#Fighting it and winning would make it weaker when you 'actually' fought it during the story but losing made it stronger and this thing was

[dbphantom]

WHOAG I slept for 14 hours and had a very long dream about Bl/3 H2O au

[sweetescapeartist]

I'm hyped for this game!

(I was supposed to post this like 2 weeks ago & didn't. Gonna post it now even tho some new information has came out.)

I wanted a game where there are what-if scenarios. But my idea was that it completely altered the story. Idk if Sparking Zero will do that tho. Probably to a lesser extreme than what I thought.

WHAT IF SCENARIOS:

I made this and didn't post it. Then more info came out that kinda confirmed some of what I speculated.

But with scenarios like this??? Goku refuses help from Piccolo so Krillin follows Goku to fight Raditz (Battle of Z did that scenario too). Krillin was gonna go help Goku too even tho he knew he sould likely die. And if Goku refused Piccolo's help, of course Krillin would go help his bro save Gohan.

Krillin fought Freeza in his 1st, 2nd, & final forms. Final Form Freeza was far stronger than Krillin. Goku was closer to Freeza in strength but still weaker. Yet Krillin hung in there against Freeza & even almost killed 2nd form Freeza with a Kienzan. Goku & Krillin could realistically team-up against Raditz & win (with help from Gohan) if they outsmart him along with outmaneuvering him with their synchronized Turtle School style.

I watched Dotodoya's videos & without spoiling too much... I was right, but with extra steps. And the characters were implemented well & the dialogue was interesting.

Then, we have a scenario where Krillin dies fighting against Oozaru Vegeta (he probably saved Goku from getting crushed) which makes Goku turns Super Saiyan during the Saiyan Saga.

Is this a result of Goku not dying against Raditz because Krillin helped defeat Raditz without Goku dying? If so, this means Goku never trained with King Kai, so Goku doesn't know the Kaio-Ken nor the Genki Dama. Krillin dies helping a weaker Goku sho doesn't have King Kai's techniques, then Goku gets more than enough power to defeat Vegeta by turning Super Saiyan. So, some scenarios may actually change the story more than we think.

How would this effect the Freeza Saga? @dragon-ball-meta has a good answer.

My thoughts are that changes in one saga have to be course corrected in the next saga.

Oozaru Vegeta kills Krillin

Goku turns SSJ & defeats Vegeta

SSJ Goku spares Vegeta & mocks him by saying Vegeta lost to a low-class Saiyan (like how SSJ Goku spared then mocked Freeza for being defeated by a Saiyan)

Krillin, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, & Yamcha go train with King Kai (maybe they learn Kaio-Ken & the Genki Dama instead since Goku has SSJ)

Depending on if Piccolo survived the battle against the Saiyans, perhaps he & Gohan accompany Goku to Namek

Vegeta is on Namek too and tries to become a Super Saiyan by trying to be like Goku (and trying to be more like Goku what Vegeta does after the Cell Saga & is why Vegeta became a kinder person)

The Namekian Dragon Balls are used to wish Krillin back to life, Chaotzu back to life, then Namekian Dragon Balls become inert before they can make a 3rd wish (or Piccolo is wished back if he is dead)

Over the battles, Goku gets stronger and learns how to turn SSJ when facing Freeza instead of using Kaio-Ken & Goku believes he killed Freeza

Once back on Earth, the Dragon Balls are used to resurrect Yamcha & Tien along with those killed on the day the Saiyans attacked

Now at the start of the Cell Saga, everything is pretty much reset to how it was supposed to be, but Goku might fight Mecha Freeza & King Cold on Earth as Future Trunks watches then delivers a grave warning

This outcome may even result in Vegeta being a kinder person earlier than in canon & him teaching Trunks his new technique, then we get a Father-Son Final Flash

(The arena is still there, so maybe Vegeta takes Goku's offer to fight Cell first, then Trunks hops in to help Vegeta survive against Cell)

Goku sacrifices himself when Cell is about to self-destruct, thus the Saga ends how it did canonically & then we go into the Buu Saga. Then Goku can learn the Kaio-Ken & Genki Dama from King Kai during the 7 years between the Cell Saga & the Buu Saga

So, if there were major alterations in the Cell Saga, the Buu Saga would restore things back to "normal" depending on the altered scenarios. Or at least those are my thoughts/hopes. This game could have tons of replay value. The type of DB game that I always wanted!

CHARACTER POV:

There is also something about the story following from the pov of 8 characters.

More info came out. You can watch scenes normally or switch to watch them from the POV of the character available for the scene. We see this in a trailer when Goku is using Instant Transmission to move Cell from Earth. We also see this 1st person POV when Piccolo uses a Special Beam Cannon on Raditz & Goku.

I think it will be, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, Future Trunks, Tien, Yamcha. We already saw some events from Goku's POV during the Saiyan Saga & Cell Saga.

However, there are two POVs I want to see... 👀

I'm joking lol 😅 (kinda 👀). But, I bet we could see everyone get defeated from Krillin's perspective, then when 18 kisses him.

OTHER THINGS I WONDER ABOUT & HOPE FOR:

The story for Super Hero will be fun. That will mainly be a Piccolo POV. I wonder what changes could be made too. Will there be an option to request the help of 17? What will the fight against Cell Max be like? Can you choose who to play as during the battle between Gohan & Piccolo?

And the unlockable costumes? All the different costumes from DB to DBS plus the Super Hero & Daima DLC will be so cool! I wonder if you can mix some costumes up. Like give Krillin his DBS hair while he is in his Buu Saga outfit.

I'm excited for certain team attacks too. The main one being K18's team attack they did during the Tournament of Power. And interesting enough, 18 didn't form this pink energy attack, Krillin did. So maybe he would have to be on her team for there to be this special team attack.

I hope we get other cool team attacks. Like Roshi performing a Kamehameha with his students, a 17 & Krillin team attack, Videl & Gohan, Vegeta DBS & Future Trunks DBS, Goku & Krillin spiral Kamehameha (from DBS EP 76). And I hope we get get special animations for finishers like 18 vs Giant Ribrianne.

So why not add other things from the DBS anime continuity? Most of the character designs & techniques of the characters are from the DBS anime continuity.

One stage is from the DBS anime continuity of Universe 10's Kai planet

Full Power Jiren who is shirtless aint in the manga

Kakunsa's attacks aren't in the manga, I don't recall Max Power Roshi being in the manga

SSBK isn't in the manga

Certain orb attacks that Beerus has is anime exclusive

God of Destruction Toppo is anime exclusive (I'm sure that will get a reveal too)

Bergamo & his team attack with his brothers is anime exclusive

SSJ2 Kefla's attack is anime exclusive

Spirit Sword Future Trunks is anime exclusive

The halo behind Fused Zamasu & the ki bird thing he creates is anime exclusive

Corrupted Fused Zamasu is anime exclusive

Alot of the supers and ultimate come from the DBS anime (like DBS 17's attacks).

The Gamma Burst Flash for SSB Vegeta is from the DBS manga continuity.

The very end of Krillin's Ultimate Attack is the Super Destructo Disk & to me it resembles the big Kienzan he uses against Cell Max. (This move will look so cool on Cell Max!)

I'd like to see an option to give Krillin his attacks from DBS as interchangeable supers; Solar Flare ×100 which would blind the opponent & make it so that they cannot lock on to Krillin for a few seconds even is they turn the camera to see him. An attack where he throws his stinky shoe at his opponent then blasts them with a Kamehameha. And I would really love it if they give Krillin his Non-Self State power as a power-up similar to Kaio-Ken for base Goku (early & mid), Kaio-Ken for Super Saiyan Blue Goku, & Golden Freeza powering up to True Golden Freeza. They could call it "Dormant Potential" or something & it gives Krillin a buff, a different aura, & slightly changes his combat.

This link, but for Sparking Zero instead.

So, there is a chance Krillin could get his power-up from DBS EP 76 as a sort of Kaio-Ken type of techniques. I just hope it happens since I'm a huge Krillin fan 🤞

DBS MANGA CHARACTERS:

It's probably unlikely for DBS manga exclusive characters to make the roster. Unless its a DLC then maybe we could get Moro, Merus, Gas, Granolah. Which would be the first time they make an appearance in a game. We already have Vegeta's Gamma Burst Flash from the manga's Tournament of Power Saga & Future Trunks using Solar Flare like he did in the nanga. So these characters could be on the way if they aren't on the main roster.

I doubt there will be a "True Ultra Instinct" because that is just convoluted & pointless. Probably no susanoo Ultra Instinct Goku either. If it is in the game, maybe its a DLC super move to give Goku a Giant form. Then ppl could do Susanoo Goku vs Oozaru Vegeta.

I feel like Ultra Ego could be possible IF they do a manga DLC or make a poll for characters that players want to have in the game. I personally dislike the design of UE, but that's just me. I dislike the lack of eyebrows that SSJ3 has. I like the design of Ultra Supervillain Vegeta from Xenoverse 2 better than Ultra Ego. Anyway, what would Ultra Ego Vegeta's moveset be? His Ultimate would be a giant Hakai ball, a technique that is similar to super armor where getting his amplifies his strength... Stuff like that I guess. Some melee attacks from the manga as a super too.

GT & DBZ MOVIE CHARACTERS:

Idk if there will be GT & Z Movie characters this time in the base roster. But I feel like GT has to be included at some point. I just believe DBZ through DBS will be the main focus for characters & story. The Main Continuity is DB, DBZ, & DBS (and probably Daima too) while GT is a separate continuity that includes Z Movie characters. But I feel like they have to include SSJ4 Gogeta & Z Broly at some point. They are too iconic to the series and to the Budokai games.

Sorry I put so much of my thoughts all here. If I make other posts, they will remain as drafts for way too long & become pointless.

[fictionfixations]

holy shit deuce

i swear hes not usually so angry lol

(chapter 12 of the rose red tyrant. this conversation isn't really that important lol so theres no actual spoilers)

im just like '..oh.. the eggs. i guess we gotta go back D:..'

deuce suddenly starts getting really pissed off at the delinquents, which startles me every time cause idk man he always seems so calm and level-headed. and then he isnt haha??

very very funny (why does he care so much about the eggs?? maybe that's more because he's more conscious of how much money is spent and stuff like that but pff)

he like went on to be like 'APOLOGIZE TO THE CHICKENS'

hehehehe

i figure they could probably be like 'those eggs were for the Heartslabyul housewarden' cause I figure that Riddle probably has a reputation that'd make them fear him. or maybe not, but still. like something something 'if we're late to making those tarts for the unbirthday party then we'll make sure he knows who to blame' or something. *headbang* i already forgot whether it was like meant for today or tomorrow. i think it was for tomorrow but i mean still (the delinquents dont strike me as the type who'd be able to be rude to people who are actually high up and important and have a reputation and so on and so on)

getting 'off with your head' on you probably sucks. but losing access to your magic is like. dying basically (or basically a thing ppl dont want to happen? i dont think it actually kills them but yknow)

but i mean. directing someone else who you know deserves it to get 'offed with their head' because they decided to mess with someone for basically no reason (context: one of us bumped into them during lunch and made like the egg think in the middle break? i think its one of those things you get the satisfaction of mixing it in with the food but they didnt get it, but it was still PERFCTLY edible. this time they bumped into us and we lost six of our eggs and still got pissed off when we blamed them, which, hello?? you blamed us last time and we beat you up. you think we suddenly got weaker?? hello???)

would honestly be really satisfying. like haha hows it feel to be magicless? like me? (variations of: 'how does it feel to know i, a magicless person, beat you?' i mean i know we're really more like guiding and commanding the peeps on what magic spells to use and stuff like that. but you cant tell me that if a magic person who lost their magic and fought a magicless person would win. because they arent used to fighting without magic. while we are. hehehehe)

edit: i made the mention of deuce saying apologize to the chickens and i thought he meant apologize to the chickens that birthed them and stuff. BUT NO HE THOUGHT THE EGGS STILL HAD CHICKENS IN THEM??? LMFAOOO

also i said tarots instead of tarts pff

[quirkwizard]

Is Endeavor at his peak comparable or stronger than post-injury All Might, power-wise? Is his ultimate attack Prominence Burn comparable? What is your stance on this?

I would say no. Given everything that has been said and shown to us, Endeavor was never near All Might's level, even when injured. The story makes it very clear at several points given their feats and statements made about them. Endeavor even admitted this himself during the Kamino fight and I really doubt he would say that unless he actually meant it. In fact, to best show this, let's compare the two fights with All For One. When All Might fought All For One, he was as weak as possible with most of his energy gone, and All For One made a specific combination just to kill him. Everyone there talked like All Might was their only hope and how they'd only get in the way. All Might still beat All For One into the ground and won pretty handily. When Endeavor fought All For One, who was much weaker mind you due to his Quirks rebelling against him, he still needed help in order to beat him. He did win, but he had to go way past his limits to do so and still lost his arm.

[toxicincestenjoyer-fig]

how do you feel about some aym and baal?

Ooo~ The twins.

I haven't seen much of their story so far as I'm still working through the post game but twincest is always fun. I like how they're a bit different from eachother instead of copy paste one person and call them twins(that always feel abit more like selfcest to me).

I feel like they'd be a bit competitive with eachother. I dunno, just the way they talked during Narinder's boss fight game me those vibes. Obviously Aym would be more competitive than Baal but I think it because they would have different mindsets to besting eachother. Aym wants to 'win' now and he has a very sloppy but firce attitude with it(but he's also a bit more sensitive, I saw those tears!), Baal is more of a 'I'm better overall' additude so he's less intense about wanting to win their little brawls but he extends it to other parts of their lives that Aym isn't even considering. (I saw an interaction where Aym is basically telling the lamb they aren't shit and Baal is like, "He means to say, thank you." like that is not what he was saying. That's very be the better person and take the high road of you Baal.) He'd a bit more practiced and reserved, way better about holding his tongue, which is what it's like when they make out! (Im sorry)

I do also find their dynamic with Narinder very cute. Like he's trying to be all cool and act like he doesn't care about them(We all know you're lying Nari) and they're still being like 'Our master!', that's fucking adorable!

Their fixation on that Master Servants dynamic is really endearing, like obvious shipping is obvious but I do really think its cute. Its adorable how they're super into they whole protecting Narinder deal and before it was funny because they were much weaker than him but now its funny because he's weaker than them(That's my headcanon at least, I think that because Aym and Baal are used to being smaller and weaker than Nari they got really good as using their weapons so when they all became mortals Nari was blindsided by how how little he could do without his death god status but the twins were still very skilled so now they're like demigods in a world of weak mortals).

But also they both absolutely had a crush or two on Narinder and fought about it. Can't decide if Nari actually was completely oblivious to it or was just pretending really hard to be oblivious because, well, its not like he was going to be able to just walk away if things got awkward, either or is just as funny to me.

Sorry if that's really rambly and disconnected. I really don't have that many thoughts on them so I just kinda threw all of them out there. But I do think they're neat!

[antebunny]

Lan Wangji: Damsel-in-Distress

If Lan Wangji had known it was this easy to get Wei Ying to do what he wanted, he would’ve put himself in mortal peril a long time ago.

He has this realization when they’re retreating from the Wens. Despite Wei Ying’s new, dangerous powers successfully turning the tide of war in their favor, the Sunshot Campaign still loses battles and takes losses. But Nie Mingjue rarely loses battles, and Wei Ying has never lost a battle he participated in, which makes this battle a special case. 

