#I can’t imagine the stories from them one day in the future after they’ve all retired talking about debuting

[stari-hun]

Being a girl group stan is gen so horrid sometimes cause why are the fans so much more foul than male group stans. I know it’s the misogyny but damn I thought we all liked women here

[puzzleglum]

How will Frankie's false death potion come into play?

It's an important question. It might be the only thing that could save Hyde from getting arrested in the next chapter.

Le Sommeil de la Mort, The Sleep of Death, induces near death experiences. Rather dangerous, obviously. But if Hyde can use it to trick the peelers into thinking he’s gone, they’d finally stop looking for him.

So the question is, where is it now?

Jekyll had confiscated it, along with other equipment from the Society’s attic. He hid it all in his own lab, behind his house, because the Lodgers know every inch of the Society building.

When he left it there, we got another close-up panel, implying it’s an important item that will be worth remembering for the future.

After the Exhibition, during the celebration party at Jekyll’s house, the Lodgers finally got their things back. That was last night, in the comic’s present time. Jekyll let everyone into his lab.

But the thing is, we didn’t see the potion in this scene. The very last time we saw it was when Jekyll first put it there, in that close-up panel.

Does this mean the potion is still at his lab? No, not really. Here’s what I think happened:

My theory is simply that one of the Lodgers took it back to the Society off-screen. Whoever this Lodger is, they’ve been holding on to the potion since.

Why don’t I think it’s still at his lab, even though it’s technically possible? Several reasons. Enough to provide a list:

1: If they had to go all the way back to the lab to get it, it might bog the story’s pacing down too much. Having it already present at the Society is more economical storytelling.

2: It seems clear to me that the peelers have already spotted Hyde inside Jekyll’s office. They know he’s there. I don’t think there’s enough time to get the potion if it’s not already at the Society. They have to act now, to prevent Hyde’s arrest as quickly as possible.

(Sidenote: Hyde’s poses and expressions in these first two panels might be some of my favorite in the whole comic. XD It’s just funny!)

3: This little nugget of info from an update post by Sage implies we’re not leaving the setting of the Society anytime soon. Or at least, that the main cast will remain there.

I'm betting Hyde, Lanyon, Jasper, Rachel, and Frankie are all staying right where they are for the next two chapters. Inside, or just outside, the Society building. (Also, the Society will probably get attacked by the angry mob outside, soon. Don’t think I forgot about THAT. But I’ll talk about it more another day. Promise!)

But there’s a deeper reason why I think it’d be more interesting if the potion was already at the Society, in a mysterious Lodger’s hands.

It means Hyde would have to ask for help. And/or accept help when it’s offered to him. From the same people who know his secret, now. Jekyll and Hyde’s secret.

It would be juicy. Just imagine it. Hyde having to work with the people he revealed his true identity to, if he wants to have ANY HOPE of survival. The tension would be excellent for the narrative progression! It would provide such a great opportunity for character development, too.

Why would they help him? Because I think they’ll want Jekyll back, too. Can’t try to do that if Hyde’s in jail.

And besides…I don’t think they hate Jekyll or Hyde, after the reveal. It was a big shock, of course. But Jekyll IS their leader, and after the Exhibition’s success, they were clearly grateful to him for everything he did to make it happen. Doesn’t that mean anything, anymore? Perhaps they’d just need a reminder. Perhaps Lanyon or someone else can give it to them.

Also, the potion will likely not even occur to Hyde, on his own, as a solution. Because he’s currently having a panicked, desperate breakdown that makes it impossible to think logically. That breakdown is fully earned, if you ask me, since he lost the literal other half of his soul, but yeah. Either way, he wouldn’t know the potion’s location.

Somebody else has to bring up the potion as a way to save him from the peelers. There’s three options: Frankie, Jasper, or any of the Lodgers who were present during Frankie’s demonstration. Lanyon doesn’t know about it, and neither Rachel.

I theorize that they’ll all have to brainstorm solutions, and one of the Lodgers will mention they have the potion, or somebody will ask everyone if they know where it is. That’s when it will FINALLY resurface.

Hyde needs a lot of help if he wants to get out of this desperate situation, and somehow get Jekyll back. And it starts with the first, most urgent step: preventing his arrest.

:D At last, I wanted to mention that it could be a funny, or at least thematic callback to this little moment from Chapter 4, from a different time when Hyde needed help from any Lodger:

On a more serious note, it would make for a great parallel if Hyde is on the verge of giving up completely, and it’s the Lodgers who rally him up, this time. A reversal of when Hyde rallied the Lodgers to defend the Society from Doctor Moreau and his beasts. Maybe it’s just me, but I can really picture it!

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!! :DDDDD

[angstydisaster02]

An analysis about why Bakudeku is one of the most inspirational relationships. (Manga spoilers)

First part : my thoughts

Tbh, I really have this impression the manga is coming to an end very soon, which breaks my heart because I don’t know what I’ll do without my daily leaks. However, I trust Horikoshi about the rest of the story and I do think he’ll make an open ending about which “ship” is canon, even if we all know that the biggest and most developed relationship in the manga is bkdk.

It would be interesting to see the “after” of this war, the hospital beds, the tears because they lost people, the relief because it’s over and the final conversation beg the ending. Knowing Horikoshi until now, never made things randomly because everyone is thinking in advance, including the conversation between Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo.

You can’t tell me the author of this manga who always did things with a smart brain will put aside such an important detail about the dynamic between his characters.

A part of me hopes we’ll have the bkdk talk at the hospital or somewhere else because there’s no way these two idiots keep living their lives as if nothing happened. I have high expectations due to the fanfics, but I’m pretty sure I’ll never be the same once the chapter with the bkdk talk comes.

Second part : the analysis feat manga panels

looking forward, it’s incredible how Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki’s relationship started in the worst way (I’m not including the childhood memories) and…Ended up being something like that.

I’m emotional when I think about everything they’ve been through, the many realizations about losing each other, the development of their relationship after an emotional scene such as Deku Vs Kacchan 2, the way they need to push each other’s up to be the best version of themselves in any situation.

It’s not a surprise if these two are mean to be canon (in a platonic or romantic to way, depends about your opinion !) and each little moment highlights this statement.

Think about it : they all learned one of few important things with the other’s presence by their side, on purpose or not. Their dynamic is something unique you can’t find in others shonen or mangas, because they have this specific bond, the one getting stronger though the years because their mistakes became a reason to improve and be a better person for this childhood friend they knew since the early days.

Izuku Midoriya needs Katsuki Bakugo like Katsuki Bakugo needs Izuku Midoriya.

You can’t take away this part of their soul, and even when people like AFO tried, they ended up paying the price by revealing how much they care about each other.

Don’t startd with the Heroees rising thing because I can write an entire novel about them, but this is another proof of how they’re made for each other. Their relationship improve though the years and it’s only the beginning, I can’t help but imagine how future bkdk will have an amazing relationship once they figured out everything and untold truths.

They’re each other’s pillars, holding the other up to do the best and watch from afar their other’s improvement.

That’s why the hospital conversation might be the peak of their relationship: the moment when they’ll both break their shield, welcoming the tears and listening how life is a fragile line on a thread.

None of them refuse to break this meaningful thread, because this is something they’ve built for years, and it’s their biggest strength (and biggest weakness like Shigaraki pulled out)

In conclusion: they’re driving me crazy and I have no regrets following their journey because it’s probably one of the best relationships I’ve seen (and I watched a lot of anime/manga, read a lot of books and they’re still superior !)

Thanks for reading my analysis because it’s one of my guilty pleasures when I’m passionate about something, especially my comfort ship ! Take care of yourself <3

[zukosdualdao]

i promise i'll do better (i will soften every edge)

zutara month, day 11: "mom and dad are fighting again", @zutaramonth

summary: kya interrupts an argument between katara and zuko.

warnings: reference to (implied) abuse/domestic violence, wrt to ozai's treatment of ursa.

other notes: lyrics from 'light' by sleeping at last. don't ask me how timelines work idk. yes there is a zutara daughter named kya here (separate entity from the lok kya.) she wears her hair in a southern water tribe braid and zuko calls her firecracker and it’s very cute. not really relevant but in this story i’m imagining she’s a nonbender.

“Katara, you know I agree with you.”

Across from him, she crosses her arms, and Zuko sighs. The throne room is empty, save for the two of them, and Zuko feels trapped, claustrophobic in the walls. They’ve made a point of opening up windows in the castle, letting light filter in, getting rid of old, haunting portraits, and making something new and beautiful together. 

But the throne room doesn’t have windows to open. On a day like today, at times like these, it’s all too easy to remember the staunchly severe figures both his grandfather and father made here, walling themselves as they did behind high, towering fires.

Maybe they shouldn’t be having this talk here. It's too late now, but something to note for the future.

“It doesn’t seem like it.”

“Of course I want to increase reparations soon,” he insists. “That’s the plan, and that’s always been the plan. But we have to be smart about this,” he tries to remind her. “We can’t do it all at once, or people will try to block—”

“Oh, so now you’re all about thinking things through! Those instincts could have served you well years ago, you know.”

Zuko closes his eyes and runs a hand through his hair. The words are biting, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. Things have been tense again in the Fire Nation lately. Better than ever before in some ways. Worse in others.

The first years after the war were a turbulent time in the Fire Nation—riots from those not happy with the changing of the old guard, strikes from workers contesting the need to pay reparations to the other nations, whispers of loyalists to the old regime plotting to get either Ozai or Azula back on the throne. A few assassination attempts, all handled efficiently but reason enough for concern.

Ten years past the end of the war, though, and things have started to stabilize. The plan has always been to increase reparations once the Fire Nation’s economy has improved, and Zuko intends to keep his word. But part of the system he’s trying to build means that there are representatives from all over the Fire Nation, as well as the other nations, and they each have their own agendas. It’s a tricky thing to navigate; he has to take all of their concerns seriously, of course, but also act according to his own principles. To live up to the promises he made years ago, and that he’ll continue to make for years to come.

Katara looks at him with a combative raise of her eyebrow.

It’s taken a strain on their relationship. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, they’re both a little too good at lashing out, both a little too good at saying the thing that will hurt, even if they immediately regret it.

But usually, by the end of the day if not before, they can remember they’re on the same side, for all that their perspectives might differ.

“Can we pause?” Zuko asks of her, and her features soften. “Just—try to hear each other out? Katara, I understand…” but before he can finish, the large door to the throne room creaks, and Zuko watches as one of the serving maids guides their daughter into the room.

“See?” Kya points to them, eyes wide with alarm and lip quivering. “Mom and Dad are fighting again.”

Something in Zuko’s stomach drops. He doesn’t want her to worry about this. About them. He’d had to worry about his parents, to worry about his mother, Ozai looming over her, and sometimes Zuko was pretty sure he saw fear in her eyes where there should have been love, and then—

She’d been gone. And he’d drawn his own conclusions, quietly and with little reason to question them.

“She coudn’t sleep,” Hina says apologetically, and Zuko only waves a hand. “She was asking for you both.”

“Thank you for bringing her.”

“Oh, sweetie, don’t worry,” Katara says, walking over and lifting Kya up onto her hip. “Things are just tense right now,” she says, with a guilty sideways look to Zuko, who smiles weakly. “It’s not anything for you to worry about.”

“Promise?”

