovered and a little chilly. He made a mental note to have maintenance check the furnace and turn it on for him.

Henry hears his phone chirp, and he glances over to the nightstand where it sat. He reaches over and frowns when he sees it’s his publicist. He grabs his phone and unlocks it to see the message from his publicist: “Henry, FYI: Someone leaked what happened to the paparazzi, but are playing Dan as the victim. They’re having a heyday. Try to keep y/n off of social media and away from tv. Her publicist and I are teaming up with the studio’s trying to do damage control. Be careful who you talk with and share info with till we find out who the leaker is.” It read.

He quickly replies to her: “The only people we’ve talked to about any of this is the hospital staff, the police, the executive of the studio and the counselor besides my agent, you, y/n’s agent and her publicist, and my PA. I don’t know if y/n talked with her PA at all. What all is being said about y/n?” Henry asks.

She replies: “They’re saying she is falsely accusing him and that she forced him, and wanted it rough and that she was mad at him for rejecting her repeated attempts to get him to date her. She’s being labeled as a whore, who is trying to ruin his career.

Sounds to us like it’s his agent trying to set her up to take the blame so Dan can get off scott free since she is new to the business. They seem to think she can be used as the scapegoat.

There’s several of your castmates who have already posted to social media defending y/n and saying that Dan was the one harassing her and not taking no for an answer and that HE was the one wanting to date her and she refused him repeatedly. They also stated that she didn’t show up for his going away party and was the only one to do so. (Though they don’t know her reason for not showing up – no one has been told of her injuries yet except the studio heads, the director and the producers.)

The studio is trying to figure out if they can salvage the film now or if they are going to have to scrap it now that Dan’s fucked it up with this PR stunt. There’s talk of going after him for damages if the film flops or if they have to scrap it or delay it and have his role recast and refilm all his scenes.” His publicist texts him.

Henry groans, making you stir. He caresses your head, and you fall back asleep. Henry rubs his face, his brows knitted, and his forehead creased with worry.

“Ugh!!! Ok. What do you want me to do? She’s staying in my trailer and is REALLY struggling to come to terms with all this. She’s been having nightmares and last night was the first night she didn’t have them and slept soundly (on my chest).” Henry messages back.

“I’ll ask the director. I think we need to let the cast see y/n and talk to her; or show them the photos of the injures she sustained and explain to them their extent, so they know just how badly she’s been hurt. I have the photos from the PD in case we needed to have evidence shared of her injuries. I’ve edited them so her face isn’t showing, and her privates are covered. The arm, thigh and torso bruising and the obvious hand bruises on her neck should be sufficient to convince them.

Everyone was wondering why her trailer was being searched by the PD and why it was removed, then Dan pulls this PR stunt and eveyone’s asking me and her PR what’s going on. All we told them was that Dan attacked y/n and raped her the night before the party. But they don’t know how badly she was hurt.

The doctor I spoke with who treated her said she had serious lesions both in her ass and her vagina and throat from what Dan did to her, and that they had bled heavily from the sex. He suspected that Dan had some kind of ribbed sleeve or harness with stiff ribs or nubs on it that was scraping her as he had his way with her that caused the lesions. He said they are meant to be used with lube and there was no lube in her at all in neither of her holes nor her throat. He said it would’ve been incredibly painful and exposed her to a high risk for infection and STD’s if he had any.

The police found an empty box of condoms in her bedroom garbage. It contained 36 originally, when they searched the bedroom garbage and the bathroom one, they came up with all 36 of them and most of them had her blood and his semen in/on them. They also found dildos in varying sizes, some insanely bizarre, in Dan’s possession with her DNA on them  buy only his hand / finger prints when they arrested him at his trailer. Judging by the security cameras’ he was in her trailer almost 12 hours.” She informs Henry.

He lays there in shock, he rubs his face and looks down at you. His face red with anger realizing you most likely endured at least 7 hours of this kind of torture. He cups your head with his hand and kisses your forehead. Wishing he had only known Dan’s intent and could’ve stopped it.

“Oh God! She said they watched one movie and she had put in the second one. Then she doesn’t remember what happened after that other than waking up twice to Dan fucking her. So, he was there at least two hours before he began to assault her sexually! God only knows how long it lasted and if he slept at all or raped her the entire time!” Henry replies. “I can’t imagine what she went through! No wonder she is emotionally shutting down and trying to just retreat inward! No wonder why she’s hurting physically SO bad!” he adds.