Their intelligence underestimated the number of Wens in this region, so when Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin launch an attack shortly after sunrise, leading the Lan and Jiang cultivators into battle, their forces falter under the onslaught of Wens. 

The Wen supervisory office is bathed in blood when Wei Ying arrives. He collapsed after the last battle, and Jiang Wanyin elected to head into battle anyway, under the premise that it would allow Wei Ying more time to rest. Lan Wangji very much disapproves of Jiang Wanyin’s decision to let Wei Ying continue demonic cultivation, even if it is winning them the war, but he has to admit that he does care for Wei Ying in other ways. But Jiang Wanyin’s plan backfired, because instead of winning the battle and successfully giving Wei Ying the day to rest, the battle instead dragged on, until the day sunk into night and they were forced to admit they were losing.

Lan Wangji is knee-deep in dead bodies and blood, guarding the retreat of their forces, when he steps into the array. He misses it because of the sheer volumes of blood, running from an endless number of sword wounds. He stands facing the entrance of the supervisory office, back to the retreating Lans and Jiangs. Jiang Wanyin is ten paces behind him, Zidian one violet blur around him. 

The shrieking of Chenqing heralds Wei Ying’s arrival, and Lan Wangji is just as displeased as he is pleased. He spares himself one glance back, and sees Wei Ying standing on the roof of a nearby building, corpses already rallying to his song. Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin make brief eye contact.

“Go,” Lan Wangji tells him. “Wei Ying and I will cover the retreat.”

If Jiang Wanyin resents being told what to do, he sees the sense in Lan Wangji’s words and nods sharply. The Lans hesitate to abandon their Hanguang-jun, but a sharp gesture from Lan Wangji sends them after Jiang Wanyin and his contingent of cultivators. 

At the same time, Wei Ying advances, jumping off the roof and joining his ranks of corpses. Lan Wangji pushes down his usual revulsion upon seeing Wei Ying walking amongst the corpses. He retreats to the top of the steps while the corpses of Wen and Jiang alike line up at the bottom, Wei Ying at their head. The Wen cultivators hesitate to chase after the retreating cultivators, scared by the presence of Wei Ying. Instead, they cluster outside the main door but before the stairs, surrounding Lan Wangji in a loose semi-circle.

Lan Wangji’s fingertips are bloody on the strings of his guqin when he feels the array flare up around him. 

Immediately, Lan Wangji tenses, and inspects the array for weaknesses. Wei Ying runs up the stairs, but red light flares up when he tries to break the array, and Wei Ying is pushed back, hissing in pain. A moment later they both realize that the array is a repurposed protective array, meant to keep out demonic energy. This includes, of course, demonic cultivation, and by extension, Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji’s mind is already racing with possible solutions, and clearly Wei Ying’s is doing the same, if the grim smile that settles on his face is any indication. It takes the Wens a further five seconds to recognize the array, at which point they all level their swords and begin to run towards Lan Wangji. 

There’s only two meters between the Wens and the array, and about two seconds before the Wens reach the array. During those two seconds, time for Lan Wangji slows to a near standstill. 

The array trapping Lan Wangji is perhaps one and a half meters in diameter. Wei Ying can very easily direct his corpses around it and kill all the Wens at the top of the stairs. But the Wens, unlike the corpses, can enter the array. Wei Ying cannot enter the array, and Lan Wangji cannot leave. The only way Lan Wangji can leave is if someone enters the array and takes him out–these arrays are nominally made by cultivators to protect non-cultivators who find themselves in the middle of a night hunt or some such danger. 

This means Lan Wangji will be fighting however many Wens can fit inside the array, which by his estimate is up to twenty at a time. Although Lan Wangji is confident that he can defeat twenty Wen cultivators, he knows that he cannot fight the entire army, especially not after having fought for the entire day. 

In other words, Lan Wangji is about to die.

This all passes through his mind in less time than it takes the Wens to realize what the array even is, which means that he’s turning back to look at Wei Ying one last time when the Wens actually start running. Wei Ying, having come to the same conclusion perhaps faster than Lan Wangji, has set his corpse army into motion by the time Lan Wangji turns back to look at him. The corpses flood past Lan Wangji, roaring and snarling, but Lan Wangji already knows that they won’t slow the Wens down enough. 

So instead of turning around to defend himself, he finds himself staring at Wei Ying’s face, even though Wei Ying’s familiar silver eyes are instead demonic red, and his pretty face is twisted in a dangerous smile.

Wei Ying presses a hand to his chest and then draws it away. Shadows follow, swirling all around his body like Wei Ying’s very presence causes resentment to the world. They hiss and shift like writhing snakes, lashing against Wei Ying’s control until his face twists with effort. 

“Here,” Wei Ying says. “Catch.”

And then he hurls the resentful energy like the world’s deadliest toy. The massive cloud of demonic energy quickly seeps into the Wen soldiers, who freeze in place, suddenly battling an invisible energy. Soon, screams split the air, as grown men crumple under a fraction of the power Wei Ying wields. 

Used to wield. 

Wei Ying looks so much smaller without his deadly aura. His eyes shine a familiar silver as he takes the one step he needs to cross the array. A shiver runs through him as he does, and he staggers on the other side of the array. His fingers wrap around Lan Wangji’s wrist, and his grip is much weaker than Lan Wangji thought it would be. 

“Well, don’t take your time, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying chides with dark humor. “It’s not like we have all day.”

He pulls Lan Wangji out of the array, and collapses nearly the moment he’s out. Lan Wangji doesn’t waste a moment before scooping Wei Ying up in his arms. He steps onto Bichen, guqin on his back, and flies off as fast as his shaking limbs can carry him, leaving the Wens behind to deal with the corpses.

Lan Wangji arrives at camp with spots dancing in his vision, and Wei Ying in his shaking arms. Wei Ying, who is free from demonic cultivation. 

Drunk on this victory, Lan Wangji promptly faints.

-

Lan Wangji curses his body’s limitations when he next wakes up and discovers that during the time he was unconscious, Wei Ying woke up and promptly picked up demonic cultivation again. He witnessed firsthand how weak Wei Ying was in the moments after he removed all the demonic energy from his body, so he has no doubt that Wei Ying was scared. But if only he hadn’t fainted, if only he’d been there when Wei Ying woke up to support him through this temporary weakness and encourage him to pick up Suibian instead of Chenqing–

It’s no use, he tells himself. What’s done is done. What he focuses on instead is the moment he looked back at Wei Ying and saw his face set in grim determination. He knows that Wei Ying realized everything he did, which means he looked at Lan Wangji trapped in the array and made a choice: Lan Wangji or demonic cultivation. Of course, he did it knowing that he could pick it up again, but still, Lan Wangji’s heart does funny little rabbit thumps every time he remembers how Wei Ying’s overwhelming gaze focused on him as he casually drew the resentful energy out of his body and chose Lan Wangji. 

It seems that all of Lan Wangji’s lectures and arguments about the danger of demonic cultivation had a much simpler solution. Wei Ying threw it all away because Lan Wangji needed help. Now Lan Wangji finds himself in a strange situation, in which the way to help Wei Ying involves something Lan Wangji has never done, not once in his life: asking for help.

-

Naturally, he turns to his brother for advice.

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen says, his smile strained to the point of breaking. “No.”

Lan Wangji frowns. It sounds perfectly reasonable to him.

“You are not putting yourself in mortal peril on the off-chance that Young Master Wei will choose to abandon his method of cultivation,” Xichen says flatly.

“It is not an off-chance,” Lan Wangji argues. He’s almost never argued with his brother before, merely choosing to run away from conversations (such as “I see you’ve been staring at the Jiangs’ Head Disciple a lot, Wangji–Wangji, come back–”)

“Assume that he does, then,” Lan Xichen allows. “Did you not say he immediately picked it up again?”

“Giving up demonic cultivation caused him to collapse,” Lan Wangji says. “As I was injured at the time, I was not there to help him through its loss, and Jiang Wanyin–” He allows himself a small scowl, so furious is he at the carelessness of Wei Ying’s brother. “–did not say a word to stop him.”

To be fair, he doubts that Jiang Wanyin discouraging Wei Ying from using demonic cultivation would stop him. Lan Wangji must admit that he’s taken advantage of Wei Ying’s lack of respect for his new sect leader’s orders. Once he understood that Jiang Wanyin would make no move to prevent Wei Ying from using demonic cultivation, he turned his entreaties to Wei Ying instead, knowing that the only way to help Wei Ying would be getting through to Wei Ying himself. And because with the war keeping him exhausted and on the verge of losing his temper, he’s afraid that if he talks to Jiang Wanyin for too long, he’ll snap and beat him bloody, which is not the support that neither Lan Xichen nor Wei Ying need right now.

Lan Wangji eyes his brother expectantly, hoping that Lan Xichen will offer to guide and support Wei Ying on his behalf, after Wei Ying has narrowly recused Lan Wangji from mortal peril once more.

If he’s being completely honest with himself, it would be far easier to engineer a scenario in which Wei Ying must give up demonic cultivation for either of his siblings. But Lan Wangji’s morals won’t allow him to put others in danger in such an underhanded scheme, and Lan Wangji very much likes the thought of Wei Ying running to his rescue. The truth that Lan Wangji does not want to admit to himself is that the second reason is far more compelling to him than the first.

Lan Xichen’s face makes a strange motion that indicates that he would be sighing at Lan Wangji if he was just a slightest bit meaner. “Wangji,” he says patiently, “from what you have told me, Young Master Wei purged himself of resentful energy because you needed his help. Why do you not just ask for his help?”

That, Lan Wangji has to admit, sounds far simpler than orchestrating a scenario in which Wei Ying is the only one who can help him, specifically by setting aside demonic cultivation. 

It’s also far less compelling than Wei Ying dashing heroically to his rescue, but Lan Wangji was raised to be straightforward. 

He was not, however, raised to need help, so he frowns and asks; “How?”

Lan Xichen still refrains from sighing at him, because he knows why Lan Wangji finds the concept of asking for help so baffling. “Well,” he says, “here’s one thing you can do…”

[robininthelabyrinth]

I am grinning like a FOOL at nmj/wwx/lwj. Aaaaaahhh just imagine the looks on everyone’s faces ESPECIALLY the jins, can you IMAGINE. Every sect except their own has entered a marriage alliance in one swoop, and that marriage alliance includes three of the most powerful cultivators alive. I’m in love with this.

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, past 5 - aka Pastime (with good company)

-

“I can forgive you for getting married, but not for making me tell Uncle about it,” Lan Xichen said without ceremony as he swept into the room like a puff of aggravated white cloud – and yes, he was well aware that was how he was coming off, he had plenty of self-awareness. Besides, it wasn’t as if he was actually upset anymore; he hadn’t seen so many secret little smiles from Lan Wangji since their childhood. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him turn that shade of red before. I think he was even thinking of throwing something at me!”

“Did you mention the bit where it technically fulfilled his requirements regarding devoting to a single spouse?” Nie Mingjue asked from behind his teacup, eyes bright with amusement and not even a speck of shame. It was just like him, too; Nie Mingjue was not one to regret decisions he had made. “Huaisang mentioned that you’d said that: I rather liked that one.”

“I did,” Lan Xichen said, making a face at Nie Mingjue and causing him to laugh. “It didn’t help. As you probably could have guessed, you – oh! A-Yao, be careful, you’re spilling the tea.”

Jin Guangyao looked down at where he’d filled his teacup to overflowing. “Ah,” he said, and put the teapot down, reaching for a piece of cloth to clean up the mess on the table. “Forgive me, I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing…I’m sorry, er-ge, did you say that da-ge was marrying? And you – told your uncle about it, for some reason?”

“Well, there wasn’t much of a choice,” Lan Xichen sighed, sitting down and accepting the cup of tea that Nie Mingjue slid over to him instead. “Since one of his brides is going to be my brother.”

“Your brother? You mean – Wangji? And - one of his brides…?”

“He only has the one brother; who else could he mean?” Nie Mingjue pointed out, and Lan Xichen shot him a glare to remind him to behave – it wasn’t Jin Guangyao’s fault that he probably had more siblings than he could count on both hands and feet, after all.

“Yes,” he said, turning to Jin Guangyao. “Forgive me, A-Yao, I entirely forgot you weren’t at the Unclean Realm when this was all being discussed at the start. As it stands now, Da-ge will be taking two brides to share the position of first wife, one of which is my brother.”

Jin Guangyao was blinking very rapidly, clearly attempting to process the information and just as clearly having some difficulty. Possibly at the idea of Nie Mingjue getting married at all, much less in a cutsleeve marriage – in fact, Lan Xichen wasn’t sure he’d ever mentioned to him that Lan Wangji was a cutsleeve. 

Did Jin Guangyao maybe have some lingering prejudices? It seemed unlikely, given what Lan Xichen knew of his personality, but such issues were more often seen among the common people…

“I see,” Jin Guangyao said. “And…who’s the other one?”

“Wei Wuxian,” Nie Mingjue said, and he looked so incredibly pleased about it that Lan Xichen reluctantly shelved the idea of scolding him further. A smile from Lan Wangji, a smile from Wei Wuxian, a smile from Nie Mingjue – anything that caused this many smiles was bound to be a good thing.

Even if poor Jin Guangyao’s smile did look a bit strained…

-

“He’s what?!”

Jin Guangyao held his hands apart as if to indicate he had no idea how it had happened either, and Jin Zixuan thought that for once in his life his duplicative half-brother might be completely and utterly sincere. “He confirmed it himself.”

“Wei Wuxian,” Jin Guangshan growled, having apparently decided to skip over shock in favor of paranoid theorizing. “Of course – all this time, Nie Mingjue pretended to disdain the Stygian Tiger seal, looking down on it, but in reality he was seeking his own means of obtaining it –”

Jin Zixuan didn’t think that was especially likely.

He’d fought with Nie Mingjue during the war as one of his lieutenants. Even though his father had insisted that the Jin sect fight under its own banner, it’d quickly become obvious that none of the generals his father had appointed had the slightest idea of what they were doing, unlike Nie Mingjue; to keep his people from enduring another slaughter, Jin Zixuan had forced himself to swallow his pride and ask Nie Mingjue for advice.

The other man had never once lorded it over him, even though Jin Zixuan was in the weaker position – his letters had been straightforward and to the point, answering his questions without any judgment, and when they worked together in person, he was the same.

Jin Zixuan had spent entire nights worrying about his motives, and a shamefully long time to realize that the reason Nie Mingjue was acting the way he did was because he was just – like that. Honest and forthright and disinclined towards scheming, the way everyone said he was; a man who was righteous in the sense that he did what he thought was right, not in the sense of flattering himself to think he was better than others.

(Somewhere along the line, Jin Zixuan had shifted from choking down his pride to choking down guilt at thinking that Nie Mingjue was a better leader than his father – and that he’d probably have been a better father, too, no matter how Nie Huaisang had ultimately turned out. He thought, though he did not know, that if he had not adopted some of Nie Mingjue’s straightforwardness in pursuing Jiang Yanli, she might not be his bride today.)

“ – why didn’t any of us think of that?” Jin Guangshan was demanding when Jin Zixuan tuned back into the conversation, and it made him nearly choke. “A-Xuan! What sounds are you making over there?”