Zuko walks over to join the huddle and places a kiss atop her dark hair, which is twisted in a braid. “Promise, little firecracker. Mom and Dad are just trying to figure out the right way to handle something.” He meets Katara’s eyes and tries to impress the sincerity of his words on her. “But we will figure it out. We always do.”

Katara smiles at him and uses the hand not keeping Kya secure on her hip to touch the small of Zuko’s back in a gentle gesture. The three of them stand huddled together, and for the first time in… weeks, probably, Zuko feels his body relax, just a little.

He smiles back, a little exhausted but a lot relieved—to have Katara with him, there to both challenge and support him, to have Kya with them, creative and funny and quick as a whip as she is, and at only age four. He’s glad to have his family.

They are okay. Right now, they are okay. Whatever else may come.

[montymollusk]

“kids are so stupid these days, the ipad babies are ruining the world, ten year olds skip school and goes to sephora—“ do you have any idea what it’s been like to go to american public school within the last 15 years? can you blame a child for not wanting to spend 8 hours a day in a place where their safety and autonomy aren’t just not considered, but are blatantly denied?

mass shootings every day. funding being cut. school lunches— which were already the bare minimum in terms of nutrition— being removed. those alone would give anyone trauma, but even without those things the power structures inside of the average public school are designed to wring the individuality out of a child. (and that’s not even mentioning the way that neurodivergent kids are left out to dry by the school system, or how any marginalized kid can be tortured by their peers with no repercussions!) it’s designed to be miserable, and yet somehow people are surprised that kids don’t want to be there.

sandy hook happened in 2012, and nothing changed. uvalde ten years later, and still nothing. kids were forced back into overcrowded, unsanitary classrooms while covid was still killing thousands every day— most after having missed critical social development during lockdown, which there was no support for recovering from. children are being forced to see politicians debate the “ethics” of feeding them, letting them express their gender identity, allowing them to access accurate information about history as if their futures are just hypothetical. along with that is the social media boom, where marginalized people can create communities like never before, and those same kids are realizing that the systems they’ve been shoved into are broken. they’re being showed how awful the situation really is, and still completely powerless to change anything.

can you imagine having to go through all that and still pass your standardized fucking tests? my god, it’s a wonder that schools aren’t completely empty by now. we’re getting there though— i can’t count how many stories i’ve heard of kids dealing with truancy charges because of how many days of school they’ve “skipped” due to extreme anxiety or burnout. i’m one of them! i barely graduated in 2018, and the conditions were leagues better then!

people bitch about the “decline in intelligence” between generations, as if it’s the kids fault for the state of the world, as if this isn’t the inevitable conclusion for the public school system in this country. it feels deliberately ignorant— have you not watched the news recently? does it not evoke any empathy, does it not fill you with rage? how in the world could you pin the blame on kids here?

everyone says protect the children, and yet. fuckin sickening.

[normal-internet-user]

As promised, pumpkin pie! (/p) Here's my two cents for our favorite kiddo reader. The heir of Apocalypse!Peepaw Leo. The edgelord (and rightfully so!) turned dork nugget and their kooky adventures because I say so >:3

– ˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ Adopted Reader Fluff!!! My serve!! (probs a smidgen of angst bc this one specific scenario has been rotating in my head & i definitely meant to include it in the headcanons last night but, as previously mentioned, my eyes felt like they were gonna fall out 🥴) ˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚

p.s , I am also listening to the Goofy Movie soundtrack, specifically Stand Out + I 2 I which are my faves!!! Tevin Campbell did not have to go that hard. Highly recommend.

��🧚‍♀️💗🌨🥡🍥

Even More Reader Post-Movie Headcanons!

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Okay so

I really wanna start out with the scenario that I am positively aching to show you bc I really wanna know what you think, ANDDD I think it weaves in so well with the repairing (or rather, building) of Reader and Leo’s relationship in this timeline!

But, we’ll get there. 😉

After the events of the movie, everything is still raw. Not only are we recovering from a literal war, but all the issues that come with coping with a timeline that we aren’t used to – a timeline we’ve only heard nostalgic regalings of from Papa, lullabies and tall tales and stories meant to keep up some sort of hope and light in the midst of the darkness they lived in day by day, as well as in the mystic projections of Uncle Michelangelo 

. . . but now?

Seeing it in all its prime and modern-day glory?

It’s so, so beautiful.

Reader can’t and would never deny that. 

It’s vibrant. It’s colorful. It’s free. It’s such a far cry from the blood-red skies and dilapidated wastelands they grew up with. The ruins were their "sunny skies and rolling fields" so to speak.

Now that they are here. In the flesh? 

It’s. A lot to handle. 

Reader is wrecked, for sure. 

Casey is too! He’s just better at handling– hiding? Coping.

He’s more open and excited and gentle and polite and cheerful and.

We learn a lot from him as time goes on.

#caseythenationaltreasure

I like to imagine that Casey is a really big help in Reader’s journey to peace; not only within and with themself, but with the people around them too.

Eventually, 

Sure, it’s still a bit awkward with everyone; you guys are kids from the future stuck in a different timeline - with the people who raised you and they're the same age as y'all! What more could you DO to them? (/lh)

Ah. But they’ve got their family. and it’s no joke that they’re a big help!!

Mikey is in his Prime as Doctor Feelings and scheduled regular sessions with Reader bc his EQ is very sharp, as we all know, and he notices just how bad Reader wants to come to terms with everything, and he wants to help. He does help. A lot.

Donnie is ever the 'tism with the emotional constipation (/aff) but he helps and provides in his own little special Donnie ways!

Even if he may not outright say it all the time, he cares and loves his family so so much and he'd do anything for them.

He sets Reader up with some fun and unique techno-cool gifts that help them with things they don't speak up about;

– – like upgrading their mask to have a panoramic-projection so they can put a whole visual to the audio recordings and playbacks stashed in the device memory (only if they want tho! he won't touch it otherwise :'3)

He pretends like he's not hanging on to Reader's every little word when they do engage in casual conversation [which becomes more and more frequent as time goes by!] under the guise of typing on his phone or smth,

and takes those tidbits to create something so heartwarmingly thoughtful and faceted that we may as well just take a big ole stamp that says "You're Not Fooling Anyone With That Bad Boy Persona" and bash it on that forehead of his. JSJSJ (lovingly ofc :*)

Speaking of panorama-projectors, I can see him making it to interchangeable sceneries!

I'm talking about galaxies and solar systems (feeds into Reader's crow tendencies *sniff sniff* soooo many shiny thingssss)

Deep-sea oceans like Ariel's cove-esque or Pandora's sea settings from Avatar

Or even peaceful golden hills and orchards, just them and the big blue sky, the sound of the breeze dancing and larks singing in their ears.

... whatever they want, Don makes it happen.

He definitely takes Mikey's artsy avenues and teams up with him so they can surprise the Future Kids together!

– – 🩵🩶 Casey and Reader fall asleep curled up together in a pillow fort with the projector playing, and it's the best sleep they've gotten since the sleepovers with their Papa.

made myself cry thinkin' that up *sobs*

And isn't Uncle / Big Bro Raphie such a sweetheart during it all? He's the rock of the family, but he's learning to let the family in a lot more. He's learning to not be so "overbearing", especially with his Protective Instincts flying off the handle since the battle. Sure he can be heavy-handed, but he just wants to keep his family safe. And he always has! He always will. He heals to a comfortable place with time, and while he'll always be everyone's rock, you all are there for him too.

Family is stronger together, and-

You all reassure him of that.

In quiet moments, rare moments when it's just him and Reader – they tell him just that. Their hand is comically small on his forearm, but their eyes are earnest; they stare up at him with a sparkle of admiration. They'd only heard stories regaled fondly by their surviving family members, often accompanied them when they visited his shell on the wall lit by candles.

– meeting their uncle, so young but endlessly strong, is a fickle kind of honor. But still an honor.

(and Raphie may or may not have cried whenever Reader gets him right in the feels hurk-)

Reader and Casey get spoiled rotten (i.e: given the basic necessities to which they did not have access to in their timeline sjjsshahahd) by their family nonetheless!!

UGhhghghh imagine it with me, Normie!

Bubble baths! Warm, cozy clothes! Books that weren't rotting, charred, or furled at the edges! Taking them to comic book stores! Convenience stores! The park! The WATERPARK! The mall!! Introducing them to music and headphones/earbuds to match! Conventions and cons! Amusement parks! Ice cream parlors! Casual strolls throughout New York and doing all these things!

Oh and don't get me started on the adventures they get into in The Hidden City!! :DDD

....

seriously, don't–

foreshadowing -thickens-

*ahem*

In all honesty, the whole clan becomes clingy with each other post-Invasion. That goes w/o saying.

Even Case and Reader, despite the initial tension, have little to no qualms with being pulled into Turtle Piles, nor all the casual affection that comes with healing and growing together!!

It's odd but sweet :')

—Casey and Reader eventually grow out of always seeing the guys as uncles/aunties/parental figures (save for Splints + Draxy + etc.), it becomes more sibling-like in a way!

But they'll always be just as close.

They were just that in their timeline.

But that timeline is lost.

And scary as it may be, they're building themselves a new life. A better life. It's what Papa would have wanted.

So. Why not do just that? :')

>> fam that gets traumatized together STAYS together (/gen)😤

Tragedy brings them closer in ways they didn't think it would.

the awkwardness between reader & leo melts into something more mellow, and we owe a big part of that to Casey!

He's their bridge. Seeing as he's closer to Leo at the given time, he hangs out with his sibbie and Leo at the same time so that they can hang together too. >:3c

Such a genius boy ueueu.

— and before they know it, Reader and Lee-Lee are actually bonding really well. It takes time, and there are withdrawals and setbacks along the way, but it is those obstacles that pave the way for something strong. Something true, honorable, pure, and real.

The reader knows — you know, glory do you know ... that this may not be your Papa.

But maybe...

Maybe that's okay.

You had him. You had Casey. You had your family, the ones once lost to fates beyond your control, and now here you were.

You had all won.

And if that in of itself wasn't something to celebrate with every breath you took,

—you would have given up on that war all that time ago.

Reader and Leo come to a mutual ground with one another.

Let's come to a place where they're more than civil with each other; Leo adores casual affection, and Reader does too— they just weren't willing to give way for such in the beginning.

But it's not unusual to see Leo and them curled up next to each other. Most of the time, Casey's with them too! But in the rare times he isn't, Reader and Leo are comfortable and just doing their own thing.

Like they'll be reading a book, or playing on a handheld device (game, Switch, phone, etc. they're amazed by present-day technology) and Lee's got a comic book,

or he's resting his head close to theirs while he guides them through what they may be doing on their fun little screen.

Leo finds a comfort in you, and you find a comfort in him— once you both let each other in.

All the time it took was worth it :')

I can see them being the most annoyingly caustic yet affectionate besties SNSNJJSJSJ biiig "only I get to make fun of them >:(" energy

or a complete opposite:

once we get past all the vitriol, they're so soft for each other hhhh-

Like Reader becomes fairly protective over him; handles him gently with small smiles and murmured words, helps him out and gives the best muscle massages or is quick to redress and assist when he's smarting from his wounds, knows him well enough to comfort him through panic attacks, indulges in his stupid jokes and puns bc he raised them, hello.

They bounce off each other for hours—

the rest of the guys have resorted to begging, multiple times jsjsj.

and Leo, by this time he knows how much Reader meant- means to him, but he doesn't try to take their Papa's place; he's not scared of them, he does learn to love them /p, and tries to translate that in the most respectful yet straightforward way possible,

and that helped their growing relationship a lot!

