#Friends and foes are Family

[pratchettquotes]

Shawn took a deep breath and leaned over the battlements.

"Halt! Who Goes There?" he said.

A ringing voice came up from below.

"It's me, Shawn. Your mum."

"Oh, hello, Mum. Hello, Mistress Weatherwax."

"Let us in, there's a good boy."

"Friend or Foe?"

"What?"

"It's what I've got to say, Mum. It's official. And then you've got to say Friend."

"I'm your mum."

"You've got to do it properly, Mum," said Shawn, in the wretched tones of one who knows he's going to lose no matter what happens next, "otherwise what's the point?"

"It's going to be Foe in a minute, my lad."

"Oooaaaww, Mum!"

"Oh, all right. Friend, then."

"Yes, but you could just be saying that--"

"Let us in right now, Shawn Ogg."

Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

[swagging-back-to]

worst trope is found family separating as soon as the antagonist is dealt with.

[creaturefeaster]

if there's one thing about me it's that i love to make a Fucking Character Charts...

[valorianknights]

"You are far too nice, mercy has a price...

unlike you, I HAVE NO MERCY LEFT TO GIVE."

THIS IS JUST AN OLD FIC W.I.P.

.......

Trina messed up. She wasn't supposed to get attached. She wasn't supposed to care. She wasn't supposed to make friends... But she did. And she kinda liked it.

Then father found out. At first he was proud that she seemingly gained the young genius' trust. Even more so when she also befriended both the Chief of Police and Professor Sato's daughters.

So many useful connections, useful pawns for his plans. What a brilliant outcome. Two possible proteges and a strong bargaining chip if the police try to interfere with his plans.

He didn't think too much about how much time Trina was spending with these children. Or how many times she accept their invitations to lunches, dinners or game nights. Why would he? After all, it's one thing to gain someone's trust, it's another if you make yourself seem reliable and strengthen that trust to ensure that you would never even be considered a suspect of suspicion or doubt.

So, he allowed it. Obake saw her actions as a means to an end. None of it mattered. At least...that's what it started out as.

He molded Trina into exactly what he wanted, no, expected. A completely obedient, loyal, intelligent and diligent daughter (acolyte). She owed him her life, everything she was, everything she is. Is because of him. Because he allowed it. How could she not be grateful?

He was brilliant, a genius, limited only by a world full of limitations. Limitations created by those who are incapable of vision or ambition. Those who try to make excuses due to the "Danger" or "Mortality".

And yet... it's these very same people that allow a broken system to continue, even though it's been proven to be faulty. How many people have to suffered? From small crime like, shoplifters or purse thieves that were just given a slap on the wrist and then a week or a day later, they're back on the streets doing the same thing unless they want to aim higher. Or what about the bigger criminals? The ones that go under the radar. The gangs that have entire cities in their pockets, from the cops to the politicians, like The Double Jade Clan and Big Yama here in San Fransokyo.

People that are so adamant that things like "law and order" keep us safe and yet law hasn't always aligned with what is right.

Segregation was legal, the Jim Crow laws were legal, slaves and indentured servitude were legal and the Japanese internment camps during WWll were legal.

This entire system is broken way beyond repair and the only thing left to do is to start again. Cleanse the sin from world in order to save it.

No, not save. Improve.

A better world. That's what father always said.

He'll make a better world. A world where the guilty won't walk free, the politicians won't be safe from consequences due to their deep pockets or connections... A world where there are no underground criminal organizations, a world where genius can run free from the chains of limitations and "morality", a world that harnesses the power of a star instead of slowly killing the planet.

A world where the Double Jade Clan will never kill another family, leaving a sad orphaned girl with nothing but a thirst for vengeance justice.

"It's okay. We'll show them."

"We will show them all."

He found her. He took her in when he didn't have to, didn't need to...and yet he did it all the same.

He taught her everything she knows, he helped her understand how to be clever, guided her hands when she didn't grasp mechanical engineering at first, trained her in the art of adaptation in order to become almost chameleon-like in any situation.

At first she didn't understand his grand plan, his life's work, when told her in the beginning.She thought it was scary, it was dangerous, it was wrong. Like a plan that a bad guy would have in comic books. She was wrong. She was young, susceptible to what the world wanted us to believe is right and wrong. He helped her understand that she was just corrupted by a system that wanted to keep people away from the truth. To make people weak and force them to never be able to truly thrive.

The illusion of freedom.

And yet...

After all these years, after everything that he's done for Trina, she can't help but feel a tinge of doubt creeping into the dark corners of her mind sometimes.