“Nothing, father,” Jin Zixuan said, coughing a little to clear his throat. “Merely – admiring how unorthodox Chifeng-zun’s thinking must have been.”

Jin Guangyao’s lips twitched. It was only a second, there and gone, but Jin Zixuan had still seen the little glimpse of humor. It was truly a pity, he reflected, that his brother wanted his position more than his friendship; they might have been good friends, in another world. Of course, that was the way things went in Lanling, with each person out for themselves, but ever since he’d married Jiang Yanli, he’d started to think that perhaps the greedy, grasping, conniving world his father had cultivated around him wasn’t the right way to lead a sect.

He used to think that the Jin sect was better than everyone else because of the way they thought – that only they were honest enough to acknowledge the frailties in human nature and to make use of them, rather than pretending that people could really be brave and righteous and true, that friendship was a real thing rather than another name for allies of convenience, that love was anything more than a momentary lapse, a weakness – but he didn’t any more. The other righteous sects might be naïve in their belief in righteousness, but believing in righteousness encouraged righteous behavior; even if it was done only as a façade, for most people, the façade would eventually turn into truth after it became enough of a habit.

For most people, anyway.  

Jin Zixuan had done his best to like his new brother – upstanding war hero that he was – but he couldn’t quite manage it. He was too familiar with people who came to him with gentle smiles that hid daggers, and his mother, while far too vicious, was unfortunately right that those who shared his parentage all seemed to have their eyes fixed firmly on his position.  Jin Guangyao might pretend that he didn’t, but some of the moves he’d made were a little too obviously meant to be consolidations of power: courting the Qin girl, being friendly with certain dissatisfied factions…

Jin Zixuan heard that Jin Guangyao had once been Nie Mingjue’s deputy, wearing a façade of righteousness, and their current enmity had been birthed once the other man had seen what he was really like.

It seemed like a bad trade to him, scrabbling for scraps in Lanling instead of being respected as a man in Qinghe, but he supposed he was in no position to judge. He’d had all the advantages in the world given to him at his birth, and he’d still taken so very long to figure out that righteousness was actually worth something by itself.

His father was still ranting about Wei Wuxian, with his half-brother indulging him with nods and questions that didn’t achieve anything other than making his father feel good about himself for having guessed right, and eventually Jin Zixuan was sick enough of it to feel the need to divert the conversation.

“Whatever his motives may be for marrying Wei Wuxian,” he said, “surely those reasons don’t apply to Hanguang-jun, who possesses no secret power to be obtained. It’s not as though the Nie sect needs a connection to the Lan sect – Chifeng-zun is already sworn brothers with Zewu-jun.”

He paused, deliberately, then added, as if in afterthought, “And A-Yao, of course.”

Jin Guangyao might have mastered the ways of the mistress, sweetness and support and indulgence to win favor, but Jin Zixuan had grown up with a mother that had never allowed an infamously straying husband to bring home a single concubine – if Jin Guangyao thought a few tricks were enough to get his position, he was only dreaming.

Jin Zixuan would help him wake up.

-

“Do you think it’s that he doesn’t like A-Xian enough to marry just him?” Jiang Yanli asked, biting her lip, but her husband shook his head with a laugh.

“My father couldn’t think of a reason either,” he said, looking arrogant and smug in that charming sort of way he had when he was happy. “The only thing he could come up with after hours and hours was that he might be some sort of pretty flower vase meant as a consolation for having to marry the Yiling Patriarch.”

“But you don’t think that.”

“Of course not. Chifeng-zun is a good man, and even if he wasn’t, he’s old friends with Zewu-jun, who would never allow anything like that.”

Jiang Yanli conceded the point, but that still didn’t explain why. She’d known, of course, of Jiang Cheng’s desperate gamble to protect Wei Wuxian and keep him in the Jiang sect in some manner – technically not, since he’d be under the protection of the Nie sect going forward, but this way at least made sure that he’d always have his family backing. She’d even hoped, based on some things Jiang Cheng had said to her, that Wei Wuxian was happy with the marriage, looking forward to it.

But why would Nie Mingjue take a second wife – no, another first wife – at the same time? Wasn’t that looking down at her brother?

“Personally, my theory is that he just didn’t want to get cuckolded,” Jin Zixuan said, playing with her hair. “So he took precautions against it.”

“Cuckolded?” she asked, and she could feel him turn red – her husband was sensitive about such things, a remnant of his unhappy childhood. He was terrified that she might start to suspect him of crimes he hadn’t yet committed (as if he wasn’t a terrible enough liar that she’d know at once anyway if he’d really done anything), and he usually avoided any discussion of infidelity like the plague. She wasn’t letting him off this time, though, not if Wei Wuxian’s happiness was at stake. “What do you mean? A-Xian wouldn’t betray someone he’d sworn himself to.”

Not without a good reason, anyway. The way Wei Wuxian had been behaving recently towards Jiang Cheng – towards the Jiang sect generally, especially after the business with the Wen sect remnants – could almost make her think terrible things, and only the fact she loved her brother as blindly as she did could make her unswerving in her faith that there was some purpose behind his seemingly cruel behavior.

“Probably not,” Jin Zixuan agreed. “But I mean – come on. I didn’t notice it when I was younger, because I was an idiot back then –”

He said it, not her.

“– but Wei Wuxian chased after Lan Wangji the entire time we were at the Wen indoctrination camp together. Same way I chased after you, actually.”

“With no grace or tact or knowledge of women?” she teased, and he blushed and rubbed his cheek against hers.

“Well, yes,” he said. “But I got you in the end, didn’t I?”

That was a good point.

Jiang Yanli hadn’t seen them interacting enough to really judge – convention separating men from women the way it did – but Wei Wuxian had spoken of Lan Wangji rather a lot after his time studying in the Cloud Recesses. It was certainly a plausible guess.

“So you think Sect Leader Nie married Hanguang-jun for what reason?” she asked. “To keep A-Xian from pursing him?”

“Common wisdom in Lanling says that if it’s not to create connections, then there’s only two reasons for a man to take a concubine,” Jin Zixuan said with a shrug. “One is to keep the man company – the other’s to give company to his wife.”

Jiang Yanli’s eyebrows shot up. “Company for his wife?”

“Why not? Men and women move in different circles – if a man is worried his wife might be thinking of looking for company outside, it’s better to get her someone who will be by her side all the time, isn’t it?”

Jiang Yanli covered her mouth to hide her laughter. “I suppose so,” she said. “Please don’t get me company in the future, though; I’m quite capable of making friends on my own.”

“And I,” her husband said, perking up at once, “of keeping you too busy to even think about other company –”

-

“You really think it’s all right?” Jiang Cheng asked Jiang Yanli. He trusted his sister’s judgment, but he was still worried. “I don’t want Wei Wuxian to think he has to suffer in silence –”

Jiang Yanli patted his shoulder. “A-Cheng, think about what you’re saying. I’m not saying A-Xian wouldn’t suffer, but – in silence?”

“If he thought it might hurt one of us he would,” Jiang Cheng said stubbornly. “This was my idea, and you know he’s worried about messing up your relationship with Jin Zixuan by starting too much trouble, especially with the Jin sect being the first one to jump down his throat about it. And anyway, he wasn’t chasing after Lan Wangji! He was – he –”

He frowned. He’d always thought that they disliked each other – certainly Lan Wangji’s constantly cold expression didn’t suggest he enjoyed Wei Wuxian’s teasing, although Wei Wuxian did spend an awful lot of time planning out pranks centered around Lan Wangji in specific. Or even, as Jiang Yanli had pointed out, just talking about him.

Which he did. A lot.

“What if Lan Wangji doesn’t like him back?” he asked, suddenly consumed with a brand new worry. “If Chifeng-zun goes to all that trouble for Wei Wuxian, and gets his hopes up, and then it turns out that Lan Wangji really doesn’t like him –”

“I’m sure Sect Leader Nie must have thought it over carefully before he took any action,” Jiang Yanli said. “A-Xuan tells me that he’s a good person, a good leader, and a good general – he must have a plan. Don’t you think?”

“Well, he is all that,” Jiang Cheng admitted. He wouldn’t have been so confident in his plan to marry Wei Wuxian into the Nie sect if Nie Mingjue hadn’t been as righteous as his reputation. But still…

“Why don’t you see what Wei Wuxian thinks about it?” she suggested, quite reasonably. “And anyway, he’ll still need a chaperone for their next visit, and the seasonal floods are over – you could go supervise.”

Jiang Cheng brightened. His older sister always had the best ideas. “What would I do without you?” he asked, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

She laughed. “Starve, probably. Would you like some more soup?”

“Of course! Remind me, why am I letting you go off to Lanling again..?”

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write Day 3

Scale– each of the small, thin horny or bony plates protecting the skin of fish and reptiles, typically overlapping one another. - OR - an instrument for weighing, originally a simple balance ( a pair of scales ) but now usually a device with an electronic or other internal weighing mechanism.

(yes there's other definitions, these two are what's relevant for my response)

It was a somewhat chilly morning in the Azim Steppe as Dahkar Darkspear, Warrior of LIght and kahn of the Azim Steppe, strode through Dotharl Khaa, striding in the direction of the khatun's tent.  Hushed whispers seemed to follow him, as every Dotharl Xaela in the settlement could not stop watching him or speaking quietly to each other.

It made little sense to Dahkar. He was a Xaela himself and a regular fixture in the settlement at least once a week. He made sure to check in with all of the major leaders of the Steppe regularly to hear news, arbitrate disputes, and otherwise do whatever he could to ensure the people of the Steppe were mostly doing well.

Well, almost all of the leaders. He ignored Magnai and Daidukul on principle. Esugen, the Oronir's culinarian he'd helped a few times, made sure he was always in Reunion when he knew the khan would be arriving so he could pass on information about the Oronir and the Buduga.

He was a day early in this instance, so perhaps that was the reason behind the whispers. He put it from his mind as he approached the woman standing in front of the khatun's home.

Shar smiled and nodded to him. "Welcome, khan. You're early this week."

He smiled back to her. "That I am, Shar. How's your son doing?"

"He's growing well. The khatun does not yet know who is behind his eyes, but it has been but only a couple of moons. She is confident the soul within will reveal themself soon enough. I'm very excited to re-meet whoever it is!"

"I look forward to the day I can meet them. Is Sadu within? I have some...well let's just say an interesting proposal for her"

Shar smirked at him. "Oh, really now? Very bold of you, khan. Very Dotharl. I hope you're ready for a long fight. When my husband proposed to me, we fought for 10 bells straight!"

A look of shock crossed Dahkar's face, descending into horror. "What? No! Not that kind of-!"

She began laughing, loud and from her belly. "HA! Aahahaha! Oh, khan, the look on your face! Priceless!" In between fits of giggling, she opened the tent's flaps to admit him.

"Pretty sure there's rules against sassing your khan" he muttered to her as he walked past her, into the tent. "And if not, I'm gonna make some." This did nothing to stop her laughter.

The tent's sole occupant, a beautiful white-haired Xaelan woman dressed in her people's blue attire with a horned darkwood staff, turned to him. She smirked at him. Dahkar had often witnessed that smirk directed at him, but it was only now that he noticed Shar had given him a very similar one. Clearly she'd been taking lessons.

"Well, well, our glorious khan graces us with-". She suddently stopped and looked at him, frowning. "What in all the hells are you wearing?" she asked, incredulously.

Dahkar looked down at his attire, a style he'd seen many on the Steppe wearing during his first two trips there. He'd made sure to acquire some before departing that second time, aetherically aligned towards boosting magicks. "What? It's hardly unusual. Hells, I saw many of the Dotharl wearing very similar garb on my way in. Granted, this is white in color, but I didn't want everyone to assume I'd joined the Dotharl or-"

"No no, the garb is fine. But...I have never seen you wear anything other than that heavy black armor you favor. Or carry any weapon other than those slabs of metal you refer to as swords. Now you wear this? And is that the weapon of a conjurer on your back?"

Ah. That explained the stares and the whispers. "Yes, it is." He removed the cane from his back. The white crystal embedded in its head began to glow, a series of green-yellow energy lines shimmering around the head of leaf-covered branches. "Before I ever took up the sword of the Dark Knight, I was a conjurer. Pretty good one, in fact. So good they actually decided to let me train as a White Mage, which...well, you probably aren't aware of what those are or why it's a big deal. Suffice to say, I'm damn powerful with conjury."

"Hmmph", she signed, annoyed. "And what, you just decided that one day, it didn't work for you and took up a giant sword, instead?"

"Not quite that simple, but that's not far off the mark. Bad things happened to me and I changed in response to them in part by taking up the art of the Dark Knight." He shrugged and slung the cane over his back again.

"Oh yes, our glorious khan knows all about change!  You and that Doman. First you win the Naadam, as foreigners no less, then you rope us into this alliance of yours and persuade us to fight those men of metal and machines!" Sadu threw up her hands and turned her back to him. "Tell me, khan, what change will you bring next?"

Dahkar sighed. It was an argument he'd heard from her, and others, many a time. "Are we really doing this every time, Sadu? You know there's no rules against foreigners entering Bardam's Mettle, nor against competing in the Naadam. You agreed to help Hien and I fight the Garleans. Multiple times. You even told me you enjoyed the battle to liberate Ala Mhigo! You aren't actually angry about any of this, because you know what i know. Change is inevitable, stagnation equals decay."

She turns, smiling at him again. There's still mockery in her smile, but not as much this time. "Hrmph. Fine, you are correct. I suppose I just wanted to throw you off balance. As usual, you are hard to break. So what brings you to us a day early? It's too early in the day for you to have gone anywhere else first, so I assume this is important."

Dahkar smiled. "That it is. I want to talk with you about the future of the Steppe, and of the Dotharl, specifically."

Sadu's narrowed and her smile turned downward. She crossed her arms. "Speak. I suspect I will not like this, but you have earned the right, many times over, so I will hear you."

"It's simple, really. Many of the other Xaela fear the Dotharl. They see you as merciless raiders who seek only to deal death to them, who lust only for battle and killing. I would have you change that perception."

"And just how would you have me do that? Moreover, why would I even WANT to? The Dotharl live for battle. How many times have you heard me say it, khan? 'In battle do our souls burn bright, and in death do they sing'. Those are not empty words, they define us."

Dahkar smiled. "I'm well aware. I'm also aware that you very much realize that your way of life is not sustainable to the Dotharl's continued existence. You admitted as much to us, Gosetsu and I, that day we first met." Sadu turned her face away from him, eyes downward. "Hrmph. So I did. What of it? We have endured thus far. I will not compromise our way of life, khan"

"I'm not asking you to. What I propose is not a change to it, but a direction for it. I would have the Dotharl become protectors of the Steppe."

She turned to him again, her face a mixture of shock and rage. "...Protectors??  Have you heard a word I've said?" Dahkar raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Wait, just hear me out. It's not as radical as it seems, and it will solve your biggest problem of numbers in the long run."

Sadu resumed crossing her arms, glaring daggers at him. "...fine."

"Very well. First of all, I ask you what exactly the Dotharl gain in making war on weaker tribes? You yourself told me that only in great battle does the soul burn brightly, so what does it gain your warriors to slaughter those of lesser skill in battle than you? Seems unworthy of you. Turning that strength on the marauders who engage in such unworthy predation? That seems like a far better chance for a real battle. Not to mention the Steppe is crawling with monsters and vicious animals of various types. They may pose no threat to most tribes, certainly, but there are those to whom a monster attack is a death sentence. You can protect them and test your strength and bravery at the same time."