He rough-houses (gently) and spars with them, teases them just enough to see their flustered expression, annoys them affectionately — but is the first to come to their defense when someone else gets too cozy.

A lot like a best friend or a sibling.

... He also cuddles and slings his arm around their shoulders and gives the best bear hugs (when they want/need). He reads to them- either one of his comics or one of their acquired books- when they can't sleep or just needs something to hear other than the overbearing voices in their head. He always eats with them, introducing them to new foods he thinks they'd like and giving them the bigger portion (when they get used to stomaching it ofc). Holds their hand. Protects them from the small things and encourages them with the big things, because he knows they can handle it and they just need that little nudge. And to know that someone is right behind them the whole time.

All that good stuff.

(and Casey is so jazzed two of his favorite people are getting along so well aaaa!!)

—hey or maybe it's a healthy mix of both!! ♡₊˚ yeahhhhh.

big BIG ride-or-die energy. I like to imagine that (ㅠ﹏ㅠ)

At the end of the day, they'd die for each other all over again. It gets to THAT point.

Both figuratively and literally.

One milestone in their bond took place and in a way nobody really saw coming—

They were in the Hidden City, stopping by Señor Hueso's for some good grub,

but Leo's leg was pinching a bit more today, and Reader felt a migraine coming on; they wanted to get back home for Mikey's Miracle Migraine Tea, maybe a scalp massage if they pulled the puppy eyes the aforementioned taught them in the future (they don't need to. he'd do it at the drop of a hat. they just like to be eggstra 💅🏼),

so they're both kinda rushing this little outing. Reader's a touch grouchy and their notorious RBF makes a whole comeback, but Leo knows them well enough to know it's not directed at him. He feels for ya, and he sticks close as you both wait for your pickup order to come through.

Then, out of nowhere, some gigantuan yokai comes skulking over.

Reader notices immediately, having folded to lay their head on the cool countertop at the pickup counter; Leo was rubbing up and down their back in comforting circles, smiling down at them with warm, sympathetic eyes as he tries to distract them from their discomfort. He was too focused on them to notice.

and when they spot the glint in the yokai's eyes, they can practically smell the sinister intention as they stride over to them. They're looking for something they had no business to.

Reader tenses, hackles raised and fingers twitching where they gripped the forearms of their hoodie, and their eyes gleam as they peek out from under their hood.

Leo, who thinks they're about to be sick, frets and gently maneuvers them to sit on a nearby stool; he doesn't see the yokai until he's being clapped on the shoulder - the one that's sore, conveniently so - and nearly jumps out of his skin when he whirls on them.

This yokai - stocky, menacing, and a sadistic air about them, simply chuckles and cocks their head at the duo. They're wearing a server's uniform. Reader and Leo both realize it at once-- Reader with dread and Leo with (miscalculated) relief: they're an employee.

Anyways, Leo is put-off by this sudden intrusion of personal space and onslaught of bad vibes, but he's the Face Man and naturally a people person, so he greets them casually and asks if he can help them.

Alongside the incessant ringing in their ears that's their warning before disaster, alarm bells started going off in their head.

They can't really discern what Leo and this bum are saying at this point - everything was fuzzy and garbled like they were underwater; even from their vulnerability sprawled out over the countertop, Reader can tell from their body language that the convo is going in a very wrong direction,

especially when Leo is suddenly shoved back- too hard- and lands in a graceless heap on the floor behind them.

Your mind goes blank. A mindset that was wired into your being from birth – one you haven't had to enter for a while – burns your mind and chest and the alarm bells are deafening, even more so than the sudden uproar of commotion happening vaguely around you.

You're not focused on them. You become laser-focused on the yokai behind you, and between one breath and the next, you're out of your seat and tackling the yokai with a snarl, and you're beating the ever-loving spirits out of them.

You don't stop. You grab at fur and a muzzle, probably a tusk, but you don't care. You don't care, you don't care, you don't care–

– – you're relentless.

All that was in your head was blaring red letters: Protect. Family. Leo. Hurt. Still recovering. Threat. Protect.

Strike.

White-hot rage is pumping through your veins and powering your every strike.

You have them by the nape and slam the yokai's face into the ground muzzle/snout-first; you throw punch after elbow after backhand after punch, even as you feel bone and tendon cracking rather explicitly beneath your knuckles,

and when you're kicked off, rather weakly all things considered–

it doesn't deter you at all.

You use the airborne energy to bounce right back off the countertop (it would ache and bruise like heck later),

rip the stool that you were occupying just moments earlier, clean off its hinges,

and start wailing in on the no-good lowlife bully that thought it beneficial to try your brother.

–– it doesn't stop until the very seat of the stool cracks to shrapnel, the center rolling away like a hubcap, and you're gripping the bar in your hands, heaving like you just ran a marathon.

When the yokai unfolds their arms from shielding their head to peek at you, scrambling to stand, shaking and wide-eyed, your gaze is ferocious.

The skeleton of the once-seat in your hand gets thrown right at their face with a ridiculous strength, and if their muzzle/snout wasn't broken before, it was shattered now.

The yokai shrieks in pain and goes right back down as red iron seeps from their nose, mouth, through their fingers, writhing on the floor-

and you stomp forwards, plant your foot steady in the center of their chest, and press in close until you can see their pupils trembling; that's when you finally speak your first words of the evening:

"Don't you ever come near my brother again. If I see your sorry shank even breathe in his general direction? That stool? The end will find itself shoved right up your pathetic excuse of a voice box. You'd like that, yeah?"

Terrified head shakes and an even more terrified wheeze in response,

"You listen and you listen real good, geezer. I will find you, and a simple warning like this will be the least of your troubles. A warning in which I'm letting you off with, seeing as you're clearly mistaken in your endeavors. Even think of touching Leo, and you deal with this except a thousand times over. It won't be just me. Okay?"

your poorly concealed sadism makes a minor appearance in the sudden change of pitch in your voice and the smarmy grin that stretches your dry lips as you quirk your head and eyebrows in question; when the yokai does nothing but give an immediate jerky nod, you gently pat the side of their face, satisfied.

–which was a lull into a false sense of security, because you shifted your entire body weight and last bit of strength to shove their face back down as you stood up, ignoring their yowl of agony as you did so.

meanwhile everyone in the restaurant be like:🧍

when you came to, everything crashed into you at once: nausea rolled in violent waves in your stomach, the migraine came thrumming full-force, and your ribs creaked as you stumbled over to a shellshocked Leo.

You pulled him up on shaky legs, but much like every patron in the joint, his eyes were trained on the yokai you just obliterated, still writhing on the ground.

Eventually, Senor comes rushing out and, taking in the damage of the scene, demands an explanation. Reader is all-too glad to give it to him, eyes glazed over and voice a lot more calmer than the actual predator they previously were

But once they do, his eyes look over both of them and soften, especially when he takes in how Leo is visibly shaking and Readie looks like they're milliseconds away from passing out.

They get out of there, food in tow, Leo still extremely shell-shocked and Reader worse for wear at what just transpired.

Blue barely manages a portal home- but they do, and when they're safe in the familiarity of the Lair, they both metaphorically collapse.

The night ends with the perturbed fretting of the Clan, but it all boils down to one thing for sure.

Leo has Reader's hand in his, Reader is gripping with the same intensity, and they refuse to be separated for the next few days thereafter.

Anata wa hitori janai.

That is the Hamato way.

oh and that employee never showed up to the restaurant again :D sorry not sorry for using them as collateral for my bebes

more tidbits that came to mind when typing that storm up:

reader's a bad mofo . didn't ya know they were the scourge of the apocalypse? they were clandestinely feared by the kraang. leo kept them under wraps bc he knew how powerful they were. (/j) reader: they protecc, they attacc, but most of all, they gone need ice for they bacc SNRRRTTT

☁️🖇️🥛

HOOOWEEEEE, THAT'LL DO IT– ˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ I hope you do read all this, sugarcube!! I got kind of carried away, ahaha ^^;; I'm sowwwyyyy!~ But i AM excited to hear your thoughts, whenever that may be! <333

I'm mostly glad I finally got the well-awaited scenario in there!! Basically, Leo has a no-no moment with some lowkey bully and Reader completely overcompensates, even thought they're BOTH still tender from war, yet they go batty-bonkers over his oppression! >:( Don't touch their family!!! The scenario was inspired by a ficlet I read a while ago with Leo in the same situation, but Reader was in Donnie's place :''))) I'll have to find it for ya if you haven't read it yet-

aaa after this, i think i can chill without so much heaviness!! i need to indulge in some crack! some fluff! somethin' now that we've explored the reader and leo's dynamic!! they're the sillies ever and we need more!!

muwah! Hasta la vista, baeby! I'll be back!~ /p

Aaaa goodnight now XD! (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡ Love ya loads, toots!! Enjoy the nomz, haha!🍓❣🍰💌🧸

Ok. First of all, and most importantly, I FREAKIN LOVE THE GOOFY MOVIE IT'S LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVS EVER- AFTER TODAY IS MY FUCKING JAM-

ALSO ON THE OPEN ROAD??? HEHEH

Ahem.

Now that that's out of my system, let the headcanons begin...

READER'S HEALING PROCESS POST-MOVIE

....................................

Post-movie, after everything calms down, and everyone's just trying to heal,

You definitly open up a bit more.

You'll apologize to everyone for how you acted before,

For being so hostile towards them.

Casey will 100% nudge Leo and you into hanging out together.

It was hard to do since you avoided Leo like the plauge, and he kinda thought you hated him or something.

Casey manages to kill the awkwardness, and now you and Leo go EVERYWHERE together.

Besties for realzies.

Donnie will try to be subtle with his gifting,

Spoiler: he isn't.

Most of the time he'll just leave whatever it is on Reader's bed for them to find with a small note.

He's dissmissive when you thank him too,

"Don't worry about." "It's no big deal."

The projector is now your most prized possesion aside from your mask.

I feel like you always had trouble sleeping in the dark,

In the future it would have been hard to have any kind of nightlight.

Limited resources and all.

So Uncle Michelangelo would fill your and Casey's room with little glowing lights.

Think Gaurdians of The Galaxy when Groot saves everyone, the little balls of light?

So thats what you usually project into the room.

And obviously you and Casey will have the occasional stargazing night.

Meeting Raph for you was pretty much the equivilent of Casey fan-girling over Leonardo.

The stories Papa told you about him made Raph sound like some kind of super hero.

So when you met him, you had to physically try to keep your rbf on, and not freak out.

You think he's so freakin' cool-

Omg if you show even the slightest signs of discomfort or sadness Mikey is on that crap.

Here comes Dr. Feelings, tell him what's wrong.

No family of his is going to be sad for long.

He'll 100% do his best to make you and Casey feel more at home in your new timeline.

Sometimes you'll turn the tables and now you're Dr. Feelings.

He doesn't like it, but he knows mental health is important, so he deals and ya'll have therapy sessions with eachother.

You not so subtly try to spend lots of time with Splinter as well.

You didn't have very much time with your Grandpa before the end of the world took him as well,

But now he's here, and you can tell that he did not change one bit with time.

His younger counter-part is exactly the same as the one you knew in the future.

You do the same thing with Draxxum as well and omfg he is so weirded out.

Like, why does this teenager want to willingly spend time with me? Did Mikey put you up to this? WHAT IS GOING ON-

But nope.