Henry caresses your head and back, he sighs. Not sure what to do now or how to help you. He just wants to cry knowing now, what you most likely endured. It was worse than anyone could’ve imagined. He hopes the cops throw the book at his idiot co-star. It just makes him sick what Dan did.

He snaps a photo of you asleep on his chest with his hand on your back, keeping his face out of the photo. Posting it to his Instagram page, he writes. “I am thinking of and praying for this wonderful, talented, incredibly kind, patient and amazing woman. You’ve endured more horrors than I could possibly imagine! I’m glad to know you and my support, thoughts and prayers are with you, Kitten, during this rough patch. You’ll get through it and shine all the brighter in the end. Keep your chin up our brave sweetheart, rest when you can, and don’t give up! We got your back!”

He sighs again and locks his screen. Setting it face down, he looks down at you and shakes his head in both amazement of what all you’ve endured, and sadness because he was not there to protect you and stop it. His heart aches for you. He closes his eyes and just holds you trying to be as supportive as he can.

About an hour later, he gets a group text from the director, producers and executive of the studio. “Please come to a meeting at the studio office today at 2pm to discuss current events and future plans for the film. Henry, bring y/n with you.”

Henry visibly cringes at the message. It either means they’re scrapping it, or they’re going forward and have some serious plans hoping to make this film work.

Henry carefully turns the two of you onto your sides, with you against the pillows you had propped there behind you when you climbed in next to him. He gently peels your arms off his shirt and he carefully slips himself out from beside you, propping you with more pillows to keep you hopefully asleep and comfortable for a while yet. He suspects his phone is going to blow up now and doesn’t want to disturb you.

Henry turns the ringer off, so it just vibrates and keeps it in his pants pocket as he gets up and heads for the bathroom. He does his thing and gets freshened up and goes into his room and changes clothes. About a half hour later, he starts getting messages from the other costars asking what’s going on. He sighs and does a conference call with them all while he is in the guest bathroom on the opposite end of the trailer, trimming his beard stubble, so you weren’t bothered.

He tells them he can’t say much about what’s going on until the meeting. He explains you’re staying with him in his trailer because it is where you currently feel safe and protected, and that you are really struggling with what happened to you. He asks them to please be supportive of you and to respect your need to just cope.

They ask if what Dan is claiming is true and Henry tells them no, it is quite the opposite. “Just be careful who you talk to about this. There’s a leaker somewhere and we haven’t been able to find out who it is. When we get to the meeting you all will be filled in with exactly what happened and how bad it really is. Until then, don’t comment to anyone about any of this.”

They ask if he has any idea if the film will continue or be scrapped. “I have no idea. My agent said they were trying to figure out what to do, there was talk of scrapping it if there’s no way to save it, depending on the public outcry; they talked about replacing Dan with a different actor and re-filming all the scenes he was in, and there was talk of going after Dan for damages depending on what is decided. I have no idea what option they chose or if they came up with other options. “It’s a PR nightmare thanks to Dan deciding to be an asshole.” Henry tells them.

“How is y/n doing, Henry? I mean really.” One co-star asks. Henry sighs, “She’s struggling big time. I am too. She is hurting immensely, both physically and emotionally. She’s been having nightmares and struggling to get restful sleep because of what Dan did to her. It just makes me sick to know what he did and be powerless to really help besides holding her and letting her cry and trying to be supportive and encouraging. You’ll understand when you see her. I hope they throw the book at Dan for what he did. He’s a monster as far as I’m concerned. No woman should have to go through what he did to her!” Henry growls, trying to keep quiet and not wake you up.

They are all quiet. “Henry, would you mind if we left her some encouragement outside your trailer? We don’t want to disturb her or anything, just want to let her know we’re thinking about her and support her in this and that we’re here for her. Whatever she needs.” They ask.

“That’s fine, guys. I’m sure she’ll appreciate any support we can give her. This isn’t going to be a fast recovery by any means.” He tells them.

“She’s such a great gal, Hen, I’m so sorry to hear Dan hurt her so badly. She was such a little ray of sunshine on set, always smiling and bubbly.” One costar comments. There’s murmuring of agreement amongst the co-stars. “Yeah, we all saw how Dan would treat her on set. I regret not reporting him now.” another costar says. Others murmur similar regret. “Well if you hear noise outside the trailer, don’t be alarmed, it’s just us. Okay, Hen?” they tell him. “Okay guys. We’ll see you around 2pm.” He tells them and hangs up.

More chapters to come...

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