"If memory serves, you told me that it was in a monster attack that your own tribe was slaughtered. Purbols, I believe. I can't help but wonder if this is why you ask this of me."

"Which leads me to the second benefit this would bring to you. What do you suspect would have happened had the Dotharl come to our aid?"

"I imagine you would have been grateful, which is hardly worth anything to us."

"Gratitude is a long-term investment, Sadu. Think on it. If I'd been raised on tales of the tribe of warriors that saved us from vicious monsters, that fought back against other marauding tribes that kidnapped people like the Buduga? There's a very good chance that I would have bid farewell to my tribe and joined you all the day I came of age."

A single eyebrow raised. "You would have?"

"Very likely. I became an adventurer because it seemed like the easiest way to earn a living helping people and making things better. If my tribe hadn't been killed and my mother fled the Steppe? I doubt I'd be so different as to not want to do the same, still. Joining the Dotharl, becoming an undying one, born again and again to fight to save people, to help them? Well, it would have been extremely appealing to me. And I doubt I'm the only one, too. In time, I believe this swell your numbers significantly. Furthermore, when the Naadam comes around again, all those tribes you helped? Seems to me like they'd be more willing to help you as allies. In time, this will tip the scales in the Dotharl's favor and you'll reliably have more than enough numbers to rout the Oronir without question. Frankly, I would rest easier knowing the Steppe was in your hands rather than Magnai's. So long as you don't intend to break your word to the rest of the Othard Alliance, that is.  I'll kick BOTH of your asses for as long as I have to, if that's your intent."

She smirks viciously again. "Is that a challenge, khan?"

All mirth or joy fades from Dahkar. "No, Sadu, it's a promise. I have fought through some hellish things these past few moons, and I know that the worst of it is yet to come, and it's going to affect the entire world when it does. I take it you've heard about that large metallic tower that suddenly appeared off the southern coast of Yanxia? They're all over the world, and they're part of it. The Steppe is going to get caught up in this whether the people want to be or not, and I would rather my people fight what's coming together with all of the Alliance than risk being slaughtered and their culture gone. So yes, if I have to fight you to preserve that, I will. But I'd rather see to it that the Dotharl are in a place to help preserve it and maybe even guide it to a better future without leaving tradition behind entirely."

Shock appeared on Sadu's face. "....very well, I'll admit your suggestion has merit. I will not give you an answer now, however. I will need time to think on this, discuss it with the others."

"I expected no less."

"And I demand another battle with you as payment for even entertaining your presence!"

Dahkar rolled his eyes. "I expected that would be the case as well. You DO know that we're going to be interrupted, right? Magnai and Daidukul and whatever others he decides to bring with him are going to show up and whine about us not asking his permission or something along those lines."

Sadu's vicious smirk was on her face again. "I am counting on it!"

"You don't actually want to fight me at all. You want to fight at my side."

"More than one way for our souls to burn bright, khan."

[anakinisvaderisanakin]

The Mask of Death - Fairy Tales and Waking Nightmares (aka Vader obliterates a Rebel unit in typical, spooky fashion)

He wasn’t real.

He couldn’t be.

When Viola Perry had joined the Rebellion, he had been entirely prepared for all that entailed. He despised the Empire and its government, despised its regime and its knack for exploiting the weaker star systems and depleting them of their natural resources for the benefit of the elite. Even as a chancellor, Emperor Palpatine had tended to favour only the worlds and civilizations he considered useful and worth a damn. As Emperor, he had doubled down on that mindset - and while the planets of the outer rim were falling into a lawless haven for criminals, while the Moffs extracted every ounce of goods, riches and pleasure from the worlds they had handpicked and settled down on; Perry saw her people waste away. True, she had been raised coruscanti, on a mid tier level by a single father who laboured day and night as a mechanic. His life had not been aided by the Empire’s rise to power, instead, he had been pushed out of service by official Imperial service systems requiring customers to pay a higher amount of credits for a lesser amount of expertise. Like so many other things, there was a penalty to disobeying and neglecting the restrictions and guidelines.

As soon as Perry was able, she fled. She joined the Rebel Alliance, seeking justice for her father who had died impoverished and imprisoned for conducting and encouraging illegal behaviour - apparently, doing a greater job as a mechanic than the Imperial forces was a crime and a felony - and she had been with the organisation for four years now. Four years of fighting the good fight, winning small victories and taking back the autonomy of the galaxy little by little as hope spread like a wildfire amongst those already saddled with doubt and distrust. Chancellor Palpatine had failed to live up to his hype, why would Emperor Palpatine be any different? Perry had seen firsthand just how far the Empire was willing to go, in order to eradicate the resistance fighters and downplay their growing masses as a trivial and unimportant wayward attempt at terrorism. Only the rebels themselves knew that they were slowly but surely becoming a legitimate threat.

Perry had, as had most rebels she had fought alongside, been wary of any information spread by the Empire from the start. Propaganda and deliberate misinformation were only a couple of the tools used to lure the populous of the vast galaxy into some sense of security. As such, she had laughed the very first time she’d heard the tall tale of Darth Vader. Apparently, a mole within the Imperial ranks had shared the myth as a warning. By most of the Alliance, it had been taken as fiction sold by the Imperial sovereigns to saw fear within their resistance. Vader, as the story went, was a seldom seen assassin of the Empire. The tale painted him as clad entirely in black, seven foot tall and wielding mysterious and invicible powers. He could kill with simply a look, or a wave of the hand. At first, the story had begun as such - vague, raising more questions than it answered about this fantastical and implausible boogeyman. Perry had concluded Vader could be little more than a false narrative, invented to instill doubt within the hearts of any nervously inclined resistance fighter.

But, as time went on, more and more stories with a similar twist kept turning up. Every now and then, a delirious dying fellow rebel with haunted eyes and baited breath would ramble about a monster clad in black. Eventually, the concerns grew to a point where even figureheads of the Alliance such as Mon Mothma and the Organas would openly discuss the matter. Rumours said viceroy Bail Organa in particular was inclined to believe the stories, and while Perry viewed him as level headed and logical - that was one leap of imagination she wasn’t willing to trust him on.

It was only when Perry’s closest friend and confidant, Oliwia Blix, was slain on her own home turf - an ambush assault led by what was later revealed to be the 501st Imperial squadron, surprising the freedom fighters she was responsible for - that Perry began to question her conviction. Oliwia had not survived the attack, and her body was never recovered but those who did persevere knew she was deceased - they had seen her there in the midst of the chaos, barking out orders and desperately attempting to call for help through the sliced comlink connections. Out of the handful of survivors, Perry trusted only Juno Eclipse. Eclipse was a young, blonde woman who had once been closely affiliated with the Imperial military but who had become disillusioned one way or another. She never spoke much of her Imperial days. Her insights were always helpful, and she had aided many a favourable outcome in battle. She possessed inside knowledge and codes that were invaluable - and she was firmly decided that the ambush had been a ploy to get her; she was the target and she was responsible for the death of her affiliates.

Eclipse was reasonable, and Perry admired her judgment. That’s why, when Eclipse spoke of Vader; Perry put aside her skepticism to actually listen. According to Eclipse, Vader was the man the Empire sent out when all else failed. He was undefeated, possibly invincible; shrewd and secretive. If he came for you, he would not stop coming until he had carried out his mission. In her case, Eclipse had expected she’d be put on trial for treason when she first broke away from the Empire, but once Vader had been sent on her trail - she explained - she had realized she was no longer worth the hassle. When Vader came to collect, you were as good as dead already. Perry had asked whether Eclipse had seen this infamous monster, and Eclipse had simply chuckled in sullen surrender as if she had already accepted her own fate.

‘He’s not a monster,’ she had said. ‘He’s a man. Or, I think he was a man, once. I’m not sure what he is now.’

Eclipse had said little in addition to that, only that she was certain that he had been present on the planet Cordaan’a where the incident had occurred. Perry got the firm impression that the ex Imperial officer had seen someone or something she perceived to be this Vader, and while she didn’t want to press the already anxiety ridden woman; she chalked most of it up to stress, fear and trauma. Even Eclipse - intelligent, brave and immovable - could be deceived by the rush of adrenaline that came with battle, as her senses were jumbled. That, along with the fact that her life was in jeopardy and that she knew the Empire wanted to see her punished for her desertion, could make anyone hallucinate a phantom such as the propagandistic tale of an Imperial hitman.

That was, until two weeks later. At noon, the base camp of Brakko had prepared for a subtle, incognito transfer. Perry’s unit had been targeted for elimination by Imperial forces, and while there were no signs suggesting the Empire knew where exactly their base was hidden - it was unsafe to stay in one place for too long. As the early afternoon rolled around, every necessary scrap of ammunition, weaponry, rations, credits, and other various equipment had been rounded up and packed away. Only a few chunkier, stolen cannons and proton bombs remained unaccounted for. That was the moment during which the Empire decided to make their presence known. A well aimed rifle shot, and the second largest of the docked freight vessels was blown up in the span of milliseconds.

As its explosive cargo content shattered the clunky ship, the shockwave sent most resistance fighters flying. Shrapnel became deadly projectiles, and as Perry struggled to regain her bearings - the force of the blast had sent her several feet back into the rough, and jagged gravel of the walkway leading towards the underground bunkers - she noted familiar faces; bloodied and beaten. Some unrecognizable, some wheezing as steady streams of red liquid poured out of their nostrils. Perry herself found her hearing was dulled, as if she were underwater - the distant, faraway yells and shrieks of her terrified comrades preparing retaliation blocked out by a loud shrill ringing. She struggled to her knees, instinctively reaching for her trusty blaster where it sat holstered at her hip.

As soon as she looked up, Perry could see the swarm of stormtroopers welling forth from every direction. They were undistinguishable in their white polished armour, black visors covering their eyes. Her legs moved out of self preservation, her chest burning with extortion as she fired aimlessly at her assaulters. A few fell by the wayside, and Perry dove behind the wreckage of one of the smaller shuttles that had been affected by the explosion. Three more rebels cowered there, taking turns firing fervently to keep the troopers at bay - only for the two additional blasters wielded by who Perry recognized to be Admiral Parlak and Sergeant Ilija to be literally ripped out of their grip with no visible cause.

“Come out with your hands on your heads,” said one of the troopers, his cadence entirely void of empathy.

“You’ll gun us down if we do,” Perry snapped in defense, and realized only afterwards that she had spoken at all.

Her hearing was beginning to return, as Perry and her small group peered cautiously over the edge of the ripped off shuttle wing that provided their makeshift shield. Even as her head became fully visible, no additional shots were fired. A platoon of what Perry estimated to be forty stormtroopers stood in a half circle, making three rows with their blasters aimed meticulously at the unguarded hideout. Around them, a few smaller squads mirrored their stance. A good four feet in ahead of the mass, stood a single trooper - his more lavish suit of armour indicating that he was a higher ranking soldier, possibly a commander - with his hand raised to signify cease fire. Perry assumed he had been the one addressing them.

It was only then that she realized how eerily quiet it had become. Her eyes darted around, both relieved and unsettled when she spotted a few grimy, scuffed and fretful faces poking out from behind various chunks of debris much like her and her group. Apart from feeble moans and sobs of pain, and crackling of the fires that had spread from the explosion to the trees and vegetation concealing the base camp - everything was deathly silent.

Silent, until a deep, booming voice broke the impasse.

“Not if you cooperate.”

In one fell swoop, the mid section of the platoon parted like a tidal wave. They made room with no fuzz, moving as one single unit and stood at courtly attention. From the smoke, the ashes and the flames behind them; the shadows of even more soldiers merely silhouetted revealed as a backdrop, came a predator. Even before it could be viewed in all its horrendous detail; its large frame drew all attention. Tall, broad shouldered, chest wide - and with it followed a hissing, mechanical breathing cycle reminiscent of a respirator. At any other time its pathetic sounds may have inspired pity or sympathy, but in this instance; its intervals were decidedly ominous, as this thing traversed the ground littered with fresh corpses in a careless stride.

Towering over and dwarfing the stormtroopers; the looming dark spectre emerged fully from the dust and cinders swirling through the air. Clad in all black; head to toe. Black armour, black cape, black robes, black gloves, black boots, black helmet; black mask covering the monster’s entire face from view. Still, the lenses through which the grim presence viewed the world were tinted ever so slightly crimson. In its hand, the thing clutched the hilt of a saber - its plasma blade red and humming as energy surged through it.

“Please, no,” Perry caught a hitched gasp, frightened disbelief colouring the unmistakable tone of Eclipse - and Perry spotted her pale face off to the side; crouched behind a severed landing hatchet.

“I have come for Captain Eclipse. I have been informed that she hides among your ranks. It is unfortunate for your organisation that she would lead me to you - I, however, view it as a welcome surprise.”

The voice was so deep, it seemed to reverberate through Perry’s very bones - and despite the heat of the flames' licking, flickering nature as they consumed the palm trees with a gleeful greed - the world seemed as cold as ice. Curling in on herself, Perry wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to stave off the worst chill; her breaths coming out as puffs of condensed mist. Still, she could do nothing but stare at the empty, hollow eyes of that face plate. The monster turned its head slowly in the direction of Eclipse’s hiding place, tilting it in a disturbingly comedic manner. If she could have seen its mouth; Perry was convinced the monster would have smiled at the collective hopelessness at its disposal.

‘Darth Vader is real,’ so many fellow rebels had insisted - and Perry had disregarded every single one as superstitious and foolhardy.

'Darth Vader is a fairy tale,’ she had stubbornly countered.

Perry didn’t even have the time to flinch as the monster’s large right hand cut through the empty air. The motion was swift, smooth and effortless - and the bulky piece of scrap metal Eclipse had been huddled behind was sent flying as if it were completely weightless. The hefty durasteel went from sitting completely still to hurdling a distance of about thirty yards at an unfathomable speed; smashing right into a tree trunk which it sheared clean off simply by momentum. The monster did not move, even as the tree collapsed and brought another down with it; but Eclipse yelped and covered her mouth. Perry had never, never seen her be anything but resolute - and slightly shaken once, while relaying her tale of this predator whom Perry had refused to believe might materialize. Now, her features spoke only of regret and dread. Her shoulders were trembling, her blue eyes glassy with tears.

“Did you believe the Emperor would not aim to see you destroyed? Did you believe he would forget you?” the monster mocked, and with obvious sarcasm he added, “You must think so highly of the Emperor’s sense of compassion. I am truly sad to say that I must dissuade such unfortunate delusions.”

“Do what you please with me, but spare the rest,” Eclipse blurted out, desperation in her voice as she stumbled to her feet; taking one unsteady step towards the monster and dissmissing his jeering entirely.

‘He’s not a monster, he’s a man. Or, I think he was a man, once,’ Eclipse had said back then; and while her eyes were now still brimming with yet unshed tears, her expression was one of bargaining.

She was attempting to appeal to this thing’s - this man’s humanity. Instead, he simply cocked his head a bit farther to the side as if perplexed by her emotional outburst, regarding her silently with a deliberate intent to unnerve and rattle her. Perry realized only then that she, too, was trembling not only from the cold. It was as if this man’s entire being radiated a dark, black, vicious hatred. A vile, twisted sense of entitlement and disgust alike. It permeated his surroundings, spreading like a contagious disease; infecting everything it touched, tainting and tarnishing anything it could corrupt. His unwavering gaze and dead eyeholes seemed to demand a cruel mixture of respect and fear; and Eclipse clasped her hands in what resembled a feeble prayer.