You just missed your weird alchemist Gramps.

April takes you for walks around the city, kinda showing you and Casey what it looks like when it isn't in complete ruins.

She shows you all the cool things it has to offer, and you even come back to the Lair with some shiny things you find on the ground!

You lost your old collection when you left your old timeline, so now you have to start your hoard all over :(

It's ok though, people drop tons of shiny things down water ways and sewer drains.

You and Leo will wander around the tunnels and look for your shinies.

It's a bonding experience, and he teases you about it.

Great gallileo the back and forths between you are so horrible.

They last almost all day, and when ever one of you starts one evryone groans out loud.

The only two people who can get you two to drop it and leave eachother alone are Casey and Raph, but Casey rarely does anything to stop it-

Once you and Leo get close he is such a little terd-

Teasing, and picking and poking.

Big brother energy for realzies.

He'll wake you up by playing California Girls really loud in your ear, and then giggle about it all day, while you try not to strangle him.

If he ever overexerts himself, god help him escape the scolding-

EVERYONE is on his shell about it.

But ESPECIALLY you.

It's even worse when you get upset at him, because after everyome else is done scolding him, they'll move on.

But you? You are so petty about it.

You scold him for hours,

Then you'll just kinda... sit there, silently glaring off into space.

It makes him feel so bad for worrying Reader, that he doesn't overwork himself more than like- five times before guilt makes him just chill tf out and heal.

That scenario you wrote, where Reader absolutely rocks that yokai's shit for messing with Leo?

(Wonderfully written by the way, truely a masterpiece)

First of all total fuck around 'n find out energy.

Second of all, I'm in LOVE with the idea of Reader going absolutely feral on the battle field.

In the future, EVERY fight was life or death, and I think Reader may need to learn that here, in this timeline, not every fight requires you to freakin' wreck the opponent.

Raph kinda has that talk with them after Senor told him how they messed that employee up.

Not every fight requires your 100%.

Then he'll totally congradulate you for destroying that jerk that hurt Leo.

Reader gets a reward cookie.

....................................

Apologies this took so long to answer my dear (/p).

But here it is!! That scenario at Runof The Mill- *chefs kiss*

Beautiful. Amazingly written. I LIVE for feral reader.

[fieryanmitsu]

I’m sorry I can’t be normal about this event 😭😭😭. Just going to cry and word vomit some more over Same Age Group ajwbrkfkskakwkngnfkakaknks!!! LOOK AT THEEEEEM! 😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭

I have so many feelings about these three and their friendship. Just look at how relaxed and buddy buddy they are with each other in this image! 😭 I know they’re all tipsy, but it’s still a fact that they’re great friends and their badge for this event is literally along the lines of “today, at the usual place”. It just makes me so warm and fuzzy that they regularly go out to eat and drink together. Like every time I see them talk about it in voicelines, etc. my heart just clenches and now we get a whole card, song and event about them?!?! I die.

And also the fact that the event teaser description is “The "now" that was unimaginable back then is here.” absolutely destroys me (in the best possible way—I’m being bombarded with all the good feels 😭😭😭). For Tasuku and Tsumugi, they’ve finally reconciled after their fallout and now are acting together when they thought it would never happen again. And, more significantly, the fact that Itaru is part of their group now… when, before Mankai, he never would have thought he’d have friends like this. 😭

And it hits even harder when we look at their gacha cards!!

LIKE WTF?! I wasn’t ready for this?!?! What do you mean Itaru is in the background and implies that these three were so CLOSE to being in each other’s lives during their high school years?!?! I daydream constantly about the “what ifs” of Itaru meeting them earlier in life (like I think about it so much I wrote a whole damn AU series about it 😭) and here it is dangling in our faces 😭😭😭. I just love that the theme of their unbloomed cards is all of them in high school, but then when you get to their bloomed cards…

It’s so obvious that they all have such a presence in each other’s lives! 😭 If we look at that event description teaser especially from Itaru’s POV, he never would have imagined he’d be regularly rubbing elbows with two buddies at an izakaya let alone being so comfortable with people that he would TIE HIS SILLY LITTLE HAIRTIE ON TASUKU’S HAIR and DRINK OUT OF A DUMBBELL BEER GLASS (which he is probably doing out of jokes to Tasuku or maybe just straight up got it as a gift from him).

I’m just so happy that Liber obviously found this friendship so important and significant that they gave us this content and I’m here for it 😭😭😭.

Also the song is SO GOOD?!?! It’s so chill but catchy!! I will cry if they ever perform it at a future Blooming Live concert!! I don’t understand the lyrics but the title of the song being “accord” also just hits me in the feels! 😭 It’s such a positive word to describe their relationship!

I really hope someone will translate the event story, event cards and the song lyrics one day!! If anyone sees the translations somewhere, please hit me up!! Or if any translators wants the raws for translation I can totally supply them!

As a side now, I swear SSR Tsumugi gacha cards are always so hard for me to obtain 🙃. It only took 1,595 gems (11 whole 10-pulls) for me to get one copy of him 🫠🫠🫠. I’ll stop talking now and go back to desperately grinding the rest of my unread content for more gems to try and bloom him 😭😭😭.

[timotey]

Ficlet: Behold the Gods

The Sign. Phaya/Tharn. Future fic. Unbeta'd.

Nee's big brother is an annoying, pigtail pulling idiot. And she misses him so much...

(Another what-if ficlet! I love imagining all the ways this could end! This time, a little more mythology...)

*.*.*

The Naga creature takes Tharn away and now Nee’s big brother is shattering to pieces.

Phaya’s always been an annoying, pigtail pulling idiot - but he’s also the bravest and strongest person Nee’s ever known. And now he’s down on his knees, unashamedly falling apart in front of all of them, sobbing so hard he can barely breathe.

Nee doesn’t know what to do! She just found out that all the legends were true, that there was actual magic and Nagas and Garudas in the world, that all that actually existed and that her big brother’s been smack in the middle of some crazy star-crossed love story of reincarnation and godly beings for several lifetimes now and it’s killing him, the loss of his lover is killing him and Nee just doesn’t know what to do, how to help!

And then, all of a sudden, there’s a golden streak and the sound of chiming bells, and between one blink and another, there's a woman standing in front of her brother, a beautiful woman in traditional attire, adorned with gold and precious stones. 

“King Sakuna,” the woman greets Nee’s brother in a formal, respectful tone of voice.

Phaya looks up, eyes full of tears. “Wanwisa…” he whispers. “He took Tharn. Chalothon took Tharn.”

The woman, Wanwisa, nods. “I know. That’s why I’m here. I can take you to Wansarut,” she offers. “I can't help you fight Lord Chalothon. I can’t, he’s my lord and master and I can’t raise my hand against him, it’s forbidden. But I can take you to Wansarut… if you want.”

She reaches out and Nee’s big brother, her stupid and reckless and hot-headed - and sweet and kind and loving! - brother doesn’t even hesitate. He takes Wanwisa’s hand and they both disappear in a whirlwind of golden light.

“Phaya!” Nee screams.

It’s the last time she sees her brother.

***

It’s the 15th day of the 11th moon again and Nee is back in Nongkai once more. 

It’s been an eventful year. Her grandma moved to Nongkai, she moved in with Tharn’s grandmother to wait and hope and pray for their grandsons return. They’ve been praying every day ever since Tharn and Phaya disappeared, trusting that one day, somehow, the two of them will come back to them.

Nee returned home and started school, a business school, intent on taking over her family’s business and helping her grandmother now that she is the only one left. The only one…

It hurts, this knowledge, and the pain never goes away. She’s always adored her brother but she’s never realized just how big a presence he was in her life until he disappeared. 

His colleagues from the special unit searched for him, for Phaya and Tharn both. Nee and the others couldn’t have very well told the police that a Naga king took Tharn so they ended up altering their story a little, telling them that Doctor Chalothon took Tharn and Phaya went after them. No, they didn't know where they went. No, neither Phaya nor Tharn contacted them again. The cops didn’t find anything, of course, only that no Doctor Chalothon actually ever existed, it was just a fake identity the man set up to get close to Tharn.

They came up with their story with the help of Yai, Tharn’s best friend, and the only one in the know. Because his wife, Sand, was there when it happened. After Tharn and Phaya’s disappearance, Yai left the special unit and took the position of a superintendent at the police station in Nongkai to be close, just in case, while Sand started working for Tharn’s grandmother, taking over for her at the sawmill, both doing their best to take care of Tharn’s grandma in his stead.

And now the anniversary of Phaya and Tharn’s disappearance is upon them. A whole year has gone by but the void left behind in everyone’s lives is nowhere near closing, it still hurts so badly that oftentimes Nee can’t stop herself from crying.

The 15th day of the 11th moon, a Naga Worship Ceremony.

Fuck the Naga!

***

They set up the altar on the lower terrace in the back of Tharn’s grandmother’s house, just like the year before, but this time, there’s no statue of a Naga on the table. Nee doesn’t think they could stand to even look at it. Still, they burn incense and they bring offerings and they pray, they pray for their loved ones to come home. 

And so they’re all there, Nee and her grandma and Tharn’s grandma and Yai and Sand, praying and holding hands and trying to comfort each other, when it happens. At twilight, they appear in a whirlwind of golden warm and fiery red magic, simply there all of a sudden, stealing everyone's breath away.

Phaya and Tharn, hand in hand.

They’re dressed in traditional attire, Phaya in red and white, adorned in silver and snow white feathers, Tharn in shades of green and gold. Their hair is longer and styled differently and their faces are made up, their skin is shimmering as if dusted with gold and they wear jewelry, bracelets and anklets, silver and gold set with precious stones. They look so unlike themselves from before but it’s them, it is them. And they’re alive and healthy and… there!

“Hello,” Tharn greets them a little timidly, a little uncertainly, as if unsure of their reaction, glancing up at Phaya who smiles down at him and nods, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze. 

And then they’re hugging. All of them together and then passing Tharn and Phaya between them and the grandmas are crying and Yai is yelling and pounding his friends hard on the back and Sand is kissing their cheeks and Nee…

“I hate you,” Nee sobs into Phaya’s chest as he wraps his arms around her shoulders. “I hate you so much. How could you? How could you do this to us? To me? You’re the worst, the worst brother ever, and-and I h-hate you!" And she's hugging him and crying hard because he’s her big brother and she loves him dearly. So much!

And he’s whispering into her ear, head bent down to her, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I had no choice but I’m so sorry.” 

They’re all so happy, so deliriously happy to be together again. It’s perfect and glorious…

Until it isn’t.

“We can’t stay,” Phaya says unexpectedly when Yai starts talking about calling the guys, already planning a big get-together. 

And their little gathering falls silent, all the merriment from just a moment ago stolen again.

Phaya wraps his arm around Tharn’s shoulders and pulls him close against his side. He smiles down at Tharn and takes Tharn's hand in his, running his thumb across his knuckles gently. “We would love to but we really can’t,” Phaya says, looking each and every one of them in the eyes, one by one.

“But why?” their grandmother asks with heartbreaking despair.

This time it’s Tharn who replies and his voice is soft, his eyes full of regret. “There were... things we had to do to defeat Chalothon. We had to change ourselves, who we were, to match his powers. And those changes cannot be undone. Not anymore. The gate between the worlds opens only once a year. Once it closed, we were stuck. And now it's too late.” 