She never really left her father's lab too often, unless absolutely necessary, like to retrieve something for a device, keep an eye on Yama so he doesn't step out of line, and most recently, creating a diversion to keep the police (and now these self proclaimed "heroes") busy while Obake can do what he needs to without outside interference.

She knew that Obake wanted some help. To have a protege to take under his wing and to help him usher in his utopia of progress and freedom.

Trina after the first few years of living with him she thought that maybe it could be her. She could help him just as he helped her. But, this was just the folly of a then 9 year old child, because, yet again she was wrong. While she may have been smart, especially with Obake teaching her as much as he could of robotics and engineering.

He just didn't have the time. He was busy working towards a better tomorrow that there was only so much time he could devote to her existence. He cared of course, she knew that, but she also knew that he wasn't thrilled that she wasn't grasping everything as quickly as he would've liked. So, she stopped following him around like a second shadow and started studying and learning as much as she could about mechanical engineering, then robotics and chemical engineering. Though try as she might, she just came up short.

She understood that she was smart, she definitely wasn't average intelligence by any means, in fact she's sure that she could have gained admission to any college she wanted with the arsenal of knowledge she was equipped with. It's just... Not enough. Not for him. Not for utopia.

She's intelligent, she's clever, but not genius. Trina just isn't what he needs. It wounded her pride, but she could understand that sad fact(even if didn't like it). He never told her this outright, but he didn't have too. She could read the signs. So she did what she always did.

Find a different perspective, a different angle and she realized that she was exactly what he needed. Just not in the way she wanted originally.

She could befriend his prospective proteges, while also making sure that they're what he needs. She already knew their names, where they spent their time, one of them even was apart of a vigilante group.

Hiro Hamada

Mary Sato

They were teenagers just like her. They didn't know each other but if she could befriend them both and then get them to meet the other... Then they would become friends and make things easier for father.

She would gain their trust and then when the time's right she would get them to understand her father's dream, then they would of course, understand and help to make it a reality.

Sure, an entire city would be destroyed, but hasn't it already been broken and stained with the wrongs that we allow to exist? Why should it stay like this? Big Hero 6 wouldn't even need to exist if this world and it rules actually worked.

The world can't go on like this! It can't. Someone has to do something. It may seem wrong, but sometimes there's a base level of violence that is necessary for change.

Every war ever fought all had casualties that were all simultaneously necessary and needless. Necessary in the sense that humans have to be shown the worst things imaginable in order to actually understand that they are in the wrong. No one will change their mind when they believe they are right, not until they see the consequences of their actions right in front of them.

And Needless due to the same reasoning. The inability to admit or to see the obvious. No hindsight. Just sit and talk. But noooo. Everything must be done the hard way.

Like always.

Like now.

Trina always thought of the people in this city as a means to an end. Numbers on a screen to be calculated and plugged into the advanced equations that Obake would work on to get his calculations right. But... now she's confronted with the doubt that has been creeping into her mind like a bottle of syrup that got knocked over on a table and is slowly but surely covering the area. You could try and wipe it off but it's sticky nauseating sweetness will not be easy to get rid of.

Trina thought that she was right, that father was right, but... she can't see numbers on a screen anymore. She can't see a city that is scheduled for a long overdue demolition. She sees faces, people, families that live here. She even recognized the strange/sweet old blind lady, Joan, who feeds the birds at the park on Sundays, on one of surveillance cameras in the lair.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

When did this happen? When did she begin to doubt the one who gave her everything she had? The one who made her who she was?

When did it start?

Was it when she was at Good Luck Alley trying to keep Hiro from discovering her sending not only the police, but him and his team on a wild goose chase?

Was it when he caught her? And she immediately turned the situation in her favor by explaining that she never stole anything (other than the police's time and attention) and that she was using Kohakutou that was meant to trick the authorities. Weaving a story of half truths and making herself seemingly the victim. Pinning the blame on Yama ( Obake saw no use for him anymore anyway), and gaining not only sympathy but guilt from Hiro who felt terrible for assuming the worst in her (He was on the right track).

After all, he didn't know her very well.

Was it when she was invited to hang out at the arcade with him?

Playing round after round of Robot Monsters VI: Lost Galaxy?

Listening to Megan complaining about the unreasonable amount of homework she got assigned?

Watching as Megan came to life when she was investigating a case behind her father's back?

Listening to hiro vent about a bully he has deal with seeing at school?

Karmi, she later learned her name and made sure she would keep her distance from Hiro after an incident that left Trina banned from the campus (but totally worth it).