“Lord Vader. I beg of you. Let them go. It’s me you want.”

A tear slipped down her gaunt face; her complexion ashen and her bottom lip quivering. Her blonde hair fell over her forehead in unruly chunks, a damp patch of dark blood staining the upper sleeve of her jacket. Vader simply raised his hand once more; beckoning Eclipse with his fore and index fingers in an almost gentle manner. Eclipse had no chance to move of her own volition, nor to deny the request before her feet were lifted off the ground and she was yanked unceremoniously forwards. Her motion stopped only when she was mere inches from Vader; her face level with his mask as she levitated freely in the empty air. Vader’s outstretched hand was steady, holding its posture - and Perry realized with horror that the powers all the rumours spoke of were factual, as well.

“While it is a touching sentiment - your saviour complex serves you no favours with me, Captain.”

There was no compassion in Vader’s tone, the cadence mechanical and stilted - and yet, the words came out an overt, obvious commination. Shifting the hand Perry had assumed was efficently preoccupied with suspending Eclipse in the air, Vader gestured at his troopers and they immediately switched into action. Eclipse still hovered several feet above ground; and Perry reared back as Vader’s empty lenses came to rest on her hiding spot. As before, there was no prelude - the torn wing of the shuttle was simply shoved aside in one fluid swipe. The same thing occured simultaneously to any other covers; Perry's fellow rebels attempting to defend themselves in vain. One moment, Perry was fumbling for her blaster with numb fingers; the next, a stormtrooper had her arms trapped behind her back. Some of her comrades attempted to resist the capture, and were subsequently executed on spot with a single blast to the back of their heads. As they were rounded up, only twenty-two of the at least seventy rebels that had stayed behind loading up supplies remained. They were forced down on their knees; hands on their heads. Perry glared at Vader who seemed to eye them all with a disinterested boredom, but her hammering heart betrayed her collected facade.

“I suggest you watch, Captain. Let this be a warning to abide by. I have orders to bring you off world. While the Emperor wishes no audience with you, Governor Tarkin is most excited to have a word preceding your eminent, public execution,” Vader informed as if there were no other witnesses, no further participants to the event than him and Eclipse alone. “You will watch this.”

The final words were sinister, their implication crystal clear and the demand irrefutable. Eclipse’s slumped head was forcefully yanked in the direction of her kneeling coworkers, the men and women she had bravely fought alongside, who had become her confidants and friends. Perry expected to be anticlimactically shot, icy dread churning at the pit of her belly. Still she was transfixed by Eclipse’s horrified; apologetic eyes as they stared back at her- wide and unblinking, as if she could not close them had she wanted to. Holding the stare, a pressure closed around Perry’s slender throat; like an unseen hand encompassing her fragile neck and squeezing her windpipe until she could no longer inhale. She panicked, pawing at her throat as her lungs burned and the edges of her vision began to fade away. Next to her, the choking noises of her fellow rebels rose; all of them clawing desperately at the invisible hand strangling them unanimously. The last thing Perry saw; pure terror coursing through her veins as her pulse slowed to die away and a loud, cracking pop signified the snap of her neck caving under pressure, was Eclipse’s guilt ridden eyes, and the tears now falling from them.

Perry slumped to the ground, and Vader’s large boots stalked past her crumpled body to sear themselves into her minds eye as one final bitter irony.

He was real.

He was real.

Then, she was no more.

---------

Posted a teaser before, but I like this installment so much I felt I needed to post the entire thing so here you go. Link to the full fic below:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24049894/chapters/79969921

[leportraitducadavre]

I know your fan of Kakashi ( I’m former fan of his), but honestly after given a a lot of thought, Kakashi is bad person. Mind there are a lot of characters that I like who are bad people ( certain ones out right evil that I like), but Kakashi is presented as someone heroic and righteous, but his actions and willful ignorance to Konoha corruption say other wise.

Well, stating that I’m a fan now would be inaccurate, the more I age the more I’m able to see how hypocritical and mainly badly written the character of Kakashi was. I can’t understand how a character canonically presented as genius wasn’t able to win a single fight on his own -when he went against Zabuza he had to be saved by his students the first time, and only defeated him because he was able to live thanks to his gënin-. He was praised for being able to control de Sharingan of Obito, which is a feat also replicated by Danzo who controlled more than one Sharingan, including the MS of Shisui (which, alright, he did so by using Hashirama’s cells, but that doesn’t diminish the accomplishment). Granted, Danzo was also pretty exceptional, but what will Kakashi do, who will he even be without Obito’s sacrifice? I’m not diminishing the work it took to control it, but after that… what?

His name “Kakashi Hatake Copy-ninja” was given to him after he received and was able to control de Sharingan Obito gave him, he depended on the kindness of his teammate both to survive (Obito died saving Kakashi) and to achieve international status. Hadn’t Obito awoken that Sharingan, or later on, activated the MS, I’m not sure we’ll see much of that “greatness”. Remember, it wasn’t Kakashi’s feat to activate the MS on Obito’s eye, it was fucking Obito, it isn’t “they activated it at the same time” it was OBITO who was still connected to his eye, Kakashi doesn’t have Uchiha blood as to survive Tsukuyomi, why would he be able then to freaking awake the MS? And so close after he received it? He isn’t even able to deactivate it! That’s why he’s forced to hide it! Sure, there’s no canon panel that states “Kakashi wasn’t the one who activated it”, but is an assumption pretty easy to make. If I’m mistaken, then feel free to send me the panel contradicting me. If there isn’t and you have still doubts, then blame on stupid writing, Kishimoto was shitty when it came to Kakashi’s character, so I’m not surprised if he just did that to give drama to the scene -fucking stupid. A huge portion of his fandom is more willing to believe that Kishimoto’s writing sucks than to give one of Kakashi’s “achievements” to Obito. Hilarious.

Kakashi was considered a prodigy before, alright, point taken; during the war -when we are introduced to his character- he did absolutely nothing but been used as a punching bag and to lose an eye. He had to be saved by Obito (who was considered an inferior ninja) and Minato. Obito’s Sharingan was the only thing that saved him from dying by Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, and even that can be argued because Itachi didn’t use the full technique, only forcing him into a coma. He did create the Chidori and Raikiri, great techniques that were ultimately evolved by Sasuke after a few years using them, while Kakashi kept them in the exact original form he created them after decades.

I read people that stated that Kakashi wasn’t a genius by his physical abilities but his mind and, honestly, give me a break. The first time he fought in the manga he did it while standing on water… against a ninja from Mist, do you see the logic in there? No, you don’t, because it was pretty stupid. Even his whole “I don’t give a fuck” personality that fans love is his way to tribute Obito, until his teammate’s death, he was a completely different person altogether.

He humiliated and downgraded Sasuke for wanting to seek revenge for his clan, but went with Team 10 when they wanted to avenge Asuma’s death, even Tsunade, who seemed so adamant about stopping people from getting their so desired revenge, supports Naruto when he wants to hunt down Pein after he killed Jiraiya. The man told Sasuke that he couldn’t relate to him because everyone he loved was already dead, what the hell does that mean? Sasuke’s family was slaughtered but he should get over it? If Kakashi doesn’t have anyone he loves, will he encourage his student to become as lonely as he is? What for? To have a buddy to read Icha Icha with? And the nerve he has to still believing he knows Sasuke or what he needs during the war, two years after their last conversation, pushing him towards a girl that cares nothing for Sasuke’s actual desires, “well I wasn’t able to make you an exact copy of me so maybe if I bring with me a pair of willing open legs for you, I’ll be able to control you again”. Really Kakashi? REALLY?

The hypocrisy of his characterization is abysmal, but surprisingly I don’t hate him much for it, but his fandom is pretty unwilling to see his flaws, at best, Kakashi is a “genius” as far as an average shinobi could go, even Obito (who for some reason is considered the weaker Uchiha, and weaker than Kakashi -the nerve-) can mop the floor with him.

[pokenimagines]

fic where the Player/Reader actually goes to see Hop and Bede fight, and when the player hears all the smack talk Bede does to poor Hop, a normally calm and sweet Reader just fuckn,,, SNAPS and grabs Bede by his puffy pink coat and tells him in the darkest voice ever that he'd BETTER keep his mouth shut about Hop. Bede nearly pisses himself and Hop is SHOOK, now loving them more? (Bonus points if we cut to later and we see a rare pissed off Leon ready to one shot this kids team bc Y/N told him)

Okay, this was so much fun to write! Small warning as some stronger language is used, but it’s not horrible. Trust me, I work around US Marine’s a lot due to my job, so my vocabulary is uh…very advanced. Still, I held myself back for this but thought it was worth mentioning. I hope you guys enjoy the trainer (aka you or your OC) about to beat Bede to a bloody pulp!

Hop x Reader: Smack Talk

The trainer knew that Hop had told them to head back to the next town, but they had been far too curious. They knew Bede, as they had fought him a good amount of times, but they were interested in seeing Hop taking him on. So they followed them form a distance, not wanting to get caught. They almost felt like a stalker while they climbed a tree to get a good vantage point. They could even hear what the two boys were saying, which was delightful for the trainer. At least this way, they wouldn’t be left out.

The battle sadly hadn’t been going in Hop’s favor, and the trainer noted that maybe Hop should get a dark type and add it to his team for defense against psychics. Still, his pokemon slowly began falling in battle until he had to call back his last pokemon that had been knocked out. The trainer was a bit annoyed that their rival and friend couldn’t win, but he did his best and had almost beaten Bede.

“You know, you’re an embarrassment to Leon. As his brother, you should be the best of the best, but here you are, weaker than any trainer I’ve fought. You’re horrible battling skills are probably making others question Leon as well, since he endorsed you.” Bede called out to Hop, and the trainer immediately felt their blood boiling at what he was saying. Hop was already feeling down because of the loss, but having those words being spat at him had made things far worse.

“I…” Hop began to say, but Bede had been quick to cut him off.

“I don’t have time listening to some loser. You might as well drop out of the competition at this rate, and save yourself and your brother the embarrassment of losing miserably.” Bede said, laughing while looking down, and the trainer couldn’t stop themselves. It was like their body was moving on their own as they got out of the tree and stormed over to the boys. The trainer saw red as they got to where they were, and Hop was surprised to see them there.

“What are you…” Hop had begun to ask before he watched as the trainer grabbed the front of Bede’s coat and dragged him down forcefully. They looked absolutely feral with how their eyes were slitted, and their teeth were showing…it reminded him a bit of an angry wild pokemon. A very angry, high leveled pokemon at that.

“Who the hell are you to judge Hop, you prick? He’s made leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time and has become an extremely strong trainer. Just because he couldn’t beat you this time doesn’t mean shit. I actually see him as a rival while you’re nothing more than the dirt on my shoes. Don’t you ever fucking say anything to him again, am I being clear?” The trainer said, the ending coming out between clenched teeth as they tried not to punch Bede.

Just the air the trainer was giving off had been intimidating, and Bede could almost see the trainer’s pokemon rumbling about in their poke balls, ready to be released. The trainer was showing some self-restraint, but it was hard not to slap that stupid smirk off his face. Thankfully, Bede didn’t sport his usual smug grin but instead looked about ready to piss himself. 

He knew he was in trouble with his roughly his coat was being grabbed, and how pissed off the trainer looked. Once he was released from their grasp, they let out a gasp of surprise as he tried to compose himself again. He went to open his mouth to say something, but the look on the trainer’s face told him that wouldn’t be in his best interest. Instead, he huffed and turned away, intent on leaving and, hopefully, not encountering the trainer for a good while.

Once he was gone, the trainer turned to Hop, their entire aura changing with it as they looked concerned, “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to lose my cool. All I wanted to do was watch the match, and then I heard Bede and I kind of…” The trainer was cut off by Hop, suddenly hugging them. The trainer immediately returned the gesture, holding him tightly and being happy that he was okay. The two parted, and Hop looked at them with such adoration, it was hard not to blush.

“Thank you…I really appreciate you standing up for me.” Hop said, and the trainer felt their heart soar at his words. They could only give him a goofy grin and quickly go in for another hug while laughing merrily. Hop was so glad to have them by his side, but he also knew now that he really shouldn’t piss them off.

With the trainer and Leon:

“And that’s what he told Hop.” The trainer finished their tale, and Leon stood there, looking just as pissed off as the trainer had. Hell, even the trainer was all worked up again after explaining everything that happened during the battle. Leon went and grabbed his team, and headed towards the door.

“Uh Leon…where you going?” The trainer asked, a bit shocked at how he was already leaving, most likely to go find Bede and teach him a lesson.

“I’m about to ruin my reputation for being nice is what I’m about to do,” Leon explained, and the trainer couldn’t help but smile. At least in Hop’s lifetime, nobody would be stupid enough to disrespect him like that. After all, he had the two strongest trainers in Galar who are ready to beat someone up for him.

Request Info Here

[ironmandeficiency]

all’s fire in love & war

pairing: hardcase / reader

word count: 1911

summary: hardcase hatches a plan to win your affection that doesn’t quite go off without a hitch. you’re infuriated at his eagerness to endanger himself but also quite sentimental when the burn marks in the terrain simulation arena look suspiciously like a heart.

a/n: i’ve fallen in love with hardcase, all there is to it. idk whether him, dogma, or tup were at point rain but they were now. (this is also somewhat inspired by this art by @panthermouth​ )

read it on ao3

“hardcase! you were only supposed to detonate the droids, not the whole karking simulation arena!” fives was, quite understandably, furious. this was the third time in five days hardcase has pulled a stunt like this, which was far more often than normal. hardcase was giggling like a child that had eaten too many sweets, thoroughly enjoying the blazing inferno before him. the sprinklers went off like clockwork and it was honestly so strange to think that hardcase was actually considered an adult.

you were a civvie medic assigned to the 501st, and your time was divided between the resolute and the front lines. the clones seemed to worship the ground you walked on, which you attributed to the way you fought at point rain. it could also have a lot to do with the way you’d give contraband (read: candies) after their visits and the soft voice you’d use with shinies experiencing their first med bay trip.

his smile was the first thing you noticed about hardcase. its boyish charm and hints of trouble lurking beneath it working like a magnet pulling your affections to him. it was hard to find peace and quiet when he was around, but since you hated silence, it was great to hear his voice after a long day elbow-deep in blood and bacta.

you groaned as the sirens went off, not even bothering to throw your blacks on before slipping on your boots and going to assess the damage. you were in night clothes that didn’t keep much else covered besides the necessities, but you weren’t one to shy away when it came to your body. your state of dress was inconsequential to you at the moment because there was something happening that may need your presence.

the day of a medic was never over.

your feet were pounding on the durasteel floor of the resolute, partly hoping that you were woken needlessly for the sake of the men but also that you weren’t roused from a particularly pleasant dream for no valid reason.

another boom shook the ground slightly and you did not like the way the alarms seemed to get louder in protest to the second shock.

your entrance to the terrain simulation arena was loud and heavy from the near-spring you’ve been in since you left your bunks, your breaths being heavy and a smidge labored.