He drops his eyes to his and Phaya’s clasped hands and squeezes a little harder. “We aren’t human anymore,” he explains and he sounds so sad that Phaya pulls him even closer and kisses the top of his head tenderly.

“What are you saying?” Yai asks, stepping forward.

Rubbing Tharn’s upper arm in comfort, Phaya says, “We had to go back to what we used to be, before, at the beginning. Back to being Sakuna and Wansarut to defeat Chalothon, to gain our powers back, even though it meant losing our humanity. It was either that or die. But it means we can’t stay here, in the human world, or we will end up like Chalothon, becoming a warped versions of ourselves.”

Tharn looks up at them again. “This isn’t our world anymore,” he says, his voice apologetic.

“So... what? You just came to visit? You just dropped by to say hello and now you’re going again?” Yai asks, sounding angry. 

But Nee knows that Yai isn’t angry, not really. He’s just sad, heartbroken. Because she feels the same way. It hurts and if she opened her mouth now, her words would come out just as cross, just as belligerent. It would be that or start crying.

Phaya gives him a sad smile. “Basically, yes. The gate between the worlds opens only once a year, on this day, and it stays open from sunset to sunrise. Then it closes again. Only on this day, every year, can we come back to you, for a little while.”

“If you will have us…” Tharn adds softly, hopefully.

They’re all quiet for a little while, letting sink in what they just heard, trying to overcome their shock, their hurt, their disappointment. Their heartbreak at losing what they only just thought they got back again.

Then Yai steps forward and pulls Tharn into his arms, hugging him hard; Phaya lets Tharn go with a little smile. “Of course we will have you,” Yai says harshly, his voice breaking a little, and there are tears in his eyes. “We love you, you fool. So much! Just tell me… tell me that you’re happy. There. Wherever you are. Tell me that you are living a good life. That you’re good.” 

Slowly and with a little smile, Tharn hugs Yai back and nods into his shoulder. “Yeah, we are, we're good and we're happy,” he replies in a thick voice. “And we’re together, that’s all that counts.”

And Nee realizes that it’s true. It hurts, being separated from her big brother like that, being unable to just pick up her phone and call him and annoy him and complain to him about school and life and the unfairness of the world in general, but as long as he’s happy, as long as he’s living the life he wants and with the person he loves, nothing else matters. She loves him and so she wishes him luck.

***

They spend the night talking. And laughing and hugging and simply enjoying each other’s presence. And when the time comes to say goodbye, when the sky in the east starts to lighten, they’re at peace. 

Nee whispers to her brother, “I love you,” and he smiles down at her and whispers back, “I love you, too,” as if they’re sharing a secret.

And when Phaya and Tharn walk down the stairs to the lower terrace where they first appeared to them, Yai yells after them, “We will see you in a year. You promised and I’m holding you to that!”

They both turn back and smile, waving to them.

And then, then they let them see, just for a moment because human eyes aren’t meant to behold gods, they let them see their true forms, the sinuous loops of a Naga, scales the color of polished emeralds, and the wide span of a Garuda’s wings, their feathers a warm shade of golden brown. It takes their breath away.

The gate closes, taking them away, and when a moment later the sun comes up, there are a single scale and a single feather left lying there, on the polished wood of the lower terrace, keepsakes to remember them by.

[tar-maitime]

found you, I'm not alone

Rating: T Characters: Maedhros | Maitimo, Fingon | Findekano Relationships: Maedhros/Fingon, fem!Maedhros/Fingon Additional: War of Wrath, reunions, angst, making plans for the future WC: 1.3k

Direct follow-up to "if you stay by my side"

Maedhros drifts in and out of consciousness. 

Or maybe they’re dreams. She’s not sure. Some of it definitely can’t be anything but a dream - the moments when she thinks she registers Fingon beside her holding her hand, or talking (or shouting) at someone. That can’t possibly be real, can’t be anything but her mind having finally cracked. He’s dead, he can’t be here. Even if he were alive, he wouldn’t want to be here with her.

She thought he was there with her on the battlefield, but she must have hallucinated it in the midst of her pain. It’s impossible that he could’ve actually been there.

When she finally comes awake fully, she’s a little surprised. She’d really thought, when she first passed out, that that was it. It wouldn’t have been such a bad way to die.

Ah well. She’ll do whatever’s in front of her. She always does.

As she catalogues her body - the usual aches and pains, dull throbbing where the spear got her, much less of a sleep deficit than usual - she becomes aware that someone is holding her hand.

It’s impossible, but she would know that warm, firm grip anywhere.

She pries her eyes open and lets her head roll to the side, and he’s there. Finno is there. He’s perched on a camp stool next to the cot she’s on, hunched over and with both his hands wrapped around hers. He’s wearing clean clothes, not what she remembers from the battlefield, but he looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

The moment she moves, his focus sharpens on her. “Russë! You’re awake, are you all right?”

“Finno.” That’s all she can manage to say at first.

“Yes.” He’s holding back tears. “It’s me. I’m here.”

“...How?” Maedhros gets out. “How? You died, you were dead--”

“I came back,” Fingon says earnestly, squeezing her hand. “I came back for you. I got out of Mandos just in time to come over the Sea with the new army. I’ve been trying so hard to find you.”

Some of this is starting to sound familiar, like maybe it came up in that encounter on the battlefield that she apparently didn’t imagine, but Maedhros is still unclear on one point. “Why?” she asks. “I...I killed so many people, Finno, I killed people who used to be yours...”

“I know. I saw. I still love you anyway.” He says it like they’ve gone over this before, but Maedhros still doesn’t quite understand.

“How...why...Finn-Fingon, you shouldn’t have to. I’m not - this isn’t like after Thangorodrim, I’m not some broken little thing you can put back together; I’m a murderer. I’m the monster the Sindar tell their children about to make them behave.” She knows this for a fact. She heard some of the stories Elrond and Elros had been told about her, even though Maglor tried to shield her.

But Fingon’s jaw has that familiar determined set to it. “We went over this after Alqualondë, Russë. We’re both killers, and it’s terrible, but we love each other anyway. Do you really think my love for you is so little that this could stop it?”

“That’s not fair to you,” Maedhros murmurs. 

Fingon pauses a moment. “If it had been you who fell in the Nirnaeth,” he says finally, “and I had somehow ended up joining in with your brothers, if I had done all that you have - would you then stop loving me?”

The mere thought is enough to make her recoil. The mental image of Fingon covered in elvish blood is nightmarish, world-rattling, but even so, it is unimaginable that she could ever cease to love him.

He seems to read her thoughts on her face, and gives her a soft smile. “You see,” he says, “it is not unfair at all.”

Maedhros considers arguing, but is too tired and in too much pain to do anything but accept it.

“What’s going to happen, then?” she asks, since now that they’ve established that Fingon’s love for her makes even less sense than it ever did, that seems like the next most important topic. “What happened with the battle? Wait - where are Kano and the children?”

“Maglor should be back soon,” Fingon reassures. “He only stepped out for a few moments, under great persuasion, so I don’t doubt that he’ll return any time now. We sent the twins to get some rest; they insisted on helping the healers who worked on you, and wore themselves out pretty well. And Ereinion hasn’t been by yet today, he’s been nearly run off his feet--”

But Maedhros interrupts, barely daring to believe the unspoken implication. “Gil-galad came?” she asks. She hadn’t meant to include him in “the children”, when he wouldn’t want it.

Fingon’s smile is warm with understanding. “Yes. He’s come to see you at least once every day, more often if he can manage it. There’s been a lot going on - well, actually...” He pauses, like he’s not sure how to phrase it. “The battle we were in ended up making it all the way to Angband. And the Valar showed up. And so did Earendil, they say he fought a winged dragon. And...it’s over, Russë. The war’s over. We won. It’s over now.”

Maedhros can’t blame him for having to take a moment to find the words. She can hardly believe what she’s hearing. War, in one shape or another, has defined her life for centuries. That, and...

“What of the Silmarils?” she finds herself asking, hating herself for it. “Do you know what has, what will become of them?”

Fingon grimaces. “They were recovered from Morgoth’s crown, I will say that much. Who has them now, I will not say, because I want you to stay resting in that bed and not leaping up to go chase after the accursed things. We are working on a plan to deal with them, with the Oath. Once you are stronger, we will bring you into the conspiracy.”

For a moment, Maedhros tries to picture a world, a life without the war and the Oath. She almost can’t. She hasn’t really believed she would live long enough to outlast them both since the Union fell apart around her. The last version of her to actually live in peace died in Angband.

“That’s good,” she says anyway, because it has to be. Then, “What will be done with us, with Kano and me? Uncle Finarfin might have been lenient thus far, but I’m sure Eönwë and the Valar will want to see justice meted out for the kinslayings.”

“They may want to,” Fingon says with a slightly dangerous calm, “but I will not let them. You deserve to rest, Russë, in whatever fashion you wish. We all do.”

“What if the way I wish to rest is in chains, as would be justified, or cast into the Void?” Maedhros asks, half-meaning it, but that’s less than she would have been before.

“Then i will simply have to talk you out of it.” Fingon squeezes her hand. “You would never truly rest in captivity or bonds, love, and you know it.”

He’s frustratingly right. Maedhros sighs. “What, then?” she asks. “Are we to go larking off into the wilds, settle down in some peaceful valley and build a, a little house and live off the land and hope that the ghosts of everyone we’ve killed and failed to save stay away?”

She means it sarcastically, but Fingon nods with full seriousness and says, “If you want to, then yes. Personally, I think it might be fun to try.”

And as much as she wants to, Maedhros can’t bring herself to disagree. She can’t quite picture that warm scene, a home for the two of them and maybe Maglor and the children if they want it. It’s almost entirely impossible. But she’s alive and the war is over and her once-dead husband is sitting here holding her hand and making her believe in things again - so maybe one more impossibility wouldn’t be such a stretch after all.

[artsy-hobbitses]

TTB Opening themes by season

Because my head goblin got riled up from that last ask and I am but a mere flesh jaeger. Thought went into this, goddamn thought went into this. 

SEASON 1 (PRE-WAR) Opening: Link by L’arc en Ciel (FMA movie)

Do you remember? Ever since we were kids there was a door we couldn't reach Even on tiptoes Forgetting about time Exhausted with endless wandering This maze we walked Always seemed to be there I can't stop unconsciously Searching for your smile. Not a single thing has changed I would bet on that Even if we were separated by a thousand miles, These memories will connect us Even if we should be fooled by the cruel tricks of fate It won't break us I wish that someday I could see with my own two eyes Our world born again

- Chosen because the MegOP as childhood friends vibes were TOO STRONG look at those fucking lyrics holy shit. Also, it sounds a LOT like OP speaking/singing to Megs! And. very sadly attempting to reassure himself/Megs that yes, they can still be friends despite everything they’ve gone through. He wants to hold on to that hope. 

SEASON 2 Opening: I am just feeling alive by Umi Kuun (Young Blackjack)

I am just feeling alive! The tears… the scars… from that night, Change to new vows in this moment.

This simple heart has simply gone on making decisions, Thinking there’s no way justice could ever exist. But nonetheless, I’m searching for it somewhere in my heart, (Give me Give me One More Chance!)

We only really need one thing we can believe in, always Hey, don’t you think?

I am just feeling alive! It’s a patchwork destiny But I want to try betting on that future! I just want you to survive! In the space between a cruel world and hope, This dreaming heart flaps its wings!