Joining Mary and her father, Professor Makoto Sato, for one of their family game nights?

Failing at Roller skating, but laughing anyway with Mary on girl's night out?!

When did it happen? When did their friendship start fill an emptiness that she never knew she had inside?

When did the thought of anything bad happening to Hiro, Mary or Megan begin to fill her with anger and annoyance?

Why wouldn't it stop?

Why did she suddenly care so much about them?!

Why does she not want this feeling to end?

' I want to stay like this forever. '

Oh.

Oh, no.

What happens now?

'What do I do?!'

[s0fter-sin]

reverse verse where soap takes on the mask instead of ghost. he wears his red skull mask so you can see the lower half of his face and his chin scar extends along his whole jaw to look like exposed teeth

[anxiouslygay]

star butterfly and mabel pines would absolutely, no questions asked, be the bestest of best friends.

that's it.

[annonniiiiieeeee]

The end is here. The last chapter of Two Worlds of Family, Friends, and Foes is here.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey

[dirtytransmasc]

You don't follow, it's not a question of own. Ofc alicent didn't own nothing to rhaenyra BUT since rhaenyra is the heir and viserys didn't seems to change his mind it would be a little more wise being friend with her than enemy

said this once before, not even gonna put my effort into this post.

Rhaenyra showed Alicent over the years that she would step on anyone to get ahead. friend, family, husband, court, kingdom, father, even her own children (having legitimate children after her bastards put both sets of children in massive danger, not only against each other, but towards the masses. also she robbed her stepdaughters of their own claims to Driftmark to ascend her bastard sons and then betrothed them to Jace and Luke, putting them in danger. she doomed them all). it wouldn't have mattered if they were friends, if Rhaenyra needed to step over her or her children, she would, nothing would stop her.

she knew it was pointless, she knew it wouldn't save her, so she didn't try. its also quite hard to befriend someone who flew off to dragonstone and never returned home once for at least a few years, if not once since she left.

and overall, stop expecting abuse victims to kiss their abusers feet. was it a better political move? I don't think so, but I guess you could argue it might have been. do I understand why Alicent couldn't do it, why she couldn't kiss up to Rhaenyra, why she couldn't just play nice anymore? yeah, she got fucked over every time she tried to be nice to her, and she was tired of it, anyone would.

stop blaming alicent for Rhaenyra (and TB/Viserys's) actions.

[empress-hancock]

Oh this is hysterical

[kakusu-shipping]

im seriously considering making a fictional foe list myself because of you

god knows i have some guys i wanna fight to the death with i could put on there ljkfsd

PLEASE do I wish to no longer be the only person who thinks of silly dynamics between people who hate one another

It's more than just guys you want to fight but also guys who'd want to fight you. Fellas (gender neutral) who do NOT like your S/I *cough* Coraline *cough*

Not everyone gets along. It happens. I think we should be direct about that. And also it's funny.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i've really dithered around the puppet rabbit hole for my entire life, sometimes sitting by it and dangling my legs over the felted abyss, but by worm am i jumping headfirst into it now with perfect diving form

[sedlex]

Since in V9 we're crossing items off the forever bucket list, and before we touch the BIG ONE, there's another I'd like to see that could fit with how things are going...

and where Ruby herself could have (petal) bursted to:

thanks to that convenient bridge connecting PP and Jabberwalkerland.

I'd pay actual money, on top of the money that I'm already giving to Crunchyroll, to watch Ruby in this depressing ass place:

surrounded by 14 Jabberwalkers and one smug Neopolitan, go from incredibly scared to very much unhinged, turn to her self-appointed nemesis and tell her, perfectly mimicking Roman's mocking tone: "Little Neo, little Neo... you think I'm here with you, but you are here with me."

then proceed to unfold Crescent Rose and

wreck

absolutely

everything

and every one of them.

[katniss-evermeme]

My mom: *routinely watches R rated thriller movies with generous amounts of gore and excessive usage of the f-bomb when my little brother is around*

Also my mom: *freaked out when we got to the bomb dog episode of Spy X Family, relentlessly asked why I'd watch something so brutal around my brother*

[kurjakani]

I was filling in my wall calendar & noticed my first names & valdemars name days r rly close 🥺

[putoutallthestars]

Of all the enigma's on earth, this is the one that keeps awake at night: is grief a reckless friend or a soothing foe? 🌚 🌝

Summer 1993 (2017), directed by Carla Simón

[mossytrashcan]

checking my following count after posting anything analysis related because I’m autistic and incapable of agreeing w literally anymore