“what’s wrong, vod- holy kriff, we need a medic! medic!” you recognized the voice in seconds. the fact you could taste the explosion in the air did nothing to soothe the nerves that had built up at the arc trooper’s tone. there was no time for jitters or worrying, you had a job to do.

your feet carried you to fives’s side, quickly reassuring him with a hand in his shoulder. “i’m here, fives! what happened?”

“this pile of bantha fodder decided to go overboard and now he’s-”

“it doesn’t matter if i went ‘overboard’ on this,” hardcase did finger quotes around the accusational word with a sith-may-care grin, “it’s working! this was, uh, just a minor setback.” that is, if being impaled with droid metal could be considered minor anything.

fives could have killed him right then but somehow was able to grip his last remaining bit of self-restraint tight enough. the restraint didn’t weaken the desire to strangle his vod’ika but it sure kept him from acting on it. ‘we’re literally right next to a medic, if i killed him now she’d probably be quick enough to bring him back-’ the tirade was cut off with a groan from hardcase, the man slightly moving within the grips of five’s arms.

you had no idea what kind of plan (that fives was in on by the sound of his frustration) the brothers had concocted. the only thing you were focusing on was the embedded piece of shrapnel in hardcase’s side that was bleeding a bit too much for your liking. the fool didn’t even bother to have full armor on when dealing with his precious explosives and was seeming to have no issue whatsoever with being impaled by some sort of twisted metal far too mangled to identify.

the fire from the explosions were smoldering as you and fives lifted hardcase between you both, making a mad dash to the medbay. hardcase was determined to not be carried and so his legs would occasionally try to carry a bit of his weight; the pain was white-hot and with every step he attempted to make he tripped over his own feet. through the pain, he was still adamant that his injuries were a minor setback.

what was new information, however, was the tinge of fear in your eyes as you and fives gently laid him in a bed, fives being grilled with questions while you and kix both got to work. it filled him with guilt he didn’t have the hindsight to consider if things went sideways in his plan (which they did).

hardcase only intended on your presence being a precautionary one at most. he knew you’d be one of the first to respond to an incident almost anywhere in the ship and even though part of him didn’t like taking advantage of your caring nature, he made sure to act on his plan somewhere he knew you’d be the first to reach. there wasn’t a part of his plan that accounted for him actually being injured, let alone the frantic tone so unfamiliar to him as you shouted things to kix.

in the eyes of the 501st (and the 212th) you had no fear. back during the second attack on geonosis, you took up arms alongside them despite the multitude of regs clearly stating that civilian medics were prohibited from participating in combat. a member of the 501st had used his dying breath to give you his dc-15s and the moment his hand lost its grip on yours, you figuratively told the regs to kiss your shebs in the form of shooting every droid and bug in your way.

you were enraged but calculated while kicking ass (it still got hardcase a bit hot under his blacks when thinking about it), and when the battle ended you were immediately back into the medbay as if you never left your medical duties. there was no evidence that you had previously been fighting alongside the rest of them with the ease you slipped back into your duties, your voice returning to the soothing firmness of someone that cared about the men under their care.

this was also the day hardcase fell head over shebs for you, your desire to go above and beyond for clones of all the people in the galaxy standing out to the heavy gunner. it was in the way you’d happily listen to him ramble on about whatever his mind thought of next and actually contribute to what would normally be a one-sided conversation, even among his closest vod’e. you cared about who he was as an individual far beyond just his physical health and he ached to show you how much that meant to him.

safe to say, what was going to be a well-humored display of affection turning into an emergency trip to you and kix was not part of his plan. what’s worse is that he had become the reason your voice had lost its calming cadence, your words rushed and sounded like you were teetering on the edge of losing it.

why were you so worried about little ol’ him?

he wanted to ponder the implications more but he was knocked out, either by an anaesthetic shot or blood loss, he was too far gone to know which.

--------

kix has had the idea bouncing in his head for a while, but tonight’s events solidified his thoughts into one fact: hardcase was a kriffing idiot.

when fives told kix about the “plan” his vod’ika had cooked up to get the attention of his fellow medic, it took several deep breaths and the promise of alderaanian wine in his bunk to keep from doing something rash. only an idiot (which hardcase was established to be) would be blind to the extra care you held for the di’kut.

you’d always be sure to stash his favorite flavor of medbay candies away for when he came in for one thing or another (usually it was just to lighten the mood of less-crowded shifts) and listen to the word vomit that never ceased to come from his mouth even through sleep. kix isn’t the only one who’s noticed the lingering physical contact when it was completely unnecessary but it grated on him more than most, seeing as he was subjected to its naivety more than most.

the fact that hardcase thought he’d need a heart-shaped explosion to get your attention truly attested to his stupidity.

he was just glad that hardcase didn’t need time in a bacta for all the trouble this was. the largest piece lodged into his abdomen and -thank the maker- missed his organs. but even bacta couldn’t keep it from getting a pretty gnarly scar, something he knew wouldn’t bother his vod a bit. knowing hardcase, he’d boast about the thing to anyone who’d listen.

kix had sedated him not long after he was brought in. fives had been dismissed after kix had heard enough of the ridiculous plan that had landed hardcase in medical, and the privacy left kix with the perfect opportunity for a conversation with his fellow medic.

“y’alright, y/n?” he started off easy, knowing that your worry was bound to make you more sensitive than normal.

your breath was shaky as you exhaled, leaning against the bed hardcase occupied. “would it be bad if i said no?”

“not in my eyes, baar'ur’ika. i know you care about him an awful lot.” a playful smile graced his features, hoping to ease the tension he could sense radiating off you. it worked a little, your shoulders slumping out of the tense posture they carried minutes earlier.

“i do care about him, and that’s what makes it all worse! we’re fighting a war here, death is as common as a blaster!” you took a deep breath, trying to fight the way your voice gets weaker but failing. “ i don’t know if i could survive losing him, kix.”

kix continued to apply bacta to the smaller cuts hardcase sustained before continuing. “the fact we’re in war should encourage you to show him what you feel. us clones never know when we’ll die, and our last thoughts are always on the things that made us happy, that made this damned war worth fighting. i know for a fact that if hardcase died tomorrow, his last thoughts will be of you.”

yeah his words were meant to be encouraging, but they were a painful reminder all the same. maybe it was time to let yourself have a sliver of happiness within the death and sorrow that permeated the entire gar. you may not completely believe you deserve the happiness he would bring you, but hardcase surely deserves whatever happiness you could give him.

you didn’t know what to say in reply so you continued your work in silence. once the sedation wore off, hardcase would be free to leave. until then, you could stay beside him and wonder how the kriff you were going to explain your feelings to the idiot that won your affections with no effort.

[linkspooky]

Nobara and Gojou

Nobara and Gojou have suffered similiar defeats in the Shibuya Incident Arc. They both lost, despite being clearly stronger than their opponent. Every single one of the main trio (Nobara, Megumi, Yuji) parallels a member of the flashback arc’s trio in some way (Gojou, Shouko, Getou), but while Nobara’s most obvious parallel may seem to be Shouko I would also argue she parallels Gojou quite a bit. Both Gojou and Nobara are characters that focus on individualism and duty above all else, in ways that Megumi, and Yuji don’t. Nobara parallels Gojou in the worst ways, she shares all of his flaws. 

1. Strength Isn’t Everything.

Jujutsu Kaisen has always been a manga about nuance and balance. There’s more than one way to skin a cat (or exercise a curse). Which is why we’ve seen the story introduce two seemingly opposing ideas. Number one, we don’t live in a world where you win just by being strong. Number two, you can’t close a gap in strength through petty tricks alone. 

These ideas seemingly contradict one another. The second establishes that if there’s an absolute difference in strength then strategy won’t even matter. The first establishes that strength isn’t that you can’t win a fight just by being strong. However these ideas are not opposites, they’re complementary. What they suggest is that the world is a complex place, and there’s no way one single strategy will win every possible fight. There are times when strength wins the fight, there are times when strategy is the way to go. The solution isn’t to favor one or the other, but rather to find the balance between the two. 

Before Nobara gets into her fight we’re shown a fight where Megumi has the starring role. The world view of the shaman Megumi is fighting against is important for this. 

The shaman that Megumi fights has a world view of “being strong makes me free to do whatever I want.” He believes strength to be permissive. Being strong means being competent enough to accomplish whatever you want, in any situation. 

If you want to do something, and you have the ability to do it, you should be abel to do it. That’s why it’s permissive. Strength grants permission. Getou brings up the idea in Premature Death. Gojou technically has the ability to slaughter every single human that’s not a shaman on the face of the earth. If he’s able to do it, then why can he tell Getou that it’s impossible? If the world really were as simple as Getou suggested it to be, then being strong really would be enough. Gojou would be capable of doing anything, like some kind of god. 

However, even the shaman’s own cursed technique reverses this idea of strength. Attacks that are strong around him become weak, whereas weak counters become strong. There is no idea of absolute strength. No person is going to be strong in every circumstance all the time. 

That shaman is beaten not by Megumi’s decision to face his head on, but rather by his choice to make a tactical retreat and rethink the situation after figuring out his cursed technique. Strength is not the absolute decider of everything. More than that, Megumi and Yuji were both choosing to cooperate with one another, even though cooperation was harder for both of them at this point. 

They both admit the hardest part of the fight isn’t even fighting against an enemy. That it would be easier if they were just strong enough to fight everything individually on their own, however, the fight is won by Yuji listening to Megumi, and Megumi choosing cooperation. 

This is also the exact opposite advice that Gojou gave Megumi. Megumi’s tendency is to sacrifice himself, and defer to others because he has no confidence in himself and his own individual strength. However, once again this reflects the complex nature of reality there’s no advice that applies to every single situation in the world. Gojou’s advice won the fight in Origin of Obedience, but if Megumi fought like Gojou did he would have lost this arc. 

We see Maki, and Nobara who are both characters who parallel strongly to Gojou and think they are people who can accomplish everything they want with the power of individual strength, make several critical mistakes. First, Maki doesn’t even consider the possibility Gojou could have lost. Because, Maki’s world view is the same as Gojou’s, the stronger opponent should always win. Maki is a character trying to overcome her family circumstances just by becoming the strongest possible shaman she can be to prove them wrong. 

Nobara makes a similiar mistake to Maki. We see her lose the fight because of the absolute confidence she has in her own strength, that she can win every situation by being strong enough to fight on her own. 

Rather than keeping the person she wants to protect close to her, Nobara sends her away so she can fight on her own. She assumes the weaker person will only get in her way and is safer farther away from the battle. Which is also literally the premise of Gojou’s entire fight in the subway, he goes in alone because he assumes that any other jujutsu sorcerer would only get in the way, just like the innocent civillians were there solely existing to get in the way of his techniques.

Nobara gets arrogant and refuses to analyze the other person’s jujutsu techniques and gets critically wounded. At which point we see Nobara run against the flaw of her own world view. That if she can only accomplish things with strength, then the situations where she’s weak she’s completely helpless. Nobody is strong all the time, and if she’s weak then there’s nothing she can do. If everything is decided by strength than the weak have no choice. 

2. Nobara and Gojou, Broken in the Same Way 

During Nobara’s introduction chapter Gojou says that Shaman’s have to possess a sort of craziness, to jump into battle risking life and limb like it’s nothing at all. 

While Yuji feels absolutely nothing putting his life at risk to an almost suicidal degree, I would say Nobara is the one who’s actually the closest to what Gojou describes. Just like Gojou she has the single-mindedness to believe that is she’s strong enough that she should be capable of anything. 

Nobara and Gojou assert their individualism over everything else. They don’t bend to the world, they bend the world to the way they want it. Yuji’s strong and confident in a similiar way but he always puts the wants and desires of others over himself in every situation, but Nobara is always about what she wants first and foremost. However, there are two parts to Nobara and Gojou’s world view it’s not just about strength, but also about duty. Gojou and Nobara are extremely selfish people but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about others. They see their absolute strength as an obligation to use it to protect others.

If the situation is to go all out and kill the enemy, or save the life of a person right in front of them they’ll always make the choice that spares the innocent life. They are strong, but their strength is duty bound, it’s something they tend to use for others rather than themselves. Even in Nobara’s choice to send away the aide that was with her, she was using herself as a distraction so she could get away safely. They’re selfish people, but they don’t necessarily put themselves, and their well beings over others. 

Gojou is technically able to get out of the Shibuya situation is he just massacres every human on the inside of the curtain, but he’d never make that choice. So we have Nobara and Gojou caught between the same rock and a hard place. They can’t sacrifice others, but they can’t cooperate with them either. For Gojou and Nobara the most important thing is their own individualism and their world view. 

What Nobara hates is being told she’s wrong in any way. She views her world view as absolute. What she refuses to do is revise her opinions. She can’t be wrong. She cannot accept the fact that other people might have views that contradict hers, and that multiple points of view besides her own can coexist at the same time. 

If you look at the way Nobara judges the difference between Maki and Mai. She accepts Maki because Maki is more similiar to her and she likes Maki, and refuses to accept Mai because she doesn’t really like Mai. If she doesn’t like Mai than she doesn’t even want to bother thinking about her world view. It’s a narrow minded and flawed way of thinking. Gojou and Nobara tend to push other people away from them for two reasons, one they believe they can accomplish everything they want to do alone because they have such absolute confidence in themselves, and two they think they already see everything. Gojou assumes so because he has the six eyes and perceives the infinity, and Nobara because she thinks she’s smarter than the judgemental country people she was raised around. 

Gojou and Nobara lose in a similiar way. If it’s a contest of sheer strength they’ll never lose. Gojou pulls off a miracle and activates his territory for mere seconds, and slaughters thousands of curses at once. Nobara is so crazy, she wins a game of chicken against a literal demon and is completely willing to light herself on fire and let herself burn if her opponent burns with her. They don’t lose because they’re weaker than their opponents. They both get surprised by what they didn’t know. They specifically didn’t know it because Gojou, and Nobara already assumed they knew everything. 

Gojou is blindsided by the fact that Getou’s body still exists in some form and because of that his brain completely stalls in a critical moment. Nobara loses because she doesn’t really understand the cursed technique of the person she’s fighting against so even though it might be weaker than hers she’s still overcome. 

Gojou and Nobara are both people who assume they should be able to accomplish anything with their own strength. They both have inhuman levels of strength and determination. Which is why we see they’re similiar even down to the way they move their bodies, they act and move like inhuman puppets when pushed to their absolute limits. Hunched shoulders, stiff zombie like movements, it’s a clear parallel. 

If everything in the world really was decided by strength and determination than Gojou and Nobara would never lose. Neither of them are lacking in strength, or their determination to help others. But as Gojou says towards the beginning of the manga he has the ability to just murder all the higher ups in the Jujutsu world but that won’t really change anything. Gojou and Nobara are both fundamentally unable to accept other people, and are always distancing themselves from others and trying to fight on their own. That’s why for both of them, it’s not enough for Nobara, or Gojou alone to be strong. 

[elencelebrindal]

Who's the strongest and the weakest Bronze Saint in your opinion? I saw your post about the Golds and was wondering if you ever did something similar for them.

The strongest?