- Chosen for the ‘alive’ theme since OP has basically returned from the dead last season with the Matrix giving him ‘new life’. Also OP still seeking for a better day despite the shit he’s gone through AGAIN, and shifting his priorities from Megs to the team he now has to lead, who he’s determined to keep alive. - Thematic support from Prowl, who’s also learning how to live as a free man for the first time and is likely realising the mountains he’s willing to move for Jazz (and his shifting mindset). 

SEASON 3 Opening:  Unlimited by Nanase Aikawa (Samurai 7)

To understand each other And to share your feelings with each other Those things are like bubbles

Hiding themselves in the grains of time So I have lost all hope Believing it would be impossible to grab them Until I met you

How long have you been carrying This pain inside you? How long have you been hiding That sadness in your eyes when you smile?

If we now embrace the miracle of our encounter And look into each other's eyes, we can become stronger If this is not what is called love Then what is love?

- Female vocals chosen as this season introduces Windblade, Chromia and Lightbright as the Camien Valkyries, as well as Sari. - Fourth and fifth stanzas relating to Ratchet with Drift (defects to Autobots this season), Sari with Isaac (introduced this season, both are part of the main arc) and Windblade with Starscream.

SEASON 4 Opening: Missing Link by Novels (Tiger & Bunny)

I could have reclaimed that torn page Now I don't remember where I dropped it Yet what bothers me most is that there's no beauty looking forward After all, I did have a dream as my spell

What can I hate? My past? Myself? I only wish it could be someone else

We imagine such a future But even if we lose it We'll still be the heroes of our story

And even if the future is bleak So long as we have the present We will write as many chapters of this dream as we need

- The talk of past and futures plays into the Time Travel/Functionist Universe episodes which features as this season’s main arc.  - First two stanzas relate to Megs coming to terms with who he’s become (and the torn page he dropped, ie. his old, hopeful miner self). Also concerns Sunstreaker, who leaves the Autobots after a massive crisis of self.  - Last stanza concerns Prowl/Functionist Universe Jazz, basically Prowl telling F!Jazz that as long as they have the present, there’s still hope even if the future looks bleak. 

SEASON 5 Opening: Rain by SID (FMA: Brotherhood)

The new morning we've finally found Is being hampered by the past What we chased after wasn't the future But the past so full of remorse

The ruthless memories won't stop playing They won't be forgiving us for a long time

It's now that a teardrop Begins to roll down my fatigued cheeks

Will this rain ever stop? I've been freezing for a long time Why does the rain continue to fixate on me? I wonder if it could embrace me

Today the rain falls again Endlessly it falls, knowing no end We nestle close to each other to share the warmth Under this umbrella you gently held out to me

- Chosen because EVERYONE is a little fucked up and tired by this point.  - First two stanzas concern the 12 Primes, the reveal of what Unicron is and how they tie into all the terrible things the the system has done finally coming home to roost in an apocalyptic manner, so to speak.  - 0:28 to 0:32 played similar but much more benevolently w/the 10 Primes choosing their avatar/champion for the final battle.  - 0:13 to 0:18 for massive cast shot which combines Autobots AND Decepticons loyal to Megs who are, once more as they had in the beginning, fighting side by side. 

[transgaledekarios]

General 4, 7

Story 7, 12, 17

Romance 1, 6, 7, 11

Hi friend!! Thank thank you 🧡🧡🧡

From this post

General

4. What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

Generosity. Acts of heroism. These raise her approval. If you’re good, kind, and show people mercy.

She doesn’t like thieves or people who lie without a good reason. If you’re lying to avoid bloodshed, that she can understand, but if you’re lying to rob someone. She will disapprove.

7. Do they have their own personal quest that spans the course of the game?  Can it take different branching paths depending on the choices the Player Character makes?

Cordelia does have her own personal quest and explaining it all might require its own post. In short: Cordelia was essentially a prisoner in the city. Her parents kept her magically stuck so that she could never leave Baldur’s Gate on her own. The nautiloid and the prism allow her to have some freedom, so she has conflicted feelings about the tadpole.

She’s also a huge nerd who wants to understand her own sorcerous magic and its origins. Following the threads for that converge with the threads of her family.

There aren’t any branching paths before act 3 (short of dying), but in act 3 you can make some big choices that determine how she feels about you, herself, and whatever relationship you two have

Story Specific

7. Already answered :))

12. Is it possible for your Tav to be kidnapped and replaced by Orin?  How is Orin's deception revealed?  How do they react to the PC rescuing them in the Temple of Bhaal?

I think so, yes, but Orin won’t have a fun time pretending to be Cordelia. Actually, she might have a really hard time. I haven’t finished a durge run so I’m no Orin expert, but Orin seems to assume that everyone is a little bloodthirsty. Her insisting she understands what you need when you talk to her pretending to be that blacksmith suggests that.

Cordelia is genuinely a kind, sweet person who feels bad anytime they’ve had to hurt people.

She develops nightmares and ptsd from the people they’ve had to kill.

I think Orin would have a difficult time pretending for so long, she might get fed up and reveal herself.

Cordelia is a hugger. She would hug them for saving her and try really really hard not to cry lol

17. If romanced, how do they react to the Dark Urge trying to kill them in Act 2?

Oooo I haven’t gotten far enough in the durge run, so honestly I haven’t thought about it. My first, initial thoughts? Badly. She would react badly, and even if she could be convinced to stay in a relationship, I can’t imagine she sleeps easily for awhile after that.

I don’t see that going well, no.

Romance

1. Already answered 🎉

6. How do they react to the player character breaking up with them, or choosing another character over them?

Depends. I think flagging her romance requires more than just flirting. You would have to have pursued her for awhile before getting a kiss and more.

If you get that far and then romance someone else, she would be hurt, because by then it would’ve been clear that she’s monogamous. She wants a big romance, to be and feel special to someone.

If you break that trust, good luck getting it back. You can convince her to stay in the party, she still needs your help, but she’ll have very little to say to you.

11. What are Tav’s plans for the future?  Do they propose to the PC, or is marriage not something they’re interested in?

This might depend a bit on how you influence her in her character arc.

She is for sure interested in spending the rest of her life with you, but how that looks like can change.

If you encourage her to be heroic and to prioritize other people, she will want to continue adventuring, and will want you by her side. She would be delighted by a proposal of marriage (and if you went with her, she may even propose on her own one day)

If you encourage her to think of herself that can go in more than one way.

You get married, take over her family’s social place in Baldur’s Gate. (And if Wyll stays as Duke, she works closely with him as a friend and advisor).

OR. If you prioritized her power and chipped away at her sense of morality, she follows you in wtvr dastardly plans you have. However, I think she remains in her core a good person, and she will grow increasingly unhappy and traumatized. It doesn’t go well.

Alternatively, if encouraged to balance her priorities, she wants to marry you and will want to settle down somewhere quiet and peaceful. She just wants you and her friends, and to not worry about everything anymore.

[sleepysaltuna]

I used to hate Vince, very much, but your fic and how you write him gave me another perspective of the character (and now I do like him). Also, that same fic made ship him with Jack, like ship hard. If this doesn't count as possible spoiler for the fic, can you give us some hc for them?

Aw, thank you very much! I’ve always really liked Vince though I wished he had been more three dimensional, but I guess that’s a little too much to ask for from a show that mainly focuses on the aliens and their problems instead of the humans and theirs, which makes sense though it’s disappointing at times. 💔 I’m glad my fic helped you warm up to Vince more! It means I’m doing something right as a writer. 😊

As for headcanons, I’ve got more than a few! I’m not really sure if these will be spoilers for the fic, as I actually have no clue how far it will actually go, but I’ll share some general headcanons that I don’t think will be touched upon in the story!

- Vince is the worst at cooking. He’s banned from the kitchen and Jack will not hesitate to tell him that he can’t cook a gourmet meal to save his life. Vince accepts this. However, that does not stop him from trying whenever Jack’s back is turned. He just wants to make his boo a nice breakfast in bed, is that too much to ask for? Yes, yes it is.

- their ideal date is going for a leisurely drive around Jasper and the surrounding area on a nice sunny day, with the likes of bands like Linkin Park and Daughtry playing on the radio. Vince has made it a personal mission to get Jack into rock music. It is working, though Jack will deny it profusely whenever Miko is within earshot. They also like getting ice cream together, and indulging on said frozen treats during the drive.

- after, y’know, being knocked out by an ex-friend, Vince loses some of that confrontational attitude that he had, as he’s afraid that if the same mistakes are repeated, he will not get so lucky a second time. However, if anyone messes with Jack or his loved ones, then he will unleash the beast, but he will not if anyone bothers him. So Jack is the one who usually comes to Vince’s rescue when needed, which everyone else has mixed feelings about because he will not hesitate to take a nearby fire extinguisher and hold it threateningly.

- they find comfort in just each other’s company. They don’t need to talk in order to comfort the other. All they need to do is hold each other and cuddle for a while and that’s all it takes to realize that everything’s okay, that they’ll be okay, that they’re safe and well. Vince especially needs this; Jack’s affection keeps him grounded and anchored to the earth, it keeps him from doing something impulsive and possibly dangerous.

- much to everyone’s surprise, Vince is the most affectionate, especially verbally. He’s got a new pet name for Jack every other week. The one he uses the most, though, is “Bunny” - basically, he took Miko’s “Jackrabbit” and modified it to his liking. Jack will never admit out loud that he’s fond of the nicknames but the way it makes him blush is a sign that he does like them.

- also surprising to everyone is the fact that Jack is a literal thief. Vince’s clothes, especially his jackets and his sweatshirts, go missing almost all of the time and when he finally one day decided to actually look around instead of brushing it off, he found every. Single. Lost. Garment. neatly organized in Jack’s closet. After Jack is busted, he shamelessly wears the clothes when he goes out for school and to base instead of just wearing them at home.

(It has been a while since I’ve last drawn the humans of TFP, so I’m out of practice. This was also a quick doodle just for fun, so Vince and Jack don’t look perfect here!)

Bonus headcanon for the future:

- eventually, they will get married, some day in the distant future after they’ve completed college and have gotten stable jobs. They are deeply devoted to each other and very much in love, and neither one of them can imagine life without the other in it. They complete each other. They are two halves of one whole. They are perfectly capable of surviving apart, but they are much stronger together. They bring out the best in each other. There is no one in the whole universe who could ever compliment these two lovebirds more than they do for each other. After the rough patch in high school, and after they’ve worked out their issues and grown as people, these two get along so much better than anyone could have imagined. Sure, they have the occasional argument still, but they now know how to work it out so things get resolved quickly.

[actress4him]

The Shadow of Death - Soldier Boy AU - Part 1

This is the start of another Kamaria and Bruno (aka Brumaria) AU set in modern day. Not to be confused with the College AU, this one is my attempt at sticking a human Kamaria into something as close as I could get to Bruno’s canon story.

As always, the lovely and fabulous Bruno (aka Soldier Boy) belongs to the lovely and fabulous @painful-pooch , and is used with permission.

If anyone else wants to be tagged in the other parts of this AU or in other various future Kamaria fics, lmk!

Contains: lady whump, guns, dead body mention, mild blood, dislocation mention, restraints

.

.

Part of her knew it would happen one day. The sudden bangs of doors being kicked in, the shouts and screams and staccato of gunfire. People in uniform spilling through the hallways of the only place she could call home, hunting down every last member and either putting them down or leading them away in cuffs.

But if Kamaria had given the idea any more thought, she would have imagined herself out among them, having to decide whether to throw up her hands or put up a fight. She’d never have envisioned herself listening to it all happen through a locked door, while she dangled from bleeding wrists with only her bare toes brushing the floor.

She probably should have. Sometimes it seems like she spends more time in this room than anywhere else.

Soon enough they inevitably discover the basement rooms. It’s only the footsteps in the hallway that keep her from jumping too hard when the door flies open with a sound like an explosion, slamming into the wall and bouncing back almost closed again. The man’s eyes widen with surprise when he sees her. She can’t help but automatically glare back at him.

She’s too helpless like this. Too exposed. Her tank top mocks her from the other side of the room, folded neatly next to her boots and a row of her knives. Roderick had insisted that she strip down to her sports bra before he’d taken the strap to her, and now this man is staring at far too much bare skin for her liking. And she doesn’t know if she has the energy to try and fight him from this position if he starts coming too close.

“It’s okay, you’re safe,” the man says after stepping further into the room and pointing his gun into every corner. He’s white with a tan from working outdoors, with blue eyes and a scruffy brown beard. More importantly, though, he’s wearing military garb.

They’ve caught that kind of attention, hm?

“I’m here to help you, okay?”

Oh. He thinks she’s a victim.

He definitely won’t be helping her if he finds out who she actually is.

“I’m gonna get you down from there.” He holsters his gun and circles around behind her, giving her a wide berth, but she’s still anxious about not being able to see him anymore.

A moment later she hears the clank of the pulley being released, and she’s lowered slowly onto her feet, arms finally allowed to come down in front of her. Her shoulders ache, but at least they both stayed in socket this time. Immediately she turns to face him, though he’s already coming back around to the front.

“You alright? Can you stand okay?” He looks her over, hands slightly outstretched as if she’s about to fall and he’s planning on catching her. When she continues to simply stare at him, obviously standing just fine, he nods and looks around the room. “Okay, I’m gonna find the key for those cuffs, just give me a minute.”

The room is littered with chains and ropes and various tools of punishment. Unless he gets lucky, it’ll take him far more than a minute, and she can’t really go anywhere until he does.

“They’re right there.” Lifting her manacled hands, she points to where Roderick dropped them.

“Ah.” He gives her a sideways glance, expression unreadable, before crossing over to where she pointed and scooping up the key ring.

It takes everything in her to silently hold out her hands and let this stranger - this soldier - unlock the cuffs. As soon as her wrists are free, though, she snatches the keys from his hand without warning, bending to release her own ankles. He makes some small noise in response that might simply be surprise, but almost sounds like a laugh.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

The inflamed skin on her back burns where she’s stretching it. Straightening, she deposits the keys back in his hand without a word and walks past him to the bench where her belongings are waiting.

“How long have they kept you here?”

She can feel his eyes digging into her from behind. Whether he’s taking in the red welts the strap left behind, or the myriad of old scars beneath them, who knows. Her back is one of the few expanses of skin that remains untouched by ink. Any tattoos she put there would just get ruined. Her back has always been Roderick’s canvas, not her own.

Before he can look any harder, she yanks the shirt off the bench and quickly pulls it over her head.

“You might not want to put that on, you could aggravate -”

She tugs the hem down to her waist and moves on to her boots.

“Right.” He huffs what is definitely a laugh this time. “Okay, Miss ‘I Don’t Need Any Help’, you obviously don’t want my advice. But you’ve just been through something traumatic, so I’m not gonna just leave you alone. As soon as you get dressed I’ll take you outside, there’s an ambulance waiting where you can get checked out, see if you need to go to the hospital.”

If she doesn’t take any of these knives with her, it’s the last time she’ll ever see them. This place is now a crime scene, and everything important in it will be confiscated by…whoever is heading this operation. She can’t load all of them up without Soldier Boy getting suspicious, though, so she slips one into each boot as she puts them on, plus one more into a hidden pocket in her pants. The rest will have to stay. They’re clean, at least, she’s confident of that. There won’t be anything to trace back to her.

“After that we’ll need to get your statement. We knew that Alaric Greaves was guilty of a lot of crimes, but I personally didn’t know that kidnapping was one of them. Not sure anyone else did, either.”

Kamaria hasn’t worked under the thumb of a crime lord for fourteen years without learning her rights. Finished lacing the last boot, she turns and faces him with a sigh. “You don’t need my statement. Obviously you already have enough on these guys to raid the place and arrest them, so I’ll be going now.”

Maybe it’s because she’s finally speaking more than three words, or maybe he isn’t used to women contradicting him, but the man looks taken aback. To his credit, he recovers quickly. “We don’t need your statement to arrest them, no. But the more charges we can bring against him, the less likely he is to walk. Besides, don’t you want justice for what they did to you?”

“No.” She’s seeking justice for something far more important. What happens to her in the meantime is of little consequence.

Pushing past him, Kamaria exits the room. Her own tiny little bedroom is right there, conveniently located next door to the punishment room, but she has to pretend that she doesn’t live here if she wants to continue leaving freely. There isn’t much in there, anyway. A couple of changes of clothes, a few more weapons. Nothing personal.

The soldier hurries out right behind her, which, while a bit annoying, is probably a good thing. She’ll need an escort to make sure she’s not arrested or shot on the way out, and with him eager to help she won’t have to go through too much trouble pretending she isn’t familiar with the layout of the place.

“Here, we can go out this way.” He ushers her forward and she strides away, reluctantly making sure to pause at each junction until he can tell her which way to go. Soon they start passing other soldiers, most milling around and digging through the various rooms, a couple still finishing up cuffing the people they’d taken down. In one room she sees two dead bodies out of the corner of her eye, blood pooled around them. She can’t tell from the distance who it is, nor does she really care.

Though if one of them is Roderick, she’d be more than okay with that.

It’s a strange sight, coming out into the sunshine and seeing military vehicles strewn all over the street and yard. She’s basically watching everyone’s worst nightmare unfold. Somehow it makes her want to laugh aloud, even though her plans are crumbling around her just as much as the rest. Disbelief, she supposes. Sometime later today this will all sink in and she’ll be left floundering and trying to figure out what’s next.

“Can you tell me your name, at least?”

She pretends not to hear him, skirting along the edge of the building, trying not to openly stare at the van where one of the lower cronies is being loaded. Her father might already be in there. Or maybe he got his own, personal vehicle and was quickly whisked away. She’s pretty sure he was present for the raid, at least, and he wouldn’t have tried to fight.

Soldier Boy has fallen behind, talking to one of his comrades, probably explaining how he found this poor, hapless victim chained up in the basement. He probably fancies himself a hero. Whatever, if he wants the ego boost that’s no real harm to her. She doesn’t plan on ever seeing him again in order for him to rub the ‘rescue’ in her face.

“Look.” He grabs her arm to stop her and she whirls around, jerking it back out of his grasp, just barely refraining from pulling a knife on him.

His hands go up and he takes a step backwards. “Sorry. But you really need to come let the paramedics take a look at you, at least. And I know you don’t want to talk about what happened to you, it’s tough. But you could help make sure he’s put away for good.”

There’s so much about his spiel that’s laughable, she wouldn’t even know where to start. She has no plans of indulging him with a response, anyway, if for no other reason than she’s already lingering too long. She can’t help another sideways glance at the van. Are they watching? Are they wondering why she’s walking free, why she’s talking with the enemy?

She needs to shake this man and get out of here.

He must follow her gaze, because he looks at the van, too. His expression creases, then softens. “Are you afraid they’ll come after you?”

The question is so startlingly close to the truth that she immediately blurts out, “No.” Scowling, she takes a step back, arms crossed, hoping to make it abundantly clear that she wants him to leave her alone. “Listen, I don’t need anything that you’re suggesting. All I need is to go.” She takes two more steps away, eyes narrowed, daring him to keep following her.

He heaves a sigh, crossing his own arms. “Fine. I can’t force you. But I’ll need your name in case they need to get in contact with you for the investigation. I can’t let you leave until you give me that.”

“What are you going to do if I don’t…shoot me?”

The man starts to say something else, but she doesn’t bother listening. Spinning around, Kamaria walks quickly away from her home, her father, and the people who finally brought him down.

For now.

[braveheartstoryteller]

Greed ruins everything.

I’ll be honest, I’m pretty peeved with Square Enix (SE) right now with how they control their IP’s. While creators should be fairly compensated for the work they create, this should not be done at the expense of ease of use for the player or their privacy. Nor should they control how a fan might interact with their work, for this prevents sales, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

What am I talking about? Well let me explain.

When I first interacted with anything the company sells, it was through YouTube. It took me very little time for me to be hooked. However for me to actually sit down and play a video game was at the time fairly rare, and there was no way I would have clunked down money to actually purchase said game without knowing one thing: it’s story. It was after, knowing the whole story that I wanted to play the game. Or should I say games. I wanted to experience them for myself. If that isn’t marketing, I don’t know what is. And you know, they didn’t have to pay a cent for it. A fan went out of their way to record and upload it to YouTube. If they hadn’t allowed that, I would have not interacted with it, nor purchase most of the series. In other words they wouldn’t have gotten any money from me. They would have lost a sale. How often does this happen? Anyone else out there like me? I’d say I can’t be the only one who does this surely.

Recently I dove into another story, another brilliant marketing move by SE to include characters from another one of their IP’s: The World Ends With You. I loved the characters in Dream Drop Distance, why wouldn’t I check it out, at least one day? So I did, in the same way as I did before. The first game came and went, so far so good, then I got to the sequel. I come to find out that SE blocked many YouTube videos of the ending of the game, and while I managed to find something, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. My experience suffered. I’d enjoyed the story, the game play looked quite fun, it was possible I would pick it up and play it. Why would I now though purchase the game after this experience?

Believe me, it isn’t likely. And it is probable I won’t be purchasing anything from them in the near future either.

I didn’t know this when I purchased Kingdom Hearts from the Epic games store, but I have to have a constant internet connection in order to play any of the games. This is an anti-theft measure. Usually this isn’t too much of a problem thankfully, but losing connection like that in a game that doesn’t have auto save, which is the case for all of the older games, have at times been an issue, spoiling my experience. At first I thought perhaps Disney was to blame, due to that company’s history with copyright, and them being hugely to blame for the laws in place in the US. But no, I don’t think so, not after hearing that this is also the case with any Final Fantasy games purchased on Steam or elsewhere. They even go further there, and force players to have an account with their company, in order to even play the games they’ve purchased.

It all made me sick, finding this out. It reeks of corporate greed. It silences creator’s voices, how a story reaches the world, and reeks of control. I can’t abide by it.

I find it ironic, considering the end of the story of Neo: The World Ends With You. I got the sense of both oppression of one’s creative voice, one’s imagination, and then the lifting of that oppression of that same voice as everything came together. It was powerful, and also moving. It stirred my own creative soul. But then after, seeing how this same story was oppressed in sharing itself by a corporate greed…just made me sad. It’s in direct contrast with what it says and encourages.

I hope for change, as always. But I can’t say I’ll be clunking down any money in the future. Even for KH4, which is a shame, considering just how much that series has effected my heart.

Goes to show that even good stories come from dark places, like companies caught up in greed. The light will shine no matter what. Now just to have them hear the voices of what they create.

[ofcarnvge]

Unarmed

@annalis-e--shadowofpanem

Pan’s watched the goal post move from beneath her feet, settling a few miles out. She hated herself for not asking before: where was this child if not with Bill? The man they needed to ask would never speak again, and even if he’d could...the idea of him replying truthfully was folly.