Short answer:

Long answer:

Shun is, in my opinion, the strongest of them all. Yes, even stronger than Ikki.  I see countless people saying that Shun is weak and/or useless just because he doesn’t want to fight or because he calls Ikki for help, and I have one thing to say about that: kindness does not equal weakness. Shun is not weak, he refuses to fight unless he has to.  The most blatant example I can give you of his strength is the fight against Aphrodite, the only battle Shun actively wanted to fight. You can see how dangerous he can be, when he’s willing to put aside his non-belligerent attitude. Shun is merciful, he doesn’t want to resolve everything with violence. This doesn’t mean he’s not one of the deadliest fighters out there, if not the deadliest, given his ability. 

Let’s NOT forget Shun was able to hold his ground against Saga, who is said to be one of the most powerful Saints of his generation. He went as far as striking Saga in the Pope’s chamber, he managed to reach him with not that much effort. This is something people often gloss over, but it’s one of the greatest examples out there of Shun’s incredible power.  To fight him, Seiya needed all the help he could get from his companions. Shun, instead, fought by himself, didn’t die or get lost in the Another Dimension, and was able to get his chains near Saga without him being unable to stop the boy.

Most importantly, Shun is depicted as “weak” only in works not written by Kurumada. Non-canon episodes are the only ones in which Shun is not capable of keeping up with the other Saints. This is obviously proof of him being weakened by outside people, and not of him being weak by default. 

Another point in his favor it’s the Seventh Sense: he awakened it during the Sanctuary batte, right? Well, wrong. According to his teacher, Shun reached the Seventh Sense way before that. Or at least, the potential of the Seventh Sense.  Shun cannot be considered weak, and shouldn’t be considered weak, because he’s definitely not. Now, as for why I think he’s more powerful than Ikki, to me it’s obvious that he’s stronger than him. Maybe not physically, in fact I don’t think there’s anyone in the Bronzes that physically stronger than Ikki (no, not even Shiryu), but as far as his cosmo goes...  Ikki has the advantage of not dying, Phoenix and whatnot, but Shun has a more powerful cosmo. You can easily see this by taking into consideration the Nebula Storm, a technique so powerful that, if not controlled, reaches a point when it’s impossible to be stopped. This is incredibly destructive, extremely lethal, and Shun uses it without his Cloth.  This is something similar to what Shiryu does, because they both can access their full cosmo without wearing a Cloth, but Shun has a clear advantage: he doesn’t have a weak spot. Where Shiryu could be easily killed if hit in the right place, Shun doesn’t have that weakness. Which, at least in my opinion, makes him better than Shiryu. 

The last example I want to give you is the immense plot twist of him being Hades’ host.  Not necessarily the fact that he can withstand the soul of a god binding with his own, but the fact that he was able to get the upper hand against Hades.  If Shun was really as weak as a lot of people want to believe, than explain to me how in the everloving Hell did Shun managed to take back control over his body, keep a hold of Hades to give his brother an opportunity, and accept that he needed to die in order to get rid of the deity.  He didn’t last long, sure, but he was fighting Hades.  Not only that, but not long after being freed from Hades, Shun took back his Cloth, donned it, and fought again like he wasn’t just possessed by a deity. He managed to burn his cosmo enough to “unlock” the Divine Cloth despite having endured Hades’ control over his body and soul. To this day, I’m still annoyed at how easily Hypnos defeated him, taking into account what happened just a few moment before. 

This might not be enough to convince other people of Shun’s true potential, but it’s enough for me to believe he’s absolutely the strongest Bronze Saint, and maybe even one of the strongest Saints in general.  Don’t forget that this young man right here can wear the Virgo Cloth. He is the next Virgo Saint, and that’s a given for me. And you know how unbelievably powerful a Saint with that constellation normally is. 

The weakest?

Short answer:

Long answer:

Seiya is... not as powerful as his protagonist status wants us to believe. I’m not doubting his abilities, because he is a Saint after all and he is skilled, but he’s by far the weakest as far as cosmo and physical strength go.  Most of his exploits are made because of his “immense determination” and “good heart”. It’s almost never a believable (believable in Saint Seiya) reason that leads him to victory.  He’s not necessarily weak, because he’s not, but he’s the least powerful of all the main Bronze Saints. Obviously he’s better than the secondary ones, because plot and everything, but he’s not on the same level as his companions.  Most of his victories were attained because he had help, either from Athena or from his fellow Bronzes.  Like I said before, Seiya couldn’t face Saga on his own. He needed the help of four other Saints in order to be on his level. I will be fair, and say that he was able to endure a lot on his own, but what he by himself still wasn’t enough to win.  

He had his fair share of deserved victories, of course, but some of those were so heavily helped by other people’s intervention it doesn’t even feel like Seiya actually did something on his own.  I’m not counting in this the fights he won fair and square, like the one against Aldebaran (sure, he had his annoying moment of “let’s daydream”, but he did win by himself), or the one against Thor. Hell, I’m perfectly okay with him winning against Thanatos.  But there’s countless other moments in which he needed someone’s help or something to his advantage.  For example, the first fight against Shiryu: Seiya won because he was able to spot and hit Shiryu’s weak spot, but he was being devastated before that. Even after tricking Shiryu in shattering his own shield (brilliant move, Marin taught him well), Seiya didn’t have the upper hand.  Against Ikki, Seiya needed the help from all his companions to actually defeat him.  When he reached the stairs leading to the Pope’s chamber, Seiya got easily overwhelmed by Aphrodite’s roses, while Marin (who gave him her mask) didn’t suffer as much from that poison. Against Saga, Seiya was able to use his protagonist bullshit to win because “a Saint fight with his heart!”, but when being faced with the real fight he needed some help. I’m not saying Seiya didn’t have the potential to resist Saga’s technique, like Ikki did when facing Shaka, but it was used in such a way it didn’t look like something coming from his own strength. 

This happens way more in the series, from classic to Hades, and in the movies as well. Seiya is celebrated as this powerful Saint capable of defeating even the gods, but in reality he mostly relied on someone else’s help to achieve victory. 

Physically, it’s painfully obvious that he’s not strong. He is as strong as a normal Saint would be, but not more than the average warrior. He easily prevails only on opponents that are visibly weaker than him, like Cassios (who didn’t have the slightest trace of cosmo), and has a hard time against opponents that are on his level.  It also took a long time for him to understand how to fight Aiolia, but he only managed a couple good hits before being overwhelmed again. He has it even worse in the CGI movie, where Aiolia literally brushes off his attacks like they’re nothing. 

Some might argue that his cosmo his not that weak, because he’s able to wear not only a Gold Cloth, but a Divine Cloth as well. And I say to you: I’m not saying he’s that weak. What I’m saying is: Seiya has potential, but not as much as we’re led to believe.  Seiya heavily relies on the Gold Cloth when he wears it, instead of relying more on his own cosmo. He does the same with the Divine Cloth. 

Compared to his companions, Seiya is relatively weak. Where Hyoga managed to become more powerful than his own teacher (a Gold Saint) and learned both of his techniques, Seiya relied on the Cloth itself to help him with his cosmo. Where Shiryu is able to fight effortlessly without wearing his Cloth, Seiya seems to be unable to do anything if he’s not wearing it. Where Ikki seems to have mastered his cosmo, Seiya still doesn’t know how to fully use it.

He always needs protection, he needs Athena to use her cosmo for him or to reassure him, he always ends up being the only one last standing because other people put their lives on the line for him.  The Hades arc is what described him best: a kid that doesn’t know how to face people bigger than him. Even the fight against Valentine wasn’t his own victory, because Athena helped him from afar. It’s so easy to defeat him, like we saw when Rhadamanthys effortlessly got rid of Seiya. Which, in retrospect, completely erased what Seiya managed to do when fighting him for the first time. 

I’m aware I’m known for my... well, not hate but strong dislike for Seiya. I won’t blame you if you think I put him so low because I’m biased.  But this is my opinion for that, and I’m keeping it. 

[tsarisfanfiction]

Thinking thoughts and wanted to know your opinion law went from this seemingly laid back almost easy going personality to this brooding serious man during the time skip do you think he’ll slowly ease back into his old personality once this emperor stuff is taken care of and do you think his crew miss his laid back ways?

Ooh, hello Anon!  This is an interesting question for sure, but honestly?  I don’t think Law’s personality really changed.  What changed is his situation (and two years of additional experience).

Aaaaand my explanation/character study got super long so it’s under a cut.  Oops.  Vague warning for Wano spoilers at some point (I give an actual warning when I get there but a few other things may have slipped in earlier so watch out if you’re anime-only, I guess?)

Okay, so: Sabaody.  Laid back, taunting so-and-so noted by Kid of all people to have zero manners and perfectly happy to poke fun at Drake (note: Drake is also former North Blue, we know their backstories intersected - although whether they know that is another matter entirely, although I headcanon that Drake knows and Law doesn’t but that’s a whole other thing, just like I headcanon that Drake, Penguin and Shachi totally knew each other as teenagers.  I mean, neighbouring islands?  Pirates?  Don’t try and tell me the Barrel Pirates never visited Swallow Island when it was literally right there, and what little we know of pre-Hearts Penguin and Shachi they would totally have been in the pirate kid’s face, but I’m getting off-track).

Law spends a lot of time in Sabaody watching.  When we first see him, he’s watching Killer and Urouge duke it out, and doesn’t do anything to influence what’s going on until Drake arrives (again: Drake, North Blue, a Known Quantity.  Killer?  South Blue.  Urouge?  Sky Islands.  Unknown Quantities, and possibly the first time he’s seen either of them in person).  Then we see him in the Auction House, and we all know he wasn’t there to make a purchase.  One of Oda’s brilliant tie-backs - the Auction House is one of Joker’s things.  Joker is Doffy.  Law is tracking Doffy.  It’s not rocket science that he’s there to get more info.

Then the Strawhats happen.  Law sits there amid all that carnage, seeing the entire crew reunite in the middle of the Biggest Thing Ever To Happen on Sabaody (I mean… punch a tenryubito, nice one Luffy).  Doesn’t join in, doesn’t try to leave.  Sits and watches.  His interaction with Luffy is more info-gathering: this guy just punched a tenryubito and now the Marines are here.  What next?

I love the Three Captains Beatdown.  (I am delighted we finally have the Part 2).  Luffy and Kid are being Luffy and Kid.  They’re crazy, they’re strong, they’re not backing down.  Law has his pride.  He’s the ‘weakest’ of the three (by which I mean he has the lowest bounty and in pirate-speak that means weaker) and both Kid and Luffy are completely not his type of pirate (again, revisited in current manga events and thank you, Oda).  If he doesn’t act then, he’ll lose a whole load of respect, and also put his crew in danger because, you know, the admiral is coming and Shachi already admitted Rayleigh’s haki nearly took him out.  So we have three of Law’s big traits coming out in Sabaody (imo): Protectiveness of his crew, Scheming, and being an Intentional Pain in the Ass (with a subsection of Pride but all pirates have that one so I’m not gonna focus on that too much).

As for Marineford, that’s really a case of sticking his tongue out at the World Government, let’s be honest (plus the whole Will of D schtick we still don’t know the full depth of).  What better way of saying ‘screw you’ to the WG than saving someone who just broke out of Impel Down and has made themselves out to be a royal nuisance but hey it’s okay because he’s dea- dammit Trafalgar came in and now he’s not dead?  Also really got his name on their radar for Shichibukai fun later. 

All three of these traits still show themselves post-timeskip, but up until Zou/Wano there is one big factor that’s changed.

Law is alone.

He’s sent his crew off somewhere safe (there is no other reason for ditching most of his fighting power all the way to Zou other than to just keep Doflamingo’s strings away), his scheming is reaching its peak, and then the Straw Hats come in and make a mess of everything.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be much more serious when I’m alone in a keystone of my greatest enemy’s lair with my nakama too far away to help, and then the Strawhats crash the party.

He’s met them once before, presumably also read about them in the News Coo, so he knows they do unpredictable things at the worst times.  He also knows they’re strong, so Scheming Law comes in again, allies with them to both try and stop them from messing everything up, and also get some additional firepower in to replace his crew’s strength (or at least a bit of it - considering the Strawhats are half the size of the Hearts and if anyone tries to tell me Law, Bepo and Jean Bart are the only powerhouses in that crew I will fight, how much exactly it compares is a grey area).

Too bad Luffy is, well, Luffy, and it doesn’t quiiite pan out the way Law planned (but he’s learning!  Latest chapter is gold).  But again, Punk Hazard: we see Pain in the Ass Law (vs Smoker), Scheming Law (basically main Law right now), and Protective Law (Heart Pirates hidden away safe).

And this continues into Dressrosa, with of course the addition of Tragic Backstory (it’s One Piece, he was going to have one.  Even if Law’s ends up particularly nasty).  Law is facing his greatest enemy, the one he swore to defeat after thirteen years, and then he gets outsmarted.  So we have out of his depth, defeated Law - although he’s still being a Smartass to Doffy because he can.  Again, I think being tense, snappy and generally not a happy guy is pretty fair in that situation.  Luffy simultaneously makes things better and worse - Law has to rely on him to get him out of there, and we know Law’s not one for trusting easily (Jean Bart’s recruitment is an interesting case and I wonder if he was planning on keeping him straight away or if it was another FU to the tenryubito plus ‘hey, fighting power’ moment but then Jean Bart was actually loyal and also a goof).  But Luffy does it, they win, hooray.

But now?  Now we have Law alone with the Straw Hats forming a Grand Fleet and he’s really back-footed here in terms of power balance.  It is Not Smart to rib the pirates who a) outnumber you like hell and you have no hope of backup anywhere and b) are the ones that are going to get you back to your own crew.  This isn’t like Sabaody, where there’s Luffy and Kid and he needs to prove himself to them as well as keep his crew safe.  His crew are safe (he thinks… we’ll get to that in a minute), Luffy’s seen him at his absolute worst in the last 13 years, and all his scheming for the last 13 years has reached a conclusion.

He’s lost, he’s tired, and really he just wants to go home to his nakama now.  Can you blame him?

Then, we get Zou.

Zou is fun.  Zou is really, really fun.  We get the reunion!  Which we see literally 1% of and I’m mad because that would have been so good to see.  Bepo literally jumps on him and he lets him.  I bet the rest of the crew did, too.  We see Law with his crew of idiots and he loves them and there’s so much scope in there for Law finally being able to relax for the first time since Time Skip.  And the Hearts get on well with the Straw Hats.  We see Penguin and Usopp dancing together later on, we see Law teasing his crew (not introducing them?  Their reaction to that is the sort of thing we would see other pirate captains punish for mutiny but he just shrugs it off.  He knew they’d react like that).

But there are two big elephants in the room here (unintentional pun whoops).  Number one: Sanji’s disappearance and his ally’s reaction to that.  We see that covered pretty well in canon, Law realising that his ally is about to have two yonkou after his head at the same time and the problem that poses for him, Law getting dragged into a new alliance with the Minks and Samurai (Law being a total goof about Raizo but Keeping Up Appearances because Strawhats).  Law presumably making the executive decision that breaking his alliance now would be a bad idea (Kaido is still annoyed with him, the Minks adore the Strawhats, Luffy is a clingy rubbery bastard that won’t let him go anyway), and once more we have a back-footed Law.

The second elephant is fun for me.  It’s never fully stated in canon, but.  Jack attacked the Minks.  The Heart Pirates were living with the Minks.  The Heart Pirates fought with the Minks (we saw that).  Bepo was treated by Nami (we also saw that).  The Heart Pirates got caught up in that whole mess.  At the minimum, the whole crew got poisoned alongside the Minks.  I reckon some of them were probably tortured, too.  Law came home to his crew expecting them to have been safe and they weren’t.  And now he’s asking them to go straight to the lair of the crew that did that to them.  That’s not going to settle particularly well with him, either.