One thing at a time.   Leslie reappeared with urgency...and a pang of guilt...in her eyes.

Pan stood with Go-Go. “Of course. The plane is fairly open. You’re free to rest anywhere. We should be leaving in a moment. Now If you’ll excuse me...”

Leslie stepped out of the doorway and walked with haste to the front of the plane with Pan in tow. “I just swept air traffic information. Someone put in an inquiry for the heading, and last known locations for an unknown jet  I think someone saw the Eboncry and is trying to track it. I’m sorry--I thought I--”

“Well, we did land it in front of the most garish house for miles.”

Leslie was struck by conflicting emotions. On one hand, if anyone was tracking them, it was her fault. On the other...Pan, her employer her...mentor...? Just tried to disarm her with brevity. Pan saw her conflict clear as day and playfully cupped her cheeks.

“Relax. We’re human. We’re not perfect. And the one thing we are better at than anyone in the world is reaction.”  As Pan let her hands fall, she stood on the edge of a decision, and saw the world unfold before her. She couldn’t see far into it, this window into the future, but it changed shape each time she weighed another option. It felt like Weaving....with her fingers atop the pulse of the living world. Nothing the window showed her implied that they were in any danger.

The window closed. Pan smiled.  “If they want to find themselves in a room with no less than six Shadows, let them come. But we are more than capable of protecting ourselves. That being said: keep cloaking us. If they’ve only inquired about the Eboncry, then they don’t yet know about the Ghost Owl. We’ll have Cereza take a scenic route and drop a decoy into the Atlantic. That should buy us some time. And we’ll get to see how smart our tail really is. Who knows--could be a new recruit.”

By now, Pan’s warmness had rubbed off and Leslie’s worry and guilt vanished. She nodded and moved forward to the cockpit to relay the order.

Pan found a chair and sat down. She inhaled. She exhaled. She blinked. And then she was home just in time for dinner with her wife and daughters. It was a strange gift, Cyanne’s new science project. But Pan was learning it, little by little.

“I can’t wait to see you,” she whispered to herself. “And tell you that I’m sorry.’

The planes set off. The Boeing soared east to Cambridge with the Eboncry providing escort. The Ghost Owl took a lovely detour to Puerto Rico, armed with a small drone broadcasting the Eboncry’s transponder signal. The drone would drop from the Owl’s belly and crash on the coast. And for all intents and purposes...that was the end of Eboncry’s story.

Cereza continued on. Cambridge awaited all.

Go go didn't bother going to a cabin. Privacy was a luxury she had lived without for years, so she felt little need of it. Shrugging her jacket off she stretched out on the sofa in the open part of the plane and tried to clear her mind. 

She had faith that The Shadows could do what they said, that O-ren’s condition was reversible. But what then? Everything had happened so fast, and to the best of Go go’s knowledge Beatrix knew nothing about what had transpired.

Would she be relieved that the path to her daughter had been cut clear? Or would she feel regret that she hadn't cut it herself? But the worse question was; if Beatrix came for O-ren, would she defend herself? Go go could not imagine a world where she stood back and allowed O-ren to be taken again, not after everything. 

She sighed and rolled over to face the back of the couch. Enough. One thing at a time. There was an ocean to cross for now, and more Shadows to get used to. It was still strange to be in their company, but already, Pan was entering that most exclusive and unusual group; people who Go Go Yubari genuinely cared for.

-

About eleven thousand miles away, in the small rooms above Hattori Hanzo’s sushi bar, a thick piece of bamboo clunked melodiously onto the floor in five smoothly cut pieces. Beatrix Kiddo let her sword arm fall to her side and examined the cuts. Not perfect, but she was getting better. Four years in a coma had done nothing for her muscle tone.

But she had always been driven. Much like her closest friend among the Vipers, she had had little in her life to skew her away from the singular, violent purpose of her occupation. At least, until four years ago.

Hanzosan had gone early to the forge that morning. The sword would be ready in about two weeks, and so would she.

-

Elle say across from O-ren, the smoke from her cigarette coiling up into the air. They were sitting in a hotel lobby they had once shared on a job about ten years ago. The place was the same, but the conversation was different.

“What are you doing here?” O-ren’s voice clipped with frustration. 

Elle breathed out smoke. “Y’know, it’s a good question. But you were always the smart one right? I’m Marley’s ghost, bitch.”

O-ren’s fingernails curved into the plush arms of the grey sofa. All around them the people moved to and fro, like the figures in a clockwork diorama from another time, another place.

“They got you?”

“Looks that way, but at least I always had the gall to stick to my convictions whereas you...you have changed directions more times than a weathervane Rabbit. How do you think this is going to pan out?”

“You’re not here.”

A stark laugh. Elle put the cigarette out on the ashtray on the coffee table.

“Yeah, maybe not. But that doesn't change the fact that no amount of ‘good deeds’ is going to get you out of looking Bee in the eye.”

The former crime queen shot her colleague a daggered look. As much as she hated to admit it - it was the wisest thing she had ever heard Elle Driver say.

[op-sys-chaos]

I’m now imagining Jazz showing up to the Watchtower to yell at the heroes.

No one’s sure how this polite young redheaded girl got here (Dan brought her at her request) but she has something to say about Danny and Dan and they’re in the middle of trying to figure out what to do about it so they’re gonna listen.

“Here’s the deal. You all ignored the countless apocalypses my brother stopped and tried to imprison him for one he already dealt with. That tells me that you all are either very misinformed or horribly incompetent. I’m choosing to ignore the possible assumption that you’re all villains and just hiding it but the thought has crossed my mind.”

Geez, had they screwed this up that badly?

“So. Here’s a full list of every single apocalypse my little brother has stopped. There’s one page on each incident.”

Why was this packet thicker than Superman’s hand when both were laying on the table side by side?????

“And while you read through it, let me clarify something. Dan only exists because of a very, very specific sequence of events that involved his actual literal humanity to be violent ripped out of him moments before he merged with one of the villains Danny deals with a lot. Danny now knows exactly how to avoid that sequences of events, and he fought against Dan when the older version of him traveled through time. The only reason Dan still exists in this universe is because of said time travel creating a paradox. It’s a long story and I won’t go into it now. But basically, he still exists despite his timeline being long since erased. And after spending a long time locked up in the tower of the guy who’s basically god of time, he learned humanity again. He didn’t get his physical humanity back, but enough of a conscience remained in him that he was able to relearn empathy and kindness. And it took a LOT of work to do it. But he did that work. So. In summary. The threat you were worried about doesn’t exist and will never exist anymore, you imprisoned and tried to destroy someone who’s stopped a lot of apocalypses with no help from any of you, and the only link to that no-longer-existing timeline is no longer evil and has actually started helping stop those apocalypses.”

The heroes stared at her, mouths hanging open by the end.

“Oh!” she added a moment later. “I almost forgot. You also tried to permanently destroy a child. Danny is 14.”

Holy shit. They’d fucked up. They’d fucked up bad.

“So! With all that said, do better. Have a nice day!” Then she turned and walked out of the room, pressing something in her pocket as she did (those with enhanced hearing heard the click). Moments later, Jazz was gone.

The Flash quickly sped through reading the entire document, and when he sat back down, he looked shell shocked.

“Flash?” Batman asked.

“It’s… the kid’s dealt with over a hundred apocalyptic level threats in the last ten months. He died shortly after his 14th birthday and has been dealing with this stuff alone ever since. He’s… he’s just a kid, and he regularly fights concepts of reality to save us all. His “small fry” villains are more than powerful enough to kill the Justice League. And he deals with them in a daily basis. To the point that instead of detailing individual incidents, there’s just a page about their power set and a number of times they’ve attacked, as well as listing any specific notable incidents in detail.”

“Holy shit. And we…” Green Arrow began.

“Tried to destroy an incredibly powerful, insanely heroic child permanently because he might become a threat in the future, without doing any research into the matter whatsoever. Yeah. We fucked up. We fucked up bad.”

From that point on, the JL tries to reach out to help Danny, but Dan starts shooting at them any time they come near because “I’m not letting you assholes try to kill him again!”

They can’t even get a word in. But how well he’s defending his brother, without so much as permanently injuring the JL, further proves to them that Dan is reformed (and that they fucked up).

Eventually, the JL sends in someone like Nightwing, a hero who isn’t officially a member and is great at stuff like this. Nightwing manages to get into Amity as a civilian and talks to Danny, handing him the letter that the JL drafted sincerely, deeply apologizing. After Danny reads it, Dick pulls out a small communicator. He tells Danny that if he ever needs help, the JL is a button push away. And if the JL ever encounters a ghost, Dick asks if they can call Danny for help. He agrees to the deal, but only on the condition that they JL get properly educated about ghosts from a source Danny actually trusts. Dick easily agrees.

Jazz shows up again at the next JL meeting, this time as an invited guest, with a 600 slide PowerPoint on all things ghost. Then, at the heroes’ request, she gives the same PowerPoint to the younger hero groups like TT and YJ. Then, with her permission, the post the PowerPoint and the speaker notes on the JL website so anyone who wants reliable information can access it.

The Phantoms now have backup from the JL (and a permanent IOU if they want anything. Danny uses his for, among other small favors, regular visits to space). Danny is no longer hunted and Dan only has to deal with Thawne, who Flash often shows up to help him with. And the JL has easy access to some real heavy hitters when they need them. Though they do try to avoid calling Danny considering he’s still a kid. Dan eventually gets an official JL membership.

It’s not a perfect apology, but the JL is trying their hardest to make up for their mistakes. And the Phantoms eventually forgive them

Reformed Dan but misunderstandings suck

So, Dan has been Reformed for Years at this point. You could go with the Fandom Typical version of just chilling out, or you could go with the AGIT version of the Redemption. Either way, Dan is fully reformed and trying to find his way in the World.

Unfortunately, not everybody knows/believes him.

You know all those Time Traveling Heroes who came back to stop some great catastrophe? That was Dan.

Impulse is fucking terrified of this guy, cause he Grew Up in the Central City Stronghold and saw Phantom tear down the Walls protecting the City in person.

Booster Gold grew up in the Metropolis Stronghold, so while he never really saw Phantom in his timeline he still did know of him. I mean, obviously, he murdered every hero on the planet and subjugated most of the world, but he doesn't have much personal stake in that.

Eobard Thawn hates Phantom. Thawn himself grew up in a world where Phantom killed every Hero in the world, and he was terrified that Phantom would track him down when he tried to become the new Flash. But once he became a Walking Paradox he saw as Time itself changed to erase Phantom from existence, he got really jealous. Why did Time decide Phantom was bad enough to erase, why not him!? He's Evil! He's a Terror on the Timeline! He deserves Clockworks attention dammit!

And then, they discover evidence that Phantom has come back in Time,

So now, any and all Time Travelers are trying to find the guy who single-handedly was the Apocalypse, and want to kill him to save the world. Or out of Jealousy in Thawns case.

Either way, no matter where Dan goes to try and settle down, a bunch of annoying Heroes always find him and attack him, yelling about "Stopping his Plans" and "Saving the Timeline!" And "It should have been me dammit!"

Honestly Thawn is the most annoying one, he just runs in and rants at him about how he is jealous of how much attention Clockwork gave him. Dude, just sdmit your crush already and leave me alone. (I'm not sorry)