We don’t see the journey to Wano (disclaimer: I haven’t seen anything past WCI in the anime so I have no clue what fillers may have been added), but there’s still four Strawhats and the samurai on board, so even back in his own ship Law can’t fully relax, but I bet he’s still like Zou-Law.  A little peeved, trying to work out how the hell he’s going to deal with Kaido with or without Luffy and the half of the Strawhats that have gone on a suicide mission, but genuinely happy to see his crew again.

Then he manages to kick all the intruders once they arrive at Wano, and the first we see of him, he’s chilling out.  Watching.  He even has his crew on info-gathering/watching (we see Penguin, Shachi and Bepo but I bet they’re all doing it).  Hello, Sabaody!Law!  Chilled, keeping an eye on things, scheming (just no-one to irritate because they’re trying to keep a low profile).

And then Luffy returns and we’re back to Punk Hazard, except this time, Law’s crew are in the mess, too.  Law’s plans are crumbling, Luffy is being a royal nuisance, and then things go from Bad to Worse.

I don’t know how far the anime has got so vague blanket manga spoiler warning from here.

Luffy gets captured.  Kaido knows they’re there.  Kaido attacks his crew.  If it wasn’t for Shinobu having a devil fruit useful in that situation, that would have been bye-bye Penguin, Shachi and Bepo.  So there go Law’s plans and his crew are in danger.  Punk Hazard but worse.

Then, thanks to the traitor, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo get captured.  They’re also accused of being the traitor, and Protective Law rears his head big time.  The Heart Pirates in effect leave the alliance.  Not officially, because Law knows he’ll need them later even if it’s only as bait while he gets the hell out of there with his crew, if required, but he strikes out and they hear nothing from him until voila, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo are back!

And this was the return of Pain In The Ass Law.  He’s smirking at Hawkins, and someone else I’m currently running with the theory of Drake.  Oh look, North Blue buddies!  Known Quantities.  Some scheme is hatched (looking forwards to that one).  He’s also protecting the hell out of his crew, because Hawkins hit him where it hurts (North Blue not-so-buddies.  Known Quantities.  Works both ways).

Now?  Now, we’re looped right back to Sabaody again.  The Three Captains are back, Law is back to being surrounded by idiots but still proving himself whilst protecting his crew and scheming (and this time knows how to include Luffy and Kid into his schemes!  Character development!).

It’s been two years, he’s been through hell (again, Oda please give him a break), but the core things we saw back in Sabaody?  They’re still there, and the closer he is to his crew the clearer we see them.

So to answer the question will he go back to that?  No, because that’s not how character development works, but I do think we’ll see the Pain In The Ass Law more once Protective and Scheming Law aren’t needed in earnest (unfortunately, as long as the Strawhats are around, he’s always going to have some sort of guard up because he’s learnt and he’s not stupid.  As they’re our protags, that means we’re probably only going to see Law much while he’s with them).

As for his crew?  We know, thanks to the SBS, that Penguin, Shachi and Bepo have known him since basically the day he lost Rocinante.  Whatever hell of a mess he is at the moment, it’s not going to be anything like 13yo Law after his whole life crumbled again.  It’s not known exactly when he meets the rest of the crew (except Jean Bart), but it’s somewhere in those 11 years between Minion Island and Sabaody (and maybe some again in the time skip).

So some of his crew, at least, have seen him worse and basically learn to love again (as cheesy as that sounds).  They might not like the blip, but they’ve seen him worse, so they’ll know that it’ll pass.  And as I’ve been saying, we’ve seen him far more without his crew than with them.  There’s a high chance that how he acts with them hasn’t changed as much as the change we’ve seen as readers.

This basically turned into an Essay on Law oops.  But it was a very interesting question!

[x688plsloveme]

Companions’ Biggest Injury

ADA: She fell in some dirty water that clogged up her circuits while she was still traveling with Jackson. They were hunting some mirelurks because hey were

hurting for food, and one of them butted her into the water. Jackson repaired her head first, and she watched as he cleaned out the rest of her parts. some

wires were ruined, which made the whole process harder, but Jackson was adamant on fixing her as soon as possible because she was his favourite robot.

CAIT: During her time in the Combat Zone, Cait fought more than other people. They once put her up against a baby deathclaw. Sure it was still a baby, but it still had talons as long as her hand and was almost as big as she was. As much as she hates to admit it, the chems she was on was probably what saved her that day. Without them, she would've passed out for sure. The baby deathclaw gave hear a six inch long gash right up her side. She almost died, but at least she can use it as a good story at parties.

CODSWORTH: Sole doesn't like taking Codsworth out much, and he much prefers staying at home and cleaning, so Codsey doesn't get into a lot of trouble.

However, there was one time where a group of raiders tried to invade Sanctuary while Sole was out. He thought he had gotten all of them, but one of the slimy

dastards snuck into the kitchen during all the chaos, and as soon as Codsworth had his...back? turned, they hit him with a cast-iron skillet. The raider didn't last long, but Sole had to hear an earful when they got back. "Honestly! The nerve of some people! Do you know how hard it is to find a decent skillet

anymore? Do you!?”

CURIE: Back when she was a simple Miss Nanny, she didn't get so much as a scratch. However, as a synth with new senses and a curiosity that burns stronger than ever, she found herself getting into a lot more accidents. Particularly ones that involve food. Making dinner for everyone is a wonderful way to stimulate all of her senses and she loves it, but sometimes she gets carried away and burns herself pretty badly. There was also the time where she accidentally cut off her finger! Good thing Sole knows "someone" the institute with a mysteriously large "collection" of synth parts.

DANSE: The worst injury Danse got was actually after he left the Brotherhood. Power armor doesn't allow for many injuries after all. It's no secret that the

Brotherhood of Steel has plenty of bigots in it. Danse didn't even know the extent of it until he found a Paladin outside his door one day. It was one of his

close friends and Danse almost started crying right there at seeing someone from his past that wouldn't try to kill him just for being what he is. He was

relieved for about two minutes until the guy sucker punched him in the face and started screaming about how he "can't believe I got tricked by a filthy synth!"

and "I'm surprised you're even alive!" It shook Danse so bad he didn't know how to respond. Sole saved him from getting killed by putting a bullet in his skull

when they came to see what was happening. The mental trauma of not only finding out that one of his friends wanted him dead but also seeing them face-down themselves was terrible. Thankfully Sole is His actual friend and was, and always will be, there for him no matter what.

DEACON: No one actually knows what deacon’s worst injury is-he gives out different answers every time, but there are fan favourites that he’ll repeat every once in a while. His favourite by far (and Sole’s, but they’ll never tell him that) involves chems, a magic sword, and two dozen deathclaws. “I swear, all it took was one hit of psychojet!” He’d tell the gathering group. “When all those uglies came at me, I knew I had to buy some time. While they ran towards me in slow motion, I pulled out a magic green, glowing sword passed down by the great Shimada clan, the Ryūichi moji!” He paused for dramatic effect here. “One by one the green dragon of the Shimada legends carried me to each smelly lizard and one by one they fell. The greatest injury I received from that fight was from the mother deathclaw. Nothing is meaner than a mom with small kids let me tell you. She swung down with the force of a falling building, and right when I thought the famed sword would break, a flash of light obscured our vision, and a force knocked me back. When I came to, there was the mamma deathclaw, defeated on the ground, and a giant gash that spanned the length of my entire right arm.” This is the part where he shows a giant scar on his arm, making everyone cringe in sympathy pain. “The gash seemed like a mere cut when I noticed the sword lying shattered at my feet, my dragon friend gone. I just hope the old bugger I living large wherever he is...” The story ends and usually, people clap. The real way his arm got injured was much less fanciful. He just got caught by surprise by a raider. Where’s the fun in a story like that though?

DOGMEAT: bold of you to assume that I would ever let anything happen to my favourite puppy Poor boy was chasing a molerat and went too far from Sanctuary. He followed it back to its den where there was around two dozen of the nasty creatures. He got scratched up pretty bad before he could escape, but at least he got spoiled rotten because Sole's "poor baby" got hurt and anyone who didn't give him at least a pat on the head while he was healing was going to feel Sole's wrath. And NO ONE went against what Sole wanted for their dog.

GAGE: The most obvious large injury out of everyone-Gage's biggest injury was losing his eye. But what's not so obvious is how he lost it. Colter was pretty stupid compared to Gage, but when it came to 'street smarts,' he won against everyone. He knew he had to be ruthless and do anything to get to the top-especially in his line of work-so to show everyone that they shouldn't mess with him, he took the guy who was the biggest threat to him and gouged his eye out in front of everybody. Gage may be weaker than some of the crew but he was way more clever. You couldn't win against him one way or another, so instead of just killing him, Colter made him an example and kept him close afterwards just because he could. Gage didn't even scream. He didn't want to give that son of a bitch the satisfaction.

HANCOCK: Hancock has been in so many fights, he doesn’t even know where to start thinking. At least. That’s what he tells people when they ask. The truth of the matter is he just doesn’t want to tell anybody because they probably wouldn’t believe him. It was the story about how he met his life long brother McDonough. Both boys lived on the streets with hardly anyone to look after themselves and after a particularly bad tousle with some junkies over his last bit of water, Hancock thought he was a goner. He hadn’t expected some equally as young, and equally as scrawny kid come up and offer to take him to a place where he thought he could get some help. Hancock was in no position to deny the boy’s offer, so he followed him to a rickety shack 20 minutes away. He was feeling faint from the blood loss and passed out, but when he came to, he saw a young woman standing over him-seemingly just getting finished with giving him medical treatment. She introduced herself as “Murphey” and told him that he would help out someone very important one day. Then she just...left without another word. Late on, when Hancock asked McDonough about why he helped Murphey he just told him that she paid him to go to a certain alley and bring the kid there back to the shack. Both teens agreed that that was pretty freaky, but also agreed that they should start looking out for each other from then on out. Can’t have too many friends in the streets in their opinion. 

LONGFELLOW: He’s got stories for every single one of his scars, just ask him. He especially likes sharing about the jagged, faded one right above where his heart is. It was a long long time ago, but even in his old age, Longfellow remembered it like it was yesterday. All he had wanted in his youth was a sweetheart to battle life with. What he got was a toxic psycho. He did everything to please that girl and all he got in return was more demands and less control of his own life. Her downward spiral of hate and jealousy got so bad, that one day, after seeing Longfellow talking to another girl, his crazy girlfriend just snapped. She got a knife and went for his heart telling him that this is how he made her feel when he was around other girls. There was no hiding their abusive relationship after that. The girl was arrested and moved off island entirely. Longfellow got help, and even though it took a really really long time to gain his self-respect and confidence back, he still did it. He moved on from his past and overcame it stronger than before. He’s a strong believer that anyone can do it, and after the local therapist died, he became the unofficial one for anybody having issues with themselves because of abusive relationships. He did that for many years until the fog became so thick most people just left. He was glad to be living such a fulfilling life. He never thought he would get past his dark thoughts, yet here he was uplifting youngsters with his tale.

MACCREADY: When MacCready was a kid, no one warned him that Big Town wasn't the safest settlement in the wasteland. In fact, it was a shit hole. Sure the Lone Wanderer still popped by every now and then, but the months in between those visits were hell. If he wasn't such a good shoot he would've died within a year. In fact, he almost did. One of the first nights and MacCready stayed there, a slaver party from out west ransacked the town. being groggy because he had just woken up, his perception was thrown off and he got shot in the stomach. Red had already moved on with her life and was no longer living there and it wasn’t like anyone had any stimpacks either. He thought he was a goner up until he heard the slavers start dropping one by one in quick succession. He peaked over his cover and would’ve started crying if he wasn’t already. There stood Lone with their dog and boyfriend, Butch, who was looking very queasy at the sight of all that blood. In all 16 years of his life, MacCready had never been that happy to see anyone in his life. Lone gave him a stimpack while enthusiastically welcoming him to the real world. “I knew your birthday was around this time, so I dropped in to say hi and give you this.” They handed him an almost mint condition rifle and he wouldn’t tell anyone this, but he almost started crying again that day. He still uses that rifle. 

PIPER: Just like her buddy Nick, Piper made her fair share of enemies. The most dangerous, however, was a group of gunners that she was stalking for a story. No one except other gunners knows what goes exactly goes down in their little organization and Piper thought it would be nice if people knew. Sadly, this is the moment where she found out she wasn’t exactly cut out for being sneaky. She was found out the third day and was “interrogated” by the group. They didn’t beat her too badly, but it’s not like it was any fun for her. The group let her go shortly after realizing her smart mouth wasn’t worth the trouble of keeping around. She was just thankful to learn a valuable lesson without dying in the process, even at the cost of a few broken fingers.

PRESTON: The worst injury Preston got was when he was escaping Quincy. He had rushed to save Marcy and Jun's kid Kyle from getting killed by a gunner and took a bullet for the kid. Along with several burn wounds. At that point, he had already fractured his wrist and twisted his ankle, and was hurting like all hell but

there was no way he was just going to quit on all of these people that depended on him to defend them. He brought Kyle back to safety with cheers from everyone, only to lose him a week later in a super mutant raid. To Preston, his still healing wounds were nothing compared to the pain he felt when he had to bury a child while his parents sobbed behind him.

STRONG: Let's be real here. The super mutants are evolving. They can converse more in Fallout 4, and Strong actually has opinions of the companions besides "lunch." Regardless, besides a few exceptions, Gen 2 super mutants are so so dumb. Strong included. There's not much that can seriously hurt a mutant besides guns, or a very long fall down a very high building. And you guessed it, that's exactly what happened to Strong. A shoving match between two muties can end pretty horribly. One of Strong’s comrades(?) pushed him off the sixth floor of Trinity Tower in one such fight-resulting in many cuts, bruises, and broken bones. It’s a good thing super mutants heal fast, or Strong would’ve been toast.

VALENTINE: Nick has had his fair share of bigoted ass-hats coerce him, but this was the first time someone outright attacked him. Nick didn’t see it coming when he got knocked on the ground, but he also wasn’t worried because for every one bigot he sees, there are two friends to back him up. Still...getting beat up by some random dude is never a fun affair. Even when the neighboorhood reporter eventually follows the commotion and scares the guy off. Nick was pretty shaken about the whole thing and it really gave an insight on just how terrible people can be because of ignorance and fear. 

X6-88: X6 is a courser. He doesn't get hurt. Hell, he didn't think he could even get hurt until getting slapped in the face by a yao-gaui. He never thought

that he would ever risk his safety for someone else, but there he was, jumping in front of a giant mutated bear with paws bigger than his head, just to protect

Sole. The funny thing was that he did it solely because he wanted to protect them, not because he had to. After the initial hit though, the poor mutated bear didn't stand a chance. Sole's awed face and the gentle way they cleaned his wounds  afterwords were definitely worth the initial pain though. (he swears he did not act tsundere and grumble about this while blushing) 

Thank you anon for suggesting this! It really got me back into the writing grove and I’m happy about that. Sorry its a bit all over the place i def did not do this all in one sitting. I’m okay with how this turned out and I hope you guys enjoy it!!!